Articles about Messaging and Collaboration

Earlier today Microsoft introduced IMAP support for its Outlook.com email service. The latest addition is designed to allow feature phone users and those who rely on a number of third-party email clients, such as the Mail app from OS X, to take advantage of email sync.

IMAP joins Exchange ActiveSync and POP as the supported Outlook.com protocols and falls between the two, in terms of functionality (EAS is more feature-rich compared to POP). "While we believe that EAS is the most robust protocol for connecting to your email, with syncing in near real time, and superior battery and network efficiency, there are still some devices and apps that haven't made the upgrade to EAS", says Outlook.com Protocols principal program manager lead Steve Kafka. "As an older protocol, IMAP is widely supported on feature phones and other email clients such as those on a Mac. We heard your feedback loud and clear that this was important".

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

In recent weeks we've seen social collaboration become the new black as far as business computing is concerned. Gartner has reported growing expectations from social technologies and new product releases from major players have focussed on this sector.

Washington DC-based HyperOffice was an early entrant into this field and its current offering is aimed at SMBs looking for a scalable solution that will grow with the business. As well as social collaboration HyperOffice includes online document and project management, shared calendars and contacts. It also lets you build an intranet, maintain wikis and forums and handle business email as well as offering traditional project planning tools like Gantt charts.

Continue reading →

As some of you may know, Evernote is my favorite note-taking app. And, there is a very good reason for that -- the cloud-based service is available for all major mobile platforms through their respective app stores, making it easy to use, regardless of which operating system I may favor at the time. This makes it particularly handy when I'm jotting down ideas for upcoming stories on my Windows Phone 8 smartphone, but wish to look into them further on my laptop, which runs Windows 8, or straight on the web.

Another good reason as to why Evernote is at the top of my note-taking app list is the ongoing commitment for Windows Phone 8. New versions are rolled out regularly for the tiled handset OS, introducing new features and improvements at a steady pace. And the latest iteration that was released late-yesterday, brings yet another batch of goodies, including speech-to-text support.

Continue reading →

Google shocked the tech world back in December of 2012 when, out of nowhere, it announced that Google Apps Free Edition was going bye-bye. I was also a bit disappointed to hear about this, as it provided a free way for clubs and small businesses of 10 users or less to leverage the power of Google Apps for their email, calendaring, contacts, etc.

Yet as a consultant to numerous clients supporting clients on the Free edition, who knows the unreasonable expectations they sometimes hold the (free) service to, I can see Google's justification for pruning the bushes here. We can all agree: it was good while it lasted.

Continue reading →

There are many things that make an email provider good -- features, spam blocking and of course, reliability. The latter is currently an issue, as the Outlook.com service is down.

As of 12:50pm EST, the web-based email service displays the following message: "We're having a problem accessing email. You might not be able to see all your email messages". It further states that, "We're working on the problem and will provide an update by August 14 2:00 PM. Thank you for your patience". This seems to be very widespread based on chatter around the Internet.

Continue reading →

Even with all the technological advancement in smartphone operating systems, minor features like call blocking are still absent on some modern-day devices. My Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone offers no such functionality, which would definitely come in handy when pranksters are calling in the middle of the night.

The reason for this oversight, in the case of the Lumia 920, is that Microsoft has not baked in a call-blocking feature in Windows Phone 8. But, thankfully, Finnish maker Nokia took matters into its own hands and just released an update for its exclusive extras+info app, which brings the basic yet important functionality, alongside SMS blocking, to part of its Windows Phone 8 lineup.

Continue reading →

Social integration is one of the most interesting features of Outlook.com, as it allows users to manage emails and, at the same time, chat with friends on Facebook, Google Talk and Skype. Microsoft started to integrate the latter service in late-April, with the roll-out continuing into the summer and, now, the company announces a new change as the process reaches its final stages.

Microsoft just revealed that, "as part of adding Skype to Outlook.com", users will no longer be able to access the social messaging history through the adjacent folder, as it will be removed "sometime this fall". The feature will still be available, but only through the Messaging panel.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is today launching a new initiative called the "Companion Web" which is designed to bridge the gap between the various different internet enabled devices we already use in conjunction with one another.

As Bryan Saftler, Senior Product Manager, Internet Explorer explains, "more than 80 percent of smartphone-owning Americans use [their handsets] while watching TV. Of those smartphone users, 4 out of 5 use their phone to look up content relevant to what they’re watching". Microsoft feels this manual seeking of information could be replaced with a more cohesive, tailored and engaging experience.

Continue reading →

Popular social network Twitter just released a refreshed BlackBerry 10 app, which now finally brings support for traditional features, already available to those relying on the Android, iOS or Windows Phone counterpart, like multiple user accounts and the ability to save embedded images.

The latest update is designed to bring the BlackBerry 10 app closer, in terms of functionality, to Twitter's offerings from other platforms. It now "helps you connect more seamlessly to the people and topics you care about", according to the popular social network. Let's take a look at the complete changelog.

Continue reading →

Ever since Edward Snowden leaked what seems to be the mother lode of the decade, the internet has been fervently abuzz with speculation about Prism. The (aptly named) program was setup by the United States NSA (National Security Agency) to work hand in hand with internet giants to cull over mountains of data related to users of numerous services from Facebook to Gmail to Hotmail. Whether or not this information is accurately being used for its intended purpose -- thwarting terror attacks -- is still up for debate. But one thing we do know for sure is not only the type of data being plucked, but more importantly the overarching power this data yields.

It seems the crafty folks at MIT haven't been sitting back and watching this drama unfold. They've gone ahead and launched a representative cloud tool called Immersion that is very accurate in its portrayal of the inner workings of your entire digital life (or at least, the one contained to your Gmail account). National Journal's Brian Fung first covered this astonishing project, and it was since picked up similarly by eWeek.

Continue reading →

Evernote Corporation has released Evernote Touch 2.0, a major update of its touch-friendly Windows 8 app. The latest version's main new feature is a hub page providing a summary of the user’s account, while it also promises improved editing tools and support for Business accounts.

The major new highlight is undoubtedly the hub page, which is the first thing users will see when logging into the app. All of its core navigation items as well as an overview of the various parts of the user's account, including notes, notebooks, tags and shortcuts, can now be found here.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has released Skype 6.6 for Windows and Mac, which introduces minor updates to the company's popular chat service that "focus on quality by addressing user feedback and improving ease of use".

Version 6.6 concentrates on adopting consistent entry points for sending video messages across all platforms, plus implementing a number of platform-specific fixes.

Continue reading →

When you buy a program with “Total” in the name then you probably expect a very complete feature list, and Bitdefender Total Security 2014 certainly does not disappoint in this regard: the suite offers antivirus, firewall, anti-spam, browsing and social networking protection, privacy tools, parental controls, online storage, anti-theft service, PC tuneup module and more.

And although some people prefer to ignore the frills and assess security packages on their core essentials, Bitdefender does just as well here. An AV-TEST report on Bitdefender Internet Security 2013, for instance, shows it detecting 100% of the test malware samples -- this program is strong on the basics, too.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has released Skype for iPhone 4.9 and Skype for iPad 4.9, minor updates for its pair of iOS apps. Both updates promise more reliable photo sharing, wider accessibility for video messaging and improved stability for audio and video calls.

Both updates are the first for iOS since Microsoft brought video messaging about of beta and made it universally available to all users.

Continue reading →