Filed under: Software, Freeware, First Look
Notify keeps an eye on your Gmail inbox
I, like many people, am constantly checking my email. No matter where I am, I'm either getting messages pushed to my iPhone or Mail is checking for new ones every minute. A new app is promising to make using Gmail and checking for messages much, much easier.
Notify, a new free application by Vibealicious Apps, puts a small button in your menubar of your Mac that keeps track of unread messages. The app, which was released less than 24 hours ago has already received over 3200 downloads and is quickly making a name for itself. Notify's developers consider it "like a menubar app, but better" explaining that the application boasts a much better user interface and much more functionality than traditionally found in menubar apps and buttons.
The application has a lot of cool features including:
- Support for multiple accounts
- Tabbed interface
- Growl integration
- Sleek, simple UI
The app is also promised to be "freeware forever", according to the developer's twitter.
Some shots of Notify in action:
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
dagamer43 said 4:25PM on 8-22-2009
Sure would be nice to get a Google Reader notifier too.
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N I T E said 6:37PM on 8-22-2009
Oh yeah! The current Google Reader notifier seems to have minimal synchronization with the Reader updates. Why hasn't Google released an official version yet?
dagamer43 said 6:55PM on 8-22-2009
They still haven't released the Google Reader API yet for some reason.
Martin said 4:37PM on 8-22-2009
So far so good, we'll see how it does replacing the official Google Notifier
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Ryan Trevisol said 4:45PM on 8-22-2009
If it checks while the computer's in screen saver, it's already doing better.
N I T E said 6:41PM on 8-22-2009
I've been using both since yesterday. And I must say, Notify really does 'notify' much before Google Notifier.
J said 4:43PM on 8-22-2009
Just downloaded it and it seems pretty sweet so far.
I've had gmail notifier in my menu bar forever but I'm going to retire it for a while and see how it goes with this baby. One thing that was always frustrating with gmail notifier was that you could only make it refresh once every 15 minutes which would mean even though I'd just cleared my inbox, for 15 mins. gmail notifier would still be lit up with new messages until I manually refreshed it. With notify you can set it to check every min. so already I'm diggin that...
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Birch said 10:19PM on 8-22-2009
I'm a loyal, long time Google Notifier user and but this app is just fantastic! After just an hour with it I've removed Google Notifier from my startup items list and put this in its place.
Phil Gilder said 4:52PM on 8-22-2009
What about mail unread menu (http://www.loganrockmore.com/MailUnreadMenu/) - it does a very similar job, also free, very customisable, and supports more than just gmail
combine with growl (and growlmail) and its great
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Joanna D said 5:14PM on 8-22-2009
I am always concerned about applications like this - how do I know they aren't stealing my account information?
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Kyle VE said 5:20PM on 8-22-2009
Hi - I'm the developer.. I can assure you we are NOT stealing your account information. Your username is stored in the app's preference file and the password is stored in Keychain.app.
N I T E said 6:45PM on 8-22-2009
@ Kyle VE
It's a really nice app. Thanks!!
N I T E said 6:49PM on 8-22-2009
@ Kyle VE
Any chance of getting a Google Reader notifier? Something better than the one available right now..
http://troelsbay.eu/software/reader
CaptSaltyJack said 7:04PM on 8-22-2009
And, as far as security, I sniffed my outgoing network traffic with Wireshark. Notify is connecting to Gmail securely through HTTPS. This is good.
alansky said 5:15PM on 8-22-2009
Personally, I don't understand the burning need to see incoming messages the very instant they are sent. The iPhone Mail app checks for new mail every five minutes, which is already overkill for many users. All that checking also burns battery power.
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Bloobie said 5:35PM on 8-22-2009
Every 15 minutes, you mean, which is the minimum.
jsw said 6:48PM on 8-22-2009
And you can slow it down to once an hour, or even set it not to check until you go to the app.
rowan said 5:21PM on 8-22-2009
The biggest limitation of Google Notifier is its inability to delete messages on the fly. Many times I look to see what messages are waiting for me, realize I don't care about them, but then must manually delete them each time for each one. Add the ability to delete from the menubar and Notify will be vastly better than Notifier!
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Bloobie said 5:36PM on 8-22-2009
I've been using the excellent open-source menubar app called Gmail Notifr for over a year now. It supports multiple accounts as well as Growl.
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jwfnla said 6:01PM on 8-22-2009
Here's what I don't understand...
I have my Gmail account in my Mail app. What does an app like this bring to the party? What am I missing? Why is it better than having Mail let you know when new gmail arrives?
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