Review: FlexMail 4.0: Pump Up Your Productivity

Posted by: ssschmidt on Jul 05 2008

According to Merriam-Webster:

con·nec·tiv·i·ty : the quality, state, or capability of being connective or connected <connectivity of a surface>; especially : the ability to connect to or communicate with another computer or computer system

Connectivity.  That is the buzz word in use these days.  In many career environments, the ability to be "connected" is directly proportional to success.

A corporate executive is informed of a change in a meeting time.  A reporter receives a hot tip on a story.  A  technician receives a service call.  An IT System Administrator is notified of a server problem.  A notification of severe weather.  Parcel delivery notification.  Pick up bread on the way home.  Cheerleading practice is over.

A few examples of important things that being connected can do for you.  Initially, Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry was the way to go.  Not to be outdone, Micro$oft rolls out "Direct Push".  Now your email can follow you everywhere.  But how can you access your information?…  What tools can you use?…  In the Windows Mobile community, you have Pocket Outlook.    But what if you want greater control?  FlexMail 4 from WebIS may be the answer you are looking for.

|||DISCLAIMER|||  This review is not intended to be a step by step tutorial of the product.  There is just TOO MUCH to cover, so this is one of those times where Reading The Manual is really necessary to get the most from the product.

Overview

From the FlexMail product page:

FlexMail 4 is a full-featured award-winning (2004/2005/2006/2007) Email application that works with your device’s built-in Messaging client to provide the best Exchange and IMAP connectivity available on Windows Mobile! Use FlexMail to improve your ActiveSync or SMS messaging with our multiple signature support, multiple folder searches, and cross-account email copies and moves. Use FlexMail to connect with the best IMAP feature-set on Windows Mobile with easy to configure yet powerful folder settings.

Installation is typical Windows Mobile.  For best performance, FlexMail should be installed to main memory, not a storage card.  Why?  You can read the technical jargon here, but bottom line, it has to do with the storage card not being available when the device first wakes up.

Once you have installed the program, you have a plethora of settings.  Yes, a plethora.  To quote Stan Lee: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility." Although in this case, it’s more like great preparation. Most of the settings are pretty self-explanatory, but there are a lot of them.

 

Setting Up Accounts

The first step in using this program is setting up your accounts.  When initially installed, FlexMail will have two accounts:  ActiveSync and SMS.  FlexMail acts as the interface for these two "MAPI" accounts.  Establishing a new account is relatively painless.  FlexMail provides a number of account templates (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and others) for quick configuration of many common services to make it even easier.  You can also choose to use IMAP over POP, if you wish.  Whether you use the wizard or not, you can always go back and change any setting you desire.

As you can see in the above screenshot, the ActiveSync account is present (but not SMS as this is my Dell Axim with no phone features).  I also have two IMAP4 accounts set up.

To appreciate what FlexMail can do, you need to understand a little about POP and IMAP email. POP is a one-way download of messages from the server, like physically taking a letter from a mailbox. The server doesn’t know what happens to the message after that, and sometimes when you use multiple clients to check your POP email, the server gets confused and loses messages or downloads the same one multiple times. IMAP is different because it does talk back to the server, so anything you do to a message on one IMAP client will show up on others. (More from Wikipedia.)  In non-geek speak, if you are not going to maintain a constant connection (i.e. Push), and are only going to use one device (counting your computer), POP is the simplest route.  If you are planning on using "Direct Push" and/or want to use multiple devices/computers, then IMAP would be your choice.

FlexMail works great with POP, but IMAP (and Direct Push) is where FlexMail shows its true power.  But let’s place that on the back burner for a bit.

Viewing Messages

The program has two main views:  Folder List & Message List.

Folder List view does just that.  It shows all of your accounts, and any folders you have created or selected.  The number in parentheses shows either the number of messages in a given folder, the number of unread messages, or both.  Pay no attention to the number of emails in my JAMM folders.  It is an optical illusion.\\

If you look to the left of the G[M] Inbox, you can see a small green diamond.  The green diamond means that the folder is set to IDLE, i.e. Direct Push.  The diamonds that are not green, IDLE is not set for those folders.

The small blue dashed bar along the bottom is the indication that FlexMail is currently doing something (synchronizing folders, sending or receiving, etc.)

In the message list window (shown above), you can see that the account I have selected is the G[M] IMAP Account (which is IDLE), and the folder \Process.  Selecting a message in the top pane will open a scrollable preview of each message.  You also have the ability to double tap or tap-and-hold to have the entire message displayed.

Managing Messages

On the surface FlexMail looks the same for both IMAP and POP.  The server side is where the differences occur.  FlexMail gives you complete control over how your IMAP accounts synchronize and how your messages are stored on your device.

In the above screenshot, you can see the specific folders I have associated with the IMAP JAMM account.  A check mark indicates that the folder will be synchronized.  One really cool thing is that you can choose HOW each individual folder will sync.  In other words, I can keep everything in the ACTION folder, but only the last 3 days in Newsbreaks.  Again, extremely powerful.

Sending Messages

Creating a new message is just a matter of selecting the new softkey.

As shown, the row of tabs across the top allow you to select whom you wish to email, as well as the CC & BCC fields.  If you select the Up Arrow (displayed next to To), you will be presented with your address book list of available contacts.  Also, if you notice the Down arrow next to the Account field, you can change which account you wish to use to send.

FlexMail also provides a today screen plug in to display your accounts.

Caveats

All this power comes with a couple of drawbacks.

1. FlexMail must be running to monitor IMAP IDLE.  (This ran down my Tilt’s battery about 55% over 12 hours.) If you have an Exchange Mail account using ActiveSync, you will still get that "pushed" to your device, and if FlexMail is set as your default mail manager, it will open when you choose to read your mail.
2. The more accounts you have selected, and the more folders, the more space will be taken up on your device.  With most of the newer WM devices, they are giving us more device storage to play with.  Older devices may have to be somewhat picky or use a storage card.

One trick I learned while preparing this review is how to start FlexMail in the background.  This is accomplished by adding the parameter -RunInBKG to the startup file.  I use SK ScheMa to start mine, following my nightly reboot.  And following the reset that Sprite Backup requires.

What I Liked:

1. Choice of Pop or IMAP.
2. Ability to choose which server folders in IMAP as well as individual properties for each folder.
3. Allows multiple IMAP IDLE accounts.  This is in addition to any Exchange account you may already have set up.

What I Didn’t Like

The only thing that I think WebIS could improve upon is in the SMS side.

Selecting a contact for receipt of a text message could benefit from the same arrow style picker as the mail side.  Instead, you have to use the menu to select to add a recipient, or check the name.

Conclusion

This review has taken quite a while.  I have not covered everything that FlexMail is capable of, but I have tried to highlight enough of the program to hopefully convince you to download the trial.  That is really the best way to determine if FlexMail is right for you.

IMHO, this product can truly enhance your mail productivity.  While the number of settings options can appear daunting, once configured the program is very easy to use.  If you use any IMAP-capable email, this IS the program you should use.

FlexMail 4 is a product of WebIS, and more information and trial download is available here in the JAMM Store.

Pricing:  $29.95 for WinMobile Smartphone and Pocket PC

FlexMail 4 Upgrade Schedule

• FREE: Any Purchased Version On or After April 1 2007
• $16.95: Purchased Before April 1 2007
• $16.95: Received as a free promotion or prize
• $16.95: iPaq Choice Purchases

So, in conclusion:  Give it a try.  This software will really add some power to your productivity.

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