Google is rolling out their automatic priority inbox. While I look at the video and think how great this would be I quickly realize I do 85% of my email via a mobile device so this is not really a great feature until it comes to mobile for me. The goal of priority inbox is to present to you the important emails so you know what to read first. This is great if you get various things you want like fantasy football info the is important but not until you are setting up your line up this week. The feature is suppose to learn as you interact with mail and get better. The nice thing is you can star messages to come back to them or if a message is accidentally added you can train the system a message is not important. I am not saying this is like Xobni but it has a small similarity. Check your Gmail settings for the feature [click to continue…]
I have been using my iPhone 4 for about a week now and unlike my iPhone 2G, 3G, and 3GS, this new device has an issue with deleted messages. The problem is simple to describe: if I delete a message on Gmail or any email client, I would get a message stub that appeared with no sender and a date of 12/31/69 on the iPhone. Working as, and with developers, for many years, the date 12/31/69 is all too familiar. I have seen this problem many times in the past. It it almost as common and stupid as the miscalculation of leap year, and yes I have seen that as well. With 100's of thousands of lines of code, mistakes do happen. But, on my iPhone, it was so bad I was hours away from returning the device. My phone was filled with no sender emails. It was making it impossible to work with legit emails.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone, considering the number of reports we have seen over the last couple of weeks, but not only has Android outstripped iOS here in the US, it has surpassed it world-wide as well. [click to continue…]
The Google Mobile Blog just posted an entry detailing that Google Mobile Search now supports a History function. When I saw this, I immediately pulled up my Android browser and was disappointed that I didn’t see anything. However, upon closer inspection I saw than my default home page on the Motorola Droid was a ‘special’ version for Verizon Android. When I change it to just Google.com, everything showed up correctly. [click to continue…]
Yesterday Google released its new version of the search results. They added the ability to drill down on the results. By clicking the plus sign in the top left corner you are given the ability to narrow down the results with search terms. Some of the terms are Images, Videos, Blogs and Past 24 hours. Well they have also enabled this feature on mobile searches.
Originally the Nexus One was slated to have Wireless N support but it was removed by release time. Well looks like it is now coming back. According to Egadget, the next update for the Nexus will add the needed drivers to turn on the wireless N support. Now to most readers this really won't make much of a difference.
Google Recently released an update for Google Maps. The update will take you from version 4.01 to 4.02. This probably means that the updates were minor bug fixes. For quite some time I have been using AT&T Navigator as my GPS Navigation Software of choice. I don't mind paying the monthly fee because it keeps the maps updated. I know for my mom's truck it is 200 dollars to update the maps. Other systems are less but you are roughly paying the same price to keep your maps up to date. Google pretty much has the same system going on with the turn by turn directions on Android and since I switched to the Nexus One, I recently had a chance to test it out.
Over the last couple days I have been playing with some of the web apps I use from time to time. I wanted to focus on just Google Apps in this post as it can get confusing going to dozens of web sites with all their apps. The results varied from a crashing Safari to just a brilliant experience. My first reaction was to blame Google because they way the error looked, but after further testing, I blame Apple. There was no Adobe flash to blame and the iPhone handles the site just fine so only thing left is to say the issue is on Apple. [click to continue…]
An article in the Korean Herald says Korea has asked Apple to allow Korean users the option to choose their search engine on the iPhone. The Korea Communications Commission is looking to determine if providing a default search engine limits consumer choice. I am going to go out on a limb here, but Apple is all about limiting consumer choice. This is not in a totally bad way they want less options to make for a better user experience. That said, allowing users to add more then Google or Yahoo as a default search engines is not a huge request. Heck, it is something a lot of people would want. This limitation of search engine options applies to both mobile Safari and the desktop version.
"Korea is one of a few countries where local search engines are widely used. In this regard, we have sent an email requesting Apple expand user options (for search engines)," the KCC said on condition of anonymity.
In Korea users actually leverage a variety of local search engines so this market has a larger need for search engine options then other markets. I suspect Google and Yahoo paid premium dollars to be front and center on the iPhone. It has been reported the Google pays Apple $100 million annually to be the default search engine. I have no issue with this type of relationship. What I do wish is as the consumer, I have the option to add another search engine. Maybe much like Mozilla is paid by Google for search volume, Apple is paid by Google and Yahoo. Is the limitation here purely driven by revenue paid to Apple?
Such relationships are not bad until you impose absolute restrictions by not allowing users choice. Are the default settings pushed by Apple ,on the iPhone, right up against anti-competitive behaviors? Could lack of choice on one of the most popular smartphones actually have a negative impact on competition? Is this how and where government regulation starts with Apple?
I have been using Google Voice since the it was Grand Central and it is just and amazing solution. I highlighted in an earlier post my 10 favorite aspects of google voice. Google has made some advancements that until now I just overlooked and never worried about. It is interesting because I have heard many complaints about this exact issue in a Google Wave thread. In order for this to work open the Android Market and download the Google Voice update. Also you either need a Google Voice account or know someone that can send you and invite. Here is the press announcement. [click to continue…]
