A 96GB database containing more than 149 million logins and passwords was recently discovered by respected cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler. The findings, which ExpressVPN published in its research blog, lay out Fowler's findings in detail.

The data, which was openly accessible to anyone who knew where to find it, was full of usernames and passwords from people all over the world. Estimates place email credentials at the top of the list of leaks, with Gmail alone taking up 48 million entries. Outlook is on the list with 1.5 million leaks. Yahoo, iCloud, and .edu addresses make up more than 6 million leaks.

Fowler lists Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, OnlyFans, HBO Max, Disney+, Roblox, Binance, and X (aka Twitter) as other notable accounts discovered in the exposed database.

It gets worse. Financial accounts, including crypto wallets, banking, and credit card credentials, were also spotted in the limited sample that Fowler viewed. The presence of .gov domain credentials from "numerous countries" has Fowler concerned about national and public safety; this sort of info can be used as an entry into protected government networking.

That's a wide enough swath that practically anyone plugged into the internet could be exposed. Here's a quick estimation of Fowler's findings:

• Gmail — 48 million
• Yahoo — 4 million
• Outlook — 1.5 million
• .edu — 1.4 million
• iCloud — 900,000
• Facebook — 17 million
• Instagram — 6.5 million
• Netflix — 3.4 million
• Binance — 420,000
• OnlyFans — 100,000

It's important to note that this database isn't the result of a single data breach or a targeted attack by hackers on one site. This is a gargantuan collection of credentials and other sensitive documents gathered over time by malware.

As Fowler explains it, data that is stolen has to be kept somewhere, and cloud storage is usually the first choice. It piles up over time, evidently harvesting from numerous sources. The hackers who originally had hold of the data were likely subject to their own data breach, which resulted in the database's open doors.

It's noted that the database isn't tied to any ownership; Fowler reported the breach to the cloud provider, but quickly hit a dead end due to the IP being a subsidiary acting under the provider's umbrella and name.

Fowler spent "nearly a month" involving "multiple attempts" before he was able to get the exposed database taken offline. There's no indication as to how long this database was being fed with stolen data, but Fowler notes that its records continued to increase right up until it was taken offline.

As I noted when I covered one of Fowler's previous discoveries involving 40 billion unencrypted records, use strong passwords (ideally through a password manager), never use the same password twice, and use multi-factor authentication to prevent access should a bad actor indeed get their hands on your credentials.

(via Tom's Guide)

What are you doing to protect yourself against data breaches like this? Let me know in the comments section!

Generative AI is slowly and subtly creeping into every part of our lives, and its latest victim is Google's Gmail app. The software giant recently announced that Gmail is entering its Gemini era by rolling out a few AI-powered features intended to make the app's user experience better and more intuitive.

Google revealed that approximately 3 billion people rely on Gmail to connect and get things done. With AI Overviews in inboxes, users should be able to find important information faster and save time by shrinking the contents into a concise summary of key points, just like most other AI bots.

Interestingly, users will also be able to ask their inbox more specific questions, and Gmail will leverage Gemini's capabilities to generate an AI Overview with the answer. In theory, you won't have to search your mind to remember specific keywords used in an particualr email to find it.

Instead, the AI implementation will allow users to use more natural language. For instance, you could ask, “Who was the plumber who gave me a quote for the bathroom renovation last year?” Then Gemini should instantly generate the answer, allowing you to access the details you need from any particular email.

The AI Overview conversation summaries feature is rolling out for everyone for free — however, you'll need a Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription to ask your inbox questions with AI Overviews.

Google says all Gmail users can now use the "Help Me Write" feature to polish or even draft emails from scratch for free. Additionally, they can also use the new "Suggested Replies," which uses the context of your email conversations to provide relevant potential responses. "And next month, we'll be updating Help Me Write with better personalization by bringing context from your other Google apps," Google added.

It's worth noting that the Help Me Write and Suggest Replies features are rolling out to Gmail users for free, but you'll need a Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription for the Proofread feature.

Finally, Gmail is getting a new feature called "AI Inbox," designed to filter out the clutter from critical updates in your mailbox.

Google still promises that it will not train its AI models using data from your Gmail inbox. "Crucially, this analysis happens securely with the privacy protections you expect from Google, keeping your data under your control," Google added. "This lets high-stakes items — like a bill due tomorrow or a dentist reminder — rise to the top."

The feature is currently rolling out to a select group of trusted testers and will reach broad availability in the coming months. If you're against AI infiltrating your Gmail inbox, you can disable the advanced features, though this might prevent you from accessing useful smart features like spell checking and more.

Will you trust Google’s new AI features with your confidential Gmail data? Share your thoughts in the comments and cast your vote in the poll!

Google has been making waves in the generative AI world following the successful launch of its Gemini 3 model, earmarking a new era of intelligence. The model ships with sophisticated reasoning, speed, images, and video capabilities. Gemini 3 is even giving OpenAI's ChatGPT a run for its money, with CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk applauding Google for the successful launch.

Even Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff claimed that he was going to ditch ChatGPT after using it every day for the last 3 years, after interacting with Gemini 3 for just 2 hours. However, the tech giant was in the spotlight last week for all the wrong reasons. A damning report from Malwarebytes claimed that Google uses Gmail's emails to train its AI models, specifically Gemini.

But Google quickly issued a statement, indicating that the user misunderstood Gmail's Smart Features, which ultimately caused confusion. However, the outlet has since retracted the claim in its original report, admitting that it had misconstrued the whole thing.

According to Malwarebytes: "We’ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail’s smart features."

While speaking to The Verge, a Google spokesperson issued the following statement about the issue: “These reports are misleading—we have not changed anyone’s settings, Gmail Smart Features have existed for many years, and we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”

It appears that Google's wording about the feature's capability contributed to the misinterpretation, causing a large number of people to think that the company is using Gmail's content to train its AI models.

Google uses the Smart Features tool in Gmail to scan emails for spam filtering, categorization, and writing suggestions. What's more, the feature is an opt-in experience by default, meaning that users have full control over it and can decide whether or not they want to let it access their data.

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Reportedly, 183 million email accounts and their associated passwords have been exposed in a massive breach. However, it seems the situation has been misunderstood. The confusion began when Have I Been Pwned creator Troy Hunt announced in a blog post that he had added a huge new dataset containing 183 million unique email addresses and passwords, some of which were linked to Gmail.

The dataset didn’t come from a single Gmail hack. Instead, it was compiled from “stealer logs,” which are malware logs that harvest credentials from infected PCs, along with data scraped from the dark web, social media, Tor, and Telegram channels. In other words, Gmail wasn’t breached — but that didn’t stop news outlets from running with the story that it had been.

The 183 million Gmail password leak: what really happened

The dataset was provided to Have I Been Pwned by Ben from Synthient, a U.S. college student who focuses on threat-intelligence aggregation. He collects threat data from malware-infected devices, online forums, and dark-web channels, processing millions of new credentials every day.

The total volume of data amounted to 3.5 terabytes, spanning roughly 23 billion rows. It included two main types of information:

• Stealer logs, which are credentials captured directly from malware running on infected computers.
• Credential-stuffing lists, which are username and password combinations gathered from previous breaches and reused elsewhere.

To verify the data, Troy Hunt ran scripts to determine how much of the dataset was new compared to existing entries in Have I Been Pwned. Out of 94,000 sampled addresses, 92 percent had been seen before in earlier leaks, meaning most of it was recycled. However, there were still around 16 million new addresses that had not previously appeared in any breach.

The false reporting likely came from people seeing Gmail addresses paired with passwords and assuming that Gmail itself had been breached. Once those claims began spreading across social media and news outlets, it caused unnecessary panic among users who believed they might be affected.

How to check if your Gmail and Email accounts are safe

If you’re like me and still slightly concerned about whether your data is floating somewhere in the endless corners of the web, you can visit Have I Been Pwned and enter your Gmail or any other email address. The site will tell you whether your details have appeared in a breach and, if so, which one.

If you do appear in a breach, change your password immediately. Choose something new, unique, and strong, avoiding anything you’ve used before. While it can be a hassle, using different passwords for each account is one of the most effective ways to stay protected.

It’s also worth enabling two-factor authentication on your Gmail and any other service that supports it. This extra step means that even if someone has your password, they won’t be able to access your account without your verification code or device approval.

Finally, consider using a password manager to help you keep track of everything. Google’s own password manager. Microsoft Edge has a password manager too or tools like 1Password and Bitwarden can generate secure passwords automatically and warn you if any of them appear in a future breach. It’s an easy way to stay one step ahead without memorising dozens of logins.

FAQ

What you need to know

• Microsoft solutions consultant Sam Mitrovic recently published a blog post highlighting how he almost lost access to his Gmail account to hackers using a super realistic AI scam.
• The hackers purported to be part of Google's Support team (with discretely disguised phone number and email address) to lure the consultant into sharing intricate and confidential details about his Gmail account.
• While the phone number was featured on Google's Business Page, the consultant discovered that the email address used to contact him was under a non-Google domain.

Over the past few years, the emergence of generative AI and its broad adoption across sectors, including medicine, computing, and education, has promoted effectiveness and efficiency. However, hackers are also seemingly hopping onto the AI train and using the tech's sophisticated capabilities to lure unsuspecting users into their well-crafted attacks.

In a blog post by Microsoft solutions consultant Sam Mitrovic, hackers are leveraging a sophisticated attack, which the consultant calls a "super realistic AI scam call," to trick Gmail users. Perhaps more interestingly, the consultant claims that the ploy is "super realistic" and that even the most experienced users could fall victim to the ploy unsuspectingly. 

Over 2.5 billion people leveraging Google's Gmail service could be placed in a compromising position, potentially allowing bad actors to access confidential information they could use to cause harm or sell on the dark web.

Mitrovic discovered the sophisticated ploy when a notification popped up on his device, asking him to approve a Gmail account recovery attempt. Hackers are notorious for using this old trick to lure unsuspecting users to their traps. Luckily, Mitrovic declined the request and went about his business. Later, he received a notification indicating he'd missed a call from Google Sydney.

Things got interesting when he relived the same experience a week later. However, Mitrovic picked up the call, which purported to be from Google Sydney. Upon receiving the call, the consultant was notified that he was speaking to Google's Support team. He further indicated that the team had flagged suspicious activity on his account and coincidentally tracked it back to the week before. The representative claimed the hackers accessed Mitrovic's account and downloaded data. 

At this point, the Microsoft consultant's suspicion was at an all-time high, prompting him to cross-check the caller's ID on Google. While he established that the phone number was legitimately from Google's business page, Mitrovic still held onto his suspicions. As you may know, attackers use sophisticated ploys to mask their true identity.

Mitrovic requested the representative to email him, which would help him determine their identity. While the email almost fooled the Microsoft consultant, one of the addresses in the "to" field sold them out as it was discretely disguised under a non-Google domain. 

As he concluded the blog post, Mitrovic indicated that the main giveaway of the scam was when he received the call:

"The caller said Hello, I ignored it then about 10 seconds later, then said Hello again. At this point, I released it as an AI voice as the pronunciation and spacing were too perfect."

According to Mitrovic:

"The scams are getting increasingly sophisticated, more convincing and are deployed at ever larger scale. People are busy and this scam sounded and looked legitimate enough that I would give them an A for their effort. Many people are likely to fall for it. There are many tools to fight the scammers, however, at an individual level the best tool is still vigilance, doing the basic checks as above or seeking assistance from someone you trust."

Mitrovic says he dropped the call immediately after discovering he was speaking to bad actors who could potentially solicit his login credentials and compromise his Gmail account.

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Microsoft is doubling down on security as hackers embrace AI

Google recently announced its partnership with the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) and DNS Research Federation (DNS RF) to fight sophisticated attacks. Through the new Global Signal Exchange program, users can get real-time information regarding sophisticated online scams and fraud techniques being leveraged by attackers, potentially placing them out of harm's way. 

Microsoft has also suffered a cascade of security failures. However, during the company's earnings report for FY24 Q3, the CEO Satya Nadella indicated, "We are doubling down on this very important work, putting security above all else, before all other features and investments."

Part of the company's efforts toward bolstering better security across its tech stack include holding top Microsoft executives accountable for cybersecurity by tying a section of their compensation packages to meeting the set security thresholds. It also promises to expedite its response time when security issues are raised, prompting remediation. 

What you need to know

• Google's cofounders envisioned it as an AI company at launch, and at some point even developed a DALL-E 3 iteration and AI-powered chatbot dubbed Lambda.
• The company veered off the mission after Alphabet's reorg in 2015, placing Sundar Pichai at the helm as the cofounders took a backseat.
• Google's recent attempts to venture into the AI space (Google AI Overviews) have received backlash from users for generating erroneous responses and recommendations.

Apple and Google are often considered late bloomers in the AI landscape compared to Microsoft which hopped onto the bandwagon and adopted the tech across its products and services. In the just-concluded antitrust case, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google is a monopolist in the search landscape due to its dominance in the category.

The company will likely appeal the antitrust ruling, pushing regulation measures beyond the horizon. Experts, including a former Google engineer, say the company has bigger fish to fry with OpenAI's SearchGPT tool than the antitrust monopolist ruling and regulation.

Google is vastly equipped with the data, talent, and computing resources to potentially compete with key players in the AI space like Microsoft and OpenAI neck and neck. However, its efforts and ventures in AI have been shot in the foot. For instance, Google's AI Overviews feature highlighted the company's unpreparedness to venture into the space after erroneously recommending eating rocks, and glue, and potentially even committing suicide.

Interestingly, when Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched the company in 1998, they envisioned it as an AI company. Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit recently touched base with the Y Combinator Startup podcast crew to shed more light on the company's founding mission and missed opportunities in the AI landscape, despite its vast resources (via Business Insider). 

How Google missed opportunities in the AI landscape

Admittedly, Google's efforts in the AI landscape can't go unnoticed. Like its competitors, the company has an AI-powered chatbot dubbed Google Gemini (formerly Google Bard). It can generate content and works seamlessly with Google services like Gmail, Docs, and more to enhance productivity. 

However, for more sophisticated and advanced features like advanced text generation and coding assistance, you'll need the $20 subscription for Gemini Advanced. Gemini Advanced competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus and Microsoft's Copilot Pro.

As you may know, AI heavily relies on tools like Google for training. Based on this premise, Google should be at the forefront of this technology since it's well-positioned to leverage these resources. However, the company is unable to tap into these opportunities.

According to Buchheit, Google seemingly lost its AI vision when its parent company, Alphabet, reshuffled it and made Sundar Pichai the CEO in 2015. Google's founders seemingly took a backseat, leaving little drive toward the company's AI visions as more effort was placed on maintaining its dominance in search. 

Google leverages its dominance in search to sell ads to users, but cutting-edge and emerging tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are increasingly becoming a threat to this business model. These AI-powered tools can generate simple, bite-size answers to queries, completely redefining how users interact with the internet. 

It's worth noting that these tools are occasionally riddled with challenges such as misinformation, downtimes, and more. As these issues become more prevalent, users are inclined to use the conventional way of searching for things on the internet — Google. 

According to Buchheit:

"A search company has an inherent tension between profitability and giving the right answers because there's always a temptation that if you make your results worse, people will actually click on more ads." 

In the early days, before the Alphabet reorg, Google was already ahead of its time. Buchheit says Google had developed a DALL-E 3 iteration and AI-powered chatbot dubbed Lambda (originally called Human because it was "conscious"). The image generational tool Image gen was prohibited from generating images in human form.

"A lot of Google's business is just to deal with regulators," added Buchheit. "AI is an inherently disruptive technology." The company's AI mission and vision took a backseat as a bold attempt to be risk-averse to avoid the challenges that come with the tech.

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What you need to know

• Multiple Outlook users have reported their emails aren't reaching Gmail recipients.
• This is predominantly because of Google's new mandatory bulk sender authentication requirements for Gmail, flagging Outlook emails as spam.
• Microsoft acknowledged the issue indicating the issue is affecting users with Outlook.com country domains, recommended a temporary workaround, and is working on a permanent fix.
• The tech giant recommends adding an Outlook.com alias to your impacted account to contact Gmail users.

Google and Microsoft are at it again. As reported by multiple users across social media platforms, Gmail is blocking Microsoft Outlook emails after Google recently implemented new mandatory bulk sender authentication requirements for Gmail.

The new mandatory bulk sender authentication requirements are reportedly the root cause of this issue. As a result, some Outlook emails sent to Gmail users are being flagged as spam, thus making it difficult for the information to get to the recipient.

These new requirements are in place to keep spam, phishing attacks, and malware at bay. Google is expected to fully implement the requirements in June, as part of its broader efforts to provide users with a smooth, seamless, and secure email experience.  

In such an instance, you might get the following message explaining why the Outlook message was flagged as spam in your inbox:

"Remote server returned message detected as spam -> 550 5.7.1 [[ IPAddress]] Gmail has detected that this message;is likely suspicious due to the very low reputation of the sending;domain. To best protect our users from spam, the message has been;blocked. For more information, go to Why has Gmail blocked my messages?"

Microsoft acknowledged the issue and indicated the issue is impacting some users with Outlook.com country domains, preventing them from sending emails to Gmail. While Microsoft is actively working towards resolving the issue, it has already provided a temporary workaround that will help users circumvent it as highlighted below:

"Until the Outlook.com Team can address the issue use the following workaround: 
Add an Outlook.com alias to your account and send email to Gmail users using that alias. For more information, go to Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com."

For context, an Outlook alias is an additional email address linked to your Outlook.com account. It also shares the inbox, contact list, and account settings with your primary address. 

Gmail and Outlook's rivalry 

This isn't the first time we've witnessed such an occurrence. Last year, Google shipped a long-anticipated feature to Gmail users, ultimately allowing them to respond to emails using emojis. The feature is limited to Gmail account holders, making it impossible to use on other accounts such as Outlook. 

Microsoft has had its fair share of issues with Outlook. From users blatantly indicating that they hate the new Outlook to Microsoft forcefully upgrading users to the new Outlook app for Windows before it imminently replaces Mail & Calendar apps.

What you need to know

• Google is shipping several features to its Google Workspace apps.
• The features are designed to make it easier to use these apps, including Gmail on tablets and foldable phones. 
• It's now possible to open a link or attachment on Gmail's native app side-by-side with an email on tablets and foldable phones.
• Opening YouTube or Google Doc links will directly to the corresponding app on the other half of the screen.

Google recently announced a host of features shipping to its Google Workspace apps. The new features will essentially make it easier to use easier to these platforms on tablets and foldable phones.

Foldable phones are quickly gaining popularity among users, mainly because of their functionality and multitasking capabilities. They also double up as great substitutes for PCs, especially when one is on the move. While the large-screen real estate on these devices is an added bonus, it may, at times, not provide the practicality that the user requires. 

The new features will help fix this issue, according to a spot by Android Central. For instance, it's now possible for Gmail users to open links or attachments side-by-side with an email. According to Google, once you click on an attachment or link, the screen on your tablet or foldable is automatically split into two. 

The split-screen view feature is essentially designed to boost productivity for users by allowing users to open and view links on the same app rather than redirecting them to a corresponding app. However, another report by 9to5Google indicates that YouTube and Google Docs links will launch in their corresponding apps.

It's reminiscent of Microsoft Edge's Split Screen feature

As you might already be aware, Microsoft's Chromium browser, Edge, ships with a similar feature dubbed Split Screen. It essentially serves the same purpose as the new feature in Gmail, only that it's browser-based. 

Recently, we've seen Microsoft ship a couple of neat functionalities to the feature, including the capability to drag and drop a tab to open it alongside another webpage and vertical layout.

Google also shipped a neat feature to Gmail users that allow them to respond to emails using emoji reactions. However, the downside to this addition is that it's exclusive to Gmail users. An attempt to use this feature while responding to an email from an Outlook user won't work. Instead, the emoji reaction is sent as a standard email.

What you need to know

• Google is shipping a long-anticipated feature to Gmail users. 
• You'll be able to quickly respond to emails using emoji reactions.
• The feature is already available for Android users and will roll out to iOS and web users in the next few months.
• Since the feature is limited to Gmail account holders, it won't work with other types of accounts, such as Outlook.

Google has seemingly played catch-up with Microsoft by shipping a long-anticipated feature to Gmail. The new feature will let users respond to emails using emoji reactions, a feature that has been available for Outlook users since 2021. It allows users to quickly acknowledge receipt of an email without necessarily having to respond with text.

The feature is already available for Android users, but it's also expected to ship to iOS and web users in the next few months. As highlighted by Google, the feature is designed to let users express themselves while simultaneously having the capability of responding to emails with emojis.

While the addition helps Gmail catch up to Outlook, Google's implementation of emoji reactions is exclusive to Gmail accounts. That means the feature will not work as expected for users with other email addresses. Instead, the reactions will be received as a standard email, making the feature redundant and annoying for users without Gmail accounts.

Google further indicated that emoji reactions may have a different appeal or even appear as an email with a link that says “[Name] reacted via Gmail” when responding to emails from anyone without a Gmail account. The company also highlighted several other reasons why issues might occur:

• Use an older version of the Gmail app. Update your Gmail app.
• Set your Conversation view to off. Learn about conversation settings.
• Don't have a Gmail address. Learn how to create a Gmail account.
• Use a third-party email, like Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook.
• Use a work or school account.

Google also listed several reasons why users might be unable to access the feature:

• You have a work or school account. Learn more about work or school accounts.
• The message is sent to a group email list.
• A message is sent to more than 20 recipients.
• You're in BCC.
• You’ve already sent more than 20 reactions to the same message.
• You open the email in another email provider, like Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook.
• A message is encrypted with Client-side encryption. Learn about Gmail Client-side encryption.
• The sender has a custom reply-to address.

Analysis: Gmail's new emoji feature is saddening

This is a long-anticipated feature that many users are happy to see coming to Gmail. However, the fact that it is limited to Gmail accounts simply beats its purpose. Anyone who doesn't use Gmail could potentially be spammed by messages containing a single emoji. Imagine if you are in a thread with several people and get a dozen emails of a thumbs up. What purpose does the emoji reactions feature in Gmail serve if it's limited to certain users?

Admittedly this is a new feature coming to this platform, so there's a chance that it will eventually play nicely with other email providers, such as Outlook.

What do you think of the new emoji feature? Let us know in the comments below.

What you need to know

• Microsoft is rolling out new updates to its Outlook for Windows app.
• The app now supports Gmail accounts, with Yahoo and iCloud coming soon.
• Microsoft Editor is now also available when writing emails.

Microsoft has announced a handful of new features and updates that are now rolling out for users that are testing the new Outlook for Windows app. Today's updates introduce support for third-party Gmail accounts, including full support for Gmail calendar and contacts.

Being able to sign in to the new Outlook app with Gmail is a big milestone, as it's the first real step towards supporting third-party accounts. Until now, the new Outlook for Windows app has only supported Microsoft personal and work accounts. 

The company says support for other third-party email services, such as Yahoo and iCloud, will be coming in the future. Other new additions in Outlook for Windows today include built-in Microsoft Editor support when writing emails, polls within emails, delay sending emails, and more.

Here's a rundown of the new features:

• Rich editing, spelling, and auto complete suggestions powered by Microsoft Editor. 
• The ability to send emails with polls to help make decisions quicker. (Work and School accounts only) 
• Delay the delivery of an email for up to 10 seconds so you have a chance to “undo” sending – always an excellent feature if you have a typo or accidentally forgot someone on an  email – or just want to make a few quick changes. 
• The ability to join a Skype or Teams call directly from the new Outlook for Windows. 
• The ability to pin important emails to the top of your inbox – helping ensure you don’t forget to follow up on those most important messages.
• Google calendar support
• The ability to add multiple shared calendars
• Supporting multiple time zones
• Adding daily weather in Calendar view

Microsoft has also listed some features that are coming soon, including more visual and personalization options, a new calendar UI, offline support, and native ICS file type support. 

The Outlook for Windows app is currently in preview and is available as an A/B test for Windows Insiders currently. To see if you're eligible for the new Outlook app, head to the Windows Mail app, and if there's a "Try the new Outlook" toggle in the top right, you can enable it now.

What you need to know

• The Gmail app for Android has been optimized for the Surface Duo and can now span across both displays of the foldable.
• The app shows all of your emails on the left screen and a specific email on the right screen.

Microsoft Surface Duo owners have a newly optimized app to use on their foldable. The Gmail app for Android can now span across both displays of the Surface Duo, taking advantage of the extra screen real estate provided by the unique device. First spotted by Reddit user Path_Fantastic, a recent update to the Gmail app added the functionality.

According to comments on that Reddit post, the update brings Gmail to version 2022.07.24.464902190.Release. Some users haven't seen the update yet, so it may take a bit to make its way to all Surface Duo devices. Based on what people have shared on Reddit, the spanning seems to work well on the Surface Duo 2 and the original Surface Duo.

When spanned, Gmail shows a list of emails on the left screen and a selected email on the right screen. Outlook on the Surface Duo works the same way, so the interface should be familiar for Duo owners.

With dual-screen devices and foldables becoming more popular, the Surface Duo line could see a wave of optimized apps. Samsung announced the Galaxy Fold 4 last week, and Android 12L is on the way from Google as well. While slab-style phones aren't going anywhere, foldables are trending upward, which should mean good news for the Duo.

What you need to know

• A number of Google's services have gone down.
• It is currently unclear what has caused the interruption in service.
• It is also unclear when Google will restore access to services.

As reported by a number of users on Twitter and server monitoring websites like DownDetector, it appears that a number of Google's services are currently down for users.

One user on Twitter has reported that they are unable to access both Gmail or the Google Play Store.

Another user has reported their Google Nest services are not working either. This includes services such as Google Home and even being able to record with their Nest camera.

It is currently unclear what has caused the interruption to Google's services, or when the company will be able to restore access for its customers.

What you need to know

• Some users received a warning from Google regarding SwiftKey's access to Gmail.
• The warning is likely related to upcoming API changes that limit third-party access.
• The warning mentions a deadline for SwiftKey to comply with data policy requirements.

Some users of SwiftKey, Microsoft's AI keyboard, have received warning emails from Google regarding SwiftKey's access to Gmail. Google is changing its APIs regarding access to user data within Gmail, and there's a good chance that this warning email is related to those changes.

Users have the option to grant Swiftkey access to emails on their Gmail accounts. This allows the keyboard to learn words used within emails and help reduce effort from users to add custom words and tendencies to their keyboard.

The email states, "if these apps are unable to meet the deadline to comply with our updated data policy requirements, they'll lose access to your account from 15 July 2019." This seems to indicate that Microsoft has time to meet Google's new requirements. The cutoff for access if the new guidelines aren't met is only weeks away so we'll likely have more details soon.

Affordable accessories that'll pair perfectly with your PC

Every one of these awesome PC accessories will enhance your everyday experience — and none cost more than $30.

KLIM Aim RGB gaming mouse ($30 at Amazon)

Whether you're a gamer or not, this is an absurdly good mouse for the price. It's ambidextrous, has a responsive sensor, a braided cable, tank-like build quality, and, yes, it has RGB lighting, though you can turn it off if that's not your thing.

AmazonBasics USB speakers ($16 at Amazon)

These neat little speakers may only pack 2.4W of total power, but don't let that fool you. For something so small you get a well-rounded sound and a stylish design. And they only cost $16.

Razer mouse bungee ($20 at Amazon)

Use a wired mouse? You need a mouse bungee to keep your cable tidy and free of snags. You get no drag on the cable, and this one has subtle styling, a rust-resistant spring and a weighted base, all for $20.

WunderMail is a new addition to the Microsoft Store, coming out on October 5, 2018. It's built on the Gmail APIs, not IMAP, so you get access to features that are usually only available on first-party Gmail apps including labels and categories.

It also features a gorgeous design, merging the Fluent Design language with Gmail's functionality. It works well with touch or keyboard and mouse making it a good email client for tablets, PCs, and 2-1s.

You can use WunderMail for free or upgrade to premium for $9.99 per year. Upgrading to premium removes ads and helps support the developer of the app.

See in Microsoft Store

Native-like Gmail on Windows 10

WunderMail is made by the makers of EasyMail, but WunderMail takes a different approach. Instead of being a web-wrapper or being built on IMAP, WunderMail is a native UWP app built on Gmail APIs. This means that you get access to labels and categories for your email. WunderMail also has offline support and real-time push notifications that show up in the Action Center of Windows 10.

All of this comes together to make an impressive Gmail app. It's lightweight, full of Gmail features, and looks incredible. I'm not the email client elitist that some people are, but I'd say that WunderMail is one of the best-looking email experiences I've ever used. It's the perfect combination of Fluent Design and minimalism.

An impressive start

WunderMail's current version is an impressive first release in the Microsoft Store. Our executive editor Daniel Rubino and I both got early access to WunderMail and were impressed, especially by its looks. Its design is already excellent and shows promise for things to come. That being said, there are a few things that are missing from WunderMail that I'd like to see in the future.

Two features that I'd like to see are Timeline Support and a Dark mode. The developer of WunderMail has stated that both of these are being worked on, but I'm disappointed that at least dark mode isn't available right now. WunderMail has a stunning light mode, so I'm optimistic that the dark mode and other design updates will maintain the high standard the app already has.

Overall thoughts

WunderMail is the best Gmail client that I've used on Windows 10. It has a brilliant design that matches Windows 10 and features that you'd usually only expect to be available on Google-made Gmail apps.

The only downside to the app is a relatively high price tag to remove ads. A recurring $9.99 per year price is going to be too steep for some, though that depends on your budget and what you want in an email client.

The app is missing a few features and design elements that I'd like to see, but many of these are being worked on. Overall, WunderMail has arrived in the Microsoft Store and quickly earned its spot as a top Gmail client.

Pros

• Feature-rich Gmail experience
• Stunning design
• Support for multiple accounts

Cons

• Annually recurring price for premium

See in Microsoft Store

Google doesn't seem eager to support Windows 10, but thanks to some third-party clients and Google's PWAs, you can access many of Google's services on your PC.

Here are the best ways to access Google services on Windows 10.

myTube!

myTube! by Ryken Studio has been a highly recommended Windows 10 app for a long time. It works well, looks great, and packs the YouTube viewing experience full of features. It has compact overlay mode, background audio, and many more features. It also improves the general layout of YouTube by making easier to read comments and add your own comments while continuing to watch videos.

It's available for Windows 10, Xbox One, Windows 10 Mobile, and Windows Mixed Reality for $0.99.

See in Microsoft Store

EasyMail for Gmail

EasyMail for Gmail brings Gmail and Google's Calendar, Notes, and many other services into one app. The Fluent Design makes the app fit right in on Windows 10 and you can easily jump between different services on multiple accounts.

The app impressed me during my review as it also integrated well with Windows 10 features such as Windows Hello. If you're a Gmail user, I highly recommend giving EasyMail for Gmail a look.

It's available for free on Windows 10, but you can pay to remove ads ($4.99) and pay even more to do away with the ads and add Windows Hello support ($9.99).

See in Microsoft Store

Google Photos PWA

While Google and Microsoft don't always get along, they've both decided to push progressive web apps (PWAs). These allow developers to make one version of a service that works across different platforms. Google Photos was recently converted to a PWA, bringing a better Google Photos experience to Windows 10.

It doesn't support every feature that you see on Android. Most notably, you can't automatically upload photos through the PWA version of Google Photos. However, it is a nice way to look through your images and you can upload things manually if you'd like.

There are some roadblocks to get around such as inconvenient "installation" and it feels a bit out of place on Windows 10, but the service does work.

Android Messages

Android Messages allows you to sync SMS messages from your phone to your PC. To set it up you scan a QR code through your phone. You can then view and send messages directly through your PC.

There are a few different options to use Android Messages on your Windows 10 device. Regardless of what you're using on your Windows 10 device, you'll have to use the free Android Messages app on your Android phone.

See Android Messages in Google Play

Honorary mentions

There are plenty of other options when it comes to using Google services on Windows 10, though some of them fall short compared to other apps.

Google Maps PWA

Google is converting more services over to PWAs, which is great, but Google Maps can't track your location in the PWA version. This is a key feature for Google Maps that's omission cripples the service quite a bit.

To use the Google Maps PWA just go to maps.google.com?force=pwa

Google Drive

There are many cloud storage options on Windows 10 and you can download Google Drive's Backup and Sync program to bring Google Drive into your File Explorer. It works very well and makes backing up your photos, documents, and other content easy. It doesn't have some of the features that Dropbox and OneDrive have worked into their Windows 10 programs but it gets the job done and is great for anyone who uses Google Drive.

Download Google Drive

Google Chrome

Chrome dominates the browser space on PCs. In addition to browsing the web, it can expand into many other services through extensions and Chrome apps.

Download Google Chrome

Summing up the Google experience on Windows 10

It's always worth pointing out that the Google experience would be significantly better if Google would work together with Microsoft, but the overall Google experience is good on PCs. You can access Google's popular services on Windows 10 and while they don't all work as well as their Android counterparts, most of them are more than serviceable.

Third-party app developers have always done a good job of closing the Google app gap and even Google is helping now with PWAs. Hopefully this trend continues and the Google experience gets even better on PCs.

Google has a wide range of internet services. Unfortunately, they don't all have apps on Windows 10. EasyMail for Gmail brings a group of popular Google services into one convenient app.

The app is available for free on Windows 10, but you can pay to remove ads ($4.99) and pay even more to do away with the ads and add Windows Hello support ($9.99).

See in Microsoft Store

A feature-rich Google experience

Whether for personal use, work, or any other reason, many people end up with multiple email accounts. I use Outlook for two jobs and I still manage two Gmail accounts for other things. EasyMail for Gmail supports up to five accounts and makes it easy to toggle between them. The notification badges on each account are a nice touch.

In addition to supporting email, the app also supports Google Calendar, contacts and notes. This makes it easy to check your schedule when you get an email with a plan, see the notes you recorded on other devices, or contact anyone you've communicated with previously.

When it comes to email, EasyMail for Gmail handles it well. It is a web-wrapped Gmail interface but that means that you get all of Gmail's web features rather than a stripped down version.

Windows 10 integration

Gmail and Google calendar are easily accessible on Windows 10 devices via your browser, but EasyMail for Gmail adds enough features to make it worth a look. The app supports Live tiles, has a dark theme, and if you upgrade to EasyMail Plus, it supports Windows Hello. You can also see the number of missed emails you have on your Lockscreen or taskbar and get notifications for email. All of these things make EasyMail for Gmail feel more native to Windows 10 than just opening up Gmail in a browser.

Overall thoughts on EasyMail for Gmail

At first glance, EasyMail for Gmail looks like it's just a web-wrapper, and while it does indeed wrap the Gmail experience into an app, it does much more than that. The clean design and addition of Windows 10 features make it feel more native than using a web browser.

The biggest drawback of an app like this is that it has stiff competition. There's no shortage of email apps that support Gmail and Google Calendar. Another drawback is the relatively high price for premium features.

While some may opt for a natively-built email app or email client, EasyMail for Gmail provides a good experience for those invested in Google's web platform and Microsoft's OS.

Pros

• Integrates Google Calendar and Gmail into one app
• Clean design
• Windows integration

Cons

• Faces tough competition in a crowded app area
• Relatively high price for premium features

See in Microsoft Store

Google's Inbox might be in a state of limbo right now, but Gmail is alive and well, with a fresh new coat of paint and a handful of new features focused on productivity and security. While this may not be a big deal to those who use dedicated apps to manage their emails, there are still a ton of people who are happy to check their email straight from their web browser, and these changes could be a big deal to those people.

Some of Gmail's new features won't be rolling out for another few weeks (namely confidential mode), but if you're itching to test out the redesign, there's still plenty to enjoy right now. Here are some of the first things you might want to do.

Upgrade to the new Gmail

You can't enjoy Gmail's new features until you're using the new version! Luckily, making the switch only takes a few clicks, but again, the option to upgrade is still rolling out, so you may not be able to follow these steps just yet.

1. From the main Gmail screen, click the gear icon in the upper right corner.
2. In the dropdown menu, click Try the new Gmail.
3. You'll be taken to the redesigned homepage. Click Next on the welcome splash screen.
4. From here, you can choose your display density. If you manage a lot of emails, you may want to try the compact view. If, like me, you make liberal use of the archive and trash tools and try to keep a clean inbox, you'll get the most information at a glance from the default view.

Once that's all said and done, you should be looking at the fancy new Gmail interface! Don't worry if you change your mind on the display density or the redesign itself — both options sit in the same gear icon as before.

Customize your sidebar

One of the first things you might notice with the new Gmail interface is the addition of a column of apps on the righthand side. This is different from the grid icon at the top of screen, which houses shortcuts to Google's other services — instead, this sidebar is home to mini apps that extend out from the side for quick access.

By default, the sidebar holds miniaturized versions of Google Calendar, Keep, and the new Tasks, but you can add more apps by clicking the plus button beneath the other icons.

The best part about these apps is that you can still click and scroll through the rest of the Gmail interface without the column collapsing. This can be useful for anything from taking notes from certain emails and Hangouts conversations to checking your calendar for prior appointments before making plans.

Snooze now to remember later!

If you're like me, you forget to reply to important emails from time to time. Don't worry, I won't tell, but Gmail's new snooze feature can help minimize unhappy clients and missed appointments. Just hover your mouse over any email you might need to remember, then click the rightmost icon.

You'll see a popup window prompting you to choose how long to snooze the email. You can choose from presets like tomorrow or this weekend, or set the exact time and date yourself. Once that time comes, the email will move from your snoozed folder back to the top of your inbox as if it had just been sent out. If you can get yourself into the habit of snoozing important emails, you might never forget to pay a bill or respond to your boss again.

Hold out for new features

Most of Gmail's new privacy-focused features, including expiring emails and two-factor authentication on a per-email basis within confidential mode, still haven't rolled out just yet. You'll have to wait a few more weeks for those features, but it never hurts to get familiar with the new interface in the mean time.

Are you using Gmail's redesigned interface yet, or are you holding onto the classic view until Google has finished rolling out every new feature? Let us know in the comments below!

The new Gmail web interface that was announced just a couple weeks ago has launched, bringing both a refreshed design and also a handful of new features. The overall look is a bit cleaner, like what we saw in the Google Calendar refresh earlier this year, with lots of Material Design influences. There are new features like a "confidential mode," email snoozing, better integration with other Google apps, Smart Replies like in Inbox, an improved offline mode and more.

That's all great, but it's actually not enabled by default yet. Here's how you can skip the line and check out the new Gmail interface right away:

1. Load Gmail on the web and sign in.
2. In the top-right corner of the inbox, find the cog/gear icon and click it.
3. If it's made available for your account, you'll see an option for "Try the new Gmail" at the very top — click it.
4. After a page reload, you'll have to click Next on the pop-up and then choose a view for your inbox.
   • Most people will like "Default" because it shows the most information per message, but "Comfortable" is a good choice as well.
   • You can always change this view later at any time from the cog/gear icon.
5. Click OK and you're using the new interface!
   • If you want to go back to the "old" interface, repeat the steps from the cog/gear icon to return to it.

The option isn't available for everyone right away, and Google says it will be rolling it out to all users over the course of several weeks before finally enabling it by default. Most of the team here at Android Central has the option to enable the interface now, so there's a good chance you will too. One of the caveats here is that the "confidential mode" isn't available for a few more weeks — so don't be surprised when it isn't available after you make the switch. Google will likely be refining and improving small parts of the interface as it rolls out to everyone as well.

After enabling the new interface and giving it a try, what are your thoughts on the changes? Let us know in the comments!

You can now connect Gmail to Cortana on Windows 10, providing access to aspects of your account with Microsoft's digital assistant. Like other connected services, connecting your Gmail account will allow you to use Cortana to quickly access information from your account, including support for your calendar, mail, and contacts.

To get started, you can add your account by clicking on the Windows 10 search bar and navigating to the Cortana Notebook section on the left side. From there, select "Connected Services" and "Add a Service." Gmail will be listed along with a number of other services. Simply select Gmail, then click "Connect." From there, you'll be prompted in a separate window to sign into your Gmail account and provide permission for Cortana to access and manage your email, Google Drive files, contacts, and calendars.

Gmail joins several other connected services available to Cortana, such as Knowmail, LinkedIn, Office 365, Outlook, Skype, and Dynamics CRM. Along with standard Cortana on your PC, connecting to Gmail will give Harman Kardon Invoke users access to information, such as multiple calendars, on the device.

Thanks for the tip, James!

Microsoft is gearing up to give Gmail users a little love in the Windows 10 Mail & Calendar apps. The tech giant announced some new features, including Focused Inbox, are coming to Gmail users, with Windows Insiders getting the first crack.

The feature updates are already things that are available to those with Office 365 and Outlook.com email addresses, but they'll be a first for Gmail users. Along with Focused Inbox, Gmail users will get access to travel and package tracking, as well as a faster and improved search. From Microsoft:

Windows Insiders will get a first shot at testing these features, but Microsoft says not all Insiders will see the changes right away. The features will roll out gradually "over the next few weeks," and you'll be able to tell when you have access to them when you receive a prompt in the Mail & Calendar apps to update your Gmail account settings.

Google says that an issue with adding Gmail accounts to Windows 10 Mobile's Outlook Mail client has now been fixed.

Windows 10 Mobile users in our forums and elsewhere started reporting this issue a few weeks ago. People who tried to add a new Gmail account in the Mail app got a "Your browser isn't supported" error message instead. Some people found workarounds to this issue, but just for emails and not for syncing contacts or calendar events.

This weekend, a Google rep posted on the company's support forums (via The Inquirer) apologizing for the Gmail issues and stated the problem has now been resolved:

The rep did not offer a statement on what caused the problem in the first place. Let us know if you can add Gmail accounts to Mail in Windows 10 Mobile in the comments!

Download Mail and Calendar from the Windows Store

Windows 10 Mobile users now have a workaround so they can add their Gmail account to their Mail client.

There have been many online reports in our fourms and elsewhere from Windows 10 Mobile users who have been unable to add a new Gmail account to the Windows 10 Mobile Mail & Contacts apps; they have instead been getting a "Your browser isn't supported" error message.

Thankfully, "Snickler" over at XDA Developers forums has posted a way he discovered to get around this problem:

• Open the Account settings in the Mail app
• When you see the "Choose an account" menu, click "Other account" which is right above Advanced setup
• Enter your full Gmail email address and password. IF YOU HAVE 2-FACTOR AUTH ENABLED, YOU MUST CREATE AN APPLICATION PASSWORD AND USE THAT INSTEAD
• From there you should start getting e-mail

There is one thing to note about this method. It will only work with email; this workaround does not sync up calendar or contact info.

As to the million dollar question why this is happening now and who is going to fix it first - Microsoft or Google - we are just not sure yet. Windows Central is reaching out to try to find more, but so far, adding new Google accounts to a Windows 10 Mobile device will be problematic.

Thanks again to "Snickler" for the tip!

Download Mail and Calendar from the Windows Store

A Russian hacker is apparently claiming to have obtained hundreds of millions of login credentials for various email services. While the single-largest set of data appears to have come from Mail.ru, details from millions of Microsoft, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts are said to be part of the breach.

The data breach was uncovered by Hold Security, according to Reuters:

In total, it appears that 40 million Yahoo Mail credentials were compromised, along with 33 million Microsoft accounts, and almost 24 million from Gmail. Thousands of these accounts are said to belong to employees of major U.S. companies.

Now might be a good time to change your password, and perhaps enable two-step authentication for your accounts if you can.

Beginner's Tips Series!

About a year ago, I decided to move away from using Gmail as my primary email address, in favor of Outlook.com. I initially considered it way back at the end of 2012 when Google decided it was going to drop support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), but I had been using Gmail for over a decade and was, frankly, just too lazy. Finally, after growing more and more concerned about the privacy of my email data, I bit the bullet and made the switch.

Though I had been using Gmail for so long, the transition was generally painless. One of the most important things that I needed to transfer over, was my list of Contacts. Thankfully, that too, was very straightforward.

I know that many of Windows Phone Central's readers are pretty technically savvy, and/or have already been through this process, so this may be old hat for them. But for those of you who are just making this transition and may need a helping hand, here is a step-by-step on how to transfer your Google Contacts to Outlook.

1. First, log into your Google contacts page. Similarly, you can log into Gmail, then click Gmail in the upper-left corner above the Compose button and select Contacts.
2. Once you are in Contacts, click on the More button under the search field, then select Export
3. Choose All Contacts, unless you only want to export a specific group.

4. Choose Google CSV format, then click Export and save the file to your Desktop or folder of your choosing. It may seem counter-intuitive not to use the Outlook CSV format, but Microsoft's own instructions say to use the Google CSV.
5. Next, log into your Outlook.com People hub. You can also log into Outlook.com, then click drop-down arrow in the top left and select People.
6. Click the Start Import arrow under Import Contacts, then select Google on the next screen

7. Browse to the CSV file that you exported from Google, Then upload it.

8. Outlook will then compile the list of Contacts and ask you to confirm that it is correct.

9. If everything looks good, click the Import button and you should now see your Google Contacts in Outlook.com

That's it. Simple right?

Let us know what questions you have or what challenges you've run into the Comments section below.

If you have to use Gmail for work, there are very few, if any, reliable email clients for Windows Phone beyond MetroMail. But besides Gmail, the MetroMail app also enables Outlook and IMAP with PUSH IDLE support for instant notifications. In other words, it's quite powerful and useful for those needing an app with "100% feature-parity with the official Gmail iOS app (minus server-side drafts)", or for those who need a potent IMAP client.

Today, version 3.0 is hot off the presses. MetroMail 3.0 is so new you may not be able to find it in the Store yet. Luckily, we have the full scoop and Windows Phone 8.1 users will want to pay particular attention.

Before we get to the changelog, we should mention that the app is now free (with ads) for usage on one email account. That's pretty awesome if you want to give this a shot for awhile without forking over any money. Now on to the update…

MetroMail 3.0

• New: Full action center support
• New: Email previews are now downloaded in the background for new notifications
• New: Action center entries now launch their respective email
• New: Attach any file, from either local storage or OneDrive, using the file picker
• New: Share items to MetroMail through all the respective OS menus
• New: Free version allows unlimited ad-supported access for 1 email account
• New: iCloud Mail support
• New: Ability to re-download attachments
• New: Assign Sent and Deleted items actions and specific folders [IMAP]
• New: Specify different credentials for the IMAP and SMTP servers [IMAP]
• New: Modify the server settings of existing accounts [IMAP]
• Update: Emails no longer require an extra tap for interacting (e.g. zooming or tapping on links) [Gmail]
• Fix: When specified, the username is properly used over the email address during authentication [IMAP]

If you have seen MetroMail in awhile, with a dark theme applied, the app looks very native for Windows Phone, which I'm sure many of you will appreciate. No worries though, you still have a light theme in settings if you preferred that look from before.

The Windows Phone 8.1 features are quite significant. Indeed, MetroMail may be the first app to download email previews via notifications. It's quite a nifty feature and makes this app much more powerful than before. The app itself is a lot more fluid, especially on a Snapdragon 800 device like the Lumia 1520 or Icon.

There're so many little features in MetroMail that are just eye candy e.g. touching the upper left corner in a message lets you see an overview of your email thread for easy navigation, or tapping the profile icon in the top right to switch accounts. Considering how powerful (and convoluted) Gmail can be, MetroMail does an excellent job of bringing over all of the main features of the service while maintaining a Modern look.

Although the Windows 8.1 Modern App version of MetroMail hasn't been updated yet, we're told that it too should be getting some update love in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

Download MetroMail 3.0 here in the Store. Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 only. Free for first account with ads; $1.99 to unlock full app and remove ads

You can also pick up MetroMail for Windows 8.1 here in the Store!

Email. It’s essential. It’s important. And on Windows 8, there’s a dearth of quality Gmail apps that fully embrace the Modern design language. Sure, you have your web-wrapper apps that look like a native Gmail client, but people want the real deal. And push notifications. And Live Tiles.

MetroMail is that full native client for Windows Phone 8. We’ve covered it in the past and watched as the app has grown over the last few months. Today, its Windows 8.1 counterpart is now available. The best part? If you bought the Windows Phone version, you can generate a code within the app to fully-unlock the Windows 8 app, all for free.

Make no mistake, MetroMail is the real deal. Plus it offers Live Tile syncing across your Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices, to keep all your read/unread email counts synced. Here’s what else you can be doing from your Surface or PC:

• Instant notifications for new emails with night mode support
• Instant live tile syncing between your devices across both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8
• First-class support for archiving, starred emails, and labels
• Support for inbox categories (e.g. Primary, Social, Promotions)
• Seamlessly manage multiple accounts
• Server-side search functionality with support for advanced Gmail search operators
• No more broken threads when replying to emails
• Support for multiple From addresses within the same account
• Optional live tile support for each account
• Full support for sending and downloading attachments
• Contacts auto-completion from your email account
• Full Win8 integration including split view and share support

I have to admit, MetroMail is basically everything you could want in a native Windows 8 RT app. Don’t like the default orange look? The app has a full suite of Accent colors to choose from. It supports multiple accounts, allows pinning, archiving, Label management and even signatures.

The Live Tile sync means accessing the app on your phone will reset the tile on your tablet. That’s a fantastic feature.

The Windows 8.1 version is free to try for 30 days, with ads and push notifications disabled after that time frame. But, if you have the Windows Phone 8 version – which was just updated to 1.4.2 today – you can generate a code within that app to permanently unlock the in-app purchase for the Windows RT version.

Speaking of, the Windows Phone 8 version received some amazing features a few updates ago, including:

• New: Added ability to select a custom notification sound for each account (GDR3 only)
• New: SkyDrive support for sending attachments
• New: Memory optimizations for low-memory devices
• New: Recently received emails are downloaded every 30 mins in the background (requires fast connection)
• New: Added notification prompt for new categorized emails

Anyone with a Windows Phone can take advantage of this offer. Simply download both apps from the Stores and follow the prompts when you first launch. The app will walk you through the unlocking process, which took us about a minute to do. Super simple.

Sure, we’re big fans of Outlook.com ourselves, but many of us are “stuck” on Gmail for work requirements. If that’s the case, at least you can do it in style now with MetroMail. Plus, I hear a lot of new features and plans for this double-app combo are in the pipeline.

Do you use MetroMail? Let us know in comments what you think.

Pick up MetroMail for Windows 8 RT here in the Windows Store and/or grab the Windows Phone version by following this link.

Want a premier Gmail experience on Windows Phone? Don’t use the native email client. Instead, look to the Windows Phone Store for an app called MetroMail. It’s beautiful, native app for Gmail users on Windows Phone. Forget for a moment that this is a Google product. There are still a ton of users on Windows Phone who rely on or might need to access Gmail. For them, there’s MetroMail. The app is about to update to go to version 1.2, so let’s check out what’s new in it.

MetroMail v1.2 (now available)

• New: Added support for uploading photos
• New: Added ability to share photos via the built-in photo viewer
• New: Added support for forwarding attachments from existing emails
• New: Added night mode option for toast notifications
• New: Added support for local drafts
• New: Added support for wide tile (main tile; sender and subject info only)
• New: Added talk-to-text functionality for composing emails
• New: Added "Delete forever" functionality
• New: Added "Mark as spam" functionality
• New: Added "Recent search results" option
• New: Added option to always bcc self
• Bug: Toast notifications no longer randomly turn off
• Bug: When opening a new thread the last unread email is properly displayed, instead of the last thread email
• Bug: Checkboxes are now handled properly when retrieving additional pages
• Bug: Archiving/deleting all emails now properly triggers a refresh
• Update: Added additional display density options

Holy update, Batman! MetroMail version 1.2 is a fairly big one with a handful of new features for Gmail users. We’re looking forward to using the night mode for toast notifications. That’s an option that every single app should have to help you sleep better at night, we’re glad to see MetroMail add it. Support for uploading photos is also very welcomed and will definitely help with our email workflow.

Want to grab MetroMail for Windows Phone 8? The version 1.2 detailed above will be out soon in the Windows Phone Store. You can also use the QR code below or swipe to the right in our app. MetroMail goes for $1.49 for new customers, a small increase from the previous 99 cents (server expenses were higher than anticipated).

Microsoft has published a new post on the official Outlook blog, detailing some upcoming changes to the service that make it even easier to switch from Gmail. It's no secret that many consumers have switched from Google's email service to Outlook.com and Microsoft is looking to further push tools and services available to make the switch as seamless as possible.

These are said to be rolling out in the coming weeks, so sync on past the break to read up what's new.

We've covered Microsoft's revamped email service, Outlook.com numerous times in the past since it launched, replacing out-dated Hotmail. Sporting a cleaner interface and less clutter, it's a fitting email service for Microsoft's rebranding and new products - Windows 8, Windows Phone and Xbox One. So why is the company continuing to target Google?

According to a recent study by market research firm Ipsos (www.ipsos.com), almost 1 in 4 consumers would switch email providers if it were an easier process. The same study also highlighted areas consumers viewed as most important when selecting providers. Ensuring advertising doesn't affect the email experience, offering anti-spam protection and a clean, clutter-free interface were among the top features.

This is where Outlook.com comes into play, or so Microsoft hopes. The company is rolling out these new changes to make it easier for consumers to make the dreaded switch from Google. All you have to do is follow a simple process to import all your emails from Gmail, along with contacts and the overall structure of your account (folders, read status, etc).

The switch will even add your Gmail address as a "send-only" account so you can continue to send mail from that address on Outlook.com. Really neat.

Moving across from Gmail to Outlook

Follow the below steps to get started on transferring your mail to Outlook.com:

1. Hit this link and sign in with your Outlook.com account. Select "start" (if you wish for all your Gmail messages to be copied into a new set of subfolders, configure this under 'Options').

2. Now you'll be required to sing into Gmail and grant Microsoft's tool access to your Google account. Once this has been carried out, your mail will then be copied across and you'll be redirected back to Outlook.com. It's worth noting that your mail is only copied across. Everything else on your Google account is left alone.

3. As the import process is kicking off, instructions will be sent to you with details on how to set up email auto-forwarding. This is useful as you'll be able to have your Gmail automatically forward future mail to Outlook.com - saves switching between two email addresses to see if you've missed any mail (see below).

And you're done! Congratulations, you're now using Outlook.com with your Gmail configured to auto-forward future emails. The import process will continue even if you log out, Microsoft will keep copying across your messages in the background until everything has been moved across.

How are you finding Outlook.com?

Source: Outlook Blog

If you are a true Microsoft fan, then you're probably aware of the company’s Scroogled campaign. The advertising strategy, which has been considered as dirty by some, is now taking a step up to launch a variety of products for anti-Googlers to show their support for Microsoft.

The campaign has been based upon the premise that Google is stealing data from innocent users by monitoring their activities within the company’s web browser, Chrome, as well as services including Gmail and Search. Microsoft has also pointed out that Google imbeds ads within their own search results and even attempts to disguise advertisements in your inbox as ordinary emails.

If you are a fan of the campaign, you can show your support by grabbing the variety of new products being offered on Microsoft’s website including tee shirts, hoodies, and mugs. Some of the items simply display the Scroogled logo, while others spot fancy taglines such as “Keep Calm while we steal your data”.

Check out the full range of Scroogled products, by clicking here.

What do you think about the campaign – dirty tactics or fair play?

Source: Microsoft; via The Verge

Let’s put aside a moment the disdain many here have for Google and their products. The fact is, a lot of businesses, companies, organizations and even individuals rely on Gmail for their email service and while Windows Phone supports Google Mail directly, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Gmail has on the web.

This morning, MetroMail has become available for Windows Phone 8 users. Mind you, this is no web-wrapper, but a native client. We’ve been beta testing it for a few weeks now and indeed, it’s quite a robust app for those who need all the power of Gmail on their Windows Phone.

MetroMail comes from the developer behind MetroTalk, one of the best Google Voice clients for Windows Phone. He’s spent considerable time on the app, making sure it meets all the needs of those who need archiving, labels or stars on their messages.

Currently the app is running for $0.99 with no free trial, but before you recoil, this was done on purpose to limit the initial strain on the push server (yes, this is push Gmail). Later, a trial and perhaps even a free ad-supported version may come. Likewise for a Windows Store App version for you Surface fans. So what does MetroMail feature?

• First-class support for archiving, starred emails, and labels
• Support for inbox tabs (e.g. Primary, Social, Promotions)
• No more broken threads when replying to emails
• Server-side search functionality with support for advanced Gmail search operators
• Toast notifications support for new emails
• Support for multiple From addresses within the same account
• Proper rendering of long HTML emails
• Possible to concatenate multiple accounts under 1 unread counter (for use with a single live tile or the lock screen)

The app is slightly more sluggish compared to the barren native app on Windows Phone, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing when you consider that you’re getting the full Gmail experience. Scrolling is excellent, there is just a bit of delay to pull down the data for each message once you open it. The design of the app is very clean and should make most Modern UI fans quite happy.

MetroMail is just starting off too as the developer is already working on the first update, which should bring server-side drafts support, performance improvements, and attachments support (limited at first, and it could be “tricky”).

Over all, MetroMail is a solid start to a fully-featured Gmail client for Windows Phone. While a lot of users will be happy with the native client, for those who need a “power” app to access all of the Gmail tools, this may be your ticket.

Pick up MetroMail for Windows Phone 8 here in the Store. 99 cents, no free trial (coming later).

It's no secret that Microsoft's at war with Google when it comes to email. Redmond has continuously attacked Google for crawling through emails that are believed to be private to provide better targeted advertisements to consumers. Microsoft has launched Keep Your Email Private, a new campaign to fight Google regarding this very concern. Do you use Gmail and/or are concerned about activities carried out by the Search? Read on past the break.

We've previously seen Microsoft release videos featuring the Gmail Man. This fictional character went through the mail of others while delivering them, causing unrest and concern. The idea was to illustrate exactly what Google does with email. 

But targeted advertising using keywords doesn't always work...

So what's Microsoft doing with the campaign? A brand new website is available (www.keepyouremailprivate.com - catchy, we know) with information on exactly what Redmond is doing to help consumers out by having them switch to Outlook (there's an awesome tutorial on how to achieve this on our forum) and sign a petition to bring this issue to the attention of Google.

There's a handy facts page to check out articles in reputable publications and to compare both Gmail and Outlook. Microsoft also provides a link to both its own and Google's privacy policies, as well as stating a rather interesting fact: simply because you don't use Gmail doesn't mean your emails remain private. If you've sent an email to someone who uses Google's email service, that message too may have been scanned. Some food for thought.

Head on over to Microsoft's Keep Your Email Private website for more details, some videos and links to get involved. Let us know in the comments if you've been affected by the issue and switched to Outlook (or another provider).

Have you not seen the thousands of people running for Bing and Outlook.com, screaming that they have to get away from the evil organization that is Google? No? Well, neither have I. According to research collected by two 3^rd party firms, the Scroogled campaign has been more than a success, "For Microsoft it’s a win".

Microsoft’s all negative and full attack advertisements have been a controversy for Microsoft fans and non-fans alike; they may sit on the ad shelf as one of the most ruthless technology campaigns around. We usually only see the direct-attack tactics used by Microsoft in political campaign ads.

Answers Research, has reported that after users visit the Scroogled campaign’s website, the favorability gap in favor of Google services drops from 45% to just 5%. In addition, the company has stated that over the previous summer, the chances of someone recommending Google to a friend has dropped by 10% and has increased by 7% for Bing.

According to Jonathan Symonds, Ace Metrix’s Executive Vice-President of Marketing, the idea that people would even consider switching to Bing over Google is enough of a victory and "Microsoft will happily accept these outcomes".

A Microsoft spokesman commented on the current campaign:

As one might imagine, Google’s reaction to the Scroogled campaign’s supposed results was no less than sarcastic - "Don’t think we have a comment on this one."

Whether you agree with the tactics Microsoft is taking in its Scroogled campaign or not – it is supposedly having a positive impact for the company and driving people away from Google at the same time.

Have any of your friends or family switched away from Google due to the Scroogled campaign?

Source: AdAge; via CNET

The video from Microsoft proclaims that email services should be protecting users from spam, but Google does the opposite by reading your private email conversations and then pushing junk mail directly into your inbox. Of course, Outlook.com is recommended as a replacement.

While the Scroogled campaign has been controversial in its accusations, this latest video hits directly on the money. The new placement of advertisements within a user’s inbox is one of the most intrusive efforts that any company has engaged in to deliver targeted spam.

Will Gmail users begin to flee the service? Probably not. In addition, the Atlantic Wire has already wrote an article showing how to easily “escape Gmail’s terrible new email ads”.

Source: ZDNet, Scroogled

Google is set to cease supporting Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for its array of online services, including both GMail and Calendar. This will prevent consumers from setting up accounts on Windows Phones with both contact and calendar support (but will not affect those who already have email configured on Windows Phone). Consumers who make use of said features will have to go through workarounds to get connected, or switch across to Outlook.

The changes will prevent users from synchronising their Google calendars and contacts after July 31st (if it's not already configured). Microsoft has already made a move it seems as the company has removed the ability to synchronise Google contacts and calendar when setting up Google accounts on Windows Phone. There's a way around this, according to a user report.

Reddit user blorgon has tracked down a support page over on the Google website that points to a way of setting up a Google account with contacts and calendar synchronisation - until Google removes such functionality this coming summer, of course. So how does one go about achieving this?

Simply head on over to "email + accounts", select the option to add an account. Instead of hitting Google scroll down and select advanced setup. This will ask for login details, enter your Google credentials. You'll then be able to add Google services to the account and complete the setup as you would any other. You should now have a fully working Google account with calendar and contacts synchronised from the cloud.

Be sure to read up the full walkthrough over on the Google website. As always, if you're able to, we strongly recommend Windows Phone owners to migrate across to Microsoft services. This helps keep everything under one company and adds more protection against these types of situations. As mentioned above, Google is expected to full remove ActiveSync support by July 31st. 

Source: Reddit, via: WMPU

Even though Google Sync is nearing its end on Windows Phone due to the company dropping Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to give up hope with using their services. With no extension of the deadline in sight, Windows Phone users need an alternative and now we have one.

Rudy Huyn, one of the top developers on Windows Phone (Fuse, TVShow, Wikipedia, 9Gag and more) has just released a free, brand new app called GContacts that will keep your contact’s name, phone number and email up-to-date on your Windows Phone. Users can manually sync the app to check for any new changes to bring down to their phones, whenever they want.

Want to sync more? Merely opt for an in-app purchase of the “Premium” version, which goes for a modest one-time fee of $1.29. That fee will give you even more syncing options including photo, postal address, birthday, website, company name and position, notes and can use a background agent to regularly synchronize your contacts.

That last one is particularly awesome because when combined with your plain Gmail syncing, you’ll have essentially re-created your previous Google cloud experience--all for a $1.29.

Kind of an ingenious creation by Hyun, especially since the switch hasn’t been thrown yet by Google, killing EAS support.

If you need Google for work or just out of habit, you’ll most certainly want to try out GContacts. The developer is top notch, which means you can expect solid support and dare we say for a syncing app, it’s great looking too.

What about Google Calendar Sync, you ask? Rudy has told us if GContacts is a success, meaning folks download it and maybe the ‘pro’ folks pick up the Premium version, he’ll do the same for Google Calendar Sync. So go download it, leave feedback for the developer and spread the word as the platform needs great apps like these!

Pick up GContacts here in the Store. Windows Phone 8 only.

Oh and we should mention Fuse, the popular newsreader, just got bumped to version 2.1, which brings full Google Reader integration, new lock orientation feature and is still free (ad-supported) or you can pay to remove the ads (our recommendation). Get that here.

Likewise, 9Gag is now updated for Windows Phone 8 with numerous new features. You can find that app here in the Store.

There's only just over a week left until Google flips the switch to drop Exchange ActiveSync support. Should you be an avid Google user and utilise Gmail (among other services) on your Windows Phone, you'll be left in the dark to an extent.

What the changes mean for consumers is from February onwards we'll no longer be able to synchronise calendars and contacts through a Gmail account (though email will still function normally) set up new Google accounts to take advantage of calendars and contacts using EAS (only email will function using IMAP). Those who already have accounts configured will be fine, according to Google.

Not all is lost, however. While you can take this as a golden opportunity to change over to Outlook, Microsoft is planning to support CardDAV and CalDAV in Windows Phone, according to sources familiar with company plans. The two protocols are actually Google's preferred route to synchronise content. Microsoft is attempting to work against Google's decisions of late to prevent consumers from being left out.

Sources state that Google privately informed Microsoft plans to drop support for Exchange ActiveSync last summer. Windows Phone 8 does not currently support CalDAV or CardDAV and further development at the time may have delayed the release of the platform and hardware in the holiday season just passed.  

Since Google announced plans to drop support for Microsoft's Exchange with free Gmail accounts, Redmond has had the duration to get cracking with a solution over the holiday season (not the best of periods to be scrambling for a problem fix). It's clear the search giant does not wish to play ball, even though the restrictions in place would prevent those who use Google products to effectively use its services.

The Verge has learned that Microsoft has been attempting to convince Google to offer an extension to its cut-off date by as much as six months. This would provide enough time for the company to push out an update that would include support for CalDAV and CardDAV. It's also believed that Google has been largely unresponsive to Microsoft's requests for details as to how the changes will affect users, as well as a possible extension. 

Once Google terminates support for Exchange ActiveSync, only IMAP will be available for Gmail, with calendar and contact synchronisation options ceasing to be available for those setting up Google accounts on Windows Phone. Not good. But this isn't the only service Google is attempting to prevent Windows Phone owners from utilising. Both YouTube and Maps have been in the news for being problematic.

Source: The Verge

In a recent interview Google stated they will not devote any resources to making apps for either Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8. They have also now ceased consumer support for ActiveSync.  Some are calling it ‘war’ while others passionately question if Windows Phone can survive without Google products and services.

The relationship between Google and Microsoft has always been somewhat hostile. In many ways the battle they engage in now can be seen as a kind of echo from a distant technological past. Google have dug in their heels and to some degree shown their true colours by declaring zero support for Microsoft’s newest operating systems, Windows Phone and Windows 8.

But does it matter and has anything really changed?

I mentioned an echo of previous battles past as it is by looking back that we get a good measure of the forces that have shaped the Google of today. It is impossible to talk of Google’s plans and current product line up without talking about Eric Schmidt. He has been at war with Microsoft for most of his long career, manning the defiant guns at both Sun Microsystems and Novell, two of Microsoft’s previously biggest competitors. Both of those companies have fallen by the wayside but Eric Schmidt has perhaps never stopped fighting that war, he is a true veteran of this on-going conflict.

"They [Google] realised long ago that it was not enough to exist as a semi-parasitic add-on for Microsoft Windows or to only live in a browser.."

Eric Schmidt was put in charge of Google to guide the young company through the painful early years and during that time he has moulded the company into what it is today. This is a company that matches Microsoft product-for-product in almost every category. Even though Google is a search company at its core it has invested time and money into developing its own operating system (Android, Chrome) and even a productivity suite. So transfixed with competing with Microsoft often they are happy to dump them in the marketplace for free, Google Docs is a perfect example of this.

There are of course many reasons why Google has chosen to make its own operating systems, they realised long ago that it was not enough to exist as a semi-parasitic add-on for Microsoft Windows or to only live in a browser.  As an advertising company it is their goal to know as much about you as possible. When it came to Desktop Windows, users didn’t feel too comfortable with Google Search riffling through their files on the hard drive. No, they needed to build their own OS and bake in this data collection from the get go. A new delivery system to ensure their supply of user information is never cut off or restricted was required, hello Android OS.

The recent ‘news’ announcement on not committing time or resources to developing for Windows Phone is somewhat disingenuous. Google has no presence on Windows Phone at all (save for a lousy search "app") they have not committed any resources since the platform launched. Google search on Windows Phone is one of the most basic apps available, barely enough to call itself a real app. Perhaps just a placeholder on the Windows Phone Store in case someone else takes their name? Google on Windows Phone is not an app, not by any stretch of the imagination. Why would they bother?

"Does Windows Phone need Google and its services to be successful, no."

So we often hear how Google make apps for Apples iOS devices and that example is held high by many who wish to make something of the lack of Google apps for Windows Phone. Often they fail to explore the real reasons why. The reason why Google is present on iOS is two–fold, it has sufficient numbers of users to data mine and it has a weak collection of service offerings. It is easy for Google to provide alternative search, maps and even mail on Apple’s iOS devices because Apple is either missing entirely some services or doesn’t have the same level of depth in some offerings. It is something Apple has been working hard to rectify but after their maps fiasco backfired so publicly they might be feeling too burnt to try that again. For now, Google will benefit from all the data points that iPhone users will provide as they trundle about using their Google maps platform. Google for the time being have a place on iOS because they can offer Apples users something which Apple cannot itself.

In many ways Microsoft and Google seemingly have something to compete with the other in almost every product field. Both companies by their own endeavours now look staggeringly similar, Search, Mail, Operating Systems, Productivity Software, Mobile and Mapping. Google roll most of their products into the Android platform, this is their delivery system and if you are invested in Google products and services this is where you can find them all. 

On the Microsoft side there is currently no better place to experience the full gamut of Microsoft’s services line-up than what you find Windows Phone. Is it here more than anywhere else that the future betting and eco system play can be seen clearly, Microsoft like Google owns the full stack.

Google Web Apps

The question has to be asked, where would Google fit onto a device that has Bing search hardwired into a dedicated search button? By integrating Bing into Windows Phone by way of a dedicated physical button Microsoft has clearly determined there is no place for Google search on their newest platform. It’s possible this early first move may have been sufficient to keep Google away from Windows Phone.

"It simply doesn’t leave much wiggle room for Google to offer a compelling set of apps"

Microsoft has invested countless millions into building out an entire web platform to compete with Google, much in the same way Google built its own OS to do the same. As a result Microsoft has a fully realised web eco system, SkyDrive, Office on the Web, Outlook, Bing and MSN to name a few headliners. In many cases they offer a far better experience to Google’s offerings both on the web and on their Android devices.

Two services which get the most attention are Gmail and Google Docs. Does it damage the Windows Phone platform to have to ‘settle’ with Outlook and Office as alternatives? I think not, what Microsoft offers here are both best in class, thanks in no small part to the success of Google Docs and Gmail.

Microsoft apps and services Windows Phone 8

There is no question that Google doesn’t produce fantastic products: search, mail and maps are held high as good examples. At present both companies offer pretty much the same services, in some cases they are better; in some cases they are worse. The problem for Windows Phone is that Microsoft has done such a good job of integrating all their offerings into one device. It simply doesn’t leave much wiggle room for Google to offer a compelling set of apps.

We are moving to a world where these eco systems will finally close, Google is rapidly reaching an inflection point where it may finally be able to shake off Microsoft and Apple. All three tech giants are moving to a place where they simply offer it all, similar to the mega supermarket chains that offer everything from Groceries to Insurance plans.

In time we’ll figure out which one we like best, get the loyalty card and for the most part choose which one we prefer, maybe stray occasionally for a touch of variety. The situation we see with Google and its stance with Windows 8 and Windows Phone could at some point be mirrored when Apple does what Microsoft have and close the gaps in their services.

Eco System Sync - SkyDrive connecting the dots..

The war of course doesn’t end with Windows Phone, Microsoft have far bigger guns to bring into play in this skirmish. Windows 8 has just launched, with that comes an operating system built from the ground up to be the embodiment of Microsoft’s vast eco system.  All of its main services are built right in, Maps, Cloud Storage, Online Store, Xbox, Mail and Bing search. Where is the space for Google to offer something Microsoft cannot?  There is also the highly successful proxy war that Microsoft is holding behind closed doors to secure revenue from device makers selling Android devices.

"Microsoft itself holds the key to Windows Phone becoming a successful platform.."

It is fair for Google to choose to not develop for a platform that doesn’t really need it but suggesting this is because it a lack of users is just hot air. Adding more fuel to the fire Google has now removed the ability to use ActiveSync with its services for consumers (paid Google Apps subscribers can still have access). It is clear they are willing to alienate a huge tract of their user base to drawn the line in the sand with their eco system, if you want to use their stuff you’ll need to go directly to them. Will they use the same strong-arm tactics with Apple when the time comes?  By proxy iOS users are all already loyal Google fans, look at the return of the maps to see how much so.

To hear Google reject Windows 8 is something new. Only time will tell if they have to eat a serious portion of humble pie and build out their offering there.

Does Windows Phone need Google and its services to be successful? No. The fate of Windows Phone and its adoption in the marketplace does not rest in the hands of Google. Microsoft itself holds the key to Windows Phone becoming a successful platform, rapid evolution of its cloud services and integration with the rest of the MS eco system. 

This afternoon Google has announced the discontinuation of their support of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS aka the standard for many who use email) after January 30th 2013. The question you may be wondering is, how does it affect Windows Phone?

Surprisingly, the answer is it shouldn't have any discernable impact for the majority of you who rely on Gmail for syncing of contacts and calendar. When a user initially sets up a Gmail account on Windows Phone, you are given two choices:

1. Email Only – Uses POP IMAP (Updated)
2. Email, Contacts and Calendar – Uses IMAP EAS (Updated)

Neither of those should change in anyway for users who opt for the “walk through” method on Windows Phone, which we venture to guess, is the majority.

[Update - Rafael Rivera has done some sniffing and turns out there could be some trouble. The 'email only' option uses IMAP, not POP as previously thought while the 'email, contacts and calendar' function is EAS supported. That means when Google flips the switch in January, you will no longer be able to setup a GMail account using the second method.]

Some of you though choose to the “Advanced Setup” near the bottom of the new account screen. There is where users can currently setup Gmail using Google Sync aka Google’s ActiveSync solution. That feature is going away after January 30th for non-Google Apps subscribers. However, if you currently have that setup and are using it, the service will continue to work for you with nothing changing. Only new requests for GoogleSync will be rejected after January 30th.

But...why Google, why?

So why is Google getting rid of one of the most widely used (and often preferred) email syncing technologies? They don’t give specific reasons, but instead couch it in a “winter cleaning” metaphor--whatever that means. But the real reason we suspect is Google is taking a fight to Microsoft by pulling support for EAS, directly off-loading any potential users who prefer Microsoft's system instead.

Android will continue to rock "the best Gmail experience" in mobile while Apple's iPhone and iPad already use Google's new preferred system, leaving Microsoft left holding the bag with EAS support. While we don't think it will have a direct impact on Windows Phone, it's clear that Google is kicking some sand at Microsoft with this move. (Incidentally, Paul Thurrott agrees with this assessment, stating flatly that Google is "declaring war" on Microsoft with this change).

It's evident Google is focused on using their IMAP system, which is very unique in the syncing world as far as standards go. The reason they are probably doing it is so they can continue to alter that system to give the full Gmail experience, something for which EAS cannot do (plus there is also the matter of paying Microsoft to license EAS). In other words, Google likes IMAP for their email and they have now embraced cardDAV for calendar syncing, something that Windows Phone doesn’t support (but the iPhone does).

Google of course can do whatever they want for whatever reasons they want but in the end, we still recommend you move your stuff to Outlook.com and get away from their services if at all possible. You’ll thank us later.

Source: Google 1, 2

Yesterday, we told you about a handy tip to make searching for a Gmail account email easier on Windows Phone. Today, you get a few more reasons to make the switch over to the new Outlook.

First, some impressive stats about the service. Microsoft is touting numerous accodades and awards for it's email service, like making Time Magazine's "50 Best Websites for 2012" list and others. What's even more impressive for you skeptics out there are the number of users it's managed to gain in nearly four months of service, over 25 million active users.

That's an interesting statistic since it's not the number of accounts created, but the amount of people using it on a regular basis. The team also has some new features to make the jump from Gmail to Outlook a smoother process...

In an effort to court users from Google's offering, Microsoft hired a research firm to recruit Gmail users to try Outlook. The results do a fairly accurate job at highlighting the streghts of Outlook to it's rival. They found that 4 out of 5 users would be making the switch to Outlook, in addition:

• They prefer Outlook.com's clean user design
• Outlook.com does a better job of blocking spam and it outperforms Gmail when it comes to helping manage unwanted messages like newsletters and daily deals
• Outlook.com makes it easier to share photos and Office documents 

That's all fine and dandy, but what Outlook needs to do to be competitive is always improve and refine the product. Which they have, some updates you can expect to see show up in your inbox over the next few weeks are:

• One-click Archive: from the inbox, select messages and click the Archive button to move the selected messages to the Archive folder (or any other folder of your choice). It's a fast and simple way to move messages out of your inbox to find later.
• More and more keyboard shortcuts: Outlook.com has dozens of keyboard shortcuts and we're adding even more. And better yet, we don't need to list them all in this post because you can now find all available keyboard shortcuts by simply typing a question mark when you're in your inbox. 
• More customization of your inbox: we added several new ways to make your inbox look and work the way you want. More color themes. The ability to toggle "reply" and "reply all" as the default option. The ability to toggle between jumping to the inbox or next message after deleting an email.
• Outlook app for Android: If you have a Windows Phone or iPhone, you won't need a dedicated app since Exchange ActiveSync is supported. Android is a different beast, and the solution was a dedicated app. You can get that here.

All said and done, those are some great features to an otherwsie already great email client. Do any of you guys use Outlook.com or are you thinking of making the switch? Let us know below.

Souce:  Outlook Blog

Google and Windows Phone haven’t always had the rosiest of relationships. Head to the Marketplace and you’ll find a whopping single app from the Mountain View tech giant. Whatever, we can do without them and their 1st party support when we have developers picking up the slack. However, a lot of you still rely on Gmail as your web email and have no plans to switch to Outlook anytime soon. So here is a super simple trick to make your experience a bit better on your new Lumia 920 or 8X.

No Search on Server for Gmail?

Most likely you don’t want to keep your entire inbox on your phone, I personally have most accounts to only keep one week worth of content for any given account. What happens when you search for a term and the email you want is outside that timeframe? You’ll get no results. Some have reported that Microsoft removed the search-on-server feature from Windows Phone 8, though that's not entirely accurate.

The issue? How you initially set up that Gmail account. When selecting what content to sync did you chose email only or include contacts and calendar? Check out the image below and you’ll see where we’re going with this.

So the quick tip is when setting up a Google account and wishing to search for more results on the email server, you need to select “Email, Contacts, and Calendar” for your syncing choice. You can also just update the settings to include contacts and calendar in any particular account after you’ve added it.

That little trick, making sure you sync contact and calendar will let you Windows Phone connect to their Google's servers and search all your emails. You can see the option to search Google in the screenshot below.

A nifty trick that should improve your experience. If you have any other tricks you've found over the past few weeks feel free to share them below in the comment section! Maybe we can pull the best ones and do another post.

Source: Windows Phone Italy

It looks like some users who have Gmail on their Windows Phone 8 devices are experiencing syncing issues that eventually cause the email app to crash. The problem seems independent of hardware (so 8X and 920 users are affected) and is tied to Gmail specifically.

The problem occurs with the People Hub and linked contacts constantly syncing. Likewise, when people head to their Gmail inbox, it too is stuck on a constant sync and may even crash when one attempts to scroll the message list. Over in our forums, user moc426 made the above video of the phenomenon occurring, a test which site WinSource has also validated as happening on their HTC 8X.

Besides the app crashing, constant failed-syncing of anything is never good and may be related to all of those battery-life complaints. To paraphrase the internet: 'This kills the phone'.

Now for even worse news: deleting the account on the phone will do nothing to fix this and in fact it requires you hard reset the device to stop the syncing...

Causes?

This appears to be tied to Google’s non-standard implementation of IMAP²  and may depend on which method you use to set up Gmail. In other words, seeing as this problem just popped up, Google may have altered something on their backend in the last 48 hours resulting in these stability issues.

On Windows Phone 8 when you set up a Google Mail account you are offered two options: ‘Email only’ or ‘Email, contacts and calendar’. That latter option is the push-IMAP² version while ‘Email only’ is POP and will give you just 15-minute sync periods.

Although we have not yet verified we’re going to bet that the issue is due to Google’s ever-changing IMAP² settings, which are having a severely negative impact on Windows Phone. Because of that we recommend users perhaps forgo the ‘Email, contacts and calendar’ option and just use ‘Email only’ as POP tends to be more stable.  

A third method, which we have not verified, would be to set it up as an Exchange ActiveSync account, (Even Rene Ritchie over at iMore suggests this method as Google doesn't play nice with Apple products either.)

• Settings
• Email + Accounts
• Add an Account
• Advanced Setup
• Enter in Gmail email address/Password
• Exchange ActiveSync
• Domain = blank
• Server = m.google.com

Once again, we cannot verify at this point if the above method works (or even if it’s different from the automatic Google email setup) but it may be worth a shot for those of you need contact and calendar sync.

We’re contacting Microsoft over the matter for guidance and will follow up if any new information comes forward. In the meantime, may we suggest that you start considering moving to a more standardized service like Outlook.com? You can read our previous articles and tutorials on how to do that here: http://www.windowscentral.com/tags/outlookcom

Have a work around or any insight on this issue? Share with the rest of us in comments.

With the re-launch of Hotmail as Outlook.com Microsoft has garnered a lot of adoration from the media and the public, especially when Google just announced the indefinite delay of their Nexus Q orb. As far as PR this week: Microsoft 1, Google 0.

One of the main features that Microsoft is touting with Outlook.com is that they won’t scan your email to deliver personalized ads—a clear shot at Google’s Gmail ad-machine. They have even set up a simple ‘how to’ on switching from Gmail to Outlook.

But with no personalized ads based on the contents of your email, how is Microsoft making money?

Ads as presented on Outlook.com

The answer is technically still ads—that is Outlook has simple ads based on Bing Shopping to the right of your screen. You won’t see these ads while in an email, just in your main inbox view. But there is a sharp distinction here with Google on how they view their customers.

In an article on Wired.com, a Microsoft PR agent let this not-so-slight jab fly at Google:

Indeed, Microsoft considers its main source of revenue software, something that Google doesn’t actually sell. With folks buying Windows PCs, laptops. Tablets and software packages like Office, the company already has a steady stream of income. Ads in Outlook are merely an added source of revenue but not something that Microsoft needs. From that perspective, Outlook.com is an extension of services you already paid for when you bought Microsoft’s products.

Hotmail Plus gives users a choice

In fact, with Hotmail Plus users can pay $20 a year and have all ads gone from their inbox permanently in addition to 10GB of storage and no account expiration. It’s not too clear if Microsoft will still push ‘Plus’ with Outlook.com but as of right now, it carries over and ads are not presented to the end user. While paying $20 a year for email with no ads may not sit well with some people, it is at least an option that Microsoft offers and which Google does not. Leaving the decision up to the customer is really how it should be (and for the record, we are ‘Plus’ subscribers).

With the winning combination of their new re-design, an emphasis on privacy and putting customers first, Microsoft may yet have a winner with Outllook.com. Just six hours after its release, the company boasted 1 million new accounts. Who knows how many have been created since then.

Related: 

• Microsoft pokes fun at Google with 'Gmail Man'
• Switching your Hotmail or Live to Outlook.com? Here’s what you need to know for Windows Phone.

With the recent release of the Microsoft Office 2013 Customer Preview, many have been hitting a giant wall when it comes to connecting Hotmail and Gmail accounts in Outlook.

Outlook 2013 supports Exchange ActiveSync as an explicit option when creating accounts, which kisses goodbye to the pesky Outlook Connector. The problem is when Outlook can't detect Hotmail (or Gmail) accounts correctly. Should a valid address be entered into the account setup assistant and it can't configure Exchange ActiveSync, it will resort to POP and SMTP protocols. This isn't ideal.

Lucky for those who suffer from the above issue, a simple workaround is available that enables Hotmail users to enjoy the new Outlook experience...

First, pop into the Outlook settings and select "Add Account" (see above photo). Instead of walking through the auto-setup, choose "Manual setup or additional server types" and hit next. In the following screen, select "Exchange ActiveSync" as the desired service.

Next you'll have to fill in your Hotmail account credentials (see above photo). When it comes to the 'Mail Server', enter m.hotmail.com. That's it! You should now be witnessing Outlook raid your email account and download all your messages. Outlook 2013 is a new vision for emailing on a Windows PC. Gone is the cluttered interface and unimaginative structure, replaced by a design that is fit for Windows 8, as well as complimenting the Windows Phone version.

From the Metro layout to introduced features and functionality, the new Outlook really is the cherry on the ice-cream in our opinion, which rounds off the Office 2013 Customer Preview nicely. If you haven't tried out the suite as-of-yet, we'd strongly recommend doing so. Microsoft is offering 5 installs per account to test out its latest productivity suite of apps.

As for Gmail users, things aren't looking too bright for now and when attempts are made to add a Google account in Outlook 2013 via ActiveSync they all prove to be unsuccessful. While Gmail does support Exchange ActiveSync for mobile devices, it's limited to POP and IMAP with Outlook. We'll keep our eyes peeled for any progress ona  workaround.

Let us know should you encounter any issues with this walkthrough and be sure to sound off in the comments if it works for you.

Source: ZDNet

And after ripping on Google for the last two posts, we decided it would be fun and ironic to mention that Google is now allowing multiple calendars to sync to your Windows Phone:

We've playing around with it for the last half hour and despite numerous syncs, we have yet to see our newly created calendar pushed to our phone. File that under "how the hell do you navigate Google Calendar" and/or "it's still rolling out". Your choice.  Let us know in comments if you got it to work.

Either way, it's nice to see Google still paying attention to Windows Phone, even if they still call it Windows Mobile on occasion. Hey, even our "Search server" function seems to be working again!

Source: Gmail (Google+)

The Windows Live team have published an article on the official blog that'll help readers who are possibly considering to switch from Gmail to Hotmail for email and other cloud services. Should you be on the fence about leaving Google, and wish to take up Microsoft to host your e-life, there are only three simple steps you're required to take to achieve this goal.

1. Create a Hotmail account. A Hotmail/Live ID is required (name@hotmail.com/name@live.com) to use the web service, but there is no domain restriction. When signing up for an account (should you not already possess one) you are allowed to use your own personal domain for email.

2. Import your old messages from Gmail. Should you not wish to use an email client to do the job, a service such as TrueSwitch will work wonders moving across from Gmail.

3. Connect your Gmail account. You have now successfully set up your Hotmail account, but one more optional step is available. You can have Hotmail actively retrieve any future messages that you receive on your Gmail account by carrying out the following:

• b. Click Sending/receiving email from other accounts.
• c. Click Add an email account.
• d. Provide your Gmail account details.

Rocking out Hotmail is arguably the best way, should you not be using Exchange of course, for Windows Phone email users, since improvements have been made to the service and it integrates seamlessly with all other Microsoft products.

Source: Windows Team Blog

If you've ever attended a Microsoft conference/event, you'll know that they have a pretty good sense of humor, often demonstrated in video form.

This was no different from the Microsoft Global Exchange conference, held only last week. The video is meant to parody how Google's Gmail "rifles through your email", a not so subtle remark on Google's advertising business which shows targeted ads in your browser based on "keywords" in your email.

For those concerned with privacy, Google's whole ecosystem is ripe for criticism. If anything, this video should get folks talking a bit about such matters. At the very least, it's pretty freakin' funny.

Source: All About Microsoft/ZDNet

A good number of us are tied within the realm of Google, mainly for documents and emailing, but how can one explore the goodness of Windows Phone 7 when there is such a strong connection with the search engine giant (which makes Android a more feasible choice)?

Justin Willhite, of UK LifeHacker, has published a killer of an article that should help any avid Google fanboy (or post-Android owner) with the conversion process. It should be noted that the solutions provided by Justin (apart from native mail support, of course) do not support push-notification and must be updated/refreshed manually. So, how's it all done?

Of course, the list can be improved upon: For Google Talk, you'll want the only push IM client on the market, which also happens to be free: Flory (see our coverage). And while they give Wonder Reader a nod, we have been using NextGen Reader with great success ourselves.

Of course, the generic calendar user (like me - I rarely classify myself as 'generic' though) only uses the main calendar available on their account so - like I - a single calendar that is present on an exchange account for example is more than enough. As well as this, there are other solutions available in terms of RSS, documentation synchronisation and more, that some WP7-post-Google converts could recommend. 

Are you a die-hard Google follower but find Windows Phone 7 an interesting concept? Does the above information help sway your decision to take the plunge?

Source: UK LifeHacker

Has anyone else noticed that they can't sync Google Gmail via Activesync over the past few days? At first I thought it was just me but soon came to find that the "Error Synchronization" message was being displayed on other Windows phones.

The official error code is 0x8600050c (Communications Error) and in looking over at Google Mobile's Help Forum, there are a few solutions available.

The first suggestion is to delete the current Exchange Server relationship and re-create it. Another solution suggests to un-check the email option in Activesync, reboot the phone, re-check the email option and sync.  The latter seems to have the most success.

We couldn't find anything official from Google on the cause of these errors or of a "official" solution. If we hear of anything we'll pass it on.

Yep, you read that right. In fact, Google assures us as such, saying "Yes, really." Actually, all of the Google Apps suite — comprising Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — is having the beta label removed.

Mainly it looks like this is being done to eliminate confusion over what "beta" really means, and to make Google Apps more attractive to businesses. From the Official Google Blog:

For our purposes, what we really, really want to see is better implementation of Gmail on Windows Mobile — push, IMAP idle and the like. (Oh, and maybe do something about those contacts.) Yeah, we've been saying that for a long time. But either Google or Microsoft needs to get it done. After all, now that Gmail's "out of beta," there are no more excuses.

Push email is one of those things that could be considered the Holy Grail of mobile communications. For those of us that connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server on a daily basis, we’ve been experiencing this phenomenon for a while now. The problem is that Windows Mobile doesn’t support push email standards like IMAP Idle, which are supported by Google’s Gmail and other free email providers. Workarounds have been detailed on this site in the past to receive notifications from Gmail in particular. Everything from third party mail apps to simply forwarding a text message to your phone have been suggested.

PushEffect by QoreFunctions is a utility that enables push email on your Windows Mobile device. It uses existing technologies and a small application that runs in the background to accomplish this task. There are some caveats to getting this working with your email provider of choice. I’ve got the full rundown for you after the break.

Technology

The way that PushEffect works is that it listens to your SMS queue looking for messages that match the parameters configured for a particular mailbox. Once it sees one of these messages, it activates the send/receive function in Outlook and performs a standard sync.

Implementation

So those caveats that I mentioned. First of all, you need to be able to forward text messages from your email to your phone. Many email providers support this natively, but this would be where you would run into the biggest issue. Most cellular carriers provide an email address that forwards to your phone as a text message. For ATT, the email address is [your 10 digit phone number]@txt.att.net. Once your mail provider is configured to forward these messages to your phone, PushEffect must be configured to know what to look for in the incoming texts. By default, the only thing that it looks for is an @ in the SMS sender area. On ATT, I configured the sender area to be blank; while the SMS body area contained “FRM:”. Your configuration may be different depending on your provider.

Conclusion

The benefits of PushEffect are obvious, but the issues might not be as clear. The biggest issue that would kill this method for you is if your email provider just doesn’t support forwarding messages. Many free email providers do provide this functionality, but I would look in the FAQ’s or other documentation to see if forwarding is supported. Also, this method could cause problems for those who use email in excess, but don’t pay for a text messaging plan. To be clear, this method will send you a text message for every email that you receive. These text messages will be invisible to you, as PushEffect intercepts any that match the criteria you define.

PushEffect is available in both Windows Mobile Professional and Standard flavors from the WMExperts store for $19.95. That price seems a little steep for the limited amount of functionality that it provides, but it is a one time fee instead of a monthly subscription required by many of the hosted Exchange solutions out there.