Has anyone else noticed that they can't sync Google Gmail via Activesync over the past few days? At first I thought it was just me but soon came to find that the "Error Synchronization" message was being displayed on other Windows phones.

The official error code is 0x8600050c (Communications Error) and in looking over at Google Mobile's Help Forum, there are a few solutions available.

The first suggestion is to delete the current Exchange Server relationship and re-create it. Another solution suggests to un-check the email option in Activesync, reboot the phone, re-check the email option and sync.  The latter seems to have the most success.

We couldn't find anything official from Google on the cause of these errors or of a "official" solution. If we hear of anything we'll pass it on.

Early this year Google released Google Sync, which makes your calendar and apps work is if they were on an Exchange server. Missing from the app, of course, was push capability for Gmail.

That day has come, people.

Google just announced that Google Sync now supports push Gmail for Windows Mobile (5.0 and higher). The usual caveat applies, however: If you're already using an Exchange server for other e-mail, you're out of luck.

Get the full deets here.

Yep, you read that right. In fact, Google assures us as such, saying "Yes, really." Actually, all of the Google Apps suite — comprising Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — is having the beta label removed.

Mainly it looks like this is being done to eliminate confusion over what "beta" really means, and to make Google Apps more attractive to businesses. From the Official Google Blog:

We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase. So we've focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark.

For our purposes, what we really, really want to see is better implementation of Gmail on Windows Mobile — push, IMAP idle and the like. (Oh, and maybe do something about those contacts.) Yeah, we've been saying that for a long time. But either Google or Microsoft needs to get it done. After all, now that Gmail's "out of beta," there are no more excuses.

Push email is one of those things that could be considered the Holy Grail of mobile communications. For those of us that connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server on a daily basis, we’ve been experiencing this phenomenon for a while now. The problem is that Windows Mobile doesn’t support push email standards like IMAP Idle, which are supported by Google’s Gmail and other free email providers. Workarounds have been detailed on this site in the past to receive notifications from Gmail in particular. Everything from third party mail apps to simply forwarding a text message to your phone have been suggested.

PushEffect by QoreFunctions is a utility that enables push email on your Windows Mobile device. It uses existing technologies and a small application that runs in the background to accomplish this task. There are some caveats to getting this working with your email provider of choice. I’ve got the full rundown for you after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

We love Gmail. It's our lifeline. But there are a few major hangups that cause us to bang our heads against the wall day after day. One is the lack of a proper IMAP idle process for true push support and proper use of labels on Windows phones. (Yeah, there are decent third-party solutions out there. We're talking about native, out-of-the-box push e-mail.)

The other issue is contacts, which Google finally is starting to address. From the official Gmail blog:

Up until now, Gmail only supported some contact fields. Whenever someone imported their contacts from apps like Outlook and OS X Address Book, we used to put fields Gmail didn't recognize into the contact's notes section. Based on feedback from you, we added support for more contact fields (like birthday and website) and now store each of these fields separately, which makes syncing and round-tripping your data work better.

There you have it. We're getting there. Still not perfect, but better. (Insert "beta" joke here.)

Those of us who rely on gmail for our everyday communications have a few little gripes when it comes to mobile access — and one big one.

That whopper namely comes in gmail's finicky IMAP (wikipedia def) support in that it uses "labels" instead of true folders like the rest of the civilized world. It's not that the labels are evil, it's just that they don't play well outside the Google sandbox.

Google has, however, recently implemented some new settings that allow you to pick and choose which labels are synced over IMAP. This should have different results depending on what you're using to pull (or push) in your gmail, so YMMV. We're still waiting on true push e-mail from the Big G, but we'll take any improvements we can get in the meantime.

Give it a shot, and let us know in the comments how it works for you.

Gmail Blog: Advanced IMAP Controls

Here's a quick thought: Android has a very nice, one-login solution for Google's services -- punch in your GMail password once and you instantly get push email, contacts, and calendar. Android is also fully open source -- anybody can download the SDK and take a look at the source code. That source code has to include some of the bits necessary to turn GMail from a pull service into a push service. Shouldn't it be possible to hack that code to make GMail push to Windows Mobile?

Now, it's possible that there's code on Google's servers that checks the device, but again, since Android is fully open source, it should be possible to trick those servers into thinking they're talking to an Android device.

Push GMail with full support for labels/folders has long been a holy grail for many of us -- Andriod's source code could be the way to get it.

What other Android-based benefits could we see on Windows Mobile?

Answering a question for the WMExperts Podcast last night (going up later today!) got me looking around for the best solution for consumers for push email on Windows Mobile. The first bet is usually going to be Live Mail -- it's free and easy to set up. What if you don't want to change your email address, though? Well, there's forwarding to Live mail (or to a hosted exchange service like Sherweb), but there's hassles there. What I want is my Gmail email, calendars, and contacts pushed out. No, what I want is Exchange. Heck, I want Gmail to look and act like an exchange server to my phone.

Glory be: just such a service is coming soon from Cemaphore: MailShadow for Google Apps. Mailshadow acts as an intermediary between your devices (Windows Mobile, Outlook, etc) and Gmail -- and intermediary that acts just like a standard Exchange server but is actually just a conduit to your Gmail account.

Sign me up. Actually, don't - I just signed up myself. The bummer is that the service is just starting their beta now. Want in? Sign up here and let us know if you get into the beta. Fingers: crossed.

When Google offered up free IMAP for their Gmail service, there was much rejoicing. When we discovered that it send Windows Mobile blank emails instead of HTML emails, there was much lamentation. We we discovered that the iPhone handled Gmail IMAP with aplomb, there was gnashing of teeth and tearing-out of hair.

We're back to rejoicing now, as per XDA (via JAMM), Gmail's IMAP service doesn't seem to be sending out blank emails anymore. Huzzah!

We're testing it out now, we heartily invite y'all to do the same. How goes it, are you back in the blessed IMAP land?

I hate to say it, but Exchange Active Sync suddenly just lost a bit of its shine. Google is now offering IMAP for free and it's seriously tempting. The one thing I sincerely wish EAS (or at least my EAS, 1and1) would do is server-side filtering - I want the massing influx of press releases and various group emails I get every day to get out of my inbox and into their little folders.

With Gmail, "folders" are actually "labels," meaning it's technically one giant archive of email split into just two folders: "inbox" and "everything." So you can set up a filter to Label something and then Archive it and you essentially have moved it into that "imap folder," but it's also easily searchable. It's a nice setup.

Will anybody be dropping EAS for gmail now that it has IMAP? Can we really live without push? Can somebody explain to me why Gmail is still in beta? Why is a duck?

Google has upped the ante when it comes to relying on Gmail as a full featured e-mail service with its introduction today of free IMAP access to your Gmail account. In short, this means you'll be able configure Gmail to easily keep your account in sync with your home and work PC, mobile phone, and any other device used to access Gmail with.

Read: Today @ PC World Google Offers Free IMAP Access to Gmail

Thanks to Mike over at Phone different, who was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning at CTIA and caught the news before the rest of us! After the break, a quick setup video he forwarded on, and here's their help site.

Read the rest of this entry »