My Technology Guide

Gmail users have always wanted to have rich text signatures, after all they look cool, aren't they? Google has finally heard the users and as of today Gmail users can use a rich text signature. This means that users will no longer be forced to use boring plain text to end their emails. Gmail users can now add links and images to the signature, as well as change the text’s format, font and color and make them more lively!

Mozilla Thunderbird is a very popular desktop email client. Thunderbird email software was recently updated by its developers, Mozilla, to version 3. The update brought many new features and notable changes like better email account integration and configuration options, global search option, etc.

The next version of Thunderbird will be version 3.1 and the first alpha release, codenamed "Lanikai Alpha 1" confirms this. Mozilla has asked interested users to test the new alpha release version of the email client and give their opinion. The developer has also warned anyone from installing the email client in a productive environment as it is an alpha version that can contain bugs and other performance issues.

Gmail is down again this morning. Frustration is spreading quickly via Twitter, as some users can’t access their email at all, while others are facing problem accessing their contacts and using chat.

Google has acknowledged the problem on their app status page:

We're aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail, but we've provided a workaround below. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 8:59:00 PM UTC+5:30 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

You can access Gmail via IMAP.

The latest update on the situation can be found here.

The Mozilla Thunderbird development team (Mozilla Messaging) has released beta 4 of the upcoming Thunderbird 3 desktop email client. This new version of is available for download at the Mozilla Thunderbird website and are available for all supported operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh and languages.

This release comes with many new features and improvements including a new email search feature with advanced filtering options, global search with autocomplete feature, smart folders, tabbed email messages, new add-ons manager (Tools > Add-ons) which can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins, improved address book, better Gmail integration with better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail and integration into Windows Vista’s search results. For Mac users, Thunderbird 3 beta 4 can import from Mail.app, read your OS X address book, and use Growl for new mail alerts.

The Mozilla Thunderbird development team has released an important update for the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. This upgrade includes one critical security fix that was reported by security researcher Dan Kaminsky. Compromise of SSL-protected communication vulnerability allows an attacker to obtain certificates that would function for any site they would like to target. More detail information about this vulnerability is available here.

Mozilla Thunderbird should automatically download the update upon its next start up. You can also manually update using the Help > Check For Updates function in the email client or visit the Mozilla Thunderbird website to download the update.

With a single Google Account you can use all the Google services including the important ones like Gmail, Google Adsense or AdWords, Googe Docs, etc. So you can imagine what will happen if you happen to forget the password or the associated email address or worse loosing your account by a successful hacking attempt. The common security options to avoid this scenario are a secondary email and a security question that can be used to recover a Google account. But now Google users are having another secure option to recover their password. Google recently added the ability to recover your password via text message.

To turn this on for your account, just sign in, select 'Change Password Recovery Options,' enter your cell phone number and click 'Save.'