This is some of the best news that has happened in ages. Google Apps is a great system for managing your email, but up until now it has not been possible to use IMAP.

The introduction of IMAP means that the same mailbox can be accessed by different users on different computers and changes are kept in sync. For small office setups and small businesses run from home this is ideal.

Google Apps gives you a fully functioning mail system with fantastic anti spam and antivirus control. You can also keep documents, spreadsheets and presentations online and accessible from anywhere. You also have on online calendaring application which sends reminders to your mobile phone via sms as well as to your email. And all of it is written so that it works on most modern mobile phones with internet browsing capabilities.

I have been using it with the POP version of collecting my email for some time now, and have set this up for some of my clients, I have been hesitant to push it though because of the lack of IMAP support, but now that this is part of the package then it is on my highly recommended list.

If you want more advice on the advantages then don’t hesitate to get in touch. If you want help setting it up then please do get in touch. I was going to put some instructions here but there are already good ones at LifeHacker and at HowToGeek