The Death of Hotmail for Mail.app users and a new solution
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
UPDATE: Not quite as bad as it sounds — See later post.
In April Microsoft announced 
that it would be terminating WebDAV access to its Hotmail accounts at the end of June this year and replacing it with a proprietary service of Microsoft’s own creation (DeltaSync).
This is bad news for Mail.app users with Hotmail accounts, who have been using utilities like HTTPMail and MacFreePOPs to access their email. After 30 June, they won’t work. (There are reports that 10.5.3 has broken HTTPMail for some users, merely hastening the inevitable).
For those unwilling to let go their Hotmail email address, another solution beckons. While the plugins might not work any more, a web-based service is offering the same function.
IzyMail , so it claims, “enables you to access webmail from major providers such as AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Windows Live, Fastmail or Gmail with any eMail application”. It even has a special page on setting up Hotmail on the iPhone.
It provides users with incoming and outcoming servers that can be plugged into Mail.app’s Accounts preferences. IzyMail does the heavy-lifting behind the scenes, and delivers fresh Hotmail into your Inbox via POP.
It offers free accounts (with some limitations) and a paid option (c. USD 18/year):
Or perhaps it’s time to take another look at Gmail.
Tags: AOL, Apple Mail, desperate measures, fastmail, GMAIL, hotmail, httpmail, izymail, macfreepops, mail.app, microsoft, webmail, wevdav, Yahoo