April 9, 2009 by Tap
Don't get me wrong, Google's recent updates to the mobile versions of Gmail and Google Calendar are great but as an Android user they leave me with a bit of a dilemma. Here's why.
Firstly, Gmail. I really like the new interface. It's clean, simple and intuitive. I like the easy access to the labels menu. The compose screen is easy to use and I particularly like the context menu that stays on the screen when you scroll through the contents of an email. Add to that the fact that (with Gears installed) you can create emails offline and send them later. All of this makes the new mobile Gmail far better than the native Gmail app that comes with Android. The problem is that Gmail notifications are still linked to the native app so clicking on a new notification in your status bar opens the native Gmail instead of the browser version.
Moving on to the Calendar, Android's native Calendar works pretty well for me as it is and the addition of event editing to the web version is of no real benefit to Android users using the native app. What is nice about using the online version is the ability to easily switch between Gmail and Calendar in your browser. Another gripe I have about the web Calendar (and maybe this is just a setting thing) is that in month view, I can’t see which days have events scheduled. The native calendar app displays this very well.
The upshot of all of this is that I'm still left with a mail/calendar solution that, instead of being a single integrated app, ends up being a mix of both native app and browser versions in order to give me all the features I want, the way I want. This leaves me a little bit disappointed.
Oh, and does anyone know if there's a calendar widget for Android yet? Before moving to the G1 I had a WinMo HTC TyTN that displayed events/tasks on the home screen. I have yet to find a way to do this on my G1.