Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Sync works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.

If you already have Google Sync set-up on your iPhone for syncing Contacts and/or Calendar… you should be able to just toggle the Mail option On and the push notification will be automatically enabled. If you do not have Google Sync set-up yet, check out Google’s guide HERE.

Google Sync does use an Exchange account so, if you already have one Exchange account set-up on your device… you are out on Google Sync.

You can check out Google’s Mobile Team blog entry HERE, their Enterprise blog entry HERE and get more info about Google Sync and the iPhone HERE.

Apple has recently started blocking applications from the App Store that allow your iPhone to use your Google Voice account with calls, text messaging, and voicemail. It seems that one developer has taken this to the next level by releasing an app in Cydia for free. I’d write all about the drama but the fact is, right now, here’s a sweet way to get a Google Voice app on your iPhone. For the record, this app is not made by Google.

The app is called GV Mobile and it’s free! The first version was crashing for me when I would log in but now, after an update, it’s working great! To make an outgoing call you dial the number or find it in your contact list. Once you send the call, your iPhone’s stock Phone app will ring. Once you answer, it will automatically call the number you called but come from your Google Voice number.

The best features of this app are access to text messaging and voicemail. I was very impressed how both apps work just like the stock Messages and Phone apps. What’s nice is the SMS feature doesn’t use up your normal text messages and even better? You can use this on a fake activated iPhone that doesn’t have service. You can’t make calls, but you can access voicemail and text messaging as long as you’re on wifi! If you try to make a call, it will ring your actuall line set up on the account and connect the call. Let us know if this will install on an iPod Touch.

Here’s a couple things I’ve noticed that could be changed. If you’re on a non activated iPhone or just on wifi, you will get no pop up alert. Also, if you don’t have a contact in your Google Voice account but you do have it on your iPhone, it won’t show up in the Google Voice app when receiving a text message. Another thing is you can’t copy or forward SMS messages. You also can’t move around with the magnifying glass when typing a text, so if you mess up, you have to delete all the way back… I’m sure they’ll get this cleared up eventually. We’ll see how Apple & Google respond to this.

I tested it on Brooke’s iPhone, which is a 2nd Gen iPhone 3G running iPhone firmware 2.2.1, and I got this:

It has all the other features like list of map directions, map routing, traffic, satellite & map views, search, and more. You can pinch, zoom, double tap and use in landscape mode too. You can try it out by going http://gjm.google.com/mwm.

ScreenShots

If you’re like me, you use the iPhone’s Mail app all the time. But if you use Gmail you should take a look at gmail.com using Safari. There’s been a lot of updates recently and Google is using HTML5 which makes the app really sweet. The video below shows you some of the features and how they look while in use.

ScreenShots

With the new site design we’ve been tracking site statistics which got me wondering if there were any good Google Analytics apps. I’m pretty sure I’ve check before but when looking this time I found an app called “Analytics”. The screenshot previews looked good but the price was a little high at $5.99. At the time, it had 12 reviews with 4 out of 5 stars. After reading the reviews, only the first version had bad reviews. After an update to version 1.2 most reviews were 5 out of 5. Another selling point was the developer offers a refund via paypal if you’re not satisfied.

There are tons of features and I’m not going to break down every one. The biggest features are the ability to see all of your sites, ability to change date ranges, and great interface. The loading time is a bit slow on EDGE (5-15 seconds depending on info requested) but is normal on 3G or Wifi. There are also nice graphs and not just a list of numbers. Really, screenshots are what will show off this app so here’s a bunch

Note: Their loading graphic looks like the SWOD (Spinning Wheel of Death) but it’s all good, no worries!

Finally, a feature long overdue! The ability to edit Google spreadsheets from your iPhone or iPod Touch (Android too). This does not include Documents, just Spreadsheets. This is a step in the right direction and will be great for those trying to track spending/budgets, travel/mileage, etc. It’s pretty easy and works well. Features include allowing you to add new rows, edit existing cells, sort by columns, and filter by terms. It would be better if it was a real app but this will do for now.

Just visit m.google.com/docs from your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can also read more about this announcement from the Official Google Mobile Blog.