The ability to receive your email in real time on a mobile device is referred to as Push Email. The Blackberry devices rode to fame based on an ability to instantly alert you to incoming emails. The iPhone 2.0 now allows for push email - but it has to be from Yahoo, MS Exchange or your address@me.com (MobileMe) email account. Unfortunately I’m a Google Apps for Domains user. All of my email comes in via Gmail. Which until now was not capable of being pushed to an iPhone (strangely enough it WILL push to a Blackberry). Here’s a neat trick for simulating push email on your iPhone. Forward all your email out of Gmail to your address@me.com email (where it is pushed to your iPhone). Then on your iPhone — set your SMTP server (which handles outgoing email) to smtp.gmail.com. Presto! Instant push Gmail. All of your outgoing email retains your email address and appears to come from you! Read more about the details of setting this up at the link below. Update: I used this method for about three days and I’ve since switched back to IMAP because I was going crazy trying to move email to the trash in my GMAIL account. Using the push method here does not automatically delete messages on your GMAIL account while the native GMAIL IMAP support syncs folders.

David Berube’s Blog - HOW TO: Get Push Gmail on Your iPhone 2.0 With MobileMe