Hotmail
A while back, MSN announced that they were going to increase the storage space alotted to Hotmail users - 250MB for free accounts, and 2GB for paid “Extra Storage” accounts. This was their move to keep people from being lured away by Google’s free 1GB Gmail offering.
Well, announcements and press releases are all well and good, but I say, show me the money.
This afternoon, I noticed that my Hotmail storage space was boosted to 2000MB (I pay $19/year for Extra Storage). w00t! 
It won’t keep me from migrating to Gmail as soon as I can access my Gmail account via IMAP or POP3 on my Smartphone inbox (Hotmail’s a spam magnet), but it’s still kind of nice to see MSN follow through with what they promised.
AT&T launched their new “3G” high speed UTMS wireless data service in 4 cities today (Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco, and Detroit - no Portland *pout*), allowing wireless data speeds up to 300Kbps (comparable to carrying a DSL connection in your pocket). Fantastic - we’re finally getting somewhere with the much-awaited 3G wireless data technologies. It’s cheap, too - $25/month for “unlimited usage”. (Can you feel the foreshadowing here?)
But then, true to form, AT&T had to go and screw it up. *sigh*
I just read about the following restrictions that will be placed on UTMS usage over at mpx200.org:
This plan is only for UTMS customers in the 4 magical cities under these very strict rules:
- You may web browse but the mMode site only
- You may get email but via mMode only
- You may not connect to another device via cable, Bluetooth, or IR or you will be charged $0.001/KB
- You may not remove the SIM from your phone and use any other device or you will be charged $0.001/KB
- You may NOT use this service for audio/video content, games, and other downloads or there will be an additional charge.
Gah. Is AT&T really that stupid? They never cease to astound me with how much just just don’t get wireless data usage…
I’m wondering, with the above restrictions, what exactly you can do with one of these fancy UTMS phones and a fat pipe. Browse their mMode site? *yawn* Get email via mMode? Who needs 300Kbps for that? You can’t download audio, video, or games (I’m assuming that includes other apps), and you can’t use the phone as a modem without getting charged extra.
I can’t believe that AT&T is really this clueless. It makes me a sad panda…
PPCW.Net - REGULATORY: FCC latest - HTC Typhoon/Orange SPV C500 and Motorola MPx220
What would we gadget geeks that always need to be on the cutting edge ever do without the FCC to supply us with in-depth photos and copies of the user manuals of our favorite gadgets long before they’re released?
The bane of all product secrets, the FCC, strikes again with photos, details, and a draft of the user manual for the Motorola MPX220:
I haven’t spied any new details yet, though the “Internal Photos” document is interesting if you are looking for “nudie” shots of the phone’s boards, housing, and other goodies.
Is this thing out yet? *sigh*
Apple - iPod
The details leaked out over the weekend, mainly thanks to a Newsweek cover story, but today is the official launch of the newest iPod from Apple:
It’s available in 20 GB and 40 GB versions. Both versions are 1mm thinner than their predecessors (although the 40GB version is still thicker than the 20 GB version). The biggest change is the adoption of the “click-wheel”, a la the iPod Mini, which replaces the touch-sensitive buttons and wheel of the 3G iPod. Battery life is supposed to have been bumped to 12 hours (a 50% increase over the 8 hours of the 3G model). It’s interesting to note that Apple claims this is achieved through “more efficient processing”. Could it be that the battery life increase might be made available to current iPod owners via a firmware update? Dare to dream…
Other changes include a headphone jack that’s now centered on the top of the unit (just to break compatibility for all of us iTrip owners), a re-arranged menu system (can we say firmware update? please?), and the ability to speed up or slow down songs (useful for slow audiobooks).
The price of the new “4G” iPod has dropped - the 20 GB model is only $299 (down from $399), and the 40 GB model is $399 (down from $499). Notably absent is a 60 GB model, which was expected to inhabit the $499 price point, but it might come later as bigger drives become available from Hitachi/Toshiba.
So the big question is, will I be upgrading from my 40GB 3G iPod? The answer is, not right now. The smaller size, longer battery life, and click-wheel interface are definitely attractive, but I’ve got a bit of investment in accessories (iSkin eVo case, iTrip FM transmitter) that wouldn’t work with the new models. I’d also like to get a bigger hard drive if I’m going to upgrade, though I’m only using about 18GB of my 40GB for music (I’m using the USB/Firewire hard drive functionality to store another gig or so of backup files and utilities). We’ll see. It might be worth exercising a replacement plan if/when the 60GB model comes out.
What do you think? Will you be upgrading to the new iPod, or if you don’t already have one, will the new low price finally tempt you to make the plunge? Let me know what you think in the Comments section below.
Microsoft buys search company Lookout
I’ve been using Lookout to search my vast (multi-GB) Outlook message stores for a while now. Basically, it indexes your mailboxes, calendar, and even local filesystem, and provides lightning fast search results. What can take Outlook’s built-in search 15 minutes to turn up can be found in seconds with Lookout. It’s fantastic, and lead developer Mike Belshe is very responsive and easy to work with. He was very helpful in addressing some issues I had with Lookout, and within a few days, released an updated version that fixed the problems.
Now that MSN has purchased Lookout lock, stock, and barrel, what does this mean for Microsoft’s “unified search” vision? Microsoft (and Google, too) has been talking about single search capability that returns results from your local computer as well as the web. Lookout masters local content searching , and it seems a simple and logical leap to join with MSN Search functionality to create a universal search function.
Lookout has changed the way I use Outlook - I don’t worry so much anymore about meticulously filing messages away in the right folder, so I can find them later. Now, I know that I can find any old message simply by searching for it, and I won’t grow old waiting for the results like I did with the built-in Outlook search.
Good luck to Mike and Lookout - may the partnership with MSN be successful!
Anyone else notice how the Lookout logo bears some resemblance to another famous search engine? Hope no one gets in legal trouble for that. 
Picasa: Automated Digital Photo Organizer software, instant photo albums, sharing & printing: Download
I’ve been playing with an app called Picasa, a great photo manager application. It organizes your photos into albums sorted by date, lets you view an easy timeline or slideshow. It doesn’t sound like anything special, but it’s really, really slick.
There’s also a neat little app they have called Hello, which is a photo-based instant messaging program that lets you send photos to other Hello users, as well as making it extremely simple to post photos to Blogger (which happens to power this site, and my personal site, www.gadgetfamily.org).
Anyway, I have been evaluating this program, and I like it a lot. Even more importantly, my wife likes it a lot, and it’s a lot easier for her to post photos using Hello than to worry about HTML, inlining, linking, etc. We were all ready to fork out $29 to buy Picasa. It’s well worth it.
I’m glad we didn’t, though, because as of this morning, Picasa is now available for free. A couple of days ago, Picasa was acquired by Google, who also happens to own Blogger. Google didn’t waste any time in making Picasa available for free - a great move that, in my opinion, will only strengthen Blogger’s already strong position as a great web publishing tool.
If you don’t have Picasa already, go get it now, for free!
Random Thoughts: 07/11 - 07/17
Over at Major Nelson’s blog (link above - he’s a programming manager for the Xbox at Microsoft), there’s news that Xbox Live has hit one million subscribers:
Microsoft’s Million-Member March
Online Gaming Service Xbox Live Reaches Membership Milestone in Less Time
Than HBO, America Online and TiVo
REDMOND, Wash. — July 15, 2004 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that more than 1 million people are now members of the worldwide Xbox Live online video gaming service. With peak usage time for Xbox Live between 7:30 and 9 p.m. PT, this thrill-seeking throng is showing that they prefer to play TV.
As evidence of online gameplay’s mass appeal and growing importance in the digital entertainment landscape, Xbox Live reached the million-member mark three times faster than other subscriber-based entertainment services such as Home Box Office Inc., America Online Inc. and TiVo Inc. Microsoft, which introduced the first broadly adapted online gaming service in November 2002 with the launch of Xbox Live, continues to expand the appeal and adoption of broadband. New Xbox Live feature introductions like video chat, content downloads, voice messages and alerts, coupled with highly anticipated games, have fueled rapid uptake and catapulted online gaming into mainstream entertainment.
I’ve been an Xbox Live subscriber since the very first beta, and while I don’t get online to play as often as I’d like, I love the service enough to keep paying for it. One of the best features in my opinion is the downloadable content that’s available for most Live-enabled games. It’s a great way to expand and add extra life and fun to existing games.
My Gamertag is Seraph if anyone wants to add me to your Friends list - drop me a comment and let me know if you’re on Live, and what you like about it.
Congrats to the Xbox Live team for making this milestone! Here’s to many millions more in the future!
Neowin.net - Reports indicate Nintendo DS pricing, launch date, pricing
Murmurs are starting to show up in Japan about the release date and pricing of Nintendo’s upcoming DS handheld. Looks like the Japan launch might happen on November 4, 2004, with a U.S. launch just a week later on November 11. Rumored U.S. price will be $179. Better than the $199 that EBGames.com and other online retailers are charging for pre-orders, but not as nice as the $149 that was speculated on around the unit’s introduction at E3 in May.
The DS plays next-generation games that look to be about N64 quality. The novelty of the DS centers around the Dual Screens - one of which is touch-sensitive, like a PDA. The games incorporate this second touch screen in different ways, potentially providing new and innovative ways to play. Or potentially being useless. Time will tell. The DS is also backwards compatible with GBA games (though not GameBoy or GameBoy Color games).
I’m tempted to trade in my GBA SP when the DS becomes available, because I’ll still be able to play most of my current games, as well as the new DS games. We’ll see what happens. The release date coincidentally falls within 2 days of Halo 2’s release date on November 9, so something tells me my gaming brain cells might be otherwise occupied during the month of November.
I use Hotmail for my main personal email account. Yes, it’s a spam magnet. Yes, there are other options out there. The reason I stick with it is because I’ve had the address for a long time, and people know it and use it. The other main reason is that I can access it from my Smartphone Inbox via the IMAP gateway from IzyMail.com. As soon as I can access my Gmail account via IMAP, or some other method on my Smartphone Inbox, I’m giving Hotmail the boot.
To combat the spam, I use the “Exclusive” junk mail filter setting. This is basically a whitelist, that only allows email into my Inbox if the sender’s address is on my Safe List. Everything else goes into the Junk Mail folder. I still have to parse through the Junk Mail folder, and pick out things that I want to keep, but it’s much better than having my Inbox fill up with spam, especially since my Inbox goes to my Smartphone. I know that when I get a message in my Inbox on my Smartphone, it comes from someone on my Safe List, and is likely to be something I care about.
Well, for the last few weeks, I’ve been getting spam messages (sent to lots of random Hotmail addresses, advertising everything from hot stocks to hot porn) in my Inbox. I thought that somehow my Exclusive setting for the Junk Mail filter had been turned off, but it’s still set correctly. The spam is coming from random people and addresses that are most definitely NOT in my Safe List.
How are these messages getting into my Inbox? Have spammers figured out a way to get around Hotmail’s “Exclusive” Junk Mail filter?
Inquiring minds want to know…
msmobiles.com - Motorola MPx user manual
MSMobiles.com is reporting that an early draft (some sections are still marked “TBD”) of the user manual for the Moto MPx has been leaked onto the web.
There’s a shot of the keyboard. If you’re dying for every last morsel of data on this upcoming phone (*cough*like me*cough*), check it out.
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