SSL coming to Hotmail

Following in the footsteps of Google's Gmail, Hotmail Wave 4 will offer full-session SSL. Presently, logging in to Hotmail uses HTTPS to protect user credentials from attack, but e-mail itself is delivered over unsecured HTTP. Gmail switched to using HTTPS for the entire session—both logging in and reading/sending mail—by default in January (previously, it was an opt-in feature).
In Wave 4, Hotmail is following suit, offering HTTPS encryption for mail access as well as authentication. With the most valuable part of a mailbox often being the mail itself, not the credentials used to access it, this is a welcome change.
The other big news is Hotmail will offer ActiveSync support. ActiveSync is used by Exchange to provide push mail and other facilities to smartphones. By adding ActiveSync to Hotmail, Microsoft is extending these features to 300 million smartphones, giving Hotmail-using consumers the full seamless sync experience on their phones.

I personally love Hotmail. Gmail's nice and all but Hotmail is on a superior level in my view. There is one, simple reason for this. Hotmail can be configured to use any email address as your Microsoft Passport, which is what you use to sign into microsoft sites and MSN messenger. Want to be different? Get your own 'special' email address suffix at a different provider and submit it to be your Microsoft Passport. My one and only recommendation for cool suffixs (See, Name@suffix.x) is http://www.mail.com.

What we're looking at are nice new features for hotmail, and more security. If you're an active user of hotmail these new features will probably seamlessly integrate into your daily tasks and use of the service. I'm pretty sure this upgrade is one sided in terms of who will like it. It's pretty straightforward that this is a good thing.

(Woah. I'm not ranting. Spooky.)

Android 2.2 to support flash

In an interview with The New York Times, Google’s Andy Rubin revealed that the upcoming version of the Android mobile operating system will fully support Flash technology. Code named Froyo, Adobe showed us Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1 on a Nexus One last month.

In a world where every company seems to find excuses not support flash, I find it incredibly exciting to hear that this is no longer a stereotype of the mobile world. The Wii had a very outdated version of Flash, the DSi had none at all, your average phone has none, and even high tech, and I use the term high tech loosely, pieces of media equipment such as the iTouch or iPhone don't support it. It was beginning to seem as if companies have a gripe with flash, and were deliberately trying to kill it's success at the expense of their own products. Perhaps, on the other hand, one company that happens to be a leader in the smartphone race has a bone to pick with, like, everyone.

Needless to say, I am officially wishing I could have an Android phone, specifically one running version 2.2 which will support flash 10. I think Apple has dug themselves one heck of a hole at this point. Microsoft, Google, and Adobe are now on their grudge list and considering two of these companies are very powerful web forces (Google, Adobe) and the other is coming out with what is supposed to be a revolutionary new smartphone (Microsoft) they have plenty of competition with a nice huge advantage over them now.

I can't speak for him, but if I were in charge of decisions at Apple, I'd be scared right about now. Android 2.2 officially has a major advantage over it's main competitor, the iPhone.