hotmail

Microsoft on Wednesday said it is ready with a new update to its Windows Live suite of applications.

The so-called Wave 3 releases include updated versions of Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, and Windows Live Writer, as well as a new online movie making tool (as it hinted it might). Windows Live Movie Maker brings some, but not all of the features found in the movie-making application built into Windows, adding the ability to post videos to Microsoft's Soapbox video-sharing site, but notably not to Google's much larger rival YouTube. (The update to Windows Live Writer, however, … Read more

AOL on Wednesday unveiled a new e-mail feature designed to allow users to access multiple e-mail services from one location on the site.

The e-mail service is part of AOL's plans to debut new features to the site over the coming weeks; the features aim to provide customization and give users more control, such as adding Web links to the main navigation bar and accessing custom feeds from a variety of sites from AOL.com's main page.

The new features follow efforts earlier this year to shore up the company's user traffic by revamping the design of its Web sites, … Read more

Yahoo Mail, the top provider of Web-based e-mail, is letting users sign up with the ymail.com and rocketmail.com domains in an attempt to attract new users and keep existing ones loyal.

The move is geared to help people find a better e-mail address, said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail. "We want users to get the exact e-mail account they want so they stay with us for life," he said.

Because "yourname@yahoo.com" is likely taken by now, a lot of people must resort to unpleasant and hard-to-remember addresses such as "… Read more

As a follow-up to last week's story on Hotmail users getting locked out, the second account mentioned has been restored.

Last Wednesday, Hotmail account holder Will showed CNET an e-mail verifying that he notified Microsoft on May 2 that his Hotmail password had been changed without his knowledge. Microsoft support staff responded with the following message: "Thank you for your message to MSN and Windows Live Privacy. I understand you are having difficulties accessing your MSN Hotmail account because you believe someone has gained unauthorized access to your account. For assistance with this issue, please contact the MSN … Read more

Imagine getting an e-mail from a friend or family member with the following subject line: "ITS IMPORTANT YOU GET BACK ME TODAY."

CNET is aware of a couple of Hotmail users who have recently gotten locked out of their accounts. In one case, someone who had hacked into an account sent a desperate-sounding e-mail asking for money under the account holder's name.

Microsoft had no direct comment.

The body of one of the e-mails, sent to a CNET reporter, reads:

"I am in a hurry writing this mail. I had a trip to oxfordshire, United Kingdom … Read more

Few people have played as big a role in recent tech booms and busts as Steve Jurvetson, managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in Menlo Park, Calif.

One of the leading venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, Jurvetson is best-known for his involvement in Hotmail, Interwoven, Kana, and more recently, Skype. He spends his spare time building and firing rockets of all sizes with his young son, and recently has financed a new movie, The Singing Revolution, about his parent's tiny home country of Estonia.

CNET News.com reporters Michael Kanellos and Carl-Gustav Linden recently sat down … Read more

Windows Live Hotmail is the latest iteration of Microsoft's free Web-based e-mail service. The multipane interface lets you drag-and-drop messages into folders, or right-click messages for a menu of options. There's also a "Today" tab of news that loads when you sign in. Windows Live Hotmail even lets you choose a color theme in case you feel like customizing it to match your tastes.

Microsoft has also rolled out some useful features like instant spell-check, a built-in audio player, an RSS feed reader, and previews for Office documents and PDFs. However, what makes Hotmail interesting is … Read more

Well, when it rains it pours. After a day of writing about Windows Live mail problems, I was alerted by a colleague that Yahoo mail was out for them.

I tabbed over to my Yahoo Mail window and noticed that my window, which had been working all day, was now returning an error message.

When I tried to reload the page, I got the following message:

"Can't talk now. System's down," read the headline. "Sorry for the holdup. Looks like a temporary glitch in our network has part of Yahoo! mail down, so you're … Read more

LOS ANGELES--After a day of problems, Microsoft says its Windows Live log-in issues are now a thing of the past.

Although a large number of Windows Live servers are running on Microsoft's Windows Server 2008, which is due to be launched Wednesday, a representative said the problem is not a glitch with the new operating system.

"We can say with certainty that Windows Server did not contribute to this incident," Windows Live Product Manager Samantha McManus said in a statement to CNET News.com.

Microsoft was far less detailed when it comes to what the problem actually … Read more