Move along, not much to see

Update, 8/10/16

iOS 10 has been out for awhile. Altamail continues to chug along on 1 cylinder with an idiotic REAL imap alternative of Wenotify. Still a poor substitute for real time email checking. For a company that has almost captured the iOS printing enhancement market, this is a guaranteed reputation buster in the email department. I keep trying a fain due to the sheer beauty of the app, but always delete it after finding the underlying uselessness of it as a viable email solution. This is an app about nothing.

Update, 3/9/15

Though my first trial experience with Altamail was a failure, every time I went over the feature set, I wanted to give it another try. Finally, after looking at all the other silly money I have spent on apps over the years, I made the plunge. Without further ado, I will provide you with my bulleted findings:

* Notifications, wherefore art thou? It calls itself an IMAP client, but you have to run through hoops to have it “automatically” show up in your mailbox. You have to go through the laborious process of MANUALLY configuring notifications (in an IMAP client, mind you) by creating a protected address, using google (in my case, gmail) to forward the email to that private address - hosted by Eurosmartz - verifying, testing, and then, you’re done - or so you might think. All works great until…

* You want to set this up on a second device (same ID). Since you know the ropes, it’s much easier this time and you start receiving emails right away. HOWEVER, when you return to the first device, it ain’t working. You open it up to see what the problem is and are invariably presented with an SMTP error. SMTP? Am I sending something I’m not aware of? No, the app just “forgot” some of your settings. No problem, you repair it, but STILL no automagic email appearance.

*You’ve been emailing tech support the entire time and they’ve been very quick to reply. Very friendly folks, but the answer always boils down to” “Have you tried…?” Not really too helpful.
Finally, you feel that the communications shortcoming might be on your end, so you send (what seems to you) a complete description of the difficulties you’re having. Something (exactly) like:

Well, just when you think its over... iPhone was working perfectly. I downloaded the app on my iPad, set everything up the 1st time around without a problem. I was getting background notifications on it immediately. I picked up my phone a few hours later, and automatic notifications had stopped. I went back into the setup, and everything was the way I left it, except that SMTP gave me an error 101 when I tried to send. I fixed that by toggling the username option on and off. At this point, I just have to say huh? Im going to setup wenotify for both devices later today to see if I can simultaneously receive messages on both of my devices. If that doesnt work, Ill just go back to my previous imap email app that worked on both of my iOS devices without any custom notification system needed.

*As a CSR myself, I would think “boy, this person is really discouraged - let me see if I can duplicate or find someone else who can. Maybe, this is above my knowledge level.” What I received as a reply was something (exactly) like this:

Please let us know how you get on after installing WeNotify.

Regards,

* Thank you loyal readers, but this is the end.

After giving this 1 day, I deleted it. The Holy Grail of iOS email is IMAP. This app promises it, but doesnt deliver in the "trial" version. No matter how many useful and unique features it may have, without a demonstration of IMAPability, I wont pay $4 to use features that may be great. That + the facts that the developer hasnt even started working on iOS 8 compatibility and, that I can only search 30 messages, equals not worth my time to explore further. I rated it 2 stars only because of the attractive interface. As an aside, I use the completely free app CloudMagic. Its so good I would buy it if there were a paid version. Perfect IMAP sync.

davyhouston about AltaMail Classic, v5.8.2