Michael Rothwell has written the code of his IMAP-IDLE plugin from the ground up to produce version 1.06 of his IMAP-IDLE which brings the “push mail” function to Mail.app.

When the plugin is installed, your IMAP server tells Mail.app when new mail arrives rather than Mail needing to poll the server repeatedly without finding anything new. This is obviously faster, more efficient and smarter.

The new version also features a new icon and and the beginnings of a Preference Pane:

I asked Michael what exactly had prompted the rewrite and he told me, “I switched to an OO design from the c-style switch-statement design. So the code is cleaner, and it works better.”

At which point I quickly realised I am too stupid to understand what actually happened, but that whatever it was, it’s good.

Michael also suggests on his web site that Leopard Mail is rumoured to have the IDLE feature built-in. That’s bad news for the IMAP-IDLE plugin, but good news for everyone else.

You can get IMAP-IDLE 1.06, which is freeware, from Michael’s web site .