On Tuesday Microsoft launched its new web mail service, Outlook.com, using its decades of experience to bring its tried and tested features to a clean, more aesthetically pleasing interface. Hotmail was looking quite ancient compared to the coolness of Gmail, and Outlook.com is looking to even up the score. Hotmail users can voluntarily upgrade to Outlook.com whilst still keeping all contacts and emails, all within seconds and at the click of a button. But why upgrade?
1. Slick, easy to use interface makes it far more efficient to get around your account. It also boasts 30% more messages visible in your inbox.
2. Attaching photos is so much easier. Photos load faster and sit at the top of your email message as thumbnails, of there are too many to fit in your screen then you can scroll across to view them once they are uploaded. Whatsmore, you can resize photos after they attach, so that if you see the email size reaching gargantuan proportion, you can make them smaller without the bother of starting all over again. You can also edit word and excel attachments without leaving your inbox.
3. No more spam, for now. Upgrading to outlook.com means you have the opportunity of registering a new email address with the Outlook.com domain. This means no spam, for time being at least. And if you are fast enough you may be able to register your unique name without adding embarrassing nick names or numbers at the end.
4. No visible ads. Whilst you have the option to toggle these on or off, unlike its Gmail counterpart they are visibly absent.
5. Your friends are a click away. The new system has social integration which means you can incorporate your Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn friends into the account so you can interact with them without leaving outlook.com. Skype is also integrated.
ShuffleR.FM – get hip with the latest music offerings before they hit the dreaded mainstream commercial radio stations. Thanks Claire for the recommendation.
Cost: FREE
Flipboard This app is what pushed me over the line to buy the first iPad upon release and join the throngs of Apple geeks to wander the shopping centre, eagerly trying to find a store that had some in stock or would take my order. Simply put, Flipboard let’s you view your news in magazine format. This includes social media, so rather the standard facebook news feed, your Facebook news will appear as if it were a glossy lifestyle magazine, giving you the ability to zoom in and out of ‘stories’ (friends posts, photos etc). Not only that, but in the one app you can also view hundreds of other news including BBC, ABC, CNN and most other news site on the web. It’s no wonder that upon release there were such a huge demand that the flipboard server crashed from the weight.
Cost: FREE
GoSkyWatch Planetariuum Go Sky watch is cool if you want to check out star constellations. Simply hold the iPad up to the sky and it points out where they are all located, and you don’t even need to be outside to use it. Great for the kids too. Worth the price if you are a sky buff.
Cost: FREE
Quake watch
As the name suggests this app shows a list of earthquakes and their scale in real time. You can search by location or size.
Pages, Numbers and keynote
Nothing beats the apps designed by Apple itself, after all they did design the iPad! Looking for Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your iPad? Get to know their iPad equivalents: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. They each allow you to export Mac or PC file formats, are beautifully designed, although Numbers takes a bit of getting used to after being so familiar with the Excel toolbar. Available for both iPhone and iPad so if you are in a WiFi area, you can start a document on your iPad, the move to another room and finish it on your iPhone.
Cost: $10.49
Scan to PDF There are many apps that allow you to use your ipads camera as a scanner of documents. Take a pic of a document and converts to PDF and you can email it.
Cost: Various
Autograph
Handy little app allows you to use the ipad to scribble your autograph and saves it as your signature for importing into documents.
Cost: FREE
Ebooks
Kindle
The Kindle app allows you to view the ebooks from Amazon, however will need to purchase the ebooks on your Mac or PC first as the app doesn’t yet allow you to buy from it.
Cost: FREE
News
SMH
The Sydney morning herald app is slick, easy to use and for the moment free. It may soon feature a paid subscription as many publishers seek to regain revenue from falling print and advertising subscriptions.
Epicuriouscontains thousands of recipes Allergy free entertaining allows you to search recipes to cater for those of us that may be intolerant to gluten, lactose and other common food allergies. ReceipeGrazer BigOven
Photo loader for Facebook This appallows you to upload albums of photos at once to your Facebook, great when you are traveling and want to bulk upload your holiday pics.
Cost: Where is Navigator is FREE for iphone whilst MetroView is $14.99 for both iphone and ipad
Fuel finda
Find the closest petrol station when you need it most.
Cost: FREE
Sydney HD traffic
Using feeds from live traffic cameras, this app shows major highway traffic conditions in Sydney, so you can plan your route before you leave work or home.
Calculator FREE turns your iPad into a handy oversized calculator.
Another April fools and another clever array of marketing campaigns. Google leads the way with its latest April Fools Joke– it has used 8bit graphics to create it’s world on Google maps, a throwback to the graphics of the 1980’s.
Red balloons days has created fictional April fools experiences that can be shared with friends such as Nude Horse riding and Back seat driving. View them here
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