Scrabulous Returns to Facebook with a Triple Word Score: a New Name

Hasbro can now stop worry about a server overload on its Facebook Scrabble application: only two days after disappearing from Facebook, Scrabulous is back, but with a new name (Wordscraper), and minor tweaks to hopefully eliminate any copyright issues.

Obviously the name is a good start in terms of deflecting lawsuits. Besides that, the cosmetic changes to the board should help as well: the board now features circular tiles. But you might think that those seemingly minor changes wouldn't be enough to deflect a lawsuit.

But there are other changes as well.

You design or use a randomly designed board. This includes placing the multiple score bonus tiles ... and the multiples now go as high as quintuple word scores. While you could design a board identical to a Scrabble board, that would be your choice, not the choice of the Aggarwala brothers.

Some users have also reported either bugs or missing features (since the site says the game is still a work-in-progress): no computer-based opponent, no way to save board designs, etc. etc.

Of course, they are rolling out updates, and this information could change at any time.

Before the takedown, Scrabulous had been added by over 500,000 Facebook users. At the time of this writing, only 3,500 users have added it, but that's possibly because they just don't know about it yet. This number could jump exponentially as people discover it. And it already has a 4.7 out of 5 rating (admittedly with less than 30 reviews) while the official Scrabble game (still) has a 1.2 rating.

BTW, if you still really want to play Scrabulous, there's still the original website, which existed before the Facebook app, though reports are the site is seemingly overloaded as well.

Physicians Warn Over "Oblivious Texters"

This isn't a new issue: many have warned that we need laws to halt the practice of text messaging (or emailing) while driving. Some have even wanted to ban usage of devices in general (not just text messaging, but even iPods) while crossing the street, citing pedestrian deaths. But this is the first time a group of physicians has issued an official warning of texting while walking, driving, rollerblading, whatever.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) issued a warning, targeted to teens and young adults, but it applies to all. They say they are seeing a dangerous trend: a rise in injuries and deaths related to "sending text messages at inappropriate times, such as while walking, driving, biking or rollerblading."

According to Dr. Linda Lawrence, president of the ACEP, her colleagues across the country are anecdotally reporting cases

“among teens and young adults, in particular, who are arriving in emergency departments with serious and sometimes fatal injuries because they were not paying attention while texting.”

In other words, these people are distracted and oblivious to their surroundings and the situations around them.

It's easy to find multiple instances of accidents while text messaging (such as here and here). While many of the incidents are simply pratfalls, such as tripping and falling or walking into something, some result in death (as in the second one linked above).

Matthew Lewin, MD, PhD, an emergency physician at University of California San Francisco Hospital in San Francisco, related the following:

"In March, we were driving and saw a woman in her twenties step off the curb and get struck square by a pickup truck. She was unconscious and it appeared she’d suffered a massive brain injury. You could tell she saw the truck at the last moment because her cell phone was dropped right where she was struck just off the curb, and she was thrown about 20 or 30 feet. It was horrifying. The truck stopped. The driver was devastated. I was amazed to hear she survived all the way to trauma center but died in the ER."

What's the most common risky behavior done while texting? Well, MSNBC ran a poll, and the obvious answer came up on top: driving.

iPhone 3G's Case Not All Its Cracked Up to Be?

Who cares about the iPhone 3G's network performance!? Dang, iPhone 3Gs are showing up with cracks!

Apparently, according to the posts on Apple's support forums, several users have seen cracks show up on their cases. The cracks are hairline cracks, and don't appear to affect anything, but of course, when you're spending this kind of money ...

There are multiple threads on the support forums about this, and although there are reports of cracks in black iPhone 3Gs as well, the problem appears to either be more prevalent in white phones or - more likely - more visible on white phones.

As we know, the 3G model is all about cost reduction, so really, should users be all that surprised by these birthing pains?

Some have been successful exchanging their phones, but others have not been so lucky. They were told that since functionality of the phone was not affected, and since its wasn't a "known" issue, they couldn't get an exchange.

Others were told that cracks are not covered in the warranty. Of course, store employees were probably figuring that the people dropped the phones, but several posters swear they did not.

Readers, have any of you seen this issue? Did you get it resolved? Apple is usually pretty good at responding to these sorts of things, so we'll see what happens.

Scrabulous Shutdown Spells Server Crash for Hasbro

On Tuesday, Facebook users in the U.S. and Canada awoke to horror - the shutdown of the extremely popular Scrabulous game, in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Hasbro, the parent company of the official Scrabble game. There shouldn't have been much withdrawal pain, though, since after all, Electronic Arts (EA, which handles the digital rights to Scrabble for Hasbro) had already created a beta version of the official game, right?

Except for the fact that the servers couldn't handle the increased load from all the Scrabulous refugees, and crashed.

They're still down as of this writing. Going to the game page and clicking "Go to Application" nets you the following message:

We're working on some tech problems and Scrabble will be ready to play as soon as possible!

We appreciate all the great feedback we've received over the past week and as a result we're making changes to Scrabble for its official launch in mid-August, including a streamlined app with the option to turn-off animations for faster gameplay and full keyboard functionality for those who prefer this way to play.

Please continue to let us know how we can make Scrabble - the best word game on Facebook - even better!

- The Scrabble Team

The application wasn't doing too well review-wise anyway. It's currently rated 1.2 out of 5.

A few wall posts on the game page:

Hey, how about adding "Why did we take down 'Scrabulous'?" to your FAQs? I'm sure all of us would like to know why Hasbro didn't just partner up with the successful and PLAYABLE application. Address the issue. Don't ignore the elephant in the room.

-----

You guys really suck. Like it would have been SO much trouble to make sure we could actually USE your product before taking down Scrabulous. You suck suck suck and lot of other 4 letter words.

As far as licensing the Scrabulous game, it's rumored Hasbro tried, but the offer was rejected as insufficient.

BTW, if you still really want to play Scrabulous, there's still the original website, which existed before the Facebook app.

All A-Twitter Over Emergency Tweets

Last year I wrote that emergency crews recommended that in an emergency situation the public should text rather than try to call. Text messages piggyback on top of voice data in the "channel" so they don't use up so much bandwidth. Want to find out how your significant other is? Text.

On the other hand, want to get information out about an emergency, to a general audience? Tweet.

Yes, on Tuesday, after the Southern California earthquake, Twitter was a main source of information after an emergency, just as it was after the large earthquake in China that occurred in May. In fact, the official Twitter blog displayed a chart showing the upsurge in tweets right after the quake.

Is Twitter a news wire? That's what the blog post said, and also:

Whether it's updates from best friends, internet pals, companies, brands, or breaking world events, the real-time aspect of sending and receiving Twitter updates continues to motivate our work.

Just as in my prior story, it was suggested that the public stay off of phone lines for non-emergency calls, not just because of congestion, but also to give emergency responders access to that bandwidth.

And, lest we forget, Twitter's search site (formerly Summize) is a great way to aggregate results, and even now, hours later, you can find tons of tweets on the quake.

Flip Ranked #1 Selling Camcorder: NPD Research

In June, Pure Digital unveiled the Flip Mino, a still-smaller addition to their extremely popular line of flash memory camcorders. Since then, not only has Pure Digital sold its one millionth Flip, according to a new report just released by market research firm NPD Research, it now has the #1 selling camcorder in the U.S.

Take a look at the snippet from the NPD report above (click to enlarge) and you can see that not only does the Flip Ultra hold the #1 spot in June of this year, the Flip Mino, which was just introduced in June, is already at #6.

If you take a look at the full report (download the draft version of NPD's report here), when you take into account all camcorder sales for all its models, Sony has the #1 ranking, but Pure Digital ranks #2 - and the first Flip was shipped in May of last year.

In an emailed press release, Jonathan Kaplan, Chairperson and CEO of Pure Digital Technologies said:

“Flip’s simplicity makes it easy for anyone to capture and share their stories and to participate in the explosion of video-sharing on the web, and that has been a winning approach with consumers. Our goal was to make video fun again and we transformed the camcorder market in the process.”

Full disclosure: we own a Flip Ultra camcorder. And a testament to how successful Pure Digital is at its goal of "making video fun again" is that my wife, a decided technophobe, picked up the Flip, played with it, and deemed it the simplest, easiest to use camcorder she's ever seen. She loves its simplicity, its sleekness, and (yes) its cuteness.

As she said, you don't have to expend mental energy on a new technological skill or know-how that isn't even that important.

Yeah, she's not like me. For me, it passed a similar test. I picked it up and was able to use it sans manual. Typical of a technophile, it doesn't always work out, but it sure did here. And that's what Pure Digital is aiming for: a camcorder that just does what its supposed to, easily and with no fuss. Good for them.

Microsoft's Tricky "Mojave OS" Video Goes Live

As I indicated earlier, Microsoft put up a teaser website for Mojave, their new OS - which doesn't exist. The idea was to do a blind "taste test" for users who had negative views of Windows Vista (and listening to the video, they sure did), tricking them into using Vista, to see how they reacted. In general, the reaction was positive, according to Microsoft. On Tuesday, the video portion of that website went live.

When you initially load the page, it plays one particular video clip (the leftmost "Overview" clip as shown above) automatically. But you can click on any user's image and see what that particular user had to say once the "gimmick" was revealed.

Some of the blurbs from the "Overview" clip:

So why haven't you upgraded to Vista yet?

• Just the bad things I've heard about it.
• It's horrible; we have so many problems.
• It crashes.
• I've heard nothing but bad things about Vista, really.
• I wouldn't touch the thing.
• I just heard negative things; I never tried it myself.

Well, I have to confess to you, this is Vista.

• Really?
• Blew my mind.
• Are you serious?
• Son of a gun. You got me.
• It's totally different that I heard it would be like.
• It represents a lot of things that you could only dream of a few years back.
• I'm getting it.
• I'm impressed.

There was at least one person in the myriad of videos that remained skeptical, but all the others I listened to were impressed.

Interesting stats from the site: of 140 participants, over 90% gave Vista a higher rating after seeing the Mojave demo than prior to it, with none reducing their score. The average pre-Mojave rating for Vista was 4.4, with the average rating after seeing Mojave was 8.5.

However, the experience of a brief demo is certainly not the same as having to deal with UAC, Welcome Screens, finding drivers, etc., etc. Personally, I've often said that while Vista is certainly more evolutionary than revolutionary, it's a decent OS, and has some nice features (UAC not being one of them).

It has, however, because of initial incompatibilities, difficulty finding drivers, etc. etc., been a convenient punching bag. As you may know, Forrest Research has compared Windows Vista to "New Coke," saying that many corporations may be skipping the OS to wait for Windows 7, which launches in 2010.

Whoever came up with the idea for this experiment - and Microsoft says this is not the big marketing campaign, but just an experiment - ought to win a prize, though, as it's pretty clever, and might actually make a difference. So when's this going to hit TV, Microsoft?

Dell Launches the Studio Hybrid, the "Conscientious" PC

You'll hear a PC labeled as many things, from "an uber-gaming system" to "budget-minded" and more, but this PC is "eco-friendly," or as Dell calls it, its first "conscientious" desktop. It was announced (though unnamed) at Fortune Brainstorm: Green in Los Angeles on (what else) Earth Day, earlier this year, and launched on Tuesday. The idea of this desktop PC was to put laptop components into it, to reduce size and power consumption.

The now-named Studio Hybrid is available now, and comes in a variety of colors, including green and bamboo. Yes, real bamboo, and that customization is available via the use of sleeves, so you can change the color to match if you decide to paint your office.

To be honest, minus the keyboard and monitor, I've seen external hard drives or external DVD drives that are this big, so it's pretty small. In fact, this reminds me a great deal of an old Plextor external DVD-burner I have.

Obviously not for the gamer, it starts at $499 for a system with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2390 (1.86GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache) CPU, 1 GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive (no monitor). CPU-wise, you can go all the way up to an Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache).

All systems come with an Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 video card (you didn't really think you could stuff an external card in this, did you?). You can, however, slap 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive into it.

In terms of the "greenness" of this PC, Dell is pitching it as follows:

Size and materials

Our smallest design is about 80% smaller than standard desktops, and it contains about 75% less printed documentation by weight when compared to typical tower desktops.

Power usage

Uses about 70% less power than a typical desktop, and meets Energy Star^® 4.0 standards with an 87% efficient power supply.

Packaging

Studio Hybrid packaging is made from 95% recyclable materials. And the Studio Hybrid comes with a system-recycling kit, so you can help preserve and protect the environment.

Will this "green" PC add green to Dell's bank account? Personally, if I want notebook components, I usually go with a notebook, but you still can't get one in bamboo (yet). And one of the advantages of a desktop (with the exception of SFF PCs, which can still often take a decently performancing graphics card) is upgradeability, something this doesn't really have.

Still, "green" counts for a lot with consumers nowadays, so this might actually sell. We'll see.

Copy / Paste Functionality About to Reach the iPhone, More or Less (Mostly Less)

Copy & Paste functionality is one of the most desired iPhone features, and as such, software developers Proximi may have struck gold with MagicPad, which they recently submitted for inclusion to the App Store.

MagicPad is essentially an improved version of “Notes." and besides Copy & Paste it features rich text editing, allowing users to modify font type, size, and color.

Of course, the Copy & Paste functionality works only in MagicPad itself.

Now, Apple has already commented on systemwide Copy & Paste, saying it's on the radar but hasn't been a priority to this point. Of course, not: priority has been placed on locking down the phone, right?

Meanwhile, while we wait for systemwide Copy & Paste, enjoy the video demonstrating MagicPad below.

Users Hot Over Dell's NVIDIA Notebook GPU Fix

Last Friday Dell issued a series of BIOS updates designed to alleviate the GPU issues that NVIDIA admitted to earlier in July, when it said it was taking a $150 - $200 million charge to cover (emphasis mine):

... anticipated customer warranty, repair, return, replacement and other consequential costs and expenses arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of our previous generation MCP and GPU products used in notebook systems. All newly manufactured products and all products currently shipping in volume have a different and more robust material set.

Comments in the blog post indicated that end users weren't too happy with Dell's response. Frankly, I wouldn't be either. There's a problem in the GPU itself, and the BIOS update just puts a bandaid on it by increasing use of the fan.

Users are also (rightly) concerned about battery life and noise. For example, Customer said:

Thanks for the update Lionel. Just curious here, but is there another resolution planned? IMHO having the BIOS activate the fans sooner to compensate for a defective chipset is a band aid solution. This will result in reduced battery time and shorter fan life - correct? Is there any data to counter this?

Dell's response?

The new BIOS updates will not have any noticeable impact on battery life. The fan may cycle on more frequently, but it will run at half or a quarter of its full speed.

Uh, huh.

Matthias said:

Well, since this BIOS update won't mysteriously change the die packaging material, the only real thing you can do is to extent warranty or premium support to the amount of years you wanna use the computer, and still then live with the fact that your computer could die on you any time.

And while it's obvious Dell is taking the heat on this issue (pun intended), it's really an NVIDIA issue, so let's hope Dell and NVIDIA get together and issue a real fix (like replacement GPUs). The one comfort? Dell's statement:

This won't be the last blog post on this topic. When I have more details to share, I will update this post with a link to the new information to help connect the dots.

Let's hope that includes a real fix.

DRM Server Shutdown? Yahoo! Will Offer Refunds for Affected "Music Unlimited" Customers

I wrote earlier that Yahoo! was going to be shutting down its Yahoo! Music Unlimited licensing servers after September 30th, which would have the effect of shafting customers who had purchased music from that store as all its music was saddled with DRM.

While it appeared that Yahoo! was going down the same landmine-strewn path that Microsoft went down when it decided to can its licensing servers, it looks like that judgment may have been premature.

According to a Yahoo! spokesperson, not only will affected customers receive refunds, those who so desired will also have the option of converting their songs to unprotected MP3 songs from Rhapsody instead.

Nice to see Yahoo! doing the right thing by its customers. Now, if they just hadn't put DRM on the songs in the first place, they wouldn't have had to deal with this, now would they?

New Comcast Triple-Play Subscribers to Get a "Wii" Bonus

It certainly wouldn't be a deal-breaker (or maker) to me, but if you still can't get a Nintendo Wii (and annoyingly, it's still in short supply), and you're interested in signing your life away for two years to Comcast, this could be the deal for you.

On Monday, hot on the heels of the announcement that Comcast will soon receive a slap on the wrist --- and hopefully, an order to stop throttling P2P --- Comcast announced that new subscribers to their Comcast Triple Play package will receive a complimentary Nintendo Wii system.

Triple Play is what it sounds: three services: high-speed Internet, digital cable, and digital voice. Currently in my area this upgrade would run me $69 / month. One other lowlight: you are signing up for a two-year contract if you get this.

Of course, the fact that I already have a Wii and love my DirecTV means that I will naturally pass on this deal. However, I know a few who are desperate enough, and who were considering Comcast anyway, who might just consider it.

Is Cuil Cool Enough to Take on Google?

Cuil is pronounced "cool" and what makes it potentially cool is the participation of former Google search architect Anna Patterson and her husband, Stanford professor Tom Costello, as well as other prominent search tech folk. (Where have we seen that minimalist home page before, eh?)

Cuil purports to have a larger search index than Google's, and to be faster, and to be better than everything than Google. Of course, if it wasn't, why would I use it instead of Google, right?


Search results (example above, for the "iPhone 3G") are decidedly non-minimalist (click to enlarge). Speed reader that I am, I prefer more results per page with little if any "fluff." Still, that's me, and perhaps not you. It would be nice to see some preferences to allow this to be changed.

There's no specific news search, though news shows up in the results, as with Google. Speed-wise, I can watch Cuil render the page of results, so it's not faster, but it's certainly fast enough.

Results-wise, while top results on both Google and Cuil for "iPhone 3G" turn up, who else, Apple, results after that for Cuil are pretty old news stories on the iPhone 3G. Meanwhile, Google has more recent results.

There is something Cuil seems to be better at than Google: privacy. Here's their privacy policy:

when you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period. We have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookies (more on this later). Your search history is your business, not ours. More precisely:

Logs

We do not keep logs of our users’ search activity.

Cuil is relatively new, and thus will have some growing pains. Will it replace the word "Google" as a verb on TV shows and the like? Probably not. Will it gain market share? Time will tell.

Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge, according to the site.

FCC Set to Punish Comcast for P2P Throttling

Late Friday I received an emailed press release from Jen Howard of Free Press. You may recall that last year, both the AP and Electronic Frontier Foundation confirmed through tests that Comcast was throttling P2P communication, which eventually led to a months-long FCC investigation, launched in response to filings by Free Press and members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition.

According to the email from Howard, the FCC is "poised" to "punish" Comcast over its policies, and:

According to press reports, Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein have voted with Chairman Kevin Martin for an "enforcement order" that would require Comcast to stop blocking and publicly disclose its network management practices. The order is adopted once all five commissioners have cast their vote.

However, the ruling isn't scheduled to be finalized until August 1st.

Based on the above, of course, "punishment" doesn't seem to include fine. It's also unclear if the above order would include finally being able to get some solid numbers for the always undisclosed usage caps that Comcast has, rather than the vague limits which seem to trigger letters and shutdowns.

Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press and author of the filings, said the following:

"This vote reflects the bipartisan support for protecting consumers' access to the free and open Internet. Comcast's blocking is a flagrant violation of the online rights established by the FCC. If adopted, this order would send a strong signal to the marketplace that arbitrarily interfering with users' online choices is not acceptable. Internet service providers do not get to decide the winners and losers online.

"Should Comcast finally be held accountable for its illegal practices, it will be the direct result of historic public involvement in this precedent-setting debate. We look forward to seeing the order, and commend the FCC for conducting such a thorough investigation on behalf of Internet users everywhere."

You can read the Free Press' Petition for Declaratory Ruling here, and its Comcast Complaint here (both .PDF).

Steve Jobs: When Does Private Become Public?

Since last Tuesday, I've sat on the sidelines as others have questioned Apple's openness about Steve Jobs and discussed the terse answer Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO gave to Ben Reitzes (Lehman Brothers) when asked about Steve Jobs' health.

Ben, Steve loves Apple. He serves as the CEO at the pleasure of Apple's board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.

I'll admit, at first, I thought, yeah, it is a private matter. But, to be honest, I'll admit right off the bat: I own AAPL stock. So I have a financial interest in the "health" of Apple stock. While, of course, the price drop between the announcement of the iPhone 3G on June 10th (and Jobs' rather gaunt appearance) and Friday, approximately $20, isn't completely attributable to Jobs' appearance at WWDC, rumors of his health sure as heck didn't help.

Nor have the close-mouthed replies from Apple and Jobs.

Now, Jobs survived a rare form (meaning surgically treatable) of pancreatic cancer in 2004,and his appearance at WWDC has fueled speculation over his current state of health. And the question arises: when do a public figure's private matters become something the public not just wants to know, but needs to know?

I'm not the first to write about this. In fact, Joe Nocera of the NewYork Times discussed this on Saturday. And in his piece, Apple's Culture of Secrecy, he actually managed to get a statement from Steve Jobs, though admittedly off-the-record, and not all fit to print. The opening salvo from Jobs, on the phone, was:

“This is Steve Jobs. You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.”

While many may agree that Jobs is arrogant, many would also say he's the heart and soul of Apple.

Nocera was forced to promise to keep the conversation off-the-record, but he did say the following in his piece:

Because the conversation was off the record, I cannot disclose what Mr. Jobs told me. Suffice it to say that I didn’t hear anything that contradicted the reporting that John Markoff and I did this week. While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than “a common bug,” they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer.

Naturally, we don't even know how sick Jobs was / is, but the points Nocera brought up in his piece about Apple's well-known secrecy, in terms of product matters and corporate matters, makes one wonder just how much they are hiding.

A Fortune magazine piece in March noted that Jobs had cancer for nine months before revealing it to shareholders, and that:

Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk.

While the number of shares I may own are a pittance, how do you think mutual fund companies may feel right about now, with the statements Apple made, or rather, did not make?

Just when does a public figure's private matters become a matter of public interest? Readers?

Dell Issues BIOS Updates to Prevent NVIDIA Notebook GPU Failures

Earlier this month NVIDIA gave laptop owners with NVIDIA GPUs headaches. The company filed a report with the SEC (.PDF) stating that the company was taking a $150 - $200 million charge to cover (emphasis mine):

... anticipated customer warranty, repair, return, replacement and other consequential costs and expenses arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of our previous generation MCP and GPU products used in notebook systems. All newly manufactured products and all products currently shipping in volume have a different and more robust material set.

The previous generation MCP and GPU products that are impacted were included in a number of notebook products that were shipped and sold in significant quantities. Certain notebook configurations of these MCP and GPU products are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. While we have not been able to determine a root cause for these failures, testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination, system thermal management designs, and customer use patterns are contributing factors. We have developed and have made available for download a software driver to cause the system fan to begin operation at the powering up of the system and reduce the thermal stress on these chips.

While Dell certainly isn't the only notebook vendor to use the affected GPUs, they are the first to issue a series of BIOS updates to address the issues. Of course, much like the driver, this will increase your fan usage, cooling the GPU, but increasing noise and reducing battery life.

As noted in Dell's post, however, if you're seeing any of the following:

• Multiple images
• Random characters on the screen
• Lines on the screen
• No video

a BIOS upgrade isn't going to help. Your GPU is fried and you need to talk to Dell Tech Support. My feeling is that, in or out of warranty (and remember, this is just MHO), Dell will stand behind its products and fix them, as they were inherent flaws in the original GPU.

Here are the available BIOS upgrades. While NVIDIA (and everyone's) been rather closed-mouth about which GPUs are affected, the list of notebooks gives clues to that, revealing systems that are mostly using GeForce 8400M and related video chipsets. Nice to see no listing for my M1730, at least.

Dell Product Name	BIOS Revision	Date	Update File Name
Inspiron 1420	A09	7/14/08	1420_A09.EXE
Latitude D630	A12	6/22/08	D630_A12.EXE
Latitude D630c	A06	7/11/08	D630CA06.EXE
Precision M2300	A07	7/11/08	M2300A07.EXE
Vostro Notebook 1310	A10	7/10/08	V1310-A10.EXE
Vostro Notebook 1400	A09	7/10/08	1400_A09.EXE
Vostro Notebook 1510	A10	7/10/08	V1510A10.EXE
Vostro Notebook 1710	A07	7/10/08	V1710A07.EXE
XPS M1330	A12	7/9/08	M1330A12.EXE
XPS M1530	A09	7/25/08	1530_A09.EXE

Cell Phones to Get Smart Batteries: "Warning, Warning, Danger, Danger"

With all the negative publicity over Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, whether it's the Nokia battery recall last year, the Sony laptop battery fiasco, exploding Eee PC batteries, and more --- smart batteries that could warn you of an impeding disaster would be great, wouldn't they?

Developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsumi Electric Co Ltd., the new intelligent Li-ion battery is supposed to monitor its condition and inform the cell phone user of any problems. The user gets notified when the battery needs charging (hey, don't we already get that?), when it needs repairs, or when it needs replacement. Data is stored on the battery itself, so that your pack's info goes with it, even if you swap out phones.

Think of it as similar to S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring. I wouldn't expect the warning to be quite so loud as the Robot in Lost in Space (for those who didn't catch the "Warning, Warning" quote above), but it should be worth something.

NTT DoCoMo says it'll start rolling out the batteries within a year. It's also interesting to note that because of the prior battery incidents, they've stopped working on increasing battery capacity, until they get this new reliability technology worked out.

As Kazuhiko Takeno, director in charge of technology promotion, the Mobile Device Development Department of NTT DoCoMo said, once that tech is complete:

"We will start working on increasing the battery capacity, which is now suspended."

You mean you guys were more worried about safety (read: lawsuits) than battery capacity? Good for you.

Google Buries Digg Deal --- Again

Well, the deal's off again - or it never existed. Either way, any chance of Google acquiring Digg is now dead. While reports were that the deal was on the verge of being finalized, with the total price estimated to be $200 million, it's now reported that Google decided to walk, with Digg being informed at the end of the week.

In Digg parlance, it appears there weren't enough people "digg"-ing the deal, and so it was "buried." This wasn't the first such Google - Digg acquisition rumor; it's actually the third.

The failure of the deal to complete also means that the Microsoft / Digg advertising deal continues unabated. It would have been cancelled in the event of a Digg acquisition by Google.

At least we won't have to worry about voting or burying search results --- at least for now. Since this rumor has surfaced multiple times, there's always the chance it will resurface, much like the apparently never-ending Microsoft - Yahoo deal.

How to Stop iPhone Hacking: Hire Your Own Hacker

The idea of unbricking and activating iPhone 3Gs before customers could leave the store was designed to prevent --- or at least reduce --- hacking of the (currently) most-desired cell phone on the market. Of course, what it really did was frustrate buyers, as it didn't take long for someone to unlock the phone.

Still, there's no reason to not continue to try, is there (aside from maybe better customer satisfaction)? As such, it's apparently Apple really wants to keep security tight on the iPhone, as this job posting indicates:

Requisition Number	3165685
Job title	iPhone Security Engineer
Location	Santa Clara Valley
Country	United States
City	Cupertino
State/Province	California
Job type	Full Time
Job description	Apple's CoreOS organization is looking for an exceptional individual to validate the security architecture for the iPhone. As an implementer of advanced technologies in OS X, you will have the opportunity to have a major impact on Apple's embedded operating system products. Our environment fosters product innovation, rapid product iteration, and a liberating amount of autonomy.

Some of the responsibilities include:

• Review and provide feedback on security mechanisms implemented in OS X
• Provide risk analysis of potential security threats to our embedded products
• Develop "proof of concept" attacks on the current security mechanisms
• Come up with new and innovative ways of increasing security while preserving ease-of-use and increasing the quality of the end-user experience.

It's that last one that caught my attention. "Increasing the quality of the end-user experience." Now that would be great, in that the next time we have a "can't miss" Apple launch, maybe, just maybe, it won't be quite so harrowing.

So, if you're tired of hacking iPhones without getting credit --- or at least any money --- here's your big chance.

Windows XP Gets a New Release, for the OLPC

I first wrote about Microsoft's attempts to get Windows XP on the OLPC last December. You may recall that James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft's emerging market unit, was just about the make at trip to the OLPC Foundation.

Microsoft was having to write a series of drivers and new code to get the OS to boot from the SD card, among other things. They weren't even clear at the time if they could do it.

Yet Thursday in a post on Microsoft's Unlimited Potential blog, Utzschneider announced that Windows XP on the XO-1 has RTM'ed.

On another front in this area, Microsoft internally "RTM'ed" (Released to Manufacturing) the Windows XP version we are building for the OLPC XO computer. Windows on the XO looks like it is on track for availability in these types of national educational PC deals in September. We still have no plans to make Windows available for individuals who bought an XO in the Give 1 Get 1 program though.

The addition of XP to versions of the XO-1 will raise the price of the laptop from $188 to slightly over $200, with $3 devoted to the cost of the OS with the rest for hardware adjustments including more RAM. Which of course explains why "Give One, Get One" XO-1's can't get the OS: not enough RAM.

Fake Microsoft OS Mojave Gets Its Own Website

Earlier we wrote about how Microsoft used a kind of blind taste test to get die-hard Windows XP users to try Vista --- and that they even liked it. They were told that they were trying a new OS, called Mojave. We also said that Microsoft hadn't figured out a marketing campaign, but it appears that's changed.

Microsoft's put up a teaser website, which is simply a single page with the image above on it (click to enlarge). As the site says, on July 29th Microsoft is going to post a video, one which it showed at a financial analysts meeting on Thursday.

The video, 10 minutes long, was apparently well-received. However, as I commented earlier, the XP users weren't subjected to driver problems, Vista-capable yet sluggish PCs, or incompatible applications. And you can bet no one got a faceful of "designed to annoy" UAC prompts.

Many at Microsoft are undoubtedly concerned that with Windows 7 slated for early 2010, many corporations will skip Vista and simply wait for 7. Windows Vista is still under fire from many directions, including Forrester Research, which recently called Windows Vista "New Coke," a reference to one of the most famous and disastrous marketing campaigns of all time.

Gmail Adds Automatic Email Encryption, For a Price

Don't worry Gmail fans, the price doesn't involve money; it involves performance (at least Google things so.)

Encryption of your Gmail messages, as opposed to just encryption of your password when logging into Gmail, isn't new. It's been around for some time, but you had to to to a different URL, meaning https://mail.google.com.

But now, and rolling out gradually, as every new Gmail feature does, you can set all you email to be encrypted simply by changing a setting (as noted above).

As Google said in their blog post announcing the new feature:

Today, we're making it even easier for you to use https to protect your mail every time you access it. We've added an option to Settings to always use https. If you don't regularly log in via unencrypted wireless connections at coffee shops or airports or college dorms, then you might not need this additional layer of security. But if you want to always use https, then this setting makes it super easy. Whenever you forget to type https://mail.google.com, we'll add the https for you. If you already have the https URL bookmarked, using this setting will ensure you access your account via https even when you don't use your bookmark. Any http link to Gmail (for example, the one at the top of Google.com) will be automatically redirected to https.

Now while Google specifically warns that "Your computer has to do extra work to decrypt all that data," and that you may see a performance hit, I've never seen any difference when using https://mail.google.com. Google also says that encrypted data doesn't "travel as efficiently across the Internet," I have to say: come on. It's encrypted, but it's not like their adding 3x as much data to the data stream.

I guess Google is just pulling a CYA move.

Redlasso Shuts Down After NBC, Fox Lawsuit

On Friday, Redlasso suspended access to its beta video search-and-clipping site, two days after NBC Universal and Fox filed a lawsuit against the company.

The idea of RedLasso's site was to index recorded TV shows, which users could find and embed on their own sites. While it sounds kind of analogous to "fair use" of brief excerpts of material with proper attribution (except for folks like AP), it's not really the same, as this is video, right? RedLasso had said it was in the process of getting licenses, but none ever were consummated.

As the company said in a press release (.PDF):

Clip usage by bloggers is an exercise of first amendment rights to provide social commentary on newsworthy events.

Still, you could see this lawsuit coming a mile away. After all with their own Hulu service, NBC offers embeddable clips of their own; why license content away? As far as the TV industry goes, isn't one YouTube (which you can bet companies like NBC and Fox are slapping their heads over) enough?

In the press release, Ken Hayward, CEO of Redlasso said:

We are very disappointed in the actions of select networks. We believe we have always acted within the law and have been respectful of the networks’ rights. Unfortunately, they have forced our hand and are denying the blogging community access to the Redlasso platform that beneficially tracks the usage of newsworthy clips across the Web.

Redlasso’s goal is to develop a platform that provides content owners and bloggers a viable solution to tracking and monetizing content online, not to engage in lawsuits. In the eight months the Beta site has been in operation, we have built wide brand awareness and equity amongst the blogger and media communities. The wide spread use of our tools and platform demonstrates that the Redlasso model is a simple and elegant solution for all content owners to track and monetize content usage on the Web; content that would otherwise be untraceably spread across the Internet and used for free.

We plan to continue our conversations with all content providers during this usage suspension, with the goal of establishing formal partnerships that will be beneficial to the content owners and blogging community.

Redlasso will continue with two other aspects to its business: the first allows businesses to track and clip content for internal use, while the second service, Radio To Web, is an online platform that allows radio stations to search, clip, and upload content to its own web site and share that content online.

Missing "Spam King" Found Dead in Murder - Suicide

"Spam King" Edward Davidson, who has been missing since escaping from a minimum-security work camp on Sunday, has been found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, apparently after first killing his wife and three year-old daughter in his home town of Bennet, Colorado. An unnamed teenage girl was also wounded.

Arapahoe County Undersheriff Mark Campbell said the bodies were found beside Davidson's wife's Toyota Sequoia SUV.

Davidson had served only two months of a 21-month sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to falsifying header information to send spam e-mail, tax evasion, and criminal forfeiture. He was also required to pay $714,139 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Known as the Colorado "Spam King," Davidson earned millions of dollars between 2003 and 2006. He would modify the header information in his email messages, making them appear to legitimate companies and then email them to hundreds of thousands of email addresses.

Much of his spam involved so-called "penny stocks."

While I've actually seen some cheering online about this story, certainly his wife, 29-year-old Amy Lee Ann Hill and their 3-year-old daughter did not deserve this. As U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a statement:

"What a nightmare, and such a coward. Davidson imposed the 'death penalty' on family members for his own crime."

Once Tricked Into Using It, XP Users Start to Love Vista

Many have said they're not interested in Windows Vista, that Windows XP is just fine for them. And in fact, you could go so far as to say some of them actually hate the OS. Still, a new OS, Mojave, may just be the key to a new marketing campaign.

Last week Microsoft told a focus group in San Francisco they were being shown a new version of Windows, codenamed Mojave. Feedback was quite positive; more than 90% gave positive feedback. Afterwards they were told that Mojave was actually Windows Vista.

As C|Net reported, the response from one user was "Oh, wow."

As I've said previously, Windows Vista is just fine as an OS, and doesn't deserve a lot of the flak it takes, but it also is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and doesn't deserve the hype Microsoft gave it either.

Of course, the focus group members didn't have to look for drivers, struggle with application compatibility, or any of the the other problems that Windows Vista owners have to deal with, but ...

At any rate, Microsoft still hasn't figured out how to use this as a marketing campaign (Vista: it's not as bad as you think?), but you can bet they'll use it somehow.

Yahoo! Repeats Microsoft's DRM Server Mistake

Now we know: Microsoft and Yahoo! are perfect for each other. Despite watching Microsoft's recent debacle when it announced it was going to shut down the licensing servers for their defunct Music Store - a debacle which resulted in Microsoft reversing its decision - Yahoo! decided to try to do the same thing.

Thursday Yahoo! sent an email to customers of its Yahoo! Unlimited Music Store, indicating that the store would close its virtual doors in September. You can download the full email (.PDF) from here. Here's the painful part of the email:

After September 30, 2008, you will not be able to transfer songs to unauthorized computers or relicense these songs after changing operating systems. Please note that your purchased tracks will generally continue to play on your existing authorized computers unless there is a change to the computer's operating system.

Hey, the same great deal as Microsoft: as long as your PCs never crash or anything, you're gold.

Just as they did when Microsoft tried the same "stunt," the Electronic Frontier Foundation chimed in, saying that to do rigth by its customers, Yahoo! should:

• Issue a full public apology to your Yahoo! Music customers.
  

• 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.

• Ensure that all Yahoo! 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 Yahoo! Music.

• Widely publicize the above measures so that Yahoo! 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.

Sounds pretty much like what they told Microsoft to do.

But what's strange is that Yahoo! monitored the situation, and decided that DRM was a dead end, and that rather than extending licensing server support for years, as Microsoft did, the best way to do it was to force their customers to deal with it cold turkey. Michael Spiegelman, Yahoo's senior director of music said:

"We definitely tracked the situation closely. We found (the decision to continue supporting DRM keys for three more years) just prolongs the pain. It keeps the DRM question going for years. We want to help people make the transition now."

Well, if you want to help people, how about giving DRM-free copies to former customers of your store? Yeah, I know, it makes too much sense.

Since Yahoo! watched the situation with Microsoft closely and obviously gave this a great deal of thought, it's doubtful they'll change their mind, but we'll see.

Windows Vista is like "New Coke": Forrester Research

Being compared to one of the biggest marketing fiascoes corporate history, New Coke, is certainly telling. That's how Forrester Research views Windows Vista, as detailed in their latest survey on Enterprise Trends, released on Thursday.

It is, however, a case of good news / bad news. According to Forrester Research, Vista usage among businesses is up by more than 40% since January. Unfortunately, the total is still less than 10% of the 50,000 companies surveyed.

Besides the comparison to New Coke, Forrester analyst Thomas Mendel writes:

Eighteen months after the release of Windows Vista, enterprise adoption is still in the single digits, and the majority of that seems to have come from upgrades of legacy Windows versions, not XP. Here’s a tip: Consider following the lead of Microsoft’s most important partner Intel and re-evaluating the case for Vista. Windows 7 is penciled for release in Q1 2010.

The chart below, from the report, shows the problematic adoption rate.

Yep, 87.1% of enterprise users surveyed are still using XP. And with Linux's drop from 3.5% in February to 0.5% in June, and the Mac pretty much remaining flat, software firms need only "develop exclusively for Windows XP and Vista. Forget about Macs unless you're aiming at a specific business vertical where Mac use is prevalent."

More bad news for Microsoft as, on the other hand, Firefox usage is up to 19.4% of enterprise users from 16.8% at the beginning of the year while IE use dropped slightly from 79.1% in January to 77.6% at the end of June.. Because of this, Mendel wrote, "At least make sure that applications work on Firefox as well as IE -- this is a must." Of course, you could always use IETab or IEView for pages that don't work in Firefox, but it's easier if the page "just works."

Now, where's that can of Diet Pepsi?

A "Taxing" Proposition for Music Downloaders? Maybe Not.

All right, readers, I'm sure some among you participate in the downloading of somewhat dicey material (read: copyrighted). If you could have a license to illegally download as much as you wanted - and I suppose, if you had a license, it would no longer be illegal - how would you feel about it?

On the other hand, if you had to pay such a fee (tax?) even if you didn't download illegally, how would you feel about it?

Those are the questions on the table as rumors fly about such a possible fee in the U.K. The Independent reports that today John Hutton, the Business Secretary, and Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, will unveil proposals which include ISPs sending letters to thousands of repeat offenders, and also the "downloading tax." The tax would be £20 - £30 (or about $20 - $40).

According to reports, the ISPs who have already agreed to these terms are: Virgin Media, BT, Orange, Tiscali, Carphone Warehouse and BSkyB.

While the letter idea makes sense (since discussions over a so-called "Three Strikes" law have been ongoing for some time), the tax - that doesn't make much sense.

Peter Jenner, a longtime music industry figure - who has supported such a plan - said:

"If you get enough people paying a small enough amount of money you can turn around the wheels of the music industry."

Still, while the rumors fly, it appears the music industry has a better feel for what will and won't sell in terms of the public. While noting that the letter campaign is indeed going to happen, British Phonographic Industry (BPI) CEO Geoff Taylor said:

"A levy is not an issue under discussion. It has not been discussed between us and government and as far as we are aware it is not on the table. There should be effective mechanisms in place (to deter file-sharing) and as long as they are effective, we don't mind what they are."

The good news: a tax is not on the table. The bad news: they were thinking about it. Probability of something in the future? Not at all unlikely.

Cancer Center Director Warns Staff Over Cell Phone Risks

It's been the subject of much argument and discussion: whether or not cell phone use - in particular, the electromagnetic radiation put out by cell phones - can contribute to cancer. Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, has decided that whikle the evidence is not conclusive, there is enough of it, and in that vein, issued a memo today to the 3,000-member faculty and staff at UPCI.

The memo, published on UPCI's website, says (in part) the following:

Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer. Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use.

Basically, he's saying, while the data is not conclusive, why take chances? Particularly, as mentioned in the full study, with the developing brains of young children. The full study (.PDF), also says:

Studies in humans do not indicate that cell phones are safe, nor do they yet clearly show that they are dangerous. But, growing evidence indicates that we should reduce exposures, while research continues on this important question.

Manufacturers report that cell and wireless phones emit electromagnetic radiation. Electromagentic (sic) fields are likely to penetrate the brain more deeply for children than for adults. Modeling in the diagram below estimate that young children are more susceptible to electromagnetic fields due to smaller sized brains and softer brain tissue.

It's true that studies have been inconclusive. But it's also true that quite a few of these studies are funded by the very companies that would be hurt if such a connection was found: cell phone manufacturers and wireless carriers.

To be honest: radiation is radiation. I can't imagine it passing through our cells without some effect. The question is: how much, and is the damage it causes to individual cells enough to promote the growth of cancer?

In a way, laws such as the hands-free law that recently took effect in California help somewhat: Bluetooth headsets are far less powerful than handsets themselves.

While caution is obviously advisable, we still await proof. While we wait, if you want more information, you can check out your handset's SAR rating here. SAR or specific absorption rate, is "a way of measuring the quantity of radiofrequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body," according to the CTIA.

What they heck: it can't hurt to check it out, right?

Knol Opens to All: Think GooglePedia

After six months of testing, Google has released Knol, sort of a moderated version of Wikipedia, to the public. Google encourages authors to share their knowledge in a wiki format, but they also encourage them to make money in the process, if they don't mind AdSense ads on their knols.

As Google said in the blog post announcing Knol:

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!

Unlike Wikipedia, each knol is created by someone, and that person becomes the knol's primary, designated author. That author may have collaborators, but all payments go to him. Ah, well. First come, first served.

It's not a deal maker by any means, but Google also penned a deal with New Yorker magazine that allows any author to add one cartoon per knol from the New Yorker's cartoon database.

Of course, we're guessing the monetary aspect - and perhaps being known as an expert - will be far more attractive.

Trees Get a Win Over Solar Panels

Earlier in February I wrote about an obscure California law, the Solar Shade Control Act (.PDF), passed in 1979 after the Oil Crisis. The law essentially made criminals out of a pair of Sunnyvale residents, whose eight redwood trees cast shade on a neighbor's solar panels.

The dispute between the neighbors, Mark Vargas (solar panel owner) and Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett (tree owners) was "settled" when a judge ruled Treanor and Bissett had to cut two of the trees down, despite the fact that the trees pre-dated the solar panels.

Let me cast some common sense on this by saying: huh? The trees were there first!

Well, on Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that says "first come, first served." If the trees or other vegetation are there first, then if solar panels go up later, the trees get to stay.

The fact that Vargas is taking Treanor and Bissett back to civil court makes one wonder if it was really just the solar panels, or a "bad neighbor" policy that set Vargas off: he's now suing claiming the remaining trees’ roots damage an underground storm drain and that they violate state laws prohibiting spite fences.

From what I've heard so far of this guy, a spite fence seems necessary.

But at least, in this battle of green vs. green, green won.

New iPhone Users Experience 3G Network Pain

Ah, you first-generation iPhone users, you had it so good. Little did you realize that while AT&T's EDGE network was decent, their 3G network leaves a lot to be desired. As someone who works in the mobile industry, I can attest to that.

A huge thread about iPhone 3G reception problems is on Apple's support forum. While many are pointing fingers at the iPhone itself, I can tell you that, while it's possible the phone itself is part of the problem, much of the issue lies with AT&T itself.

Empirically, AT&T's 3G network has always had issues. In the past, on other devices, we would disable 3G to get a better signal. Let's not forget that the iPhone 3G also has such a setting (though paying for 3G and having to disable it seems ridiculous, to say the least). Of course, it's supposed to switch automatically, but I know from past experience one several devices that setting the device in 2G leads to much more stability, as the device isn't hopping back and forth between settings.

One example of a post in the thread:

I'm in Manhattan as well and have seen seriously unstable connections. I can go from full reception to no bars sitting in the same place. My internet connection is usually pretty slow. Some speed tests put it comparable with edge. I was also at Shea stadium last week. I guess there was too many people in 1 location. I couldnt get any connection, 3G or Edge. Rending calling, texting and internet completely useless. I also found it trying so hard to fight for a connection that my phone went from 80% charged to dead in about 4 hours. If I want to make calls I usually switch 3G off which will always jump from 1 bar to full reception.

Now I remember why I switched to Verizon 4 or 5 years ago... ahhh GSM.

However, it's also true that other carriers seem to be having the same issue. Still, my experience has always been that GSM - in general - has less solid 3G connectivity than CDMA.

One user in the thread did post that he and his roommate had identical iPhone 3Gs, yet his roommate had excellent reception while he had very poor reception.

While we know that there are 2 firmware revisions available (5A345 and 5A347), it doesn't seem to make a difference as far as reception goes.

No comment from Apple yet. Let's hope this all gets sorted out with a ROM / FW upgrade.

Another Mac Clone Maker, with a Twist

I take it Open Tech hasn't been reading the news, or they would have heard that Apple doesn't take kindly to clone makers. After all, it's only been a week since Apple sued Mac clone maker Psystar. On the other hand, this is a clone with a twist.

Open Tech is selling Mac clones, yes, but they won't install the OS for you. Instead they will provide a kit that will allow the end user to install Mac OS X. What they are trying to avoid is this part of the EULA for Mac OS X:

"You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so."

Except - they're not really avoiding it, are they? That "enable others to do so" clause is a gotcha.

Right now, nothing is available anyway. The site simply says "coming soon" for all their models. Is this to give Apple enough time to sue before they waste time trying to take orders (heh)?

Also, the site has a .tk country code top-level domain (ccTLD). That would be Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand located in the South Pacific. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean they are headquartered in Tokelau.

More to come, I'm sure.

Vista to Blame for Any SSD Performance Issues: Sandisk

Solid-State drives (SSDs) have had a lot of coverage lately, mostly negative. Battery life, performance, reliability, those sorts of things have been under close scrutiny of late. Monday, in Sandisk's earnings call, Sandisk placed the blame for at least one of those issues squarely on the shoulders of everyone's favorite whipping boy: Windows Vista.

Eli Harari, Chairman and CEO of Sandisk, when asked about how his company plans to increase adoption rates of SSDs, said (emphasis mine):

As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for Flash memory solid state disk. And the next generation controllers needs to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls.

...

We have very good internal controller technology, as you know. We are at this stage 100% internal controller for just about everything we make, and that’s been a 20-year tradition in here and we have a huge number of engineers that really understand the Flash issues and [inaudible] and so on. That said, I’d say that we are now behind because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment. When we acquired M-System, M-System had very, very good industrial grade solid state disk and this is our first generation products. Unfortunately, their performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we’ll start sampling end of this year, early next year.

However, could this just be a smokescreen for poor Sandisk product performance? ? Even if Vista does play a part in this, it's interesting to note that other manufacturers seem to be able to produce drives that perform better than Sandisk's under Vista. For example, SanDisk's SSDs have sequential R/W speeds of 67 MBps and 50 MBps respectively, while OCZ’s new Core Series SSDs compare at 120 - 143 MBps and 80 - 93 MBps respectively.

And really, much of the problem with adoption rates relates to price. While it's great that Dell and Apple have lowered prices for some of their SSD options on notebooks, the premium for an SSD vs. a standard hard drive is still quite high. We won't see serious adoption take place until prices fall further, probably a lot further.

Google (Again) in Talks to Acquire Digg?

Is the third time the charm? After all, this is the third time this year that reports have surfaced about Google buying Digg. According to TechCrunch, multiple sources inside of Google have indicated that the two companies are close to a deal - and have been working on it for about six weeks.

The acquisition price is in the $200 million range, according to one source.

Final negotiations could take a couple of weeks, according to the sources. Remember, however, that Digg has a three-year ad deal with Microsoft that, quite naturally, would be terminated if the deal goes through.

As far as Digg itself goes, some of the members were showing support of a possible deal, but some were also showing some InDiggNation.

Will Google finally pull the trigger? And will this mean we'll suddenly be voting on search results? Time will tell.

Leave Voicemail on the Sly, with slydial

Here you go, the solution to all those "I want to leave a voicemail but don't want to risk them answering the phone situations." You know, you might want to break up with someone, that sort of thing. Or maybe you just don't want to be stuck on the phone talking to someone who won't stop gabbing (I can think of a few people I know) - but really need to tell them something. slydial thinks it's the answer to all your problems.

Naturally, it's free. It was launched on Monday, and here's how it works, accordng to their site:

1. Dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425) from any landline or mobile phone.
2. At the voice prompt, enter the U.S. mobile phone number of the person you want to slydial.
3. You will be directly connected to their voicemail. Leave them a voicemail, sit back and relax.

If you join MYslydial, you get a few extra features:

• Dial by Name
• slydial from the Web
• community features
  

According to their press release:

Over the past few months as part of a successful test program, thousands of people have slydialed and discovered various uses for the service, such as:

• Canceling a date they never wanted to go on in the first place
• Confirming appointments with business contacts
• Avoiding a lengthy conversation with a chatty relative

Can't think of a reason to try slydial? slydial has plenty of ideas. Some of them aren't even obnoxious. Take a peek.

AT&T Moves Toward Tiered Service, in Two Ways

Monday at an FCC hearing held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh entitled "Broadband and the Digital Future," AT&T Senior Federal Regulatory Vice President Robert Quinn spoke and outlined a plan for instituting tiered service, starting in October. But wait, it's not what you're thinking!

Sure, it's tiered service, but it's not quite as headline-worthy as CNN might make it out to be. What AT&T was talking about and said, was:

"When AT&T provides broadband service by speed, it will do so in discrete, non-overlapping tiers. We will strive to provide service within the speed tier purchased by the customer and, if we find that we are not providing service within the ordered speed tier, AT&T will take action either to bring the customer's service within the ordered tier or give the customer an option to move to a different tier."

That's actually good news. What it sounds like they are saying is that, unlike now, when you order the "up to X Mbps" tier, only to find out that for whatever reason you can't reach that speed, AT&T will do their best to fix the issue, and if that's not possible, move you to the fastest tier you can reach.

Nothing wrong with that. In fact, based on past experience with AT&T, they usually threw up their hands if you couldn't reach a certain level, so this would be a positive change.

However, at the same time, Quinn also said:

To assist our customers, AT&T will clearly identify any limitations on the amount of usage that may apply to a customer’s service plan. AT&T will also provide them with information about the impact of bandwidth-intensive applications on their usage so that they may select the service plan that best meets their needs. As our service plans change to reflect evolving Internet usage patterns we will clearly communicate those changes to our customers.

There you go; that's what you were expecting at first, right? That is not encouraging at all. "Limitations on the amount of usage" spells out only one possibility: usage limits, much like that being trialled by Time-Warner Cable in Beaumont, TX. Coupled with the experiments Comcast is doing in terms of high-usage customers, and things aren't looking too good for broadband users.

Once again, I have to remind all these companies: you keep inventing new ways for us to use broadband, from Roku boxes to Video on Demand stores, then you want to cap us. You can't have it both ways, guys!

Google Maps Launches Walking Directions

Yes, you can now use Google Maps to keep from getting lost while walking. If you use Google Maps for your direction finding needs, you'll now find that it has an option for walking directions (as shown above).

It makes sense, at least in cities, where having to make a u-turn in a car may be required, but cutting across a street while on foot is an obvious option for pedestrians. Smartly, it'll only offer the option if the distance is less than 10 km ( or 6.2 miles. Come on, you know you probably wouldn't hoof it if it were more than that).

They also made improvements in their public transit section as well. Rather than giving you "as the crow flies" pointers to the nearest facility (as below), they'll give you walking directions instead (click the image to see).

Of course, it's not going to point out shortcuts you may know about, but it's a step in the right direction (pun intended).

Currently Microsoft and Yahoo! don't have "walking directions."

Propeller Gets a Major Overhaul, But is It All Good?

Propeller, AOL's Digg clone, has been revamped in a major way as of Tuesday. The revamp had already been announced, but the magnitude of it surprised me. Not only have they dropped voting for an obscure "prop" functionality (prop a story up, get it?), where a story is ranked 1-10 based on a number of factors.

Our engineers have created a series of algorithms that measure a wide range of participation. For any given story, we factor in the number of votes (or “props”), page views, and comments inspired by the post. Stir in a few more variables, and you get a “Propeller Popularity Index” for the story (Fig A, below). The top-scoring stories make it to the front page – and of course those stories will keep changing, 24 hours a day.

Longtime Propeller members will recall that voting used to be the key variable in the equation. More recently, we decided that it made more sense to rank stories on the basis of total participation, rather than focusing on exactly how many people pulled the virtual lever. The Propeller Popularity Index (yes, you may call it the PPI) is ultimately a measure of the community’s attention and enthusiasm.

Honestly, Propeller, PPI is still going to mean "Producer Price Index" for most. At any rate, while some may say this is a divergence from Digg-like voting, we shouldn't forget that Digg doesn't just rely on votes, but has their own algorithm as well.

Much like Yahoo! Buzz, top stories from Propeller will hit the front page at AOL News, in a sidebar titled "User-Submitted News, Powered by Propeller."

Also added: Groups. You can create a group devoted to say, politics, and invite other users to it, or accept requests to it. Once a story is submitted to all of Propeller, you can also send it to groups (there's a Send to Groups link on the submission page, but it doesn't seem to work; only the Send to Groups link from the story itself seems to be working).

They also added a goofy-looking mascot (above).

One thing I don't like is the dearth of stories on the front page. With the new design, there's so much fluff, there's no room for news. I'm not sure what the number was previously, but I know it was a lot more than a mere 10 stories on the front page.

I also liked that banner of "Top Stories" across the top of the page; that's gone also, replaced by our new mascot encouraging us to submit content.

Also, once a story is submitted, you get a "Thanks" page, but have to click a link to see your story. That makes it harder to share a story. On the other hand, perhaps that's what they want, to prevent spamming. I'm also not sure the auto-dupe checker is working any longer.

It looks like any pending friend requests got zapped (I often have a ton every time I check and it's zero right now) as were any unread messages. I'm also not seeing alerts when a message comes in, as I used to, so I sure hope they tested this thing well. The last time they had a major upgrade there were a ton of hiccups.

Oh, and when I looked at my messages, groan. The new layout manages to show a title and half a line of text. So you have to open the message to read it - and the messages don't exactly open swiftly. Double-groan.

Personally, I liked the simpler look. On the other hand, this may prove more attractive to the masses, which is obviously how Propeller aims to increase traffic. Will it work? We'll see.

Japanese iPhones Get Exclusive Feature to Prevent "Upskirts"

In case you don't know, an upskirt photo is one taken surreptitiously by pointing a camera upwards and ... well, I'm hoping you can figure it out on your own, as well as the analogous downblouse photo.

It's not something that I would have expected from somewhat uptight Japan, but apparently upskirt and downblouse photos have become very popular there, with the advent of high-resolution camera phones. Witness the photo above of a warning poster in a Japanese subway (photo by Jeff Epp).

Because of that the iPhone 3G has one "feature" in Japan that it doesn't have in any other incarnation: no matter what the setting, the camera on the iPhone will always make a "shutter" sound.

This is because, to combat the aforementioned practice of prurient photos, Japanese phone manufacturers have taken to disabling the ability to silence the shutter sound on cameras and camera phones, as reported by freelancer Nobuyuki Hayashi.

However, it appears that Steve Jobs didn't know about this "feature" of Japanese camera phones, as the first-generation iPhone didn't have it. And now that the iPhone 3G has the feature, you can bet those first-gen iPhones will sell for even more than they currently do on eBay.

Apple Reports Record Q3 Results; Plans "Product Transition"

Apple announced record fiscal year Q3 results, and then watched its stock plummet 10% in after hours trading. Why? An outlook below what Wall Street had been expecting.

As expected, Mac sales juiced up Apple's earnings; Apple shipped 2,496,000 Macs in the quarter, up 41% from a year ago. Apple also sold 11,011,000 iPods during the quarter, a 12% growth in unit sales from a year ago. iPhone sales were at 717,000 in the quarter, up from 270,000 last year.

In their press release, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said:

“We’re proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G, and we’re busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months.”

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO said:

“We’re extremely pleased with the growth of our business and the generation of almost $5.4 billion in cash in the first three quarters of fiscal 2008. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.8 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.”

But it was what Oppenheimer said in Apple's earnings call that made the big impact. While forecasting Q4 earnings:

We expect gross margin to be about 31.5%, reflecting approximately $23 million related to stock-based compensation expense, down from 34.8% in the June quarter. This sequential decline is expected due to three primary factors; first, the full quarter impact of the back-to-school promotion; second, a future product transition, which I can’t discuss today; and third, the one-time true-up of our contract manufacturer deferred margin that we realized in the June quarter.

Start your rumor engines. What exactly is that product transition? Analysts tried follow-up questions, but typical of Apple, they stay close-mouthed. You'll recall that last July Oppenheimer made the same sort of statement, and what did we get? We got new iMacs in August and a revamped iPod line, including the iPod Touch in September.

Something else that may be affecting Apple stock: many noticed the gaunt appearance of Steve Jobs at WWDC last month, and an analyst asked about it today.

Ben Reitzes - Lehman Brothers

Okay, thanks. And then my last thing is just I would like to ask it as respectfully as possible; a New York newspaper today obviously called into question some issues around Steve and obviously his health, and we get a lot of questions about it and I’m really sorry to ask, because it’s a very private matter, but would you mind addressing the situation and just making it so we can have your official statement? And I apologize in advance for having to ask the question.

Peter Oppenheimer

Ben, Steve loves Apple. He serves as the CEO at the pleasure of Apple's board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.

Certainly, the official statement is really more of a non-statement, which isn't going to quiet any rumors. While "Real Steve" isn't going to follow "Fake Steve" into retirement, at least not yet, it's something that Wall Street has wanted to see for a while: a transition plan for the post-Steve Jobs era. No matter how private Jobs' health is, it is something that will have to be addressed someday.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (with Data Corruption Fix) Launches

We've written about the Windows Home Server (WHS) data corruption bug several times since it first emerged in late December. On Monday Microsoft finally - finally, released WHS Power Pack 1, which contains the fix, as well as a bunch of other stuff no one really cares about.

All right, that's a bit harsh, but waiting 7 months for a data corruption fix for an OS which was sold as a file server for the home is just way too long. English is available now, with French, Spanish and German available soon. As far as what else it contains besides the bug fix, Microsoft has the info:

As many know, Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption and better performance. And, of course, it delivers a fix for the data corruption bug.

For those who might have been involved in the beta testing, this is build 1800.

Despite the bug, Microsoft said the following (emphasis mine):

We continue to hear fantastic feedback from our customers about how Home Server is helping them protect and organize their digital media, access it away from home, and share it with friends and family.

Well, yeah, at least those not using the affected applications. As I said previously, a NAS such as one of these would be a lot easier than setting up a file server. But, if you went the WHS route, at least you now have your fix.

Cold-Based Encryption-Cracking Source Code Published

You'll recall that in February I wrote about security researchers who had found a way to break into encrypted hard drives by using a trick that relies on the fact that RAM dissipates its contents slower if cooled.

The research paper, by Princeton, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Wind River Systems was titled "Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys" (.PDF"). Over the weekend, timed to coincide with the Last HOPE hacker conference over the weekend in New York, the source code was published to the Web.

Of course, this technique only works if the laptop hasn't already been turned off, which would have enabled the memory to fully dissipate. This probably isn't the method most people on your laptop, as it requires some degree of expertise, but are you still worried about someone breaking your encryption using this method? Turn off your laptop; don't have it go into sleep mode.

Watch a video demo of the method at work:

Yahoo! Settles with Carl Icahn; Is This "Peace at Last?"

Has the drama finally ended? According to a press release issued today, it seems that Yahoo! and Carl Icahn, who was seeking to replace much if not all of Yahoo!'s Board of Directors (BoD) during the upcoming August 1st shareholders meeting, have come to an agreement.

Much as with Icahn's earlier fireworks with Motorola, he got much of what he wanted.

• The BoD will expand from 9 to 11.
  

• Icahn will get a seat on the BoD

• One member, Robert Kotick, will not stand for re-election, but the others, including oft-criticized (by Icahn) Jerry Yang, will.

• The remaining two seats will be filled from slate of nominees (since Jonathan Miller, former Chairman and CEO of AOL is listed in the PR, you can bet he'll be one of them).

Much of the remaining portion of the press release falls into the category of science fiction, it seems.

For example, Icahn said:

“I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!’s Board and management team to help the Company achieve its full potential. While I continue to believe that the sale of the whole Company or the sale of its Search business in the right transaction must be given full consideration, I share the view that Yahoo!’s valuable collection of assets positions it well to continue expanding its online leadership and enhancing returns to stockholders.”

Chairman Roy Bostock said:

“We are gratified to have reached this agreement, which serves the best interests of all Yahoo! stockholders. We look forward to working productively with Carl and the new members of the Board on continuing to improve the Company’s performance and enhancing stockholder value."

And CEO Jerry Yang joined the love-fest:

“This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the Company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for Internet users and a must buy for advertisers. I look forward to working together with our new colleagues on the Board to make that happen.”

My guess is there was a lot of Listerine swigging to get the sour tastes out of their mouths.

Still, much of the drama is now gone from the upcoming shareholders meeting. While talks had been ongoing between the two sides, the support of Legg-Mason for the current Yahoo! BoD may have tilted the balance.

And if you think this is "peace at last," you haven't been checking to see how many of the above-mentioned people have been invested in body armor to protect against stabs in the back.

Apple Opens First Store in China

Lines continue to circle city blocks in America as people line up to get iPhone 3Gs at Apple Stores around the country. Since Apple started opening dedicated retail stores in 2001, however, there have been none in China. That drought ended on Saturday as the first Chinese Apple retail store opened in Beijing’s Sanlitun Village.

The Beijing Macintosh Users Group (yep, they have one) was well represented:

Queues formed as early as nearly 22 hours before the opening. BeiMac’s first member came as 3rd in line; the President was 6th in line. Other BeiMac members and executives included Jasper Song (7th), Howard Hao (13th), Gao Chunyu (21st), as well as others.

The store is Apple's 219th worldwide. While there's no official iPhone launch in China yet, with a store in the country, there's no doubt the iPhone will end up there soon.

Despite the lack of an official launch, research firm In-Stat estimates there were about 400,000 cracked iPhones in China, according to information provided by China's biggest wireless provider, China Mobile (CMCC). According to In-Stat, this represented one out of every 10 official iPhone shipments.

Apple has already announced that in 2009 a second Beijing location will open in Qianmen, a newly-renovated shopping street south of infamous Tiananmen Square.

Legg-Mason to Back Yahoo! Board

While in February Legg-Mason recommended that Yahoo! take a Microsoft offer, it said it should only do so if Microsoft boosted their offer to $40+ a share. In the upcoming fight that will likely occur at the August 1st Yahoo! shareholders meeting, Bill Miller, chief investment officer of Legg-Mason - although not guaranteeing to vote in that direction - said that it was his firm's "intention" to vote its 4.4% stake in Yahoo! in favor of the company's existing board.

Of course, in February Legg-Mason owned 6% of Yahoo!, so we see someone's been dumping shares.

In a statement, Miller said:

"We believe the current board acted with care and diligence when evaluating Microsoft's offers. We believe the board is independent and focused on value creation for long-term shareholders."

Carl Icahn is leading an effort to replace Yahoo!'s Board of Directors. Legg-Mason's backing definitely enhances the chances of Yahoo! being able to fend off that attempt.

Intel's World Mural Project Celebrates Intel's 40th Anniversary

On Friday Intel celebrated its 40th anniversary, and as part of that, they unveiled the World Mural Project. The project is a Web-based digital art piece that includes visual and written contents from the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, which stretches around the world. More than 500 young people in 21 countries participated in the project, with approximately 300 Intel volunteers at 70 Clubhouses around the world working with them.

Prior to the unveiling, I had the pleasure of speaking to Favianna Rodriguez, the digital artist commissioned by Intel for this project, Peter Broffman, the manager of Intel's Informal Education program, and Agnes Kwan, Intel's international PR manager.

Working with the clubhouses, the idea was to create one piece of digital art all contributed to from all around the world. As I indicated, each contribution would consist of two parts: one part graphic and one part textual.

The topic of the mural: What does the future hold?

This project is also part of Intel's attempt to give back 1 million employee volunteer hours during their 40th anniversary year. As Intel told me, they are always striving to encourage employees to give back to the community, but this year in particular, they are shooting for more.

(And yes, I did ask about employees giving back to the community during normal "working hours;" after all most of us feel overworked in this global economy. The response was that it was on a case-by-case basis.)

If you click the image above, you can see a larger image of the mural.

In their 40th Anniversary press release, Intel said:

Through this project, youth all around the globe are telling us that they expect computers will continue to change the world in positive ways for the next 40 years and beyond.

"As an industry, we have a responsibility to fulfill these expectations," said Bruce Sewell, senior vice president for corporate social responsibility at Intel. "By providing opportunities for young people in underserved communities to learn technology literacy and problem-solving skills, we hope to secure the next generation of innovators, thought leaders and role models."

For those interested, Intel also has a Flickr set to celebrate its 40th anniversary here, with some vintage stuff, like a picture of a 4004 CPU and the original IBM PC.

Happy Anniversary, Intel, and congratulations.

AT&T Opens Up Free Wi-Fi for iPhone Users -- Again -- Then Pulls It -- Again

Update: Not only have they pulled the iPhone part of the page, they've pulled the whole page. No idea why they keep making the same mistake, over and over again.

Free access at AT&T hotspots for iPhone users was first announced at the beginning of May, but it was then disabled, possibly because of the hack mentioned above which let non-iPhone ... and even PC users ... gain access. But apparently it's back again. The assumption is they somehow really fixed it (or broke it, depending on your point of view) this time.

Besides telling us they feel wi-fi is hot, as hot as the summer, AT&T dishes on the support in small print at the bottom of their wi-fi page:

Find AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots

AT&T offers free Wi-Fi access to iPhone customers in our network of over 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks*. Locate the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots in cafés, bookstores, airports, hotels, and universities in your area or search for a Starbucks location near you.

Quick, someone try that hack again. As before, you have to login w/ your iPhone number, so this should be an offer only those with AT&T accounts on an iPhone, not unlocked iPhones, can use. Unless, of course, the hack still works and you have a friend's iPhone number.

Update: We're hearing that AT&T is saying the info was posted in error. Strange since it's still there on their website. You may have to zoom in, but I snipped a screenshot of their page as I write this. Snipped most of it so you could tell it was an AT&T page.

Yahoo! Letter to Shareholders Urges Voting Against Icahn Proposal (But They Will Sell at $33 / Share!)

As the Yahoo! shareholders meeting on August 1st rapidly approaches, Yahoo! is preparing. They sent a letter to their shareholders on Thursday, urging them to vote against a proposal by Carl Icahn which could result in the unseating of some of all of the Board of Directors.

The letter, from CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock was also filed with the SEC Thursday afternoon. The letter is pretty long, but pretty contentious as well.

There's no doubt that the battle has just begun. Some high (or low) lights:

Carl Icahn bought his stock two months ago for an estimated average cost of less than $25 per share. He is well-known as a corporate agitator with a short-term approach to his investments . His short-term approach gives Mr. Icahn a strong incentive to strike any deal with Microsoft that enables him to recover his investment and get back his money quickly, even a deal that does not provide full and fair value to you. Is that in the interests of all stockholders? Clearly, it is not.

Mr. Icahn has severely handicapped himself in his ability to negotiate a favorable transaction with Microsoft . Why?

• Mr. Icahn has made it clear that his only objective is to sell part or all of Yahoo! to Microsoft. That fact, combined with his lack of an operating plan going forward, means that he will have no leverage to negotiate a fair deal with Microsoft. He has set himself up for failure.
  

• Second, Mr. Icahn and his slate lack the working knowledge of Yahoo! and its Internet business needed to do two things that are required to successfully deliver a value-enhancing transaction for Yahoo! stockholders.

How can Yahoo! stockholders trust Mr. Icahn to deliver what he claims he can deliver when his actions have been so contradictory —and when all he has delivered so far is a risky proposal of questionable value from his new friends at Microsoft? Yes, the Microsoft/Icahn proposal is somewhat of an improvement over Microsoft’s last search-only proposal, but no one should confuse a modestly improved offer with a good offer. The Icahn/Microsoft proposal was more “smoke and mirrors” than objective reality.

The letter's waaaay too long to reprint the whole thing, but it's clear there's no love lost between these groups.

But - they do say what they've said before - they'll sell the whole company for $33 / share.

... we will sell the entire Company to Microsoft for $33 per share or more if Microsoft will negotiate a transaction that delivers certainty of value and certainty of closing. This is the simplest, most straightforward way to maximize value for you.

Yahoo! closed Thursday at $22.44, by the way.

D-Day is two weeks away.

Microsoft Testing AdSense Clone?

It seems like an obvious move, but to this point Microsoft hasn't offered a program to allow third party publishers add Microsoft’s contextual ads next to their content. This sort of program sounds a lot like AdSense, doesn't it, and you'd think it would be something Microsoft would have looked into already. Apparently, they are.

According to reports, Microsoft appears ready to expand its AdCenter offering to allow such self-service ads. This would put it in direct competition with AdSense and Yahoo!'s Publisher Network.

The program is scheduled to go live on July 21st (Monday). According to an email statement by Microsoft:

Microsoft’s self-serve advertising offering for publishers is still under development and is currently in a private pilot phase, being tested by select publishers who met the participation requirements. The private pilot phase began earlier this year. A private, phased approach allows us to learn more about customer interest in content advertising and provide guidance as to how we can improve the product and deliver the right features required to meet publisher and advertiser needs. It’s our intention to continue to expand our high quality network and relevant audience gradually and intelligently over time for our advertisers. We will evaluate customer interest and product performance as we move through the private pilot, but we have no specific launch plans to announce at this time.

We encourage publishers who are interested in joining the pilot to fill out an interest form here: http://advertising.microsoft.com/publisher

Naturally, Microsoft decided they don't want exclusivity in this deal with regards to AdSense. After all, Google has dominated contextual advertising because it offers publishers far higher fees for ads.

You may also use Microsoft ads on the same sites and pages as Google ads as long as you do not have a specific exclusivity agreement with them.

Well, some would say the more choices, the better. So why not? We'll see how things shake out when July 21st rolls around.

YouTube on Tivo, At Last

Announced in March, it's finally here. TiVo is set to release a software upgrade that will let users access YouTube videos on their broadband-connected TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD DVRs. The bad news? As the company said in their press release:

Over the next few weeks TiVo will roll-out a software upgrade to Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs which will enable this feature.

Yep, it's not necessarily going to be there right this second if you check your TiVo. Video will indeed be H.264.

It's part of the 9.4 TiVo Summer Update. Yes, you're right, all boxes will be getting this upgrade, but only Series 3 and HD TiVos will get this feature, as I said.

Amazon Launches Video on Demand Store; Will Unbox Get Reboxed?

On Thursday Amazon.com is set to launch Amazon Video on Demand, a new online video store that will sell TV episodes and movies. Wait, don't they already have Amazon Unbox? Well, yeah, they do.

But here's the difference: streaming. Unlike Unbox and other services (iTunes), you don't have to wait to download the entire video; it streams to your PC ... or TV (more on that later). And seeing as we humans usually don't like waiting (except, perhaps, for iPhones) this is a major step toward customer satisfaction.

Additionally, many were not pleased with having to download and install additional software to play the Unbox videos.

As far as that direct-to-TV service: Amazon.com signed a deal to include the service in Sony Bravia high-definition Television sets, if users purchase a $300 Bravia Internet Video link, the New York Times reported.

Of course, you can also do this with Netflix - and they have the Roku $99 set-top box, a much lower-cost option.

To be clear, you don't need extra hardware, though - well, a PC, at least. Your account will have what Amazon.com calls "Your Video Library." Login to your account, from any PC, and you can then watch that video, even if it is from a different PC.

Only a limited number of Amazon.com customers will be invited to Amazon Video on Demand on Thursday. It will open broadly to other users later this summer. Hey, Amazon.com, don't forget you usually send me press releases and that I have Amazon Prime, will ya?

At launch Amazon VoD will have a 40,000 title strong catalog. Bets on when iTunes launches streaming?

Gmail Updates Its Contact Manager to (Hopefully) Reduce Clutter

On Wednesday Google announced changes to the way contacts are handled in Gmail. Previously, rather than just allowing you to fully control who does and does not get added to your contacts, they automatically added people you email to your contact list.

The change made today adds another type of contact: Suggested Contacts. When you email someone, that person is moved into a “Suggested Contacts” group. From there, if you want, you can move them into your "My Contacts" group. There's also a "Most Contacted" group.

You can also create your own contact groups, which you can then add contacts to. Much like adding Labels to emails, you can have a contact in more than one group.

Of course, they still kept a rather arcane setting:

"Automatically move suggested contacts into My Contacts if I frequently email them."

And of course, they don't tell us what "frequently" is. Of course, while that's the default setting, you can uncheck it and take total control of your contacts. And that's what I would recommend for those of you, like me, who've been annoyed by the auto-add feature of Gmail from the beginning.

After MobileMe Problems, Apple Offers 30-Day Extension

After what could only be called a "rocky launch" for MobileMe, Apple has offered an olive branch to their users, by extending subscriptions by 30-days for "eligible" users.

What does "eligible" mean?

You are eligible if:

• you were a .Mac member whose account was active as of July 9, 2008

• you are a new MobileMe member who created your account on or before July 15, 2008 at 7:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time

The extension will be applied to users' accounts in the next few weeks. Those in the free trial period will also get an extension.

Those whose accounts are either going to expire, have expired (yet still meet the above criteria), or are on automatic renewal will all be taken care of the right way, don't worry.

What you do need to worry about is that, despite all this, it seems like MobileMe still isn't working right.

One need only look at an Apple forum post from an end user announcing the extension to see a few of those comments:

OSXAlex:

That's nice. So why can't I sync anything from any of my Macs to MM?

EDIT: Oh, and btw, my iWeb widgets - specifically the google map widget, does not work, displaying a .Mac to MobileMe transition page.

ellencape:

Mostly I feel like we've been betrayed. Being a MAC lover has a downside. Because, like so many thousands of others, I took for granted that nothing would go wrong. I trusted totally and that trust has been betrayed, especially those of us with Tiger, because it is impossible that we, who have dotmac accounts, couldn't have been treated better. If it weren't for the forums, I would have no clue about anything.

I usually am very understanding about mistakes and willing to give the benefit of the doubt in almost any circumstance. But, after hours and hours of time and stress to continue to receive nothing in the way of help, I have lost the trust I had.

CliffNorrell1:

I received the email too, so I thought. "Great! I can finally edit my Homepage, which I haven't been able to do for 5 days", and I logged into my mobileme account. This is what I saw:

System Status (as of July 16, 2008 10:50 AM PDT)
MobileMe members may be unable to access groups.mac.com.
MobileMe members cannot access the HomePage application.
MobileMe members are currently unable to use Contacts with MobileMe Mail on the web. Accessing MobileMe Contacts directly, by visiting me.com/contacts, is not affected.
1% of MobileMe members cannot access MobileMe Mail.

It's interesting that when these things happen, some people will say "I'll never buy Apple again," yet there's no shortage of users buying iPhones and Macs.

Still, a good PR move by Apple, but the best move would be fixing MobileMe.

Cost-Reduction, Not Cutting-Edge, in iPhone 3G: iSuppli

In late June iSuppli issued a preliminary analysis of the cost of the iPhone 3G, stating that despite the addition of 3G, Apple had managed to save $50 on the cost of building the new version. After obtaining a new iPhone 3G on launch day, iSuppli has re-done the analysis, with more details.

And since they used an 8 GB model for the teardown, you can put away those questions about which color they got.

As I previously stated, I felt the 3G model was more of an evolutionary step for Apple, and in their new analysis, iSuppli echoed that:

At $174.33, the BOM and manufacturing cost of the new iPhone is markedly less than the $227 that iSuppli estimated for the first-generation, 8Gbyte 2G iPhone in June 2007. While using a new design, the iPhone 3G really represents a refinement of the original iPhone 2G, according to iSuppli.

“The addition of 3G wireless capability represents an evolutionary design step for the iPhone, not a revolutionary one,” said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and principal analyst at iSuppli. “iSuppli believes Apple aimed for a more cost-effective design for the 3G iPhone compared to the 2G, in order to lower the retail price—which will allow the company to seed adoption and to capture maximum market share now—while the company still has buzz and a perceived differentiation relative to its competitors.”

Interesting comments: "seed adoption," "maximum market share," "perceived differentiation." Many manufacturers are playing catch-up, introducing keyboard-less phones in the hope that the iPhone craze will sweep customers to that type of phone. Of course, they fail to realize that the OS is just as much as a part - or more - of the experience than the lack of a keyboard.

But how much of the iPhone craze is hype, cultishness, and pure "I want to be on the bleeding-edge" mentality? iSuppli's comment seems to indicate where there thoughts lie.

Other items of note:

• The redesigned internals of the iPhone 3G include only one large Printed Circuit Board (PCB), instead of the two nested PCBs found in the 2G version. The iPhone 3G uses a 10-layer board, compared to the less-expensive six-layer PCBs commonly employed in mobile handsets.
  

• The battery is not soldered into the iPhone 3G as it is done in the 2G, making it more serviceable. Does this mean some 3rd-parties might come out with "kits" for replacing the batteries? Still not the highly-desired easily replaceable battery most phones have, unfortunately, and a pain point for some based on battery life reports on the 3G model.
  

• Some chips have the Apple logo or are unmarked. Although iSuppli has been able to identify many of these parts and their true manufacturers by de-capping the chips and examining their dies, some devices remain unidentifiable at this time.

Click the iPhone 3G pic above to see a full teardown list.

iPhone 3G Unlocked with SIM Card Adapter

As hackers get more sophisticated, the time it takes them to unlock devices such as the iPhone becomes shorter and shorter. Much as with DRM on CDs and DVDs, the question must be asked: are companies like AT&T and Apple simply hurting honest consumers in their quest to hang onto a monopoly?

Only 4 days after launch, the iPhone 3G has been unlocked using a special card that piggybacks to your SIM card. This fools the phone into thinking it's using an official carrier.

Of course, the fact that the iPhone 2.0 software was jailbroken so quickly pretty much indicated hacks wouldn't be too long in coming.

According to the one of the Brazilian hackers, Breno MacMasi:

Our procedure consist in using one SIM adapter to simulate a fake IMSI test card. Instead of the AT&T IMSI like in the universals.

If you happen to be able to speak Portuquese, you can enjoy this video of the hack demonstrated:

Sony Ups $399 PS3 to 80 GB; Announces PSP, PS2 Bundles

On Tuesday at E3, Sony announced a new version of the PlayStation 3, with a 80 GB hard drive, double the capacity of the 40 GB model, and at the same price point: $399.

As their press release says:

Starting in September 2008, the newly announced PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) 80GB model will become the mainstay of the company’s hardware line-up. The 80GB model will retail for $399, and will offer all of the features and functionality of the 40GB model with double the storage to accommodate more movies, graphics, music, photos and other entertainment content – all for the same price. As with its predecessor, the new 80GB model will be a complete entertainment system comprising of a Blu-ray player, HDMI output, an integrated Wi-Fi connection, Cell Broadband Engine and a built-in 80GB hard-disk drive. The multi-functionality of the 80GB PS3, combined with more than 140 exclusive and third-party titles and the PLAYSTATION Network, is a comprehensive entertainment value designed to appeal to a wide range of consumers from hard-core gamers to general entertainment enthusiasts.

September? That's going to have a chilling effect on current PS3 sales, unless of course retailers cut prices.

Oh, and "current functionality" means backwards compatibility will be the same as the current 40 GB model. Out the window.

Sony also announced two holiday bundles: first the Ratchet and Clank Size Matters PSP Entertainment Pack. This launches in October for $199.99 and will include a limited-edition "Silver" PSP system with Ratchet and Clank Size Matters; a movie on UMD; a PLAYSTATION Network voucher to download the puzzle game, echochrome from the PLAYSTATION Store and a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo.

Not to forget their PS2 owners, they also introduced a Fall bundle for the PS2 system. It's the limited-edition LEGO Batman: The Videogame Pack which has the game, a Justice League: The New Frontier DVD, and a PlayStation 2 system. Price: $149.99. Not too shabby, and I'm definitely happy with the amount of screen time the Hal Jordan Green Lantern gets in that DVD.

Apple (Finally) Sues Mac Clone Maker Psystar

Come on, you had to be expecting this. The question wasn't if, but when (and perhaps, what was taking so long). Since Psystar opened up its doors in April we've been waiting for the hammer to fall, and apparently Apple's really big hammer fell on July 3rd, with a lawsuit filed.

You can check the court docket history here (.PDF).

The information was first highlighted by Jorge Espinosa’s blog. He's a lawyer and his firm specializes in:

Trademarks, copyrights, patents and the business of protecting the products of human creativity. Domestic and international litigation and prosecution. Border protection. Internet law.

Figures he'd be interested in this - and that he'd note it.

So, is this the end of Psystar? With Apple's big legal wallets, one would think so.

Symantec Opens Up 2009 Security Betas

Symantec, which is, quite honestly, the leading security software vendor, has released betas of two of its security programs. On Monday public betas were opened for both Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton Antivirus 2009.

According to the beta site, the new versions have been

engineered to be fast, and light on system resources.

That would, in fact, be a welcome change from past releases, which have been labeled as CPU and memory hogs of late. In fact, in their press release, Rowan Trollop, Senior VP of Symantec Consumer Products, said:

"Based on customer feedback, we viewed performance as the key feature for this release. The Norton 2009 products are designed to give users the award-winning security they count on, while ensuring their PCs run fast. Our goal is to create the fastest security product in the world, hands down."

The goal, according to Symantec, is a "zero-impact" performance goal. Further, Symantec goes on to mention Norton Insight, which by

"leveraging data from millions of Norton Community members, allows the Norton security products to avoid scanning any files that are commonly found on most computers and statistically determined to be trusted."

Of course, many times one of these "trusted files" gets infected, but the assumption is they have thought of that.

Naturally, this is beta software, so you probably shouldn't use it on your main system. And eventually you will have to pay for it. You can enroll in the betas at the site linked above.

Feature-wise, Symantec bullets the following:

• Silent mode -- suspends alerts and updates automatically to avoid interrupting or slowing activities such as games, movies or presentations.

• Simplified user interface -- provides easier access to detailed configuration settings and the ability to track detection and performance status.

In addition to the performance features, Norton 2009 will deliver industry-leading security functionality:

• Norton Protection System -- works in concert to stop threats before they impact you. This multilayered protection system includes Browser Protection against complex Web-based attacks, real-time SONAR protection, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), antirootkit, antivirus and antispyware technologies.

• Norton Identity Safe -- keeps your identity safer than ever when you buy, bank, browse and game online*

• Home Networking feature -- allows users to easily view and manage devices on their home network*

• AntiBot features -- prevents bots from taking control of your PC

*Features available in Norton Internet Security 2009 only

I'll be installing on one of my older PCs and I'll let you know what I think.

Toshiba Launches First Cell CPU-based Laptop

On Tuesday, Toshiba launched the Qosmio G55-802, the first laptop available with the Cell CPU. Yep, think PS3 technology, developed jointly by Toshiba, Sony, and IBM.

The laptop has the following features, for $1549.99:

• Windows Vista® Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit)
• Windows Vista® Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit)
  
• Tohiba Quad Core HD Processor
• Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P7350 (2 GHz)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT
• 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM
• 500GB: Two 250GB 5400rpm hard drives
  
• DVD-SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) with Labelflash™ drive
• Atheros® Wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth® V2.1 + EDR
• 18.4" Screen
  

However, in particular, the Cell CPU is not about gaming, but about a multimedia experience. Taking the load away from the Intel CPU, the Cell processor performs the following, as Toshiba indicates on the site

Gesture Control

What if you could start, pause, fast-forward and rewind a movie without a remote control—just by moving your hands? No, it’s not part of a sci-fi novel but Toshiba’s new Gesture Control technology. And it’s unbelievable. Used with your DVD player, Windows Media Player and other select programs, it offers cutting-edge simplicity and convenience. Amazing!

Face Navigation

—or that unforgettable scene in home movies and Hollywood films. From your favorite actor to dear Aunt Freda, the new Toshiba Face Navigation feature captures facial expressions so you can quickly locate the part of the video you want to see. It also provides thumbnails of scenes and soundtracks to help you find your way around. Very cool.

Transcoding

If you’re into home video editing you know how long it can take to process those big files before your masterpiece is ready—sometimes over an hour to convert a typical 1GB movie. But with the powerful new Toshiba Quad Core HD Processor, transcoding can take as little time as ten minutes. You’ll be finished so fast they’ll be raving for a sequel.

Upscaling to HD

With the Toshiba upconvert technology on the amazing Qosmio G55-Q802 laptop you can output movies in glorious high-definition on your home entertainment system. This technology can upscale standard-definition video to high-definition*—and breathe new life into your entertainment. So why settle for low resolution any longer?

Interestingly (and necessary, with 4 GB of RAM), the system comes with 64-bit Vista installed by default, but 32-bit Vista ships with the laptop as well.

Viacom Backs Off; YouTube to Anonymize User Data

Earlier I wrote about a court decision that handed over all YouTube user data to Viacom. As we know, Viacom and YouTube are enmeshed in a lawsuit over copyrighted material uploaded to YouTube. The information was to assist Viacom in its case, but as I indicated, it was unclear why they needed user data to prove the amount of copyrighted material uploaded or viewed.

It seems (perhaps?) common sense prevailed, or maybe it was The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) chiming in (thank you), indicating that this was a clear violation of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).

Either way, Viacom and YouTube have come to an agreement. On Monday, in a blog post, YouTube said:

We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand for all users' viewing histories and we will not be providing that information.

That statement doesn't say, but the .PDF "stipulation" does,

Defendants shall produce data from the Logging Database relating to the foregoing activities in anonymized form as provided in Paragraph 1.

Viacom will still get it, but at least it will be anonymized.

Of course, this isn't the end of this case. It won't go to court until next year, most likely. And as far as data goes, this isn't the end of that either.

Last weekend, C|Net reported that YouTube was refusing to hand over to Viacom information about what videos YouTube employees have watched or uploaded to the site. Naturally any such information - if confirming that employees indeed participated in viewing or uploading copyrighted material - could be pretty harmful to YouTube.

Dell Adding 128 GB SSD Option to Notebooks, Multi-Touch to Latitude XT

On Monday, Dell announced it was matching Toshiba, which had previously announced a notebook with a 128 GB solid-state drive (SSD), by offering a 128 GB SSD for $649. It will be available as an option starting Tuesday in the U.S. on Dell Precision and Latitude systems. Inspiron and Alienware systems will get the drive starting next week.

That's a pretty attractive price, considering that Apple began offering the 64 GB option for the MacBook Air at $599. Twice the capacity for only $50 more? That's a great deal - well, considering the price premium for an SSD, anyway.

After all, a year ago the same price would have gotten you a 32 GB SSD. However, the highest-performance SSD Dell offers will still be 64 GB in capacity, which will cost the same $649, Dell said.

The company also announced that owners of the Latitude XT Tablet PC can actually start using the multitouch feature that Dell demoed last year. The driver, which will unlock the capability, can be downloaded from Dell's support page on Tuesday.

Update: here are the links:

• Vista 32 Bit
• Vista 64 Bit
• Windows XP Tablet
  

According to Dell's press release:

The new capabilities include:

• Scroll – by placing two fingers on the screen and moving them horizontally or vertically customers can easily navigate in web browsers and productivity applications.
  

• Zoom – by touching the screen with two fingers and moving them together customers can zoom various content in and out, such as pictures or Web pages.
  

• Programmable double-tap – customers can program a command, such as launching a Web browser or turning the screen off to save power, that will respond to two taps with two fingers.

Dell’s integration of multi-touch allows customers to use the full real estate of the screen, as opposed to just the touchpad like the Voodoo Envy 133 and Apple MacBook Air, and works with productivity applications they use every day, such as Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Google Earth, etc.

Check out a video demo of the XT's multi-touch capabilities.

Icahn, Microsoft Set the Record Straight on Yahoo! Deal

Late Saturday, Yahoo! rebuffed another offer from Microsoft, one that would have resulted in Microsoft getting Yahoo!'s search business and Carl Icahn taking the rest. While Yahoo!'s press release was very detailed, on Monday both Carl Icahn and Microsoft felt they had to present their own take on things, including correcting what they perceived as errors.

Icahn said, in an open letter to Yahoo! shareholders:

Over the years I have attempted to make changes at many companies but I have yet to see a company distort, omit and twist events and facts in the manner that Yahoo! has done in their press release issued Saturday night, July 12th.

• Yahoo! in their Saturday night press release makes much of the fact that they were only given 24 hours to decide on the Microsoft offer because of the time constraints relating tothe proxy fight, but neglects to mention that they were offered more time if they would be willing to postpone the annual meeting for a short period.

• Yahoo! conveniently neglects in its press release to tell you about the extremely important above mentioned guarantees that Microsoft was willing to make;
  

• Yahoo! tells you in their press release that a condition of the deal was the immediate replacement of the current board and removal of top management. Yahoo! neglected to mention we were willing to discuss keeping a number of the current board members and Jerry Yang as Chief Yahoo!
  

• Yahoo tells you the Microsoft proposal precludes the potential sale of all Yahoo! however, they neglect to tell you that that train has left the station in that Microsoft is no longer willing to buy all of Yahoo! with the current board overseeing the company.
  

• Yahoo!’s press release states that “this odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Mr. Icahn has anything but the interest of Yahoo stockholders in mind”, raising the innuendo that I am on Microsoft’s side in this manner. That is patently ridiculous. Since Yahoo! failed to consummate a transaction with Microsoft this year, I have spent hours and hours attempting to get the parties together because I believe that it is beneficial to Yahoo! shareholders to have a deal with Microsoft and I have worked hard trying to make it happen. It is important to note that my funds and affiliates own 70 million shares of Yahoo and own no shares of Microsoft or Google while the current board outside of Jerry Yang owns only the shares they have received from Yahoo for being directors. My interests are aligned with yours and not Microsoft and I think it is in our interest to have this transaction consummated so that we can get value much in excess of the recent and current market for Yahoo! shares.

Seriously, though, tell us how you really feel.

At the same time, however, Microsoft's press release slightly contradicts Icahn's. Microsoft does not mention a timetable, but Icahn does, above - though he also says they (Yahoo!) could have received an extension.

Microsoft also said that the deal was actually requested by Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock and that Microsoft had been told Yahoo might accept a deal if Microsoft raised its bid on certain terms of the agreement.

Specifically, on Thursday afternoon, July 10, Mr. Bostock called Steve Ballmer’s office to arrange a call. On that subsequent call, Mr. Bostock told Mr. Ballmer that “with substantial guarantees on the table and an increase in the TAC (traffic acquisition cost) rate, there are the pillars of a search only deal to be done.” Mr. Bostock encouraged Mr. Ballmer to submit a new proposal to Yahoo! for a search-only deal reflecting these terms.

So, what is going to happen now? Sounds like a case of he said / she said. Let me just say, that August 1 shareholders meeting ought to be a doozy!

Netflix to Come to the Xbox 360

Aha, now we know why Microsoft added all that extra hard disk space: for Netflix video streaming. Not really, though, since it's streaming video it likely isn't going to take all that additional hard drive space.

However, the Xbox 360 is getting access to Netflix, coming in "late fall." Yes, you're going to have to wait until then for the necessary update to turn your Xbox 360 into the equivalent of a Roku box.

In February, there was teaser information about this sort of partnership, though it was rumored the PS3 might get such streaming capability as well. It doesn't look like that will happen, however, as this is an "exclusive partnership."

The system will work the same way as the Roku box does. From the Netflix Web site, members simply add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues.

The press release dishes the details:

A growing library of more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes will be available from Netflix when it launches on Xbox LIVE in late fall, with more choices added over time. Through this agreement, along with the existing Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store, Xbox 360 will be home to more movies and TV shows on demand than any other device connected to the TV. Xbox LIVE quickly and easily connects consumers and their friends to the entertainment they want — with no PC required for viewing.

Netflix on Xbox 360 is an important component of the new Xbox experience, a new generation of games and entertainment experiences that will be available on Xbox 360 consoles this fall. The new Xbox experience, also announced today at the E3 Media and Business Summit, represents the first time in history that a mass-market consumer electronics device has been re-invented through free software, giving people more fun and intuitive ways to interact, play and enjoy entertainment content.

“Watching movies at home will never be the same. Netflix on Xbox 360 is an entertainment first, and we are bringing friends together with the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Services Business at Microsoft. “We are creating a completely new social entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only video game system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater.”

10,000 movies and TV episodes sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. Netflix has to up the available content for its streaming option if it wants it to be a success. But then, that's been the gripe about the streaming option since it was unveiled.

Nintendo Announces Wii MotionPlus

Personally, although I love the Nintendo Wii and the WiiMote, there are times when I wish I could get just a tid bit more accuracy out of the remote. I know others who have the same request. And it looks like Nintendo has answered my wishes.

Check out the Wii Motion Plus (above). It attaches to the end of the WiiMote. As announced in their press release:

Nintendo's upcoming Wii™ MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote™ controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.

Sheesh, if you're going to go this far, how about giving us the full details? Ah, well, it'll give me something to write about Tuesday morning.

Here's my take: if it helps me slice and dice better with the upcoming Star Wars lightsaber game, I'm all for it. On the other hand, part of me wants to say: "why wasn't this in the original remote?" Yes, I know: cost.

World's Oldest Blogger Logs Off for Good

A 108-year-old (yes, you read that correctly) Australian woman, reportedly the world's oldest blogger, has passed away in Woy Woy (which is about 50 miles north of Sydney).

Olive Riley began blogging in February of 2007. Her blog, The Life of Riley, drew an international audience, but a temporary blog, The World's Oldest Blogger, was created earlier this year as Riley's health began to fail.

Her last post was on 6/26, a week after she moved into a nursing home. It said, in part:

Hello, dear friends everywhere.

I can't believe I've been here in this nursing home for more than a week. How the days have flown, even though I've been in bed most of the time. I still feel weak, and can't shake off that bad cough.

I've never been treated so well in all my life. The nurses can't do enough for me. Ask them for anything, and they are only too happy to provide it.

Besides her blog, Riley became a hit with the songs she sang, posted to YouTube.

Riley passed away Saturday, at her nursing home.

First Weekend: One Million iPhone 3Gs Sold; Ten Million App Store Downloads

On Monday Apple announced that one million iPhone 3Gs had been sold in the first weekend of sales. Additionally, Apple indicated that over ten million downloads App Store downloads had occurred in the same timeframe.

Since it took 74 days for the first iPhone to hit one million in sales, that was simply an incredible first weekend. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said:

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend. It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days. Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”

Note that of the 800+ apps in the store, 200 are free, and Apple does not mention how many sold. However, the sheer number of downloads and sales makes one wonder how many downloads and sales would have occurred without the server issues (which AT&T was happy to blame on Apple).

Microsoft Confirms Xbox 360 Pro Price Cut, New 60 GB Model

On Sunday, the rumored price $50 cut on the Xbox 360 Pro took effect, and at the same time Microsoft announced a 60 GB model. The 60 GB model will retail for $349, the same price as the 20 GB model, which will be phased out at the $299 price while "supplies last." The New Pro model will ship in August.

In their press release, Microsoft said:

Available in retail stores in the U.S. and Canada starting in early August, the upgraded Xbox 360 will include a 60GB hard drive for storing the growing wealth of digital entertainment available for the console, including music, movies, television shows, and game content. In addition, Microsoft today dropped the price of its 20GB Xbox 360 console in the U.S. and Canada to just $299 (U.S.) (ERP) while supplies last, a savings of $50.

"We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we're giving it to them at no extra charge," said Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft. "No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver, and now you'll have three times the storage to manage all that great content."

At the same, although no official price cut was mentioned, Amazon.com cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite with 120 GB hard drive to $399 ... also by $50. Get 'em while they're hot.

iPhone 3G Screens "Warmer" by Design; Yellow Tinge Reduced with Firmware Upgrade

As I wrote earlier, some users were seeing yellowish-tinted iPhone 3G screens (above). This included a friend of mine who bought an iPhone 3G (I am, quite sadly, not qualified for an upgrade).

There are two components to this issue, apparently. One is that according to Apple, the yellowish-tinge, likened to being "warmer" (if you check out some light bulb boxes sometimes you'll see a reference to a "warm glow."), is by design.

According to a statement made by Apple’s senior director of iPhone product marketing, Bob Borchers:

“We moved the white point in order to make [the display feel] more natural.”

Also according to Borchers, the first-gen iPhone’s white was more of a cool blue (much like, he said, harsh fluorescent lighting), while the 3G’s is warmer and more of a sunny yellow.

At the same time it's been noted that some of the shipped iPhone 3Gs have an older firmware, 5A345. If you update the firmware to 5A347, it appears that the iPhone 3G will have a much less yellowish cast.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > About. If your firmware is 5A345, do a Restore to get 5A347. The full process takes about half an hour.

Interesting, since they said they wanted the color to be warmer. Perhaps it was a little "too warm," to the point of users being "hot under the collar."

Yahoo! Rejects Joint Microsoft / Icahn Offer

Late Saturday night Yahoo! rejected yet another takeover offer from Microsoft, this one similar to one Microsoft made earlier, in which Microsoft would acquire Yahoo!'s search business. In addition, however, Carl Icahn would have taken over the remaining parts of the company.

Yahoo!'s press release outlined their reasons for rebuffing the offer:

1. Yahoo!'s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal.

2. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would preclude a potential sale of all of Yahoo! for a full and fair price, including a control premium.

3. The major component of the overall value per share asserted by Microsoft/Icahn would be in Yahoo!’s remaining non-search businesses which would be overseen by Mr. Icahn’s slate of directors, which has virtually no working knowledge of Yahoo!’s businesses.

4. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would require the immediate replacement of the current Board and removal of the top management team at Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Board believes these moves would destabilize Yahoo! for the up to the one year it would take to gain regulatory approval for this deal.

According the the release, Yahoo's is now willing to sell the entire company to Microsoft for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share. This is the same price it rejected as too low 10 weeks ago. It also offered Microsoft a different search-only deal, but Microsoft rejected both offers.

Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! said,

"This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo’s Board of Directors will not allow that to happen. Yahoo!’s Board remains open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders – we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor."

It's true that Icahn has had quite a change of heart. Just last month Icahn felt that a search-only deal should be rejected by Yahoo!. In an interview on CNBC's Fast Money on June 4th, Icahn said,

“... it's crazy for this company now to do this alternative deal and give the store away, because obviously, an alternative deal is a poison pill because once you've done an alternative deal and given the search to Microsoft, you don't need Microsoft to buy you anymore. So, that would be a poison pill….”

Perhaps its because he would get his hands on the rest of the company?

What now? The soap opera continues.

Vista Compatibility Center Finally Compatible with the Internet

As Microsoft continues to have to "prove" to people that Vista is compatible with their hardware and software, the Windows Vista Compatibility Center launched on Tuesday, as announced at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston.

Of course, it proved incompatible with the Web, as visiting the site got you a "The Windows Vista Compatibility Center will be launching soon, please check back!" message.

The site lists list about 9,000 products (3,500 apps and 5,500 devices). Plug in a query into their search box, and assuming it's listed, you can find out if it's compatible or not.

If you can't find a product on their site, and you know it's compatible, you can suggest they add it. In addition, there are a lot of informational links, ways to search for drivers, etc. etc. Will it improve Vista adoption rates? Probably not.

We now return you to your iPhone station (based on the number of stories being posted since Friday).

AT&T Drops Centro Price to $69.99

Yes, Virginia, there is cellular phone news that doesn't involve the iPhone. That doesn't mean I won't mention it at least once - or twice.

AT&T and Palm have lowered the price of the Centro to $69.99. This is part of a back-to-school promotion, running from 7/11 to 9/20.

I have to point out to Palm that they need to update their website. At the time of this writing it still says "as low as $99.99." Once you click "Buy" and select AT&T, you can see the offer, which involves a mail-in rebate.

And with the new Electric Blue color, it's a pretty attractive device. Despite the fact that PalmOS is no longer the smartphone OS of the week, failing to keep up with even Windows Mobile, much less the iPhone, there are still plenty of PalmOS users out there, and at this price, it is a tempting offer.

Some iPhone 3G Screens Appear Jaundiced

Does anyone remember the issues with the first-generation iPhone screens, where some of them, with a different LCD Panel ID number, were noticeably dimmer? Seems like we have a repeat here.

I can't get an iPhone 3G because I'm not eligible for a phone upgrade (sob). However, my friend can, and did. He told me he wasn't happy with his screen; he thought it looked yellow. A little searching, and it seems he's not the only one.

Forum posts indicate that some users are seeing yellow-tinted screens. What you see above is an iPhone 3G on the left, and a 2G on the right.

Apple's support forum also has posts regarding this issue.

The simple (though perhaps, jumping to conclusions-type) of answer would be, hey, iSuppli has already determined that the iPhone 3G is cheaper for Apple to build despite 3G = cheaper LCD, maybe?

Once again, it's a simplistic rush to judgment; we'll see what the answer really is.

Ah, perhaps not being able to buy an iPhone 3G yet isn't so bad; this will all shake out before I get mine, I hope.

As Servers Crash, In-Store Activation Frustrates iPhone 3G Buyers

I commented on this earlier - I was concerned that the in-store activation would take a long time, or worse, totally fail. Looking at how complex it was going to be, it seemed obvious. And now real-life experiences show I was right.

With the first iPhone, you could simply walk into a store, and walk out with it - no activation. Activation was done at home via iTunes. The in-store activation is designed to reduce hacking. After all AT&T's monopoly on the device is definitely a good thing for them.

While Apple said the process would take 15 - 20 minutes, it was taking upwards of 30 minutes, and you can see the lines wouldn't move as fast as last year.

Not only that, the demand for iPhones is so high, Apple has confirmed that the iPhone activation servers have now crashed under the load and are down. Buyers are, at least for now, being sent home without activated iPhones and have been told they should activate at home ... much later, it appears.

The word from AT&T:

We have had reports that customers attempting to download new iTunes 7.7 software to their new iPhone may get an error message saying "page not found." We have reported this issue to Apple. While Apple works to resolve this issue, we are asking customers to sync their newly activated phone later at home.

Of course, since we know the activation process includes unbricking the phone (see my earlier story), that part still needs to be done.

Ah, yes, the joys of being an early adopter.

Update: BTW, if you want to update your original iPhone to 2.0, you might also end up with an issue because of the server problems. Recommendation: wait until this all sorts itself out.

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 to Finally Disappear

Talk about cannibalizing sales from Windows Vista. It's bad enough Microsoft has to worry about XP doing that, but ...

All right, all right, obviously I'm just kidding. And yes, you read that right. Windows for Workgroups (WFW) 3.11 is still being sold. Microsoft is selling it in the Embedded Channel. However, in a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft announced that as of November 1st, that venerable old OS would go the way of the dodo.

As John Coyne announced in the blog post:

for those that were not aware, we recently announced that effective November 1st, 2008, OEM's will no longer be able to license Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in the embedded channel. Now we all know that it's been long gone in the standard (retail/OEM) channel, but one of the unique things in the embedded business is that we allow the classic OS products to be sold longer than the other channels. it's *finally the end of an era!

WFW was Microsoft's final English language operating system prior to the release of Windows 95. Initially released in November 1993, it added features such as TrueType fonts and native TCP/IP access. It was also the first Windows OS to include Minesweeper, which is still around today.

Is Mobile Web Use Reaching Critical Mass?

On Thursday Nielsen Mobile released a white paper called "Critical Mass: The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web" (.PDF). As the graph above shows, the report covers 16 countries, with the U.S. leading with mobile Internet penetration of 15.6% of wireless users. The U.K. follows with 12.9% and Italy with 11.9%.

There's a certain 3G device being introduced Friday which might have a positive impact on those numbers, by the way.

Here's how Neilsen broke it down:

• There were 254 million US mobile subscribers in Q1 2008, according to CTIA, the wireless industry trade group

• According to Nielsen, 144 million (57%) US mobile subscribers were data users in Q1 2008 (defined as those subscribers who used their phone for any data use, be that SMS text messaging or accessing the mobile Internet)

• 95 million (37 percent) US mobile subscribers paid for access to the mobile Internet, either as part of a subscription or transactionally

• 40 million subscribers (15.6 percent in May 2008) were active users of mobile Internet services, using those services at least once on a monthly basis

• Mobile Internet use accounted for $1.7 billion in revenue in Q1 2008 (more than $5 billion in total revenue in 2007)

Interestingly, the most popular cell phones for U.S. mobile Internet use were the Razr / Razr2 at 10%, while the iPhone was second at 4%.

With those numbers comes the point of the report:

We offer that mobile Internet is today at a point of sufficient mass to sustain a chain reaction of rapid growth in consumer adoption and, in turn, mobile Internet marketing.

Yep, start advertising.

By the way, Rogers ought to read this part of the white paper:

Unlimited data packages are an important part of the growth of the mobile Internet and are increasingly popular with US consumers. Today 14 percent of US wireless subscribers have unlimited data packages, and 50 percent of data users say they would prefer to have such a package.

Ah, I see. Canada wasn't even included in the paper, hence Rogers' position on an unlimited iPhone data plan. Gotcha.

As iPhone 3G Lines Form, App Store, iPhone 2.0 Software are Ready

For some reason, Apple felt it necessary to remind us on Thursday that the iPhone 3G launches on Friday (via a press release). At the same time, however, iTunes 7.7 became available, and you can already access the App Store using it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be directly linked yet. You can still, for now, access it through this link.

And, if you know where to look, you can already download iPhone software 2.0. According to MacRumors, a reader found this link by digging through Apple's XML files.

Naturally, if you want to play it safe, you might want to wait for the official release. Heck, you might want to wait longer than that ... based on how often updates to various gadgetry result in a SNAFU, right? I generally recommend that users wait for the dust to settle, but of course this is a highly desired software upgrade.

Reports are the upgrade has worked fine on some iPhones, but of course your mileage may vary.

Right now there are 27 pages of applications (though many of them are games, but also - many of them are free).

Now about that iPhone 3G line ...

Farewell to "Fake Steve"

It hasn't even been a year since "Fake Steve" Jobs was revealed to the world as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine. The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs was a parody of the Apple CEO, which became almost required reading in Silicon Valley, at least until Lyons was outed.

However, as Lyons moves from Forbes to Newsweek, he's also decided to leave his alter-ego behind. As Fake Steve said on his blog:

I'm sailing away

My goodness I am so high it's not funny. Apologies for all the confusion lately and much love to the many folks who have written in asking, Dude, what the hell is going on with the blog? There's no big scandal or anything. It's just I tried to add a new permission for "Real Dan" to post some items on the Fake Steve blog and somehow "Real Dan" gained admin privileges and Fake Steve appears to have been wiped out and is unable to log back in. Not sure if this is Google screwing with me or if it's just the meds -- I'm thinking it's the latter. I'm so pumped full of chemicals right now that most of the time I can't remember my own name. Iulia and Natasha are looking into the Blogger situation but at this point it probably doesn't matter.

Just FYI, I'll be launching a new site under my own name in the near future. Should be next week. I'll announce it here as soon as it's ready and provide a link. I hope you'll come check it out

Fake Steve gained quite a following, with even Steve Jobs himself reading the blog, saying

I have read a few of the FSJ things recently, but I thought it was pretty funny!

For those who can't get enough of Fake Steve, there's Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - A Parody, and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs (long and short versions).

Farewell Fake Steve; we will miss you.

Xbox 360 Pro to Get $50 Price Cut on Sunday

Rumors have been circulating of a possible $50 price cut for the Xbox 360 Pro, the 20 GB model. While still a rumor, more evidence has arisen which seems to not just point to a $50 price cut, but also to the day: this coming Sunday.

Above is an image scanned from a Target flier. Not only is the price cut by $50, Target is throwing in a $25 gift card as well.

Meanwhile, below is a clip from a Best Buy flier (click on it to enlarge). They're not throwing in a gift card, so Target has the better deal, for those of you who are frugal.

This timing jives completely with my earlier post, which indicated the cut would come before E3, which starts next Tuesday. The last such price cut for the Xbox 360 Pro came in August 2007, when it was cut from $399 to $349.

This does leave the Xbox 360 Core in an awkward price point, at only $20 less than the Pro. We'll see what happens to that system.

Rogers Caves In With New iPhone 3G Data Plan

Canadian wireless carrier Rogers has been criticized over the service plans it announced for the iPhone 3G (and that's putting it mildly). On Wednesday they announced a new data plan that can be added to existing voice plans, with 6 GB of data for $30. While not unlimited, it's significantly better than the 2 GB maximum plan previously announced.

In their press release, Rogers said:

In anticipation of iPhone 3G launch on July 11, Rogers Wireless today announced plans to open the doors of select Rogers Plus retail stores across Canada in advance of regular hours. Starting at 8:00 am July 11, Canadians will be able to purchase the new iPhone 3G at special launch day events to be held at six Rogers Plus stores across the country. Be among the first in Canada to get the next generation iPhone 3G and have the choice of a 6GB data plan through a limited time promotional price offer.

Yes, you read that right: limited time promotional price offer. You only have until August 31st to sign up for it ... with a three-year contract, no less. It should be noted that the data plan isn't limited to iPhone users.

I spoke to a Rogers representative, who clarified for me that while the contract will only be offered from July 11th - August 31st, it will run the length of the contract. After that: good luck renewing it.

Better? Yes. As good as elsewhere? Not really, and whether or not those running the multiple petitions around the Web will be happy is questionable.

Windows XP SP3 Nears Automatic Release

Ever wonder why Microsoft releases these sorts of major updates via manual update first? Well, if you've been reading along, you know why (and we've seen more than one example of why). However, Windows XP SP3, after its initial fits and starts, is nearly ready to hit automatic distribution via Windows Update.

This was revealed in an MSDN blog post by Nick MacKechnie, senior technical account manager at Microsoft New Zealand:

Hi All,

Microsoft is committed to providing quality products to customers. As part of this commitment, we would like to remind you that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be released to Automatic Updates shortly. The third service pack to Windows XP includes the previously released updates and hotfixes to Windows XP, creating a new baseline for servicing.

While this post is rather vague about timing, the word is now that XP SP3 will release to automatic updates on 7/10 (Thursday). I would say, however, that based on how well Microsoft did with the Windows Vista Compatibility Site (still down as of Wednesday morning), we'll see ...

Getty Images to Scan Flickr for Licenseable Photos

Do you have some great stuff in your Flickr account, at least in your opinion? You may find out if others agree with you. Getty Images and Flickr have announced a partnership: in the coming months Getty Images will troll Flickr for images and invite photographers whose pictures are deemed license-worthy to participate.

Want to join the program? You have to wait. Getty will contact you (the program is entirely opt-in, BTW). Scanning will involve new technology developed jointly by the two companies. The actual rates have not been disclosed yet, but they are expected to be comparable to the rates Getty normally pays.

In a press release, Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images said:

"We are excited and proud to be partnering with Flickr to offer our customers even more choice for their projects. Our customers will be able to select and use the best imagery from a fresh collection of high-quality images chosen by us from Flickr's diverse and prolific community. Flickr is the ideal partner as we continue to move the imagery industry forward by offering the broadest range of high quality digital content to our customers."

What's interesting is that besides the press release, Flickr had a short blog post that indicate that the Collection would be royalty-free:

The great folks at Flickr and Getty Images are joining forces to build a platform that will enable the creation of a first class collection of royalty free, rights ready, and rights managed photographs that will debut later this year.

Hard to understand the differences between the two launches, but since Getty does have royalty-free content as well, it's possible this is just poorly worded. Or perhaps they are different initiatives. We will find out as time goes on.

Anyway, those of you with large Flickr collections might start hoping for an email.

Oh, and it's not said, but I think you can assume: if you have stuff up there that's copyrighted, you might get a different email.

Google Opens "Lively," Its Own Virtual World

Should Linden Labs, creators of Second Life, start quaking in its boots? Nah. This isn't the same sort of virtual world. But on Tuesday Google opened up Lively, its own take on a virtual world, but rather than being one big world its more like being a series of distributed rooms spread across the Internet.

Lively requires a download, much like Second Life (sorry, Windows only), but once installed, you just use your browser, either Internet Explorer or Firefox, to navigate to sites with embedded rooms.

As Google announced in their blog post,

If you enter a Lively room embedded on your favorite blog or website, you can immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose. You can also express your own personality by customizing your avatar's look, showing people who you are without having to say a word. Of course, you can chat with each other, and you can also interact through animated actions. In our user research, we’ve been amazed at how much more poignant it is to receive an animated hug than seeing the text “[[hug]]”.

And there are already plenty of rooms - check out the "popular" rooms on Lively. Of course, embedding such rooms on Facebook and MySpace pages: a major feature.

And The National Geographic Channel has the distinction of creating the first branded room in Lively, one dedicated to NGC's new show, "L.A. Hard Hats."

Of course, as I've said before - a long time ago - are we starting to reach a point where we interact less with each other and more with our electronic gizmos and the Internet?

I'd much rather interact with a real person than I would an avatar. Unless, perhaps the avatar belonged to say, Rosalyn Sanchez, that is.

Vista Compatibility Site Launches with Same Success as Vista

Microsoft on Tuesday released a new tool designed to allow customers to see whether their hardware and software will work properly with Windows Vista. Actually, you remember that before Vista even launched they had such a tool, so is this time-travel?

Nope, on Tuesday Microsoft launched the Windows Vista Compatibility Center. Or at least, they were supposed to. What you get if you go to the site is a simple "The Windows Vista Compatibility Center will be launching soon, please check back!" message.

While that's bad enough, the fact that Microsoft sees the need to launch a site 18 months after the OS itself was launched - well, that speaks volumes for the adoption rates of Windows Vista, no matter what Microsoft says itself.

Brad Brooks, Corporate Vice President of Windows Consumer Products, unveiled the Center on Tuesday at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. According to his keynote, the site will list about 9,000 products (3,500 apps and 5,500 devices) and will be all about helping to “bust the myth” that Windows Vista is not compatible with many apps and devices.

Uh huh. I'm using Vista, but mostly for DirectX 10, and mostly because I've purchased some new PCs. But as I've also said before, it's more of an incremental change than Microsoft would like us to believe.

Upgrade if you want, but it's not a necessity.

Are OEMs Using RIAA-Based Sound Card Drivers?

An interesting new conspiracy theory has arisen today. It appears that several laptop OEMs have been having "issues" with their sound card drivers: specifically, the Stereo Mix option is missing from their drivers, which basically means you can't record audio (except from Mic In). Whoops! Is this a case of Dell and others working with the RIAA?

A ripten writer noticed this on his Dell laptop. Linkage between Dell (and other OEMs) and the RIAA were posited an obvious theory. Now, while I wouldn't put it past the RIAA to do this, I have what's probably a more likely theory: driver bug.

Notably, these incidents seem to have occurred on laptops using a SigmaTel sound card. SigmaTel pretty much owns the OEM market for laptops, as evidenced by how many laptops were affected by the "old Sigmatel" driver which prevented them from upgrading to Windows Vista SP1.

So these drivers aren't exactly bug-free. That and a post in the ripten comments section, apparently by a Dell Digital Life Liason (and I've dealt with them in the past) stating:

My name is Chris and I’m a Community Ambassador for Dell computers.

You didn’t state in your post, but the links you forwarded to indicated you were dealing with a laptop with Windows XP.

If this is the case, our Sigmatel R171789.exe XP drivers unlock the “Stereo Mix” feature. Refer to the following link:

R171789.exe

Please let me know if you have any additional questions regarding this feature.

Regards,
Chris Byrd
Dell Digital Life Liaison

The release date of that driver is 12/20/2007, so it's not even a new fix. So, it sounds like a simple driver bug, but not all are satisfied. Bug sounds more likely than a conspiracy, but what do you readers think? As I said, I wouldn't put it past the RIAA, but still ...

First-Timer Advertises on Craigslist for Kissing Lessons

All right, it's bad enough this 20-year-old has never kissed anyone, but advertising for a kissing teacher on Craigslist? I'd be interesting in knowing if he gets any takers, personally.

Advertising in the strictly platonic section (eh?), this Georgia Tech student says:

I have been going out with a girl online for the last 5 years and she's finally coming down to see me on the 11th. She tells me it's a big turn-off if a guy doesn't know how to kiss, and she even dumped her last boyfriend because of this. I want to make a good first impression, but I've never kissed before! Please, I need a girl to practice kissing with, nothing else!! Just kissing lesson - nothing more nothing less!

The 11th? iPhone 3G day! Shoot, why not spend your time at the Apple Store?

Anyway, good luck to this guy, and hopefully his teacher is decent-looking and will teach him more than just a peck on the lips.

Gmail Adds Remote Sign-Out and Monitoring

When I login to Gmail, I always leave the "Remember me on this computer" checkbox unchecked. Why? I don't want to get into the habit of checking that checkbox, as what would happen if I would make that selection and leave a public computer with myself still logged in. That would be a problem. Until now, anyway.

Gmail is rolling out a new feature. Typical of such roll-outs, it will be gradual and may not be available yet on your account.

If it's available, you should see something similar to the above at the very bottom of your inbox. You'll see information about the last activity on your account and whether it's still open in another location.

Obviously, this is a great way to find out if someone has hacked into your account (as has happened to me previously, though not with Gmail), but it doesn't give you all that much info. However, click the Details link, all you'll see a lot more (below).

You'll be able to see the IP addresses of any activity, as well as whether it was browser- or mobile-based. You'll also be able to sign out any other sessions, using the "Sign out all other sessions button."

Of course, all this makes me wonder just how paranoid Google programmers are, because this "feature" never would have occurred to me.

PS3 2.41 Firmware Due "Mid-Week"

Last week the much-anticipated 2.40 firmware for the PlayStation 3 was released, to the sound of crashing consoles. Sony pulled the firmware from download, although it did say in a blog post that they had seen a low incidence of calls.

Not low enough, apparently.

And now the latest: according to reports, Sony will release version 2.41, which will (hopefully) be free of the issues seen with the 2.40 firmware.

Of course, here we go again with the warnings I usually give. Don't be the first to try it out; wait to see the reactions from others before going ahead and upgrading.

I've seen this happen too many times on consoles and even PCs to be an early adopter.

Update: Sony has confirmed 2.41 will be out soon.

Update 2: Sony released the firmware on Tuesday.

Icahn's Open Letter Reveals Microsoft Support for Yahoo! Bid

On Monday Carl Icahn, who we know is not er, happy, about the lack of a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo!, cited discussions with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in an open letter he published. The letter, issued as a press release, said, in part:

Steve made it clear to me that if a new board were elected, he would be interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the "Search" function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company.

Icahn also made clear his plans for Jerry Yang, saying that one of the first things a new board would do is: "Move expeditiously to replace Jerry Yang with a new CEO with operating experience."

Ah yes, the soap opera continues. It's obvious that Microsoft has not completely moved on, with stories continuing to circulate, despite none other than Bill Gates saying such a deal is unlikely. However, Icahn is trying to unseat all or part of the Yahoo! board, and that part of the drama still continues.

For its own part, Microsoft issued its own confirming press release (in case you thought Icahn was just blowing smoke):

Despite working since January 31 of this year, as well as in the early part of last year, we have never been able to reach an agreement in a timely way on acceptable terms with the current management and Board of Directors at Yahoo!. We have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them. We confirm, however, that after the shareholder election Microsoft would be interested in discussing with a new board a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the “Search” function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company.

...

While of course there can be no assurance of a future transaction, we will be prepared to enter into discussions immediately after Yahoo!’s shareholder meeting if a new board is elected.

In mid-morning trading Yahoo! stock was up nearly 9% at $23.26, while Microsoft stock was up very slightly to $26.14.

Yahoo's annual shareholders meeting on August 1, and that's where the proxy fight will really unfold. Fireworks in August rather than July? Looks like.

Did Rogers Get the Apple Shaft?

As I wrote earlier, Canadians are up in arms over the prices of service plans that Rogers has set up for them upon the launch of the iPhone 3G. It's led to petitions, a website, and even editorials telling Canadians to hold off on buying the iPhone 3G.

Now reports from the web are that Apple has severely reduced the allocation of iPhone 3Gs due the Canadian carrier Rogers. While this is so far based on a single blogger's "inside information," it does make sense, but perhaps not for the reasons given in the post.

It should be noted that a Rogers representative contacted me via email after my original post, making sure that I was aware of the additional choices available to customers. This was sent to me on June 30th, so it's not a change in direction for them based on the above news.

Rogers customers have more choices available to them and can use their existing voice and smartphone data plans if they wish. For example, they can select from the new data pricing (ranging from $30 for 300MB to $100 for 6GB or $50 Flex Rate plan) and add a voice plan, or they can choose a combined voice and data plan to best suit their individual needs.

Customers are not required to take the value packs, and can order most other features a la carte, such as $7 for Caller ID.

Existing customers can keep their existing voice service plan and pick a separate data plan (not in the iPhone 3G bundle) to meet their needs.

Sure, the prices are still very high, and people basically want unlimited data in the price range of the U.S. (or less). Rogers doesn't seem to think people want to be able to browse as much as they want, without limits, telling me:

With regards to an unlimited plan, Rogers believes that unlimited plans could end up costing customers more for what they don't use. Rogers' iPhone 3G plans will more than accommodate the vast majority of customers.

Sounds like some ISPs' view of hard caps on broadband service in a way ...

However, while some around the web seem to think that this rumor (still unverified, of course) is an attempt by Apple to show Rogers who's boss, it's more likely that looking at all the reactions to Rogers' pricing, Apple has simply decided to re-allocate supply, based on perceived poor demand.

That would make sense, a business case rather than a slap against Rogers. And hey, if it gets more iPhone 3Gs into our hands in the U.S., I'm all for it, though I'm definitely against Rogers' pricing. Still, will Rogers change its pricing before Friday? Readers?

Toyota to Add Solar Panels to Prius: Report

Last year I wrote about Solar Electrical Vehicles and their system for adding solar panels to the roof of your hybrid. It includes a supplemental battery pack and solar panels for the roof, which they said could increase MPG by 17% - 29% for a Prius.

Apparently Toyota is planning to add solar panels to the high-end version of the Prius when it redesigns the car next year. According to Nikkei (subscription required), the power generated by the system would be used for the air conditioning.

Obviously they aren't planning something as complex as the SEV system, or solar panels that cover the entire roof as pictured above. Toyota did not comment on the report, nor on any possible effect this would have on previously published plans for plug-in Toyota hybrids.

E.U. Considers "Three Strikes" Downloading Law

You'll recall that I wrote earlier about both the U.K. and France, who were considering laws that would create a three-strikes policy: three warnings about illegal filesharing and you're out - out of your broadband contract, that is.

France has takens the reins of the European Union for their stint at the presidency, and as such, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package, which would impose the same policy across the E.U.

According to The Register, Sarkozy believes "there is no reason that the internet should be a lawless zone." Sounds like Sarkozy's talking about the Old American West, but anyway ...

La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Internet) has released a "warning document" (.PDF) and has stated in a press release:

Internet users could be blocked from lawful activities by mandatory spyware, in the interests of their security. The right to use free software for internet access would therefore not be assured anymore. The neutrality of the Internet is also directly attacked, as is the principle that technical intermediaries have no obligation to prior surveillance of contents. Other amendments will de facto enable administrative authorities to obligate ISPs to work with content producers and rights-holders' private police, including the sending of intimidating messages, with no judicial or regulatory oversight.

Other groups to campaign against the amendments include Netzpolitik.org and The Open Rights Group.

The Industry Committee and Internal Market Committees will vote on the telecom package on Monday, with a vote for the entire package to take place in September.

Trace the Tour de France Route on Google Street View

From July 5th through July 27th, the Tour de France will be running. I'm not going to be headingh over there to watch, and although they'll be plenty of coverage, what if I want take a look at the route from a spectator's view? Google's thought about that, and has provide a Street View of the entire route.

Google's blog post announcing the launch gives us the info:

With this launch, you can now follow the race through each of the 21 stages with just a click of a mouse and enjoy a perspective similar to what your favorite cyclists see as they wind through France's majestic mountains, vivacious cities, and tranquil countryside.

The Tour de France route marks our first launch of Street View imagery in Europe, and we're bringing with us some of our newly released features such as ground-filling and face blurring.

Well, it's a good thing they're showing off the face- and license-plate blurring technology (above), as they appear to have a fight on their hands in the U.K. with Privacy International.

Still, this is France, not the U.K., and the blurring seems to work quite well. Tempest in a teapot (no pun intended) in the U.K.? We'll see.

Wii Fit Suffers the Same Fate as Most Exercise Equipment: Survey

Ever buy a piece of home exercise equipment? If you have, you've probably also experienced the typical result: after a brief spurt of usage, the equipment ended up in the garage, or at least unused. It's often the fate of gym memberships as well.

The Wii Fit has sold millions of copies in Japan and elsewhere, but the question has been: how long would people stay with it? Longer than a typical piece of exercise equipment? After all, the game itself is more interactive and (hopefully) engaging than a stationary bicycle, right? Well ...

Survey says: no. According to the thousand IT Media (Japanese) readers polled, most of them quit pretty darn quickly. The percentages in response to the question "Do you use Wii Fit faithfully everyday?" are:

• 22%: daily
• 6%: once every two or three days
• 6%: once a week
• 64%: stopped using after purchase

Whoops, that's not too good. The Wii Fit hasn't been for sale long enough in the U.S. to get an effective survey done, but I know from an informal survey of my friends that things aren't going too well.

How about you readers?

Google Faces U.K. Privacy Fight Over Street View

As Google prepares to launch Street View in the U.K., and has already launched it in France, concerns over privacy have been raised by the group Privacy International, which says it feels Street View violates privacy laws.

You'll recall that Canada, which has very strong privacy protections in place (for example, a study has said that DRM violates privacy law), has already raised such concerns.

"In our view they need a person's consent if they make use of a person's face for commercial ends," said Simon Davis, Director of the group.

Davis has also written a letter to Google, given them seven days to respond to his request for technical information on the "blurring" technology, or else he will file a complaint with the U.K. Information Commissioner.

Text of the letter is as follows:

2nd July 2008

Jane Horvath,
Senior privacy counsel,
Google
Mountain View, CA

Dear Jane,

Recent media reports in Europe have mentioned that Google has begun deployment of its StreetView system in the UK and elsewhere in the EU. You may be aware that Privacy International has stated, both privately to Google legal staff and to the media, that we are concerned about a number of potential violations of national law that this technology may create.

In response, Google has informed the media that it will institute "face blurring" technology to ensure legal compliance. However, when we requested information from Google six weeks ago about the specifications for this technology your colleagues admitted that there were problems with it at an engineering level.

We are concerned that claims of protection are being made that may not be possible to institute. I am writing to request full disclosure of the technology specifications for the promised face and number plate blurring system so that the public can be assured that Google has taken every step necessary to satisfy not just legal requirements, but that it is also fulfilling its stated commitments.

We have in the past raised concerns directly with Google that such claims have historically failed to materialise. I recall the promise made by Google to the FTC during the Doubleclick acquisition that "crumbling cookies" would be developed. We have seen no evidence that this technology has been deployed. In response to concerns expressed at the time of our 2007 Internet privacy rankings, Google also promised a "privacy dashboard" to help consumers understand the functionality of their user settings. This technology has not appeared.

You will know that we have often complained that Google performs poorly on the issue of transparency. I believe this is one occasion where disclosure is crucial. Public trust in Google will suffer if there is a perception that the company is manipulating the facts.

I ask that you respond with this technical information within seven days. I also ask that you inform us of the steps, if any, that you have taken to consult the public over the use of their images for what is, in effect, a commercial purpose.

If we do not receive a satisfactory answer within that period we will have no choice but to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner with a request that StreetView deployment be suspended pending a formal investigation.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Davies
Director
Privacy International

So, is this all overblown? P.I. has battled Google over privacy concerns in the past, including issues with Gmail, even naming the company among the worst for privacy practices.

For its part, Google has taken steps in the past, such as the facial- and license-plate blurring technology it has added to Street View, as well as the link you can use to tell Google if you think an image infringes on your privacy, and the privacy link they just added to their home page.

Still, no one can deny that the amount of data Google stores is monolithic, and things like Viacom being able to sift through all YouTube user data isn't exactly comforting. We'll see where this goes.

Responding to Critics, Google Adds Privacy Link to Home Page

On June 3rd a group of privacy advocates, including California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the World Privacy Forum, Consumer Action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consumer Federation of California, and ACLU of Northern California - among others - sent a detailed letter to Google CEO CEO Eric Schmidt, charging that the lack of a privacy link on Google's home page was not just "alarming," but violated the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003.

On June 10th, California Assemblymember Joel Anderson (R - La Mesa) added his weight to the call, writing his own letter (.PDF). The law in question says:

An operator of a commercial Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial Web site or online service shall conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Web site

In addition, most commercial sites do this as a matter of course.

It took a month, but just prior to Independence Day (fitting), on Thursday, Google added a privacy link to their home page.

On both their public policy blog and their main corporate blog, Google announced the change. I must admit, Marissa Mayer's blog post was somewhat cryptic, involving a long-winded discussion over home page word count, but the gist, from the public policy blog, is:

So, today, we're making a homepage change by adding a link to our privacy overview and policies. We added this link both to our homepage and to our results page to make it easier for users to find information about our privacy principles. The new "Privacy" link goes to our privacy center, which was revamped earlier this year to be more straightforward and approachable with videos and a non-legalese "Privacy Overview" to make sure users understand in basic terms what Google does, doesn't, will, and won't do in regard their personal information.

As you can see above, it's not exactly what I would call "conspicuous," but it is there. Of course, to maintain their 28 word count on their home page, Google removed the word "Google," but hey, you're on their site anyway, right?

Not Everyone Wants Broadband. Seriously.

A new study (.PDF) released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that not everyone wants broadband. Seriously.

According to the study, 55% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, up from 47% in 2007. Also according to the study, with the increase in broadband adoption, only 10% of Americans have dial-up.

Whoa: that means 35% have no Internet access at all, if I did the math correctly.

For those without broadband, the study gave the following reasons for not having broadband:

Non-broadband users cite a number of reasons for not using the service - including availability, price, and lack of interest.

• 62% of dial-up users say they are not interested in giving up their current connection for broadband.

When asked specifically what it would take them to get them to switch to broadband:

• 35% of dial-up users say that the price of broadband service would have to fall.
• 19% of dial-up users said nothing would convince them to get broadband.
• 14% of dial-up users – and 24% of dial-up users in rural America - say that broadband service would have to become available where they live.

So part of it is availability, but price is the #1 reason. And interestingly, 19% said nothing would convince them to change. My guess is they've never experienced dial-up vs. broadband; once you have it's hard to go back.

Or, they just plain aren't interested in the Internet.

It's not age: the growth rate, according to the study, was strong: 26%. Since the overall growth rate among Americans was 17%, they outpaced the rest.

So, as John Horrigan, the study's author says, this suggests that more people have to become clued into just what their missing when they don't have access to the Internet, whether at broadband speed, or at all, as with the 35% without Internet access.

"That suggests that solving the supply problem where there are availability gaps is only going to go so far. It's going to have to be a process of getting people more engaged with information technology and demonstrating to people it's worth it for them to make the investment of time and money."

That's true, but for many price is still an issue, as low-income Americans experienced a drop in broadband, with only 25% having broadband vs. 28% in 2007. After all, dial-up users reported monthly bills of $19.70, while DSL bills averaged $31.50 and cable modem service averaged $37.50.

In late June the