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GMail Reader
GMail Reader
(177 customer ratings)
358983
Free
This gadget automatically checks your GMail account for new email periodically. When you receive new email, you will be notified by a sound alert. The gadget also summarizes the 20 latest emails from your inbox. Authentication is based on the Google Accounts API and inbox items are retrieved via the GMail Atom feed.

Updates in v1.1:
- "Fixed" the Gadget so that it is more in line with the sidebar and other gadgets in the sidebar
- Added option to toggle notification sound on/off
- Added drag.png image, seen when dragging the gadget from the gallery to the sidebar
- A few minor tweaks/fixes

Updates in v1.2:
- Fixed an encoding issue that would result in authentication falsely failing for users with particular special characters in their usernames and/or passwords.

Updates in v1.3
- Fixed Google authentication issue which caused the gadget to break
- Modified gadget to grab data from the Atom feed over a secure (HTTPS) connection
- Improved handling of network connectivity issues
Details and Requirements
Operating system:Windows Vista
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Helpful reviews
Dragen194661
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
Love it
Please Update for HTTPS Support (30/07/2008)
When using the "Always use https" option, the gadget no longer works. gMail Settings\ General\ Browser connection: Always use https
kamtec1
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Love it
The program works again ... (04/01/2009)
The program works again ...with Updates in v1.3 // THANK ... the program is very helpfull ... THANKS >>>!!
_sporkme
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
Love it
Needed, and the best (31/12/2007)
I am very pleased with this tool and have not experienced the memory overruns that others describe, though a bug must clearly exist. I should point out again that you can change the mail arrival sound to any .WAV by going to: <install-drive>:/<username>/appdata/local/microsoft/windows sidebar/gadgets/GMail Gadget and replacing NOTIFY.WAV with your own sound. I would like to recommend that the next version implement a "quiet time" during which a sound is not played to notify the arrival of new mail, and that a sound change option be implemented into the configuration utility. Thank you.
Razr454
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Love it
Works again (03/01/2009)
This was by far my favorite sidebar gadget. However, sometime in Dec of 2008 it stopped worked. I waited a month and re-downloaded the gadget. And it works. The new version makes it work again.
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4 of 6 people found this review helpful
Don't like it
It doesn't work (17/12/2008)
It just plain does not work. The only thing that it's good for is to open the gmail page without having to logon. Tried it for several days and it never notified that I had new mail.
Duane178551
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
It's okay
Nice attempt (21/05/2008)
I was excited to have found this gadget awhile back. But it has one bug that I finally no longer could tolerate! Almost every time I boot my computer. Gmail checker reports that it could not sign onto my email account. This is simply because it checks before my computer has a chance to connect to my wireless network! If it would delay its check by just 10-15 sec. It would work fine. When this happens I have to enter the gadgets properties and click on connect. Doing this every time is silly. This happens on both my desktop and laptop computers.
MysticDark3
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Love it
Just beautiful (09/12/2007)
I love it, and for that I love you.
jrronimo
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
Like it
I love it, but the memory leak is the deal-breaker (26/10/2007)
It's a great program. IT checks your mail and shows you who it's from. However, if you leave your computer on long enough (say a few days), sidebar.exe eventually takes up hundreds of megs of memory. If you close GMail Reader, sidebar's memory usage increases uncontrollably until you kill the process. If that can be fixed, I'd use it.
MDiddlers
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
Like it
Possible to change the sound it plays? (29/11/2007)
Great gadget, but would like to play the default Windows sound for new mail instead of the normal one. It's a bit overpowering for me. Is this possible?
noidea4thisname
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Like it
Great tool for mail, needs a few features (28/03/2008)
My biggest hope for this gadget is that when the mail window loads, load the entire inbox so you can actually delete the messages after reading them. Or at least make it so you can delete the messages from the tool. The biggest annoyance is having to open the inbox just to delete the messages, otherwise I think this gadget is great.