push posts

Filed under: Utilities, E-mail, Productivity, iPhone

GPush brings Gmail notifications to the iPhone

by Jay Hathaway Aug 18th 2009

There's no official support for Gmail push notifications on the iPhone, but you can add them for 99 cents, thanks to an app called GPush. GPush only does one thing: it notifies you when you have new Gmail messages. The only setup required is entering your Gmail login and deciding which notifications you want. You can pick a combination of pop-ups, sounds, and a badge on the app icon.

GPush handles its one feature the right way, using SSL for secure login. You don't have to open the app to read your new mail, either. You can just check Apple Mail or the Gmail web interface as usual, but GPush means you'll avoid checking them when you don't have new mail.

Tags: email, gmail, gpush, iphone, notifications, push

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

Push is a quirky, challenging platformer - Time Waster

by Jay Hathaway Jul 27th 2009

The platform game, centered on running and jumping action, has been around so long that's it tough to introduce new innovation to the genre. Push is a Flash game that manages to twist platform conventions by introducing a force field effect that you can use to push part of the terrain and clear a path for your character. The controls are a bit difficult to manage, and the graphics are very basic, but Push is a good time waster because the harder levels are really challenging.

The object of each level is to reach a yellow goal square by running, jumping and pushing. There are plenty of ways to die: you can fall, you can accidentally get squished if you let go of your force field at the wrong time, or you can hit obstacles. The problem is that you run and jump using the arrows keys or WASD on the keyboard, but you push by pointing and clicking. The combination of keyboard and mouse controls was frustrating, and ultimately turned me off before I beat any of the hardest levels. If you have the patience, though, Push will reward you with 75 different maps and a terrain editor that lets you build custom levels.

Tags: flash, game, platform, platformer, push, time-waster

Filed under: Utilities, Social Software, iPhone

Boxcar brings Twitter push notifications to the iPhone

by Jay Hathaway Jul 12th 2009

There are a lot of great Twitter clients for the iPhone, but whether your favorite is Tweetie, Twitterrific, Birdfeed or something else, they're all missing a feature that I find really useful. I'm talking about push notifications, and even the top-shelf Twitter clients don't support them. Although that's likely to change when Twitter finds a workable push solution for developers, an iPhone app called Boxcar has stepped in to fill the gap.

Boxcar is a 3-dollar app that polls Twitter for new direct messages and mentions, and notifies you via push when you get one. It doesn't replace your current Twitter client, it actually opens your @s and DMs using Tweetie or Twitterrific. Other clients may be supported soon, but if you don't use one of those two apps already, you should hold off on Boxcar for now. If you do, it might be 3 dollars well spent for you.

Boxcar is not without competition, though. For folks who want Growl notifications pushed from their desktop to an iPhone, whether from a Twitter app, a mail client, or something else, it's worth taking a look at Prowl. If you're willing to leave a Mac Twitter client running while you're out and about with your iPhone, you can achieve the same effect as Boxcar, with a few extra frills.

Tags: boxcar, iphone, push, push-notifications, tweetie, twitter, twitterrific

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, iPhone

Prowl: get Growl notifications on your iPhone, with push

by Jay Hathaway Jul 7th 2009

If you use a Mac, you might be familiar with Growl, a system-wide notification system that allows apps to notify you of events - new email, new IMs, downloads finishing - with a customizable pop-up. Now Growl has been (sort of) ported to the iPhone as a great new app called Prowl. Prowl collects Growl alerts from your Mac for reading on your iPhone, and even includes push support. Effectively, this means that you can get push notifications on your phone from any Growl-compatible app on your computer.

The iPhone side of Prowl shows a nice clean list of all the notifications you've received, even if you don't have push activated. On the desktop side, Prowl is actually a Growl style, so you can assign it to the apps of your choice, or make it the default if you need to see every single notification on your phone. One of the uses of Prowl I was most excited about was pushing direct messages and replies from my desktop Twitter app. No Twitter app on the iPhone has push yet, so Prowl is a nice way to fill in the gaps.

Prowl does require you to have Growl installed, and you have to sign up for an account. The registration process is extremely quick, though, with just a username and password required.

Tags: growl, iphone, mac, notifications, prowl, push

Filed under: Social Software, AOL, iPhone

AIM for iPhone: now with push notifications

by Jay Hathaway Jun 24th 2009

Now that version 3.0 of the iPhone operating system allows third-party apps to take advantage of push notifications, we're starting to see some of the first major push apps popping up. AIM for iPhone, available as a free ad-supported app or a $2.99 ad-free version, now offers push notifications. Now AIM doesn't have to be open for you to see when you've got a new IM coming in.

New push notifications pop up just like SMS messages, but you can also set AIM to badge its icon with the number of new messages you have, or play a sound when a new one comes in. Since third-party apps aren't allowed to run in the background on the iPhone, push makes AIM a lot more practical than it was when you had to have it open and active to see your new messages.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: AIM, AOL, iphone, iphoneos3.0, push, push-notification

Filed under: Internet, Features, E-mail, Commercial, Freeware, Mobile Minute, DLS Interviews

Emoze to launch pro and enterprise push email

by Brad Linder Nov 7th 2007

For the past year emoze has been offering a free push email service that essentially lets you turn almost any cellphone with a data plan into a BlackBerry-like mobile email device. Users just install a small application on their mobile device and sign up for a free account. Then you can set up emoze to push email to your phone every time a new message comes in. Emoze can be configured to work with Gmail, Outlook, or Lotus Notes.

The service is pretty cool. But the business model has been a beet baffling, and we've been wondering how emoze planned to make money. It turns out that the company will be launching two subscription services within the next week or so.

The first is a "pro" version which will cost less than $20 a year and allow you set up multiple accounts and receive larger email attachments. The second is an "enterprise" version which is aimed at businesses who can't afford to deploy BlackBerry technology.

We caught up with emoze chairman Naftali Shani last night and asked him about push technology and emoze's long term goals.

The only thing that would make us happier would be to see emoze add support for webmail services beside Gmail.

Tags: BlackBerry, emoze, push, push-email

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Office, Web services

Push email with Consilient

by Chris Gilmer Apr 4th 2007

Consilient wants to push your email. Should we forget about Blackberry's and try out Consilient's new push mobile email application? This former partner of RIM looks like it has the inside scoop on push technology with this new offering that was built for the Asian market, and has recently traveled to North American soil.

Consilient's free push offering includes access to five email accounts, including Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo, along with IMAP and POP accounts. The company states that they do not store passwords and the free application will push out emails in real time as they are received into personal and corporate email accounts that have been setup in the application. The push application is available for most popular phones and Windows Mobile devices, and does have the ability to accept attachments in Word, PDF and Excel formats.

For users wishing to upgrade from the free account, a $5/month (plus a $10 activation fee) plan is available that will unlock enhanced features that allow content sharing and mobile social networking.

Tags: blackberry, consilient, email, excel, gmail, hotmail, imap, pdf, pop, push, word, yahoo

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