If you use a web-based email client, youve probably received an email before that you didnt notice because theres not any kind of notification. If youre a Gmail user, that problem is solved. Gmail just launched desktop notifications for anyone using Chrome as their web browser. After you turn the notifications on, youll see a little box pop up anytime you receive an email or chat message. Heres what a notification looks like:

If you want to try this feature out, make sure youre using Google Chrome, and go into the settings section of your gmail account. About half-way down on the main settings page, youll see a “Desktop Notifications” option which you should enable.

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Security company Trusteer has discovered a ‘factory outlet’ selling user logins for Facebook and Twitter harvested as a sideline during attempts to steal online bank credentials.

The most valuable stolen logins are always for online banking sites but increasingly bank Trojans such as Zeus appear to be recording logins for other sites in case they turn out to be valuable.

Trusteer noticed two cybercrime operations selling these lower-value logins in bulk using underworld advertisements. One

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Pinnacle Telecom has beaten out its competitors to win the contract to provide data, connectivity and voice services to BBC International for its broadcast of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympic Games.

The contract will include all BBC International’s partners based at the Stratford Broadcast Tower, the BBC’s 22 storey building which overlooks the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatics Centre and the Orbit Tower.

“We have been negotiating this unique opportunity for a long time and are therefore delighted to announce that Pinnacle will provide data, voice and connectivity services for the BBC and its worldwide international broadcasting partners at the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Alan Bonner, CEO of Pinnacle Telecom.

The agreement means Pinnacle will supply the fibre connections; microwave back-up links and analogue and ISDN connectivity.

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The Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Facebook allows you to connect your Facebook account to the Outlook Social Connector and obtain information about your friends and colleagues. You can see status updates and recently posted items from your Facebook contacts.

You can also use Outlook Social Connector to display a quick view of related Outlook content when you click on an email from a contact, such as recent e-mail conversations, meetings, and shared attachments to help you easily track your communications.

NOTE: The Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider requires Microsoft Outlook Social Connector and the related update (KB983403) to be installed.

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Weve talked a few times in the past about how RSS feeds are a great way to keep track of a bunch of different online content in one consistent interface. While a number of sites provide excellent RSS feeds of their content, there are a few common problems that can get annoying after a while. In particular some sites tend to have too much content, and a way to filter a feed to only see content you care about could be really useful. On the other side of the coin, a number of sites only provide the first paragraph of their posts, requiring you to click through to the site to read the whole thing.

Happily, both of these problems can be solved with just a little tweaking, using some online tools.

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