Atlanta .NET Regular Guys

Making the iPhone work with HotMail

I’ve been a HotMail user for a number of years as the e-mail provider for DevCow.com.  While I’ve always liked HotMail with the desktop Live Mail client and the web client, the mobile device access has always left me wanting.  For a number of years now, HotMail has not provided POP3 or IMAP access (although it is now available in the US) which means the only way to interact is via the web access.

Recently I had some cellphone hardware issues which precipitated a new hardware purchase.  I picked up an iPhone for reasons which will be detailed in a different blog post and have become a raving fan of the iPhone.  In fact, my relationship with it borders on unhealthy and my wife insists I stop bringing it to bed with me. ;-)

HotMail on the iPhone

I use my iPhone mail application for my corporate e-mail and even if it’s possible, I don’t want to deal with managing multiple accounts inside of that mail application.  I prefer to keep the two mail accounts completely separated.  While the iPhone has a brilliant web browsing experience, I’m not happy with the default web access experience.  Even in landscape mode, it’s just not an enjoyable UI.

Hunting around the Apple App Store brought me to the mBoxMail application which promised to bring my HotMail to my iPhone.  I snapped up the application – version 1.2.2 and found that while it did function as advertised, I felt that there were some problems which I couldn’t ignore.  I contacted the support department for mBoxMail to register a defect or two and was brought into the mBoxMail version 2.0 beta program.  I have to say that I’m extremely impressed with the mail application – it’s superior to the built in iPhone mail application!

Please note that I have received permission to post these images of the pre-release beta version of mBoxMail version 2.0.

Here you can see how easy it is to navigate through my various mail folders and my e-mail items themselves.  Items I really like include:

1. Snappy and responsive user interface.  This is a major step up from version 1.2 of mBoxMail and makes this application as user friendly as the built in e-mail application.
2. Integration of my HotMail and Live IM contacts along with my iPhone contacts under the contacts button.  Easy to use and respects the contact groups I’ve configured in Live and IM.
3. The ability to search for e-mail!  This feature is completely missing from the regular iPhone application and is a tremendous addition.
4. The ability to add multiple attachments to an e-mail message.  The mBoxMail UI for new and reply e-mail messages lets me add an unlimited (or at least I’ve not reached the limit) number of photos to an e-mail message AFTER I’ve started typing the e-mail.  The regular iPhone e-mail client doesn’t let you add any attachments after you start typing the e-mail.  To mail a photo using the normal client you have to start out in the photo library and select the single photo you want to e-mail before you start typing.
5. mBoxMail includes all of the gesture support you’re used to with the default e-mail client, such as swiping across an individual e-mail to delete it.

There are loads of things to like with this new version of the mBoxMail client and I can’t wait for the general release of the 2.0 version.  I’ve been an active participant in the beta feedback program and have submitted about 14 suggestions for improvements to the team at this point and they seem to be very receptive and appreciative of my suggestions.