Honestly, most people will do anything to avoid running apps through Safari.  If there is a way to launch directly from the home screen, it will be found.  I am most definitely one of those people.  There is one exception however, and it involves Gmail.

I strongly favor accessing my Gmail account via Safari as opposed to running my Gmail account through the mail feature on my iPhone.  The prior gives me one touch starring of important emails, quick archiving, as well as a search bar right on top that allows me to easily wade through the peat-filled swamp that is my inbox.  Plus, it’s simply more aesthetically pleasing.

One of my complaints, however, with mobile Gmail were the phantom emails – the ones that you send but never quite go anywhere.  Today, Google announced on their Gmail blog a fix to this problem: The connection bar.

The connection bar adopts a bit from the iPhone mail client as it pops up at the bottom to notify the user what is happening at various stages of the email process.  The new connection bar will tell you when it is checking for new mail, whether you have a connection or not (obviously), and most importantly, when all mail has been successfully sent on its way.

The update is only available in iOS4.