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Email inventor Ray Tomlinson dies
It's a sad day for the Internet: Ray Tomlinson, widely credited with inventing email as we know it, has died from a suspected heart attack at 74. In 1971, he established the first networked email system on ARPANET (the internet's ancestor), using the familiar user@host format that's still in use today. It wasn't until 1977 that his approach became a standard, and years more before it emerged victorious, but it's safe to say that communication hasn't been the same ever since. When's the last time you sent a physical letter?
Gmail for iOS now takes full advantage of your iPhone 6
You haven't had many options for checking Gmail on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus so far. Unless you're happy with Apple's stock email client, you've typically had to use blown-up versions of earlier apps. You won't have to face that dilemma any more, though; Google has released an update to its Gmail app for iOS that does justice to the higher display resolutions on new iPhones. It's a simple change, but it means that you can see more messages at once (and more of those messages) without sacrificing native Gmail features like labels and stars. Swing by the App Store if you've been jonesing for this upgrade over the past few weeks.
Tocomail for Gmail puts parents in control of teens' email
Tocomail for Gmail is a kid-friendly Gmail client designed specifically to make emailing a simpler and safer experience so that parents don't have to worry. The vibrant, colorful UI and fun tools is sure to grab the attention of young ones while the robust control over who they can communicate with is sure to give parents peace of mind. The app is free and includes in-app purchases. Of course, using Tocomail requires a Google account with an active Gmail account attached to it. When you're logged in, your first impression is probably that the app looks incredibly childish. However given its target demographic, that's a compliment. If you search Tocomail in the App Store, you may notice a very similar app is available: Tocomail - Safe Email for Kids. What's the difference? Apparently, that app is actually for even younger kids, while Tocomail for Gmail is geared more toward older kids and teenagers. It's probably a bit unnecessary for teenagers, so I imagine the differences between the two are comparable to a kids' meal and a big kids' meal at a fast food restaurant. The color scheme of the inbox (and the entire app) is a mix of bright blue and to my mediocre eye either a yellow or very light green. Emails are organized reverse chronologically and categorized as such. Everything about Tocomail is dead simple to use. The button on the top right composes a new message and the top left opens all your contacts listed on the left as well as additional app settings - more on that later. The Compose window features a To line, Subject line and text box to type your message and nothing more. The paper clip icon that usually attaches a file instead can add a photo from your camera or gallery, but the app also has a built-in drawing feature with an extensive range of tools and colors for kids to get creative drawing a picture to attach to an email. Where parents get control is in the Settings. Here is a mail lock to restrict access to email using a 4-digit PIN that either parents or children choose to set, or more importantly is the Parents Settings section. This is where the app enables Safe, General and Blocked contact lists. It also adds a Quarantine box to the app where Tocomail places potentially unsafe emails for approval or rejection. These controls come at a cost though and it's unfortunately not a small one. The Parents Settings is available through the app as an in-app purchase for US$9.99. Yes, ten bucks to keep those pesky teens of yours in line online. Tocomail for Gmail is a smooth app with good performance, a user friendly design and a decent set of features to ensure that email use among kids and teens doesn't get out of hand. My problem with it though is that it really shouldn't be aiming at teens. Teenagers, generally kids with ages ranging from 13 to 17, don't want to feel like children that can't maintain a credible online presence. The bright blues and yellows in Tocomail and the strict control over email doesn't seem appropriate for kids in high school and very shortly starting college. It's babyish. Besides, email isn't hip anymore anyway; monitoring your teen's social network profiles is probably more beneficial. Despite all this, if Tocomail for Gmail's motives match yours, it does work well and is worth a download for either iPhone or iPad.
Daimler's solution for annoying out-of-office email: delete it
Sure, you can set an out-of-office auto-reply to let others know they shouldn't email you, but that doesn't usually stop the messages; you may still have to handle those urgent-but-not-really requests while you're on vacation. That's not a problem if you work at Daimler, though. The German automaker recently installed software that not only auto-replies to email sent while staff is away, but deletes it outright. If there's a meltdown at the workplace, you may not have to deal with it at all. The move affects about 100,000 employees, so it's clearly going to make an impact.
Gmail lets you easily unsubscribe to the newsletters you don't read
If you've been on the internet long enough, there's a good chance that you're on a few mailing lists that you never read; it's usually easier to just delete the messages than unsubscribe. You don't have to put up with those forum summaries and sales offers any longer, though. After a quiet rollout, Google has officially launched an "Unsubscribe" button in Gmail's web interface. If there's an unsubscribe link buried in a message, the option will automatically pop up next to the sender's address -- click it and the clutter should disappear from your inbox once and for all. This likely won't help with those spam-happy types that make it intentionally difficult to unsubscribe, but it could still let you focus on the email you (hopefully) care about.
Outlook.com now lets you create extra-specific email rules
If you're an email power user, you frequently know what to do with messages as soon as they hit your inbox -- even if it's just to avoid dealing with them until later. Microsoft is more than happy to accommodate your exacting requirements, as it just began rolling out a big Outlook.com update that allows for particularly complex email rules. You can now perform automatic actions based on time limits, the read state, email tallies and the familiarity of a contact. If you haven't read a friend's message for a day, for example, you can mark it as important so that it doesn't get buried.
PGP inventor doesn't use PGP "because it doesn't run well on a Mac"
Phil Zimmermann is a legend in the world of online privacy, having invented PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) in 1991 to create a way of creating cryptographic privacy and authentication to keep digital communications -- and entire computers -- safe from prying eyes. Zimmermann was in the news last Friday when a company he founded -- Silent Circle -- decided to shut down and delete all email messages on its servers rather than have the US government force them to hand over customer data. One fascinating item in the Forbes article about the Silent Circle email shutdown was Zimmermann's admission that he doesn't use email much anymore because "PGP doesn't run very well on a Mac these days." PGP Corporation was purchased by software giant Symantec in 2010 for US$300 million, and according to Mac user Zimmermann, "Symantec hasn't kept that up. So I hardly ever run PGP." In lieu of email, Zimmermann says that he uses Silent Circle's mobile texting service and iOS app Silent Text instead. Forbes' Parmy Olson asked Zimmermann if he expected more people to move from using email to more secure mobile messaging systems. In his reply, Zimmermann noted, "Mobile messaging is less clunky than email. Email has its place. Sometimes you want to have an audit trail of business communication. Sometimes that's a feature rather than a liability. So email is not going to go away, but if you want to send secure messages, there are more streamlined ways to do it now." A CNET article earlier this year noted that the US Drug Enforcement Administration is unhappy with Apple's iMessage encryption, saying that that "It is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices" even with a court order approved by a federal judge. The moral of the story? If you want to keep prying eyes from your personal communications, start shifting away from email and use encrypted messaging instead.
Evernote Web Clipper's new Gmail function saves copies of emails and attachments
Keeping your Gmail account organized isn't that hard when you can tag and star emails. Evernote Web Clipper's new function, however, promises easier access to missives you deem particularly important. Once the Chrome extension is installed, it saves any message you want along with its attachments in just one click. One note, though: you'll need a premium account to search through any attached documents. Note that the Gmail clip will look like a garbled mess (especially if it's a lengthy thread) on Web Clipper's preview screen, but on the Evernote app or web portal it will appear nicely formatted. If you think this new function can help you wrangle an increasingly unruly Gmail account, hit the source link below for more info or look for the extension on the Chrome Web Store.
Outlook.com drops linked email accounts in favor of aliases
Hotmail and Outlook.com have long supported linked email accounts for organizing messages. However, Microsoft now sees connected accounts as tempting targets for hackers -- so tempting, in fact, that the company is severing those links as a safety measure. Within the next two months, Outlook.com will move to using its alias system as the only way to handle multiple accounts. Users will have options to forward email and send messages from other addresses, but they won't get to control multiple accounts through one sign-in. Microsoft will start unlinking accounts in late July, so those who'd like a more orderly transition to the safer (if less convenient) approach will want to act quickly.
Mailbox 1.3 for iOS brings iPad support
There have been calls for an iPad-native Mailbox app virtually from the get-go -- some of us want to get to inbox zero on a bigger screen, after all. The team has clearly been listening, as the free Mailbox 1.3 update now supports Apple's larger gadgets. While there isn't much mystery in the new version for anyone who has used both Mailbox and other iPad email clients before, power users should appreciate seeing full messages while they swipe away at their inbox. We're still waiting on Mailbox support for other platforms -- and services beyond Gmail, for that matter -- but iPad owners can get some satisfaction at the source link.
Mailbox 1.2 drops the reservation system, opens up to all iOS users
Mailbox for iOS launched with much fanfare in the winter, but it also drew more than a little flak for its reservation-based access system: it's hard to get jazzed for an alternative Gmail app when you're 297,045th in line to use it. The developer now believes that it has the capacity to handle new users as they come in, so it's pulling back the velvet ropes with its app's 1.2 update. Mailbox isn't just shedding notions of pseudo-exclusivity with the new revision, however. It's also improving swipe speed, introducing more time-sensitive message snoozes and slipping in a handful of minor UI tricks. Although some may lament the sudden rush of commoners into a once-elite club, we'd say 1.2 is an auspicious start to Mailbox's life in the Dropbox era.
Outlook.com hits 25 million users, gets an Android app to call its own
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.
Gmail composer goes to a simple pop-up, gives multitaskers freedom to fly
As much as Gmail shines when it's on the web, some of its most avid users stay in native apps for the multitasking; having to check a past message in the web client has usually meant putting the current draft on hold, or at least maintaining a near-photographic memory. Google wants to translate some of that desktop experience to the web through a new composition interface it's testing as of today. New messages start off in a shrinkable pop-up that lets us find old threads without having to put the new conversation on ice, even we're indecisive enough to leave multiple unfinished e-mail messages open. Other upgrades lurk in the background for the more focused among us, such as a pared-back composition interface, in-line photos and a reply box that dynamically adapts to the space it needs. Only those in the preview will see the Gmail update for now; Google is promising a wider launch in the months ahead that could save us all a few precious minutes each day.
AOL unveils Alto: a web-based email client with an emphasis on aesthetics and organization
A cleanly organized inbox may be a holy grail that's seemingly out of reach, but AOL (which happens to be our parent company) has unveiled a web-based e-mail client dubbed Alto to help cut through clutter. Instead of signing up for a brand-new email address, users log into the service with an existing Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL or iCloud account and can use Alto to organize, send and receive messages. In addition to the traditional list view of received emails, Alto takes a cue from analog letters and automatically sorts mail into stacks depending on whether they contain attachments, photos, daily deals, notifications from social networks and bulletins from retailers. Users can customize and hide existing piles or even create new stacks based on key words, recipients, senders and other parameters. Have more than one email account that needs its contents wrangled into order? No problem. Alto can handle up to five accounts per user. If you're intrigued by the cloud-based client, you can take a gander at the gallery of screenshots below or head past the break for more details in the press release. Alto is currently accepting users on a first come, first serve basis in a limited preview, so hit the source link if you feel inclined to take it for a spin.
Early iOS 6 adopters report problems getting Exchange push email: are you affected?
We all know about the central issue surrounding iOS 6. For the suits and ties among us, however, there's a potentially more glaring problem with Exchange support. Some users quick to upgrade to Apple's latest mobile OS report losing automatic push delivery of their email, requiring that they check for themselves to get any fresh messages. The issue isn't carrier- or device-specific, and attempts to reboot, reconfigure or restore devices are at best temporary fixes: what flows smoothly at first runs dry several hours later. Apple technicians are aware that the flaw exists, but it's tough to know if and when engineers will have a fix -- the company typically waits until it has a solution in hand before it goes on the record. We've reached out to Apple for a possible comment all the same. In the meantime, let us know if your Exchange access (or push data as a whole) is going awry. [Thanks, Daniel] %Poll-78044%
Browser extension enables SkyDrive attachments within Gmail
Gmail users who envy Outlook's SkyDrive integration will find that the proverbial grass is now a little greener on their side, thanks to fresh features in Attachments.me's Chrome and Firefox browser extensions. With the plugin installed, files residing in Microsoft's cloud service can be attached to emails from within Gmail. Also included in the update is support for user-created rules that can direct attachments to SkyDrive as they flood into inboxes. Can't wait for Gmail to gain similar support with Google Drive, or just prefer Redmond's storage solution? Hit the source link below to infuse Mountain View's web mail with some of Microsoft's storage locker mojo.
Mozilla releases Thunderbird 15 with Firefox-like UI, live chat
Mozilla might be scaling back its official support of Thunderbird, but it still has love left for those who yearn for more in their e-mail clients than OS developers can give. The newly-released Thunderbird 15 update's most conspicuous change is a deliberate visual harmony with its Firefox cousin: the company wants its apps to have more in common than just a shared name on the About screen. Under the hood, there's now a live chat feature to skip the wait for e-mail, a Do Not Track option for web searches and the choice of using Ubuntu One cloud storage for large attachments. It's hard to know if future Thunderbird releases will be as substantial once the community takes the reins. For now, though, Thunderbird aficionados can relax. [Thanks, Keith]
RIM says BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 users will get legacy device support, IT admins (may) rest easy
Corporate server managers everywhere were given a jolt this week when rumors emerged that RIM might implement a hard cutoff for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10: any devices based on BlackBerry 7 and earlier might not connect at all, leaving IT leads with the uncomfortable choice of either running a BlackBerry server platform that's supposedly without a future (BES 5) or having to upgrade both the servers and phones all at once. RIM is putting minds at ease -- more or less. The company's Kim Geiger has confirmed in a statement to the media that BES 10 will support legacy devices when it ships in the first quarter of 2013, and that existing server customers will get an upgrade for smooth sailing around when BlackBerry 10 arrives. That's no doubt a comfort, but there are lingering doubts. Rumor source BGR maintains that companies will have to run both the old and new servers side-by-side to address everyone, which could make a truly harmonious environment complex, expensive or both. We've reached out to RIM for a more definitive explanation to hopefully settle the matter. In the meantime, we wouldn't panic; no one is being pushed to adopt BES 10 right away, and those that want to upgrade don't have to give up their legacy hardware.
Outlook.com hits 10 million users in just two weeks, gives webmail a kickstart
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.
Gmail for iOS adds option to save photos, becomes a smoother operator
Google's Gmail app for iOS has been docked by some potential adopters for feeling like a poor cousin to other native apps. It may be worth revisiting: the 1.3 update has just arrived with a much-requested ability to save common image attachments to an iOS device's photo collection. Should that not be enough, Google has smoothed out animations and scrolling for iPhone and iPod touch owners. The new version has pushed live for everyone, leaving just a quick download between us and saving our parents' vacation photos for posterity.
