Gmail Google Voice Integration: Call Phone Feature Live!

I've always called it and I'll say it again.  The future of Mobile is all about Google.  With Gmail and Google Talk slowly taking over people's desktop communication habits and Google Maps dominating mobile users search volume, its just a matter of time before Google unleashes everything to Android such as this sweet Google Voice + GMAIL + Google Talk integration now available on the desktop browsers.

I'd be a little nervous if I were SKYPE.  Here is a free tip for SKYPE... quit screwing around and enable your mobile application across all smartphone OSs and all carriers with video conference and a whole lot more.  If you don't have this worked out in the next 6 months... you might as well forget about it.

Google Talk for iPhone, Very Watered Down

Google Talk is now available to iPhone, well, sort of. They've made a "Web Version" available for iPhone's Safari browser (by visiting: google.com/talk). This is essentially the same web-app found within Gmail on the desktop version; which means there will be no "VOIP" or talk functionality and if you are not using the active Safari window, it will assume you are signed off (unlike the much better BlackBerry version where it is a real application running on the background).

In other words, iPhone Google Talk is just about as useless as the OS X version. Nothing to look here, if you are looking for real VOIP/IM solution, may I suggest fring?

2008 Mobile Experience Wishlist

I came up with a wishlist, it would be interesting to look back a year from now to see where we stand.

1. Google Talk Mobile (w/ full VOIP on iPhone, Symbian S60 3rd, WM5/6)
2. Skype Mobile (w/ full VOIP on iPhone, Symbian S60 3rd, WM5/6)
3. Skyfire Browser for all Mobile OS (in Beta currently)
4. Google Talk on OS X (w/ full VOIP stand alone or via iChat)
5. iPhone to support Flash (this one is hopeful!)
6. Picasa Mobile for all devices (WM6, Symbian S60 3rd Edition)
7. Real-Time Stock Ticker/App integrated with Brokerage Account (come on TDAmeritrade or Schwab…)
8. US Carriers to enable Video Conferencing using front/2nd camera (w/o extra cost in addition to data plan)
9. Unlimited Data Plan in the $5 - $10 Range for all carriers banking on the economies of scale
10. More ultraportable laptops(3-4lbs.) costing less than $1K

Yahoo Messenger on BlackBerry (Even for Cingular)

In case you haven't heard, Yahoo Messenger is now available for download from RIM's website. The application, however, is not meant for Cingular Wireless Customers.

"Yahoo! Messenger, designed for BlackBerry devices, is currently not available for customers of Cingular Wireless... These customers may download the software but will be unable to log into Yahoo! Messenger from their BlackBerry devices."

Do not despair, a fellow frustrated user and member of BlackBerryForums.com has posted a step by step instruction to get the necessary service book onto your Cingular issued Blackberry enabling the software to work. Good job Spencer!

Unfortunately, this solution is not going to work for those running Desktop Manager on a Mac. In addition, you'll also need to login to your BIS account to resend all other services books. Those running BES would also need to request your admin to create an IT policy enabling Y!M traffic.

Personally, I am thrilled a hack is now available, but I will not bother with the installation for two reasons: 1). If Yahoo doesn't want Cingular customers using their IM, then so be it. I am not going to bend backwards just to use a mediocre IM network especially when most of my friends are using either AIM or Google Talk (which is available for all BlackBerry devices). 2). I am not sure if I will be billed differently if I use an unauthorized communication software. I remembered T-Mobile used to bill me for every message send or received over the built-in AIM/YahooIM/ICQ software. It treated each message as an SMS text message. I will steer clear from that direction.

Gmail for Mobile Application Reviewed (Blackberry 8700c)

Google recently released an application that allows Java-enabled cell phones to download Gmail software directly by pointing their mobile browsers to www.gmail.com/app. The installation for my Blackberry 8700c was as easy as all previous Google Apps (Local and Google Talk). The software is remarkably simple to navigate and the overall looks and feels remain much the same as the Gmail we are all so fond of. Normally, I have been accessing Gmail through my phone's web broswer via http://m.gmail.com, while this worked, the mobile application promised to give me the best possible experience, I could not resist!



User Interface – The UI design is very nice. The scroll wheel on the Blackberry acts as the navigator. The font size by default is small, however, when the scroll wheel highlights a feature, the font size enlarges and bolds for easy viewing. There are a number of shortcut keys that allows a quicker access to features; for instance: "c" for compose mail, "i" for inbox, "d" for delete. I assume those are probably the only short keys that I'll use frequently enough to remember. Other obscure shortcut keys includes: "s" for star/unstar a conversation, "y" for archiving, "!" for reporting spam and lots more. There was one shortcut key that was against the default Blackberry shortcut key. Normally, pressing the "space" key in Blackberry act as a PageDown key, in the case for Gmail, it acts as an enter key whereby opening an email instead of scrolling down. This will take a while for me to get used to.



Receiving Email - New emails are marked in bold type. The inbox can be refreshed manually or it automatically refreshes after you have sent an email. According to the Gmail Help Center, this application will only prefetch 50KB worth of data at a time, you can also turn that feature off if you have a limited data package. The email conversations are stacked just like its desktop sibling, again, Google kept that same touch and feel into this version and that is something I really enjoyed.



Composing Email - Composing an email is easy, the screen is very intuitive. A box for recipient email, subject and email body is presented by default. You can also add a cc/bcc box as an option. The auto-fill address function works just like desktop Gmail would, I think its little features like this that make all of Google's mobile applications valuable. Its clear that the developers at Google understands auto populating email addresses makes a mobile users task much easier, kudos!. The application doesn't allow me to save an email as draft, this is something that should have been in place as I often need pull other references from inbox to complete an email. Sending the actual email doesn't take much longer than it would through Blackberry's default email capability. In fact, I was surprised to see Gmail available for Blackberry devices as it could be considered as somewhat of conflict of interest. Perhaps Gmail is considered a personal application whereas Blackberry push-email is considered professional application.



Other Features - Pretty much all of Gmail's features have been incorporated, this includes: stars, labels, search, archive, report spam, and read/unread. I have notice that contacts did not make it to this version. While the emails from my contacts automatically populates while composing an email, it would still be nice to have access to the contacts to get information such as physical address or phone number. In addition to standard features, Gmail supports attachement viewing, I tested MS Word, Excel and PDF files and they work flawlessly, Gmail turns these documents into plain text, which works for reading the content but not powerful enough if your job relies these documents.

Again, I am satisfied by the sheer simplicity and functionality of this Google mobile application. While I am not certain how will this play into Google's advertising plan, I wouldn't be suprised to see more features rolled out in future releases which may include Google's text ads. I think there is definitely enough screen real estate to have small text ads such as the Google Mobile Ads. Once again, my windows-powered mobile devices will have to sit out and continue to use the browser version of Gmail.

Update: I found a reference from The Mobile Gadeteer where the author tested this application on a Windows-powered TMobile Dash and it worked. My Dell AXIM X30 stopped working ever since it reached its 1 year mark, so I can't test it out for myself.