Fixing Gmail: How the Best Can Be Better
Gmail is the best Webmail client in the World. I get that. However, winning that contest is a bit like being named the “Most Talented Baldwin”. The competition is thin, to put it generously.
Sure, some people swear by Yahoo!’s mail offering. It is pretty and it does deal with some of the issues I address below, but it also doesn’t load on slower connections, has a terrible search function and can’t import email (seriously, are you THAT stupid Yahoo?). Compound that with no IMAP access and a paid account that doesn’t equal Gmail’s free offering, you have a rather distant second at best.
Outside of a few startups that are doing promising things with Web-based email, such as Zenbe, Gmail stands alone. There is no one out there that really competes with Gmail in this area. They were the first to introduce the super-sized mailbox for free, they were the first to use tags not folders on Webmail (Opera did it first in their mail client), they were the first to give free IMAP access and they were the first to actually put one iota of thought into usability.
But can it be better? Damn right. Nothing in the world is immune from improvement, except perhaps Joan Jett, so what can one do to make Gmail just a little more awesome? Here’s my pick of five things that can push it to eleven. Read more
Smart Clip: A Smart Review of a Stupid Invention
If you’re something of a night owl, you’ve probably already seen the commercials for the Smart Clip. It’s an adhesive hook that fits sticks to the back of your phone and lets you hang it from your belt loop, bag or whatever might work./p>p style=”clear: both”>When we first saw the commercials, my better half and I debated the merits of such an invention. However, it was one of those strange arguments where we both took each side, going back and forth playing devil’s advocate with one another.
Still, we had all but forgotten about the invention until we were walking down the aisles of our local Target and saw one on the shelf. A bit stunned and confused, we engaged in something of a dare match to buy one until, lo and behold, I found myself walking out the store with my very own Smart Clip.
So, here I am, a “proud” Smart Clip owner wondering how I got in this position and trying to defend a product that I have no idea why I bought.
Still, since it is American to occasionally give in to useless crap, I’ve decided to review this product and find out just how useless it is. Read more
Opera Pulls Out the Stops
Well, it appears that Opera has been listening, much to my surprise. It was just a week ago that published my article about five steps to fix Opera, the culmination of many years of my frustration with the browser, and yesterday they release a new alpha of their 10.0 browser, which addressed many of my issues.
Apparently, they had been listening and working on many of the problems for quite some time, just very quietly (perhaps they were also hunting rabbits).
But is it everything that I had hoped for? Well, not quite. However, it shows a great deal of promise and has a lot to offer for us Opera outcasts that have been pushed to using Firefox, Safari or Chrome because of how incomplete the Opera offering has been.
So what’s new and how well does it work? Here’s my breakdown of the latest features and how well they perform. Read more
Blogo: Not Ready for Prime Time
*Article Updated* 
When I heard about Blogo, I could barely contain my excitement. A blog editor just for the Mac that had full screen editing, full WYSIWYG control, multiple blog management, image resizing, Twitter integration and simple previews.
I could barely contain myself. When I raced to download the application for my 21-day trial I practically had my credit card in my hand. I almost bought my copy outright but stopped myself to give the software a try. I’m very glad that I did.
Though Blogo certainly has a lot going for it, advanced bloggers are going to want to keep away. It’s feature set is just to limited for people that require advanced manipulation of text and even basic posts are more difficult to post in Blogo than they are in the WordPress or TypePad editing panel.
However, those are the problems that can be fixed, there are other problems that seem to be a bit deeper into the development culture of the product. Read more
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Bully is a two-year-old game that seems to be on about its third life. The Scholarship Edition, which was first made available for the Wii and XBox 360 in March (this review is on the Wii version), took a price reduction just in time for the holidays, making it an even more appealing target for Christmas shoppers.
Between the controversies that have kept the game in the limelight, solid reviews and new thirty dollar price tag, I was curious enough to pick it up at a holiday sale.
But is it a good game? Where most of the popular Wii games have stayed at the $50 level, this one has gone on sale a bit early, fortunately not as quickly as the crap ones though. But is it because Bully is an underselling gem or is there an issue keeping people away? Read more
Google, Prostitution and Paid Links
When is it against the rules to sell something that you can give away for free? When you’re dealing with sex or links.
This is the kind of hypocrisy that has always smacked me. If I can do something legally of my own free will, the reason that I choose to do it should be of no one’s interest. It doesn’t matter if the “police” are the actual vice squad or simply Google’s spider.
Yet, it does matter and very much. In the real world, at least in the U.S., being or seeing a prostitute can land you in jail and, likewise, selling your PageRank can result in a giant PageSpank.
Though I don’t think paid linking is “right”, there is a certain element here that has me worried as Google has created a whole economy around linking. Before Google, people just linked to help others find information. However, Google recognized that turned it into a search algorithm that remains the best available. Along the way though, linking took on a new significance, one that Google has done little to discourage.
But with that significance and Google’s rise to prominence commercial value became applicable to links. More links meant higher search engine rankings and those meant more customers. Google, understandably, thought this could hurt their search engine so they’ve been declaring an open war on paid linking, reducing or banning sites that participate in it and casting a dragnet that has caught many legitimate Webmasters.
The problem is that this is Google’s own monster, one created by their system. They hitched their wagon to a flawed factor of determining page value and, by becoming as popular as they did, ruined it.
Now, Google is trying to control it and doing it in a way that punishes people that try and profit from the system they created. Though Google is quick to say that they are not trying to tell people what to do with their site, they know full and well that, for a site to survive, they have to bow before the Google Gods. But they are an angry and vengeful God, even when they created the playing field. Read more
5 Steps to Fixing Opera
Somewhere between the sleek look and simple stylings of Safari and the open source can-do-anything-but-make-you-breakfast feel of Firefox, there exists another browser. Opera.
Opera is the almost forgotten brother of the browser war. Though Internet Explorer seems to be the “successful for no good reason” sibling that the others despise and direct their anger toward, Opera is the one sitting in the corner, reading a book and struggling to make friends.
But Opera’s lack of social skills is to be expected. Though the browser has done reasonably well in both the embeddable and the mobile market its desktop application has faltered, unable to gain any real momentum.
The reason is that, much like myself in high school, the browser has spent too much time hitting the books and not enough time learning how to deal with people. The Internet has moved forward and left Opera behind and, if it is going to catch up, it needs to start studying a very different book, the book of real life.
In the meantime, here are five things that, if Opera were to fix, I would seriously consider using their browser full-time. Read more
How Google Screws Paying Customers
If you use Gmail, this was a banner week for you. For the first time in years, you can now skin your Gmail without the need to use plugins, extensions or CSS hacks. This is a feature that I have been craving for months, nay, years.
While I’ve appreciated the efforts of amateur coders and some were able to create some cool themes for Gmail, they were always unreliable, especially as Gmail updated its interface, and the selection was always weak. So, news that Google had launched not one, but 30 plus new themes for its mail service had me, and others like me, dancing in the street.
But alas, my dancing was short-lived. When I logged into my Gmail account, it was not there. Even now, after nearly two days, the option is still not there. My wife is tempting me with her shiny new theme and most of my friends have theirs, but I am alone.
The reason is that I am a Google Apps user. Though I don’t pay for my Google Apps account, many of my friends do and they too are without themes, as well as Labs and other popular Gmail features.
We Google Apps users are getting a raw deal. Whether we are paid or unpaid, we are more intimately tied to Google than most Gmail users and we are getting an inferior product to those that just signed up for a @gmail.com account.
This is no way to treat your customer and is an excellent example of why Google should never, ever, get in the business of customer service. They simply have no clue what they are doing. Read more
The AM/PM Problem
  photo credit: klwatts |
Of all of the inventions man has released upon himself, I do not believe any is more despised than the alarm clock. Sure, nuclear warheads may take more of the heat in philosophical circles, but no one throws their shoes at a ballistic missile every morning (we might think twice if we did).
The simple truth is that this in an invention we created with the express intent of annoying ourselves. It is a trade off of, it waking us up from our beautiful sleep and, in return, we don’t get fired. Pretty simple.
Yet, clockmakers seem to be determined to increase the hatred hurled at their creations not just by making the alarms more annoying and harder to ignore, but by blessing them with a design flaw that practically guarantees they fail at least some of the time.
What is the flaw? The AM/PM issue. The one where you set the alarm for 6:30 AM only to be roused out of bed just in time for dinner at 6:30 PM. Why does it happen? Because clockmakers let it happen. Read more
How Google Screwed Up My Gmail Mobile
I don’t have a very nice phone. In fact, my phone is nothing short of dated. When my contract is up in a few months I’ll probably take the opportunity to upgrade networks and get a Blackberry or an iPhone. In the meantime, I’m stuck with my Fusic, a hybrid MP3 player/phone that does neither all that well
But despite my dissatisfaction with the Fusic, it does what I need it to for the most part. Call quality is good, battery life is within reason and it is capable of mobile broadband speeds. If it had a bigger screen and a full keyboard, I’d doubt I’d care too much about its flaws.
The truth is that, realistically, there are only a few apps that I use. However, the most important, by far, is the Gmail Mobile app. It is the one app I use multiple times a day and something I’ve come to rely upon.
The first version of the app was great, a flawed gem perhaps, but solid. I would use it whenever I had a few minutes to flip open, check my mail and close it back up. It was so simple to use, it almost became an obsession, causing me to check my mail any time I found myself idle for longer than five minutes.
When I heard that Google had released a second version of the app, I was excited. Already a Gmail junkie, I thought this was my chance to get an even more robust mobile experience.
Boy was I wrong.
Though most people seem to be singing the praises of the Gmail Mobile, I am singing the blues. For me and my phone, this app has been a total disaster. Maybe when I upgrade my handset my song will change, but right now there is simply no excuse for how bad Gmail Mobile has become.
What went wrong? Well, I’ll tell you? Read more
