Mailplane is a nifty little app for Mac OS X which wraps Cocoa around Gmail’s web interface and allows you to quickly switch between multiple accounts, drag & drop from Gmail to Mac OS X’s Finder, pick up contacts from Address Book. It’s got many other additional features, it’s one of my most used Mac apps to date and it was one of the first applications I reviewed here on MacStories.

So when I heard that Ruben Bakker, the developer behind Mailplane, had no plans to release an iPad version, I was kind of sad. Ok for the iPhone, we have Mailroom there. But on the iPad? It would be perfect on it. With the larger screen, Gmail’s iPad web interface and the magical factor of the device, I bet it would turn out to be awesome. Still, no Mailplane.

Luckily for me, for us, and for anyone else willing to configure 5+ Gmail accounts in a single app, there’s Mailboxes for iPad. Is it Mailplane? No. Does it let you switch between multiple accounts? Yep.

Mailboxes is simple. You have this modal window where you can create as many accounts as you wish, and even assign passcodes to them. Just in case you don’t want your baby cousin to take a look at your creepy subscription emails. So once you’ve entered an account, you tap and switch between them. The app is quite fast.

Want to access another account? Fine. While in Gmail, tap on the sign out button and choose again. That’s it? Yeah, like I said - very simple.

So what’s the point of Mailboxes. Well, if you manage several Gmail accounts you know what a pain it is to constantly switch sessions in the browser. For as magical as it is, the iPad is no exception to that. For those of you who have many Gmail accounts to get a hold of, Mailboxes is good. Even at $2.99 in the App Store. You need this. For anyone else, Mail.app is enough. Or, you can just go back to crying for the lack of Mailplane on your tablet.