My favorite gadget – Gmail

I love Gmail since the day I started using it. Now I use my four Gmail accounts everyday except the days I really do not have Internet access or my computer nearby. Gmail is a free, search-based webmail service that combines the best features of traditional email with Google's search technology. Here’s why:

1. Storage - Gmail includes more than 2,500 megabytes of storage space - that's over two gigabytes, for free! Not only I can just leave the power point slides, pdf files, and photos I receive, with so much space, I can just turn Gmail into a file server of my own – a good enough reason to give up Hotmail’s 250MB storage!
2. Speed & Search – The speed of reading, receiving, sending mail, attaching files, and displaying search results are just superb. I’ve never seen a faster search in any email service or desktop application.
3. Auto-refresh & auto-save – Gmail auto-refresh the page every couple seconds so that new emails will just show up in the inbox. While in Hotmail, you need to continue clicking the inbox button or refresh the page to see if any new mail. Every few seconds, Gmail auto-save the message that I am constructing into draft, without much delay doing it.
4. Spell-check – I love their spell-check. It’s easy to use and save my time.
5. Anti-spamming – Hotmail is horrible on anti-spamming! I’ve been using Gmail for over two years now and received no spam that I can remember.
6. Filters & Labels - You can create up to 20 filters to manage the flow of incoming messages. Use filters so that certain messages bypass the inbox, are automatically labeled, or both. You can also automatically forward messages to another email address using filters. Labels are like email folders, only better. You can add multiple labels to a conversation (instead of being forced to choose only one folder) and you can search for messages by label name.
7. Google talk and contacts – anyone in your contacts using a Gmail account will have an indication of green dot when they are online and using Gmail, so you can chat with them via Google talk. You can choose to save the content of the chats, or not.
8. Interface – the interface is clean and simple, with all traditional look and feel. The ads on the sidebar are text-only, keyword-sensitive (which match the Gmail content you are reading/writing).

I noticed thousands of posts on the Web just about how they love Gmail. I am glad that we share the same opion.

My least favorite gadget – IPod

I hate my IPod mini. The only thing I like about it is that it’s pink and it looks cute. When I got it, the product was so hot that I saw it everyday in TV commercials, newspaper or magazine. These days I see it more in bank advertisement that if you open a checking account you get a IPod shuffle for free, no kidding!

Anyway I hate it because it is so difficult to use. I hate it because it takes me more time to find a desired song than listening to it. I never figure out how to use the wheel (menu). Trust me, I tried. There are only four icons (Menu, backward, forward and play/pause) on the wheel for users to explore hierarchical folders. Since I cannot view all hierarchical folders at once like you use explorer on Windows system, I always bet the luck finding what you look for. If I realized it is the wrong folder that I went after dozens of “forward” and I need to go back layer by layer, also I need to use “menu” instead of “backward”. Where is the logic? I couldn’t help but wonder. Next, make circles on the wheel to scroll down a long list and find my song is tiring, which really discouraging me changing a song since I wouldn’t know how far to move the scroll wheel to get to the desire location.

Most of the time I can figure out how software work without having to read the instruction or menu, even a DLink router configuration interface. But I never figure out how to import new music into my IPod and so that I don’t lose the previous lists. I hate the iTune just as much as I hate IPod.

I am not alone, there’re thousand of posts on the Web just about how much they hate the design of this product, here’s one detailed example, http://www.mobilecommunitydesign.com/archives/000152.php