January 14th, 2008
Google Launches new iPhone interface
Last week I blogged about a new iGoogle interface for the iPhone — and like I thought, it’s going to be part of a new, improved iPhone “dashboard”. This new application, launched today at MacWorld, has a lot of new features that make using it on the iPhone more pleasant. To use the new application, visit www.google.com from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Some of the new features described in the press release:
- Improved UI: The applications look and feel slicker, and they are easier to activate, navigate and use via a touch-screen.
- Customization of default tabs: Now Google users can have easy access to their favorite applications by customizing the applications that appear on the Google.com menu bar. Users simply choose their favorite Google applications to bring them to the front menu, ensuring that they’ll be close at hand whenever they’re needed. Switching between applications is effortless, as users only need to sign in once to access their Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Docs, and Picasa accounts.
- Speedier Gmail: New emails will automatically show up so there’s no need to manually refresh inboxes. And the new auto-complete feature for contacts makes composing emails faster than ever.
- Speedier Calendar: With our new month view, users can glance at an entire month of appointments.
- iGoogle: Now Google users can access their iGoogle gadgets on the iPhone. Everything they’ve customized on their iGoogle homepage including weather, stocks, and news feeds now appear on their iPhones. To go to iGoogle, simply click on the iGoogle link on the Home tab. You can customize your iGoogle page on your computer at www.igoogle.com.
One reason Google is likely putting so much time into the iPhone is because anything they do can be run natively on any phone using Android — Google’s mobile phone operating system. Android uses “WebKit”, the same web engine used on the iPhone.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
