Microsoft teases Skype integration with Outlook.com
Little over two weeks ago Microsoft took down the "opening soon" digital cardboard sign and officially introduced Outlook.com into the wild as a stable product. And if you're already a user or if you have seen the commercials, then you already know that the email service delivers Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter integration, among other supported cloud services.
But there's one that is still missing, and a very important product integration at that -- Skype. In mid-May 2011 Microsoft purchased the popular voice, video and text chatting service for $8.5 billion, a not so small chunk of change by any means. Naturally, in the cloud-connected era, integration with the software giant's cloud products is the next logical step, especially in the midst of heavy competition from Google which, for instance, includes Google Talk integration with Gmail.
Is Outlook.com for businesses, consumers or both?
A week ago, Microsoft formally launched Outlook.com -- its free, web-based email service -- to the public. The service had been in preview since last July.
Microsoft has for too long had a quartet of email offerings, including Hotmail, MSN and the now retired Entourage. Not surprisingly, this portfolio has been a source of confusion and complication for businesses, consumers and Microsoft brand management. By formally launching Outlook.com, Microsoft is now in the final throes of migrating to a single offering that streamlines its marketing spend and brings clarity to customers.
Outlook.com users can finally receive Mega confirmation emails
Right after Kim Dotcom launched Mega on January 19 I succumbed to temptation and registered for a new account. My initial foray was, however, short lived as no confirmation email arrived in my Outlook.com inbox. Clearly, Microsoft's service and Mega did not play well together.
Dotcom shed some light on the matter when he posted the following on Twitter: "Don't use Hotmail to register on Mega. They have mysteriously black holed emails from our domain. Gmail works fine", He shortly followed this up with: "We are working on the 'confirmation email' issue. Some mail services react allergic to an unknown domain sending millions of confirmations". Intrigued by the issue I asked Microsoft for a statement concerning the confirmation email issue with Outlook.com accounts.
Gmail users are switching to Outlook.com? Dream on, Microsoft
According to Microsoft, one-third of new Outlook.com sign-ups are from active Gmail users. While a good portion of those are likely just signing up to get an account to use with Windows 8 (I’m a Gmail devotee but use my Outlook.com address to log into the OS as it offers clear benefits), Microsoft presumes that these new users must dislike Google’s service and want to switch. To this end, the company hired a research firm to say what it wanted to hear.
"Hundreds" of Gmail users were recruited and asked to give Outlook.com a try. These test subjects moved their emails over and used the service for a brief while before being grilled on their experience. The researchers found that the group largely preferred Outlook.com’s clean design (it's possible), and the fact that the service makes sharing photos and Office documents easy (fair enough). But here’s the claim that I can’t quite believe: Apparently the users found Outlook.com "does a better job of blocking spam" than Gmail. Sorry? The only reason you could possibly think that is if you never get any spam in the first place (which would be the case with brand new Outlook.com sign ups).
How to upgrade your Hotmail email address to @outlook.com
Microsoft updated its email service yesterday to Outlook, changing the interface and adding new features to its Live/Hotmail e-mail service. Among the new features there’s currently the possibility to change your @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com e-mail address to the new @outlook.com. You should hurry to get one now, as the one you want may be gone later.
Upgrading your e-mail address takes three simple steps and afterwards you’ll be able to receive and send new mail from your @outlook.com address.
Using DMARC with Office 365 and G Suite [Q&A]
New email rules from major providers mean that businesses need to adopt the DMARC standard in order to ensure that their emails get delivered.
But while the new rules have received a good deal of publicity there hasn't been much attention paid to those not running their own mail server and relying on a third-party mail services.
Microsoft releases Windows Server 2025 for brave sysadmins to try out
Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Server Preview Build 26040, the first preview of what has now been confirmed to be called Windows Server 2025.
The release marks the resumption of the Windows Server Insider builds after a break for the winter. In addition to the revelation of the Windows Server 2025 branding, Microsoft has also added flighting and downloadable in-place upgrades to the Windows Server Insider program which works in the same way as for Windows 11.
Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 23511 with improvements for Windows Spotlight
Today is a big day for Windows 11 Insiders in the Dev Channel as the software giant releases a new test flight, Build 23511. The main highlight in this release is a big improvement to Windows Spotlight.
Microsoft has previously tried out various treatments for Spotlight and has now settled on a single experience that the company says "includes previewing images at full screen, multiple opportunities to learn more about each image and a minimized experience."
Microsoft begins rolling out its AI-powered Copilot for Windows 11
Back in May, at its Build developer conference, Microsoft announced a new Copilot feature which is designed to bring the power of AI to Windows 11.
At the time, the company said that the feature would be made available in preview form in June, and today it finally arrives for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. To try it out, you will need to be running Build 23493 and Microsoft Edge version 115.0.1901.150 or higher.
Microsoft will launch the huge Windows 11 Moment 3 update this summer, but you can have it now!
With Windows 11 Microsoft has made major changes to the approach it takes to updating the operating system, not least of which is the idea of "Moment" updates being used to introduce new features.
We've already seen the release of Moment 1 and Moment 2 for Windows 11, and Microsoft is planning to release the eagerly anticipated Moment 3 in June. If this seems like too long to wait, there's a way to get the update right now and enjoy an update File Explorer, Taskbar changes, an improved Task Manager and much more.
Outlook users face email issues as Microsoft starts using OneDrive cloud storage space for email attachments
If you are having trouble sending and receiving email via your Outlook.com account, you are not alone. Problems have started to surface following a recent policy change by Microsoft that means email attachments now eat into OneDrive storage limits -- as we reported previously.
Microsoft started to roll out the change at the beginning of February, but it seems that the pace of the rollout has increased as more and more users are hitting their storage limits and experiencing problems with their emails.
Microsoft Outlook for Apple macOS now free
The stock Mail application that comes with macOS is pretty damn good. While there may be better email clients for Mac, you can't argue with the price of Apple's official offering -- FREE. And now, there is yet another gratis email client for Mac, and it is one you should already be familiar with -- Outlook!
Yes, folks, Microsoft's wildly popular email program is now totally free to use on macOS. As of today, the Apple Silicon-optimized app no longer requires a license or subscription to Microsoft 365. The now-free Mac app even supports a useful Hand-off feature, allowing you to easily move between Outlook on iOS and macOS. How cool is that?
Microsoft says it has resolved Outlook email filter outage that resulted in a deluge of spam
Users of Microsoft's Outlook.com have been flooded with spam and phishing emails over a period of 12 hours. It seems that the message filters for the email service suffered an outage, resulting inboxes being overwhelmed with junk mail.
While Microsoft says that the issue has now been addressed, the company has provided very little in the way of explanation for what happened.
Microsoft is investigating a massive global outage affecting Teams, Skype, Outlook and OneDrive
Multiple Microsoft 365 services have been hit by an outage that is affecting users around the world. The problems have disrupted access to a large number of services including Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Outlook.
Microsoft says that it may have found the source of the issues, but they are yet to be resolved, and no specific details have been revealed. The company is also looking into Azure connectivity problems.
New Microsoft 365 Basic tier includes 100GB of cloud storage, ad-free Outlook, Windows 11 help and more for just $2 per month
Microsoft has announced a new low-cost Microsoft 365 tier, giving access to a cloud storage boost and more. Priced at just $1.99 per month, Microsoft 365 Basic includes 100GB of cloud storage, removes advertising from the mobile and web versions of Outlook, and also includes access to the free web-based versions of various Office components.
Microsoft 365 Basic is replacing the current OneDrive Standalone 100GB plan, with existing users being automatically migrated later this month. Microsoft is quick to point out that while there is no change to plan costs, there are now more benefits for the same price -- including technical support for Windows 11.
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