Tech Bitch

GMX (Global Mail Exchange) is a major branch of United Internet AG, a stock-listed company in Germany in e-mail service provide. To be honest, I’d never heard of the company until I saw a double-page colour ad in a popular computer magazine touting ‘The Ultimate Choice for Webmail’. So I thought I’d explore…

GMX was founded in 1997. In Europe, GMX offers a free Web mail service called ‘GMX FreeMail’, which currently has about 10,000,000 active users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, according to the company. That’s no small number! In November 2007, GMX launched an English language service called ‘GMX Mail’ (reviewed here) with its own data centre in the U.S. and a different range of features than in the German language version. Like the European version, the English version remains completely free of charge.

GMX provides solutions for home users, as well as small and mid-size companies. Because GMX Mail is Web-based, it’s accessible from any computer connected to the Internet (just like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and others). More importantly, its features and convenience rival those of traditional client-based software that require installation on your computer - and it’s completely free! Of course, without an Internet connection you won’t be able to read, send or receive any messages - unlike offline mail clients such as Outlook which download all messages onto your computer.

GMX Mail offers a number of time-saving mail management tools. It’s also really pretty (looks a lot like MSN Live Hotmail,), and the interface is simple and uncluttered (are you listening Google?). A focus of the new service is security - the company claims that it draws on many years of e-mail expertise and offers sophisticated spam and virus protection for up to 98% fewer spam e-mails.

GMX’s virus protection is based on McAfee and Symantec scan engines, helping to locate viruses, worms, and Trojans - even in compressed file formats. GMX mailboxes are protected from spam with seven anti-spam modules, resulting in a good clearout of junk mail. Also important is uptime - GMX guarantees optimum performance with data centres located in Europe and the U.S. I’ve only been using the service for a few days so can’t really vouch for spam credentials, but in that short space of time I’ve had very little junk delivered - much less than Gmail in fact.

GMX Mail provides 5GB of free e-mail storage (maximum 50MB per attachment), and 1GB of additional free file storage for photos, MP3s and other files. This fares very well against the leading mail clients. E-mail names are available for the domains @gmx.com, @gmx.co.uk or @gmx.us, and changing e-mail names after registering is even possible. It also supports all the popular mail protocols (POP3, IMAP and SMTP), allowing you to import up to 10 e-mail addresses to your new mailbox.

The ad-free (e-mails actually have a GMX ad link placed at the bottom of the message) and non-cluttered interface is intuitive to navigate, though some may find the constant opening of new windows a little irksome. Easy formatting of e-mails and organisation is achieved by drag and drop, and a proprietary ‘mail collector’ allows collection of mails from third-party accounts in a single mailbox. There’s also an address book for online contact management, and it’s compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X using Internet Explorer or Firefox.

GMX Mail is flexible and easy to use. Even seemingly complicated tasks like switching e-mail accounts is a breeze. Thanks to the GMX Mail Collector, all messages from your existing accounts will be collected and sorted into separate folders in your GMX mailbox. If you’ve tried all the other free e-mail services but still aren’t happy, it certainly won’t hurt to give GMX Mail a spin. [6.5]

Technology supplier search engine, Conjungo, has launched a timesaving tool for companies looking for local or specialist suppliers of technologies.Conjungo, from the Latin meaning ‘to unite’, already has over 15,000 listings of technology suppliers. Many technology vendors have listed their entire channel to help ensure that buyers will be able to find their local reseller, including Symantec, Citrix, Adobe, and Wyse Technology.

Conjungo promises accurate and refined search results. Results can be filtered by any combination of: geography (local or national suppliers), expertise (suppliers that have specific industry experience), and market segment (suppliers that sell to certain sizes of organisations). The search fields in Conjungo were defined by buyers themselves to make supplier identification refined, quick and easy.

Traditional search engines are great for researching a topic area, but not so good at narrowing down the search for suppliers experienced in the right size/type of business, or ones based in the right location. For instance, you could use Conjungo to search for VoIP providers based in Warwickshire (UK) who have experience of selling solutions into the retail sector.

Vendors who have listed their entire channel include BT, Symantec, Citrix, Adobe, Progress Software, Wyse Technology, Netvoyager, Swyx Solutions, Gamma Telecom, Teleware, Rostrvm Solutions, Mamut Software, Steljes, St Bernard, Hostway, Brocade, SMC Networks, and PGP Corporation.

Parents, do you have a clue about how your kids are spending their time online? Are they talking to strangers? Do they like their online friends better than their offline friends? Wonder how they compare to kids in the rest of the world?

Symantec, famed for its Norton security software, wanted to know how Internet users and their families spent their time online, so it commissioned Harris Interactive to ask thousands of children and adults across the globe about their online behaviours. Specifically, it surveyed Internet users in the U.S., UK, Australia, Germany, France, Brazil, China and Japan about anything and everything ‘Internet’ (yes, they even asked adults about prOn sites!).

Symantec discovered that about half of adult Internet users (52%) around the world report having made friends online, leading to believe that the old adage of ‘don’t talk to strangers’ doesn’t apply when in online worlds. More surprising was that about half of users who made friends online (46%) said they enjoyed those relationships as much or more than friendships made offline. Sad! Other online activities ranking high around the world are dating (23%), using social networking sites (50%), and playing games (72%).

Moms and dads, think you know what your kids are doing online? Consider this … parents in the U.S. think their kids are online two hours a month, but in reality, kids report spending 20 hours a month online! And, 41% of U.S. teens ages 13-17 years old agree that their parent have no idea what they are looking at online.

Kids are actually making friends (35%), social networking (76%), shopping online (35%), getting requests for personal information (42%), and being approached by strangers (16%). On average, only a third (33%) of parents worldwide set parental controls and monitor their children’s online activities.

But more interestingly, more men (26%) globally than woman (19%) report that they have dated online, and about 4 in 10 online adults in all countries report visiting pornographic Web sites (41%), with about one-half of Chinese (51%) and Brazilians (55%) reporting doing the same. Globally, men (58%) are much more likely to visit porn sites than women (18%). You should all be ashamed : )