Google on Wednesday re-released their native Gmail app for  iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices just two weeks after pulling the program as reviewers panned the program’s interface (basically a web wrapper) and constant notification problems.

While the new offering (available now in the App Store) is still not the perfect solution it does away with the Google Notifications problem and errors have been fixed.

On the official Google blog Product Manager Matthew Izatt wrote:

“Two weeks ago, we introduced our Gmail app for iOS. Unfortunately it contained a bug which broke notifications and displayed an error message, so we removed it from the App Store. We’ve fixed the bug and notifications are now working, and the app is back in the App Store. For an overview of what’s available in the Gmail app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, check out this blog post.In the short time the app was public we received a lot of helpful feedback and feature requests. This included requests for everything from bigger features like multiple account support to customizations like improved notifications and mobile specific signatures.”

Google’s Gmail engineers in the meantime are promising to update the iOS app in the coming weeks to provide more features. One such improvement developed in the last two weeks is better handling of image HTML messages which are now sized to fit the users display with pinch for zoom capabilities.

The new Gmail app can be installed on iOS 4+ devices.

Special Note: If you installed the Gmail app release prior to Nov. 2 you will need to uninstall the app or log out of the older app before installing the new option. 

Google Relaunches Gmail iOS App Two Weeks After Disastrous First Attempt is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google on Wednesday announced that they will stop supporting their Gmail app for Blackberry Smartphones and will pull the application from the Blackberry App World mobile marketplace as of November 22.

According to Google users of the native app will still be able to receive their Gmail messages on their devices but will no longer receive updates or customer support for the program.

Instead Google hopes customers using Blackberry devices will begin reading their Gmail messages via the mobile browser.

The idea is that newer BlackBerry 6 and Blackberry 7 OS systems with WebKit browsers will provide a better experience for Research In Motion device buyers while in turn making it easier for Google to deliver updates across their own platform rather than relying on Blackberry app standards.

News of the move shouldn’t surprise mobile users, Google had recently launched and then pulled their iOS Gmail app after critics pointed out that it was not more than a program inside a web wrapper.

Will you be logging into your Gmail accounts from a Blackberry browser or stick with your current Gmail app while it still works?

Google Pulls Gmail Support For Blackberry App is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is pretty handy.

If you need to send a lot of pics via email but have no need to save then trash them, a new functionality in GMail will probably make your life a lot easier. A while back, GMail Labs added the ability to drag images from the desktop into the body of an email, which is marginally easier than attaching the image manually.

But now you can skip the middleman completely and copy an image to your clipboard before pasting it into an email, eliminating the attachment process altogether. On their blog, GMail announces:

So if you copy an image from the web or another email, you can paste it right into your message. This is especially handy for passing around screenshots — you don’t have to save the files any more (I’ve been using Command-Control-Shift-4 on my Mac to save screenshots directly to the clipboard).

The pasting function is only available in Chrome right now, but Chrome is pretty awesome, so if you’re not using it, it’s another reason to start. Another cool aspect is that if you need the image for reference, it will automatically be available in your sent mail.

Does this feature sound super useful to anyone else?

GMail Now Lets You Paste Pics From the Clipboard is a post from: The Inquisitr

GMail announced the addition today of the ability within the service to change the background image to a custom theme.

Many users select themes for the email service’s main page from the available standards, but I always feel like someone is judging me if I have to open my email around them. (I currently use “Candy,” so my secret is out.) Now if you simply scroll to the bottom of the available themes, and click on the first box labeled “text,” a dialog box will come up enabling you to select an image from your Picasa albums or upload one from your own computer. (Be aware it adds the pic to your Picasa albums.)

I gave it a go with my favorite Jack White pic, which is honestly not super well-suited to the application but it’s my inbox and screw you guys:

Two other features, “Got the wrong Bob?” and “Don’t forget Bob” have also “graduated” from Labs. These two Gmail features avoid sending sensitive email to the wrong dude, in case the 15 second long “oops” window is too small for you.

Have you used any of the three new features? Will you be using the custom image option to brand your inbox?

[Image]

GMail adds custom backgrounds, recipient check failsafes is a post from: The Inquisitr

Using words like “uncontrolled use” and “security threat” the Russian security service is proposing that the country ban the use of web services like Skype, Hotmail and Gmail.

Due to the use of foreign made encryption technology the Federal Security Service (FSB) is expressing an increased concern over these global web services.

“Uncontrolled usage of these services may lead to massive threat to Russia’s security,” he said at a meeting of the government’s communication and technology committee.

Control of Internet traffic through these services is done from servers outside Russia, and so they are often used by extremist organizations, Andreyechkin was reported as saying before the meeting continued without the press.

Deputy communications minister Ilya Massukh later said that recommendations on regulating the mass usage of encryption technology would be given to the government by October 1.

The FSB would like to ban these services in Russia because “security authorities cannot access them,” Massukh was reported as saying.

Russian agencies quoted a Kremlin source later Friday as saying that Andreyechkin’s statements were “his own opinion and don’t reflect the government’s policy regarding development of the Internet.”

“Andreyechkin overstepped his authority and made hasty remarks about these popular services,” the source said, RIA Novosti reported.

“State policy in the sphere of Internet technology is not set by security services.”

via AFP/Google News

 

No Gmail or Skype for Russians says country’s security service is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s been about three days since Google’s GMail Motion prank for April Fools Day, and someone has already created a working version of the joke product.

If you missed it, Googlers demonstrated a GMail function that allowed for controlling the service via gestures rather than typing. (The funniest bit was the “preview” of Motion for Google Docs with people acting out a pie chart.) Using “computer’s built-in webcam and Google’s patented spatial tracking technology,” the service was described as a fun and challenging physical activity:

Using Gmail Motion is not only safe but also healthy and fun. As with any physical activity, certain precautions are recommended. First, make sure to clear the area around you. Second, try to take short breaks every 30-40 minutes, just as you would if you were typing. And finally, take time to stretch after each session to give the muscles you’ll be using some relief.

Some dudes at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies have actually hacked it into reality with a Kinect sensor, as seen in the video below. The guy in the video explains:

This morning, Google introduced Gmail Motion, allowing users to control Gmail using gestures and body movement. However, for whatever reason, their application doesn’t appear to work. So, we demonstrate our solution — the Software Library Optimizing Obligatory Waving (SLOOW) — and show how it can be used with a Microsoft Kinect sensor to control Gmail using the gestures described by Google.

The gesture in the above pic? To send an email, he mimes licking a stamp and slapping his knee:

‘Hackers’ bring GMail Motion to life with Kinect sensor is a post from: The Inquisitr

…if it existed.

Google has always celebrated April Fools Day with either pranks or nearly implausible product launches- GMail was thought, at the time it was announced, to be an elaborate prank because back then, the storage offered was crazy unbelievable. This year’s prank is a motion detecting GMail add-on described by Google as such:

Gmail Motion uses your computer’s built-in webcam and Google’s patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels.

But Google warns:

Using Gmail Motion is not only safe but also healthy and fun. As with any physical activity, certain precautions are recommended. First, make sure to clear the area around you. Second, try to take short breaks every 30-40 minutes, just as you would if you were typing. And finally, take time to stretch after each session to give the muscles you’ll be using some relief.

Similar functionality for Google Docs Motion Beta is “coming soon.” (Click through for some hilarious pics of people miming pie charts.)

GMail Motion: Like Kinect for your inbox… is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’ll admit it- I have a strong prejudice against certain email address domains and even occasionally try to convert people still using undesirable domains.

I don’t know what this says about me (I’m sure it’s not entirely positive), but it seems that the email domain attached to your address at least strongly correlates to some specific profiles. Hunch.com gathered demographic data on 70,000 people, and drafted some general illustrations of what email addresses say about users. The gold standard indicated was firstname.lastname@gmail.com, Vice president of marketing for Hunch Kelly Ford explained:

“It makes it easier for people to remember your name, plus it’s more professional than something that mentions your favorite brand or has a series of numbers… Just like you would carefully pick out clothes to wear to an interview, you want to choose your e-mail domain with the same precision and think about the impression you want to make.”

Email snob fist bump, Kelly. Ford also expounded upon the common threads found surrounding certain domains. GMail users, the study indicated, tended to be more “wordly” males, who were thin, young and have gone places and done things. GMail users also tended to be liberal, childless, prefer digital to physical media (MP3s to CDs) and probably spend a lot of time in coffeehouses talking about locally sourced tomatoes. Okay, I added that last part.

Hotmail users, on the other hand, were found to be more likely suburban females of “average build,” who still live with mom, have a pessimistic attitude, and like “contemporary fiction” and desserts. Users with Yahoo addresses tended to be overweight females ranging up to the age of 49, who, by the general description given, were not at all worldly and frankly, kind of slovenly. AOL users were- is this surprising?- the bottom of the worldliness barrel, as well as older and fatter than all users of the other domains included. (The Oatmeal called this a while back.)

Basically, what you can take away from this is stop using AOL for email if you haven’t already. Christ. Also, if you haven’t jumped on the GMail bandwagon, it’s probably a good idea to try to claim at least part of your actual name for professional use.

Are you judgmental about email address domains? Would you trust someone with your business if they’re emailing you professionally from an AOL account?

Study says email domain stereotypes really do bear out is a post from: The Inquisitr

Were you among the unlucky .8% of GMail users whose accounts were affected by a recent spate of chat and email deletions?

If so, you should have access to all the previously unavailable data thought to have possibly been consumed by the cloud. After nearly five days of uncertainty, Google added a late night/early morning update (1:51 AM) to its Apps Status Dashboard, confirming data had been restored for most affected users:

The problem with Google Mail should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.

However, some users may be experiencing unspecified other ongoing problems with their GMail accounts related to Sunday’s service disruption. The update continued:

Gmail should be back to normal for the vast majority of people affected by this issue. If you are still experiencing an issue, please contact us at gmail-maintenance@google.com. Thanks again for bearing with us.

If you were affected by the service issues, has your account returned to normal? If not, what hasn’t yet been resolved?

Google says data restored for all GMail accounts is a post from: The Inquisitr

What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and all your saved GMail information was gone?

That is not the plot of a new scary movie- it actually happened to almost 1% of GMail users, users who as of now are unable to access their stored GMail and old chats. Engadget described the horror, initially estimating 500,000 affected users but revising it down to 150,000- still staggering:

“[150K] Gmail users lost access to their inboxes this morn, and some of them are reporting (via Twitter and support forums) that years worth of messages, attachments and Google Chat logs had vanished by the time they were finally able to log on. While we haven’t experienced the issue personally, we’re hearing that the bug effectively reset some accounts, treating their owners as new users complete with welcome messages.”

The problem has yet to be completely resolved, and Engadget says Google’s prognosis has been “promising but terribly vague [about] when the situation will be resolved.” Are you one of the unlucky .8%? Would a GMail account deletion be catastrophic for you, or merely an inconvenience?

Worst fears confirmed- 150K lose all saved GMails, chats is a post from: The Inquisitr

Missing: six copies of Apple news you’ve already unwilling read from ten other sources.

[Source]

A screenshot of your GMail inbox is a post from: The Inquisitr

A Michigan man is facing five years in prison after police say he logged into his wife’s Gmail account without her permission with the intention of spying on her.

33-year-old Leon Walker is charged with a felony ‘hacking’ count following the incident, during which he discovered his wife had been unfaithful to him. Although evidence gathering using social networking in a divorce is becoming far more common, the Walker case is of particular note because experts say it could establish legal precedent for email privacy standards in a domestic setting:

“It’s going to be interesting because there are no clear legal answers here,” said Frederick Lane, a Vermont attorney and nationally recognized expert who has published five books on electronic privacy. The fact that the two still were living together, and that Leon Walker had routine access to the computer, may help him, Lane said.

“I would guess there is enough gray area to suggest that she could not have an absolute expectation of privacy,” he said.

Walker, a computer technician, said he discovered his wife had been sleeping with her second husband, and turned the information over to her first husband due to concerns about previous incidents involving domestic violence. His defense attorney questioned the necessity of the charges.

“I’ve been a defense attorney for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “This is a hacking statute, the kind of statute they use if you try to break into a government system or private business for some nefarious purpose. It’s to protect against identity fraud, to keep somebody from taking somebody’s intellectual property or trade secrets.

“I have to ask: ‘Don’t the prosecutors have more important things to do with their time?’ “

Walker’s trial is set to begin in February of next year, and the couple’s divorce was finalized earlier this month.

Man faces prison hacking into wife’s Gmail account is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google wants you to get rid of your contacts at will, then revive them as you see fit with a new contacts restoration option that allows users to restore Gmail contacts for up to 30 days after removing them.

Had a fight with a friend? Accidentally deleted a business contact? The program allows users to specify a time period for contact deletions to be restored, for example, you can restore contacts you accidentally deleted yesterday, a week ago or 3 weeks ago, simply choose how far back to restore all delete contacts in a given time period, such as all deleted contacts over the last 1 day, 3 hours and 15 minutes ago.

Just think of the program as a “Windows system restore” for delete contacts.”

In true Google fashion, the tweak to their system is minimal, ensuring it won’t bother users who have no need for the option, while still providing a valuable service to those who need it.

What do you think about the new contact restoration service?

Gmail Now Lets You Undelete Your Past Contact Deletion Mistakes is a post from: The Inquisitr

Move over, Skype, you fat ass.

Google’s taken its already largely superior email service and added one more pretty amazing feature that is likely to piss off some pay to play companies. As of today, you can now make phone calls straight from an open GMail window, and they’re free within the US and Canada at least until the end of 2010. (That particular caveat is curiosity-piquing, because paying for domestic calls is likely to be at least on the table if they thought to say so.)

I’ve always found Skype to be a pain in the ass at the best of times- it was so resource draining it refused to run on my old Dell laptop (a pretty powerful if sucky machine) and the sound quality has always struck me as so-so. The interface is also not very intuitive, versus the GMail phone call interface, which appears to just be a giant pop-up keypad. If you’ve got a Google Voice account, that number will be displayed when you make outgoing calls, and you can receive calls to that number in GMail.

If you haven’t gotten an option to use it yet, GMail says it’s coming:

We’re rolling out this feature to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days, so you’ll be ready to get started once “Call Phones” shows up in your chat list (you will need to install the voice and video plug-in if you haven’t already). If you’re using Google Apps for your school or business, then you won’t see it quite yet. We’re working on making this available more broadly – so stay tuned!

I haven’t gotten mine yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye out- if anything, I won’t have to walk across the room to get my phone anymore, or out to the car if I’ve left it there. Are you excited about this feature? Think it will replace some or all of your phone service?

GMail puts a phone in your email is a post from: The Inquisitr

Not enough pale purple Comic Sans text on a white background in your email inbox?

Google announced today that they’re enabling colors, fonts, hyperlinks and- sigh- images for email signatures. The feature will undoubtedly come in handy for businesses who use email, and for the plug-in savvy folk who have been using various workarounds because they really need to have a logo in their signatures. Of the new feature, Google said:

The next time you log in and visit the Settings page, you’ll see a rich text editor in the signature section. Here, you can customize your signature by adding pretty formatting, links, and images — or decide to leave things nice and simple.

Along with the new signature options, you’ll be able to associate distinctive signatures with each individual address linked to your GMail account so you can get fancy differently for each one. You won’t be able to use the new signature formatting with mobile GMail, older GMail or the HTML version, though.

Fair play to Google for the initiative- but while the feature is probably welcome to many people, is anyone else anticipating a flood of blinking fairies, baby due dates, harder to read text and generally slow to load emails? And when are we going to get the ability to schedule email delivery, GMail Labs?

GMail adds rich text signatures, without plugins is a post from: The Inquisitr

What Your Email Adress Says About Your Computer Skills is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google has announced a new security measure for Gmail that should assist users in the never ending battle against hackers and phishing.

Building on its previous warnings showing where the account was last accessed from at the bottom of the screen, Gmail will now offer a dirty great big red bar at the top of the screen if it thinks something is amiss. For example, if you usually sign into your account in Australia, and suddenly someone has logged into it from Poland two hours later, this would set off an alert.

If you do end up with a warning, there’s also a new details screen that offers a list of places, based on IP address, where your Gmail account has been accessed from.

The official Gmail blog notes that “If you think your account has been compromised, you can change your password from the same window. Or, if you know it was legitimate access (e.g. you were traveling, your husband/wife who accesses the account was also traveling, etc.), you can click “Dismiss” to remove the message.”

Gmail Gets A Nice New Security Feature is a post from: The Inquisitr

In the dearth of tech ambiguity following the iPad announcement last month, Google has stepped forward to provide us with a day of speculation.

Since we’ve only got until 10am PDT tomorrow (1pm Eastern) we’d better cram it all in now. It will be revolutionary! It’s screwing with our GMail. Privacy concerns! I’m going back to AOL! Change the way we look at e-mail… Maybe it will be as hot as Google Wave!

As with the iPad, while the tech blogosphere loses its collective shit over GMail changes, no one is really exactly clear on what is to be unveiled tomorrow at the Google event. Most speculation is based on a piece in the WSJ that cites “unnamed sources,” and broadly describes something designed to “take a swipe at Facebook” involving “status updates.”

According to the WSJ’s unnamed sources, the new feature would be a “module” in Gmail where users can click through to see a stream of friends’ updates, YouTube video sharing and Picasa photos. It would be an extension of Gmail’s instant-messenger style status messages, which are displayed along with presence information and currently aren’t archived for search or perusal.

I will don my speculation hat for a minute here and say that while Google innovations are generally decent, this one sounds a bit iffy. Google already doesn’t seem to have a good grasp on who my friends are based on e-mail, and with its long memory, this status update thing could create a lot of noise in the popular GMail service.

I’m also dismayed at the trend towards making all things be all things to all people. Just like cellphone cameras and computer based movie viewing apps don’t live up to their dedicated counterparts, I like my email in my email and my status updates on Facebook and Twitter. Google could pull off something compelling here, but until the announcement is made to define the new product, we don’t know. And I’m worried- GMail’s contextual advertising already knows way too much about my life.

[Image]

Google set to “make GMail social” with announcement tomorrow is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yesterday, when it was revealed that tens of thousands of Hotmail addresses and passwords were posted on a code-sharing site, everyone had a bit of a go at the remaining Hotmail users who haven’t abandoned the service for a cooler GMail account.

But a second posting followed, with a list of Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, Comcast and Earthlink addresses. Collected as part of a phishing scam, the BBC reports that while some of the addresses are old, expired or invalid, several are confirmed as genuine. The lists are still accessible.

The BBC also reports that an estimated 40% of internet users have a life password, an inadvisable practice that simplifies logging in but leaves accounts much more open to hacking. Carol Theriault, of security firm Saphos, indicated that scams such as the one used to gather the e-mail addresses are growing increasingly slick and more difficult to detect:

“Phishing attacks are very subtle these days,” she said. “People do all kinds of tricky things.”

Fake websites, which ask for a users login details, can be made to look like those of reputable companies.

“This should be a wake-up call to Google and Microsoft to educate their users,” said Ms Theriault.

Not so fast with the Hotmail jokes- additional 20K addresses compromised on GMail, AOL, Earthlink is a post from: The Inquisitr

Use your GMail account for everything?

If you do, this story will make you seriously uneasy. (And it’s not GMail’s fault.) This is a scary and dangerous precedent, and it could happen to any of us that use and love GMail, if it’s allowed to stand. A GMail user (like Joe You) received a random, mis-addressed e-mail from a bank employee. And because said user had the audacity to have a working e-mail address, his ass is being hauled into court:

According to a court document in the case, in August a customer of the Rocky Mountain Bank asked a bank employee to send certain loan statements to a representative of the customer. The employee, however, inadvertently sent the e-mail to the wrong Gmail address. Additionally, the employee had attached a sensitive file to the e-mail that should not have been sent at all.

The attachment contained confidential information on 1,325 individual and business customers that included their names, addresses, tax identification or Social Security numbers and loan information.

If this guy (or girl) was going to do something nefarious, they could or even would have done so immediately. (The breach was August 12th of this year.) Downloaded the information to a thumb drive, sold it on the black market, made wallpaper out of it… the point is that the data was sent out into the internet ether, and you can’t unring a bell. It’s the risk one takes when stupidly sending a sensitive file to a GMail address. But the scary part was not that the man ended up inadvertently in possession of the data- it’s what happened afterwards.

The bank responsible for the whole mess, the Rocky Mountain Bank, sued Google to reveal the user’s identity (pointless) and “deactivate” the user’s account. (Doubly pointless.) If the user was going to sell or otherwise share the information, he’d have done it already. Scarier still? The judge in the case granted it. So now this person, who committed the unthinkable crime of receiving an e-mail not intended for them, stands to lose all their work contacts, all their personal contacts, sentimental emails, actual work for work…

What do you store in your e-mail for reference? How screwed would you be if your GMail account was deactivated? And how could a decision like this stand in court when the actions approved by the judge clearly will do nothing to ensure the safety of the data, while managing to trample all over a person’s individual right to intellectual property? Does that only count if the intellectual property is owned by a corporation? And where does it stop? Can your computer be seized, too, if the wrong e-mail falls into your hands? After all, you could have saved the file.

[Via Consumerist]

Yes, really: Judge orders GMail account closed because user received unsolicited e-mail is a post from: The Inquisitr