Gizmodo: hotmail

Let's Look At Credit Score Rankings by Email Domains

Rosa Golijan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:40:00 EDT

Ranking the highest according to a sample of 20,000 credit scores and their corresponding email addresses are BellSouth and Comcast, with Gmail trailing right behind. Reasonable enough, but what's AOL doing anywhere but at the bottom? [Mashable]

Gmail, Yahoo, and Comcast Users Also Caught in Web Mail Phishing Scam

Danny Allen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:40:00 EDT

As you may have heard, about 10,000 Hotmail passwords were leaked online yesterday, and that list only started with the letters A and B. At that rate, over 100,000 users could have been lured into giving their passwords to fake Websites. Now the BBC says it's seen a list on the same Website that had more than 20,000 email accounts—this time with addresses from Gmail, Yahoo, Comcast, Earthlink, and AOL.

The New York Times says Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have confirmed the addresses are real, and that they're helping affected users recover their accounts.

Even though you generally have to be pretty damn gullible to fall for one of these fake sites (or open strange-looking email attachments), now might be a good time to change your Web mail password...something you should be doing every now and then anyway. [BBC via New York Times]

Microsoft Prohibits "Tibet" in Hotmail Addresses, But It's Not What You Are Thinking

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:48:09 EDT

David Gallagher at the New York Times had to do some rumor control when a reader wrote accusing Microsoft of prohibiting the word "Tibet" in Hotmail addresses to appease the Chinese government. No "freetibet@hotmail.com", no "tibetsmellsofwetmonks@hotmail.com", no "ilovetibet@hotmail.com." Is this another Chinese-Microsoft evil conspiracy? While there are some of those going on between China and companies like Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo, this is not the case.

As David discovered, it turns out that you can't register any name with the word "tib" on them, not just Tibet. Microsoft gave him an explanation for this: they wanted to protect customers of the TIB Bank in Florida, so they can't receive a message from "tib-support@hotmail.com" asking for their bank account passwords. As he was able to test, if you try to use any other bank name in the address, it won't work. Mystery solved! [NYT]

Windows Live Updated For Windows Mobile Devices

Matt Hickey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Not content to just offer a new version of Windows Live Messenger for a competing platform, Microsoft today released an updated official version of the full Windows Live app for Windows Mobile that features contacts syncing, support for Live Spaces, Live Maps, and push email from HotMail, MSN, or Live accounts. It's a free mobile download, though you'll have to make sure you nuke the old version first lest you mess up your device. [Download, via JK On The Run]

Blackberry OS 4.5 Not Officially Arriving Until September

Jack Loftus — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT

The Blackberry Internet Services 2.5 upgrade (and subsequent downtime) is still go for a June 29 launch, but there's a catch. According to the Boy Genius Report, some of the "sexiest" 2.5 features won't be available until Blackberry OS 4.5 arrives—in September. From the looks of the BIS 2.5 presentation they got their boy-sized mitts on, at least one of those features is push AOL email and Hotmail/MSN accounts. Of course, if you have a newer Blackberry handset, or plan on buying one before September, it will come with 4.5 OS already installed. [Boy Genius Report]

Hotmail Comes to BlackBerry

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:35:41 EDT

In addition to the big Bold BlackBerry news at RIM's Wireless Enterprise Symposium, the company announced it would finally support Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, says Crave. This includes push, realtime synch and full HTML support, plus an "almost PC-like" Messenger experience, with file transfers, custom status messages and cartoon emoticons. Like the Bold itself, this service is due in the vague "this summer" timeframe. Ironically, this might actually be more than what Microsoft itself is doing for poor old Hotmail. [Crave]