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A rundown of the new Gmail

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Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Features" like these are actually worse than useless because they give users a false sense of security.

I don't understand the hate. It's still a good way to send a password or some financial information, just because you know that it's going to be deleted soon and if in the future your contact's account is hacked it will be long gone. Basically, it's a secret chat for email.

>This message will get deleted in 2 years.

>Password is piedpiper123

"Oh, better I copy the password to my computer if I ever need it."

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#103

Am I the only one that dreads new product updates recently? I used to be super enthusiastic about every new update for everything(cool! more stuff!) but Android, Youtube and Windows 10 updates especially have made me extremely jaded - it feels like every update I either lose some functionality or something I used every day has now moved to a completely different place for no good reason. I seriously consider disablin…

> Am I the only one that dreads new product updates recently?

It comes with age.

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#104
It appears that the snooze function is straight from Google Inbox (inbox.google.com). Meanwhile, you still can't unmark messages marked as spam in Google Inbox.

I kind of alternate between Gmail and Google Inbox because they present different views. It's all pretty confusing.

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#105
post #44
post #19

"Finally, a new confidential mode allows you to remove the option to forward, copy, download or print messages—useful for when you have to send sensitive information via email like a tax return or your social security number. You can also make a message expire after a set period of time to help you stay in control of your information." No, thanks. I like my e-mail archive under my own control.

Since I automatically forward my Gmail to another (main, non-gmail) address, this means I may not receive those mails.

Gmail will send you a link, so you can at least tell the person off and have them communicate with you like a real human being.

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#106
post #13

I can't see the "Try the new Gmail" setting. Is there a geographic/locale restriction? (I tried switching my account to English without luck)

Same here. Also no mention of the Early Adopter Program on our G Suite account.

I can't enroll with any of my personal or work accounts.

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the bottom of the G Suite blog post: > The all-new Gmail experience is available for businesses to start using today in the G Suite Early Adopter Program (EAP) and can be turned on in the Admin console. [...] > Personal Gmail users can opt-in to the new experience, too (Go to Settings in the top right and select “Try the new Gmail.”).

Does anyone have an idea on how one can enroll in EAP? I couldn't find any setting or a link, but would really like to try it for our G-Suite.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/82691

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#108
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the hate. It's still a good way to send a password or some financial information, just because you know that it's going to be deleted soon and if in the future your contact's account is hacked it will be long gone. Basically, it's a secret chat for email.

>This message will get deleted in 2 years. >Password is piedpiper123 "Oh, better I copy the password to my computer if I ever need it."

This is just a tool, some people may find it useful, others probably won't even use it.

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#109
post #20

Am I the only one that dreads new product updates recently? I used to be super enthusiastic about every new update for everything(cool! more stuff!) but Android, Youtube and Windows 10 updates especially have made me extremely jaded - it feels like every update I either lose some functionality or something I used every day has now moved to a completely different place for no good reason. I seriously consider disablin…

Each year the internet and its services are less and less for hackers and more and more for the general public. This is reflected in how everything is designed. The average person has totally different needs and usage patterns than power users. If you want to avoid this phenomena, where the services you use slowly degrade and lose features, favor products that specifically target power users. Products for the general…

less and less for hackers and more and more for the general public

I think this is the "excuse" but to me it seems like it's as much about "locking down" as "dumbing down".

History moves in cycles [0] and I'm seeing something like how we transitioned from Home Computers to game consoles in the mid 90s.

Hackers are experts at getting value out of equipment that the manufacturers never expected, and this is what you want with a nascent technology, to help build a market. But as things mature, as a business you want to lock down more and more of this creative potential for yourself and lock in the revenue.

We've seen it with music like this: Vinyl (locked down) -> tapes (hackable) -> CDs (locked down) -> CD Writers -> MP3s (hackable) -> Streaming (locked down) -> ... (tapes? [1])

We've seen it with home computing like this: Pong & Atari -> Commodore, Spectrum, Apple II -> NES, Master System -> Amiga, Atari ST -> SNES, Genesis -> PC -> Playstation -> The Apple Renaissance -> The Ripened Apple

Even on a smaller scale I can see Apple's pivot from "Rip, Mix, Burn" [2] to doing away with personal music altogether over the course of 10 years [3]

Or my PS4 where I'm more and more likely to just download a game now than go out to the shops and buy a disc.

At each stage there is a trade-off. You get a slightly more polished product, but you lose a certain degree of agency over it. I guess it's cyclical because the "locking down" goes a little too far and then people loses interest and then you need to bring in the hackers again to jump start the community once more. I'm sure there's some tie in with the innovators dilemma [4]

I think the only popular industry I can think of that has resisted broad-scale hacking is the movie industry. I can only speculate that the scale, and political importance meant they had to always stay ahead of the curve.

[0] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-comi...

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/06/cassette-tapes-are-back-ki...

[2] https://www.macworld.com/article/2934175/think-retro-rip-rip...

[3] https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/04/06/apple-shutting-i...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator's_Dilemma

Re: A rundown of the new Gmail

#110
post #78

> New features on mobile, like high-priority notifications, can notify you of important messages to help you stay focused without interruption. Err... wat. Explain again how "high-priority notifications " will help me stay focused "without interruption". This is a new level of newspeak. The ringtone is now LOUDER, which will help you enjoy silence. Anyway, I don't care about any of this. All I want to know is if I'll…

Somewhere in the account settings, there is a way to get an HTML-only version of GMail. (the alternative is "standard") This is what I use. I was forced to switch because of older hardware, but mostly I like the interface better. It is far more predictable. Text boxes act as they are defined by my browser. They don't jump around or do anything else weird. The standard interface has scripting that I would always end up fighting and cursing at.
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