e-mail

Add an e-mail to the OS X Reminders app for easy follow-up

Did you know you can add an e-mail from OS X Mountain Lion's Mail app to the Reminders app with little effort? Instead of launching Reminders and typing in information you feel is important, you can use this quick shortcut to not only create a reminder, but link to the exact message you'll need later.

To add an e-mail to the Reminders app, you simply drag and drop it either directly into a Reminders list, or to the Reminders app icon in your Mac's dock. You'll need to click and drag from the header section of … Read more

New Jersey extends e-mail voting deadline for displaced residents

New Jersey's experiment in allowing storm-displaced residents to vote by e-mail has been extended until Friday.

In the wake of widespread reports of glitches affecting e-mail and fax ballots, the state announced today it will extend the deadline to 8 p.m. ET Friday for returning ballots to county clerks. However, ballots had to be requested by 5 p.m. today.

While e-mail ballots are usually made available only to residents living overseas and the military, the state announced Saturday that it would allow voters displaced by Superstorm Sandy to cast ballots by e-mail or fax. However, many New … Read more

Create and uncompress several archive file types

StuffIt Expander is a file compression and expansion utility that can handle a number of different file archive formats. It's a free app available from the App Store and several other Web sites, and it installs quickly.

StuffIt Expander supports a number of file formats, including ZIP, ZIPX, 7ZX, RAR, and TAR. The StuffIt Expander interface is clean, allowing you to create archives by the usual drag-and-drop method or by menu actions. Clicking on an archive file can unpack that archive. You can add password protection to your ZIP files. There is a registration nag that appears with StuffIt … Read more

Friday Poll: Which e-mail service do you use?

Selecting an e-mail provider is a very personal choice, like picking out a deodorant or a mobile operating system or pledging your allegiance to a particular king in "Game of Thrones." You may be a longtime Gmailer or an old school Hotmailer or a dedicated Yahooer.

New numbers from ComScore show Gmail has topped Hotmail as the most popular e-mail service in the world with 287.9 million unique worldwide visitors in October. Hotmail edged in just under that at 286.2 million unique visitors. Yahoo Mail took top honors in the United States with 76.7 million visitors.… Read more

Get all of your email notifications in one place using POP Peeper

Managing multiple email accounts can be a chore, especially if the accounts are from different providers. POP Peeper offers a solution to set up and manage your many accounts from one place. Automatic Mail check is also enabled by default.

POP Peeper's uncluttered interface places the essential email options to create or respond to messages on a fully customizable Tool Bar. You will have to do some manual work to get your accounts setup but there is plenty of user guidance to help you get started and it handles nearly all of the most popular email services, including Yahoo, … Read more

AOL's twist on e-mail: You've got stacks

Thursday's CNET Update is checking your away message:

Just when you've given up all hope of having an organized inbox, along comes AOL with a new e-mail client called Alto. Today's tech news roundup looks at how Alto manages multiple accounts and sorts messages into stacks. The service is in beta test now (so you have to sign up for an invite to try it), but it could be open to everyone by February.

In other news, Yelp is cracking down on companies that pay for reviews. If Yelp sees that a business is trying to inflate … Read more

How to get less e-mail spam from Twitter

Twitter has added several new e-mail alert options, and these new settings are creating more e-mail traffic for you. Some of these notifications are useful, like an update about new followers or a direct message, while others are just an annoyance.

All of these new options are enabled by default and if you normally access Twitter from a mobile device, you may have missed the opportunity to disable them before the e-mail started coming. Thankfully, reducing the amount of unnecessary e-mail from Twitter is fairly simple through its Web interface.

To access Twitter's e-mail notifications, just log in to … Read more

Ten simple, common-sense security tips

A friend took me to task last week for a post I wrote back in January on preventing Google from tracking you when you search. His alternative solution: "Just use Bing."

That got me thinking about other no-brainer approaches to security that thumb their noses at the conventional (and often convoluted and time-consuming) advice of the experts.

Search without footprints via the 'other' search engines Truly anonymous Web surfing requires the use of a VPN service that blocks your IP address as well as other personal information. (For more on VPN, see the tip below.) If you simply … Read more

Apple says iPhone 5 purple camera halo is totally normal

Apple has told at least one customer that any purple halos found in photos taken on the company's iPhone 5 are considered normal and due to the angling of the device.

Gizmodo today posts what it says is a reply from an AppleCare support representative named Debby to an iPhone 5 owner who called the company complaining about the issue.

"Our engineering team just gave me this information and we recommend that you angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures," AppleCare rep Debby writes in an e-mail. "The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for iPhone 5's camera." … Read more

How to free up storage space with Mail in OS X

While large storage capacities from e-mail providers make the need to manage storage less of an issue these days, there are times when people may still run into storage limits or need to clear out thousands of messages that are cluttering their inboxes. This may be especially true if one's storage plan changes to a smaller level, as is the case with Apple's basic iCloud storage plan for people who transitioned from MobileMe.

If you need to clear out e-mail messages to free up space in your inbox, you can do so manually by first clicking on the … Read more