Google Calendar jumps into Inbox/Gmail era Google's refreshed its Google Calendar Android app, and is promising an iOS version to follow. The big-ticket item on the list is that the Calendar will suck stuff out of your e-mails, so (in the limited imagination of those that provide real-world use-cases) an airline confirmation would be spotted in your inbox and would …
Google Now is quite happy to tell me when to leave the house after rifling through my emails, spotting a flight reservation, sorting any delays, and knowing how long it takes to get to the airport whilst suggesting public transport options to get me there. Having it in my calendar would make it more readily checkable, as opposed to relying on Now cards to tell me when it decides to tell me.
Yes, it's a bit creepy, but at least it's a reminder that 'my' mailbox is shared with all and sundry agencies, and I get a useful service in return. I should probably be more concerned, but am not really sure it's worth it. And it had been extremely handy recently, with then showing flight trackers, delays, etc.
If I knew your gmail address, could I send you an e-mail saying that your flight has been cancelled thus resulting in you missing an important meeting etc.? (Think of comparable scenarios for your own amusement.)
As a Google calendar user, all I wanted was a simple multi-calendar application where I controlled the entries. It does that well. I don't like the idea of anything automatically adding entries to 'my' calendars. (Yes, I know that as a Google user, I am the product and am at their mercy.)
"If I knew your gmail address, could I send you an e-mail saying that your flight has been cancelled thus resulting in you missing an important meeting etc.?"
I imagine you'd also need to know the exact details of the booking/flight for that to work.
However...
"(Think of comparable scenarios for your own amusement.)"
You could create a fictional flight to begin with that would end up in his calendar - or, obviously, absolutely anything that is likely to be picked up by this system. Which could not only be fun and entertaining in some cases, but downright dangerous or detrimental in others (police officers and other officials being reminded of appointments with bad guys to collect bribes for example - which if inadvertently seen by others could result in trouble for them, suspension, etc., even though the spoof nature of the appointment would - hopefully - come out in the investigation.)
And now Google Inbox accessed through the browser can't be accessed on Safari and is "for now" Chrome only.
Google apps on iOS adhere to Material Design interaction standards, so for example swiping from the edge of the screen to return to the previous hierarchical view controller doesn't work, resulting in a disjointed user experience.
Google maps has become nagware, unless you are prepared to sign in to a Google account and allow Google to track your every move.
Google used to be a company that supported universal access from all devices, now they are ratcheting up the requirement for the user to do things how they want them to be done and only on their chosen platform. Google are fast becoming the new Microsoft.
Yep. Looking at my inbox this morning, it'll be booking me an appointment with a russian lady who is apparently 'desperate' to have relations with me, an appointment with a 'commercial debt recovery' service, who I apparently owe 1525 GBP, and, best of all, remind me that I have unwittingly bought NINE tickets to 'peter pan' at the bournemouth pavilion theatre on the 23rd December (the 'tickets' are in a zip file, which i 'MUST open imediately!'). Not sure the chocolati have thought this one through....
Amusing, but are you quite sure you're using the Gmail client? The number of offers of foreign brides and/or containers of gold I receive in the inbox using Gmail is zero.
And to know about flight delays? Holy hell I want that. Almost every time I fly home from a holiday we end up at the airport only to discover a delay the airline knew about yesterday, but the tour operator couldn't be bothered to reschedule our bus ride to the damn airport. Last time was Turkey and I was in the airport with my family for 12 miserable hours.
I want to put my appointments in, not spend half a day weeding out unecessary and distracting appointments from my calendar
My favourite calendar app was on my old (and still functioning as a backup) Nokia 6610i - I never missed a birthday, or an appointment, it was quiet, unassuming, and very usable.
I look forward to reading about the exploit which goes something like a malicious spam mail sent to someone's gmail account causes Inbox to generate a malicious calendar entry containing a URL to a malicious website which contains a malicious page handled incorrectly by Webkit in Android 4.4.2 or below which allows privilege escalation etc etc etc...
There must be a tiny number of people who are flying so frequently that these kind of features are of potential use and an even smaller number who could do something useful if they find out en route to the airport that their flight is delayed. I can't help feeling that the inhabitants of the Valley are building these things simply to gloat about their unenviable lifestyles.
I'm getting really tired of the tunnel vision of the data aggregators. I run several mail apps because I want my different mail accounts kept separate, not all stuffed into one inbox (may be more convenient for data slurping but it's not convenient for me). I like my calendar to behave predictably, like a diary.
I'm not some robot whose movements are entirely dictated by the instructions coming to me via email (and, bleagh, "social media"), but that's increasingly how we're apparently viewed by the purveyors of "free".
There must be a tiny number of people who are flying so frequently that these kind of features are of potential use and an even smaller number who could do something useful if they find out en route to the airport that their flight is delayed.
Pilots and trolly dollies...
Thank you for flighting!
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