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FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

blog.fastmail.com

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Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#31

Post by bboreham »

vbezhenar wrote: post #14
robn_fastmail wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMAP "push" usually means the IDLE extension, where a client holds a connection open and waits for the server to report that something has happened. This works ok, but isn't great on mobile because holding a TCP connection open is usually difficult on flaky networks and consumes battery. iOS Mail doesn't implement it, instead doing a poll every 15 minutes. However it also implements a separate push system which allow…

So there's absolutely no way to enable that on custom little VPS? You have to make an agreement with Apple for that?

NuevaSync has supported this for years, via ActiveSync. https://www.nuevasync.com/nuevasync-pemail.html

Disclosure: have family connection to owners.

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#32

Post by Osmium »

x0x0 wrote: post #21
Osmium wrote: post #15

Yay! I am so happy to hear this. Congratulations and thank you to the Fastmail team and people at Apple who made this happen. This has been my only gripe as a Fastmail customer and the only reason I haven't been using Fastmail as my main email account yet. Very cool :)

fyi: if you're a gmail user, you're likely to be disappointed with fastmail unless you are -- as I am -- using it specifically to avoid using a google product. I wish their web UI were as good as gmail's but it really isn't. I still agree with these notes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9664594 I also think -- and I've tried almost all of them except outlook -- that it's the best non-gmail webmail available tod…

I am a Gmail user. I personally find the Fastmail interface a lot more performant; it's very responsive for me in a way that Gmail just isn't, though I'm not a Gmail 'power' user, so my experiences might be different (and I don't have 10,000s of emails in Fastmail yet). However, I can say I've found Google's Inbox product really useful a number of times recently (automatically classifying emails as travel, purchases, etc.) and I'll definitely miss that.

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#33

Post by nextos »

zacwest wrote: post #2

I haven't been happier paying for an internet service in a long time. FastMail keeps releasing more and more useful features. I can't wait for CardDAV syncing. Even after so many years, Gmail still doesn't support push notifications in the Mail app, but FastMail threaded the needle to do it. Such a wonderful change; works great in my short testing. (I had to toggle the account on/off a few times to force it, but thei…

How standards compliant is Fastmail? Gmail is sadly a trainwreck. Their IMAP implementation has tons of quirks.

Furthermore, GTalk is getting phased out in favour of proprietary Google Hangouts. GTalk was always quirky as well, and fails to support many XEPs (XMPP extensions).

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#34

Post by Osmium »

gioele wrote: post #23
Osmium wrote: post #15

Yay! I am so happy to hear this. Congratulations and thank you to the Fastmail team and people at Apple who made this happen. This has been my only gripe as a Fastmail customer and the only reason I haven't been using Fastmail as my main email account yet. Very cool :)

> Congratulations and thank you to the Fastmail team and people at Apple who made this happen. No, sincerely no, no congratulations. My congratulations will go to those who fight to have that new kind of notifications standardised in a RFC or to those that will reverse engineer the protocol. I am sorry, but my congratulations cannot go to those who are willing to accept _and are proud_ of being part of a closed netwo…

Well, you're right, but let's put this into context: the only viable alternative at the moment is Microsoft's ActiveSync, another proprietary protocol[1]. IMAP IDLE apparently isn't sufficient for power conscious mobile devices. So what alternative do they have? FastMail's already pushing their own JMAP[2] protocol which I imagine they'd be very happy to become a standard. Perhaps everyone should wait for a standards body to come up with a solution, but personally I'd rather they be pragmatic and actually help end-users until that happens, even though I agree with you on principle.

[1] ActiveSync does have open implementations, so it's not like you're locked out of push notifications to iOS Mail if you are a private individual or small business who wants to use this functionality, it's just that for whatever reason Fastmail doesn't want to use ActiveSync, hence this alternative. But as an iOS end user, both solutions offer the same experience.

[2] http://jmap.io

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#35

Post by Osmium »

x0x0 wrote: post #19
steve19 wrote: post #7

Maybe one day we will get half decent two factor authentication. You can create an alternative login and put 2 factor on that, but not the master login. In theory you should never have to use the master login, and they have written pages of text justifying not having two factor on the master login, but thats not how it works in real life [0] In real life, they require you to submit your master password to get any sup…

Fastmail are also greedy: they monetize 2fa via sms to the tune of $0.12 (!!!) per text, and for the cherry on top, they expire your credits after a year. It's just skeevy cheap. I'm a disappointed subscriber.

This doesn't really bother me because you can use Google Authenticator-style TOTP codes instead, which are free, and I don't expect Fastmail to run their own SMS infrastructure, so they presumably have to pay someone. It would be nice not to have to manually append the code to your password though, as the set-up page suggests, because this would mess up password managers. Why not detect when someone's logging in with 2-factor authentication and present an additional panel for the verification code, like most websites do?

Also agreed that it's not 'true' 2-factor authentication if you can get product support or log in with only a master password. That opens up a lot of social engineering attacks. But then, true 2-factor authentication is also a support nightmare when people lose their passwords, so I'm sympathetic, but it doesn't change the fact it's not ideal.

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#37

Post by jamespo »

gioele wrote: post #23
Osmium wrote: post #15

Yay! I am so happy to hear this. Congratulations and thank you to the Fastmail team and people at Apple who made this happen. This has been my only gripe as a Fastmail customer and the only reason I haven't been using Fastmail as my main email account yet. Very cool :)

> Congratulations and thank you to the Fastmail team and people at Apple who made this happen. No, sincerely no, no congratulations. My congratulations will go to those who fight to have that new kind of notifications standardised in a RFC or to those that will reverse engineer the protocol. I am sorry, but my congratulations cannot go to those who are willing to accept _and are proud_ of being part of a closed netwo…

Why would you buy an iphone if you are against closed implementations and protocols?

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#38

Post by rgbrenner »

brongondwana wrote: post #24
x0x0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail are also greedy: they monetize 2fa via sms to the tune of $0.12 (!!!) per text, and for the cherry on top, they expire your credits after a year. It's just skeevy cheap. I'm a disappointed subscriber.

I can promise you that we make no money on those SMSes, we just haven't updated the pricing since it really cost that much - and we're actually paying a minimum per-month rate that means it's costing us more than that for how rarely it's used.

Since you work there.. why did you guys choose that approach for 2fa? Reading what's written on the help page about the master password, it sounds like you want the master password to serve as a recovery code. So why not just have recovery codes instead?

Also, since you would generate the recovery codes, there wouldn't be a need to explain why the master password should be long & random; and it would reduce the risk of customers using an easy master password (either from failing to change it, or failing to use sufficient length/randomness).

[Many services w/ 2fa support recovery codes.. here's github for example: https://help.github.com/articles/downloading-your-two-factor...]

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#39

Post by josteink »

zacwest wrote: post #2

I haven't been happier paying for an internet service in a long time. FastMail keeps releasing more and more useful features. I can't wait for CardDAV syncing. Even after so many years, Gmail still doesn't support push notifications in the Mail app, but FastMail threaded the needle to do it. Such a wonderful change; works great in my short testing. (I had to toggle the account on/off a few times to force it, but thei…

> I can't wait for CardDAV syncing.

It has been available in beta for qiuite some time really.[1]

You can start using it now if you like. No need to wait.

I'm a fastmail subscriber and this is my only way of syncing contacts on my Android-devices right now.

[1] http://blog.fastmail.com/2014/12/22/carddav-beta-release/

Re: FastMail gains push notifications in iOS Mail.app, joining only Yahoo and iCloud

#40

Post by tankenmate »

nextos wrote: post #33
zacwest wrote: post #2

I haven't been happier paying for an internet service in a long time. FastMail keeps releasing more and more useful features. I can't wait for CardDAV syncing. Even after so many years, Gmail still doesn't support push notifications in the Mail app, but FastMail threaded the needle to do it. Such a wonderful change; works great in my short testing. (I had to toggle the account on/off a few times to force it, but thei…

How standards compliant is Fastmail? Gmail is sadly a trainwreck. Their IMAP implementation has tons of quirks. Furthermore, GTalk is getting phased out in favour of proprietary Google Hangouts. GTalk was always quirky as well, and fails to support many XEPs (XMPP extensions).

FastMail's mail infrastructure is largely built on top of Cyrus IMAP (which tracks reasonably closely to RFCs). FastMail and Kolab (along with many others) also have numerous developers who contribute to Cyrus IMAP.
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