App... or web app?
Yeah, that’s right: I said amazing. Once the leader of the web, expectations of Yahoo! have slipped in recent years, and it’s not often that we get excited about any of their offerings. But their new mail web app (which consequently becomes the web app for Telecom / Xtra mail) for iPhone and iPad is an effort worthy of some attention, so it’s going to get some.
Visit Yahoo! Mail from your iPhone or iPad’s Safari browser, and you’ll be taken to Yahoo!’s all-new web app automatically. Built on some pretty fancy HTML-5, the portal more closely resembles a full-blown native app than a web portal, complete with sleek scrolling, an attractive semi-transparent toolbar that stays-put at the bottom of the screen, and management tools that go beyond the functionality of the Mail app.
You know you're a geek when stuff like this excites you
For me, the highlights include the ability to add folders, mark mail as spam, one-touch spam folder and trash deletion, and smart folders (which allow you to browse the attachments and photos in your emails as well as narrow your view down to just emails from your contacts).
The clever layout means that the Safari menu bar never intrudes on the screen real-estate and you quickly forget that you’re even in Safari. Some standard iPhone conventions such as swipe-to-delete have even been implemented so there’s no learning curve.
The only downside that I can think of is that it isn’t possible to attach or paste photos into emails, but you can always go back to Mail if you want to do that. Some method of push notification would also be good, but I’m not sure how that would be implemented outside of an actual app.
On the iPad, the web app adapts itself to the larger screen by mimicking Mail’s split-screen view, with your inbox (or other folder) on the left of the screen and the selected email shown on the right.
If you’re using an @xtra or @yahoo email address then you’re already able to avail of IMAP on your iOS device via the Mail app (if only a desktop version better than Zimbra was available) but this adds a really good option for greater control of your account if you can deal with breaking habits and working outside of Mail.
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- Y!Mail for iPad: also amazing
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- You know you're a geek when stuff like this excites you
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- App... or web app?
Hmmm that’s a very negative comment Ahmad.. I guess if you don’t like the web interface of the new new yahoo! then just set it up on the mail client on your iphone. I personally was impressed with how smooth the web interface is. Doesn’t beat GMail’s interface, but it’s reaching!
I’m not a heavy Yahoo! mail user, I’m more of a Hotmail and GMail bloke, and I am so happy that Hotmail can now be setup as Exchange on iphone. Hope that can be done on Mac mail client soon.@ ahmad:
(Yaman_NZ has made 184 comments)
@ Yaman_NZ:
Is it wrong to be negative when the points are valid?
I got my ruler out. The iPhone 4 screen is 7.5cm tall. 4mm (5%) is the iPhone top status bar. 8mm (10%) is dedicated to the Yahoo status bar at the top. A further 7mm (9%) is dedicated to (while in Inbox view) the bottom status bar which has 3 functions:
Refresh, compose new message, and a big “Yahoo!” logo in the middle (ie. branding).
It is unnecessarily big, can’t be hidden/auto-hidden, and serves very little useful purpose in the Inbox.
I’m not uncessarily negative. I have already commented on how well I think the iPad version works. But on the iPhone the interface only leaves 66% of the screen as “useful screen real estate” and that’s a deal breaker for me.
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
As Yaman said, you can always use the mail app for Yahoo if you don’t like their web app. There’s no way Yahoo will every please everybody. But, considering it’s free I’m certainly grateful that they’ve produced something so slick. Can’t beat that price IMHO.
(StandingAmazed has made 7 comments)
Gmail’s web interface is also free, as is any webmail interface that has a mobile version. I don’t know of any mobile versions that charge you.
I recently used Hotmail and even that was better than the new Yahoo! The older Yahoo! version is ok (still not as good as it could be) but the waste screen real estate is a step backwards.
The mail app for iPhone is ok but search isn’t as useable. I certainly use it where able though.
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
As a heavy Yahoo user I am highly disappointed in the new "new" Yahoo! Mail for iPhone. This review is of the second "new" Yahoo! Mail designed for iOS and I have ha acces to the preview/beta for some time. The worst thing about it is the non-removable "toolbar" occupying a huge amount of screen real estate on the bottom of the screen immediately above the Safari bar. It is AWFUL!!! The "old new" Yahoo! Mail is a million times better and just as functional.
I agree with the review when it comes to the ipad though. It is definitely a LOT more functional with the preview pane on the right.
It really feels like a Gmail clone in the layout and obviously works as well as the Gmail one – they chose a good design to copy and improve on.
(ahmad has made 101 comments)