Gmail

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Gmail Gets A Facelift

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Gmail, probably the most used app on my Evo 4G, will be getting a major facelift with the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich, bringing it into line with - and, in some ways, surpassing - its Honeycomb counterpart.

First of all, Gmail for Ice Cream Sandwich features an "action bar" at the bottom of the screen, much like Honeycomb's action bar, which allows users to create messages, search, sync, and more with just one touch. When messages are selected, the action bar changes to reflect your most commonly used actions, allowing for breezy batch operations.

Adding even more shine to the new UI, the message view has been majorly streamlined, eliminating all the distracting drop shadows and rounded edges we saw in Gingerbread, in favor of simple headers (with lovely contact photos), and even 2-line previews in the inbox, to give you a peek at what's inside each email before you open it.

Oct

[Exclusive] Here Is What The Gmail, Email, And Calendar Ice Cream Sandwich Widgets Look Like

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Exclusives, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

Well look what we have here. Somehow we've managed to come across pictures of a few Ice Cream Sandwich widgets. Specifically Gmail, Email, and Calendar. And to answer your next question, no, sadly, we can't hook you up with a download. We'd love to, but the widgets would actually need ICS to work.

It looks like they are all getting a nice coat of polish - we've helpfully included the old Honeycomb widgets for comparison (there are no equivalents of these in Gingerbread as far as I know, outside of an old and ugly simple calendar widget).

The lack of labels here is a little alarming, but we have no idea if any of those messages actually have labels.

Oct

[Keyboard App Shootout Part 2] Swiftkey X Wants To Read Your Mind... And Everything Else You've Ever Written

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Keyboard Shootout, Reviews

The Keyboard App Shootout is back! In today's crosshairs: Swiftkey X.

Swiftkey's driving theory is that, with enough information about you, it can predict what you want to type. Seriously. They even use the phrase "mind-reading" on their website. How do they expect to get to "mind-reading" levels? Well, they basically want to scan everything you've ever written. Swiftkey can mine your text messages, Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and even your blog's RRS feed for sweet, sweet data about your typing habits. They feed all this data though a "ground-breaking artificial intelligence engine that uses word context and personalized language models to think about words like you do".

Aug

[New App] 'Pops' Brings Vivid Animated Notifications To Your Android Phone

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you've ever received a notification and thought to yourself, "I really wish my phone would play some colorful and fun animation every time I get a message," then there's no doubt that Pops is the app for you.

Calling itself the "ringtone for the smartphone generation," Pops is an app that lets you customize notifications for certain apps, namely Gmail, SMS, Facebook, and Twitter, with full-screen animations. To get a better idea of what it's all about, here is a video showcasing most of its features:

As you can see, Pops is an... interesting idea. It allows you to be more aware of specific events on your phone and adds a certain amount of flare and personality to the activity.

Aug

Now Possible: Enable Honeycomb-Style Gmail Preview Pane On Regular Gmail.com - Yup, Gmail Labs Still Going Strong

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Off-Topic

The latest post over at the official Gmail blog brings us some heart-warming and exciting news around a new Gmail Labs feature called Preview Pane.

It means Gmail Labs are still going strong and
If you own a Honeycomb tablet, you may already be familiar with the preview pane interface that Gmail for Honeycomb uses. There are 3 panes in total - folder list, message list, and a convenient preview pane, and as of today, you can view all 3 right in your regular Gmail.com.

The new UI is likely to boost productivity for most users (if you run around Gmail using only keyboard shortcuts and don't even need a mouse, the productivity boost will likely not apply to you).

Jul

Gmail For Android Updated To V2.3.5 - Selective Mail Sync And Label Notifications, Sticky "Show Pictures" Settings (Finally!), Attachment Downloads, And More

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Google, News

Gmail for Android hasn't received much love lately, but Google definitely hasn't forgotten about it. The new version 2.3.5 (curiously, it matches the latest Gingerbread release version), which showed up tonight, brings a host of new features, including one that I was *just* thinking of yesterday after clicking the "Show Pictures" button for the 1800th time.

The new features are:

Save bandwidth and battery by only syncing priority mail

Use label notifications to mash up filters, labels, and ringtones

Remember ‘Show Pictures’ for senders

Turn off sticky message actions in landscape or all orientations

Better TalkBalk support for accessibility

Performance improvements

As I mentioned, my favorite is definitely the sticky "Show Pictures" setting, which means I won't have to click the annoying button in every email that I receive from all the deals sites on a daily basis.

Jul

From Koush, The Maker Of ClockworkMod Recovery, Comes DeskSMS, A Gtalk/Gmail<->SMS Forwarding App

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Last Updated: August 1st, 2011

Update 8/1/11: DesktopSMS is now just DeskSMS.

There are quite a few "remote SMS" apps on the Market, but none quite like ClockworkMod's DesktopSMS. Instead of the usually browser plugin, or dedicated web interface front end, DesktopSMS takes a versatile and familiar approach: Gmail. The app will intercept your incoming SMS messages and forward them to either Gmail, Gtalk, or both, so you can reply from your computer or tablet. Once the sent message hits the receiving end, it looks as if it came directly from your phone, so there's no confusion.

DesktopSMS is currently in open beta, so there may be some bugs - hit up ClockworkMod's official Facebook page if you run into any issues!

Jun

Google Plus Android App Updated To 1.0.2, Now Handles Multiple Gmail Accounts Properly

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Google, News

A small update to the Google+ Android app, which is quickly becoming one of the top apps I use every day, was released a few minutes ago. The update mostly resolves login issues for those with multiple Gmail accounts (we've heard many of you complain about not being able to sign in because of that). Other additions include a new "spiffy" profile icon and UI polish.

Grab the update in the Market if you already have access to Plus, and if you don't, feel free to drop your name and email in this post. We'll try to mass invite once Google allows it again (the workaround that many of you pointed out doesn't work for mass invites, and I'm not about to manually invite 4500+ people on the list :-].

Mar

New LauncherPro Update v0.8.4 Now In The Market, Brings Gmail Widget, 2 New Transitions, Bug Fixes

Posted by David Rutland in Applications, News

After months without either official comment or update, the author of homescreen replacement app LauncherPro has finally sprung version 0.8.4 into the Android Market.

One of the smoother and more popular homescreen apps, LauncherPro offers seven screens and up to three scrollable docks, as well as Sense style full-screen widgets for paid “Plus” users, which include messaging, Facebook feeds, bookmarks, and calendars.

Part-time developer Federico Carnales announced in September that a complete rewrite was in the works, which would not be based on the stock Android 2.0 launcher. Users have been waiting with bated breath ever since, with commenters growing incrementally more anxious on the official website since the last update in January.

Feb

Gmail App Updated For Gingerbread To Include Long Press To Copy Text

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, News

In a minor update to the official Gmail app, Google has addressed one of "the little things" that have been plaguing Android since the beginning. In this case, a lack of uniformity for copying text.

In all previous versions of the Gmail app, a user would have to press Menu, More, and then Select Text. Fortunately, this update fixes that issue by making copying text the same as in the Browser or a textbox: by long pressing it. It's not a huge addition, and is only available for those with devices running Gingerbread, but it is definitely a step in the positive direction.