A brief introduction to push e-mail
New e-mail is actively transferred (pushed) as it arrives by the mail server to the e-mail client. read on »
Sounds simple, doesn't it?
What could Apple possibly screw up here? Well, new e-mail isn’t actually transferred to the iPhone. It only accepts the information “there is new e-mail to fetch” to update the counting badge next to the Mail icon, but it doesn’t fetch it right away.
So when I get new e-mail over ground, my iPhone knows already about it, but I can’t read it without reception e. g. while on the subway, because it wasn’t fetched right away. Once I have reception again I have to fire up Mail app to actually load the mail from the MobileMe server.
On calendars and contacts
What’s really strange about this, is that new calendar events or contact information changes are truly pushed to my device immediately — as expected.
When is Apple going to address to support true push e-mail? I am eagerly sitting tight to figure out if iOS 4.2 will support this feature. So far Apple Support is “sorry” about this but can’t really make promises for future releases.
Don’t get me wrong. As you may know, I am really not interested in knowing I got new e-mail. I just want to be sure, I can read new e-mail as soon I’ve got time to.