QuickAdvice: Mailroom - All Of Your Gmail In One Place
Mailroom - Gmail and Google Apps Mail Client ($2.99) by Code Contortionist is an app that allows you to manage all of your Gmail and Google Apps emails in one convenient place, complete with all of the features of Google's mobile view.
When you launch the app, the first thing you will want to do is begin adding in all your email accounts. When done, the screen you'll see is a listing of all the emails you've added, along with a counter next to them.
You may notice something about the counter - there are two sometimes. If it's in green, then that's the 'true count' of new messages - meaning these are just fresh and you don't even know what they are yet. The number in the default gray-blue is the 'unread' count, meaning you may know these messages but didn't bother to open them yet.
Ready to delve into your mail the way it was supposed to be on the iPhone? We all know that when it comes to Gmail, it's not exactly the best to use with the default Mail.app since it lacks all of the fearers that make Gmail great. Simply tap the email account you want to go in to and it will load up the standard Gmail web interface that we should already be familiar with.
You start out at the inbox, with all your messages and stars and labels galore! View a message with multiple replies and you'll get the Gmail threaded conversation view, which I personally prefer over the default Mail.app's version of threaded email since 4.0. If it's just a single message, you'll get to view that without any problems too.
What if there are images in the email? There's an option to view the images three ways with the button at the too right labeled 'View Options. The options are to 'View with images', 'View images inline', or 'View original.' the last option is pretty much a web page with the original contents of the email all displayed correctly. So pick your preferred method, they all do the same thing in the end.
When viewing a message you still have options of archiving, deleting, and more with the little drop down menu. Navigate between newer and older messages by tapping on the arrow buttons.
When in the Inbox, you can apply labels and stars to your messages to help you organize them, that is, if you're into that sort of thing (I totally am!).
Other things you can do from the include search, navigate between folders and labels, and compose email all from the standard Gmail web interface.
Mailroom has settings that can be found both from within the app and the Settings.app (not sure why it needs to be in both places though). This is the place to enable the badge icon and whether it shows you the full unread count or the TrueNew count. You can also allow rotation or lock it, and a couple of UI enhancements. If you find Mailroom to be acting oddly or slow, it could be time clear out the cache, which can also be found in the Settings.
Overall, this app may not be worth your time if you don't have a couple of Gmail accounts to manage or you don't use the starring system or labels. But if you have more than one Gmail account and need to organize everything, then this is definitely worth your time to check out.
The $2.99 price tag kind of seems high, but could be well worth it if you are a true Gmail user. It beats the Mail.app for Gmail for sure. I would say that it is up to you to make the app worth your money.
And before you say 'why not just use the web app in Safari,' I ask you: 'Do you want to keep logging in and out of multiple accounts all day long?'
