Thanks to Justin Moore’s post I discovered that Gmail is now offering IMAP access, for free, to regular Gmail accounts! It’s been rolled out to my Gmail account but so far, I checked one domain that’s a part of Google Apps for Domains and the option is only there for POP3 access still. No idea if the IMAP feature is coming to the Google Apps service or if it’s a Gmail-only thing.
I jumped on the opportunity to add Gmail as an IMAP account to VersaMail on my Treo 650. But when looking for the necessary server settings, I discovered this sad news: “Palm handheld users: please note that Gmail IMAP access is not currently compatible with VersaMail.” Oh well. I was happy for a couple of minutes. I’ll probably stick to the web interface all around, but it’s nice to know IMAP is an option since there is a dearth of free email services supporting IMAP (Gmail is the only major one that I know of).
Come on Dave, switch to Windows Mobile…you will like it.
Hmmm…not likely :-) While I wouldn’t argue with using Windows Mobile for a while to try it out and get familiar with it (makes supporting it easier), the only user I have running Windows Mobile inherited the phone and is anxiously awaiting his contract to run out in six months to switch to a Palm OS Treo. Now that they do ActiveSync…the various Palm Treos are pretty much all we use.
I have had Treo sync problems when using VersaMail with Exchange ActiveSync. But I’ve nearly always managed to fix them, or the device was defective. And having one platform to support (mostly) is really, really nice!
Why the push for the switch? I’d like to hear some arguments at least…I’m reasonable and open-minded if the right argument comes along.
David,
Fastmail.fm is a great free email provider. They’re kinda the nerdy kid in the class, but I’ve had a free account with them for about five years now – and I’ve had IMAP ever since I started. Spam filtering on Google Mail is way better though.
To answer your other question – all mail accounts should be getting it. From everything I’ve read, that includes regular gmail.com accounts and also GAfYD accounts.
Interesting, I’ve never heard of Fastmail.fm but there are so many email services out there, I’m not really surprised (but I’ll have to check them out). I knew some smaller providers did provide IMAP but it is uncommon especially in large providers. Also, many web hosting plans that come with email accounts don’t provide IMAP. I know it’s due to server resources in most cases. And spam filtering is the main reason I switched a few domains to GAfYD from my server! A few domains have Google detecting over 25,000 spams per month on them, and a lot of what makes it into the inbox is spam that’s not even caught. That’s over 25k less emails my (personal) server has to deal with!
Thanks for the IMAP on GAfYD info; I did see that it was being rolled out so I’m sure the GAfYD account I checked just hadn’t been set up yet; I thought that might be the case but wasn’t sure.