Google rolled out a major update to its Gmail app for iOS last week, and it seems Yahoo! is keen to keep up. The company just introduced a brand new look to its Yahoo! Mail app for iPhone, which introduces a brand new look that I’m a big fan of. It’s not too dissimilar to Gmail’s, in fact. And in some ways it’s better.
I have quite a few email addresses, and almost all of them are Gmail based. I also use a ton of different devices to check my email, including my iPhone and iPad as well as a Macbook Air and a Mac mini. That’s not even mentioning the iMac I use from time to time at my office job. With all these devices, especially the Macs, it makes sense to me to use Gmail in the web browser, so I don’t have to keep setting up email client after email client, or make sure all my filters or rules are set up the way I want them on each of the Macs I use.
What doesn’t make sense to me is how my Mac opens up Mail app when I click a mail-to link on the web, in Twitter, or on Facebook. I want my Mac to open a web browser with the web version of Gmail in it every time I click one of those types of links. Here’s how to make that happen on the big three web browsers for Mac: Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.
The all-new Twitterrific 5 is kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup, with a brand new look and a whole host of new features. It’s joined by the official YouTube client, which now supports iPad; an all-new Instacast; and a redesigned Gmail app.
Google has been busy rolling out updates to its mobile apps this week, making big improvements to the Gmail and YouTube app for iOS. But it seems the company hasn’t quite finished yet. It just rolled out some major changes to Google Shopper for Android and iOS — including a new look and new features — which are sure to make Christmas shopping on your smartphone a great deal easier.
Around the time that Google bought Sparrow, the Gmail team was given a mission to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iOS. After months of slaving away, the app has just been released on the App Store today and it comes with a number of new features that may have been borrowed from Sparrow, even though insiders such as MG Siegler claim the Sparrow team had nothing to do with the update.
Gmail 2.0 for iPhone and iPad is faster, sleeker and much easier to use. The minimal UI athestetics of Google Now have bled over with some of the popular features from Sparrow. The free update gives users multiple accounts, infinite scrolling inboxes, better search, and more.
As you read this, I’m sure you’re not thinking about all of the email you have to deal with. I’m not just talking about the email that you left behind for follow-up the last time you checked…I’m also talking about all of the email you have received since you last checked.
Knowing all of this, can your mind really be on what you’re doing right now? Better still, can you keep your mind on the important stuff that goes on outside of your email inbox knowing that you’re going to have to deal with both the important and unimportant messages that will arrive in your inbox on a non-stop basis?
Google has started to index the contents of your e-mail attachments, and you can now search on them in the Gmail interface. This is new, and pretty great.
But if you’re using the iOS Mail app to wrangle your Gmail accounts, it works there too. I discovered this in the process testing out the browser version and — as you might expect — Apple’s version is both more elegant and less useful.
With Google Maps gone from iOS 6 in favor of Apple’s own solution, many are hoping Google will bring its own Maps app to the App Store — as it did with YouTube a couple weeks ago. A recent report claimed that it was already on its way, but according to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, that’s not the case at all. In fact, Google hasn’t even submitted a Maps app to Apple for approval yet.
CloudMagic 2.0 is a huge update to a (previously) marginally useful search app. Now, with many extra services added along with a native iPad app, CloudMagic is pretty essential if you use any cloud services whatsoever. It lets you search in your Evernote, Dropbox, Gmail and other accounts, instantly
Several iOS device users are reporting an error message that reads, “mail service imap.gmail.com is not responding” today. They’re posting in Google’s Gmail product forum, and user SonaD, marked as a Google employee, has posted the following:
“We are aware of an issue where users are receiving an error that ‘”imap.gmail.com” is not responding’ when using IMAP on their computers, mobile devices, or tablets. We are currently working on resolving this issue.
Not all accounts are affected, so if you have multiple Gmail accounts, you may notice one works fine, while the other returns this error.
In the meantime, you can login to Gmail through your web browser (http://mail.google.com). On your phone or tablet, you can also use your device’s browser or if you’re on Android or iOS, you can download the Gmail application. I realize it’s not the way most of you want to get to your mail, but it will still allow you to get to your mail on both your computer or mobile devices.
Thank you again for your patience as we work on resolving this. We will update this post once I know all users are fixed.”
The advice above is echoed on the official Gmail support page, as well. Until it gets cleared up, use a web browser, mobile or otherwise.