Outlook.com – The Journey Starts Today

Lumia 900 Windows Phone

One of the exciting things about being a real estate agent is you can really integrate technology in a meaningful way on an every day basis. I don’t have all the gizmos and gadgets just to “have” them. I can’t imagine doing business without them.

I recently upgraded to the Lumia 900 which I think was new to AT&T when I got it, but not “new” generally speaking. I liked it so much that I bought matching nail polish and even matching outfits to go with it. 🙂 I do miss the Samsung Focus now and again, but my partner Kim still has it, so I can switch over if needed. So far I think the audio is better on the Focus as is the camera. The audio is a Nokia hardware problem…well, actually it’s as good as the iPhone I had before the Samsung Focus, but the Samsung product is superior to both the iPhone and the Nokia Lumia 900. Still…the Lumia is exciting for a lot of other reasons and I like both of my Windows Phones better than I did the iPhone…and that’s saying a lot.

I have not used Outlook for a long time having switched to gmail. One of the reasons is I deal with very large file attachments often and Outlook just couldn’t handle that well. Yes…maybe it was more secure, but thinking every home flyer or contract was “too large” to go into my inbox was a huge problem for my business. gmail never seems to block any of my emails with large attachments.

I switch back and forth from chrome to IE but generally only use IE when I “have to”, which is for contracts. That I “have to” kind of ticks me off, I have to say.

Well today we have a new “Outlook” experience, and I’m going to give it a whirl. Many of my clients work at Microsoft and I try to test out all the newest things and use them in my business. A fair amount of my clients work at Google as well, so I try both and use the best of each. The only product I have that is neither is my iPad, but I have to say the new Lumia 900 Windows Phone (coupled with some annoying NWMLS snafus in the newest upgrade) has all but made my iPad obsolete. But that’s another story.

Here’s what Microsoft has to say about their new Email Journey:

“An experience with no compromises
Outlook.com is the first step in creating one complete experience for the next generation of communications. Email should be connected to your friends – whether they like to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, or a combination. Email should let you get more done, faster – with immediate access to your inbox and tools that can automatically categorize, move, or delete messages you don’t want. Email should be deeply integrated with other services – for Outlook.com, you’ll find that Office Web Apps, SkyDrive, and, soon, Skype come built right in. And we hope you have already noticed our fast, beautiful user experience.”
I loved Outlook for a very long time and some of the gmail features make it difficult at times, so I will be giving this new email product a try…but I’m far from abandoning my gmail. Will let you know if it ever comes to that.