I will have to keep refreshing my gmail inbox for the whole day, or even longer !
Reason ?
I am waiting for Google Buzz to be added to my account.
My first thought about Buzz was, hey Google is trying to start something similar to twitter. Later, I figured that, this is little different. Google is trying to respond to most of the twitter and twitter like services, along with twitter related services we use regularly use.
1. Twitter : With status updates and @ replies, google will compete with twitter directly here, and this happens inside gmail inbox, so Google has millions of users already with them. Well, if they all start using buzz, of course.
2. URL shortening: Google has its own URL shortening service, which will be integrated to buzz.
3. FriendFeed: Friend Feed collects all our web 2.0 activities on a single page. Buzz is trying to do something similar. It can automatically pull updates from your twiiter, flickr, picasa and youtube etc, and I believe, more services will be added to this via plugins or extensions, later.
4. Twitpic and Others: We will see picasa being an important part of Buzz, for quick photo sharing, directly competing with twitpic and other twitter photo sharing websites.
Many Social networking services may end up being a buzz plugin or extension, in future, if Google Buzz becomes really popular, which only time can reveal to us. So, lets wait for our future to be decided
Google Blue is good, but who said there is nothing better than that ?
How many days and hours have you spent inside your gmail inbox ? Isn’t time to give a new and better look for it ? Yes, It it is. I felt really good when I changed the gmail theme for first time many months ago.
You also will feel better. Try it.
It’s really easy to change gmail theme. Click on “settings” on top right corner of your inbox, and then select “themes”. You get some really good themes here. Try them out !! The latest theme, “turf” is what I am using.
If you like all of them
Well, if you liked all themes available in the gmail themes gallery, or confused thinking which one to choose, select “Random” ( check the end of the themes list ). Gmail will apply a random theme from the gallery.
If you do not like any of them
Oh yea, there is an option for those who do not like any of those themes available in the official gallery. Select the last option, “Choose your own colors” and them you can set your own colors. ( need help with color schemes and color codes ? go here )
So, change your themes …. enjoy, and share your experience with me … and now I will tell you a secret .. I know that 99% of you have already changed their themes, but this is for the remaining 1%
Looking at the news on Yahoo! and Google blogs, I see them thinking about more features and upgrades. So, iPhone is something that we are going to see more mobile features being developed. Its no wonder because iPhone, after is something that comes from the Mac family. Well, Just wondering when they are going to hit Indian market !! or is it already here ? anyone ?
Whats the news that made me think all these, ?
Yahoo! Messenger for Mac, is getting voice feature on it soon !! Well, isn’t it good enough to avoid your mobile bills and just pay the bill for internet on your iPhone ? hmm this is a good one dear Yahoo! and and as far as I know, google is yet to have gtalk with voice on iPhone. If you guys know about it, just drop me a comment.
Now, whats Google doing with iPhone ?
“At Macworld today, version 1.1.3 of Apple’s iPhone software was announced that includes updates to Google Maps for mobile and IMAP access to Gmail. ”
Google Maps is something that I am yet to try something on. So, I can’t comment. But, its really interesting to see IMAP added to iPhone’s Gmail.
Whats IMAP ? If you need a technical explanation, go right here. To make it simple, earlier, when iPhone was just downloading the email from gmail, and keeping it in your phone. The changes that you make on these messages on your iPhone, will not have any effect on your gmail inbox because its already a local file. But with IMAP, you are directly dealing with the contents in your gmail inbox itself, real time.
The most important thing that I see here, is you get the “real” gmail in to your phone not, just a POP access, like normal email IDs of hosted websites ( they have IMAP too, FYI ). Once you have the real Gmail on your phone, don’t you think more feature are going to be added, sooner ?
Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the “Video & more” menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose “Start video chat.” You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it’s ringing, and then you’ll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail
How to Popuout video : When you are on a chat, you know how you make it a separate window, and continue to chat , this is possible with video chat also. The follow image shows where you should click to pop the window out from your gmail inbox.
gmail video chat
How to watch in full screen : When you are watching someone on the video, and wants to make it full screen, you will see an icon similar to youtube.com’s “full screen” button. Click on that, and you will go fullscreen. See this image here if you can’t identify the button.
Another Update for you : Video Chat from iGoogle
You can now use Video chat from iGoogle ie, your customized google home page. The first time you use video chat in iGoogle, you’ll need to download a small plugin. It’s free and installs in seconds. To video chat with a friend, click on the “Start video chat” link in the “Actions” menu at the bottom of a chat window ( source )
Old Post : Using Your Webcam to take picture for profile photo
Even when we use gmail and gtalk for most of our chat and email, we often go back to Yahoo, for video and Webcam. What if you have webcam also, on your gtalk or gmail ? Well, don’t get excited, the feature is yet to be announced. But, I think, its on its way. Reason ? Google announced recently, that Google Talk gadget users will now be able to take a picture directly from the webcam to use as their profile picture gtalk.
” Currently, this feature only works in the Google Talk gadget, but will set your picture across the Google Talk network, including in Gmail.”
Yahoo never allowed us to use webcam from a linux machine, will google enable that feature ? Thats my concern now.
How To
From the Google Talk gadget, click on your Google Talk picture, and select the “Take Photo” option. You’ll see the image from your webcam appear, and you’ll be able to take and retake pix to your heart’s content. When you get that perfect shot, just click “Save” to set it as your picture.
Currently, this feature only works in the Google Talk gadget, but will set your picture across the Google Talk network, including in Gmail.
How to watch in full screen : When you are watching someone on the video, and wants to make it full screen, you will see an icon similar to youtube.com’s “full screen” button. Click on that, and you will go fullscreen. See this image here if you can’t identify the button.
Another Update for you : Video Chat from iGoogle
Even when we use gmail and gtalk for most of our chat and email, we often go back to Yahoo, for video and Webcam. What if you have webcam also, on your gtalk or gmail ? Well, don’t get excited, the feature is yet to be announced. But, I think, its on its way. Reason ? 
