Tech Stuff

A new feature in Gmail Labs allows you to use your Gmail when you are offline.  Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail and when you are online again will sync.

A new addition to GMail under Labs is the ability to create a Google Doc from an email.

GMail now allows you to view your PDFs quickly in a new window.  The new way is much faster than having to view the PDF open in Acrobat after downloading.

The Gmail team has rolled out version 2.0 of their mobile client for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones.

Gmail has rolled out new emoticons to choose from when words just can describe what you are feeling.

Gmail announces a new Lab feature for Advanced IMAP Controls.  These new options will allow you to better control your IMAP experience down to the label level.

Do you have a tendancy of sending emails late at night that you really shouldn’t?  Maybe after a long night out drinking?  Well the Gmail team has just rolled out Mail Goggles which may come to the rescue.  Once activate Gmail will prompt you with a couple simple math problems before an email can be sent.  By default this safeguard is only in place late at night on the weekends when we all know we are most vulnerable to this. However, you can adjust the time frame to meet you needs.  Now if there was only something for that cell phone.  Maybe the new Android OS will have this option.

Google adds a new setting to Gmail to allow the user to specify that all their activity should be done over a SSL connection.  You could change the URL before manually from http to https, but now you can have it done automatically.  This allows you to encrypt the data the transfers between your computer and the Gmail server just like you do when working on your bank’s website.

One of the things I have found annoying with GMail is that it would automatically create contacts based on my email activity.  I have ended up with a full contact manager that has some people in there many times.  Well the GMail team announced today that you can now turn off the auto create function in your address book.  Now I can go back and clean up my contacts.

GMail has announced that they have rolled out stricter criteria for verifying emails from eBay and Paypal to ensure they are really coming from them.  eBay and Paypal are now signing all their email with DomainKeys.  GMail used to just display a message above the email warning you that the message may not be from the send that it claims and now they won’t even deliver the message if it is from eBay or PayPal when the DomainKeys don’t authenicate.