People are obsessed with making their email “broadcast”. Push email is a big deal… but sadly it means you have to lock yourself into a single email service from a single provider. You want near real-time push email… Blackberry or Exchange… or you can pretty much forget about it.

So, why can’t we have an open alternative?

There are a multitude of ways to get real time notifications of new emails, and there is no reason for that mechanism to be an integral part of the email solution itself. Given that I set out to make a push email solution for my Google Apps accounts that would effectively notify on my iPhone or any other device.

As it turns out the solution is actually very simple. I created a simple server process that checks my inbox every few seconds and sends me an Instant Message (IM) when I have a new email. I also incorporated sender and subject filters – so you can get notified only for the emails you want.

I could have made it send me a Twitter DM, or an SMS, or plugged it in to PubSubHubBub, or RSS Cloud…

The point is, the actual mechanism for the notification isn’t really all that important…

More after the jump…

How does it work?

EmailToIM is a PHP daemon that will run on any system that has PHP installed. It periodically checks for new messages on your email server (IMAP only) and sends you an IM if it finds one.

For notifications on my iPhone I use BeeJive IM with Apple’s push notifications turned on.

Where can I get it?

I’ve set up a Google Code project for it here.

It is open source (GPL v3).

If you have any questions let me know.

Mobility matters. I know that there are times when we are not at our computers and still want to be able to connect with others about topics that matter to us.

In order to make the justSignal service even more valuable for those who want to provide their subscribers, fans or readers a way to swarm around specific topics, subjects or events we’ve added an iPhone/iPod Touch web application to the justSignal widget.

For those of you who have not seen the justSignal widget in action you can see them at:

Peter Himmelman’s Furious World – iPhone Page: http://justsignal.com/furiousworld

US Health Crisis – iPhone Page: http://justsignal.com/ushealthcrisis

About Page on My Blog – iPhone Page: http://justsignal.com/brianroyblog

These widgets will all receive a major upgrade next week which will allow user’s to post a new Tweet and reply to Tweets that appear in the widget. This upgrade will apply to all existing widgets and iPhone/iPod Touch pages.

If you are interested in putting one of these widgets on your site you can contact me directly (either check out the about page or leave a comment on this post).

More big news will be out next week. Make sure to check back to see all the latest.

Here is a screen shot taken on an iPhone:

Hmmm…. ONLY the iPhone is affected… very strange indeed.

Ruh roh. Reports are literally flooding in that iPhones across the Northeast are experiencing some major network issues. Reports are also coming from areas further south down the Atlantic coast. So what’s the deal? Well in a nutshell, data is kaput. Users are reporting that 2G and 3G data are both affected which means unless you’re in range of a WiFi hotspot you’re basically toast. Oddly, no other handsets seem to be affected by this outage which poses the question: Huh? In any event, AT&T is admitting that there’s a problem and has opened ticket # TT000008107719 to cover it. Roll call! If you’re experiencing problems drop a comment below and let us know where you are.

[From Cupertino, We Have a Problem]

News today via Wired and MSNBC that TomTom has made their navigation system run on the iPhone.
We’ve heard many reports that various GPS manufacturers were working on an application for the iPhone, but I think this is the first time I’ve heard that they have it working. Of course the primary concern is that Apple will block the application for some vague and unknown reason.
I’ll be honest – if Apple isn’t very careful with the lack of transparency and mixed motivations for “approving” applications to the app store I (and probably many others) will be looking for a new solution that isn’t held hostage by Apple’s profit motives.

MSNBC recently spoke (via MacDailyNews) with several GPS manufacturers about their plans to develop a turn-by-turn GPS solution for the iPhone. While the manufacturers were unable to provide many details about their plans, TomTom reasserted that they do have GPS navigation working on the iPhone and that it works well:

“We have made our navigation system run on the iPhone; it looks good and works very well,” said Dutch-based company TomTom, in a statement to msnbc.com. “We will have to look more closely to Apple’s strategy before we can say more about what kind of opportunities this will bring us.”

[From Turn by Turn GPS Navigation for iPhone Coming?]

Via Gizmodo today…

The problem no one admits is a problem is being worked on…

According to Businessweek, the solution to the iPhone 3G’s chipset issues could be easier than most of us probably expected. They believe Apple has found a way to correct the problem with a simple software upgrade instead of a costly and annoying recall. Businessweek claims that Apple and chip maker Infineon are hard at work on the fix and it could be released as early as the end of this month. [Businessweek via CNET]

[From Apple Working on Software Fix For iPhone 3G Reception Problems [IPhone 3G]]

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this. There has been quite a buzz this week about problems with the iPhone and 3g networks. And I would tell you if I had the same problem – but I can’t. Mostly because any kind of signal is hard to come by in my house.

Check out the buzz:

International Carriers Pile On – Gizmodo

Could be the lousy chipset – Gizmodo

What is wrong with the 3g iPhone – Wired

Apple discussion thread – Apple

Apple & at&t say nothing – CNET

Twitter

iPhone users heated over 3g issues – Wired