Mailbox: a Better Gmail Client for iPhone Review

I have been looking for ages for an app that actually managed my Gmail in an effective way. I have not had an iPhone for long, but already this app for it has made the process easier than on any other smartphone, Andoid model included.

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It's a... Gboard?

Email is something most, if not all of us use everyday. I always thought the concept was pretty simple. However, if you're a Gmail user, there's a device on the market that is meant to make managing your Gmail inbox easier, but I think it does just the opposite.

I present you with… the Gboard-- the USB powered keyboard attachment that offers you 19 Gmail shortcuts. (Note that Gmail has a more than 69 total keyboard shortcuts) That's about it all this does.

Now, I'm a gmail user, and I have never used a keyboard shortcut once in four years. This is probably because I use the Apple Mail client to manage my inbox. But that said, is there really a need for this product? I understand both organization and ease of use… but, you can already do everything this device can do (and much more) on your standard keyboard.

For those of you interested, here is a picture of the Gboard.

It is worth noting; the Gboard only works within the Gmail web client, so if you use another application to manage your mail… this is useless.

I guess the one redeeming factor to the thing is it's price tag. At $19, it makes a good stocking stuffer if you happen to know someone who might be able to make use of this thing.

That said, here is what I think of the Gboard. Ridiculous. I would never take up a USB plug to add a device which at the end of the day, only takes up valuable workspace on my desk. Bottom line: If I got this in my stocking… it would stay there.

Gmail on Phones

I am looking to buy a Samsung Magnet from AT&T because it is great for messaging and it is incredibly in-expensive. So I started watching some review videos on YouTube and all the reviewer’s noted that the phone didn’t support Gmail. I love Gmail. It is the best email service that I have used and I am sort of upset that it is not supported. Now I know I shouldn’t be expecting much from such a low-cost phone but adding a simple mail service isn’t a big deal and should already be there. I just wanted to let you know my thoughts on this and I am always up for hearing other people’s thoughts on this. Just leave a comment in the comment section below. Thanks!

Google Releases Push E-mail For The iPhone

Today, Google released the ability to receive push e-mail notifications to the iPhone. For those of you who may be unaware, push notification is the ability to be notified of an email instantly. Up to this point, the iPhone could only retrieve mail from the Google servers every 15 minutes. 

Before I go on any further, I would like to point a few things out. First things first, this service is in beta, and the service was launched today. That being said, my personally experience with the service is unreliable at this point. My iPhone has had problems connecting to the mail server, as well as moving messages to the trash.

 If you would still wish to set up Push notification for the iPhone, it is STRONGLY advised that you back up your data before you begin, as you are setting up a new service and could lose all of your contacts and calendar events.

 Please also note that this only works with software version 3.0 and above

 To set up Google Sync for the iPhone

1. Go to "Settings" on the iPhone Home Screen

2. In "Settings", select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars"

3. Tap the "Add Account" option

4. Select "Microsoft Exchange" as your new mail account

5. In the email field, enter your full Gmail address (youremailaddress@gmail.com)

6. Leave the "Domain" field blank

7. Enter your full Gmail address as the username (youremailaddress@gmail.com)

8. Enter your Gmail password in the password field

9. Tap "next" at the top of the screen.

10. If the "Unable to Verify Certificate" box appears, tap "accept"

11. In the server field enter: m.google.com

12. Tap "next" 

13. Select the services you wish to push to your phone.

 That's it! 

As I stated earlier, this is new and is a beta, so user experience may vary. If you wouldn't mind, come back to this post and share your experience with Google sync.

Google Apps for Your Domain

I've been using the internet since 1995, and since then have gone through 20 or more different e-mail addresses. I've had one's provided for me in school, ISP addresses, and of course have used web based versions like Yahoo!, Hotmail, GMail and most recently MobileMe. Now maybe this is because I have OCD (not officially, but I'm sure I do) but I've never ever been happy with any of them. They've annoyed me in many different ways, ISP emails have included very long domain's (@warp.nfld.net & @nf.sympatico.ca), I've never trusted emails provided by schools to be secure and private, and usually my main complaint with web based email is that I can never get the username I want, I'm usually stuck with adding random numbers to the end of my name.

Up until 2008, GMail was the best I had ever found. It's spam filter was far superior than anything I had ever used, it's interface and features was much, much better than what I had experienced with Hotmail or Yahoo!, plus ads, which are always going to be present with anything free on the internet wasn't in your face, it is artfully put in a place where it doesn't get in the way of using it. I should have been happy, right? But I wasn't, as I mentioned earlier I couldn't find the username I wanted. Steven Davis is a rather popular name, so I was forced to add numbers at the end. This bothered me far more than it should have, given the awesome feature-set GMail has.

Then along came Apple's MobileMe. I had an iPhone & the though of true pushed email intrigued me. Plus, since it was a new service & it cost $100/year the name I wanted was available, without numbers! Beyond the email it also allowed me to back-up application data of various apps on my iPhone, which was very important to me. I didn't have a Mac at the time, so syncing to desktop versions of apps like OmniFocus (GTD, todo list app) wasn't possible. I had extra cash last summer, and given all of these features and the pretty looking online interface I made the purchase. I finally got what I wanted, I definitely should be happy now... right? Not bloody likely.

I missed GMail, plus MobileMe tends to only work when it wants to, it's much improved from the early days but it still has it's issues. I don't really know how to put this other than saying MobileMe lacks pretty much all the "geeky" features that everyone loves with GMail.

Then a few weeks ago, the sky opened and the lord spoke to me. Not really. It was just an old archived blog entry at lifehacker.com about Google Apps for Your Domain. Basically it allows you to add Google provided applications like GMail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs to your domain, plus you don't even need a hosting plan for a website, you just need to purchase a domain. At this point I don't really need a web hosting plan, I'd like one, but right now I just don't have the extra cash for it, since I'm in school. So i picked up a domain at GoDaddy.com for around $15/year signed up for Google's service, went through the relatively simple set-up process and it was done. It took less then a half hour of actual work, and now I have a GMail email but using my domain. For example: samplemail@stevend.ca .

So now I've got everything I wanted. The domain is short, all the GMail features, and any user name I want. It's amazing. And now that Google is offering full exchange support for contacts & calendars it's gotten even better. I suspect email exchange is coming soon, but for now IMAP on my iPhone is perfectly fine! I'd recommend this to anyone and everyone! Google's services is compeltly free (there is a pro version, but I have no need for that), so all it's going to cost you is the cost of a domain!

Have fun trying this stuff out! I'd aslo like to thank David for giving me the opportunity to write on his social blog! If you're interested in reading more of my stuff or following me on twitter I can be found here:

http://stevend.ca

http://twitter.com/stevendavis