By Evan Schuman, Ziff Davis Internet
Best Buy is getting into some hot water because of an intrastore version of its Web site.
The Connecticut Attorney General's Office has launched a probe into the chain's use of an internal version of its Web site that looks and acts virtually identical to the public Web version except that it sometimes offers higher prices, according to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
Blumenthal, in a telephone interview with eWEEK.com on March 3, said his office began the probe after a column published by The Hartford Courant raised questions about the site.
Although the probe began on Feb. 9, Best Buy officials have yet to formally talk with the attorney general's investigators, instead opting to send "a written communication," Blumenthal said. That communication was less than explicit, he said. In an interview with the Courant, Blumenthal said, "Their responses seem to raise as many questions as they answer. Their answers are less than crystal clear."
What Best Buy is accused of doing is misleading consumers. The original reports had store associates disputing special offers announced on the Web site and making their case by calling up a copy of the Web site right there and then, in the store.
The initial question raised by the reports were whether this was simply a matter of having Web site prices for Web purchases—requiring the delay of shipments for the consumer and the lack of brick-and-mortar costs for the retailer—being different from in-store prices. But the initial defenses offered by Best Buy—both to local media and to the Connecticut Attorney General's Office—make no mention of this. If that were the case here, one would think it would be the first defense offered.
The Courant columnist, George Gombossy, told eWEEK.com that employees described to him their ability to access either the public Web site or the intrastore version, depending on what they wanted to do.
He published an account of his attempts to replicate the problems of one of his readers, in which he was indeed able to reproduce the apparent dual Web site bait-and-switch scheme, he said. He wrote that one "long-time employee" showed him both versions of the site.
"The salesman told me it was a site that only employees could access because it contained confidential information as well as item prices. Sometimes, as in the case of [a product that had been purchased by the reader who complained], the clerk said, the intranet site would not show the discount. In rare cases, the intranet site will show an even lower price than the Internet site."
Best Buy officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment, but they apparently did issue a statement to the Courant that said, in part: "Although we have an intra-store web site in place to support store operations—including products and pricing—we are reminding our employees how to access the external BestBuy.com web site to ensure customers are receiving the best possible product price."
That line prompted Gombossy to try to put that education process into context. "That last sentence seems to indicate that Best Buy, which is supposed to be staffed by tech-savvy employees, is putting the blame on memory lapses: that employees have somehow forgotten how to access BestBuy.com from the store. Having been to many Best Buy stores where some helpful employees showed me how they access the intranet and Internet, I can assure Best Buy officials that the re-education process will probably not be lengthy," he said. "After making sure the computer is turned on, employees should click twice on the Yahoo Internet icon and then type in BestBuy.com."
The initial reports of the incident suggested the possibility that Best Buy was simply displaying a local version of the Web site, so that consumers could peruse their Web content but be unable to surf over to a competitor's site or a price-comparison site or even to a publication such as Consumer Reports.
If that had been the case, then the pricing disconnects might have been nothing sinister, but merely a result of the fact that the external Web site is updated much more frequently than a static version in the stores.
But some of our own conversations with Best Buy employees March 3 cast doubt on that theory, with employees saying that they are only aware of the public version. (Gombossy's reporting also found many Best Buy employees who were unaware of two sites.)
Another scenario is that the dual-site effort might be regionally localized, as opposed to being a national corporate effort. But that also seems unlikely, as such a site would likely be sanctioned by corporate. Why would such a site be created and then only offered to isolated areas? Is this some sort of a pilot program? This is one story eWEEK.com will be watching closely.
Retail Center Editor Evan Schuman has tracked high-tech issues since 1987, has been opinionated long before that and doesn't plan to stop any time soon. He can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
RIAA Opposes New Fair Use Bill
New bill would let customers make limited numbers of copies of copyrighted works
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
A new bill in the U.S. Congress aimed at protecting the fair use rights for consumers of copyright material would "legalize hacking," the Recording Industry Association of America said.
The Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (FAIR USE) Act, introduced Tuesday by U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and John Doolittle, a California Republican, would allow customers to circumvent digital copy restrictions in six limited areas when copyright owners' business models are not threatened, Boucher said in a press release. So-called fair use doctrine allows customers of copyright works to make limited numbers of copies, particularly for reviews, news reporting, teaching and research.
The bill would allow exemptions to the anticircumvention restrictions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed by Congress in 1998. The bill is revamped from similar bills introduced in the last two sessions of Congress, Boucher said.
"The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before," Boucher said in a statement. "Historically, the nation's copyright laws have reflected a carefully calibrated balanced between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of the users of copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use."
But the RIAA said the bill would effectively repeal the DMCA. The bill would "allow electronics companies to induce others to break the law for their own profit," it said in a statement. Advances such digital music sales, online games, on-demand movies and e-books can be traced to DMCA protects, the RIAA said.
"The difference between hacking done for non-infringing purposes and hacking done to steal is impossible to determine and enforce," the RIAA said in its statement.
The Boucher bill would limit the availability of statutory damages against individuals and firms who may be found to have engaged in contributory infringement, inducement of infringement, or other indirect infringement. The bill would allow libraries to circumvent digital locks or secure copies of works that have been damaged, lost or stolen.
The Consumer Electronics Association applauded the bill, saying it would give protections to consumers, educators, and libraries. Without fair use protections, consumers couldn't use devices such as VCRs and digital TV recorders, the trade group said.
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
A new bill in the U.S. Congress aimed at protecting the fair use rights for consumers of copyright material would "legalize hacking," the Recording Industry Association of America said.
The Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (FAIR USE) Act, introduced Tuesday by U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and John Doolittle, a California Republican, would allow customers to circumvent digital copy restrictions in six limited areas when copyright owners' business models are not threatened, Boucher said in a press release. So-called fair use doctrine allows customers of copyright works to make limited numbers of copies, particularly for reviews, news reporting, teaching and research.
The bill would allow exemptions to the anticircumvention restrictions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed by Congress in 1998. The bill is revamped from similar bills introduced in the last two sessions of Congress, Boucher said.
"The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before," Boucher said in a statement. "Historically, the nation's copyright laws have reflected a carefully calibrated balanced between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of the users of copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use."
But the RIAA said the bill would effectively repeal the DMCA. The bill would "allow electronics companies to induce others to break the law for their own profit," it said in a statement. Advances such digital music sales, online games, on-demand movies and e-books can be traced to DMCA protects, the RIAA said.
"The difference between hacking done for non-infringing purposes and hacking done to steal is impossible to determine and enforce," the RIAA said in its statement.
The Boucher bill would limit the availability of statutory damages against individuals and firms who may be found to have engaged in contributory infringement, inducement of infringement, or other indirect infringement. The bill would allow libraries to circumvent digital locks or secure copies of works that have been damaged, lost or stolen.
The Consumer Electronics Association applauded the bill, saying it would give protections to consumers, educators, and libraries. Without fair use protections, consumers couldn't use devices such as VCRs and digital TV recorders, the trade group said.
Monday, February 26, 2007
BitTorrent, Joost Put Download Tech to Legal Use
By Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO—There was a time when the phrase "peer-to-peer" (P2P) was practically a curse word in the music industry.
But in the past month, two new services have emerged to utilize the technology for the legal, protected distribution of content—specifically video.
One of them is BitTorrent, which developed the technology that at one point was used for one-third of all P2P traffic on the Internet. The other is Joost—formerly known as the Venice Project—which was founded by the same developers who created the notorious Kazaa music-swapping community and later the Skype Internet telephone service.
Both BitTorrent and Joost rely on P2P technology to enhance the user experience. The more popular a file is on either network, the easier and faster it will be to download. Whereas the iTunes store shut down last Christmas because of overwhelming demand, services like BitTorrent and Joost are designed to improve as demand increases.
Despite their history with unauthorized digital content distribution, both services are setting themselves up to provide some of the better digital entertainment services available today. The question is: Will their technology credibility be sufficient to lure into a more legitimate environment the millions of downloaders who previously have used their technology to steal content?
BitTorrent
More than 135 million people have downloaded the BitTorrent technology worldwide. It basically lets people publish content to the Internet in a way that enables multiple users to quickly download large files by sharing the distribution load. While it has several legitimate uses—game publishers use it to distribute software updates—it also is used by such sites as Pirate Bay to allow illegal downloads of Hollywood movies.
The company hopes to convert these users into legitimate customers through the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, which launches Feb. 26. The new service has compiled the rights to more than 3,000 movies, 1,000 games and 1,000 music videos from 34 participating content providers.
The move makes BitTorrent a distributor—connecting content owners to the technology's users in an attempt to monetize their interest in digital entertainment. Like any authorized digital music service, the challenge is to entice consumers away from a free, pirated environment into a paid, legal one. The strategy aims to offer a better experience than the chaotic pirate sites.
"You never saw an ad that says, 'Use iTunes because it's legal,'" BitTorrent COO Ashwin Navin says. "What users care about is getting their favorite content in a digital format. Only a very small percentage of our users are pirating content because they are anti-establishment or want to fight the man."
Users can rent movies at $4 each, download-to-own TV shows and music videos for $2 and get user-generated content free. The company also plans to add a digital-rights-management-free music download service in the near future.
Joost
While BitTorrent works a rental download model, Joost is an ad-supported streaming video service currently in beta testing. Of the many sources providing video at this time, Warner Music Group (WMG), Nettwerk, MusicNation, Voy and now Viacom are all contributing music videos and other music-themed programming.
Joost takes streaming video to a new level, with TiVo-like user controls and a high-quality full-screen display that captured the attention of content partners. Like BitTorrent, it uses P2P technology to optimize the streaming process.
But what really sets Joost apart is its ability to add widgets, or plug-ins—small applications that run atop the streaming video screen, enabling a degree of interactivity.
For instance, a chat tool allows users viewing the same video to discuss it with one another in real time. Joost not only allows but encourages content providers to create their own plug-ins customized for their video.
MusicNation is one such provider. The company conducts an online battle-of-the-bands competition on its Web site and will be providing exclusive content to Joost. It plans to create a live voting plug-in as part of that process.
"It wasn't just about the display," MusicNation founder and chief marketing officer Lucas Mann says, "it was about building a dynamic experience."
SAN FRANCISCO—There was a time when the phrase "peer-to-peer" (P2P) was practically a curse word in the music industry.
But in the past month, two new services have emerged to utilize the technology for the legal, protected distribution of content—specifically video.
One of them is BitTorrent, which developed the technology that at one point was used for one-third of all P2P traffic on the Internet. The other is Joost—formerly known as the Venice Project—which was founded by the same developers who created the notorious Kazaa music-swapping community and later the Skype Internet telephone service.
Both BitTorrent and Joost rely on P2P technology to enhance the user experience. The more popular a file is on either network, the easier and faster it will be to download. Whereas the iTunes store shut down last Christmas because of overwhelming demand, services like BitTorrent and Joost are designed to improve as demand increases.
Despite their history with unauthorized digital content distribution, both services are setting themselves up to provide some of the better digital entertainment services available today. The question is: Will their technology credibility be sufficient to lure into a more legitimate environment the millions of downloaders who previously have used their technology to steal content?
BitTorrent
More than 135 million people have downloaded the BitTorrent technology worldwide. It basically lets people publish content to the Internet in a way that enables multiple users to quickly download large files by sharing the distribution load. While it has several legitimate uses—game publishers use it to distribute software updates—it also is used by such sites as Pirate Bay to allow illegal downloads of Hollywood movies.
The company hopes to convert these users into legitimate customers through the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, which launches Feb. 26. The new service has compiled the rights to more than 3,000 movies, 1,000 games and 1,000 music videos from 34 participating content providers.
The move makes BitTorrent a distributor—connecting content owners to the technology's users in an attempt to monetize their interest in digital entertainment. Like any authorized digital music service, the challenge is to entice consumers away from a free, pirated environment into a paid, legal one. The strategy aims to offer a better experience than the chaotic pirate sites.
"You never saw an ad that says, 'Use iTunes because it's legal,'" BitTorrent COO Ashwin Navin says. "What users care about is getting their favorite content in a digital format. Only a very small percentage of our users are pirating content because they are anti-establishment or want to fight the man."
Users can rent movies at $4 each, download-to-own TV shows and music videos for $2 and get user-generated content free. The company also plans to add a digital-rights-management-free music download service in the near future.
Joost
While BitTorrent works a rental download model, Joost is an ad-supported streaming video service currently in beta testing. Of the many sources providing video at this time, Warner Music Group (WMG), Nettwerk, MusicNation, Voy and now Viacom are all contributing music videos and other music-themed programming.
Joost takes streaming video to a new level, with TiVo-like user controls and a high-quality full-screen display that captured the attention of content partners. Like BitTorrent, it uses P2P technology to optimize the streaming process.
But what really sets Joost apart is its ability to add widgets, or plug-ins—small applications that run atop the streaming video screen, enabling a degree of interactivity.
For instance, a chat tool allows users viewing the same video to discuss it with one another in real time. Joost not only allows but encourages content providers to create their own plug-ins customized for their video.
MusicNation is one such provider. The company conducts an online battle-of-the-bands competition on its Web site and will be providing exclusive content to Joost. It plans to create a live voting plug-in as part of that process.
"It wasn't just about the display," MusicNation founder and chief marketing officer Lucas Mann says, "it was about building a dynamic experience."
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Microsoft releases list of verified Vista applications
But some notable apps are conspicuously missing
Eric Lai (Computerworld)
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday released a list of 800 applications it has officially verified so far to run bug-free on Windows Vista.
The list is notable for both its brevity and the absence of many applications popular on Windows XP, although Microsoft and analysts said that the majority of XP software can run, albeit with hiccups, on Vista.
Popular Windows software that is conspicuously missing from Microsoft's list includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s entire line of graphics and multimedia software, Symantec Corp.'s security products, as well as the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox Web browser, Skype Ltd.'s free voice-over-IP software and the OpenOffice.org alternative to Microsoft Office.
Software that has been tested as part of Microsoft's Vista certification program to run on all 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista include CorelDraw and WordPerfect from Corel Corp., PowerDVD from Cyberlink, Nero 7 Premium, Trend Micro AntiVirus and PC-Cillin, AutoCad 2008, QuickBooks 2007 from Intuit Inc., Microsoft Office 2007 and many other Microsoft applications.
In addition, Google Inc.'s Desktop Search and its Toolbar for Internet Explorer have earned Microsoft's approval.
Windows' extensive software ecosystem has long been one of the operating system's chief attractions. But Vista's long beta program last year allowed users to start compiling their own lists of applications that they claimed were broken or problematic on Vista.
Many of those were graphics-intensive games, which was the result of a new rendering engine, DirectX 10, introduced for Vista. But there are also a number of business and utility applications that have not been updated to ensure Vista compatibility. For instance, the latest version of Skype doesn't work on Vista. Firefox does work, though Mozilla has documented known issues
Next
Eric Lai (Computerworld)
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday released a list of 800 applications it has officially verified so far to run bug-free on Windows Vista.
The list is notable for both its brevity and the absence of many applications popular on Windows XP, although Microsoft and analysts said that the majority of XP software can run, albeit with hiccups, on Vista.
Popular Windows software that is conspicuously missing from Microsoft's list includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s entire line of graphics and multimedia software, Symantec Corp.'s security products, as well as the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox Web browser, Skype Ltd.'s free voice-over-IP software and the OpenOffice.org alternative to Microsoft Office.
Software that has been tested as part of Microsoft's Vista certification program to run on all 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista include CorelDraw and WordPerfect from Corel Corp., PowerDVD from Cyberlink, Nero 7 Premium, Trend Micro AntiVirus and PC-Cillin, AutoCad 2008, QuickBooks 2007 from Intuit Inc., Microsoft Office 2007 and many other Microsoft applications.
In addition, Google Inc.'s Desktop Search and its Toolbar for Internet Explorer have earned Microsoft's approval.
Windows' extensive software ecosystem has long been one of the operating system's chief attractions. But Vista's long beta program last year allowed users to start compiling their own lists of applications that they claimed were broken or problematic on Vista.
Many of those were graphics-intensive games, which was the result of a new rendering engine, DirectX 10, introduced for Vista. But there are also a number of business and utility applications that have not been updated to ensure Vista compatibility. For instance, the latest version of Skype doesn't work on Vista. Firefox does work, though Mozilla has documented known issues
Next
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
A More Personalized Internet?
Yahoo Pipes lets people make highly customized feeds that combine information from multiple sources and weed out the junk.
By Kate Greene
Last week, Yahoo announced the release of an early version of a tool designed to help users personalize the Internet. The tool, called Pipes, lets people combine all sorts of oft-updated Internet information, known as feeds. Pipes could, for instance, enable a feed that includes New York Times articles featuring the phrase "plasma TV," Flickr-posted pictures taken in a specific neighborhood, and traffic updates along a commute. So, instead of drowning in headlines from standard feed aggregators, the user gets information that is winnowed down and personal.
There are some early examples of Pipes on Yahoo's site. One allows a person to search for an apartment near "something," such as a park, library, or school. Another Pipe extracts keywords, such as "snow," from the New York Times news feed and displays Flickr photos that have a matching tag.
The basic idea behind Pipes, says Yahoo, is to give software developers and motivated nondevelopers a simple programming tool to mix and match collections of data on the Web, says Pasha Sadri, principal software engineer at Yahoo and developer of Pipes. "The goal of Pipes," he says, "is to significantly lower the barrier to writing simple applications by eliminating the need to write code and by hosting the application for you."
In fact, no knowledge of a programming language such as C++ or Java is needed to build a Pipe. When you begin to build a new Pipe, you select a set of programming instructions that are premade and packaged as an icon, called a module. A Pipe is made by dragging and dropping these modules, stringing them together, and adding a few extra instructions. A similar approach is employed to program Lego Mindstorm robots. "This simplifies the process and means that more people will be able to write programs for very specific tasks," says Sadri.
The tool consists of two major components: an interface, called an editor, where a Pipe is put together; and an execution engine that runs the Pipe instructions. Once a project is saved in the editor, the instructions are saved as a special kind of document on the engine. To run the Pipe, the engine reads the document and then accesses anywhere from dozens to hundreds of Web services--from feeds supplied by Craigslist to geography data on Yahoo Maps. To optimize the response time, says Sadri, the engine parallelizes as much of the execution as possible, breaking up the instructions into chunks that run simultaneously.
Almost immediately after its release, Pipes garnered a lot of attention from bloggers, software developers, and experts on Web-based applications. Perhaps the most glowing endorsement it received was from Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media, a computer-book, magazine, and online publisher. On his blog O'Reilly wrote that the tool is a "milestone in the history of the Internet." He added that while it's still a bit "rough around the edges," Pipes has "enormous potential to turn the Web into a programmable environment for everyone."
Next »
By Kate Greene
Last week, Yahoo announced the release of an early version of a tool designed to help users personalize the Internet. The tool, called Pipes, lets people combine all sorts of oft-updated Internet information, known as feeds. Pipes could, for instance, enable a feed that includes New York Times articles featuring the phrase "plasma TV," Flickr-posted pictures taken in a specific neighborhood, and traffic updates along a commute. So, instead of drowning in headlines from standard feed aggregators, the user gets information that is winnowed down and personal.
There are some early examples of Pipes on Yahoo's site. One allows a person to search for an apartment near "something," such as a park, library, or school. Another Pipe extracts keywords, such as "snow," from the New York Times news feed and displays Flickr photos that have a matching tag.
The basic idea behind Pipes, says Yahoo, is to give software developers and motivated nondevelopers a simple programming tool to mix and match collections of data on the Web, says Pasha Sadri, principal software engineer at Yahoo and developer of Pipes. "The goal of Pipes," he says, "is to significantly lower the barrier to writing simple applications by eliminating the need to write code and by hosting the application for you."
In fact, no knowledge of a programming language such as C++ or Java is needed to build a Pipe. When you begin to build a new Pipe, you select a set of programming instructions that are premade and packaged as an icon, called a module. A Pipe is made by dragging and dropping these modules, stringing them together, and adding a few extra instructions. A similar approach is employed to program Lego Mindstorm robots. "This simplifies the process and means that more people will be able to write programs for very specific tasks," says Sadri.
The tool consists of two major components: an interface, called an editor, where a Pipe is put together; and an execution engine that runs the Pipe instructions. Once a project is saved in the editor, the instructions are saved as a special kind of document on the engine. To run the Pipe, the engine reads the document and then accesses anywhere from dozens to hundreds of Web services--from feeds supplied by Craigslist to geography data on Yahoo Maps. To optimize the response time, says Sadri, the engine parallelizes as much of the execution as possible, breaking up the instructions into chunks that run simultaneously.
Almost immediately after its release, Pipes garnered a lot of attention from bloggers, software developers, and experts on Web-based applications. Perhaps the most glowing endorsement it received was from Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media, a computer-book, magazine, and online publisher. On his blog O'Reilly wrote that the tool is a "milestone in the history of the Internet." He added that while it's still a bit "rough around the edges," Pipes has "enormous potential to turn the Web into a programmable environment for everyone."
Next »
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Mozilla updates Firefox 3.0 preview
It's looking to get the browser into users' hands by year's end
Gregg Keizer Computerworld.com
Mozilla Corp. yesterday released the second alpha version of what will become its Firefox 3.0 Web browser. The release is the latest milestone in a plan to put the open-source browser in users' hands during the second half of the year.
Dubbed "Gran Paradiso," the preview is still geared toward "Web application developers and our testing community," according to release notes on the Mozilla site. The company warned general users to steer clear and stick with the 2.0.x and 1.5.x production versions.
Among the changes to the second alpha are enhancements in the way Web pages render incrementally -- while images load or dynamic changes are made to a page, for example. Other changes include improvements in the browser's interaction with Mac OS X widgets and the addition of full support for ACID2 test compliance.
Firefox 3.0, which is based on the new Gecko 1.9 layout engine, will be the first Mozilla browser to drop support for Windows 95, 98 and Millennium, as well as for Mac OS X 10.2 and earlier.
Alpha 2 can be downloaded in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions from the Mozilla Web site.
Gregg Keizer Computerworld.com
Mozilla Corp. yesterday released the second alpha version of what will become its Firefox 3.0 Web browser. The release is the latest milestone in a plan to put the open-source browser in users' hands during the second half of the year.
Dubbed "Gran Paradiso," the preview is still geared toward "Web application developers and our testing community," according to release notes on the Mozilla site. The company warned general users to steer clear and stick with the 2.0.x and 1.5.x production versions.
Among the changes to the second alpha are enhancements in the way Web pages render incrementally -- while images load or dynamic changes are made to a page, for example. Other changes include improvements in the browser's interaction with Mac OS X widgets and the addition of full support for ACID2 test compliance.
Firefox 3.0, which is based on the new Gecko 1.9 layout engine, will be the first Mozilla browser to drop support for Windows 95, 98 and Millennium, as well as for Mac OS X 10.2 and earlier.
Alpha 2 can be downloaded in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions from the Mozilla Web site.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Windows Vista: The 'Huh?' starts now
Microsoft is confusing everyone with its new OS; here's what you need to know
Mike Elgan
Microsoft is losing consumer operating system market share to Apple for many reasons, but most of those reasons can be oversimplified thus: Mac OS is simple, and Windows is complicated.
That's why it may be such a costly error for Microsoft to make the Vista upgrade such a confusing mess.
Until today, even experts couldn't tell you off the top of their heads the differences between each of the many Vista versions -- or even how many versions there are -- or what the basic requirements are for the Upgrade versions. Ordinary consumers are baffled to the point of paralysis.
I'm going to clear all this up in a minute. First, however, let's recall the fiasco that is the Windows Vista launch.
The Upgrade version mess
News organizations have been writing about Vista for years. In the past few months, the media addressed Upgrade versions (less expensive versions of the operating system available to users who already have a recent version of Windows), and the process Microsoft would impose for proving that you own a legitimate copy of Windows XP or 2000.
At first, some news outlets reported that Upgrade versions of Vista would require the user to enter an XP key -- the long combination of letters and numbers you need to install XP in the first place. Then, we were told you didn't need the key, but instead would be required to insert an XP disk during the Vista install. Earlier this week, some sites reported that the requirement was that XP had to be installed on your PC, and that a clean install -- installing Vista only on a reformatted disk -- would be impossible.
Don't feel bad if you still don't know which of the Upgrade proof policies above is the real one -- few outside Microsoft do. (In fact, none of them is correct.)
Microsoft created this confusion by failing to tell anyone what the proof requirement would be for using an Upgrade version of Vista.
Meanwhile, the Upgrade versions are poison:
* Windows power users know that if you want Windows to work well over the long haul, it helps to reformat and perform a clean install once in a while. The Upgrade version requires you to install both XP/2000 and Vista every time, doubling the already massive amount of time it takes to do a reformat/reinstall.
* The Upgrade versions require you to keep track of your original Windows XP/2000 disks. Most people have these in the form of "recovery CDs" from the PC vendor, which can include multiple disks full of junk applications.
Continued...
Mike Elgan
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Don't buy Vista yet. But if you really must, consider only two of the 10 versions: Nontechnical consumers should buy the full version of Windows Vista Home Premium, and power users should buy the full version of Windows Vista Ultimate.
Microsoft is losing consumer operating system market share to Apple for many reasons, but most of those reasons can be oversimplified thus: Mac OS is simple, and Windows is complicated.
That's why it may be such a costly error for Microsoft to make the Vista upgrade such a confusing mess.
Until today, even experts couldn't tell you off the top of their heads the differences between each of the many Vista versions -- or even how many versions there are -- or what the basic requirements are for the Upgrade versions. Ordinary consumers are baffled to the point of paralysis.
I'm going to clear all this up in a minute. First, however, let's recall the fiasco that is the Windows Vista launch.
The Upgrade version mess
News organizations have been writing about Vista for years. In the past few months, the media addressed Upgrade versions (less expensive versions of the operating system available to users who already have a recent version of Windows), and the process Microsoft would impose for proving that you own a legitimate copy of Windows XP or 2000.
At first, some news outlets reported that Upgrade versions of Vista would require the user to enter an XP key -- the long combination of letters and numbers you need to install XP in the first place. Then, we were told you didn't need the key, but instead would be required to insert an XP disk during the Vista install. Earlier this week, some sites reported that the requirement was that XP had to be installed on your PC, and that a clean install -- installing Vista only on a reformatted disk -- would be impossible.
Don't feel bad if you still don't know which of the Upgrade proof policies above is the real one -- few outside Microsoft do. (In fact, none of them is correct.)
Microsoft created this confusion by failing to tell anyone what the proof requirement would be for using an Upgrade version of Vista.
Meanwhile, the Upgrade versions are poison:
* Windows power users know that if you want Windows to work well over the long haul, it helps to reformat and perform a clean install once in a while. The Upgrade version requires you to install both XP/2000 and Vista every time, doubling the already massive amount of time it takes to do a reformat/reinstall.
* The Upgrade versions require you to keep track of your original Windows XP/2000 disks. Most people have these in the form of "recovery CDs" from the PC vendor, which can include multiple disks full of junk applications.
Continued...
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Revealed: how eBay sellers fix auctions
Recorded excerpts of meetings with Paraskevaides:
Clip 1
Clip 2
CUSTOMERS of the internet auction site eBay are being defrauded by unscrupulous dealers who secretly bid up the price of items on sale to boost profits. An investigation by The Sunday Times has indicated that the practice of artificially driving up prices — known as shill bidding — is widespread across the site.
Last week one of the UK’s biggest eBay sellers admitted in a taped conversation with an undercover reporter that he was prepared to use business associates to bid on his goods for him.
Our inquiries found evidence that a number of businesses — ranging from overseas property agencies to car dealerships — have placed bids on their own items using fake identities.
The cases raise questions about whether eBay, the world’s biggest auction site, is doing enough to protect consumers.
Shill bidding is against eBay rules and is illegal under the 2006 Fraud Act. However, the resulting higher prices on the site boost the value of eBay’s share of the sales.
Last November eBay changed its rules to conceal bidders’ identity — making it even more difficult for customers to see whether sellers are bidding on their own lots. Since its launch seven years ago, eBay’s UK website has attracted more than 15m customers. It sells more than 10m items at any given time.
One of the beneficiaries of the boom is Eftis Paraskevaides, a former gynaecologist, from Cambridgeshire. He has become a “Titanium PowerSeller” — one of eBay’s handful of top earners — selling more than £1.4m worth of antiquities a year on the site.
In a conversation with an undercover reporter last week, Paraskevaides claimed shill bidding was commonplace on eBay.
When the reporter asked whether he arranged for associates to bid on his own items, he replied: “Well, if I put something really expensive (up for sale) and I was concerned that it was going for nothing, I would phone a friend of mine, even a client of mine who buys from me, and say: For Christ’s sake, I sell you 100 quids’ worth of items a week . . . just put two grand on it, will you?” The reporter was posing as a seller of valuable antiquities. He inquired whether Paraskevaides could sell them on eBay and guarantee a minimum price.
He replied: “Leave it to me (laughs). Don’t call it shill bidding. Then I won’t be accused of shill bidding. Yes. I mean — I’ve got people.
“I’ve got some of my big clients who buy big items off me, I look after them. So I can get on the phone to America and say: Mr XXXX . . . you’re a multi- millionaire. You buy a hundred grand’s worth off me a year. Do me a favour would you. Just put — yeah. Exactly.”
He claimed eBay would never follow up a complaint against him for shill bidding because he generated about £15,000 a month in commission for the company. “Are they going to ban somebody who’s making them the best part of 15 grand a month? No,” he said.
After being told that he had been talking to an undercover reporter, Paraskevaides denied that he had ever shill bidded on eBay and claimed he was talking about clients who sometimes bid on expensive items if they wished to protect the price.
However The Sunday Times discovered businesses that have been bidding on their own items. One leading dealer from London admitted last week that that he had shill bidded in the past.
A spokesman for eBay said he expected that the company would now launch an investigation into Paraskevaides. Anyone caught shill bidding risks a permanent ban.
The spokesman added: “The change to the way bidder IDs are shown has already resulted in a safer environment for users."
Clip 1
Clip 2
CUSTOMERS of the internet auction site eBay are being defrauded by unscrupulous dealers who secretly bid up the price of items on sale to boost profits. An investigation by The Sunday Times has indicated that the practice of artificially driving up prices — known as shill bidding — is widespread across the site.
Last week one of the UK’s biggest eBay sellers admitted in a taped conversation with an undercover reporter that he was prepared to use business associates to bid on his goods for him.
Our inquiries found evidence that a number of businesses — ranging from overseas property agencies to car dealerships — have placed bids on their own items using fake identities.
The cases raise questions about whether eBay, the world’s biggest auction site, is doing enough to protect consumers.
Shill bidding is against eBay rules and is illegal under the 2006 Fraud Act. However, the resulting higher prices on the site boost the value of eBay’s share of the sales.
Last November eBay changed its rules to conceal bidders’ identity — making it even more difficult for customers to see whether sellers are bidding on their own lots. Since its launch seven years ago, eBay’s UK website has attracted more than 15m customers. It sells more than 10m items at any given time.
One of the beneficiaries of the boom is Eftis Paraskevaides, a former gynaecologist, from Cambridgeshire. He has become a “Titanium PowerSeller” — one of eBay’s handful of top earners — selling more than £1.4m worth of antiquities a year on the site.
In a conversation with an undercover reporter last week, Paraskevaides claimed shill bidding was commonplace on eBay.
When the reporter asked whether he arranged for associates to bid on his own items, he replied: “Well, if I put something really expensive (up for sale) and I was concerned that it was going for nothing, I would phone a friend of mine, even a client of mine who buys from me, and say: For Christ’s sake, I sell you 100 quids’ worth of items a week . . . just put two grand on it, will you?” The reporter was posing as a seller of valuable antiquities. He inquired whether Paraskevaides could sell them on eBay and guarantee a minimum price.
He replied: “Leave it to me (laughs). Don’t call it shill bidding. Then I won’t be accused of shill bidding. Yes. I mean — I’ve got people.
“I’ve got some of my big clients who buy big items off me, I look after them. So I can get on the phone to America and say: Mr XXXX . . . you’re a multi- millionaire. You buy a hundred grand’s worth off me a year. Do me a favour would you. Just put — yeah. Exactly.”
He claimed eBay would never follow up a complaint against him for shill bidding because he generated about £15,000 a month in commission for the company. “Are they going to ban somebody who’s making them the best part of 15 grand a month? No,” he said.
After being told that he had been talking to an undercover reporter, Paraskevaides denied that he had ever shill bidded on eBay and claimed he was talking about clients who sometimes bid on expensive items if they wished to protect the price.
However The Sunday Times discovered businesses that have been bidding on their own items. One leading dealer from London admitted last week that that he had shill bidded in the past.
A spokesman for eBay said he expected that the company would now launch an investigation into Paraskevaides. Anyone caught shill bidding risks a permanent ban.
The spokesman added: “The change to the way bidder IDs are shown has already resulted in a safer environment for users."
YouTube to Share Some Ad Revenue with Users
NEW YORK—YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said the leading online video service is mulling a plan to share advertising revenue with users who contribute to the site, according to a user clip and media reports from Davos, Switzerland.
"In terms of paying users revenue against the content that they are uploading, we definitely are going to be moving in that direction," Hurley said in video recorded in Davos, by a YouTube user and posted on the site.
"We feel we are at a scale now that we will be able to do that and still have a true community around video."
Hurley, who spoke during a session at the World Economic Forum gave no details on how much YouTube, the leading online video sharing site that was bought by Internet search leader Google Inc. last year, might pay users.
The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum takes place January 24-28 in the Alpine ski resort of Davos and is attended by top politicians, monetary policymakers and senior business executives
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Why pirated Vista has Microsoft champing at the BitTorrent
On the eve of launch, P2P networks unnerve the software giant
Eric Lai computerworld.comAs Microsoft Corp. gets ready to launch Windows Vista and Office 2007 to consumers, it claims a formidable new foe it lacked at its last major consumer software launch five years ago: the popular filesharing network known as BitTorrent.
This third-generation peer-to-peer (P2P) service, already used by tens of millions of Internet users to swap digital music and movies for free, is becoming a popular mechanism for those looking to obtain pirated software.
"Any software that is commercially available is available on BitTorrent," according to Mark Ishikawa, CEO of BayTSP Inc., a Los Gatos, Calif., antipiracy consulting firm.
Piracy and prerelease
Or in the case of Vista and Office 2007, before they were commercially available. Both products were released to corporations almost two months ago, but won’t be officially launched to consumers until Jan. 29.
But as early as mid-November, "cracked" copies of both products were available via BitTorrent. As of mid-January, more than 100 individual copies of Office 2007 and more than 350 individual copies of Windows Vista were available on the service, according to BigChampagne LLC, a Los Angeles-based online media-tracking firm.
The pirates that cracked early copies of Vista all sidestepped Microsoft’s latest antipiracy technology, the Software Protection Platform. SPP is supposed to shut down any copy of Vista not registered to Microsoft over the Internet with a legitimate, paid-up license key within the first 30 days.
Microsoft has quietly admitted that it has already found three different workarounds to SPP. It says it can defeat one, dubbed the Frankenbuild because of its cobbling together of code from beta and final versions of Vista. It hasn’t yet announced success against several other cracks, including one seemingly inspired by Y2k, which allows Vista to run unactivated until the year 2099 rather than for just 30 days.
"Pirates have unlimited time and resources," BayTSP’s Ishikawa says. "You can’t build an encryption that can’t be broken."
Sunday, January 21, 2007
iPhone: The mediocre phone that will change the world
A bad phone -- but just what is it, anyway?
David Haskin computerworld.com
More than a week after Steve Jobs' blockbuster iPhone announcement, longtime industry observers and analysts are still furiously debating iPhone's impact.
And the first issue the analysts are wrestling with is: Just what the heck is an iPhone, anyway? Before commenting on its potential success, four analysts I spoke with first struggled to define exactly what an iPhone is.
"If you take the telephone out of the equation, the effect of iPhone will be profound," noted David Chamberlain, principal analyst for wireless issues at market research firm In-Stat. That is to say, Chamberlain said, the iPhone isn't much of a phone but it is an awesome ... something else.
In an industry accustomed to slotting products into narrow categories and measuring success within those categories, the unclassifiable (so far) nature of the iPhone has created a Jobsian, Alice in Wonderland-like atmosphere where t's are being dotted and i's are being crossed.
Herewith, with the help of some highly regarded industry analysts, we'll try to throw a lasso around this galloping pony and understand just what the iPhone is and what its prospects are.
What is the iPhone, anyway?
Trying to figure out what the iPhone is can be a matter of addition by subtraction. One thing the analysts agree about is that it won't be much of a cell phone, let alone a smart phone.
"It does seem under-horsepowered as a phone," said Neil Strother, research director for wireless devices at NPD. "It doesn't have [3G], which I don't get. How can they expect people to spend that much money [$500 for the 4GB version] and it doesn't even have 3G?"
Among the reasons the iPhone isn't a smart phone like the Motorola Q or the Treo line is that it doesn't support corporate e-mail or viewing attachments in Word or other formats commonly used in the enterprise. Nor can it use third-party applications like smart phones, many plain-old, not-so-smart phones and even old-fashioned PDAs. Nor is it a plain iPod since media players don't have even mediocre voice capabilities.
"It's been billed as less a smart phone than a super-smart iPod with phone functionality," noted Miro Kazakoff, a senior associate for wireless technology at market research firm Compete Inc. "It comes from a place of being more of an entertainment device with phone functionality added on."
Added Ken Dulaney at Gartner, "It's either a weak phone or a hot device in the network media category."
Another thing that the iPhone isn't is just another mobile device. "The interface is absolutely breathtaking," In-Stat's Chamberlain said.
Got it. The iPhone is a lousy phone but a breathtaking media device that acts like a phone but isn't.
What does it compete against?
Continued...
1 | 2 | 3 | NEXT
David Haskin computerworld.com
More than a week after Steve Jobs' blockbuster iPhone announcement, longtime industry observers and analysts are still furiously debating iPhone's impact.
And the first issue the analysts are wrestling with is: Just what the heck is an iPhone, anyway? Before commenting on its potential success, four analysts I spoke with first struggled to define exactly what an iPhone is.
"If you take the telephone out of the equation, the effect of iPhone will be profound," noted David Chamberlain, principal analyst for wireless issues at market research firm In-Stat. That is to say, Chamberlain said, the iPhone isn't much of a phone but it is an awesome ... something else.
In an industry accustomed to slotting products into narrow categories and measuring success within those categories, the unclassifiable (so far) nature of the iPhone has created a Jobsian, Alice in Wonderland-like atmosphere where t's are being dotted and i's are being crossed.
Herewith, with the help of some highly regarded industry analysts, we'll try to throw a lasso around this galloping pony and understand just what the iPhone is and what its prospects are.
What is the iPhone, anyway?
Trying to figure out what the iPhone is can be a matter of addition by subtraction. One thing the analysts agree about is that it won't be much of a cell phone, let alone a smart phone.
"It does seem under-horsepowered as a phone," said Neil Strother, research director for wireless devices at NPD. "It doesn't have [3G], which I don't get. How can they expect people to spend that much money [$500 for the 4GB version] and it doesn't even have 3G?"
Among the reasons the iPhone isn't a smart phone like the Motorola Q or the Treo line is that it doesn't support corporate e-mail or viewing attachments in Word or other formats commonly used in the enterprise. Nor can it use third-party applications like smart phones, many plain-old, not-so-smart phones and even old-fashioned PDAs. Nor is it a plain iPod since media players don't have even mediocre voice capabilities.
"It's been billed as less a smart phone than a super-smart iPod with phone functionality," noted Miro Kazakoff, a senior associate for wireless technology at market research firm Compete Inc. "It comes from a place of being more of an entertainment device with phone functionality added on."
Added Ken Dulaney at Gartner, "It's either a weak phone or a hot device in the network media category."
Another thing that the iPhone isn't is just another mobile device. "The interface is absolutely breathtaking," In-Stat's Chamberlain said.
Got it. The iPhone is a lousy phone but a breathtaking media device that acts like a phone but isn't.
What does it compete against?
Continued...
1 | 2 | 3 | NEXT
Friday, January 19, 2007
SeaMonkey Group Updates Browser Suite
SeaMonkey 1.1 is the follow-on to the now-defunct Mozilla Suite, a collection of Internet applications that included browser, e-mail client, newsgroup reader, and HTML editor.
By Gregg Keizer
InformationWeek
The open-source group determined to keep alive the last Internet suite updated its SeaMonkey bundle Thursday with both security fixes and new code that brought its applications up to par with Mozilla's Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2.
SeaMonkey 1.1, which was released in versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, is the follow-on to the now-defunct Mozilla Suite, a collection of Internet applications that included browser, e-mail client, newsgroup reader, and HTML editor. When Mozilla spiked its suite, a group of volunteer developers launched the SeaMonkey project. Mozilla still provides some support, including hosting the project's Web site.
The bundle's browser is based on Firefox 2.0, the newest edition of Mozilla's application, while the e-mailer takes its technology from Thunderbird 2.0. Other enhancements to v. 1.1 include a new version of the ChatZilla chat client, e-mail message tagging, and browser spell-check.
SeaMonkey 1.1 can be downloaded from the project's Web site.
By Gregg Keizer
InformationWeek
The open-source group determined to keep alive the last Internet suite updated its SeaMonkey bundle Thursday with both security fixes and new code that brought its applications up to par with Mozilla's Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2.
SeaMonkey 1.1, which was released in versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, is the follow-on to the now-defunct Mozilla Suite, a collection of Internet applications that included browser, e-mail client, newsgroup reader, and HTML editor. When Mozilla spiked its suite, a group of volunteer developers launched the SeaMonkey project. Mozilla still provides some support, including hosting the project's Web site.
The bundle's browser is based on Firefox 2.0, the newest edition of Mozilla's application, while the e-mailer takes its technology from Thunderbird 2.0. Other enhancements to v. 1.1 include a new version of the ChatZilla chat client, e-mail message tagging, and browser spell-check.
SeaMonkey 1.1 can be downloaded from the project's Web site.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
CES 2007: Consumer Convergence
This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is an enormous spectacle of personal computing products showcasing lighter, thinner and more efficient form factors for laptops, desktops and mobile devices, with Windows Vista a major benefactor of a more converged mobile environment.
View the entire Eweek.com slideshow
View the entire Eweek.com slideshow
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Buying a Computer for Vista ... and Beyond
With careful planning, you can buy PCs that will both support Windows Vista and last well beyond today's standard life span
Bill O'Brien Computerworld.com
Once upon a time, you could buy a computer that, despite being technically obsolete the minute you got it home, could still be useful for years and years to come. Lately, however, technology has been gaining speed on good judgment. Do the words "accelerated amortization" sound familiar?
Whether you're an individual buying your own PC or an IT manager outfitting business users, it pays to plan your purchases so that your systems, whether desktop or laptop, last longer than the norm. Selecting computer hardware that will stretch two years out is easy. Making decisions that will support a three-year hardware life span takes a little more thought. But with some real fine-tuning and a well-honed knowledge of how the system will be used, you can move the marker out to four years or -- if you're both wise and exceedingly lucky -- possibly even five years.
We're here to help you sort through the bewildering array of choices when purchasing new hardware. Our basic strategy, with a few exceptions, will be to opt for components that are just under the current state of the art. We're not thinking about resale; we're thinking about getting our money's worth and maximizing the system's life span.
The Vista Factor
When you stare into your crystal ball trying to divine what hardware to buy this year, you're likely to see something odd. That 800-pound gorilla staring back from inside the globe is nothing less than Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, and it can't help but affect your decision.
If most accounts are to be believed, Vista is a frightening monster that will place more demands on your hardware than any other operating system you've ever encountered. Some analysts have claimed that you'll be shelling out around $3,000 for equipment to meet the formidable burden Vista will impose. They claim that practically every piece of hardware you own must be dragged down to the recycling center and be replaced with the latest and greatest stuff from which computers are made, lest you find yourself overcome by the beast that is Vista.
Urban legends are great things, aren't they? Make no mistake, there is some semblance of truth wafting around inside all the hype. But, as with most legends, there's also a significant amount of fearmongering (not to mention the hope of sparking a round of high-end PC sales).
Vista is not King Kong. It is a handful of monkeys with a couple of great apes thrown in at the high end. There's nothing to fear when buying hardware this year -- it just requires a little planning, and that's nothing new.
Let's take a look at Microsoft's minimum supported hardware requirements for running Vista:
(We can revise one item immediately: Vista is supplied on a DVD disc, so you'll need a DVD-ROM drive to install or reinstall it. So much for accuracy.)
Look around you. Do you own anything that doesn't greatly exceed the majority of those specifications -- except maybe that four-year-old ThinkPad you've been using to even the coffee table legs or the desktop PC you "donated" to the kids in 2001 so they could shove peanut butter into the optical drive and not destroy your data?
If you ratchet up to what Microsoft calls a Vista Premium Ready PC, which can take advantage of advanced Vista features, including the Aero interface, you get this list:
Again, with the graphics specification excepted, most of that still isn't very attractive for a PC you'd like to hold on to for the next four or five years. Of course, marketing comes into play here. Microsoft wants you to purchase as many copies of Vista as you possibly can. There's nothing inherently wrong with that position; it's just business. Still, for it to happen, Microsoft wants its product shown in its most attractive light. Translation: It shouldn't look like it will cost you a fortune to own and use.
But there is truth in the nonthreatening system requirements Microsoft touts. Vista is self-acclimating. While everyone running Vista will benefit from its beefier security regimens, the operating system will tune its display characteristics to fit your hardware's profile. At worst, you'll end up running something akin to Windows XP protected by Smith & Wesson. At the upper end, you'll experience the full range of Vista's eye candy extraordinaire.
All of this leaves computer sellers with a great deal of room for interpretation, and that's never a good thing for computer buyers. The moral of the story is that if you're looking for longevity in a PC, don't simply accept what the computer seller offers by default, even if it has "Vista Premium Ready" stamped all over it or comes with Vista preinstalled.
Next
Bill O'Brien Computerworld.com
Once upon a time, you could buy a computer that, despite being technically obsolete the minute you got it home, could still be useful for years and years to come. Lately, however, technology has been gaining speed on good judgment. Do the words "accelerated amortization" sound familiar?
Whether you're an individual buying your own PC or an IT manager outfitting business users, it pays to plan your purchases so that your systems, whether desktop or laptop, last longer than the norm. Selecting computer hardware that will stretch two years out is easy. Making decisions that will support a three-year hardware life span takes a little more thought. But with some real fine-tuning and a well-honed knowledge of how the system will be used, you can move the marker out to four years or -- if you're both wise and exceedingly lucky -- possibly even five years.
We're here to help you sort through the bewildering array of choices when purchasing new hardware. Our basic strategy, with a few exceptions, will be to opt for components that are just under the current state of the art. We're not thinking about resale; we're thinking about getting our money's worth and maximizing the system's life span.
The Vista Factor
When you stare into your crystal ball trying to divine what hardware to buy this year, you're likely to see something odd. That 800-pound gorilla staring back from inside the globe is nothing less than Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, and it can't help but affect your decision.
If most accounts are to be believed, Vista is a frightening monster that will place more demands on your hardware than any other operating system you've ever encountered. Some analysts have claimed that you'll be shelling out around $3,000 for equipment to meet the formidable burden Vista will impose. They claim that practically every piece of hardware you own must be dragged down to the recycling center and be replaced with the latest and greatest stuff from which computers are made, lest you find yourself overcome by the beast that is Vista.
Urban legends are great things, aren't they? Make no mistake, there is some semblance of truth wafting around inside all the hype. But, as with most legends, there's also a significant amount of fearmongering (not to mention the hope of sparking a round of high-end PC sales).
Vista is not King Kong. It is a handful of monkeys with a couple of great apes thrown in at the high end. There's nothing to fear when buying hardware this year -- it just requires a little planning, and that's nothing new.
Let's take a look at Microsoft's minimum supported hardware requirements for running Vista:
An 800-MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 512MB of system memory An SVGA (800x600) graphics processor 64MB-256MB graphics memory with bandwidth of 1.6GB/sec. A 20GB hard drive with 15GB of free space A CD-ROM drive
(We can revise one item immediately: Vista is supplied on a DVD disc, so you'll need a DVD-ROM drive to install or reinstall it. So much for accuracy.)
Look around you. Do you own anything that doesn't greatly exceed the majority of those specifications -- except maybe that four-year-old ThinkPad you've been using to even the coffee table legs or the desktop PC you "donated" to the kids in 2001 so they could shove peanut butter into the optical drive and not destroy your data?
If you ratchet up to what Microsoft calls a Vista Premium Ready PC, which can take advantage of advanced Vista features, including the Aero interface, you get this list:
A 1-GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 1GB of system memory Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel A 40GB hard drive with 15GB of free space A DVD-ROM drive Audio output capability Internet access capability
Again, with the graphics specification excepted, most of that still isn't very attractive for a PC you'd like to hold on to for the next four or five years. Of course, marketing comes into play here. Microsoft wants you to purchase as many copies of Vista as you possibly can. There's nothing inherently wrong with that position; it's just business. Still, for it to happen, Microsoft wants its product shown in its most attractive light. Translation: It shouldn't look like it will cost you a fortune to own and use.
But there is truth in the nonthreatening system requirements Microsoft touts. Vista is self-acclimating. While everyone running Vista will benefit from its beefier security regimens, the operating system will tune its display characteristics to fit your hardware's profile. At worst, you'll end up running something akin to Windows XP protected by Smith & Wesson. At the upper end, you'll experience the full range of Vista's eye candy extraordinaire.
All of this leaves computer sellers with a great deal of room for interpretation, and that's never a good thing for computer buyers. The moral of the story is that if you're looking for longevity in a PC, don't simply accept what the computer seller offers by default, even if it has "Vista Premium Ready" stamped all over it or comes with Vista preinstalled.
Next
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The new hotness: Personal tech in 2007
2007 will be an amazing year for personal technology. Call it "The Year of the Super Toy."
Mike Elgan Computerworld.com
As Moore's Law, or something like it, continues to drive down the cost and size of electronics, increasingly sophisticated technology will find its way this year into consumer electronics products of all kinds. If you're a gadget freak, fasten your seat belt and hang on. It's going to be one hell of a year.
The year of gadget Wi-Fi
Home PC users have become extremely comfortable with Wi-Fi in the last five years. Connecting at home through a Wi-Fi connection is old hat. The new game in town is Wi-Fi for gadgets, especially media players, cameras and TVs. Consumers will increasingly demand Wi-Fi in gadgets for the convenience, power and flexibility of being able to zap media around without hassles and without adding to cable bloat.
If nothing else, Microsoft's new Zune media player will drive demand for Wi-Fi in handheld gadgets. People already share music, videos and pictures, so why not do it in math class or at Starbucks rather than waiting until you get home? It's only a matter of time before the first Wi-Fi-enabled iPod hits. When that happens, Wi-Fi will become a must-have feature of media players for many users. New media players this year will not only connect peer-to-peer, as the Zune does, but also link to the Internet directly, like a PC.
Right now, only an exotic minority of digital cameras sport Wi-Fi connectivity, including the Nikon S7c, Nikon Coolpix P1 and P2, Nikon D2H, Kodak EasyShare One, Canon PowerShot SD430, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and others. Look for these cameras to become more popular and new cameras to emerge with Wi-Fi capability. Wi-Fi lets you offload pictures to a nearby PC -- or upload them to the Internet -- without hunting for a USB cable or risking the loss of your tiny media card by removing it from the camera.
Wi-Fi in media players and cameras? Absolutely. But TVs?
Three years ago, a smattering of Japanese companies came out with what they called "wireless TVs" -- small LCD displays that received their content from a base station connected to cable. Those products never went anywhere. At press time, however, Samsung planned to release its new HP-TS064 Plasma TV, which features Wi-Fi, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The Samsung uses Wi-Fi in a totally different way from the old "wireless TVs." It doesn't get its regular TV signal over wireless, but it can connect to your PC over Wi-Fi, so you can watch YouTube videos or other Internet- or PC-based content, such as photo slideshows, on the TV.
The year of the mobile trackball
This year, the trackball will become the hot input device for mobile gadgets, especially smart phones. For a decade now, mobile devices have employed rocker dials, scroll wheels, thumbwheels and other input technologies for navigating menus, moving cursors and controlling various features.
Suddenly, however, two of the hottest brand-new devices -- the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 and the RIM BlackBerry Pearl -- are taking older devices to school with their super-fast mini-trackballs. The smart phones use them for everything from camera zoom to ripping through icons and menus.
In 2007, the trackballs on these gadgets will influence the entire industry. Look for trackballs to show up on a lot more phones, as well as media players and other devices.
continued
Mike Elgan Computerworld.com
As Moore's Law, or something like it, continues to drive down the cost and size of electronics, increasingly sophisticated technology will find its way this year into consumer electronics products of all kinds. If you're a gadget freak, fasten your seat belt and hang on. It's going to be one hell of a year.
The year of gadget Wi-Fi
Home PC users have become extremely comfortable with Wi-Fi in the last five years. Connecting at home through a Wi-Fi connection is old hat. The new game in town is Wi-Fi for gadgets, especially media players, cameras and TVs. Consumers will increasingly demand Wi-Fi in gadgets for the convenience, power and flexibility of being able to zap media around without hassles and without adding to cable bloat.
If nothing else, Microsoft's new Zune media player will drive demand for Wi-Fi in handheld gadgets. People already share music, videos and pictures, so why not do it in math class or at Starbucks rather than waiting until you get home? It's only a matter of time before the first Wi-Fi-enabled iPod hits. When that happens, Wi-Fi will become a must-have feature of media players for many users. New media players this year will not only connect peer-to-peer, as the Zune does, but also link to the Internet directly, like a PC.
Right now, only an exotic minority of digital cameras sport Wi-Fi connectivity, including the Nikon S7c, Nikon Coolpix P1 and P2, Nikon D2H, Kodak EasyShare One, Canon PowerShot SD430, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and others. Look for these cameras to become more popular and new cameras to emerge with Wi-Fi capability. Wi-Fi lets you offload pictures to a nearby PC -- or upload them to the Internet -- without hunting for a USB cable or risking the loss of your tiny media card by removing it from the camera.
Wi-Fi in media players and cameras? Absolutely. But TVs?
Three years ago, a smattering of Japanese companies came out with what they called "wireless TVs" -- small LCD displays that received their content from a base station connected to cable. Those products never went anywhere. At press time, however, Samsung planned to release its new HP-TS064 Plasma TV, which features Wi-Fi, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The Samsung uses Wi-Fi in a totally different way from the old "wireless TVs." It doesn't get its regular TV signal over wireless, but it can connect to your PC over Wi-Fi, so you can watch YouTube videos or other Internet- or PC-based content, such as photo slideshows, on the TV.
The year of the mobile trackball
This year, the trackball will become the hot input device for mobile gadgets, especially smart phones. For a decade now, mobile devices have employed rocker dials, scroll wheels, thumbwheels and other input technologies for navigating menus, moving cursors and controlling various features.
Suddenly, however, two of the hottest brand-new devices -- the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 and the RIM BlackBerry Pearl -- are taking older devices to school with their super-fast mini-trackballs. The smart phones use them for everything from camera zoom to ripping through icons and menus.
In 2007, the trackballs on these gadgets will influence the entire industry. Look for trackballs to show up on a lot more phones, as well as media players and other devices.
continued
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Tom's Hardware Guide How To Build A PC Part 3: Putting It All Together
Tom's Hardware has been at the forefront of the technology industry for years. They offer some of the best reviews and how's to guides that are available on the web today. And this article is no different. This is a great three part guide for those beginners out there wanting to get their feet wet and try a new build.
Introduction
Final assembly is usually the least time-consuming part of a build. Component selection {part 1} may require days of consideration, and finding the "best" seller {part 2} can take up the better part of a day, but plugging connectors and inserting screws shouldn't take more than a couple hours, even for the most inexperienced builder.
An average person familiar with a few simple hand tools could assemble a complete system in less time than it takes to read this guide, but figuring out what he or she may have done wrong could slow things down significantly. Phobias aside, you're unlikely to damage your hardware or yourself if you follow a few very easy precautions, and we hope this final segment will eliminate hours of post-build troubleshooting.
First Precautions
Nothing creates a sinking feeling more effectively than damaging a component before the build is finished. Major concerns include electrostatic discharge, dropped parts, and breakage caused by force fitment or scratched circuits.
Electrostatic Discharge
An accidental electrostatic discharge (ESD) could destroy a component, a fact that's caused many building guides to exaggerate this danger. In all truth, few experienced custom PC builders take more than the most basic precautions against ESD; even when it does occur, it's likely to follow the component's ground plane rather than zap its most sensitive parts.
The most basic precaution is to occasionally touch a ground, such as a large metal office desk or the metal case of a plugged-in system, to discharge your body. Additional ESD risks come from the use of carpeted workspaces and extremely dry environments, so another level of protection may come from the use of an antistatic mat under the chair and a humidifier for extremely dry rooms. Grounded wrist straps are an over-the-top method of protection rarely used outside of production environments, yet the extra-cautious will attain peace of mind when wearing one.
Fallen Components
It seems easy to prevent in theory, but damage from falls is a far more likely cause of broken components than the previously mentioned ESD. Hard Disk Drives are often dropped during installation and other parts can be easily knocked from a desk. Reducing drop distance is as easy as moving work away from the edge of a desk, and reducing damage from parts getting knocked to the floor is as simple as leaving them in the box until they're ready to be installed.
Assembly Damage
Most components require a small amount of force to seat the connector, but a few don't. We'll cover the specifics for each part as we install it.
Next page
Introduction
Final assembly is usually the least time-consuming part of a build. Component selection {part 1} may require days of consideration, and finding the "best" seller {part 2} can take up the better part of a day, but plugging connectors and inserting screws shouldn't take more than a couple hours, even for the most inexperienced builder.
An average person familiar with a few simple hand tools could assemble a complete system in less time than it takes to read this guide, but figuring out what he or she may have done wrong could slow things down significantly. Phobias aside, you're unlikely to damage your hardware or yourself if you follow a few very easy precautions, and we hope this final segment will eliminate hours of post-build troubleshooting.
First Precautions
Nothing creates a sinking feeling more effectively than damaging a component before the build is finished. Major concerns include electrostatic discharge, dropped parts, and breakage caused by force fitment or scratched circuits.
Electrostatic Discharge
An accidental electrostatic discharge (ESD) could destroy a component, a fact that's caused many building guides to exaggerate this danger. In all truth, few experienced custom PC builders take more than the most basic precautions against ESD; even when it does occur, it's likely to follow the component's ground plane rather than zap its most sensitive parts.
The most basic precaution is to occasionally touch a ground, such as a large metal office desk or the metal case of a plugged-in system, to discharge your body. Additional ESD risks come from the use of carpeted workspaces and extremely dry environments, so another level of protection may come from the use of an antistatic mat under the chair and a humidifier for extremely dry rooms. Grounded wrist straps are an over-the-top method of protection rarely used outside of production environments, yet the extra-cautious will attain peace of mind when wearing one.
Fallen Components
It seems easy to prevent in theory, but damage from falls is a far more likely cause of broken components than the previously mentioned ESD. Hard Disk Drives are often dropped during installation and other parts can be easily knocked from a desk. Reducing drop distance is as easy as moving work away from the edge of a desk, and reducing damage from parts getting knocked to the floor is as simple as leaving them in the box until they're ready to be installed.
Assembly Damage
Most components require a small amount of force to seat the connector, but a few don't. We'll cover the specifics for each part as we install it.
Next page
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The Top 21 Tech Screwups of 2006
From exploding laptops to corporate spying to Rocketboom's bust, a review of the year's gaffes and blunders.
Dan Tynan PcWorld.com
It was a year where the world's biggest software company had to admit its flagship operating system was going to be delayed--yet again. And the number one PC manufacturer was caught spying on reporters and board members.
In 2006, turning on your laptop was an adventure in flammability. Of course, lots of government and corporate officials didn't have to worry about their notebook bursting into flames--they'd already lost theirs--along with the personal records of millions of Americans.
Surfing the Net you stood a good chance of being hoaxed by an actress pretending to be a lonely teenager or a blogger in the employ of the planet's largest retailer. If you subscribed to AOL, your searches might have been shared with the rest of the Web. And if you did anything stupid, somebody with a video camera and a YouTube account was probably there to broadcast it to the world.
Here, then, on the following pages we humbly offer our nominations for the biggest tech mistakes of the year. (And if you notice any errors in this article, please--keep them to yourself.)
Page 2
Dan Tynan PcWorld.com
It was a year where the world's biggest software company had to admit its flagship operating system was going to be delayed--yet again. And the number one PC manufacturer was caught spying on reporters and board members.
In 2006, turning on your laptop was an adventure in flammability. Of course, lots of government and corporate officials didn't have to worry about their notebook bursting into flames--they'd already lost theirs--along with the personal records of millions of Americans.
Surfing the Net you stood a good chance of being hoaxed by an actress pretending to be a lonely teenager or a blogger in the employ of the planet's largest retailer. If you subscribed to AOL, your searches might have been shared with the rest of the Web. And if you did anything stupid, somebody with a video camera and a YouTube account was probably there to broadcast it to the world.
Here, then, on the following pages we humbly offer our nominations for the biggest tech mistakes of the year. (And if you notice any errors in this article, please--keep them to yourself.)
Page 2
Friday, December 08, 2006
Hackers work around Vista's activation feature
Spoofed software activates corporate edition of new OS, pirates claim
Nancy Gohring
IDG News
Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system get around the software's antipiracy mechanisms.
Windows Vista must be "activated," or authorized by Microsoft, before it will work on a particular machine. To simplify the task of activating many copies of Vista, Microsoft offers corporate users special tools, among them Key Management Service (KMS), which allows a company to run a Microsoft-supplied authorization server on its own network and activate Vista without contacting Microsoft for each copy.
The software, Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates, lets users spoof that KMS process, allowing them to activate copies of the enterprise editions of Vista, its creators say. The hacked download can be found on various file-sharing sites.
Microsoft's official KMS offering is available to customers with 25 or more computers running Vista. The machines activate the software by connecting to the KMS server and must reactivate every six months.
KMS is not the only option that enterprises have for volume activation of Vista: They can also call Microsoft by phone or connect over the Internet to activate the software.
The MelindaGates hack, which uses the name of the wife of Microsoft co-founder BIll Gates, allows users to download a VMware image of a KMS server, which activates Windows Vista Business/Enterprise edition, its creators claim.
Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on the hack.
Vista is the first Windows operating system that requires volume users to activate each product. The new activation processes are aimed at reducing piracy.
One security expert said he isn't surprised that KMS has been cracked and noted that the MelindaGates hack offers some insight into piracy.
"This also shows how piracy is not just about kids swapping games," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure Corp. "The only parties that would need a KMS crack would be corporations with volume licensing."
Nancy Gohring
IDG News
Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system get around the software's antipiracy mechanisms.
Windows Vista must be "activated," or authorized by Microsoft, before it will work on a particular machine. To simplify the task of activating many copies of Vista, Microsoft offers corporate users special tools, among them Key Management Service (KMS), which allows a company to run a Microsoft-supplied authorization server on its own network and activate Vista without contacting Microsoft for each copy.
The software, Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates, lets users spoof that KMS process, allowing them to activate copies of the enterprise editions of Vista, its creators say. The hacked download can be found on various file-sharing sites.
Microsoft's official KMS offering is available to customers with 25 or more computers running Vista. The machines activate the software by connecting to the KMS server and must reactivate every six months.
KMS is not the only option that enterprises have for volume activation of Vista: They can also call Microsoft by phone or connect over the Internet to activate the software.
The MelindaGates hack, which uses the name of the wife of Microsoft co-founder BIll Gates, allows users to download a VMware image of a KMS server, which activates Windows Vista Business/Enterprise edition, its creators claim.
Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on the hack.
Vista is the first Windows operating system that requires volume users to activate each product. The new activation processes are aimed at reducing piracy.
One security expert said he isn't surprised that KMS has been cracked and noted that the MelindaGates hack offers some insight into piracy.
"This also shows how piracy is not just about kids swapping games," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure Corp. "The only parties that would need a KMS crack would be corporations with volume licensing."
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Browser Smackdown: Firefox vs. IE vs. Opera vs. Safari
Four experts go head-to-head (to-head-to-head) to defend their Web browser of choice in an opinionated free-for-all.
Scot Finnie, Dennis Fowler, Preston Gralla and Ken Mingis
ComputerWorld.com
People may be passionate about their favorite sports team, but if you really want to get them fired up, ask what Web browser they use.
There's the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" crowd who tend to stick with the browser that's included with their operating system -- Microsoft's Internet Explorer on Windows and Apple's Safari on the Mac. There are the "I've just gotta be me" folks who prefer lesser-known browsers, such as Opera from Opera Software. And there are the "live free or die" open-source true believers who champion Mozilla's Firefox above its commercial counterparts.
Then there are those people who simply demand the best browsing experience there is. They'll defend their favorite browser to the death because they think it kicks all the other browsers' butts in terms of elegance, features, security and so on. But if a better option comes along, they'll happily switch and speak out just as loudly for their new browser of choice. At Computerworld, we fall into this camp, always looking for the Next Great Browser
In terms of market share, the winner is obvious. Most estimates show Internet Explorer commanding between 80% and 85% of the browser market, with Firefox trailing at somewhere between 8% and 13%. Safari is the third most popular browser, with approximately 2% to 4% market share, followed by Opera and AOL's Netscape, with around 1% each.
But in terms of quality, there's no clear winner right now. For years, Internet Explorer lagged far behind the competition in both features and security, but the October launch of IE7, a fairly radical overhaul of the aged browser, has brought it up to par with the rest. Almost simultaneously, Mozilla released Firefox 2.0, a less ambitious update that nevertheless made some important and well-thought-out improvements.
Meanwhile, Safari (currently in Version 2.02) and Opera (in Version 9.02, with 9.1 on the way) have been quietly improving and innovating away from the spotlight. Thus, for the first time in years, the top browsers are roughly equal. (Note: We chose to leave Netscape out of our browser roundup. In our testing, we found it too buggy and unstable for serious consideration.)
So which browser should you use? Which is really best? To help you decide, we asked four power users to do battle in support of their chosen browser: Scot Finnie for Firefox, Preston Gralla for Internet Explorer, Dennis Fowler for Opera and Ken Mingis for Safari.
Each expert is positive that his browser is the best and will try his hardest to convince you of that. These are not rational, disengaged reviews; these are opinionated essays meant to sway your point of view.
When you've read all the arguments and looked at our side-by-side comparison of features, you make the call by voting in our best browser poll. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think; we'll use the best responses in a follow-up article.
Read the full article
Scot Finnie, Dennis Fowler, Preston Gralla and Ken Mingis
ComputerWorld.com
People may be passionate about their favorite sports team, but if you really want to get them fired up, ask what Web browser they use.
There's the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" crowd who tend to stick with the browser that's included with their operating system -- Microsoft's Internet Explorer on Windows and Apple's Safari on the Mac. There are the "I've just gotta be me" folks who prefer lesser-known browsers, such as Opera from Opera Software. And there are the "live free or die" open-source true believers who champion Mozilla's Firefox above its commercial counterparts.
Then there are those people who simply demand the best browsing experience there is. They'll defend their favorite browser to the death because they think it kicks all the other browsers' butts in terms of elegance, features, security and so on. But if a better option comes along, they'll happily switch and speak out just as loudly for their new browser of choice. At Computerworld, we fall into this camp, always looking for the Next Great Browser
In terms of market share, the winner is obvious. Most estimates show Internet Explorer commanding between 80% and 85% of the browser market, with Firefox trailing at somewhere between 8% and 13%. Safari is the third most popular browser, with approximately 2% to 4% market share, followed by Opera and AOL's Netscape, with around 1% each.
But in terms of quality, there's no clear winner right now. For years, Internet Explorer lagged far behind the competition in both features and security, but the October launch of IE7, a fairly radical overhaul of the aged browser, has brought it up to par with the rest. Almost simultaneously, Mozilla released Firefox 2.0, a less ambitious update that nevertheless made some important and well-thought-out improvements.
Meanwhile, Safari (currently in Version 2.02) and Opera (in Version 9.02, with 9.1 on the way) have been quietly improving and innovating away from the spotlight. Thus, for the first time in years, the top browsers are roughly equal. (Note: We chose to leave Netscape out of our browser roundup. In our testing, we found it too buggy and unstable for serious consideration.)
So which browser should you use? Which is really best? To help you decide, we asked four power users to do battle in support of their chosen browser: Scot Finnie for Firefox, Preston Gralla for Internet Explorer, Dennis Fowler for Opera and Ken Mingis for Safari.
Each expert is positive that his browser is the best and will try his hardest to convince you of that. These are not rational, disengaged reviews; these are opinionated essays meant to sway your point of view.
When you've read all the arguments and looked at our side-by-side comparison of features, you make the call by voting in our best browser poll. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think; we'll use the best responses in a follow-up article.
Read the full article
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Looking for a Smartphone? Read This First!
Mary Branscombe MobilityGuru.com
December 5, 2006 10:26
What Is A Smartphone Anyway?
All the smarts you need to buy a phone with the power of a computer, not a computer masquerading as a phone.
Phones these days can do a lot more than just phone calls and text messages and you don't have to sacrifice the numeric keypad to get the extra features. There are plenty of powerful PDA phones and we'll be looking at the best of those in another article, but when you want a phone that looks like a phone and works like a phone as well as doing more, look for a smartphone.
Although the term smartphone is also used for PDA phones like the Palm Treo, BlackBerry and the many Windows Mobile Pocket PC devices, here I will look at keypad-driven smartphones like the Motorola RAZR and BlackBerry Pearl, Windows Mobile smartphones from HTC and Samsung and Symbian smartphones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG (the new LG JoY).
There are three main smartphone operating systems: Windows Mobile Smartphone, Symbian and Motorola's Java-based OS. There are other smartphone operating systems such as Blackberry's OS for the Pearl. These tend to be the products of one company. Here are some Symbian-based smartphones.
Rule number 1 of 4:A true smartphone is extensible and there's a wide range of extra software to install.
Rule number 2 of 4:Generally, that a phones comes from a specific vendor is no guarantee that it is a smartphone.
Rule number 3 of 4:It is the operating system that makes a smartphone a smartphone.
Page 2
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)