email

Oh goody!!!!!! A punctuation mark for sarcasm

There were many people, quite a few in America, who were excited, delighted, even positively beaming when some clever cove created that smiley colon/parenthesis thing that is now the universal sign of a written smile.

:) That's the one. The one that is sometimes written as ":0" or ":-)" or, for a smiling wink, ";)." Or even, and this is far beyond my intellectual galaxy, "J". Does that signify "JOKINGYOUMORON!!!!!!!!"? I think that it does.

All these symbols have been such great successes in bringing people together and making them … Read more

Finally! Comment on Facebook through e-mail

A small but notable development at Facebook means that if you're replying to a comment posted on your profile, you can now do so through regular e-mail.

A post on the Facebook blog explains it: "These notifications--for comments on such content as status updates, photos, videos and Wall posts--allow you to stay informed about your Facebook friends' activities without being logged in when you're on the go, on your phone or at work. Today, we're launching the ability for you to participate in these conversations by replying directly to these e-mail notifications."

So, basically, if … Read more

RIM confirms BlackBerry e-mail problems--again

For the second time in less than a week, BlackBerry smartphone users across the country and beyond are reporting problems accessing e-mail.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion confirmed Tuesday night that some users of the smartphone in the Americas are experiencing delays in message delivery.

"Technical teams are actively working to resolve the issue for those impacted. RIM apologizes for any inconvenience experienced by customers," read an e-mailed statement from company spokesperson Jamie Ernst. Ernst declined to elaborate, however, on the cause or extent of the outage, and offered no estimated time of repair.

This, of course, comes … Read more

Mozilla hopes to finish Thunderbird 3.1 in April

Mozilla Messaging hopes to release Thunderbird 3.1 in early April, a date that reflects a new frequent-release strategy adopted from the better-known Firefox effort at Mozilla.

Dan Mosedale, a programmer for the open-source e-mail software, published the date in a Thunderbird schedule draft he announced Thursday.

"If we're lucky, we relabel 3.1RC1 [release candidate 1] as final and ship it on Tuesday, April 6. Otherwise, there's an RC2," Mosedale said in the planning document.

The new version is due to get an updated Web browser engine. Using the same Gecko project that Firefox is … Read more

The 404 Podcast 487: Where even we can win a Golden Globe this year

While today's Golden Globe announcements were a bit underwhelming, we were thrilled to see "The Hangover" get a nomination in the Best Picture: Comedy or Musical category. To coincide with the film's release on Blu-ray and DVD today we're giving away copies of the movie! Just send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com telling us your best (or worst) hangover story. Everyone's got at least one, so send us yours for a chance to win!

In Justin and Wilson's absence, Natali Del Conte and Mark "MTI" Licea rush to fill their spots and discuss all the day's news. Should your company be able to check text messages you send out on work cell phones? Actually, don't answer that question--we debate the pros and cons and decide.

Most guys can't remember what shirt they wore yesterday, but apparently most women can recall the first pair of shoes they ever bought--more so than the first boy they ever kissed! What is it about the female obsession with shoes? We ask Natali to clear the air--because, well, she's the only woman who'll talk to us.

All this plus the location of 22 million missing e-mails from the Bush Administration on today's episode!

EPISODE 487 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Americans are glued to the couch, study says

Although numerous activities are available to get Americans off the couch, they still prefer to be there, a report from the NPD Group has found.

When asked how they'd spent their leisure-time hours in the past week, a whopping 81 percent of the 10,281 respondents had watched television, for about 10 hours on average for the week. It was the top leisure-time activity in the study, which covered people ages 13 and above. And that figure didn't even include watching movies on TV. It only included shows, news, and sports.

"There's a perception that families … Read more

Forward Yahoo Mail to Gmail for free

Recently, Karan wrote in and asked:

I want to forward all of my e-mail automatically onto Gmail, which Yahoo won't do unless I sign up to its premium version that I cannot afford. Is there a third-party way of automatically forwarding all incoming e-mail to Gmail from Yahoo? Yes Karan, there is--sort of.

First, go to your Yahoo address and set up a notice that will tell people of your new address.

Go to Options, then "Mail Options" in Yahoo. Select "Vacation Response." Check the box marked "Enable auto-response during your vacation." Set … Read more

Thunderbird helps you spread your words

Despite perceptions to the contrary, the desktop-based e-mail client is not dead. Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 is a serious reaction to the prevalence of Web mail, so whether you're looking for a strong desktop client, an Outlook replacement, or a powerful tool for managing archives and Web mail offline, Thunderbird can scale to your needs.

Outlook users will notice the speed and responsiveness of the program, which loads fast, even when weighed down by multiple folders and RSS feeds, and the basic feature set remains intact: good junk mail filters, HTML support, multiple identities, and robust Web mail, POP, … Read more

Can Mozilla pull another Firefox with e-mail?

In many markets, open source has played catch-up for years to the proprietary incumbents. Now, however, open source is taking the lead in areas as diverse as operating systems (Linux), browsers (Firefox), and databases (MySQL).

Oddly, given the ubiquity of e-mail, we've never seen a really good open-source e-mail client. Mozilla wants to change that with Thunderbird.

Mozilla's track record with its hugely popular Firefox Web browser suggests that it may have more than a sporting chance, despite a mostly unproductive history with e-mail. Thunderbird, Mozilla's e-mail client, has been around since 2003, with almost no market … Read more