Easy Questions :) Droid.

[strtoutfrsh]

Whats the difference between Email / Gmail / Gmail Tags in android? they all seem to do the same thing with a different layout?

Also is there any way to update the built in dictionary? I have an iphone and it picks up a log of 'slang' but typing Yah? gets Yahoo? is kinda awkward sometimes lol.


Also the virtual keyboard seems sluggish even with better keyboard I dont know if its because no multi touch or something but I can barely type on the droid currently unless going slow. Again just a comparison against my iphone.

Thank you for your time and help :)

[Shel]

Go to Settings/Locale and Text/User Dictionary and you can add words to be used for the user dictionary, such as yah.

As for the virtual keyboard, check if you have haptic feedback and/or sound on when typing, and if you do, turn them off. That'll speed up typing considerably.

[extorian]

Whats the difference between Email / Gmail / Gmail Tags in android? they all seem to do the same thing with a different layout?

Email is for POP3 and IMAP accounts. It can only be used for sending and reading emails (Text only), and saving attachments. There are a number of shortcomings of the Email app. For example you can't select multiple messages to delete at once - you have to read and delete each one at a time. Also it does not delete emails off the server.

GMail is much better. You can configure your GMail account online to pull emails from all of your accounts if you want. You can use "filters" to do some awesome things too - such as automatically sorting your emails or applying labels to specific ones. The GMail app has some cool features too, such as the ability to batch delete, and you can preview a lot of attachments (such as Word documents) without needing a separate app, and grouping of message threads into a single threat so you see one mail of conversations instead of several individual emails.

By tags, I assume you mean labels? They're just the labels that are applied to your emails by GMail (the online version not your phone app). Labels are a bit like mail folders, but it has the advantage that you can have more than one label applied to the same message.

Labels can be really powerful if you set them up for your own needs. For example you could set a filter to give any email from Amazon or eBay a "Shopping" label automatically. Then to find all your shopping emails you just view that label.

[scrannel]

While Gmail seems to accept any attachment online, on the phone -- just like the pop/IMAP app -- it needs an application that will "see" the attachment (at least on my G1, this may have been upgraded on your phone). However, there are a couple of good pop/IMAP apps available, free, to replace the stock app. K9, on the market, and Seven (which I use):

http://www.seven.com/press_releases/2009/SEVENNowSupportsAndroid.html

For instance, because I am a screewriter, I need to be able to receive Final Draft documents. With stock Gmail and pop app (on the phone) I cannot receive them. K9 & Seven solve this. If you don't mind going on line to handle your email, Gmail is great. I do mind. And, by the way, with Seven I can read attachments on the phone if there is an app that allows it -- not just text.

[extorian]

I have the standard OTA Donut 1.6 OS. If I send myself a Word document to my GMail account, when I open the email with the GMail app it has a big Preview button next to the attachment. If I click that, Google Mail (i.e. the server) converts it to HTML (just the text) which is then displayed natively in the GMail app. It'll do this for a lot of other attachments too. I do not have any app whatsoever that can open Word documents or preview them. The standard Email apps don't do this.

You're correct need the correct app to view attachments "properly" in GMail (or Email), but my point is that with GMail has the advantage that you can "Preview" several attachment types without the need for a separate app.

[scrannel]

I have the standard OTA Donut 1.6 OS. If I send myself a Word document to my GMail account, when I open the email with the GMail app it has a big Preview button next to the attachment. If I click that, Google Mail (i.e. the server) converts it to HTML (just the text) which is then displayed natively in the GMail app. It'll do this for a lot of other attachments too. I do not have any app whatsoever that can open Word documents or preview them. The standard Email apps don't do this.

You're correct need the correct app to view attachments "properly" in GMail (or Email), but my point is that with GMail has the advantage that you can "Preview" several attachment types without the need for a separate app.

You are right, but if it's not a common document etc., it will not preview or even save. I actually could care less about reading the attachment on the phone, I just want the ability to download and save ANY attachment, no matter what it is. Also, I think the standard email app was designed as a second thought to Google's own Gmail app. The reason I find this so annoying is that my 2003 Nokia 6600 would do it; of course it also came with a built in office app... which I had to pay for to get on Android. I sent myself an email with a Final Draft attachment and the Gmail app on the phone couldn't do anything with it. Seven handled it no sweat.

[extorian]

Sure - but it's still an advantage GMail has over the Mail app. In both apps you can still save attachments and load them with an appropriate app if you have one. It' just with GMail, you can sometimes preview attachments for things you don't have an app to view normally. Sometimes that's useful.

[scrannel]

Sure - but it's still an advantage GMail has over the Mail app. In both apps you can still save attachments and load them with an appropriate app if you have one. It' just with GMail, you can sometimes preview attachments for things you don't have an app to view normally. Sometimes that's useful.

Yes -- but I'm not talking about using the stock email app, instead, one of the other two I listed. Their advantage over Gmail is two-fold: you can download and save ANY attachment on the phone... and you don't have to change your email address just because Google decided they wanted you to... by supplying a totally, substandard POP/IMAP app., and then doing nothing to fix it. If I had not happened across K9, I would have returned my G1. Now, I'm using Seven, though I hear the new K9 is great.

[extorian]

Ah sorry - I misunderstood and thought we were comparing the stock Mail app to the GMail app.