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Transfer memorable voice mails to your computer with a simple audio trick

It seems like those of us who grew up digital turn to text messaging and Facebook to announce exciting news, and most often, say happy birthday. But once in a while you get a voice mail from a friend or family member who cared enough to pick up the phone and wish you happy birthday.

Birthdays, engagements, promotions, dialing under the influence -- all of these occasions make for memorable and replay-worthy voice messages.

Carriers complicate the solution If you want to keep these original messages, though, it's not easy. iPhone voice mails can be backed up to your … Read more

Romney pet plays part in alleged e-mail hack

Pets have proven problematic for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He has been widely (and rightfully) pilloried for putting the family pooch on the top of the car during a long vacation roadtrip. And now someone is claiming to have hacked into his personal Web-based e-mail account by guessing the name of his favorite pet.

It remains unclear if "Seamus," the Irish Setter whose kennel he tied to the top of the car, was his favored pet. If so, I'd hate to see how he treated less preferential pets. Whatever the word was, someone is claiming to … Read more

Save Gmail attachments to Google Drive with one click

Many of the files I receive attached to Gmail messages end up in my Google Drive account. Previously this required downloading or viewing the file, saving it to a drive of the PC I'm using, signing into and opening Google Drive (formerly Google Docs), and uploading the file.

That's a lot of mileage for a file to travel just to get from one Google service to another.

Last month, Jason Cipriani of CNET's Blog Network described a technique developed by Amit Agarwal that automatically adds Gmail attachments to Google Drive.

As Jason explains, the process entails copying … Read more

iCloud hacked, or is it simply spam?

Apple Insider is reporting on a few Apple discussion postings in which users have claimed their iCloud accounts were compromised. Some have complained they have found spam being sent to secondary e-mail addresses from their personal iCloud accounts, which have included links to spam services claiming to make money online, and also containing random text strings -- classic components to automatically generated spam messages.

Others have echoed that in recent hours they have experienced similar spam messages being sent from their iCloud accounts to alternative e-mail accounts and other entries in their contacts lists that were stored with iCloud.

These … Read more

Try an alternative e-mail client on iOS

Sparrow is an attempt to get away from supercomplex, feature-packed e-mail clients in favor of a simpler e-mail experience on iOS. The interface is elegant while remaining very straightforward: e-mails are listed with the newest on top, and all your actions can be completed with simple gestures. Setup only requires that you add accounts; then you can get started right away.

Though the interface is sparse you still get plenty of the common actions and options you'd expect from a basic e-mail app in Sparrow. You can save your draft e-mails; Star (or mark as favorite) specific conversations; add … Read more

How to unsubscribe from the weekly Twitter digest e-mail

Earlier this week Twitter started sending users an e-mail rounding up the prior week's hot topics and tweets. A weekly reminder or update is great for Twitter users who aren't always on the social network. But, for those of us who are on Twitter more than we should be, and already know what happened over the last week, the e-mail is simply more spam.

Luckily, unsubscribing from the e-mail is a simple process.

If you have one of the e-mails sitting in your Inbox right now, scroll to the bottom and click on the unsubscribe link. Your browser … Read more

Iran curtails use of foreign e-mail providers

Iran is cracking down on the use of foreign e-mail addresses.

The country's telecommunications ministry is now barring local banks, insurance companies, and phone operators from communicating with their clients using foreign e-mail providers, according to the AFP news service.

Based on information from Iranian news service Asr Ertebatat, the new order requires such industries to use addresses ending in the Iranian domain .ir, effectively preventing them from using such foreign providers as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or MSN.

Customers of such companies are also included in the ban, requiring them to use local e-mail addresses in order to do … Read more

Why an 'e-mail vacation' might be good for your health

Workers cut off from office e-mail for five days exhibited more natural, variable heart rates and toggled between screens less frequently than those with e-mail access, according to new research out of the University of California, Irvine, and the Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center near Boston.

The "A pace not dictated by electrons" study of 13 civilian employees at the Army center is undoubtedly small, and the results, presented this week at a meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery in Austin, Texas, are only preliminary. Still, researchers say the findings were surprisingly consistent in favor of … Read more

OS X Mail checking for new messages even when set to manual

Like many other e-mail clients, Apple's Mail program can be set to only check for messages when you request it manually. This can be convenient if you would prefer to avoid constant new-message alerts, or are not connected to the Internet and do not wish to get warnings about network problems. But sometimes even when set to manual the program will continue to check for messages automatically.

Apple's Mail e-mail client can be used for a variety of Mail services, including the classic POP and IMAP services, Exchange, and iCloud mail. The program's default setting is to … Read more