Category — Review

For those of you who grew up before the 80s may remember when Pepsi and Coca-Cola used real sugar in their sodas. Unfortunately many of us that were born afterwards weren’t so lucky to taste this sugary goodness, well, unless you lived next to a convenient store that got it’s imports from Mexico.

Just this past week Pepsi introduced Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback. Both Contain real sugar just like it was before they screwed it up. I was lucky enough to get my hands on both Mountain Dew and Pepsi Throwbacks yesterday, and I could really tell the difference. Both are much sweeter than their “Today” versions. I must say, I really wish both Pepsi and Coke would just return to their roots just like they did back in the day. Go out and buy a couple and try them out before their gone. The Throwbacks will be gone sometime in early June, since this is a test run. If Pepsi sees significant numbers in sales, they could possibly switch back or even add Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwbacks onto their list of permanent products, So go out there and try it! I highly recommend it!

Over the past 24 hours we have installed Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” on all four of our computers. A warning to all you laptop users, The Restricted Drivers Manager (Now called “Hardware Drivers”) is really messed up. If your using a laptop and have wireless (Especially Broadcom) you may have some trouble successfully activating wireless and video card drivers. I have no clue why it got screwed up but I bet it will get ironed out within the next month or two (or perhaps weeks). Stay tuned and I’ll update you on how the new version is!

Since I’m trying to eat and drink healthier I have decided that I’m going to try drinking tea more often because of their high levels of antioxidants.  I started drinking Green Tea with  mint and liked it. Last night, I tried a tea called Rooibos (pronounced roy-boss) and that came with vanilla bean in it. I must say, I really didn’t like it. I’m not sure if it was the vanilla that made me gag or not. That stuff made me sick to the point of almost throwing up. I think I’ll stick to different Green Teas.

Over the past couple of days Google has been rolling out Gmail 2.0. Gmail has a couple of new features but it looks pretty much the same as the older version. A couple of days before the newer version started rolling out, Google slowly rolled out a new IMAP feature that allows you to edit your inbox from a mail client such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Also each time you delete or read a post, the post in your actual online inbox will be deleted or marked as read. So now you can mark messages as read or unread The JavaScript in the first version was completely re-done so that version 2 will be faster. I did notice that this version is somewhat faster than the older version. The most notable “new” feature is the re-vamp of the contacts page. I don’t use this feature much so I can’t really tell if they added anything. If I remember correct, all I see is just a re-organization of the contacts page. I also noticed that the”loading…” indicator that appears at the top when your logging in has changed a little. I even noticed that after a while of loading, the message goes from “Loading…” to “Still Working…” … very neat indeed!

Overall, I can’t complain. The New features make things look better and more faster which improves the user’s experience, which means that I somewhat like this upgrade.

Microsoft has just released their first major revamp of Hotmail since its 1996 debut. The new email overlay has been dubbed Windows Live Hotmail (wow say that 5 times really fast!) instead of just Windows Live Mail. When you go to hotmail.com, all that you notice is the new name, nothing too big. I don’t know if I will switch to it (being an avid Gmail fan). One thing I am very pleased to see is the feature of sending messages under different accounts, which I requested. . A downside to the new layout is that for any novice user, help was still a challenge to find the help.(we need help finding the help )

Also along with this Microsoft announced that the new Vista Mail program will be dumped and will be probably replaced with yet another crappy version.

If this article is cut off, push “Continue Reading at the bottom of the article.

Competition, sweet competition makes it a whole lot better to use web based email. Today I will explore AOL I have never actually used AOL for any of my major email, being that @aol.com used to cost money (I think, let me know if I’m wrong). When I signed up I was pleasantly surprised to see how much eye candy and functionality they added.

Logging In

When you lick Log In you are shown a start page with the headlines, an ad, and an indication whether or not there is any new email in your inbox and if there is anything scheduled on your calendar or calendars. Looks pretty cool, but just like Yahoo, there is no way to customize it, but then again isn’t that what My Yahoo and AOL has its own thingy that looks like My Yahoo.

Inbox

When you click the mail button or folder, you will find go into what looks like a normal inbox. One thing I immediately notice is there is noticeable advertising everywhere, but hey, its free. Another thing I am really liking here is that when you click each message, it automatically opens in a new window.That maybe good today, but possibly annoying tomorrow.

Address Book and Calendar

As for the address book, its an address book. The calendar is probably one of the best calendars I have ever seen. It allows you to view US holidays and also allows you to make more than one and/or find another calendar (i.e. Very Important SAT Dates). The “find another calendar” feature didn’t work when I tried it.

Hey! the new personal calendar doesn’t even work!

Oh, boy *slams head on desk*
They sent about 10 emails to me, welcoming me to the calendar. If I ever get it to work, I will post it.

Sidebar

Another great thing AOL has done was to give two links to everything. They give you a sidebar so you can view your address book, calendar(s), and tasks without leaving wherever you are. This is very handy! And if you don’t need i, just push the arrow and it will minimize to the side.

Other Services/Features

There is no other features being offered at the moment.

Pros

• Eye Candy
• Has a very nice sidebar
• I thought the calendar was awesome and a good idea, even though it didn’t work

Cons

• Calendar didn’t work right the first time
• No other services/features such as forwarding, composing from a different address, or POP for external email clients were available.

Overall, I think AOL has big potential! It would be nice to see more features though.

More coming soon!

If this article is cut off, push “Continue Reading at the bottom of the article.

Competition, sweet competition makes it a whole lot better to use web based email. Today I will explore AOL I have never actually used AOL for any of my major email, being that @aol.com used to cost money (I think, let me know if I’m wrong). When I signed up I was pleasantly surprised to see how much eye candy and functionality they added.

Logging In

When you lick Log In you are shown a start page with the headlines, an ad, and an indication whether or not there is any new email in your inbox and if there is anything scheduled on your calendar or calendars. Looks pretty cool, but just like Yahoo, there is no way to customize it, but then again isn’t that what My Yahoo and AOL has its own thingy that looks like My Yahoo.

Inbox

When you click the mail button or folder, you will find go into what looks like a normal inbox. One thing I immediately notice is there is noticeable advertising everywhere, but hey, its free. Another thing I am really liking here is that when you click each message, it automatically opens in a new window.That maybe good today, but possibly annoying tomorrow.

Address Book and Calendar

As for the address book, its an address book. The calendar is probably one of the best calendars I have ever seen. It allows you to view US holidays and also allows you to make more than one and/or find another calendar (i.e. Very Important SAT Dates). The “find another calendar” feature didn’t work when I tried it.

Hey! the new personal calendar doesn’t even work!

Oh, boy *slams head on desk*
They sent about 10 emails to me, welcoming me to the calendar. If I ever get it to work, I will post it.

Sidebar

Another great thing AOL has done was to give two links to everything. They give you a sidebar so you can view your address book, calendar(s), and tasks without leaving wherever you are. This is very handy! And if you don’t need i, just push the arrow and it will minimize to the side.

Other Services/Features

There is no other features being offered at the moment.

Pros

• Eye Candy
• Has a very nice sidebar
• I thought the calendar was awesome and a good idea, even though it didn’t work

Cons

• Calendar didn’t work right the first time
• No other services/features such as forwarding, composing from a different address, or POP for external email clients were available.

Overall, I think AOL has big potential! It would be nice to see more features though.

More coming soon!

Yahoo

I must say that I am really impressed with Yahoo!’s new mail beta. With a nice interface, it includes a start page with weather or news, however, I was amazed on the fact you really couldn’t edit it. When you get to the mail page it looks similar to an integrated Microsoft Outlook.

Screenshots!

Page loading. The guy usually does something while you wait. This week it seems he is in a hula skirt.Click it if you want to see the detail

Closer look.

Here is the start page. Click it to get close up look.

The inbox

Overall I loved the eye candy, but it took a little while to load. If you want to use an email client or use another email address to compose from, you will have to pay for it.

More coming soon later today!

Yahoo

I must say that I am really impressed with Yahoo!’s new mail beta. With a nice interface, it includes a start page with weather or news, however, I was amazed on the fact you really couldn’t edit it. When you get to the mail page it looks similar to an integrated Microsoft Outlook.

Page loading. The guy usually does something while you wait. This week it seems he is in a hula skirt.Click it if you want to see the detail

Closer look. Click it go get even closer.

Here is the start page. Click it to get close up look.

The inbox

Overall I loved the eye candy, but it took a little while to load. If you want to use an email client or use another email address to compose from, you will have to pay for it.

More coming soon!Have a great day!

Has yahoo set competition for Netvibes and Pageflakes? I don’t think so. I was tinkering around with the new MyYahoo beta and All I have to say is that it looks like shit. The only thing I can see that is different is the theming (Colors) and the way you add content. I sure hope this gets better because images like the weather look incredibly shitty because of the white edges to them. Do I recommend switching from services such as Pageflakes and Netvibes? Nah. Yahoo has a long way to go before it can even compare to those other services.