Hasta La Gadget!

One of the great things about Gmail for mobile devices is that they are ad-free, unlike the web version of the service. Given that it is a free service, it is understandable that Google is looking for a way to monetize it, and it seems that ads could be coming in the next version of the app for Android. According to the APK teardown by the folks at Android Police, it has been discovered that in Gmail 4.6, there is a strong likelihood that ads will be added to the app. This is according to strings that were discovered within the APK which makes multiple references to the ads.

There also appears to be a whole new library added to the mix called ads, which we guess is kind of obvious too. Based on what the folks at Android Police have found, it seems that the ads can actually be saved by users if they wish and will be stored within the inbox of their Gmail account. Alternatively dismissed ads will then be deleted. We’re not sure why anyone would want to save an ad, but we guess if you do, there’s an option for that. No word on when ads will be introduced, but we guess we’ll keep an eye out for that.

Gmail APK Teardown For Android Reveals That Ads Are Arriving original content from Ubergizmo.

Google’s Gmail app for Android has remained an ad-free sanctuary, but code uncovered by Android Police in an APK teardown of the application’s latest version hints that circumstances might change. Buried within the the program is a new library called “ads,” along with messages, functions and classes mentioning advertisements. What’s more, a “ShowAdPreferenceManager()” function routes users to the ad settings page for their very own Google account. Its not clear if sponsored bits will make it into the promotions folder just like the web version of Mountain View’s inbox, but the clues suggest you should brace yourself to see some marketing relatively soon.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Google

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Via: 9to5Google

Source: Android Police

Google’s Gmail email service has not been in the pink of health lately, so much so that there were email delivery delay issues reported this week. Having said that, there is another thing for Gmail users to look out for, and that is, if one were to insert images into the body of an email message, the simple act of doing so might actually see you receive a temporary ban from the account.

This is a rather disturbing bug which has already affected some unsuspecting Gmail users over the course of the past few months, and chances are it will have something to do with Gmail’s revamped “New Message” compose interface. That particular interface rolled out to the masses sometime at the latter part of last year, and since then it has become the default setting for Gmail users this year as Google claims it is faster, simpler and better compared to the previous basic HTML interface. So far, Google has already acknowledged the issue, but has not yet arrived at a solution to help users out.

Needless to say, affected users are not too happy with the situation. One of them even mentioned, “I’m scared to continue to rely on Gmail now. I use it for a lot of time-sensitive messages, both personal and for a not-for-profit organization that I work closely with. I cannot afford to be arbitrarily locked out of my account through no fault of my own due to a bug that Google has acknowledged but has left unresolved for months.”

Inserting Images Into Gmail Email Body Could Result In A Temporary Ban original content from Ubergizmo.

The “cards” user interface can easily be found in a number of mobile apps that Google has developed for its various services. Latest service to receive this treatment is Gmail. An update is being rolled out today which brings a ”cleaner conversation view.” There are a number of design tweaks as well. This is purely a cosmetic change, the update isn’t a major one by any standard and does not bring any big new features.

The conversations view in Gmail for Android is now much cleaner than before The additional design tweaks include checkmarks for effortless multiple message selection, after which the user can easily see which messages they’re going to move, archive or delete. A nifty little feature has made its way onto the app nonetheless. This Gmail for Android update will now notify users if account sync is off. This way, users won’t accidently miss an important email. The update brings version number up to 4.6. Since the app is being rolled out in stages, it may appear available for users in different regions around the world, at different times. The app will go live in the Google Play Store the moment it is available in a particular region, it is available as a free download for all Android users.

Gmail For Android Update Brings Cards Interface To Conversations original content from Ubergizmo.

All right, I am quite sure that many folks out there who are also Gmail users ran into issues with the online email service yesterday (which we also reported on), and even until today, there has been a fair number of Gmail users who woke up to a rather unpleasant surprise – that some of their Gmail messages were arriving at a slow pace that they were not used to, with certain attachments not making the cut, either. Google has apologized, saying, “We’d like to start by apologizing—we realize that our users rely on Gmail to be always available and always fast, and for several hours we didn’t deliver. We have analyzed what happened, and we’ll tell you about it below. In addition, we’re taking several steps to prevent a recurrence.”

Basically, the cause of the message delivery delays happened to be attributed to a dual network failure, which is a rather rare event as a couple of different, redundant network paths actually fail to work simultaneously. While these two network failures happen to be unrelated, being down in tandem had actually resulted in a reduced capacity for Gmail to deliver messages to users. Needless to say, from 5:54 a.m. PST onward, messages started to pile up and Google’s automated monitoring alerted the Gmail engineering team within minutes, so an investigation into the matter was launched. Were you or your business affected by this slowdown? [Press Release]

Google Sheds More Light On Gmail Delivery Delay original content from Ubergizmo.