After successfully getting push e-mail working on my iPhone, I got greedy and wanted to have a pop-up notification and sound alert when I got a new message. So here’s what I did:

1) Grabbed a copy of IMAProwl from here and put it in /home/IMAProwl on my server.

2) Installed Ruby 1.9.0 with the OpenSSL module

3) Installed the Prowl gem for Ruby (via WebhostManager after installing Ruby)

4) Created an account at Prowl

5) Purchased the Prowl app in the AppStore

6) Created a file named .imaprowl.conf in the IMAProwl directory with the following contents:

## -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-
##
## example configuration (version >= 1.2)
##
## if undefine LogDir, Debug mode is forcefully enabled.
LogDir: /home/IMAProwl/logs/
Debug: false
Daemon: true

## API Key can be defined up to 5-keys with comma separated values.
Prowl:
APIKey: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

## IMAP Accounts.
Accounts:
-
Application: MyEmail
User: a@aa.com
Pass: mYpAsSwOrD
Host: server.aa.com
BodyLength: 100
SubjectLength: 20
Priority: 0
Format: "%{subject} (%{name} <%{addr}>)"
Timeout: 7    # Timeout for NoResponse during IDLE. Recommend you set 6-7 for GMail. (in minutes)
Enable: True

The host will vary depending on what your server name is. Might even be mail.domain.com. Of course, you will need to put your own e-mail address and password in there and insert your APIKey from the Prowl website.

7) Ran the command

ruby imaprowl.rb -c .imaprowl.conf

8) Configured the sounds in my Prowl app on my iPhone and sent myself a message. It worked!

I imagine this might be possible even if you don’t have your own server. You might want to check with your webhost and see if they have Ruby and if they will install the Prowl gem for you.

I have a webserver running cPanel, Dovecot and suPHP. Here’s what I did:

1) Download z-push from here.

2) Upload z-push to /usr/local/apache/htdocs

3) Change ownership to nobody (it fails if you leave it as root)

4) Modify index.php (if you are using suPHP)

Comment out $requestheaders = apache_request_headers(); and replace it with

    function getHeaders()
{
$headers = array();
foreach ($_SERVER as $k => $v)
{
if (substr($k, 0, 5) == "HTTP_")
{
$k = str_replace('_', ' ', substr($k, 5));
$k = str_replace(' ', '-', ucwords(strtolower($k)));
$headers[$k] = $v;
}
}
return $headers;
}
$requestheaders = getHeaders();

5) Modify config.php

Change $BACKEND_PROVIDER = “BackendICS”; to $BACKEND_PROVIDER = “BackendIMAP”;

6) Add the alias to httpd. conf (as explained in the config file, but use /usr/local/apache/htdocs instead of /var/ www)

7) Restart Apache

8) Go to your iPhone and set up your e-mail account as a Microsoft Exchange account. (Be sure to sync “All messages” or else you’ll be deleting things twice.)

9) Voila! You now have push mail on your iPhone with your Dovecot IMAP server!

Update:

10) You may need to modify backend/diffbackend.php to make it delete properly.

Find the following code:

        function ImportMessageMove($id, $newfolder) {
return true;
}

Change that to

function ImportMessageMove($id, $newfolder) {
//do nothing if it is in a dummy folder
if ($this->_folderid == SYNC_FOLDER_TYPE_DUMMY)
return true;

// See if there's a conflict
$conflict = $this->isConflict("move", $this->_folderid, $id);

// Update client state
$change = array();
$change["id"] = $id;
$change["newfolder"] = $newfolder;
$this->updateState("move", $change);

P.S. I am not the author of any of the above fixes. These were all found in the z-push.net forums.

For several years I’ve used a basic mobile phone here in Japan with a very limited data plan just so that I can meet up with people and be able to make emergency calls if the need were ever to arise. Some time ago, however, I realized that having a mobile phone on which I could check my e-mail would make things a whole lot more convenient. Since I work from home, the inability to check e-mail away from my computer was keeping me tied to my desk even when I would otherwise be free to run errands or whatnot.

Anyway, SoftBank, the mobile carrier here in Japan that has an agreement with Apple, was running a campaign a couple of months ago called “iPhone for Everybody” in which they were giving the phones away with a 2-year contract. I decided now was the time, and so I got one. They advertise it as the world’s most advanced mobile platform, but I wonder if anyone at Apple has ever even looked at a Japanese mobile phone.

The very first thing I noticed was the inability to use infrared to send your contact information to another phone by just putting them next to each other. Then, when I started to type e-mails I realized it had no copy and paste function. Next, I took a photograph with the camera and realized there’s no flash or zoom. I also tried to scan the barcodes at shops to get their website info and stuff and, surprise, surprise, the iPhone can’t scan barcodes (not very well, anyway)! Moreover, e-mails sent to my phone do not come immediately, because the “push” e-mail function does not work yet.

In Japan, even the most basic phones come with copy and paste functionality, infrared, camera flashes, barcode scanning, push e-mail, etc. How on earth can Apple reps even describe the phone as “modern” with a straight face? A phone without copy and paste functionality is not advanced. It’s obsolete. Phones in Japan can be used to buy things from vending machines and convenience stores, pay utility bills, watch television, ride trains, find directions, surf the net, etc. In almost every respect, the iPhone is inferior to the majority of mobile phones in Japan.

There are certainly some things that I like about the iPhone: there are apps for tracking jogging routes, the GPS function can help people like me without a sense of direction find stores and, most of all, I can check my work e-mail on it. All of these things are available with Japanese phones, though, so if I had it to do all over again I’d probably go with a different phone.