Tag: gmail
Rumours of Google planning an incredible unlimited cloud storage service
Whispers around the intertubes would have you believe that Google has something very special planned for this year – unlimited cloud storage. It would mean that if you’ve got a fast enough broadband connection, then you’d no longer need more than a tiny hard drive – everything else could be stored online.
For the record, I don’t think Google’s quite there yet. Even their email product is officially limited, when its competitors’ products aren’t. There’s every chance that we’ll see some sort of limited storage product released by the Goog in 2009 but, well, the ‘unlimited’ label – I just don’t think it can happen yet.
(via ShinyShiny)
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GMail adds themes
There’s a Firefox extension called Better GMail which Gina Trapani from Lifehacker has put together. It’s a compilation of Greasemonkey scripts that enhance various aspects of the service, from its looks to its functionality.
Google has a history of taking the best bits of the extension and adding them officially to GMail, and now they’ve added the popular ‘themes’ functionality. The themes look damn good – there’s giraffes, ninjas, the themes can change over time, or with the weather, and there’s even an old-skool ASCII theme.
The themes will be rolling out across GMail over the next few days. They’re not enabled on my account yet, sadly. Have they shown up on yours? Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
Related posts: GMail adds voice and video chat | GMail adds yet more functionality – this time it’s SMS
GMail adds voice and video chat
Yet more new features for everyone’s favourite webmail client, Google Mail. This time, the team has enabled video and voice chatting on the service, which joins SMS, OpenID, Calendar and Doc gadgets and emoticon support on the feature list.
Google’s going to be rolling out the new functionality over the course of today, so if you can’t get it yet, then try again a little later. To get to it, you’ll need to install a small plugin, which you can pick up here, and then it’ll appear in the bottom of your chat windows.
Let us know in the comments how it performs on your broadband connection, and how you think it compares to similar services, like Skype.
Google Video Chat (via Official GMail Blog)
Related things Google has added to Gmail recently: SMS | OpenID | Calendar and Doc gadgets | Emoticon support
GMail adds yet more functionality – this time it's SMS
GMail’s really blitzing new features out at the moment – yesterday it became an OpenID provider, and earlier in the week they rolled out gadgets for Calendar and Docs, but today’s new feature is SMS.
If you’ve got phone numbers stored with your contacts then if they go offline when you’re talking to them, your messages will be sent as SMS instead. Best of all, it’ll give the person you SMS a number that they can email in the future to get messages to your GMail account.
The functionality hasn’t arrived over this side of the pond yet, but it’s a lovely little bonus feature, so I hope it shows up soon. It’s yet another reason why you should use GMail over Yahoo or Hotmail.
GMail (via GoogleWatch)
GMail becomes an OpenID provider
Google has joined Yahoo! and Microsoft in the ranks of being an OpenID provider. Anyone who has a GMail address can now use it to log in to any site that accepts OpenID logins, like Zoho and Plaxo.
The list of sites that accept OpenID doesn’t include Microsoft, Yahoo! or Google, you might notice, despite the fact that they provide IDs. That’s because they’ve just signed up to the movement as a ‘provider’, not a ‘relying party’. That’s a shame, because now that everyone probably has two or three OpenIDs, it’d be nice to have somewhere to use them.
The OpenID movement is a decentralised service that’s supposed to provide you with one login for every website. It doesn’t work quite as well as that in practice, but it’s a very noble concept, so Google gets a small round of applause for providing them. A far bigger round of applause would be gained if they supported it themselves.
OpenID (via TechCrunch)
Related posts: No Facebook app on Android – not until Google does it for them | GMails adds gadgets for Calendar and Documents
GMails adds gadgets for Calendar and Documents
Just a quick one, this, but enormously useful. Google has added gadgets to GMail that allow you to view your calendar and your documents in little boxes to the left of your window. If you’re anything like me, then you have your Gmail window open at all times, so this is an enormously useful addition to the web app. To turn them on, go to the “labs” section, by clicking the volumetric flask in the top right…
GMail adds emoticon support :'(
There are few things in life more annoying than those Smiley Central flash ads that go “helloooo” and “omg! no way!” when you mouse over them. Especially when your speakers are up and the rest of the office laughs at you. We’ve all been there…
Mobile GMail version 2.0 released – a billion times better than before
Like many people, I use GMail almost exclusively for my email. I run Mobile GMail on my N95, but the application is one of the least functional that I’ve ever seen. Luckily, Mobile GMail 2.0 is here to save the day. It adds better performance, offline support, multiple account support and lets you save more than one draft email at a time…
Mail Goggles for Gmail – preventing email disasters since 2008
Gmail’s “Labs” functionality has been underutilized a little, of late. Since the big fanfare when it was released, there haven’t been too many new plugins released. That’s why I’m delighted to reveal that Google has enabled a “Mail Googles” feature, designed to stop you sending emails when drunk…
If Microsoft had made Gmail…
Clearly inspired by the legendary ‘If Microsoft had made the iPod’ viral video, Google Blogoscoped has been wondering what Gmail would look like if it’d been spawned in Redmond too. And they have Photoshop mock-ups as a demonstration. Genius!
