Step 1: Go to Gmail Settings –> Labs and enable “Canned Responses” as well as “Inserting Images.”

Step 2: Compose a new message in Gmail and create a signature just like you would compose any other email message. Be creative!

You can either upload logos and icons from the computer or use ones that are already on the web. I suggest the former style as that will permanently embed the image into your email signature.

Step 3: Once your happy with the formatting and layout of your new “HTML signature,” go to the Canned Response menu and Save – give some logical name like “Personal” for a signature that you want to attach to your personal emails.

Now whenever you are composing a new message in Gmail or replying to an existing message, just select the relevant signature from the Canned Responses drop-down and it will be inserted inline as in this screenshot.

Google very recently released some nifty new mobile software. Google Latitude, once installed on your mobile device, allows you to see where your Google Contacts are in real time. I downloaded this onto my BlackJack II.

After opting in for Latitude and then getting your buddies to do the same, your contacts show up with their respective avatars on the familiar Google Map.

I think this is a nice idea. Not sure how it really would be of much use, but who knows.  It will fall back to the “My Location”-cell tower based positioning if necessary.

There are a bunch of apps available for the Iphone which perform similar functions.  However,  on WinMO and Android, you can have tasks running in the background.

Interesting Feature: When you exit Google Maps on WinMo after enabling Latitude, you’re prompted whether you want to continue to send your location data to Google or not.  On my phone, at least, it has continued to update my location, despite not having Google Maps running. It’s actually kind of weird. Not sure how often it polls the GPS if you leave it running in the background. Could kill the battery quick.

Kudos, though,  to Google for attempting to create a cross-platform location-based service.  I think its important with GPS’ radios making their way into everyone’s smartphones, that there be some services available across all platforms. Google and their maps suite is the only product I’m aware of available for all the popular mobile formats- Blackberry, IPhone, Windows Mobile, Android.

Try it out here for yourself…

Here’s a video of it running on Android: