Last Updated: 7/6/00 11:00 pm PST

Client 2.5

New Service Trial  (Starts Friday 7/7/00)

There are four components to the service release:

1. New Centers were added.  Centers are located at the bottom of your Home page.  An example of a Center is WebTV Today, News, Sports, Entertainment, etc.
2. Format changes were made to the Home page.
3. Format changes were made to the Mail page.
4. Low Usage Billing Plan.  (More information later)

As a Previewer, we need you to help us verify that our new features did not break an existing feature as well as ensure that the new feature is working as expected.  I will be posting specific features that I would like you to respond to in the newsgroups.  If you identify an actual bug, please file a problem report.

Post responses to these questions in the newsgroup:

• Tell me if you like the new Home Page layout.
• Can you find the Center you are looking for?
• Is the new navigation drop down menu easy to use?

Below are some specific things I would like you to try.  This information is posted to the newsgroup as well as your home page.  If yo\ u identify an actual bug, please file a problem report.  Thanks!

General

1. Go to each Center posted on the Home page, including those in the drop down menu.
2. And verify that the links from the home page to the specific centers are functional (Does the link take you to the correct page?)
3. Are the listed features on the centers functional?  (Can you actually use the feature?)
4. Did anything else in the service malfunction? (For example, some Previewers discovered that if the Remote Mail Password was of a certain length, that they experienced email and pagebuilder problems)

Auto  (New Center)

1. Try getting a quote on a new car.
2. Personalize your page for your car.  (My Car tab on the Autos page)
   • Obtain information about your personal car.
   • Get recall history
   • Get car's estimated Blue Book value
   • Reminder when to change your oil or service.
3. Select "Add a vehicle"

Games  (New Center)

1. Play, play play!
   • There are a lot of games available for you to use.  Please play as many games as possible.
   • One section we would like you to try is the "Classic Games" module.  Go to these pages and make sure that you can actually play the games.
     • PM pong under Classic arcade games is one of my favorites!  :-)
2. Contests
   • Play Lucky Surf
     • You will need to register in order to play.
     • LuckySurf.com will not distribute your personal information.
     • LuckySurf.com will email your results to you on the days that you play.

Sports  (Modification of existing center)

1. Basic test plan is to verify that the links on this center are functioning.  Following are some detailed requests:
2. Find out whether your favorite team won yesterday's or today's game.
3. Read about the day's top sports news.
4. Find out what sporting events are happening that night.
5. Choose to receive regular updates on you favorite teams.
6. Answer sports trivia questions.
7. Communicate with sports personalities and other sports fans.
8. Participate in fantasy leagues.
9. Listen to audio Web casts.

Travel  (New Center)

1. Use the different features offered.
2. Verify that the links on this center are functioning and that you are able to use the provided features.
3. Go to "Plan a Trip"
   • Use "Find Flight Schedules and Prices"
   • As well as: "Or use the menus below to find the best fares others are finding on popular routes."
   • Is it clear to you what the difference is between these two features?

Please remember:

To include the kind of box that you are using when you post to the Newsgroup (i.e. LC2, Sprout, etc).

HI everyone,

The IHOP trial has now ended. Thank you so much for all your hard work. With your help, we have successfully released the Remote WebTV Mail features. I have filed a few feature requests as the result of your feedback.

Feature Requests Filed:

1. Currently, WebTV only allows you to fetch email from one account. Previewers would like to be able to fetch from several mail accounts. They would also like a drop down menu so they can choose which POP account to fetch (Outlook and Outlook Express has this functionality).
2. Request to be able to fetch mail from mail boxes other than their Inbox i.e. Saved folder.
3. Request to be able to use a pocket mail device to fetch email i.e. "Sharp TM20 pocketmail device."

In order to wrap up this trial, I would like you all to complete the following short survey. Some of the questions appear to be duplicates, but they pertain specifically to the mail program you are using, so those of you using more than one mail program can provide focused feedback:

IHOP Survey

Thanks! Andrea

Last Updated: 5/17/00 3:35 pm PST

Hello IHOPers!

If you have a computer or a second WebTV unit, this post is for you. If not, don't worry, I'll post something for you soon! Promise!

The IHOP service trial starts tomorrow, so here are some instructions on getting started and things I would like you to test.

This trial will be a short one, which makes it all the more important for us to complete as much testing as possible in the coming week.

Please post all questions, comments and problems to your newsgroup. If you identify a bug, please be sure to note it in your newsgroup and then file a problem report. Lastly, I will be monitoring the newsgroups, so feel free to direct questions, comments, and suggestions to me in the newsgroup.

How to set up Remote WebTV Mail in WebTV:

1. Go to "Mail".
2. Go to "Settings".
3. Select "Remote mail".
4. Select "Remote WebTV mail".
5. Select "Continue".
6. Follow the instructions listed on the screen and make sure you put a check mark in the box to "Allow remote access".
7. Be sure to read "Important Tips for your POP 3 Password" below before creating your password.
8. Don't forget, your POP3 server name for this trial is pop-asg.webtv.net

Completing the set up using your PC:

The instructions for completing the setup on your PC can be found by selecting "Help" at the end of the "Remote WebTV mail" set up screen.

Or

In Mail, go to Help>Detailed instructions> Remote mail>Remote mail Help>Detailed instructions>WebTV mail.

Completing the set up using your other WebTV unit: (Note: At this time, it is unclear if we will officially support POP3 mail from WebTV to WebTV)

1. Go to "Mail".
2. Go to "Settings".
3. Select "Remote mail".
4. Select "Other remote mail"
5. Enter the user name of the account you want to retrieve mail from. (Do not include @webtv.net)
6. Enter the password you set up on your other WebTV unit.
7. Enter the POP 3 server name "pop-asg.webtv.net"
8. Once you have completed the set up on both units, then try the test cases below.

Important Tips for your POP 3 Password:

• Password must be between 7 and 18 characters in length.
• Use only alphabetical or numerical characters.
• The password should NOT be one that you can find in a dictionary.

Things I would like you to try:

• Send links.
• Send pictures.
• Send attachments (video, audio).
• If you have more than one email program try each of them individually.
• If you have more than one email program have all of them activated. (Note: to test this, you must select the option to leave mail on the server.)
• Try subscribing to list servers to see how quickly you get mail in each account.
• Try flooding your mailbox with mail to test load impact.
• Leave mail on server.
• Opt not to leave mail on server.
• Opt not to leave mail on server.
• For each scenario, I will want to know if what happened is what you expected.
• Please be sure to provide error messages and steps to reproduce.

Have fun everyone! I look forward to your feedback! Andrea

Last Updated: 5/05/2k  11:56 am PST

Hello everyone!

I am pleased to announce that we are starting a new service trial. The new feature is actually a modification of an existing feature, "Remote Mail".

Currently, users are able to use their WebTV Unit to retrieve mail from another email account, like Hotmail or Outlook. This new feature works in reverse. You will be able to access your WebTV email from a computer or another WebTV account. Pretty neat, huh?

For this service trial, we will only be testing "Remote WebTV Mail" with:

• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• MSN

Please complete this survey (select URL below), so we can determine who is best suited for this particular aspect of the trial.

Remote WebTV Mail Survey

Thanks!

Andrea

5/03/2000