google sync - ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com/feeds/tag/google sync en Copyright 2012 Richard MacManus readwriteweb@gmail.com Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:45:03 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.35-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Google Finally Enables Push Gmail for iPhone and Windows Mobile google_sync_logo_feb09.pngGoogle just announced that its users can now get their Gmail messages pushed directly to their iPhones and Windows Mobile phones. Push Gmail is now a feature of Google Sync. Google started to support the iPhone, iPod touch, and Windows Mobile in Google Sync earlier this year, but at that time, it could only push calendar and address book changes directly to these phones. Finally, Gmail users will now be able to see messages in the iPhone's mail app without having to regularly ping Google's servers for updates.

]]> Google provides a good set of instructions for how to get this to work with your iPhone and Windows Mobile device, though it really doesn't take much more than just a few minutes to get this to work. As Google has licensed Microsoft Exchange for this feature, you simply bypass the Google Mail setup wizard on the phone in favor of a Microsoft Exchange account and then follow these instructions. If you are already using the calendar and contacts sync, all you have to do is flip one switch in your Microsoft Exchange setup on the phone. Google Sync supports Google Apps accounts, just make sure you enable this feature in your Google Apps dashboard.

Google, of course, already offered this feature for Android users and Blackberry devices. For iPhone users - and especially for business users - this is a big deal, however, as it finally allows Google to offer a feature that Yahoo Mail users were able to enjoy from the day the iPhone launched. It's also worth noting that other services like Nuevasync have offered iPhone users a way to route around this problem for a while already.

It's important to note that the iPhone only offers support for a single Exchange account, so you can't use this new feature to push mail from both a personal and a business account at the same time, for example.

google_gmail_push_comic.png

]]> Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_finally_enables_push_gmail_for_iphone.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_finally_enables_push_gmail_for_iphone.php News Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:35:08 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Google Releases Sync for iPhone and Windows Mobile - Push Gmail Coming Soon? google_sync_logo_feb09.pngStarting today, you can wirelessly sync your contacts and calendars from Gmail and Google Apps with the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones. A number of third-party providers already offered similar sync capabilities, but now, Google itself can automatically push calendar and address book changes directly to these phones. In typical Google fashion, this new product is released as a beta, and there are still a few known problems, but in our own tests, the push sync worked just as advertised.

]]> Google Sync was already available for Blackberry users and you could already sync your Gmail contacts on the iPhone through iTunes. This, however, was relatively inconvenient and Google surely heard a lot of complaints from business users who needed more 'Outlook-like' capabilities on their phones.

The new sync capabilities are also available for any other phone that supports the SyncML standard.

Some Problems

One problem with this new system is that it will replace all your existing contacts on your phone with your Gmail contacts, which might be a deal breaker for some. Another deal breaker might be the fact that you can only configure one Active Sync account on the iPhone, which would be a problem for those of us who maintain more than one calendar (one private - one for work) and would like to use push for all of those.

Also, your Gmail contact list might a lot messier than you have realized, and it might take some work to manually recreate your current address book in Gmail.

Gmail Push Coming Soon?

Interestingly, Google now uses Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol to push updates wirelessly to the phone, which leads us to believe that enabling push email is the next logical step for Google. Chances are that Google is testing its infrastructure by only supporting ActiveSync for calendars and contacts first, and that it will release support for push email in the near future.

]]> Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_releases_sync_for_iphone_windows_mobile.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_releases_sync_for_iphone_windows_mobile.php Product Reviews Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:43:13 -0800 Frederic Lardinois