Google Adds IMAP Support To GMail
GMail has gained IMAP support, one of the most requested features for Google’s web-based e-mail service.
More than storage space or other features, free web-based IMAP access pushes GMail over the top when compared to offerings from Yahoo, Microsoft and most other web-based e-mail services.
If you log into your GMail account and head to “settings,” the tab for “Forwarding and POP” should now read “Forwarding and POP/IMAP.”
If it doesn’t, be patient, Google will be rolling out the new IMAP features across the service over the next few days.
If you’re not familiar with IMAP, it’s like POP access, but allows your changes to live on the server rather than just your e-mail client.
For instance, if you move a message in Thunderbird via POP, the movement isn’t mirrored in GMail, but with IMAP it is.
With IMAP you can access your mail via your desktop client, read mail, make changes and have those changes mirrored by any other client accessing the account.
If you access your mail from multiple machines, IMAP allows them all to stay in sync. If you don’t access your mail with a desktop client, then IMAP support won’t change the way you interact with GMail.
To enable IMAP in GMail just head to the settings page and change your access from POP to IMAP.
Then you need to configure your desktop client to connect via IMAP rather than POP — be sure to backup your client’s mail store before making changes.
The Google help center has more details on configuring IMAP settings in both GMail and on the client side.
Spark IP: an eBay for Ideas
SparkIP.com is a new Web site that aims to create a marketplace where ideas can be bought and sold.
Today SparkIP.com covers over 3.5 million US patents going back to the late 1960s.
They have plans to add patent applications, international patents, and other data sets in the coming weeks and they hope to soon have dozens of new innovations showing up on the site daily!
As you search on technologies, inventors, organizations or other terms, you will be introduced to our SparkCluster maps which are designed to give structure and context to the vast amounts of information available.
SparkClusters are self-organizing and self-naming, ensuring that the maps reflect the latest trends in innovation.
Today, there are over 49,000 SparkClusters on SparkIP.com; and each month, new ones will form as the innovation landscape evolves.
SparkIP connects ideas and investors in two ways.
First, you can dive into a database of 3.5 million U.S. patents using a Google-inspired keyword search.
Second, technology owners can list technology available for licensing.
SparkIP.com is a data-rich exchange designed for scientists/inventors, universities, government labs, corporations, patent attorneys, and anyone doing research on patented or emerging technologies.
Google Tribute To Luciano Pavarotti
Google pays tribute to Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007), Cavaliere di Gran Croce was a celebrated Italian tenor in operatic music with a special Google logo:
While undertaking an international “farewell tour,” Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006.
On September 6 2007, however, after a long, hard battle against the pancreatic cancer, he died.
Google celebrates Sputnik - 50th Anniversary
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1.
The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.
Today Google celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Sputnik with a flashy Google logo:
That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.
Google Shows Off GWT Apple iPhone Tools
The team behind the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) have released a handy little article on how to develop web applications for the iPhone using GWT.
First off the block is the GWT Feed Reader, a feed reader interface optimized for the Apple iPhone.
Don’t let the name fool you. This isn’t an iPhone-optimized Google Reader site, rather it combines the Google AJAX Feed API with a user interface geared for use on the iPhone.
But because, frankly, it blows the pants of the the existing Google Reader mobile interface, I really wish it was a Google Reader interface.
However, the Google AJAX Feed API lacks many of the features found in Google Reader - like search.
Still, if you’re a developer looking to build an iPhone optimized version of your site, GWT could help kick start your efforts.
The blog post says that “the primary take-away from this project is to say this: the Google Web Toolkit can be used to create applications that, in the same code base, work well on an iPhone and a traditional desktop browser.”
Google celebrates 9th Birthday
Happy 9th Birthday Google!
May all your non-evil birthday wishes come true!