Offline Gmail is coming to Mailplane
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Many users wanted offline Gmail in Mailplane, this was the #1 feature request. I've always hoped for a Google Gears solution as it would be the perfect fit. Yesterday, Google published "offline Gmail" as a Google Lab feature. And it's based on Google Gears!
Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you're used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you're on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you're "borrowing" your neighbor's wireless), you can choose to use "flaky connection mode," which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you're using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.
In short: Either offline or online, you always can use the powerful Gmail user interface.
What about Mailplane? Mailplane is ready for Google Gears, and I am currently working on the 2.1 version to get offline Gmail working.
New Gmail Lab Feature: Send & Archive
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
This feature was requested frequently, and it saves you at least one keystroke or button click per conversation.
Having clicked "Send" followed by "Archive" a few million times, I started to wish there was a way to just click once and accomplish both actions at the same time. So I decided to turn this idea to a Gmail Labs experiment. Turn on "Send & Archive" from the Labs tab under Settings, and you'll see a new button in the compose form labeled just that. The button does what it says: it sends your reply and then archives the thread with one click.
Tip: The File->Send menu item or ⌘⇧D keyboard shortcut performs the "Send and & Archive" if you have enabled the lab feature.
Gmail • Tips and Tricks • (5) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Email Picasa photos with Mailplane
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Google announced "Picasa for Mac" at MacWorld 2009:
Picasa for Mac looks and works much like Picasa on other platforms, and offers trademark Picasa features — such as non-destructive editing, and the ability to keep track of photos anywhere on your hard drive, then automatically account for new images as you add them. Right now, Picasa for Mac is still in Google Labs, but we very much wanted to get an early version out to folks attending Macworld (you can learn more about this beta release at the Google Photos blog). To run Picasa, you'll need an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 and above. We hope you'll give it a spin, and give us your feedback in person — members of the Picasa engineering team will be conducting demos at Google's Macworld booth all week (you can also check out the video tour below).
Like iPhoto, Picasa has an "Email" button to compose emails in Mailplane. Just make sure Mailplane is your default email application (see Preferences/Advanced). Then go to Picasa's preferences/Email and set Mailplane as your email app.
Announcements • Integration • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Mailplane 2.0.1 released
Mailplane 2.0.1 has just been released, the "Check for Update" menu item will load it. Here's what you'll get:
Improved: Text Clippings support
You can now drag selected to your desktop to create text clipping. And you can drag the text clipping to your email composition to insert it. In the old days, Mailplane would treat the text clipping as an attachment file.
Improved: AppleScript and mailto: link support
The body text was restricted to short text when using mailto: URLs or AppleScript. This restriction has now been removed.
To support Picasa, the AppleScript dictionary has been streamlined to better mimic Mail.app.
Update Russian translation
Vladislav improved the Russian translation quite a bit.
Bug fixes
- ⌘-Z didn't work anymore
- Unread message counter didn't work correctly when used over a slow internet connection.
