By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 10:33 am
Back in February, Google launched iPhone and Windows Mobile versions of Google Sync, a service that let you sync contacts and calendar items from Google’s services to your phone. It didn’t, however sync Gmail–which would have been especially nice for iPhone users since Apple’s Gmail support doesn’t push Gmail to the phone as soon as it arrives, but rather checks for mail on a schedule you set.
Today, Google announced that Google Sync now pushes Gmail as well as contacts and appointments, using the iPhone’s Microsoft Exchange support to do the job. Here’s the company’s little explanation in comics form (looks like Scott McCloud wasn’t available this time):
My instinct is to be skeptical of anything that pushes data to the iPhone, since doing so has historically been a really good way to suck your battery dry before the day is done. (Especially if it involves as much data as a busy Gmail account does.) But I’ve been happily using Google Sync’s contact-and-calendar features, so I’ll give the new Gmail feature a try. If you check it out, let us know what you think.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Good news. It would be nice to be able to setup more than one Exchange Account since I already have my work account setup in Exchange
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:08 am
Didn’t this already exist? I’ve had Gmail on my iPhone (set up by choosing “Microsoft Exchange”) for a long time now. What is the difference between what I had and this new setup?