Gmail

Android Police has gotten exclusive screenshots of the Gmail, Calendar, and Email widgets for the upcoming Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. As you can see with the Gmail widget above, the Ice Cream Sandwich version features a slightly upgraded UI, but is missing Labels. Below is calendars
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Over the past 60 hours, Chinese officials have begun blocking Gmail and the Android Market running on Android devices reports Penn Olson. In the report, Penn Olson says that Gmail can’t send a single email and the Market is incredibly slow, making it utterly useless. The ban is currently taking place across many ISPs and mobile carriers around the country.

As the report mentions, this ban won’t affect that many Android users in China. Many use other email providers and other app markets that have been made available. But at any rate, why would China begin to make this move? Now there’s no confirming this.. but what if it was a possibility:

Come to think of it, it might be related to how Google+ this weekend enabled the Dalai Lama to chat with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu – a virtual equivalent of the planned face-to-face birthday meeting in South Africa that Chinese authorities were so utterly desperate to stop.

..just a little something to think about.

The Next Web is reporting that the US Government and Google are in talks over a contract that would license Google Apps to the whole US Government staff. The contract totals up-to $50 million dollars. The US Gov is also considering Microsoft’s productivity suite.

Microsoft’s suite could be considered pretty solid, but also pretty bland. Many corporations, and school districts, are currently using Microsoft’s suite. Some would say it’s in a good spot, but when compared to Google it just not up-to par (in my opinion). Many city governments are already using Google Apps.. so let’s call this a fair fight.

The US Government is currently reviewing the terms, and will soon select which company they’d like to side with. At any rate, both companies are probably opening their arms to $50 million, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Google has just published a study entitled “Google’s Green Computing: Efficiency at Scale” comparing traditional business email solutions with Gmail. The results? Gmail is “almost 80 times” more energy efficient than conventional in-house software. This takes into account all Google infrastructure necessary to support the service.

A report from the Official Google Blog explains:

“…cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers that operate at higher server utilization rates and use hardware and software that’s built specifically for the services they provide—conditions that small businesses are rarely able to create on their own.”

To help put it all in perspective (kind of), Google offers the comparison presented in the graphic below showing one year of Gmail is comparable to drinking a bottle of wine, stuffing a letter inside, and throwing it in the ocean. Google also put YouTube to the test and discovered that 1 minute of video consumes approximately 0.0002 kWh of energy. Thus, 72 hours of video would be equivalent to one packaged and delivered DVD. 

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Strangely enough, offline mode in Gmail is a standalone web app (pictured above) rather than being baked into Gmail directly. Click for larger.

Google announced in a post over at the official Gmail blog that it is bringing offline functionality back to Gmail, Calendar and Docs. The feature had initially been enabled in select Google services via Gears, the company’s proprietary browser extension that was later retired in favor of HTML5. It took longer than expected to re-write the offline functionality in HTML5, though. This was in part because Google had to wait until the World Wide Web Consortium ratified new HTML5 features that allow for local browser storage and other technologies that make it possible for developers to write web apps which sync seamlessly between offline and always-on modes of operation.

Gmail offline will be available today, Google said, and offline for Google Calendar and Google Docs will be rolling out over the next week, starting today. In the case of Gmail, offline functionality is enabled via a Chrome Web Store app dubbed Offline Google Mail. As for Calendar and Docs, clicking the gear icon at the top right corner and choosing the Offline mode lets you view events from your calendars and RSVP to appointments while offline, as well as view your Google documents and spreadsheets. Offline Docs editing isn’t supported yet, but Google is “working hard to make it a reality”.

The question is, will you care about working offline now that mobile/broadband Internet and wireless hotspots have become ubiquitous?  (YES!)

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Google engineer Ido Green just made comment on This week in Google that offline mode for Gmail and Calendar are on their way by the end of the summer. There was talk of these features at this year’s Google I/O, but it’s nice to know offline mode is still on track. Besides Gmail and Calendar, Green also said there are a few more offline features coming.

Google’s Mark Striebeck noted on Google+ tonight that in Gmail you can now see the most recent Google+ post made by the sender. Hopefully, those are only public posts or posts meant to be shared with the recipiant or oh, boy another privacy stink coming.

Be on the lookout for this in your inbox.
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If you have ever used Gmail on a tablet, you’ve probably appreciated the improvements made to the mobile UI and missed them when forced to use Gmail from your desktop browser. Luckily, Google just introduced a new preview pane feature for Gmail that allows you to quickly view snippets of messages, much like the mobile interface currently accessible on tablets (which, yes, dates from Outlook 2003 – thanks commenters).

You can enable the feature by turning it on from the Labs tab in your Gmail settings and switching between views via a new toggle button in the upper right corner of your inbox.

You can also move the preview pane below your message list if you have limited screen real
estate.

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[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvNchySxIkw”]

Google has announced an update to their Gmail for mobile website. The updates are pretty minor, but we’re grateful for them nonetheless. First off, you can now pull down the message list to refresh your inbox (iOS and Blackberry PlayBook).

Google also included two minor updates: high-res icons and transitions. The high-res icons are pretty, as seen after the break. Lastly, transitions will take place when you tap on a conversation, tap back to the inbox, go to the menu or go back, the view will slide left or right. Check out a few press shots after the break.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG190LlSmrg]

Today Google started rolling out the calling feature that previously only allowed North American Gmail users to make phone calls to landlines and mobile phones to 38 new languages.

Last year, we made it possible for those of you in the U.S. to call any mobile phone or landline directly from Gmail and starting today, we are making this available to many more of you who use Gmail outside the U.S. by offering calling in 38 new languages.

Purchasing calling credit has also been made more accessible and can now be acquired in four currencies including U.S. dollars, Euros, Canadian dollars, and British Pounds. Also starting today, the feature will no longer include connection fees so you “only pay for the time you talk”.

In addition to the announcement, Google also confirmed they will be lowering rates in over 150 locations. You can check out a full list of rates on the Google calling rates page here.

The Gmail calling feature will start to roll out to in the new languages over the next few days. Keep an eye out for a small green phone icon in your chat list within your inbox.

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[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkAuwaoFGg”]

ZDNet has posted a video of an internal Microsoft ad, reportedly shown at the Microsoft Exchange Conference, comparing Office 365 to Gmail. As you could imagine, Microsoft bashes Gmail pretty bad with the concept of Google reading people’s mail to serve up better ads.

Except Google Apps for Enterprise doesn’t do ads.

This video is obviously trying to sell Office 365 over Google Apps. Microsoft told ZDNet the video isn’t theirs, but we wonder who else can make such awesomely bad videos.

Gmail is admittedly the world’s most popular web-based email service, but it’s still ranked third as both Microsoft Live Mail (formerly known as Hotmail) and Yahoo! Mail command larger user bases. As of November 2010, Gmail had 193.3 million monthly users, according to Wikipedia. So to help you initiate the uninitiated, Google has created a new mini-site called Email Intervention, accompanied by a nifty little video included above. A notice on the website says:

You’ve probably already improved the lives of your friends and family members by helping them switch to Gmail, but what about that one friend who still hasn’t made the switch? It’s time to take a stand and stage an intervention.

Email Intervention is basically a simple web site where you select people from your address book and have them receive a nicely formatted email message (see below) asking them to jump on the Gmail bandwagon. The message includes Google’s intervention video featuring Dr. Richarc Muscat, Intervention Specialist, but you can replace it with your own footage. Of course, only Gmail users can send glorified invitations to Gmail using the website tools. The Gmail blog is even more straightforward in attempts to convince folks to make a switch:

On the Gmail team, we affectionately refer to them as “email interventions.” We hear about them all the time: the cousin who finally switched from an embarassing address like hottie6elliot1977 to a more professional elliot.d.smith@gmail.com, a co-worker who helped his dentist switch after he heard her grumble about having to pay for IMAP access, etc.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE1il5znICA]

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According to a report from Experian Hitwise, Google+ has seen a 3% decrease in traffic over the past week. But don’t let this worry you, as Google+ has seen a 9% traffic increase from Gmail. Maybe Google+’s hype has worn off, but it’s great to see Google+’s integration across their services is paying off. We obviously expect numbers to go back up again when the service goes public — whenever that may be.

via ReadWriteWeb
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Google has released an update to their calling feature inside of Gmail, allowing users to make multiple calls. If you’re on a call and make another call, the current call will be put on hold and you can switch between the calls with the resume button. Even better, when getting an incoming call while on another you can put the current call on hold.

This new feature works on voice, video, and phone calls. If a call is placed to a physical phone number there can only be two calls at once. How long until you can conference calls and do everything else a phone can do?  Bye bye telephone!

A new Chrome Extension called GTools+ allows you to customize Google+ to your liking. The extension features many customizations — like moving Chat to the Google Bar, adding an unread counter for Gmail and Reader, language translation for posts from your foreign friends, and the ability to keep the Google Bar at the top of the page when you scroll down. GTools+ is available on the Chrome Web Store. All of GTools+’s features:

- Unified Google bar, your personalized menu is possible on all Google services!
- Stick the Google+ bar always on top when you scrolling
- Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on link inside the Google+ bar
- Change the position of the chat for put in the Google+ Bar
- Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar
- Right click on the extension icon for go to the options page fastest
- Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language)
- Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar.
- Edit the color of any notification bubble.

via Nirmal TV
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As spotted by Dain Binder on Google+, Blogger is receiving a redesign just like the rest of Google’s products. The new redesign resembles Gmail’s new look, sporting new buttons and an overall touchup. Currently, the new design can only be viewed in the draft section of Blogger, but we’d bet this is coming to the full site soon. More images after the break.

via The Next Web

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Matching Google+, redesigned Maps, Search, and Calendar, Google has released a redesign for Gmail. The theme of this redesign is to remove the clutter, something some of you might think Gmail suffered from. F0r now, we notice new colors and an overall buffer of the page. To get your hands on these new designs select the ‘Preview’ or ‘Preview Dense’ theme from the settings.
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Google Operating System is reporting that Google is testing five new inbox styles in Gmail, on a select group of users. The new inbox styles include classic, important first, unread first, starred first, and Priority Inbox.

This new feature is most likely to help users get introduced to Priority Inbox. All of these features could be accessed by going to Priority Inbox settings, but Google makes it easier with their  first tabs interface inside Gmail. As we all know, Google likes to do these select testings a lot. Today we reported that they’re testing a new black navigation bar on top of their search pages. Are you seeing this new feature in your Gmail?

Google is leveraging Chrome’s extensive support for the latest HTML5 spec to roll out interesting new features that are available first on their own browser first, like dropping file attachments directly onto the Gmail compose window. The latest version of Chrome has enabled another nice perk, the ability to paste images from your system clipboard into the Gmail compose window.

Just copy an image from your favorite image editing program, a web page, another email message or any other source and paste it right into your Gmail message using the standard CTRL + V shortcut (Command + V on Macs). You’ll need to wait a while until the image uploads, depending on your screen resolution. Daniel Cheng, a Google software engineer wrote in a blog post that the new feature is especially handy for passing screenshots…

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Gmail was the most widely used Google Apps service for Brown University (above), but Chat tops the customer satisfaction charts (below)

Brown University conducted a telling survey in May, asking some 1,100 students and faculty/staff members to evaluate Brown’s migration to Google Apps for Education eighteen months ago. Like everywhere, Gmail was the service of choice for a whopping 98 percent of the respondents, but satisfaction index for Chat – used by two-thirds of the respondents – topped the charts: 99 percent for Chat versus Gmail’s 90 percent. Nearly five out of five undergraduate, graduate and professional student respondents were “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied” with Google’s web-based email.

Google Sites was less popular, having been used by one in three respondents. Docs and Calendar were used by the respectable 85 percent and 79 percent of the respondents, respectively. Most frequently used apps on a daily basis? Gmail (97 percent), Calendar (60 percent), Chat (33 percent), Documents (29 percent) and Sites (eight percent). And when issues rose, nearly half the respondents sought answers on Google’s official help pages and Google search.

More food for thought and four additional pretty charts bellow.

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