Gmail
New Gmail lab feature: Refresh POP accounts
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
If you have configured one or more POP3 accounts in Gmail, then you'll love this new lab feature:
Turn on "Refresh POP accounts" from the Labs tab under Settings, and the refresh link at the top of your inbox will not only update your inbox with your new Gmail messages, it will also fetch messages from any other accounts which you have set up.
Fast “separate” Gmail windows
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Great news for Mailplane users: "Separate" Gmail windows got much faster! Try the File > New Separate menu item or shift-click a conversation in the Gmail overview list to see the difference.
Here's more info from the official Gmail blog:
One of the lesser-known features of Gmail is its ability to help with multitasking. Frequently, I find that I need to find an old message while I'm composing an email. When this happens, I click on the "new window" icon to pop my compose area into its own window:
There's only one problem — it's been slow! Today, we're rolling out a change that will fix this (reload your account to make sure you get this change). Now, popping out a window is much, much faster. No more "Loading..." progress bar.
There are a number of places you can pop up new windows in Gmail.
- In chat, there's the little upward arrow in the title bar:
- When writing a message, hold the "Shift" key while you click on the Compose Mail, Reply, Reply All or Forward links and you'll get a new window for your new message. (Holding the "Shift" key while typing the keyboard shortcut — in other words typing "C" "R" or "F" — has the same effect.)
- When you're reading your mail, hold the "Shift" key while you click on a message to open the conversation in a new window. (Same holds true for the "Shift" key and the "o" or "Enter" shortcuts.)
- If you're reading an email and want to save it for later, you can click the "New window" link in the upper-right hand corner of the conversation view:
Gmail • Tips and Tricks • (2) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Gmail Labs graduation and retirement
Until now, the list of Gmail lab features was growing and growing. A few days ago, Google has shortened the list by graduating and retiring some lab features.
Graduating:
These features are now part of the standard Gmail user interface:
- Search Autocomplete
- Go To Label
- Forgotten Attachment Detector
- YouTube Previews
- Custom Label Colors
- Vacation Dates
Retiring:
Some lab features have completely been removed:
- Muzzle
- Fixed Width Font
- Email Addict
- Location in Signature
- Random Signature
Mailplane supports Google Buzz
Monday, February 15, 2010
Exciting news for Gmail users: Google Buzz is here! It allows you to share updates, links, photos, and videos with your friends and/or the world:
As Google Buzz is part of Gmail, it is fully supported by Mailplane. Just enable Buzz using the Buzz promo screen and then click the "Buzz" link in the sidebar to post an update.
What if you don't get the promo page? The Buzz promo screen automatically shows up when you start Mailplane or switch to an account. If you are using "Offline Gmail", you need to enable buzz in your preferred web browser. The use the Mailplane > Reset Gmail Session menu item to see the Buzz sidebar item in Mailplane.
More information about Google Buzz:
Announcements • Gmail • (4) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Improved Google Search in Labs
Google has improved the "Google Search" lab feature in Gmail. You can now "google" for dictionary definitions, do calculations, search for local stuff and get weather forecasts.
Plus: You can search for selected text directly from a message composition.
Gmail now serves better ads
Thursday, January 21, 2010
I found this blog post on the offical Gmail blog:
Ever since we launched Gmail, we've tried to show relevant and unobtrusive ads. We're always trying to improve our algorithms to show better, more useful ads.
When you open a message in Gmail, you often see ads related to that email. Let's say you're looking at a confirmation email from a hotel in Chicago. Next to your email, you might see ads about flights to Chicago.
But sometimes, there aren't any good ads to match to a particular message. From now on, you'll sometimes see ads matched to another recent email instead. For example, let's say you're looking at a message from a friend wishing you a happy birthday. If there aren't any good ads for birthdays, you might see the Chicago flight ads related to your last email instead.
To show these ads, our systems don't need to store any extra information -- Gmail just picks a different recent email to match. The process is entirely automated: no humans are involved in selecting ads, and no email or personal information is shared with advertisers.
Tip: If you prefer to hide your ads, check out this custom style sheet.
Default https access for Gmail
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Gmail now encrypts all the network traffic by default:
We are currently rolling out default https for everyone. If you've previously set your own https preference from Gmail Settings, nothing will change for your account. If you trust the security of your network and don't want default https turned on for performance reasons, you can turn it off at any time by choosing "Don't always use https" from the Settings menu. Gmail will still always encrypt the login page to protect your password. Google Apps users whose admins have not already defaulted their entire domains to https will have the same option.
Tip: Mailplane has its own security setting: Use a secure connection (https) under Preferences > Accounts. If turned on it'll open Gmail with the https protocol, even if the Gmail setting isn't set to use https. The Mailplane preference was introduced in 2007, before Gmail had the https setting. It is always turned on by default, too. There's a good chance you always used https in the past.
Important information for "Offline Gmail" users: If your can't sync anymore, it's because of the https settings change. Check out this help page for the solution.
Solution for the Gmail/WebKit issue causing crashes
Monday, January 11, 2010
A recent Gmail update crashes Mailplane, Safari, and other WebKit based applications. The Gmail help forum has a couple of threads concerning this problem and it is now listed on the Gmail known issues page. Not all Gmail accounts seem to be affected, but those who are, experience a duplicating chat box that lead to a crash.
Solution: If you affected by this Gmail bug, consider using the 2.1.3 preview version. It contains the latest WebKit nightly build, which solves the issue.
Announcements • Gmail • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
New Gmail lab feature: Mark unread from here
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
If you are subscribed to mailing lists with long conversations, then this new lab feature comes in handy:
Clicking this option on a message tells Gmail that you want that message to be the first one you see when you reopen the thread later, with all messages after it open for easy reading. So, when you leave partway through reading a long thread, figuring out where to start reading again is easy.
Offline Gmail graduates from Labs
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
"Offline Gmail" is no longer a lab feature - it's now part of the official Gmail offering:
Almost a year ago, we launched Offline Gmail in Gmail Labs. By installing Offline Gmail, you're able to use the normal Gmail interface to read and write mail, search, and organize, even when there's no internet connection. And Flaky Connection mode speeds up Gmail when your connection is slow or unreliable.
Tip: To get started with "Offline Gmail" and Mailplane, please check out the how to article.
New Gmail Lab Feature: Default text styling
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
A new lab feature lets us define the default font and format for the "rich text" emails we write:
If you like to use a specific text style for your messages, you've had to change the font every time you're about to start typing out an email. Now, you can turn on default text styling from the Labs tab, then go to Settings and set your preferences just once.
Offline Gmail: Bye bye Google Gears? Hello HTML5?
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
I found different interesting news stories this morning. It looks like Google will slowly switching over to HTML5 for browser extensions like Offline support:
The Google spokesman wrote to clarify in a follow-up e-mail, "We're continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it's a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers."
If Offline Gmail is ported to HTML5 then this is terrific news for Snow Leopard users. WebKit already has a pretty complete HTML5 implementation. In fact: Offline Gmail on the iPhone is already powered by it.
A few news articles:
Like to try “Send attachments while offline”?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Today, Google announced an important improvement: "Offline Gmail" users are now able to send messages including attachments when they are offline. The upcoming Mailplane 2.1.1 version will allow attachment drag and drop while you are offline.
In case you can't wait and like to test it, here's the Mailplane 2.1.1 preview version.
Like to setup "Offline Gmail"? Check out the Gmail offline 'how-to' article.
Read the official Gmail blog post.
Gmail • New Features • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Offline Gmail: Choose which messages get downloaded
Thursday, November 05, 2009
If you're using Offline Gmail with Mailplane, you may like the new Gmail Offline settings:
You can now choose which messages get downloaded. On the Offline tab under Settings, you'll see your current settings and be able to set how much mail you want to download from each of your labels.
- Change date range setting for all listed labels.
- Click "Change label setting" to set the date range for each label separately.
Tip: If you don't see the new settings, create a new Gmail session by Command-clicking the "Sign out" link in the top right of the main window.
Important: Offline Gmail only works with Mailplane 2.1-beta (or later). If you are using Snow Leopard, check out the Snow Leopard Google Gears page.
What’s new with Gmail on iPhone
Monday, October 26, 2009
Google just blogged about the Gmail improvements on the iPhone:
Over the last six months, we've added a lot: mute, label management, keyboard shortcuts, smart links, an outbox, and the ability to move messages (label and archive in one step). Some new features, like swipe-to-archive and auto-expanding compose boxes, take advantage of these mobile phones' unique properties. We also made address auto-complete faster, enhanced refresh capabilities, and sped up loading so Gmail for mobile starts in under three seconds on newer smartphones.
We'll continue to add more functionality —and there's no need to download or update anything as long as you have iPhone/iPod touch OS 2.2.1 or above or are using an Android-powered device. Just go to gmail.com from your mobile browser as you do on your PC.
