The Bottom Line
The setup is both simple and flexible with filters, quiet times and a history for missed alerts. Support for fetching mail from IMAP (and maybe POP) accounts would make PushMail more universal, though.
Pros
- PushMail alerts you about new emails using sound, badge and pop-up alerts on iPhone and iPod touch
- You can forward multiple accounts to PushMail, and use its filters to customize alerts
- PushMail alerts show sender, subject and some body text; a history lets you browse missed alerts
Cons
- PushMail cannot push POP or IMAP accounts directly
- More precise filters might be nice
- PushMail lacks a way to clean its history fast
Description
- PushMail provides push email notification on iPhone and iPod touch.
- A personal @dopushmail.com address triggers the alerts.
- You can forward mail from multiple accounts to your PushMail address, and leverage mail service filters.
- PushMail alerts you by sound or pop-up (including recipient, sender, subject, body, date, size, files; all optional).
- Filters let you customize whether or how PushMail shows alerts for certain messages (based on recipient, sender and subject).
- Using filters, you can also prevent PushMail alerts for quiet times and choose from a number of alert sounds.
- Muting lets you turn off PushMail notifications for a few minutes or hours.
- PushMail can open iPhone Mail or a custom URL (say, Gmail) from its pop-up alerts.
- A history lets you browse (and remove) missed alerts. PushMail's icon badge counts the number of newly arrived messages.
- GPush supports iPhone and iPod touch 3.
Guide Review - PushMail 4.0 - Push Email iPhone App
Not so with PushMail. PushMail leverages the iPhone's notification system to inform (or alert) you about new emails text message-style: a pop-up with the email's date, sender, recipient, subject, attachments, size and as much of the text as will fit. Too much information? PushMail lets you turn each item on or off, and add an "Action" button that opens iPhone Mail or a custom web page in Safari.
Of course, you can also get a sound — which you can pick from a nice, standard allotment of alarms. If you miss an alert, it is not lost with PushMail: a badge notes the number of new messages, and a history lets you browse them conveniently.
PushMail alerts make most sense for the few emails that deserve urgent treatment. The way it works lets PushMail leverage your email service's filters in addition to its own; the way PushMail works, alas, also depends on your email service's support.
For push alerts, you get a new, personal "@dopushmail.com" address. Mail sent to the PushMail address trigger immediate sound or alert notification. You can have mail forwarded to the address from multiple accounts, of course, and use any filtering your email service can muster.
For keywords in the to:, from: and subject: lines, PushMail can also filter mail itself. Just about everything you can adapt to your needs and tastes can be set using a filter: alert layout, quiet times, alert sounds, URLs, etc. For instant quietude, you can mute PushMail for the next minutes or hours.
It would be great if PushMail could add to this flexible setup a way to retrieve mail from IMAP (and maybe POP) accounts. Maybe PushMail could also act as an Exchange server itself to further integration with iPhone Mail.
