Hasta La Gadget!

E-mail isn’t typically known for generating the kind of rabid adoption that you see with, say, smartphones. Microsoft, then, may have some room to brag when Outlook.com produces similar numbers. Tucked in amidst news of the finished SkyDrive app remake is word that the new webmail service already has 10 million members in its first two weeks of action. That’s fast when you put it in the context of Gmail’s slow but steady growth, although the boasting doesn’t tell the whole story. As many with Hotmail spam addresses can attest, there’s a difference between signing up and becoming an active user. We wouldn’t be shocked if some of that 10 million was part of an early gold rush for the best names — no one wants to be stuck with janesmith197904, after all.

Filed under: Internet

Outlook.com hits 10 million users in just two weeks, gives webmail a kickstart originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Inside SkyDrive  | Email this | Comments

Huawei had said it would deliver the Ascend Q in August, and it didn’t waste a moment — Cricket is selling the Android 2.3 messager as of today for $140 on its prepaid smartphone plans. While the OS, 800MHz processor, 3.2-inch display and fixed-focus 3.2-megapixel camera won’t knock any socks off, we found the Ascend Q a solid phone for compulsive chatters when we tried it last month. There’s also a 4GB microSD card in the box to get the ball rolling. One minor surprise: Muve Music is getting a minor boost through DTS audio processing that reportedly fills out the sound. As long as there’s no expectations of a media extravaganza, Huawei’s new hardware could be one of the better bargains in Cricket’s stable.

Filed under: Cellphones

Cricket ships Huawei Ascend Q, offers Android chatting for $140 prepaid originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Cricket  | Email this | Comments

No need to rush off to reset your router: Google Talk is indeed down. The vast majority of users are seeing downtime with Google’s chat service, although the cause of the outage hasn’t yet been determined, and Google isn’t sure when everything will be fixed either. Taking to its status page, Google recognizes that there is a “problem with Google Talk affecting a majority of users.” Users can apparently periodically access the service, but occasionally get error messages and failed message attempts.

Google Talk has been down for most of the morning, and it looks to be an extended outage given Google’s service updates. The company is actively looking into the issue, with its most recent update reading, “We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update … detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.” The next service update is scheduled to come in the next half hour.

In the meantime, keep checking Google’s status page, and rest easy in the knowledge that there’s a whole wealth of other messaging options available to help you keep in touch. Heck, you could even break the habit and spring for one of those old fashioned phone calls. We’ll update this article as more information becomes available about the outage.

UPDATE: Google is still trying to get to the bottom of things: “Our team is continuing to investigate this issue.” Another update will come in an hour.

UPDATE II: Google says that Talk has been “restored for some users,” and that everyone else should be good to go “in the near future.”

UPDATE III: Everything should be back to normal: “The problem with Google Talk should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.”

It’s not just you: Google Talk is down (UPDATE: And we’re back!) is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ever get the shakes sending out an angry text message? You’d better be careful if you buy a BlackBerry in the future, as RIM is trying for a patent that would telegraph all that wrath to the recipient on the other end. The technique uses a myriad of sensors, like an accelerometer, front camera or pressure sensor, to gauge just how emotional a smartphone owner might be and convey that through livelier messaging styles. Get flustered and that BlackBerry Messenger font gets big, bold and red; mellow out with a smile, and the conversation text becomes almost cuddly. Whether or not the patent is granted, let alone used, is very much an unknown. We have a hunch that RIM would rather not make BlackBerry users keep a poker face.

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM applies for patent on detecting emotion in messaging, wants you chilled while you BBM originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  USPTO  | Email this | Comments

Secure messaging outfit TigerText has mixed its sauce with Dropbox’s API to make a private communications goulash that could spell doom for the humble bicycle courier. The technological team-up enables users to share documents with a pre-set lifespan and recall an attachment if you really didn’t mean to send your boss so many cat pictures. Thanks to its HIPAA-compliant encryption, the documents you push around cannot be downloaded, copied or forwarded, making it ideal for law firms, medical agencies and movie studios that currently blow thousands of dollars on using messengers to take secret stuff ’round town.

Filed under: Internet, Software

TigerText adds secure messaging to Dropbox in bid to rid the world of bicycle couriers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  TigerText  | Email this | Comments