Here’s the link:

http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig

If you’re using Google Apps for your domain, here’s another link:

http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/YOURDOMAIN.COM/ig

(Substitute “YOURDOMAIN.COM” with the correct Google Apps domain)

As a deaf person and a Google lover, this is the perfect confluence of all things Google-goodness.  I can’t emphasize how thrilled I am with this new development.

(No, that’s not me in the picture above.  That’s a Google employee demo’ing the video.  Grin.)

The Official Google Blog has more details.  In a nutshell:

Just click on the new “Video & more” menu in a Gmail chat window and select “Start video chat” or “Start voice chat.” You can switch to a full screen view or pop out the chat window and change the size and positioning as you wish.

…

Gmail voice and video chat will be rolled out globally over the next day or so for Macs and PCs. The first time you use this feature, you’ll be prompted to download and install a small plugin. To get started, visit http://www.gmail.com/videochat or click on the “Options” menu in a Gmail chat window and choose “Add voice/video chat.” Find out more on our Gmail Blog.

Of course, you’ll need a webcam (and a good friend) to use this functionality.

My, today is a wonderful day, isn’t it?  :-)

(I just realized I’ve been blogging about Google several times in a row.  I think I need medication to stop my Google OCD-ness …)

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I’ve already blogged some preliminary thoughts about the Tmobile G1, the first Android phone.  I want it so bad that it aches!  However, I don’t like the phone unit itself that Tmobile used for its first Android phone.  I’m waiting to see if Sprint or Verizon comes out soon with their own phones running on the Android platform.  I’m curious if those phones would have built-in keyboards that you don’t have to slide out to use.  See what happens (hopefully soon) …

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Very, very, VERY useful feature.  I can’t tell you how many YEARS I’ve wished Google Maps would add this feature.  Yahoo Maps had a similar feature for quite a while, but it was difficult to use.

Also, I’m not sure if it’s something that’s now available to everyone, is being rolled out gradually to groups of people, or if Google’s testing this out to a select group of people.

Google designed a new smartphone interface system called Android, and it will be available to just about any telephone network who want to use it on smartphones / phones.  This would be similar to Palm’s operating system, Apple’s iPhone, or Windows Mobile — except that, of course, it’s from Google.

The real test is whether the Android operating system would be better than what is being offered on the iPhone.   The iPhone has captivated the market, and Android phones would have a way to go to catch up.  However, Android’s appeal would be its (future) availability on a variety of phones by different telephone companies (rather than just from AT&T / Apple), its variety of applications that can be easily approved and then downloaded onto any Android phone (rather than put up with Apple’s strigent and lengthy approval process for new applications), and its low price (Google isn’t charging much if at all for this new system, and as a result, Android smartphones will be comparatively low-priced).

The first Android smartphone is the G1, from T-Mobile.

If you’re thinking this looks like the Sidekick, you’re right.  It does!  There are some key differences:

• Touch-screen!
• WiFi built-in
• A much wider variety of applications that can be downloaded onto the smartphone
• GPS
• Listening to music
• Watching videos (YouTube and similar)
• 3G network

And some similarities:

• Screen that swivels or slides open to reveal keyboard
• Camera (a good 3.1 mp resolution, but no video)
• Push email (Gmail account required)

It’ll have the usual Google features – maps, gTalk (dunno about AIM but the user should be able to download an application for that), YouTube, web browsing, Gmail, etc etc.

How much?  $179.

Yes, $179!

I’m thinking of getting one.  Hmmmmm.  Only problem?  It’s T-Mobile.  I think I’ll wait a bit longer.

Nice touch, Google!

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Thanks, David, for the tip!

On a related note, I think it’s irritating that the Google ads to the right of the rainbow sidebar are for adult- and sexual-oriented dating websites.  Oh, wait!  I had Google’s SafeSearch set to “Do not filter my search results.”  After I changed it to “Use strict filtering,” most of the sexual-oriented ads went away.

The biggest change is that for Palm Centro smartphones, it supports “My Location,” a close approximation of where you are. While it’s not exact, it’s good when searching for nearby stores. However, as my poor hapless partner reports, it’s confusing to see My Location when following driving directions — he constantly thinks it’s exactly where he is, and consequently gets lost. Turn it off when following directions, honey!

There are a few more smaller changes, notably combining “Location” and “Search” into one option. When using the keypad to scroll the screen, the scrolling is done smoothly instead of jerkly – a nice touch and easier for tracking the moving screen. When a location is found, a small green arrow “drops” onto it — nice animation. And when opening a location, you can then see links for “Directions to here,” “Directions from here,” and “Search nearby.”

Just don’t forget to periodically reset Google Maps, or else your map cache will grow too large.

Very nice touches, Google! One of my favorite Palm programs has gotten even better.

A couple months ago, I wrote that Zoho Writer had incorporated Google Gears, a handy browser add-on that makes it possible for users to still use certain webpage features even when not connected to the Internet. But at that time, that incorporation was actually pretty basic — users could only view documents off-line and could not actually create or edit documents.

With the new update, announced earlier this week, Zoho Writer can now be used to view, create, and edit documents whether on-line or off-line. Just be sure to turn this feature on and allow it to download your Zoho Writer files before you actually go off-line!

Like I mentioned the last time, I find it so ironic that Zoho has been using Google Gears to its fullest capabilities, while Google has not yet used Google Gears to bring off-line capabilities to its own on-line word processing suite (Google Docs). But in Zoho’s recent blog post announcing that Zoho Writer is now fully available off-line, Zoho graciously commended Google for its product and its support.

A word of advice to Zoho, though: can you please, pretty please caption or subtitle (in English) your videos? I’d love to watch them, especially the YouTube interview of two Zoho engineers talking about Google Gears. You see, I’m deaf (and so are many of my readers), and even though I’m a faithful Zoho user, I can’t understand your videos – sigh!

Gmail is quite different from most email programs and email websites. We’re so used to the Outlook / Yahoo / Hotmail format, with folders on the left and all emails listed separately in your inbox. Rather, Gmail uses “Tags” instead of folders, and groups together all emails in the same thread rather than listing them separately in the inbox. And if you want to file away an email, you “Archive” it (even after you’ve already tagged it).

At first, I didn’t like having to tag an email and THEN archiving it (a 2- to 3-click process) if I wanted to file away an email on Gmail. And it felt a bit cumbersome to constantly hunt for the right button with my mouse.

And then I discovered “Better Gmail.”

Better Gmail is a Firefox-only extension that adds a good number (I think 25!) of Gmail-specific extensions and features — most of which were developed by other people and then collected under one application. I didn’t like keyboard shortcuts before (I prefer the mouse!), but now with Better Gmail, I love how a few keyboard clicks takes care of just about everything on Gmail. And I really like Better Gmail’s “Filter Assistant” that’s at the top of each email and which makes it easy for you to create filters. Now whenever I get an email to my mom, it’s automatically tagged as “Family” — and every time I send an email to her, my email is automatically tagged as “Family” and then archived. (Yes, I admit it, I’m a mommy’s boy.) Better Gmail also comes with several “skins” — or new looks for Gmail. And Better Gmail adds numerous other features to Gmail — I ain’t gonna list them all here.

But yes, Better Gmail only works with the increasingly popular Firefox browser. I use Firefox on my PCs at home, but at work I grit my teeth and use either Internet Explorer or Netscape — neither of which works with Better Gmail.

The best thing yet about Gmail (and Better Gmail)? It’s free. Even its IMAP functionality is free. Yahoo Mail charges you a yearly fee if you want to use its now-primitive POP functionality — and Yahoo Mail doesn’t even offer IMAP.

Gmail — it’s gonna be the start of a beautiful friendship …

A few days ago, Marc, the creator of Chatter has released a new version (3.0.10) that now plays nicely with Gmail’s IMAP access. Hooray! I’m now using Gmail instead of Fastmail.fm, and push email works flawlessly except for two things: photos sent from Tmobile Sidekicks don’t seem to come attached to emails when pushed to my Treo (while photos from other sources and other smartphones come across just fine, strangely enough), and I occasionally get a “Delete Failed” error when deleting an email on my Treo. Those two issues were with a beta version of the now-stable 3.0.10 release, so I’m curious if I still see these issues with this release.

Although my recent blog post with instructions on how to configure your Chatter to work with Gmail via IMAP is still good, I noticed that Marc added a “Gmail (IMAP)” option to the drop-down list of account types when creating a new account. So, modified instructions below.

1. You need to configure Gmail to allow IMAP. Within Gmail on the computer screen, click on “Settings” then the “Forwarding and POP / IMAP” tab. Then click on “Enable IMAP”. (NOTE: if you don’t see this yet, then try logging out and then into your Gmail account. Sometimes this will do the trick. If you still don’t see this, then wait a bit longer …)
2. Within Chatter on your Treo, pull down the top menu and select “New Account”
3. In the “Quick Setup” window, under “Choose the account type …” drop-down menu, select “Gmail (IMAP)”
4. Under “Your Name,” type a name that you want to show up when sending emails
5. Under “Login Name,” type your full Gmail email address (including the “@gmail.com” or your Google Apps extension)
6. Under “PW,” type your Gmail password.
7. Make sure “Always Online” is checked.
8. Click on “OK”

And there you have it. Super-duper-easy — well, sorta. Don’t forget to go to “Edit Account” and configure your options if you want to load emails older than 14 days, customize your delete options, increase the “load” (the initial size of emails that Chatter pulls before asking if you want “More”), notification, etc.

Thanks, Marc, for continuing to update what is inarguably (at least by me and legions of loyal Chatter users) the best email program for the Palm Treos!