bloglines-beta BlogLines has launched the beta of Version 3. BlogLines beta looks pretty impressive with a new design interface (although not a finished product) and the way it has concentrated on making the reading of feeds easier for the users. Here are some of the highlights of the BlogLines Beta :

1. Start page to concentrate on important feeds : This feature has by far impressed the most. It allows you to drag and drop the feeds on the start page which displays the five new stories of each feed and when you click on them it opens up a small section where it displays the content of the story. This way you get the option to go through the important stories and not go through the ones in which you aren’t interested. Every time you log-in you are presented with the updated content of the chosen feeds.

bloglines-stat-page

2. Mark as read as you scroll through : Just like Google Reader, in this version the stories are marked as read when you scroll through them. Thus it saves your time where you don’t have to worry about marking the items as read. And, they’ve also worked on a feature where the folders are not marked as read automatically. Earlier when you clicked on the folders all the items were marked as read and in case you’d to go out then you didn’t have the option of going through the items which were still unread by you.

3. Various views for your reading convenience : There are many various views and you may chose from 3 panes view, quick view and full view to go through your huge list of feeds. Quick view did impress me as it allows to go through the headlines pretty quickly and allows to view the full content too by just clicking on the headline. I’m not a big fan of 3 pane view and that’s why it is good on their part that they didn’t force one type of view to users.

What else should have been incorporated before the launch of beta :

1. Starring or saving of the posts : It makes sense to incorporate this very basic feature. I went through some stories and wanted to star it (habitual of Google Reader) or save it, but couldn’t find any option.

2. Help or list of shortcuts : BlogLines Beta supports shortcuts but there are not listed any where. I tried the Google Reader shortcuts that is J for next item and K for previous item and they seemed to work. It would have been nice, if they would have put all that before showcasing this beta to the whole world.

All in all, BlogLines beta seems to be on the lines of Google Reader but it is the start page option and the quick view which impressed me the most and no wonder that after some finishing work and some required features, it may be able to drag many users from Google Reader.

Orkut blog had posted recently that they are going to roll out the redesign of Orkut. And today, they’ve given the quick preview of the redesign too. They’ve started rolling out the redesign in groups and soon you may get to enjoy the new and better look of Orkut.

Here’s how it is going to look like :

new-orkut-look
(click the image for bigger version)

The new look certainly looks better than the earlier one but there are not major changes. It is still following the same pattern its just that some color changes and the icons which are different than the old look. What do you think about the new look ?

TipsoSaurus reader, Don Rogers has asked a question that he forgot the password of his email account which he’d setup in Outlook as it is already saved in Outlook. Now, he wants to reconfigure the account in Outlook but can’t do it as he forgot the password.

Here are few things which you may try to fix up the problem :

1. Forgot password recovery : This is the simplest thing you can try and I.e. by getting in touch with the ISP or email service provider and make use of the forgot password recovery option. Or by calling the technical support, if at all they have one.

2. Using the password retrieval utilities : NirSoft provides the utility which can retrieve password from Microsoft Outlook and supports almost all the version of Microsoft Outlook even Outlook 2007. Note : Some anti-virus software may trigger false alarms against this utility but it’s safe to use it. I’ve used it personally and it works!

3. Unmask the password behind asterisks : Nucleus Technologies is providing the free utility which unmasks the password behind asterisks and that should simply solve the problem. Just open up the account settings window and it will show you the saved password.

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