Even if you have a 1Ghz model you probably know that the usual desktop Gmail interface is fully usable on the Pandora, while a little bit slow at times. On Rebirth or CC models it tends to be even more sluggish. But there’s better ways to enjoy a nearly full Gmail experience on your Pandora with other versions you may not be aware of…
The one I really like is the phone webapp version, that is actually used for the iPhone Gmail app as far as I know, and your smartphone as well if you log in Gmail via your browser instead of using the Gmail app.
This is a very clean interface, very readable of the Pandora screen, and it supports the D-pad as well: UP brings you to a more recent message, DOWN to a later one. The only drawback is that you cannot use the D-pad to scroll down in the message anymore but you can rely on your stylus or nubs to do that.
There’s also a slight display bug when selecting a message: the overlay contextual menu is mixed up with the gmail controls if you are right at the top of the screen (but does not affect the view if you scroll down), but’s really minor compared to the benefit of having a really fast Gmail interface at hand on your Pandora.
There are limitations you should be aware of, however: you cannot send attachments with this version of Gmail (the button does not even exist).
And that’s precisely why I keep another Gmail version in my bookmarks.
The other Gmail version that is a must have on Pandora is the pure HTML version. It’s not pretty by any standards but it loads up very fast and has most of the functions of Gmail, except a few like the split view between Primary, Social and Promotions. It supports labels and attachments so it can do most of what you could miss from the other Gmail webapp version.
If you keep these two in your bookmarks on Pandora you can enjoy the best of Gmail at any time even if you have an older model, without needing a recent mobile phone. By the way, you’d better use a recent version of Qupzilla (my favorite browser on Pandora) or Firefox for that purpose. Except the recent Firefox 29 which totally sucks. Don’t use that one.
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9 Comments on "A Better Gmail Experience on Pandora"
Keeping all your gmail data on a SD card can be dangerous, though. If you Pandora is stolen, people could have access to your whole local history, very easily, so it’s a double-edged sword.
Yeah, very true. I don’t use my main email account on my Pandora to be fair, and I’ve other stuff on there that I’d not want falling into the wrong hands anyway.
I don’t have a Pandora but there is an IMAP client called Geany which will only store the most recent 30 days of messages on the device. Would seem to be a perfect program for handheld use.
If you do keep your email on your device, you can always use truecrypt our something like that to keep the card encrypted. That way you can use IMAP or POP without fear.
I’m not sure how well truecrypt works on the Pandora (it’s available here: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=TrueCrypt-hmc) and how practical this is to use. I’ll check it out one of these days.
All email clients, e.g the mentioned Claws mail, but Sylpheed too, support IMAP and it is easy to define some rules, when to delete mails.
However I download all my mails to my Pandora, too (with Sylpheed). If the Pandora and/or the SD card is stolen, the damage is higher than loosing some Mails. Don’t you save anything, ekianjo? I would hate it to enter my password every time…
I used to download all my emails before, too, but I realized there was no good way of preventing them falling in undesired hands in case my Pandora is stolen, so I decided the erase them all and only connect via IMAP or inside the browser. So, to answer your question, no, I don’t save anything anymore.
I’m on my phone right now but I believe in thunderbird, you can configure it to only fact the headers and not the messages when using IMAP.
Oops I meant save the headers. Darned autocorrect!