{"id":465,"date":"2011-08-30T18:58:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T10:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/?p=465"},"modified":"2011-08-30T19:24:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T11:24:52","slug":"gmail-google-docs-and-ios-a-search-for-the-perfect-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/30\/gmail-google-docs-and-ios-a-search-for-the-perfect-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Gmail, Google Docs and iOS – A Search for the Perfect App"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I moved to Singapore, I spent lots of evenings and weekends at work. \u00a0Even if I hauled my laptop home, it seems I always left some key document at work, or needed something that could only be accessed at work.<\/p>\n

Jump ahead five years and now most of my files are online and platform-independent. I’ve shifted from One Note to Evernote. \u00a0I’m using Dropbox instead of My Site in Sharepoint to store files. \u00a0Both of those play well with my Windows 7 tablet at work, my Mac at home, my iphone and my ipad. \u00a0As a result, I can do more of my work from the comfort of my home or on the road.<\/p>\n

Increased use of Google Docs further\u00a0facilitated\u00a0this change. \u00a0It allowed me to work on docs, spreadsheets and presentations from home and work. However, finding an app that accessed those well on my iphone and ipad has been less fun. \u00a0When I started looking, I discovered that many apps allow you to view your docs. \u00a0Unfortunately, few let you edit them well. Google’s own app sent you to Safari to do any work.<\/p>\n

\"iGoogDocs\"<\/p>\n

Eventually I found\u00a0iGoogDocs<\/a>\u00a0and access improved. \u00a0It is not flashy, but it is quick and reliable. \u00a0With few taps I was into my docs. One further click and I was editing them.\u00a0I used it with both Docs and Sheets and while I wouldn’t want to do major revision work on either on a phone, the quick bits I needed to revise on the fly worked well.<\/p>\n

With Safari for reading my mail, and iGoogDocs for viewing work docs, all was well until\u00a0I switched from Outlook to Gmail at work. \u00a0I was part of the pilot group charged with figuring out and resolving the glitches of moving off the Exchange server. This made mail a bit trickier on the iPhone.\u00a0I was already using Safari to read my personal Gmail. It wasn’t very feature-rich, but my personal mail didn’t require much. \u00a0However, my work mail needed a more powerful interface to improve my workflow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"iMailG<\/p>\n

I found a really nice phone app called iMailG<\/a>. I was quickly hooked on it due to all its handy features and visual appeal. I could now star messages. \u00a0I could quickly jump to the top and bottom of message. \u00a0I was amazed at how much better my experience was using that rather than the iPhone’s Mail app or Safari. (Since that time Google has vastly improved it’s mobile version so most features are available via Safari if you don’t want a stand alone app.<\/p>\n

Since these two apps served me well on the iPhone, I eagerly put them on my iPad when I finally purchased one. iGoogDocs worked, but only at the size of an iPhone screen. \u00a0After trying a few iPad apps, I decided to use IGoogDocs anyways because it was more stable and quicker.
\nI also installed iMailG only to find it was not compatible. The developers were working on an iPad version but it wasn’t available yet. \u00a0I briefly used a nice app designed to play well with multiple Gmail accounts. It worked well until it was updated. I contacted the developer and he made a fix but it didn’t stick. I was back to looking for an app for my work Gmail.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Fortunately I found Google Apps Browser <\/a>by G-Whizz! As with iMailG on the phone, this app added value to my experience. \u00a0It has a well-designed interface that lets me work more efficiently. It has many nifty\u00a0features and it is stable. \u00a0It works well for mail, docs, spreadsheets and calendar. \u00a0The other apps probably work well but I don’t use them at work. I am so pleased that I think I will purchase the iPhone version. \u00a0That way my work mail can be on that and my personal account can be on iMailG.<\/p>\n

The story could end there, but it doesn’t. \u00a0iMailG is now available for the iPad. It is a delight to use. \u00a0It is tied in my affections with Google Apps Browser \u00a0for mail and doc access. \u00a0Since I don’t have an app on either device that handles multiple accounts, this is the best solution– and it is a good one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How are you accessing your Google accounts on your i-devices?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I moved to Singapore, I spent lots of evenings and weekends at work. Even if I hauled my laptop home, it seems I always left some key document at work, or needed something that could only be accessed at work.<\/p>\n

Jump ahead five years and now most of my files are online and platform-independent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-applications","category-iphone","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssedro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}