Last night on the Droid Life Show, we talked about Google’s penchant for throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Their latest project, Google Free Zone, seems to be one of those ideas, but we hope that it catches on. Currently being tested in the Philippines, Google is allowing feature phones that have access to the internet to get on Google+, Gmail and use Google Search without incurring any charges.

There are a few caveats however, the main one being that you will be exposed to ads in your searches, Gmail and G+ posts. While the initial searches are free, if you click a link that takes you to another site out of the Free Zone you will be charged, so users beware. It does seem that if this test goes well that Google will try and expand this to other carriers around the world.

Bets on if Verizon would allow this on their network?

Via: Google

Android 4.2 has been announced to the world, but not released into our greedy hands yet. Thanks to a leaked system dump, the Google Apps package from Android 4.2 has been bundled and released for download if you are in a tinkering mood. We’re talking Gmail, Calendar, Clock, keyboard, camera, etc. It’s worth noting that Google split the package to not include Google Wallet, but there is a separate download for a new version of that. 

Ready to do some Friday afternoon tinkering? How does the new Gmail 4.2 sound? We showed you this new version earlier this morning, which includes pinch-to-zoom in emails along with a new swipe-to-delete/archive feature. They may sound like small improvements, but they are all things that you will quickly realize that you can no longer live without.

So in order to use this, you have to have root, because you are going to be moving around some system level files. You can try to do this all in adb, but I’m still not even sure that that is possible. If you are brave enough to dive into this, let’s do it. It should take all of 5 minutes.

Today, Google is indexing all of your Gmail attachments and allowing you to pull up search results based on text that is inside these documents. Previously, users could only search for file types, document names, or the text that came along in the message that had the document attached. This should certainly help a few people out who can’t seem to find that important file.

Results may vary as Google has just begun listing out the data, but I tested it on a .txt file and it worked like a charm. It is said to work for many file types including PDF, DOC, PPT, and more. Thanks, Google!

Via: Life Hacker | Google System

Google pushed an update out to Gmail today which includes a few bug fixes along with some added support for Nexus 7 owners. The changelog for apps like this are never very descriptive, so it’s hard to say exactly which bugs were fixed or improvements were added, but what we do know is that there still is no pinch-to-zoom feature. Come on, Google. We’re waiting.

Changelog:

Android 4.0 (ICS) and up:

• Improved 7″ support:
• Bug fixes and performance improvements

Android 2.2 and up:

• New Labels API for 3rd-party app developers
• Performance improvements

Play Link

One of Google’s greatest creations this side of Search, is getting an update in the near future that will allow you to make your Gmail inbox even more personal. It will receive newer themes to go along with the UI that was introduced last year, which will allow you to choose custom pictures to fill your inbox with. 

Google is doing big things today. With the launch of Google Drive, the Gmail team has announced that everyone’s Google-based email account is to receive a storage increase to 10GB up from the previous 7.5GB. Note that this is for regular Gmail users and not Gapps accounts. The additional space should become available over the next 24 hours, so this is great news for people that can’t seem to delete emails on a regular basis.

Via: Gmail Team

Cheers Jeremy!

Gmail and mail through Google Apps is down for a number of people today. The reports started an hour or two ago with the outage still affecting many. From what we have gathered, this is also causing Gmail apps to stop receiving mail. You may not see an error through the app, but you will want to check when the last time was that you received an email.

As you can see from the Gapps status page, Google is aware of the “service disruption.” If you experience a code 93 “Temporarily unavailable” – you are not alone.

Somehow I’ve been lucky this time around and can access everything, but both Eric and Tim are struggling to access at least one of their accounts.

Update 10:31AM: We are hearing that service has been restored for most of you. Check your accounts!

Cheers Lonnnie and everyone else!