IBE Group has released IBE Mail with very good specs. Failing to deliver though...
IBE Group has just released an, in theory, groundbreaking mailer client, IBE Mail (current, tested version: 1.01). It promises a lot (for example, HTTP access to Yahoo Mail) – but fails to deliver in almost every respect. Read on!
Downloading
The company's main download homepage is here.
Alternative Handango download link here (WM2003(SE)) and here (WM5).
Installing, initial configuration
The installer installs (if it's not already present on the target Pocket PC) .NET CF 2 and SQLCE 5. Don't be afraid of soft resetting your Pocket PC after the SQLCE install – after the Pocket PC having booted in, you can go on installing the third component, the mailer application itself.
Upon starting the program, it tells you to create a mailbox:
The first dialog of the account creation screen is as follows:
On the next dialog, the application tries to guess the username, the incoming (POP3) and the SMTP server names; you'll need to override these if they aren't correct:
Here, the Advanced dialog is as follows:
The second advanced dialog allows for setting advanced parameters for the outgoing mail, with all the necessary bells and whistles (signature for the outgoing mailbox, different login/password pair if needed, configurable port number, auto-BCC to a given e-mail address etc.)
Periodic mail fetch tests
The most important feature I wanted to check was the advertised ability of periodically fetching mail even when switched off. This (the ability to check for mail in suspended state) is painfully missing from all the alternative clients – except, naturally, for the built-in Messaging.
Unfortunately, the auto mail fetch seems just not to work - not even with the PDA not being suspended. I've tested it thoroughly on my HTC Wizard (with all the other, periodic mail fetching-capable clients working just great - in non-suspended state) – without any success.
Additional remarks
Pros:
- (Moderate) find capabilities, just like in Qmail and unlike in FlexMail or the other mailer clients. An example of running it can be seen here. It, unlike Qmail, can't search in mail body, only in headers; this greatly reduces its usability. Unlike Qmail, it doesn't have any kind of "Search" folder to store the result either – it's only here, in the Find dialog, that, using the View button, you can browse the results.
- (Moderate) filtering capabilities (Tools/Filter Mail). Two examples of defining rules: first, second; the main dialog, where you can dynamically dis/enable a particular filter, can be seen here.
- it handles attachments (of course, all other clients, except for Pocket SpamFilter, are able to do this too) and is also able to do a round mail fetch (unlike Messaging and like all other clients).
Cons:
- Periodic mail fetching doesn't seem to work
- It's slow at everything – downloading mail, responding to clicks, everything! Developers should realise that, despite being an excellent environment, CF should not be used for writing applications for tasks requiring fast response and quick downloads. (The case is the same with Webby, the CF2-based Internet Explorer plug-in.)
- the advertised HTTP Yahoo Mail access capababilities (see this and this configuration screens) just don't work – when you start downloading mail, it immediately stops.
- no clickable links in text mails - unlike most (more) advanced mailers (including even Messaging).
- No HTML support
- the Tools/Options and the Tools/Preferences settings dialog are really-really weak – compare it to those of FlexMail or Qmail!
- The header listing has bugs: mail from previous days is shown as if they had arrived at 0:0; see all mail under the highlighted one in this screenshot.
- The message composer screen and the Tools menu in there don't have anything special – you can't, for example, set the priority or the outgoing mail. The really powerful capabilities of Qmail (for example, header edit mode) are really missing.
- It doesn't try to force the Internet connection to be active. That is, when you run it, for exampe, on a PPC Phone Edition device with switched-off GPRS/EDGE and you start downloading mail, BE Mail won't force the Pocket PC to connect to the net.
Verdict
This application promises a lot – but, at least as far as the current version is concerned, painfully fails to deliver, particularly responsiveness-wise. Again, developers should not use Compact Framework-based applications where speed is essential.
This version is not recommended, particularly not for the current price, $24.99. Hope future versions will be substantially better.
Recommended links
MobilitySite discussion
The PPC Mailer Client Roundup
The Mailer category in my Pocket PC Magazine Expert Blog
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