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FREEBSD Google Notifier downloaded directly from Google will avoid the Google Updater junk that you can read about in several other reviews. That aside, once you actually get the Google Notifier.app installed, you may encounter the same problems that I have seen with respect to latency, redundancy, and time outs. I assume that Notifier checks for new mail each minute, which is a fixed time that has no easy preference change that I can see. However, this operation times out frequently (several times per workday), irrespective of the state of my internet connection, which is fine and always on (and working during these time outs). Additionally, Google Notifier will from time to time ask for my login credentials again, to erratic behavior. When it asks for this info, pressing cancel seems to have the same effect as pressing OK. Yet the annoying pop up dialog box invariably disrupts my work once or twice a day. Finally, I have noticed that, though it looks to have been checking successfully for new mail within each minute and finding nothing new, checking Gmail manually in a browser has sometimes yielded new mail that is greater than 1 minute old. It looks like Google Notifier just missed this mail. It's unclear whether or not Notifier would have eventually found it, as manual checking from Notifier did not find the new mail. Strange. I do find this app better than the other ones I've used, for simplicity and size. However it's imperfect and could use a more rigorous testing and release schedule to be truly useful. (Version 1.10.0.522) |