02 Sep 08 Chrome
First looks – it’s bare. That’s not a complaint though. I suspect I’m like many folks, and have numerous add-ins installed in FF3. I’ve also got a copy of Flock, which is great for some Social Media site integration, but even noisier visually.
This makes a refreshing change to have such a wide open empty screen, and is going to take a little gettting used to.
I do miss the cool looking Gmail Redesigned screen, and I really want my Remember the Milk integration back in my Gmail too, but hey, the bottom line is functionality, and speed.
Where’s the google search box? You don’t need one, you simply type into the main address one.
Drag a tab off the top, and you can open a new, separate window.
I’ve not set Chrome as my default browser yet, but I’m certainly going to stick with it at the moment, and give it a run for it’s money. Money? Oh that was metaphorically speaking, as it’s free of course!
Tags: bottom line, chrome, deafult, ff3, flock, functionality, gmail, google, google chrome, google gears, refreshing change
25 Aug 08 New Blackberry Gmail
Google have released an updated Gmail app for the Blackberry – v2.05
This update allows a lot more features that you’re familiar with on your desktop or laptop based Gmail. You can now see your outbox, and mobile draft mails. Also, you can view your contacts, and call them from your address book. If you’ve signed up for Google apps, and use your own domain, there is support for that too. You can also set up multiple accounts, again as you are able to do on your comptuer version.
It also seems to load up a little faster.
Simply go to http://m.google.com/mail on your ‘berry to grab the new beast. It downloads quickly, and usually requires a reboot, and then you’re good to go.
Tags: address book, apps, beast, blackberry, gmail, google, laptop, mail, outbox
07 Jun 08 Gmail Labs
There’s a new tag in my Gmail. Exploring it igves me up to 13 items I can choose from. Some I think are much less than useful, some I don’t relly need, but are nice, and one or two are just what I wanted.
I chose seven out of the thirteen myself.
- Quicklinks – Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.
- Superstars – Useful, in that it gives you the option to have different colored stars for different uses. I have my “star click” in Gmail set up in connection with “Remember The Milk”, but it’s still useful.
- Pictures in Chat – It’s a nice little feature, and I find myself using the Google Talk pop-up in Gmail more and more – in fact, I’ve not installed the client at all.
- Custom Keyboard shortcuts. As a old DOS geek, I’m more than happy with keyboard short-cuts, and usually prefer them to a mouse.
- Mouse Gestures – having just said what I did above, I thought I’d install this to see what I could make of it. Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. I’ll see.
- Signature Tweaks – allows me to place the signature above the quote of the message I am replying to. I think this could be useful. I wish I could have different signatures for different accounts (I’ve got 5 pop3 accounts running through my gmail).
- Custom Date format – as someone who spent many years on the railroad, I find military time, or the 24 hour clock comes second nature to me, and I in fact prefer it, as it’s less ambiguous. Definitely a must have – it’s great to see 16:30 instead of 4.30pm.
Tags: colored stars, custom keyboard, frequent searches, geek, gmail, google, google talk, keyboard short cuts, keyboard shortcuts, left column, military time, mouse gestures, mouse mouse, pop3 accounts, relly, second nature, signature, signatures, superstars, tweaks
