Using Outlook.com with your own Web Domain

Guide: Setup Outlook on a Custom Domain

 

 

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Using Outlook.com with your own Web Domain

via Digital Inspiration Technology Blog by Amit on 8/9/12

How do you setup the new Outlook mail service on a custom web domain so that your email address reads like you@yourdomain.com instead of you@outlook.com? →

If you are on Google Apps, you can leave your existing setup untouched and access your Gmail account from inside Outlook.com via POP3. This is a recommended option if you are just experimenting with Outlook and aren't ready to make the complete switch to Outlook (see: Gmail vs Outlook).

The disadvantage with the above approach is that your incoming mails won't be delivered to your Outlook mailbox instantly. They'll first land in your Gmail inbox, Outlook will issue a fetch request after a minute or two and only then will your messages show up in Outlook.

Alternatively, you can remove Gmail from the loop and let Outlook.com handle all your incoming and outgoing email traffic. Here's how you do that in five easy steps.

Guide: Setup Outlook on a Custom Domain

Step #1: Go to domains.live.com and click the "Add Domain" button to add your custom web domain that you would like to use with Outlook. You may have to sign-in with your Windows Live / Outlook / Microsoft Account / Hotmail ID to access this Windows Live Domain section.

Step #2: On the next screen, you'll be provided with a list of custom DNS records that you will have to add to your domain. The following two records are essential:

• MX record for handling your mail traffic
  •  It usually reads like abc.pamx1.hotmail.com
• SPF record to authenticate your outgoing Outlook emails
  • It has a fixed value v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all

Related reading: Prevents your emails from getting marked as spam

Step #3: While you are on your domain registrar's page add these custom DNS records for Outlook, create an additional CNAME record if you wish to access the Outlook.com website as a sub-domain of your main website.

For instance, if your website is yourdomain.com, you can setup a CNAME record called "mail" and you will then be access to access Outlook.com from mail.yourdomain.com. The value of the CNAME record should be set as "go.domains.live.com." (no quotes but period at the end).

Step #4: Once you have created all the DNS records, wait for 30-60 minutes as it might take a while for the DNS changes to propagate through the Internet. To verify, open the command prompt in Windows and run the following command (replace yourdomain.com with your own own domain):

C:>nslookup -type=mx yourdomain.com  C:>nslookup -type=txt yourdomain.com

If these records show the recently added Hotmail entries, proceed to the next step.

Related reading: How to Verify any Email Address

Step #5: Go back to the Windows Live Domains site and refresh the page. Once the domain and DNS records have been verified, click "Member Accounts" and add a new user. This will be your new email address powered by the Outlook service.

Configure Outlook Mail on your Custom Web Domain

You can now go to outlook.com or even mail.yourdomain.com (remember the CNAME record you added) and sign-in with the new email address you just created.

Unlike Google Apps which allows you to create a maximum 10 users in the free edition, the limit is 500 users in the case of Outlook / Hotmail. Also, Microsoft hasn't mentioned any storage limitations for your Outlook mailbox as of now.

If you are making a switch from Gmail or Google Apps to Outlook, you can either use the POP3 option to import existing email into Outlook. Alternatively, there's a free service called TrueSwitch that can automatically copy all you Gmail messages and contacts into your new Outlook account.

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This story, Using Outlook.com with your own Web Domain, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 09/08/2012 under GMail, Google Apps, Microsoft Outlook, Internet.

 

 

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Dictation – Speech Recognition in the Browser

Dictation – Speech Recognition in the Browser

 

 

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Dictation – Speech Recognition in the Browser

via Digital Inspiration Technology Blog by Amit on 8/10/12

→

Ever noticed that microphone icon on some web pages?

The newer versions of Google Chrome include an impressive speech recognition engine that even works offline but with one limitation – the feature is only available to text input fields (like the Google search box) and you can't use Chrome's speech recognition to write longer pieces of text (say a message inside Gmail).

Meet Dictation, a speech recognition app powered by Chrome itself but one that is not limited to text boxes. Here's a quick getting started guide:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + . (period) or click the big microphone icon to activate dictation mode and talk.
2. If you make a mistake, or if Chrome makes an error in transcription, simple click the incorrect word and edit it inline.
3. You can say "new line" to insert a new line or "delete everything" to make a fresh start.

Dictation requires the Google Chrome browser. The full source code is available at ctrlq.org and what follows is a brief video demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ijsta6fBMM

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This story, Dictation – Speech Recognition in the Browser, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 10/08/2012 under Google Chrome, Speech Recognition, Internet.

 

 

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For one cent a month, Amazon Glacier stores your data for centuries

For one cent a month, Amazon Glacier stores your data for centurie

 

 

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For one cent a month, Amazon Glacier stores your data for centuries

via Ars Technica by Jon Brodkin on 8/21/12

Amazon's latest storage service is called Glacier, because it's slow and designed to last for centuries.

ashminder.ubhi

Amazon Web Services has always been about delivering IT on demand. Spin up a virtual server, or a few thousand, anytime you'd like. Store and access as much data as you need to your heart's content.

But even in a Web-driven world, there is need for services that don't offer instant results, but will be around for eternity (or as close as possible). So today, Amazon introduced Glacier, a data archival service that will store data for one penny per gigabyte per month. As befits its name, Glacier is designed to last for a long time, but is slow: accessing data will take three to five hours. Amazon hasn't detailed exactly what technology is storing the data, but massive tape libraries are a good bet given the lengthy retrieval windows. A ZDNet article interprets one Amazon statement to mean that the company is actually using "a multitude of high-capacity, low-cost discs," but this has not been confirmed. An Amazon statement sent to Ars says only that "Glacier is built from inexpensive commodity hardware components," and is "designed to be hardware-agnostic, so that savings can be captured as Amazon continues to drive down infrastructure costs."

We also don't know exactly how Amazon measures the reliability of its storage, but the company is promising 11 nines of annual durability (99.999999999 percent) for each item, with data stored "in multiple facilities and on multiple devices within each facility."

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Tips for Buying Domains through Google Apps

How to Sign-up for Google Apps Free Edition

 

 

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Tips for Buying Domains through Google Apps

via Digital Inspiration Technology Blog by Amit on 8/20/12

When you buy a web domain through Google Docs, you get personalized email addresses (like me@mydomain.com instead of me@gmail.com) plus you can setup a quick website on Google Sites without having to pay for web hosting. The domains are registered privately meaning others cannot see your contact information in the public WHOIS database. →

Google Apps comes in two flavors – the free edition (where you just pay for the domain name) and the business edition (where you pay for the domain and the number of users).

Tip #1: How to Sign-up for Google Apps Free Edition

For business reasons, the Google Apps homepage includes no mention of the free edition but you can use this secret link to  go straight to the sign-up form. The link  is otherwise hidden under the "Pricing" section of the Google Apps website.

Tip #2: Country Domains are Relatively Cheap at Google Apps

You can now buy country-specific domains (like .in, .org.in and even .cc) through Google Apps and the deal could be better than buying directly through the registrar. For instance, Google offers the India specific .in domain for $8 per year while GoDaddy charges $17/year for the same TLD while Indian registrars charge around $10 for .in domains.

The following chart shows the current domain registration prices for various TLDs that are available through Google Apps. Some domain extension in the chart are marked red - read the next tip to know why?

Worldwide Domains		Country Specific Domains
TLD	Domain Price ($/year)	TLD	Domain Price ($/year)
.biz	$12	.be, .es, .pl	$8
.com	$12	.cc	$15
.info	$12	.co	$25
.mobi	$12	.cz, .nl, .com.es,	$10
.name	$10	.co.in	$10
.net	$10		.in, .net.in, .org.in	$8
.org	$12		.ch, .com.mx, .com.co	$12
.tv	$8		.mx	$30

The global TLDs are registered through GoDaddy.com or eNom.com while Google has picked DomainDiscount24.com as the registrar for handling international domains.

Tip #3: Buy Unsupported Domains through Google Apps

Google has made one important change recently. They no longer offer global TLDs like .org or .net for purchase with the free edition of Google Apps. You can buy a .com domain as before but for a .org or .co web address, you have to sign-up for the Google Apps business edition.

Going back to the above chart, the domain extensions highlighted in red are only available for purchase with the business edition of Google Apps.

Google Apps (free) does not support purchase of .org or .net domains?

Here's a simple workaround though. When you are signing up for the free version of Google Apps but need a domain name that is only available in the business edition of Google Apps, take this approach – sign-up for the business edition of Google Apps (sign-up link) and once the domain is registered, just cancel your subscription.

Google won't charge your credit for 30 days and if you cancel during this period, your Business edition will simply be downgraded to the Free edition of Google Apps.

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This story, Tips for Buying Domains through Google Apps, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/08/2012 under Google Apps, Web Domains, Internet.

 

 

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Your phone knows where you'll be tomorrow

Interesting article.

 

 

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Your phone knows where you'll be tomorrow

via kottke.org by Jason Kottke on 8/20/12

A team of researchers in the UK have developed a method of predicting where people will be in 24 hours using tracking data from mobile phones.

Studies have shown that most people follow fairly consistent patterns over time, but traditional prediction algorithms have no way of accounting for breaks in the routine.

The researchers solved that problem by combining tracking data from individual participants' phones with tracking data from their friends -- i.e., other people in their mobile phonebooks. By looking at how an individual's movements correlate with those of people they know, the team's algorithm is able to guess when she might be headed, say, downtown for a show on a Sunday afternoon rather than staying uptown for lunch as usual.

Tags: telephony

 

 

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Social Media Revolution breaks barriers

The cheapest mobile at the time of arrival was costing Rs 25,000. Now, one can buy the cheapest set for Rs 1,000, smartphone for Rs 5000 which provides virtually world in your palm. The recent published Social Media Statistics in Hindustan times dated July 29, 2012 indicates the major Social media revolution in India.

Connected India with Statistics as publishes in HT:

921 million: Number of mobile phone subscribers, 

17 billion:  number of minutes Indians spend on phone, 

1.5 billion: number of mobile text messages exchanged daily, 

120 million: Indians connected to the internet; expected to reach 222 million by 20125,

60 million: Number of Indians registered with leading social networking sites 

20 million: Number of Indians who spend  time on networking sites daily. 

51.4 million: Number of Facebook users

31 million: Number of Twitter users 

16 million: Number of LinkedIn Users

14 million: Smartphones sold in India 

Social Media Driving e-commerce

IT Pays to be Social: New Faces of Online Sales

Since social networking sites are accessible on mobile phones, it is easy for both individuals as well as organisations to expand their e-commerce strategy into social commerce in India. 

This is proved by recent reports published in Times of India, which says, " Social e-commerce is the next step in evolution,  combining the comfort and ease of use of social media and e-tailing". 

Social Media Statistics as published says: 

Market Size of e-commerce in India is Rs 50,000 cr, Number of people using social media : 63 million ( 50 million facebook, 13 million Twitter) and India's online users, the third-largest after China & USA is 150 million. It indicates high potential of e-commerce growth through social media channels.