I'm not sure how many people were probably aware but you could use Outlook to send and receive SMS notifications right to your computer. The service was provided by a feature called SMS Link. It worked fairly well, although I had some general user functionality issues I think could have been improved.

Microsoft has announced via email that they will be discontinuing this service on August 26, 2009.

Microsoft's SMS Link service will be discontinued effective August 26th, 2009. Once this service is discontinued, current users will no longer be able to send SMS messages through Office Outlook 2007 using SMS Link. There are several service providers worldwide who offer similar services, and if you wish to continue using this feature in Office Outlook 2007, you should consider switching to one of these providers.

The available service providers to switch to if you would prefer not to lose this functionality are the following:

• SMS Officer $9/mnth
• Red Oxygen $23/mnth
• Bulletin $0.10/msg sent

These services allow users to continue to send and receive SMS messages into Outlook as they have enjoyed in the past with SMS Link.

Image: Screen shot of SMS Link account website

Post from: EveryJoe

Microsoft Kills SMS Link Service for Outlook

in reply to Three Flickr Plugins You'll Love

Zimbra is looking to expand its platform to the iPhone. Recently they announced Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0. Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0 will allow iPhone users over-the-air two-way synchronization of e-mails, calendar, contacts, and photos between user mailboxes and mobile devices, and seamless "push" e-mail service for all Zimbra Collaboration Suite users.

Wide Variety of Mobile Phones Supported

Zimbra is already available on a host of mobile platforms such as Windows Mobile, Palm, Nokia, and Blackberry. Their latest support for the iPhone 2.0 platform will help to increase their market share. While the iPhone has progressed with its support with email, documents and more, Zimbra is looking to make it easier for its users to stay synchronized regarless of the platform.

Enteprise Capabilities

Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0 software provides users with enterprise class features including OTA synchronization of e-mails, calendar and contacts. Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0 software will allow iPhone users to maximize their business functions on the iPhone. Additionally, Zimbra Mobile for iPhone will enable OTA photo-sync, so photos associated with iPhone contacts will sync with the Zimbra address book as well.

Zimbra has provided numerous ways for uses to access the Zimbra Servia via the iPhone including:

• IMAP / POP - Standards based access to email only
• Connectors - Use Zimbra's Connector for iSync (Mac) or Outlook (PC) to sync address book and calendar; combined with IMAP email it is a completely native UI solution. (Network Edition only).
• Mobile Web Browser - Zimbra Web Client is optimized for Safari on the iPhone; you can take advantage of iPhone's unique browsing capabilities to access your email, address book, calendar and more.

The users interface for accessing Zimbra's services via Safari on the iPhone is gorgeous and efficient. Zimbra makes great use of the screen real estate by providing a plethora of options right from the start. The new interface for the iPhone gets even better with a navigation menu at the top of the screen and important information right below it. This minimizes the number of finger tapping you'd normally have to do with the previous design.

Off to a Good Start

Zimbra is now approaching the same area territory Google is dominating at this point. However, the new Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0 is looking to be off to a good start with more than enough features available from the iPhone to keep its users happy. Users can test Zimbra Mobile for iPhone by heading to Zimbra's Hosted Demo page.

Last month a new travel social network called Tripwolf launched into private beta. The site offers a variety of content, including both professional editorial and user-generated reviews of destinations as well as a Google Maps mashup that layers users' photos onto a world map. Although Tripwolf is yet another travel site in an already extremely crowded niche, they've found some ways to differentiate themselves from the other sites out there. The end result is a good-looking, informative web site that's also a lot of fun to use and explore.

About Tripwolf

Upon login, you're taken to Tripwolf's main page where you can immediately begin a search using the provided search box or you can click on one of the tabs to access other areas of the site like the galleries (photos), travelers, journals, guides, or the soon-to-be added "trips" section.

On the left side are links to your personal info - your personal galleries, your trips, your profile and messages, etc. There's also a handy scrapbook feature on to which you can drag-and-drop places you find on tripwolf when doing travel research. That scapbook can be shared with friends via email, or, with one click, transformed into a PDF that you can download and print out as your own sort of personalized travel guide.

Content Galore!

Tripwolf's investor and content partner is MairDumont, a European provider of travel information who offers a range of printed publications for tourists. MairDumont's involvement with tripwolf allows them to provide content for the site, including destination information and photos. The combination of this high-quality content along with that which is user-gen gives tripwolf a more professional feel while still retaining the fun of a social network. It's also nice because there's a lot of content to explore right away - currently over 200,000 points of interest have been cataloged - so you don't have to wait on a userbase to do all the work for you.

When you come across a destination you want to update with your own info, a wiki-edit feature lets you upload your own photos, add and update places, add facts, reviews, and more.

The Facebook App

Thanks to facebook integration, you can easily find who among your friends is already on the service and invite others to join you. You can also add friends from LinkedIn, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Mac address book, orkut, and Xing.

On facebook, you can use the app to search destinations, keep track of your favorite places, and view what your tripwolf friends are up to.

Get In Today

The site goes public on July 1st and, at that time, they will be adding a way for you to book trips. An iPhone application will also soon follow. However, ReadWriteWeb users don't have to wait until July - you can go ahead and join now the private beta now by clicking this link. (Feel free to add me after you do.)

Oh the heels of some of Facebook's missteps (ahem, Beacon) and the proliferation of a myriad of useless, silly, and time-wasting apps, some former Facebook users decided to quit the site for good this year. However, a handful of early adopter angst doesn't have Facebook worried. Why is that? Because Facebook has a whole generation of users who grew up using their site for everything social back when it was just a way to network with their high school or college friends. So what are the everyday Facebook users doing that keep them engaged in the service? It's not throwing sheep, apparently. For many Facebook users, there are still useful apps to be found and ways to use the service that the rest of us could learn from.

On Sunday, Fred Wilson wrote on his blog "A VC":

"The other day I saw my oldest daughter get an invite to a party on Facebook, she accepted it, and then went to look at her accepted invite page. It was her social calendar, every party she plans to attend in the next two months is there. She noticed she had another event that night and then switched her acceptance to tentative. She uses Facebook the way I use Outlook."

Although the comment was in the context of a data portability discussion, there was something about this particular excerpt that was striking. Facebook as Outlook. You've heard older corporate execs describing how they "live in Outlook." Well, it's the same with the young digital natives - they just live in Facebook instead. And whether it's a walled garden or not, it doesn't matter to them - all the data they care about is flowing into Facebook. Who cares if it flows back out?

So what makes Facebook so invaluable to them? On a mission to find out, we turned to Twitter of course. But since Twitter's crowd is early adopters, we needed to find what the college kids thought, too. The combined answers gave us our big list (below).

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part I - Use Facebook's Features

Use Facebook Email: Here's an answer that speaks profoundly to the generation gap. For some, Facebook email isn't useful at all, while for others, it's one of the most important features. For even some of the hip early adopters, Facebook messaging (Facebook email) is thought to be this almost inconvenient feature: why should I go to Facebook to read that email? Why can't you just EMAIL me or send me a tweet? The issue is that it's all about what network you live in. For some it's an email inbox, for some it's Twitter, and for others it's Facebook.

For true Facebook'ers, though, real email is for business only. Using Facebook (and MySpace) is how you talk to your friends. (The frightening implications of what this means to an I.T. department that is charged with email archiving for compliance purposes and yet doesn't block Facebook.com is a subject for another article!)

"If I'm talking to any friends it's through a social network," said Asheem Badshah, a teenaged president of Scriptovia.com. "For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people." (excerpted from CNet)

Use Facebook Events: You don't need an online calendar to plan your schedule - Facebook has an Events app built-in. Here you can manage your events, see your friends' events, and even see when people's birthdays are. Your use of this feature is another telltale sign of which generation of Facebook users you fit into.

Block App Spam: Facebook finally added the "Block Application" option. Whew!

Go Mobile: With this application, you can use Facebook when you're on the go. You can upload photos and notes from your camera phone (mobile@facebook.com) straight to Facebook. You can also receive and reply to Facebook messages, pokes and Wall posts using text messages, or use your phone's mobile browser at m.facebook.com. To actually use the app, activate your phone here. Don't forget to also add Facebook Video so you can also send in your mobile videos to video@facebook.com, too.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part II - Get Things Done

If you're really going to take advantage of all Facebook can do for you, then you have to find a way to do everything you need to do right in Facebook. Some of these tools (below) can help:

Check eBay: A great example of how the info you need flows into Facebook, the eBay app lets you check on your eBay auctions...and, in true social spirit, those of your friends as well. You can even just comment on auctions without even needing an eBay account.

Use Paypal: Just bought something on eBay? Might as well add Paypal too.

Upload Your Resume: Use an app like Professional Profile to post your resume on Facebook. It also lets you sync your LinkedIn profile and recommendations. There are also official apps from LinkedIn: LinkedIn Contacts and My Linked Profile, too.

Create a Business Card: The business cards app helps you create a custom business card that can be attached to your Facebook messages. (It's email signatures 2.0!)

Use Zoho: Access all your Zoho Office files in Facebook for free. (An unofficial app exists for Google Docs).

Share Files: Who needs Pownce when you can share files in Facebook? Add an app like Box.net or DivShare to do so.

Use Blackboard: Ugh. We know you don't want to, but you kind of have to, so you may as well add Blackboard Sync to Facebook. (Online assignment system for college students).

Make a To-Do List: Some people just love lists. Task Manager can help you GTD.

Use a Calendar: Need a more traditional calendar app? Try this one from 30Boxes, or one of these unofficial Google Calendar apps. Or you could just sync Facebook with any other calendar, both online and off, with fbCal.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part III - Bring Web 2.0/Social Tools Into Facebook:

No need to leave the comfort of Facebook's walls to use the social web - you can just pull the social web into Facebook. Some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications are available as Facebook apps.

Use FriendFeed: No need to go without your daily fix of lifestreaming. The early adopter crowd loves this one.

Use Flickr: Take your pick from 100 applications for using flickr on Facebook...or just use the official one.

Use Twitter: Post to Twitter and make your latest tweet your Facebook status.

Use Upcoming: Plan your events via Upcoming and see events taking place in your area, too.

Get Movie Recommendations: Get movies reviews via Flixster so you know whether to rent that flick or see it in the theaters...or not.

Get Restaurant Recommendations: Use Bizzlr to get recommendations for where to eat. (our coverage)

Share Books/Book Reviews: Depending on personal preference, you may like Shelfari, Visual Bookshelf, Goodreads, or Bookshare.

Find People: Use Spock's people search app to find anyone, anywhere.

Link to Other Profiles: With As Seen On, you can link your Facebook profile to other social media profiles.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part IV - Bonus Content!

Make Firefox Better: You can find great add-ons for Firefox with Rock Your Firefox.

Search the Web & Share: Think Microsoft should put Live Search in Facebook? They just did.

Reading the Daily News Facebook-Style: No need to go off-site to get the latest news - customize your own morning paper with Zine.

And More!: Check out our series from last July to get ideas for other Facebook apps for Work, Utilities, and Media.

(Special thanks to FriendFeed user Susan Beebe who supplied a lot of great suggestions!)

Right now the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 86.16 points, and American Express is down $1.51 per share. Given that the DJIA divisor is 0.123017848, that means American Express is responsible for 12.27 points of the Dow's 86-point fall, or something over 14%.

But why is American Express doing so badly, and dragging down the Dow so much? The proximate cause seems to be a downgrade by UBS analyst Eric Wasserstrom, who's worried about credit losses.

I can confirm that these might well be a problem. For the past few weeks, I've been annoyed by phone calls from American Express; when I answer them, I'm told by an automated voice that someone who may or may not have used my phone number in the past needs to call them back urgently. Today, I finally got around to calling the number given, to see if I could take my number off their list. And what did I find?

"Thank you for continuing to hold. Your call is very important to us and will be answered by the next available representative."

In the end, I was on hold for about four minutes before I started talking to a human. And this is the line that American Express devotes to people they desperately want to hear from, and who presumably owe them significant amounts of money.

The way I see it, one of two things is going on here. Either American Express has more or less given up on collecting its past-due credit-card loans, and is making only the most desultory attempts to reach out to its debtors, relying on automated phone messages and understaffed call centers. Alternatively, Amex really does care about reaching these people, but there are so many past-due debtors that the credit card issuer's systems have become overwhelmed.

Either way, I have sympathy with Eric Wasserstrom.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I'll miss eBay's outgoing CEO, Meg Whitman. I always enjoyed interviewing her. My favorite was in 2005, when I sat down with her, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and eBay's second employee, Jim Griffith, for a long session about the company's 10-year anniversary.

Whitman then told me she only went on the eBay job interview so the headhunter wouldn't get mad at her. After one look at Omidyar's bare-bones Web site, then called AuctionWeb, she sarcastically told me: "I remember sitting there thinking, 'Oh this is just great.'"

Hopefully, before long, I'll get to see what the new guy, John Donahue, is like.

One of the last C.E.O. survivors from the dotcom rubble is about to call it quits.

Meg Whitman, the chief executive of the internet auction giant eBay, is preparing to retire, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Whitman has led the company since before its wildly successful I.P.O. in 1998, and she navigated eBay through the aftermath of the tech bubble burst even as competitors fell by the wayside.

The Journal cites people close to the company with the information that Whitman is completing her succession planning and will likely make a formal announcement in the coming weeks.

These people also say that John Donahoe, the head of eBay's auction business unit, is the leading candidate to replace her. Donahoe, who was previously managing director for the consultancy Bain and Company, was recruited by Whitman to join the company in 2005. The two previously worked together at Bain.

Whitman's departure would come at a critical point for eBay, as the Journal notes. The auction business, which flourished for years, has reached a point of more stagnant growth. That business makes up about two-thirds of its $6 billion in annual revenues.

EBay pushed aggressively into new lines of business, with mixed results. It has expanded internationally and made smart acquisitions, such as the internet payment service PayPal. But last year it was forced to write down $1.4 billion from its purchase of the online phone service Skype.

Whitman is highly regarded by her peers and has made her mark as one of the most successful female chief executives in history. It's unclear what Whitman will do next, although at only 51, it's unlikely she'll disappear into retirement just yet. In 2005, Whitman interviewed with the board of Walt Disney to replace Michael Eisner as its chief executive. But she withdrew her name and maintained her commitment to eBay.

Investors were clearly not pleased with the news of Whitman's imminent departure. In pre-market trading, eBay shares fell 8 percent.