New Hotmail allows forwarding messages to any other mail account for FREE- Restrictions removed

As many of you have noticed, the recently upgraded Windows Live Hotmail allows you to forward your Inbox message to any other mail account and this is available to all including free regular accounts. Earlier there were restrictions where one could forward the message only to an email address that ends with hotmail.com, msn.com , live.com or is part of Windows Live Custom Domain. And this was available only for paid accounts of Hotmail Plus.

This is what we used to see in the earlier version of regular Hotmail account -

(Click to view larger image)

 

Now with the New Hotmail this restriction is removed. And you get this -

 

To get to this option, sign-in to  your Windows Live Hotmail, Click on options > More options… 

and click on ‘Forward mail to another e-mail account’ to get the ‘Forwarding’ Window and type the mail ID to which it has to be forwarded.

So this is great news for all Hotmail users as this option is made available for all.

Hotmail Wave 4 Vs Gmail – Hotmail allows 10GB of photos and docs per message without stuffing Inbox

 

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Hotmail Wave 4 has added lots of cool new features, one of them is its attachment size limits. It has made it  very  convenient for attaching large number of images. How large, read it on, you’ll be surprised! 

Suppose you want to email and share lots of pictures. We will compare this scenario in Gmail and then in Hotmail Wave4 -

Gmail has the limit of 25MB so you may have to send multiple mails if you want to send more photos. And when sending so many pictures , you might want to select and remove some of them but its pretty hard to do so in Gmail as it does not have preview.  So all this takes lots of time in Gmail.

And the receiver in Gmail will have the option of basic preview and has to download one at a time.

And if one decides to send it via Buzz, Gmail gives the option of sending upto 1GB of photos in Picasa album but can only share with those contacts.  So this is the story of attaching photos in Gmail .

 

Now let us look at what can be done with Hotmail wave 4-

Hotmail optimizes the experience with the type of content being sent , such as photos or office docs.

Hotmail wave 4 now has integrated with the Skydrive , so you can send lots and lots of photos, documents or other files in a Single email.

You can send upto 200 files of 50 MB each or 10GB per email can be sent.

Hotmail provides thumbnail previews so one can easily catch a photo you do not want to be included.

It automatically creates a photo album on the Skydrive and sends a link to everyone in the email. So its not filling up everyone’s Inbox.

It works also for documents and other files too. So you can send a Big Power point presentation without any problem.

 

Here are some of the exclusive screenshots of Hotmail Wave 4 -

 

 

By default this online Album will be available for 90 days on Skydrive, but you can change the expiration date.

 

 

And all this is demoed in this video, A must watch video -

Watch the video and decide yourself. I have been using this pre release version of hotmail Wave 4 since some time and more I use it , more I like it.

Now talking of the receiver – The receiver even if he’s on Gmail will get these photos as a great looking preview of photo album which will allow him to view a full screen  slideshow of all the photos or you can download all the original files in a single zipped file.

The received mail seen in Hotmail -

 

Even the Gmail user also views it in the neat same format -

 

The Slide show the receiver gets, looks stunning with color changing effects -

The best part is the convenience, ease and the beautiful SlideShow.

 

IM and SMS from the new Hotmail wave 4 integrated chat

The new Hotmail Wave 4 has fully integrated the Messenger chat into the Inbox making it more efficient. With the new Hotmail you can see your Messenger friend’s status and just click on the name to start a conversation. If you right click on the friend’s name, you can do even more like send a text message to their phone, all this without leaving your Inbox.


And if  you have 2 or more conversations going on at once,a new tab gets added to the chat window thus making it easier to keep track of.


 
You can also move the chat window anywhere on the screen and can also detach/pop-out -


Hotmail  header  options screenshots -




Check the demo video of the same -

View, Share and Edit Office Documents from Hotmail – Cool new feature in Wave4

The new version of Hotmail has come up with lots of cool features and this one is the coolest feature. The new Hotmail makes it very efficient, easy, convenient to handle Office docs.
As you create a new email, there’s an option provided ‘Office Docs’, click on it to attach any Office Document and send it.




As one receives an Office document as attachment in the new Hotmail- be it Word, Excel or PowerPoint, one can open and view it online in any popular browser – on a PC or Mac – and even if office is not installed on ones’ PC or if one has an older version. A link will be provided and one has to just open it to view. Thus a seamless integration is provided between Hotmail and the Office Web Apps.

And one more thing, if you receive any Office Document, it gets automatically listed under ‘Office docs’ folder in the Quick views.


You can view Office documents sent to you in the new Hotmail with the same fidelity you’d get if you were viewing it using your Office Application on your PC. This means that if you’re travelling and want to be able to view that PowerPoint presentation or you’re on the road and want to read that Word document, you now get 100 percent full viewing quality even when you’re away from your PC

( Click on picture for enlarged view)

And even you can edit it in browser itself with the Office Web Apps.





if you need intensive editing, you can open it in Office application on your PC. When you’re finished, any edits you made to the document on the browser will maintain formatting and any on your PC will be automatically saved back into the cloud where you can then keep the document stored privately or share it with others.



Reply with edits to an attachment
Normally, if a friend emailed you a document — like a resume — and asked you to make a few edits, you’d have to spend time downloading, saving, opening, resaving and re-attaching the document. And of course, you would need to make sure your PC had Office installed.
The new Hotmail makes this much easier by letting you edit your friend’s document and reply back — all without leaving Hotmail and even if you don’t have Office installed on your PC.
This makes it one of the coolest feature of the new Hotmail.

Share big attachments
Hotmail users can send up to 200 Office documents of up to 50 MB each — a total of 10 GB — in a single message. The people you send the documents to — regardless of whether they’re on Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!
Mail or otherwise — will receive links to where you’ve stored the documents in the cloud (on Windows Live SkyDrive) so that you’re not filling their inboxes. They can click on the links to view the documents in their browsers using the Office Web Apps or download the documents to their local machines — one by one or all together in a single convenient .zip file. And when you send those documents, just like with photos, a private folder is created and only the people that receive
the email will have access.

Work with others
If you’re using the new Hotmail, you can email Office documents to people on other email services (including Gmail and Yahoo! Mail) and they too can view and edit your Office documents in the cloud. Nothing is needed to view, and all they need is a Windows Live ID to edit.

Versioning
And with multiple edited versions of the same document, you can always go back to previous versions thanks to the online file management provided by Windows Live SkyDrive — another key part of transforming Hotmail and Office into a great personal productivity solution.

Collaborative editing in Real time
You can work together on a doc in real time. whatever changes being made by one can be seen instantly so one can work together in real time and stay coordinated using Messenger present within Hotmail


Such features truly makes the new Hotmail, the most efficient email for busy people.
You can view all the above features demoed in this video -

Hotmail Wave 4 Vs Gmail comparison Chart

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As you know, Microsoft has previewed today the New Hotmail with great features. The Hotmail Wave 4 provides slew of new tools and features.
Here’s a head to head comparison of some of the features between Hotmail Wave 4 and Gmail -

	Hotmail Wave 4	Gmail
Lots of Storage	Unlimited	Expanding
Large attachment limits	50 MB	25MB
Total attachment limits per message	10 GB	25MB
Threaded Conversations	Optional	Always On
Integrated Web IM and SMS	Messenger	Chat
Mobile browse	Yes	Yes
Mobil sync/push	Yes	Yes
Forwarding	Open	Open
Flags or stars	Yes	Yes

Check the Total attachment limits per message of Hotmail Wave 4 , its 10GB compared to 25 MB of Gmail.
(Source: Hotmail Competitive Comparison Chart)

New themes in the New Hotmail

Apart from many cool features, the new Hotmail has also added some themes that matches with the Windows 7 themes.









Please note that this version of Hotmail is not the final ver. and the themes may vary in the final version.

Active Views – Watch Youtube videos and other partner platform content within the new Hotmail

Hotmail has a new partner platform which will bring the content and functionality of other websites right into Inbox. Thus, it not only makes it very convenient but also saves time. This feature is called ‘Active Views’.


For example, if you get a link in your mail to a video or photo album from your friend, you can view it right within the email message itself. Hotmail recognizes the video and automatically  pulls in the description and lets you watch it right in the Hotmail. Hotmail supports this for links to many sites like YouTube, Hulu, Flickr, SmugMug, and Justin.tv.


Just click on the ‘Play video’ and it’ll start playing without you leaving the Inbox.



Similarly for your online purchases, the tracking code mail can display the  real-time shipping status within Hotmail itself without going to the shipper’s web site.


Similarly if you receive an LinkedIn invitation. you can accept it within Hotmail.
Very convenient feature.
Check out the demo video of the Active View

Conversation View – What’s new in Hotmail

As you know Microsoft has previewed the Next Generation of Hotmail. Here, I’ll try to take up its cool new features one by one. There are so many cool things about the New Hotmail . Let us start with Conversation View -

The New Hotmail has provided a Conversation View feature. We generally have ‘conversation’ over the email with someone or several people over an extended period of time. Like if you have sent a mail fixing an excursion with group of people, and each will be having their opinion and replying the mail. And this leave pieces of that conversation haphazardly spread throughout the inbox in individual snippets.

The new Hotmail brings all those snippets together so you can view the entire conversation in one place. You just have to Choose the option of ‘Arrange by Conversation’ , that’s all. And the Conversation History will be grouped in the same view making it easy to follow the whole conversation.




And you can switch it off as everyone does not prefer to have this. So just change it to ‘Arrange by Date’ or other option . So you can Switch the ‘Conversation View’ On or off. Also note that Gmail has conversation threading permanently on, and no way to turn it off.
Check out the Demo video of the Conversation View


This is one of the very cool features. Look for more cool features in my next blog post.

Preview of the new Efficiency focused Hotmail

Microsoft takes the wraps off the new Hotmail, overhauled with enhanced efficiency, social and security features.

I’ll be posting its cool features in subsequent posts, now see a demonstration of new efficiency-focused Hotmail features-

 

NOTE:If you are unable to view the video in your browser, please view it here or use Internet Explorer 8.

For more details please check-

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowslive/videogallery.aspx?contentid=winlive_hotmail051710

Preview of the new Hotmail

View screenshots and photos from the Hotmail preview event