One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks • Hacker News Board

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#61

Post by rplnt » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 11:31 AM UTC

cmircea wrote: post #56

rplnt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Apps on my Android always were always one of the worst. Google Maps - resource hungry, always doing something in the background, slow .. replaced them with much better, unfortunately local, alternative Google Play - two examples: doesn't prevent phone from losing network so I have to play with the phone in order to download updates; listing my applications always takes about half a minute.. even if I did the s…

Maps doing stuff in background? That's the location service being used by another app, commonly weather apps. As for G+/Talk, disable sync or sign out of Talk.

Talk works just fine for some reason :)

And is location service tied to application named "Maps"? If so, that might really be the case.. although I only have this problem after I use Maps, not when I use other apps that require location.

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#62

Post by rplnt » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 11:38 AM UTC

shocks wrote: post #55

rplnt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Apps on my Android always were always one of the worst. Google Maps - resource hungry, always doing something in the background, slow .. replaced them with much better, unfortunately local, alternative Google Play - two examples: doesn't prevent phone from losing network so I have to play with the phone in order to download updates; listing my applications always takes about half a minute.. even if I did the s…

Agreed. I use K9 instead of Gmail. Better in every single way. What do you use instead of Maps? I don't use Google+ or Facebook. Thank god for disabling applications. (I'm referring to the ones that are locked to your phone and cannot be uninstalled).

I use Mapy.cz by Seznam (Czech company that only recently lost its 1st position in search to Google (after Google spent billions on advertising)). I find their web maps[1] better than Google maps as well (again, Czech Republic only).

1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy

2. http://mapy.cz/

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#63

Post by josephlord » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 11:42 AM UTC

chmars wrote: post #58

pud wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly. To send from a different 'From' in Mail.app, first you need to connect your iPhone to additional email accounts (Settings->Mail). Then these addresses will show up in your 'From' drop down. But then you end up with multiple inboxes in your Mail.app. Which is messy, fills up storage, and hurts my brain -- since I never need to check my other inboxes (because all my email addresses forward to the same Gmai…

To send from different mail addresses in Mail.app for iOS with only one inbox, you can add your additional mail addresses to your default mail address in the mail configuration by separating them with commas: default@example.com, additional1@example.com, additional2@example.com, etc. The same trick works for the OS X version of Mail.app

Thanks! I upvoted you because this was really good news for me.

On the iPhone (but not the iPad) I think you have to write this somewhere else and paste it in because I can't find a comma on the keyboard when editing that text field!

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#64

Post by chmars » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 11:55 AM UTC

josephlord wrote: post #63

chmars wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To send from different mail addresses in Mail.app for iOS with only one inbox, you can add your additional mail addresses to your default mail address in the mail configuration by separating them with commas: default@example.com, additional1@example.com, additional2@example.com, etc. The same trick works for the OS X version of Mail.app

Thanks! I upvoted you because this was really good news for me. On the iPhone (but not the iPad) I think you have to write this somewhere else and paste it in because I can't find a comma on the keyboard when editing that text field!

You are right, I have never actually entered my additional mail addresses into that text field but prepared the string in a text editor and copied it afterwards.

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#65

Post by mrcrassic » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 12:03 PM UTC

rplnt wrote: post #53

shocks wrote: post #52

Gmail app, both iOS and Android is full of fail. Too much "clean design" - aka, flat featureless grey on white boxes with icons that mean very little. I hate this new 'minimal' design craze.

Google Apps on my Android always were always one of the worst. Google Maps - resource hungry, always doing something in the background, slow .. replaced them with much better, unfortunately local, alternative Google Play - two examples: doesn't prevent phone from losing network so I have to play with the phone in order to download updates; listing my applications always takes about half a minute.. even if I did the s…

Not to be rude, but most apps on the Play Store are going to run slow with those specs, especially if it's running on a more current version of Android than it was designed for. My G2 used to be blazing fast when it came out two years ago. I wouldn't even dare attempt running anything on that thing now.

Personally, I've found Google's Apps to work the best and look the best...on modern devices.

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#66

Post by john626 » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 12:14 PM UTC

This just shows how you must always optimize the UI for the primary task. It is never acceptable to compromise usability to improve style.

On small devices screen real estate is premium, so don't waste it with margins like this. Though I have to say the design looks nice, too bad it wastes so much space.

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#67

Post by rplnt » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 12:19 PM UTC

mrcrassic wrote: post #65

rplnt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Apps on my Android always were always one of the worst. Google Maps - resource hungry, always doing something in the background, slow .. replaced them with much better, unfortunately local, alternative Google Play - two examples: doesn't prevent phone from losing network so I have to play with the phone in order to download updates; listing my applications always takes about half a minute.. even if I did the s…

Not to be rude, but most apps on the Play Store are going to run slow with those specs, especially if it's running on a more current version of Android than it was designed for. My G2 used to be blazing fast when it came out two years ago. I wouldn't even dare attempt running anything on that thing now. Personally, I've found Google's Apps to work the best and look the best...on modern devices.

I understand that general developer doesn't care about part of the users if it would require the extra mile of work. But Google?

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#68

Post by 0x0 » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 12:37 PM UTC

chmars wrote: post #58

pud wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly. To send from a different 'From' in Mail.app, first you need to connect your iPhone to additional email accounts (Settings->Mail). Then these addresses will show up in your 'From' drop down. But then you end up with multiple inboxes in your Mail.app. Which is messy, fills up storage, and hurts my brain -- since I never need to check my other inboxes (because all my email addresses forward to the same Gmai…

To send from different mail addresses in Mail.app for iOS with only one inbox, you can add your additional mail addresses to your default mail address in the mail configuration by separating them with commas: default@example.com, additional1@example.com, additional2@example.com, etc. The same trick works for the OS X version of Mail.app

Unfortunately this does not work for accounts of the type "GMail", as far as I can see. (Maybe you could configure your gmail account as an IMAP account, but then you lose a few gmail-specific features)

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#69

Post by brown9-2 » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

neotek wrote: post #18

alayne wrote: post #12

I've been pretty happy using Mail with GMail set up as an Exchange host in order to get push. I am glad that Google is putting effort into their client. I couldn't figure out how to get the new Gmail to do a real delete instead of an archive.

Head over to http://m.google.com/sync on your phone and you can change the settings to allow proper deletion.

Yup, this is the solution, as weird as it seems to have to go to a Google preferences page to control delete behavior in the iOS mail app.

Re: One reason Gmail for iOS still sucks

#70

Post by kidh0 » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 1:48 PM UTC

I think that the main problem in the Gmail for iOS is that I can't configure the refresh time. For people who receive lots of e-mails it drains the battery so bad that it last only half a day.