Microsoft unveiled Outlook.com way back in July, a new email product that will eventually house the hundreds of millions of Hotmail users. Thus far, the reception has been largely positive - it sailed... Microsoft Needs You to Switch to Outlook.com
Yeah, outlook.com is a lot more responsive than the old hotmail website. Now if only they had the same approach with Windows 8 .. options!!
You should be able to use live mail with outlook.com just like you can use live mail with hotmail.com The next live essentials will be 'interesting', in whether they simply replace msn messenger with skype, or not include it and have it as a separate download. As it stands, the normal skype program still seems to be feature incomplete, and I'm not sure if everything is working like it should (like if someone adds you, the notification and acceptance of an add). The Metro version is apparently even less complete, despite it's installed size.
The msn program is not really necessary now, it's integrated on outlook.com. Not sure about bundling skype because VOIP is illegal in a few countries.
I use a paid VPN to access sites that are blocked. However, this is what you get when surfing normally. An example of my FAVOURITE porn site, updated on a regular basis.
Hotspot Shield is a free VPN that seems to work decently. It probably has a tonne of ads but adblock plus stops them. If I needed it regularly (I rarely need a VPN) I would just subscribe for the paid version or find a better paid one. Last I checked it was only $30 a year. Even their free version on their crappy servers maxes out my internet speed which is roughly around 3.5MBytes/s (at best). Speed tests here are useless due to the "turbo boost" (1 second of faster DL) they use to make you think your connection is not crap, too bad the uploads are still a joke: Well that went off topic fast. :wanker:
Using something like Live Mail makes things a lot easier (surprisingly) then using a web based solution. Hotmail was always primarily a web based solution, the ability to use with Live Mail etc is just a different way of doing it. I for a long time used just the web based method, but only a few months ago decided to start using Live Mail, and find it much better to use now (secure computer of course). The program based Live Mail route cannot replace the web-based way, since the web-based way allows for access from any web connected computer, but it does make things a lot easier. Live Mail etc should still work with Outlook.com. The reason for the change is purely for branding, and the want of Microsoft for everyone to have a Microsoft account (think Windows 8 and the non-local login method). The majority of people will probably change over. Many people will probably ignore the change and be caught out, whilst others may be put off changing over entirely. The fact of the matter is, the accounts don't have to be mutually exclusive; there is absolutely no benefit for the user to change to a different email address, all the changes on outlook.com can be easily adopted on hotmail.com as well. It is purely a 'brand realignment'. If you do decide to change, does that mean your email address changes from @hotmail.com to @outlook.com? If so, wouldn't this create a lot of hassle for people to inform all the pertinent contacts of the change (personal, work, and other).
When I switched, the only thing that changed was the UI and the responsiveness of the site. The email address remained the same. I had to dig around their typical confusing options to get the rename email address option and even then, mails sent to @hotmail.com will automatically forward to @outlook.com
I sometimes use it but it's as slow FCUK... I use a decent $3 per month vpn. It does the job with no slow down...