Up until recently there was no way to receive push notifications for e-mail through GMail on the iPhone. However an application called GPush has been added to the iTunes App Store earlier this month.
Push notifications are one of the biggest advantages that BlackBerry mobile phones had over the iPhone before the iPhone OS 3.0 was released. The application does not open or send e-mails, it literally only sends push notifications. GPush was developed by Tiverias Apps.
GPush is easy to set up. All you have to do is submit your user name and password. After entering the information, you just have to agree to let the app send you push notifications. The application still has several bugs, but it still works pretty well.
Skype for the iPhone was released back in April and now the application has been updated. The new version of the Skype iPhone application allows users to send SMS messages and check voicemail. One of the desired features that are lacking in the newest version of the application is push notifications.
“Skype iPhone is kinda useless with no push notifications so 1.1 still kinda useless. Why even include IM capability without it, what are people supposed to do – send me an email that we should skype chat?” wrote a commenter on the Skype Blog.
Push notifications are the ability to inform the iPhone there are incoming messages and incoming calls without the need for the application to be running at the time. AOL has successfully implemented this feature for their AOL Instant Messenger software on the iPhone.
“We’re concentrating on providing the very best experience possible on the iPhone. Your feedback is important – it’s why we’ve included SMS and voicemail in this release. But we can’t do everything at once, unfortunately,” wrote Skype blogger Peter Parkes.
Apparently there is a way to enable tethering by modifying the code on the iPhone OS 3.0. If you are going to pursue this, I can only say it is at your own risk and I do not claim responsibility for what happens after. Read this whole post before getting started as there are two ways to get er’ done.
CrunchGear has a tutorial of how it works:
1. Download the carrier update from here.
2. Type this into the terminal:
- defaults write com.apple.iTunes
- carrier-testing -bool TRUE
After that start up iTunes and click the Restore button. Select the ipcc file in the disk image. After the restoration is complete, there will be an Internet Tethering option under the network section.
Another way to turn on tethering is by going to the link: http://help.benm.at/help.php on the phone browser. The steps on that website tell you how to set up and download tethering abilities through the phone.
