TechBytes: Blackberry E-mail

Dec. 18, 2009— -- Blackberry users should have their e-mail access fully restored today. Blackberry maker Research In Motion says it's investigating the cause of an outage that knocked out e-mail for many users Thursday. The blackout did not affect phone calls, internet access or texting. Blackberry service has been disrupted in the past when the company has updated its software.

Facebook is facing a new challenge over its privacy policy. A privacy advocacy group and nine other organizations have filed a complaint with the federal trade commission over the social networking site's recent changes. The groups say the new settings force users to make more of their personal information public and they want the old safeguards restored. Facebook says it discussed the changes with the commission before making them.

The people who answer the phones for the Microsoft help desk aren't very busy. In fact, Microsoft says it's getting about half as many calls as it expected since the Windows 7 operating system made its debut. Microsoft is giving some of the credit to its new computer help strategy. It says customers are using the online forum called Microsoft Answers, as well as the Microsoft Helps feed on twitter, to figure out solutions for themselves.

The apparent lack of problems with Windows 7 could make a big difference if you're shopping for a computer this holiday season. USA Today's Ed Baig says Windows 7 is so good that loyal Mac users may want to rethink their choice. "I've actually preferred Macs to Windows over the years, but with Windows 7, Microsoft now has the advantage," Baig says. Baig also thinks customers will think about switching over to Windows because "it's a polished, snappy operating system and it really has worked pretty well. You can read Ed's column at USA Today.Com.