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It seems there’s no stopping Google from turning everything online into mobile apps. Adding to Gmail Mobile, Google Maps, Mobile Search and Mobile Calendar is the mobile version of Google Docs.
However, it is still a work in progress for it is not yet fully compatible with average handsets. According to its Mobile Help Center page, it only supports iPhone and Blackberry mobile devices. Unfortunately, only iPhone can browse presentations at this time.

Since Google has not tested Google Docs in different mobile phones, it implies that your phone must have at least the advanced browsing capabilities similar with iPhone and Blackberry, if you want to use this new mobile service.

Based on my limited testing of mobile Google Docs, I don’t recommend using this new service for now. I’ve experienced many glitches in loading spreadsheets and editing word processor documents. Knowing Google’s passion on simplicity and functionality, I’m confident things will be a lot better in the coming days. We just need to wait for a while.

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Google is expected to unveil in the next two weeks new software and services for mobile phones. People familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the new products are expected to enable handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by the middle of next year. In recent months Google has approached several US and foreign handset manufacturers about the idea of building phones tailored to Google software, with HTC and LG Electronics seen as potential contenders. Google is also seeking partnerships with mobile operators. In the US, T-Mobile USA is seen as a likely partner, while in Europe Google is pursuing relationships with Orange and 3 UK, according to the paper’s sources. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment. The Google-powered phones are expected to bring together several Google applications, including its search engine, Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail. The main point of its mobile strategy though is to make the phones with open software, including the operating system, so that independent software developers would get access to tools to build additional phone features.

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Research In Motion (RIM) has introduced three new colours - blue, sunset (red) and pale gold - for the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone from T-Mobile USA. With these new colours, in addition to white and black, T-Mobile customers now have five colour choices. T-Mobile is also introducing an unlimited BlackBerry e-mail-only service for all BlackBerry smartphones for USD 9.99 per month which will allow customers access to personal e-mail accounts such as Yahoo!, AOL and Gmail.

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Google’s vice president of search products, Marissa Mayer, has revealed a jump in mobile access to Google’s services during May and June; a time when traffic usually drops off as users go on holiday.

Google Maps has done particularly well, with the iPhone launch increasing traffic by almost 50% at the end of June. Google Maps has a huge hey-look-at-this factor, which quickly drops off once all the user’s friends have been impressed (or politely pretended to be), so it remains to be seen how much of that traffic is sustainable.

 But access to GMail from mobiles also increased over the summer, as well as basic searching. The tens of millions of mobile searches daily are still only a drop in the ocean compared to desktop traffic, but an increasing one; and on a platform that Google, and others, are keen to make their own.

Most of this is down to improved mobile capabilities, as well as better interfaces and improving data charges, the combination of which is starting to make the internet properly accessible on the move.

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Samsung Telecommunications America has unveiled the Samsung Blast (SGH-t729) handset. The Blast is acrimson and black slider phone that conceals an enhanced keypad for text messages, instant messages and e-mails. The Samsung Blast feature a Qwerty-like keypad and provides direct access to personal e-mail, including AOL e-mail, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail. E-mail messages on the Blast can be read and responded to for the same pricing as text and picture messages. The Blast features stereo bluetooth technology, a 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, external memory card slot, MP3 player and speaker independent voice recognition. The Blast also features an enhanced T-Mobile myFaves service. The Samsung Blast is available exclusively at select T-Mobile USA retail stores.

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Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) offers free push e-mail to its mobile postpaid customers. The service, called MobileM@il, is an advertising-based mobile e-mail service that delivers real-time e-mail for the mass market. The underlying technology was developed by Consilient, a mobile software developer. Consilient’s software, Push, contains an advertising capability that serves a minimal number of text and graphical ads side-by-side with subscribers’ e-mail messages. E-mails can be pushed from SingNet, Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail accounts.

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Netimperative writes…Google has ended the invite-only policy for Google Mail, allowing anyone in the UK to use the Web-based email service.
The service, known as Gmail outside the UK, offers nearly 3GB of online storage space and an anti-spam filter.
 
GoogleMail also groups email exchanges together to help users keep track of ongoing conversations in one folder.
 
The service has been available since April 2004 on an invite-only basis. Now, any Web user in the UK or US can now to www.googlemail.com and open an email account.
 
Meanwhile, Google said it has also launched a free application to let UK users access Googlemail on their mobiles.
 
The application runs on any Java-based phone with data services and synchronises Googlemail on the phone with the user’s Web-based account. 

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WirelessWeek writes…Eatoni Ergonomics e-mail client for Verizon’s Get it Now service now supports Gmail in addition to Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL and Pop3 e-mail servers.

Available on more than 100 different phone models, Eatoni Mail’s chief differentiator is its predictive text system called LetterWise. Different than T9, it hopes to appeal to users who find traditional word-guessing software frustrating or annoying. Eatoni claims that if you want to type your message quickly, and don’t want software getting in your way, LetterWise is for you.

LetterWise also claims to have the shortest user’s manual. In its entirety, it states: “Hit the key with the letter you want, if it doesn’t come up, hit Next until it does.”

Eatoni Mail supports predictive text entry in English, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Other features of Eatoni Mail include the ability to select large fonts for easy reading, storing drafts, contact lists, and allowing users to manage up to 10 profiles for different e-mail accounts.

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VenturaCountyStar writes…I’ve never wanted a BlackBerry and the 24-hour access to e-mail it provides. I figure I ought to enjoy my time away from a computer to read, think or listen to podcasts on my iPod.

So I was initially dismissive of the prospects of checking Google Inc.’s Gmail e-mail service on a cell phone. But within hours, Google’s new Gmail mobile application had me hooked.

I checked multiple times during a dinner visit to my parents’ house outside New York, and I checked while waiting for the train home at the station. I told myself I’d put the phone away once I boarded, but that didn’t happen until I suddenly lost my connection as the train pulled into New York’s underground Penn Station.

What’s great about it?

It certainly wasn’t the interface for composing messages.

I tried Google’s free application on a borrowed Samsung A900M phone, and I found myself typing messages over and over because hitting the backspace key sometimes inadvertently erases the ENTIRE message. That seems a function of the phone, not the software, but it underscores the clunkiness of trying to write e-mail without a full keyboard.

There were also a number of features missing from the mobile version of Gmail.

I couldn’t add labels to organize messages the way I could on desktop Web browsers. I couldn’t retrieve accidentally deleted messages from the trash or save drafts to finish later. I couldn’t tell which of my other Gmail friends were also online, potentially reading my mail or ignoring me.

Google says these features might come later, but for now, I have to wait until I get to a computer at home.

Think of the mobile application as Gmail Lite.

I could do all the basics involved with reading e-mail, and messages synch with the desktop automatically once I read or delete them.

For those not familiar with Gmail, the free service is different from most other e-mail offerings in that it automatically groups related messages into “conversations” — a series of exchanges on weekend plans, multiple people discussing the news of the day.

The mobile Gmail automatically opens the latest message in the conversation. Opening and closing older messages was as easy as highlighting the header and clicking the phone’s “OK” button.

From there, I could choose to reply to the sender, reply to everyone or forward the message — just as I could on a regular computer. The application synchs with my existing Gmail address book and lets me add entries (but not delete or otherwise organize addresses from the phone).

The mobile application also lets me pull up conversations carrying specified labels. Unlike traditional e-mail, I don’t save messages in folders and subfolders. Rather, I add any number of labels to organize based on both whom I’m talking with and what I’m talking about. With most other programs and services, a message can only exist in one folder unless it’s copied.

I wish I could append new labels to messages, but being able to pull already labeled message is a good start. I can also instantly pull messages I’ve sent, as well as ones I’ve “starred” — Google’s way of letting me tag certain messages as high priority.

With mobile Gmail, I’m also able to view some attachments. I could view a JPEG photo attachment without problems, albeit on a small screen. I got the raw text pulled out of Microsoft Corp.’s Excel spreadsheets and Word documents as well as words but not images from Adobe Systems Inc.’s PDF files.

I was even able to click on some of the Web links embedded in messages.

But I was unable to open a “.wav” sound file featuring some friends and me pathetically singing holiday tunes, nor was I able to view images embedded into e-mail newsletters and other messages — only the text appeared.

Longer messages, meanwhile, get cut off, as do the miles of quoted text that linger when people keep hitting reply — arguably a good thing until I need a reminder of what someone said earlier.

Nonetheless, I’ve found the experience decent compared with the text-based mobile e-mail services I’ve tried and gave up on over the years.

That’s not to say the application couldn’t be improved.

Besides better tools for composing and organizing messages, I wish it would better synch with the phone’s functions — the Gmail software didn’t recognize the e-mail addresses I had separately entered into the phone’s contact book.

Nor is there a good notification system for new mail.

The application is free — currently, there aren’t even ads — and works with phones that support downloads of applications using Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Java technology. Generally the ones from Sprint work but not those from Verizon Wireless, Alltel and U.S. Cellular, unless it’s a color BlackBerry device, according to Google.

I recommend the mobile application to existing Gmail users who have phones and data plans that support it. Unfortunately my 2-year-old Audiovox CDM-8910 from Verizon doesn’t, and mobile Gmail isn’t reason enough to upgrade or switch carriers.

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WirelessDesignAsia writes…Samsung, a provider of mobile phones, and Google have announced a global cooperation to enable mobile phone users worldwide with easy access to Google products and services—directly from their Samsung mobile phones.

Samsung mobile phones equipped with Google applications will enable consumers to search information, find locations and manage their email on the move. Beginning in early 2007, selected Samsung phones will be provided with a range of Google products and services—including Google Search, Google Maps for mobile and Gmail for mobile devices.

Samsung has already launched the Ultra Edition 13.8 (SGH-Z720), its first mobile handset installed with Google mobile search and Gmail services. The 13.8mm model is HSDPA ready, and comes with a 3-megapixel camera, MP3 Player and Bluetooth connectivity. The company informed that future models will also be Google-ready.

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