Hasta La Gadget!

Hotmail’s spent the past few years playing catch up with the competition, but for the most part, it hasn’t done anything particularly groundbreaking with its services. Earth shattering might not be the appropriate descriptor for its latest addition, but Hotmail’s added a helpful new feature to distinguish plain old spam from the kind that comes form a trusted source. Now, when you get an email from a friend that smells of something sea dwelling — say a plea for some extra scratch from abroad — you can select “My friend’s been hacked!” from the “Mark as” menu, alerting the powers that be that your friend’s account has been hacked. When you mark a missive as junk, you can likewise click a box that reads: “I think this person was hacked!” Once that’s done, the spammers are kicked to the curb, and your friend is put through an “account recovery flow” the next time they attempt to log in. On the prevention front, Hotmail will soon roll out a new service that blocks users from selecting common passwords. It might not be enough to coax us over, but maybe this time the other guys could learn a few lessons.

Hotmail adds ‘My friend’s been hacked!’ feature to finger phishers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jul 2011 10:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Companies snatching up domain names to protect their brand is nothing new, nor is it particularly interesting (unless that company happens to be Bank of America, and the domain in question is BrianMoynihanSucks.com). But, a recent a pair of recent registrations by Microsoft has piqued our curiosity. The folks at Redmond picked up both Microsoft-Sony.com and Sony-Microsoft.com, which has spurred speculation that everything from a Sony-Ericsson WP7 handset to a PlayBox 720 is on its way. The move is worth noting if only because the company doesn’t own similar domains, like LG-Microsoft.com or HTC-Microsoft.com. Of course, it could be something as mundane as a joint marketing campaign for Sony laptops or nothing at all — we’ll just have to wait and see.

[Thanks, Joonas]

Microsoft snatches up a pair of Sony related domains, internet runs amok with rumors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another year, another Imagine Cup. The annual competition, sponsored by Microsoft, gives students the opportunity to apply technology to tackle hunger, poverty, and other global problems, thereby making the world a better place (for you and for me, and the entire human race). We’d say the finalists deserve a pretty cool reward for their efforts, right? According to a status update on the Cup’s Twitter account — an update that’s conspicuously been pulled — one of the prizes for finalists is a Windows Phone with Mango pre-loaded, a jackpot they’d receive by September. We’re not completely certain if this will be a pre-release version intended for developers or if it’s an indication that the final iteration will be ready for public use by this time; we’ve only heard that Mango’s slotted for a fall release, so both are definite possibilities. Since many of these students are developers, however, it’s entirely possible they’ll receive a prototype device with an early version of the firmware. No phone could replace the warm feelings in their heart for such a great accomplishment, but at least they can share their joy with built-in Twitter integration.

Microsoft promises Mango phones in September for Imagine Cup finalists originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft has seen the future of personal computing, and it’s a world with a single Windows ecosystem. Windows Phone head honcho Andy Lees — who said that we won’t be seeing WP7 on tablets during Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference yesterday — still sees slates, phones, consoles, and PCs playing together in perfect harmony. His plan is to provide users with a consistent experience across all Microsoft-powered devices, though he didn’t flesh out exactly how this singular ecosystem will work. Given recent evidence indicating Xbox integration in Windows 8 and the UI similarities between the forthcoming desktop OS and WP7, it seems that Microsoft is well on its way to a consolidated future. But, only time will tell if Mr. Lees’ can deliver us from fragmentation with a unified Windows.

Microsoft’s Andy Lees on Windows’ future: one ecosystem to rule them all originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s Andy Lees quashed dreams of Windows tablets running a Mango-style OS during a talk at the company’s Worldwide Partners Conference today, saying the mobile operating system would conflict with the outfit’s ideas of what makes a slate. According to Electronista, Lees said the computing giant sees tablets as PCs, making the mobile OS incompatible with its vision. He went on to say that Windows 8’s networking and printing functions make it more suited to the needs of tablet users. So, if you’re looking for the sweet style of Mango, it looks like you’ll have get your hands on one of these bad boys.

Andy Lees says no to Mango on Windows tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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