Posts tagged Gmail
Google Sync vs Gpush
Sep 22nd
Earlier, Google Sync announced the ability to have Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Before this announcement, I’ve been using IMAP to read my mail on the iPhone. That still didn’t allow me to use Push, therefore I’ve been using a separate app called Gpush. I was so excited with today’s announcement, so I deleted the IMAP setup and turned on Mail via Google Sync. I didn’t have to set it up as I’m already using it for Calendar & Contacts. After using it a little while, I reverted back using IMAP and Gpush. There are a few reasons why & I’ll explain. The first reason, which I’ll quote from their website;
Google Sync offers some advantages over using IMAP on your phone. Most importantly, it allows for content to be pushed to your phone within seconds after changes occur on the server. On the other hand, using Gmail Drafts from your phone is not possible via Google Sync.
Not being able to start a message on my iPhone and complete it via the web interface & vice versa is a huge drawback, at least to me. Another reason, is that while I can still see my folders (Labels)… I was only able to load messages back one month. However, with IMAP, I could load the last 50 messages & more if I wanted. If there is a way around this, please leave a comment correcting me, but I searched for a way & was unsuccessful. With Gpush, it’s using Apple’s push notification system meaning it displays a snippet of whom the email is from & the subject. Using Google Sync, I lost that ability. For whatever reason, Yahoo! has been the only provider to allow Push natively within the Mail app. Using IMAP with Push turned on via the Mail app for Gmail would be the ultimate setup. So, I’m going to stay loyal to Tiverias Apps (Gpush) as their service is great. It may be rocky at times, but overall it’s a great app and well worth the $1.99.
UPDATE: 09/22/2009 @ 11: 12 PM
I know a few folks that like to preserve their battery throughout the day. Here is another reason before you decide to go with Google Sync which is quoted directly from their Gmail blog;
While this type of speed is pretty awesome, push connections tend to use more power than fetching at intervals, so don’t be surprised if your battery life isn’t quite what it used to be. We’ve done a lot of work to optimize power usage, but if you prefer to save battery life, you can always turn off push in your phone’s settings and fetch mail every 30 or 60 minutes instead.
Google Sync just got Better!
Sep 22nd
Earlier in the year, Google launched Google Sync which allows you to synchronize your Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar with your iPhone. Today, they completed the hat trick allowing the iPhone now to synchronize Gmail messages.
Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Sync works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.
[SOURCE: Official Google Mobile Blog]
Gmail Themes
Nov 20th
Gmail will be rolling out themes to everyone over the next couple of days, so if you don’t see them yet, don’t panic. To see if you have this option… go to the Themes tab within Settings. Out of the 30 odd themes they are launching today, there’s a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, & nature themes that change scenery over time. You can find screenshots via the Lifehacker link below or you can read Gmail’s official blog entry here.
[SOURCE: Lifehacker]
Thunderbird (Gmail IMAP)
Oct 29th
When you setup Thunderbird for your Gmail account via IMAP, you’ll notice a few strange labels in your Gmail account: [Imap]/Sent, [Imap]/Drafts and [Imap]/Trash. These are Thunderbird’s default Sent, Drafts, and Trash folders. In your IMAP account settings, the Copies & Folders area, be sure to change the default location for Sent and Drafts to [Gmail]/Sent Mail and [Gmail]/Drafts respectively. Once you make the change to your account settings, you can delete those labels in Gmail and they won’t get regenerated. (Note: except for [Imap]/Trash.
Reader Vanl (of Lifehacker) explains how to set T-bird’s trash folder correctly, which involves some Thunderbird configuration editing. Here’s how:
- From the Tools menu, choose Options.
- Go to the “Advanced” Option menu and the “General” tab. Hit the “Config Editor” button next to the “Advanced Configuration” label.
- Now you need to look around in there a bit to find which server you need to modify. Using the filter entry box at the top, type in mail.server.server and you will see a list of keys and values. One of those keys will be mail.server.serverX.name, where X is a number and the value is the name of your Gmail IMAP account. Remember X.
- Right-click somewhere in the box and select New->String.
- A dialog box will pop up asking for the name of your new key. Put in mail.server.serverX.trash_folder_name, where X is the number you remember from above. (IE: mail.server.server2.trash_folder_name)
- A new box will come up asking for the value of your new key. Put in [Gmail]/Trash.
- Go to Gmail’s web interface and delete the label [Imap]/Trash.
- Restart Thunderbird.
[SOURCE: Lifehacker]
Gmail / IMAP
Oct 28th
I would tell you about Gmail enabling IMAP, but my good friend Tate has an awesome write up about it here. I’ll tell you about this instead… Here is a nice Add-on that will minimize Thunderbird to the system tray. By default it will install within Firefox, just right-click on the link and save it to your desktop and then manually install it within Thunderbird.
