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Gmail app vs. HTC mail w/HTC sense

Can you put a gmail app shortcut or widget on your home screen that will give you somekind of notification when you get a new email?

Or are they only visible via the notification panel. Ill have gmail and an exchange account to setup and im wondering if i should get touchdown for exchange account then decide on htc or gmail app for my gmail
or stick with htc mail for exchange and gmail for gmail..

Problems caused by options!
 
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Can you put a gmail app shortcut or widget on your home screen that will give you somekind of notification when you get a new email?

Yes you can put a Gmail app shortcut or widget on your home screen. Check out the widget Gmail Unread Count. The number of unread emails will appear in a little red bubble in the top corner of your Gmail icon on your home screen. I've never used it but it has gotten pretty favorable comments in the market.
 
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so i just tried again and this time i set the download frequency to "manual". setting this to "as items arrive" will cause it to check for a new message every few seconds. so with the download frequency set to "manual", i was still able to get my email notification on my phone. which means that the email was pushed to me. the downside was that it took about ten minutes.
 
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When i get the Incredible i heard it asks you for your gmail when u start it up the first time. I want to sync my calendar and contacts, but i would rather use the HTC mail widget for the gmail itself. Should i bypass the setup and do everything manually or i can still set up everything from the beginning and then use the widget for email????
 
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then i can still sync my calendar with google sync?

Correct. Just check which items you would like synced. In the picture below, only email is checked. So if you want only your contacts and calendar, just uncheck mail and check the other 2.

2ypjb6r.png
 
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NKT, do you use the HTC mail app, or the gmail app? I've read in another thread that some folks use both because each has features the other doesn't (like true push email on the gmail app and better native integration with the HTC mail app) and I guess I can see how it could be handy, but it also seems a bit counter productive to download all your email twice, especially if you have multiple gmail accounts. Thoughts?
 
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NKT, do you use the HTC mail app, or the gmail app? I've read in another thread that some folks use both because each has features the other doesn't (like true push email on the gmail app and better native integration with the HTC mail app) and I guess I can see how it could be handy, but it also seems a bit counter productive to download all your email twice, especially if you have multiple gmail accounts. Thoughts?

I only use the Gmail app. Perhaps I'll play around with the active sync function of the HTC mail app and see how I like it.
 
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Is the gmail app an actual app, or is it just a shortcut that opens up a browser window and logs you into gmail.com?

And for further clarification, since I really don't understand how this works, can you sync your gmail contacts and calendar to your phone's people app and calendar from the gmail app or must you use google sync to accomplish this?
 
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Is the gmail app an actual app, or is it just a shortcut that opens up a browser window and logs you into gmail.com?

It's an actual app.

And for further clarification, since I really don't understand how this works, can you sync your gmail contacts and calendar to your phone's people app and calendar from the gmail app?

Yes, you can sync contacts and calendar to your phone. It's not really done from the Gmail app itself... it's done within the People and Calendar apps when you set up your phone. In other words, I believe you could set your Calendar and your Contacts to sync, without ever using your Gmail app or syncing your emails.
 
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Yes, you can sync contacts and calendar to your phone. It's not really done from the Gmail app itself... it's done within the People and Calendar apps when you set up your phone. In other words, I believe you could set your Calendar and your Contacts to sync, without ever using your Gmail app or syncing your emails.

Really? That's pretty nice!
 
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I know this should probably go in the developer forum but does anyone know if the storage mechanism behind the Gmail app is accessible by other apps? I figure Google is never going to open up its protocol but if the actual mails once they are pushed could be integrated into other mail apps we'd be able to use the integrated mailboxes.

I understand what Google wants to do but keeping its messenger and email pulled out of the phone like this is aggravating and actually goes against their idea of being able to replace any app. I haven't seen stock 2.1 in action so does the built in unified box still exclude gmail? It really ends up hurting the platform IMO.
 
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ok - so confused. I thought the DINC had exchange support already. I need to download touchdown to support exchange? I thought that was one of the things that was an improvement via htc software?

You DO NOT have to use a 3rd party for exchange. On the DROID it is okay, but Touchdown is much better. See my comparisons here: Exchange….HTC’s Version or Touchdown…. | Blackberry to Android

I have not personally used HTC's version and hoping it's better than what is stock on the Droid. If not, TD is probably the best alternative to stock.

GO WINGS!
 
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