e-mails

E-mail is the greatest office productivity booster since the invention of the telephone. E-mail is the biggest waste of work time since the invention of the coffee maker.

Lately, I've been leaning toward the latter proposition. I calculate that only one in five of the messages that make it through Gmail's spam filter into my inbox are worth the time it takes to open and read them.

This doesn't include the spam Gmail automatically identifies and blocks, which in recent years has dropped from more than 90 percent of all the messages sent to just over 70 … Read more

Mobile device manufacturers still seem to think that adding a default signature, letting the world know what device you sent an e-mail from, is a good idea.

By default, the e-mail client on the Kindle Fire adds "Sent from my Kindle Fire" at the end of all messages you send. Here's how to remove it:

Step 1: From the inbox of your Kindle Fire, go to Settings.

Step 2: Under the "Sending mail" section, select Composition defaults.

Step 3: Remove or edit the signature from the text box. If you prefer to turn off signatures, … Read more

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) tend to spend a majority of their free time in front of a screen, but little if any of that time on social activities such as e-mail or chat, according to new research out of Washington University in St. Louis.

Researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2, which includes more than 1,000 13- to 16-year-olds in special ed who have ASDs, speech and language impairments, and learning disabilities.

While 28 percent of typically developing kids are reported as heavy TV watchers, this study found that more than twice as many … Read more

The Kindle Fire's e-mail client can set up Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL accounts with ease.

If you want to set up your Google Apps Gmail account, however, you'll need to enter a bit more information than just your username and password. Here's how to add your Google Apps Gmail account to the Kindle Fire:

Step 1: Go to the Kindle Fire e-mail setup and select Other as your e-mail provider.

Step 2: When prompted to enter your account information, type in your Google Apps e-mail address and your account password, then tap Next.

Step 3: Select … Read more

Microsoft is carving out a new niche for itself on the Amazon Kindle Fire.

A free mobile app for the company's Hotmail service is now available in the Kindle store for all Fire tablet owners.

Microsoft already offers an app for Google Android devices, which is up for grabs in the Android Market. But some tweaks were needed to make the software compatible with the Fire since Amazon uses its own customized version of Android.

The Hotmail app for the Fire boasts at least one advantage over the tablet's native e-mail app, according to a Microsoft blog. The … Read more

Sparrow is an attempt to get away from supercomplex, feature-packed e-mail clients in favor of a simpler e-mail experience. The interface is elegant while remaining very straightforward: the left side of the interface shows where e-mails are from, and the right side displays the message and any photos or other media commonly sent through e-mail. Setup only requires that you add accounts; then you can get started right away.

Though the interface is sparse compared with many big-name e-mail clients, you still get plenty of the common actions and options you'd expect from a basic e-mail app in Sparrow. … Read more

How many contact lists do you have? A new iPhone app from Xobni unifies your contact lists into one app (already available for Android), helping you quickly find contact information from a number of sources.

Smartr Contacts for iPhone (Free) unifies your contacts by scanning your iPhone contact list and e-mail contacts, then grabbing information from social sites like Facebook and Twitter, to merge all the available data into a searchable supercharged contact list.

You start by adding your Gmail account, then social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Once connected, Smartr Contacts goes to work tying your contact data … Read more

After setting up a Gmail account on your iOS device, you may have noticed the delete button has now changed to an archive button. Doing so more closely mimics the Gmail experience.

For some Gmail users, the archive feature is a welcome feature; for others the default delete functionality is preferred. Disabling archive is simple. Follow these four steps to turn off archive and restore delete.

To get started, go to Settings.

Navigate to Mail.

Select the Gmail account you want to edit.

Toggle the Archive Messages switch.

If you are a fan of the archive mentality, you may want … Read more

When you receive an e-mail in Apple's Mail client, you will by default see a few header details such as who the message was from, the date, subject, and who the message was sent to.

While this is the default view for e-mail messages, there are some settings that can result in the header information being changed or hidden, which can cause a bit of frustration for people who wish to see additional information.

Recently MacFixIt reader Don wrote in with such a problem where his desired header settings were not working properly: