Google phasing out ActiveSync push mail for free customers Business customers will be able to keep support, for $50 a year.
by Peter Bright Dec 14 2012 Ars Technica
Calling it "Winter cleaning," Google has announced that from January
30, 2013, users of Google Mail, Calendar, and Contacts will no longer receive Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support on their accounts.EAS provides push mail and synchronization of contacts and calendars to a number of mobile platforms, including iOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone. It's also one of the protocols that Windows 8's Metro Mail app uses, as does Outlook 2013.
Currently, users of Google's services can enable EAS support to use their Google accounts with suitable devices. After the cut off, existing users will continue to be able to use EAS with their devices, but those users won't be able to add new devices. All future devices will have to use IMAP for their mail, CalDAV for calendar sync, and CardDAV for contact sync. Android and iOS users can use these protocols, but many others will be left high and dry. Push mail, in particular, could be left behind, as many platforms (including iOS) don't support the IMAP IDLE push mail feature.
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This reminds me of Tom Paxton's lyric about losing the Americas Cup:
"I didn't know we lost the cup, I'll tell you one thing more I didn't know we *had* the cup, or what the damned thing's for!"
I didn't know that Google was/could push anything anywhere. Is this a feature without a home, or do some Google customers actually use it?
Bill Horne Moderator