Feeling a little insecure without the friendly Gmail beta logo to keep you warm (if you haven’t heard or noticed, it’s gone, baby, gone)? No worries. Google Labs has already got you covered. Featured under their lab tools is a new widget called “Back to Beta,” which adds the “beta” signifier back to the logo, making you feel all snugly warm and clean again.
Change is confusing. Luckily, it’s avoidable.
Feeling frisky this Friday morning? Fire up Gmail and go to the “Labs” section. You’ll find that there’s now an option that allows you to view multiple inboxes at the same time. In a nutshell, you can essentially create multiple window panes inside of Gmail for viewing things like your inbox, drafts and labels all at one time. Pretty nifty, though I must admit, I’m not too big of a label fiend. I should be, but creating hundreds of a labels sounds like a big pain in the ass.
Anyways, the feature is being rolled out today. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Google continues to inspire and amaze. The Mountain View, California-based company unveiled yesterday the ability to read and compose Gmail while offline. It’s available through the Google Labs feature within Gmail and when activated, starts downloading 10,000 emails to the user’s hard drive using Google Gears technology. Once finished, you’ll be able to search for emails and read them, as well as compose emails to people in your address book. And yes, your contacts will auto-complete even when offline.
Of course, some things will not be available when offline, such as the ability to manage your contacts. All you need is a ‘net connection and you’ll be able to sync your email, keeping you in touch with that woman you’re having an affair with. Ah, Google. Paving the way to Heaven through technology.
Say goodbye to Google’s attempt at making a virtual social network. Announced back in July, Google is now closing the door on its Google Labs project “Lively” at the end of this year and says it wants, quote:
“to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.”
I guess it’s back to Second Life for me. Maybe I’ll start an online band and perform for other users of Second Life. I’ve always had an intense fear of crowds, yet find comfort and support with virtual crowds.
An incredibly useful feature is coming to Gmail. Starting today (if all goes well), you’ll be able to send your friends and contacts text messages via the integrated Gmail chat. You’ll be able to save phone numbers to contacts and Google will give you the option of sending them a text should they go offline. It sounds very beta right now though, with Google using 406 area code numbers to push the texts out.
The first time you send a text message, it will appear on the person’s phone as coming from a number in the 406 area code. Google has made several thousands of these numbers available for Gmail users, and once a number is associated with your account, all of the text messages you send through Gmail will come from that number.
The 406 number works both ways, so your friend can reply to you via text message. Also, your friend can save that number in their phone as belonging to you, and they can even use it to initiate new chats with you.
Google never ceases to amaze.
Remember the Phantom gaming system? The one which promised you’d be able to play games streamed over the Internet through a broadband connection for a monthly fee? Me neither. Yet after six long years of nobody giving a fuck, they’ve finally decided to release the keyboard designed for the system.
The Phantom Lapboard is nothing special. It sits on your lap and you’re able to incline the top part of the keyboard to reveal a space underneath for mousing. At $129, we’re just astonished to see that it even has a price tag and saw the light of day, regardless of its overpricing. We’re still not going to buy it. Are you?
Link (via)
