Hasta La Gadget!

Google may focus much of its attention on smartphones, but it knows that featurephone owners deserve a good online experience as well. Accordingly, it just launched a revamped Gmail web app for devices where modern browsers and touchscreens aren’t guaranteed. The new client requires fewer button presses to read and write messages; users can reply to email directly from the thread view, for example. While the need for basic webmail is disappearing as smartphones get ever cheaper, those who need (or prefer) a simple cellphone can try the new Gmail page today.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google

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Source: Official Gmail Blog

Between constant password breaches and the NSA looking in on everything you do, you’ve probably got privacy on the mind lately. If you’re looking for a little personal privacy in your communications with friends and loved ones, or you just want to trust that the documents you email to your accountant or client aren’t being intercepted and read, you’ll need to encrypt those messages. Thankfully, it’s easy to do. Here’s how.

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Microsoft launched Outlook.com as much to lure Gmail users as to cast off some of its Hotmail baggage, and there’s signs the strategies might be working. About 25 million are frequently using Outlook.com four months into its fledgling existence, with a third of total users being curious Gmail fans; neither figure will challenge the webmail status quo, but they reflect how far the service has come since the 10 million of the first two weeks. The company is marking the occasion with faster archiving, more shortcuts and more color themes in the web client. For some, though, the real reason to celebrate may be a dedicated Outlook.com app for Android. While it’s not revolutionary (there’s clear traces of the Hotmail app), it provides an avenue for Exchange-based messaging on a platform where access still isn’t guaranteed. We’re not expecting legions to switch to Outlook.com just for these updates, especially not among an Android contingent that has Gmail almost as a matter of course; Microsoft might not mind if the upgrades at least keep existing converts from drifting back.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Microsoft

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Source: Google Play, Outlook Blog

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.

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Google Talk and Twitter had their moments last week, and now it’s Yahoo’s turn. As noted by a flood of readers — and confirmed by the company itself — the exclamation marked mail service is currently experiencing some issues. Yahoo Mail is prompting users to accept its terms and then just sort of conking out. We reached out to Yahoo for comment and received the following response:

Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and other areas of Yahoo! may currently be inaccessible or slow to respond to some users in certain locations. We are working to correct the issue and restore all functionality immediately. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who might be affected.

We’ll update you when things are back to normal.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Phew, everything seems to be back in working order.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Yahoo confirms Mail / Messenger outage, working on a fix originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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