Flock Brings The Social

Bwana — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:52:28 +0000

Over the years, many users have become attached to their web browsers. Let’s face it, the browser is our gateway to the World Wide Web. It’s become an important application for any operating system. Many of us “advanced” users recommend Firefox as browser of choice. Personally, I preferred a mixture of Safari and Firefox depending on the situation.

Enter Flock.

Flock has been under development for some time now and received negative reviews early. I was one of the people who claimed Flock’s goals were admirable, but the execution lacked. My how times have changed. Flock now features the People sidebar and a much more functional media bar to connect you to the “social” (no, not the Zune) I’m talking about Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and Twitter. As far as I’m concerned, they are the big social networking applications. Flock gives you browser hooks right into these networks and does it well. I’ve made Flock my default browser in Mac OS X Leopard and so far it’s been running very well. I highly recommend you give it a try.

Flock 1.0

Google IMAP Email Changes Everything

Bwana — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:57:46 +0000

Google Mail, which includes Gmail and Google Mail for your Domain, now includes free IMAP usage. What is IMAP? IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, is the alternate mail protocol to POP (Post Office Protocol). It allows you to manage email on the server. I used to teach this stuff. Essentially, you’re eliminating the need to synchronize your mailbox across multiple computers since you’re managing email on the server. You mark an email as read? You do it once. You want to create a folder to manage your family email? It’s done on the server. Most notably, IMAP supports push email in a sense. You don’t have to check for email every 5 minutes (in a sense). It’s pretty much done for you in the background and seems instantaneous. There are many more advantages of IMAP, but these are some that stick out in my mind.

Now back to Google. So far, Google mail has had few flaws save an interface overhaul for which Yahoo currently has the upper hand. Adding IMAP to the picture has made Gmail and more importantly, Google Apps for your Domain, an absolutely must have. Here’s why:

Free email with unrestricted POP and IMAP access
4.3GB email storage
Email, Chat, Calendar, and Google Office (Docs, Presentation, Spreadsheet) for your domain for free
iPhone / Blackberry / Windows Mobile / Symbian users now have semi-push email, for free

It boggles the mind how attractive this is. If you’re a startup business, and you’re looking for a corporate email solution, you have to consider Google Apps for your Domain now. You have no choice. If you’re a regular end user, and you’re not sold on Google mail yet, I think you have a huge compelling reason to switch. There’s almost no downside.

Official announcement

Bwana.org » internet

Flock Brings The Social

Google IMAP Email Changes Everything