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Microsoft released Windows 8 last month and it was the first time I bought something on its launch day. I got my copy of Windows 8 as I bought the laptop on the same day. It was the second most awaited Windows OS for me, the first being Windows XP.
When Windows XP was launched everyone loved to hate it. People tried to convince me to uninstall the Windows XP which was preloaded with my COMPAQ and switch to Windows 98. And then when Windows Vista launched they wanted me to switch to Windows XP.
I’m not one of those Outlook fans but I know that most people, especially those from the corporate world, love Outlook as it can manage our Contacts, Mails, Calendar, Notes, Tasks all in one place. Since I was a power Gmail user I never had to depend upon Outlook. But yesterday I gave a try to the new Microsoft Office Outlook 2013 Preview. It looks just fantastic and is no longer the Outlook which I knew for a long time.
Well, now I feel that I realized the true power of Outlook lately. It can really do much more than what I have imagined. How? I’ll be showing you that in the upcoming posts as I’m still in process of consolidating my online stuff.
Hotmail is your e-mail friend, right? And by now you probably know that Microsoft has rebranded Hotmail as Outlook.com (see the official blogpost here) in an effort to compete with Google Mail (Gmail). Hotmail was one of the first web-based email services and is still world’s largest e-mail service with over 350 million users, according to comScore (June 2012). “Hot..”, err, “Outlook” is better than you think and is perhaps the only Internet brand that has redefined itself several times.
The Brand “Hotmail”
Over the past several years, Microsoft supported e-mail addresses on the following top level domains – @msn.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, and now @outlook.com. I love everything Microsoft (maybe because I’m a Microsoft fanatic) and I love the brand @hotmail.com. But since I’m a power Internet user, Gmail is my primary e-mail account as it acts as my e-mail hub so I’m not going to switch to Outlook.com anytime soon (but I want to).
I was not using any of the free online storage services – Dropbox, Amazon Cloud Drive, Box.net etc. All I used was Gmail to store my files as attachments and that was enough for me. But I have tried Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Mesh in the past even though I never used it. Why? Just because Microsoft has a branding problem. They offer similar services in different names. I hate that strategy. Microsoft offered 25 GB (now 7 GB) free storage via SkyDrive and another 5 GB via Live Mesh. And, SkyDrive didn’t have an app for desktop until recently. They finally came up with a desktop client for Windows and Mac. That’s not all! It even supports remote access – so you can access your desktop files even if it’s not stored on your SkyDrive folder. So, I gave it a try. And yeah it was perfect. But wait! Google’s much awaited Google Drive (GDrive) has arrived. Now, I no longer need SkyDrive since Google Drive is deeply integrated with Gmail and so it’s much more feasible to use Google Drive instead of SkyDrive as I’m already using the 20 GB for $5/year plan by Google (which is no longer offered).
Dear Google, Why there is “No Space” in your Copyright info on your Gmail inbox? That is in between the “©” & “2012″. It’s been ages and you haven’t updated your Copyright style in Gmail.
Until 2010 the Copyright on your so called patented Google Homepage was also like this.
And then you changed the Copyright and added the “Space” back in 2011 for your homepage. But why not Gmail?
