5 Reasons Android Users Won't Switch to the iPhone 5

The hype around the upcoming iPhone 5 - which is rapidly approaching the hysterical peak that we've all come to expect every time Apple rolls out a new model - has already generated a number of possible reasons for Google and its Android partners to worry about the device's impact. COUNTERPOINT: 5 reasons Android users will switch to the iPhone 5 But hang on - does the emperor really have any clothes? As impressive as the iPhone 5 is almost certain to be, it's possible that the Android world has already passed Apple by. 1 - Hardware Apple hasn't been the top dog in this department for some time. Comparing the iPhone 4S to the Galaxy Nexus (which launched within about a month of each other) shows this pretty clearly -- The GNex has a significantly faster processor, twice the RAM, 4G/LTE connectivity and support for 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi. The only areas where the iPhone wins out are in available storage - both devices have 16G and 32GB models, but 64GB iPhones are available - and display features. Those advantages are marginal at best, however - Apple's vaunted Retina Display technology only provides a minor difference in on-paper pixels per inch, and the GPU used doesn't substantially outclass that used in the Galaxy Nexus. Naturally, the iPhone 5 is expected to make a number of improvements in this department, but will it be enough to catch up to an Android lineup that features technical heavyweights like the Samsung Galaxy S III? 2 - Jelly Bean Even though there are relatively few devices running it, Android 4.1, or Jelly Bean, represents a turning point in the battle between the two operating systems. Google's addition of performance improvements, better notification data and a voice search feature that - depending on who you ask - is as good as or better than Siri trumps the improvements that Apple made with iOS 6. Android's always provided a more variable user experience than iOS, and that problem is still there to a large extent - Jelly Bean isn't helping you much if you're stuck running Gingerbread with a crappy vendor overlay, thanks to slow updates from service providers and OEMs. Still, as the slick, powerful Android 4.1 becomes more common, Apple's reputation for delivering the best user experience out there - deserved or not - could take a big hit. 3 - Openness With some exceptions - I'm looking at you, locked bootloaders - Android offers a more open ecosystem than iOS, which is one thing that's highly unlikely to change with the release of the iPhone 5. This isn't just an advantage to serious geeks looking to tweak and tinker in their spare time - Android's open-source nature and more modern programming tools make it more fertile ground for developers looking to craft creative new applications. Given the critical importance of a healthy selection of third-party apps, this is not a trivial concern. 4 - Variety Despite the gadget world's fascination with the latest and greatest (and really, who could blame it?), it's important to occasionally take a step back and look at the entire ecosystem of devices, rather than just the most powerful high-end gear. Android offers a huge array of potential options for users on a budget or those that need non-standard features. Want a physical keyboard? There are plenty of Android choices out there for that. Don't want to pay $200 and up for the top of the line? Get the last generation's powerhouse for next to nothing. 5 - Perception As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there's invariably an enormous amount of hype surrounding every iPhone launch - Apple has a huge number of devoted, noisy fans, including a not-inconsiderable number of media types. In the early days of the iPhone, when it really was something qualitatively different from the rest of the market, this type of product launch helped create buzz and cement the iPhone in the public eye as the cool device to have. The smartphone landscape is very different now, however. The iPhone just isn't the uniquely desirable device that it once was. It's still well-designed, slick-looking and expertly marketed, but it's now merely one entry among many in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and, in several ways, it has actually begun to lag behind the competition. This means that the expectations for the iPhone 5 are sky-high. Should it fail to justify the hype in even minor ways, a lot of users might just decide to opt for an Android device instead. Full disclosure - the author has been an Android user for three years. His current phone is a Nexus S 4G on Sprint, and he really wants an update to Jelly Bean.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

Mozilla to End Support of Firefox for OS X Leopard

Mozilla will drop support for Apple's OS X 10.5, or Leopard, after it ships Firefox 16 in October, according to company developers. "We are not planning to support Mac OS X 10.5 with Firefox 17," said Josh Aas, who works on the Firefox platform group, in a message last month on Bugzilla. "The builds will fail to run on anything less than Mac OS X 10.6." OS X 10.6 is Snow Leopard, the 2009 follow-up to Leopard, which shipped in October 2007. By Mozilla's release calendar, Firefox 16 is to debut Oct. 9. Firefox 17, the first that will not to pushed to Leopard users, is slated for a Nov. 20 launch. Mozilla is following Google's lead in dropping Leopard; Google released its last browser for OS X 10.5, Chrome 21, on July 31. Although Mozilla talked about ditching OS X 10.5 support in December 2011, it decided then to keep Apple's OS on the list. Discussions among engineers, managers and contributors restarted in late June. According to Mozilla, Leopard's importance is diminishing. "Mac OS X 10.5 users have been declining by 1% per month, as a share of our total Mac OS X users," said Aas. "This, combined with the impact of the release of Mac OS X 10.8 [Mountain Lion], means that Mac OS X 10.5 users will likely make up around 10% of Mac OS X users when Firefox 17 ships." As of June 21, 17% of Firefox 13's Mac users were running Leopard, with larger shares on Snow Leopard (35%) and Lion (48%), Aas said. Only 4.6% of all Firefox 13 users were running it on a Mac. Like Google, another reason Mozilla cited for dumping Leopard was that Apple has also ended support. Mozilla to End Support of Firefox for OS X LeopardThe last time Apple patched bugs in Leopard was November 2011, and its most recent security update, in May 2012, disabled older copies of Flash Player to stymie Flashback rather than fix specific security flaws. Nor has Apple maintained Safari on OS X 10.5. The final update was issued over a year ago. And finally, said Aas, Mozilla can handle only so much. "Apple releases new versions of its operating systems relatively quickly, and each new version contains significant changes that we must adapt to," Aas said. "This requires resources, and with limited resources this sometimes means we have to make tough decisions about where to invest." One project that Mozilla has been pushing is a browser compatible with Windows 8, Microsoft's new operating system. In a blog post last week, Brian Bondy, a Firefox platform engineer who has been working on a "Metro" version for Windows 8, said that the browser has "progressed steadily," adding that Mozilla's goal is to ship a preview by the end of next month. "This preview will include primary browser UI for navigation and tabs, and will be delivered as a combined classic + Metro browser," said Bondy. "I believe there is a Q4 goal for a beta release as well." Windows 8, which is available now to some Microsoft customers, hits retail on Oct. 26. Mozilla was the first Microsoft rival to announce it would create a combination desktop and Metro-style browser to compete with Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) on Windows 8. Google later joined the race, and in June beat Mozilla to the preview punch by releasing an in-progress browser that runs in the Metro user interface (UI).
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 http://www.pcworld.com/article/261244/mozilla_to_end_support_of_firefox_for_os_x_leopard.html#tk.hp_new

How to Supercharge Your PC With a RAM Disk

If you've ever wished that you could emulate the performance of a solid-state drive without installing a new piece of hardware, consider creating a new virtual hard drive on your PC that runs purely from RAM, also known as a RAM disk. Setting one up is a little tricky, but the performance benefits (if your system has enough RAM) are worth the effort. What is a RAM disk? The name says it all: A RAM disk is a virtual hard drive stored in your computer's RAM. Creating a RAM disk requires dedicated software and utilizes a chunk of your system's available memory; though a RAM disk appears as just another drive on your PC, the RAM that you use for the RAM disk is unavailable for general memory tasks. [Click to enlarge] Supercharge Your PC With a RAM Disk Why would you want to use memory as a makeshift hard drive? Speed, pure and simple. RAM is insanely fast compared with traditional storage, as you can see in the above screenshot comparing benchmarks from a 7200-rpm hard drive (left) and a RAM disk created with Dataram's RAMDisk utility (right). Setting Up a RAM Disk: Pros and Cons RAM disk read/write speeds blow away the speeds of even top-of-the-line SSDs. That makes a RAM disk a wonderful tool for hastening operations in which your machine must read and write a lot of data, such as media encoding or editing large batches of photos. The biggest everyday performance gains occur when you fully install a program on a RAM disk. For example, moving Word, Excel, Firefox, and Acrobat off of my laptop's 7200-rpm hard drive and onto a RAM disk resulted in the apps' loading nearly twice as quickly, rivaling the opening speeds on an SSD—especially when opening large files. Games run more smoothly from a RAM disk too, although coaxing Steam titles into working with a RAM disk is a bit of a hassle, and storing a whole game in a virtual drive requires a big chunk of memory. Of course, running important programs from a RAM disk has some notable disadvantages, too. The storage capacity is severely limited in comparison with that of a standard hard drive, and the inherent volatility of random access memory can be a headache if you store important files or programs on your RAM disk. Size limitations are a significant drawback: The size of the virtual drive is constrained by your system's total RAM, and you'll want to leave at least 4GB of memory untapped and available for general computer use (more is recommended). That means most people won't be able to set up a RAM disk that's larger than 4GB. Since RAM disks are volatile, they lose their data every time the PC loses power. Most RAM-disk utilities bypass this problem by including an optional feature that automatically saves the contents of your RAM disk to a hard drive during shutdown, and then reloads the data to the RAM disk during startup. This arrangement works well (unless you suddenly lose power), but it adds considerable length to the PC's startup and shutdown times, especially if you're running a large RAM disk on a traditional hard drive. A 4GB RAM-disk image, for example, takes several minutes to copy to a 7200-rpm hard drive. (SSDs save data much faster.) If that sours things for you, give the free trial of Primo Ramdisk disk a whirl. The program includes a Quick Save feature that updates your existing disk image and saves only new or altered data. Most utilities save the entire RAM-disk image every time your PC shuts down, which is what takes so long. If you decide that you like Primo Ramdisk, a personal license for two PCs will set you back $30. How to Create a RAM Disk For the purposes of this guide, I chose Dataram's RAMDisk, because the personal version is free for RAM disks up to 4GB in size. If you need more space, the full version is $19. That's cheaper than most RAM-disk software, but Primo Ramdisk and other more expensive premium options deliver more robust features. The free utility ImDisk is the only way to fly if you want to make a RAM disk that's larger than 4GB, but I don't recommend it as heartily: The command-line interface is more of a hassle, and ImDisk's virtual drives aren't as fast as the ones that other RAM-disk software packages create. Download and install Dataram's software, and then launch the RAMDisk Configuration Utility. In the main settings screen, select the Unformatted disk-type option and enter a size for the RAM disk in megabytes (1GB equals 1024MB). Note the 4092MB limit in the free version. [Click to enlarge] Supercharge Your PC With a RAM Disk Next, go to the Load and Save tab. If you want the software to save your RAM-disk data to a traditional hard drive when you shut down the computer, check the Save Disk Image on Shutdown option and choose a location for saving the disk image. Likewise, check the Load Disk Image at Startup option and make sure it's pointed to the same location if you want the software to reload your saved data to the RAM disk automatically when you boot the computer. [Click to enlarge] Supercharge Your PC With a RAM Disk Remember that doing so can add a significant amount of time to your PC's startup and shutdown; if you don't plan on using your RAM disk often or for critical saves, consider leaving those options unchecked. The RAM disk will be wiped every time your PC powers down, but if you're storing only temporary files on it, that's hardly a major loss. Alternatively, if you want to store apps on the RAM disk but keep their output—such as documents or game saves—on a traditional drive, you can save time by loading the disk image at startup but disabling the 'Save at shutdown' option. Just manually save the disk image whenever you add or update an app. After selecting your save/load options, you're good to go. Click Start RAMDisk and install the Dataram driver when prompted. The program will warn you that the image file load failed; don't sweat it. Now you need to format the disk.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

Google Earth Shows Undiscovered Pyramids, Amateur Archeologist Claims

Google Earth is prompting one arm chair archeologist to suggest that there may be two undiscovered pyramid complexes in Egypt. Both locations feature what appear to be pyramid-shaped mounds with a deliberate organizational structure, according to Angela Micol of Maiden, N.C., who runs Google Earth Anomalies. As its name suggests, the site is dedicated to discovering intriguing images from Google Earth. Publishing possible discoveries like this in the age of the Internet is a double-edged sword. Micol says she is not publishing the coordinates of the two sites for fear they may be pillaged by treasure hunters. Nevertheless, by piecing together the general locations of these sites from other reports, it took me less than 15 minutes to find both locations using Google Earth and Google Maps. I expect anyone else armed with a Web browser and a modicum of Google savvy would have a similar experience. Site 1 Google Earth Shows Undiscovered Pyramids, Amateur Archeologist ClaimsThe first site is located just a few miles from the ancient ruins of Dimeh in Middle Egypt, not far from the city of Faiyum. The site features what appears to be one large mound and three smaller ones. Micol believes the three smaller sites echo the diagonal arrangement of the famed pyramids of Giza. Google Earth Shows Undiscovered Pyramids, Amateur Archeologist ClaimsThe pyramids of Giza on Google Earth Site 2 [Click to enlarge] Google Earth Shows Undiscovered Pyramids, Amateur Archeologist ClaimsThe second site is located near Abu Sidhum and also appears to feature four mounds, alongside what appears to be a “triangular-shaped plateau.” Micol says the second complex is arranged in a very clear formation. Interesting, but… [Click to enlarge] Google Earth Shows Undiscovered Pyramids, Amateur Archeologist ClaimsWhile the sites are interesting to look at (especially if you take the few minutes to find them), it seems somewhat unbelievable they would be undiscovered pyramid sites. The first pyramid site is ridiculously close to a well-known archeological location, while the second site is flanked by what appears to be farming activity. In fact, the large triangular plateau at the second site appears to be less than a half-mile from a barn or some other farm-related structure. Given their proximity to human activity and apparent large size, it seems unlikely these finds will pan out to be the real thing. Remember Atlantis The possible pyramid finds echo a tantalizing image found in 2009 when Google Earth scouts believed they had found the resting place of the ancient lost city of Atlantis. The site was located just off the coast of Northwestern Africa. The “Atlantis” find came shortly after the search giant launched Google Ocean, which allows users to explore the ocean’s floor using Google Earth. “Atlantis,” Google later explained, was just a collection of ship tracks created by a boat gathering images of the ocean floor, a process called echo sounding. It would be an amazing story if Micol’s discoveries turned out to be the real thing, but I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. Micol says she is planning a documentary based on potential satellite image discoveries gathered over the past 10 years. The North Carolina resident also hopes to form a nonprofit organization promoting archeological finds using satellite images.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/260857/google_earth_shows_undiscovered_pyramids_amateur_archeologist_claims.html#tk.hp_fv

How to Get Started With Google Reader

You may already be using Google Reader, Google's Web-based RSS reader, but you probably haven't figured out every advanced trick for getting the most out of this free RSS syndication service. RSS (aka "RDF Site Summary" or "Really Simply Syndication"), a feed-based communication system that most websites support, makes it easy to stay abreast of your favorite websites from a single page. Though some third-party programs and even some browsers can help you curate your favorite RSS feeds in one place, Google Reader's Web-based structure means you can set it up on one computer and then open it anywhere by logging in to your Google account and heading to reader.google.com. Google Reader is simple to use once you've set it up, but your first time with the service can be a bit confusing. We've assembled all the tips you need to collect your RSS feeds and have them ready to go in short order. Getting Started With Google Reader If you already have a Google account because you use Gmail, Google+, or one of Google's other Web services, signing up with Google Reader is as easy as signing in to your Google account on the Google Reader homepage. After signing in, you'll probably notice that your Google Reader page is a bit sparse. Google Reader is designed to serve as a reader for your RSS feeds, so you'll need to add some of your favorite sites in order to have content to peruse. [Click to enlarge] How To Get Started With Google ReaderPress the big orange Subscribe button; then use the Search feature to find feeds from your favorite websites, and add them to your Google Reader account. To add new feeds to your Google Reader page, click the Subscribe button on the upper-left area of the page. Doing so should should cause the pag to open a small dialog box where you can add a new feed. In many instances, if you're adding a feed from a relatively large site, you can simply enter the site's name and Google Reader will return a list of RSS feeds that you might have been looking for. For example, type PCWorld, and Google Reader will list PCWorld feeds such as Top News, Latest Reviews, and Laptop Stories. Click one of the links to see a preview of stories from that feed, to ensure that it's the feed you're looking for; then click the Subscribe button under the description to add the feed to your Google Reader. As you add feeds, Google Reader will start to get a feel for your interests and will give you access to the Explore button. When you press Explore, you'll see posts from RSS feeds that you haven't yet subscribed to that Google's analytical algorithm has concluded that you might also like. Creepy? Sure. Useful? Definitely. Mastering the Google Reader Interface By default, Google Reader presents the articles in your various feeds as a chronological list of posts, with newer posts appearing at the top of your list. This system works pretty well, but if you're getting bogged down with too many new posts every day you can instead sort your feed by date (prioritizing the oldest unread posts first, for example) and by "magic," which triggers a Google algorithm to show you the entries that Google Reader's designers think you'll find most interesting first. Another option is a "condensed" view that shows you only the headline of each post; clicking on a headline brings up the full post. [Click to enlarge] Get Started With Google ReaderGet more reading done in less time by enabling Google Reader's condensed interface. Google Reader's features go far beyond merely adding to and sorting your RSS feeds. If you like to browse the Web socially, you'll appreciate that Google Reader lets you share any post in your reader via email or on the company's Google+ social network. (If, on the other hand, you want to rein in Google Reader's sharing tendencies, see "How to Share Privately With the New Google Reader.") You can also star entries that you find especially interesting. And if you subscribe to friends who also use Google Reader, you can see anything they've chosen to mark as a starred post. If you load your Google Reader with feeds, manually scrolling through hundreds of posts every day can become a chore. Instead, try using the J and K keys (or if you prefer, the N and P keys) on your keyboard to move up or down your reader by one post. Advanced Google Reader Tips and Tricks Occasionally, searching for a site's name in the Subscribe box won't bring up the RSS feed you seek. In these cases you'll need to capture the site's RSS feed URL manually and then put it into your Google Reader. The relevant URL usually lurks behind an RSS button or behind a link labeled 'RSS'. Once you've copied the URL, you can paste it into the Google Reader Subscribe box and add the feed to your collection. Manually adding an RSS feed's URL is an unavoidable annoyance when you're following sites that don't support automatic discovery of their RSS feeds. But it can also be a helpful tool in certain situations. Both Craigslist and eBay have handy RSS feed features that allow you to get real-time updates on new auctions or offers on their sites. For example, I'm currently searching for a new apartment; so instead of repeatedly running a search for apartments in my chosen neighborhoods and price range, I grabbed the handy Craigslist RSS feed for my preferred search parameters and subscribed to it through Google Reader. Now, I see new apartment listings as soon as they pop up on Craigslist, simply by checking for news on Google Reader. [Click to enlarge] Get Started With Google ReaderCustomized Craigslist search RSS feeds let you see relevant listings as soon as they're posted on the site. Similarly, if you want to grab a specific auction item on eBay, you can get an RSS feed for any search that you'd like to make on the site--as well as for specific eBay shops. Unfortunately eBay recently rolled out a new search interface that makes locating the RSS feed button more difficult, but you can easily fix that problem by reverting to the old search interface, on which the RSS button appears at the bottom of the page. [Click to enlarge] Started With Google ReaderA custom RSS feed such as 'Men's shirt, size 15' makes shopping on eBay a snap. These are a few of my favorite creative uses of Google Reader. Once you start looking for RSS feeds, I'm sure that you'll find ways to use them in your daily browsing. For more tips, check out our primer, "Getting Started With RSS." If nothing else, Google Reader is a great, free tool for aggregating everything you want to keep track of online in one place.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/260464/how_to_get_started_with_google_reader.html#tk.hp_fv

How to Resize Photos Easily

One of the things they never tell you in school is that no matter what career you choose, you only spend about 20 percent of your time doing the really fun stuff. When I wear my writing hat, for example, I find that I spend about 80 percent of my time on administrative details (generally, stuff related to planning) to write. Likewise, as a photographer, a huge part of my time is related to what you might call file management, which includes tagging, organizing, and sizing photos for their intended publishing destinations. Recently, we discussed cropping and resizing but this week, I have an even better way to resize your photos. Why Resize? From the mail that I get, I know that many of you need to publish photos in places like Web sites, blogs, and newsletters. Especially on the Web, where Websites and blogs often use templates that do really funky things if you use photos that are the wrong pixel size, it's important to make sure your photos are sized properly—part of the 80 percent of things you do when you'd rather be writing or taking photos. Here's the thing: Resizing photos is kind of boring, and using the technique I described a few weeks ago (using the Image, Resize, Image Size menu in Photoshop Elements) is a very manual process that can take a lot of time if you have a slew of photos to resize at once. It is true that using certain photo editing programs, you can batch resize or automate the process, but that can be overkill and setting it up can be just as time-consuming as using the manual method. There's got to be a middle ground. Resize with VarieDrop And there is. Recently, a friend turned me on to VarieDrop, a clever little program that can resize photos to any number of different dimensions by simply dragging and dropping images. I suspect the program has been around for a while, but it's new to me. Start by installing it from the Vieas Website. The program is free, though when it comes to support, you get what you pay for: The help is in Japanese, and not at all helpful, even after running the text through Bing Translate. Nonetheless, you probably won't ever need the help. The program is very simple to use. It looks like this: Drop your photo onto any one of the five areas shown in the screen shot, and VarieDrop will immediately resize your photo according to the preference of that individual area. Here's an example: Suppose you want to use the same photo in two locations on your site. In the first slot, the photo cannot exceed 450 pixels wide. In the second, it must be 300 pixels wide. And let's say you also want to send the photo to your parents, so you'd like to make sure that neither dimension exceeds 800 pixels for email. All that is easy to do with VarieDrop. Click the Set button for the first area and check the Resize box. Set the width to 450 and leave the height blank, or set it to 0 (which means that you don't care what the height turns out to be). Make sure that the Output Format is JPEG and the Quality is high (I'd set it to 100). Clear the Max File Size, since in this case we don't care how large the file is. Click OK. For the second area, repeat all the same steps, but set the width to 300. And for the third area, set both width and height to 800 to make sure that neither the height nor the width exceeds 800 pixels. VarieArea has a few other tricks. You might have noticed that you can choose Max or Fixed. If you choose Fixed, the program will crop the photo to your specified size, which isn't a setting I would recommend. And you can set the output file type, such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and GIF. If you frequently need to convert photos to a specific format, you can reserve an area in VarieDrop for the desired format and turn off resizing, so the program becomes a one-step file format converter. Finally, note that that area 5, at the bottom of the window, batch processes the dropped photo with all the settings from any of the other areas. If you frequently need to resize or convert files among file formats, I suspect that VarieDrop will find a favored spot on your Start menu. Hot Pic of the Week This week's Hot Pic: "Lost" by John Jubinville, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. John writes: "I found this old place near Pierre Part in the Atchafalaya swamp. Just looking at it gave me the feeling of being lost, so that's how I decided to title it. I used an Apple iPhone 3GS." This week's runner-up: "Sunset at High Tide" by Eric Hoar, of Springvale, Maine. Eric says: "This is a panorama made from three images taken at Parsons Beach in Kennebunk, Maine. I preset the camera to ISO 400 and warmed the white balance. I adjusted the brightness, contrast, and color balance to pull the marsh out of being a total silhouette. I tried to restore the sky and reflection back to where I remembered it when I shot the scene."
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/260419/how_to_resize_photos_easily.html#tk.hp_new

Microsoft Debuts Outlook.com: 'Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes'

Microsoft Tuesday previewed a new webmail service called Outlook.com that will soon replace Hotmail. The company hopes that new features built into the web-based Outlook client will draw web users away from competing services like Gmail and Yahoo. Similar Articles: Gmail Keeper Three Ways to Make Gmail Easier to Live With Chrome Now Able to Open E-Mail Links in Gmail Microsoft Office 2013: A Tour of the New Office Suite's User Interface Microsoft Previews New Consumer Webmail Service Called Outlook.com Check Out Gmail's New Look: Rolling Out Now [Sign up for a preview of Outlook.com.] [Click to enlarge] Outlook.com inbox with the reading pane open.Outlook.com inbox with the reading pane open.Hotmail has fallen far: Nearly a decade ago, it was sitting on top of the webmail heap. However, as Google ramped up Gmail, and as Yahoo also joined the fray, Hotmail seemed to lose its way during its many attempts at redesign and at least one rebranding as Windows Live. Outlook.com Features Outlook.com is an attempt to gain that mojo back. The Metro interface makes an appearance and with it comes a much cleaner interface. The result is a 30-percent increase in the number of viewable messages, according to Microsoft. The company also is doing away with large display ads, an obvious shot at its competitors. “We realized that we needed to take a bold step, break from the past. and build you a brand new service from the ground up,” Outlook team member Chris Jones wrote in the Microsoft Outlook blog. [Click to enlarge] Outlook.com inbox with Skype dialogue box.Outlook.com inbox with Skype dialogue box.Another big feature of Outlook.com is social networking integration. Instead of the standard e-mail inbox, users will be able to view status updates and content from Facebook, Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Microsoft also plans to enhance Outlook.com with Skype, which would give it similar functionality to the Google Talk features found in Gmail. Outlook will automatically sort these social updates into various categories, Jones says, in addition to automatically detecting message types, such as shipping updates, newsletters, and important e-mails from your contacts. Free Web-Based Microsoft Office Apps Outlook also includes free web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and additional storage space for attachments will be provided through its SkyDrive service. While Microsoft’s e-mail service may be changing, your e-mail address will not. An outlook.com e-mail address will be available to those who request it or sign up through the preview. However, longtime Hotmail users can keep their @hotmail.com, @live.com, and @msn.com addresses, as well as their own contacts and settings when using the new service. So will Outlook.com succeed where Hotmail and Windows Live failed? It may be a bit too early to tell. That said, the new webmail service certainly takes into account the changes in our online lives. Ten years ago, web-based e-mail served its purpose because that was how we communicated online. Shouldn’t a modern webmail service take into account the fact that e-mail is only one of many ways Internet users communicate these days? Microsoft sure thinks so.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/260107/microsoft_debuts_outlookcom_modern_email_for_the_next_billion_mailboxes.html#tk.hp_new