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Their iOS app icons stand out like a sore thumb amongst nicely designed iOS 7 icons. YouTube, Google Maps, Chrome are all quite tacky with an iOS 6 style shadow applied.

Fix it. Have a better eye for design.

Have you see. Ios7 ?!

And you're criticizing design ?

I thought the first quote was sarcasm if it's not yikes!! iOs 7 icons are the ugliest things I've ever seen. But I do agree that google apps should at use the new flat style of icons.
 
Google's iOS apps are some of the worst when it comes to inefficiency and rapid battery drain. Just start Google Maps and see how quickly your device heats up and battery level drops!

I'm really not sure I'd trust them with background app refresh!
 
Could you elaborate or link to more information?

Gladly:
http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/2014/02/background-monitoring-on-non-jailbroken-ios-7-devices-and-a-mitigation.html

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Yeah, clearly the two are completely related.

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I didn't say they were related, but I wouldn't necessarily think them unrelated. Google is all-too-happy to use any means to track your usage so they can sell it as a commodity in exchange for their "free" services. It's not like they haven't exploited similar flaws in the past:
http://m.ibtimes.com/google-pays-17-million-over-privacy-breach-how-why-google-exploited-safari-1476838
 
But who closes the app? Or doesn't start it after booting their phone? I fail to see any gain for 99% of gmail app users

But it already does that. Gmail shows me a notification for a new message, I open Gmail, and it takes me straight to the message. I just don't see the difference?

Prior to this update, the app is only active when it is in the foreground. It could not download any mail in the background. Even if you start the app after booting your phone, a few seconds after switching away from it, the app would be suspended and unable to download new message.

Now, whenever you receive a push notification for a new message the app automatically becomes active temporarily to download any new messages.

For example, let's say you receive 20 messages a day. You don't open your Gmail app all day. When you finally do open it, you will have to wait a few seconds while the 20 messages download. If you don't have a connection when you open the app, then the messages will not be there at all.

However, with the new update, the Gmail app downloads the new messages whenever you receive a Gmail push notification. When you open the Gmail app for the first time in a day, all 20 messages would already be downloaded even if you currently have no connection.
 
Google's iOS apps are some of the worst when it comes to inefficiency and rapid battery drain. Just start Google Maps and see how quickly your device heats up and battery level drops!

I'm really not sure I'd trust them with background app refresh!
I have Google Maps running a lot and in the background a lot and the battery is just about the same as when I don't have the app running.
 
This has been great. 24hrs with the updated app now. This makes it faster and more responsive on launch.

I don't think I'm going back to the Apple app without push. Nice!
 
Well, if we are strictly talking audio playing in the background then, yes, YouTube could have that feature. But, playing video IS an iOS limitation.

The audio is always what people mean when they say play Youtube in the background. This is something the old app was capable of, as well as current third party ones, and yet the official google app isn't. And it's not like the app doesn't support background playback support at all... it can do so when airplaying. Background audio is something Google seems to have purposely neglected to implement.
 
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Their iOS app icons stand out like a sore thumb amongst nicely designed iOS 7 icons. YouTube, Google Maps, Chrome are all quite tacky with an iOS 6 style shadow applied.

Fix it. Have a better eye for design.

I think what you meant to say is, the Google apps are the only ones left that don't look like crap. Apple, please fix your native apps.

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But who closes the app? Or doesn't start it after booting their phone? I fail to see any gain for 99% of gmail app users

I close my apps right after using them, every single time. Every time I unlock my phone, no apps are open except messaging.
 
Just out of curiosity, why would you do this? :confused:

Cus I have OCD like tendencies I guess. I put things away after I'm done using them, I push chairs back in, etc. The same goes for my apps. If I'm done using Maps, I close out of it. The only thing I keep open is messaging because that's something I use several times an hour. Even facebook which I use sometimes multiple times in an hour, I generally close out of after I'm "done".

I guess it's just to ensure nothing drains battery.
 
Cus I have OCD like tendencies I guess.

:D

I guess it's just to ensure nothing drains battery.

I wouldn't be surprised if taking the time to close apps every time doesn't end up draining more battery. Screen is on longer. Takes longer to load each app from closed. More SSD access. And most apps aren't using any processing time in the background anyway.

But whatever works for you! :) I'm not trying to change your mind, just pointing out some other issues for people to consider.
 
does someone know if it's possible to have an account on gmail and google drive and another on youtube without getting signed in every app?
 
:D



I wouldn't be surprised if taking the time to close apps every time doesn't end up draining more battery. Screen is on longer. Takes longer to load each app from closed. More SSD access. And most apps aren't using any processing time in the background anyway.

But whatever works for you! :) I'm not trying to change your mind, just pointing out some other issues for people to consider.

Lol I'm not feeling guilty about my actions. I feel better knowing they're closed anyway. Plus when someone goes into multitasking and I see 50000 cards that they're trying to swipe through I just laugh.

Either way, yes there are many little attributes that go with having to close apps every once in a while, but the way iOS works is it doesn't freeze every background app immediately. It refreshes the apps that you use most often. So if you're keeping twitter open all day, and then you take a long break from it; then guaranteed you are using more battery than if you had just closed it after you were done.
 
Plus when someone goes into multitasking and I see 50000 cards that they're trying to swipe through I just laugh.

That doesn't make any sense (except in reference to the aforementioned OCD :)). If I go into the switcher to switch to one of the last couple apps, I can switch faster than you (since you close every app immediately after use.) The fact that there are 50000 more cards in the list is irrelevant and of no impact whatsoever.

If it's an app that I haven't used in a while, then I would go to the homepage, just like you.

Either way, yes there are many little attributes that go with having to close apps every once in a while, but the way iOS works is it doesn't freeze every background app immediately. It refreshes the apps that you use most often. So if you're keeping twitter open all day, and then you take a long break from it; then guaranteed you are using more battery than if you had just closed it after you were done.

Again, that's not true. Background Refresh works independently of whether or not the app is closed manually. Suspending a twitter app or closing it makes no difference to battery life (other than the negatives of closing it that I pointed out earlier.)
 
Gmail App on iOS is still crap compared to what one gets on Android. In fact I don't really care much for the Android version either. On iOS I actually like using the Apple mail app via Google Sync and on Android actually like AqualMail which is light years better than Apple or Google Gmail app.
 
That doesn't make any sense (except in reference to the aforementioned OCD :)). If I go into the switcher to switch to one of the last couple apps, I can switch faster than you (since you close every app immediately after use.) The fact that there are 50000 more cards in the list is irrelevant and of no impact whatsoever.

If it's an app that I haven't used in a while, then I would go to the homepage, just like you.

I'll admit to that.

Again, that's not true. Background Refresh works independently of whether or not the app is closed manually. Suspending a twitter app or closing it makes no difference to battery life (other than the negatives of closing it that I pointed out earlier.)

I don't think you understood my point here. I meant if you use the app often, and move to a different app, iOS background refreshes the apps that you used most often. Therefore if it were to background refresh that app (since you left it open) it would use more battery than if you'd closed it.
 
I don't think you understood my point here. I meant if you use the app often, and move to a different app, iOS background refreshes the apps that you used most often. Therefore if it were to background refresh that app (since you left it open) it would use more battery than if you'd closed it.

Again, that's not true. Background refresh has nothing to do with whether the app is closed or suspended ("left open"). If an app enables intelligent background refresh, the OS would run the app in the background on the determined schedule regardless of whether the app is currently suspended or closed.

For example, with this new Gmail update, if you leave background refresh enabled, the app will run in the background every time you receive a Gmail push notification. It doesn't matter if the Gmail app is closed or suspended.

Most apps close automatically throughout the day even without you closing them manually. For the most part, only the last 3 or 4 apps remain suspended in memory (which does not affect battery). They OS closes them as it needs more memory for the app you are currently using.
 
i've got a little bug to report with the new update. sorry if its been discussed already.

I keep getting the same email, even after i've already opened and archived it. My phone will still light up as if it just came in. Its a report that I get every morning at 8am that only sends one time.

I've gotten it 3 times after I originally received it and archived it. Just wanted to let others know.

I just restarted the phone so i'll so if it does it again
 
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