g-less
I am. And contactless to googlers.
...
now, I wonder why I'm getting fewer and fewer emails....
The world's biggest advertising company is preparing to push adverts into its Android mobile Gmail client, no doubt to the surprise and alarm of fandroids who thought their private data was recompense enough. The news comes from Android Police, which has been busily dismantling the latest version of the Gmail app for Android ( …
"Google will also want to turn off the ads for those who've stumped up the cash for Business Gmail accounts, just as it does for the website."
Well I don't know that Google will actually want to turn of the ads for paying customers, but they might have to.
PS: Android is not really "open".
>>"PS: Android is not really "open""
...try to remember: gmail (along with all the other Google services) is just an app that runs on Android. An app I have to manually, explicitly reinstall every time I upgrade my Android devices.
You can have as much or little Google with your Android as you want. Turns out most users choose to add Google even if it means hacking their non certified devices.
What's not open is the bloody driver layer, with manufacturers playing hide&seek with the kernel drivers and rarely offering source. If only Google actually controlled Android enough to order them to ship source...
Without the Google apps, it can not be called "Android" at all. And Google will enforce that prohibition.
And those required-in-order-to-be-called-Android apps can't be called "open" in any way, no matter now the term is stretched.
I am also pretty sure that Google has a policy of giving new builds to selected manufacturers first, and only very much later to make it available generally
Actually Turtle, you don't have to take the apps to be Android Compatible - you just need to pass a compatibility test - it's just most users (like yourself apparently) would expect an Android compatible device to have the google apps on there.
So you can be Android (compatible) without the apps installed, but you can't take the apps without being Android Compatible.
http://source.android.com/faqs.html#is-compatibility-mandatory
"You can have as much or little Google with your Android as you want"
That's not my experience I'm afraid. I was told I didn't have to use a Google account with any aspect of Android except the specific things I wanted; however, when trying out CyanogenMod, I logged into the Google Play store to get an app, and all of a sudden Android had fired up a whole load of Google services on the device using my Google account without asking, and it was remarkably difficult to find them all and switch them off. I don't think I ever felt confident that I had turned all these things back off, and eventually I gave up and decided I wasn't comfortable with a corporation having such an invasive presence on my hardware.
At least on iOS, it's quite possible to use the App Store without Apple/iCloud secretly invading your device with its creepy corporate tendrils. Switching on and off the iCloud services you do and don't want is very clear and simple.
Google are very clever with the way they keep the geeks happy by doing the barest minimum to make Android appear theoretically open, but in practice I'm afraid it's no more open than iOS, and it certainly has a lot less respect for your privacy.
You won't get push email with free Gmail if you don't use the Google mail client as ActiveSync is no longer free. So your choices are 1. no push and no ads with another mail client, 2. push with ads with Google client, 3. pay $5/mo to Google and get push with any client, or 4. switch to outlook.com for mail which has free ActiveSync and get push with any client. If you want push with Gmail you will either pay with ads or with money.
K9 Mail is the best. I disliked the new gmail web interface so much I started running the open source version of Zimbra from a tiny server in my basement, and K9 / IMAP works very well with it. The app store also has some decent looking apps for tasks / briefcase, which replaces Google tasks / Google drive on my phone with the ones in Zimbra. I especially like the Briefcase feature, as I recently found out I can mount it as a DAV folder on my *nix laptop. I was having trouble getting my Nexus 4 to talk with my *nix laptop, but this solves the problem as I can upload stuff from the app, then get it on my computer via my own server.
The only things I still rely on Google for on my phone is contacts and calendars. If I can find a way to integrate the those apps with Zimbra, I will be completely off the Google bandwagon for my personal communications and data. Goodbye Google, I won't miss ya.
Seems a bit off to me. I realise there needs to be adverts for gmail in a browser, because you haven't paid for the service. But if your using gmail on android then you have paid for the service, it was included in the cost of the handset when you bought it... Also, the cost of an email app with no ads is between £1 and £2, are they going to charge that for a no-ads version? Because I'm pretty sure your phones google licence cost more than that already, if they're not making enough from android sales maybe they should charge more for it in the first place.
Ermm...Google don't charge for Android. That's the point. The manufacturers only have to pay for patent licensing for all the stuff Google ripped-off from other companies.
No money is received directly by Google when you buy an Android handset.
Ermm... No. Google charge for access to certain apps. What now? Ah yes, access to apps such as Gmail, Maps, Playstore etc. So, in fact, you do pay for the Gmail app already. If that's not enough to sustain their business, then maybe they should charge more for it? It's their business model after all, and they already push you to google search (obviously), which does indeed serve you adverts.
I mean don't they understand the simple concept of give and take?
You let Google handle storage and backup of gigabytes of your email, in exchange for scanning it and presenting relevant adverts?
I have no problem with this, and surprised it took so long. I also know that being Google, it will be done in a smart way that doesn't pollute the app.
Do the adverts on the Gmail web interface get in the way? Nope..
I sort of agree, I don't notice the ads on the web interface, but then my phone screen isn't 20" across so I think they'd be a lot more intrusive in the mobile app.
As it is I really dislike using apps that have those annoying adverts across the bottom. Perhaps if they offered a paid version of the app without ads? I'd go for that. Otherwise it's off to find a new email program, ho hum.
Don't mind ads on the web, hate ads in apps on my phone. They take up more room, slower for older phones, and it'll cheapen my Nexus experience.
Having said that, it's an ad touting company, so get why they would do it... but I'll be switching to an ad free client (paid for if needed) until they revert the decision.
Looking at the Google services I do use, I don't think a few ads, in amongst the emails from the various shops I buy stuff from, would be too much of an inconvenience.
If the alternative is no ads and having to pay for Gmail, Maps, Earth, Music, Translate as well as a relatively cheap 7" tablet and quite probably next phone, I'll take the ads thanks.
If someone can show me free alternatives that are better than the Google stuff, I'll use it.
I'm looking for a phone with a smaller screen than at present (4.6"), if only so it's smaller in my pocket, and I assume the power drain is less from a smaller screen. I have a desktop with duel monitors for looking at things if I need a lot of viewing space, I only use my phone for calls, texts and emails pretty much. (not that having a fully fledged, internet connected computer in my pocket isn't useful, and pretty damn awesome to me-from-20-years-ago)
Will we be recompensed for the cost of downloading these adverts? I know this isn't a big issue for folk who have unlimited/high data allowances and plenty of wifi failover - but not all places are equal.
With any luck I'll be getting the internet fitted today in my apartment, I've been in Australia for three months and have had to rely on mobile data access (neither home nor work have wifi or any open/pay for services available - hell work have 35GB limit on internet fullstop, for an office of seven). The best data packages I've seen are 2GB allowance a month and north of $80 a month.
Not being made of money (especially as changing countries is expensive) I've been trying to get by on 500mb (with unlimited free Facebook & Twitter) and it's been a bind, even careful use has me down to zero a week before the end of the month.
Looks like I'll be switching to the native mail client with pop/imap instead of the gmail app then.
my gmail app is grouping all my spam advertising emails into 1 header this is great news could this be the adds part that is being feared if so then this would be a welcomed change as I am no longer sifting through my marketing mail to find the emails that are important my new header is called promotions if you need something the its 1 place to look