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Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

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Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#81

Post by sunchild »

jad wrote: post #75
ctide wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used the Google Voice app for the iPhone? It's literally the worst app I've ever seen in my life. Crashed constantly, won't refresh from the server, will close your text box randomly while typing a message (clearing your message), will fail to make calls frequently, and since I upgraded to iOS5 now has signed me out and crashes immediately when trying to sign back in so it's been rendered completely unusable…

> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…

More like "Hey guys, how can we make sure our products run better on our platform than the other one?

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#82

Post by mitjak »

mvkel wrote: post #44

Super disappointing that it's just a native wrapper around a web interface. They had a chance to kill it with this app and they didn't reach very far.

All the more puzzling is that they waited so long to do it. There has always been dissatisfaction with Mail.app but it's taken them 3+ years since the launch of the iPhone SDK to come up with a half-assed wrapper around a website that performs more poorly than running it in WebKit.

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#84

Post by danudey »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #43
pilif wrote: post #5

Aside of the fact that the app displayed an error message at first launch ("Notification error" - "no valid 'aps-environment' entitlement string found for application" - how did this pass review?), it a) doesn't support multiple accounts, b) is very laggy to use when you compare this to, say, the android version and c) feels like another one of these "let's embed the website above a little native toolbar"-apps Becaus…

"There's next to no additional value (especially with the currently broken push) provided by such a half-assed pseudo-native app." There may be no additional value to nerds like you and me, but there are plenty of normal people who want GMail on their homescreen and want to get it from the App Store.

Thanks to JSCore's JIT compilation only working in Safari or saved-to-home-screen web apps, they've basically taken three years to actually make a 'native app' version of their e-mail service, which is slower than just using the web app (and feels worse to use).

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#85

Post by pflats »

ctide wrote: post #33
pilif wrote: post #5

Aside of the fact that the app displayed an error message at first launch ("Notification error" - "no valid 'aps-environment' entitlement string found for application" - how did this pass review?), it a) doesn't support multiple accounts, b) is very laggy to use when you compare this to, say, the android version and c) feels like another one of these "let's embed the website above a little native toolbar"-apps Becaus…

Have you used the Google Voice app for the iPhone? It's literally the worst app I've ever seen in my life. Crashed constantly, won't refresh from the server, will close your text box randomly while typing a message (clearing your message), will fail to make calls frequently, and since I upgraded to iOS5 now has signed me out and crashes immediately when trying to sign back in so it's been rendered completely unusable…

>I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption.

I find it interesting that Google is intentionally using its own icons for pre-existing iOS conventions (Floppy disk for save, weird action menu, nonstandard trash can, buttons without borders, etc.) I can understand being in love with your own system, but making a native app look non-native is just odd.

Personally, Google Sync/Exchange works great, gives me calendars as well, and plays nicely with my other accounts. The only hiccup is archive v. delete, but that's not a huge one. I've had no desire for a GMail app.

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#86

Post by MatthewPhillips »

smackfu wrote: post #77

So, if Google is supposed to only be hiring A people, who is making all these crummy iOS apps?

Google hires the type of people who want to solve hard engineering problems, not the type of people who want to really polish an app.

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#87

Post by Splines »

jad wrote: post #75
ctide wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used the Google Voice app for the iPhone? It's literally the worst app I've ever seen in my life. Crashed constantly, won't refresh from the server, will close your text box randomly while typing a message (clearing your message), will fail to make calls frequently, and since I upgraded to iOS5 now has signed me out and crashes immediately when trying to sign back in so it's been rendered completely unusable…

> I can only assume that there's some desire within Google to make sure the iPhone versions of their products are complete dogshit to try and encourage Android adoption. Do people think companies really behave this way? "Hey guys, how can we make our products crappier? Surely if people think our iPhone apps stink, they'll be motivated to go out and buy a whole phone from us!" There are a whole host of mundane reasons…

I think it's probably more that the Android apps team has a higher budget/headcount than the iPhone apps team (I have no idea, but just a guess).

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#88

Post by Inufu »

chaz wrote: post #41
sidwyn wrote: post #2

Interesting how they decided to copy the sliding panels from Facebook for iPhone. I wonder if it will become a standard on iOS.

Didn't Twitter for iPad use this before Facebook?

the reddit iPad app has also used that for a looong time

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#89

Post by thenduks »

robk wrote: post #83

All those that ridicule Google's product quality on iOS have never tried to use iTunes on Windows! And given that lots of Googlers have iPhones, it's hard to ascribe malice when just incompetence will suffice.

All those that ridicule iTunes on Windows have never tried to use a Google product on iOS!

:)

Re: Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

#90

Post by sbuk »

smackfu wrote: post #78
angrycoder wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app review process isn't QA.

OTOH The first two items on the list of app store review guidelines: 2.1 Apps that crash will be rejected 2.2 Apps that exhibit bugs will be rejected

What would have happened had Apple rejected this app? Politically, Apple are between a rock and a hard place here. Ultimately the culpability lies with the Gmail app team and they have acknowledged this and pulled the app. https://plus.google.com/100940716892313727285/posts/4aPVQTj9...
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