If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll be happy to know you can now take advantage of Google’s mobile interface for your ASU account.

In a post on Thursday, Google made a few exciting announcements:

• Mobile version of Google News is now available for all you news junkies
• Expanded Google for iPhone and iPod Touch to 33 new markets and 16 more languages
• Full mobile integration of Google services with Google Apps accounts

I have a personal Google account in addition to my ASU Google Apps account. I noticed that you can be logged into both at the same time on my iPod Touch. This means I can get my ASU email, and browse my Google Reader account without having to log in/out. Beauty.

Does anyone else use Google on their iPhone or iPod Touch?

I logged into my ASU Google Docs account yesterday morning to a great little surprise. It looks like ASU students now have access to the new offline features of Google Docs.

Google Docs is only the second web application from Google to take advantage of their Gears API (the first was Google Reader back in May). In a nutshell, Gears is “…an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline.” If you haven’t seen it already, here is the video announcement that Google published at the beginning of April.

There are a bunch of sites that take advantage of Gears already. There’s even a feed that features companies who have adopted Gears’ technology.

I just checked out a personal finance site called Buxfer that looks pretty cool. It has all the tools you would expect from a finance application - track spending, sync automatically with your existing accounts, add tags to purchases to see where the money’s going. They even have gadgets that you can drop on your Facebook, Netvibes, or myASU homepage. Take a tour of Buxfer’s features and sign up for a free account if you’re interested. I think I will…

Oh yeah - and remember Zoho? That online suite of insanely useful applications? Zoho has been using Google Gears since November 2007 with their Zoho Writer application. If you don’t have a Zoho account, what are you waiting for?

Have fun off line, kids.

Techcrunch reported it just moments ago at IMAP Support Disappears from Gmail.

I really hope this isn’t permanent.

UPDATE: An announcement was just posted in the Gmail Help Discussion group. Looks like it’s a temporary error and they’re working on fixing it.

UPDATE #2: Looks like it’s working again. At least in both of my accounts…that was fast.

Related posts:

• POP Goes the Gmail (part 1)
• POP Goes the Gmail (part 2)

This is one of the main reasons I dislike email: it’s just plain inconvenient to share large files with people. We’ve all experienced it. Friends sending videos, pictures, documents that take forever to load. Space isn’t much of a concern anymore for ASU students now that we all have over 2 Gb of Inbox storage, but with pictures and videos, that 2 Gb can fill up fast. (I like to stick to a self-made rule of keeping attachments to under 1 Mb.)

So what is one to do? Here is a list of solutions you should try before attaching that huge file to your email:

1. Drop.io - create a custom site (called a “drop”), add your files, and share the link to the site. No account setup, no registration. Add files via web, phone, fax (who has a fax machine?), widget, or email. WOW. This is cool. Password-protect a “drop,” if it has stuff you don’t want the world to see. Set time limits for how long a “drop” is available.
2. Box.net - free account allows users to upload files and share them by sending a link. Through their OpenBox services, 3rd party sites are compatible with their services, such as Zoho, Piknik, Facebook, etc. (10 Mb-per-file limit for free accounts. Bigger upload options available for paid accounts.)
3. Eatlime.com - similar to the previous two. Upload your files to your eatlime account, share them via link with friends and family. Offers easy interface for sharing stuff to your friends on popular social networks.
4. Google Docs - use those fancy “share” buttons in your ASU Google Docs account. Share or collaborate on a document with anyone. Making a document “public” will give it a unique web address that you can send to anyone. It even syncs with your ASU Gmail contacts, so you don’t have to worry about remembering an email address.
5. Zoho.com - similar to Google Docs, Zoho offers a wide variety of web-based applications where you can create documents/spreadsheets/presentations and then share them with friends or family. Zoho also has Zoho Viewer - a simple web app that allows you to upload and share a file with people.

In a landmark decision to improve the technology experience for its 60,000+ students, the University Technology Office announced this morning their decision to end its relationship with Google and their Google Apps and start fresh with Microsoft. Many of the details are still unknown, however a reputable source has made it clear that this transition will take place during the Summer 2008 break.

Student Gmail accounts, web-based (and now offline!) document editing and collaboration, calendar, website creation, and myASU accounts will be eliminated at the end of the Spring 2008 semester. They will be replaced with the mildly popular Microsoft Live@edu services. This is a similar set of services that includes an email account, calendars, and document collaboration.

The Microsoft Live@edu services are expected to launch in Spring of 2009.

Students will need to set up temporary services on their own for use during the Fall 2008 semester. According to Microsoft officials:

“This is only temporary until all the bugs can get worked out with the Microsoft Live@edu services. We really don’t anticipate it taking much longer than 1-2 semesters to get everything working properly. Definitely two semesters at the most. We would recommend students set up a new Google account in the meantime until we can get everything running.”

University Technology Officer, Adrian Sannier, is excited for the change. He has been a driving force behind the advancements to how students and faculty communicate. He sees this move to Microsoft as the University

“…heading in the right direction. With these new services, students will be rocking and rolling in cyberspace like never before. They will be able to send electronic messages to each other. Advanced users will quickly learn how to attach electronic files to these messages to share them with classmates and professors.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what Microsoft has in store for us. They have always been at the forefront of Internet-based technologies. I mean - seriously, who doesn’t have a Hotmail account? Did you know you can get like 2 Gb of free storage in a Hotmail account?!? That’s wacky!”

Google representatives could not be reached at the time of publishing. More news will follow as details develop.

In Part 1 of this post series, I wrote about some issues I’ve been having with my ASU Gmail account. Today I will break down the steps of how to set up an ASU Gmail account for IMAP access. The information to do this was scattered around various sites, and was a major pain to find on my own. Once I figured it all out, it was relatively simple. Hopefully this can post will be a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in setting up IMAP. Put on your helmets and safety goggles, and let’s get started.

Here are the steps I had to go through to get everything to work. I use the Mac Mail application, so that is what steps 5- are based on. I also tested these with Thunderbird 2 for Mac and it worked, so hopefully it will work for the email client you use as well.

*If you’ve been trying different methods than I’m about to describe, you may need to go through one additional step. If you’ve tried to enter your password too many times into your email client, Google may have flagged your account and require that you reset what is known as a CAPTCHA. This is a security feature that many websites offer to keep hackers out of accounts and commenting systems. (Read more here) If you think this may pertain to you, go here to reset your CAPTCHA. Simply enter your existing ASURite username and password, and then type in the word/letter combination that you see. After you have done this, return to this post and continue with the steps.

1. Enable Authenticated SMTP Service | This will allow you to “use ASU’s outgoing mail server (smtp.asu.edu) securely from any location, using your favorite e-mail client.” Go here for step-by-step instructions.
2. Turn on IMAP access in your ASU Gmail account | This will allow you to synchronize your email client with your web mail.
   1. Log in to your ASU Gmail account.
   2. Click the “Settings” link in the top right of the screen.
   3. Click the “Forwarding and IMAP/POP” button on your Settings screen.
   4. Click the “Enable IMAP” radio button, and save your settings.
3. Set up your POP/Chat Password | This may seem redundant to set up another password, but it is necessary for later steps. I recommend setting this password to the same as your ASURITE password. It will make everything easier. Go here to set it up.
4. Take a deep breath | You’re almost done.
5. Set up your email client to access your ASU Gmail account | Depending on the mail client you use (Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Entourage), the step numbers of the following modifications will be different. I am basing the step numbers off of the Mac Mail instructions. Regardless of the mail client you choose, these modifications must be made for IMAP to work properly. Here is a page that has links for step-by-step instructions for various email clients.
   • Follow the steps on this page with a few modifications.
     • In step 5, choose IMAP instead of POP as your Account type
     • In step 10, set the incoming mail server to imap.gmail.com instead of pop.gmail.com
     • In step 11, DO NOT include the “recent:” prefix before your “asuriteID@asu.edu” information
     • Note: In step 12, the password for the Incoming mail server is the POP/Chat password you established in Step 3.
     • Note: In step 17, the password for the Outgoing mail server is your ASURITE password. (This is why I recommended making both passwords the same. Now you don’t have to remember two passwords.)

You should be finished! You can now view your ASU email from your mail client. Any changes you make within your mail client will be simultaneously changed in the web-based ASU Gmail account as well. If you are anything like me, you check your email from various different places…home computer, laptop, mobile device, etc. By setting up IMAP access, you can ensure that everything is synchronized. The beast is still the beast, but at least we have put a leash on it. Good luck.

Email can very easily get out of control. Anyone who uses it knows the pain of trying to keep up on replying to everything, weeding out the crap, and trimming down the Inbox so you can sleep at night. For many, email has become more hassle than convenience. For the current generation of students, email is often not fast enough. Hence the popularity of IM and text messaging. Communication preferences aside, it is safe to say that email will be around for long time. Our job is to learn how to tame the beast. I’ve been trying some things out that I wanted to share. Maybe they’ll help someone else out there too. First, an explanation.

A while back, I wrote about my decision to forward my ASU email to my old Gmail account. If you’re interested why I made the switch, go read the post. It’s been over two months since I switched, and it last I checked, ASU’s Gmail still has not been switched to the new version. I’m not sure of the details, but from what I’ve read, it has something to do with the fact that ASU’s services are through the Google Applications suite.

It wasn’t hard to have my ASU email forwarded to my old account. I followed the steps to set up a simple automatic forwarding rule. This has worked perfectly for the past two months. Earlier this week, I noticed some problems. Some of my mail was not being forwarded properly, and there was significant lag time between when a message showed up in my ASU account and when it showed up in the account I actually use. Sometimes this lag was an hour, sometimes several hours.

As I was attempting to submit my first story for the State Press to my editor last Tuesday, this was seriously bothersome. I wanted to cuss and spit and throw things. Heavy things that would cause a lot of damage and give me the greatest sense of relief. I was waiting for some pictures to be emailed to me and they never showed up in my Inbox. When I logged into my ASU account, there they were, unread and un-forwarded. Because I now have deadlines and due dates that I have to meet for the Press, I can’t risk missing an email again. So, I’m trying something new.

I turned off the automatic forwarding in my ASU account. Using the Mac Mail application on my laptop and my iMac at home, I set up IMAP access for both my personal Gmail account and my ASU account. I could have also used POP, but I didn’t. If you have a choice between POP and IMAP, you shouldn’t either. Google gives a quick explanation why IMAP is the superior choice:

Unlike POP, IMAP offers two-way communication between your web mail and your email client(s). This means when you log in to your account using a web browser, actions you perform on email clients and mobile devices (ex: putting mail in a ‘work’ folder) will instantly and automatically appear in your web mail (ex: it will already have a ‘work’ label on that email).

In addition, IMAP provides a better method to access your mail from multiple devices. If you check your email at work, on your mobile phone, and again at home, IMAP ensures that new mail is accessible from any device at any given time.

Finally, IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through its two-way syncing capabilities between your mail clients and your web mail.

If you’re trying to decide between using POP and using IMAP with your web mail account, we recommend IMAP.

Thankfully IMAP access was available in both of my accounts, otherwise this would not have worked. (Even better - with Gmail, IMAP access is F-R-E-E. You can’t even get POP with Yahoo! Mail without paying a fee.)

In the second part of this post series, I’ll detail the steps of how I set up my ASU account. For me, it was not as easy as 1-2-3. It was more like 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8…27…54…

I’ll try to make it easier for the rest of you. Check back tomorrow for Part 2.