GTA IV Freezes Have Gamers Hot

Grand Theft Auto IV has created a frenzy of news stories, including

• rave reviews
• worries over an effect on Iron Man ticket sales
• probable record sales
• did I mention rave reviews?
  

Ah, but the one that has gamers hot under the collar: freezes.

Owners of both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles are reporting freeze issues with the new game. The issue seems most prevalent on 60GB PS3s, however. A few random posts fron various forums around the Internet include this one (Xbox 360):

Mine keeps freezing in the opening scene. I cannot get past it. This definitately sucks.

and this one (Xbox 360):

This is incredibly annoying and odd, indeed.

I picked up the game the day it came out of course and got home and played for maybe 15 minutes when it froze. So I got freaked out (having just replaced my 2nd Xbox for RROD). I tried again, it froze maybe 20 minutes in the second time. So, I returned to EB Games (Gamestop) and got it replaced, hoping it would fix the problem. It didn't!

Check out how many pages of responses are in this thread at Sony's forums.

Some are complaining of cutscene freezes, others random freezes. The only workaround from Rockstar Games so far has been to delete all the game data and reinstall - but that's not working for all.

Rockstar is starting to get a reputation for great games that have a tendency to freeze (Bully had this issue also).

Naturally it affects a minority of users, but for now, the only thing users can do is install and cross their fingers.

AT&T TAPs Into iPhone Users with Disabilities

On Tuesday AT&T announced a new rate program for iPhone users with hearing and speech disabilities. The program, known as Text Accessibility Plan or TAP, is $40 / month and offers the following:

• Unlimited SMS messages
• Unlimited data usage (email and web)
• $.40 per minute pay-per-use voice
• Visual VoiceMail

While I blanched when seeing the $.40 / minute voice portion of the plan, that was because I initially forgot just who this plan is designed for.

Applicants will have to qualify for this plan by completing disability certification forms (.PDF). The iPhone has to be activated in the normal manner, after which the customer can contact AT&T's National Center for Customers with Disabilities to change the plan to the TAP plan for iPhone.

SIMable Unlocks Your SIM, Not Your Phone

A new firm says its SIM mod can unlock any cell phone - well, at least those on its list of compatible phones, anyway. According to their site, you use their "cutting press" to cut a hole in your SIM, align the SIMable chip to your SIM card, and voila (so they say anyway).

According to their instructions, some models will require you to modify the SIMable chip itself by cutting a small triangle out of the chip itself (with scissors), in addition to cutting a hole in the SIM. This handsets are marked with * in their compability list.

There's a pretty extensive list of Nokia phones, but sadly - no iPhone (as if you even thought).

More detailed instructions are here (.PDF).

SIMable costs £16.99 + £2.95 delivery, and they take PayPal (but no direct credit card orders).

Google's Directions Get a "Street View"

Ever wish you could get a view of possible landmarks when getting directions from a mapping site or program? I do. After all, I usually do better with "look for that Chevron station" hints. Well, Google's heard your plea, and has added Street View to directions in Google Maps.

Of course, you shouldn't forget that Street View is only available in 44 areas of the United States, so don't expect it to be available everywhere you want to go. But if it is, all you have to do is click on the camera icon next to your directions: it means Street View is available at that intersection.

Example: clicking on 3) above:

It even shows you the directions of the turn. As I like to do, you can follow along your route and get a preview of landmarks, speed limits, even McDonald's you might want to visit (heh)! Really cool, Google.

EFF: Microsoft "Betraying Customers" with MSN Music Licensing Move

On Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that it has sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, saying that Microsoft's plans to shut down the licensing servers for their defunct MSN Music store has "lost the trust" of their customers and that Microsoft's suggestions for workarounds are "insufficient."

Additionally, a press release by the EFF minces no words, saying the company has "betrayed" MSN Music store customers.

You'll recall I wrote that Microsoft will be shutting down its licensing servers for the defunct MSN Music store in late August, meaning that those who purchased music from that store will have to either select a PC to permanently license the music to a particular PC, or else burn the music to a CD. Once that's done, of course, they can then rip the music to any PC, but they've also lost quality in the process.

In their letter to Ballmer (.PDF), the EFF describes the concerns of users as follows:

"If Microsoft treats its MSN Music customers so shabbily, is there any reason to suppose that it will treat other customers any better?"

They suggest that Microsoft take a number of steps. Of course, I'd expect most of these to be laughed at, but still, here they are:

1. Issue a full public apology to your MSN Music customers.
2. Offer to refund the purchase price of the affected downloads or, at the customer’s option, provide replacements from an online store that offers the same tracks in a DRM-free format.
3. Ensure that all MSN Music buyers have (or have permanent access to) receipts identifying dates, amounts, and titles purchased, so they have proofs of purchase. Or, better yet, offer to cover their legal costs if they are hit with a copyright infringement claim based on a song purchased through MSN Music.
4. Work with your content industry partners to eliminate DRM from the Zune music catalog now. Microsoft has said it would like to provide DRM-free tracks—it is time for the company to make that happen. Unless and until DRM is eliminated from the catalog, publicly commit to compensating customers along the lines outlined above should Microsoft’s business decisions cause Zune customers to lose the full value of the content they purchased through the Zune Marketplace.
5. Widely publicize the above measures so that Microsoft customers know their options. That publicity should include, at a minimum, advertising in major music magazines and newspapers in every major U.S. city, as well as targeted keyword advertising.

Now, why do you suppose I expect all of these suggestions will fall on deaf ears, hmmm?

It's clear the EFF feels DRM is a failure (as do I and many in the blogosphere). In fact, they use the term "irritating DRM" in their letter. In fact, in their press release, EFF staff attorney Corynne McSherry said:

"With MSN Music, Microsoft has admitted just how expensive, clumsy, and unfair DRM is. It's time for Microsoft to reject this sloppy technology, and for customers to demand something better."

I agree, but it's not just Microsoft, right?

Amazon.com: It's Baaack. Come Get Your Kindles!

Late last month Amazon.com apologized for delays in Kindle delivery. Their apology said they would in a few weeks be able to offer an "order today, ship today" service on the Kindle. Whether or not they've actually reached that point, Amazon.com has posted a note on their front page on Tuesday saying Kindles are back in stock.

Here's Tuesday's letter from Jeff Bezos:

Want to read the shareholder letter? Here it is (.PDF). It's not really ALL about the Kindle; to be honest, only the preface to the actual shareholder is about the Kindle - but that preface is indeed Kindle-centric. It's true however, that Amazon.com is betting a lot on the Kindle:

Your team of missionaries here is fervent about driving free cash flow per share and returns on capital. We know we can do that by putting customers first. I guarantee you there is more innovation ahead of us than behind us, and we do not expect the road to be an easy one. We’re hopeful, and I’d even say optimistic, that Kindle, true to its name, will “start a fire” and improve the world of reading.

Want to buy, now that it's in stock? Here you go. Me? I'm still worried about leaving it on BART, though I am sorely tempted.

Glitch Delays Full Windows XP SP3 Rollout

Hold your horses on that Windows XP SP3 download. Now we know why Microsoft's Download Center doesn't have XP SP3 on it yet, although you can find it if you know the links. Glitch, bug, whatever you want to call it, there's a problem.

If you have Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), a retail chain management program, you don't want to install Windows XP SP3 - or for that matter, Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft has indicated there's a "compatibility issue" between those Service Packs and RMS.

What exactly that means is undefined, but you can bet it ain't good if they're halting rollout of SP3. What's interesting is that last week Microsoft started automatically pushing out Vista SP1 via Windows Update.

Microsoft's statement said:

"To help protect our customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center."

They also added they are working on a fix for the incompatibility (naturally).

Windows XP SP3 Finally Arrives

Microsoft is under a lot of pressure to continue supporting Windows XP. While it continues to offer small tidbits of hope, for the most part the answer has been "No." At least, however, Windows XP SP3, RTM'ed last week, is now available for download.

Of course, you have to know where to find it. Strangely, while it's been leaked by some sites, it's not available directly from the Microsoft Download Center yet. If you know the links, however, you can still get it directly from download.windowsupdate.com. You might want to do this if you want to play it safe.

Currently, the following are available:

• English
• French
• German
• Spanish
• Japanese
• Polish
• Russian
• Czech
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Chinese (Hong Kong)

Expect more to show up as the day goes on, and hopefully a direct link from the Download Center.

Although the pack is mostly a roll-up of past fixes, 4 "features" have been back-ported from Windows Vista. These are: a new activation process, Network Access Protection Module, Black Hole Router Detection, and Microsoft's Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module.

As we said, there's a lot of pressure on Microsoft to keep XP alive, both from analysts and end users. Microsoft has extended XP's deadline for ULCPCs - but that's it. Meanwhile, OEMs like Dell are going to use the "Downgrade Rights" loophole for Vista to keep XP on PCs.

Want to add your voice? Infoworld's petition is still available.

"The WB" Returns as TheWB.com

Anyone remember The WB network? It launched in 1995 and shut down in September of 2006. For the most part, the shows on The WB were mostly forgettable. It's getting a second chance.

TheWB.com, and a complementary site for children called KidsWB.com, are part of a new "digital strategy" by Warner Brothers Television Group (WBTVG). In the press release, Bruce Rosenblum, President, Warner Bros. Television Group, said:

"These destinations are perfect examples of our digital strategy to create targeted, niche destinations that present a fresh and compelling point of view to audiences. In much the same way TMZ has, these initiatives enable us to create new brands and reimagine existing ones for a multiplatform playing field. They are complementary to our thriving traditional business and share the same vision of original episodic storytelling."

TheWB.com will launch in beta next week and will show content from its defunct ancestor, like "Smallville," "Gilmore Girls", and shows from the Warner library (e.g., "Friends"). It will also feature new original series.

Meanwhile, KidsWB.com, which was previously known at T-Works, right now it features streaming video of WB properties and casual games. By the end of the year, however, KidsWB will include a virtual world that features classic Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbara and DC Comics characters as well as new characters created just for the site.

Thing is, this might be as successful as The WB network was - which isn't a compliment. Since Warner Bros. lacks its own TV network, and has sold its properties to companies, it won't be able to show its own properties on TheWB.com until after the other companies get first crack. Not something would seem to point to success for the new venture.

Example: even episodes of Gossip Girl, which first air on The CW (Warner Bros.' joint venture channel with CBS), will show online on CWTV.com before it reaches TheWB.com.

Microsoft's Office Labs: Searching for Mr. Toolbar

Is anyone besides me so annoyed with Office 2007's ribbon that they've considered add-ins like Classic Menu for Office 2007 and Toolbar Toggle? Perhaps you either didn't know about these tools or decided, like me, to suffer through the learning curve of the ribbon.

On Monday, Microsoft released an Office add-in of their own. It's called "Search Commands" (above, click to enlarge) and it allows users to type the function they are looking to do (kind of like I generally do with Google when I can't find an Office 2007 function in the place I expect it to be per Office 2003).

You have to look on Microsoft's new Office Labs site to find it though (can we put everything in one place, guys?), rather than their normal site.

According to Microsoft,

Search Commands helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Just type what you’re looking for in your own words and click the command you need. Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks.

Of course, like some other Labs we've seen including Microsoft's own "Live Labs," and labs from some other small company of note, this is sort of a sandbox for new ideas. Also, upon installation, Microsoft will ask you to allow data to be shared with them: what you search for and what command you used. According to Office Labs:

This data will help us understand how the prototype is used in order to decide if and how it would be integrated into a product. If you have decided to not share data with us, no worries - Search Commands will not log any data.

Also today, Office Labs introduced "Community Clips," sort of a YouTube for Office 2007 tips.

Office Labs is working on other projects, but these are the ones currently released. While Search Commands is nice, I'd still like my Office 20o3 menu bar back (maybe I'm just too old-school). Heavy sigh.

Storied Paper Transitions to All-Online Format

You didn't have to watch this season's The Wire to know that times are tough for newspapers. Last Saturday, The Capital Times, a 90-year-old daily newspaper based in Madison, Wisconsin, stopped printing in order to focus on publishing its web site.

This is obviously something many newspaper executives are likely anticipating as probable futures for their own dailies.

The Times faced a major disadvantage, in being the afternoon version in a two-newspaper city, and had seen circulation drop from a high of 40,000 in the 1960s to 18,000 while the morning paper, The Wisconsin State Journal, has a circulation of 89,000.

It will continue to produce two print products which will be bundled into The State Journal: a free weekly entertainment guide and a news weekly, 77 Square.

There were 24 people who left the paper on Friday, some through buyouts and some through layoffs, and the paper took the time to profile each of them in a story titled "A Fond Farewell to Talented Colleagues."

The paper is blogging the changes to their online version here, and on that page they say:

We'd like to welcome you to our website. For many of you, visiting captimes.com is old hat. But there are new features on the horizon. We invite you veterans of captimes.com to keep an eye on the redesign blog (to the right) and give us your feedback on our progress.

Some of you are coming to our site for the first time. We are very interested in helping our long-time print subscribers make the transition to online along with us.

Monetization is the big question. While some find comfort in being able to, er, say, carry a paper into the bathroom and mull over it, many others simply get their news online. After all, web news is more timely - and free.

While large conglomerates such as the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, and others may have no issues with a transtiion such as this, this could be a prime example for smaller dailies to watch, as they mull over their own futures.

Apple Updates the iMac

Rumored since last week, and revealed by the typical Apple Store outage, updated iMacs are here. Same prices, better specs.

And what are those better specs? Well, as Apple trumpets in their press release, for starters, buyers can now get the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors (up to 3.06 GHz), a faster 1066MHz FSB and optional nVidia GeForce 8800 GS graphics.

In the release, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing said:

"The iMac’s gorgeous aluminum and glass all-in-one design has been an incredible hit with our customers and is just one of the reasons Mac sales are growing three and a half times faster than PC sales. With the latest Intel processors, a faster new graphics option and more memory, customers now have even more reasons to love the iMac."

The same $1,199 for the low-end model nets you a a 20" iMac, 2.4GHz CPU, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128 MB memory, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB 7200 RPM hard drive.

The high-end 24" model starts at $1,799 with a 2.8GHz CPU, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB 7200 RPM hard drive.

Move to the higher-end 24" model (starting at $2,199) and you add a 3.06GHz CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB GDDR3 memory, and a larger 500GB hard drive.

Here are the specs for the lower-end models at each screen size:

The new 20-inch 2.4 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US), includes:

• 20-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 1GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
• 250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.

The new 24-inch 2.8 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,799 (US), includes:

• 24-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.

Naturally you can add more RAM and other upgrades. Also naturally, the Apple Store is back up and these babies are available now.

Seiko's SlimStick Tracks All Your Activity

Don't worry, the Seiko SlimStick tracks everything you do, but it's not something developed by the CIA.

Those of us who try to make excuses for not jogging or working out at the gym because we "are always active during the day" will either be proved or disproved by the Seiko SlimStick. More than just a pedometer, it keeps track of your every movement and determines exactly how many calories are burned.

Dual-axis accelerometers track the magnitude of your movements. Weighing only 15 grams, and 2- x 6.4- x 0.89-centimeters in size, you can slip it in your pants pocket or - better yet - clip it to something so it doesn't register flipping around in your pocket as you doing backflips.

The SlimStick comes in pink, orange and silver, and will store as much as 12 weeks of data. Price: around $60.

The unfortunate thing: it's only available in Japan. As with the Wii Fit, which seemed to take forever to make it here from Japan - and still won't be available until May - it seems like the Japanese want to keep all their health-conscious electronics to themselves, at least at first.

Psystar Posts Video of Mac Clones in Action

Despite all the skepticism from the media, Psystar has produced a video that purports to show "the triplets," three Open Computers running Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X Leopard.

The video is posted on their website, but a copy has also been uploaded to YouTube.

The Open Computer running OS X is shown running Quake 4. There's not a whole lot of detail or close-ups in the video, which lasts about one and a half minutes. According to the narrator, the video was created using Final Cut Pro on one of their own Open Computers.

Things like this make me feel this operation is less vaporish than I originally thought, but it would be great if a reputable site could get their hands on one of the "bad boys," as Psystar calls them, and reviews them. Or even if an end user could confirm having received one of them!

Watch the video and judge for yourself.

Amazon.com Starts Its Own Gadget Blog

As if there aren't enough gadget blogs, like Gizmodo, Engadget, Crave, and more, Amazon.com has launched its own gadget blog. The blog, named End User, could possibly be a little self-serving, as most of the posts seem to have links directly to Amazon.com items for sale (no!) and the blog's authors are all Amazon.com employees (double no!).

Basically they "undocked" this blog from Amazon Daily, as they said in their initial blog post.

End User is our place to discuss all things electronic. We'll continue to focus mainly on gadgets--that is, portable electronics you can hold in your hand such as iPods, GPS, cell phones, etc.--but we're also branching out to cover new things like home audio, computers and software, and more. Basically anything with a current in it is fair game.

Still, they at least have a decent Blogroll with most of the other prominent gadget blogs listed. Not much of a following yet, apparently, as most posts don't have many comments (like one or two).

We'll see how it goes, and we'll see how much free advertising they get out of the gadget posts.

New York Readies for Its "Amazon Tax"

I wrote earlier about the passage of New York's so-called "Amazon Tax," which would force etailers to collect sales tax from New Yorkers making purchases. The bill has since been signed, as it set to go into effect on June 1st, bringing in an estimated $50 million in revenue this year and $75 million in 2009.

New York has begun notifying etailers to ensure they are aware of the new rules.

Prior to this, retailers had to have a brick-and-mortar presence in a state to be required to collect sales tax. The argument has frequently centered on the huge number of different sales tax rates across the country. t's also difficult to see how something like this isn't going to face legal challenges. In fact, in a 1992 Supreme Court decision, Quill vs. North Dakota, the Supreme Court ruled that out-of-state retailers cannot be required to collect sales tax on purchases sent to states where they did not have a physical presence.

The Supreme Court’s reasoning was at least partially based on the fact that, at the time the case was decided in 1992, there were over 6,000 separate sales and use tax jurisdictions in the United States (states, localities, special tax districts, etc.) and to impose a collection obligation on a remote seller would impose a crushing burden that would severely restrict interstate commerce.

Now there are over 7,000 different sales tax laws, and while it should be easy for an entity as large as Amazon.com to handle that, the law affects companies that do more than $10,000 worth of business in the state. That's not that much business, and could force smallish etailers to have to handle this confusing maze of laws.

You can bet Amazon.com and other large etailers will challenge this, using that $10,000 limit as ammo. Being from a high sales-tax state as I am (California), I certainly am not eager to see this law be successful - but I also am not foolish enough to believe something like it won't eventually take shape across all the states.

Nintendo: Wii're Not Going to Lower Prices

In an analyst meeting on Friday, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata indicated that Nintendo had no plans to cut prices on its handheld or console gaming systems.

"Our earnings projection for the year is not based on hardware price cuts, and I don't think we are going to need them," he said.

The Nintendo Wii has had an MSRP of $250 since its introduction in November 2006. Meanwhile, both Microsoft and Sony have cut the prices of their Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles, respectively, while watching the Wii far outsell either model.

The Wii is the cheapest of the current-generation video game consoles, and it has the least impressive graphics. However, the impressive sales of the console have been based on the "fun" of the games produced for it, as well as its innovative remote.

At the same time, last year Nintendo sold 30.3 million DS handheld units.

This year, however, at least in the U.S., Nintendo has another obstacle besides competition from other consoles and handheld units: the falling value of the dollar.

Radio Shack Wants to Help You Spend Your Tax Stimulus Check

It's been announced that the tax stimulus checks will begin mailing on this coming Monday. Rather than letting you waste it on say, food or bills, Radio Shack, in an interestingly titled press release, announced plans to help you "redeem" your tax stimulus and tax refund checks.

The press release, titled "RadioShack Announces Plan to Help Consumers Redeem, Spend and Save Their Federal Stimulus Checks and IRS Tax Refunds," says that customers that use their checks to pay for purchases above $50 between May 4 and July 12, 2008, will receive a 10% discount on their purchases.

Anything left over will be placed on a placed on a Vision Silver Prepaid MasterCard and that, of course, can be used anywhere that takes MasterCard. Maximum redemption amount is $2,500, and there will be no check or card activation fee charged.

Peter Whitsett, executive vice president, merchandising for RadioShack said in the press release:

"What's unique about RadioShack's offer is that we are giving our customers 10-percent off their favorite electronics with a small minimum purchase amount while allowing them to convert the unspent balance of their checks into prepaid cards for spending at a later time or place. While we would certainly love for them to spend everything at RadioShack, we understand other obligations may be necessary. Fortunately, our offer gives them the best of both worlds: save upfront on their consumer electronics purchase and save the rest of the money for a later date. This is the kind of personalized solution that keeps our customers' best interests at heart."

Despite my flippancy in the initial paragraph, this isn't really that bad a deal. After all, you do get 10% off and the amount required isn't that high. On the other hand, I've never found Radio Shack to be particularly competitively priced, and typically only use them as a last resort.

The tax stimulus checks, purportedly to help the U.S.' flagging economy, will range from $600 for an individual to $1,200 per couple, with an additional $300 per dependent child.

Dell: Windows XP Deadline? FogetAboutIt!

A little more than a year since it was brave enough to backtrack on its Vista-only policy on consumer PCs, Dell is again breaking ground.

We know that Microsoft has set June 30th as the drop-dead date for Windows XP (despite their statements yesterday). Despite the fact that after June 30th, manufacturers such as Dell are not allowed to ship PCs with XP pre-installed, Dell has come up with an "escape clause."

Consumers who buy either Windows Vista Business or Ultimate also entitled to get Windows XP Professional (the so-called "Downgrade Rights"). Each computer manufacturer decides whether, or how, to implement this, but generally they ship a CD with an image of Windows XP with the computer. This was how it was handled on my wife's recently purchased VAIO.

What Dell's going to do is implement this policy their way.

Their way means installing Windows XP on the PC themselves, rather than supplying you the CD. Thus, the PC leaves the factory with XP preinstalled.

On a special site Dell's put up addressing this, they say:

Is there any way to get Windows XP after June 30th?

Customers may continue to get Windows XP Professional by exercising Downgrade Rights that come with Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate licenses. Dell has the ability to exercise “Windows Vista downgrade rights” on your behalf in the factory if your business is still reliant upon Windows XP and you’d prefer to have Windows XP Professional preinstalled on your PCs.

What does it mean for Dell to exercise “Downgrade Rights” for me? Where can I find this option?

When you are configuring your system online or through the help of one of our sales experts, you will have the opportunity to select which operating system you would like on your PC. When selecting your operating system, you will see an option called “Genuine Windows^® Vista Business BONUS” and “Genuine Windows^® Vista Ultimate BONUS.” With these options, you may purchase the licensed rights to Windows Vista but have Dell factory install Windows XP Professional. You will also receive a backup media disc for Windows XP Professional as well as the media for Windows Vista so you can upgrade when you’re ready. Furthermore, with these options Dell will provide technical support for the factory-installed Windows XP Professional image and your licensed version of Windows Vista.

Dell will normally only provide tech support for the factory-installed OS, but with this option, if you have XP preinstalled and then switch to Vista, they'll support it as well.

According to a contact at Dell, the "downgrade" program will be available as an option on some Dell Latitude, OptiPlex, and Dell Precision systems at no charge, and as an option on some Vostro and Dell XPS gaming systems for a small fee.

I have to applaud Dell for this. While this is obviously good PR for a company that desperately wants to get out of the doldrums, it's a great move and I hope other OEMs follow suit.

LOL! Pew Research Study Shows Text Message Shorthand Slipping into Schoolwork

On Thursday the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a study tracking the way teenagers feel about writing. Among other things, it noted that both emoticons and text message speak are showing up in teens' classroom assignments.

It's not the first time this has come up, as I wrote about this last year. But it is the first time a study has confirmed this. Interestingly, New Zealand began allowing such "shorthand" in its NCEA exams in 2006.

Besides this, students also admitted to channeling Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang, meaning not using punctuation or capitalization in their writings.

Some findings from the study (.PDF):

• 50% of teens say they sometimes use informal writing styles instead of proper capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments

• 38% of teens have used shortcuts from instant messaging or email

• 25% have used emoticons in their school writing

• 64% have incorporated some informal styles from their text-based communications into their writing at school
  

• Girls are more likely than boys to use text shortcuts from IM or email (45% vs. 33%) and emoticons (35% vs. 17%)
  

Another conclusion from the study is that teens tend to consider the socially-oriented writing they do using electronic devices (meaning blogging, text messaging, email) as "communication" rather than writing.

According to the report, the study was conducted among "a nationally representative sample of 700 12 to 17 year olds and their parents in continental U.S. telephone households. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The interviews were done in English by Princeton Data Source, LLC from September 19 to November 16, 2007."

Finally, the report intersperses some fascinating quotes. Examples:

I put in 20 hours [per week] plus [texting]. I can’t even count because I mean it’s not like you’re spending a continuous hour writing/texting. It’s just like text, text, text while you’re doing other stuff. – 10/12th Grade Girl, Southwestern City.

Some people they text – somebody could be sitting right here and I could be texting somebody and they’d be standing right there. I mean what is the point? – 11/12th Grade Boy, Northeastern City. [I'll admit I've actually done this with email at work.]

I don’t think [Instant Messaging] is [writing]. You’re not writing enough for it to be called writing. Unless you’re, I don’t know, unless you’re like describing something, if you want to tell your whole life story, or your saying what happened ... but it’s got to be long for it to be considered writing. – 9/10th Grade Girl, Midwestern City.

At any rate I'm sure educators are not going to be ROFL over the report, at least - AFAIK.

CompUSA Rises from the Dead

After CompUSA went out of business late last year, Ohio-based Systemax (which also owns TigerDirect) shelled out $30M to pick up the remnants. And now the company, or at least its name has risen from the grave, mostly in Florida.

CompUSA has re-launched, with a total of 17 stores as well as the website, 13 of the stores in Florida. Here's the list of stores, in fact:

Florida

• Altamonte Springs, FL
• Brandon, FL
• Clearwater, FL
• Deerfield Beach, FL
• Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Ft. Myers, FL
• Jacksonville, FL
• S. Jacksonville, FL
• Miami Dadeland, FL
• Orlando, FL
• Palm Beach Gardens, FL
• Plantation, FL
• South Tampa, FL
  

Texas

• McAllen, Texas
• Plano, Texas
• EL Paso, Texas
  

Puerto Rico

• Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Wow, Puerto Rico but no stores in Califiornia, particularly in Silicon Valley?

If you use PayPal, and spend at least $200, you can get 10% off, for a maximum of $20. Er, hey, CompUSA, why not just say $20 off anything $200 or more since customers are not going to get more than that? Ah, because it looks better, right?

CompUSA was once a high flyer, but couldn't keep up with stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City, and the like. Good luck to Florida.

Qwest Intros 20 Mbps DSL

On Thursday Qwest Communications introduced two tiers of ADSL2+ Internet service, Qwest Connect Platinum and Qwest Connect Titanium. Platinum tops out at 20 Mbps (@ $104.99) while Titanium tops out at 12 Mbps ($46.95). Both offer 1 Mbps uploads and a $5 discount if combined with local phone service.

Qwest plans a phased roll-out in 23 of its top markets in 10 states. You can find out availability by going to their website.

In a press release, Dan Yost, executive vice president for Qwest said:

"Our customers tell us that they want more speed, capability and value in their connections. Qwest listened and has developed the Quantum and Titanium services that really change the game when it comes to today’s online experience. Qwest has committed to spend up to $300 million to bring the latest in fiber-optic technology closer to the customer than ever before, and we're ahead of schedule on our goal to make this service available to two million customers by the end of this year."

While that's great, and while it makes my Comcast service (more expensive - at least for Titanium - and slower) look really poor in comparison, of course it's not available in my area. What I'd really love, naturally, is Verizon's Symmetrical FIOS service. Also naturally, not available in my area.

Want Windows XP? You Can HAVE It!

Hopefully you read that title the way Steve Ballmer probably meant to say it on Thursday. You know, emphasis on the "HAVE" in a sarcastic way. Although I'm sure he didn't say it that way, he probably wanted to.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgium, where he was to announce the establishment of an "innovation center" in the Belgian city of Mons, Ballmer gave XP fans a little hope. Ballmer said:

"XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments."

The end-of-life plan for XP states that - with the exception of ULCPCs - Microsoft will stop licensing Windows XP to computer makers and end retail sales by June 30.

Microsoft has been quite adamant about the end of XP. It's strange that he made his "if customer feedback varies" statement, because if Microsoft bothered to listen, they'd know both analysts and users want XP to continue until the next version of Windows releases (targeted for 2010). In fact, there's a petition to save XP here with over 164K signatures.

Microsoft to Fight Google Apps with Web-Streamed Office

No doubt concerned over defections by smaller businesses and end users to Google Apps, Microsoft is modifying its license for Office 2007 in such a way that Web hosting service providers will be able to stream Microsoft Office for delivery through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

While Microsoft hasn't announced this yet (it is expected to make the announcement during its weeklong Microsoft Management Summit show in Las Vegas next week), solution providers and partners such as Endeavors Technologies have already announced it, as in this press release.

In the press release, Peter Bondar, Endeavors CEO said:

"We’ve anticipated this change and are pleased that Microsoft now has a date for allowing service providers to stream Microsoft Office. We have completed proof of concept programs with a number of providers and have been waiting for the amended SPLA program to roll out new services. Through our partnerships with Partner Advantage and others, we are poised to take advantage of the new business opportunities on day one. We applaud Microsoft in taking this bold step."

While of course this will involve some sort of subscription model, perhaps on the level of the enterprise version of Google Apps, it should not be confused with the earlier subscription beta code-named "Albany" which I wrote about. That combines a number of packages including Windows Live OneCare with Office and isn't streamed.

It should be noted that Microsoft was just a tad bit upset in February when Fasthosts began streaming Office for £4.99 per month, so this is a bit of a reversal for them.

$20 Million "Virtual" Border Fence Prototype Scrapped

The $20 million prototype of the Department of Homeland Security's "virtual" border fence, built by Boeing, has been scrapped just two months after DHS chief Michael Chertoff approved it.

The virtual fence is part of the Secure Border Initiative developed to control illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The prototype fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers (one of which is pictured above) along a 28-mile section of the U.S. - Mexican border southwest of Tucson, Arizona.

The fence was said to be inadequate, despite the fact it has aided in more than 3,000 apprehensions since agents began using the system last December. One problem cited by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was the lag between movement detection and transmission of an image to agents.

Boeing will rewrite the software to improve image transmission. Additionally, the new series of towers will be equipped with improved communications systems, cameras and radar capability.

Groundbreaking for the new, permanent towers is expected to begin in July, and at least five of the current tower sites will be moved. The original contract given to Boeing was for $860 million.

Automatic Distribution of Windows Vista SP1 Begins

Wednesday, in a post on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Microsoft announced that they had begun automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1. What this means if that if you have Windows Updates set to automatically download and install on your PC, Windows Update will automatically download SP1 to your PC, after which a few clicks (for the EULA, naturally) will be required for the install to begin.

Until now users had to either manually download a standalone installer or install from Windows Update manually. Only English, French, German, Spanish, or Japanese languages are currently being distributed automatically, however.

Also, it should be noted there are a few issues that may prevent automatic downloading from occurring, most prevalent of which is the "old driver issue," in which SP1 can't be installed because older drivers may cause an endless reboot cycle.

While Microsoft outlines this and other issues on this web page, why they haven't provided a tool that indicates a) which driver is the problem, b) where to get an update - if available - is beyond me. For most end users trying to search down which driver is the issue is beyond their capability.

And in that case, I would label Microsoft's automatic distribution of SP1 as "somewhat" automatic.

Microsoft AV ID's Skype as a Trojan

While I will admit that Windows Live OneCare has been improving of late, that doesn't mean I would recommend it to my friends.

I might actually note also that this issue is definitely not as bad as when Kaspersky's AV product was labeling Windows Explorer as a virus.

It's a false positive, and though some would consider it amusing, for those affected by it, it can be painful. In this case Microsoft's security products, Microsoft Forefront Client Security, Windows Live OneCare and Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner were flagging some versions of Skype as malware, namely Trojan:Win32/Vundo.gen!D. In those cases, Skype would no longer run.

Microsoft has already released a fix for their signature file and Skype is no longer being misidentified. While Windows Live OneCare has been raked over the coals for its poor initial performance, it should be noted that plenty - if not all - of other AV products have produced false positives at one time or another.

It's just that it's so fun to pick on Microsoft.

Defunct MSN Music Store Gives Us Another Reason to Hate DRM

As if we needed still another reason to hate DRM (copy-protection or digital rights management) - whether it be of video, software, or music - here's another one. You'd figure a company as large as Microsoft would be able to commit to supporting DRM'ed products for as long as necessary, but apparently you'd be wrong.

The MSN Music store has been defunct for some time, since Microsoft launched Zune Marketplace, but the license servers have been up, meaning customers could continue to transfer and play songs between computers. In an email sent Tuesday though, MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett told users to prepare themselves:

I am writing to let you know that as of August 31, 2008, Microsoft will change the level of support to be offered for music purchased directly from MSN Music prior to November 14, 2006. As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. License keys already obtained as of August 31, 2008 will continue to allow you to listen to songs on all the computers that you previously authorized for service.

We wanted to send out this notification well in advance to remind you to backup your music and to provide you sufficient time to confirm license keys for the songs you've purchased from MSN Music.

This is also a good time to remind you that you can back up and secure your music by burning your purchased songs and playlists to CD. With Windows Media Player, you can burn your own Audio CDs from the music stored in your library. Complete instructions for this can be found at MSN Music online help.

Please take this opportunity to make sure you have the licenses you need to access your music. As a friendly reminder, please remember that the MSN Music service allows you to authorize up to 5 computers for songs purchased from MSN Music. You must have licenses for the songs on each authorized computer, in order to be able to play the songs successfully. If you have already played a given song on a computer, then you have successfully obtained the license key for that song. MSN Music keys do not expire. If you intend to transfer a previously downloaded song to a new computer (or an existing computer with a new operating system, such as an upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista) within the maximum allowed limit of 5 computers, please do so before August 31, 2008. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.

The good thing is you can still burn to CD and get a DRM-free version. The bad thing is a) you lose some quality in the process - and why should you have to do this?

Microsoft could argue that technically, the license key you in the end means they haven't totally hosed users. And while that's true, it's only true for as long as you keep the PC you currently have. Not that I go through that quickly, but a few years is as long as I generally keep one.

Of course, perhaps by then your music taste will have changed, so you won't even want that old track, right?

Newegg Expands Into "Just About Everything"

Newegg is one of the more popular etailers for computer and technology products. In fact, according to Newegg, since launching in 2001, it's become the 10^th biggest Internet retailer in the entire U.S. Why stop at tech?

Newegg has opened up a new site, NeweggMall.com. Typical of most Internet launches nowadays, though perhaps not of etailer sites, the site has opened in beta form.

According to NeweggMall's About page:

Loyal Newegg fans have shown their appreciation by providing over 750,000 informative product reviews, making Newegg.com the place to buy IT and electronics online.

So now that Newegg’s been established as the ultimate online destination for all things electronic, we thought, "Why not do the same for every other type of product?" Enter NeweggMall.com, a new site that's the answer for everything else you need!

NeweggMall.com is our one-stop shop for general merchandise. Since Newegg.com has you covered on IT and electronics products, we'll provide you with all those other fairly necessary items like Apparel, Furniture, Auto Parts, Garden Supplies, and so on. We've screened and recruited hundreds of fantastic retailers--some of them even direct manufacturers!--to get you a wide selection of goods that are high-quality and price-conscious.

Think Amazon.com-ish, sorta. It doesn't look like NeweggMall.com sells / ships any products from its own warehouses. Instead it fronts for smaller stores and shipments take place from those stores. Examples would be "Gogglesandglasses" and "Artexpression."

Amazon does the same thing, but it also ships from its own warehouses, which is where I tend to buy. I only buy directly from Amazon.com for a few reasons: a) free shipping, b) easy return policy, c) no sales tax. Let's ignore the fact that in beta form the NeweggMall doesn't have a ton of items, yet.

NeweggMall's return policy depends on the store you buy from. Not that it's going to be that bad, but it's not no-questions asked and not consistent across the site. Sales tax? Even the regular Newegg store applies that, at least in my tax-heavy state of California. Of course, I do realize the so-called "Amazon Tax," if successful, will end that advantage.

But for now, thanks, but no thanks. Unless the price difference is pretty significant, I'll stick to Amazon.com.

Netflix to Charge Extra for Blu-ray Rentals

In Monday's post-earnings analyst / media conference call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that Netflix users can expect a "modest monthly premium" if they want to rent Blu-ray Discs. Formerly the rental of high-definition discs was bundled into their normal fee.

Hastings said that since Blu-ray discs cost more, and since consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content in "every other channel", Netflix is

planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray sometime this year.

You can hear that about 5 minutes into the conference call. The fee itself and the timing were unannounced.

They also spoke more about their streaming service and about the standalone LG set-top box expected in the second half of the year. They also mentioned that besides LG they have 3 additional partners, but did not disclose the new partners. Netflix did indicate that two of the new partners are major companies, while one is a small one.

While Netflix garnered a 36% increase in profits during the first quarter, analysts' expectations were that Netflix would raise its outlook for the remainder of the year and top analysts' earning estimates.

But Netflix matched, rather than surpassed the average earnings estimate of $0.21 per share and slightly lowered its previous projections for its full-year profit.

Netflix shares dropped more than $9 or nearly 24% to $30.03 on Tuesday.

Windows XP Version of Asus Eee PC Hits Best Buy

Many have been awaiting the day when they didn't have to install Windows XP on their Asus Eee PCs themselves, and that day has come, with Asus announcing in an emailed press release that selected Best Buys now have Asus Eee PC 4G PCs with Windows XP pre-installed in-stock. It also appears that "selected Best Buys" includes the online store.

And for those likely to be confused, this is the original Asus Eee PC, not the upcoming Asus Eee PC 900.

For example, here's the black model on the Best Buy site. $399 gets you the standard Eee PC with one change: Windows XP Home. Note that (at least at the time of this writing) the site says most stores have these in-stock.

Here's the white model. However (once again, at the time of this writing), you can only get this online.

And no, you can't get pink, at least for now.

Intel Mash Maker Launches: Mashup Creation for the Masses

A mashup is "a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. " For example, you might combine data from one site that tells you the leg room on available flights with a travel site to determine which flights have the greatest leg room.

While this is a great way to extend and combine the power of different sites, there's no way my mother-in-law or my wife could create their own mashups, much less find one that did what they wanted (short of perhaps searching for it via Google). Certainly everyone's needs are different, and even if you found a mashup it might not do everything you wanted.

This is the set of problems Intel Mash Maker, an Intel Research project, wants to solve. First to allow non-programmers the ability to create such useful applets - and to share them, and second to make it easy to discover the available mashups for a site. As Intel told me, "it allows you to have the information you want, presented the way you want it."

Of course, Yahoo!'s Pipes and Microsoft’s Popfly are similar, but Mash Maker is software from Intel sans any hardware - there's a first time for everything, it seems.

Invitation-only until today at 8 AM Pacific Time, the site's now live for everyone. And for once, Firefox users get the lion's share of the goodness as, according to Intel, whom I spoke to in a private demo, the Firefox plug-in has been available for a longer time, meaning that there are more mashups available to Firefox users.

As Intel describes it:

Mash Maker is a browser extension that allows you to make the web the way you want it. Do you wish that OpenTable showed restaurants on a map, or Google News allowed one to browse stories by phono, or Expedia showed legroom for all its flights? If you use Mash Maker then you can modify them so that they do.

Mash Maker allows you to enhance the web pages you already use by applying mashups to them that enhance these existing web sites with extra information and visualizations. Each mashup is composed of a number of Widgets -- mini applications that understand the meaning of the page they are on and can enhance it in interesting wasy.

Mash Maker is not a "mashup service" or a "tool for creating mashup sites". The mashups created in Mash Maker are not new stand-alone services that users can navigate to, but instead an enhanced version of the existing web, layed on top of the existing network of web sites.

I met with Jeff Klaus, Marketing Director for Intel Mash Maker, Robert Ennals, Senior Researcher at Intel Research Berkeley, Intel Mash Maker Architect, and author of the FireFox plugin, and Dattatraya Kulkarni (Kulki), Program Manager, Intel Mash Maker, as well as Heather MacKinnon, and learned quite a bit, but still barely scratched the surface.

Let's assume you choose the Firefox extension, for example.

After you install the Firefox extension, you'll get a new toolbar (above, pictured with a simple Widget to embed Gmail on your Facebook home page). When you go to a different site, you'll see a variety of messages, including "Mash Maker is waiting for Firefox to render the page," and if there are available widgets, the above message, "Loading information about this domain from the Mash Maker server."

Once the page loads, if there are any associated mashups on the page, you'll see them listed on the toolbar. For example, the CNN page will show (at least right now), "embedded map" and "news map." Both of them will show the location of news stories, one of them embedded on the news page.

Embedded items can be moved around on a page, and moved to areas marked by different colors (see above in the CNN example).

Open the Expert Sidebar from the toolbar and you'll see a list of widgets, mashups, data and extractors (more on this later). You can vote on the associated mashups on a page, for example, in a Digg-like way.

You can only vote once, because, as you might assume, you need to register to use Mash Maker.

Why, you may ask? Well, since these mashups and widgets are user-created, much like a wiki, Intel needs a way to track them. After all, someone could create a malicious widget, right? Such users would be banned and their widgets deleted.

What else do they track? They're not interested in tracking your behavior per se. In fact, most of the information is kept in the client. Still, it would appear that Mash Maker could, if Intel wanted, track a lot of your browsing behavior. However, Intel spells out in detail exactly what is and isn't sent to and from their servers, right here, in their privacy policy.

Oh, and about those extractors? That's probably the most important part of the whole idea, and what makes this a collaborative effort among users. This is how Intel describes it:

To mash the web, we must first understand it. Mash Maker uses a collaboratively-edited shared database of extractors to extract meaning from pages on the web.

You can teach Mash Maker how to understand pages like the one you are currently browsing by expanding [#The Extractor Editor]] and using a simple point-and-click interface to pick out things of interest.

I'm not going to try to explain it here, but check out the page on extractors and play with it. I'll have to add though, that the term "extractor" is probably going to scare off some people, as it sounds too high-tech.

Still not excited? Check out these mashups:

A mashup that shows locations of your friends
A mashup that shows eateries near Craigslist rental listings via Yelp
A mashup that maps Hotjobs opportunities

Yes, those all seem pretty mundane, but think of the possibilities. The example I gave about legroom? - an actual mashup I saw demo'ed. In fact, you can watch a video of it here, and a more general demo of Mash Maker here.

BTW, one more privacy issue. If you don't like people mashing up up your page, Intel will stop it, if you just ask.

My opinion? This could be a great way to expand the usefulness of the Internet, but it will require the "community" to contribute. If this gains critical mass, we could find Intel-created mashups all over the place - and that would be a good thing.

Skype Offers Flat-Rate, Unlimited World Calling Subscriptions

On Monday Skype, announced new subscription plans that allow flat-rate unlimited calling to 34 countries. It should be noted that for Skype defines unlimited as 10,000 minutes / month; after that standard fees apply.

You can also choose a lower-priced flat-rate plan that has a lower limit on minutes.

Roughly, the costs (without all the extra tiers) are $2.95 /month U.S. & Canada, $5.95 for Mexico, and $9.95 for the rest of the world.

There isn't a contract required, but if you sign up for 3- or 12-months before June 1st you'll receive a 33% discount.

In their press release, Stefan Oberg, VP & GM telecoms at Skype said:

"This move is a natural step for Skype. Skype was founded on the principle of making free voice and video calls available to people all around the world. And now we’re making it even easier for the Skype community to call their friends and family who are not yet on Skype. Our subscriptions give people an easy, hassle-free choice for how and when they want to catch up with their loved ones."

"For example if you live in London, for just €2.95 a month, you can call your grandmother in Poland, whenever you like, talk for up to six hours at a time, and not worry about how much it’s costing you. Your grandmother doesn’t need to understand the internet. You just use your Skype subscription to make the call and she just picks up the phone. And if you have friends and family spread over the world, you can reach them all for as little as €8.95 a month. When you combine the free features Skype is known for – from instant messaging to conference calling to video calls – with our subscriptions, it’s hard to find a better alternative."

Although this is obviously a plus for subscribers, analysts were critical, with Gartner analyst Steve Blood saying, "It goes to show that there's not really a market here. Every few months they have to continue to reduce prices to compete -- where's the revenue to pay back the $2.6 billion?"

Bernt Ostergaard, research director at Current Analysis said, "Skype is using the spray gun approach, offering different consumer and enterprise packages to see what works."

A somewhat desperate move in hopes of picking up some business adoption? Perhaps. Remember that recently eBay’s CEO John Donahoe told FT that eBay may consider selling Skype if it can't find ways to use the service in its core business. As eBay continues to lose patience with Skype, this could be just their first move.

Google the World's #1 Brand

As with anything, it all depends on who you ask and how. Earlier I wrote that Brandchannel's survey indicated that Apple was pretty much #1. However, if you ask Millward Brown Optimor and their BrandZ Top 100 Ranking, it's Google that's tops in terms of power and value.

Of course, it should be noted that the Brandchannel survey was more about image, likeability and other subjective brand assets, as opposed to the BrandZ ranking

This is the 3rd annual BrandZ ranking and the second year in a row that Google has come in at #1. The full report is here (.PDF).

The top ten ranking is as above, with Google #1 at a Brand Value of $86 billion and GE #2. Apple is down at #7 with a paltry $55 billion , but according to the report, it's jumped the highest percentage amount at 123%.

How do they determine Brand Value? The report says:

Brand Value is the financial value of a brand, defined as the sum of all earnings that a brand is expected to generate.

For the purpose of the BrandZ ranking, Millward Brown Optimor values brands in three steps:

1. Establish a company’s intangible earnings and allocate them to individual brands and countries of operation, based on publicly available financial data from Bloomberg, Datamonitor (www.datamonitor.com) and Millward Brown Optimor’s own research.

2. Determine the portion of intangible earnings attributable to brand alone, as opposed to other factors such as price. This metric, known as Brand Contribution, reflects the share of earnings from a product or service’s most loyal consumers or users. For this second step, we use research-based loyalty data from the BrandZ database.

3. Project the brand value forward based on market valuations, the brand’s risk profile, and its growth potential. Data for this step is sourced from the BrandZ database, Bloomberg and Millward Brown Optimor’s own research. Using these growth inputs, we create the final metric available from the BrandZ ranking, Brand Momentum, the index of the brand’s short-term growth potential.

The report also takes care to note the influence of emerging markets and the global economy, as well as BRIC brands (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

For those interested, Yahoo! is at #62 at $11.5 billion, so if we were add their value (yes, oversimplifying, but bear with me) and Microsoft's we would find Microhoo at around $82.4 billion - still trailing Google, but very close.

Windows XP SP3 Releases to Manufacturing

As predicted, the 3rd service pack for Windows XP (SP3) was released to manufacturing (RTM) on Monday, April 21st. Also as predicted, Microsoft indicated it will be available for download on April 29th.

This was announced on the TechNet forum, in a post in which Chris Keroack, the service pack's release manager said:

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

Since Windows XP received a stay of execution, at least for ULCPCs, not too long ago, this SP has become even more important - and desired.

It's interesting that it was announced on TechNet; not exactly the high profile launch Windows Vista SP1 was given, as most users don't troll that forum. Microsoft would love to see XP go away, but users are still trying to keep it alive (witness this petition) to force increased adoption of Vista. For many, however, XP would still be just fine.

We're #2! China Passes the U.S. in Internet Users

Simply stated, it had to happen; the sheer number of people in China meant that it was a foregone conclusion. The only question was when. A study, admittedly by a Chinese research group, indicates that China has surpassed the United States, long the leader, in the number of Internet users.

This despite the fact that China has taking "shocking steps" to curb Internet addiction.

Beijing-based research group BDA China reported that the number of Chinese Internet users passed more than 220 million as of February. They used estimates from official Chinese statistics. While the government has not acknowledged the finding, it's likely to confirm the data at its half-yearly report in July.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the U.S. had 216 million users at the end of 2007.

Whether or not the data is absolute, it was inevitable, simply by the law of averages. The U.S. percentage of American users is 71%, while China's is 17%. That fact, coupled with China's estimated 1.3 billion people (compared with about 304 million in the USA), says that not only was the leap a sure thing, it's China that's going to lead the way in growth.

Anyone still wonder why companies like Google (despite it's "Don't be evil" motto) and Yahoo! cave in so easily to Chinese government demand?

I wouldn't expect the U.S. to stay at #2 forever either, with India's huge population.

China had already owned the title for the greatest number of mobile phone users.

Major Studios Announce New Premium TV Channel, Launching Fall 2009

A venture featuring several Hollywood studios is looking to launch in fall 2009. It will feature content from Viacom's Paramount and Paramount Vantage as well as MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate.

According to a press release, the new premium (read: pay) channel, announced Sunday, will have access to Paramount and Paramount Vantage titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2008 and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2009.

Of course, older movies from the studios' libraries will be available as well. And there will be original series as well, which could be good news if they can create series as good as say, The Sopranos and Dexter.

For channels like Showtime and HBO, more bad news in that:

The venture's programming slate will have exclusive access during the pay television window to such recent and highly anticipated films as Iron Man, Star Trek, Pink Panther 2, Cloverfield, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Shutter Island, GI Joe, Love Guru, and Valkyrie, along with many others currently in production including planned new installments of Robocop and Outer Limits.

All right, perhaps some of those aren't a big deal, but Iron Man, Cloverfield and Star Trek?

Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom Inc., which will provide "operational support" for the venture, said:

"This venture has the potential to be a game changer for the industry. We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer. By combining the output of Paramount with MGM and Lionsgate, two film and television powerhouses, we are creating a premium film and television programming brand with unique flexibility to bring consumers the very best blockbuster movies and innovative TV series.

"We are extremely pleased to be in business with MGM and Lionsgate in this exciting new venture which will provide our companies with a strong presence in the premium TV marketplace well into the future."

No mention made of any Internet-based content, but Dauman did mention "digital distribution," so who knows for sure? The venture is still lacking a name, by the way.

Asus Eee PC 900 to Launch in U.S on 5/12 at $549

The United States has been left to wait while the new Asus Eee PC has already appeared in Europe and Asia, but now at least we have a date and a price. The Asus Eee PC 900 will release in the United States on May 12th, priced at $549 for either the Linux or Windows XP model.

The specs of the 900, in case you don't know, are:

• Display: 8.9" 1024 x 600
• Color: Pearl White, Black
• CPU: Intel Mobile CPU
• Chipset: Intel Mobile Chipset
• Memory: 1GB DDR2
  
• Graphics: Intel UMA
• Storage:
  • Linux version: 20GB (4GB on board + 16GB flash module)
  • XP version: 12GB (4GB on board + 8GB flash module)
• Web Cam: 1.3 M
• Dimension: 8.86"(W) x 6.69"(D) x 1.38 "(H)
• Weight: 2.18 lbs

Yeah, yeah, it's pricier than the 7" model, but what do you expect for the extra screen real estate as well as the extra SSD space? Interesting that they are selling the Windows and Linux versions for the same price, as you know the price of licensing Windows has to make that model more costly - but that's why you get less flash for that model.

Mac Clone Maker Psystar Says "Store Up And Running, Orders Shipped"

As we continue to try to determine if Psystar is for real or not, they've updated their site to say that their store is up and running and orders are shipping.

It is our pleasure to inform you that our store is up and running thanks to our new high volume payment processor. To all, we challenge you, let’s see if we can max this one out. Regarding shipping, orders placed the week of April 7th are currently being shipped. We will be shipping units out of our new facility starting Monday, April 21st, including those orders placed the week of April 14th. Orders are being shipped in the order that they were received, don't worry, you'll get yours soon. Upon shipment an email notification including tracking information will be sent to you automatically.

Also, some pictures of the "latest" location of Psystar were scored by ZDNet. I say the "latest" location, since it seems like they've moved a few times since they opened just a few days ago. So things might just be looking up in terms of the validity of this company.

So, according to that blurb, orders should have already shipped. Have any readers a) been brave enough to order from this company, b) received a tracking number yet?

Of course, if you used a credit card, you really wouldn't be risking much as you could always charge back the amount if the deal turned sour. Like I said, comment if you've gotten a tracking number, or better yet, an Open Computer.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Now Free - to Web Publishers

When I was a kid, my parents bought me the full set of Encyclopedia Britannica for me to use in school projects, etc. Nowadays, if you need something like that, you probably wouldn't even consider something hard copy - and thus not as current as you might want. You might use Microsoft's Encarta software or even Wikipedia. Some of you might wonder if that has meant the death of the Enclopedia Britannica.

Well, it hasn't. Of course, they released DVD versions of their product, and also an online version. With the advent of Wikipedia, though, why would you use E.B.'s online version? You have to pay for access to it, after all.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, undoubtedly seeing a large number of users defect to Wikipedia, has opened up a program called Britannica Webshare. Here's how it's described:

A special program for web publishers, including bloggers, webmasters, and anyone who writes for the Internet. You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you like, an easy way to give your readers background of the topics you write about with links to complete Britannica articles.

The way it works is: if I enter through the Britannica site, and I don't have a membership, I can't read full articles. If I link to it from a website, readers can see the whole article, but can't explore the E.B. site any futher.

Also, E.B. has widgets that can be embedded, as below.

While this is an interesting initiative, they really ought to open up viewing to everyone and forget their subscription model. I mean, the resource of choice is - and is going to remain - Wikipedia. They could use the fact that their articles are written by experts, and thus vetted, to differentiate themselves Wikipedia. Perhaps they could even allow user editing, a la Wikipedia, as long as all articles are moderated.

Microsoft Accidentally Releases Office Anti-Piracy Nagware WorldWide

A big oops. Remember when I discussed Microsoft's trial of a new anti-piracy system for Office, which would nag users of counterfeit Office software? Well, the Office Genuine Advantage notifications update was supposed to only be trialled in Chile, Italy, Spain and Turkey. Through a(nother) mix-up, it was accidentally released worldwide for a short time.

According to Microsoft's WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) Product Team Blog,

On April 15th the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) notifications update (KB949810) was inadvertently published to WSUS servers for approximately twenty-four hours. This update was intended for Microsoft Office users in the pilot countries of Italy, Spain, Turkey and Chile, but because of WSUS publication, it became available to WSUS managed clients inside and outside of these intended countries. This update has since been removed from WSUS. For servers which synchronized the OGA update package, the package required a EULA acceptance before it could be made available to WSUS managed clients, via either manual approval, or auto-approval rules.

Well, the good thing is you had to accept a EULA in order to get the update, so most likely if people read the EULA (and we all do that, don't we?) the wouldn't have mistakenly installed this update.

Of course, as Microsoft would say, if you had a legit copy, you have nothing to fear, right? Where have we heard that before?

Microsoft Launches Beta of Software Subscription Service

It's been bandied around for some time: a subscription-based version of Microsoft Office, and on Friday, Microsoft launched just such a service, code-named Albany, in private beta form. Albany includes more than just Office, however.

Albany is a bundle of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (which contains Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote), Windows Live OneCare, and Windows Live Mail, Messenger and Photo Gallery, with a single installer.

Of course, why I would want Windows Live OneCare is beyond me, because although it's improving, I still wouldn't trust my PC to it. However, security software is one of the segments where a subscription model is common, so linking OneCare into the bundle makes sense.

In a press release, Microsoft Group Product Manager Bryson Gordon said:

We’re breaking new ground by delivering Microsoft Office in combination with security and communication tools, plus ensuring our customers are on the cutting edge with the very latest versions. We found from our research that when you bring these categories together and keep them automatically updated, a subscription model makes a lot of sense.

At the same time, we are definitely not straying from our traditional software sales model. There will always be a significant number of users for whom purchasing a perpetual license to the latest version of Office is still the best choice. “Albany” just gives customers more choice and addresses the needs of those customers who value having the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Office.

OK, so they will still have a way to buy products in the normal manner. For quite a few, that will still be the way to go. What's unclear is pricing: Microsoft hasn't announced that.

If they make the price attractive enough, this might appeal to consumers. Naturally if successful Microsoft might apply this model across their line of productivity sofware.

Apple Stops Pushing Safari (So Hard) Via iTunes Update

I previously wrote about how Apple was using iTunes Update to push Safari onto PCs. It was listing Safari as an update even if Safari wasn't on the computer originally. Humorously, since then stories have emerged about IT departments having to scramble to remove Safari as the default browser on PCs as it (naturally) wouldn't work with many Intranet sites.

Among the critics: John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla which makes Firefox. In a blog post, Lilly said that Apple's practice was "wrong" and bad for the industry "because it undermines the trust that we're all trying to build with users."

At any rate, after all the criticism, Apple made changes to its iTunes Update software. Now, rather than implying that Safari was an important update, if Safari is not on the system, it's listed as "new software."

Better, but still a little pushy, but you can't really blame them for trying. Of course, they probably should be working on making their browser "safe" (per PayPal) first, then start working on pushing it.

PayPal to Ban "Unsafe" Browsers

I assume you know what phishing is, but if you don't, it's basically trying to get sensitive - and particularly financial - information from people by impersonating a trusted entity in an electronic communication, typically an email.

PayPal is one of the most spoofed entities in these attacks, and it has released a white paper called A Practical Approach to Managing Phishing (.PDF). In the paper, Michael Barrett, Chief Information Security Officer and Dan Levy, Senior Director of Risk Management at PayPal, discussed how they have made a dent in phishing and how they intend to go further.

Some of the biggest contributors to the phishing problem, according to PayPal, are "unsafe" browsers. Unsafe browsers are those that do not have built-in phishing detection or support for EV SSL (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer) certificates. As they say in the white paper:

The alarming fact is that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers, such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 4 or even IE 3. Inevitably, this set of users is a subset of the passive group. We argue that it’s critical to not only warn users about unsafe browsers, but also to disallow older and insecure browsers.

At PayPal, we are in the process of re-implementing controls which will first warn our customers when logging in to PayPal from those browsers that we consider unsafe. Later, we plan on blocking customers from accessing the site from the most unsafe – usually the oldest – browsers.

Although they point out really out-of-date browsers in their white paper, PayPal would have to also include Safari in any such ban, since it offers no phishing protection and does not support EV SSL certificates.

So, although Apple always touts its products as more secure than Microsoft's, in this case Safari would be considered "unsafe" and even possibly banned. Since PayPal is a payment option for iTunes, perhaps they should look into fixing this "hole."

Google News Adds Quotes to Search Results

On Thursday Google News announced the addition of quote searches. Search for a person, and if they have a recent quote, it will be displayed above the search results (see above for Barack Obama).

Click on the person's hyperlinked name, and you'll go to a page devoted to quotes from that person. You can then search within those quotes.

Pretty snazzy, and for those of us who may be searching for quotes to use in articles, or particularly since it's election season, searching for the latest gaffe to rake candidates over the coals for, this is a boon.

Universal Details Plans for Blu-ray Releases

On Thursday Universal Studios outlined its plans for its first set of Blu-ray releases. As you know, Universal was an HD-DVD backer, but when the format collapsed, it naturally switched sides.

The first releases will be on July 22nd, with The Mummy franchise highlighted: The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, as well as the spin-off The Scorpion King will all release that day.

The first simultaneous Blu-ray / DVD release will be Doomsday.

Finally, the first global release will be Heroes, Season 2, which will release on August 26th, at the same time that the Blu-ray version of Heroes, Season 1 releases.

In a press release, Universal said:

Later in the year and in time for the holidays, five of the year's most promising feature films will arrive in high definition: THE INCREDIBLE HULK, the action-packed new chapter of one of the most popular Super Hero sagas of all time that stars Edward Norton, William Hurt and Liv Tyler; Wanted, the action-thriller from stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov that stars Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie; Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the epic vision of imagination from acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro; Mamma Mia!, the musical romantic comedy in which Meryl Streep leads an all-star cast in the adaptation of the beloved musical; and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the next installment in The Mummy franchise in which Jet Li, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh and newcomer Luke Ford join the returning Brendan Fraser and John Hannah for a supernatural adventure that shifts the series to the Far East.

"We're thrilled that our preliminary slate of Blu-ray(TM) offerings comprises such a brilliant collection of high-def centric fare," said Mr. Kornblau. "As awareness for Blu-ray(TM) continues to grow, consumers will learn to rely on the superior quality picture, sound, interactivity and
connectivity that only high-definition home entertainment delivers."

Honestly, I'm not sure I would call that slate of movies a "brilliant collection," but that's just MHO.

Is Psystar's Mac Clone Just a Scam?

You'll recall the Mac clone maker Psystar, which not only says it can sell you a computer, it says it will install Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) on it as well. Which not only violates the Mac OS X EULA, it also requires tweaks to do it.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? And many times, if something sounds too good to be true ...

At any rate, it's strange that the company seems to have moved three since their announcement. Perhaps, as they indicate on their website, it was just a site error, but they started at 10645 SW 112th St. in Miami, then changed their contact info to 10481 NW 28th St., then to 10471 NW 28th St., and now they're at 10475 NW 28th St. Unfortunately, no Google Street View of that address.

Either they have a really bad webmaster or something's fishy.

Both the Guardian and Gizmodo have done some poking around, and nothing seems all that positive in terms of investing your hard-earned money with these guys.

• The address problem (though admitted to as an error in an interview with Tom's Hardware).
  

• They can't take orders by phone (see their site).
  

• They either have a really bad phone system or no one's there.
  

• No response to emails.
  

• The principles are Rodolfo and Roberto Pedraza, who are officers or agents on a whole host of companies, only one of which, besides Psystar, appears in operation (FloridaTek). Oh, and if you click on the "Remote Desktop Technical Support" link on the upper LHS of the page you get an .EXE download - which I wouldn't trust.

So, is this deal just "rotten to the core?" Can't be sure yet, but it's so fishy I'd be worried about mercury poisoning. Stay clear of this company until further notice.

Good Results in the Yahoo! / Google Trial: a Partnership Aborning?

It hardly seems like enough time has passed, but the test of Google search ads with Yahoo! search has apparently been so successful that things are already progressing. The Wall Street Journal's "people familiar with the situation", who seem all over the MicroHoo deal, have spoken thusly.

As you may recall, Global Markets analyst Mark Mahaney has said that such a deal could increase Yahoo!'s cash flow by more than $1 billion a year, because Google generates much more revenue for each query than Yahoo!'s does.

Such an infusion of additional revenue would obviously complicate matters for Microsoft, raising the value of Yahoo! and potentially blocking any hostile takeover by Microsoft. At the very least, it would make things more difficult for Ballmer and group, as well as increasing the odds that Microsoft will have to raise its bid.

It also gives Yahoo! time to continue its discussions with AOL. Of course, would anything like this even be under consideration without the pressure from Microsoft. Naturally not. Is this just gamesmanship? Hard to say, but the clock is ticking on Microsoft's ultimatum to Yahoo! and something has got to give soon.

Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisite Update Causing USB Device Problems

Haven't we heard about Windows Vista SP1 prerequisite updates causing problems before? Yes, we have. When Microsoft re-released KB937287, it also re-released KB938371, and that seems to hose some USB devices, such as mice and keyboards.

On WUGNET, there was a post regarding the issue. Here's a similar one at TechNet. Some have recovered use of their devices by using System Restore and installing SP1; others have fixed the issue by removing all their HID devices in Device Manager, allowing Vista to reinstall the drivers. Some are still stuck. And since, according to Microsoft, KB938371 can't be uninstalled, it's a big problem.

Microsoft has, according to PC Magazine, acknowledged the issue, but has provided no information on a fix.

"We are aware of concerns that a recent Microsoft update may be causing problems with USB devices. We are investigating the matter and at this time do not have any additional information to share."

I have to say, the history of issues with these prerequisite updates for SP1 has not been good, and that's being generous. The issues with not being able to install SP1 without "fixed drivers" has turned SP1 into a fiasco.

Microsoft needs to get all these issues fixed, and fixed quickly, if they want SP1 adoption to continue, not to mention regaining some lost user confidence.

The Pirate Bay Opens Uncensored Blogging Service

The Pirate Bay, the popular BitTorrent tracking site, has decided to expand its services and opened its own blogging site. The site, BayWords, is uncensored, and advertised as a place for bloggers who want to write whatever they want without fear of being shut down by their blog host.

Of course, BayWords has a pretty minimal feature set right now, but The Pirate Bay says they're going to be adding more as time goes on.

We will add support for your own domain hopefully. Captcha system will be installed. Stats will be better. Ads will be added, sorry about that but we’ll keep them as usual to a minimum.

The Pirate Bay said that the idea to start a blogging service arose when the blog of one of the friends of a founder of The Pirate Bay was taken down by WordPress, for linking to copyrighted material. Ironically, BayWords is powered by WordPress.

According to BayWords:

Because of the need of freedom of speech and secure hosting facility of the words being said we could not agree to how people behave towards bloggers.

Many blogs are being shut down for uncomfortable thoughts and ideas. We will not do that. Our goal is to protect freedom of speech and your thoughts. As long as you don’t break any Swedish laws in your blog, we will defend it.

Last year The Pirate Bay opened BayIMG, an uncensored image hosting site. What's next for The Pirate Bay?

Windows Vista SP1 Now Available in Remaining Languages

As you may (or may not!) recall, in March Windows Vista SP1 was released, but only in English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional) with the rest of the languages promised for this month. And now, the remaining 31 language packs have been released.

The 32-bit standalone installer can be downloaded here, while the 64-bit installer is here.

However, mid-April has arrived and Microsoft has still not made SP1 an automatic download via Windows Update. It's available (if you have the right drivers) via Windows Update, but as an optional download.

Still no word as to when the automatic update feature will be enabled. My guess, if I had to make one, is that first they have to get automatic updates of "fixed" drivers set up, so that people can see the blasted thing, and that they still haven't done that.

I can tell you for sure that I still can't find "fixed" drivers for my wife's HP laptop or my XPS Gen 2, and they don't show up as updated drivers on Windows Update either - which would be the ideal situation.

The Insecurity of Chocolate

A report released Wednesday by Infosecurity Europe revealed that not only is chocolate good bait for getting someone's password, so is an attractive appearance.

The survey was conducted outside Liverpool Street Station in the City of London. Researchers asked 576 office workers various questions, and managed to get the password from 21% of them. The "prize" for completing the survey? A chocolate bar.

Interestingly, women were 4.5x as likely to give up their passwords for said chocolate bar, with 45% of them responding, while only 10% of men gave up their passwords.

Still, this was a great improvement over 2007, when Infosecurity Europe was able to get passwords from 64% of people. However, more than 50% of those surveyed used the same password everywhere. And 61% gave their date of birth when asked for it.

60% of men and 62% of women were willing to reveal their phone number when told it was to enter them into a drawing for a trip to Paris. This, as Claire Sellick, Event Director, Infosecurity Europe said in a press release, is tantamount to a major security breach.

"That promise of a trip could cost you dear, as once a criminal has your date of birth, name and phone number they are well on the way to carrying out more sophisticated social engineering attacks on you, such as pretending to be from your bank or phone company and extracting more valuable information that can be used in ID theft or fraud."

Further, the press release seemed to indicate that the more professional the survey takers appeared, the more likely information would be revealed.

After the survey was completed, each worker was told 'We do not really want your personal information this is part of an exercise to raise awareness about information security as part of Information Security Awareness Week which runs from the 21-25 April 2008. We will tabulate results to find out how good people are at securing their information.' At this one man told one of our pretty researchers you look so well dressed and honest I did not think you could be a criminal, which was a sentiment echoed by many others.

Claire Sellick continued "This is precisely the problem, whether a criminal approaches you on the street or online, they will often not be who they appear to be, a criminal can often look very presentable. Many of the social engineering techniques used by face-to-face fraudsters have been adopted by criminals to encourage people to open spam emails or visit websites that are infected with viruses, trojans or malware collectively known as crimeware."

Infosecurity Europe is actually an event, held during the aforementioned Information Security Awareness Week. This year it runs from 4/22 to 4/24 at the Grand Hall, Olympia, London.

Oh, and stay away from that chocolate.

Wii Fit to Launch at $89.99

Nintendo filled in the last bit of information for the Wii Fit game on Tuesday, announcing that when it launches in the U.S. on May 19th it will cost $89.99 (MSRP). $90 for a game? Well, it's more than a game; it includes the new Wii Balance Board controller, and anyway, let's not forget that Guitar Hero III for the Wii is the same price.

And also, when the Wii Fit launched in Japan, it was 8800 yen, which is now the equivalent of $88.

According to Nintendo's press release, those who pre-order Wii Fit from the Nintendo World store in New York's Rockefeller Plaza will get a bonus item.

From April 18-20, the first 1,000 consumers who place a $5 deposit for Wii Fit will receive a limited edition Wii Fit T-shirt featuring the image and reproduced autograph of legendary Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Wii Fit has already sold 1.4 million copies in Japan; we've often wondered if the delay in getting it to the U.S. was due to having to strengthen the Balance Board controller to handle the more robust (all right, fat) bodies of Americans.

Psystar Adds a "Pro" Model; Continues to Court Danger

Despite the fact that its site seem overwhelmed yesterday, and despite the fact that Apple is almost certain to sue, Psystar has not only fixed its site - possibly switching from Open Computers to Xserves - it's added a Pro model to its site.

The OpenPro Computer starts at $999, can be upgraded to quad-core CPUs, and is available (natch) with Leopard preinstalled. Much as with the Open Computer, Leopard will run you $155. They've also added Windows Vista Home Premium as an option, at $150 for either the 32- or 64-bit version.

Now it sure seems that Psystar is rolling out models faster than you can say "boo," so it makes me wonder. If it was April 1st, I would wonder still more.

Of course, how is Psystar going to fight off the Apple lawyers that are bound to jump down its throat eventually? After all, this still doesn't get around the issue that installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware violates the EULA.

So far, published remarks seem to indicate that they are falling back on a monopoly argument, meaning, Mac OS X that can only be installed on a Mac is a monopoly. Personally, I don't think that's going to fly, but who knows? I've already been surprised by the fact that lawyers already descended on Psystar.

Seagate Follows Through With SSD Lawsuit; STEC Fires Back

Last month, Seagate CEO Bill Watkins raised eyebrows when he said Seagate was convinced that SSD manufacturers were infringing on Seagate patents, and that lawsuits were a possibility if SSD drives became more popular. A bit of sour grapes perhaps, but Monday Seagate followed through with a lawsuit against SSD manufacturer STEC.

Seagate's lawsuit charges that STEC violated four of its patents relating to error correction, memory-backup systems, and storage interfaces with computers.

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Watkins said that Seagate had tried to convince SSD manufacturers to license Seagate's patents.

"They have blatantly decided they don't have to," Mr. Watkins said. "Now is the time to start enforcing our patents."

The lawsuit was filed on Monday, and on Tuesday STEC fired back with a press release. They actually didn't mince any words. Emphasis below is mine.

STEC is one of the first companies to build SSDs, having designed, manufactured and shipped SSDs as early as 1994, long before any of the suggested patents were issued to Seagate. Given the effect SSDs are having on the HDD market, STEC believes that Seagate's lawsuit is completely without merit and primarily motivated by competitive concerns rather than a desire to protect its intellectual property. STEC believes that Seagate's action is a desperate move to disrupt how aggressively customers are embracing STEC's Zeus-IOPS technology and changing the balance of power in enterprise storage.

Tell us how you really feel! STEC went on to say:

STEC has significant patents related to SSD which have been developed through the decades of experience STEC has with developing, manufacturing and shipping SSDs. Beyond that long history, STEC also believes that many of Seagate's claims are not relevant to SSD. For example, STEC was one of the originators of stacking technology with patents dating back to the mid-1990s, while Seagate's patent on this matter was issued in 2005.

Through this process, STEC will determine if Seagate is misappropriating any of STEC's core technologies; STEC will take appropriate action to protect its interests, including seeking the invalidation of Seagate's patents.

In other words, "Watch it. We're ticked off now and we'll likely countersue." STEC is the first SSD manufacturer to be sued by Seagate, but it obviously won't be the last.

It's Tax Day! Is Intuit Ready for Possible TurboTax Chaos?

Remember last year's fiasco when TurboTax users flooded Intuit's e-filing servers at the last minute? The surge of data caused overtaxed (pun intended) servers, which meant that transactions that should take minutes took hours. Fortunately, the IRS waived penalties for users, and Intuit even refunded e-filing charges for affected users.

So, besides the obvious question: are you ready for Tax Day, a second question would be, is Intuit ready this year? According to Intuit, they are.

Of course, is that really the case?

According to an TurboTax spokesperson Julie Miller in an interview I heard on NPR,

"Last tax season at the end was so anxiety-producing and frustrating for our customers and we regret that tremendously. We've learned a lot about how we build our systems, how we need to test our systems, the kind of pressure that's on them in those peak filing days. And I think we're going to be ready for the 14th and 15th this year."

Despite that statement, however, there's this support post which was updated on 4/14:

TurboTax Experiencing Extremely High Volume

Updated: 4/14/2008 Article ID: 6222

As the tax deadline approaches, TurboTax is experiencing extremely high customer volume. To ensure the highest quality experience, you may experience brief periods where you cannot log in to TurboTax Online. If this happens, please wait a few minutes and try again. TurboTax is working as planned.

Our highest volumes occur in the evening.

If you feel you will not be able to complete your return on time, you may want to consider filing for an extension.

Although the post seems to address TurboTax Online issues, not those with the standalone product, it still sounds like a repeat of last year may be in the offing.

It's also unnerving that when I tried to get into the TurboTax Live Community Forum, I received this error:

TurboTax Live Community

We are experiencing high demand at this time.

We will allow access as soon as possible.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice ... despite Intuit's assurances, if you haven't filed, don't want until the last minute to e-file. Do it ASAP.

Oh, and me? I waited until relatively late this year, but still filed last Friday - and I used H&R Block's TaxCut.

Windows XP SP3 to Release to OEMs, TechNet, MSDN on 4/21

Windows XP just received a reprieve - at least for ULCPCs. Of course, many users and analysts say XP is just fine for most users, while Vista is bloated - and InfoWorld even has a petition to Save XP (sign here) with over 111K signatures on it. Given all that, it would be nice to get all those fixes and underlying changes to XP in Service Pack format, to shine the rusty bucket up a little bit. And now it appears we have a solid date.

Of course, it was originally thought a release would occur during the week of 3/24, but instead Microsoft released a refresh of SP3. There's a lot more info this time, however.

According to reports, this is the release schedule for SP3:

• 4/21 - OEMs, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers will have access.
  
• 4/29 - Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center: however, this will not be an automatic update.
  
• 6/10 - Automatic Updates land.

It should be noted that April's release will only include English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Simplified Chinese, with other languages available in early May.

Also, Windows XP Service Pack 3 won't be feature-rich, as SP2 was. It will contain hotfixes and updates released since then, as well as an expanded set of product keys for Windows XP Professional that were originally introduced in Windows XP SP2c. Finally, it will also include a new activation process, Network Access Protection Module, Black Hole Router Detection, and Microsoft's Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module.

Google Builds Custom Tech for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

On Monday, Google and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) announced that Google has built custom video and image search technology for the center, to be used in the fight against child porn. Google had joined NCMEC's Technology Coalition Against Child Pornography in August of 2006.

In their press release, NCMEC said:

"Criminals are using cutting edge technology to commit their crimes of child sexual exploitation, and in fighting to solve those crimes and keep children safe, we must do the same," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "That is why we are so grateful to Google for providing new tools that will enable the National Center to better serve law enforcement in battling exploitation and rescuing children."

The Google technology will enable NCMEC analysts to more quickly and easily search NCMEC's systems to sort and identify files that contain images of child pornography victims. New video tools from Google will streamline analysts' review of video snippets from files seized in child pornography cases. Comparing these images and videos through an automated process enabled by custom-built Google technology has a real potential to assist law enforcement in child pornography investigations.

Managing, organizing, and searching vast amounts of data has always been Google's strength. Obviously, of course, since it's that effectiveness that has led, at least in part, to Google's dominance in search. It's great to see that expertise put to use against one of the more heinous types of crimes.

Graphics Glitches on New Apple Notebooks Still Unacknowledged After Over a Month

Some have wondered if the increased popularity of Apple products has resulted in a decreased level of quality. Here's yet another case of issues with a new product, as frustrated users have been reporting graphics problems with the Penryn-based 13" MacBooks and 15" MacBook Pros, released in February.

According to several threads in the Apple discussion forums (a couple here and here), it appears the issues are most prevalent when playing QuickTime videos, although graphics corruption has also been seen when scrolling through Safari webpages or Mail messages. You can see an example from one of the thread above here.

Some have said the problems did not exist until they applied the MacOS X 10.5.2 Update.

One such post, related to QuickTime playback, says:

When I am watching the Video Tutorials for any of Apple products my QT flickers dark and light, not to the point where I can't see the video, but to the point where it is annoying. Anyone else having this problem? This is on a 4 day old new MacBook. I have the most recent version of QT installed.

While Apple has not officially acknowledged the problem, a user posted the following message he said was received from Apple Technical Support:

"Apple has received reports similar to the behavior you are describing and we are investigating those reports. Further information will come in the form of a Knowledge Base article, Software Update, or Software Release."

The problem is, that message was delivered to him on March 12th! An update from that same user (posted Sunday) says:

Well, despite the notification I received from Apple that the problem has been acknowledged, a solution has obviously still not been provided.

...

However, to my knowledge the problem has not been "publicly acknowledged", so it is also possible that engineer resources have not been adequately assigned to the defect yet, and they are just hoping/expecting this issue not to get much traction online until they get around to working on it aggressively.

There were some sites that reported that Apple acknowledged the issue, but obviously that's notthe case. Over a month since they said they were looking into the solution and still no fix - and no official acknowledgement? I would expect better from Apple, as would most.

Psystar's Mac Clone Emerges, Disappears, Re-Emerges on Same Day

Psystar claims it has a Mac clone for sale - and that it will sell the computer for $400. Unfortunately, until a little while ago, most of the pages related to the so-called "Open Computer" were not working (and who knows how long they'll stay up). The site went down mere hours after the computer launched, leading some to assume Apple's lawyers had already shut it down.

According to Psystar, the Open Computer's specs are:

The highly extensible Open Computer is a configuration of PC hardware capable of running unmodified OS X Leopard kernels. If you purchase Leopard with your Open Computer we will not only include the actual Leopard retail package with genuine installation disc, but we also include a Psystar restore disc for your Open Computer and we will preinstall Leopard for free so you can begin to use your computer right out of the box.

Base Configuration

• 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor
• 2GB of DDR2 667 memory
• Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics
• 20x DVD+/-R SATA drive that is Lightscribe-capable
• 4 rear USB Ports
  

And that base configuration is $400. Well, technically, if you want OS X on it, it's $555.

Thing is you might have a 10.5.2 PC forever. As the site says in reference to updates:

The answer is yes and no. No because there are some updates that are decidedly non-safe. Yes because most updates are not non-safe.

Non-safe? Sounds like the whole idea is non-safe.

In fact, the company is likely treading on non-safe ground, as we know how protective Apple is about its turf - and installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware violates the EULA.

So, if you want one of these, buy it now, before the site disappears again.

Blockbuster Makes Unsolicited Offer for Circuit City

In another of those "you haven't said yes so we're going to the public" deals that seem so common nowadays, Blockbuster has announced it has made an offer to Circuit City for a "combination" of the two companies.

The offer, made on February 17th, apparently wasn't swiftly responded to, and because, as Blockbuster said in a press release:

Unfortunately, to date, Circuit City has failed to provide due diligence necessary to allow Blockbuster to make a definitive proposal. Blockbuster is making its proposal public because it believes the shareholders of Circuit City should have the opportunity to participate in determining the destiny of the company. In addition, as Blockbuster has other strategic opportunities, its offer is conditioned upon timely commencement of the due diligence process.

The offer is for at least $6 per share and equate to $1 billion, or approximately 54% more than Circuit City's current value. In its letter to Circuit City, Blockbuster said the offer could go as high as $8 / share, based on "due diligence."

Part of the letter says:

The combination of Blockbuster and Circuit City will result in an $18 billion retail enterprise uniquely positioned for the convergence of media content and electronic devices. We would seek to differentiate products in both Blockbuster and Circuit City stores by offering exclusive content and content-enabled devices. Both companies would benefit from complementary products, marketing, management strengths, technology and distribution and the resulting synergies would significantly improve consolidated financial performance. Overall, I strongly believe that a combination of Blockbuster and Circuit City would deliver significant value to our respective shareholders, enhance the overall customer experience, and energize our employees.

It seems that Blockbuster sees the "someday movies will mostly be downloaded" writing on the wall and thus wants to get into some sort of hardware sales. Of course, as Best Buy has been beating Circuit City into submission of late, I'm not sure a combination of these two would make a difference. Of course, let's not forget Netflix vs. Blockbuster on the other side of the fence.

At the same time, as has been typical of late, the company in question, Circuit City, has acknowledged the unsolicited offer, and said "hang on, don't do anything" to shareholders.

Circuit City also indicated it has doubts Blockbuster could follow through:

The Company noted that its Board of Directors has previously reviewed a similar private proposal from Blockbuster. Circuit City, Blockbuster and their respective financial advisors have been in a process of exchanging information regarding the proposal, but to date Blockbuster has been unable to satisfy Circuit City and its advisors that Blockbuster's proposal could be financed. In particular, Blockbuster's proposal appears to contemplate a rights offering of unprecedented size relative to the issuing company's market capitalization and at a price that is at a significant premium to Blockbuster's current market price. Circuit City's advisors have noted that most rights offerings, of which there have been very few in the United States, occur at discounts to market.

Full text of the letter from Blockbuster to Circuit City and the tepid response are as linked above.

Sure is "unsolicited takeover" season, isn't it? Not that this will distract us from the "Microhoo" drama.

Would "Internet Safety Classes" Have Helped in the Victoria Lindsay Case?

If you haven't heard about 16-year-old honor student Victoria Lindsay, you've probably heard the details around the case. Six teenage girls from Lakeland, Florida, lured Victoria to a home and merciless beat her for 30 minutes, first slamming her head into a wall and then, after she recovered consciousness, continuing to pummel her.

The attack was apparently in retaliation for a number of comments Victoria made on her MySpace page about the other girls. Although, if you watch the interview with Victoria's parents below, it appears her MySpace page was hacked, so this may have been all a misunderstanding.

The six teenage girls: Mercades Nichols, 17; April Cooper, 14; Brittini Hardcastle, 17; Kayla Hassell, 15; Brittany Mayes, 17; and Cara Murphy, 16 as well as two teenage boys, who stood guard while the beating took place: Zachary Ashley, 17 and Stephen Schumaker, 18 showed little remorse at first, joking about not being able to "go to the beach."

However, in their first courtroom appearance on Friday, the teens appeared more contrite.

Prosecutors are seeking to prosecute the teens as adults, and bail was set for them at $30,000 each. The judge also ordered that if they manage to make bail, they cannot contact each other or use the Internet.

According to reports, the girls filmed the attack because they wanted to create a viral video. As one of the video responses (by Philip DeFranco) to the attack said, however, "the video has gone viral, except I don’t know if they can see it in jail."

DeFranco doesn't blame MySpace or YouTube, however, saying that people will say "it's something here, something there. It's caffeine; it's Red Bull. No. Some people are just messed up in the head. Some people are just bad excuses of human beings."

DeFranco also went on to say that the teens should experience a beating of their own, as only by experiencing a similar beating could they truly know what they had put Victoria through.



In an interview (above), the mother, Talisa Lindsay, said "For whatever reason, this MySpace, my-you, this YouTube has gone too far. It’s just too much.”

Her husband, Patrick went even further, "As far as I’m concerned, MySpace is the Antichrist for children."

Truly timely since this week it was announced that Virginia schools would now have mandatory Internet safety lessons, the first in the country. Now, Internet safety isn't just about avoiding pedophiles, although that's the first thing people think. It's also about knowing what not to post on MySpace. But would it have made a difference, really? I mean if her page was hacked, of course, it could not have made a difference.

Also timely: the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. An MSNBC story covers how colleges are counseling troubled students, to prevent rampages like that last year.

Perhaps this counseling needs to extend to high school students? Is DeFranco right, that these were just "bad excuses for human beings?" I've proposed a similar opinion in the past myself, saying that sometimes you look at a teen, or even someone younger, and just have to state that opinion.

What do you readers think?

Watch an excerpt from the Today show, including part of the beating.

Google's GrandCentral Suffers Outage

GrandCentral, as you may know, is a service that gives you "One Number ... for Life." It centralizes all your different phone numbers into one, and will ring one or more phones ... or go directly to voicemail ... based on rules you set up. You can even set up specific voicemail messages for selected callers.

If GrandCentral wants to replace your current phone service, it needs to be just as bulletproof. And Sunday morning, GrandCentral was down for a number of hours. Of course, as with most Google services, it's still in beta, and hey, it's free. Some might say, "it's free, don't complain about it."

Actually, normally I might be one of those. There is of course the However, besides offering its service to the geeky and supremely organized among us, Google wants to extend its service to the homeless, as I previously wrote. They are already providing such service to the homeless in San Francisco via Mayor Gavin Newsom's Project Homeless Connect, but they do want to expand the program to other locales.

Before you ask why a homeless person would need a phone number, without a phone number it's difficult to get a job - and it's also hard to get one low-income housing waiting list. And those are just the "practical" reasons.

Anyway, the service is up again. According to Google, the problem was caused by a power outage in their Colorado facility. However, what gets me is the statement from founder / CEO Craig Newmark regarding the lack of communication by GrandCentral to users:

Unfortunately I’ve been up in the mountains with the family this weekend and had no cell/internet coverage so couldn’t respond earlier.

Whoops! He's the only person authorized / capable of an informative post? On the positive side, they also said:

I did want to let you know that we were able to restore the service by noon today and are working extremely diligently to make sure this won’t occur in the future. We’ll do a better job keeping you informed in the future, not only about service related issues but also about upcoming features, soliciting your feedback, and generally making sure that you, the GC user, is well informed as to what’s going on with the service.

New York State's "Amazon Tax" Means the End is Nigh

As I filled out my California income tax this year, I laughed when I came upon the "Use Tax" section. Did I buy anything from out-of-state retailers that I owed California sales tax for? Of course I didn't! But whether or not I did, New York state is close to closing that loophole for its residents with the so-called "Amazon Tax."

Normally sales tax has depended on the retailer having a physical presence in a state. Of course, this would exclude Amazon.com, and be a real attraction to people who live in high sales tax states like New York (and California). Naturally states see this as a negative.

The new state budget would remove this loophole, and naturally is strongly supported by in-state retailers. The idea had been abandoned by then-Governor Eliot Spitzer last November, but was since resurrected. The budget was passed last week and is expected to be signed by current Governor David Paterson.

In a press release from January, the Retail Council of New York State said:

"Governor Spitzer’s proposal is a bold and necessary initiative that will help small retailers in New York State who today struggle to compete with Internet giants. These on-line merchants – none of which are based in New York – operate with an unintended competitive advantage fostered by a confusing sales tax landscape."

Of course, it's no longer Governor Spitzer, and it's also difficult to see how something like this isn't going to face legal challenges. In fact, in a 1992 Supreme Court decision, Quill vs. North Dakota, the Supreme Court ruled that out-of-state retailers cannot be required to collect sales tax on purchases sent to states where they did not have a physical presence.

The Supreme Court’s reasoning was at least partially based on the fact that, at the time the case was decided in 1992, there were over 6,000 separate sales and use tax jurisdictions in the United States (states, localities, special tax districts, etc.) and to impose a collection obligation on a remote seller would impose a crushing burden that would severely restrict interstate commerce.

Naturally, it could be argued that for an entity as large as Amazon.com, complexity as indicated above is a bogus argument. However, New York would require tax collections to be made if the entity had $10K in sales within the state. I think that's going to fail the complexity test because a small business could be forced, if this went nationwide, to keep up with the now over 7,000 sales tax laws across the country.

Still, eventually this loophole is going to be closed. And if the above NY proposal passes legal challenges, you can bet that my state, California, will jump on the bandwagon immediately.

Microsoft: User Account Control Designed to Annoy

It's true. There is at least one feature in Windows Vista that was implemented on time, to spec, and fully functional when Vista was initially released: User Account Control (UAC).

In XP, if you're an administrator, you can do anything. In Vista, however, if UAC is enabled, whenever a user that is a member of the local administrators group tries to perform a task that requires administrative privileges, Vista prompts the user prior to running the task.

This can be annoying. And for most home users, it would seem to be totally unnecessary - and it's the first thing I disable on a new Vista install or new Vista PC.

Thursday at RSA 2008, David Cross, a product unit manager at Microsoft who was part of the team that developed UAC, admitted it was designed to annoy. But the reason wasn't just so Microsoft could get its jollies. It was designed to annoy users and ISVs into changing their behavior.

Microsoft wanted to get end users from running as administrators, but also to force ISVs to stop building apps that require administrative privileges to install and run.

"The reason we put UAC into the platform was to annoy users. I'm serious," said Cross. "We needed to change the ecosystem, and we needed a heavy hammer to do it."

Moreover, Cross said that 88% of Vista users run with UAC turned on, and 66% of sessions have no prompts. Still I think if Microsoft managed to change our behavior, it's in this way: encouraged us to search for "how to disable UAC" in Google.

BTW, if you want to disable UAC:

• Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu.
• Click on the Tools tab.
• Scroll down till you find "Disable UAC". Select that entry (as shown, click to enlarge)
  

• Press the Launch button.
• A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.
• Close MSCONFIG.
• Reboot.

You can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAC" line and then clicking on the Launch button.

GAO Report Reveals "Sensitive" Military Gear Sold on eBay, Craigslist

A recently released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (.PDF) showed that it's pretty easy to buy sensitive military equipment on web sites such as eBay and Craigslist. Obviously, this is a source of concern.

The report said:

GAO found numerous defense-related items for sale to the highest bidder on eBay and Craigslist. A review of policies and procedures for these Web sites determined that there are few safeguards to prevent the sale of sensitive and stolen defense-related items using the sites. During the period of investigation, GAO undercover investigators purchased a dozen sensitive items on eBay and Craigslist to demonstrate how easy it was to obtain them. Many of these items were stolen from the U.S. military.

One such item was an F-14 antenna. F-14 components are in demand by Iran, which is the only country with operating F-14s.

What else did they find? Body armor plates, nuclear biological chemical protective gear (which the GAO felt could be reverse-engineered) - and that's just the start.

The report goes on to say:

Although it is not illegal to buy and sell some defense-related items domestically, many sensitive items are manufactured strictly for military purposes and were never meant to be a part of everyday American life.

And - here's the most troubling part - the GAO found items that it identified as being stolen.

The report was presented before the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs Thursday. Also on Thursday, both Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist's CEO, and Tod Cohen, eBay's Vice-President of government relations, appeared before the Subcommittee.

Testimony from both is detailed on the Subcommittee's web page.

eBay and Craigslist have always maintained it was impossible for them to proactively police their listings. And while the GAO criticized both sites' policies, and said "both Web sites have an international reach," Buckmaster denied that in his testimony, saying "transactions are intended to local." Of course, "intended to be" isn't the same as "are."

I think the issue isn't so much with the sale of goods, but the sale of stolen goods, which many of the items the GAO found were. As Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), chairman of the Subcommittee said in his opening remarks:

We also want to make sure that the Defense Department and companies like eBay and Craigslist coordinate as much as possible. We’ll be asking if there ways to improve our public-private partnership so that companies who want to do the right thing can better differentiate between sensitive or stolen items versus those allowed to be sold.

Of course, I couldn't find anything for my F-14 on eBay, looking today. Guess I was just unlucky.

Flickr Users Revolt Over the Addition of Videos

The addition of videos to Flickr hasn't exactly resulted in the type of user feedback Yahoo! was probably expecting. Or perhaps it has.

Based on how people responded when the site changed hands (when Yahoo! bought Flickr), they should have expected this. Flickr users are passionate and not afraid to speak up.

They also have enough time to come up with clever photos expressing their opinions (as shown above).

At any rate, at least two anti-video groups have surfaced on Flickr, We Say NO to Videos on Flickr with over 23,000 members at the time of this writing, and NO VIDEO ON FLICKR!!! with close to 10K members.

There's also a petition at Petition Online with over 750 signatures right now. And a petition at Flickr with over 2,000 signatures (assuming no duplicates).

Quite a few are objecting over the "principle" of the thing, meaning Flickr is and should remain about photos, not videos. Others are asking for the ability to opt-out, and still others complain over a perceived site slowdown since the new feature went live.

If you're unaware, the new video-sharing feature lets Flickr "Pro" (and only "Pro") users upload 90-second videos alongside regular photos. Obviously, it's a move by Yahoo! to compete with YouTube. It's also likely to be something they thought would increase their "value" in the effort to halt Microsoft's takeover bid.

Flickr's response?

Here’s our response to what we see as frequent feedback here in the forum (I’ve paraphrased the feedback in some instances):

“I don’t want video on Flickr.”
We’re sorry, but video is here to stay. We’d love for everyone to give it a shot. If it’s not to your taste, then you should change the default on autoplay. You can distinguish between video and photos by the white arrow bottom left.

“I think video should have it’s own separate site.”
Just as with our international launch last year and building language on top of our global community, we wanted to avoid siloing what is after all, just another format.

“…did none of the staff see this coming?”
Given our experience with the outrage in moving sets from the left-hand side of the page to the right a few years ago (and various adventures since then), we’re very familiar with the passionate response of our members. We can’t be afraid of that. We need to continue to improve, release new features and iterate.

Feedback and iteration are very much part of our process. We very much value the feedback that we receive after features launch. It gives us a chance to take something good and give it that extra polish.

“I should be able to filter video out of my view of Flickr.”
There needs to be a balance between the “voice” of the creator and visitors. While it’s one thing to exclude certain content while searching, it’s quite another thing to presumptively curate what a member is choosing to share in their photostream.

However, I would have to say, "get used to it," as it's not going away. Although I have to wonder: whatever happened to doing one thing and doing it well, as opposed to trying to be all things to all people?

Viruses, Malware Top the One Million Mark

Symantec's latest bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report, released on 4/8, shows that (at least according to Symantec), the number of viruses, trojans and malware in circulation has topped one million.

Volume XIII of the report (.PDF) says (p. 50):

In the last six months of 2007, Symantec detected 499,811 new malicious code threats (figure 14). This is a 136 percent increase over the previous period, when 212,101 new threats were detected, and a 571 percent increase over the last half of 2006. In total, there were 711,912 new threats detected in 2007, compared to 125,243 threats in 2006, an increase of 468 percent. This brings the overall number of malicious code threats identified by Symantec to 1,122,311, as of the end of 2007. This means that almost two thirds of all malicious code threats currently detected were created during 2007.

Naturally, the vast majority of these are Windows-based threats, and many are variants of already circulating viruses.

The U.S. tops the list of countries in terms of "malicious activity" by a wide margin with China second (table above).

Besides saying you need an antivirus (AV) program, what else does this say? The obvious, tried-and-true warnings:

• Use an AV program and keep it updated.
  

• Watch out for phishing threats (BTW, the Carnegie-Mellon game is great way to learn about phishing)
  

• Don't open attachments from anyone you're not expecting a file from. It may look like it's coming from a friend, but they may be infected or the address may be spoofed.
  

Additionally, I always recommend people use AV software that has good heuristics - meaning it will detect malware not in its database. After all, with over 1 million threats, soon AV databases will need a hard drive all to themselves.

Emergency Text Message Alerts Approved by Regulators

This isn't a new idea (for example, China used text messages to warn citizens about Typhoon Kaemi in 2006), nor is the wrangling around it in the U.S. new, but on Wednesday an "emergency alert via SMS" plan finally received approval by regulators.

The discussion so far was prompted by the Warning Alert and Response Network Act, a 2006 federal law which requires upgrades to the emergency alert system.

Participation by carriers will be voluntary (I would expect them all to provide the service), as will participation by consumers, who will be able to opt-out.

The types of messages provided fall into three categories:

• National Alert: from the President, probably involving a terrorist attack or natural disaster.

• Imminent Threats: natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes or events such as university shootings.

• Amber Alerts

According to reports, the alerts would arrive with a unique "audio signature."

Nice to see us finally catch up with China. Or at least, we will by 2010; the plan should be implemented by then.

Internal Microsoft Emails Warned Over Vista, Low-Cost Laptops

Microsoft's reprieve for Windows XP, at least for what Microsoft calls Ultra-low-cost PCs (ULCPCs), came as no surprise to most. ULCPCs are notebooks such as the Asus Eee PC or HP 2133 Mini-Note PC.

Shockingly (insert sarcasm here), and most likely, damagingly, at least in terms of the "Vista-Capable lawsuit" Microsoft is embroiled in, emails from that lawsuit show that Microsoft wasn't exactly in the dark about Windows Vista performance issues, especially as it related to these low-cost laptops.

For example, an email from Gregg Daugherty, sent at 12:46 PM on February 28, 2006 (see page 66 in the .PDF of emails) says the following (click to enlarge):

For those not wanted to click through, he said (emphasis Microsoft's):

"We all know laptops are growing, but I'm struck by the magnitude, especially in the home. And I'm especially taken by the fact sub $1,000 laptops are now 50% of the home laptop market, and in Dec. '05, accounted for 26% of all retail computers sold ...

It should be noted that the just-launched HP 2133 runs Windows Vista. While receiving mostly positive reviews, it has had the word "slow" inserted into most of them. No doubt it would run spiffier on XP.

Not that anyone has ever said Vista was "bloated" or anything.

BTW, the slowness of the "Vista-Capable" lawsuit proceedings make me wonder if they are using an ULCPC with Vista on it for their briefs.

Punch and Counter-Punch in Microsoft / Yahoo! Battle: News Corp. and AOL Involved

Since Yahoo!'s brilliant move Wednesday afternoon, outsourcing, at least for now, search ads to Google Adsense, there has been still further punch and counter-punch between Yahoo! and Microsoft - involving both News Corp. and AOL.

First, the New York Times reported that News Corp. is involved in talks with Microsoft to perhaps join in its unsolicited bid for Yahoo! The combined bid would join Yahoo!, Microsoft’s MSN and News Corp.’s MySpace into ... I'm not sure what, but it would be powerful.

This would certainly be surprising, as after Microsoft first announced its bid, Yahoo! approached News Corp. as a possible "white knight." The addition of News Corp. would allow Microsoft to raise its bid, which was originally valued at $44.6B and was rejected by Yahoo! as being too low. Since then, Microsoft's stock price has dropped, resulting in the value of the bid dropping to around $42B.

According to the Times,

News Corporation would probably contribute its Fox Interactive Media unit, which includes MySpace, and possibly cash to a partnership with Microsoft as part of an acquisition of Yahoo, they said.

At the same, the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo! is very close to a merger with Time-Warner's AOL division. The merger would be just part of a three-part plan Yahoo! would present to shareholders.

The other parts of the plan would involve buying back billions of dollars of its own shares, as well as outsourcing its ads to Google. According to the Journal:

Under the terms being discussed, Time Warner would fold its AOL unit into Yahoo and make a cash investment in return for about 20% of the combined entity, the people said. The deal, which wouldn't include AOL's dial-up access business, would value AOL at about $10 billion. As part of the deal, Yahoo would use the Time Warner cash and additional funds to buy back several billion dollars worth of its own stock at a price somewhere in the middle of the range between $30 and $40 a share, the people said. Any deal would be taken to Yahoo shareholders for approval, the people said.

The AOL / Time-Warner merger was a fiasco and Time-Warner's been looking for a way to make AOL viable again, so for Time-Warner, the deal certainly would make sense.

Meanwhile, the Google portion of the scenario should certainly be attractive to shareholders. In February Citigroup Global Markets analyst Mark Mahaney estimated that Yahoo! could boost its cash flow more than 25% annually by outsourcing its search advertising to Google.

Now the question is: which part of this opposing factions can get their deal done first? AOL / Yahoo! or Microsoft / News Corp.? If at all, of course.

Yahoo! to Test Google Adsense; Microsoft Somewhat Displeased

Wednesday Yahoo! announced that it would be starting a limited trial of Google AdSense for Search service. This would deliver Google ads alongside Yahoo!'s search results, rather than Yahoo! ads. Yep, essentially Yahoo! is trying outsourcing Search Ads to Google.

It's clear that this move is one of the alternatives Yahoo! is looking at in response to Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid. As you may recall Microsoft pretty much threw down the gauntlet, giving Yahoo! three weeks before Microsoft will start what sounds like a hostile takeover attempt.

According to Yahoo!'s press release,

The test will apply only to traffic from yahoo.com in the U.S. and will not include Yahoo!'s extended network of affiliate or premium publisher partners. The test is expected to last up to two weeks and will be limited to no more than 3% of Yahoo! search queries.

As previously announced, Yahoo!’s board of directors is exploring strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value, including exploration of potential commercial business arrangements. The Company noted that the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo! will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result. The Company further stated that it would not comment on the nature or timing of any potential relationship.

To say Microsoft was not pleased is an understatement. In fact, they shot off their own press release, with Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel saying:

"Any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google’s hands. This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo! We will assess closely all of our options. Our proposal remains the only alternative put forward that offers Yahoo! shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers."

Waitasec, that's exactly what Yahoo! said the other day when it replied to Microsoft's three week ultimatum - only in reference to a Yahoo! / Microsoft tie-up. Hmmm.

If anyone thought the drama was decreasing over Microsoft - Yahoo!, it sure ain't.

Universal Music Group: Keep Your Promo CDs; Tossing Them is Piracy

Yes, you read that right. In a brief filed by Universal Music Group (UMG) in federal court yesterday, UMG said that giving away or even throwing out a promotional CD is piracy.

The brief was filed in the case of UMG against Troy Augusto (aka Roast Beast Music Collectibles, eBay handle roastbeastmusic). He buys collectible promo CDs at used record stores around Los Angeles and resells them on eBay. Although the CDs have "promotional use only" labels, both he and the EFF (who took his case after UMG sued him) feel that he is covered by the "First Sale" doctrine.

The First Sale doctrine in copyright law

allows purchasers of copyrighted material to sell that which they have purchased without violating the copyright laws. The theory here is similar to that of the exhaustion doctrine in patent law. The copyright owner must derive all revenue from the so-called first sale, and cannot control the future disposition of the article originally sold.

The key to understanding the first sale doctrine is to know that the copyright owner only has right to prevent others from copying and distributing (for free or for profit) copies of a work covered by a valid copyright. In the above example there has been no copying and, therefore, no infringement. You have taken what you purchased and transferred all right, title and interest to another. The copyright owner cannot stop this. The key, however, is that there has been no copying.

With this in mind, it would seem that there is no infringement in this case, but UMG feels the stickers make it otherwise. In fact, the brief (.PDF) you can see how they are trying to get around the First Sale doctrine (page 4):

Each promotional item is a copyrighted work. When they initially are distributed they are not sold. They technically remain the property of the record company or the studio that distributed them.

Page 13 has the really egregious statement:

Further, Augusto testified that if he offers a promotional CD for sale and it doesn’t sell, he may re-list it under a new auction number. Alternatively, Augusto testified that “a common way to dispose of them” is to give unsold promotional CD away, or he may throw them away. Both are unauthorized distributions.

See how throwing them away is piracy? Ugh. The EFF isn't taking this lying down, however as they filed their own brief yesterday. It would seem that if a "first authorized disposition" had occurred, Augusto is free and clear via First Sale.

In part, the EFF brief says:

With respect to the “promo CDs” at issue here, the facts surrounding the transactions are not in dispute—at issue is the legal consequence that flows from those facts. Taken together, the following facts indicate that the CDs in question are gifts to their initial intended recipients, and that title to the CDs has thus passed from UMG to those initial intended recipients ...

Yep, that's what I've always thought - they are gifts. Hopefully reasonableness will prevail and the Court will agree. The Court has set a trial date of June 24, 2008.

What do you readers think? I'd probably better head down to Goodwill to grab any promo t-shirts I donated, just in case the EFF loses this case and they expand the ruling, eh?

"Internet Safety Lessons" Made Mandatory in Virginia Schools

Other states (Illinois, Texas) have instituted Internet Safety curriculum in schools, but Virginia has taken a step that no other states have: made it mandatory.

With the huge temptation of the Internet and the multiple possibilities for children and teens to "explore" (Facebook, MySpace, Orkut ... keep going), while it's true that I've always felt that teaching begins at home, except perhaps for geeks like me, a lot of parents may be relatively clueless about all the technological dangers out there.

The Virginia Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology has a set of guidelines (.PDF). The first paragraph outlines their concerns:

Today’s students will be the first generation to use the Internet for their entire lives. This unprecedented access to resources will enhance their learning, research, communications, explorations for new ideas, and expressions of creativity. Unfortunately, this remarkable resource has become susceptible to abuse that often targets young people.

While the Megan Meier case has become a prime example of such abuse, most of the concern is obviously not about death or suicide, but about sexual predators. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) says on its site:

Approximately one in seven youths (10 to 17 years) experience a sexual solicitation or approach while online.

That's a higher percentage than I would have thought. Trolling through the .PDF above, I found that spyware, viruses and the like are covered to an extent; I hope they make this part of the program because based on the parents I know, viruses, malware and trojans are all a big problem on their children's computers.

Yet another reason to invest in good antivirus software. What do you readers think? Are you pleased that some states are mandating this sort of program? Or not?

Now Playing: Adobe Media Player, Adobe TV

On Wednesday Adobe launched both Adobe Media Player 1.0 (AMP) as well as Adobe TV.

AMP is an offline Flash video player. It was originally released in beta form last September. The software, written with Adobe's Integrate Runtime (AIR), runs on Windows and MacOS (both Intel and PowerPC).

Adobe already has a number of partners lined up. In a press release, John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe said:

"With Adobe Media Player, we’re bringing viewers and content owners closer together, with an experience that doesn’t constrain them by platform or proprietary software application. It’s a merger of TV Guide and DVR for Internet video content. Some great shows, like The Hills from MTV and CSI from CBS, is already available to view and more will be coming soon."

AMP will allow users to subscribe to and search for content. Adobe doesn't host any content, rather AMP pulls content from partners via RSS feeds. Users can add any video RSS feed into the player. As the press release says:

Users can also subscribe to television shows and other online video content and then automatically receive new episodes of the shows as they become available. To help viewers discover new content, a broad, searchable catalog of shows from leading media companies and networks is available and it is expected that it will continually expand to include video from additional broadcasters, studios and independent producers. Some of the initial content available on Adobe Media Player includes: CSI: New York, CSI: Miami, Big Brother, Star Trek, Melrose Place, Hawaii Five-O, The Twilight Zone and MacGyver from CBS; clips from The Hills, MTV News and Yo! MTV Raps from MTV Networks; select shows on HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network and Fine Living Network from Scripps Networks; Epicurious.com, Style.com and Wired.com from CondéNet; PBS programming and music videos from Universal Music Group. Additional content from MTV Networks’ brands including MTV, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, VH1, CMT, Logo, Spike, The N, GameTrailers and Atom Films will be made available over the next several months.

Speaking of content, Adobe also launched Adobe TV. But don't get confused. Adobe TV isn't really about TV. It's a web site and AMP "channel" dedicated to tutorials and more about Adobe products. As said in a separate press release, it's

"a free online video resource for expert instruction and inspiration about Adobe products, including the company's Creative Suite 3 family of world-class creative tools."

In other words, a cool way of using AMP to get out the word on other products. Smart move.

So, does the world really need yet another player, and I don't just mean AMP, but rather another competitor in the seemingly crowded online video /TV / content / you-name-it arena? Adobe seems to think so, and it has plenty of partners lined up that seem to think so as well.

Microsoft to Trial Office Anti-Piracy Nag System

You'll recall that Microsoft has removed the "kill switch" in Windows Vista, meaning that users of suspected counterfeit copies will nagged rather than losing functionality. Microsoft is about to launch a pilot program for Office, with similar nagging notifications.

The change would be considered an expansion of the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) initiative, which blocks suspected copies from downloading templates and other files as well as updates.

The new system, to be first tried in Chile, Italy, Span and Turkey (lucky them), will work as follows:

For the first 30 days, the OGA notification system will display a pop-up message the first time Office is opened each day. Two hours later the user will see another pop-up.

After the 30th day, Office applications will be "marked" with a visual reminders that the copy of Office is counterfeit. I suppose you could consider it sort of a "Scarlet Letter." But the reminder will not impair use of the software, in a sort of kinder, gentler anti-piracy measure. Once the user uninstalls or installs a legitimate copy of Office, the marker will disappear.

The pilot program will be voluntary, with the OGA notification software offered as an update. I'm sure they'll get a lot of takers (insert sarcasm here). However, it's unclear if those with automatic ujpdates turned on would get the notification update by default; yet another reason to turn off automatic updates, eh?

Not that I'm encouraging piracy; everything I have is legit, but I don't like stuff being installed without my knowledge or permission; thus I turn off automatic updates.

Typically this type of program gets trialled in a few countries and then rolled out to others, so you can expect this to hit your country once Microsoft irons out any issues it might find.

Wal-Mart to Give Refunds for HD-DVD Players Bought On or After Nov. 1

Wal-Mart isn't the first to offer some sort of exchange or extended return policy for HD-DVD losers, er, buyers, but they're being pretty generous with this offer. Then again, the world's largest retailer can afford to be - and they could sure use some good PR.

Wal-Mart has announced that they will allow returns of HD-DVD players purchased as far back as last November 1st. You don't even need the original packaging (who's going to have it, anyway), but you will need a receipt. Let's hope, therefore, you didn't get your player as a gift (don't forget you can still use it as an upscaling DVD player, however, even if you are still "stuck" with it).

You only have until 4/30 to make the return, though that's still over 3 weeks away.

The "deal" was originally posted on SlickDeals.net and confirmed by the WSJ ... I also found a local store manager that confirmed the deal as well.

Not a bad gesture by Wal-Mart. Does this mean I have to start being nice to them? Nah.

HP's 2133 Mini-Note PC to Give the Asus Eee PC a Run for Your Money

The Asus Eee PC has drawn much attention, becoming so popular other manufacturers are chomping at the bit to get into that segment. Tuesday HP announced the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, which it says is targeted for the education market, but will most likely reach into far other markets, just as the Asus Eee PC has.

The 2133 needs a shorter name, and a different OS, in my book. It comes with Windows Vista, which really strains the hardware. I'm not sure why HP didn't make XP an option - or even standard.

Prices range from $499 on the low end (with Linux, 400 MHz FSB, 512 MB RAM, 1.0 GHz VIA C7-M CPU) to $749 on the high end (with Windows Vista, 800 MHz FSB, 2 GB RAM, 1.6 GHz VIA C7-M CPU).

The screens are 8.9" diagonally with a 1280 x 800 resolution.

Wireless-N doesn't seem to be an option, but I'm sure you could add in a USB 2.0-based card, if you wanted. Pricing starts to get more "full-sized laptop-ish" if you start thinking of adding in an optical drive.

HP includes something fairly standard for many hard drive-based laptops: a utility (DriveGuard) that ensures your hard drive will remain safe when dropped.

For someone looking for a miniature notebook (and who doesn't care about speed) to take with them on the run, this is a pretty inexpensive and more fully-featured choice than the Asus Eee PC. Of course, it still has tradeoffs.

Check out a couple of reviews here and here.

Wal-Mart Switches to MP3-Format Only

When we last visited Wal-Mart's attempt at DRM-free music, they had only managed to get EMI and Universal Music Group signed up for the DRM-free portion of their store. They've now decided to go all-MP3, but they're still stuck without Warner Music Group and Sony BMG, which are unfortunately the top two record labels.

Most likely they will eventually match Amazon MP3, which has all four major record labels signed, but it's surprising that Wal-Mart made this move without working out deals - and that they haven't been able to work out a deal since August. When Amazon MP3 launched it was understandable that they were missing labels, as they vowed to be all MP3 from the start, but Wal-Mart?

The store redesign means that only those with IE can use the new store; others using, for example, Firefox are greeted with the following message:

We notice you're not using Internet Explorer. Other browsers may be able to access our original Music Downloads store which has fewer user features than our latest version but offers the same music. We will be making enhancements to our updated version in the future to support the Firefox browser. If you want to take advantage of all the features in our updated design now, please get the latest version of Internet Explorer.

Of course, since Firefox is my browser of choice, I fell back on IE Tab.

No Mac or Linux support for their download app; in fact, Linux isn't even mentioned, and for Mac their site says:

At this time, it isn't possible to shop and download songs directly from Wal-Mart Music Downloads to a Macintosh computer. However, you can transfer the MP3 files from a Windows computer to a Macintosh using a CD or other storage device.

How convenient for end users!

I suppose Wal-Mart isn't all that worried about the challenge presented by iTunes; if they were, they might have pushed the store out when it was fully formed, instead of rushing it out; the lack of a) two major labels, b) alternate browser support, c) Mac and Linux support is pretty behind-the-times in this day and age (all right, all right, I know lack of Mac / Linux support is pretty common).

HP Announces Data Storage in the Cloud via "Upline"

Ah yes, how many online data storage services are there? Unlike that old saying about "there's something you don't see every day," a new data storage service in the "cloud" seems a daily occurrence. But here's something we don't see every day: an announcement about such a service by a company as large as HP.

All these services purport to back and and store your data safely in the "cloud." HP's Upline has 3 different plan tiers (plus a free limited trial with 1 GB of storage for a year).

The tiers (all have unlimited storage) are:

• Home & Home Office: $59 / year, 1 license, basic support
• Family: $149 / year, 3 licenses, Dashboard, basic support
• Professional: $299 / year, 3 licenses, expandable to 100 ($79 / additional license), Dashboard, priority support
  

The Dashboard, BTW, is a way to manage and track the usage of employee accounts within a small business ... or, I suppose, family (just how much porn is my son uploading?).

Here's what HP is advertising:

• File sharing and remote access – share files of any size by emailing a password protected and time-limited link rather than an attachment. What, file sharing!? The RIAA might have something to say about this.
• Remote access – enjoy greater productivity on the go with the ability to open, edit, share and publish files from any Internet-connected PC using a secured log-in and password.
• File publishing – publicly share data by easily generating a URL to publish content to a website or blog; automatically refresh files published to multiple locations to keep public data current.
• Local archiving – create archive copies of files that can be saved to a CD, DVD, NAS, USB drive or a second partition on a hard drive.
• Data migration – easily migrate files to a new PC.
• Multi-user dashboard – easily set up, manage and track the usage of employee accounts within a small business.

Mac users: don't get excited. There's no support for the Mac yet. On the other hand, there are other services, such as Mozy, which support the Mac. As an EMC company, you needn't worry about your data, either - at least long-term. After all, there's always the chance of an outage, as demonstrated by Amazon's S3 service, not that long ago.

The tech involved here was designed by Opelin, a company bought by HP last year.

For me, storage in the cloud isn't that attractive when I consider the asymmetric nature of my - and most people's - broadband. Give me FIOS service and we can talk. All that news about tiered pricing or throttling of heavy users doesn't do much for my confidence in these services either. I would imaging most people using this type of service would fit into the "heavy usage" category.

I mean, as some services and businesses want us to use more bandwidth, others want us to cut down on our use - or pay more for the privilege. And let's face it: when storing a file, storing on a LAN or storing on a network can't be beat by the "cloud." Of course, one fire, and there goes everything. Eventually I will likely move to the "cloud," but where's that FIOS when I want it?

All the News Thats Fit to Map - On Google Earth

The New York Times's masthead logo, "All The News That's Fit to Print," dates back to 1896. Monday Google has announced it's teamed up with the New York Times to offer regional news via Google Earth, sort of "all the news that's fit to map."

How's it work? Well, first install the latest version of Google Earth. If the region you are looking at (New York, New York, above, click to enlarge) has regional stories you can view, you'll find New York Times placemarks that you can click on.

When you click on a placemark, you'll get the latest news for that area. Want more than just the latest headlines? Click the Show This Layer button (see above) at the top of the preview pane and you'll get a huge number of placemarks appearing on the map, constituting a month's worth of stories.

I'm actually not 100% sure this is working as Google intended, since their Lat Long blog seems to indicate you'll get a "list of stories," not a ton of placemarks.

Much as an RSS feed might do, the news is updated every 15 minutes, according to Google.

What's the next step? The natural progression of things would be to link this service to Google Maps, rather than Google Earth, since a lot more people use that service. We'll see ...

Microsoft to Resume Automatic Distribution of Vista SP1 "Endless Reboot" Prerequisite

Microsoft said on Monday that it would resume automatic distribution of KB937287, which is one of the prerequisite updates users must install in order to receive Windows Vista SP1. While Microsoft had already said that manual installations of the patch were OK when it released SP1, it didn't resume automatic distribution at that time.

According to Microsoft in a post at the official Microsoft Update Team blog, the explanation for the snafu is as follows:

Well, the SSU has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install. If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting. During our investigation, we discovered that there were a few unknown and rare events during the middle of the installation of the update that could cause the update to think it needed a reboot to complete the installation. If this happened, the system entered a repeating reboot loop.

To address this problem for people who have not already installed the SSU, we are releasing a fix tomorrow which will install prior to the SP1 Servicing Stack Update. This pre-SSU update helps to ensure a smooth install of the SSU by working to prevent the system from rebooting during the SP1 SSU installation. We also made additional changes to the SSU installer code, so that it checks for and requires the pre-SSU (KB949939) before it will install.

Unknown and rare events = we missed some edge cases.

If you use the standalone Windows Vista installer, you won't have to worry about either of these, as it will install the prerequisites for you. This only applies to those using Windows Update to install SP1.

While this is great news, it still doesn't fix the pressing need for some better way to find any prerequisite drivers that are needed in order to install SP1. As you may recall, if your drivers are too old (and thus problematic), Windows Update will not let you install SP1. And finding updated drivers, as I previously wrote, and even figuring out which drivers are the problem, isn't that easy, for most end users.

Because of potential driver issues, even if you have downloaded the standalone installer for Windows Vista SP1, I recommend you use Windows Update to determine if you have a driver problem. As I wrote, it won't tell you what the problem is, but it will at least let you know you have a problem. Then the detective work starts.

Yahoo! to Microsoft: Thanks for the "Kind" Letter, But How About More Cash?

On Saturday Microsoft sent a letter to Yahoo! setting a three week deadline for an agreement between the two companies to be reached. Today, Yahoo! responded in an not-unexpected manner, with the same response it had given before: the offer is insufficient, as far as the Yahoo! Board of Directors is concerned.

Yahoo!'s letter / press release, in part, says the following:

Our Board carefully considered your unsolicited proposal, unanimously concluded that it was not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders, and rejected it publicly on February 11, 2008. Our Board cited Yahoo!'s global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as its substantial unconsolidated investments, as factors in its decision.

At the same time, we have continued to make clear that we are not opposed to a transaction with Microsoft if it is in the best interests of our stockholders. Our position is simply that any transaction must be at a value that fully reflects the value of Yahoo!, including any strategic benefits to Microsoft, and on terms that provide certainty to our stockholders.

In other words, that initial offer is too low. Including this point, Yahoo!'s missive has the following non-bulleted bullet points:

• Your initial $31 / share offer was too low.

• Despite what you may think, our forecasts are accurate.

• We are and have been announcing new products and services that should be considered in a revised offer (today they announced AMP! from Yahoo!, a "new advertising management platform designed to dramatically simplify the process of buying and selling ads online.")

• Don't forget possible antitrust issues.
  

• We've been looking at other alternatives (though no one seems that interested - Yahoo didn't add that last part; I did).

• Yes, our stock price has dropped, but so has yours, which means the offer, already too low, is even lower.
  

They also got a little personal. In response to assertions by Microsoft about how negotiations have been conducted so far, Yahoo! said:

We regret to say that your letter mischaracterizes the nature of our discussions with you. We have had constructive conversations together regarding a variety of topics, including integration and regulatory issues. Your comment that we have refused to enter into negotiations to conclude an agreement are particularly curious given we have already rejected your initial proposal, nominally $31 per share at the time, for substantially undervaluing Yahoo! and your suggestions in your letter and the media that you are considering lowering the value of your proposal. Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit.

"Moreover, Steve?"

Yahoo! also goes on to state the obvious:

We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy contest to displace our independent Board members to be counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction.

Yes, well, that's why they call it a "hostile" takeover.

In case Microsoft had any confusion over the rest of the letter, Yahoo! summarized its position in the final paragraph, saying:

... we are steadfast in our commitment to choosing a path that maximizes stockholder value and we will not allow you or anyone else to acquire the company for anything less than its full value.

Emphasis mine, BTW. The drama continues ...

Why Blogging May Be the Death of Me

Blogging may be the death of me. The struggle to find new and interesting things to write and the stress of a deadline that, at least for me, doesn't really exist in real terms but in my OCD-riddled mind, contribute to a type-A+ lifestyle.

I won't even claim to being a blip on the blogging radar. I must admit that my (unpaid) stint as Editor-in-Chief at Alice Hill's RealTechNews has brought me a few kudos, some requests for reviews or articles, and even a chance to write for the New York Times, but it's certainly not making me rich.

My wife would say since I have a full-time job as well as blogging, that it's basically reduced my free time to zero. Do I feel stressed? Sure, I do.

Today the New York Times has a story that I most likely want to keep my wife from reading. Titled "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop" the article speaks of the very real stress of trying to get a story out and how it might affect the health of bloggers.

The stress of beating others to the punch is very real; as the article states:

Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else’s post on the subject will bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue.

And no less than three bloggers have suffered heart attacks in the past view months, with two deaths. A funeral was held two weeks ago for technology blogger Russell Shaw, who died at 60 of a heart attack. Another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, 50, died of a massive heart attack in December, while a third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

My wife would point to these statistics, as meager as they are, and say, uh huh.

For me, exercise has hit a low, and with my one-man operation, spare time has hit a low, too. And with a thoughts of a child, that doesn't go over so well with my spouse.

The article goes on to note something I've found to be true as well: there's no time when I'm not worried about missing a story, even when sleeping, and that means a pretty much on the PC all the time existence, and little time for anything else.

Do I agree with the article? I'm not sure that in and of itself it's hurting the health of bloggers, but the stress and lack of spare time certainly doesn't help many of us who are already living a sedentary lifestyle.

Is it worth it? When I started it was fun, and also a way to while away the time when I was laid off from a full-time job. Now, employed as I am, and with the additional stress, I'm not so sure. My wife would say blogging will be the death of me someday, and while that not be true, certainly making it more fun and less work would be a good move, not just for me but for all bloggers who haven't really "made it."

(Photo above from a ThinkGeek product page).

Walt Mossberg: 3G iPhone Within 60 Days

It doesn't take an expert to predict that a 3G iPhone is right around the corner. My personal opinion has always been the anniversary (June 29th) looks like a really attractive date for a launch.

In a talk which focused mostly on the fact that U.S. broadband wouldn't qualify as broadband in most of the world, Walt Mossberg made a small statement which just added fuel to the fire. Just around 6:52 into the video below, which was made at the Beet.TV executive summit in Washington on April 1st,tech pundit Mossberg says:

"And I'm not talking about the fact that iPhone isn't 3G. It will be 3G in 60 days."

Dang, that would be just a tad bit early for my prediction.

No surprise that it's coming soon, however, as price reductions, shortages, and even statements from no less than AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, who said that all of AT&T's smartphones would be 3G within months.

That would, of course, include the iPhone, but does it include the Centro? After all, it's been said that the reason that the 680 was not 3G was that PalmOS simply couldn't support it on GSM.

Anyway, all this does is heighten expectations. It'll happen; the question is just when.

Update: Mossberg later admitted he was carried away during the summit. While he feels 60 days is a reasonable timeframe for the appearance of a 3G iPhone, the statement was based on his own opinion, not any information he may have.

Watch the video:

Microsoft Sets Deadline for Yahoo!: Three Weeks

Yesterday the news hit that Microsoft was reconsidering its unsolicited offer for Yahoo!, because the company felt that Yahoo! may have lost value since the offer was first made, in early February.

Saturday Microsoft send a letter to the Yahoo! Board of Directors, setting a deadline of three weeks, or April 26th for an agreement to be made. If an agreement has not been reached by then, Microsoft indicated it would be forced to take the matter directly to the shareholders. The text of their letter follows:

April 5, 2008
Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Members of the Board:

It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.

While there has been some limited interaction between management of our two companies, there has been no meaningful negotiation to conclude an agreement. We understand that you have been meeting to consider and assess your alternatives, including alternative transactions with others in the industry, but we’ve seen no indication that you have authorized Yahoo! management to negotiate with Microsoft. This is despite the fact that our proposal is the only alternative put forward that offers your shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers.

During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!’s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly.

By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment, even after reviewing your public disclosures relating to your future prospects.

Given these developments, we believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies that will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders, creating a more efficient and competitive company that will provide greater value and service to our customers. If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.

It is unfortunate that by choosing not to enter into substantive negotiations with us, you have failed to give due consideration to a transaction that has tremendous benefits for Yahoo!’s shareholders and employees. We think it is critically important not to let this window of opportunity pass.

Sincerely,

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corp.

You'll recall that the original value of the cash / stock offer was $44.6B, but changes in stock price since then have lowered the offer to around $41B.

Since the offer was made, Yahoo! has made several moves to stymie Microsoft, including extending the deadline for Board nominations. This move ... or should I say, future move, by Microsoft is not unexpected, as it was anticipated that Microsoft would "go hostile" if it needed to.

Couple Sues Google Over "Street View"

Google Street View caused a great deal of consternation over privacy as soon as it was introduced last May. And the military has even shut out Google Street View researchers from its bases. So, as the first lawsuit over Street View is filed, I can only ask: what took so long?

Aaron and Christine Boring (yes, that's really their name) filed suit in Allegheny County court on April 2. The couple, who lives in Pittsburgh, says that there is a private road sign on their street that Google should have honored.

Of course, by filing the lawsuit, they managed to give themselves a lot of publicity, and exposed the address of their house (1567 Oakridge Lane, Pittsburgh, PA 15237) to the public. Not that anyone would look up their house on Google Maps or anything.

And despite their assertions of privacy, it's interesting that you can also find pictures of their house on the Allegheny County property assessments web site. Perhaps a lawsuit is in order here as well.

At any rate, according to the County's web site, the Borings paid $163,000 in 2006 for the property, which is 984 sq. ft. with 1 bedroom and 1 bath.

Of course, the Borings are suing for damages, but also for a court order to force Google to destroy the images of their property. I have news for the Borings: all they had to do was bring up Street View Help, click a link, and select "This image infringes on my privacy." But they couldn't sue for damages that way, of course.

Germany's T-Mobile Lowers iPhone Price 75% to Spur Sales

The iPhone is sold out in many U.S. stores, prompting rumors of a new 3G model. At the same time, other countries don't have it so good, sales-wise, and one such example is Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile division: it is lowering the price of an 8 GB iPhone to 99 euros ($122 USD) for two months.

The promotion runs from April 7th to June 30th (yep, just a little past the first birthday of the iPhone). Normally the 8 GB model sells for 399 euros, so that's a 75% cut. You have to get an 89 euro a month contract, though. However, you could also buy the 8 GB model for 249 euros, still a 37.5% cut, with a new 29 euro "starter plan."

As far as the rumors over any impending 3G iPhone launch and the sold-out stores, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said earlier this week (in a research note) that many Apple stores have sold out of the device and suggested there is an 80% chance of a new 3G iPhone model arriving soon, with the same $399 price point, to keep sales up.

While keeping the price point the same would be great, consumers would still end up paying for, due to the 3G data plan, so control your enthusiasm.

The "Big Apple" vs. Cupertino's Apple

New York City has what it calls the GreeNYC campaign, which is an environmental program aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the Big Apple by 30% by 2030. New York City has applied for a trademark for the logo for the program, shown above.

However, Apple has filed a "consolidated notice of opposition" (.PDF) to the filing. In the "notice," Apple indicated it was "the world famous computer company" and that consumers would confuse, oh say, the GreeNYC shopping bags (pictured) with MacBook Airs, seriously damaging the "reputation the Opposer has established for its goods and services."

If there's any positive note to this, it's that Apple hasn't sued. We all know how Apple will sue over anything "Pod" related, even if there's no possible way it could be confused with an iPod.

It's perfectly within Apple's rights to oppose this trademark application, and while some may defend the action, to me Apple sometimes seems like a big bully picking one just about anyone it can.

Most likely this will be settled with some licensing agreement, but why should it? Apple, the world famous computer company, meet the "Big Apple," which was using that name for a heck of a lot longer than Apple has been in existence.

Windows XP Lives! (Longer) as Microsoft Confirms Another Reprieve

You had to see this coming (and it was rumored, too), with the popularity of low-cost ultra-portable laptops such as the Asus Eee PC, the OLPC, and the Classmate. Microsoft has given Windows XP another reprieve, but only for a class of devices they call ULCPCs or Ultra-Low-Cost PCs.

In their press release, Microsoft said that Windows XP Home would be available for ULCPCs for one year after the release of the next version of Windows (currently known as Windows 7), or June 30th, 2010, whichever is later.

Of course, Microsoft would love to get ULCPCs on Windows Vista, but the HW on these PCs would be hard pressed to run it. So, rather than risk OEMs running to Linux, Microsoft had little choice.

But Windows XP will still be discontinued at the end of June for mainstream PCs, according to Microsoft's press release. You'll recall that in late September Microsoft extended the original deadline for XP's demise to June 30th of this year, from January 30th.

Given this landscape and after consulting with our partners, apart from today’s announced extension of Windows XP Home for ULCPCs, we are maintaining the timelines we announced in September.

I should also note that there will also be no impact on our technical support plans—mainstream technical support will continue to be available until April 2009 and extended support will continue until April 2014.

Still, this goes to show just how hot the ULCPC (or Netbook, using Intel terminology) market is. And, even if XP continues only in ULCPC form, this announcement makes Windows XP SP3 all the more interesting.

MySpace, Record Labels Announce "MySpace Music"

In a somewhat anticlimatic (because news has been leaking out for weeks) press conference and press release, MySpace announced Thursday a joint venture - with Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group - called MySpace Music.

All roadblocks were cleared yesterday when MySpace settled its long-running copyright lawsuit with Universal.

The fourth major label, EMI is not part of the deal, but let's face it, with the other three in, it's only a matter of time.

According to MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, The service will roll out gradually over the next three to four months and offer free, streaming music, DRM-free MP3 (!) downloads, ringtones, as well as merchandise and ticket sales.

The press release added:

For users, MySpace Music will have the richest music experience on the Web by enabling the site’s global community to discover music and then download, stream and personalize music content. The personalized music management product will allow users to control their entire MySpace Music experience directly from their user page by creating playlists and having access to enhanced purchase opportunities and search functionality.

For the labels’ artists, the formation of MySpace Music will offer them the opportunity to provide their fans with digital downloads as well as mobile ringtones, SMS, and artist wallpapers, all directly from their artist profiles. Additionally, artists will be able to evolve their MySpace experience beyond the promotional by now monetizing their full repository of content with a 360 degree solution including not only the sale of digital content, but also physical goods such as t-shirts and concert tickets.

Already one of the cultural cornerstones of MySpace, the new company is uniquely positioned to quickly launch its new music product with nearly 30 million unique monthly visitors for the Music channel and its more than 5 million artists. As the most popular music community in the world today, MySpace Music has the greatest collection of artist profiles, tour dates, artist blogs, music videos, and artist photos in the world. Additionally, MySpace Music has the participation of millions of major, indie, and unsigned artists via their music profiles and interaction with the MySpace community.

A real competitor for iTunes? MySpace, a division of News Corp., has 110 million users, so the user base is there. But can MySpace sell music? We'll have to wait and see.

Intel Introduces Second Generation of Classmate PCs

You'll recall that Intel pulled out of the OLPC program in January, basically over conflicts regarding Intel's Classmate PC. Well, Thursday at IDF, Intel unveiled the second generation Classmate PC and, although looks aren't everything, it continues to pwn the OLPC in terms of looks. At the same time Intel issued a press release regarding the announcement, which occurred during a keynote by Andrew Chien, Intel vice president, Corporate Technology Group and director of Intel Research.

The second-generation classmate PCs are built on Intel Celeron M processor with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and mesh network capabilities. The top range of these netbooks includes a 9-inch LCD screen, 6-cell battery life, 512 MB memory, a 30 GB HDD (hard disk drive) storage and an integrated webcam. An Intel powered classmate PC supports Microsoft Windows XP and variants of the Linux operating environment. When pre-installed with the education software stack, these netbooks are ideal for classroom-learning environment. Software and content will be available in more than eight languages.

Chien also said future Intel-powered classmate PCs will be built with the Intel Atom processor. It is an energy-efficient, low-cost computer chip designed to provide wireless capability to small mobile computing devices such as netbooks.

As you may know, when Intel announced the Atom CPUs, it coined the term "netbook" for PCs in this type of format.

Don't forget also, that the second-gen Classmate is going to be rebranded and sold in the U.S. by CTL as the 2GoPC, with shipments beginning in mid-May, according to the FAQ on CTL's site.

I'm happy to see a more sizable hard drive in the second-generation Classmates, as opposed to the 2GB SSD drive of the first version, despite the power consumption, noise, etc. tradeoffs. However, while given a larger 9" screen, the new Classmates still have the 800 x 480 screen resolution; I really wish they would have upped that.

iTunes Reaches #1 in Music Sales - Or Does It?

Reports are circulating that iTunes has surpassed Wal-Mart in music sales, closely following a February report which showed them passing Best Buy to reach #2 in music sales. According to Ars Technica, they have received a copy of an internal Apple email which trumpeted the news to employees, sent yesterday.

The email contains a screenshot of NPD data (above, click to enlarge) which shows iTunes in first with 19%, Wal-Mart in second with 15%, Best Buy in third with 13% and Amazon.com fourth at 6%.

However, others questioned the validity of the data, or rather, the staying power of iTunes. A couple of assertions led to the questions.

• Gift cards. There were probably a ton of iTunes gift cards sent around during the Christmas season. While it was pointed out by Ars in a rebuttal that everyone else had gift cards as well, it's a lot easier to send electronic gift cards (and redeem them) than physical ones.

• Why no press release? This is big news; you would expect a huge Apple press release.

Unfortunately, all that "evidence" is circumstantial and conjecture, and wouldn't stand up in court, as Gil Grissom would say.

My take?

Yes, the gift cards had something to do with it. If there's no press release forthcoming, it's because Apple realizes that fact and is waiting for the February numbers. Of course, who knows; we could see a press release later today.

At any rate, even if it's a temporary bump, there's no denying two facts:

1. A permanent changing of the guard is going to happen eventually, anyway.
2. It's a great feat, no matter what.

Comcast Launching 50 Mbps Broadband Service

In December Comcast stated it would start rolling out 100 Mbps service this year with 20% of homes DOCSIS 3.0-capable by the end of 2008. We're not to that level, but starting on April 3rd a new "extreme high-speed" Internet tier will be available to subscribers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area.

Of course, subscribers will pay for that speed - and a lot - $149.95 per month for consumers, and $199.95 per month for business class service. Uploads will be capped at 5 Mbps.

Comcast High-Speed Internet SVP Mitch Bowling said:

"This announcement marks the beginning of the evolution from broadband to wideband. We believe wideband will usher-in a new era of speed and Internet innovation for today’s digital consumers. Wideband is the future, and it's coming fast."

Wideband is Cisco's name for downstream channel bonded pre-cert DOCSIS 3.0 gear, BTW.

Standing by its 20% estimation, Comcast also thinks it can have nationwide DOCSIS 3.0 service by mid-2010. Of course, $150? And that's for a cable TV subscriber. I certainly wouldn't pay that much.

Regular Minneapolis/St. Paul subscribers get thrown a bone: the 6 Mbps/384 Kbps tier will get an upload speed bump to 1Mbps, while 8 Mbps Performance Plus customers will see their 1 Mbps upload speeds double to 2 Mbps.

Hey, better than nothing, and no extra cost. That $150 price for 50 Mbps service still makes me blanch.

Confirmed: No PC Version of Madden '09

Nope, Madden football game fans, it wasn't an early April Fool's Day joke. When Electronic Arts announced Madden '09 last week, conspicuous by its absence was any mention of the PC as a supported platform. And EA Sports president Peter Moore confirmed Wednesday that Madden NFL '09 will indeed not be released on the PC.

In a blog post, he outlined the reasons.

We knew that our decision to not develop this year’s Madden for the PC would be an unpopular decision in some circles. But I’ll reiterate what I said a couple of weeks ago in this space…the PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we’ve also had to cut a few of our games from the platform. We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we’ll continue to explore those.

Types of games best suited to the platform? MMORPGs? First-person shooters? Ah, well. PC users can feel jealous of PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, DS and PSP owners.

Dang, and this is even the 20th anniversary edition.

Firefox 3 Beta 5 Released; RC1 Code-Freeze Dated

Mozilla released Beta 5 of Firefox 3 Wednesday, with many improvements, including in the performance area, from Beta 4. In fact, in their release notes, Mozilla said that Beta 5 includes more than 750 changes from the Beta 4. At the same time, Mozilla dated the code-freeze date of Release Candidate 1 (RC1) as 4/8.

Improvements in Beta 5 include:

Better Integration with Windows, Mac, Linux (respectively):

Windows - Firefox now has improved Windows icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.

Mac - The new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.

Linux - Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.

Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. Create and restore full backups whenever you want.

Performance: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 5, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.

If you choose to try installing this, don't forget, it's still just a beta, and many extensions will either need updating or just plain won't work. That's the biggest blocker for my using it ...

Microsoft's "Surface" to Emerge First at AT&T Stores

Remember Microsoft's Surface, the sort of Minority Report-type interface in a tabletop format? At CTIA on Tuesday Microsoft and AT&T announced that Surface will - well, surface - first at AT&T stores, in its first use in a retail environment.

In a press release, Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility said:

"We are thrilled to bring this groundbreaking new technology to our stores so we can introduce customers to their mobile worlds in a very personal and easy way . We look forward to working with Microsoft to continue developing new ways for our customers to learn about the ever-growing lineup of mobile devices and applications."

It's also a way to hopefully get people to come in, right? Just to look and play with the darn thing?

But they do have interesting plans for the use of Surface. For example, potential customers can:

• Learn. Customers can review features of a particular mobile device by simply placing it on the display. Surface will recognize the device and provide a graphical overview of its capabilities. Customers will be able to place two devices side by