Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen concepts for upcoming versions of iOS, upcoming iPhones and even shoes that talk to you, but one thing we haven’t seen much concept love for is the Gmail app, especially on the Android platform. But that’s exactly what we’re going to feature in this story as an Android developer has gone ahead and delivered an impressive concept for everyone’s favorite email application.

Android developer and developer Paul Burke published a set of photos to his Google+ page which takes a look how the Gmail for Android app could be made better. Burke imagines a Gmail application that offers a simple and elegant interface which incorporates all of contacts and makes the experience more intuitive by reorganizing your inbox. Don’t fall in love with this Gmail concept too hard as with the majority of concepts, they’re just a re-imagining of a product and in no way represent what companies plan to do with them in the future. In this case though, we hope Google is paying close attention to this Gmail for Android concept.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iOS 7 Concept Reimagines Lock Screen, Text Messaging And More, Low-Budget iPhone Concept Reminds Us Of The iMac G3,

On April Fools Day 2004, Google launched Gmail, and it wasn’t long before @gmail.com email addresses usurped the kingdom of Hotmail. Google just posted a nice visualization of the service’s evolution from a humble beta to a Google Goliath. More »

Google has just updated its Gmail app to bring improved autocomplete predictions to the service. The update should be rolling out to all Gmail users worldwide, as well as Google Apps for Business users. Autocomplete predictions will now include contact thumbnails next to your contacts, as well as past search queries made within your Gmail account. The update is rolling out as we speak, and should be available to all Gmail users within the next few days.

The new update should also have improved autocomplete predictions based on who you email the most. It was only a matter of time before Google added these features to Gmail, seeing as its been included in its search engine, as well as several of its other services, for quite some time. The new autocomplete improvements are a much more welcomed addition than Gmail’s pop-out compose window.

Google also shelled out an update to its Gmail offline and mobile apps last month. The Gmail Offline and mobile web apps have been updated to look more like the iOS version of the Gmail app. Everything is much more clean and much more simple. The new mobile web app is available for most mobile devices, including the iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and Blackberry.

Google also added support for full-sized photo uploads to Google+ straight from your desktop. It rolled out an update to improve spell check for the Google Chrome browser, and just today, it updated its Chrome for Android app which now syncs autofill and password data from your computer to your Android device. Google has been on a roll with its updates, and we’ll most likely see some more very soon.

[via Google]

Google updates Gmail with improved auto-complete predictions is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We all hate change — that’s an evolutionary fact. We’re all programmed to develop habits, and when those habits are interrupted, our bodies tend to not like that. However, change is a part of life, and eventually we adapt to various changes, but some people may not want to give them up just yet. If you don’t like Gmail’s new pop-up compose window, you can actually disable it temporarily.

It’s pretty simple to do, and it doesn’t require any hacking of any sort. Google actually includes the option to temporarily disable the new view. All you have to do is compose a new email message, in which the new pop-up window will show up, and then head down to the small arrow in the lower-right corner. A drop-down menu will appear (or in this case, a drop-up window) where you’ll select “Temporarily switch back to old compose.”

Of course, this is just a temporary measure, so we’re not sure how long you’ll be able to keep the old interface before Google permanently switches it back. They unveiled the new design back in October, where Gmail users can view their inbox and browse other emails while composing a new message without having to flip back and forth. It’s definitely a neat feature, but some users may not like it.

Just yesterday, however, the search giant flipped the switch on all Gmail users and made the new pop-up compose view a default feature, meaning that it’s now officially a part of Gmail. Then again, users are still able to go back to the old view, which has us wondering if Google is really 100% confident in the new design, and since they’re only “temporarily” allowing users to switch back to the old view, the pop-up windows feature may not be as permanent as Google thinks it is. Plus, giving users the option to go back just temporarily defeats the whole purpose of allowing that option in the first place.

Temporarily disabling Gmail’s new compose window: here’s how is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Back on October 30, Google rolled out a new type of composer for Gmail: a small box fixed to the bottom-right corner of the screen that can be popped out. Some liked the change, and others decried it as being bothersome or insufficient for their needs. For the Gmail users among us, regardless of whether you liked the new box or grew fond of it over time (or still hate it months later), it is here to stay.

If you haven’t dusted off your Gmail account in awhile, the new Gmail composer is designed to allow users to browse through the rest of their email without exiting from the composer box, something many users had apparently requested. For example, composing an email with quotes from past emails is easier with the new composer box because you can rifle through your inbox and various folders without affecting the composer.

The issues with it, however, are that the box is small and located in a slightly awkward location on the screen. This can be fixed by popping it out of the frame so that it becomes its own free-floating window, but then you have to deal with toggling between windows if you’re messing around in your inbox, which may or may not be more inconvenient to you than switching between “Drafts” and “Inbox.”

If you don’t like the new composer, it would seem you’re in the minority, at least according to Google, which has made it default for all Gmail users. If you haven’t been using it up until this point, you’ll be seeing it today (and forever after) or sometime in the next few days as Google rolls it out. What do you say? Is the new-ish composer box a keeper, or are you already grieving over the change?

[via Official Gmail Blog]

Gmail’s pop-out composer is now default is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.