Thursday, February 27, 2014

Improve Your Writing With Expresso, The Style Checker

Improve Your Writing With Expresso, The Style Checker


Writing isn’t just a matter of proper spelling and grammar.
Don’t get me wrong: that bit is really quite important. But also important is ensuring that language is fluid. That all messages are presented clearly, and that you make appropriate word choices.
Sadly, this is something spelling and grammar checkers rarely look out for – the team at Microsoft Office isn’t concerned with writing style. Can no website or app help you make better writing choices?
Meet Expresso. It will change the way you blog – for the better.

A Proof Reader In The Browser

Expresso is the creation of Mikhail Panko, a US based neuroscientist. He built Expresso out of dissatisfaction with his own written English, and created it to identify weaknesses in his writing. Here’s what he has to say:
As many other PhD students, I was struggling with writing good quality texts. I read a couple books on how to write well and took Coursera’s “Writing in the Sciences” course. Many of the suggestions were the same across all sources: avoid weak verbs, use passive voice sparingly, get rid of filler words, don’t cluster nouns, etc. As I started to purposefully apply these techniques, I noticed large improvements in my writing. I also realized that it would be helpful to automatically detect potentially weak spots in text based on those rules and focus attention on them while editing. I am interested in natural language processing, so I put together an online tool for this.
So, how does it work? It’s actually quite simple. Open Expresso up in a modern web browser. Copy your text into your browser and click ‘Analyze Text’. After a few seconds (subject to the length of the piece uploaded), Expresso completes its analysis and tells you how much you suck at writing.

What does Expresso look for?

Objectively defining the quality of a text is hard. After all: literature is art, and art is subjective.
Or is it? Turns out there are a few hallmarks of bad writing.
Is your writing littered with the passive voice? This is where the subject is the receiver of a man action, and overuse results in your language sounding weak and confusing. Likewise, are you a rare words junkie? When you use colorful language, sentences become that bit more interesting. However, overuse of obscure words may result in your text being difficult to comprehend, especially by non-native English speakers.
Expresso looks for these potential problems, and more. The goal of Expresso is to identify deficiencies in your language, and in this respect Expresso delivers, with other 30 metrics being gathered.

Using Expresso

Sounds complicated, right? Wrong. Expresso couldn’t be any easier. Here’s how you can use it to improve your written English.
First, copy in your body of text. The example I use here comes from this article I wrote about videoconferencing website Appear.in.
expresso copy text   Improve Your Writing With Expresso, The Style Checker
Then, press ‘Analyze Text’. This is located to the right of where you copied in your text. Expresso will then scour through your text and give you some metrics.
expresso metrics   Improve Your Writing With Expresso, The Style Checker
Clicking a category highlights all instances of this category within your text. In this case, I’ve identified all instances of rare and obscure words.
expresso rare words   Improve Your Writing With Expresso, The Style Checker
Expresso is quite cool in the respect that it offers suggestions for replacements of words. Just hover over a word, and it’ll provide you with a list of synonyms for it.
expresso word suggestions   Improve Your Writing With Expresso, The Style Checker
This keeps you from repeating words, a habit that breaks flow.

Conclusion

Expresso identifies a major weakness with most spellcheckers, and provides a compelling alternative. I found that it provided a comprehensive set of suggestions that were accurate, and I plan to start integrating it into my writing workflow.
But what do you think? Have you given it a go? Let me know in the comments below.
Photo Credit: Espresso (Phil Volmer)
www.makeuseof.com

TV Buying Guide

TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room

TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room

By Mihir Patkar
If you are looking to buy a TV, you have probably done your research and know what the different terms mean — if not, we have a jargon-busting guide for TV technology. But having that knowledge is only half the battle. When it comes to actually buying the TV, there’s a lot more involved than what’s on a spec sheet.
Television sets are more difficult to shop for than something like a mobile phone because, firstly, there aren’t as many reviewers covering that technology and secondly, it’s a much more long-term (and usually expensive) decision than a smartphone. But don’t worry, we have you covered. By the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly how to pick the right TV for your living room.

There Is No Escaping The Showroom

Before we start, I would like to lay this out here: you will have to go to a showroom at some point. It’s fine if you eventually buy online, but don’t make a decision without going to a showroom and checking out what’s on offer. Some of the tips I’m going to share with you will make that a necessity. However, be wary of showroom tricks that salespeople use to deceive you.

How To Pick The Right Size

The world of TV reviewers is split among those who believe in “bigger is better” and those who think there is an optimum size for a screen. Search around the Web and you will probably come across one formula for the optimum size:
Distance to Viewer (inches) ÷ 1.6 = Diagonal Length of Screen (inches)
This formula has been suggested by the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) and is generally regarded as the best way of figuring out the optimum size of your television. So how do you apply it?
TV Buying Guide Measure Distance Sofa TV   TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room
Grab a measuring tape and sit on your couch or wherever you are going to watch the TV from. Get comfortable. Now measure the point where your eyes are to the position of the TV is going to be on the wall. Don’t forget to account for the wall-mount or stand — measure the distance between your eyes and the television screen, not right up to the wall. For most standard wall-mounts, that’s six inches away from the wall.
For example, let’s say the distance you measured was 8 feet. That’s 96 inches. So with the above formula, the best screen size for you is 60 inches.
But remember that this is only a recommendation. It doesn’t mean that buying a 50-inch TV is going to make it appear too small, or that buying an 80-inch will be too imposing. However, the lowest you should go to is dividing the distance between your eyes and the television screen by 2.5.
When it comes to TV screen sizes, I’m with the CNET team in their recommendation: bigger is better. Buy the biggest size you can afford as long as other criteria are being met and you’ll be happiest.
Bottom line: Use the guideline of “Distance divided by 1.6″ to figure out the right size, but remember it’s just a guideline. Go bigger if you can. “Distance divided by 2.5 is the lowest you should go.

Ultra HD 4K vs. 1080p vs. 720p

TV Buying Guide Resolution Chart   TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room
The new standard of Ultra HD 4K resolution is technically four times sharper than FullHD 1080p. They also cost four times more and that amount is simply not worth it at the moment. The cheapest Ultra HD TVs by reputable manufacturers are close to the $3,000 mark on Amazon, so unless you have money to burn, forget about these.
What you should be looking at are 1080p and 720p televisions. Of course, 1080p is the desirable resolution since you get sharper images, but resolution is a very small part of picture quality; you’ll be perfectly happy with 720p, so don’t worry too much about it.
Bottom line: As long as you have 720p resolution, you’ll be happy with your TV. 1080p is obviously better, but other factors matter more.

Pay Attention To Contrast

Simply put, the contrast ratio is the ratio of the brightest white to the darkest black that the TV can produce. And you’ll find wildly varying claims by manufacturers for the contrast ratio of TVs. That’s because there are two measurements: native contrast ratio and dynamic contrast ratio. Without going into too much detail, all you need to know is that the native ratio is what matters and the dynamic ratio is an inflated number.
Remember when I said you can’t skip the showroom? This is one of the reasons — you need to judge the television’s contrast ratio in person. Sadly, there is absolutely no way to be completely certain about the contrast ratio of a TV because it’s dependent upon ambient lighting, picture content, and the nature of the panel (reflective vs. non-reflective).
TV Buying Guide Contrast Ratio   TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room
The best way to find out, then, is to go with whatever looks best to you. So grab a USB flash drive with a FullHD video of your favourite movie (or a Blu-ray copy of the same) and head to the showroom. Find a salesperson and insist on testing that particular movie you have with you, and disregard whatever video that was already playing on the television when you arrived.
Ask for the remote controller, and revert every setting to the default. Play your movie (and skip to a dark scene). Do the same on any other TV you intend on purchasing. Pay attention to the darkest blacks and determine if you’re happy with the contrast.
It’s an unscientific and subjective way to test, plus it isn’t going to be entirely accurate. But right now, this is the best we can do.
Bottom line: Go to a showroom with your own media and compare how close to absolute black can your shortlisted TVs go.

LCD vs. LED vs. Plasma vs. OLED

I’ve gone into a detailed explanation of the difference between these four display technologies already, so here’s what you need to know:
  • Plasma is great but will soon be outdated and will be difficult to get repaired in a few years, so if your TV is a long-term purchase (as most TVs are), then skip it.
  • LCD is the cheapest option and still good enough for most people.
  • Edge-lit LED is the second cheapest option and the difference in quality and price between these and LCD isn’t much. These TVs are thinner and consume lesser energy, but quality LCD will give you better pictures. Test the contrast as instructed above and choose between a shortlisted LCD and Edge-lit LED.
  • Full-array LED is the costly option, but you get fantastic picture quality in return. If you have the extra money, it’s worth it.
  • OLED is ridiculously expensive right now and you’d have to be nuts to buy it. No, really. Get yourself a projector instead.
As you can see, the choice mainly comes down to LCD, Edge-lit LED or Full-array LED. Here’s the dirty little secret: all of these are further dependent on the type of panel used, such as TN, IPS, PVA, PLS and more. There are further degrees in these too, like S-IPS and P-IPS and S-PVA and so on. That gets us into a whole new realm of jargon, so I’m just going to give you a cheat sheet for panels that generally holds true, but not in all cases.
Bottom line:
Full-Array LED > Edge-lit LED > LCD
IPS > PLS > PVA > TN

Connectors and Remotes

The most important part of a buying a new TV now is figuring out all the ports it offers. Thankfully, TV manufacturers have all converged upon one standard to make things easier: HDMI. Just like with computers where “more USB ports is better”, the same logic applies in TVs: “more HDMI ports is better.” Don’t settle for anything less than two HDMI ports; three is ideal; four should make you do cartwheels.
Similarly, have at least one USB port, although having two ports is ideal.
TV Buying Guide HDMI Remotes   TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room
Another thing to consider is Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity. If you ask me, this is a must-have in a TV now and something you shouldn’t compromise on. Even the 32-inch Vizio e320i that Danny reviewed comes with Wi-Fi and Ethernet for $300, so don’t settle for anything less.
The remote control is probably going to be a standard affair, but it’s best to check if it works with any standard remote by the same brand. This holds true for most infrared remotes, but at the showroom, just ask the salesperson to show you two different remotes by the same brand and check them both on the TVs you are eyeing. Chances are, your remote is going to get busted long before your TV so it’s best to know that you can get a replacement easily. And just in case you can get a back-lit remote by paying a little extra (these are available, ask the salesperson), get it!
Bottom line: The more HDMI ports, the better, but have at least two. At least one USB port as well. And get Wi-Fi and Ethernet too. Check if multiple remote controls by the same brand work on your TV.

Smart TV and 3D TV

TV Buying Guide 3D Smart   TV Buying Guide: How To Pick The Right TV For Your Living Room
We’ve already told you what is a Smart TV and we have explained how 3D TVs work, but the question is if you should buy one. Thankfully, the answer is pretty simple: Nope, you don’t need these.

For all the things you would need out of a Smart TV, it’s a better option to buy aRoku. And while there are ways to get 3D content for your TV, it’s not mainstream enough to warrant spending more on it.
But here’s the good news. Chances are, you will probably buy a TV with 3D and Smart features because the prices of such televisions have dropped to a point where they are super affordable.
Bottom line: Don’t spend extra for a Smart TV or a 3D TV. But if you’re getting these features at a bargain, then rejoice!

Bargain

You have everything you need to know to pick the right TV for your living room, but there’s one last trick I’m going to share with you: bargain. That sticker price on a TV in a showroom or on a website like Amazon is just indicative. TV sales margins are different from other consumer electronics, so find a salesperson on the floor or hit up a live chat window in e-retail and bargain for a better price. They will almost always give you a discount or throw in freebies.
Once you have your television, make sure you calibrate it for the best settings. Would you be interested in a guide on how to calibrate your TV and get the best picture out of it? Let me know in the comments and if there’s enough demand, I’ll write one soon.
Image Credits: Kazuho Okui Via Flickr
Source: www.makeuseof.com

Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

Nobody is perfect. Despite all the advice available online, many of us make silly mistakes. Don’t want to be caught acting like a computer noob? Consult this list of usual slip-ups to avoid.

Using Pre-Installed Free Stuff

Don’t get me wrong. Not all pre-installed applications are bad. But for some you may have no use and others may even turn out to be sub-standard and slow down your computer.
Checking your PC for each item you didn’t ask for will probably take you a while. But, this is the only way to make sure you get rid of everything you don’t want. Thankfully, there are some tools to help you with this process. One of these is PC Decrapifier.
This free application helps you identify unwanted junk. Once you run the wizard it shows you a checklist with recommendations. Tick the programs, icons and start-up items that don’t want and then click the Next button as shown in the screenshot below.
PC decrapifier1   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid
For more information please read Tim’s article on how to remove unwanted crapware. I also recommend you check out our Best Windows Software page for a list of useful software.

Default Installations

Everyone loves free stuff! Unfortunately, free software is often ad-supported and in many cases the installer comes bundled with additional products or ad-ware, which can slow down your computer. Thus, anytime you download a free Windows application, you must do a custom install. With a custom install, you can opt out of crapware, say a browser toolbar or another application.
Ask Search toolbar home page override Trillian Resized   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

Registry Cleaning

It’s a myth; registry cleaning does not speed up your computer. Unfortunately, the tale that has been spun on the Internet tells a different story. Do not believe the hype. In fact, you may slow down your computer by running a registry cleaner.
screenshot 016   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

Too Much Disk Defragmentation

Windows defragments your drive in the background automatically so most people don’t need to defragment their hard disk manually. You should only defragment your hard drive if it is 5-10% fragmented. And, this is only if it is a magnetic hard drive (HDD).  Solid State Drives (SSD) do not benefit from defragmentation, you only end up shortening their life span.
windows disk defragmenter1   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

Not Restarting The Computer

Anytime you notice your Windows machine behaving weird for no clear reason, first try to reboot and see if that solves the problem. Rebooting is considered a cure-all of sorts that fixes a ton of problems. A few examples of problems that can be fixed with a simple reboot include; slow running, programs using too much memory, Internet or WiFi connection problems and the Windows blue screen of death.
windows7 reboot   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

Failure To Back Up Data

There are many reasons for data loss, but some of the most common include: accidental deletion, hard disk damage or failure, viruses, power disruption and improper shutdown.
If you lost your data tomorrow, would you have backup copies of all your important documents? You need a rock solid backup strategy to mitigate the ever-present threat of data loss. There are several ways to backup your data. You can backup to an external hard drive, use a cloud storage service or a network drive. If using Windows 7, you can make use of the backup and restore feature whileWindows 8 has a built-in time machine backup.
For more detailed information, please read our PC Backup and Restore guide. Don’t be one of those people who ignore backups until they lose their files. Be proactive and start creating backups today.
computer backup   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid

Failure to Keep Your Windows OS & Other Essential Software Up-To-Date

Developers roll out new updates for several reasons. The main ones include; rolling out new features, fixing bugs, patching security loopholes and making the system more secure. Failure to update your OS and essential software leaves you vulnerable to security breaches. The best way to ensure you do not forget to update Windows is to turn on automatic updating.
In Windows 7, go to Control Panel > System and Security >Action Center. UnderWindows Update, click Change Settings and select the ‘Install updates automatically’option. In Windows 8, click or tap Settings > PC Settings > Update and Recovery. Under Recommended Updates select the “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” check box, and click Apply.
windows7 update settings   7 Common Computer Mistakes You Can Avoid
Also, schedule your antivirus to check for updates once a day. Virus databases are updated almost daily to immediately address new risks.
Are you guilty of any of these computing sins? Do you know of any other common computer mistakes? Please share your insights with us in the comments below.
Source: www.makeuseof.com

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Never Trust Social Media

4 Reasons You Should Never Trust Social Media

4 Reasons You Should Never Trust Social Media

George Root
You just got burned in an argument because, once again, you quoted something you saw on social media.
While we all know it, it’s sometimes hard to remember that facts are not the foundation on which social media is built. There are four really good reasons why you should never trust social media at all, especially when your personal reputation is at stake.

Social Media Is Not Always Up To Date

facebook starting date   4 Reasons You Should Never Trust Social Media
A truth you can count on is that memes, statements, and other forms of information never disappear from the Internet. If Google search any topic, you will find sources of information that are years old. That’s okay, though, because responsible websites put dates on their information which put it into the proper context.
Social media, on the other hand, doesn’t always have a date stamp. Even when there is a date stamp, people don’t always bother to look at it before sharing or commenting. Some people even mess with date stamps when circulating old information. Social media is fun like that.
How many times have you been enraged by a post you saw on Facebook and responded to that post as though it were just put up that day? It happens all of the time. But many times, the post you are responding to is a year or more older. It may have been appropriate when it was originally posted, but now it has a different context that makes you really angry.
Many of the pieces of information you see floating around Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and other social media outlets are years old. When that information was first created, it had a different context than it does now. You don’t drink milk when it is past its expiration date, so why would you trust social media information that is years old?

The Information On Social Media Is Rarely In Context

morgan freeman clearing the air   4 Reasons You Should Never Trust Social Media
Information taken out of context can be used to prove or disprove anything. You see it all of the time: someone says something and the media focuses on a fragment of a sentence that makes the person sound crazy.
Social media does that constantly. The worst part about social media is that the statements you read could have been edited and distorted several times over, to the point where the original author doesn’t even recognize them anymore.
Another little trick that social media likes to do is attribute statements to people who never made them. For example, there are plenty of memes with quotes from Morgan Freeman that Morgan Freeman never said. Social media also tends to use headlines that have almost nothing to do with the article just to get people to click.
In short, by the time something potentially embarrassing about a celebrity or someone you know gets circulated on social media, it’s probably been pulled so far from its original context that it should no longer be considered valuable information.

Sometimes Social Media Information Is Just A Lie

bon jovi is alive   4 Reasons You Should Never Trust Social Media
Jackie Chan, Hugh Hefner, Usher, Jon Bon Jovi, and Russell Crowe were all alive for  Valentine’s Day, 2014. Why is that relevant to this discussion? Because social media had reported that all of these celebrities, at some point, were dead.
It is always amusing to see celebrities go on Facebook with pictures of themselves holding a current edition of the New York Times just to prove they are not dead. It is even more amusing to see all of the Facebook tribute pages that pop up the moment one of these rumors gets started. The Jackie Chan thing comes up so often that even Jackie is starting to believe he is dead.
If you cannot trust social media to give you accurate information as to whether a celebrity is alive or dead, then why would you trust social media to be your source of information on politics and religion? Do yourself a favor: go to real sources of information and stop believing every meme you read.

George Takei Is Not Always Right

george takei rules the internet   4 Reasons You Should Never Trust Social Media
It is safe to say that anyone who uses social media has read at least one post by George Takei. He has become that favorite uncle on social media that everyone loves to hear from and everyone trusts. But is the information he distributes always right?
This is not an attempt to bash George Takei at all. He is an accomplished actor and extremely prominent in several important causes. But just like every other person on social media, he sometimes distributes information without really knowing if it is right or not. Uncle George is a bit more responsible than some of the other social media icons that people flock to, but he can still have those oops moments like every0ne else.
The simple truth is that most social media memes and viral statements tend to be based on opinion and have very little basis in facts. Just because you are a fan of a social media icon does not mean that you should blindly trust what he has to say. Oh my.

The Internet Is Lying To You

Social media is only as accurate as the people using it. With all the conspiracy theorists and religious fanatics out there posting information they swear is true, it can be difficult to determine what you can and cannot trust. One thing is for sure, social media is not the best resource for accurate and timely information.
How about you? Do you still think social media is telling you the truth? Have you encountered false information too?
Source: www.makeuseof.com

Sunday, February 23, 2014

What Does Google Autocomplete Say About Your Brand?

Jackson Chung
On 

AEIR (Advanced Emotion Intelligence Research) is a team of researchers, software engineers and business specialists that extract data regarding products, people and businesses. Recently, they collected data on 100 brands using Google’s Suggest Queries API and autocompletion. Here are the results. The top 66 brands are listed here in order of brand value.
What do you reckon? Did it accurate depict your favourite companies?











Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-autocomplete-say-brand/

How Things Change | TechCrunch

How Things Change | TechCrunch

Ease of Synchronizing Google with iPad

How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

by Chris Hoffman

You can use Apple’s iCloud for email and contacts on your iPad, but there’s a good chance you already use Gmail and Google Calendar. iOS offers excellent support for Google accounts, so you can easily add your Google account and your email, contacts, and calendars will automatically sync with your iPad.
Your Google account data will be accessible on your iPad’s built-in apps, although Google also offers their own dedicated Gmail app. Here’s what you need to know.

Add Your Google Account

All you really need to do is add your Google account in your iPad’s Settings app. To get started, open the Settings app from your iPad’s home screen. Scroll down in the left pane and tap the Mail, Contacts, and Calendar category, then tap the Add Account option under Accounts.
add an account in ipad settings ios 7   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

Tap the Google logo to add a Google account.
You’ll be prompted to enter a name, email, password, and description for your account. The email address and password are essential for logging into your account, while the name you enter here will be shown as your name when you send emails from this account on your iPad.
The description field is for your own purposes, so give the account a suitable description. If you have a personal Google account and one for work, you could separate them by labeling them “Personal Account” and “Work Account”.
enter gmail account details on ipad   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

If you have two-step verification enabled to secure your Google account, you’ll need to create an application-specific password for your iPad rather than entering your Google account password. Click this link to access the Application-specific passwords page if you need to create an application-specific password. Enter a name like “Gmail on my iPad” on the page, click Generate Password, and type the password shown on the screen into the password field on your iPad.
create application specific password for gmail on ipad   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

Once you’re signed in, you’ll then be able to choose the type of data you want to sync. If you’ve already set up an account, you can view these settings by tapping the name of the account on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen in the Settings app. You’ll probably want to sync all types of Google account data, but you can disable certain things if you prefer.
Your iPad uses two-way sync for chosen data. Mail, contacts, and calendar events will be synced both ways, so changes you make on the iPad will be synced to your Google account and any changes you make on the web or on other devices will be synced back to your iPad. This all happens automatically, so you don’t have to think about it.
If you choose to sync Notes, notes from the Notes app on your iPad will appear in your Gmail account under a label named Notes.
google account sync settings on ipad ios 7   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

Access Your Synced Data

Your Gmail is accessible in the Mail app, which is the iPad’s built-in email client. The Mail app uses the IMAP protocol, so you have access to all of your email. Thanks to the nature of IMAP, any changes you make will also be synced – so if you read an email on your iPad, it will be marked as read on your Gmail account. Using it is simple; it’s just another email client.
The difference is in the way Gmail handles requests – and whether to archive or trash by default. You can make your own personal choices under the account’s Advanced settings from the Mail, Contacts & Calendar menu. You can choose to move discarded messages to trash or archive.
mail app on ipad   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

Contacts auto-complete as you type them into the appropriate field. This also makes your Google contacts available in other iPad apps that request access to your contacts. iOS 7 offers two-way syncing with Gmail contacts, so any new contacts you create on your iPad can be synced to your Google Contacts.
google contacts on ipad   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

The Calendar app displays events from your Google Calendar. These upcoming calendar events will also appear in the notification center, which you can access by swiping down from the top of your iPad’s screen. Events you add on your iPad should also by synced to your Google Calendar account.
google calendar on ipad   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

The Gmail App

If you don’t like the Mail app included with your iPad, you can choose to installGoogle’s Gmail app instead. The Gmail app provides an interface to your Gmail account provided by Google, so they can integrate more of Gmail’s features. The biggest advantage to using the Gmail app will be seen by those who rely on the service’s labels.
gmail app on ipad   How Easy Is It To Sync Google Mail, Contacts & Calendar To Your iPad?

You’ll still want to add your Google account to your iPad, even if you do this.  Google doesn’t provide an official Google Calendar app, so you’ll have to view your calendar events in the Calendar app included with your iPad. Syncing your contacts with your Google account also ensures your contacts will be available in all your iPad apps. You can also install unofficial third-party calendar apps like Sunrise Calendar that will display your Google Calendar events.
Do you prefer another app for accessing Gmail, Google Calendar, or your contacts on your iPad? Leave a comment and share any other apps you prefer!
Image Credit: Sean MacEntee on Flickr
Source: http://newsletter.makeuseof.com/l/sgq892VE8NB7Vr8925losdkgXQ/FAa57892Lys8qc8DJI0eaB7A/uJTvjmY7IJPG892neqRIhskg

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