If you don’t already believe in the poofy white safety of the cloud… keep disbelieving. A Gmail bug has deleted the inboxes, contact lists, folders, tags, and the like of over 150 000 users. At time of writing, Google has confirmed that it’s been able to fix the problem for some users: “A very small number users are having difficulty accessing their Gmail accounts, and in some cases once they’re in, trouble viewing e-mails. This is affecting less than .08% of our Gmail user base, and we’ve already fixed the problem for some users. Our engineers are working as quickly as possible and we hope to have…

Apple is good at many things revolving around technology, but many would say that the key to their tremendous success is the way they do their marketing. They have created a brand that exudes pride amongst its users, a subculture that is both coveted and reviled by the different sections of the masses. Just look at how they do their emails – love it or hate it, they work. This breakdown by our friends at Flowtown puts it all into perspective for us. Every element is done for a purpose. Every detail is precise. There are no questions about how or why they do it. These emails work. In a world where so many fail…

There have been many stories about email dying for 3 or 4 years now. It seems that everything that people and businesses were told just 4 or 5 years ago, that email was a must-have, may be quickly reversing itself. Some businesses (and people) are starting to redirect their incoming emails to other forms of communication online or to SMS. Before we can truly decide what the future of email really is, we should take a look at it’s history and how it has evolved. This graphic by Focus brings us way back to the good ol’ days (the 90s) and visually depicts where we’ve been with email. Knowing where we’ve been…

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has sent out invitations to a media event on November 15th, where Mark & Friends will reveal ‘Project Titan’ – what is expected to be a web-based email client, allowing users to register @facebook.com email addresses. Apparently, TechCrunch says that Project Titan is internally referred to as the ‘Gmail killer’. And the plot thickens, and Facebook and Google continue to be grouchy at each other, and the world continues to turn. Honestly, would you want an @facebook email account? Is that more, or less cheap-sounding than Hotmail?…

Normally I don’t mind trends, so long as I don’t actually have to participate in them. However, there is one trend that needs to be over yesterday: turning everyday tasks into games. For those of you who haven’t seen the onslaught of tasks-as-games app, here’s a brief run-down of some of the more popular ones: 0Boxer: Organize Your Gmail and Have Fun Doing It Epic Win: Level Up Your Life: Make Being Organized As Much Fun As Gaming with Epic Win-the to-do list app with an RPG setting Chore Wars: Finally You Can Claim Experience Points for Housework These are games that try to make everyday tasks…

Gmail is rolling out a new feature which will make switching to their free email service even more attractive – import email and accounts from Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL or other POP3 accounts. The feature is obviously intended to draw in users who would be interested in switching but can’t face the hassle of transferring accounts or don’t want to abandon their old email. Google’s email service moves along in leaps and bounds, while Hotmail, now Live Mail sees only occasional updates. Yahoo also today announced some changes to the look and feel of their email service. With Live Mail and Gmail pushing…

There is absolutely nothing I can say here that isn’t expressed in the headline of this post or punctuated by the absolutely excellent photoshop I have compiled to illustrate it.. The world’s longest active, working, honest-to-goodness email address, at time of writing this, is 345 characters long, and owned by Peter Craig. I think mine’s, like… 18? Even then, people sometimes can’t remember. Maybe Peter just doesn’t like getting mail. Maybe Peter likes being mistaken for a spam bot. Maybe Peter is batsh*t insane. Whatever the case, until Peter is inevitably dethroned by a new challenger…

In an effort to cling to the last fraying threads of traditional communication, Pilot has launched an initiative to immortalize your handwriting, that your future emails might glow with all the radiant personality of your sloppy chicken scratch. Personally, I’m a Verdana man. But this is still cool. Simply print out the template, get funky, and snap a picture when you’re done. The app will take care of the rest, creating a font based on your handwriting. If you can call it handwriting. It’s all sort of touching, really – and sad, when you think about how automatic the production of text has become….

These days, Big Steve (that’s Jobs, for anyone who hasn’t figured out my schtick yet) is considered by and large as magical as he likes to claim the iPad. What a handsome chin. What a dapper turtleneck. The guy’s gotta have a CHA score of, like, 18 at least. The turtleneck’s probably giving him a bonus, too. Hunkalicious. Over the last couple months, one easy out for blogfolk tapped for stories has been to report on random emails, from both consumers and fans alike, that Jobs has decided to cryptically answer. Much to his chagrin, though, said laziness on the part of the blogfolk has created an unrelenting…

This is totally flowing my mind. Developed by Dean McNamee and Filippo Cuttica of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (they have freaking schools for interaction design in Denmark. I was totally born in the wrong country), Go with the Flow is a new way to visualize email. Built of tubes and wires, the contraption filters your incoming emails into three cylinders – work, family, and friends – and colours them accordingly. That’s kind of neat on its own, but here’s where it gets interesting: you actually haven’t received any emails yet. They’re just backed up and chillin’. To receive…