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Yahoo Mail for Android hasn’t always been the greatest Android application to behold. It did what it did decently, and looked quite alright doing it, but it quickly outgrew its own skin and was badly in need of a hit of the reset button. Well, it looks like that button was finally pressed today as a new upgrade has hit the Google Play Store that many of you Yahoo faithful will enjoy.
The biggest change in this upgrade will be the redesigned interface. It still has that purplish Yahoo flair you’ve come to expect, but the company has tightened things up with Holo UI elements such as the overflow menu button and context-sensitive action bars. The app features a side-bar navigational system that makes it easy to jump between your different inboxes and folders.
Folks will also be happy to find that pinch-to-zoom is now supported. This is a feature that even Google’s own app didn’t have until just recently so we can’t necessarily be mad that it took this long for them to implement. Oh, and ads have been completely obliterated from the experience — total win, I’d say.
In typical Yahoo fashion you still get a nice set of rich text editing controls at your finger tips. You can change colors, bold, italicize and underline text, insert pictures and attachments and even adorn your emails with those charming emoticons Yahoo has become famous for. Yahoo’s also touting more reliable push notifications, better battery efficiency, SSL turned on by default and more.
If I weren’t such a heavy Gmail user I’d probably make a Yahoo account just to have a reason to use this beautiful app. Alas, I don’t — that’s OK, though, because there are more than enough of you Yahooers out there to give it a spin and let me know how you’re liking it in the comments section below!
You left out the part about the unnecessary new permissions.
There is nothing new in the app that requires my location, approximate or otherwise!
Oh brother….permissions paranoia.
Oh brother….open mouth insert foot.
It not about paranoia, its about privacy and the right to privacy.
Speaking out and defending those rights regardless of the venue.
Your comment is an insult to those of us who have put our lives on the line to protect those rights including YOUR right to freely post ignorant comments.
Yeah, and you also have the right to NOT DOWNLOAD THE APP. Nobody is forcing this down your throat. You have every right to privacy and no one is trying to take that from you and I don’t know why you felt the need to drag the armed forces into this. In no way was he insulting the troops or the fundamental rights they protect, just showing how he thinks you’re overly concerned about privacy. It’s called freedom of speech and suggesting that he doesn’t have that basic freedom IS insulting the troops and the rights they protect.
Well I can see this is clearly going to get out of hand fast.
Your absolutely correct I do have that right, and I did not download the update.
You also clearly don’t understand english. I did not “Drag” the “Armed Forces” into it. I said “Those of us” as I happen to be one of them! Desert Shield/Desert Storm thank you very much!
I also did not suggest he does not have the right to freedom of speach, I said his comment was as insult to those of us who have put our lives on the line to protect EXACTLY that right which he was using in an ignorant manner.
And as you put it “just showing how he thinks you’re overly concerned about privacy.” is an insult, people have died to protect that right!
Were THEY overly concerned that they put their lives on the line and lost them for their concerns?!
You’re right. No has to download it. But be thankful that there are folks out there who speak up for the woefully ignorant out there who just say yes to everything without thought to consequence.
Zzzzzzzzz
What we should be paranoid about, is that these permissions cannot be disabled.
While I can’t speak to your claim of the app not needing your location, I can’t say that it should be a huge concern. A huge company like Yahoo can be trusted, I’m sure. And believe me when I say that there are tons of websites you visit each day collecting even more information on you and your location than this app ever will, and they don’t give you a bold warning before doing so. Not to be condescending, but Tbone is right — paranoia about Android permissions is a tad tired. It has never become an issue, and unless you’re downloading from untrustworthy sources it most likely never will.
“paranoia about Android permissions is a tad tired”, I couldn’t disagree with you more. Having put my life on the line to protect this country and our rights, I guess I just look at things differently. Allowing even the smallest infraction of our rights will eventually “snowball”, history has already proven this.
I’d like you to read something, it was written by Samuel Adams and posted in a news paper in 1771. Samuel Adams was one of the founding fathers of this great country.
“The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath’d to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. — Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.” It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.
Samuel Adams (1771)”
It’s not an infraction on our rights, because we allow them to see it. Yahoo doesn’t sneak those permissions in. And just because you have been in the armed forces doesn’t mean you can use it as an advantage in all your fights, which it seems that you are doing.
Just because someone meakly gives up their right does not mean it has not been infringed upon. If person or entity uses a position of leverage to demand you give up a right then it is in fact being infringed upon. Yahoo is doing exactly that by demanding you allow them to use your location if you want to use their app knowing full well that many people rely on email for every day comunications and will meakly say oh well its no big deal if they know where I am at and having no valid reason for doing so.
I didn’t start this “fight” as you call it. A rude, ignorant, and thoughtless comment was made and I simply pointed out that such a flippant comment which ignores our right to privacy was an insult to the people who have fought so hard to defends those rights.
I wasn’t just “in” the Armed Forces as you put it. I wasn’t sitting behind a desk for 4 years. I was in the desert of Saudi Arabia putting my life on the line while you were sitting pretty and comfortable in your lounge chair.
So yes I do have the right to tell someone they are insulting the 10’s of thousands of soldiers who have fought so they can make their ignorant comments from the comfort of their homes in a country where they actually have those rights.
The comment is a perfect example of how people take those rights for granted and think nothing of just throwing them away or makinkg crass, smart ass comments showing just how little those rights actually mean to them.
If you are worried so much about being tracked, you really shouldn’t be carrying around a cell phone with a GPS receiver. If they want to track you, they will, regardless of settings, or any laws that are put into place. Sorry to say, but unless you want to live completely off the grid, your right to privacy is pretty much null and void. I don’t say I’m happy about it, but with modern technology, it’s just the way it is.
Just wanted to add in case some comes across this later.
Its not the “huge company” you have to worry about.
Its the employees of the “huge company”, look at the Google wifi scandle.
Im pretty sure Google is bigger than yahoo and everyone thinks they can be trusted.
And yet a handfull of employees using Googles equipment and apps decided to harvest all kinds of personal data. It is naive to think these companies can be trusted just because of their size.
it is so slow………………………………………….
much needed update… It’s real laggy but atleast the pinch n zoom works…kinda
Still no combined inbox (I don’t think). Still can’t use custom notification sounds. But definitely an improved experience.
I didn’t know people still used yahoo….
I use Yahoo.
Yahoo is fading but I still use them.
Last ditch effort
So, any recommendations on what email client to use for other emails? I used k9 and stock, but soon realized that i need something that could adjust the zoom/pinch to allow easy reading of my emails.
Have never liked yahoo mail. I’m glad I no longer have it. Also I don’t like and don’t use Gmail. I use K9, but can’t figure out how to copy and paste.
I tried it yesterday… still sucking battery like crazy!!! uninstalled this morning :-/ wtf yahoo
Horrible update. No more forced update of messages. Not even a setting to chose this option (that I can find). You must go into app to see if any messages exist.