Lessfeet

The email from all of my account goes to Gmail so I have to go to different sites or open and email program. I go to Gmail and it’s all there.  See Lifehacker. But that’s not the tip!

Google does not check your POP account frequently so you may have your Gmail open but your not seeing all of you messages because they’re still on the server. You can go to “Settings”,  “Accounts and Import”, go down to “Check mail using POP3″ and click on “Check mail now”. This will import any new messages.

This method is very inconvenient. A better way is to turn on this new feature that checks your POP accounts whenever you click the “Refresh link” just above your messages.

At the top of the Gmail page click “Settings” and “Labs”. Find “Refresh POP accounts” and enable it. Now you can check your POP accounts with ease.

Have you recently moved to Gmail but still have a most of your contacts and all of your Email still in a program like Outlook on your Windows computer. The Google Email Uploader is what you need. The Gmail Uploader will take those contacts and messages preserving your folder structure and import them right into Gmail.

There are a couple of problems I’m having with my new Nexus One smart phone. One is even when all of the windows are closed many of the applications continue to run. To shut them down you have to press the menu button, touch Settings, touch Applications and touch Running Services. Next you have to select the application you wish to shut down and touch stop. You could do all of this or you could install the “Advanced Task Killer” application. You open the “Advanced Task Killer” and touch Kill selected apps. You can also leave some apps running by deselecting them. That’s it! No fumbling through menus. Just two touches on the screen. Killing apps will help save your battery and save on your data consumption.

About a week ago I receive my new smart-phone “the Nexus One” form Google. I am still putting it through it’s paces and trying to get use to the touch screen (hard for someone coming from a Blackberry with the keypad). Gmail, Calendar, Voice and Google Maps all integrate seamlessly. The new Google map application with turn by turn navigation that comes with the phone is incredible. The Google Goggles application could be very useful at some point. This phone is fast. The look is very sleek. Leo Laporte of TWIT is dropping his beloved iPhone for the Nexus One. Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple Computer and the inventor of the personal computer says, “Google’s Nexus One is my favorite gadget” according to NBC Bay Area News.

I’m liking this phone and sure I’ll like it more when I learn more.

Caution! I’ve read that some are having problems getting tech support. For now I’m only recommending this phone for the techies. People who don’t need tech support.

Here’s a great introduction video from Gina Trapani (founder of Lifehacker) for the new product from Google called Wave.

Here’s an entire user guide to Google Wave written by Gina and Adam Pash.

Request an invitation to Wave!

You Gmail users have been able to open documents attachments in Google Docs for quit some time but did you know that you can now save them in GDocs. Open your message that contains the attachment. At the bottom of the message click “Open as a Google….” then just click “Save”. Now your Word, Excel, PDF or presentation documents saved in Google Docs.

This is demo of a new product from Google that’s coming out later this year. It combines Email with a truly powerful collaboration tool and IM.

This is the abridged version you can see the entire 120 minute video here.

Leo Laporte over at TWIT has a new podcast. Called TWIg (This Week In Google). The co-host are Leo of course, Gina Trapani founder of Lifehacker and Jeff Jarvis author of “What Would Google Do“. I watched the first episode. It was a little dry and newsy because the big story this week was the Google Voice app being removed from the iPhone app store but a suspect the show will get a lot better. There are plans to have developers and product manager from Google to come to talk about the actual products. It will probably get a name change because it may eventually become a show less about Google and more about The Cloud.

Google has just launched a new “search options” feature. To use the feature go to Google and enter a search term hit enter. As always you will see the search results. Above to results you will see the words “Show options…”. When you click that a bar will appear on the left that categorizes your results into: videos, forums, reviews, images and chronological order. There are other features I really haven’t looked at like “Wonder Wheel“. I don’t know what that is!

SketchUp is a 3D modeling program designed for architects, civil engineers, filmmakers, game developers, and related professions. It also includes features to facilitate the placement of models in Google Earth. It was designed to be more intuitive, flexible, and easier to use than other 3D CAD programs.

I tried it and in a few minutes I was able to create some pretty complex models.

There are some great video tutorials to learn how to use Sketchup.

There is a pro version that cost hundreds of dollars but you can download the free version here.