Search Results for: outlook.com

Microsoft is no stranger to trying to stick the knife into the competition, and the company's latest campaign, Keep Your Email Private, is no different. This is not just an ad campaign, but rather an entire microsite that has been set up to demonstrate how much better Outlook.com is than Gmail. The reason? There is only really one put forward for consideration -- Google's scanning of emails.

This in itself is nothing new. We have known for a long time that Google scans the content of emails with a view to delivering targeted ads. It’s not something that everyone is happy with, but we know all about it, and if you don’t like it, you're free to move away from Gmail. But Microsoft is now exploiting this fact in a bid to attract people to Outlook.com.

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From technology that watches you in the supermarket, to social networking’s attempts to make the ads we see more relevant, the advertising industry is becoming cleverer at getting its message in front of the right people.

But is scanning emails, as Gmail does, a step too far? A survey commissioned by Outlook.com in the UK has found that 84 percent of people disapprove of email service providers scanning messages in order to target online adverts.

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Google Docs and Google Drive were all I knew when it came to personal cloud document storage until this summer. I never got on the Dropbox bandwagon, and was so entrenched in the Google ecosystem that SkyDrive didn't interest me at first when it came out. While I have nothing personally against Google Drive, as it has served my company and myself quite well, I had to take a deep dive into SkyDrive territory to prepare for an Office 2013 class I taught this past summer. I was pleasantly surprised with the service, so much so that I began using it side by side next to Google Drive for my personal needs.

Fast forward to when Windows 8.1 went RTM, and I subsequently moved my primary Thinkpad X230 Tablet over to the new OS. One of the least publicized aspects of 8.1 has to be hands-down the tight integration between the OS and SkyDrive, meaning you didn't need a standalone app anymore to save/open files on the service. Some have called it Microsoft going too far, but I completely disagree. The service is 100 percent optional (you can still save locally as you would expect) and if you are using a local account instead of a MS account for your computer login on 8.1, the service is a moot point at best.

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With Android handsets and iPhones taking the lion's share of the smartphone market, Windows Phone is quite often overlooked by most consumers in their purchasing decisions. The popularity, or lack thereof, of devices running Microsoft's mobile OS likely plays an important part but it also detracts folks from getting the smartphone that may be right for them. Ask yourselves how many of your acquaintances have been in this position.

Many do not even take Windows Phone into consideration and the ones that do easily find a couple of reasons to dismiss the platform and jump on the Android or iPhone bandwagon. Yes, Windows Phone may not be the right answer for everyone but it might be for more people than naysayers think. And I have got 10 good reasons why consumers should give Windows Phone a chance.

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Email encryption for Yahoo Mail may not seem like major news. In fact, Yahoo introduced the use of HTTPS as an option earlier in the year. This was not only several years after the likes of Gmail and Hotmail (and now Outlook.com), but also an optional security feature. But now security campaigners can breathe a sigh of relief; in just three short months, email encryption will be enabled by default in Yahoo Mail.

The news comes from Jeffrey Bonforte, SVP of Communication Products who says in a blog post that "at Yahoo, we take the security of our users very seriously". It will come as great news to not only Yahoo users, but also the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) who wrote a letter to Marissa Mayer back in November expressing their concerns about the (then) absent HTTPS option.

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When Yahoo announced plans to recycle inactive email addresses, concerns were raised about the possibility of the new address owner getting emails intended for the previous occupant. It turned out to be a valid fear as my own experience shows.

But Yahoo is not alone in recycling email addresses. According to a report from PC World, Microsoft is quietly doing the exact same thing with Outlook.com email accounts. A spokesman for the software giant told Webwereld, a Dutch IDG publication, "the email account is automatically queued for deletion from our servers. Then, after a total of 360 days, the email account name is made available again".

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When thinking of personal radio, services such as Pandora, Rdio, Spotify and others come to mind. Windows Azure is not a part of this word association game, but the Microsoft service is capable of powering such apps for mobile platforms, and works with Windows Phone, iPhone and Android.

Now Long Zheng, formerly of the ChevronWP7 team, has announced his startup 121Cast is releasing Omny -- which the company hopes will change the way people use their mobile devices for music, email, news and more. "I know the word 'revolutionize' is very much a cliché for tech startups but I do think we've come up with an easier, more interactive, and all around better way for the busy mobile individual to listen to news, entertainment, music and important updates on the go", Zheng states. "Omny expands on that idea [SoundGecko] to provide a more diverse range of content such as professional radio shows, podcasts and music through Spotify, Rdio, Songl and iTunes", he continues.

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Linux offers much quality software. From Gimp, for photo and image manipulation, to Rhythmbox, for music, a user can easily achieve a positive software experience. However, once a program becomes largely adopted, it can get stale -- developers may rest on their laurels.

When developer Yorba came on the scene in 2009 with the popular Shotwell (photo management) and Geary (email client), it was a breath of fresh air. Not only are the programs functional, they are attractive and receive steady updates. Yesterday, Geary announced updates to both of these programs.

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The response to an apparent Gmail issue seems mixed here at BetaNews -- some claim to have experienced email delays, while others noticed nothing. But, regardless of how real or wide-spread the problem was, a problem did exist and Google would like to explain how it happened in an effort to retain trust in its email service.

"We’d like to start by apologizing -- we realize that our users rely on Gmail to be always available and always fast, and for several hours we didn’t deliver. We have analyzed what happened, and we’ll tell you about it", begins Sabrina Farmer, Senior Site Reliability Engineering Manager for Gmail.

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We all have information relating to banks, insurance companies, utilities, retailers and more that we need to keep. But now that we increasingly manage our accounts online how do you cope with saving statements and other important information that you receive electronically?

The online organizer service doxo thinks it has the answer and has added email to the range of information it can collate. The doxo Email Import option automatically imports, organizes and archives all of the emails for key accounts that you receive through your inbox and it works with Gmail, Outlook.com and all the leading mail providers.

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If there's one thing that I wholeheartedly dislike about the tech world it's being told about a brand new product that really appeals, and then having to wait ages for it. It's like that someone who told me about it wants to toy with me, psychologically torture me and, when I couldn't care less about that new and shiny thing, give it to me. Of course, I'm now blowing things out of proportion, but I want you to understand, at some level, how it feels when I'm entrusting part of my tech life to Microsoft.

For some incomprehensible reason, in 2013 Microsoft is still using the expression "rolling out". It defines a vague date of availability for any new changes that it announces. How outdated is that? You may think that Microsoft's roll outs have a specific role, of insuring extra stability and providing a seamless transition, to the new version for its users. But that is, in my opinion, such a pathetic excuse that only a two-year old who is baited with candy by his parents might be inclined to believe.

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Big news came from Apple and Microsoft this week. Microsoft seemingly had a change of heart; having previously said that Windows 8.1 RTM would not be made available before its official launch date, the company announced that it would be released to people with TechNet and MSDN subscriptions.

The same group of people also gained access to the pre-release version of Skype. Microsoft was clearly in a very giving mood this week as the company also announced that it was giving free copies of Office 365 to non-profit organizations.

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Over the years I have amassed a vast collection of unused accounts on websites. I am sure you have too. I have signed up for various online services -- email, cloud storage, content streaming, social networking and more -- with the prospect of trying new things or replacing old ones. The antiquated accounts got left behind, abandoned or forgotten.

The downsides, at least for me, are the constant email reminders which I receive, trying to pull me back in, or, worse, the likelihood of exposing personal information to hackers (if I don't use something then I surely will not change my password frequently or enable new security features). The solution? The unused accounts have to go. And Just Delete Me is one of the best services to help do that.

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Google is renowned for its lack of Windows Phone support. The search giant has only released one app for the tiled smartphone operating system, and that is basically just a portal to the mobile Google Search page. Windows Phone users get none of the popular apps launched on Android or iOS -- YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive or Google Now. That doesn't look like it will change in the near future, unless Windows Phone's market share is significant enough for the company to notice (which is a far-fetched scenario anyway).

Sadly, Google also shows its lack of Windows Phone support at browser level. Those who wish to access the Gmail website from a handset running the tiled OS are greeted with a plain ugly interface, while Android, iOS and even BlackBerry users get treated to the latest smartphone-optimized design. As a Windows Phone user I had hoped that this would change, but it looks like Google has other plans in mind, as, surprisingly, it considers the tiled smartphone OS to be of the feature phone kind.

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For those in the States, the mad dash to compliance is unquestionably on. After years of taking a "wait and see" approach to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations surrounding medical office technology, healthcare providers (and related covered entities) are scrambling to get their systems and procedures in order. Big Brother has officially set a September 23, 2013 deadline for most new rules that put into place heightened protocols for how patient information (PI) is shared as well as how notifications about breaches need to be handled, among other things.

Naturally, a lot of my consulting clients in the healthcare industry are reaching out for professional help on how to get their IT systems in line as these deadlines approach. One of the biggest facets of the new HIPAA laws, which affects companies like mine that provide hands-on IT consulting, is that for the first time ever we are being considered "covered entities" in the same boat as the healthcare outlets themselves.

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