Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Today we announced Google Buzz, a new product that integrates with your Gmail inbox and makes it easy to start rich conversations about the things you find interesting. Google Buzz lets you share web links, photos, videos, and more with those who are important to you. Rather than simply creating a mobile version of Buzz, we decided to take advantage of the unique features of a mobile device - in particular, location. We go through many experiences when we're on the go, and while there are lots of ways to share these experiences with your friends or even the world, there isn't always an easy way to let your audience know where you are when you post. Your location brings valuable context to the information you share. For example, does "Delicious dinner!" mean you're at a great restaurant, or that you had a wonderful home-cooked meal? Your mobile phone, which is with you almost all the time, can help answer these questions."

By now, you've probably read and heard all there is to know about Google Buzz. In an age where social networking is ubiquitous, you could argue that Google is a little late to the game. After all, Buzz still focuses on the core theme of status, link, photo, and video sharing, and that's nothing other social services haven't already executed. But there are elements in Buzz that help set it apart from the rest. For starters, it's built right into Gmail, so not only is there tight integration with your inbox, you're already connected to your growing list of contacts; in other words, no more finding or importing friends from scratch. It also integrates well with other services, such as Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, Google Talk, and Google Reader, plus thanks to Buzz's open architecture, there should be many more added to the list in the near future. And, of course, there's support for mobiles. Apart from presenting the aforementioned on a small screen, the mobile version of Buzz taps into many unique features of a mobile device, such as location services, so you can easily fetch a list of public buzzes near you, wherever and whenever. Or you can view public buzzes as a layer in the new Google Maps for mobile. Google takes it to the next level by tapping into its map data to use place names over the usual latitude and longitude. Intrigued? Jump the break for a video demo.

So, are there any buzzers in the house? If so, how are you finding it?

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While I use Nuevasync to get my Gmail on my Windows Mobile devices, I still like to use Google's Java applet from time to time to fill in some gaps (such as search) that Nuevasync doesn't currently support. This stopped being an option earlier this year as the Java applet wouldn't load on my Dash 3G. It would download, and then fail to install giving an error reading "errono=910 Application Authorization Failure". While I'm not sure if it's an evil carrier lockdown or something less sinister, I was quite annoyed by this. Until today when I found this FAQ for the software product AviatorCalc. Seems that AviatorCalc is having the same issues with Windows Mobile devices as the Gmail applet. And their solution, downloading a new version of Esmertec Jbed seems to do the trick (FAQ contains a link for the download). I now have Google's Java applet running on my Dash 3G again! Highly likely this will work on other WinMo handsets too - I personally haven't tested them yet.

"Earlier this year, we launched Google Sync which allows you to synchronize your Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar with your iPhone, Windows Mobile, and S60 devices. Today, we're adding Gmail support to Google Sync for iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows Mobile devices. "

Using ActiveSync on your device, you can connect to Google's Exchange Server service and sync your contacts and appointments real time. Now GMail messages themselves have been added to the mix. No more configuring iMAP mail boxes. This is a great service for those that don't have their phone connected to a work server. I wish I could sync my messages up with this service, but work email is more important on my phone than my personal email.

Earlier this week, synchronization service NuevaSync announced their latest addition to the platform, push e-mail. NuevaSync already had calendar & contact sync from Google to Windows Mobile, iPhone, and pretty much any platform that supports the Microsoft Activesync protocol. Since I've been using Google for the last month or so (in lieu of my exchange server), I thought it may be interesting to give this service a shot. After all, only $25 for a year of service isn't too pricey (.002 cents per hour if you want to think of it that way...).

The first thing you notice about NuevaSync is it's no-frills website. This makes it mobile friendly, and still usable on the desktop. Their site was a bit disjointed (with a Wiki and Blog loosely linked up, with recent navigation improvements) but it gets the job done. After upgrading to Premium (for $25 a year), you can access the e-mail action. This is where you link up your IMAP e-mail account. Any IMAP server that supports the IDLE command should work just fine with their service, and they have an express setup option for GMail users. Contacts & Calendar set up easily as well, and as a premium user you can select which Google Calendars you want to sync with your device. Read more...

About a month ago I decided to try something. For over 4 years I'd had a Gmail account that did little more than filter SPAM before it passed up to my exchange server, yet I kept hearing about all the awesome things you could do with Gmail. Sites touted various features and gizmos, the ability to search easier and the quicker load times than my existing solution, Outlook. So I decided to take the plunge and go Google for a bit and see how I felt about it.

Photo Credit: flickr user murilomernardes

On February 26 I disabled Gmail's forwarding to my exchange server, and now after 1 month, I'm ready to share my impressions. Read more...