"After looking at a number of options to make reMail available in some form, we decided to open source the code, which is now available on Google Code as remail-iphone under the Apache 2.0 License," Google Communications tells WebProNews.

reMail was created by a Gabor Cselle, who used to work as a software engineer on Gmail. On the reMail blog, Cselle says, "As someone who is passionate about mobile email, my hope is that developers interested in making email-related apps can use reMail code as a starting point. Part of the reason email apps are hard is because you have to pay the tax of figuring out how to download email via IMAP, parse MIME messages, handle attachments, and store data. reMail has already solved these problems. If you have a great mobile email idea, I hope you will find reMail’s source code helpful in your quest."

Cselle has documented the source code so developers can quickly start on any ideas they have. "If you like reMail and want to improve it, I have also listed some potential projects with implementation tips," he says. "Most of these projects are features that users have requested in the past. I encourage you to contribute improvements back to the project. I’ve also created the group remail-iphone on Google Groups, which is a great place to ask questions."

This page will tell you how to build using the code, let you see some project ideas, and show you how the datastore and UI work.

Google is in the process of rolling out these changes. So far, you can see the changes at Google Labs, Google Moderator, and Google Code. Look for new logos at Google Maps, Google News, and Google Docs soon.

"We hope this design freshens up our look as well as improves consistency and ease of use across our sites," Google says. "Now, our product names will appear in clean, simple blue lowercase type alongside the Google logo."

The new logos will be consistent not only among US Google sites, but internationally. As Google points out, this may be helpful for languages that read right-to-left.

"Since the logos appear in many different locations and sizes on our websites, our new designs are standardized to be the same size and color wherever they appear," Google notes. "This should make it easier for you to recognize which site you are on and navigate to wherever you want to go."

What do you think about Google’s logo changes? Do you like them better or worse? Would you have even noticed the changes if they weren’t pointed out? Tell us.

Google’s Geolocation API allows developers to deliver personalized data based on geographic targeting, and in developer-speak allows them to:

– Obtain the user’s current position, using the getCurrentPosition method

– Watch the user’s position as it changes over time, using the watchPosition method

– Quickly and cheaply obtain the user’s last known position, using the lastPosition property

Examples of applications Google cites that use the API are lastminute.com’s radar app and ITN’s Google Earth Mashup (pictured).

Developers will be happy to know that they can use the same code for both mobile phones and WiFi, and that it is supported by IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and will be soon by Opera. It is of course already supported by Android. Charles Wiles, the Product Manager of the Google Mobile Team writes on the Google Code Blog:

In Chrome and Android, with Gears built in, you can deliver a location enabled web site without requiring your users to install a plug-in, but in other browsers they will need to go through a simple plug-in install process. We also submitted a simplified version of the Geolocation API as a WC3 specification and the upcoming Firefox 3.1 plans to support the W3C version directly. The Gears Geolocation API is completely free to developers and users through the default Google location provider.

For laptop users this only means that around the world, they will be able to enjoy more geographically relevant information from applications created by a growing number of developers, which should ultimately make for a more useful and enjoyable experience with said applications. The WiFi-capability expansion also applies to Google’s My Location, the Google Mobile functionality that brings geographically relevant information to mobile phone users.

Once upon a time in New York City, jamming would take place at the well-known dive CBGB’s.

Many years later, CBGB’s has plans to move to Vegas, while the keyboard jamming contestants will perform will be on PC hardware instead of a Roland V-Synth.

Google opened the doors up to registration for its Code Jam 2006 today.

Registered participants will compete via a series of challenges to see who is the best in the world at coding.

The top 100 finalists will travel to the Big Apple, to compete in the finals held at the Google New York Engineering Office.

None of the finalists will take home less that $750 (well, at least until the taxman claims his share), and the grand prize winner will score $10,000.

This is the first time the finals will be held in New York. Craig Nevill-Manning, director of Google Engineering New York, referenced an old saying about the city in touting the contest:

“If you can make it in Code Jam here, you can make it anywhere!”

Google noted in a statement that TopCoder will again be its partner and power the programming challenges.

Registration ends September 5th, and the qualification round opens that day. Round 1 takes place on September 14th, and round 2 on the 19th. Then the 100 finalists will gather in Manhattan for the finals taking place on October 27th.

“The Google Code Jam is an incredible opportunity for the most talented and fastest computer scientists in the world to come together and compete on an international stage,” said Google’s Alan Eustace, senior vice president, Engineering. “Google is proud to support these amazing coders as they take on some of the world’s most challenging programming problems.”

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

…including the most recent Google calendar data API at the Google code home – see here . You don’t really hear much about this starting point but it really is quite useful… enjoy!

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Anything Geospatial: Tracking developments affecting GIS, geospatial technologies, location-based services, mapping, google earth and google maps. Published by the creator and editor of GISuser.com & LBSzone.com