e-mail

Companies take liberties.

The liberty some seem to enjoy most is yours. As recessions hit and profit pressures become the sole reason for existence, bosses seem to believe that they own workers--until they discard them for younger, fresher models.

Now a curiously human law has reared its head in Brazil. According to the Associated Press, this law says that if a company e-mails you after your allotted working hours, then this is the same as if one's supervisor is giving one an instruction to perform a certain work task.

Ergo, argue Brazilian labor lawyers, if a worker receives such … Read more

Kwaga, a French startup that fixes shortcomings of today's e-mail, has raised $1.55 million in first-round funding.

The company's flagship service today is called WriteThat.name. It reads your e-mail and automatically enters contact information into your address book, creating new entries and updating existing ones.

It works today only with Google Apps and Gmail, but the funding will help the company bring it to Microsoft Outlook, too. That service is in beta testing right now.

The funds also will help the company integrate with major customer-relations management (CRM) products.

The funding came from private investors and … Read more

Trying to e-mail someone who isn't in your address book can be a pain--especially if your phone's auto-correct did a fantastic job replacing parts of the address with dictionary words.

You could send them a test message and see if you get a delivery failed e-mail in return, but this can be embarrassing because they'll most likely read it and wonder what's going on. Next time this happens to you, try using eToolz instead. eToolz contains, among other nifty things, a tool that can verify the validity of an e-mail address without … Read more

Tabbed browsing is a huge convenience for looking at lots of different web sites at the same time.

Whether you're researching or adding distractions in other tabs, it can be frustrating when you accidentally close them all at once. For Chrome users, Window Close Protector is an extension that won't win points for creativity for its name, but definitely delivers the ability to prevent you from closing all of your active tabs. This extension mimics the behavior seen when closing a Gmail tab (or similar) during the sending process.

Step 1: Install the … Read more

The New Year is here, and almost everyone is working hard to see their resolutions succeed.

For some it's eating better or learning a new skill. For others, it's about being more productive at work and home. Being more productive can be hard, especially if you find yourself lacking energy for your work day. Even if the technology you use at work and home makes things easier, there still needs to be an alert human on the other end telling it what to do. If you're definitely human--but not quite alert--it's likely that you're on … Read more

Were you lucky enough to receive a new Mac laptop or desktop this holiday season?

Once you've booted up that shiny new Mac for the first time and have had a chance to look around, check out our Best apps for Mac to get the lowdown on great apps you can download. We feature both free and paid software in our collection and there's something from just about every category.

Whether you want a different browser than Safari, want to discover and listen to new music, or just need a multiservice chat client, this collection has got you … Read more

Although a number of people are out looking for the latest deals on gadgets that Apple and others may offer, scammers are in no doubt interested in capitalizing on the increased interest in purchases and promotions.

E-mail scams and other attempts to coerce people into giving up personal information online is nothing new, however, scammers may make extra effort to use Apple's popularity.

Recently, MacFixIt reader Martin F. wrote in about a scam e-mail he received regarding an Apple promotion, which, while obvious to many people as a scam, might be enough for others to fall for it.

The … Read more

If you've never been a recipient of a mistaken reply-all, you're either very lucky or you don't use e-mail much.

It's a useful tool that is also one of the banes of our electronic lives, as well-meaning people blast dozens or hundreds of recipients with boring (or, worse, sensitive) replies that should be directed to one person. Microsoft has devised a free tool for Outlook that lets users create messages that keeps recipients on the same Exchange domain from using reply-all or forward. It's simple to use and doesn't require installation on the recipients' … Read more

The Gmail app (free) for iOS received an update today adding useful features like signatures and a vacation responder system.

When the Gmail app came out not too long ago, Google said it was just getting started. Released today in the iTunes App Store, an update to the Gmail app adds a few new features that make the popular e-mail app even better.

Along with (what Google says are) numerous UI improvements and bug fixes, a few features were added that will be welcome additions for Gmail users. You'll now be able to create nested labels; similar to a … Read more