Hasta La Gadget!

Insects. We can pretend they don’t outnumber us, that they don’t have camouflage or several times our strength, proportionately…until we see them up close. Here are the results from this week’s Shooting Challenge: Bugs. More »

As Microsoft brings on a whole new era of computing – or so they hope – with Windows 8, so too do they attempt to take on the beast that is Gmail with their own Outlook email service on the web. What we’ve seen thus far is not a far cry from Gmail, with Microsoft taking what’s good about their Metro stylings from both Windows Phone and Windows 8 and working to make the email service as user-friendly as their biggest competitors. And what’s best – you can use the email address you already have to get all your mail in to this inbox quite simply.

When you sign in with your Microsoft account – an account you’ve already got if you have a Windows Phone, mind you, you’re instantly presented with a nice, clean, nearly-empty inbox. In the inbox you’ve got one mail from the Outlook Team and another from Windows Live Hotmail. That’s right, legacy internet users, incase you’ve not been following along – Hotmail is fully teamed up with Microsoft for this release.

Up on top you’ve got the Outlook name and logo, a + New button to start up a new email, and all the way on the right you’ve got Messaging (which connects with Facebook), settings, and a quick-link to your profile – and more account settings too. The fact that this profile link and settings are up in the upper-right-hand corner should be setting off some bells for Google. It’s a little too familiar, and we’re sure Google will have a bit to say about it soon as well.

That said, it certainly is where these elements belong. Google didn’t put them up there because they just thought they’d look nice, that’s for sure. Next you’ve got Search Email in the upper left-hand corner of the screen under the Outlook logo. This search bar is also right where it should be and makes a whole heck of a lot of sense in being there. You’ve got your Folders under this with a simple refresh button, Inbox, Junk, Drafts, Sent, and Deleted folders too. You can also make a new folder right from this list too.

Under that you’ve got several different options for how to see your email with Quick Views – documents, flagged, photos, shipping updates, and New Category again. I’m certain we’ll be using the Shipping Updates view more often than any of the rest.

The center has your emails with quick actions for more than one selection, easy to read and see fonts all around, and emails having quick-action buttons appearing when you mouse over each of them. You can also flag emails from here and you’ve got tags that show how important each mail is as well. Inside each email you’ve also got a majorly impressive view. HTML is in full effect here, with large beautiful text bodies for all to see.

The whole layout is rather respectful to the eyes, and the only piece of baggage the whole system carries over from the old world of email is the set of Bing Shopping ads that sit on the right. We’ll have to see how we can… deal with those soon. Skype for video chat will be popping up too, we’re sure, so stick around for the updates as they happen.

You can check this system out right now by heading to Outlook.com, and be sure to let us know how you like (or dislike) it all soon!

Outlook.com Hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Guy Adams—the journalist banned by Twitter after slamming NBC’s Olympics coverage again and again—is back in the game. His Twitter account has been activated again, as this image shows. More »

Yesterday, Ubisoft made headlines when it was discovered that its UPlay service had a pretty big security hole that could allow malicious websites to access users’ computers. The good news is that Ubisoft has issued a patch for the issue (and managed to do that rather quickly), but the bad news is just starting for the French publisher, which is already on thin ice with PC players thanks to its fondness of always-on DRM. Indeed, this security issue wouldn’t been as big of a problem if Ubisoft didn’t require players to run UPlay alongside many of its games, including most Assassin’s Creed titles and a few games in the Tom Clancy franchise.

Today Ubisoft spoke out about the vulnerability and the patch itself, telling gamers that it takes security seriously and will be monitoring new reports as we begin to move away from this embarrassing blunder. “We have made a forced patch to correct the flaw in the browser plug-in for the UPlay PC application that was brought to our attention,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Ubisoft takes security issues very seriously, and we will continue to monitor all reports of vulnerabilities within our software and take swift action to resolve such issues.”

In order to ensure that the plug-in is updated correctly, Ubisoft suggests that players install the UPlay update without a browser window open. Alternatively, an updated version of the installer is available from the UPlay website, and comes complete with this new patch. Hopefully this fix solves the issue for good, but even if it does, we can’t imagine that gamers will be willing to forgive and forget as quickly as Ubisoft would prefer.

Sadly, this probably won’t do much to get Ubisoft to reconsider its use of always-on DRM. Ubisoft is a company that has major problems with PC piracy, and investors want that rampant piracy reined in, regardless of the hassle it may cause paying customers. It’s an understandable position, but it still isn’t hard to crack a smile when always-on DRM keeps shooting itself in the foot like this.

[via MCV]

Ubisoft speaks on DRM disaster is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon’s Cloud Player service just scored some major upgrades, including quality and import enhancements. Perhaps most notable is a new 256 Kbps option for matched files, including songs you imported before today. That bitrate, in MP3 format, is available for new tracks and albums added to the cloud — a process that’s been streamlined as well, with Cloud Player scanning your library and automatically offering up matched tracks, rather than requiring manual imports. In addition, music you buy in the Amazon MP3 Store will show up in your Player automatically, including past purchases (in cases where the site has the necessary rights). There’s also an option to edit metadata directly, such as artist and album info, along with album art, or you can use the label information already in Amazon’s catalog. Cloud Drive will also be less integrated with Player — previous uploads will be moved to an “Archived Music” folder and won’t count against storage caps, but will still be accessible and downloadable, while new imports will be stored in Player directly. You can upload up to 250 songs to Cloud Player for free, or pay a $25 annual fee to bump that cap to 250,000. Full details are at the source link below.

Update: Amazon also mentioned that it has secured new licensing agreements with Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, adding that Cloud Player will be available on Roku and Sonos devices soon as well.

Continue reading Amazon updates Cloud Player with 256 Kbps matched files, faster import, direct delivery (update: Roku, Sonos coming soon)

Filed under: Storage, Internet

Amazon updates Cloud Player with 256 Kbps matched files, faster import, direct delivery (update: Roku, Sonos coming soon) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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