Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft has introduced a great and much-needed new feature to their Hotmail email service. Starting from last week, Hotmail account users can create and manage a variety of multiple email addresses from a single Hotmail account, making it easy to use different email addresses while still enjoying all the benefits of Hotmail without changing your primary email address or Hotmail identity.

Much needed

The average person online manages around three different email addresses for different purposes, whether it is to organise different types of emails, keeping junk mail away from their primary email address, or to maintain different online personas.

With this in mind, it is a smart and pioneering move on Microsoft’s part to allow Hotmail users to create multiple email accounts, with different user names, passwords and inboxes, all managed from in one place.

Alternate addresses

Hotmail already has the option to allow you to simply add a plus sign (+) and an additional word to the first part of your email address, creating an alternate alias in the process and re-directing email sent to this address to either your inbox or to a separate folder.

The ‘+’ feature is still available, but the new alias option is more powerful. The new Hotmail alias feature lets you create an entirely new email address, allowing up to five aliases to be added to the Hotmail account per year, and up to fifteen in total.

Explained

Dharmesh Mehta, the Windows Live director, explains the practicality of this new feature:

‘Let’s say you’re in the market for a new car. There are a bunch of websites that will email you price quotes, sales alerts, etc. During your car search, these messages are helpful, but once you’re done, they become clutter that can be difficult to stop. By using an alias on these websites instead of your main email address, you can avoid this.’

Photo: Bobbie / Flickr

When email first began hitting mainstream, people thought it would change their lives. That we were right about. How it would change our lives we were disgustingly wrong about. Email has taken over many of our lives, with many of us baulking under the strain. Here are three tips for dealing with email overload.

Tip 1: Set mailing rules

Set up an auto-responder that says you only check emails twice daily, at specified times. This way you manage people’s expectations of a reply, as well as teach people to email everything they need to you in one mail, negating the unnecessary back-and-forth. This technique, which I learnt in the book The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris, is brilliant for coaching frequent mailers and even better for reducing email overload.

Tip 2: Separate reference devices

While smartphone-based email checking was a revolution – the BlackBerry was basically built on the premise of this feature – it’s also meant we’re never offline. Have multiple email addresses for different functions, and then only sync them with one device to negate this problem. What I do is have all my personal emails routed through my smartphone through a good IMAP client with push notifications turned off! I know, out of habit, to only check these when I’m doing things I can’t avoid – like loo breaks or waiting in a line to check out at the grocer and so-on.

Work emails go through my computer only – I don’t even have them synced to my smartphone – but even those get dealt with more efficiently with the technique outlined in Tip 1.

Tip 3: Shorten responses

Another brilliant technique is to limit your emails to five sentences – and this count includes the friendly ‘I’ll be in touch, [your name]’ message at the end of the mail. It means response times are reduced significantly and you can rush through your email overload. If you’re particularly bold, instruct email senders with your auto-responder to limit their mails to a max of five sentences to increase their chance of getting a reply promptly. Really. Just saying to them, ‘the more succinct the mail, the better I can deal with your problem’.

So that’s the gist of managing that painful email overload. Tip 1: coach people on when and how to mail you. Tip 2: separate personal email from private email by using different devices for each function. That way you also separate your work from your private life. Tip 3: Keep it succinct.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much faster you blitz through emails as a result of this.

If you still need more help, Zen Habits has some fantastic tips on dealing with email.

Photo: Google

If you logged into Gmail today, as millions of people do around the globe every day, you may have been surprised by the new, sleek interface. Though difficult to come to terms with initially, we quite like the refined update that not only adds visual improvements, but has a small handful of usage refinements, too.

Compose simpler

Outside of the fresh lick of paint and web 2.0 polish the first thing you’re likely to notice about the new Gmail is the bold ‘Compose mail’ button, replacing the previous link. This makes it far easier to find the button when you’re scrubbing through in a hurry, but in the short term, it has the adverse effect of making you ‘lose the button’ because habit dictates it should look slightly different.

Contacts revamped

The contacts section has seen by far the biggest update. The first thing is they work far more like mail does, so use should come naturally to those who’ve previously ignored the feature. In the new Gmail, you can customise the labels on your contacts, so you’re not limited to the default contact options you previously had, as well as sorting contacts by surname. You’d be best served to look through Google’s full changes update on its Gmail blog if you’re looking to take full advantage of the mostly aesthetic changes.

Android strategy

The search giant is crystal clear about Google Android being a distribution channel for deploying Google Apps and familiarizing people with Google’s service. Gmail, outside of search, is quickly becoming Google’s second most identifiable brand and this slick update brings the web interface in line with that found on the mobile phones. Hopefully the dedicated Gmail app will get a fresh paint job, too.

Sound off: do you like the new look Gmail or do you prefer the older?

Photo: IXQUICK / Flickr

NTP, the firm that sued RIM for patent infringement, winning $612.5 million in the process, has now sued six other mobile phones manufacturers, with the same patents as the RIM ones being central to the law suit.

RIM in 2006, everybody else in 2010

The companies listed in the lawsuit are Apple, Nokia, Google, HTC, LG and Motorola. ‘The patents in concern with this patent suit’, you ask? Oh, why something as ‘super-sophisticated’ as wireless email technology. Yes. Email. And what’s even more unsettling about the lawsuit is that the case against RIM was settled back in 2006! NTP has, effectively waited for four years before suing these other companies, either makers of mobile OS platforms or handset manufacturers.

No comment from anybody yet

The BBC reached out to all of the manufacturers listed in the suit, but manages to get no comment from any of the companies included in the patent suit. NTP was on hand for comment, of course. Though many of the patents were thrown out completely in the aftermath of RIM’s lawsuit, three were upheld and NTP’s president Don Stout will leverage these for all their worth. Speaking on behalf of NTP, he said ‘We hope we can resolve these cases without having to go to trial,’ he said. Patent trolls, indeed.

The seedy aspect of technology

Patent infringement claims have long been among the seediest, most acidic parts of technology, doing more damage than good. While these increasingly archaic rules were invented so as to protect organisations from being maliciously copied, various technology companies, namely patent trolls, have found loopholes wherein they enforce patent infringement claims out of opportunism. A patent suit stifles innovation and does more damage than it could ever do good.

But in a sense, what goes around comes around, huh? Earlier this year Apple sued HTC who, in turn, countersued Apple. Nokia sued Apple, who in turn sued Nokia. And it’s likely lawsuits will only ramp up as the stakes get higher and higher. In a sense, everyone listed could fall under the moniker ‘patent trolls’ for their ridiculous patent infringement claims.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

A recent survey has shown that when it comes to being nosy about their partners’ text lives, women are way ahead of men. They’re more likely than their spouses to read text messages and emails, and to check web browsing histories. The results of the study are apparently meant to suggest that women are just as tech-savvy as their husbands, but couldn’t it just show that they’re nosier – or that men are less likely to admit what they’re doing online?

It’s all in the numbers

The research, conducted by the London School of Economics at the University of Nottingham Trent, showed that 14 per cent of wives read their husbands’ emails, while only eight per cent of husbands looked through their wives’ emails. Thirteen per cent of wives read texts on their husbands’ mobiles and ten per cent checked their browsing history, while eight per cent of husbands did either of these things. The research sample was taken from a group of just under a thousand middle-aged couples.

So… what does it mean?

Photo: Stock.Xchng

The research is apparently meant to show that women are just as capable of using technology as their partners, but that reasoning seems a little faulty for a number of reasons. The first is that it’s really not that difficult to check the history on a browser, and if you can read your own text messages or emails, you can read someone else’s. The second is that it seems that whether you read your partner’s mail and messages has more to do with how nosy you are than anything else.

Not so different after all

Possibly the most interesting thing about the survey is that the statistics didn’t vary all that much between men and women – maybe the sexes are just about as nosy as each other. Either way, it seems that the best approach would be to stay out of your partner’s private mail – it’s been proven time and again that snooping can only end badly.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Twitter over email? That’s TweetyMail. No more going to a Twitter client. Just send an email and a list of new tweets from your followers will reach your inbox in a few minutes. If you want to tweet back, just send off another email. And if you want to follow someone, you can do it via email. That’s it – your tweeting experience, in full, over email. But how do you do it?

How does it work?

Everything you do on Twitter has a different email address on TweetyMail. Just link your email account to the service. All you have to do is verify your email address, and you’re set. Even better, you can use any, or all, of your email addresses.

Sign up for alerts

Photo: Twitter

You’ve got the option, with the service, to set up email alerts. Three types are supported: Tweets Alert (receive new tweets automatically), Search Alert (get the latest Tweets that match a search from across Twitter), and Mentions Alert, which will send you an email if someone on Twitter mentions you. All of this can be scheduled, too. For example, you could ask the service to send you updates in twenty minutes’ time, or schedule exactly when you would like a tweet to be posted.

@tweetymail email addresses

To post a tweet on TweetyMail, use the address tweet@tweetymail.com. For updates on the users you follow, use the address latest@tweetymail.com. To send an email directly to a user you follow, use the address message@tweetymail.com. Follow a user with follow@tweetymail.com. Block a user who is following you with block@tweetymail.com. To unfollow someone, send an email to unfollow@tweetymail.com. Finally, delete one of your tweets with delete@tweetymail.com.

There you have it. All of your tweeting via email, on your laptop or PC. For more details, see the TweetyMail website.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

An ‘independent’ investigation on the school spy laptop scandal in the Lower Meridian School District in the United States has found that there’s no evidence for the claim that schools were spying on students.

What happened?

The school spy case came to light when Blake Robbins, 15, filed a lawsuit against the school district for invading his privacy and spying on him, using webcams and laptops provided by the school. It was revealed that, in some of the photos taken, Blake was not always fully clothed when snapped.

No evidence. Really?

In spite of the findings of the investigation, 58,000 photos exist taken of school students on their laptops and computers are in existence. And to make matters worse, emails between IT personnel in the district have been found, commenting on the photos’ entertainment factor. The report from Ballard Spahr, a law firm, in all its 72 pages, argues that no one saw the majority of the photos, and the district simply didn’t implement correct record-keeping procedures. The law firm admits, though, that there’s no way to know how often the images were viewed.

An independent investigation?

Photo: Stock.Xchng

It’s interesting to note that Ballard Spar was actually hired by the school district. Then it’s not really surprising, is it, that the findings are in favour of the district? The firm still places responsibility for the affair mostly on IT staff, though, so not everyone gets away without blame.

IT staff ‘loved it’

Because there was very little record-keeping, and no official policies were in place, it’s difficult to find out exactly what happened, and who was involved. But one can’t claim that no IT staff saw the images, because two IT administrators were found on record talking about the photographs as email history was uncovered last month. One staffer, Carol Cafiero, has since been put on leave. She described the pictures as a ‘little soap opera’, and another member of staff responded, ‘I know. I love it!’

The school spy case is still unfolding.

Almost every computing enthusiast is aware of Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes. These two applications are the most popular e-mail clients of the world. Millions of PC users have been using these two applications for a very long time to access their e-mail. With the increase in the demand of smartphones and technological improvements it became crucial for IT giants to carve out their respective e-mail applications for the smartphones too. Presently MS Outlook is catering to a large number of smartphone users. It is responsible for the majority of e-mail business on PCs as well as smartphones. Nokia also has its own e-mail client for its smartphones and fully supports the MS Exchange via Active Sync, which has brought a revolution in handheld computing world.

But still the Lotus Notes users were deprived of e-mail applications in their smartphones. Around 140 million IBM Lotus Notes fans were unable to enjoy the application on their handheld computers. Therefore IBM and Nokia have teamed up and recently Nokia has announced that Lotus Notes users will be able to access their e-mail on the go on the Series 60 smartphones, like the Nokia E71, for example. According to Nokia, around 80 million S60 smartphones are being used right now around the world and thus IBM can make its mark in the market by launching Notes for the portable devices now.

Blackberry smartphones are often the preferred choice for those who believe in a stylish and powerful performance. Staying connected with your work is the need of the hour and Blackberry understands it well. The Blackberry 8800 provides you the option of being in touch with the world from wherever you are. With the device’s web browsing, emailing and instant messaging features, you can easily maintain the flow of your work.

To enhance the access for different location-based services, this smartphone incorporates a GPS along with the Maps application. Its 64 Mb of built-in memory can be further extended with the MicroSD memory slot, which allows you to store an immense amount of data. Then there is the integrated music player that lets you listen to your favourite music through the stereo headset. The high-capacity battery is again a valuable feature that lets you make the most out of your phone.

The Blackberry 8800 is also excellent for fulfilling your information needs. The browser, organiser and corporate data access allow you to find the required information with much ease and speed. The sleek design is stylish and attractive, which perfectly suits the Blackberry 8800’s high-resolution screen. To stay a step ahead, the smartphone also allows you to connect with your work through the Blackberry Enterprise Solution. This maintains the workflow while maintaining security for company information.

The Blackberry 8800 is clearly the smart way for getting your tasks done in a stylish manner with performance driven by Blackberry.

The Nokia E61 is attaining countless fans with its flamboyant style, spectacular appearance and convincing attributes. After dispatching several super duper hit products, Nokia is certainly unstoppable, and the undeniable giant of the mobile phone world. The latest Nokia product to capture headlines is none other than the Nokia E61.

Those who have a keen interest in smart gadgets will likely already be familiar with the Nokia E6 and maybe some of its features as well. In terms of appearance, the wedge shaped Nokia E61 resembles Blackberry gadgets with its broad and wedge construction. The smartphone is accompanied by a handy QWERTY keyboard, as well as a gorgeous 320 x 240 pixel colour screen.

The mobile phone’s structure is intelligently designed in a user friendly manner. For instance, a joystick is located immediately below the screen for easier navigation. Meanwhile, above the screen sits the power key and an incoming E-mail alert light. On the left side of the volume controls is the speaker grille and the third key is for activating the voice recorder. The back panel part slides off exposing the battery compartment, SIM slot and handset’s memory card bay. While beginning with Nokia E61 a new SIM forces it to determine the network to be used and then install data connection codes accordingly.

Unfortunately, the camera does come with one major catch, in that it lacks a camera. Despite its other advanced features, the absence of the camera will hurts the Nokia E61’s competitive power, especially with other smartphones.