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Skype Launches New Unlimited Plan

sujithms — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:14:35 +0000

Skype, the Internet telephony darling, has announced a very inexpensive unlimited plan today. For $9.95 a month, callers from the U.S. will be able to dial landlines in 34 countries including most of Europe, Canada, and Asian countries. The only caveat – these calls must be to landlines. Mobile phone calling under this plan is available to Canada, China, and Hong Kong, where presumably mobile termination rates are cheap enough to be feasible under this plan.

Additionally, unlimited domestic calls to the U.S. are included in this new $9.95/month plan. The plan introduced today is somewhat similar to one offered to U.S. and Canada customers which included unlimited calling in those countries for $29.95/year.

If you do business with those outside the country and routinely need to call internationally to the countries in the Unlimited Word Plan, it might be worth your while. This plan, paired with a Skype cordless phone would make for an excellent, inexpensive calling plan for your needs. As an added bonus, this plan is month-to-month and if you move to a different country, Skype likely has a plan for that geography that you can transfer to.

Skype has been in the news lately due to their solid earnings, despite parent company eBays lackluster fiscal results. eBay is evaluating its options with the service, including a potential sale of Skype.

Here are addional details about the newly announced calling plan.

Unlimited U.S. & Canada: Unlimited calls to landline and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada. ($2.95 per month)

· Unlimited Mexico: Unlimited calls to landline and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada, and to landlines in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey; up to 80% off normal SkypeOut rates to landlines in the rest of Mexico and up to 40% off normal SkypeOut rates to all Mexico cell phones. ($5.95 per month)

· Unlimited World: Unlimited calls to landline and cell phones in 34 countries*, including the U.S. and Canada, as well as to Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey; up to 80% off normal SkypeOut rates to the rest of Mexico landlines and up to 40% off normal SkypeOut rates to all Mexico cell phones.($9.95 per month)

Unlimited calling is subject to Skype’s fair usage policy. Calls to premium, non-geographic and other special numbers are excluded.

Each subscription also includes a Skype To Go number, which lets users make international calls at local rates from a cell phone or landline phone. A user dials an assigned access number and the call is connected by Skype to overseas numbers. Calls are charged at standard Skype calling rates.

sujithms — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:27:00 +0000

Microsoft and India’s HCL Infosystems said they would work together to develop a Windows-based laptop PC that will be the cheapest available in any market worldwide.

The system, called the MiLeap H Series, will run Windows XP Home and will sell for 17,000 Indian rupees, or about $425 (U.S.). The MiLeap H features a 30-GB hard drive and is “broadband ready,” the companies said in a statement Friday.

Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner, at a launch event in Mumbai, said the offering is meant to “empower Indian consumers and businesses with the latest and best that technology has to offer.”

Microsoft, along with a number of other vendors, is eyeing the low-cost PC market as a major growth opportunity — particularly in emerging markets where average incomes pale compared with the West. The company recently announced that it would extend the life of its Windows XP operating system, but only for deployment on low-cost systems.

Low-cost PCs that run on Linux, from Asus, Everex, and other vendors, also are becoming increasingly popular as some computer users conclude that mainstream systems running the Windows or Macintosh operating systems are overpowered for their needs.

Also on Friday, Microsoft and HCL said they would jointly establish a new Center of Excellence in India, staffed with 500 programmers trained to develop Microsoft-based solutions for various industries in the country.

India is becoming increasingly important to Microsoft — and not just as a source of low-cost programming talent. Domestic spending in India for IT services will grow by about 43% in 2008, according to Indian IT trade group Nasscom.

Microsoft moves on F# functional language

sujithms — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Microsoft plans to integrate F#, a functional programming language developed by the Microsoft Research group, into its Visual Studio application development platform, said S. “Soma” Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division

The company, however, has not laid out a formal release schedule, although Somasegar pledged to both integrate F# into Visual Studio and continue evolving it.

Pronounced “F sharp,” F# is based on the concepts of functional programming, Somasegar said. Functional languages treat computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions. The mathematical slant of functional programming is appealing to professionals in domains described with mathematical notation, including financial, scientific, and technical computing, said Somasegar.

F# combines type safety, performance, and scripting with the advantages of running on a on a modern runtime, Microsoft Research said. It supports interactive scripting like Python and the strong type inference and safety of ML. F# can access.Net libraries and database tools.

Bloggers corresponding about F# on the hubFS blog had positive responses to Microsoft’s plans.

“I can’t overstate how excited I am by this news,” one blogger said.

“I discovered F# a few months ago and since then have made it my primary programming language (moving from Python and Java). I have found it to be a great language for developing simpler scripts or programming ‘toy’ implementations of algorithms. I’ve also found it to be a great language for building up real applications because of the ability to leverage everything already existing for .Net,” the blogger said.

Somasegar cited other functional programming efforts at Microsoft.

“Language features, such as lambda expressions in C# and generics in .Net 2.0, have roots in functional languages, and LINQ (Language Integrated Query) is directly based on functional programming techniques,” Somasegar said. LINQ extends C# and Visual Basic and simplifies how database and XML queries are written in these languages.

F# is designed to be a “first-class citizen” on .Net and will run on the on Microsoft CLR (Common Language Runtime), Somasegar said. Object-oriented programming is embraced and F# integrates with the .Net Framework. F# makes boosts .Net in the academic world, Somasegar said.

“We believe that through F# and languages like IronPython and IronRuby we can help offer students and educators choices beyond the current mainstream and enable the use of these languages across the curriculum. This helps educators have the option to use Visual Studio as a consistent tool set from course to course,” he said.

Also in the application development realm Monday, the Microsoft Developer Division unveiled its Tester Center Web site. The site enables testers to connect with a community, contribute content and share testing practices and experiences.

Are extra laptop features worth it?

sujithms — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:14:00 +0000

In the automotive world, the real money is made in the options packages. Fancy hubcaps, satellite radio, two-tone paint? Thank you very much, dealers will say, as they pocket sometimes more money than they made selling you the car.

Though buying a new laptop online doesn’t involve engaging in negotiations with a dealer, you still have a number of options to choose from. And with business laptops costing as much as $2,000, adding a few extras can push the price quite a bit higher. Some features are decidedly optional, while others are becoming de rigueur. Which are worth the money? Let’s take a gander.

Solid-State Drives

With no moving parts, flash-memory solid-state drives (SSDs) operate silently and eliminate any risk to the drive from vibration or a sudden drop. SSDs are stunningly expensive at the moment. The largest capacity is just 64GB, and choosing one for your laptop can add from $900 to $1600 to the cost, depending on whether you select it as an option (such as on the base model of Apple’s MacBook Air) or if it’s available only with certain pricier models (such as with Lenovo and Sony laptops).

Our tests of SSDs showed mixed results. SSDs have exceedingly high read speeds, making system boots, application launches, and document loads much faster than with a conventional laptop hard drive. Write speeds aren’t any better, however, and the overall performance is just a few percentage points faster than that of regular drives. Battery savings appear to be minimal, as well.

The value of an SSD may change dramatically in 2008, however, as 256GB and larger drives hit the market. The first 256GB drive will wholesale for nearly $6,000, but like all storage costs over time, SSD prices should plummet as volume and capacity increase. In 2009, a 64GB drive might run just $200 to $300 over a 5,400-rpm standard hard drive, and may boost performance and drop power use further.

Our verdict: Wait, unless you’re in an industry in which vibration, read time, or the slightest noise matter.

Special Screen Coatings

Dell’s TrueLife screen, with its promise of a bright, vibrant display, might seem a good option at the time of purchase, but at about $160 for an upgrade to a 17-inch LCD on a business laptop, its benefit is unclear.

Dell claims that TrueLife produces a 10 percent boost in contrast, as well as more vivid colors. Other manufacturers’ options, such as Gateway’s UltraBright, HP’s BrightView, and Toshiba’s TruBrite, are similar. (The names seem reminiscent of toothpaste advertising, but we digress.) See “Vibrant Notebook Screens” for an overview of what such displays have to offer.

Travelers who frequently work in awkward lighting conditions, where glare, dimness, or reflections abound, would appreciate this $100 to $200 upgrade. The enhanced screen is useful if you intend to watch DVDs or other video on the laptop, too. The screen technology used varies from company to company; consult PC World’s laptop reviews for more insight about a particular offering.

Our verdict: If you spend a lot of time squinting at your current laptop display, it’s worth it; otherwise, save your pennies.

Integrated Mobile Broadband

The network is everywhere! Or so AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon Wireless would like you to believe. Their third-generation (3G) networks are in most major cities, and in more than 1,000 airports. But their cell modems for accessing the data networks are available only in a relatively small number of laptops.

The advantage of a built-in mobile broadband adapter is that it’s one fewer thing you have to carry around. And ostensibly the manufacturer has built a better antenna by using the laptop’s case to carry a signal. These cards can cost any amount from nothing to $300, depending on a carrier’s subsidy and your term of commitment.

Technology changes rapidly in the cellular world, though, and an integrated, usually mini-PCI-format adapter is hard to upgrade for faster speeds. Such adapters are rarely user serviceable, and even laptop makers might not offer a swap-out program.

Currently, the Sprint and Verizon EvDO networks run at Rev. A, but some laptops still offer modems meeting the previous Rev. 0 standard. Sprint is rolling out WiMax starting this year, and that will mean a different PC Card. And AT&T’s HSPA technology has already seen one boost (in the upstream direction); the downstream side could double in the next year to match top European speeds. (The one exception to the speed-enhancement trend is Qualcomm’s forthcoming Gobi technology, which can switch between EvDO and HSPA; Dell will offer a Gobi option this fall.)

Our verdict: With the potential for enjoying faster service and avoiding outdated hardware, buying a stand-alone card–perhaps the USB type, for shuttling among computers–doesn’t cost any more than choosing an integrated modem, and provides more flexibility.

Draft-N Wireless

Wi-Fi continues to evolve, but its latest incarnation, draft-n, is likely the fastest flavor we’ll have until 2012. Laptop makers were early adopters of this version of the IEEE 802.11n standard, which may change slightly and require firmware and driver upgrades as it moves toward full approval in 2009.

Most business laptops still include 802.11g — the 2003-era standard that was itself a big speed boost–as standard equipment or as a downgrade option to reduce cost during configuration of a purchase. Upgrading to draft-n adds from $15 to $40 to the cost of most companies’ laptops. (The one notable exception is Apple, which standardized on draft-n for its laptops in October 2006.) The biggest advantage of a draft-n adapter is that transferring large files between similarly equipped computers or to and from a high-speed corporate (or even gigabit SOHO) network takes one-third to one-fifth the time as the task does over 802.11g.

Our verdict: Rather than buy a laptop with a five-year-old standard built in, ride on the cutting edge and select draft-n. The modest cost gets you a substantial speed boost, and futureproofs your laptop for a few years.

Fingerprint Scanner

Once a feature for people working in high-security jobs, fingerprint scanners are now commonplace, included in most premium business laptops and available otherwise as an inexpensive add-on. Lenovo, for instance, charges a bit over $20 to swap its touchpad with a fingerprint reader; Dell asks for $30 to add the device to laptops in its Latitude line.

Depending on the laptop, a fingerprint reader might be tied in with boot-time firmware to prevent a computer from starting up without a valid fingerprint. It may also safeguard Windows log-ins or replace passwords for online services and encrypted virtual disk mounting.

Our verdict: Just about any business or individual would benefit from having one of these readers, especially considering the negligible expense. But make sure that the reader and the laptop configuration combine for the particular protection features you need.

Hardware Drive Encryption

The biggest mainstream security story of the last few years concerns the theft of laptops containing credit card numbers, credit history, Social Security numbers, and other data belonging to consumers, veterans, and company employees. If only the victims had employed encryption, right?

Some hard drives now have hardware-backed encryption built in, which helps make locking down data easier. Seagate’s Momentus 5400 FDE.2 is currently the best-known entry in this category, and Dell is the only laptop maker to offer it as a standard upgrade option. An 80GB or 120GB drive with hardware encryption costs about $100 extra.

The data stored on such drives is entirely encrypted in real time, with no delays and with no interaction between the drive and the operating system. This design improves performance and provides fewer points of entry for unauthorized access.

Some analysts expect drive makers other than Seagate and Hitachi to get into the business, and hardware drive encryption will likely become a dominant business-laptop feature — not even much of an option — by 2009.

Our verdict: For any industry in which security is paramount or even legally obligated (the medical, legal, and governmental fields, for starters), the additional cost of hardware encryption is minuscule when weighed against the technology’s ease of use and its role in avoidance of liability.

Free-Fall Sensor

You’ll never drop your laptop. Of course you won’t. Someone will, however, jostle you, or the laptop will be balanced precariously on the arm of your seat in an airport waiting area, and — crash! When you inspect it, the laptop is fine; the drive, however, is trashed.

A free-fall sensor can detect when a drive experiences sudden motion that indicates a near-term poor outcome. Turtlelike, the drive instantly retracts its read/write heads to keep them from damaging the internal platters. The drive then pops the heads out when the coast is clear.

Apple has included motion sensors in all of its laptops for the last three years. Other manufacturers, such as Lenovo and Toshiba, may charge a small premium, about $40 to $50, to upgrade a drive to have the feature.

Google Jumps Head First Into Web Services With Google App Engine

sujithms — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:06:00 +0000

Google isn’t just talking about hosting applications in the cloud any more. Tonight at 9pm PT they’re launching Google App Engine (Update: The site is live), an ambitious new project that offers a full-stack, hosted, automatically scalable web application platform. It consists of Python application servers, BigTable database access (anticipated here and here) and GFS data store services.

At first blush this is a full on competitor to the suite of web services offered by Amazon, including S3 (storage), EC2 (virtual servers) and SimpleDB (database).

Unlike Amazon Web Services’ loosely coupled architecture, which consists of several essentially independent services that can optionally be tied together by developers, Google’s architecture is more unified but less flexible. For example, it is possible with Amazon to use their storage service S3 independently of any other services, while with Google using their BigTable service will require writing and deploying a Python script to their app servers, one that creates a web-accessible interface to BigTable.

What this all means: Google App Engine is designed for developers who want to run their entire application stack, soup to nuts, on Google resources. Amazon, by contrast, offers more of an a la carte offering with which developers can pick and choose what resources they want to use.

Google Product Manager Tom Stocky described the new service to me in an interview today. Developers simply upload their Python code to Google, launch the application, and can monitor usage and other metrics via a multi-platform desktop application.

More details from Google:

Today we’re announcing a preview release of Google App Engine, an application-hosting tool that developers can use to build scalable web apps on top of Google’s infrastructure. The goal is to make it easier for web developers to build and scale applications, instead of focusing on system administration and maintenance.

Leveraging Google App Engine, developers can:

Write code once and deploy. Provisioning and configuring multiple machines for web serving and data storage can be expensive and time consuming. Google App Engine makes it easier to deploy web applications by dynamically providing computing resources as they are needed. Developers write the code, and Google App Engine takes care of the rest.

Absorb spikes in traffic. When a web app surges in popularity, the sudden increase in traffic can be overwhelming for applications of all sizes, from startups to large companies that find themselves rearchitecting their databases and entire systems several times a year. With automatic replication and load balancing, Google App Engine makes it easier to scale from one user to one million by taking advantage of Bigtable and other components of Google’s scalable infrastructure.

Easily integrate with other Google services. It’s unnecessary and inefficient for developers to write components like authentication and e-mail from scratch for each new application. Developers using Google App Engine can make use of built-in components and Google’s broader library of APIs that provide plug-and-play functionality for simple but important features.

Google App Engine: The Limitations

The service is launching in beta and has a number of limitations.

First, only the first 10,000 developers to sign up for the beta will be allowed to deploy applications.

The service is completely free during the beta period, but there are ceilings on usage. Applications cannot use more than 500 MB of total storage, 200 million megacycles/day CPU time, and 10 GB bandwidth (both ways) per day. We’re told this equates to about 5M pageviews/mo for the typical web app. After the beta period, those ceilings will be removed, but developers will need to pay for any overage. Google has not yet set pricing for the service.

One current limitation is a requirement that applications be written in Python, a popular scripting language for building modern web apps (Ruby and PHP are among others widely used). Google says that Python is just the first supported language, and that the entire infrastructure is designed to be language neutral. Google’s initial focus on Python makes sense because they use Python internally as their scripting language

Microsoft Gives Windows XP A Limited Reprieve

sujithms — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:30:00 +0000

In a decision that highlights Windows Vista’s hefty system requirements, Microsoft said Thursday that it would allow computer makers to continue to sell the older Windows XP operating system on “ultra low-cost PCs” for an extended period.

Microsoft said it would allow system vendors to preload the Home edition of Windows XP on ULCPCs through June 2010, or one year after the next version of Windows becomes generally available.

Microsoft defines ULCPCs as, among other things, systems that use discount-line processors and lack a separate graphics card. An example of such as system is the Asus Eee PC, which runs Windows XP or Linux and sells for less than $400.

Such low-spec machines would be incapable of running Vista.

To experience all of Vista’s features, PC users need a computer with at least a 1-GHz processor, 1 GB of memory, and a 40-GB hard drive. By contrast, Windows XP Professional requires only a 300-MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 1.5-Gbyte disk.

Without continued access to XP, vendors like Asus would be forced to offer only Linux on their systems. It’s a situation Microsoft is trying to avoid, particularly as sales of ULCPCs rise in emerging markets like India and China.

Microsoft is terminating Windows XP’s shelf life for most PC makers on June 30, though independent system builders will have access to the OS through January 2009. Microsoft has said it expects XP sales to account for as little as 15% of its operating system revenues in its current fiscal year, which runs through June.

Microsoft introduced Windows XP in late 2001. The company ordinarily makes operating systems available only for four years after launch date. But delays in producing Windows Vista, which debuted in January of 2007, forced Microsoft to continue selling XP longer than planned.

Microsoft had originally planned to shelve Windows XP on January 30th.

The Web’s best free stuff

sujithms — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:12:00 +0000

There’s a wealth of downloadable software and online services, but free doesn’t necessarily mean good. Here’s some of the best of the bunch

Free: It’s the magic word for an ever-expanding wealth of downloadable software and online services. Free doesn’t necessarily mean good, however, and hunting for freebies can mean sifting through a lot of junk.

That’s where we come in. We surfed, clicked, and installed to find sparkling free gems capable of planning your time, keeping you in touch, and tuning and securing your PC, not to mention glitzing up your desktop, helping you stay productive, and entertaining you with music, videos, photos, and games. We paid special attention to programs and services you may not have heard of before.

We also singled out two free offerings–one download and one online service –as the best of the bunch. We want to hear your picks for the best freebies, too, whether they appear in this article or not. Please let us know by joining our forum discussion.

Productivity

AbiWord (download)
Tired of expensive, slow, bloated word processors? Download this surprisingly powerful freebie, which includes sophisticated features such as mail merge and advanced layouts. The program handles a wide variety of document formats, including those of Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, OpenOffice.org, and other programs.

TrackMyShipments (service)
If you place orders often via the Web or phone, here’s a site for you. When you get a shipping notification, forward the e-mail to track@trackmyshipments.com. The service reads through your message for the tracking information and keeps it in one place for all of your orders. Log in to the site to see the progress of your shipments, including a map showing their progress.

Buzzword.com (service)
You have plenty of free Web-based word processors to choose from, but most aren’t as slick as this one. The design is tasteful and elegant, menu items slide in and out of place, and it’s incredibly simple to use. But don’t let the pretty face fool you, because Buzzword is feature-packed as well. Inserting tables and graphics is a breeze, you can easily select background colors, and the document manager is a standout too.

ThinkFree Online (service)
Don’t want to fork over several hundred dollars for Microsoft Office? Try this Web-based productivity suite, which covers word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. The service can create files compatible with Microsoft Office, so you can download files to your own PC where you can work on them offline using Office applications, if you wish. You can also edit your Office-created documents in ThinkFree, though you have to be connected to the Internet to do that. But if you’re always connected, you can’t beat free.

StarOffice (download)
If you prefer offline apps that reside on your PC, download the free StarOffice suite, which includes a word processor, a spreadsheet app, and a presentation program, among other goodies. It’s part of the free Google Pack, which also contains a bunch of other programs you might not want. During the Google Pack download, simply check the box next to StarOffice and uncheck all the others.

Foxit Reader for Windows (download)
High on our list of the most annoying applications of all time is Adobe Acrobat Reader. It’s slow, bloated, and buggy, and it often crashes some systems–all of which can drive you insane. Foxit lets you read and even fill out PDF files, without touching Reader. This small and compact tool loads fast, won’t hog RAM or system resources, and won’t crash your PC.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business (service)
With this service, you can share documents and collaborate with coworkers and customers, build a Web site, and manage your contacts. A variety of for-pay options are available as well, but you don’t have to pay for the basics.

Blist (service)
If you own a small business, you need a database to create and track customer records, among other details. At home, you may want to organize information related to hobbies, such as your fantasy football stats. With Blist, you can do all of that online for free. You just drag and drop column types, such as numbers, dates, names, and money amounts, onto a grid. Then type in your data, and voilá–instant database.

Moffsoft FreeCalc (download)
For simple, basic operations, the calculator that ships with Windows is fine. But if you need more, get this great free download. It has a variety of new keys, such as memory subtract, and its nifty “tap” feature keeps a running history of all your calculations.

File sharing and storage

4Shared (service)
This clever site combines personal, online storage with file sharing. You get 5GB of free space to store your files. You can either keep the files private or share them with other users, on a folder-by-folder basis. The service imposes just one limitation: No file can be larger than 100MB.

Torrent Swapper (download)
Though BitTorrent has become the de facto protocol for sharing files, the BitTorrent client leaves a lot to be desired. Get this far superior, and faster, open source client instead. It’s easy to use, and it lets you get recommendations from others about files to download; it also allows you to stop, pause, resume, and queue downloads.

Shareaza (download)
Want to share files, but don’t want to be tied exclusively to the BitTorrent protocol? This simple-to-use free download allows you to share files on multiple networks and protocols, including BitTorrent, Gnutella, Gnutella2, and eDonkey. It offers fast search and chat capabilities, and you can skin it to your taste as well.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace (service)
This is, by far, the most powerful free file-sharing site you can find. It’s closer to a full-blown collaboration tool, and it links directly to Microsoft Office so that you can edit your online files using Office applications. The service is ideal for small businesses looking for a way to collaborate on common documents.

Dropboks (service)
Don’t expect sophistication or any bells and whistles here. This service is a simple, straightforward way to store up to 1GB of files online for free.

Openomy (service)
This simple, no-frills storage site also lets you share files with other people. You get 1GB of free storage, and you can send colleagues links to your files so they can download them. It has as basic an interface as you will find. One important note: Make sure to create “tags” (the equivalents of folders) and then upload files to your tags; otherwise, you may never unearth the files again.

MP3 Rocket (download)
You can do more with this Gnutella client than just share and download files. You can also listen to Internet radio stations, watch online video channels, and burn your own CDs.

Bluestring (service)
If you want to share media and other kinds of files, the task doesn’t get much easier than on this site. Upload your files to the service, and you’ll have access to them online whenever you want. You can then share them with others in various ways, including sending an e-mail link to the storage site. It’s also a good way to publish photos and media to a Web site or blog, since you can put a link in your page to the file being hosted on Bluestring.

Security

VirusTotal Uploader (download)
Great for checking potentially dangerous downloads and e-mail attachments, this uploader gives you a right-click option to send any file under 10MB to VirusTotal’s exceptional site, where you’ll receive antivirus scan results from 32 different program engines.

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition (download)
Avira typically does a great job of detecting malware on a PC; the paid version of the program posted a 99.6 percent catch rate in the latest tests from AV-Test.org. The free version employs the same engine, but you’ll have to tolerate the occasional pop-up urging you to upgrade to the paid application.

Spyware Doctor Starter Edition (download)
This edition of the popular PC Tools antispyware application is part of the Google Pack. The free version can run full spyware scans but doesn’t have many of the real-time protection features of the paid version.

Comodo Firewall Pro (download)
Comodo’s extensive firewall can block unauthorized attempts to send information from your PC to the Internet, which surpasses the protection that the built-in XP firewall offers. But as with any advanced firewall, be sure you know what you’re doing before monkeying with the more in-depth security settings.

TrueCrypt (download)
Create an encrypted virtual drive with its own drive letter that automatically protects any file you add to it with your choice of encryption. If you try this program, be sure to go through the helpful first-time-use tutorial.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (download)
Secunia’s useful program makes keeping your software applications up-to-date much easier. It even covers apps that you might rarely use but that can leave Internet Explorer (and your PC) wide open because of an unsafe ActiveX control. PSI provides details on the security holes in old software and tells you where to obtain updates.

Spamfighter Pro (download)
Spamfighter harnesses the collective intelligence of 4.5 million e-mailers around the world to block spam with a toolbar in Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail. The free version shows a text ad in the toolbar and adds a footer to your e-mail messages.

BitDefender Online Scanner (service)
If you suspect that your regular anti-virus app missed a malware infection, head to BitDefender’s online scanner (requires Internet Explorer) for a second opinion. The Web app scans your system’s memory and all files, detecting and removing infections.

ThreatFire Free (download)
ThreatFire supplements (but doesn’t replace) your regular antivirus program. It adds behavioral-analysis protection that attempts to identify Trojan horses and other malware based on how they act on your PC.

McAfee Rootkit Detective (download)
The information you receive from Rootkit Detective’s pursuit of malware-hiding rootkits might be too technical to use yourself. The handy Submit button, however, will produce free advice on dealing with the suspicious files it finds.

Video and photo

Phrasr (service)
Here’s an offbeat Web site for folks who would like to create online photo-collage postcards and share them. When you type in a phrase, the site grabs photos from the Flickr photo-sharing site that it believes match each word, and then builds a Web page/photo gallery based on it. You can click each photo to view the original at Flickr, and send the URL to a friend.

Flypaper (service)
With this site (as well as its associated software) you can create Flash-based “stories,” in the form of slide shows or multimedia presentations, about anything you want. You can create a résumé, a presentation for your company or a trade group, training material, or anything else that comes to mind. Prebuilt templates will help you get started.

Miro (download)
This open-source video tool will play every video format under the sun, show HD content, tune in to video blogs, save YouTube videos, and even download and show video files via BitTorrent.

Photoscape (download)
This do-it-all tool, a must-have application for digital photographers, offers a file viewer, an image editor, a slide-show creator, a batch editor, and a screen-capture program. It can even convert photos in the RAW format used by many digital cameras to the more useful JPEG format.

URL Snooper (download)
Are you frustrated that YouTube and similar sites allow you to view videos online, but not download and save them to your PC? With this free program, you can grab them. Head to a Web page, and the program lists all of the videos on it. You just double-click one to view it or save it.

MeeVee (service)
Throw away your print TV listings–this site is approximately 10,000 times better. In addition to the standard listings, Meevee lets you create your own personal channel listings by combining your favorite TV programs and online video. It has a wealth of detail about each show, and the online-video listings contain links to the actual video content. Try that with your TV Guide.

Yahoo Live (service)
This is a video site with a difference–it broadcasts live video, rather than prerecorded clips. You can broadcast yourself live, too, as long as you have a Webcam. When we checked in on a Sunday afternoon, it didn’t have a whole lot of live content, but you can expect that to change as interest in real-time services grows.

Fixmymovie (service)
Everyone wants to create great-looking videos to post on the Web, but few people have professional-quality video cameras. That’s where this site comes in. It takes the grainy, dark video you’ve captured with your cell phone, Webcam, or digital camera, and helps you clean it up for posting online by adjusting the contrast and bringing out the details hidden in dark areas.

FotoFlexer (service)
Who needs software to edit photos or add special effects? Instead, head to this site and use its full complement of powerful editing tools, including all kinds of special effects such as stretching, adding a tint, and drawing a cartoon based on the photo.

System utilities and backup

Zamzar (service)
Need to convert files from one format to another? With Zamzar you can convert files to countless types of formats. The site works with all Microsoft Office document file types, as well as a large number of video, audio, and graphics files, and even file-compression archives.

Bug.gd (service)
If you encounter an undecipherable error message and want to find a solution to the problem, head to this Web site and type in the error message. If any of the site’s previous users have found the answer to your problem, it will be listed there. It’s about 100 times better than waiting on hold to talk to a support rep.

Clip2net (service)
Here’s a clever tool for people who want to take screen captures and use them on the Web. After you download free software from this site and use it to capture a screen, the software uploads the capture. Clip2Net then sends you the URL to the hosting location, so you can link directly to the images from your blog or Web site.

iDrive (service)
You can back up 2GB of data for free to this Web site, using associated software that sets up a virtual drive. When you copy files to that virtual drive, you’re actually storing your stuff at a secure iDrive server on the Internet.

CCleaner (download)
This utility offers the best way to clean the gunk out of your PC, including waste from Windows, the Internet, Microsoft applications, and plenty of third-party applications.

AppSnap (download)
Want to make sure all of the freeware on your PC is current? This program scans your system, locates freeware that’s out of date, and then upgrades the applications that you tell it to.

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner (download)
Your Registry is filled with outdated and bad entries. Clean it with this free utility, and keep your system in tip-top shape.

CO2 Saver (download)
This free program puts your PC into sleep or hibernation mode at appropriate times, which conserves energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. You’ll save money and help the environment.

Maps and directions

WeFi (download)
With WeFi, you can connect with the world in more ways than one. It not only finds Wi-Fi hotspots but also maps other Wi-Fi users’ locations by triangulating among hotspots. It then displays them on a map, so you can see who’s near you.

Zillow (service)
What is your home worth? How about the home of your neighbor down the street–or a house in Tuscon, Ariz.? At this real estate site you can find out the worth of almost any home in your neighborhood, as well as buy or sell a home, scope out new neighborhoods, and chat with people who already live there.

TerraServer (service)
This Microsoft-run site gives aerial views of any location in the United States, and displays topographical maps too. You can print any of the maps yourself or order a high-resolution copy.

FreeMind (download)
Finding maps of the world is easy — how would you like to make a map of your ideas? That’s exactly what this software promises to do. With it, you connect your ideas, works, and projects; its visual representation can help you devise new ideas and keep track of old ones.

Discovery Earth Live (service)
Interested in the current state of the planet? This Web site from the Discovery Channel shows a globe that presents multiple layers of information, including clouds, water vapor, and rainfall.

MizPee (service)
There’s no delicate way to describe this site, so we won’t try. You use it when you are in a public place and need to find a clean toilet–something that’s not so easy in most metropolitan areas. You can either check the service on your PC before you travel somewhere or use your cell phone’s browser.

Stellarium (download)
This open source astronomy app displays all the celestial objects you could ever want to see, including stars, planets, nebulae, and constellations. It displays the night sky in various grids and from different points of view, and can show the movement of heavenly bodies in slow- or fast-motion.

Flightstats (service)
Want to check for delays, learn the current status of flights at airports, and track planes as they fly to their destination? This site offers an exceptional amount of detail, such as whether certain airports are de-icing aircraft.

Communications

Pownce (service)
On this social networking site you can send items to friends and receive items from them, including messages, links, files, and event notices. Pownce is also a kind of meta-networking service, since it imports all your friends from other social networking sites and e-mail programs, such as Facebook, Hotmail, and Twitter.

Pidgin (download)
Why can’t instant messenger programs get along? With the open-source IM client Pidgin, they can. Within this single application, you can chat with people on all of the big instant messaging networks–including AIM, Google, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger–plus many others you may not heard of, such as QQ and SILC.

Pbwiki (service)
Creating and maintaining a wiki is a great way for people to collaborate. With Pbwiki, you’ll find it a breeze to set up a wiki of your own, for free. Whether you use it for a workgroup, for an entire business, or for a nonprofit or social group, it’s ideal.

Make Me Sustainable (service)
Want to do good for the planet while connecting with like-minded others? Specify an activity at this site, and it calculates the amount of greenhouse gases the activity produces, in units of carbon dioxide. It then suggests how you can reduce your impact and shows you how much less carbon dioxide you’ll generate as a result. You can also see what other people in your geographic area have done, or create sustainability discussion groups.

Gizmo (download)
Tired of paying massive phone bills? Cut them down to size with this free Skype-like software, which allows you to talk for free with other Gizmo users through your computer. You can make inexpensive calls from your PC to landlines and cell phones, too.

Dopplr (service)
If you travel a lot and want to share your travel plans with family, coworkers, and friends, try this site. You can put in your itinerary and have your friends enter theirs, and the site will create a map showing where everybody will be. If you discover that you and a friend will happen to be in the same city, for example, you can make arrangements for dinner, even if it’s in the airport.

Talkshoe (service)
Here’s a free way to participate in group voice chats with people who share your interests. Head to the site and click a chat to join, and you’ll be able to talk using the Web-based app. You can create your own chats, as well. Talkshoe integrates directly into other social networking sites, such as Facebook, so you can converse with your friends from those sites too.

TeeBeeDee (service)
Tired of social networking sites aimed at people whose idea of ancient history is the Clinton administration? This service caters to folks 40 and above. Whether you’re interested in work, play, relationships, or just about anything else, TeeBeeDee can help you find others who share your passions.

Time management

Voo2do.com (service)

Much more than a to-do list, this project management site helps you track how much time you spend on tasks grouped into different projects. You can share tasks and projects, and create new tasks by sending the site an e-mail.

TimeBridge (service)
Need to schedule meetings with scattered colleagues on assorted e-mail and calendaring networks? Head over to TimeBridge, which can pull in your Outlook or Google calendar availability and allow participants (who don’t have to be TimeBridge members) to choose from up to five proposed meeting times.

30Boxes.com (service)
The interface of this calendar site lets you quickly create events with tags, invites, Google map links, and more. You can also import up to 100 contacts from Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Plaxo, or Yahoo to take advantage of all the sharing that the site emphasizes.

SyncMyCal (download)
This app can synchronize your Google, Pocket Microsoft Outlook, or 30Boxes calendar with your Outlook XP, 2003, or 2007 calendar. The free versions can handle multiple online calendars but they won’t automatically sync (you’ll need to click a button in an installed Outlook toolbar).

Lightning (download)
This program adds a great-looking, full-featured calendar and task list to Thunderbird, Mozilla’s excellent free E-mail application. You can create multiple color-coded calendars and pull in events from other online calendars such as Google Calendar.

Scrybe (service)
If you want to see just how much an online application can feel like a desktop program, sign up for the ongoing beta of Scrybe’s calendar and note-taking app. Its slick display, with zoom effects when you drill down from month to week to day, will make you quickly forget you’re in a browser window. It also has an offline mode, an Outlook-like reminder pop-up, and lots of other nice features.

Ta-da List (service)
If you just want a simple and easy list for tracking tasks, check out Ta-da List. It has few features, but you can get it up and running in no time.

Music

Winamp (download)
The latest version of the venerable free music player can sync with iPods and fixes a serious security bug in earlier versions of the software. Its new companion download, Winamp Remote, allows you to listen to non-DRM-protected music on your PC from anywhere through a Web browser.

Audacity (download)
This capable open source download can edit and record .mp3, .wav, and other digital audio files. You can use the program to convert file types, record podcasts, and mix special effects into your favorite songs, as well.

iTunes Library Updater (download)
If moving or deleting songs has thrown your iTunes library into disarray, grab this handy tool. It can easily clean up duplicates and orphaned entries, as well as add new music from specified directories that iTunes doesn’t yet know about.

Soundsnap (service)
Find almost any type of royalty-free sound sample at this well-designed site, whether you’re looking for trumpeting elephants, synthesized drum loops, or the perfect “boing” sound effect.

iLike (service)
With a plug-in for Windows Media Player or iTunes, iLike installs a sidebar displaying artist news (recent albums, local concerts, and so on) based on music already residing in your library. It also recommends new music that you might like, offering song samples. You can share playlists and preferences with other iTunes-using friends, too.

Slacker (service)
Start with your pick of Internet radio stations in Slacker’s in-browser player–from 90s Alternative to Outlaw Country to Big Band/Swing–or type in the name of a band to get a station covering that sort of music. Afterward, you can customize the station with your choice of artists, and fine-tune options such as song popularity and age. You can also download a stand-alone software player.

Lala.com (service)
If you take the time to upload all or part of your MP3 collection to Lala.com, you can then play those songs anywhere through a Web browser. Though you can’t download the songs to another PC, you can use a downloadable applet to sync your Lala music (both uploads and music purchased from Lala) to your iPod.

Wavosaur (download)
When you need to edit short audio programs, sound effects, or loops, give the free Wavosaur audio editor a try. It has all the basic audio editing functions (cut, copy, paste, crop, fade in, fade out, and so on), and some audio analysis features, as well. You can use it to record sound and do batch-processing on a folder full of files.

Desktop dustomization

WinMatrix (service)
This customization clearinghouse serves up a dizzying array of guides, links, and posts for the serious tweaker who wants to change the look and feel of Windows XP or Vista. If you’re new to the XP customization game, start with the site’s excellent beginner’s guide.

WindowBlinds (download)
For “skinning” the various Windows interfaces, Stardock’s WindowBlinds theme manager is the tool to use. After you pick up the program, head to Wincustomize.com for a kid-in-the-candy-shop feeling as you browse through 522 pages of free and for-pay skins that beautify the taskbar, window borders, Start menu, and other elements. The free trial won’t skin Internet Explorer and has a few other limitations; the full version runs $20.

Wincustomize (service)
Here you’ll find a wealth of free wallpaper and screen savers, as well as themes and packages, for Stardock’s excellent Windows customization programs. You can nab 50MB of downloads right away, or register (at no cost) and bump that up to 500MB.

SlickRun (download)
If you’re a Windows power user who constantly heads to the Run command in the Start menu, SlickRun can save you some time with its floating on-screen command window. You can also create “MagicWords,” one-word aliases that quickly launch programs when you type them into the command window.

Vista Start Menu (download)
Despite the name, this beefed-up Start menu runs on Windows XP as well as on Microsoft’s newer OS. The much-larger menu can make getting to programs easier if you have a bunch installed, and it also provides quick access to autorun programs that are set to start with Windows.

RealWorld Cursor Editor (download)
Replace any of the 15 Windows pointers with this do-it-all app. You can download ready-made pointers or use the built-in editing tool to create new ones, from scratch or based on existing images.

RocketDock (download)
This launchpad for files and programs brings some Mac OS flavor to Windows, introducing a bit of the Apple operating system’s signature great looks and ease of use.

AlfaClock (download)
Windows’ taskbar clock is boring and limited. Replace it with this highly customizable display, which shows (or even speaks) the date and the day of the week along with the time.

Xplorer2 (download)
The dual-pane folder viewer and display filters provided in this Windows Explorer competitor can help speed up major file management tasks, and you can still use Explorer whenever you want.

News readers

FeedDemon (download)
It’s hard to beat the polished and newly free FeedDemon when it comes to desktop news-reader features. And you can sync it with the Newsgator site to stay on top of news even when you’re out and about.

RSS Bandit (download)
Some nice interface touches, such as attractive colored tabs and panels that keep their names when they collapse, make RSS Bandit a useful tool for keeping up with the news.

Feedreader (download)
In Feedreader you can create custom Smartfeeds that pull together news posts from all of your subscribed feeds matching one or more e-mail-like filtering rules. For instance, you can capture all posts that contain “Apple” or “MacOS” in the title or body.

Awasu Personal Edition (download)
This program offers you several nice features, such as a quick full-screen switch for easy news reading on your desktop. The free personal edition, however, updates the content only once an hour.

GreatNews (download)
Six different feed presentation styles, including Essay, Newspaper, and Firefox Sage, make this news reader (in beta) worth checking out.

FreeRange FreeReader (download)
Bring the RSS love to your BlackBerry, J2ME, Nokia, Palm OS, or Windows Mobile smart phone with this mobile news reader. The free version is limited to ten news feeds and relies on your phone’s data connection.

Feedshow (service)
A simple and straightforward desktop-app-like reader in a Web browser, Feedshow can switch between resizable two- and three-panel layouts and accepts keyboard shortcuts. And you don’t have to download anything to your computer.

RSS Ticker (download)
This Firefox add-on for serious news junkies scrolls updates for your Live Bookmark feed subscriptions across the top or bottom of the browser window. Mouse over a headline for a summary, and click it to bring up the whole article in the browser.

Games

Splume (service)
When you launch a green ball across the screen onto a red or blue ball in this instantly likable online game, the incompatible balls give each other the stink eye. Attach a green to another green, however, and the balls share a gaze of adoration. Add in imaginative level designs and splooshy sound effects, and you have an engaging time sink.

Excit (service)
A fun spreadsheet. No, really. In this online game you lead a sprightly cross-hair cursor to the exit–without hurtling it off the edge of the spreadsheet game board–in order to advance to the next, progressively harder level. And each level of success you achieve provides a password you can use later to restart where you left off.

Command & Conquer Gold (download)
Electronic Arts released the classic Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn real-time strategy hit as a free download for the game’s twelfth anniversary. To install the game, first burn the downloadable .iso files to a CD or access them with a free utility such as Virtual CloneDrive. Then follow the instructions .

Airport Security (service)
Pull an ever-changing list of prohibited items — canned cheese, a worn shirt, candy bars–from passengers’ bodies and luggage quickly enough to keep the line moving in this online Shockwave game.

Dungeon Runners (download)
Free players in this tongue-in-cheek, Diablo-esque MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) can’t use the full range of items available to paid-subscription players, but they can still have a great time romping through the dungeons and building their own characters. Five dollars a month gets you the whole shebang.

Little Fighter 2 (download)
Up to four people on the same computer, or up to eight in a network, can battle it out with fists, flung items and fireballs, and other flashy special moves in this anime-like, manic fighting game.

Disaffected (download)
This satirical “anti-advergame,” in which players help customers in a dysfunctional FedEx Kinko’s, takes a swipe at the genre of games meant to market a company or product.

Freeciv (download)
If talk of Sid Meier’s classic game Civilization II evokes fond memories of hours lost to “Just one more turn,” try this excellent free clone, which supports up to 30 network players and a host of optional mods for new sounds, rules, and nations.

flOw (download)
Everyone wants to be an aquatic worm-creature, lazily chewing on microorganisms and evolving into something completely different, don’t they? Grab a copy and get transformed.

Best download

FreeReader Brings the News to Your Mobile Device

With scores of free programs now available on the Web, an application has to have more than just good looks to get the nod for our favorite shareware product. Our winner brings your news to places other free news readers can’t.

FreeRange FreeReader brings the speed and convenience of RSS feeds to a wide array of mobile phones. Install this clean and fast feed reader, and the fun little games on your phone will soon suffer from neglect as you instead go straight for all the latest news reports from your favorite sources.

You can set up everything through your phone, but the better bet is to create your account and feed subscriptions through the Web site on a PC. As with any good news reader, you can import or export OPML lists from other readers, though you’re limited to ten subscriptions in the free version. You can also create custom feeds that track news on particular topics or that watch market activity for one or more stock symbols.

After a quick download to your phone, you’ll be reading your news in no time in a customizable and well laid-out display. FreeReader starts with article headlines and summaries and downloads the full articles only when you choose, and a typical update for ten feeds is small (around 80KB). But remember to watch your data usage if you don’t have an unlimited data plan for your phone.

Best Web app
Slacker Works Hard to Find Music

Over the past year, music “taste sharing” sites have increased in visibility and popularity. They’re not only a good way to get hip to new music, but they’re good places to meet new people, too.

Despite its name, is no slouch. Rivals such as Last.fm and Pandora garner well-deserved praise, but don’t compare to Slacker in ease of use. No matter what your music tastes may be, within about 30 seconds of first arriving at this Internet radio site you can be listening to your pick of a huge number of potential stations.

It gets even better. Slacker helpfully displays the full list of artists that play on any given station, but you don’t have to stick with the list. If you start with one of the premade genre stations, you can toss bands you don’t like from the lineup. Pick an artist station, which adds similar bands to an artist you search for, and you can also mix in your choice of crooners. You can choose favorite songs to hear them more often, and skip those you don’t like (up to six songs per hour for the free level of use).

Add in more fine-tuning options for each station, such as whether to lean toward lesser-known music or top hits, plus a downloadable software player that can run without a browser, and you’ll like this hard-working Slacker.

The New Browser War is Good for Microsoft

sujithms — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:02:00 +0000

uddenly, Mozilla seems mightily concerned about Apple’s Safari. Internet Explorer can only benefit from the impending conflict.

Mozilla took a surprisingly proactive approach with Firefox last week, and neither move really had to do with Microsoft.

In an interview with Reuters, Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering, claimed that “In many ways it [Firefox 3] is much more stable than anything else out there.” The story was published two days after Apple released Safari 3.1. Firefox 3 is currently at Beta 4, with a fifth still expected.

On Friday, Mozilla’s CEO, John Lilly, roasted Apple for using its updater to distribute Safari 3.1 to Windows users. Yesterday, Lilly qualified his Apple attack, asserting: “It isn’t about competition.”

Really?

Mozilla’s actions strongly suggest otherwise. Firefox 3′s release is still months away but Safari 3.1 is here, now, and it’s a surprisingly standards compliant browser. That’s a departure for Apple’s browser, which had lagged behind Firefox and Internet Explorer. Apple has bragging rights and a finished, new browser; meanwhile, Microsoft and Mozilla are still testing their next-generation browsers. Then there is the matter of the distribution tactic—Apple Software Update offering up Safari 3.1 to Windows users.

As I explained last week, one of Apple’s incentives for pushing Safari 3.1–and hard–is that little Google search box in the upper right-hand corner. Mozilla has one of those too. Safari gains could mean less Google revenue for Mozilla.

So Mozilla came out barking at the dog moving in on its territory, with statements asserting Firefox’s relevance, and accusing Apple of violating users’ trust. I disagree with Lilly. It’s all about competition. Safari gains are more likely to come at Firefox’s expense than at Internet Explorer’s.

My LinuxWatch colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reviewed Firefox 3 Beta 4 today. He disputes Mozilla’s prime-time claims: “Is Firefox 3 ready for production use? Well, my verdict is it’s not quite there yet.”

On Wednesday, my eWEEK colleague Jim Rapoza praised Apple’s browser. For users “who just want a simple and fast Web browser, Safari 3.1 might just be the best choice.”

What a lucky break for Microsoft. Firefox has nipped at IE’s tail for nearly four years. The biggest IE pain has been Firefox brand gains. Even a 20 percent market share loss to Firefox really wouldn’t hurt Internet Explorer. (I doubt the number is that high, as some people have asserted.) The market share numbers are disputable, as most analysts don’t accurately track multiple browser usage. Microsoft’s problem isn’t so much that more people use Firefox but that they now use Internet Explorer and something else.

Microsoft benefits if that something else splits among multiple browsers. More importantly, Firefox could become less of a problem if Mozilla has to focus attention behind, as well as in front.

Dean Hachamovitch, IE general manager, should send Apple CEO Steve Jobs one of those iPhone cakes. “Thanks, Steve! You’re the best!” Safari distractions at Mozilla can only benefit browser behemoth Internet Explorer.

The timing is wonderful for Microsoft. IE 8′s newfound standards embrace isn’t just about Microsoft doing the right thing, as Hachmamovitch’s March 3 blog post insinuated. Standards support is just as much a competitive tactic; a way of closing the feature gap on Firefox. While Microsoft tries to make IE 8 into the Firefox-smasher that IE 7 wasn’t, Mozilla must engage in a potentially ugly two-front war.

How ugly could it get? The answer will depend much on how many people try Safari and then adopt it. This afternoon, I reviewed browser stats from several of the firms tracking them, including TheCounter.com and OneStat.com. Safari usage/share ranged from about 2.2 percent to 3 percent, and Firefox’s was between 13 percent and 16 percent. Net Applications’s statistics puts the numbers higher, with more than 17 percent for Firefox and nearly 6 percent for Safari. Whatever the measure, Safari is more likely to take away share from Firefox than Internet Explorer.

Safari has leverage, with Apple Software Update, the iPhone and the iPod Touch, for starters—and that’s on Windows. Safari also conceptually benefits from Mac market share gains. I’m not predicting huge share gains for Safari. It’s not the amount gained, but from where, that matters and the possible distraction from Mozilla. Share loss equals revenue loss, because of Mozilla’s huge dependence on revenue derived from Google search.

The Google search relationship, which expires in November, is important to Mozilla. “Approximately 85 percent of Mozilla’s revenue for 2006 was derived from this contract,” according to The Mozilla Foundation’s 2006 financial statement. No statement has been released for 2007 (that I know of).

So, Mozilla has real financial concerns regarding increased Safari competition. Meanwhile, Microsoft executives can sit back, have a good laugh and continue their prodding IE 8 development.

10 broken technology ideas — and how to fix them

sujithms — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:29:00 +0000

Sometimes a technology idea is too good to be true. A flexible keyboard, Internet voting and watching feature films on your smart phone are examples. Today, these concepts are still evolving, but they’re broken right now. I’ll tell you why and what could be done to fix them once and for all.
1. Ultracompact PCs

Call them whatever you want: ultramobile PCs (UMPC), mobile information devices (MID) or subnotebooks. I call them small PCs, and they are almost indistinguishable from a good smart phone.

For example, the BlackBerry 8820, with its built-in GPS capability and excellent e-mail client, is a better device than the Samsung Q1 Ultra, described by the company as an “ultramobile personal computer.” The only real difference is that you squint less with the Q1. But most people don’t use a Q1 for gaming or writing long business documents.
As Jon Stewart pointed out at the Oscars, small-screen video is not fun on a device such as the iPhone.

The Apple iPhone is a smarter, sexier, more useable computer than just about any MID, such as the new Toshiba prototype. Meanwhile, there’s more power in the OQO, than a regular UMPC, but the screen is just as tiny.

I figure that in less than three years, Apple will release a successor to the iPhone that works more like a Mac and will become the first company to make a true pocket computer — one that runs any Mac OS X application natively, with a mini-DVI port.
2. Satellite Internet

My main problem with satellite Internet providers is their fair use policies, which penalize users who download too much by throttling their speed back to almost nothing, and then slowly adding more speed over a 24 hour period. Both WildBlue and HughesNet do this, and they claim it helps all users.

However, the Internet is not just for e-mail and simple browsing anymore, it’s a pipeline for television, network back-ups, remote access and a myriad of other activities — not to mention Web apps and streaming media.

Other ISPs — such as Charter Communications and Qwest– don’t throttle your speed at all. Others, such as Comcast, may use “network management” techniques such as throttling BitTorrent traffic, but they aren’t as aggressive as the satellite providers.

Another issue is that the stationary modem that you need for satellite Internet is a bulky device and uses coaxial cable that most people need a technician to install. Also, the required antenna is bigger than a wheel rim, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be reduced to a size that works with your laptop.

Yet I like the satellite concept because it could make the Internet much more ubiquitous across large swathes of the U.S. Satellite Internet has slowly increased in speed, starting out at only 512Kbit/sec. and currently at about 1.5Mbit/sec. If the technology and speed improve, it could be a solid option.
3. Contact managers

I’d like to retrieve the lost hours spent building up a contacts database. Not long ago, I stopped meticulously entering names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mails and now rely on other methods.

For example, I search Gmail.com for names and addresses. When I want to send a new e-mail, I just type a portion of a name to get the full address, type the message, and send.

For names not in my Gmail archive, I use an online address book such as YellowPages.com or LinkedIn.com.

However, a good contact manager could work like the iPhone: It would see phone number in an e-mail and allow me to right-click and add the name and phone number to a database automatically within Gmail. The database would be smart enough to know if a phone number already matches an existing name, and it would weed out duplicates automatically. I’d never have to type in contacts, because this “auto-database” would work as easily as a mobile phone, support any e-mail client and work in the background. Some contact managers come close — such as Now Up-to-Date & Contact — but it still involves a manual process.
4. Digital streaming adapters

They have names like Apple TV, Netgear Digital Entertainer and Sonos, but they all do the same thing: move music, video and photos from your PC in the office to the HDTV in your family room.

They are supposed to solve a persistent dilemma: a PC just doesn’t work with a television. A keyboard and mouse are meant for a desk, not a sofa. These adapters add another appliance to an overcrowded entertainment center bulging with DVRs and game consoles.
Putting the digital media adapter in the TV, like this MediaSmart TV, makes sense — less clutter in your entertainment room.

The fix? Put them right into the television itself. Hewlett-Packard Co. started this with the MediaSmart TV, but I’d like to see it as a standard feature that is more open — not just based on Windows Media Extender, but supporting any media format over Wi-Fi.
5. Video on a phone

A phone screen is too small for video, and even the iPod Touch can cause eye strain when you watch a two-hour feature film. I’m convinced that anything you only do once or twice in dealing with new technology and find it hard to do — like load a smart phone with video clips or swap contacts with your laptop over Bluetooth — is just a novelty and often not worth the effort. I will likely never do it again; it’s not worth the time.

Even the iPhone is a poor movie viewer unless you are desperate for a Jason Bourne flick on the bus. But solid-state memory is finally getting cheaper, and it makes sense to load up a mobile device with movies.

What I’d like to see is Bluetooth built into HDTVs so that I can beam a high-resolution movie from my phone or projector in the phone (like the Pico technology being developed by Texas Instruments Inc.) or a mini-DVI port.
6. Web 2.0

For the past two years, the promise of the Semantic Web — a concept where the Web is smarter and lets you tag information for better searchability — has reached a crescendo that is finally coming down to earth.

I believe there is no clear definition of Web 2.0 or any sites that fit easily into that box. Instead, Web 1.0 is in a constant state of evolution. Imagine Amazon.com in its infancy — over the past 10 years, it has been updated with hundreds of new features as Web technology has steadily advanced.
Web aggregators like Pageflakes point to a day when HTML may be replaced by something much more powerful.

What I’m hoping for is a whole new framework for the Web: a wholesale HTML replacement, something like AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) that’s faster and more reliable. Or, I’d like to see sites like Pageflakes expand even more so that Web 2.0 dies altogether and gives way to Internet widgets running on a true Internet operating system.
7. Electronic books

A promising technology, or a snake-oil sales pitch? E-books like the Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader could eventually reduce our reliance on paper books. I must admit the crisp 120DPI screens look remarkably like printed material.

In some ways, the Web is a gigantic e-book with an endless amount of information — even if some of it is unreliable (see Wikipedia.org). Yet, nothing beats a printed book: you can find your place instantly with a dog-ear, it’s practically disposable, you can loan it to anyone, and it causes very little eye strain.

Yes, you can load one of 90,000 books on the Kindle and check your e-mail in between chapters of the latest Stephen King novel. But before an e-book reader becomes a major hit with consumers, it must cost about the same as a real book. I’d like a throwaway e-book that’s a plastic sheet with electronic ink (like the newspapers in Minority Report) and costs about $30.
8. Internet voting

I like the idea of Internet voting because the easier you make the process, the more people who will vote. Right now, the concept is in a preliminary stage because fingerprint readers or some other form of biometrics hasn’t become ubiquitous or foolproof.

I have noticed that just about every enterprise laptop has a fingerprint reader. In the same way that Hollywood studios don’t trust the Internet for delivering movies unless they are crippled with digital rights management, voting also needs some extra precautions to ward off fraud.

The idea will finally work once all displays are multitouch (which might be sooner than we think), facial recognition is common and secure, and there is some way of encrypting the connection to assuage any doubts.
9. Video blogs

My main issue with video blogs is that they don’t seem well suited for the Web. I’d watch “Rocketboom”, “Mahalo Daily” and “WebbAlert” every day if I had the time.

Often, with WebbAlert, I scan through the links — it usually has a really good summary of the previous day and posts in my RSS reader before just about anyone else — instead of watching the video blog. The Web is made for instant information (see Facebook, Wikipedia, etc.), and I have a hard time discerning how a video blog is really that different from a 2-minute update on G4 or CNN.

Yes, there’s the idea that a video blog has a “long tail” — there can be a video blog for just about any taste, how to do underwater yoga, stuff that would never make it on a mainstream channel — suited for any taste, but the farther you go out on the tail, the lower its quality seems to be.

Where is this all going? I’d like to see satellite television providers like Dish Network and DirecTV offer more-flexible plans. I’d watch a video blog station for 10 minutes if it could hold my attention over breakfast and The Wall Street Journal.
10. Flexible keyboards

Flexible, foldable keyboards like the Brando or the Eleksen ElekTex sound like a good replacement for a standard keyboard and could help mobile users type faster when traveling with smart phones.
Sure, they are mobile and new, but typing on a fabric keyboard like this Eleksen model is a real pain.

In practice, it’s almost impossible to type fast on these roll-away models. Is there a way to improve on a standard keyboard? Microsoft and Logitech International keep trying, adding extra buttons and features. (I have settled on the Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard 6000 V2 with its slight key curvature.)

I doubt we will be typing on multitouch screens any faster, judging by my speed on the iPhone. Speech recognition, even if it understood every word perfectly, still makes it hard to edit your mistakes. The Laser Keyboard is hinting at a true evolution: Eventually, all keyboards will become more tactile, with more responsive keys, a more ergonomic feel — and someone may figure out how to make them fold up.

Have I missed any technologies, or do you disagree with any of my choices? Let me know in the comments section at the end of this article.

Recognize Internet addiction as a mental illness

sujithms — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Compulsive e-mailing and text messaging could soon become classified as an official brain illness.

An editorial in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry says Internet addiction — including “excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging” — is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder that should be added to psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders.

Like other addicts, users experience cravings, urges, withdrawal and tolerance, requiring more and better equipment and software, or more and more hours online, according to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Dr. Block says people can lose all track of time or neglect “basic drives,” like eating or sleeping. Relapse rates are high, he writes, and some people may need psychoactive medications or hospitalization.

Dr. Block says about 86 per cent of Internet addicts have some other form of mental illness, but that unless a therapist is looking for it, Internet addiction is likely to be missed.

He argues that the phenomenon warrants being included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry’s official dictionary of mental illnesses. The next edition is due out in 2012. A draft is expected to be available for public comment next year.

But some say the research into Internet addiction is in its infancy and they wonder how doctors decide when computer use crosses the line from the normal to the pathological.

British psychiatrists, reporting last year in the journal Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, say a “significant minority” — some estimate between five and 10 per cent of online users — are addicted to the Internet, and that while early research suggests most are highly educated, highly introverted males, more recent studies suggest the bulk of the problem is occurring among middle-aged women on home computers.

Some use computers like they would drugs or alcohol as a way to escape reality, the researchers say. Addicts may be addicted to everything from the sheer act of typing, to chat rooms, online shopping or three-dimensional, multiplayer games users have described as “heroinware.”

According to addiction therapist John Macdonald, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, computer use becomes problematic when the behaviour starts affecting people’s lives.

For example, is the person pre-occupied with getting, and staying, online? “If they’re not able to engage in it, is it emotionally upsetting for them?

“The real proof in the pudding: is the amount that you do causing any problems in your life?” Mr. Macdonald says.

China and South Korea are already addressing the problem.

After 10 people died in Internet cafés in South Korea from cardiopulmonary-related deaths — at least seven reportedly due to online gaming — the government trained more than 1,000 counsellors in the treatment of Internet addiction, Dr. Block writes.