The iPhone email client is almost as good as it gets among smartphones. Apple really did a bang-up job in integrating the iPhone’s intuitive email client throughout the iPhone OS. But, there’s always room for improvement. A new iPhone app from Aqua Eagle aims to make up for one of the iPhone email application’s glaring shortcomings – its lack of support for sending multiple pictures in an email. The aptly-named “Multi-Photo Email” iPhone application is now the first third-party email application for the iPhone and iPhone 3G!
Apple really seems to be re-evaluating its stance on iPhone applications that duplicate the functionality of Apple’s own iPhone applications. The iPhone maker recently made waves with their acceptance of third-party iPhone web browsers into the iPhone App Store. Third-party iPhone web browsers had been banned by Apple on grounds that it offered “duplicate functionality,” and the appearance of iPhone browsers like Edge Browser and Incognito moved us to speculate (in our weekly podcast – The Signal) that Apple was on the verge of a policy-shift that would see more iPhone apps offering alternatives to Apple’s native iPhone apps.
Looks like we may have been on to something there…
Aqua Eagle’s Multi-Photo Email app allows you to send multiple pictures as simple email attachments through your email provider’s SMTP server. Aqua Eagle decided to bypass the iPhone’s email client altogether in order to avoid limitations with the iPhone’s SMTP client – essentially qualifying the Multi-Photo Email app as a stand-alone email client.
Using Multi-Photo Email app is as simple as firing up the app, finding the pictures you’d like to send, and specifying a target email address. Multi-Photo Email even allows you to send multiple photos to multiple email addresses. Unfortunately, you’ll have to keep the application open until the email has been successfully delivered, since Apple has restricted third-party apps from running in the background (a restriction that Apple native iPhone apps are absolved from).
Aqua Eagle is offering the Multi-Photo Email app for the introductory price of $0.99 in the App Store. If you find yourself needing a more convenient method of sending multiple pictures via email, you might want to grab multi-photo email soon.
Multi-Photo Email download (iTunes link).