Buffalo Adds Remote Access to Network Drives

Your data--anytime, anywhere. That seems to be the trend these days in network storage. And, notably, these features are migrating down to the the realm of even the less complex, single-drive network storage devices.

Buffalo Technology has introduced a firmware update for its line of LinkStation Live network-attached drives. The update adds remote access via a Web browser; you won't need drivers or software to share content. You access your content via www.buffaloNAS.com; the site lets you establish a secure connection to your drive (available in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, and 750GB varieties, ranging in price from $229 to $649). The connection is unidirectional, though; you can only stream content or download content remotely, but not upload content.

USB Drive for Badass Geeks

Do you need a Hummer to pick up a quart of milk at your suburban grocer? Do you need a USB thumb drive that can withstand being run over by an 8000 lbs. forklift and can be submerged 200 meters under water to bring your PowerPoint presentation to work? The folks at Corsair think you might.

Memory maker Corsair unveiled its "extremely rugged" line of USB 2.0 flash drives called Flash Survivor. The drives are constructed from milled aluminum (as found in aircraft part production) and designed for geeks with a "Bring It On" attitude, Corsair says.

The Corsair Flash Survivor GT 8GB model runs $130 and Flash Survivor 4GB model runs $60. For non-badass geeks like myself, as long as the Survivor drive makes it through the washer and drier in one piece I'm sold at 8GB for $130.

Click here for more information on where to buy the drives available today.

e-gold Indicted for Money Laundering

If you follow online security news, you've heard of e-gold.com. The digital currency service purportedly allows users to transfer money without any real ID verification, which seems to make it popular with online crooks and fraudsters, like those behind last year's Cryzip extortion malware.

To recap, Cryzip ordered its victims to deposit a ransom into an e-gold account if they wanted the password to unlock their zipped-up files. It appeared to be a very clumsy extortion attempt, and I hope that few people fell prey.

The Department of Justice says it has more examples of use of e-gold accounts for nefarious purposes. According to our friends at IDG News Service, a grand jury in D.C. indited e-gold and others on Friday on charges of money laundering.

The IDG story also says the DOJ has seizure warrants for more than 55 accounts the department says are involved in money laundering.

I haven't seen hard evidence myself. But I do hear over and over how hard it is to successfully prosecute any of the bad actors in the thriving online fraud business. So if e-gold is found guilty, it could be a relatively rare win for the good guys.

Sounds Like Vudu: P2P Video Direct to the TV, Fast

The New York Times this morning spends a good amount of real estate on a small Silicon Valley company called Vudu, which is selling a free-standing, streaming video set-top box. The device is similar to Apple TV, but requires no connection with a PC to operate. The Vudu box connects directly to the Internet via an Ethernet port.

Vudu says its box will allow viewers to begin watching movies in the living room immediately after order, without having to wait for a significant portion of the file to download in advance.

I hear P2P for real-time streaming and I'm immediately skeptical.

Like BitTorrent's movie service, Vudu relies on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to push video quickly down to the set-top box. But the BitTorrent service is testament to the fact that without a critical mass of "peers" or "seeds" for a given title, downloading can be very slow going. Two friends in the digital content world say BitTorrent, the poster child of P2P, is now getting help from a content delivery network (CDN) (like Akamai) to speed video distribution.

Vudu is not the first company to serve video directly to a box on the TV. Akimbo began selling such a box in 2004. Moviebeam's set-top box catches videos broadcast over the digital frequencies used by public radio stations. Neither of these products has caught on with consumers.

Vudu will also compete with hybrid IP video devices like Microsoft's Xbox, which downloads movies from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Tivo downloads movies from Amazon's Unbox movie service. Apple TV relies on a PC running iTunes to download the video.

In the NYT article, Vudu boasts that Hollywood has seen the light on its product. It has signed content deals with all the major studios except Sony.

Big deal. Hollywood is increasingly willing to sign up for online distribution, provided the normal, paranoid digital rights management (DRM) controls are in place. What have they got to lose? It's a great way for them to make some money back on lame or otherwise unpopular titles that are rarely rented at the video store or sold as DVDs.

The studios seem far from making Internet video a primary means of distributing their content, as DVDs are now. While some big movies like Borat and Pirates of the Caribbean have shown up relatively quickly on the online services, the majority of the videos you find there are Hollywood no-names and direct-to-DVD releases circa 2000-2006.

The idea of bringing video directly to the TV via the Internet without stopping at the PC is a good one. But services like Vudu will have to deliver new, big-name movies consistently in order for consumers to even consider paying $300 for yet another piece of hardware in the living room.

Corel VideoStudio 11 Edits HD Camcorder Footage

A few weeks ago I reviewed Panasonic's nifty HDC-SD1, a high-definition camcorder that records to Secure Digital Cards. I liked the camcorder, except that you can't edit the footage from it, because it records in AVCHD format, which no video-editing software recognizes.

At least, until now: today Corel released Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus, which supports AVCHD and HDV (the other high-definition camcorder format, used by ones that record HD to MiniDV tape). It can also import .VOB files--the type that DVD-based standard-definition camcorders use.

VideoStudio doesn't yet support burning to Blu-Ray drives (Corel's MovieFactory product does, though, and Corel says Blu-Ray support for VideoStudio is in the works). However, you can use it to burn 30 minutes of HD video to a standard DVD that will play in an Xbox HD DVD drive, an HD DVD player, or a PC with a DVD player and the upcoming version of Intervideo WinDVD. Corel/Intervideo will also release a plug-in for the current version of WinDVD that will allow playback of these discs, though it hasn't announced a release date for it yet.

[Note to readers: I previously wrote that VideoStudio 11 Plus didn't output HD; please note corrections in the previous graph--Ed.]

VideoStudio 11 Plus is the one of the first Ulead products to bear Corel's name. Corel's acquisition of Ulead and InterVideo (which had been involved in merger talks) only closed in January.

Corel says the list price for VideoStudio 11 Plus is $130, and a version that doesn't do HD editing costs $90. Both should be available now.

Battery Woes Hit Apple

Another week, another laptop maker announces bad battery news. Apple says batteries in its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks may have performance problems. The good news, the batteries do not pose a safety risk.

The notebooks in question were sold between February 2006 through April 2007. Apple says a software update may fix the issue, but if that doesn't work you can request a free replacement battery even if you notebook is out of warranty. Here is a link to the Apple battery information page.

How do you know if your MacBook or MacBook Pro is effected? Apple recommends installing the update first and then says watch for the following symptoms:

* Battery is not recognized causing an "X" to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
* Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
*Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
* Battery pack is visibly deformed

Why All the Battery Problems?

Last week Acer America recalled 27,000 batteries stating certain batteries could overheat and potentially cause a fire. The Apple notebook battery issues appear to be separate. However it raises the question: why is the industry having so much trouble with laptop batteries?

I asked battery expert Robert Spotnitz, president of Battery Design, a small firm that develops battery management software. He says the industry is in a race to build a higher performance battery for the cheapest amount of money. "The pressure to have really high energy cells (batteries) pushes things to the edge," Spotnitz says. He says the industry could build more reliable batteries, but naturally the cost of a notebook would have to rise. And no notebook makers are ready to be the first at raising prices, he says.

Spotnitz adds, even the recalled Sony batteries suspected of overheating and possible combustion, passed the industry safety standards with flying colors. The type of battery testing needed to avoid future recalls just doesn't exist today, he says.

The industry needs better more comprehensive testing of batteries, Spotnitz says. He says high profile battery recalls will likely spur that change.

Google Ad Attack Captured on Video

Exploit Prevention Labs put up a video that explains the attacks they found in Google sponsored links and shows an exploit in progress.

Google has pulled the ads, and says it canceled the AdWords accounts behind the ads. I asked the company if it could provide particulars about the processes they might (or might not) have in place to prevent this kind of attack ahead of time, but I didn't get anything beyond this response.

Here Comes the Xbox 360 Elite

So, Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite officialy goes on sale in the U.S. this Sunday.

The Elite is an upgraded version of the original 360 gaming console, but with a black exterior, 120GB hard disk drive, High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port, and a high definition video cable. It also includes a matching wireless controller and Xbox Live headset.

Here are PC World Senior Editor Melissa Perenson's initial thoughts on the game console.

And our colleagues at sister pub GamePro have an interesting take on the Elite: Eight Reasons Why the Xbox 360 Elite Isn't Elite.

Are you looking forward to this iteration of the Xbox?

Apple's Jobs Lobbies Labels to Ditch DRM

Apple is pushing its record label partners to sell DRM-free music at iTunes.

Apple sent letters to that effect to its record label partners Wednesday, according to the Apple-watchers over at MacRumors.

It should be no surprise, says Gartner analyst Mike McGuire. When Apple's Steve Jobs sent out his now-famous open letter suggesting the abandonment of DRM, he said half the music available at iTunes would be DRM-free by 2008.

So far only one label, EMI, has signed up to sell DRM-free songs at iTunes. "So now Jobs is out selling," Gartner's McGuire says.

Jobs is confident other labels will follow suit. "There are a lot of people in the other music companies who are very intrigued by it," he told Reuters Wednesday. "They're thinking very hard about it right now."

Smaller independent labels like the idea of DRM-free, but the majors remain hesitant. EMI is the third largest of the four major record label conglomerates, leaving three others to be persuaded: Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.

Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), reiterated the major labels' love for DRM Thursday at a conference speech in Nashville. But he also left open the possibility of discussions on the matter.

EMI's move away from DRM might end up being a good thing for those of us whose MP3 players aren't made by Apple.

EMI's motivation for selling DRM-free music is to take a larger share of online music revenues, and there's no exclusivity in its agreement with Apple and iTunes. So EMI could easily (and probably will) sell DRM-free tracks on music services that compete with iTunes, like Microsoft's Zune Marketplace for instance.

If/when that happens, the other big labels will be under heavy pressure to follow.

Google Deletes Rogue Ads, Dangers Persist

Google has removed ads that appear alongside Google search results that re-directed users to malicious sites. But, according to security experts, the fix is temporary and search engine users should not assume sponsored links are all trustworthy.

"Search engines are just too easy a target for bad guys," says Roger Thompson of Exploit Security Labs. On April 25, Exploit Prevention Labs reported that malware distributors were using advertisements placed via Google's automated AdWords system to infect unsuspecting end-users with spyware designed to capture bank login user names and passwords.

Thompson says Google's removal of the ads is a temporary fix and that Google and other search engines need to overhaul their automated advertising systems.

McAfee Data Confirms Risky Ad Trend

Other research by security firm McAfee's SiteAdvisor division found in a December report that 8 percent of sponsored results from top search engines AOL, Ask.com, Google, MSN, and Yahoo can often lead to Web sites that contain spyware and scams, and are operated by people who love to send out spam.

SiteAdvisor reports 0.13 percent of all links on major search engines results contain browser exploits. AOL and Ask.com, it reports, have a slightly higher number of dangerous links with 0.17 percent linking to sites with browser exploits.

"Sponsored links are 2 to 4 times more likely to contain risky sites including those with exploits," says Shane Keats, a McAfee research analyst.

The report also puts into question Google's own interstitial warning page designed to prevent Google users from visiting dangerous sites. In SiteAdvisor's tests it says Google warned consumers for only 18 percent of Google general search results containing browser exploits.

McAfee SiteAdvisor, it should be pointed out, sells a browser security toolbar SiteAdvisor Plus ($20) and also gives away a reduced feature version of the toolbar.

Latest Threat is New and Nasty

According to Thompson, the way the exploit found within Google's sponsored links worked is, when someone searched on Google for "BetterBusinessBureau", for example, a list of sponsored links appeared alongside search results. If someone clicked a booby-trapped sponsored link they were the ad would redirect their browser through URLs that attempted to automatically download a virus program (MSO6-014) onto their computers before passing them along to the actual sites that were advertised.

Exploits buried in the normal search results (not sponsored) have long been a problem for search engines. The challenge scammers have had is getting their rigged sites and links seen within search results. By purchasing ads that appear at the top of search results scammers get the visibility they need to drive traffic to their exploited sites.

"People assume a level of trust when they visit a sponsored link," Thompson says. He says until search engines do more to vet the ads that are submitted all bets are off as to a sponsored link's legitimacy.

Protect Yourself

To protect yourself you should consider downloading either XPL's Linkscanner, Scandoo's toolbar, or McAfee's SiteAdvisor, all available in free versions.

Mozilla Updates Firefox 3 Release Schedule

Mozilla will be releasing monthly alpha versions of the Firefox 3 browser, followed by a planned first beta at the end of July, according to an updated release calendar.

Looking through the list of planned features for version 3, a few juicy-sounding ones catch my eye.

Continue reading "Mozilla Updates Firefox 3 Release Schedule"

New AOL Home Page Shows Yahoo Influence

If imitation truly is the greatest form of flattery, as the saying goes, then Yahoo should feel quite flattered right now. AOL's beta of its new home page looks remarkably similar to that of Yahoo's current home page design. The similarities between the two separated-at-birth sites are evident in the two screen captures seen below.

I've always respected Yahoo's home page--most notably for its generally clean look and feel. In an era of too-many pull-down menus and advertisements winking at me from every which way, Yahoo's comparatively Spartan page is like a welcomed oasis amidst the chaos of the Web.

AOL has taken Yahoo's design, and improved on it with subtle interface tweaks that enhance usability and readability. Both designs pack a similar configuration of information. Both have a modular design with a directory nav bar at left, and featured news and headline news (including basic stock market info) components stacked in the middle; at right are quick-launch buttons for key services, with an advertisement beneath that.

I like some of the tweaks AOL has made. For starters, the left nav bar panel lacks the Yahoo panel's graphical texture and uneven font sizes, making it slightly easier to read. Furthermore, by identifying the nav panel as a "Directory," AOL makes it clearer to its audience that this your launch pad to subsections within the AOL site.

Yahoo offers more variety in its top center module: You can choose from four tabbed categories--for featured stories, entertainment stories, sports stories, or life (a catch-all for lifestyle pieces ranging from recipes to HDTV facts) stories. For now, AOL's top viewer teases top stories in different sections, with a five-page feature viewer that automatically scrolls through

Overall, I think the AOL page--though not perfect--looks even cleaner than the Yahoo page. Sure, I get annoyed by plugs for AOL services I won't use, but the local section--with local info, traffic, and gas prices, is more meaningful to me as a user than Yahoo's "Pulse-What Yahoos Are Into" component, placed in a similar location on that page's real estate. Likewise, AOL's Shopping section has a broader appeal than Yahoo's "Today's Search Highlights."

Then again, I question just how much the home page matters anymore. Personally, I hardly ever stop at Yahoo's home page; instead, I just rely on the My Yahoo page I've already customized and tweaked to suit my interests.

Bill May Save Net Radio

On Thursday a bill that could save Internet radio was submitted to Congress. The bill, Internet Radio Equality Act, would stop a new royalty scheme that Internet broadcasters say will shut them down because it will cost them too much money.

U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) filed the legislation Thursday. The bill reverses a recent decision of the federal Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to nearly triple the amount of royalties Internet radio broadcasters pay to copyright holders for playing a song.

The Copyright Royalty Board earlier this month approved a rule that would force commercial Internet radio stations, regardless of their size, to pay a new, higher flat fee to the record labels each time a song is played. Royalty rates for Web-casters - starting retroactively at $0.0008 per song in 2006 will climb to $0.0019 per song in 2010. As it stands now, the rates will go into effect May 15.

In a press release Inslee states: "This Titanic rate increase is simply untenable for many Internet radio broadcasters."

"The Internet has provided us with amazing opportunities to enjoy music, and this unfair action by the CRB threatens to take it all away," Manzullo states in the press release. "Our legislation overturns the huge rate increases and sets up a system that is fair to Web-casters, Web users and the artists whose music we all enjoy. And most importantly, it will keep music playing on the Internet."

SaveNetRadio , which is made up of Net broadcasters, applaud the bill.

The Inslee-Manzullo Internet Radio Equality Act vacates the CRB's March 2 decision and proposes Net radio stations continue paying a percentage (7.5) of revenues through 2010. Alternatively, the bill would allow Net broadcaster to choose to pay 33 cents per hour of sound recordings transmitted to a single user.

That's a far cry from the estimated 60 percent of revenue that some Web broadcasters say they'll have to pay under Copyright Royalty Board plan.

The bill faces approval and vote in the House of Representatives. The bill must also pass a Senate vote before it could be signed into law.

A PDF copy of the bill can be downloaded here.

Google's Search Experiments

Looks like Google is trying out some new ways of presenting search results, including giving separate results for blog posts, news archive stories and related searches.

When I did a search for "Sheryl Crow", for instance, I saw this at the bottom of the first page of results:

Under "Searches related to: sheryl crow" were suggestions like "sheryl crow lyrics," "sheryl crow lance armstrong" and "john mayer" (apparently the two are touring together).

Below the list of related searches is a section with three blog posts about Crow. If Google sticks with this approach, I wonder what it'll mean for the inclusion of blog entries in the main listing of search results. There were no blog entries in the main search results on this page, though there was one on the next page.

I've found it frustrating in the past to have a lot of blog entries listed in Google's search results, since many blog entries don't have the kind of comprehensive and unbiased information I'm frequently looking for when I search.

I tried another search for "Bruce Springsteen" and got a similar related searches block. Below that, was a listing of news archive results for The Boss, two stories from 2006 and one from 2005.

Whether you'll see any of these changes seems to be a crap shoot. I Googled Sheryl Crow on another PC and got the related searches list, but no separate list of blog entries. One search on "Karl Rove" yielded a block of blog entries at the bottom of the first page, but the next few times I tried the same search I got only the traditional Google results. A search for "wi-fi networking" returned plain vanilla results. One for "Web 2.0" offered related searches and a separate listing of blog posts.

Let us know if you see the changes in your browser and what you think of them.

$1 Billion Anti-SPAM Lawsuit Filed

A Utah-based anti-spam company has filed a $1 billion lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 Internet users with the goal of ferreting out individuals who "harvest" email addresses for spammers.

The company, Utah-based Unspam Technologies, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia Thursday under Virginia anti-spam law and the federal CAN-SPAM Act. Unspam consults with private companies and government agencies on spam control tactics. It filed the lawsuit on behalf of its customers in 100 countries under the name "Project Honey Pot."

Here's why. Unspam and its customers have been using a clever method of tracking email harvesters and their spammer customers. Unspam provides its customers with a software tool that sets up Web pages, called Honey Pots, which make fake email addresses available to the automated email gathering programs used by the harvesters. Those email addresses are later used (like marked bills) by investigators to track both the harvesters and the spammers who use the addresses.

This has been going on for some time now, and the project has already collected a good deal of data. Honey Pot now believes it has enough data to start the legal process, hence its action today. The group will also ask the court for permission to subpoena records from the ISPs used by suspected harvesters and spammers.

Identifying the offenders might be the easy part. Actually prosecuting them has proven a tough job in the past. The main reason is that many of spammers operate from overseas beyond the reach of U.S. laws. But Unspam believes that a large number of harvesters operate in the U.S., many of them in Virginia. Unspam believes the lawsuit is the first to directly target the email harvesters.

The $1 billion in damages Unspam/Honey Pot is asking for would be the largest fine levied for spam violations so far by a U.S. court. What if they win? Who gets the $1 billion? From the group's Web site:

"Obviously a large chunk would go to paying legal fees. Intriguingly, though, since we will know what Project Honey Pot members provided the data that ends up winning the case, maybe we'll be able to send them a little bonus. :-)"

I wish Unspam and its customers luck. Spam now accounts for as much as 80 percent of total email traffic traveling over the Internet. Even if the Project Honey Pot suit manages to shut down just a few email harvesters and their spammer friends, it could be enough to raise some public ire against these parasites.

Acer Battery Recall: A Closer Look

Six months after Acer America told laptop owners they would not be impacted by a massive recall of batteries manufactured by Sony, on Wednesday Acer recalled 27,000 batteries in the U.S..

Acer did not return phone calls or e-mail inquiries requesting to know why it changed its tune on recalls. It did, however, publicly acknowledge on Wednesday the recalled batteries were manufactured by Sony. It has also set up an information Web site listing notebooks with bad batteries. The site also offers instructions on how to get a replacement.

Here is what Acer President Gianfranco Lanci said at an investors conference last October:

"We do not rely on Sony for batteries," Lanci said. For the small number of Acer laptops that do use Sony materials in their batteries, Lanci added, Acer's battery-charging mechanism ensures the batteries will not have problems.

Here is a link to the original story posted to sister publication InfoWorld.

We first started hearing about notebook recalls traced back to Sony with Dell last year. Next laptop maker Lenovo, Apple, and Sony itself. Over 9.6 million laptop PC batteries have been recalled so far.
Acer confessed that the rechargeable lithium ion batteries contain cells made by Sony Energy Devices that could overheat and potentially cause a fire.

What causes the problem?

All the lithium ion batteries recalled have one thing in common. That is a manufacturing defect (see the diagram) that led to rare instances where batteries overheated and even caught fire. Here is our explainer on the topic: Should Laptops Come With a Fire Extinguisher?

(Click here to enlarge)

In short, all battery recalls traced back to Sony stem from impurities (usually tiny pieces of metal) trapped within a defective battery. Those impurities got there, battery experts says, when they were manufactured by Sony. As those impurities work their way out to the edge of the anode or cathode they can cause the battery to short circuit. A short circuiting in a notebook battery can raise the temperature of the battery and cause the case to melt. Worse, if the temperature rises to fast it may generate enough pressure to create a small explosion.

According to an earlier PC World report Dell has confirmed six cases batteries either overheated or caught fire and Apple has reported nine.

Problems with Google Personalized Home Pages?

Some Digg readers, as well as our IDG News Service, are reporting that their personalized Google home pages are showing up without all the bookmarks, RSS feeds and widgets that the users spent time adding to the pages.

I just checked mine and didn't see the problem. (I did see this minor gaffe in the Wired News feed, though.

That kind of thing happens somewhat regularly, but as an editor who's made similar boneheaded moves in the past, it made me wince.)

Anyway, anyone seeing problems with your Google home page?

Software Pirate Faces 10 Years in Brig

Hew Raymond Griffiths, 44, a British national, pleaded guilt in a U.S. federal court to being the kingpin of the of the oldest and most renowned Internet software piracy groups called DrinkOrDie. Griffiths could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for distributing an estimated $50 million worth of pirated software, movies, games, and music.

Sentencing for Griffiths is June 22, according to the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia where he was prosecuted. Griffiths was living in living in Bateau Bay, Australia, and was extradited from Australia in February 2007 to face charges of criminal copyright infringement. Griffiths had fought the extradition orders for nearly three years.

Authorities say Griffiths extradition is unique because it marks one of the first times someone has been extradited based on an intellectual property offense.

"Software pirates think they can evade U.S. copyright infringement laws by moving their operation outside the U.S.," says John Wolfe, director of Internet enforcement for the Business Software Alliance. The Griffiths extradition proves they can't, he says. "Pirates now know you can't run from U.S. copyright laws."

Griffiths and dozens of other DrinkOrDie members around the world organized and ran "Warez" groups. Warez groups specialize in the illegal distribution over the Internet of copyrighted software programs, computer games, movies, and music.

According to a U.S. Justice Department press release DrinkOrDie was founded in Russia in 1993 and expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. The group was dismantled by the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of Operation Buccaneer in December 2001, with more than 70 raids conducted in the U.S. and five foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Australia, the Justice Department release states. Operation Buccaneer has resulted in more than 30 felony convictions in the United States and 11 convictions of foreign nationals overseas, according to the Justice Department.

Other DrinkOrDie members have already faced jail time. In 2002 Christopher Tresco, a then 24-year-old member of DrinkOrDie, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate criminal copyright laws. In 2003 four men with ties to DrinkOrDie pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut, to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.

Fellow software pirates in the United Kingdom Andrew Eardley and Mark Vent were arrested in 2005. Eardley and Vent, who both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud in 2005, were given 18-month jail sentences.

DrinkOrDie pirates first made their name when they released Microsoft Windows 95 two weeks before it went on sale.

Vonage Becomes a 'Cause'

Fresh from a small victory in court Tuesday, Vonage is trying to make some public relations hay from its potentially life-threatening patent infringement tussle with Verizon.

The VoIP company Wednesday announced a new Web site called FreeToCompete.com, where it invites consumers to rally behind it in its fight against Verizon.

Vonage says consumers will pay higher prices if Verizon is allowed to sue Vonage out of existence. Studies are cited. Loving Vonage customers are quoted.

The new site comes complete with raised fists holding telephones, a petition and email links to Big Bad Verizon. Visitors to the site are greeted with this line: "Al Gore invented the Internet; Now Verizon is trying to patent it."

But Vonage as a grass roots social "cause"? Will this new tactic win Vonage new customers where its bulging ad budget could not? Does Vonage vs. Verizon have real David vs. Goliath appeal?

Or has Vonage finally jumped the shark?

Why We Need Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs may have some answering to do about backdated stock options, if his former CFO is on the level. Who knows, he might actually have to do more than apologize this time. But Apple needs Jobs, and so do you. And here's why.

Jobs of course co-founded Apple back in 1976, and with Steve Wozniak introduced the first Apple computer, and then the first Macintosh. It was the heady early days of personal computers. I had an Apple IIe. It rocked.

In '85, Jobs lost a power struggle with Apple's board of directors and left the company. He went on to found Next.

Over the next 12 years without Jobs, Apple went on to ship Macs, and lots of them. Mac Classics, Mac Quadras, Mac LC's. Powerbooks, the Mac in laptop form. Some good stuff, some not-so-good stuff, but most thought of Apple during these days as a relatively lackluster one-trick pony, beloved by graphic artists and fanatics looking for a cause but settling firmly into the back seat. Though of course, there's no overlooking the fantastically successful Newton.

In '97, Jobs came back as Apple's CEO after Apple bought Next. The very next year, the innovative iMac launched and proved that yes, many people do actually care whether their computer looks nice.

But it didn't stop there. We got iPods in 2001, which weren't the first digital music players but quickly came to define the market. (I have an iPod. It rocks.) In 2003 iTunes released for PCs as well as Macs, and its companion online store proved that you can actually make money selling digital music online, without driving a stake through the heart of every band, record company and music professional on the planet.

We of course can't forget the major shift to Mac OS X, which delighted techies and die-hard Mac fans alike with its unix-like core and clean interface.

Now, analysts say that if streaming video is going to make it into the everyday living room, it will be through Apple TV. The iPhone has gadget nerds panting worldwide with anticipation, and Leopard, the next-gen Mac OS X, promises plenty of enticing goodies.

With Jobs, Apple has turned into a digital life powerhouse, albeit one that at times seems a little secrecy-crazed. So, if it turns out that he got shady with the options, let justice be served.

But like it or not, we need him at Apple. And clearly, the company knows it.

Your Next President @ MySpace

MySpace said Wednesday it will launch a new reality TV show in which TV viewers and MySpace users will choose an independent candidate for president.

The new show, called Independent, will be something like American Idol for politics. The nominees will be selected from entries at MySpace Video, and the winning candidate will be given a million bucks to spend on his or her campaign. The winning candidate, MySpace says, will "best reflect the voice of young Americans."

I suggest this guy.

"Independent represents a giant leap in the re-democratization of American politics," says MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe in the press release.

Week to week on the show, the contestants will be shown making their rounds in public, interacting with supporters, protestors, activists, and anybody else touched by the campaign. They'll get feedback from viewers both on the show and at MySpace.

The "Independent" probably won't win the presidency (what independent does?), but the show probably can't lose. MySpace has teamed up with reality TV producer Mark Burnett, whose company brought us the reality TV classics Survivor, The Apprentice, and, notably, Rock Star: INXS.

MySpace and Burnett have yet to find a network to run the new series, but that probably won't be an issue. MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns Fox Broadcasting.

Independent is expected to air in early 2008.

TJX Data Breach Gets Even Uglier

What is it going to take to make companies better protect our data? I'm not convinced lawsuits are the solutions. But they sure make me feel better.

Retailer TJX is getting sued by a group of Massachusetts banks ticked off that the retailer is costing them millions of dollars in covering costs associated with what is considered the biggest data breach ever. TJX says hackers may have stolen more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers from it over an 18-month period. Banks are furious that now they have to replace credit cards and spend even more to protect customers who complain of fraudulent charges.

The Massachusetts Bankers Association filed the suit against TJX Tuesday. TJX owns T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, A.J. Wright, and HomeGoods. Here is a link to the lawsuit file (Acrobat).

I spoke to Massachusetts Bankers Association's spokesperson Bruce Spitzer. He gave me an earful. "Major retailers have not stepped up to the plate and protected their customer's financial data," he told me. "These companies have not been held accountable. We plan on setting an example with TJX."

Go get 'em Spitzer. But you'll have to get in line.

TJX is already being sued in a class action lawsuit filed in January in a US District Court in Boston. It accuses TJX of negligence for failing to maintain adequate security of customer credit and debit card data and not disclosing the breach for a month. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also launched an investigation into TJX. In addition Mass. Attorney General Martha Coakley will lead a civil investigation by dozens of states into the security breach.

At this rate TJX is going to have to spend more money on legal fees than upgrading its IT department and better protecting customer data.

I have zero sympathy for TJX. According to news accounts, the company's data breach occurred in 2006, but it waited until mid-January 2007 to tell its customers that they might be at risk. TJX says that it delayed telling its customers, not (as I suspect) to avoid hurting holiday sales, but in order to notify law enforcement first.

No, I don't think lawsuits will, in the end, benefit anyone but the lawyers who are handling the cases. Check out "A Chronology of Data Breaches," posted at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's site. It puts the total number of records containing sensitive personal information that have been involved in security breaches since January 10, 2005, at 104 million. Clearly companies aren't learning from mistakes.

I put more trust in tougher data protection laws. California's privacy laws are a good place to look. Its' privacy law requires companies that maintain data on California residents to inform individuals of any security breaches that result in their personal information being stolen.

Meanwhile the TJX fiasco has been fodder for Mass. Rep. Michael Costello to promote identity theft legislation. He's behind a bill that would make companies liable their security systems are hacked and credit card data or personal information is stolen.

According to Costello, the law would be one of the first of its kind in the United States, forcing retailers and other companies along with government agencies and nonprofit groups to pay for losses if financial data is stolen.

Regarding TJX, I was impacted by last years data breach because I bought a shirt at Marshalls in 2006 with a credit card. Yes, I am worried my credit card number is being swapped on some Web site.

I'm still wondering what the true cost of that shirt is. I'm not holding my breath things are going to get better for consumers anytime soon. I just hope the next time I check my bank ballance a hacker hasn't wiped my account clean leaving me with only the shirt on my back.

Verizon To Offer a BlackBerry for World Travelers

Verizon will soon sell a BlackBerry that will support the carrier's CDMA/EVDO network in the U.S. and can also roam on GSM networks overseas.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition is Research in Motion's first device to support both CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks. Due in stores May 28 (and through Verizon's business sales channels two weeks earlier), the 8830 is somewhat similar in appearance to the 8800--but oddly, does not include a GPS receiver.

Here are some images that Research in Motion sent along:

To support the 8830, Verizon on May 14 will introduce a Global BlackBerry service that will enable voice calls in more than 150 countries and e-mail/data services in 60 countries. Subscribers will get a SIM card to enable GSM service on the same phone number they use in the US (the device will automatically operate on the appropriate network).

Global BlackBerry subscribers will also have access to 24/7 tech support, and will receive a calling card they can use to call Verizon for support free of charge if their BlackBerry 8830 is broken, lost, or stolen.

All of this doesn't come cheap. Verizon will sell the 8830 for $400--or $300 to new customers who sign up for a two-year plan. The Verizon news release says an additional $100 credit towards the purchase of the device will be available to customers who sign up for "qualifying" voice and data plans at time of purchase (no details on what qualifies).

The Global BlackBerry service will set you back $65 a month for unlimited e-mail if you also get a voice plan, or $70 a month if you don't get a voice plan. It's not clear from the news release whether this also includes data; Verizon does say that voice plan subscribers can opt for a pay-as-you-go data plan at a rather pricey-sounding $20 per megabyte.

Finally, Verizon is also offering unlimited U.S.-only e-mail service on the 8830 for $50 a month.

Joost Still Working Out the Kinks in Beta

I spent some time last weekend watching Joost, the new (and much-hyped) Internet video service from Kazaa founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. I came away with a (mostly) good impression, but noticed some basic problems that still need work.

Joost is in "limited" beta right now, which means you have to receive an invitation from the company or a current Joost user to download the application and start watching.

The first question I had about Joost concerned the look of the video itself, which its creators claim is "broadcast quality." I found Joost to be something less than broadcast quality much of the time.

Services like Joost are inevitably dependant on the speed of the user's broadband connection. Using my 1 Mb/sec DSL connection, the Joost video looked clean and performed reliably during times of low Internet traffic -- like very early Sunday morning. When traffic levels were high, like on Friday evening, Joost's picture often looked pixilated, and the stream cut off completely on several occasions.

I was impressed with the breadth of Joost's channel line up, which includes content from VH1, National Geographic and, soon, CBS.

However much of the video Big Media has made available at Joost so far isn't exactly prime-time stuff. For instance, the Comedy Central channel features 18 episodes of three shows: Freakshow, Dog Bites Man and Stella. I also saw many "special interest" and regional channels like "Bite TV", "BoomChicago" and "IndyCar Series".

Not that there's anything wrong with more specialized, non-prime time shows. That type of "long tail" programming, if there's enough to choose from, might prove to be the real niche of Internet video. I admit to watching several of the seven Ren and Stimpy (Nickelodeon) episodes available at Joost. I also found most of the 10 or so (older) National Geographic shows to be worth watching.

Research shows that TV viewers' main problem is this: "What do I watch when I don't know what to watch?" I give Joost kudos for providing several tools to help answer that question. You can use a key word search to find content you like. Your Joost-watching friends can invite you to watch, rate and chat about new shows in real time. Below is a screen grab of the "My Joost" page, where Joosters find their IM, invite, show rating and other "interactive" tools.

At Joost, the term "channel" means something different than it does in the cable TV world. Joost channels are just groupings of on-demand videos, the content of which is related in some way. For instance, there is a "Lassie" channel, and one called "Joost Suggests." Once you choose a channel from the Main Channel Menu, a show menu appears:

The screen shot below shows the Joost interface you see while watching a show. Actually, the graphics around the video appear only when you first select the show or after you move the mouse; they fade away neatly when you're done with them.

The graphic at the top shows you what channel you're watching. Once it's clicked, more information about the channel appears on the screen. The dashboard at the bottom is used to select and navigate through the video or move on to the next show in the channel. "My Channels" is a list of the channels you've told Joost you like.

I also noticed that Joost has already begun running advertisements in the beta version of the service. The ads usually consist of a short banner ad at the beginning of a show, then a single 10-30 second video ad every 20 minutes or so during the show. The ads don't last long enough to be annoying, however.

Joost, like Kazaa and Skype before it, relies on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to distribute video. P2P networks typically cache small bits of content (in this case video) on the hard drives of end users to help speed the delivery of video to users nearby. So, in theory at least, as more people begin using Joost the video packets will be delivered faster and more reliably. We'll check in with Joost again after it graduates from beta.

Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links

Roger Thompson of Exploit Security Labs posted today about finding poisoned Google sponsored links that surreptitiously direct searchers through malicious sites that attempt to surreptitiously install malware on your PC.

According to Thompson, if you ran a Google search for "BetterBusinessBureau" from April 10 through about 11am EST this morning, you'd have stood a one in three chance of seeing a top sponsored link with green link text that read www.bbb.org - just like the real search result. If you clicked that sponsored link, you'd even end up at the regular BBB site as per normal.

But before you got to the bbb.org site, you'd invisibly pass through a malicious site that would try to exploit an Internet Explorer browser hole. The site wouldn't have shown up in your browser, and you wouldn't have had any way of knowing about the redirection ahead of time. Unlike with real search results, you don't see the destination URL if you pass your mouse over a Google sponsored link.

Our colleagues over at InfoWorld have some more background on this in a story called: Experts: Google Doesn't Police Advertisers.

Continue reading "Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links"

Credit Card Company Calling? Think Again

Last month Jefferson City, Missouri was hit with a phishing scam that appears to be growing in popularity. The scam is a varient of what is known as a "vishing" scam which combines VoIP services and a phishing attack that attempt to pry personal and finantial information from unsuspecting victims.

In March Jefferson City residents were bombarded with over 1000 phone calls proporting to be from "Central Trust Bank." Calls to residents included the caller ID information of the local Central Bank. Messages left on voice mail directed Jefferson City residents to call a toll-free number in order to avoid "account deactivation."

According to a report by the Jefferson City News Tribune over two dozen people called the 800-number with only a few sharing their bank account numbers.

I found news outlets around the country warning of similar phishing scams that couple caller ID spoofing with phishing.

Caller ID Spoofing Scams

All the I found scams take advantage of a controversial telephone capability called caller ID spoofing. Caller ID spoofing allows someone to use either specialized equipment or online services to make any number appear on a call recipient's caller ID system.

Continue reading "Credit Card Company Calling? Think Again"

Mozilla Ending Support for Firefox 1.5 in Mid-May

Today was supposed to be Firefox 1.5's end-of-life farewell, with no more security or stability patches. But Mozilla just pushed back the date for ending support for the older version to mid-May.

If you haven't yet upgraded to version 2, you may as well get around to it before the now-delayed goodbye date. You're safer browsing with Firefox than with IE, sure, but the open-source browser isn't invulnerable by any means. Mozilla just released a security patch about a month ago for both 1.5 and 2, and it's essential to keep your browser - whichever you might use - up to date.

What's more, version 2 doesn't introduce any radical changes that would take a lot of getting used to, but does have some nice new features like upgraded RSS feed support and built-in antiphishing.

Download the latest Firefox version from getfirefox.com.

Vonage Sees Signs of Hope in Appeals Court

Vonage made its debut appearance in a D.C. appeals court Tuesday, and things went about as well as the VoIP company could have hoped for.

First off, the court extended a stay on a lower court's decision to bar Vonage from signing up new customers.

The judges gave no sign of their leanings during the two-hour hearing Tuesday, but called Vonage Tuesday afternoon with the good news.

The most promising aspect of Tuesday's hearing may be the line of questioning followed by the appeals court judges.

In its appeal Vonage must convince the court that the judge in the lower court, U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton, applied over-broad definitions to Verizon's VoIP patents. Vonage believes, and some experts agree, that under the Hilton definitions just about anybody selling VoIP service could be infringing on Verizon's patents.

Stifel Nicolaus analysts, who attended the hearing Tuesday morning, say the appeals court judges had a lot of questions about Hilton's definitions.

"Judge Dyk, who we believe is one of the intellectual leaders of the court, took over and dominated the bulk of the oral argument by digging deeply into the issue of whether district court Judge Hilton gave the correct jury instructions on the scope of Verizon's (VZ) patent claims, particularly on the 'translation' claim which is included in the '574 and '711 patents that go to the core of Vonage's service," writes Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin in a brief Tuesday. (Verizon's '574 and '711 patents describe technology that moves VoIP calls back and forth between VoIP networks and circuit-switched phone networks.)

The appeals court, mind you, didn't decide the case Tuesday, only whether Vonage deserved to be protected from the lower court injunction for the length of the appeal.

Still, the hearing and the resulting order may suggest that the appeals court is receptive to Vonage's main arguments.

The appeals court is expected to begin hearing oral arguments on June 25. The court has said that it will "accelerate" the trial and hopes to render a decision in about two months.

Apple Leopard, Blu-ray Disc, and Planet Earth

Ars Technica points to some speculation on Spymac that Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard), delayed until October of this year, will support the Blu-ray Disc high-definition video format. Ars Technica's article also speculates that Apple will introduce Blu-ray Disc players into lower-priced consumer level Macs as well as professional Mac Pro and MacBook Pro hardware.

Apple joined the Blu-ray Disc Association back in March 2005. Spymac says that Apple's DVD Studio Pro disc authoring software currently supports HD DVD but not Blu-ray Disc.

On a sort of related note, engadgetHD reports that High-Def Digest just published reviews of Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD versions of BBC's Planet Earth series. Have you been watching it? The DVDs, released initially in the U.K., are narrated by David Attenborough and are phenomenal. The Discovery Channel is airing an edited version in the United States.

Hi-Def Digest raves about the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions: "...simply put, this disc delivers the kind of breathless demo material that early adopters have been craving."

This production is personally probably the only thing that could get me to shell out for Blu-ray or HD DVD. What about you?

OpenDNS Adds Browser Shortcuts to Free Service

OpenDNS added a new shortcut feature today to their useful free Internet service that lets you create extensible bookmarks accessible from any browser.

Steve Bass has previously suggested the OpenDNS service for potentially speeding your Internet connection a bit and helping with typos like "pcworld.cmo," and I've been using it at home for a while. Until today, the service was essentially invisible, doing all its work in the background while you use the Internet.

To use shortcuts, you first have to create a free OpenDNS account at opendns.com (you don't need an account for the basic OpenDNS service). Then you can create shortcuts using a bookmarklet that assigns keywords for regularly visited sites.

Type the keyword into the browser's address bar, and you'll go to that site. For example, you could create a shortcut called 'pcw' that would take you to pcworld.com.

Continue reading "OpenDNS Adds Browser Shortcuts to Free Service"

Google Web History: Very Cool, Very Creepy

What were you thinking about on November 30, 2006? If you'd asked me that question yesterday, I would have had no clue. Today, I know the answer: I was wondering about how to make international calls, checking on the definition of temperate and planning to work late. I know that because today, I set up Google Web History.

This disturbingly thorough new service keeps track of everywhere you go, what you search for and what you view on the Internet, as long as you're signed into your Google account.

While Google asks you to opt in to the Web History service, it's got a history of your Google searches already. As soon as I signed up, Google showed a history of my searches back to Dec. 22, 2005, which is probably when I first signed up for my Google account.

Now that I've signed up for Web History, Google's keeping track not only of my searches, but every page I visit while I'm signed in. (If you're like me and have checked "Remember me on this computer" on the Gmail home page, then signing in once can keep you logged into the system for as long as two weeks.)

Web History's efficiency is a little creepy. I visited thecoolhunter.net on one tab, then clicked over to the tab with Web History, clicked refresh and coolhunter appeared at the top of the list. I always knew that what I did on the net wasn't secret and was likely being tracked by one or more cookies, but seeing the tracking happen immediately hit me in a visceral way.

Of course, there are lots of handy and interesting uses of Web History. You can search your history, making it much easier to find information you remember seeing a while ago, but can't remember where. You can see what sites you visit most often, what you most often search for and even on what days and months you do most of your searching.

But one discovery about Web History made me decide to turn it off once I finish this post. The service gave me a list of the sites I most frequently clicked on. At No. 1 was a Disney site about fairies. No, I'm not stalking Tinkerbell, but my 9-year-old daughter loves the site and visits obsessively. Since my daughter frequently uses our home PC after I've checked my Gmail account, her tweaking of her online fairies goes into my browsing history. So do my wife's web searches and son's browsing. All of which makes Google Web History a sort of backdoor way for me to monitor my family's web activity. And in the end, that just seems too creepy to me.

Coming Soon to a Gas Pump Near You: TV Ads

If you're fond of fast-forwarding through TV commercials at home, visiting the gas station is about to lose some of its appeal. The gas pump is the latest milieu in which you'll be a member of a "captive audience" for ad serving. While you fill up the car with unleaded, an LCD atop the pump will play a five-minute segment of news, sports and entertainment in an attempt to fill you up with advertisements.

Westinghouse Digital, the manufacturer of LCD TVs, and AdtekMedia today announced plans to roll out the appropriately named PumpTop TV at more than 75,000 gas station pumps. The narrowcast network delivers the programming wirelessly to 19-inch LCD screens on both sides of a pump. The displays purportedly have technologies that increase brightness and improve daylight viewing. The companies are installing them in Los Angeles, and will follow suit in northern California, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston.

Take our poll!

Hackers Crack Mac OS X. Big Whoop

Two hackers reportedly broke into a MacBook Pro laptop at the CanSecWest conference in Canada by exploiting a previously unknown flaw in the Safari Web browser, according to the Security Fix and Zero Day blogs.

Mac OS X has a strong reputation for security, so on the surface this sounds like a big deal. But while a zero-day flaw in a popular Web browser is nothing to ignore, this particular episode is no surprise. None at all.

Continue reading "Hackers Crack Mac OS X. Big Whoop"

We Chose Our Favorite Antivirus Today. What's Yours?

Our latest ranked review of top Vista-compatible antivirus programs just hit the wires this morning. It's a roundup of standalone apps, the kind that let you choose your own firewall and other security software, rather than the more expensive do-it-all suites.

To see who came out on top in our rankings, take a look at Virus Stoppers. The scores you'll find there resulted from plenty of testing and analysis - but we'd also love to see what you think.

Vote for your choice of the programs we tested below, or type in your own personal favorite. If you add your own, please keep in mind that this is for standalone apps rather than suites, and for programs that work under Vista as well as XP.

Wondering why McAfee isn't on the list? The company no longer sells a stand-alone antivirus app (its VirusScan Plus programs include a firewall). Also, F-Secure's standalone app wasn't Vista-ready in time for inclusion in our testing.

Ditch eWaste on Earth Day

Retailers and environmental organizations around the nation are teaming up to take your e-waste, which translates to your old cell phones, computers, peripherals, media, and other electronics that will polute the ground and air if not properly disposed of.

I've compiled a very short list of advertised places you can go on Sunday, April 22--aka Earth Day. There are many others. Check eRecycle.org to search by geographic location (although most places are in California) and type of material.

California: Wal-Mart and Sam's Club
They'll be teaming up with the California Integrated Waste Management Board and local organizations to set up drop-off spots in their parking lots.

Washington D.C.: Dell and the EPA
Between 11am and 3pm, Dell and the EPA will take back all sorts of electronics (televisions, stereos, PC, DVDs) in Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington D.C. Dell's press release says that the entrance to the site is on 13th and E streets.

Nationwide: Nokia's Phone Take-Back
If you go to one of Nokia's experience centers or flagship stores (New York and Chicago), you can pick up a pre-paid envelope for recycling any cell phone, cell-phone battery, or cell-phone accessory. If you don't live near one of these locations, you can go to Nokia's recycling Web page to print a paid postage label to mail items in.

Nationwide: Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation
This one's only for recycling batteries. Type in your zip code and how far you're willing to travel and the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation database will spit back take-back locations, which include many Radio Shack and cell-phone retail stores.

Sub-$300 HD Disc Player Coming to Wal-Mart

Engadget is reporting that Wal-Mart will soon begin selling a $299 high definition video disc player.

Problem is, Engadget's source, the Japanese tech site Akihabara News, isn't sure if the new player is HD DVD or Blu-ray. The Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats are vying to be the sole successor to standard-definition DVD format.

Or perhaps the new player is a hybrid device like the BD-UP5000 player Samsung says it will bring to market this year.

Anyway, Engadget and Akihabara News say Wal-Mart has purchased 2 million of the low-cost players from a Chinese manufacturer called Great Wall Corporation. The technology inside the player reportedly is made by the Taiwanese company Fuh Yuan, with some help from Japan's TDK.

At $299, the new player comes in at $100 less than the least expensive HD DVD player on the shelves today -- the Toshiba A2. The new player is half the price of Sony's $600 BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player, Engadget points out.

Exactly when the new $299 player will hit Wal-Mart's shelves remains unclear, but the manufacturer says the whole 2 million-unit order will be delivered to the retailer by the end of 2008.

StumbleUpon Launches a New Way to Waste Time

I say this with affection: StumbleUpon is one of the great time wasters of the Web. You probably know the concept: You install the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser, click the button and you're taken to a random web page that was recommended by another Stumbler. Once you get started, you can pretty much count on at least an hour being vacuumed from your life. You can no more click that button just once than you can eat just one chocolate chip.

Now the folks at StumbleUpon (who are denying rumors that they're being bought by eBay) have launched a new way of abducting your afternoon. Called StumbleThru, the new feature lets you restrict your random Web hopping to one site. Choices include YouTube, CNN, Flickr, Wikipedia and more. You can get the new feature by updating your Firefox or IE toolbar extention or you can go here if you'd like to try it without loading the toolbar. I'd have posted this item this morning if they hadn't added The Onion to the list. Damn you, StumbleUpon!

Skype User Numbers Grow, But Slower

New data from eBay shows that its Skype VoIP service is still picking up lots of new users, but at a slower rate than in previous quarters.

At the end of March, 196 million people had registered to use Skype. eBay isn't saying how many of those users became regular Skype users after they signed up. Still, it's a big leap from the 95 million people who had registered by end of March last year.

But the rapidly increasing popularity of cable "digital voice" service from companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable could be taking its toll on Skype's growth.

Skype added 25 million users in the first quarter of 2007, a growth of 14 percent over the previous quarter. In the last quarter of 2006, Skype added 35 million new users for a growth of 26 percent over the previous quarter.

Growth in the number of calling minutes used by Skypers also slowed. Skype users talked for 7.7 billion minutes using the free Skype-to-Skype service during the first three months of 2007. That's up only slightly from the 7.6 billion free minutes used in the last three months of 2006.

Skypers also placed 1.5 million minutes of for-pay SkypeOut calls during the first quarter of 2007. That's the same number of SkypeOut minutes Skype sold during the last quarter of 2006. No growth. The SkypeOut service connects Skype calls with regular (non-IP) land line phones and cell phones.

What's Hot at Dell? Everything but Vista

There's back and forth on whether Vista is selling poorly or well, but if recent announcements from Dell are anything to go by, the buzz is on other operating systems.

In its announcement yesterday that it is bringing XP back as an option for people buying select new Inspiron laptops and Dimension desktops, Dell said it heard its customers "loud and clear."

And before that, more than 100,000 people were just as loud and clear about wanting Linux on Dells as well, according to an announcement (scroll down) at the end of last month. The computer giant is still mum on which Linux distributions it will offer pre-installed, and on which PCs, beyond saying it will be both desktop and notebook models.

The only option for a factory-installed Linux computer from Dell right now is a high-end workstation, according to a spokesperson.

So which OS would you get on a Dell? Weigh in here:

De-Crapify New PCs

I just read about a little software gem called "The PC Decrapifier" on the Security Fix blog - a free download that will remove at least some of the load of trialware crap that comes installed on most every new PC, without your having to manually uninstall each one.

Love the sound of it, though I haven't yet tried it myself. Security Fix says it nixed a fair amount of the unasked-for software clutter, but ran a little slow.

Head to the PC Decrapifier site to download it, and to see a list of trialware it will remove.

Google in Privacy Hot Seat, Again

Google is in the hot seat again. It's faced this time with privacy advocates white knuckled and anxious over its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. Privacy groups are worried a Google DoubleClick combo will turn Google into Big Brother - or worse the Thought Police.

In a joint complaint filed today to the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group the privacy groups are calling for an investigation into the potential threat to consumer privacy posed by Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick. Here is a link to the copy of the complaint(Acrobat file). And here is a link to our news story.

I think the complaint is worthy and I applaud those behind it. Whether or not the complaint to the FTC derails the acquisition or not, Google needs to be monitored closely for what it is today and what it is quickly becoming.

Google, to me, seems a lot like a nuclear reactor. There are obvious pluses (great Web services) and worrisome cons. For example what happens when something goes wrong at Google?

As Google has grown, so has the amount of data it can collect from you. In so doing, with each new product offering (Google Desktop, GMail, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets) it has upped the privacy ante in the amount of data it collects. If Google suffers a privacy screw up it has the potential of being the digital equivalent of the nuclear nightmare at Three Mile Island. If Google gobbles up DoubleClick the stakes are raised to the Chernobyl level.

What Will Google Do With Your Web Tracks?

A combined DoubleClick and Google would have an unprecedented ability to profile you and me. In 2005, more than 60 million American adults used search engines on a typical day, according to the complaint filed today. DoubleClick reaches an estimated 80 to 85 percent of the users of Internet with its ads, according to the complaint.

To me it seems Google's desire to own DoubleClick contravenes its "Don't be evil" policy. DoubleClick has a sordid history with privacy activists. In 2000 the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint to the FTC accusing it of violating a section of the law forbidding "unfair and deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce."

EPIC was concerned about DoubleClick when it bought access to a trove offline data when it acquired Abacus Direct, a marketing firm. EPIC's complaint centered on DoubleClick's "Abacus Online," a group of DoubleClick's clients for which the advertising company tracks Web surfers' habits using online data, such as IP addresses, with off line data such as names, postal addresses, and catalog purchase histories.

In March of 2000, DoubleClick's CEO Kevin O?Connor released a statement that said that the company made a ?mistake by planning to merge names with anonymous user activity across Web sites in the absence of government and industry privacy standards.? Since then DoubleClick has been on a watch-list of privacy activists.

For me, the jury is out on whether DoubleClick puts my privacy before its business model of selling ads.

Possible Future Privacy Meltdown

Today's joint complaint points to concerns it has with Google's search engine.

"Search terms entered into the main Google search engine alone may reveal a plethora of personal information such as an individual's medical issues, associations, religious beliefs, political preferences, sexual orientation, and investments monitored."

Privacy concerns don't just stop with search. Google's tentacles now extend to a number of different areas as Ed Albro points out in a recent blog How Paranoid Should You Be about Google?

The fear among privacy activists is the acquisition of DoubleClick will permit Google to track both your Internet searches and the Web sites you visit.

The complaint also points out that Google stores your search activity marrying it with your IP address. Last month Google announced that it would soon begin to ?anonymize? the data linking search terms to a specific IP address after 18 to 24 months. Big whoop, I say.

Will "anonymizing" (only identifying the user by a number) be enough? I agree with privacy activist that say no.

Last year 658,000 anonymous AOL users had their search records picked through by a New York Times reporters who quickly matched a number of people with anonymous search data.

Take a look at this site called AOL Search Logs that stands as a lasting reminder of an Internet behemoth's screw up. The site is dedicated to making it easy to profile people based on "anonymized" data.

As the complaint points out "Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick will give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world."

Like a nuclear reactor, we must have complete trust that the people behind Google know what they are doing. Do you?

Want to Beta Test the Next Media Center?

Microsoft put out the word today that it's looking for brave users to beta test forthcoming updates to Windows Media Center. If you're a serious Media Center fan, this might be an interesting opportunity to help shape future versions of this home media app.

The sign-up page keeps mum on which new features Microsoft has planned for the upcoming release, but Charlie Owen's blog and the Media Center Sandbox--two of my favorite feeds from the Media Center dev team--often share interesting tidbits on all things Media Center. Check out the sign-up page if you're interested.

AT&T IPTV Spreading, Doing New Tricks

Buying TV service from the telephone company still sounds a little strange (in North America at least), but new numbers from AT&T suggest that the idea might be catching on.

AT&T began offering its U-verse IPTV service in 2006, but spent much of the year slowly learning how to serve high-bandwidth video (reliably) over a converted telephone network. The company said in January that it had signed up only 3,000 U-verse customers by the end of 2006.

But in a new statement Wednesday AT&T says that number has now grown to about 18,000. The company says it's now installing the new service in roughly 2,000 new households per week; that's about five times the rate it was managing in January.

AT&T also said Wednesday it will begin offering the U-verse video service to customers in Los Angeles in the next few weeks. U-verse is already available in selected parts of San Francisco and San Jose, California.

In the first three months of 2007, AT&T launched U-verse in Milwaukee, Kansas City and Dallas. The service launched last year in Indianapolis, Indiana; Hartford, Connecticut and San Antonio and Houston, Texas.

Big phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and Qwest are betting that selling video service will answer the cable companies, which have moved aggressively into selling (IP) telephone service. The telcos also know that their video services must be better than--not just comperable to--those of the cable companies.

The promise of IPTV has always been the cool stuff that might result when video is blended with other IP services like Internet access, telephony and wireless service. For instance, AT&T said Thursday that U-verse users can now access their TV listings and program their DVRs remotely using either a Web browser or a cell phone.

Hopefully, that's just the start. Other, more interesting service "mashups" might be offered in the future. For instance, while watching your (IP)TV, a text message might arrive on your screen from your kid's cell phone. Or, you might be able to open a "collaborative viewing" session with a cross-country friend in which you watch TV and talk in real time.

IPTV, the phone companies say, is also bi-directional, so TV watching might become a far more interactive experience than it is now. In services like U-verse, video packets are sent down to the set-top box in the living room, and the set-top box can also send messages back.

I'm not talking about just voting for American Idol here. New software companies are showing up with add-on products that will allow IPTV watchers to play games together and even vote for political candidates.

Now if they could just figure out how to put everything on ONE remote. Stay tuned.

Intuit to Refund Some TurboTax E-File Charges

Intuit today said it will automatically refund any credit card charges incurred by TurboTax e-file customers who experienced long delays or were unable to file Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, when the company's overloaded servers malfunctioned.

?We deeply regret the frustration and anxiety this caused our customers,? Steve Bennett, president and chief executive officer of Intuit, said in a statement. ?This is not the experience customers have come to expect from Intuit. It?s not acceptable to us, and we will do right by our customers who were impacted by this delay.?

The Internal Revenue Service yesterday gave individuals and accountants who use Intuit's TurboTax, ProSeries and Lacerte products until midnight tonight to file electronically after record volumes of last-minute filers choked the company's back-end electronic filing systems.

Intuit said it would work directly with the impacted ProSeries and Lacerte customers--accountants and accounting firms--to make amends, and would automatically refund any credit card charges incurred by individual TurboTax customers between 3 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, April 17 and 4 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, April 18.

Intuit also pledged to pay any other penalties--presumably from state tax authorities--that any of its customers incur as a result of the delays. No details have yet been provided on how the company will do this.

Intuit said its investigation of the problems showed that the company had sufficient capacity in place to process the record volume of last-minute returns. It blamed the delays on "an intermittent database problem in the company's e-filing system."

Cingular Offers International Data Roaming Plan

If you've ever activated a Cingular--I mean, AT&T--smartphone for overseas roaming and used its data features with any frequency, you've probably encountered the kind of sticker shock I got after my recent 10-day trip to Barcelona for 3GSM (and a brief post-show holiday). Instead of the usual monthly $120-$130 bill for the family plan my husband and I share, I had to pay in excess of $700!

So when I got an e-mail earlier today saying that the carrier was introducing international PDA data rate plans, I was excited--at first. I had looked closely at my bill, and most of the additional charges were for data roaming, not voice calls.

AT&T had previously introduced international data plans for BlackBerry and for laptop users with PC Card or embedded modems. But today's announcement extends such services to smartphones and handhelds.

For $45 a month (if you have a smartphone with a traditional numeric keypad) or $70 a month (if your device has a QWERTY keyboard), AT&T will give you unlimited domestic data (normally $20 or $45 a month for smartphones and full-keyboard devices, respectively) plus up to 20MB of data in some 30 countries abroad.

A one-year commitment is required, so the offer won't help me--I just don't travel overseas that often. And if you routinely transfer big files (such as images or, heaven forbid, video) you'll quickly run into the 20MB limit; after that, you'll have to pay 1/2 cent per kilobyte, which comes to $5 a megabyte if my math is right. So heavy usage still probably wouldn't be cheap.

Oh well. I have to go on a data diet when next I travel abroad.

MySpace Turns On the News

MySpace went live with a beta version of its news site Thursday. (Not that anybody would know it--there's no sign of the new site at the MySpace homepage.)

MySpace News uses an "aggregator" model, meaning that it produces no original content, but rather gathers up news from other outlets all over the Web.

At the time of this writing, MySpace News featured articles from the Washington Post, Time, IMDb News, Fox Sports and a Hollywood gossip site called PopBytes. Oh, and this breaking AP story: "Donkey Testifies in Dallas Noise Complaint Trial."

Readers can register their opinions of stories using a 5-point scale from "hated it" to "loved it". The stories that get the most positive votes appear at the top of the news page. It's easy to tell how many votes a story has already received, but I found it difficult to tell how many of those votes were thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

Anybody--Myspace members or not--can access the news page, but only members can vote on articles.

Digg.com is probably the best known example of this sort of news-aggregation-and-rating site, although a growing number of lesser-known sites (Reddit, Newsvine) do the same thing in one flavor or another.

Also, many of the stories at MySpace News appear to be hosted at MySpace's servers. When a story link is clicked, the browser usually goes to a page with a MySpace News header at the top and the story below. The URL indicates a MySpace domain. Other story links take the browser directly out to the sites where the story originates.

Users can also suggest their own RSS feeds, blogs and Web sites to MySpace for inclusion in the MySpace news. If their news passes muster, they get to post this fancy logo at their site:

Since its launch, MySpace has slowly added new things for its roughly 170 million users to do at the site, other than just social networking. The site features everything from local event listings to horoscopes to viral video, and will soon launch a gaming area. The longer MySpace members stay at the site, the more "views" the banner ads get.

Ubuntu Servers Overwhelmed

Typically, when a company's web site is down that's a bad thing -- a very bad thing. But according to one web monitoring site, Ubuntu.com has been down more than it's been up today, and in this case, that's a good thing.

The Linux developers released their new version 7.04 today, also known as Feisty Fawn, and it appears there's so much interest in the new OS that Ubuntu's servers just couldn't handle it. When I looked at Pingdom.com this morning, it reported the site had been up only 44 percent of the time. It was unavailable for more than 11 hours (Pingdom is located in Europe, so their day starts earlier than ours.) When I went to Ubuntu.com, I got a single page with links to mirror sites for downloading the OS and this note:

"Ubuntu 7.04 - Well Done
Thank you to everyone who has helped make Ubuntu 7.04 a reality. Thousands of you have helped code, test, translate and promote Ubuntu and everyone can celebrate today's release.
If you are looking for general information about the Ubuntu project, the main site will be back shortly."

One of the things Linux has needed to be more mainstream, I think, is more of a consensus on what the best distribution is to use. That makes it easier to share tips and tweaks and makes distributing software easier. Ubuntu seems to have locked up the designation of best distro for individual users and that should be positive.

Our Free Agent columnist, Matthew Newton, has been testing Feisty Fawn for quite a while and has lots of insight and tips for you. Go here for information about Feisty Fawn's new features and read today's column for seven things you've got to do once you've installed the new version.

Ads Coming to YouTube Sooner or Later

The party, or at least the free party, may be coming to an end at YouTube. The rumor coming out of the Net 2.0 conference in San Francisco Wednesday is that the wildly popular viral video site is very close to running ads around its videos.

Variety quoted Wallstrip founder Howard Lindzon as saying YouTube could begin running ads as soon as next week. Lindzon denies saying it, but says in a note to PC World that he believes the ads are coming at some point. Wallstrip regularly posts its stock analysis videos on YouTube.

Here's the official line from Google/YouTube: "We are actively exploring a variety of ways to help the community to monetize content, and expect to announce something in the coming months that users will embrace," a spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon. "We will not comment on further speculation on programs we haven't yet announced."

Lindzon says he's in favor of a system where YouTube gives vloggers (video bloggers) the option to have ads wrapped around their videos, the revenues being shared 50-50 between the two parties.

It's no secret that Google is trying to figure out the right formula for turning YouTube's massive traffic numbers into massive profits. That's what Google does. YouTube says it serves up more than 100 million videos every day, yet the site brought in only about $15 million in revenues last year, analysts estimate. Weigh that against the $1.65 billion Google paid for YouTube and you can see why the ad-minded Google people are looking to get some ad revenues going. The trick is doing that without alienating too many of YouTube's loyal fans.

Here's a bit from the YouTube Fact Sheet: YouTube is pursuing advertising as its business model, and is exploring a range of possibilities including PVAs (participatory video ads) promotions, sponsorships, contextual-based advertising, traditional banner advertising, etc.

Undetected Warezov Worm on the March Again

I came in this morning to find nine e-mails with a subject of 'Mail server report' sitting in my inbox. They're of course malware, with the same type of subject and message body as previous malware blasts.

Thing is, I immediately recognized them - but the anti-spam and antivirus at my work network and my desktop didn't. They all made it through to my inbox no questions asked.

What's more, I uploaded the .zip file attachment - Update-KB4901-x86.zip - to Virustotal.com, a site I've been using more and more lately. Virustotal runs anything you upload through 31 different antivirus scanners. None of them caught this variant.

F-Secure put up a post today saying it recognizes this blast as the Warezov worm, but it didn't recognize the file I uploaded on Virustotal's scan.

Part of the reason for this universal blind eye may be that the attachment is in .zip form. It's entirely possible that many of these scanners might recognize the worm if I unzipped the file (which would give me an executable .exe file, according to F-Secure's post).

But I'm not going to test that on my work desktop - even saving the inactive .zip file to my desktop (so that I can upload it to Virustotal) gives me the willies. I know that the .exe shouldn't do anything unless I double-click it, but I'm playing it safe. Sort of.

It may also be that, as often happens, the jerks behind Warezov are churning out new variants faster than the antivirus programs can react.

In any case, this just goes to show that no matter how many security tools you use (and you should at least use some sort of antivirus program and firewall), your own good sense is still your best protection. Stay sharp.

WeeWorld Puts Faces to Names Online

WeeWorld is outfitting people for Web 2.0. I ran into the company at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Wednesday.

At the WeeWorld site, you can create a cartoon-like alter-ego (called a WeeMee) that represents you in IM conversations, at social networking sites and in blogs.

WeeMees tell online contacts something about what you look like, dress like and feel like. Well, in broad strokes anyway.

Actually, WeeMees look a lot like South Park characters.

I wanted one. So WeeWorld general manager for North America Lauren Bigelow took me to her company's site to get my WeeMee on. After I quickly registered for an account, we began accessorizing.

Here's the result:

Note that I like pizza and soccer. Note how my tuxedo top, ripped jeans and pink shades perfectly set off the angsty, Web 2.0 expression I chose for my face.

Bigelow says WeeWorld has developed an API that allows other sites to host the WeeMee-building program. For instance, I could build my WeeMee at the sites of WeeWorld partners like MSN and AOL.

Now when I send someone an IM using AOL AIM, Skype, Windows Live Messenger or Excite, my WeeMee appears beside the text I send. I can also make my WeeMee do tricks like smile, laugh, cry, fall asleep or throw up (really), all for the entertainment (or disgust) of my IM buddies.

WeeMees recognize keywords in IM text, too. If you happen to type the word "sleepy" or "tired" in your IM, chances are your WeeMee will take a little nap. If you type in "angry" your WeeMee might begin to fume.

Bigelow says WeeWorld's purpose is to make online life a little more fun and expressive. WeeWorld's target demo is the thirteen to thirty-year-old crowd.

Not surprising; it's easy to see how the younger set would dig this stuff. Bigelow says 20 percent of WeeWorld members re-accessorize their WeeMees every day! Seventy percent change it once a week, she says.

Thunderbird 2 Released Today

The new version 2 of Mozilla's popular open-source e-mail client is now available for download.

Take a look at my recent review of the feature-complete release candidate for a rundown on the new features and changes. But in short, I like it. Version 2 doesn't introduce any earth-shattering new features, but message tags and other additions can make everyday e-mail work smoother and easier.

You can download the new version at http://www.getthunderbird.com. If you're using 1.5 already, it's an easy upgrade that will preserve all your e-mail, contacts and settings.

Apple iPhone: Arriving Later, Costing Less?

Is there any other tech device that is more of a magnet for rumors, many completely unfounded, than phones? Apple's iPhone is by far the champ, of course. There were avalanches of rumors about it before it was ever announced and they haven't slowed much since Steve Jobs's January announcement. You might of heard yesterday's batch about iPhone rebates. When Jobs first announced the phone, there was no talk of price breaks: If you wanted an iPhone, you'd have to pay through the nose -- $499 for a 4 GB version and $599 for one with 8 GB of storage. Now, there are rumors of the kinds of rebates you'd get with any other kind of phone, somewhere in the $50 to $150 range.

But that's not all. One report out of Australia says the iPhone may be delayed. The theory is that initial versions are a little lacking in the sturdiness department and that running OS X sucks your battery dry. But like most rumors that are said to come from handset manufacturers, this one should be taken with a big grain of salt. Apple recently sent customers an email promising the phone would ship in June. And since Apple recently delayed the release of Leopard, the next version of OS X, in order to devote engineers to the iPhone, slipping on the phone's release as well would be a major embarassment.

Want more phone rumors? Of course, you do. The last I have (for now) is more rumbling about a supposed Google phone. This rumor again comes theoretically from a handset maker, HTC, and says that the Google phone would launch at the end of this year, featuring EDGE and (naturally) Gmail and Google Maps. This one seems the most implausible to me. For one thing, a Google exec publicly stomped on the rumors last month (not that that necessarily changes people's minds). But mainly it just doesn't make much sense to me that Google would want to get involved in producing hardware.

The great thing about rumors, though, is we can all play along. So let me know which of the rumors is most plausible -- or make up your own!

Sony Replaces Some Copy-Protected DVDs

Sony DADC says it will replace copy-protected DVDs that are "incompatible" with a small number of DVD players. Sony says 20 DVD titles are affected including Open Season, Casino Royal, Stranger Than Fiction, Rocky Balboa, and The Holiday.

The Sony DVD disc incompatibility problem stems from Sony's use of the ARccOS copy protection system. Sony says the copy protection technology was used on a small number of DVDs that passed initial compatibility tests with DVD players. Sony estimates as many as 25 million DVDs have the incompatible version of the ARccOS copy protection technology on them.

One sign your DVD player may not be compatible with one of the 20 Sony DVD titles is when the DVD loads and displays the title screen but then freezes. After about 60 seconds the player turns itself off.

Sony says it has received complaints on less than 1000th of one percent of the affected discs shipped over the past few months--just a couple hundred complaints.

The vendor didn't supply a list of affected DVD players or say how many DVD players are impacted. The company would only say the number is very small. One of the DVD players impacted was a Sony DVD player model Sony DVP-CX995V, according to a Sony Pictures customer service repetitive.

Consumers who have purchased one of the 20 faulty Sony DVD movie titles can call Sony Pictures Home Entertainment at 1-800-860-2878 and request a replacement DVD. Sony says it has corrected the problem with ARccOS copy protection.

Here is Sony's official statement:

Continue reading "Sony Replaces Some Copy-Protected DVDs"

Web 2.0: Tellme Goes Up Against Google 411

Tellme.com announced a free new cell-phone-centric business search service today at the Web 2.0 conference here in San Francisco.

You can call a number (1-800-555-TELL) and use an automated menu to get a business listing, much like Google's new 411 service. Tellme recognized my neighborhood in San Francisco when I asked for 'barbeque' listings and offered a number of them for me to choose from.

Also like Google's 411, you can ask the automated service to send you the details as an SMS message if you're on a cell phone. But where Google sends just an address and phone number, Tellme also sends a link to an interactive online map, useful if your phone has a Web browser and data plan.

Or you can send the request as an SMS message in the first place by texting 83356 (Google 411 is 466453). I found this option to be faster and easier, personally.

If that's not enough, Tellme showed me a downloadable cell phone app that lets you speak your request like you would with the phone service and then displays the results. It requires a data access plan with Cingular or Sprint, and it's only available for some phone models. Along with the number, address and map, you can request driving directions through the app.

In the noisy conference hall, the app had trouble recognizing some of my spoken requests, but you can also type in a search. Point your phone's browser to http://m.tellme.com to see if it's available for your phone.

Web 2.0: Picture Passwords Promise Better Security

Pick three pictures, and you're logged in. That is, if you're using the new login scheme announced today at the Web 2.0 conference by Internet start-up Vidoop.

Instead of typing a text password, with Vidoop's system you'll see a grid of pictures with super-imposed letters on each one. You find the pictures that match categories you've previously chosen, such as dogs pics or flower shots, and type the letters associated with three category-matching pictures.

Continue reading "Web 2.0: Picture Passwords Promise Better Security"

NAB: Sneak Peek at Silverlight

Microsoft's made some waves with Silverlight, its new browser plug-in for video playback that could challenge Flash's Web supremacy. (See the Adobe CEO's view on that here.)

Formerly code-named WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere), the plug-in lets users play back video or interactive multimedia content in high-def or standard-def on the desktop for example, or view video optimized for mobile on their browser-enabled handheld of choice. It works with IE, Firefox, and Safari on both Macs and PCs (Opera support is not there yet, but should be coming). The beta should be available for download in about 2 weeks, with a final version out sometime this summer.

Like Adobe's Flash plug-in, when you go to an enabled Web site, you'd be prompted to download Silverlight and then you'd see a screen like the one below, and select among available clips.

Depending on the site, you may then be able to view the content in HD, as in the example below.

Silverlight supports the WMV, WMA, and VC-1 (used for in HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, for example) file formats. Content owners can also overlay ads or ticker tape-style information along the bottom of the screen.

Web and desktop content designers can use with Microsoft's Expression Studio Suite to create content for Silverlight. The suite has four major components: Expression Web, Expression Design, Expression Blend, and Expression Media (not all apps are currently shipping in the final version). One component in particular will be enhanced to work with Silverlight.

"Expression Blend will be extended to support development of interactive media experiences for Macs and Windows," said Sean Alexander, Director of Silverlight Media. These new interactive video files would then be played back through Silverlight.

Microsoft also previewed another product, the $299 Expression Media Encoder (shown below), which will make it easier for both pros and less experienced users to take say, a QuickTime file, and then easily convert it for Silverlight playback. The software is robust enough to scale the output for mobile on up to high-definition video.

Microsoft will release more information on Expression and Silverlight at its MIX 2007 conference at the end of April.

If Microsoft Redesigned the iPod's Packaging

If Microsoft were designing the iPod's packaging, what would it look like? Here's one idea...

NAB: Microsoft Debuts Interactive Media Manager

Microsoft has tailored a content management system and collaborative work tools for the entertainment industry, pulling technologies that existed in other Microsoft products, such as Windows Workflow Foundation, which is a set of tools for building workflow-enabled apps on Windows. The new Interactive Media Manager is a server based application with several customizable parts to aid content producers, such as the Media Library, shown below, with thumbnails of video assets in the first image, and a close up of the playback window with chapter thumbnails in the second.

Other parts of Interactive Media Manager include the Media Viewer, where you'll find the file annotations and time codes in industry standard form; the Media Annotator, which lets groups collaborate on the project, make notes to share, and discuss the work; the Media Import, which brings in new media files and starts prepping information gathering for the new project; and the Media Cart, which lets users essentially check out images to edit locally or send to specific other users in the group.

The product also integrates with Outlook, for example, so users can get notifications or forms required for the project's progress directly in their inboxes; you can also get such notices and forms via an RSS feed. Interactive Media Manager supports IE, Firefox, and Safari on both Windows and Macs.

The product is available now. It's an extension of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Web 2.0: Tim O'Reilly's Cautious Enthusiasm

Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, admitted in his address to the developers and marketers in the Web 2.0 Expo crowd yesterday afternoon that he and his company "cheerlead for you." O'Reilly (no relation to me) realizes that not every great idea translates into Internet riches. "There's definitely going to be failures of companies," he pointed out.

But at the same time, he believes there are plenty of killer apps in the Web's future. "We're at the VisiCalc level," he explained, comparing the Web's maturity to that of the dawn of the PC era some 30 years ago, when Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston created the first electronic spreadsheet for the Apple II.

O'Reilly envisions a pervasive global network, one characterized by "persistent computing that happens to all of us, that is all around us," and that can "harness collective intelligence."

At events such as this week's conference, it's difficult not to get caught up in the excitement, wondering which three- or four-person operation will end up the target of a multimillion-dollar acquisition bidding war. Of course, for every Web success story there are hundreds of flameouts. What separates the former from the latter is anybody's guess.

Google Says Copyright Video Filter Almost Ready

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Monday his company is just weeks away from activating a new system that will filter out copyright-protected videos on the Google Video and YouTube sites.

That's important because while sites like YouTube have proved wildly popular, they also provide ready homes for copyright-violating video. Examples might be clips from shows like Saturday Night Live and the L Word.

The big companies that own that content have been of two minds on the issue. On one hand they recognize that video sharing sites usually post only short bits of their shows, and may ultimately increase the visibility of their content. But on the other hand they don't like the idea of people watching their video for free and without ads.

Lately that second mindset seems to be winning out. Pressure has mounted on Google and others to provide a means of proactively finding and removing copyright-protected video content. The content owners have become increasingly frustrated that they are responsible for locating and pulling copyrighted video at the video sites.

That frustration led Viacom to file a $1 billion lawsuit against Google last month, claiming "massive intentional copyright infringement" on YouTube.

The lawsuit came after some long weeks of discussion between the two companies. "After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model," Viacom said at the time.

Google, of course, hopes its new filtering system will persuade Viacom to call off its lawyers so that the two media giants can play nice again. "With Viacom you're either doing a business deal with them or you're being sued by them," Google's Schmidt said Monday.

How Paranoid Should I Be about Google?

I'm not generally a member of the tin-foil hat society, but I have to admit that Google's plan to buy the DoubleClick ad network has me a little nervous. Google's competitors are worried that it's amassing an ad-serving monopoly, but that's not what bothers me.

Instead, I just started to think about everything Google could end up knowing about me:

What I search for: Google's cookie lasts for decades and could be keeping a record of every search query I submit.

Continue reading "How Paranoid Should I Be about Google?"

Web 2.0: Amazon Has IT in Its Sights

Amazon made its name nearly a decade ago as the world's largest bookstore, but founder and CEO Jeff Bezos also sees the company as a supplier of processor cycles to corporate IT departments. That's one part of Amazon's three-pronged strategy, as outlined by Bezos in a presentation and conversation with O'Reilly Media founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly at this week's Web 2.0 Expo.

The first part is what Amazon is famous for: Selling goods to consumers. Bezos told the audience of Web service vendors and developers that when looking to the future, it's important to consider what's likely to remain the same as well as what may change. People will continue to require that goods of all type be delivered to them, and Amazon is ready with on-demand warehouses offering businesses large and small places to store goods prior to delivery to customers.

In addition to its services to consumers, Bezos pointed out that Amazon allows Web developers to use its application programming interfaces to enhance Amazon's services. The company was one of the first to see its service as a platform for families of other services, created in house as well as by third parties.

The area with perhaps the most potential for Amazon is its business with large and midsize organizations. Its Simple Storage Service (S3) offers a flat rate of 15 cents per gigabyte of storage per month, and 20 cents per gigabyte transferred. The company is betting that its expertise in managing massive storage farms will extend to processing as well. The new Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2), currently in limited beta, offers the same on-demand capacity for an IT department's processing. Customers pay 10 cents per instance-hour used, or portion of an hour, in addition to their S3 storage and transfer fees.

Amazon isn't the only Web behemoth with sights on offering low-level Web services to IT departments. Google and Microsoft are among the big names building or planning massive processing and data-storage facilities, up to and including their placement near high-capacity energy generators such as hydro-electric dams. The companies hope to capitalize on their expertise in running server farms the size of Rhode Island.

(Note that the companies are focusing on relatively simple storage and processing, leaving the trickier application-level stuff for another day.)

So does this mean we'll soon be saying "bye-bye" to the specially-constructed IT departments found in nearly every company large enough to need its own parking lot? What are the implications of computer storage and processing becoming a commodity in the hands of a few large companies?

NAB: Adobe Previews New Media Player

Adobe gave its new free desktop media player one heck of an introduction on Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters show, with live demos at its booth and at its event on Monday night, which also showcased its updated Creative Suite products.

The player only works with Flash video files, but that's not a debilitating limitation given that standard's ubiquity in online video (though Microsoft would like to change that with its new Silverlight plug-in). Moreover, the player lets you easily download, store and playback Flash videos locally--not just stream them--and integrates a number of cool features that make it worth a look. The public beta will be out this summer, with a 1.0 release scheduled for fall, according to Mark Randall, Adobe's Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media.

The starter page of the media player (shown below) presents users with a number of options. On the left, you'll see new content that's become available since you last checked in--that content could be from an RSS feed you subscribe to and that downloaded in the background, or new videos that you've manually downloaded recently, for example.

(For a larger version of this screenshot, click here.)

On top of the main area, you can see selections from your local catalog, organized (for the moment since the player's UI is still a work in progress) either by genre, most recent, or channel. To the left of the viewing screen, you can also see friends' recommendations, and top-rated videos from services you subscribe to.

When you're playing a clip, the skin can change to reflect the content--so you'd get a Daily Show-themed skin if you're watching a video from that Comedy Central program, for instance. You do, of course, have the option not to allow the skin to change according to what you're viewing. And as with any other media player, you can get rid of all the catalog and recent videos sections if you just want to maximize the video you're watching.

One mixed blessing: The player lets content owners and service providers embed advertising and shopping tie-ins into the video file. So you could see an overlay ad--either a static image or a small video clip--on the bottom corner of the screen as you're watching the main attraction, even when you're offline.

And the player makes it very easy for sites to let you buy merchandize featured in the video you watch: You might see an icon of the potential purchase in the corner, say the CD of the artist whose music video you're watching, or a jacket a performer is wearing; if you want to buy it, you'd click the image, the main video would pause and you'd be taken to a shopping screen. This feature works whether you're online or off, though the specifics of the shopping engine--whether you'd then have to go online to complete the purchase or whether it would remember the order until you next log in, for example--will depend on individual sites.

The initial release will be for Macs and Windows PCs only, though Adobe's Randall expects that in the future the player could go onto mobile devices as well.

Adobe also announced shipment of its Creative Suite 3 in the Design Premium and Standard Editions as well as the Web Premium and Standard Editions, plus the public beta release of Premiere Pro (which will be available for Macs for the first time in years) and After Effects. Also check out our reviews of the previously released beta of Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver CS3.

NAB: Feds to Help Pay for Your Digital TV Changeover

On February 17, 2009, television stations will essentially stop transmitting analog signals and switch fully to digital broadcast. To continue to get your TV fix, you may need new equipment, and the government's ready to give you some money to buy it.

If you get your TV from a cable or satellite provider, for example, you should be set without the help: your provider should ensure that your set top box can handle the digital signals. However, if you have even one TV set that relies on old rabbit ears to get any TV reception at all, you'll need a converter to keep up with 24 and Grey's Anatomy.

Continue reading "NAB: Feds to Help Pay for Your Digital TV Changeover"

Internet Radio on Life Support Again

The Copyright Review Board dealt a serious blow to Internet Radio today, when it denied a request to reconsider its March ruling that would greatly increase fees broadcasters pay to copyright holders. The original ruling called for a serious escalation of fees, to the point where most small, medium, and even large Internet radio broadcasters would not be able to afford to continue broadcasting.

Most Internet radio experts I talked to back in March believed that this initial ruling was just a starting point--that sure, the CRB had basically adopted a fee structure proposed by SoundExchange (a.k.a. the people who would be collecting the fees), and that while that was unfortunate, things would work themselves out in the appeal process. This wasn't the first time Internet Radio had been declared dead, and this type of "negotiation" was just part of the process.

Continue reading "Internet Radio on Life Support Again"

Web 2.0: Viddler Lets Users Add Video, Text Comments to Movies

Viddler.com, a rapidly growing YouTube competitor, launched new features at the Web 2.0 conference Monday that allow users to add both text and video comments to videos at at any moment in the film.

Launched in December, 2006, the Bethlehem, PA site demonstrated the new features during the San Francisco event and can be seen at the company's demo site.

"Both the author and visitors can pop in a comment any where on the video's timeline," said Robert Sandie, the company's president. "You can see where this would be really valuable, if for example, you had a long video of your kid and you wanted to point out the highlight moments. You can place a comment as can the visitor," he said.

Sandie also said that the ability to place commentary, whether in the form of a video or text, could be very useful for businesses by allowing end users, both internal and external, to note the important points, weaknesses, and strength of the content at the places in the timeline where they choose.

In a sense, the new features mimic the popular Flickr.com tool that allows photo viewers to put comments directly on places in the picture they find of most interest.

Web 2.0: Adobe, Salesforce Team Up on Developer Tools

Salesforce.com and Adobe Systems announced Monday at the Web 2.0 conference that developers can now use the Adobe Flex Toolkit for Apex, a set of programming tools that combine the capabilities of Flex and salesforce.com?s Apex platform to create new Internet business applications.

The toolkit, now available at http://developer.salesforce.com, allows developers to use those Flex tools to extend and customize the Salesforce experience by giving end users the ability to drag-and-drop new components onto their applications, said Adam Gross, vice president, developer marketing, salesforce.com.

"This is really bringing ideas found first in consumer technology and taking them into business applications," Gross said.

Are Verizon's VoIP Patents Too Broad?

Vonage is trying to have it both ways with its talk of "workarounds."

The term refers to VoIP technology Vonage would use instead of the stuff a district court found it guilty of "borrowing" from Verizon.

Vonage has been talking to the media about said workarounds for weeks now. The promise of workarounds was/is Vonage's main assurance to customers and investors that its service will not be shut down, even if all its legal options run out.

But in a court filing Friday, Vonage's lawyers say workarounds might not even be possible: "While Vonage has studied methods for designing around the patent, removal of the allegedly infringing technology, if even feasible, could take many months to full[y] study and implement."

They say "if even feasible" because district court judge Claude Hilton's read on the scope of the Verizon VoIP patents is so broad that any sort of Vonage "workaround" might still violate them in letter or spirit.

Here I have some sympathy for Vonage's case.

Judge Hilton's interpretation of one of the Verizon VoIP patents describes in fairly general terms the way to authenticate, route and bill for calls travelling between IP and circuit-switched networks. Using such a general definition, a real danger exists that other VoIP providers might also be in violation of that Verizon patent.

Verizon isn't saying whether it plans to file suit against other VoIP providers like Comcast or Skype, but it isn't ruling it out either. Now that Verizon has done all the legal work needed to bring a successful suit, why wouldn't it just go after all VoIP carriers that get big enough to threaten it?

If the Verizon patents survive Vonage's appeal, it might have lasting effects. VOIP is still in its early days, but most agree that it will one day replace the traditional circuit-switched network completely. Is it wise to give one company so much ownership of the core technology so early in the game? Is the court protecting an over-broad Verizon patent portfolio at the expense of new, innovative companies trying to survive in the space?

200GB Portable Hard Drive Debuts

Being the capacity monger I am, it didn't take much for Toshiba Storage pique my interest beyond telling me it was announcing a 200GB external hard drive. The company was first to market last year with a two-platter, 2.5-inch 200GB hard drive for notebook computers. Now, it is taking that same drive and putting the drive into its custom-designed external enclosure to bring the first 200GB external portable hard drive to market. Currently, the industry max is 160GB.

The $229 200GB Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive drive joins Toshiba's line of external hard drives introduced in January at CES. Those drives--ranging in capacity from 100GB to 160GB--shipped at the end of March. If you're in a hurry for the additional capacity, you won't have to wait long: According to Toshiba's Maciek Brzeski, the 200GB drive will ship at retail and at online sellers (such as Buy.com and Amazon) by the end of this month.

As with the other drives in Toshiba's line, the 200GB drive is housed in a black aluminum chassis. The aluminum helps dissipate heat, as do the ventilation slots at the rear of the drive. The drive itself is mounted inside the chassis using Toshiba's patent-pending six-point suspension system that's designed to dampen an impact, says Brzeski.

The drive is rated to withstand a drop from a desk-height surface. However, it lacks the g-force sensors found in many notebook PCs. "We are currently looking into adding this feature into subsequent products," says Brzeski. "The trick with G-sensors is attuning it for use in external drive, as opposed to inside a notebook."

Would You Buy a Green PC?

Your mission this weekend: Gather up your used computers, cell phones, batteries, CDs, DVDs, and other electronic garbage and get it ready for the weekend after that.

Earth Day is coming up on Sunday, April 22, inspiring tech companies to host recycling take-back programs. Dell, for example, is teaming up with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on an Earth Day event in Washington D.C. They'll take back any brand of computer and peripheral from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 22nd at Freedom Plaza. California Integrated Waste Management Board is also offering similar e-recycling events at locations throughout the state.

Responsibly disposing of your old e-waste is great, but what if you could buy new equipment that used less energy, came in less-exotic but more biodegradable packaging, and incorporated fewer toxic substances (like mercury and lead). Would you buy them? Would you buy them even if they took a performance hit?

We'd like to know. Be so kind as to take our poll:

Sling Media Will Launch "Clip" Site this Summer

Sling Media says it'll launch an Internet video "destination" of its own this summer.

Sling, remember, makes that odd-shaped little box (the Slingbox) that streams your cable, satellite or DVD video out over the Internet to your laptop or wireless device.

Sling's forthcoming site--unnamed as yet--will specialize in "clips" that users cut from programming running through their Slingboxes.

The clips are made with a new software extension called "Clip+Sling," which Sling announced in January at CES. The software sets a start point and an end point in a video stream, cuts that section from the cached video, then sends the clip to a central server for hosting. That central server provides the "back end" of the new site.

Consistent with the current trend among Internet video sites, Sling's clip site will be free and ad-based, the company says.

The site will differ from YouTube and its ilk because all the clips will come from professionally made video, not home movies. The clips will also be short--not more than 10 minutes in length, Sling says.

Sling expects Slingbox users to post must-see stuff like Daily Show bits, Survivor "vote-offs," and news and sports highlights. Anything on TV that's funny, gross, violent or sexy will probably be clipped and shared at Sling's new site. "It's almost like the new water cooler," says Sling spokesman Brian Jaquet.

"Why don't you just call the site that: watercooler.com?" I said. "That name's probably taken," Brian said. "Yeah," I said.

The idea of a site dedicated to sharing clips of major media-owned programming raises some obvious concerns over copyright and "fair use" rules. Sling says that because the clips will stream to only one viewer at a time, and because no copies can be made, there should be no possibility of infringement. Moreover, Sling says it's working closely with content partners like CBS on the issue.

Storm Worm Blast Still Evades Antivirus

I wrote yesterday about the ongoing flood of new Storm Worm variants showing up attached to e-mails with subjects such as "Virus Alert!" or "I dream of you." At the time, only four antivirus programs caught it (ClamAV, eSafe, Kaspersky and Symantec), according to a multi-engine scan from Virustotal.

Four others warned about a password-protected archive or .exe but didn't specifically find the worm.

Since then, the story (and the worm) has spread further, so I thought I'd see how well antivirus apps had caught up. Today at about 11:00am, I re-ran the test with the same Storm Worm sample from yesterday.

So how well did AV do today? Not that much better. Nine engines caught the virus, with eTrust-Vet, Fortinet, F-Secure, McAfee and Webwasher-Gateway joining yesterday's four. F-Secure uses Kaspersky's engine, and identifies the variant with the same name.

Which means that more than two-thirds of the programs up at Virustotal still miss this particular variant - not the greatest success rate.

So keep your guard up, and exercise extreme caution with any unexpected e-mail attachments. This worm may arrive as a message seemingly sent by someone you know, since it propagates using e-mail addresses lifted from infected computers.

Are CompUSA's Closeout Sales Any Good?

CompUSA promises up to 40 percent savings on everything from PCs, notebooks, flat panel TVs, and GPS devices at its "store closing" sales. I checked some of its "discount" prices at two of 126 CompUSAs set to close in the next few months. I thought I'd find loads of great deals. Instead I found PCs, LCD displays, and digital gear that is priced 10 to 20 percent higher than what even CompUSA sells it for at the 103 CompUSA stores that will not shut down. And, yes, I also found a few good deals.

Here are some of the everything-must-go "deals" advertised by a CompUSA in Framingham, Massachusetts and Norwalk, Connecticut.

CompUSA marked a HP Pavilion Media Center m7780n desktop down 10 percent to $1439. Meanwhile retailer Circuit City was selling the same system at 15 percent below CompUSA's sale price. Circuit City's price $1224.

Other CompUSA desktops, supposedly marked down 10 percent at the Framingham store, like a $449 eMachines T5082 Minitower were selling for 15 percent less ($384) at Best Buy. Even CompUSA's Web site, and some CompUSA retailers, beat the price I found in Framingham by 15 percent selling the same eMachine desktop for $389.

The bad deals didn't stop there. At the Framingham CompUSA it advertised HDTVs were all marked down 20 percent. CompUSA's sale price for a Olevia 27inch 327V LCD HD-Ready TV was $559 after the 20 percent savings. Meanwhile the exact same model LCD TV is going for 18 percent less at HomeDepot for $459.

Despite discount claims, many of the prices for products at the CompUSA stores I visited were higher or matched those at other CompUSA stores. When I asked CompUSA if it would match prices at other CompUSA stores or its own Web site I was told no.

I spotted a Garmin Street Pilot c550 GPS Navigation marked down 20 percent in Framingham going for $549. The same item was sold for $549 at Circuit City's Web site and JR.com. I ask, where is the savings?

A Few Good Deals

There were some good deals. A JVC eAViNU Portable GPS Navigation System was marked down to $239 at the CompUSA in Framingham. The cheapest I could find the same GPS unit at a reputable online merchants was for $399 at Best Buy.

I also spotted a CanoScan 8400F Color Image Scanner marked down to $87. The cheapest I could find it for was $129 at Canon?s E-Store.

Marketing Hype

I wouldn't have cared so much that CompUSA had jacked up the price on some merchandise so high that after a 20 percent savings you were still paying too much. I'm not so niave to think other retailers don't do the same. But I was struck by CompUSA's aggressive curbside sales campaign I witnessed in Connecticut.

(The "closeout sale" is advertised just before you walk inside CompUSA store in Framingham, MA.)
On a recent Saturday in Norwalk CompUSA had hired a small army of people to wave down cars with big signs promising steep 10 to 40 percent discounts on all inventory. The curbside marketers were not only standing in front of CompUSA but also Best Buy and Circuit City - which were right down street. Once inside the CompUSA store sales staff hovered over me blurting out things like "That's a great PC. I think it's the last one we've got."

I inquired about a Canon flat bed scanner asking what would happen if the product just didn?t work when I brought it home. Sales staff reminded me all sales were final and any problems with products purchased at the store would have to be addressed by the product manufacturer.

"Going out of business sales" are notorious for being promotions to draw people into a store. It appears this was the case with the two CompUSA stores I visited.

If you head out to buy some digital gear this weekend and end up at CompUSA check the price before you buy and make sure whatever it is buy works before you take it to the register.

CBS Expands Push Into Net Video

CBS said Thursday it will distribute its shows through a number of new Internet video outlets including AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh.

CBS claims it's now the "most widely distributed professional content provider on the Web." The network already has online distribution deals with Amazon, Apple and Yahoo!

What's this mean? You'll now be able to check out CSI, David Letterman, CBS News with Katie Couric and Survivor from the comfort of your desk at work. Uh, I mean, at home, of course. CBS says it'll all be free, but you'll have to sit through some ads.

"Today marks an important step in our strategy to distribute content broadly across the online interactive landscape on an open, non-exclusive basis," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves says in a statement Thursday.

Why do you care? CBS's announcement is further proof-of-concept for distributing high-quality video (not home-made YouTube stuff) on the Internet. The quality and content selection problems faced by Internet video today will eventually be solved. Big media deals like the one today will help speed the process.

A few key names jump out from the list of new CBS video distributors.

Comcast will carry the CBS stuff on its new Fancast.com video site, just announced yesterday.

The upstart video "space-shifting" company Sling Media says it will feature CBS content at a "forthcoming video destination" that it will launch this summer. The company is known for its "Slingbox" gadget, which "catches" cable TV content at home and "slings" it out to laptops or wireless devices via the Internet.

Joost, the new (and much-hyped) peer-to-peer (P2P) video site brought to you by Kazaa and Skype inventors Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, adds CBS to its quickly-growing content line-up. The service is still in beta.

AnywhereCD Jumps on the DRM-Free Bandwagon

I'm not sure what to think about this AnywhereCD site just yet. Maybe it's the MSWord font-pack graphical design. Maybe it's the selection of available CDs, which can best be described as, um... several. Or maybe I'm just getting hung up on bad Lindows/Linspire flashbacks. Still, I can't help but look a little askance at Michael Robertson's latest offering, a site selling 192kbps, DRM-free MP3 files of some popular recordings, with an option to add on a CD at minimal additional cost.

AnywhereCD sells only entire albums for between $9.95 and $14.95 per recording. (It's possible there are some more or less expensive discs on there, but that was the range I saw in my quick tour around the site. Most albums check in at $11.95.) A standard purchase nets you the entire recording in DRM-free MP3 files encoded at 192kbps. Kick in another $3, and you can get a CD of the recording mailed to you as well.

That might sound like a neat idea, but better values abound elsewhere. EMI's DRM-free albums will be cheaper on iTunes at $9.99 per recording, and they'll arrive in higher-quality 256kbps AAC files to boot. Stores like eMusic have been offering DRM-free music for years. The selection is limited to recordings on indie labels (though, IMO, it's an awesome selection of indie labels), but eMusic tunes cost quite a bit less at a maximum of $.33 per track. While the service requires a monthly subscription, at least it lets you download individual tracks.

If you'd rather buy CDs, Amazon, or pretty much any other online store offers better prices than what you'll end up paying at Anywhere CD. In fact, you can often get the disc for less than you'll pay for just the DRM-free MP3s.

Look, I'm all for an end to DRM, and I suppose it's possible this service just launched before its time, but so far I can't get excited about AnywhereCD. Unless they make some significant progress on selection, design, and price (pretty much everything, actually), I think it's going to be tough sledding for this new store.

(BTW, if you do decide you want to try this store out, note that you'll have to download the MP3Tunes downloader app, a 5.9MB file, for the best way to grab your new files.)

Mac OS X Leopard Delayed; Blame the iPhone

Apple announced today that software engineering and QA testing for the upcoming iPhone have caused delays in the release schedule of Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard. Apple will not be releasing the final version of its operating system at June's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) but will wait instead until October. WWDC attendees will get a beta of Leopard.

"Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones," commented Apple in an unusually introspective statement.

This sucks for those who were hoping to save a little money sooner than later by buying a new Mac with Leopard pre-installed. (Previous major Mac OS X releases have cost $129.) But no one likes a buggy OS either.

DigiTimes published a story in March speculating that Apple was delaying the release of Leopard in order to make Boot Camp work with the Windows Vista operating system; however, Apple released a Boot Camp update a few weeks ago that did just that. Boot Camp is Apple's free dual-boot utility for running Windows on the Mac.

And now, Boot Camp users are worried about language in the license agreement that says the beta software will expire upon the release of final software or on September 30.

Toshiba Intros Cheap 1080p HD DVD Player

In hindsight, Toshiba's recent price moves, to shave bucks off the cost of its entry level HD-A2 and high-end HD-XA2 players, were not just a response to aggressive Blu-ray marketing and pricing tactics. Instead, Toshiba was making room for the latest HD DVD player in its line, the HD-A20, which just began shipping to stores. It's in stock already from several resellers.

Most notable about the HD-A20: At $499, it matches Sony's PlayStation 3 (20GB hard drive version) for least expensive 1080p player. In our tests of nine high-def players, including the two Toshiba models introduced late last year and the Sony PS3, we found that we could see a difference in image quality between the two players that output images at 1080i (Toshiba's HD-A2 and Microsoft's Xbox 360) and those that output at 1080p (as all Blu-ray Disc players do). One scene that repeatedly showcased these differences: chapter 7 of Mission: Impossible 3, in which the wall that Tom Cruise scales had a moire pattern and shimmering bricks on the 1080i players we tested, and had a natural appearing wall on the 1080p players.

Like all HD DVD players, the Toshiba HD-A20 has an ethernet port for firmware updates and future content downloads; and it will support interactive features like on-demand picture-in-picture. The early release Toshiba issued did not discuss the audio output capabilities of this player.

I, for one, look forward to getting the HD-A20 into our lab to see how it stacks up against its competitors in visual quality and features.

I also look forward to seeing Blu-ray player manufacturers' answering serve. (Yes, my neck is getting sore from all this tennis-like back and forth between the camps over the past year). Sony has already announced a $599 player in Feburary, But now that the sub-$500 barrier has been breached by a product that's not PlayStation 3, the big question is: Which Blu-ray player is going match the HD-A20's price first?

Is Vonage VoIP's T-Rex?

Despite all the PR bluster from Vonage in recent weeks, the cracks are beginning to show.

The VOIP pioneer said Thursday its CEO Mike Snyder has left the building, and that it will cut 10 percent of its workforce.

Vonage has been locked in a bitter patent dispute with Verizon Communications, and has already lost round one in a Virginia circuit court. The company has been ordered to pay $58 million to Verizon and may have to post nearly $250 million in bonds to cover further damages sustained in an unsuccessful appeal. Vonage has about $420 million in the bank right now.

Another troubling point in Vonage's statement today is its plan to cut out "unnecessary marketing expenses." That may sound nice, but what does it really mean? I doubt they're talking about martini lunches or spa meetings. More than likely it's just spin on a plan to spend less in signing up new customers.

For Vonage, that's not good. VoIP is not a get-rich-quick business by any means; its success depends on constantly signing up (and keeping) large numbers of new users. Vonage is still a couple years away from having enough customers to make the business work in the long term.

Today's events are significant enough to warrant dragging out some old questions about the shape of VoIP to come:

? Are bring-your-own broadband services like Vonage really a good way to buy VoIP? Isn't it better to buy VoIP service as part of a bundle that includes Internet access, video and wireless service?

The cable and telephone companies think so. They insist people like having all those services on one bill, and that customers like having "one throat to choke" if something goes wrong. They point to research showing that once a person buys such a bundle, they are less likely to switch to another provider.

The research also shows that people buy bundles mainly because they believe they're paying less than if they purchased each service seperately.

? Is VoIP a stand-alone service at all, or is it really a feature embedded in broader applications like social networking or ecommerce?

Companies like Yahoo!, Google and eBay's Skype think so. All have built VoIP into other applications, most often instant messaging (IM). "Click to call" VoIP buttons are also showing up in places like eBay auctions, local search and social networking sites like Google's Orkut. VoIP may soon appear in spreadsheat and word processing apps for collaboration purposes. VoIP is even baked into gaming platforms like Microsoft's Xbox (for trash talking, of course).

If the answer to any of the above questions is "Yes," Vonage may prove to be a one-trick pony that eventually goes away. I hate to say this because I like their commercials (yoo-hoo, yoo-hoo-hoo). And the company certainly has done a lot to bring VoIP to the attention of the mainstream.

But Vonage may be one of those companies that rushed into a new tech area early, and ended up taking some arrows in the back for the benefit of those who would follow.

New Opera Browser Adds Speed Dial

Opera released an updated 9.2 version of its desktop Web browser Wednesday with a new Speed Dial feature and minor updates.

With Speed Dial, you can add nine bookmarks that show up on newly opened tabs. The only real difference between a Speed Dial bookmark and a regular bookmark is that you'll see a thumbnail of that site on the tab.

Continue reading "New Opera Browser Adds Speed Dial"

Keylogger Spyware Explained

Keyloggers are an increasingly common type of malicious software designed to hide quietly on a computer and steal information such as online bank account credentials. They log your keystrokes as you type, hence the name. Nikolay Grebennikov of Kaspersky Labs has good, informative post up about them that starts with a story about a Florida man who had $90,000 stolen from his bank account after being infected by a keylogger.

MGM on ITunes: Who Cares?

MGM is the latest movie studio to offer its movies via iTunes' downloads. Do I care? Part of me doesn't. But the movie buff in me recognizes this is significant and a sign of better things to come. Starting today, 25 MGM movie tiles are available through iTunes for download, including Dances With Wolves, Mad Max, and Rocky. MGM promises more to come in the months ahead. That joins a growing list of MGM movies offered through iTunes and other services such as CinemaNow, Movielink, and other movie rental Web sites.

I applaud MGM for making its movies available through iTunes . It joins a host of other movie studios slowly embracing the inevitable future of movie distribution. But, I'm excited -- not because I like watching movies on my laptop or PC, because I don't. I do, however, recognize digital downloads of movies as the most efficient means of movie distribution - far better than even DVD rent-by-mail services such as Netflix and Blockbuster Total Access. Today's announcement by MGM brings us a little closer a future where downloading a movie is as easy as downloading a new Fiona Apple song off iTunes.

I'm reminded weekly how antiquated the current system of movie rentals is. I've about had it with my Netflix subscription. I'm having analog issues with Netflix. The top three movies in my Netflix queue are Bobby, Happy Feet, and Children of Men. Netflix has indicated there will be a "long wait" for two of the movies and "very long wait" for Bobby. Over the past two months I've received three movies (Fast Food Nation, Robots, and Stranger Than Fiction) that were scratched and unplayable in several of the DVD players I own. Grrr..

On top of that I'm convinced Netflix has "throttled" my subscription, sending movies more quickly to customers who rent fewer DVDs than I. That policy is spelled out in its Terms of Use found here: "We give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service." I wonder whether avid movie fans like myself get all the damaged DVDs as well.

The movie download business, like music downloads, has a bright future. If any of the above movies I was interested in were available for download (which most of them are not, right now) I could bypass those Netflix analog frustrations. But sadly, too many digital frustration remain when considering the movie download alternative.

Despite my warm feelings for movie downloads, currently I'm not a fan. The hassle factor is way too high for me. Call me old fashioned, but I don't want to log on and download movies and watch them on my laptop or PC. Last time PC World looked at movie download services we gave them two thumbs down.

My anti-download-movie attitude could change. I'm keeping an eye on the Apple TV that "just plain works" according to my boss Ed Albro, who reviewed it. Watching movies from my couch on my TV is the only way I enjoy watching movies at home. From what I can tell, Apple TV does a good job allowing me to do just that. I'll also keep an eye on a new Tivo service called Amazon Unbox on Tivo that lets me order movies through Amazon, have them downloaded to my Tivo box, for watching on my couch.

Oh yeah, there are also about a half dozen other issues to overcome before the movie download-rental market thrives. For one, digital rights management protects movies so well they make figuring out how and when to play them a bummer. Also, devices like Apple TV can't play back movies from any movie download services. And, lastly, the most current "new releases" on iTunes, CinemaNow, and Movielink are not fresh enough or diverse enough for my tastes.

Meanwhile, I might just walk down to my corner Hollywood Video movie rental store this weekend and pick up Children of Men. I just called and was told "Yes, we've got plenty copies. Just come on down and pick one up."

Comcast Plans Online Video and Information Site

The online video land rush continues with Comcast announcing Wednesday a new movie site called Fancast.com, which it says will launch this summer.

Comcast says Fancast will offer all sorts of search and movie information options, and says online movies will be available there, too.

Comcast unveiled its Fancast plans within a larger announcement about its pending acquisition of the movie ticketing and information site Fandango. And for good reason. Fancast is partly a repackaging of the IMGb-like tools already available at Fandango.

Here's how the press release describes the new site:

"With Fancast, consumers will be able to search for their favorite shows, movies, actors and actresses, or simply enjoy the video content on the site. Fancast will provide consumers with a place to discover when their favorite shows or movies are "on," and where they can view them via television, video-on-demand, online or on other devices."

The online video part sounded a little vague, so I called Comcast to make sure. "We do expect that people will be able to view video--both long- and short-form video--at Fancast," spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury confirms.

This could end up being interesting. Comcast is one of the largest buyers (if not the largest buyer) of video content in the world; it could use that buying power to convince the movie studios to distribute more and better titles via the Internet. Most people would agree that the movie selection at most online video sites today is, well, limited.

The "cross-platform" aspect of Fancast may also prove interesting. Fancast users, Khoury explains, will be able to search for a certain movie and find out where it's playing--on regular TV, cable, pay-per-view, DVD or in theatres or online.

If the movie's still in theatres, a ticket can be purchased at the site. If it's on DVD, Khoury says, the title may be available for purchase at Fancast. If it's available online, the user might just hit "start download."

Khoury says later on users will be able to use Fancast to program their DVRs to record movies and TV shows scheduled for later airing. The site, she says, will also send users email reminders about not-to-be-missed shows.

Hey Dude, Your Palm's a Dell! (?)

The ongoing drama of Palm's apparent search for a buyer took a new twist today as rumors surfaced that Dell, which has discontinued its Axim line of Windows Mobile PDAs, might be interested in the beleaguered Treo vendor.

It's not clear where the rumor originated, but it's floating through the blogosphere and at least one analyst has told our sister publication, Computerworld, that he thinks it makes sense. Read Mark Hamblen's story here.

A Dell spokeswoman told Hamblen she couldn't comment on the rumor, which always makes such speculation sound more likely. Then again, we've been ground up by the Palm-sale rumor mill a lot lately--most recently, just before Palm issued its last quarterly report. Potential suitors mentioned in speculative reports have included Nokia, Motorola, and even HP.

As for the Axim's demise, I doubt anyone is crying--which is odd, considering the products were pretty good and always well priced. They routinely did well in our PDA roundups, but just never generated the buzz or devotion that Palm was able to attract for its early handhelds and the latter-day Treos (the 600 and its successors).

Apple Debuts MGM Movies at iTunes

The iTunes store Wednesday began selling online movie titles from MGM, the Hollywood studio boasting the biggest catalog of modern movie titles. An Apple spokesman said a batch of 25 MGM movies became available at iTunes Wednesday, and that more titles will be added over the next few weeks.

MGM says its catalog comprises about 4,000 movie titles. These include such dandies as "The Thomas Crown Affair," "Ronin," and "Lilies of the Field."

The iTunes store now sells around 500 movies--well less than some of its online video rivals. For instance, CinemaNow sells about 4,000 video titles, 2,400 of which are full-length movies. iTunes' selection might improve rapidly as it gets permission to sell more movies from large catalogs like MGM's.

That process has proven to be slow going, however. The studios remain worried about the security of movies delivered over the public Internet. They've had a very bad time with DVD piracy, and don't want to repeat the problem with IP distribution, which many view as even more piracy-prone.

It's also a marketing issue. The studios are hesitant to make bigger titles available sooner at the expense of DVD, pay-per view and cable sales.

Also, Apple's deal with MGM is by no means exclusive. MGM movies are available at both Cinemanow and Movielink, among others. In fact, MGM owns a controlling interest in Movielink in a joint venture with four other studios.

And iTunes still offers no HD--the new MGM titles play at "near-DVD quality" or 640x480 screen resolution. You can watch the movies on your computer, on your (fifth generation) iPod, or on your TV (if you shelled out the $299 for an Apple TV box.)

Speaking of the Apple TV box, reports of creative hacks on the new video streaming device have begun showing up. Several outlets said Tuesday that the people who brought us the video "space shifting" Slingbox device are now working on a way to port iTunes video content from the Apple TV box to cell phones. Gizmodo reports on another hacker who has cooked up a small download that enables viewers to see RSS feeds on their TV via the Apple TV box.

Apple's new television ad for Apple TV makes a big deal of the portability of video between the PC, the TV and the iPod. It began airing Monday.

Rumors Fly About Microsoft Zune 2.0

Rumors are flying across the Web about Microsoft's plans for its next iteration of the Zune audio player.

Apparently, an editor at Zune Scene leaked the details from a conversation he had on an airplane with a Microsoft employee. According to this employee, Microsoft's successor to its first hard-drive player will be thinnner than the original, and there will also be a flash-based model.

Gizmodo has posted a purported photo of a prototype, though it cites elements of the photo that may indicate retouching.

What we'd like to see in the next Zune is smoother syncing. We had difficulties with the first Zune, and regretted its limited Wi-Fi features. And now that we've held the new SanDisk Sansa Connect in our hands, and seen the possibilities for streaming Internet radio over Wi-Fi, our hopes are high that Zune 2.0's Wi-Fi capabilities will be a significant improvement over its predecessor.

AACS Hole Patched, Opened Again

The Advanced Access Content System License Administrator quietly announced this week it had responded to the attacks on the AACS copy protection on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, first reported in December 2006. AACS LA's response was an expected one: It revoked the existing license keys for the affected players, and introduced new keys. This is the process by which AACS can respond to an attack, often referred to by industry insiders as "self-healing."

This update only affects PC software players from CyberLink and Corel that are capable of playing Blu-ray and HD DVD movie content. Affected players must be updated in order to continue playing high-definition movie discs. (Corel issued its update late last week, just before the AACS announcement.)

No sooner had the virtual ink on the update announcement barely dried, though, when Doom9's forums--the site where hacker Muslix64 first posted a workaround to AACS back in December--were hopping with new ways to circumvent the newly released update for the Corel InterVideo WinDVD player.

The new workaround has been confirmed on Doom 9 with a Toshiba-built Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Player and the newly updated InterVideo WinDVD player. AACS LA spokesperson Michael Ayers says the organization is aware of and investigating this latest breach, and it will take "appropriate action" based on their findings.

Actions open to AACS include revoking the key for the Xbox 360 HD DVD player--and, presumably, other HD DVD-ROM and Blu-ray Disc burners already on the market. The current key revocation does not impact existing hardware players, but that could certainly change.

If it comes down to AACS revoking hardware keys for PC devices, such a move would be disappointing, and could constrain adoption of the next-gen formats. Back when DVD first launched a decade ago, many computer users adopted DVD in their PC well before buying a pricey living room player.

Fast forward to the present, an era when PCs are prevalent in the home, and is more commonly used as a video player--be it on a large, flat-panel monitor or output to an HDTV. As prices for high-def player options drop, adding high-def playback to your desktop PC or notebook is an attractive alternative to buying a dedicated player for your living room.

Stay tuned for an upcoming Burning Questions column for more perspective on the AACS attacks.

A Closer Look: Google Earth Darfur Awareness

I don't claim any special knowledge of the current crisis in Sudan. But after spending some time flying over and zooming in the Darfur region via Google Earth I am a lot more informed. I'm also impressed at Google Earth as a software program and its ability to use the software to do more than just view satellite images of my backyard.

Largely the genocide in Darfur has been ignored by the world. But thanks to Google, in partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the crisis is getting more attention by me and others via Google Earth.

(Picture of Sudan via Google Earth)

Google Earth has added a Global Awareness layer to its maps program that lets you learn about the crisis in Darfur. By selecting the Global Awareness layer (in the lower left-hand corner of Google Earth) you can fly over enhanced satellite images of the war-torn region. Sprinkled over the map are icons that link to photographs, data, videos, and narratives of eyewitnesses to the genocide.

Using Google Earth I not only learned something about the 1600 villages destroyed in fighting between government militias and rebels, I was also able to learn about the conflict from the ground level via video clips, compelling photographs, and narrative text. Each Google Earth placemarker includes a "How Can I Help" link with links to relief organizations and government Web sites.

(One of many photos that tell the Darfur story)
Hovering over a burned out village that looked eerily like a barren and pocked photo of the surface of the moon I read first-hand accounts from some of the thousands of villagers who have been displaced. Within a few clicks I found a video testimony of former United States Marine Brian Steidle who describes what he saw while in Darfur with the African Union Monitoring Force.

(This village has been burned and abandoned)
I'm struck as journalist how powerful a medium Google Earth can be in raising awareness, telling a story, and teaching. Google Earth does a very good job of putting topical information about the Sudan in context with the rest of the world. Not only do you get a handle on the literal scope of the problem, but when seen in a geographic perspective one gets a real sense of the size of the humanitarian tragedy.

Seeing satellite images showing the burned the out villages for myself and reading the personal stories breaks my heart. It reminds of seeing satellite images offered by Google Maps of New Orleans days after it was devastated by the hurricane Katrina. Like with New Orleans, I didn't get a sense of the detestation until I saw it with my own eyes - be it via Google Earth.

I hope Google Earth's Global Awareness layer is a catalyst for education and action. It brings to mind the Google's mantra "Do no evil" that is part of the company's philosophy. Google takes it one step further today and actually is doing good.

Grisoft Offers Free Anti-Rootkit Security Software

Grisoft today announced its free AVG Anti-rootkit software for Windows XP and 2000, designed to detect and delete the malicious kits that try to hide malware on a PC.

If a virus with rootkit functionality made its way onto your computer, its files and processes would likely be hidden in Explorer, the Task Manager, and other tools. The company's AVG Anti-Virus software is also available in a free version.

The AVG Anti-rootkit download is a tiny 414kb, and installed quickly. Its straightforward, no-frills interface allows a regular search and an in-depth search, though it doesn't tell you the difference.





A standard scan took 12 minutes on my work PC, while the in-depth search took just over an hour. Neither scan turned up any rootkits, thankfully.

If you think you might have hidden malware on your sytem, it's a good idea to run multiple rootkit detectors. Much like anti-spyware, no one program catches everything. Some antivirus software attempts to detect rootkits; others don't.

We looked at a number of other free rootkit detectors last June, including RootkitRevealer, IceSword, and GMER.

VoIP Too Complicated for Prime Time?

PC-based VoIP services like Skype and Google Talk are just too complicated to really make it with the non-geek crowd. That's the gist of a new research report from Forrester Research, anyway.

Forrester analyst Zayera Khan says most European VoIPers use IM-based services (also called VoIM) to make VoIP calls. So the Forrester report takes a look at the top five VoIM services in Europe--Google Talk, ICQ, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, Skype, and Yahoo! Messenger.

Khan came away believing that until these services become easier to install and operate, they won't attract large crowds of users. Specifically, Khan says, poeple find the menu categories and descriptions in the VoIM services confusing, and interactive elements such as icons, graphics, buttons, rollovers, navigation menus non-intuitive.

The report suggests that the usablity problems explain why only about 4 percent of connected Europeans use VoIP services for some or all of their private calls. Another group of about the same size tried VoIP service, but eventually gave up on it. Forrester says the numbers aren't that much better in North America, where only about five percent of connected households use PC-to-PC VoIP, and only one percent use PC-to-regular-phone-line VoIP (i.e. the SkypeOut service).

Of the ones studied, Kahn says Yahoo! Messenger did the most to make its app more user friendly, while ICQ did the least. "ICQ seems to simply not want to appeal to mainstream consumers and stick to its young audience with its street language and cutesy images," Kahn writes.

VoIP's usability issues may tie into a larger behavioral one. "Most consumers just don't want to talk through their computer," says Forrester's North America VOIP analyst, Susan Cohen. "There are a lot of entrenched expectations in the consumer psyche about voice, like being able to use a handset."

It's pretty likely that voice service will move over to IP in a big way only when the transformation is completely or nearly completely invisible to the user.

U.S. cable companies understand this; in fact, the cable companies don't even call it VoIP, but rather "digital phone service."

Continue reading "VoIP Too Complicated for Prime Time?"

Palm That Runs Palm Apps Due By Year's End

Good news, I hope: Palm, Inc. today said it would deliver, by year's end, a new smartphone (a Treo, perhaps?) that supports old Palm apps.

The announcement by Palm CEO Ed Colligan at an analyst's day in New York provides a ray of hope for people (myself included) who like the Palm OS but want a more up-to-date handset. (I worried about this during the recent CTIA trade show.)

Colligan said the new device will be running an OS with a Linux kernel, which sounds a lot like the Access Linux Platform. Access wasn't mentioned by name in any of the reports I've seen, but that may be a contractual issue. (Palm has certain rights there that they acquired in the deal to buy exclusive use of the Palm brand from Palmsource, the spinoff that owned the OS and was sold to Access.)

Palm's presentation was interesting in other ways. Colligan basically acknowledged that Palm hasn't really succeeded in the lucrative enterprise market and expects an increasing share of its revenues to come from consumers. He also mentioned that Palm bought ChatterEmail, whose ChatterEmail+ push e-mail app for Treos I reviewed favorably last summer.

It's still unclear whether Palm is up for sale, but even if it is bought, I'm hoping against hope that someone will come out with a worthy successor to my Palm OS-based Treo. At this point, I don't care what it's called.

Microsoft Fixes ActiveX, Other Critical Flaws

Hot on the heels of the rare out-of-cycle patch for the widely attacked animated cursor flaw, Microsoft released a number of new critical fixes for XP and other Windows versions today on its regularly scheduled patch Tuesday.

The worst-sounding is a flaw in the Microsoft Agent that can allow a malicious Web site with a malformed URL to take over a vulnerable PC. It's critical on XP and Windows 2000, less dangerous on Windows Server 2003.

Other patches close holes in Univeral Plug and Play, the Content Management Server, and the Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem (CSRSS). All the patches will be sent out via Automatic Updates; or you can get them now by running Windows Update.

For more details, head to Microsoft's Security Bulletin MS07-020. Symantec also has its analysis online.

Giddy at the Reality of a 1TB Hard Drive

I admit it: I can't get enough storage. A religion? A compulsion? I don't know anymore. I have hard drives everywhere, and I can't resist the idea of more storage. (Two months ago, I saw 500GB hard drives on sale at for $150GB, no rebates, and I couldn't resist picking up a few. They're still in their boxes, waiting for me to pop them into my system.)

Digital pictures, video clips (I have gigabytes of excerpts from gymnastics competitions since the 1960s), pictures, music, data?.did I mention pictures (Nowadays, I shoot mostly RAW files . For me, my hard drive storage isn't just about not storing and organizing all of this stuff into some logical, consolidated morass that's accessible on my home network from both my desktop and my laptop--and eventually, my TV. It's also about backing up all of this stuff in some sort of redundant manner, so I can have peace of mind that my data will be there when I want it.

Already, I'm thinking about rejiggering how I will set up my home server, forever a work-in-progress, all because the 1-terabyte hard drive from Hitachi is now shipping. The possibilities seem endless--and suddenly, I'm thinking even bigger picture, like now might be a good time to set up a PC-based high-def DVR (too bad ReplayTV PC Edition software is standard-def only) to record the last 10 original episodes of Stargate SG-1 and future eps of Battlestar Galactica.

Hitachi offers up some fun facts about what you can store on a 1TB drive: 333,000 high-resolution, 3MB JPEG photos; 250,000 MP3s (at about 4MB apiece); about 250 hours of high-definition video--the equivalence of about 125 movies--encoded as 9 Mbps MPEG-4 video.

So what will you do with one terabyte of storage?

IRobot Makes Splash with Verro Poolbot

IRobot expands its line of domestic robots to include a poolbot that could replace your pool boy ? well kinda. Today iRobot introduced two iRobot Verro Pool Cleaning Robots available now. The Verro 600 is priced at $1200 and the Verro 300 at $799.

(This is the Verro 600 model)

IRobot claims to use the Verros "just drop them in the pool" and in 60 to 90 minutes your pool will be free of dirt, dust, algae, bacteria and particles as small as two microns. Both Verros works without hoses, booster pumps, or suction lines.

(Here is a look at the Verro 300 in action)

Unlike other unique iRobot innovations such as the Roomba that will vacuum your living room and the Scooba that will swab your kitchen floor, the Verro is entering into well scrubbed turf. Pool equipment company Polaris, for example, sells a $799 model 380 pool vacuum that, according to pool experts, will out lap the Verro when it comes to sucking and scrubbing.

(The Verro 600 circulates 4,225 gallons of water per hour)

For pool-less people like myself, I'm not riveted by the iRobot news. More interesting to me will be the iRobot Verro hacks that undoubtedly follow. I'm going to keep an eye out for hacks on the Hacking Roomba Web site. The site hosts fun videos of Roombas tweaked to personal tastes. One is a Wiimote controlled Roomba.

(The Verro 300 cleans your entire pool from floor to waterline)

Could someone hack a Verro to clean my bathtub?

iPod Took a Bullet, but Did Not Save Soldier

UPDATE: April 9th: Some new information about Kevin Garrard, the soldier whose life was allegedly saved by an iPod that took a bullet. Nik Wilets, the blogger who first posted the story, got in contact with soldier Garrad. After getting an overwhelming response from the blog and photos he posted, Nik asked Kevin for clarification on exactly what happened.

Kevin said that the photos are true and the iPod did take a bullet, but it didn't save his life. He was wearing upgraded body armor that easily stopped the AK-47 bullet. Kevin didn't realize he was shot and that his iPod was broken until he returned back to base. He put on his headphones to listen to music while cleaning his weapon. When the music failed to play, he pulled out his iPod to figure out why. That is when he realized the iPod took a bullet, and he had been shot.

Bulletproof iPod Saves Soldier
While the validity of this statement can be debated by many hard core iPod fans, in this one specific case it's true: The iPod really does saves lives, or at the very least, one life.

Kevin Garrard, a soldier in the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, was shot in the chest by an insurgent with an AK-47 at very close range. A bullet of this caliber at close range would normally pierce through body armor, but this was Kevin's lucky day. He had his 20-gig iPod in his jacket pocket.

The bullet struck the iPod and slowed down the projectile enough that his body armor stopped the hot lead from piercing his chest. Check it out:

More images and details on Flickr.

Asus Among 46,000 Attack Sites Hitting .ANI Flaw

Clarification: Confused by the different numbers reported for browser-busting sites hitting the .ani flaw? Like the 46,000 sites I cite here, v. the 2,000 or so reported in this IDG news story?

The difference is this: The larger number is a total of affected sites, which might direct a hapless surfer to a site that contains the .ani exploit but not actually host the system-busting code. The 2,000 number reported by Websense is the number of sites that directly contain the exploit.

The 46,000+ number is the one to worry about, if you ask me. If you browse any of them with a vulnerable computer, you probably won't much care whether that site had the exploit or just sent you to one that did. You'll be owned either way.

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Online attackers are jumping all over the critical Windows Vista, XP and 2000 .ani flaw that can surrender control of your computer if you simply view a site containing one of the poisoned animated cursor files.

According to Andreas Marx of AV Test, he had to stop counting after finding 46,000 different URLs that together serve up almost 3,000 different corrupted .ani files. One of those sites is reportedly that of Asus, popular motherboard manufacturer.

Continue reading "Asus Among 46,000 Attack Sites Hitting .ANI Flaw"

Google's Beta 411 Connects Business Calls Free

Does Google know any bounds when it comes to offering diverse new services? On Friday it began testing a free telephone directory listing service that will look up business listings and connect the call for free. You can also have a text message of the phone number sent to your mobile phone.

The service is part of Google's research division Google Labs and is free for anyone to try by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411). The service is called Google Voice Local Search and could represent serious competition to existing services such as Jingle Networks' 1-800-FREE411.

I tried out the service, looking for an out-of-state listing, Zellner Chiropractic Center in Boulder, Colorado, using a scratchy connection on my cell phone. Google tripped up when it tried to understand what I said the first time, but on the second try found the number and connected my call for free.

Google Voice Local Search relies on an automated voice-recognition program that asks for the city, state, and name of your listing when you call. When I tried it at first the service didn't understand "Zellner" and assumed correctly I was looking for a chiropractor. It offered to list the top eight Boulder listings for "chiropractor". It also gave me the option to say "go back" and try saying the listing again.

On my second attempt Google Voice Live Search understood what I said. It also offered to give "details" of the phone number which included the street address of the business I was looking for. You can also have a text message sent to your mobile phone of the number and street address of your listing.

The only thing I didn't like about this service is that Google's text-to-voice speech engine is a bit crude, compared to Jingle Networks' 1-800FREE411 service. I found it hard to understand everything the Google's automated operator was saying. But that's a small price to pay for not having to pay a dime or listen to a voice ad (as you have to with Jingle) for the listing and phone call.

I'm sure if this Google service becomes more than just a research project, in time, their will be ads on it. I'd still rather listen to an ad than pay $1.25 for 411 service from my landline or wireless carrier - which is what they are charging me. Who knows maybe someday paying for 411 will be as antiquated as the rotary phone.

Hard Drives Slick as a Ferrari

I've had a chance to try a 500GB model from SimpleTech's colorful slew of new hard drives, which are all housed in dramatically redesigned chassis, and mostly I liked what I found.

The stylish, sloping case is by Italian design firm Paninfarina, perhaps better known as the primary designer for Ferrari automobiles.

The 500GB drive is made of shiny, piano-black plastic, and has a USB 2.0 port and a large, easy-to-operate rocker-style power switch at the rear. One observation: The design is optimized for use horizontally, not vertically--something which wouldn't bother me if I wanted to play the drive on top of my desktop chassis, but I might find a tad annoying if I needed to carve out real estate for the drive on my already-crowded desk.

On the top surface rests a large, oval back-up surrounded by an LED ring that doubles as a capacity gauge (broken up in quarters, it lights up when you first turn the drive on); on the sides, the fanless chassis has ventilation ports to dissipate heat.

Drivers Wanted: GPS Vendor Seeks Road Testers

This summer you can be tooling around with an Internet-connected GPS device--for free. Starting Monday morning, Dash Navigation will sign up 2000 volunteer drivers across the United States to test its Dash Express, the first in-car GPS that collects real-time traffic data and integrates it into its route planning. Go here to sign up.

The Dash National Road Test is the precursor to the service's nationwide rollout this fall. Dash executive Eric Klein says the company has been testing the service since last fall with about 200 units roaming the San Francisco area. Dash will begin shipping the units for the nationwide test on May 1 and will have up to 2000 units in the field by the end of May, according to Klein. When the testing ends in late summer, Dash will ask participants to return the units, although Klein expects the company will give testers the opportunity to purchase the test devices or replacement models. Here's what the units look like:

Testers will also be asked to report any problems they encounter to their personal page on the company's site. In addition, the units report back anonymous data to the company for its real-time traffic analysis, which it transmits via cell-phone networks and Wi-Fi for use in calculating travel times and to suggest alternate routes.

The ideal road-test participant will be a heavy commuter and mobile gadget enthusiast, according to the company. Would-be testers are asked to complete a short survey on the Dash site to determine their suitability for the program. The company will notify the people chosen for the test via e-mail.

The promise of real-time traffic information at your fingertips is appealing for anyone who spends much time behind the wheel, but commuters usually know their alternate routes as well as any GPS, so do they really need the on -screen maps at all? I'm looking forward to an audio-only version of the real-time traffic information that I can get on my cell phone, or even a text-only list of each alternate route's drive time. I'll save the map for when I'm navigating unfamiliar territory.

SanDisk's Sansa Connect is Here

We've been eagerly awaiting SanDisk's Wi-Fi equipped MP3 player since it was announced at CES this year, and finally this networked wonder is here. I've been playing around with our 4GB Sansa Connect for a while now, and here are my first impressions:

The Wi-Fi is actually useful -
Welcome to a social you might want to attend. While Microsoft was one of the first to build Wi-Fi into a digital audio player, the Zune's limited sharing options didn't exactly set the word on fire. The Connect gives you many more options, built around a partnership with Yahoo. Find an open access point, and you can stream Internet radio from Launchcast stations or browse Flickr photo streams. Sign up for Yahoo's portable music subscription service, Yahoo Music Unlimited To Go ($12 per month for an annual subscription, or $15 if you go month-to-month), and you'll be able to download any tracks or albums you like over Wi-Fi. I'd still like to see wireless syncing with my PC as an option, but the streaming radio is a very nice touch

Continue reading "SanDisk's Sansa Connect is Here"

Ringtones Guaranteed to Empty a Crowded Room

You have to hear these to believe them. But definitely try before you buy--they're a bit scary.

They're from a site called AviationRingTones.com, and basically, they appear to have been manufactured by an airline pilot or other professional with access to a jumbo jet cockpit and the know-how to activate all sorts of emergency warnings without getting into trouble.

The first one on the list, for example, is called Whoop Whoop Pull Up, and it's the sound you'd hear just before crashing. Other tones are for altitude deviation alerts, engine fire warnings, and the like. Looking for something less scary? There's a tone of a turbo-prop engine igniting. And for the more earthbound, there's a door chime and an engine startup clip from a Porsche.

I heard about AviationRingTones.com from my friend and IDG News Service colleague Stephen Lawson, who sent me a link to it because he knows I've got a private pilot's license. He in turn had heard about from a representative of a site called Phone Sherpa, which makes software that you can use to create and sell ringtones on your Web site.

AviationRingTones.com was on a list of customers that the Phone Sherpa PR manager sent Lawson; others included the 24 Hour Gospel Network and the MySpace site of a Phone Sherpa employee. Maybe everybody will have 15 minutes of fame selling ringtones.

Taxpayer-paid iPods for Every Kid?

What the??? Yes, in the state of Michigan, which faces a $1 billion deficit, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are both reporting that House Democrats have offered a spending plan that would "buy an MP3 player or iPod" for every school-age kid.

The cost? How about $38 million, according to the Free Press. No or other details are available, which makes me think this is one of those off-the-wall ideas, so beloved in state houses and Congress, that won't go anywhere.

Or at least I HOPE it won't go anywhere...

Tell PC World About Your PC Disasters

PC World is working on a story about the worst computing disasters--and how to prevent them and recover from them. Everything from a Windows blue-screen to a dead hard drive to lost internet connections to gadgets that had close encounters of the aquatic kind.

We'd love to hear about your worst computing catastrophes (and how you got over them) and we'll include some of them in our story. Please come on over to this topic in our Windows Forum and share your pain.

Ad Aware to Get Big Upgrade

One of my favorite anti-adware programs Lavasoft's Ad Aware SE Personal is getting a long deserved makeover. I downloaded the most recent beta 5 version (released Thursday) of Ad Aware 2007 Beta and like what I'm seeing. Ad Aware 2007 Beta features improved detection of adware and hidden malware, a scanning engine that goes easy on your PC's system resources, and a snazzy new interface.

One warning, the beta 5 is buggy. In my opinion this beta is not suitable for everyday use. If you're using the current Ad Aware SE Personal or Pro version stick with it for now. Lavasoft?s next beta update for Ad Aware 2007 is in two weeks. I'll let you know how Lavasoft's fumigating of bugs go then. The release of the final versions of Ad Aware 2007 is slated for June 2007, according to Lavasoft.

Here are some specifics about the upcoming Ad Aware 2007

* Improved scanning to detect malware that is deeply imbedded in your system. Lavasoft told me its current Ad Aware SE isn?t able to delve deep enough to find rootkits and other threats that burrow deep into your PC.

Continue reading "Ad Aware to Get Big Upgrade"

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy: HP's New Game Face

Who wants to buy a Cadillac? (Notice I said buy, not own.) I'm guessing that would be not you (me either). Win one, maybe, or crash an Oprah-style handout, sure, but drop $78k on a 2007 XLR Roadster? Don't think so.

Meet Voodoo PC, the "Cadillac" of custom online game rigs. Or at least a place you can go to get a humdrum PC frame flamboyantly "swankified" with exotic colors like "Poison Purple" and "Bavaria Blue Candy," then wrap those saucy pigments around tech with buzzy monikers like "Liquid Cooled" and "Quad-Core" and "Stealth 1000 Watt PSU." (Hey, they even do case tattoos.) Got $6k-$10k to blow on pretty toys? Shop Voodoo.

You may recall HP actually snapped up this boutique manufacturer last September, firing a shot across Dell's near-ubiquitous high-end gaming PC bow. Well it turns out the company that couldn't catch a break in 2006 may finally be ready to rumble with new game machines that'll benefit from Voodoo's high end know-how without torching your wallet.

I'm not sure what HP executive vice president Shane Robinson means when he calls HP "a quiet leader in [the gaming space] for quite a while," (Umm, really?) but from the sound of things, they're aiming to get a lot louder. The real trick, of course, will be convincing gaming's fickle high-enders that the company's ready to compete part for part, service for service, at comparable prices with the other company (Dell) that pretty much wrote the book on "build to one."

But if they can, who knows--ready for "You're getting an HP, dude"?

Solution: New MS Patch and RealTek Audio HD

If you have RealTek Audio HD and you installed the Windows emergency patch that was released this week, you probably got an ugly error message like this:

Rthdcpl.exe - Illegal System DLL Relocation

The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\Windows\System32\Hhctrl.ocx occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL.

This has been asked about a few times in the PC World Forums, and forum member GeorgeC has found the fix!

Microsoft has posted a knowledge base entry detailing the problem and offering a downloadable patch with installation instructions. The forum members who have downloaded and installed the patch said that it fixed the problem.

Hope this is helpful, and thanks again to GeorgeC for posting the fix!

How to Check if Your PC is Green

I'm in the market for a new notebook, and in addition to the normal decisions I need to make--Mac or PC? Intel or AMD?--I'm asking myself this: Is the notebook I buy going to be environmentally friendly? I've been playing around with a tool to help me figure that out.

It's called EPEAT, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. EPEAT is run by the Green Electronics Council and in part funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It?s a database of desktops, laptops, and computer monitors that meet the requirements of the IEEE 1680 specification on environmental performance criteria.

There are three levels for EPEAT-certified products. A bronze-level product meets the 23 required criteria of the IEEE standard. A silver-level category meets all the required criteria plus 14 of the 21 optional criteria. A gold product meets all required and optional criteria. Of the 423 products in the database, all have bronze status, 372 have silver status, and none have gold.

After reading a summary of the IEEE criteria, you'll see why no one's got the gold quite yet. Required criteria start out at compliance with Energy Star guidelines and the European RoHS Directive, implemented last year, to remove six hazardous substances from equipment. Optional, more stringent criteria include use of bio-based plastics, elimination of molded and glued-in metal, and use of 90-percent recyclable packaging.

Back to my notebook search, I went to the EPEAT product search page, selected the notebook button, chose Hewlett Packard from the pop-up menu, and a Bronze or better rating. Sixteen products came back including HP Pavilion dv6000 Notebook PC. One problem: I'm looking for HP's latest notebooks, which don't seem to be included yet.

And here in lies the problem (at least for me) with EPEAT: It's geared towards institutional customers like government agencies. That's not surprising since the federal government recently mandated that 95 percent of its computer purchases be EPEAT regulated.

But EPEAT states on its web site that consumers purchasing EPEAT-certified products may not get the same environmental benefits as corporate purchasers, who get bulk packaging and recycling take-back programs. And a green consumer electronic may have to forgo some features (like a cool industrial design or super bright screen) to get certification.

Still, it's a good start. More large-volume purchasers are indicating their desire for green electronics. The University of California system this week announced that it would buy only EPEAT-registered products and integrate electronics take-back and recycling programs into their contracts. Federal regulators are upgrading energy efficiency standards in a few months, and PC manufacturers like HP are responding with compliant products.

Seven Ways to Improve Vista

So a Harris Interactive poll finds that while 87 percent of adults online know about Windows Vista, only 12 percent of them are planning to upgrade to the new OS in the next year. That's not an inherently bad thing, unless you own stock in Microsoft, but it does seem like a lost opportunity. So many talented people have put so much time into Vista, and it does include lots of notable achievements. But there's just not much excitement ("The Wow is Not" to paraphrase the hype). But I think it could be fixable. Here are my suggestions:

1. Make it Cheaper
As much as 400 bucks for a new OS just seems greedy. Nobody wants to pay that (or even the lower upgrade prices) and given that XP is a solid, dependable OS, few people feel like they have to. If Microsoft scaled back the price tags, they might find a lot more interest.

2. Make it clearly better than XP
Lots of people compare Vista to OS X, but it's real competition is XP. Microsoft has mostly pitched two main improvements in Vista compared to XP: Looks and Security. Most people don't want to pay for a better-looking computer and we've heard so many empty promises from Microsoft about security that few are willing to take the company at its word.
So its going to take something more to convince people that they're getting a significantly better product. What about throwing in free or cheap access to Windows Live OneCare? Revive the WinFS file management system and offer it as a free upgrade. Give buyers something tangible that's not in XP.

3. Tone down UAC
Vista's security warnings run the range from annoying to alarming (No matter how many times I've been through it, I'm still momentarily stressed when my screen blanks just because I'm installing a new piece of software). My cure would be fewer warnings and ones that don't seem to imply that your computer is crashing.

4. Be absolutely up front about what people are getting
Consumers have already launched a lawsuit complaining that machines labeled Vista Capable weren't capable of much. And those who bought PCs before the launch with a promise of a free or cheap upgrade are complaining about problems getting their copy of Vista.

5. Accelerate development of Sidebar Gadgets
Microsoft was a couple years late to the whole idea of adding widgets that pull in Web data. Then they launched Vista with a ho-hum selection of widgets of the type you could get from Yahoo, Google or other competitors. That doesn't bring the Wow. Instead, Microsoft should get their engineers cracking on creative new uses and looks for Gadgets that will really distinguish the Sidebar.

6. Make Vista's search index your whole hard drive by default
Vista's search works really well, but many users may not realize that. That's because it only indexes part of your PC by default. If you don't keep your files in Vista's Documents or Pictures folders, finding them will be as slow as it is in XP. Push out an update that will automatically index your whole hard drive for the kinds of files most people are looking for: word documents, pictures, email, etc.

7. Relax the copy protection stuff
Microsoft has built so much copyright protection in to Vista that upgrading can seem like downgrading your rights as a digital consumer. Your PC shouldn't seem like a goon hired by the movie studios to protect their interests.

I acknowledge that lots of these suggestions may be impractical, and certainly unlikely. But as someone who's used Vista for the past few months, they're what I'd like to see. How about you? I've put in a quick poll about your plans for upgrading to Vista. And I'd also like to hear your suggestions for ways to improve the OS.

iPod Virus? Not really.

Antivirus vendor Kaspersky is claiming to have "discovered the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players." But you don't need to look askance at your happy little tune-churner, it's nothing real.

What Kaspersky is dubbing 'Podloso' is just a lab experiment, really. It's a proof-of-concept that can't install itself and requires that Linux be installed on the iPod.

Proof-of-concepts do sometimes explode into real attacks when they show how to take advantage of an exploitable Windows flaw, for instance. But I doubt this one will. Relax and listen to your tunes.

Getting Started with Google?s My Maps

Google's My Maps is yet another cool tool offered by the always evolving Internet giant. Google My Maps lets you create Web-based Google Map mashups and save or share them with friends or the world. Mashup, by the way, is techno-jargon for a Web site or service that combines content from multiple sources.

I checked out Google My Maps and found it impressively easy to use.

It let me throw together a walking tour of Boston complete with pictures and video in under 20 minutes.

Google's My Maps was released today and is a tool aimed at non-techies empowering them to create Google Maps mashups. Until today, customizing Google maps has been the exclusive domain of experienced software developers. Here is a link to PC World's news story about Google's My Maps announcement.

You can browse maps that have already been created, or you can dive in and create your own like I did. Check out Google's example of a map it created to demonstrate the power of My Maps. One is called America's Highway: Oral Histories of Route 66 and here is another map titled 2004 Presidential Election that illustrates how My Maps can do more than provide guided tours.

Building a basic Google My Map is easy. But adding multimedia elements to Google My Maps is not so simple -? despite what Google claims.

Getting Started

To get started with Google's My Maps you'll need a Google account. Once you've signed in, select Google Maps and then choose the My Maps tab. Using four My Map tools (see image below) you can create placemarks, draw lines or shapes, and navigate your map.

Once you create a placemark you'll want to add content to it. To do this just hit the "edit" button. Now you can add images, video, or text. (see image below for My Maps in edit mode)

Continue reading "Getting Started with Google?s My Maps"

Microsoft's 'Bait and Switch'?

Is Vista Home Basic really Vista?

A Washington State woman doesn't think so and has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, claiming that the software giant unfairly labeled PCs "Windows Vista Capable" even when the systems in question could only run the most basic form of the OS, Vista Home Basic.

The suit says: "In sum, Microsoft engaged in bait and switch--assuring consumers they were purchasing 'Vista Capable' machines when, in fact, they could obtain only a stripped-down operating system lacking the functionality and features the Microsoft advertised as 'Vista.'

If you want to brush up on the features of the various flavors of Vista, here is PC World's comparative chart .

And if you've got the time and interest, here is the 18-page suit, outlining the complaints and asking for class-action status. It was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Check the Web site of Gordon Murray Tilden LLP in a day or two if you think you might want to join in or get more information or call them in Seattle at 206-467-6477.

Protect Firefox From a Critical Windows Flaw

Firefox is vulnerable to the nasty Windows animated cursor flaw that can hand over control of your XP or Vista computer, according to a video posted by Determina, the company that originally discovered the vulnerability.

In the Determina video, the speaker (possibly Alexander Sotirov, who posted the blog entry) says that under Vista, IE7's Protected Mode mitigates the potential attack damage by not allowing the browser - or any attack that takes over the browser - to change system files or perform other common malware attacks. He goes on to say that Firefox doesn't have a similar protected mode.

It doesn't, in a regular install. But you can give it one using a Microsoft tool called DropMyRights. In essence, DropMyRights lets you easily put any program into a Protected Mode. Set it up for Firefox like this:

Continue reading "Protect Firefox From a Critical Windows Flaw"

We're Giving Away an Apple TV!

In the scramble to get an Apple TV in time for a quick review, we ended up buying two of them, one of which has never been removed from its shrink-wrap cocoon. We?d like nothing better than to pass this hermetically sealed entertainment powerhouse onto one of our loyal readers ? but there is one little catch. To enter the contest, we?re asking you to do a little work.
All you have to do is nominate a product for our annual list of The 100 Best Products of the Year (here?s last year?s version). We?ve set up a forum thread to take your nominations. Tell us about hardware, software or Web sites you think stand out from the crowd, along with a line or two about what you like about them. That?s it ? Post a nomination before the April 13 deadline and we?ll include you in the drawing for the Apple TV. (If you?re not already a registered member of PC World, you?ll be prompted to register. And, of course, there are rules. Click here for the full legal mumbo jumbo.) Those of you who have already nominated a product will be automatically entered in the contest.
Want to know more about Apple TV? Check out our video:

Intel's Centrino Pro: Santa Rosa for Business

Another codename bites the dust. Sort of. Intel announced its plans for Centrino Pro this morning, granting an official name to the the business-focused version of its next-gen laptop platform formerly codenamed Santa Rosa.

We've been following Santa Rosa for a while now, and the specs sound pretty sweet. There's the 800 MHz front-side bus (up from 667 Mhz), integrated 802.11n wireless, improved battery life, and support for Intel's Turbo Memory technology that uses either 512MB or 1GB of NAND flash memory and Vista's ReadyBoost feature to accelerate application launch times. Centrino Pro notebooks will include all those features plus many of the remote management options Intel built into its vPro desktop line.

Start bugging your IS department now: According to Intel, Centrino Pro machines (as well as consumer-focused Santa Rosa notebooks) will begin to arrive in the second quarter of the year.

Google Desktop for Mac: A Good Start

It?s about time Google developed more software for the Mac OS. Today it did, when it announced availability of the Google Desktop for Mac 1.0.

(Here is a look at the Quick Search Box feature in Google Desktop for Mac)

Google Desktop for Mac joins a scant few Google software applications for the Mac OS. Other Mac-compatible programs are Google Earth, Google Toolbar, Google SketchUp, Picasa Web Albums Uploader, and Google Notifier. Compare that to what?s available for the Windows OS and that is sad commentary on Google?s commitment for the Mac OS.

Google has long favored Windows users. For example, the popular Windows-only Google Pack Beta alone bundles seven Google software applications. Only four of Google Pack Beta applications, by contrast, are available on the Mac OS.

(This shows how the Modifying Preferences feature looks in Google Desktop for Mac)

Taking a look at Google?s long list of excellent digital tools I notice most of Google?s product offerings are available as Web services ? available through any browser no matter the OS. In the long run I hope that remains the case. Someday, I predict, many of the software applications that Google offers will morph into Web services.

Adobe and other companies are moving applications to Web. Adobe plans to make a basic version of its flagship image editing software, Photoshop, available as a free, Web-based application later this year. (It was previewed in a public beta at the photo-sharing site Photobucket.) Photoshop's Web version won't be as full-featured as the desktop application, but it won't require the Windows or Mac OS either.

What will be next? Picasa for the Web or for the Mac OS?

Get Microsoft's Rare Out-of-band Security Patch

Microsoft released a patch today for the dangerous zero-day Windows flaw involving animated cursor files and Windows XP SP2. Attacks against the flaw continued over the weekend, and the release of publicly available exploit code prompted Microsoft to release the patch out-of-schedule - the normal monthly patch batch is due next Tuesday.

You should get the fix (or a prompt, depending on your settings) via Automatic Updates, but it wouldn't hurt to kick off a Windows Update yourself and get it now yourself. The patch should come across as "MS07-017."

HP's Classy Petite PC, New Monitor

Design plays a big role in Hewlett-Packard's overhauled small-form factor PC. But slicker looks isn't all the new HP Pavilion Slimline s3020n PC gains. Now, this line includes a desktop processor (previously, HP used a mobile processor in its small footprint PC, generally with mediocre performance results.

The s3020n is predominantly piano black, with silver accents. At the top, you get four conveniently placed multimedia flash card slots, covering the most popular formats (billed as a 15-in-1 media card reader, it supports flavors of CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, SmartMedia, and XD). Beneath the slots, at left, is a bay for HP's optional Pocket Media Drive add-on for additional hard disk storage; and a vertically mounted, slot-loading 16X SuperMulti DVD burner (with LightScribe disc labeling capabilities). At the bottom, you get one USB 2.0 port (four more are at the rear) and one headphone jack.

HP has even paid attention to the design of the rear backplate: The back panel of ports is flush to the unit. This convenient touch makes it easier to see where you're plugging in peripherals--or to do so simply by feel, as often happens when you have a PC set up in a spot that's not conducive for reaching around to the back.

Inside, the s3020n has an 2.4-GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+ processor, 1GB of memory, nVidia GeForce 6150 LE graphics, and a 250GB hard drive. The unit also has built-in wireless 802.11 b/g connectivity. We haven't tested this unit yet, but based on these specs, the S3020n has potential for being a solid PC for home use.

HP also introduces today its newly redesigned w2007 monitor. This widescreen flat-panel display has a native resolution of 1680 by 1050. It features HP's BrightView technology, HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) certification, and DVI-D and VGA support.

The monitor has several unique design points. For one, its black and silver looks complement those of the S3020n. The monitor's sculpted base accommodates the S3020n's matching keyboard, giving you a place to naturally park your keyboard when you're done with it. Finally, the ridged bezel around the monitor accommodates HP's new Easy Clip system, for by clipping on photo or document holders, a Web cam, or other accessories.

256 vs. 128 kbps: Can You Tell the Difference?

Wow. This is some kind of day. Baseball. Rock Band--an upcoming Guitar Hero sequel with bass, drum, and vocal parts (!)--was announced for the PS3 and the XBox 360. Oh, and DRM-free music from EMI. Clearly I'm pretty psyched.

I applaud EMI for making DRM-free music available to online music stores, and I'm glad it comes with a boost in audio quality. Apple will offer the option of converting any eligible iTMS purchases for $.30 a piece. But I'm sure there are at least a few people out there who are just fine playing their $.99 128kbps tracks on their iPods. The new DRM-free files may be twice as big, but that doesn't mean they'll sound twice as good.

(Demo below requires the QuickTime plugin.)

Continue reading "256 vs. 128 kbps: Can You Tell the Difference?"

DRM-Free at Last: List of EMI's Artists

Okay, so you've heard that EMI Group will be selling its music DRM-free on Apple's iTunes. But that probably doesn't tell you whether your favorite artist's music will be available, since, if you're like me, you never pay attention to what studio handles which artists. Which is why I'm posting this list, direct from EMI's site.
All I can say is this: Finally, free from the chains of DRM ... Ms. Shirley Bassey!

The full list of EMI artists is below.

Continue reading "DRM-Free at Last: List of EMI's Artists"

iTunes Gets EMI Music--Without DRM

It's true: Apple has cut a deal with music giant EMI Group to sell its entire music catalog on Apple's iTunes store--and without copy protection technologies--but at a higher price.

EMI Group Chairman Eric Nicoli was joined by Apple CEO Steve Jobs to make the announcement this morning at EMI's headquarters in London. Since EMI is the first of the big music labels to announce such a move, its rivals could be pressured to follow suit. (No comment yet from Warner Music Group, which hotly dismissed Jobs' recent declaration in favor of dropping DRM from iTunes wares).

Apple says the new, DRM-free individual tracks from EMI artists will have twice the sound quality of existing downloads, and will cost $1.29 per track. Tracks with DRM will still be available through the iTunes store for 99 cents.

Check for the rest of the pricing information and more details at PCWorld.com news, reported by our IDG News Service colleagues James Niccolai and Martyn Williams in London.

RFID Britches: Security Risk?

Once Wal-Mart put its substantial weight behind the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to help track its inventory, the genie was out of the bottle. Now the technology is used in such everyday devices as Exxon/Mobile SpeedPass keychain clip-ons that let you pay at the pump with a single swipe, and many car ignition keys, not to mention new U.S. passports.

The problem is, the devices leak data. They tend to use lightweight encryption to keep the processor and power loads low. And while the RFID tag readers are designed to pick up data from the tags at a distance of 10 centimeters or less (about 4 inches), special RFID antennas can read tags from 1 meter, or even further, according to Melanie Rieback of Vrije Univeriteit in Amsterdam, who presented at the recent ETech Emerging Technology Conference.

Rieback described the first device designed to protect the privacy of people who buy and use products with RFID tags built in. The RFID Guardian is a prototype device that both emulates a tag, and serves as an RFID reader. The hand-held monitor can be used to track when a particular RFID tag is read, as well as to deactivate, password-protect, and otherwise manage the keys used by the tags to communicate with RFID readers. (IBM is working on a similar system to preserve privacy).

While the prototype described by Rieback is intended primarily to demonstrate the technology, she says the hardware it uses could be built into a cell phone or other existing handheld device. Anyone concerned about their privacy better hope the technology gets into consumers' hands soon: Rieback's presentation included a video showing an RFID tag in a brassiere strap. Until devices become available for finding and monitoring the RFID tags in the products you buy, Rieback recommends you mute them for good by smacking them with a hammer. She points out that you can also deactivate the tags by nuking them in a microwave oven, but doing so might leave little burn marks in your underwear. Better safe than satiny?