ghacks Technology News

Google Apps On The Desktop

GMDesk (via Cybernet News) is an Adobe Air application that combines several of Google’s high profile applications into an application that is accessible from the desktop. The applications that are currently included are Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Reader and Picasa Web Albums. Combining those Google apps into one easily accessible desktop application makes sense and it remains a mystery why Google never introduced anything like that on their own.

Since GMDesk is making use of Adobe Air it requires that the Adobe application is installed on the computer system before it can be installed as well. The Adobe Air application basically displays all included Google apps on the desktop. It usually starts with the login screen of Google Mail unless the user picks a different starting service in the program’s options.

GMDesk can remember the username and password that has been used to log into one of the Google apps. Once logged in all other Google apps require no additional login process which means that it takes only a short time to switch applications.

google apps

Applications can be selected from the top menu or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL [1-6] to bring the desired application to the front. There is no way to display more than one at the same time but every application is active and can be activated easily which feels like switching tabs in browsers when using several Google services at once.

GMDesk is a rather resource hungry Adobe Air application, it us using more than 60 Megabytes of computer memory and more than 70 Megabytes of virtual memory after login, that’s quite a bit. It can be run on all operating systems that support Adobe Air which includes Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Mac.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter.

Related Articles:

The Difference Between Google Chrome Extensions And Web Apps
Google Apps Users Can Now Join Google+
Meebone – Desktop Meebo
Google Chrome Web Apps, What Are They?
Find the latest and best Adobe Air apps



About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: , Saturday August 30, 2008 -
Tags:, , , , , ,


Responses so far:

  1. dualsub2006 says:

    You can accomplish the exact same thing with Mozilla Prism at less than half the RAM hit.

Leave a Reply   Follow Ghacks   Subscribe To Comment Rss

Subscribe without commenting

© 2005-2012 Ghacks.net. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - About Us