Posted by Angela | 0 Comments
Hotmail’s Search for the Fountain of Youth
The Fountain of Youth may be an appealing fantasy for a woman on the verge of a mid-life crisis but not really to big time Microsoft. Well Hotmail seems to be reaching the mid-life crisis of email and Microsoft plans to boost its spirits and morale with some improvements.
Even though Hotmail is still the number one email provider worldwide with about 360 million users, sitting in second place behind Yahoo in the US keeps them searching for advancements. Also, right on their tail is Google’s Gmail (third nationally), which is the fastest growing of the top three email providers. Fifteen-year-old Hotmail may be taking steps to give itself a little face-lift.
Not only will the face of Hotmail change, but the bulk of the improvements will be made to the organization of emails and features in the inbox. An idea that seems to be popping up everywhere will be available in the Hotmail inbox shortly… Status updates to all your major networking sites will be available from the inbox in one fell swoop. The organizational aspect of the new Hotmail will automatically sort like emails into their own folders. For example, emails from one contact in one folder, emails containing pictures in another, annoying emails of Facebook notifications in a separate one, etc. Hotmail will also have the smarts to decide what contacts you have generally trashed in the past and will go ahead and move all past and future emails from such users to the trash (of course it also allows an opportunity to avoid such a permanent doom for this contact). Microsoft calls this inbox cleaning “sweeping.”
To win over the trust of some ex-users, Microsoft says they are getting much better identifying phishing scams and will be offering an HTTPS setting for email if desired. Wired shows some pretty cool picturesof the new Hotmail layout when viewing an email full of pictures. When you open an email full of pictures, they are seen in rows across the email all ready to display a lovely slide show at the click of the play button. Any office documents will be able to be opened in an online Microsoft Office directly in the inbox, like excel sheets, word documents, power points, etc. The Wired article shows a good picture of this inside a browser.
After all these predicted changes are made, the Hotmail name might gain a little respect from competitive Gmail and Yahoo users.
Read MorePosted by Angela | 0 Comments
Microsoft’s Next Internet Explorer
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been a leader in web browsers for years. Before Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer was the running force behind the largest source of information that is the Internet. With each generation becoming more and more dependant on the Internet, Microsoft tries to stay ahead of the crowd, anticipating what users will need next.
Back in November, it was suspected that Microsoft’s next Internet Explorer, IE9, would have HTML5 support, allow faster JavaScript, and provide hardware acceleration. This just means that it will be better and faster than IE7 or IE8.
Now, Internet Explorer 9 has been revealed at Microsoft’s MIX 10. The MIX 10 is a three-day conference for web experts looking for the newest and coolest website developments. With today being its last day, the MIX 10 has brought to light Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9. At the conference, Microsoft confirmed the rumors that IE9 will support HTML5, and have faster JavaScript and browsing capabilities. They also told developers that the updated browser would not be available for anyone out there who still has Windows XP.
You can try out the preview version of Internet Explorer 9 here if you are interested.
Read MorePosted by Angela | 0 Comments
Firefox 3.5 Pulls Ahead of IE7
The browser world is a continuous battle for the top spot. And Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has always been the leader. However, according to StatCounter, Internet Explorer has been beat out by Firefox 3.5 for the month of December!
You can see the actual data in the picture above and if you look closely you’ll see that (yellow) Firefox 3.5 is above (blue) Internet Explorer 7.0 (click on the picture to see a larger version). The two browsers following IE7 are also Internet Explorer (IE8 and IE6), so overall Internet Explorer is still above Firefox by a land slide, but the fact that Firefox 3.5 is more popular than Microsoft’s largest browser, IE7, is definitely worth recognizing.
The rest of the standings are pretty much expected. Overall, the order is Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. But the fact that, individually speaking, Firefox 3.5 has the momentum to push IE7 out of the top standing shows how 2009 has been an excellent year for Mozilla.
Read MorePosted by Angela | 0 Comments
Tomorrow’s the Day!
October 22, 2009. Not an important holiday or Presidential birthday, but it is the release of Windows 7! I know you’re excited and have been waiting for this day since its release to manufacturing this summer.
If you need more information on how to install, upgrade, or have compatibility questions, there are some new tools available on the Windows website to help with these specific needs. If you have Windows Vista on a qualifying PC, Microsoft is offering a free upgrade to Windows 7. The qualifying PCs include Dell, Samsung, Sony, Gateway, and many others. You can find the complete list here.
So go out and celebrate! An OS much better than Vista is almost here!
Read MorePosted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments
Texas Judge Orders Microsoft To Stop Selling Word
Wow. A judge in Texas has ruled that Microsoft is infringing on another company’s patent and that, as a result, they’re not allowed to sell Microsoft Word anymore. i4i is the name of a company that holds the patent in question, and the court case hinges on Microsoft’s customization of the XML coding language.
The company has been given 60 days to comply with this ruling, which also carries the additional penalty of a $40 Million fine. Ouch.
Like most surprising court rulings… this one will be appealed. Besides, it’s not likely that Microsoft would start giving Word away for free, even if the ruling stuck. It’s much more likely that they would simply develop a new way to code the program that doesn’t infringe on i4i’s copyright.
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