If you want to be part of the unofficial beta team for the iOS version of GMail, you can grab it here. Note that it apparently isn’t showing up in iTunes searches, at least from my iPad.

Here is the description:

Get the official Gmail experience for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

With the Gmail app, you can:
● Receive notification badges for new messages
● Read your mail with threaded conversations
● Organize your mail by archiving, labeling, starring, deleting, and reporting spam
● Keep track of important messages with priority inbox
● Auto-complete contact names as you type
● Send and receive attachments
● Search through all

I have been a GMail user since their early beta days, but three times this week I was reminded of how dead simple and useful their archiving and saving functions can be!

First, a bit of background. My best friend is getting married next week, and so I have been wracking my brain putting together a toast for her and her fiancée. I had some fun anecdotes about her, as well as stories from when the two of them started dating, but I was looking for something more to add. Thinking maybe old emails would help, I typed her name into GMail, and discovered (or, really, re-discovered) that GMail helpfully saves all chat conversations along with email. Within… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

For the past few weeks Judie and I have both being using a new service called WRITETHAT.NAME. If you use Gmail as your email client (directly or as the engine powering something like Mac OS X Mail.app), the service makes it very simple to keep your address book up to date.

It is an interesting service that scans your email for personal contact information and then updates it on a daily basis — so long as you have turned on the auto-update feature. If not, then it will offer you the updated information and you can choose to accept… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As more and more of us use various social media services to connect with others and manage our lives the need to integrate these services becomes increasingly important. One good example of what is possible is SnapCal. SnapCal is a free iOS app that “Mashes-up Twitter, Google Calendar and Evernote to help iPhone® & iPod touch® Users Create, Edit and Share Events & Calendars”.

It is a neat idea and Has already been downloaded by over 100,000 users. As the company explains,

Infoteria Corporation today announced its latest version of “SnapCal,” an iPhone and iPod touch calendar app that lets users create, edit and share events through Twitter. Simplifying social events management, Google Calendar users

Image courtesy of Google

Does Google’s free app goodness ever end? Whether you’re a fan of Google or not, you must admit that the free services they offer are among some of the best. Google is constantly adding new apps and upgrading existing ones to their huge lineup. Google chat expanded a few months ago with the addition of letting you communicate via video and voice (plugin required) to someone right from the chat window. Google announced this morning that now you don’t even need to pickup your phone anymore to make free calls to the US and Canada directly from your Gmail. Since your contacts are fully integrated into Gmail, you can just call… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

photo credit: fensterbme

Gear Chat #4 is live and available below (and on iTunes!!!)

In this edition of Gear Chat Dan and Larry talk Bluetooth, Gmail, iPhone apps and… iPad…

I have a question for all you Gmail users. I’m hoping you can give me a little advice. I am a disorganized e-mail user and… I… need… HELP!

Let me explain.

The other day I look at my inbox and was horrified to discover that I had over 2400 e-mails sitting there. You read that right — 2400 e-mails were there in my Inbox. Larry asked me a reasonable question — “How did things get this far.”

It’s a good question and I actually have an answer. I need help. For the longest time I would receive e-mails, read them and then leave them in my inbox because I figured I needed to respond to them or get a piece of information from them at a later date. I did this once, twice, and before I knew it I had built up a tremendous number of e-mails in my inbox. In addition when junky e-mails would come in I would look at them, decide to ignore them, but not remove them. Between the two approaches it wasn’t long before yes, 2400 e-mails in my inbox.

The other day I decided to change all that.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Because my iPhone is largely a work device these days, e-mail is an important element of what I do on it. And because e-mail is an important part of what I do on my iPhone, the iPhone application reMail has become key for me. The concept behind the application is quite simple. It downloads your entire Gmail account to your handheld device, compresses it so that it doesn’t take up an overwhelming amount of space, and then lets that e-mail reside on the device itself so that you can search it whenever and where ever you need. If you’ve ever tried to search for an e-mail from more than a few weeks ago on your iPhone you’ll understand how convenient the speed and off-line access to e-mail is.

And how well does it work? Well, thanks to reMail I have 81,066 different emails on my iPhone and they only take 304 MG of space. That’s impressive and makes it a must have app for serious iPhone users. Sadly, unless you have already purchased the application you’re out of luck.

I wasn’t liking Google Buzz to begin with. I don’t like, it, I don’t need it…… actually I don’t even know what it is! Then I read this piece on TechCrunch– Google Buzz Privacy Issues Have Real Life Implications. (thanks Carly). Seriously this is some scary stuff and is a MUST READ.

Well if Google is going to make us all opt out so be it. And while there is an option to turn off Buzz on the bottom of the Gmail screen there is apparently a better, safer and more complete way to turn off Google’s newest “feature”… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Google has unleashed Google Buzz. It feels somewhat like wave from the video, but there’s some unique things that make it like Twitter. Twitter on steroids. So far, it seems, the only thing out there is the new version of Google Maps. So what do the Gear Diary writers think about the latest Google thing?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Google Buzz has only been out for two days, and already there are tips and tricks for getting the most of out of Google’s new social networking/Gmail tool.

Here are a few from around the Internet:

• How to get started with Google Buzz
• How to Connect any site or RSS feed to Google Buzz
• Delete a Buzz post in email or mobile Buzz
• How to Post messages and Photos via an email in Google Buzz
• How to Disable Google Buzz
• How to Stop Google Buzz from showing your Google Contacts

Google Buzz has the Internet… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It’s time once again for News from the Googlesphere…all Google news, all the time!

Google News gets starred:  The star feature in Gmail and Google Reader has always been a great help to those folks who want to go back and re-read something.  The stars highlight the email/post/etc and allow readers to go back.  Well, now Google has added this feature to its Google News.  Now readers can star articles (up to 20) and read them later, at their leisure.

Google App Store? Google is looking to ramp up sales of its Google Apps platform by jumping on the App Store bandwagon and developing a online store where it will sell business… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

(photo courtesy lifehacker)

If you’re like me, you probably set up the Mail application on your Mac at first. And it’s a perfectly fine email program, if you want your mail stored locally. I set mine up when I bought my iBook (the last of the G3 models…what a great little computer!), using my comcast email address.

Then GMail came along and changed everything. I had always hated web based email, preferring to use Outlook on my PCs and Mail on my Mac. But the GMail interface was so much better than what the desktop options offered, I immediately jumped ship to the web based site and never looked back. Except, of… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

In the last 24 hours, quite a bit of information has been spreading about Google’s decision to end their censoring of searches in China, and potentially cease their business operations entirely with that country. The precipitator for this decision appears to be cyber-attacks on Google, including GMail accounts, mostly related to the emails of human rights advocates focused on conditions in China. But what does this all really mean? Is Google living up to “Don’t Be Evil”, or are they just making a pragmatic business decision in an environment that was hostile long before any attacks took place?

The Wall Street Journal looked at the situation as a heavily pragmatic one, from the perspective of whether this… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Google is a part of our everyday lives.  Someone recently asked me how many of Google’s services I use on a regular basis…I stopped counting at ten.

So what would happen if someone hacked your Google accounts (Gmail, Apps, etc)? What can you do?  Are there steps to fix all this?

Well, luckily or unlucky, one of the staff of Digital Inspiration had this happen to him and has posted ten steps for protecting your Google accounts, as well as the directions on how to get your account back.

From the article:

#3. Take a paper and write down the following information about your Google Account. You will need this to verify your