Hasta La Gadget!

Have you switched to the fantastic new Outlook? Have some questions before you check it out? Having some problems after signing up? Microsoft’s dropping by Gizmodo at 1:30 pm ET for you to ask them whatever you want. More »

This morning Hotmail users are finding themselves in a whole new world of email organization – so new, in fact, that their Hotmail login no longer leads them to Hotmail, it goes to Outlook.com instead. This move by Microsoft has users baffled, in some cases, and furious in others. One thing that’s true amongst all of them is the fact that Hotmail is gone – and Microsoft’s new Metro user interface and total re-formatting of the beloved legacy email service Hotmail is here to stay.

The first thing you may be asking yourself is: where did my Hotmail go? If you asking where the emails go that you had in your Hotmail account went, the answer is simple: they’re still there, it all just has a brand new name over the top of it: Outlook. Your Hotmail account, account information, emails, and logins are all the same – unless you want to change them, of course.

Users wishing now to switch their email address from name@hotmail.com to name@outlook.com have simply to click on “More mail settings” in the menu under the gear in the upper-right of their screen. From there, you’ve only got to click “rename your email address.” Simple as that. You’ve also got the option to keep your old email address if you’ve been working with hotmail.com, msn.com, or live.com of course.

The new Outlook webpage you’re working with allows you integration with Skydrive cloud storage as well as Office Web-based programs immediately or in the near future. You’ve also got Skype video chat options coming up soon, and Facebook and Twitter are part of the show as well. If you’ve not been using a Microsoft webpage for your email in the past, now’s the time to start – Outlook.com is taking new users with no restrictions as we speak. Head to the timeline below for more information on Outlook.com and it’s future as well!

Outlook.com: Hotmail users find themselves rebranded is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft’s new Gmail rival, Outlook.com, is already seeing healthy sign-up figures, but first day glow may well give way to apathy as users find themselves too committed to existing messaging providers. The revamped Hotmail replacement saw 1m sign-ups in just over 6hrs yesterday, after Microsoft pulled back the curtains on its   initial “preview” of the service, but a longer-term impact on the webmail market is still far from guaranteed.

Microsot’s stat announcement was short and to the point, confirming the initial takeup as early-adopters flocked to reserve their preferred @outlook.com username. More detailed numbers are still in short supply, however; it’s not clear how many of those sign-ups are existing Hotmail or Windows Live Mail users switching over to the new service, and how many were new to Outlook.com.

Even those new users may not return after their first visit. High profile online services inevitably see a rush for registration, as curious users try to stake their claim to their first choice of username. Whether they will then actively use Outlook.com remains to be seen, though.

Microsoft makes importing contacts, messages and other details from Gmail or other rival mail providers straightforward, but that still leaves the matter of updating everyone you know – and every service you use – to your new email address. Even existing Hotmail and Live Mail users won’t be automatically switched to an @outlook.com address, that being an optional step beyond changing to the new interface.

The expectation is that, while Outlook.com is very good at first glance, existing commitment to services like Gmail, Google Docs and the like may prove too sticky to lure users away full-time. Admittedly Microsoft’s platform has not shown its very best yet; there’s still Skype integration to come, after all, though it will have to compete with Gmail’s already-released Google+ Hangouts video chats which support group calls.

Gmail has the benefit of Android to help drive adoption; a Google account is pretty much mandatory if you want to get the best out an Android device. Microsoft’s own Windows Phone hasn’t reached the same tipping point to drive registrations to its services, though that could be swayed when Windows Phone 8 is released later this year.

1m initial sign-ups in less than a day of operation is admirable, but Outlook.com is only at the first step of a long road. Even Facebook, with its millions of members, had to resort to profile trickery to try to raise awareness of its own email system (though later argued that had been the work of a bug rather than an intentional push for Facebook Mail). It’s clear that 1m people probably won’t be using Outlook.com tomorrow; what remains to be seen is exactly how many can be kept enchanted weeks down the line, as Microsoft attempts to reboot its cloud services.

What will Outlook.com’s bounce rate be? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Outlook’s new web client launched today, and it’s pretty goddamn awesome. But many of us have invested years into Gmail and its many intricacies (or maybe Yahoo! or maybe Exchange!), which makes switching over all the more difficult. If you’re a browser-based email fiend, will you switch over? If not, what will it take to make you ditch your current mail service? 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.