After more than a year, Outlook.com finally adds IMAP support

Microsoft has finally added IMAP support to Outlook.com, more than a year after the service was unveiled as the successor to Hotmail. The feature, available immediately and in tandem with OAuth, gives third-party developers another option when it comes to syncing messages and folders from the service.

Although the IMAP protocol is older than Microsoft's preferred method of email sync, Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), it's still a widely supported protocol, especially on feature phones and Mac OS email clients. Microsoft's Steve Kafka writes "we heard your feedback loud and clear that this was important", and announced the tighter integration Outlook.com in certain apps, including TripIt, Sift and OtherInbox.

IMAP (an abbreviation for Internet Message Access Protocol) was first designed way back in 1986 as a remote mailbox protocol, although it has been developed and improved on since the first iteration. One of the key features of IMAP is its robust folder system, allowing users to manage their emails in the hierarchy and setup that they prefer.

Gmail has supported IMAP since late 2007, and although the company offered EAS syncing options, last year it was announced that EAS support would be phased out, much to the annoyance of Windows Phone users. Gmail now primarily uses IMAP, CardDAV and CalDAV to sync emails, contacts and calendars respectively.

While Microsoft has now included IMAP support in Outlook.com, it still recommends using Exchange ActiveSync wherever possible. However if you do want to setup a third-party client to access Outlook.com through IMAP, Microsoft has listed instructions at the bottom of their blog post.

SanDisk's Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 memory card is the world's fastest

SanDisk can claim two milestones with the Extreme Pro CFast 2.0: it's both the fastest memory card available of any kind, and also the first CFast 2.0 memory card. CFast 2.0 is a CompactFlash memory card variant, with the CompactFlash Association having announced the specification last year, boasting speeds of up to 600 MB/s through a SATA interface.

The Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 card doesn't quite reach the maximum transfer speeds of the CFast 2.0 spec, but it does support SSD-like performance. SanDisk claims the card is capable of 450 MB/s read speeds and 350 MB/s write speeds, saying it will take just four minutes to transfer a 100 GB file from the memory card.

As the CFast 2.0 specification is new, there will be limited support for these cards in the recording equipment they're designed for. The Arri Arima, a professional documentary-style video camera, will be one such device that will support SanDisk's new CFast 2.0 card, with the super-fast speeds allowing 2K video to be recorded at 200 frames per second and at high bitrates.

For users who want to stick with traditional CompactFlash cards, SanDisk has also announced the highest capacity CF card they've produced, coming with 256 GB of storage. It'll cost you though, with SanDisk listing a regular retail price of $1,809 for the high-capacity memory card.

SanDisk hasn't specified exactly how much the Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 cards - available in 60 GB and 120 GB capacities - will cost, but we can't imagine they'll be cheap either when they hit stores "soon".