Improved Gmail Client Now Available in the Android Market

Google has just released another update to its Gmail client for Android, finally freeing Gmail updates from Android version revisions, which is to say, you don’t have to wait for a complete operating system overhaul just to get new Gmail goodies. So, as a stand-alone application available in the Market, users will receive faster and presumably more frequent updates without having to wait for the latest version of Android to push out (slowly) over the air. The latest iteration focuses on overall quickness, replies, and access to quoted text. It also implements limited support for Gmail’s new Priority Inbox feature set. However, when I tried to load the “Important” messages label, the fine people over at Google locked me out of my Gmail account for “suspicious activity.” That is the absolute last message you want to get from Google. I was locked out of my Gmail account about three years ago due to some similarly inexplicable glitch for three of the longest days of my life. Thankfully, last night’s lock out only lasted a few hours. Those are the risks you take when you are married to an all-eggs-in-one-basket Mothership like Google. The only downside to this Gmail update is that you have to be running Froyo (Android 2.2) in order to use it. So, the waiting continues for some.

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