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Aug 02

Head of Roman Catholic Church in England warns against the dangers of SMS, email, and social networking

In case you haven’t been apprised of the situation, your addiction to texting and email is ruining your relationship… with god. According to Vincent Nichols, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, modern friendships built around (or involving) heavy SMS volley, electronic mail correspondences, and social networking sites create “transient relationships” which put users at the risk of suicide. Yes, suicide. According to the British man of the cloth, using electronic communication to build friendships is causing humanity to lose “the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together.” Sure, it may sound like heavy FUD talk, but there is sense in some of his points. For instance, the Archbishop of Westminster believes that social networking sites encourage people to concentrate on their number of friends rather than build actual relationships, and they tend to view that number as a commodity. Anyone who’s seen the growth of Facebook and MySpace shouldn’t have trouble making that connection, but when it comes to SMS and email, your friendship has likely moved on, and lumping that kind of one-to-one communication in with the broad relationships of social networking sites seems like an unfair characterization. We put the question to our typically calm and even-keeled commenter community — are we doomed, or what?

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet

Head of Roman Catholic Church in England warns against the dangers of SMS, email, and social networking originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 28

What is Bacn?

Posted in: Email, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 27, 2007 by CyberNet.

I learned a new term over the weekend, and it’s called Bacn! What is Bacn? No, it’s not the delectable bacon that you eat for breakfast, instead it’s the new term for emails that are a cross between spam and personal mail. Here’s a message regarding Bacn from the people who coined the new word:

Bacn is a new problem now plaguing our email inboxes. Putting it simply, Bacn is email you receive that isn’t spam… And isn’t personal mail. It’s the middle class of email. It’s notifications of a new post to your Facebook wall or a new follower on Twitter. It’s the Google alert for your name and the newsletter from your favorite company.
We are a group of like-minded individuals who have realized the problem of bacn, and are out to find a solution. You can now join the discussion in our forum and help us further define bacn as we begin our efforts to manage our bacn. Bacn was first used during an impromptu discussion about email and spam during Podcamp Pittsburgh.

The slogan for Bacn might give you some more insight as to what it actually is: "Email you want, but not right now." I agree that this really is a problem, and the closest thing I’ve found for solving this problem is to use Gmail filters. Even still there has got to be a better way to manage it, and I’ve come up with one solution thus far.

–A Possible Solution–

A pattern that I’ve noticed between all of my Bacn is that all I really care about is the subject line and possibly one hyperlink inside of the body. For example, I’ll see a notification of a new message popup on my computer when I receive an email, and if it’s Bacn I often know what the contents of the email are without even opening it.

For that reason there has got to be a way to display Bacn in a more condensed fashion. Maybe within a sidebar in your email account that shows recent "headlines" from addresses you’ve tagged as Bacn? And then you can select what the headlines hyperlink to, such as the third hyperlink in the message. Because let’s face it…most Bacn only has one hyperlink that is important to us and it’s typically in the same position every time (thanks to the use of email templates).

–My Bacn–

I thought it would be fun if we all shared the various types of Bacn that we get. I receive about a dozen or so Bacn messages per day, and they are often from the following list:

Pownce notifications
Twitter notifications
Facebook notifications
Signup confirmations
Welcome to…
Bank alerts
eBay notifications
Status reports
Newsletters
Google Blog Search alerts
SlickDeals alerts

So hit us up in the comments with how much and what type of Bacn you receive!

Source: Boing Boing

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CyberNotes: Using Gmail Filters

Jul 17

Peek cuts Peek Classic, Peek Pronto prices to $19.95 and $59.95

Posted in: Email, Today's Chili

Peek’s already offered lifetime subscriptions and all sorts of other incentives in the hope of wooing folks away from more expensive smartphones, and it looks like the company’s now giving good old fashioned price cuts a(nother) try. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the basic Peek Classic has been slashed to just $19.95, down from the original $99.95 (or $49.95 more recently), while the Peek Pronto, which adds push email and Exchange support (among other features), will now run you $59.95 instead of the $79.95 it demanded when it launched just back in March. Service, however, remains at the same $20 per month as before.

Filed under: Handhelds

Peek cuts Peek Classic, Peek Pronto prices to $19.95 and $59.95 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 06

Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerry now in beta testing

Posted in: BlackBerry, Email, Gmail, RIM, Today's Chili

It’s no secret that using Gmail on a BlackBerry is a painful experience — since the built-in mail client has shamefully broken IMAP support, your only real choice is a variant of the same Java-based Gmail app that runs on ancient featurephones, and that rules out direct integration with either contacts or attachments. Yeah, it’s sad, but hope is in the air, as RIM’s apparently beta testing something called the “Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerry,” which promises to bring things up to speed. Features are said to include Conversation View, support for labels, stars, and archiving, and full mailbox search — you know, Gmail. Of course, it would be even nicer if RIM would just sack up and bring proper IMAP support to the most famous messaging platform in the world, but we’ll take what we can get.

[Via BerryReview]

Filed under: Cellphones

Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerry now in beta testing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 01

Frustratingly long secret code enables totally useful landscape email on Pre

Posted in: Email, hack, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Today's Chili, webos

It’s one thing to bury something like developer mode — a mode that the average Pre user will never need — behind a cute-but-exhausting throwback Konami code, but it’s quite another to hide useful stuff that way. A PreCentral tipster discovered that entering “RocknRollHax” on the keyboard (and yes, capitalization is important here) while in the email app enables the previously missing capability to use it in landscape mode; presumably Palm hid it from end users because they thought it was too buggy or weird for mainstream use, but it certainly works alright for us. Worst part is that the code needs to be re-entered each and every time the email app starts, so you’d better really want it — but at least you don’t have to root to get it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Frustratingly long secret code enables totally useful landscape email on Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 17

Digsby: A Nice Cross-Network Messenger

Posted in: Email, Features, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, twitter, Yahoo

This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ve been meaning to give Digsby a spin ever since the public Beta was released about two weeks ago. It looked like it was a well designed cross-network (and cross-platform) instant messenger, and it offered quite a few features that no other instant messengers have touched on before. And after having used it for only about 30 minutes I think I may have found myself a new messenger. In case you’re wondering it is free!

As you would expect with a cross-network messenger this one supports all of the major networks, just like the open-source Pidgin does. In addition to those you can also add some social networks like Twitter or Facebook where you can change your status from within Digsby. Still not impressed? Here’s a list of some of my favorite features it has:

AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber messenger account support
Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook support
Check Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail. AOL, IMAP, or POP accounts for new mail
Reply to instant messages directly from the popup notifications
Tabbed conversations
Audio/video chatting provided by TokBox
Inline spell checking
Update your status with the music you’re currently listening to
Complete synchronization across computers (including everything from skins to status messages you create)

One of the coolest features has got to be the fact that you can reply to messages from within the notification window that pops up. I mean really, that is pure genius right there. No more having to switch back to the chat window just to send a quick reply! What a huge time saver.

It’s also been difficult for me to find a good application or messenger that can support checking multiple email accounts, and also provide decent notifications when the new mail arrives. That’s one of the reasons I’ve really grown keen to Digsby. Not to mention that the interface is very easy on the eyes:

digsby

If you haven’t been content with your instant messenger then I recommend checking out Digsby. It’s completely free, and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.

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Jun 15

How Have Your Email Habits Changed Over Time?

Posted in: Email, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on October 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Yahoo Mail is celebrating their 10th birthday this month! They’ve been around for a decade, and between now and then, our email habits sure have changed. Yahoo’s mail service originally started due to the acquisition of RocketMail. They were watching Hotmail sweep up thousands of users everyday, and knew they didn’t have the time to create their own platform. Shortly after the acquisition of RocketMail, Yahoo! Mail launched. Back when the service first launched, each user was allowed just 3 megabytes of storage. These days, email has become a primary way that many of us share photos with friends and family, and those photo attachments are much larger than what the total inbox storage limit was just a few years ago. With Yahoo celebrating their 10th birthday, we thought it was a perfect time to take a look at how our email habits have changed over time.

Yahoo has put together a survey which takes a look at our changing email habits. Among the questions that they asked was “If you were stranded on a desert island and could have only one of the following, what would you choose? The options were chocolate, photo album, email, MP3 player, sunscreen. Most people will likely choose email. Why? Because that’s how many of us communicate with friends and family on a regular basis. Back in 1999, Americans were sending 2.1 billion emails every day. Today that number is up to 196 billion emails per day! It’s clear that we rely much more on email now than we ever did 10 years ago.

What we use email for is also changing. Before, it was primarily used just to email a friend to determine where to meet or to say hi. Now we send emails to companies for technical support, and we receive order confirmations for items purchased online. Instead of making a phone call to ask a question to someone, we send an email. Instead of mailing off a letter to family or friends that live farther away, we email. Given the choice, many of us prefer to send an email to someone instead of making a call.

Besides the fact that email habits have changed over the last several years, the mail services themselves have had to make a lot of changes to “keep up.” Yahoo points out that back when they first launched email, users had the choice of having their email address displayed in a public directory and most people opted in. Now none of us would ever think to post our address in a public directory for fear of getting spammed. Spam accounts for more than 70% of all email sent these days! Along the same lines is Phishing emails. Phishing has become more prominent and so mail services have had to take extra steps to prevent those emails from reaching the inboxes of their users.

I can only imagine what the state of email will be like in another 10 years from now! It continues to change and evolve, and 10 years from now, we may not even have email! How have your emailing habits changed over time?

Happy 10th birthday Yahoo! Mail!

Source: Yodel Anecdotal

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Jun 03

Use Yahoo! Mail or Gmail to Email Files Photos

Posted in: Email, Freeware, Gmail, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Yahoo

This article was written on July 07, 2008 by CyberNet.

Windows only
A few weeks ago I received an email from the developer of a Windows application called gAttach, and it looked pretty cool. At the time, however, the program was new and I wanted to give it some time to mature before I gave it a whirl. Since then it has had a handful of updates, and it is on its way to becoming a handy little program.

What is gAttach? It makes it possible to email attachments right from your Windows desktop using your Gmail or Google Apps email account. You can right-click on a file in Windows Explorer, click on email links in your browser, use the email option in Windows Live Photo Gallery, and much more for sending files through Gmail. It basically acts as your default desktop email client.

One of the nice things with this is that it can even handle multiple attachments, which means adding a dozen or so different files to an email isn’t such a pain anymore. Your attachments still have to be under the 20MB limit that Gmail imposes, but you can send quite a bit in that size. After it is done attaching the files all you’ll have to do is check the “Drafts” section in your Gmail account to finish sending it.

There are some downsides to the program though. The biggest one is probably that it uses Internet Explorer to log you in. If you’re not logged in Internet Explorer it will prompt you to do so, and sometimes it would tell me that I needed to login even after I already did. Plus there is no way to rapidly switch between multiple accounts. Hopefully we’ll see these things fixed for a future version.

Are you a Yahoo! Mail user? No problem. The developer has also created a version of the applications that works with Yahoo! Mail dubbed yAttach.

Get gAttach (for Gmail) or yAttach (for Yahoo! Mail)
[via FreewareGenius & Lifehacker]

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May 25

Helpful Tip: Backup Apple Mail or Entourage

Posted in: Email, Freeware, Mac, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 22, 2008 by CyberNet.

Mac only
We’ve already shown how to backup data from email programs on Windows, and so we thought it was only fair to do the same for Mac users. Using a free tool cleverly named Email Backup you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that you have a backup of your Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora, or Thunderbird data. For those of you who have suffered the heartache of data loss you know just how valuable a backup like this can be.

Email Backup is really nothing fancy because all it does is copy the data and configuration files for the various applications into the location you specify. To restore the data from a backup you’ll have to manually copy it back into the respective directory, which for Apple Mail is /Users/USERNAME/Library/Mail/.

The one nice thing about this is that you can schedule a backup to occur at any time and on any day. You can additionally choose where you want the backups to be stored:

mac email backup-1.png

While it’s nothing too fancy this application can really come through in a bind. Once you have it setup you don’t really have to worry about anything else. And hopefully in a future version the developer will include a way to restore a backup from within the application.

Get Email Backup

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May 16

Helpful Tip: How to Report a Phishing Email

Posted in: Email, Gmail, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on November 24, 2007 by CyberNet.

It seems like I’ve been getting an unusually large number of phishing emails lately, and I’ve began wondering whether everyone realizes how they can report phishing emails with their email provider. This article will highlight what phishing is, and why/how to properly report it.

What is a phishing email? I thought Wikipedia did a pretty good job of describing it:

Phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.

A lot of people confuse these messages with spam, and when I asked a few people whether they report the phishing emails they all said yes. When I showed them how to do it the general response was “ohhhhh.” It turns out that all of them, some of which were computer savvy, just report these emails as spam without realizing that there are separate options for reporting phishing.

The reason why it is important to correctly report phishing emails is that warnings messages are more prominently displayed for other users. This is what a phishing email looks like in Gmail:

Gmail Phishing Warning

Now that you know what phishing is and why to properly report it, lets take a look at how you go about doing so in Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Windows Live Hotmail.

–Gmail–

Gmail is pretty easy because you just have to use the drop-down arrow located in the upper-right corner of each message. When you click it there will be an option labeled Report Phishing towards the end of the list:

Gmail Report Phishing

–Yahoo! Mail–

Unfortunately Yahoo! Mail doesn’t have a built-in feature for reporting phishing emails, but they recommend that you forward the email in question to phishing@cc.yahoo-inc.com so that it can be analyzed. You can also report the phishing website to Yahoo! using this form.

–Windows Live Hotmail–

When you click on the Junk option in Windows Live Hotmail there will be a Report phishing scam option located at the bottom of the list:

Windows Live Report Phishing

Related Posts:

Hasta La Gadget!

Head of Roman Catholic Church in England warns against the dangers of SMS, email, and social networking

What is Bacn?

Peek cuts Peek Classic, Peek Pronto prices to $19.95 and $59.95

Enhanced Gmail Plug-in for BlackBerry now in beta testing

Frustratingly long secret code enables totally useful landscape email on Pre

Digsby: A Nice Cross-Network Messenger

How Have Your Email Habits Changed Over Time?

Use Yahoo! Mail or Gmail to Email Files Photos

Helpful Tip: Backup Apple Mail or Entourage