Tag Archives: Google

Google GMail Now With Themes

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Over the past several months GMail users have seen new, experimental features rolled out to GMail via the GMail Labs. While some of these are nice, for the most part they are “meh” features, and with Google’srecord, they’ll probably stay beta for years to come. Heck, GMail is still labeled beta.

This week, GMail users were given a new, honest to goodness, true feature. Themes. Granted, it’s not really anything that will help you with your email, but it does give you something different to look at. The 32 available themes range from a basic color redesign to iGoogle-like location and time changing themes.

I’m currently using the planets theme, which happens to be the same theme I use on iGoogle. What are you using as your GMail and iGoogle themes?

iTunes 8.0.2 & iPhone/iPod Touch 2.2 Updates

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Apple has released iTunes 8.0.2 which in addition to some fixes and enhancements brings along the iPhone and iPod Touch 2.2 update.

With the iPhone / iPod Touch (IPIPT?) 2.2 update comes with a number of enhancements to the Google Maps, including street view, walking locations, and the ability to share locations via email. Safari also gets the goofy update that changes the “search” icon next to the address bar to look more like a search box. Who cares?? Though the update does claim to improve stability and performance in Safari, now that’s what I want to hear!

For a complete list of what’s available in the 2.2 update, check out the Apple Support website.

First Google Android Phone…. Meh.

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The first ever Google Android phone was unveiled by T-Mobile yesterday, yet no one really seams to care. Come on, this is Google we’re talking about, and a majority of the news sites and blogs only had the slightest mention of it.

I would have expected a product with the Google name on it to have been much more covered by the media. I mean, it is Google after all. When Apple released it’s 2nd iPhone, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing multiple stories about the iPhone…. with the Google phone, unless you knew it was coming, you probably missed the big news all together.

It’s a shame really, as the Google powered phone offered by T-Mobile actually has some things that make it better than the iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ditching my iPhone for an Android phone, but let’s take a look at what’s going on here. Continue reading →

Comcast To Offer More Mail Space Than Google

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This morning when I checked my email there was a message from Comcast stating that my email would soon be upgraded. Great, after all the only emails I get to that particular account are from Comcast. Usually they are emails about new services (speed boost), changes in the EULA or TOS, or info on new movies that have been added to Comcast OnDemand. Usually nothing that I read.

But for some reason I did read the email from Comcast this morning. Maybe because I’m still half asleep.

Anyway, the email stated that soon my account would be updated to Comcast SmartZone. Basically it’s an improved UI that puts Comcast Digital Voice, email, and contacts all in one place. Good, that’s something they should have done a long time ago.

From the looks of it, Comcast will be integrating Plaxo for the improvements to the contacts section. Upsetting many people, Comcast acquired Plaxo back in July. Plaxo is an interesting service that started out as a fantastic contact management service, and then evolved (identity crisis?) into something that more closely resembled Facebook.

Probably the nicest thing about Comcast, and maybe the only “good” thing they’ve done recently is they will be upgrading all mail accounts to 10G. So yes, they will be offering more storage than Google. Of course, Yahoo! Mail has offered unlimited storage for a few years now. Isn’t about time that everyone removed the storage cap? Space is cheap these days.

Google Chrome – The GBrowser Is Real

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If you haven’t heard yet, you’ve probably not been on the internet lately. Word is (links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) that today Google will finally announce the anticipated Google Browser, GBrowser, Google Chrome (link not yet active).

According to a number of sources, Google Chrome is based on the open source Webkit Project, which is the same engine used by a number of Apple products including Safari and Mail. The question here is why? They are already pretty tight with the Firefox team, why not use the Gecko engine used by Firefox, Thunderbird, Nvu, and others? Is the Gecko market too crowded? Did the Apple board of directors push Google CEO Eric Schmidt towards webkit?

The same thing could be asked of another product, why webkit and why not Presto? Presto is the engine used by the speedy Opera Web Browser and Adobe Dreamweaver. Of course, Webkit and Gecko offer one advantage here; cost. Though I said it before, and I’ll say it again, Opera’s mail client, M2 would be the perfect GMail Desktop Client. The two are practically identical.

Presto, Gecko, Webkit. It doesn’t really matter, what matters is Google is finally going to release a web browser.

What can we expect from Google Chrome? For that, I’d have to point you to Blogoscoped.com who first broke the news and now has some images of the browser. Let the countdown begin…