Agility Loop

Earlier this week, Gmail quietly released a new add-on for Gmail called Priority Inbox.   The Gmail Blog post probably does a better job describing it then I can, but essentially it is a new way to view the messages in Gmail.  Gmail will prioritize messages in your inbox in three categories: Important and Unread, Starred, and Everything Else.  Gmail learns through your use of Gmail itself what messages are important and which ones are, well, less than important.  From their blog post:

As messages come in, Gmail automatically flags some of them as important. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most (if you email Bob a lot, a message from Bob is probably important) and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you. You can help it get better by clicking the or buttons at the top of the inbox to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important. (You can even set up filters to always mark certain things important or unimportant, or rearrange and customize the three inbox sections.)

You do have the ability to further tweak the Priority Inbox (as referenced in the quote above) by including certain labels or filters.  So far, I have not made any advanced tweaks.  I have however followed the advice given by MG Sielger over at Techcrunch:

My favorite aspect of Priority Inbox is the settings that allows you to create four different sections of your inbox. Yes, you could previously do this with the Multiple Inboxes feature, but these new settings make things much easier to understand and implement. The three default sections here are: “Important & unread,” “Starred,” and “Everything else” — but there’s an option to add a fourth, which you should. You should create a new label that you can quickly tag emails with. For example, I chose “A1″ since “A” shows up first in the Labels drop down menu. Set this section (which is actually the second section) to show emails with that label.

Once you do that, your inbox will be transformed into four different boxes stacked on top of one another. At the top will be the “Important and unread” elements — this is your true Priority Inbox and ideally would be empty most of the time (indicating that you’ve read all these messages). Below that would be this new A1 section — these are your most important saved emails to come back to. Below that is your starred section — these are emails you quickly star that you might want to come back to. And below that is everything else — your general incoming email. Or as I like to call it, Hell.

So for the lack of being too creative, I actually did exactly as is recommended above…created a A1 category.  To be honest I am not sure that this method will work for me, but the nice thing about the new feature is I can tweak later as I use it.

Reading around the web, it sounds like when you first turn it on, the results are mixed.  However, over a couple of days of email usage, I can say that it has improved (and this sentiment is echoed throughout the web).

Keep in mind that you do need to turn on Priority Inbox.  Google is rolling this out to users throughout the week.  Once it is offered to you, you should see New! Priority Inbox upper right hand corner of Gmail.  You can always return to your regular inbox at any time (you will see both Priority Inbox and Inbox on the left hand side of Gmail).

And a last note to Google.  Add this to the Gmail client on Android and you are invited to Sleekfest.

Over the last couple of months, I have been on a mission to find decent podcasts to listen to while I walk the dog or drive to work.  Using Google Listen, I have setup my Droid to sync with several podcasts.  Everything from CNet, NPR, and The Economist (although I will admit The Economist is a little heavy for me…but I can pretend right?) are good listens and catch me up on what I might have missed on Reader.

Today’s Wall Street Journal Tech Briefing had a good tip to consider while traveling.  Basically the tidbit was that many hotels have hundreds of chargers left at their hotels during the year.  I have to admit that I have been one of those people who left a charger in the room.  So instead of actually buying a new one while on the road, why not try calling the front desk to borrow one?  No idea if they will actually give it to you, but it is worth a try.

After Google’s series of announcements yesterday, I have been digging through the Sports Illustrated archives (and being pleasantly distracted by swimsuit covers while digging).  Years ago, SI published an article detailing the “TV of the Future”.  Unfortunately I can’t find the article.  However, it painted a vision of what sports on TV would like in the future (I think it was ten years in the future?).  While watching the game you could pull up stats about the game, players, etc.  There could be seperate angles of the same play, or even featured camera on star players.

The evolution of the Internet since the 90s promised to get us closer to that vision.  However, even though the information has been available on computers for years, even companies like Microsoft and Apple haven’t been unable to crack the nut.

So yesterday’s Google TV announcement brought me back to when I read that article, and made me think that maybe, just maybe, we can reach that vision depicted in Sports Illustrated so long ago.

Rather than recap the presentation from I/O 2010, head over to Boy Genius Report for a full synopsis.  At its core, Google TV will either come directly with your TV (Sony being the first one out at the gate) or you can buy an add-on box from Logitech.  Both will be available this fall.  The tidbit that made me think of the SI article:

Sports fans will love Google TV. You can check out box scores, monitor your fantasy league, etc. While you’re watching the game, you can keep track of the box score thanks to picture-in-picture.

I can envision Sundays during football season (at least the 2010 season, looks like we might be SOL for 2011) where I switch on the 1p game.  I have already downloaded the Sportline Live Scoring app for Android that will run in a PIP box while watching the game on TV.  The app displays scores for my Fantasy matchup and I click on each player or team to get more details.  While the game is going on, I am looking at pics on Facebook from the 907 guys latest outing in DC.  When I see a good one, I can send the pic to the TV which will shrink the game to a PIP and show the photo full screen.  I append a quick comment remarking on the close up of Oakenfold from the night before and then switch the game back to full screen.

Yes, I am a geek, but you can’t tell me this wouldn’t be sweet!

Of course, until this is actually released and available, we won’t know if this is bullshit hype or reality.  Google is also opening the door to start a war with local cable companies (I guess they aren’t really local anymore.  Perhaps cable conglomerates is better).  This is less of a war of Google vs Apple as it is a referendum on traditional media.  Change or die.