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Quick hands-on with Microsoft’s new Outlook watch face for Android Wear [Gallery]

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As part of an update to the Outlook application for Android, Microsoft has announced today the addition of a new Android Wear watch face. This new watch face brings email on your wrist to a whole new level; rather than simply giving you notifications and simple actions from Android Wear’s notification feed, everything can be seen and accessed from the watch face itself. Let’s take a quick look…


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How-To: Make email links default to Gmail in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on OS X

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Gmail Default mail app

I’ve never been a big proponent of the stock Mail application in OS X, so I generally find myself relying on Gmail inside a browser for all of my email needs. In fact, I don’t have any accounts configured inside of the Mail app at all. With this in mind, I get frustrated when I accidentally click a mailto link while I’m using Chrome. Doing so forces the Mail app to open, which wastes time.

Wouldn’t it be better if you could configure Gmail to be the default mail client inside of Chrome or another browser? In this video tutorial, I’ll show you how easy it is to configure Chrome, Safari, and even Firefox to use Gmail as default.
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Gmailify adds Gmail’s spam filtering, inbox organization, Google Now cards to third-party email accounts

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Starting with Android Lollipop, users could use the Gmail app to manage their Outlook or Yahoo email addresses instead of a rarely updated and generic email app. Now, those users will have the option to get access to more advanced Gmail features like spam protection and inbox organization with a new feature called Gmailify.


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Inbox’s new quick search results mean you never have to dig around in your emails again

Inbox by Gmail

If Gmail was Google’s answer to email in 2004, Inbox is how the company wants everyone to do email in the future. Like Google Now, it has intelligent features that make it easier for regular users to manage their email. An update today makes search smarter so that users don’t have to dig around their messages to find something.


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Yahoo Mail’s Android app finally gains Gmail support

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With Mailbox now decommissioned, the third party Android email app scene is a little more bleak than it was before. One company hoping to bring us a little joy is Yahoo. It recently updated its Yahoo Mail app to version 5.1.0 which (among other things) now includes support for Gmail. With it being an Android app, you’d assume that it should have Gmail compatibility from the outset. But apparently, Yahoo didn’t see it that way.

Gmail support is added to the pre-existing list of providers, including Outlook, AOL and Yahoo mail accounts. What’s more, you can search your inbox and archive messages just as you would with any good Google-supporting email client. Along with the ability to connect with Gmail accounts, version 5.1.0 also brings the option to select all messages in any individual folder for mass-deleting and moving. They’ve also made it easier to access different accounts and settings.

Here’s the change log posted to the Yahoo Mail Play Store page:

5.1.0:
– Connect Gmail mailboxes to read, organize, search and respond to your Gmail messages within the Yahoo Mail app
– Select all messages in a specific folder on your device – just tap on the select all icon in the upper-left corner when moving or deleting multiple messages
Interface improvements for account switching, settings, touch targets, and message list readability
– TalkBack accessibility improvements
– Performance enhancements
As always, the app update is free to new and existing users and is available on the Play Store now.

Outlook 2.0.0 for Android APK is available to download, here’s what it looks like

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Not long ago, Microsoft announced it would be bringing an updated look to its Outlook app for Android, killing Sunrise in the process. While iPhone users got the updated redesign almost immediately, Android users had to wait a little. Today, Outlook 2.0.0 is finally available to download with some refreshed user interface design and a couple of new features. You can download the app directly from APK Mirror, or wait for it to hit the Play Store officially (it shouldn’t be too long until the update hits).


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Inbox app will use AI-powered Smart Reply feature to respond to Gmail messages for you

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Update: It looks like the Smart Reply feature is rolling out starting tomorrow.

Google’s Inbox app for Gmail is one of the best things to happen to personal email management since email was invented. Using Google Now’s power, it can automatically create calendar events, sort out your junk and priority emails and suggest reminders. Now it’s about to get a whole lot smarter


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Want your Gmail messages to self-destruct? There’s a Chrome extension for that…

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Dmail is a Chrome extension which allows you to un-send, or revoke any emails you send through your Gmail account. The service was launched by the same brainiacs that brought us the Delicious social bookmarking tool.

Self-destructing email isn’t exactly a new thing. Google itself rolled out a feature that lets you un-send a message once you’ve sent it. The only issue with Google’s built-in service however, is that you only have 30 seconds to change your mind about sending an email to someone. Dmail lets you revoke emails whenever you like. I took it for a quick spin to see what it’s like, and I have to say, it’s an incredibly convenient way to make all your outgoing communication more secure. It also happens to be ridiculously easy to use.


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Pro-tip: Use Boomerang for Gmail to schedule emails to be delivered later

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For many of us, email is a necessary evil. Necessary because most of the business world still uses email to communicate important information, evil because it can end up controlling your life. When someone emails you with a question, or a request, or whatever else, they’re putting you on the offensive – giving you tasks to accomplish and things to do. But there’s one selfish act you can take to make the experience a little better for yourself – scheduling.


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Google’s Contact Migration tool enables easy contact importing for Apps admins

Contact Migration

Google is making it easier for businesses to switch to its Apps for Business productivity suite from Microsoft’s Exchange and Office 365 services. The company today added a new migration tool to the Apps admin console that makes bringing over employees’ contacts as easy as filling out a form, according to its blog post.


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Gmail for Android now has Oauth support for Yahoo and Microsoft accounts

Google killed its stock email app in favor of Gmail with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop, but they also made it possible to connect email accounts from other providers including Microsoft and Yahoo. Today they’ve gone ahead and added OAuth support for both of these third-party providers, which means increased security and added features including two-step verification and account recovery. The change will be rolling out to users over the next few days.

OAuth is an open-source standard used for authorization by many large services including Twitter, PayPal, and a bevy of others. In layman’s terms OAuth is used by these service providers to give applications like Gmail for Android a token they can use to access a user account on company servers. It’s considered much safer than simply giving out email-password combinations to apps which could be targeted by outside attacks.

Service disruption hits Gmail, temporarily knocks out some syncing and other functions

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Update: Google says Gmail is back up and running for all users.

Some users (myself included) may have noticed issues syncing mail changes on their Gmail accounts this morning. Google has now acknowledged on its system status page that a “service disruption” is current affecting the email service. The company says the issue currently only affects IMAP connections to the email service, and while most users will see problems, some may not.

While this isn’t a total outage, users can expect to see slow or nonexistent syncing of their mail across devices for the time being, with other features like sending and receiving mail possibly being affected as well. Google has published the following update on the downtime:


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Google reportedly working on new service that lets users receive & pay bills directly in Gmail

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According to a new report from Re/code, Google is soon planning to launch a service that will allow Gmail users to manage, pay, and receive all their bills directly within Gmail. The service is dubbed Pony Express right now, although it’s unclear if that’s a codename or what Google actually plans to call the service.


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Google removes Sparrow email client from iOS and Mac App Stores

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Google acquired the popular email client Sparrow back in 2012 and announced that the entire team would be joining Google to work on Gmail. Since that acquisition, Sparrow apps received only a handful of updates and have been seemingly neglected in favor of Google’s new Inbox initiative. Over the past few days, however, Sparrow appears to have received the final nail in its coffin as it has been removed from both the Mac App Store and iOS App Store (via TechCrunch).


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Microsoft launches preview of revamped Outlook mail app based on Acompli for Android (Video)

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Microsoft announced today a new app for its Outlook email service on Android. The app [Google Play, Free] is based on the Acompli software that the company purchased in December for $200 million. The app includes “email triage” features found in the old app as well as new features to help appeal to a wider audience, such as the ability to toggle threaded conversation views.

The Outlook Android app will also support mail from third-party services beyond Microsoft’s. Gmail, iCloud, and Yahoo email accounts can be plugged into the app, and attachments can be added to messages from cloud services like Google Drive and Dropox. Check out the video below …


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Amazon planning to take on Google Apps for Work w/ new ‘WorkMail’ service

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Amazon Web Services is launching a new service (via The Wall Street Journal) this morning called “WorkMail,” an enterprise email and calendar solution that the Seattle-based company believes will bring a wide variety of improvements to a space that is largely controlled by Microsoft and Google.


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Phil Schiller on Google Glass: ‘I can’t believe they think anyone normal will ever wear these things’

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The Tech Block on Thursday shared an email exchange between Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and the website’s founder Abdel Ibrahim that pokes fun at Google Glass for its perception of being an unstylish device. The email from 2012 surfaced just days after Google announced that it will be ending its Glass Explorer program on Monday as it works on a new version under the leadership of Tony Faddell.

After being sent a picture of actor Steve Martin wearing obnoxious looking glasses in the film “The Jerk,” mocking Google co-founder Sergey Brin wearing Glass, Schiller responds to Ibrahim saying “that is very funny” and that he “can’t believe they think anyone (normal) will ever wear these things. It reminds me of the push to market video goggles a few years back.”
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Google emailing select devs with invite to buy Project Tango development kit

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Project Tango popped up on the Play Store last month, but it has since sit there unavailable for purchase for anyone except those who registered for the device development kit at I/O. These lucky humans got access to the “Add to cart” button shortly after it showing up on the Play Store, but until today, that seemed to be the only way to purchase the device. Now, it appears certain developers are being invited by email…


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PSA: Google is guaranteeing Inbox by Gmail invites for the next 90 minutes

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If you haven’t already received an invitation to use Inbox, Google’s alternative Gmail experience for handling your email, then you’ll want to jump on this opportunity as soon as possible.

The Inbox team, which is doing a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), says anyone that emails inbox@google.com from their Gmail account between 10 am PST and 12 pm PST today is guaranteed to receive an invitation granting access to the Inbox apps and site.

For more information on Inbox by Gmail, check out our extensive hands-on with the app from when it launched earlier this fall, and grab Inbox for Android from the Play Store or for iOS from the App Store.