Mobile / Cell Phone Thoughts & Reviews

Hlorri from HowardForums has am amazing and very in depth post about mobile email applications I’ve ever read, I thought I would share some of it here with you here after getting his permission.  I prefer emoze but I’m bias because they are a client of mine.

I will try to keep Hlorris’ order and consistency that he has in his forum post.  Keep in mind he focused on readers for a standard IMAP/SMTP setup, as opposed to branded services (GMail, Yahoo, etc) or corporate and proprietary offerings (like Outlook, Lotus Domino, etc). That said, several of these clients support these setups as well.  Let’s jump in without any more rambling from me.

Native S60 client:

This is perhaps the client with the most exposure, given that it is the first one you encounter.
Pros:

* Obviously this client is well integrated into the device. Once you have setup your account, you have access to via your Contacts list, the standard “Send” menu (in Gallery, File Manager, etc). New mail can trigger a notification on your Standby screen (like a standard text or IM message). Each mailbox you set up is available as an application shortcut (e.g. for the Active Standby screen).
* Support for encrypted connections to both your incoming (IMAP/POP3) and outgoing (SMTP) servers, each supporting both StartTLS (using the standard ports) or SSL (to dedicated IMAPS/POPS/SMTPS service ports).
* The connection is made directly from your phone to the specified servers, not via a “service” (man in the middle). This means fewer potential points of failure, and combined with its support for TLS/SSL connections, this should also be a benefit for the security conscious. Moreover, if you have a self-signed SSL certificate, you can simply install it onto your phone and still be able to connect without compromising on the “server validation” aspect (see note regarding DNS spoofing in the System SEVEN review below). Finally, it means you are able to utilize any SMTP service provided by your carrier (in the case of AT&T Wireless, use “cwmx.com”).
* Support for IMAP “IDLE” extension, allowing you to get notified of email as they appear in your inbox rather than constantly polling for it — but see the following.
* Access Points can be set independently for incoming vs. outgoing servers, and it does support FP2 Access Point Groups. This way you can use the “Default” access point for incoming mail to connect via WLAN when available, while forcing cellular connection for outgoing mail to your carrier’s SMTP server. (If you don’t have the ability or are too lazy to setup an SMTP server with authentication).

Cons:

* To use IMAP IDLE, the Messaging application must remain open and connected to your mailbox. Moreover, the user interface does not facilitate this behavior: Both the right soft key on the startup screen as well as the End key terminate the application; and there is no “auto-start” feature. For long term use, this is rather useless.
* As an alternative, you can set it up to poll for mail at specified time intervals, even while the Messaging application is not running. However a series of unfortunate events makes this option, too, useless for me:
o It forces a download of ALL messages, not just a predefined number (e.g. 100).
o A bug in FP2 devices (e.g. the N85, N96) prevents more than about 900 of the oldest messages from appearing. I have about 7000 in my Inbox.
* The interactive experience is awful. All operations take place synchronously (in the foreground). When deleting a mail, it happens while you wait. (To delete more than one you are better off marking them all first, then push the Clear key to remove all at once). When updating the mailbox, there is no option to download the message itself, or a portion thereof — only the header, so opening each new message means waiting for it to download. In pre-FP2 devices (e.g. the N95) there is no option to automatically choose to delete messages from phone only vs. phone+server, so you are prompted every time.
* There is no option to synchronize sent messages back to the IMAP server (though there is one to send a copy to yourself.. you could install a filter on your server I suppose).

Nokia Messaging:

Nokia’s subscription-based offering, though currently it is free of charge in the USA.

Pros:

* Very clean and smooth user interface. Also much better interactive response: Server operations (e.g. deleting mail) happen asynchronously.
* Very simple setup process — too simple. It requires a very specific server setup (see Cons).
* Access your account setup online (basically, add/remove accounts).
* Like the native reader, integrates well in the device (in Contacts list, “Send” menus). Push notification of new mails, also when application is not running.
* Comes with its own SMTP service for outgoing mail.

Cons:

* “Man in the middle” setup via Nokia Messaging Service. This means lower reliability (in particular, this service seems to have a lot of issues lately) and decreased security. In my case, I would get notified of new mail at most once a day (though mail were trickling in all day long, and I could even see logins and open connections from Nokia’s messaging service in my IMAP server log all day long as well).
* No way to configure server settings:
o The IMAP/POP3 username is your e-mail address (user@domain, no option even to set just user) – your server must accept this. This required a reconfiguration on my part.
o No secure authentication (DIGEST-MD5, CRAM-MD5, NTLM…) authentication support, nor encryption (SSL/TLS). Your IMAP/POP3 password is sent as plaintext between the Nokia Messaging service and your mail server. This, to me, is major, and the reason I kept searching for other solutions.
* Does not support FP2 Access Point Groups, meaning no ability to use WLAN on demand (e.g. when a cellular connection is not available).

ProfiMail:

Perhaps the most powerful of all these readers.

Pros:

* The only one among these with support for HTML mails (Note: emoze now supports HTML mail). This significantly improves readability of many commercial mails – but be sure to uncheck the “Download HTML images” option to prevent sending identifiable information back to potential spammers.
* Very user-friendly and powerful interface. A lot of information is available in each view, and laid out in a very intuitive manner. Font sizes (for UI and for message text) are configurable. Attachments are clearly indicated and available in an unobtrusive fashion.
* Interactive use is very speedy, server operations happen in the background. For instance, pressing the Clear key on a message marks it as deleted and immediately moves to the next message; pressing the Clear key on a deleted message restores it immediately. Allows you to configure whether to auto-retrieve only message headers or the entire message; even in the former case, loading of message text is very speedy.
* Like the native client, makes direct IMAP/POP3/SMTP server connections (i.e. no “man in the middle”). More reliable, more secure, and allows you to make use of your provider’s SMTP service. This also means that there is no possibility of any “subscription” charge being added in the future (see note about license check below).
* A wealth of server configuration options are available:
o Supports SSL and/or StartTLS encryption both ways (makes use of the trust chain on your phone, so you can import your self-signed certificate and make use of it). Autodetects “secure authentication” (DIGEST-MD5…) support on the server – at least on the SMTP server.
o Supports IMAP IDLE (“semi-push” mail), with configurable “keep-alive” pings. Does not seem to drain battery noticably. It does require the application to remain open, but the UI facilitates this: The right soft key on the main screen reads “Hide”, and the End key also simply hides the application into the background.
o Good support for IMAP namespace, including designation of “Root” folder (e.g. “INBOX.” for Cyrus or Courier setups), Sent/Trash/Drafts folders, etc.

Cons:

* Currently the only one of these offerings that costs money. A 30-day trial is provided, with occasional nag screens. By default, the application does a periodic online license check, to allow you to transfer the license from one phone to another; you can contact Lonely Cat Games to disable this if you are not concerned about transferring your license.
* Although the user interface is very slick in many ways, it does not adhere to the S60 style guide, and may look a bit “out of place” to some. For instance, rather than using the native message indicator in the Standby screen, a little “popup” box appears in a corner with the number of unread messages.
* Also does not integrate to phone functions (like Send menu, Contacts, etc). Your Contacts list is however available within the ProfiMail application. This is my main reason for preferring System SEVEN (below) over this.

System SEVEN:

This is a service-based solution, currently free of charge as part of their Beta program. SEVEN may charge for it in the future; but it will also be available in branded forms (e.g. from AT&T, see below).

Pros:

* Very good integration with the S60 platform – perhaps even better than Nokia Messaging. Once configured, your mailbox is available in the native “Messaging” application. “Send” menu and Contacts integration. Looks very much “at home” in the S60 environment.
* Always-on, push notification of new mail; by far the fastest of any mail reader I’ve tried so far. (I get notified on my phone long before any mail reader running on my computer). Although the SEVEN proxy servers do not maintain an active connection to your mail server (IMAP IDLE), they do check mail every 5 minutes according to my server logs.

Cons:

* Service-based, so you depend on SEVEN servers being up and running. Security aspects are a little bit better handled than Nokia Messaging (but see the following).
* Very involved setup process for most mail server configurations. You are likely to fail the first time, unless you know a little about its demands beforehand. Moreover, another series of unfortunate events can have some impacts:
o Each time you add a new account, a text message is sent to an international number (+4476248026, on the Isle of Man). If you try and fail a few times (51 in my case), this adds up to a few dollars.
o Because it connects via a service, you are not able to use your carrier’s SMTP service, nor does SEVEN offer any. This means that you must have an SMTP server available for use, and usually that it needs to support user authentication. (Any error messages you receive during the setup process are not very descriptive on this point).
o Even though it lists “NTLM” as one of the IMAP authentication options, checking it does nothing – it will authenticate to your IMAP server via plaintext password.
o Once you have “successfully” established your account (identified by your e-mail address), there is no way to edit the server configuration (e.g. authentication options, server names..). To make things worse, the configuration will (in some cases) remain in the SEVEN service even after you remove the account from your device, thus “wasting” your e-mail address for future use with different parameters. Coupled with the NTLM bug above, it means that I was not able to configure my account for secure authentication.
o To make things even worse yet, in some cases the SEVEN service will also keep polling for e-mail from your IMAP server after you remove the account from your device! Since my original account was (due to a bug on their part!) configured for plaintext authentication, it meant that the SEVEN service kept blasting out my password in the clear over the internet every 5 minutes — the only way to prevent this was for me to use a Linux “iptables” (firewall) rule to reject incoming IMAP connections from their proxy server.
* Does not prompt for your real name during the setup process, and so obviously does not include that in outgoing mail. Your “From:” header reads: user@domain <user@domain>.

Stale information remains on the SEVEN service from my original account, associated with my real e-mail address. I was however able to stop continuous polling of mail by adding the account back and then removing it after one of their recent server upgrades.

To get the authentication issue resolved, I have had to add a different account to the service, of the form <user@mail.domain> rather than <user@domain>, this time choosing SSL encryption (IMAPS, port 993) for the incoming mail server. I have also added rewriting rules on my outgoing SMTP server to (a) correct this address back to <user@domain>, and (b) add my real name in the From: header. See discussion in the SEVEN community forum.

It should be noted that I use a self-signed certificate on my server; the fact that the SEVEN service still connects without complaining means that they do not validate against trusted CAs on their proxy service. This, in turn, means that this form of authentication is not quite as secure as e.g. DIGEST-MD5, since the password is sent in plaintext over an SSL connection that can be hijacked via DNS spoofing.

The problems are mainly related to the initial setup, and the two Pros I mentioned are important enough that it easily outclasses some of the other solutions.

AT&T XpressMail:

This is the AT&T branded flavor of System SEVEN.

Pros:

* Like the System SEVEN beta, your mailbox appears in your Messaging application, thus saving e.g. an Active Standby shortcut.
* Fewer bugs. For instance, no NTLM option that does not work anyway. Also, it is a “Hidden” application, so it does not appear in your task list (access your account settings from within your mailbox screen).
* Seemingly when removing an account from XpressMail, it never remains in the AT&T server.
* Free of charge, potentially even if/when SEVEN starts charging subscription for their own service.

Cons:

* The available Symbian client is slightly older than the System SEVEN beta client. It is not quite as well integrated into the device (for instance, not available via the Contacts list or Send menu). You can pick recipients from your contacts list within the XpressMail application, but you can only search by last name (not first name).
* Like Nokia Messaging, very unforgiving in terms of server setup. Insists on logging into your IMAP server as user@domain rather than just user. Although it does support SSL, will not automatically accept self-signed certificates (even if you have installed them on your phone).

In sum…

If ProfiMail was a bit better integrated into S60, it would be no contest in my opinion. The only reason I’m using System SEVEN right now is that it is the only client that both works well (once configured) and is well integrated.

It appears very similar to SEVEN, and shares its strengths. However I seem to have a few minor issues with it so far (I’m only trying it out so far):

Emoze:

It appears very similar to SEVEN, and shares its strengths. However I seem to have a few minor issues with it so far (I’m only trying it out so far):

Pros:
* Very fast mail delivery – much faster than before, and now seemingly the fastest of all other clients I’ve tried, including SEVEN.
* Also, while the SEVEN service polls for mail every 5 minutes, Emoze seems to use IMAP IDLE – which is more true to the “push mail” paradigm, reduces network traffic, IMAP server overhead, and reduces the number of times your password has to be sent to the IMAP server.
* If CRAM-MD5 authentication is available on the IMAP server, it uses it automatically (even over non-encrypted connections). In contrast, SEVEN and Nokia Messaging both send plaintext passwords over the wire. (That said, CRAM-MD5 is the least secure of the various “secure authentication” methods — might I suggest using DIGEST-MD5 or NTLM in a future release?)
* No mail server connection is made unless the mobile client is running. This is in contrast to SEVEN and Nokia Messaging, which both keep polling for mail even while offline – so if you uninstall their clients on your phone (or no longer use it), your mail will still be retrieved indefinitely.
* The HTML view is nicely done – the message header scrolls off the screen once you start panning down into the message, so the screen real-estate is utilized better.

It appears very similar to SEVEN, and shares its strengths. However I seem to have a few minor issues with it so far (I’m only trying it out so far):

Cons:

Connections are made via different countries emoze has servers in! (The again .. connections from my workplace to Google go half way around the world, even though it’s only about 10 miles away).
There is an option to view mails as HTML; however when I then open a HTML mail it crashes the viewer. (I’m back in my Inbox).  UPDATE: Emoze fixed this with the newest update.
There does not seem to be a way to rename the mailbox? (The name is my login name). UPDATE: This is being fixed in the next software release.

After some messaging with Hlorri he told me that he is going to be buying an emoze Pro subscription.  There’s just one fix we need to make first then off to the races.  That says to me emoze is the best of breed and the choice of someone who is truly in the “know”.  Thank you to Hlorri for allowing me to republish his work.