Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 06, 2008 by CyberNet.

Google has decided to take a few risks with Gmail by introducing Gmail labs. They say that they receive a lot of ideas for Gmail from both users and employees at Google, but they don’t always have the time to develop and implement them all. For this reason they started Gmail Labs which they say, “is a way for us to take lots of the ideas we wouldn’t normally pick and let you all decide whether they’re good or not.

For now it’s just offered in standard Gmail, and not for those using Google Apps. That’s not to say that they won’t offer this feature in the future for Google Apps users though. We could easily see this turning into something like iGoogle where everyday users, not just Google employees, will be able to submit their own work which would be great.

At this point, the Google Labs feature is available to those in the United States and the United Kingdom. You’ll know if you have it by logging into Gmail and clicking on the Settings tab. If you see a section at the far right labeled “Labs,” you have it. Just click on it to browse through the features that have already been made.

Of course you can view all of the different new features here, but we’ll quickly run through them so you can get an idea of what’s available:

• Quick Links: Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.
• Superstars: Adds additional star icons. After enabling this feature, you can choose which icons you wish to use in the “General” Settings page.
• Pictures in chat: See your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them.
• Fixed width font: Adds an option to the reply dropdown menu that lets you view a message in fixed width font.
• Custom keyboard shortcuts: Lets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings. Adds a new Settings tab from which you can remap keys to various actions.
• Mouse gestures: Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. Works best on Windows.
• Signature tweaks: Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the “–” line that appears before signatures. Can’t use this and the “Random signature” Labs feature at the same time.
• Random signature: Rotates among random quotations for your email signature. Can’t use this and the “Signature tweaks” Labs feature at the same time.
• Custom date formats: Adds options to the general settings page allowing the date and time format to be changed independent of language. For example, you can use a 24-hour clock (14:57) or show dates with the day first (31/12/07).
• Muzzle: Conserves screen real estate by hiding your friends’ status messages.
• Old Snakey: Kick it old school with Old Snakey! Enable keyboard shortcuts and hit ‘&’ from the main page to play a game of snake.
• Email Addict: Lets you take a break from email and chat by blocking the screen for fifteen minutes and making you invisible in chat.
• Hide Unread Counts: Hides the unread counts for inbox, labels, etc.

Before you go and opt-in to some of these features, just note that they may not always work perfect. They are experimental features, and Google even notes that they could change without notice, break or disappear.

Thanks for the tip Cory!

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You knew it was on deck, and at long last, here it is. Your one and only shot (okay, so maybe that’s a gentle stretch) to tell the world — and Palm, since it’s a part of the world — exactly what you think about the Pre. Since going on sale to the general public just under a month ago, some analysts have suggested that some 300,000 or so units have been moved. We’re quite confident that at least some of that bunch have their eyes peering at this here post, so we’d like to formally ask for your opinions in comments below. Is there anything you’d like to see changed on Palm’s Pre? Is the build quality up to snuff? Is webOS everything you thought it’d be (and more)? Is the QWERTY keyboard doing it for you? Do you wish it supported something that it doesn’t? Unleash your wrath below — we’ll keep your true identity a secret. Maybe.

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change the Palm Pre? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Somehow or another, D-Link managed to combine a NAS, digital photo frame, secondary display and 802.11n router into a single device, and when the Xtreme N DIR-685 Storage Router was announced way back at CES this year, we were certainly interested to see how such a conglomerate would go over. At long last, the do-it-all wireless router is finally making its way out to the public at large, and with an MSRP of $299.99 (sans any internal HDD space), it’s definitely one of the pricier routers out there. We’ve taken this strikingly unique device into our lairs for a few days of testing, and if you’re interested in seeing if this bad boy is worth the price of admission, you’ll need to follow us past the break.

Gallery: D-Link’s Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on

Continue reading D-Link’s Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on and impressions

Filed under: Displays, Storage, Networking

D-Link’s Xtreme N DIR-685 storage router hands-on and impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might say that Verizon’s brand new BlackBerry Tour 9630… ahem, took a “tour” through our offices this morning, gracing us with its QWERTY-having, global-roaming, 8830-killing presence. There’s absolutely no question it’s the best-looking CDMA BlackBerry to date and we also think you’ll be able to stop Bold owners in their tracks as you flash this thing around town; we’d argue that the Curve 8900 is still a cuter handset when you take the company’s lineup as a whole, but then again, the 8900 lacks 3G, and the Tour’s keyboard might just be the best RIM’s ever crafted for a phone. Bottom line, owners of any BlackBerry on Verizon or Sprint should be salivating at the sight of this thing — and if they’re not, honestly, they need their salivary glands checked. Stay tuned for our full review, but in the meantime, enjoy an unboxing and a few quick shots of the Tour taking its first breaths!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Verizon BlackBerry Tour unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At first glance it’s a little difficult to understand the necessity of another motion-sensing add-on. What could possibly be inside this particular block of white plastic that’s not inside those other countless slabs of white plastic that Nintendo has already slathered on the Wii? Sure, we know in theory that the gyroscopes that MotionPlus provides allows the controller to truly orient itself in 3D space, instead of just sensing acceleration in various directions, and breaks some of that reliance on the sensor bar, but do those theoretical advances result in a true leap in gameplay? We tested it out with EA’s new MotionPlus-enabled Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis — the first such titles on the market while we wait for Nintendo to get its own Wii Sports Resort in order — and we’d say the results are pretty inconclusive so far. Check out our full impressions after the break, along with enthralling videos of both games in action.

Major thanks to The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers for letting us test this out at their facilities, and to golf pros Herb and Marj for letting us waste some of their valuable time.

Continue reading Wii MotionPlus impressions: it works, but so far the games aren’t worth the fuss

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Wii MotionPlus impressions: it works, but so far the games aren’t worth the fuss originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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