Gmail: Blast from the Past!

I've subscribed to Office 365 and installed Outlook to access my Gmail account. Just for testing. I haven't gone insane.

One of the interesting default features of Outlook is that it downloads every single email you've ever received. Every one. By default. Given that GDPR is on the horizon (7 days and counting!) I thought you might be interested in this one before the bonfire of the emails begins.

Gmail was launched on 1st April 2004 (the entire History of which is available here via Wikipedia), I purchased a beta key off of eBay (I think!) and signed up in February 2005.

Here's the first ever email I received in my Gmail account; a Welcome from the Gmail Team:

Original Gmail "welcome" email

My particular favourite section;

"As you're using Gmail, you might also see some ads or related links. We believe that you shouldn't have to share your inbox with large, blinking, irrelevant ads. Gmail's small text ads are matched by computers, and designed to be relevant to the messages you're viewing. Which means for once, you might even find ads to be interesting and useful."

See? Outlook can be useful for some things ...

Configuring GMail Access (with Push Notification) on an iPhone/iPad/iPod

The first thing you're probably thinking is "why not just use the standard Gmail account type?" and it's a perfectly valid question. I recommend using exchange because it gives you Push Email - this means when you get email it "instantly" appears on your device rather than your device checking for email at regular intervals (called Polling Email). Depending on your volume of emails having Push Email could save you considerable amounts of battery power (and time).

To enable Gmail with Push Email on an iPhone follow these steps.

Open the "Settings" application go to "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" and click "Add account...";

iPad: "Add Account" Under Settings

As you can see you have a list of options of which the one you're probably using the most at the moment is Gmail. Click on the top one, "Microsoft Exchange";

iPad: Add An Exchange Account

Enter your details here;

iPad: Add An Exchange Account (completed)

Click on the blue "Next" button at the top right of the entry dialog. The will now be a few seconds pause which an attempt is made to automatically identify the server you're trying to connect to. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work so after a few seconds you are presented with the same information again this time with a "Server" entry box;

iPad: Add an Exchange Account With Server

Enter the server "m.google.com" and then click "Next" again.

Your account will now be verified by Google and providing you have entered everything correctly you will then be presented with the option what to sync with your device;

iPad: Select Items To Sync

You can select any/all of the options (or even none).

When you're done click "Save" at the top right and you'll now have Push Email on your device.