40Tech

Mailbox is the new Gmail-only iPhone mail app that has been getting mostly rave reviews online for the way it helps users tame their inboxes. Let’s get one thing out of the way first, though – Mailbox isn’t going to change you as a person. If you’re a master procrastinator, it won’t suddenly transform you into a wizard of the do-it-now. If, however, your habits tilt in the direction of almost staying on top of your email, Mailbox might just eliminate enough friction to get you to email hallowed ground. And if you’re already an inbox zero guru, then Mailbox will beckon to you like a desert oasis.

One of the most common complaints I’ve seen about the new Mailbox app for the iPhone is its lack of  support for Gmail labels. While those complaints are understandable, they aren’t entirely correct. Mailbox is no worse with labels than the default Mail app in iOS. Here’s how to get limited support for Gmail labels in Mailbox.

Mailbox needs a monetizaton strategy. For my sake. And yours, if you use the app.

If you follow tech news, it’s been hard to miss mention of Mailbox. Mailbox, as described insome glowing reviews, looks to be a new way to handle email, with a focus on Gmail. The general concept behind Mailbox is to help you get to inbox zero by letting you perform full and half swipes to the left and right to archive, delete, and defer messages. The current problem with Mailbox? There’s a long line to get it.

40Tech’s Big Kahuna, Evan Kline, fell in love with Sparrow a while back. It was — and is — the ultimate Gmail client for him, and his post on it left me jealous that it wasn’t available for Windows (yeah, yeah, Apple Fanboys, I see your lips moving, but no sound is coming out). Thankfully, the keen developers on the Sparrow team have seen fit to bring the Ultimate Gmail/Email Experience over to the iPhone.

In keeping with their Big Push, Google released a new version of Gmail with a major facelift, as well as released — and then pulled — their long-awaited native Gmail app for iOS.

The new Gmail look, as is to be expected, has a few minor annoyances to accompany some great new features, and the app is actually very cool, but was pulled due to a notification system problem.

Check out the feature-list for both below.

Google Buzz is going the way of the dinosaur — or maybe the Dodo is a better analogy. Either way, as of November 14th, the hopeful attempt at getting in on some of that Twitter juice will simply fade away. Google’s on to bigger things now — like trying to get a piece of that Facebook pie, with some Twitter a la mode. Sounds nummy, right? Or maybe I’m just getting hungry…

Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but I’ve had a couple of people that I know who have had their email accounts hacked recently. Given all of the personal information we send and receive in email messages, that can be a traumatic experience. One victim wondered if she should take a scorched earth policy, and move completely to a new email account. That’s normally not necessary. If you still have access to your account, you can take some steps to secure it, and keep the slimy criminal out.

Have you ever worried that your email account was hacked? I had a scare recently that turned out to be unfounded, but it got me looking into ways to further secure my Gmail account. I had heard of Gmail’s two-factor authentication before, but had only dabbled in it. I now have two-factor authentication activated on both of my accounts, and it is pretty unobtrusive, and adds significant security to my account.

With all of the information, files and, well… stuff we have stored online, it can be a bit complicated to sift through it all when you need to go back and find something. Greplin makes that sort of search a whole lot easier. It indexes several of your online accounts, not the least of which are Facebook, Dropbox, and Gmail, and works like your own personal Google.