Motorola is certainly using Android, and the gmail for Android app allows Push
notifications. Now the issue here is that for this to work with regular email
account, you need a server that knows how to push to the device. If you're using
email from a random ISP/company/hoster, the chances are that it won't have the
means to do so. The solution here is trusting someone (such as Google, and you
can do this in two ways, either set up an automatic forwarding to a gmail
account, or give gmail you log in data for your email account and have it check
it for you) to collect your email, and then push it to your device when needed.
You're basically using an email proxy. AFAIK (and I don't own any Apple device),
Apple is doing exactly that (only instead of simply having auto-forward on the
original account, you give your account details to Apple's infrastructure).
Another service that uses Push notifications is gtalk for Android, and the
savings in both bandwidth and power are significant. 3rd party apps that allow
you to use chosen IM provider (Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AOL, etc
etc) most often require that you store your login credential on their server,
allowing them to push your instant messages to your device. Those who don't suck
the juice from your battery like there's no tomorrow, since by nature, users
expect instant messages to be instant, and thus the apps need to poll the IM
networks almost constantly (using both data and battery)
Now, would you give your login parameters to a third party, for a service such
as email or instant messaging, just for the sake of convenience? For me, the
answer is yes, for instant messages, but that's because I generate a 64 char
random password every few months, and don't reuse them. For email? No. I use the
gmail app for my gmail account(s) but I don't give gmail access to my non-gmail
accounts.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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