It's no secret that using Gmail on a BlackBerry is a painful experience -- since the built-in mail client has shamefully broken IMAP support, your only real choice is a variant of the same Java-based Gmail app that runs on ancient featurephones, and that rules out direct integration with either contacts or attachments. Yeah, it's sad, but hope is in the air, as RIM's apparently beta testing something called the "Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerry," which promises to bring things up to speed. Features are said to include Conversation View, support for labels, stars, and archiving, and full mailbox search -- you know, Gmail. Of course, it would be even nicer if RIM would just sack up and bring proper IMAP support to the most famous messaging platform in the world, but we'll take what we can get.

[Via BerryReview]

If you've got absolutely no complaints with your E66 or E71, you could just leave better off alone and forget that you ever read this. If you've got beef, however, we'd suggest hitting the read link pronto. Nokia has just unloaded a new firmware update for both of the aforementioned mobiles which includes new versions of Mail For Exchange and Nokia Maps. Additionally, the updates provide "a number of performance improvements including camera viewfinder orientation, Mail for Exchange synchronization and browsing." Thankfully, it seems as if the suits in Espoo took Oscar Rogers' advice to "JUST FIX IT," and, well, fixed it.

[Via AllAboutSymbian]

PCS Mail -- a rarely used service which provided Sprint customers with an @sprintpcs.com email address -- is officially going away in 2009. The carrier has just posted up an informational site announcing that the service will be discontinued on December 31st, and there's even a few helpful links if you're struggling to understand how to move on with your life and train yourself to utilize another e-mail client. First Voice Command, now this -- anything else you're planning to shutter, Sprint?

[Via RCRWireless]

Owners of Helio devices equipped with the MVNO's "Ultimate Inbox" feature -- Ocean, Fin, Mysto owners, we're looking straight at you -- will find that they now have a fun little gem waiting for them. Gmail's now being touted as supporting push notifications right alongside Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL, and My Helio, but the real trick here is that Ultimate Inbox now supports push for any POP or IMAP account of your choosing. In other words, that "my bad, I haven't checked my email recently" excuse suddenly holds, like, zero weight if you own one of these devices. Sorry!

Symbian and Windows Mobile might be sworn enemies, but to play ball in the corporate space, Nokia has little option but to support the 800-pound email gorilla that is Exchange. To that end, Espoo has loosed version 2 of its Mail for Exchange client, tightening integration with Microsoft's Exchange Server 2007 (while still supporting 2003) and enabling full attachment handling and meeting management directly from Nokia's Eseries devices. Who'da thunk they'd be rocking ActiveSync from their E62? Get it now, free of charge, for the entire Eseries line along with the N73, N76, and N95.

Trust us, the irony of someone needing to sync an Apple device through Windows that's running on a Mac is glaringly obvious, but hey, some folks just can't escape Outlook no matter how hard they try. Nevertheless, the new Parallels Desktop beta (which is available now) does add iPhone support in Windows XP and Vista along with a newly fortified Image Tool / Explorer and coherence windows that now work with Expose. Of course, you should recognize that this stuff is indeed still in beta, but if you're the daring (or overly trusting) type, feel free to hit the read link and get your download on.

[Via AppleInsider]

Emoze, the Emblaze spin off, had another high noon showdown of sorts versus a Blackberry (we aren't making this up, peep the poster over yonder) at CTIA. Standing back to back -- one was armed with a run of the mill mobile, the other a Blackberry -- the mailslingers took three steps away from each other and then fired blank emails to Gmail, a large screen displaying the mail account clearly showed Emoze as the winner. OK, so we know this isn't going to convince the Blackberry-toting masses to abandon the device, but what Emoze was actually doing was demonstrating its new push mail service. The first generation Emoze client had a desktop connector that had to be running on your PC in order for the push to work; but this new release does away with all that in favor of a built in Exchange Outlook Web Access component. The Emoze client will securely sync email, calendar, contacts, and tasks from every major handset maker to just about every type of mail server. But the best part is that it doesn't cost one red cent, so hit the read link and go get some.