WebIS @Mail Beta Reviewed

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=73' target='_blank'>http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modul...owcontent&id=73</a><br /><br /></div>"One of the most highly anticipated pieces of software as of late has to be WebIS’s @Mail – an Inbox replacement application. If you have been around Pocket PCs for any amount of time then you are probably familiar with WebIS’s flagship product Pocket Informant. The only part of Pocket Outlook that PI doesn’t replace is the Inbox. From the first discussion forum I ever participated in, I can remember users complaining about the lack of functionality in the Inbox. @Mail is certainly not the first replacement for the Inbox, but with PI’s track record, I don’t think it will be too long before @Mail becomes a household name – well, in the Pocket PC world anyway."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/atmailanim.gif" /> <br /><br />I've been looking forward to the final release of @mail for quite some time. I was never a heavy Pocket Inbox user because, until getting the XDA, I didn't use my Pocket PC to check email. I had a Socket DPC, but found the two body + cable solution ugly. Since getting my XDA, mobile email is now a reality - yet the limitations of Pocket Inbox are so glaring it hurts, and it's not something I realized until using the XDA. 8O <br /><br />What's the point of being able to triage email, like deleting spam, if it stays on the server only to show up later in Outlook when you download the same email again locally? Big corporations use Exchange and IMAP, where you have the ability to delete messages off the server, but the rest of the world uses POP - and Microsoft seems to ignore that. Anyway, rant over - for now. :twisted: @mail is coming, and it looks very promising! Look for a Pocket PC Thoughts review and purchase links coming in the next couple of days...

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

This is certainly a potential "must-have" app and knowing how much time and dedication Alex Kac into PI, I'm sure this will be an excellent application. I can't wait...

[Jonathan1]

Too bad ATT broadband doesn't allow pop access from off network. :( I've been waiting for an app like this an when it arrives what happens? I can't use it. :?

Still this is going to be the perfect addition to Pocket Informant. From what I understand, correct me if this is wrong, but it somehow integrates into PI.

[mtillett]

This really does look like its going to be a great app. Alex and the WebIS team are awesome and really do strive to incorporate user feedback into the revisions of their product :) I am eagerly anticipating the release of @Mail.

PS: Unfortunately Inbox doesn't do IMAP right either :evil: Hopefully @Mail will eventually offer real IMAP functionality too ie: the ability to delete messages off the server...

[pocketpcdude1024]

Any idea who will be reviewing it? Wouldn't it be neat to get a "collection" of reviews; in other words, instead of one reviewer, maybe three or four could review the product so we can get multiple perspectives on what could be the greatest thing since sliced bread! :D With that said, does anyone know who the revewer(s) is/will be? :?

[Looxer]

Thats what I've been waiting for :) However I've got Pocket Informat bundeled with my Loox, I donno if I will get a special offer or a reduced price :wink:

[griph]

"I've been looking forward to the final release of @mail for quite some time.

As they say in london - you ain't the only one! Having had my XDA since the beginning of November I have been salivating at the thought of having this! It's been a Painfull wait and I am much looking forward to giving it a good going over!

Regards
Griph

[paqguy]

Any idea who will be reviewing it? Wouldn't it be neat to get a "collection" of reviews; in other words, instead of one reviewer, maybe three or four could review the product so we can get multiple perspectives on what could be the greatest thing since sliced bread! :D With that said, does anyone know who the revewer(s) is/will be? :?

That would be me :lol:

Right now the product is still in Beta, but will be released this weekend. Only members of the beta team are able to get their hands on it until then. After the release, I'm sure we'll see more and more reviews popping up.

[Paparuski]

First of all, I share the excitement with you all about this new program. As a Pocketinformant long term user, I know the company is capable.

Several comments just for information on how I currently use email.

E125 (not pocketpc 2002) w/ CF modem.

Work email is automatically forwarded to my outside ISP (ATT).

Use PDA and GREAT ATT dialer (free download from attglobal.net) to access dialup from local city connections around the world.

Use traditional CE Inbox.

Uses POP protocol.

I CAN delete messages on the ATT server from my PDA using Inbox so that when I return to the office to my desktop, only the emails I had purposedly kept are still there. The ones I deleted while traveling were permantantly deleted as I instructed it to.


However, though all this is OK, I am really looking forward to the added functionality of this new product.

[Jason Dunn]

Any idea who will be reviewing it? Wouldn't it be neat to get a "collection" of reviews; in other words, instead of one reviewer, maybe three or four could review the product so we can get multiple perspectives on what could be the greatest thing since sliced bread! :D With that said, does anyone know who the revewer(s) is/will be? :?

That would be me :lol:

I think he meant who from Pocket PC Thoughts. :wink:

Our very own Perry Reed is mucking around with @Mail RC1 as I write this, and you should see a review in the next few days.

[Jason Dunn]

I CAN delete messages on the ATT server from my PDA using Inbox so that when I return to the office to my desktop, only the emails I had purposedly kept are still there. The ones I deleted while traveling were permantantly deleted as I instructed it to.

Yeah, I think this is something they buggered up in Pocket PC 2002 (or hid it so well from me that I can't find the solution). I can delete the messages, do another send/receive, the message won't re-download - yet when I check email on my home computer, the deleted messages will download again. :x

[alex_kac]

Let me add that some of the biggest annoyances in the PPC 2002 Inbox will NOT be resolved in @Mail 1.0 because they require all new transport services to be written. We ARE working on writing those as well, but we first needed a good app to work properly with them. So @mail comes first, new transport services second.

Also...if anybody has an SSL based POP3 account we could test with...let me know please :)

[Paparuski]

Yeah, I think this is something they buggered up in Pocket PC 2002 (or hid it so well from me that I can't find the solution). I can delete the messages, do another send/receive, the message won't re-download - yet when I check email on my home computer, the deleted messages will download again. :x[/quote]

I'm at a disadvantage since I do not have a 2002 yet (waiting on Toshiba E750 or Look 700 - yeah right/sure on either one).

All I can tell you is that once I delete the email in Inbox I ALSO HAVE to press the little hand holding pc icon otherwise it will delete it only in Inbox and not really remove it from the ISP server.

This is the same when I move an email from Inbox on pda to another folder I get auto warning that orginal email will be removed from isp server. This is NOT true UNLESS I press the little hand holding pc and it cylces through "cleaning up".

Not sure if this applies to PPC2002 but I would hope so in order to permantly delete unwanted email from ISP server.

[Larrison]

The biggest problem for me in any PocketPC inbox-type/ mail application is the inability to handle encrypted emails. Around 70-80% of the emails I get each day are encrypted, usually through the Outlook/ Microsoft security encryption. Neither Pocket Outlook nor this new application appears to solve this

But until it is solved, the vast majority of my email is unreadable on a PocketPC. All I can see is the title of the email and who sent it.

Not real useful....

[Perry Reed]

Any idea who will be reviewing it? Wouldn't it be neat to get a "collection" of reviews; in other words, instead of one reviewer, maybe three or four could review the product so we can get multiple perspectives on what could be the greatest thing since sliced bread! :D With that said, does anyone know who the revewer(s) is/will be? :?

That would be me :lol:

I think he meant who from Pocket PC Thoughts. :wink:

Our very own Perry Reed is mucking around with @Mail RC1 as I write this, and you should see a review in the next few days.

Indeed I am playing with it. And in doing so have somehow managed to screw up my screen alignment so badly that most of the bottom icons no longer work (in any app). I have no idea how I did this, but it's beginning to look like a hard reset is going to be required to fix it. :(

But, at the risk of stealing my own thunder, so far @Mail is pretty slick! Certainly not perfect, but a million times better than Inbox.

[kfluet]

I CAN delete messages on the ATT server from my PDA using Inbox so that when I return to the office to my desktop, only the emails I had purposedly kept are still there. The ones I deleted while traveling were permantantly deleted as I instructed it to.

Yeah, I think this is something they buggered up in Pocket PC 2002 (or hid it so well from me that I can't find the solution). I can delete the messages, do another send/receive, the message won't re-download - yet when I check email on my home computer, the deleted messages will download again. :x

Erm, well, it works for me in PPC 2002. I delete the messages, empty the Deleted Items folder and resync with the server and they are definitely gone when I check from my desktop POP client.

Maybe it has something to do with the capabilities of the POP servers involved.

[mel]

I CAN delete messages on the ATT server from my PDA using Inbox so that when I return to the office to my desktop, only the emails I had purposedly kept are still there. The ones I deleted while traveling were permantantly deleted as I instructed it to.

Yeah, I think this is something they buggered up in Pocket PC 2002 (or hid it so well from me that I can't find the solution). I can delete the messages, do another send/receive, the message won't re-download - yet when I check email on my home computer, the deleted messages will download again. :x

Jason: Try this: Open your Inbox on the Pocket PC and then click Tools->Options. Switch to the Message tab. In the "Empty Deleted Items" setting, select "On Connect/Disconnect". Now connect to the server and download your mail. Delete the ones you don't want. After deleting, click the Send/Recieve Mail button on the toolbar (the 2nd button with 2 envelopes). That will delete the e-mails from the server. I do this all the time with my IMAP account, but it should work with POP3 as well.

[paqguy]

Indeed I am playing with it. And in doing so have somehow managed to screw up my screen alignment so badly that most of the bottom icons no longer work (in any app). I have no idea how I did this, but it's beginning to look like a hard reset is going to be required to fix it. :(

But, at the risk of stealing my own thunder, so far @Mail is pretty slick! Certainly not perfect, but a million times better than Inbox.

This may not be your problem, but, in an earlier beta, the missing icons were a problem, simply tapping on the SIP once or twice took care of this. Sounds like your problem might be a little more complicated though.

[Ed Hansberry]

Let me add that some of the biggest annoyances in the PPC 2002 Inbox will NOT be resolved in @Mail 1.0 because they require all new transport services to be written. We ARE working on writing those as well, but we first needed a good app to work properly with them. So @mail comes first, new transport services second.

Also...if anybody has an SSL based POP3 account we could test with...let me know please :)
Rats. Any AT&T Worldnet user has this off network - and to throw a kink into it, the port isn't standard. :D I closed my Worldnet account this past summer.

[jimski]

Try this: Open your Inbox on the Pocket PC and then click Tools->Options. Switch to the Message tab. In the "Empty Deleted Items" setting, select "On Connect/Disconnect". Now connect to the server and download your mail. Delete the ones you don't want. After deleting, click the Send/Recieve Mail button on the toolbar (the 2nd button with 2 envelopes). That will delete the e-mails from the server. I do this all the time with my IMAP account, but it should work with POP3 as well.[/quote]

Just tried and got the message to delete on the server, but there are a few things to note. First I opened a message and moved it to the deleted folder. I then Connected/Disconnected several times using my Bluetooth Internet connection. Even though I have the Option checked for "Empty Deleted Items" = "On Connect/Disconnect" the message was not deleted from the folder or from the server.

I then clicked on "Empty Deleted Items" to purge the Deleted folder on my iPAQ and Connected/Disconnected. When I checked our server and opened my desktop Outlook the message was gone.

FYI- I forward my mail from the office Lotus Notes server to Outlook on my laptop. I do not save a copy of my mail on the Notes server. I connect via Outlook and iPAQ using POP3 protocol. Hope this helps.

[Jason Dunn]

I delete the messages, empty the Deleted Items folder and resync with the server and they are definitely gone when I check from my desktop POP client.

Empty the deleted items? Really? It never occurred to me to try that - what a lame, manual step! If something is in the deleted items folder, why would the server think I still wanted to keep it. Bah! :evil:

There's something fundamentally screwy about the way email is collected/stored. If my desktop Outlook is where my email downloads, and my ActiveSync folder structure on the Pocket PC is a mirror of my desktop Outlook, why doesn't the email flow into the ActiveSync folders and be processed, sorted, and synched back up to the desktop?

I think the model Microsoft is using is fundamentally flawed - at least from where I'm sitting. :wink:

[alex_kac]

The biggest problem for me in any PocketPC inbox-type/ mail application is the inability to handle encrypted emails. Around 70-80% of the emails I get each day are encrypted, usually through the Outlook/ Microsoft security encryption. Neither Pocket Outlook nor this new application appears to solve this

But until it is solved, the vast majority of my email is unreadable on a PocketPC. All I can see is the title of the email and who sent it.

Not real useful....

remember - it IS 1.0. I'm trying real hard to temper expectations of people expecting a 1.0 app to compete with Outlook XP on the desktop :) Maybe in 2.0....

[Pony99CA]

I delete the messages, empty the Deleted Items folder and resync with the server and they are definitely gone when I check from my desktop POP client.
Empty the deleted items? Really? It never occurred to me to try that - what a lame, manual step! If something is in the deleted items folder, why would the server think I still wanted to keep it. Bah! :evil:

It makes sense to me. You can set E-mail items to be deleted immediately, on disconnect/reconnect or manually. I have mine set to manually; in case I accidentally delete a message, I can go into the Deleted Items folder and recover it.

Here's the process I use, which does delete things on my POP3 server.

1. Delete all the spam.
2. Empty the deleted items.
3. Check for new mail. This should actually complete the deletion on the server. Note the total number of E-mails on the server while you do this.
4. To verify that the mail was deleted, check for new mail again. Again note the total number of E-mails on the server -- unless you got new mail, it should be less than the number in the previous step.

Step #4 isn't necessary; it just confirms that the mail was deleted without having to use another E-mail client.

Steve

[Adam]

I delete the messages, empty the Deleted Items folder and resync with the server and they are definitely gone when I check from my desktop POP client.

Empty the deleted items? Really? It never occurred to me to try that - what a lame, manual step! If something is in the deleted items folder, why would the server think I still wanted to keep it. Bah! :evil:

It's the "compromise" model as used by Outlook. If you look at your options there you see you have the options: leave mail in server, delete mail from server, only delete from server if deleted from teh deleted items. That last one enables you to leave mail on the server if you have two clients (very useful for those of us who can access our private email at work), but you can also ensure the dross gets cleared out.

However, I think that with Inbox they should give you the same options, so you can select the model that suits you best.