Betabeat » outlook

Booting Up: U.S. Officials Say Cyberattacks Are Originating From a Chinese Army Building

Patrick Clark — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:11:55 -0400

(Photo: Wikipedia)

An "overwhelming" percentage of cyberattacks on U.S. corporations and government agencies seem to originate out of a 12-story Chinese Army complex in a rundown neighborhood of Shanghai. [NYT]

Microsoft says it has signed up 60 million active users for its free, web-based Outlook email service, and that one-third of those users switched over from Gmail. [Bloomberg]

The liquidation of Ecomom was precipitated, at least in part, by aggressive bets on how much merchandise the ecommerce site could move. [PandoDaily]

A handful of developers in San Francisco and New York had a chance to play with Google Glasses earlier this month, as Google engineers sought feedback on their API. [ArsTechnica]

Finally, the true tale of Times reporter's John M. Broder and Tesla's Model S sedan. [AllThingsD]

Microsoft Has a Little Valentine’s Day Message for Gmail Users

Patrick Clark — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:56:52 -0400

Today happens to be a certain Hallmark holiday, the fact of which the tech world has hardly failed to notice. It's not just dating sites and assorted fun-lovers looking to peg a story: Microsoft, which has been sniping at Google's privacy practices in a series of ads over the last few months, decided to unveil the latest in its Scroogled campaign.

In an animated web video posted here, a pair of mail trucks cruise down a suburban street. The first truck, representing Google, gives way to a mail carrier armed with x-ray vision (or maybe Google Glass?) peers into an envelop, scans a keyword off the enclosed letter and uses the keyword to select a pair of coupons, which are slipped in with the letter.

On the other side of the street, the mailman carrying for Outlook, delivers a letter unopened, and proceeds to polish the mailbox.

It's not subtle, but then, what about Valentine's Day is?

Booting Up: There’s No Such Thing as a Gmail Killer Edition

Jessica Roy — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:21:02 -0400

(Photo: Network World)

Microsoft Outlook now operates in-browser and is apparently a legitimate Gmail competitor? No flipping desks for Steve Ballmer today. [Wired]

Things are not looking good in iPad mag land. The Daily has laid off a 1/3rd of its staff. [AllThingsD]

Kevin Rose did an AMA, just in time for the release of the new Digg. It got less than 1,000 upvotes and apparently he didn't actually answer any questions. [Reddit]

Two online poker sites are paying millions in damages following fraud and money laundering charges. Guess the government called their bluff. [New York Times]

Times Square will broadcast the Mars landing on one of those gigantic screens. The space geek in us is currently fighting with the person in us who fucking hates Times Square. [NASA]

UBS lost $356 million in the Facebook IPO. Yikes. [The New York Times]