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Microsoft drops Windows Security Essentials 4 beta -- pick it up now!

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 5:54pm MST by Mark Wilson

Microsoft has released a public beta version of its Windows Security Essentials package, giving users a sneak glimpse of what to expect from future releases. There are not a huge number of changes to speak of, but the release is an important advancement for a home-user friendly security suite that has gained a large following since it debuted. Windows Security Essentials 4 beta is available right now to anyone with a Windows Live ID.

There are some minor interface tweaks to be seen in the application, but it is the improvements to performance and the detection process that are most interesting. One of the concerns with running any security software is the potential for it to impact on system performance -- and this is one reason why many people simply do not bother installing security software. Performance tweaks help to reduce the strain on your system while it is protected.

But the purpose of the program is to offer protection against a range of threats and in addition to the general performance enhancements, there are improvements made to the detection engine. No security app is able to promise 100 percent protection, but Windows Security Essentials 4 improvements bring great levels of protection to Windows users.

There is a strong focus on ease of use, and as well as the redesigned and cleaned up interface, changes have also been made to the way the app handles threats that are detected. The program now deals with a greater number of threats automatically without the need for user intervention, and there is also the ability to configure on-demand and scheduled system scans in addition to the all-important real-time protection.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Microsoft Security Essentials 4 Beta review page.

Photo Credit: Julien Tromeur/Shutterstock

Windows Phone 7 needs a Christmas miracle

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 5:27pm MST by Joe Wilcox

I've got a soft spot for Windows Phone. The operating system is classy, vibrant, intuitive and refreshing -- the latter particularly compared to Android and iOS. Windows Phone also is a bleeding failure, as I predicted it would be in February 2010 -- when calling the platform a "lost cause". I grudgingly admit to being right. Ah hum. Only Nokia can save Windows Phone now. They swim for land or drown together.

Yesterday, Nielsen released US smartphone operating system share at end of third quarter. For Android and iOS: 42.8 percent and 28.3 percent, respectively. Windows Phone: 1.2 percent, which is less than Symbian (1.7 percent) -- the operating system WP will replace on Nokia handsets, which have far less visibility than does WP7 in the United States; that's sadist commentary of all. Windows Mobile share is 6.1 percent, and that's a good place for Microsoft to really target. Imagine if all those customers could convert to smartphones running the newer software.

Maybe the holidays will be good to Microsoft, which needs a little Christmas miracle to lift Windows Phone 7 from last place. The share numbers explain why Microsoft has invested so much to churn up buzz, such as erecting a six-story Windows Phone in a New York City park or touring the country showing off WP 7.5 handsets over cocktails. The advertising looks pretty good, but Microsoft needs more of it. As BetaNews reader Robert Johnson explained two days ago, "Microsoft is in trouble", because of negative perceptions or little to no visibility against Apple and Google.

The reasons I stated 21 months ago for Windows Phone's problems are little different today. Briefly recapping and expanding #2 and adding #5:

1. There is no Windows monopoly leverage to jumpstart the platform. The opposite is true. Android and iOS leverage against Microsoft's mobile OS. They're anti-Windows monopolies, with beaucoup developers, hundreds of thousands of applications, thousands of third-party distribution partners (including major carriers globally) and a hugely expanding base platform.

On the last point: Forty-four percent of US cellular subscribers have smartphones -- that's up 5 points in three months, says Nielsen. IDC predicts that global smartphone shipments will reach 1 billion units by 2015, which is larger than the current PC install base and about three times annual shipments. Good for Microsoft: That's a big pie. The bad news, at least in the United States: Androids and iPhone already have 71 percent subscriber share.

2. Windows Phone 7 doesn't have enough developer momentum. But it's better, with something like 40,000 applications available. No platform succeeds without apps. WP7 doesn't need numbers just more of the right apps.

3. Android adoption -- by manufacturers and mobile users -- is too great. You need look no further than Verizon here in the United States. The nation's largest carrier is pushing 4G LTE like the Mayan predictions are right and the world ends four days before Christmas next year. "Get real 4G before it's too late!" Verizon sells eight LTE phones, all running Android, and forthcoming Galaxy Nexus will make nine.

4. Microsoft doesn't have an end-to-end software plus hardware plus services platform. Stated differently there's no Windows Phone. But Microsoft could come close with Nokia, which has made Windows Phone its primary operating system. The first Nokia WP smartphones are shipping in major markets other than the United States. Nokia could save Windows Phone, if you believe IDC, which predicts about 20 percent market share by 2015 -- but Android more than twice that.

5. Windows Phone doesn't have global reach. While Nokia is beginning to broaden availability, WP is a long way from being available in as many geographies and from as many carriers as Androids and iPhone.

Sadly, these are pretty much the same reasons as I stated 21 months ago, just condensed from the originals. Sometimes, I really hate being right.

Still, there could be a Christmas miracle in Windows Phone's future, if you buy a handset. Will you?

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

United Nations hacked! Passwords posted!

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 3:24pm MST by Ed Oswald

The United Nations finds itself resecuring its network Wednesday following a hack that resulted in the login details of the employees of several divisions being posted to the Internet. Calling itself TeaMp0isoN, the group calls the UN "a Senate for global corruption" and "sits to facilitate the introduction of a New World Order and a One World Government".

TeaMp0isoN hacked accounts belonging to employees of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) among others. Some of the fault for the hack may lie in the users themselves: TeaMp0isoN notes that several of the user IDs contained no password at all.

"The suspicion is that the hackers were able to take advantage of a vulnerability on the United Nations Development Programme website to extract the IDs, email address and passwords of users", Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley explains.

This is certainly not TeamPoison's first hack. The group was also behind the hack of Research In Motion's company blog back in August, done in retaliation over police response to the UK riots. That hack exposed the personal information of RIM employees to rioters.

It also is aligned with Anonymous in an effort known as "Operation Robin Hood", which aims to target financial institutions.

While the hack appears to be serious, the UN says that the information obtained is not current and of little value. In fact the hacked information could be four-plus years old, with the current systems intact. "The current server of the United Nations Development Programme has not been compromised", a UNDP spokesperson claims.

TeamPoison hacked into an old server, and the 100 or so accounts obtained are no longer active, the UNDP claims.

Photo Credit: Radar_Mark/Shutterstock

Spotify Platform launches in beta, lets devs create music apps in Spotify

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 12:51pm MST by Tim Conneally

Music streaming service Spotify on Wednesday unveiled the Spotify Platform, which lets third party developers build apps into the popular Spotify streaming music service.

The platform launches with apps from thirteen partners, including Billboard, Fuse, Last.fm, The Guardian, Moodagent, Pitchfork, We Are Hunted, Rolling Stone, Songkick, Soundrop, and TuneWiki. The apps can be accessed through Spotify's App Finder, which launches in beta today.

The apps each offer something different for users. Last.fm's app, for example recommends artists, albums, and tracks, personal history tracking and playlisting, and integration with Last.fm's database of artist information and images. TuneWiki's app adds lyrics to the songs you listen to on Spotify, and Moodagent's picks music based upon "Mood" parameters set by the user.

"Once you take a look, you’ll see why we believe this is truly the beginning of something game-changing for digital music. We think this will lead to integrations that keep Spotify beautiful and simple, but layer in great musical experiences designed to be social and fun. It’s what our users have been asking us for," Spotify CEO and Founder Daniel Ek said on Wednesday.

That was fast -- TeamViewer 7 goes from beta to gold in a week

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 10:59am MST by Mike Williams

It’s barely a week since the first public beta, but the Windows version of TeamViewer 7 was still released in full earlier today. And this is no cosmetic upgrade. The popular remote access tool has been revitalized with some major features that open it up to an entirely new audience.

Top of the list is TeamViewer’s new ability to hold online meetings for up to 25 people. Despatch email invitations to your prospective attendees, and when the time arrives they’ll be able to join you via smartphones, tablets or computers. The program provides just about all the functionality you’d expect from this kind of group collaboration tool, with everyone at the meeting able to view the same screen, see and hear everything you’re doing, exchange text chat, use a white board and share files. And it’s even possible to record a video of the event for convenient reference later.

And even if this is of no interest to you, the work that’s been done to support the meetings has resulted in all kinds of spinoffs elsewhere.

So file transfer is now just a matter of dragging and dropping files or folders from a session window to your local PC. New multi-monitor support means you’re able to show separate session windows in each monitor. And a combination of network and display setting optimisations mean performance is faster than ever.

Good news all round, then? Not quite. The release of TeamViewer 7 is for Windows only; the Mac OS and Linux release reportedly won’t be until "the first quarter of 2012", which is a little vague. Mac OS and Linux users can at least participate in the new meetings, though, and everyone else can download the new build now.

Researcher uncovers keylogging 'rootkit' in Android phones

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 10:57am MST by Tim Conneally

Earlier this month, Android developer Trevor Eckhart looked into an always-on process in his HTC Android phones called Carrier IQ, and discovered the application was actually capturing all user actions (ostensibly for the purposes of "mobile service intelligence") without providing users the ability to opt out or shut off the process.

In fact, Eckhart suggested the only option to escape the keylogging behavior of the application was for users to root their phone and install new firmware without it. For this reason, Eckhart classified Carrier IQ as a rootkit.

"Every part of the multi-headed CIQ application is embedded into low-level, locked regions of the phones, Eckhart said. "Even if you unlock your device and remove the base application with a sophisticated removal method, neutered, leftover code called from other applications will likely throw an error each time an old action is triggered."

After posting his discoveries, the company responsible for Carrier IQ hit Eckhart with a cease-and-desist order, accusing him of infringing copyrights and making false allegations about the solution. Eckhart sought protection from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Carrier IQ promptly withdrew its letter, and apologized to both Eckhart and the EFF.

The company said, "Our software is designed to help mobile network providers diagnose critical issues that lead to problems such as dropped calls and battery drain."

"Here’s what our software does:
- Our software makes your phone work better by identifying dropped calls
and poor service.
- Our software identifies problems that impede a phone’s battery life.
- Our software makes customer service quicker, more accurate, and more
efficient.
- Our software helps quickly identify trending problems to help mobile
networks prevent them from becoming more widespread."

The problem with this explanation, of course, is that Carrier IQ logs all activities, even when the user is disconnected from the network or using Wi-Fi, and it continues to work even after a user's contract has expired. Eckhart demonstrates what Carrier IQ does in the video we've embedded below, using both an in-contract and out-of-contract Sprint phone.

Carrier IQ has solutions on a number of mobile platforms, including BlackBerry and Nokia devices, but Eckhart's research focuses on the Android platform. His ongoing efforts can be followed on his blog.

Black Friday consumers buy 3,333 Xbox consoles per minute

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 10:52am MST by Joe Wilcox

Today, Microsoft reported record Black Friday week Xbox console sales -- 960,000 units. That works out to roughly one per minute, assuming six-and-a-half days of sales (reduced for Thanksgiving Day). It's a phenomenal achievement for an aging console and demonstrates how Kinect and lower-entry cost 4GB models extend Xbox vitality as a platform. Microsoft describes the milestone as the "biggest week of sales in Xbox history".

However, the sales per minute is much higher for Black Friday -- well, presumably. Microsoft says that 800,000 consoles sold in one 24-hour period, which I assume means day after Thanksgiving. That works out to 555.5555 Xboxes per minute. Consumers also snatched up 750,000 Kinect sensors -- that's standalone and bundled -- during the whole week.

The numbers are simply huge and surely also reflect some aggressive discounting by Microsoft and its retail partners. Microsoft Store chopped Kinect senor price by one-third -- $99 instead of $149 over Black Friday weekend. Then there was the Xbox 360 Kinect Holiday bundles -- $299.99 for 250GB and $199.99 for 4GB, both $100 discounts. Somebody bought them. Microsoft Store online is sold out of both 250GB Holiday bundles, with and without Kinect.

The real question to ask now: Will demand outstrip supply and are discounts really necessary to maintain sales momentum? Or has Microsoft, and its partners, already tapped the sales well dry? Discounts drew tech shoppers in droves on Black Friday as people lined up to get doorbusters. According to NPD, one-half of US electronics buyers shopped stores between Midnight and 3 am on Black Friday -- up from 13 percent last year.

Black Friday game console buyers increased by 35 percent year over year, but nowhere near smartphones -- 85 percent. Consumers spent an average $360 on tech products, up $60 from a year ago.

"While holiday sales and traffic were strong, the consumer electronics industry needs that momentum to continue in order to see just as strong a finish to the holiday season" Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, says. "Consumers were driven into the stores by strong promotional deals, but the impact that aggressive pricing has on revenue will most likely outweigh the increased unit volumes".

Perhaps in some categories, but not Xbox. Even if revenues --- and more likely margins -- are less, Xbox is a platform for selling additional products and services. But that's topic for the story about the next major Xbox system update coming in just a few days.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Snap2HTML: Record Windows file and folder trees

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 9:42am MST by Mike Williams

When you’re trying to troubleshoot a friend’s PC then it’s often useful to know more about what’s on their hard drive: installed programs, the \Windows folder, temporary folders maybe, and more. If you’re sitting in front of the system then you can just launch Explorer and take a look. When the friend is far away, though, this becomes rather more difficult, as Explorer provides no way to for your friend to, say, save a report on the contents of the \Windows folder.

And while you could try a command line trick or two – dir c:\windows /s > \report.txt, maybe – that won’t exactly produce the most readable of file listings. Fortunately this isn’t necessary, though -- not if you have a copy of the free Snap2HTML, which makes it very simple to record the contents of any folder tree.

The program is tiny (142KB zip file), easily emailed. And it’s portable, too. Your faraway friend can simply unzip it and be ready to go.

It’s also easy to use. Point Snap2HTML at the root folder you’d like to map (\Windows, \Program Files, whatever it might be), optionally check a couple of boxes to include hidden or system objects, and that’s the configuration done. Now click Create Folder Snapshot, provide a name for the form, and Snap2HTML will scan every file and folder beneath the specified root and save them in a single report.

But the best part is that the report comes in the form of an HTML file, which makes smart use of JavaScript to display the file and folder information dynamically, just like Explorer. So the left-hand pane shows the folder tree, which you can expand as you like to zoom in on any particular detail. And whenever you select an individual folder, the right-hand pane will show you what it contains: file names, their sizes and “last modified” dates. If you need to get a feel for what’s stored on a hard drive then this really is an easy way to find out.

Snap2HTML does have one notable issue. Its HTML report format may be great to look at, but it’s not exactly compact. And so while the program is capable of producing a tree representing an entire hard drive, this will take a very long time, and result in a file that will probably be too large to email to anyone (maybe even if it’s zipped up). So wherever possible you’ll want to restrict its scanning to the minimum of folders.

Still, it’s a clever idea, and one which has more applications than just remote troubleshooting. If you need to see how your hard drive changes over time, for instance, you could store a snapshot of its current state as an HTML report, then browse this later for easy comparison with your current layout. And you can probably come up with more uses, too: give Snap2HTML a try, see what the program can do for you.

Photo Credit: S.john/Shutterstock

Freemake Video Converter 3 supports HTML5, smartphones

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 9:23am MST by Nick Peers

Ellora Assets Corporation has updated its video conversion suite with the addition of support for the emerging HTML5 standard. Freemake Video Converter 3.0’s headline feature is its ability to convert video into a HTML5-compliant format for embedding on websites.

Version 3.0 also adds support for conversion to Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry mobile devices, while introducing a new Favorites feature for easy access to presets. It’s also improved output quality of videos converted as lengthy DVD movies.

The new HTML5 conversion option prepares video in three formats -- Ogg Theora, WebM and H.264 -- and then generates all the code required to to allow users to quickly and easily convert video into a format that can be directly embedded into web pages. The advantage of using HTML5 in this way is that visitors using HTML5-compliant browsers, including the latest versions of Internet Explorer,Firefox, Chrome and Opera, will be able to view the videos without having to install any additional third-party plugins.

In addition to adding conversion support for Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry, Freemake Video Converter 3.0 adds two new presets for Android users: 1,280×800 and 640×480.

It also adds the MP2 audio codec to DVD parameters and is now capable of saving 5.1 channel sound for DVD while improving the overall quality of lengthy DVD videos.

The subtitles size has been also been increased while an issue with 5.1 audio channels have been resolved.

Freemake Video Converter 3.0 is a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later.

Photo Credit: Leigh Prather/Shutterstock

Are Windows 8 tablets DOA?

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 8:45am MST by Joe Wilcox

That's my question for you to ponder and to comment and debate about. Yesterday, a Forrester Research analyst proclaimed "Microsoft has missed the peak of consumer desire for a product they haven't yet released" -- it's already too late for Windows 8 tablets. He's absolutely nuts, I say. Or is he?

The analyst, JP Gownder, contends that "Windows 8 is going to be very late to the party" and Apple and Samsung tablets "will likely be into their third generation by the time Windows 8 launches". Microsoft is a late-starter to the tablet market. Meanwhile consumers have lost interest. "In Q1 2011, Windows was by far the top choice of consumers" with 46 percent US consumers pining for a tablet running Microsoft's OS. "By Q3 2011, that picture had changed dramatically...interest among consumers dropped to 25 percent". It's recipe for failure, he contends. I'm not sure what Forrester pays Gownder, but, hey, my more competent analysis is free.

There are numerous flaws with Gownder's reasoning:

1. Microsoft isn't late to the tablet market. The company jump-started the category with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition in late 2002. Gartner and IDC still treat that pioneering category separately from Androids and iPad, which are classified as media tablets. Windows slates are PCs. Gownder contends that Microsoft is last to market. No, Microsoft was first to market but lost momentum, something that can be recovered leveraging off the Windows monopoly.

2. Plenty of attractive Windows tablets ship today, like the Samsung Series 7. These take advantage of touchscreen capabilities made available with Windows 7. What really separates them from Android tablets and iPad is price. Media tablet starting prices are now around $199 for Androids and $499 for iPad. Windows slates typically sell for much more. For example, Microsoft Store has the Series 7 slate for $1,299.99.

3. Gartner and IDC don't casually categorize Windows slates as PCs. These devices are meant to be used as personal computers, not adjuncts to them like most Androids and iPad. Again, using Samsung's slate as example: 11.6-inch Series 7 is the touchscreen equivalent -- and many ways it's superior -- to Apple's MacBook Air.

4. Windows 8 supports ARM processors, which fundamentally will broaden the form factors and pricing options compared to x86 models like Samsung Series 7. OEMs will be able to bring many varied products to market, all leveraging the robust Windows ecosystem.

5. Gownder's data analysis draws the wrong conclusion about declining consumer interest in Windows slates. For starters, buying intention often doesn't lead to sales. More importantly, declining interest easily represents something else: Consumers' response to a market vacuum. Fewer people desire what they can't get: Windows tablet for about the price of iPad or less.

6. Forrester's data is only about consumers, but Microsoft's enormous install base is business. Enterprises will want tablets that run office, that fit into existing business processes and can be securely managed. Windows is the known quantity, and many larger organizations will wait for it.

7. The media tablet market is in its infancy and still tiny compared to PCs. Apple's sudden rise shows just how volatile it is and Amazon's Kindle Fire shows just how disruptive new entrants still can be. From that perspective, there is plenty of opportunity for Microsoft to catch up -- and let's qualify that. It's Microsoft and partners. The software giant doesn't manufacture or brand tablets.

8. Microsoft does its best work when backed against the wall. Time and again, Microsoft has caught up in markets where it started behind. Trust me, there is real urgency in Redmond, Wash. to protect the Windows monopoly from possible tablet encroachment, particularly among businesses.

Yesterday, my colleague Ed Oswald reported about the Forrester analysis. This morning, after writing my reasons above, I looked at some of the comments.

BetaNews reader mshulman and I agree. He writes: "A Windows 8 tablet could be purchased and used as the only device since it can run all of the programs one might use. The only exception would be programs that just require too much power such as video editing and serious gaming..etc."

Jeremy Benisek:

They say this on everything MS does. They are always late to the game with the most reasonable product. Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live (even though Sony is free), Windows XP, 7, Windows Mobile 7. All of these were late compared to others but they have shown to be better and sell better than anyone else...Late to the game doesn't mean you lost as we see with Microsoft sales of Kinect vs Wii.

Apple was late to smartphones and tablets, and look at its success in both categories -- and that was starting from scratch. Windows is incumbent.

Commenter easson is spot on, writing:

Microsoft believes that there is not one single, unified market for tablets. Instead, it believes that the tablet market is currently split into two distinct segments: 1) Those people who want a limited capability gadget (e.g., iPad), and 2) Those people who want a full-function tablet that has all the portability and ease of use of existing tablet gadgets, but which are also capable of running 'serious' applications (e.g., word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) on a 'serious' operating system (Windows).

It intends to initially target the latter market with Windows 8 running on tablets using Intel CPU's. It intends to target the first market with Windows 8 running on lower-priced ARM CPU tablets which can only run the newer 'Metro' apps. Why lower-priced? Because they can't run the millions of Win32-based legacy Windows applications, and thus are less valuable in the buyer's eyes. (But, it is quite likely that Microsoft will offer its main applications like Office for ARM processors once Windows 8 is released.)

This situation should prevail until the number of Metro apps grows considerably, at which time the two segments should blend together.

It remains to be seen whether or not Microsoft is right about there being two segments. Once Windows 8 tablets are released in late 2012, there should be some preliminary hints of whether they are right. The proof of the pudding will come in 2013, however.

So what do you think?

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Facebook agrees to FTC security audits after it 'deceived customers'

Posted: November 30th, 2011, 8:28am MST by Tim Conneally

Leading social networking service Facebook has agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on charges that its privacy settings were deceptive to customers, and that it made privacy promises that it didn't keep.

The FTC's original complaint (.pdf here) against Facebook cites eight different cases where Facebook "made promises it didn't keep." These were: deceptive privacy settings, unfair and deceptive privacy changes in 2009, misleading scope of platform applications' access to user information, disclosure of user information to advertisers, deceptive verified apps program, contrary or improper disclosures about retention of user photos and videos, and improper compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework.

In the settlement, Facebook will be required to obtain consumers' express consent before enacting any changes that override their privacy settings; make all user content totally inaccessible within 30 days of account deletion; establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks of any new services; and enact mandatory third-party privacy audits every two years for the next twenty years that ensure Facebook is living up to the FTC's privacy guidelines.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the settlement in a blog posting on Facebook Tuesday evening, diminishing some of the claims, and expounding on others.

"Even before the agreement announced by the FTC today, Facebook had already proactively addressed many of the concerns the FTC raised," Zuckerberg said. "For example, their complaint to us mentioned our Verified Apps Program, which we canceled almost two years ago in December 2009. The same complaint also mentions cases where advertisers inadvertently received the ID numbers of some users in referrer URLs. We fixed that problem over a year ago in May 2010."

In regards to the mandatory security audits, Zuckerberg announced the creation of two new jobs within the Facebook executive nucleus: Chief Privacy Officer of Policy, and Chief Privacy Officer of Products. These posts will be filled by data security lawyer Erin Egan and Facebook's Chief Privacy Counsel Michael Richter.

"Today's announcement formalizes our commitment to providing you with control over your privacy and sharing -- and it also provides protection to ensure that your information is only shared in the way you intend," Zuckerberg said. "As the founder and CEO of Facebook, I look forward to working with the Commission as we implement this agreement. It is my hope that this agreement makes it clear that Facebook is the leader when it comes to offering people control over the information they share online."

Columbia researchers show remote HP printer hijack [video]

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 7:24pm MST by Tim Conneally

Columbia University's Intrusion Detection Systems Lab has found a significant core vulnerability in certain networked HP printers that lets a remote system infiltrate print jobs, remotely inject malware into the printer's firmware that takes control of the machine.

The lab, headed by Professor Salvatore J. Stolfo, has been doing research on the vulnerabilities of embedded systems for the last year, identifying more than 540,000 publicly accessible embedded devices configured with factory default root passwords: this includes routers, VoIP phones, webcams, digital energy systems, and IPTV/Cable boxes.

Networked printers are a part of this environment, and researcher Ang Cui discovered certain HP LaserJet printers have a critical remote firmware update vulnerability. Stolfo and Cui show how a remote system can take complete control of these printers in the video we've embedded below. It's a definite must see.

"This work started by looking at printers as a device that could harbor malicious software that could do very bad damage…physical damage, for example. So we attempted to develop malicious software that would make the printer burn," Stolfo says in the presentation. "I can't think of a better way of demonstrating the vulnerabilities that are inherent in printers…the paper only browned rather than burned. Then, however, looking at what was achieved, it became crystal clear that the problem was far worse than burning paper or burning printers. Printers are everywhere, they're reachable through email, through thumb drives, through downloads, any perimeter defenses can be pierced because documents freely flow across perimeters, and documents that are printed to these devices can harbor firmware updates that are entirely stealthy and cannot be viewed. There's just no antivirus software to stop this type of threat."

The team released this information a little more than a week ago, and HP told MSNBC that it has to verify the vulnerability itself before any comments can be made (or security bulletins can be issued.)

What recession? Sony enjoys record holiday shopping weekend

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 6:16pm MST by Patrick Houston

Europe may be plunging the world into another recession but American shoppers apparently don't care. In yet another validation of the surge in consumer spending we witnessed during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumer electronics goliath Sony also enjoyed a sales spike and -- here's the kicker -- without slashing prices.

The Sony experience, along with a similar one enjoyed by Apple, must have economic forecasters scratching their heads. Jeesh, are we heading for a third Great Depression -- the second in three years? Or are the cluckers just screeching about another hunk of heaven dropping on our heads?

At least so far as Sony is concerned, we can all enjoy a little sigh of relief.

In a pre-holiday briefing for reporters in San Francisco today, Sony Electronics President and COO Phil Molyneux said that consumer electronic giant's Thanksgiving weekend store sales surged 17 percent over last year. Its online sales enjoyed a heartier 20 percent gain.

"The targets that we agreed to with major retailers, we've pretty much blown away", he says.

After seeing the deep discounting that was taking place during 2010's traditional Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday holiday shopping extravaganza, Molyneux says Sony decided to enter this year's season determined not to rely on price cuts to kick-start the Santa season.

"We didn't discount heavily yet the sales we've had were the strongest since 2008", says Molyneux, who, as head of Sony Electronics of America oversees the distribution, sales and marketing of TVs, VAIO computers, cameras, music players, and its new Sony Tablet S.

"We weren't selling TVs at a 30 percent discount -- not at all".

Molyneux, who, like Sony Corp. CEO Sir Howard Stringer, hails from United Kingdom, just concluded his first year as chief of the Sony's American arm. He previously headed its operations in Europe. During this past year, he's focused his efforts on recalibrating the way Sony engages consumers through retailers, dealers, its own Sony stores, its Web sites, call centers and other similar touch points.

For example, Sony is overhauling its SonyStyle stores. The company says the three it's already launched -- in Century City, Calif., Houston, and New York -- are killing their numbers. The revamped Roosevelt Field store in New York saw sales surpass its Thanksgiving holiday weekend targets by 265 percent.

And it's opened several specially constructed Sony-branded areas within retail partner locations such as Fry's Electronics. These stores within a store -- Sony calls them "Golden Stores" -- are outperforming its more conventional presence at retail by 40 percent.

While these efforts, along with the blemished but still strong Sony brand name, may have contributed to strong holiday shopping season start, they don't account for all of it.

For his part, Molyneaux believes "pent-up" consumer demand played a role, too.

"It's quite phenomenal," he says of the surge in consumer demand. "Everyone has been under pressure. People have said let's go and spend some money. We're fed up here. Let's go get something new to enjoy at home or on the go".

Photo Credit: Tupungato/Shutterstock

Patrick Houston is a tech veteran, having worked as an editorial director, VP, and top editor for NetShelter Technology Media, Yahoo!, CNET, and ZDNet.

FCC lets AT&T pull back from T-Mobile wireless license acquisition

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 3:46pm MST by Tim Conneally

In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it will grant the request for AT&T and T-Mobile to withdraw their applications to transfer control of wireless licenses in AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile.

The commission will also release a redacted version of the staff report that examines the pros and cons that would arise if AT&T acquired T-Mobile.

In the 109 page report (.PDF Here), the FCC's staff explains that AT&T failed to convey that the acquisition of T-Mobile's wireless licenses would be consistent with the public interest, and details the ways how competition, benefits to consumers, and employment opportunities would all be reduced.

AT&T will continue to pursue the acquisition through a Department of Justice trial in February, and is likely to reopen its application with the FCC to transfer control of T-Mobile's wireless spectrum to AT&T at a later date.

The FCC said today that this acquisition would by far be the biggest exchange of mobile wireless licenses, and the closest one in terms of size would be the merger of AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and BellSouth more than five years ago.

Small businesses embrace Microsoft's cloud, while enterprises wait and see

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 3:18pm MST by Joe Wilcox

If you live in Seattle, it's hard not to think about clouds. The mean number of cloudy days a year is 255.5, with another 81.6 partly cloudy. That's a whole lot of overcastness (go ahead, tell me that's no word). Perhaps the skies above remind Microsoft employees below about the importance of "the cloud" to the company's future. Today, Microsoft reminded everyone with some stats on its cloud computing progress and updates to Office 365 and SkyDrive. However, beneath today's announcements there are signs of drought, with only a small number of enterprises embracing Microsoft's cloud.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company is enhancing both services and has broadened availability, 22 more countries -- including Argentina, Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan -- for Office 365. SkyDrive gets a modern makeover, including HTML5 enhancements that are in line with broader Microsoft development objectives for Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8.

But Microsoft isn't a cloud company like Google, which profits from what it and third-parties sell around services like search. Microsoft sells software. Think of Microsoft's cloud quite literally -- rain falling to the earth and evaporating into the sky. Office 365 and SkyDrive depend at least in some way on desktop software, which utility they extend to the cloud and return to users.

App-Centric Cloud

Some SkyDrive improvements make the point. "We rebuilt fundamental pieces of SkyDrive to simplify sharing and make it more app-centric, particularly for Office", says Omar Shahine, group program manager. Meanwhile, Microsoft strips away some of the legacy desktop concepts. "Now you can share from within the app and complete your task, without having to think about the structure of folders or subfolders" he explains. "This is possible since SkyDrive now lets you share or permission individual files within a folder. This works for Office documents, photos, or any other type of file".

I don't much use Google Docs (or Microsoft Office, for that matter), so not all features are familiar to me. But doesn't Docs work this way today, providing granular control over sharing files rather than setting them by folders? That's a question for anyone who knows enough to comment.

Many other SkyDrive enhancements bring more of the desktop experience to the cloud. Among them:

More right-click context menus and options for documents and photos.
Improved -- acceptable really, when not as much previously -- viewing of PDF files.
Improved photo slideshows, giving an experience more like Windows Live Photo Gallery and playing catch up to Google+.
Support for photo RAW, something extended from Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for Windows Vista and 7.

Also worth noting:

The photo gallery is touch-enabled, so users can swipe to advance on IE10 and Mobile Safari.
HTML5 support improves the file uploading and management experience from modern browsers -- there's CSS3 support, too. They're yet more signs Silverlight's days are numbered.

Office rises Higher

Microsoft separates Office 365 updates into two categories: Enterprises and professionals and small businesses.

Among new capabilities in this update:

Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" is now supported.
SharePoint Online now supports Windows 7.5 handsets.
Office 365 administrators can now block access by IP address.
Administrators can now self-reset passwords using text messages or alternative email address.
Improved SharePoint support, such as sub-site restoration and enhanced Windows Live ID trust.
Office 365 administrators can now "deactivate and reactivate dirsync to switch between managing their users' master source of information on-premises or in the cloud".

Microsoft launched Office 365 in June, to 40 countries, less than two months following public beta. Today's service release update is a little odd -- more akin to a Windows service pack and showing Microsoft's desktop mentality rising to the cloud. One of cloud computing benefits is seamless updating. Providers issue them, they're immediately available to all customers and their release causes minimal to no problems with personal computing devices or IT infrastructure. Amazon and Salesforce.com issue updates to their cloud services, as does Google to Chrome and Chrome OS, without them being events. Why all the fanfare? This isn't even the first update but the third.

It's all about relevance, and Microsoft maintaining that it has any in the post-PC era. Today's announcements -- complete with coordinated blogs, customer testimonials, photos, press releases and videos -- reminds everyone that Microsoft has cloud services, too, and that they're important. Yesterday, BetaNews reader Robert Johnson recounted three experiences on Thanksgiving Day that spotlight Microsoft's perception problems -- that its products are no longer relevant or are losing relevance before others. Microsoft needs to occasionally be the peacock, strut its feathers, and updates to Office 365 and SkyDrive make good opportunity in the cloud.

But there's something more. Today, Microsoft made a big deal about early adopters. Kurt DelBene, president of the Office division, says that Microsoft sees "great traction with small businesses, with more than 90 percent of our early Office 365 customers coming from small businesses". From one perspective, that's a helluva statistic and market segment Microsoft should want to reach. But the cloud suite is also about extending enterprises' Office experience. If 90 percent of customers are small businesses -- with fewer than 50 employees -- than only 1 in 10 is a mid-size or large business, which represent the core Office market.

So while DelBene praises small business adoption, Microsoft also presents showcase enterprise customers, such as Campbell Soup Company and Groupe Marie-Claire. The announcement's timing and tone suggest that enterprise adoption isn't yet strong, and that undermines Microsoft's broader strategy, of extending its legacy Office-Windows-Windows Server app stack to the cloud.

Is it raining today in Seattle? Perhaps it should be.

Windows 8 tablets: dead on arrival, too late to market

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 11:51am MST by Ed Oswald

Microsoft's window of opportunity when it comes to tablets is closing. Release of Windows 8 is expected well into 2012, and businesses and consumers pine for tablets running the next-generation software - or they did. That is longer the case, Forrester analysts JP Gownder and Sarah Rotman Epps claim: Microsoft is too late to the party.

Windows 8 tablets will come in fifth after a host of other platforms, including the iPad and Android tablets, the struggling RIM PlayBook, and now defunct WebOS. Gownder and Epps say the tablet market is not forgiving to latecomers, which equals bad news for Microsoft.

Gownder argues that for a product to stand a chance of being successful, it needs to be a "fast follower". This means a competing product must come out quickly following its competitor to be able to have a good chance of toppling the incumbent.

"While Windows’ product strategists can learn from these products, other players have come a long way in executing and refining their products -- Apple, Samsung, and others have already launched second-generation products and will likely be into their third generation by the time Windows 8 launches", he says.

There's also other issues for Microsoft. Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which have combined the features of tablets with traditional e-readers, are examples. This muddies what is considered a tablet, while also putting significant price pressure on the entire industry.

All these factors contribute to a drop in consumer interest in Windows-based tablets. While some 46 percent were interested in such a device in the first quarter of 2011, that has since fallen to 25 percent. Gownder argues that Microsoft has missed the peak for consumer desire for its not-even-released product.

"For product strategists, Windows 8 tablets provide a cautionary tale: To be a fast-follower, you must amp up the experience -- and do so quickly, before the market changes beyond recognition", he says.

Photo Credit: forestpath/Shutterstock

Got iPhone and administer a network? You need iPRTG 3

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 11:26am MST by Mark Wilson

If you maintain a server or network, you understand the importance of being able to monitor it around the clock. There are a number of tools available that can be used to keep an eye on your network whilst on that network, but there will be numerous occasions when you are away from the office but still need to check that things are running smoothly. PRTG Network Monitor is one such network monitoring tool, but for when you are out and about you can turn to iPRTG 3 to use your iPhone or iPad to remotely monitor your network.

iPRTG enables you to view information about the state of your network and while the interface has been optimized for viewing on the screen of iOS devices, iPad users undoubtedly get a better deal, with the larger screen making it far easier to work with data. Depending on the size of your network you may choose to navigate through the app in different ways. It is possible to use network sensors as jump points, so you can, for example, quickly navigate to the device with the lowest uptime or the most free disk space.

It is something of a shame that iPRTG is focused almost entirely on network monitoring, and that there is so little scope for interacting with your network. As the app has clearly been designed to help on those occasions when you are out so you can monitor what is going on, it is rather unfortunate that it is not possible to respond to any alarms that may be raised by the network.

Relatedly, it is also a shame that iPRTG is not able to deliver push notifications about network events -- you are able to view alarms and alerts in the app, but only by manually checking them. The app can also be used to access the PRTG web interface which provides access to additional reporting and analysis options.

You can find out more by paying a visit to the iPRTG review page.

See where, when your ancestors lived with RootsMagic 5

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 11:13am MST by Nick Peers

RootsMagic has updated its popular family history software to version 5.0. RootsMagic 5, which can be road-tested as a cut-down Essentials version, adds a number of new features for those who purchase the full version. These include media tagging, a research manager and timeline view.

The software also benefits from around 80 non-specified improvements, a selection of which apply to RootsMagic Essentials 5 package too.

All of the new features are restricted to the full version of RootsMagic 5 only, which can be unlocked by purchasing a registration code and inputting it into RootsMagic Essentials. These include a new Timeline View, which allows individual lives to be seen in the context of their family members. CountyCheck is a new feature designed to help establish whether states, counties or even countries were in existence, and what their geographical boundaries were, when a selected ancestor was alive.

RootsMagic 5 also supports media tagging for the first time, allowing you to tag a single photo or document with multiple people, families, sources or places. There’s a Research Manager designed to help focus the user’s mind on specific tasks that need completing, and an “On This Day” list, which provides historical context for selected dates in history.

Also added to the full version is a database management tool, capable of testing the research file’s integrity as well as providing index rebuilding features and the ability to strip out deleted records to compress the file.

RootsMagic 5 also benefits from 80 other enhancements and features. Again, many are restricted to the full version of the program, but there are several notable improvements that work in RootsMagic 5 Essentials too.

These include a streamlined Edit Person window, which makes it easier to review and edit a person’s details in a single window. The ability to add unlimited facts, notes, sources, people and more has also been implemented in version 5 while both Places List and Descendant List views have also been improved, along with the process of adding source documentation to individuals, families or places.

RootsMagic 5 Essentials is a free download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. The full version of RootsMagic 5 can be unlocked from within RootsMagic Essentials for $29.95 ($19.95 if upgrading from an earlier version), and includes many other additional features to those added in version 5.

Photo Credit: Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock

RIM begins smartphone exit with cross-platform device management software

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 10:35am MST by Ed Oswald

Research in Motion is accepting to the realities of the smartphone industry, saying Tuesday its new Mobile Fusion device management software will work with iOS and Android devices in addition to BlackBerry smartphones. The announcement suggests RIM might be ready to concede the market to its bigger rivals.

The Canadian phone manufacturer has watched its share of smartphones plummet from a third of the market this time last year to 18 percent in the most recent quarter, due to the lack of any blockbuster device release. Most of these users shifted to Android, which has more than doubled its market share over the same period.

Mobile Fusion allows IT administrators to manage a company's smartphone deployment. Security and configuration can be set across multiple devices, and the administrator can remotely lock or wipe devices in the event of loss or theft.

"BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together our industry-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, all managed from one web-based console", enterprise product chief Alan Panezic says.

RIM declined to offer pricing specifics but has said it will be competitive with similar solutions from its competitors. Mobile Fusion is currently in limited testing, and the company will begin accepting applications for a closed beta to begin in January. A general release is expected in March.

The company's newfound love for its competitors stems from its acquisition of Ubitexx in May. The German company already had a multi-platform device management solution, and RIM folded Ubitexx's technologies into Mobile Fusion.

Whether or not it's a solution that will stop the bleeding is uncertain. It may be too little, too late -- RIM enters a crowded market with nothing but its name to sell itself to potential customers.

Photo Credit: sgm/Shutterstock

Futuremark to bring 3D benchmarking tools to Android

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 9:52am MST by Tim Conneally

PC benchmarking software company Futuremark announced on Tuesday that it has begun developing a version of its 3DMark software for Android tablets which it expects to have ready in 2012.

"In 2012 we will bring 3DMark to the Android platform with a professional grade benchmark that can be trusted by manufacturers, suppliers and vendors to provide the definitive measure of gaming performance on Android while showcasing the very best in real-time graphics and effects," said Jukka Mäkinen, CEO of Futuremark in a statement on Tuesday.

With the upcoming release of devices powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 such as the Asus Transformer Prime, Android tablets are about to experience a major boost in graphics capabilities. Therefore, it's a pretty good time to get into GPU benchmarking.

Futuremark says the app will measure gaming performance using rendering, CPU and physics tests, will include an online service to compare results between devices, and will give results that will be comparable to 3DMark for Windows 8, when it is released.

Server shipments rise globally, collapse in Europe

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 9:27am MST by Joe Wilcox

PC shipments may have been tepid during third quarter, but servers are up year over year despite the economy -- or perhaps because of it. Shipments grew 7.2 percent, according to Gartner, while revenue rose 5.2 percent. That's not exactly gangbusters growth and might have been greater if not for the drag in Europe, where server shipments declined by 4.9 percent.

"Asia/Pacific grew the most significantly in shipments with a 23.9 percent increase", Jeffrey Hewitt, Gartner research vice president, says. "Eastern Europe posted the highest vendor revenue growth at 27.4 percent for the period". Globally, vendors shipped 2.37 million servers, generating $12.97 billion revenue.

HP led the quarter in shipments, but IBM generated more revenue -- and from a significantly smaller base. HP shipped 693,265 servers for 29.2 percent market share -- IBM 287,507 servers for 12.1 percent share. However, IBM revenue nudged ahead of HP --$3.846 billion to $3.082 percent, respectively, in a dead heat of 29.7 percent to 29.3 percent revenue share. There's something to be said for big iron. HP revenue fell by 3.6 percent, while IBM's rose by 3.5 percent. Dell posted strongest revenue growth -- 6.3 percent.

Lenovo is the up-and-comer to watch, posting 77 percent year-over-year shipment growth. HP led, but while shipping fewer units -- down 3.1 percent year over year, mostly from sluggish ProLiant server sales. Dell shipments rose by 3.2 percent while IBM's were flat.

Good news for Microsoft software license sales: "x86 servers forged ahead and grew 7.6 percent in units and 9.3 percent in revenue", Hewitt says. "RISC/Itanium Worldwide Unix server shipments declined 6.8 percent, but vendor revenue increased 3.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The 'other' CPU category, which is primarily mainframes, showed a decline of 6.9 percent".

Blade server shipments rose by 3.3 percent but more than double in revenue -- 7.6 percent. Rack-mounted servers rose 8.2 percent in shipments and 6.3 percent by revenue.

Servers are undergoing a kind of tug and pull as IT organizations re-evaluate strategies. Virtualization saps some sales, while private and public cloud adoption drives them. There is the push to increase server density to support businesses' rapidly changing needs, whether server consolidation or expansion to support cloud efforts. For example, datacenter hardware spending will reach $98.9 billion this year -- that's up 12 percent from 2010, Gartner predicts. The analyst firm forecasts datacenter hardware spending to reach $106.4 billion next year and $126.2 billion in 2015.

More immediately, the Euro's future as a currency weighs heavily on IT purchases in the region, and collapse could ripple to the United States. Declining server shipments may be the canary in the coalmine that IT spending is retracting across the Euro zone. Another indicator: PC shipments declined 11.4 percent year over year in the region, during Q3, according to Gartner.

Photo Credit: gualtiero boffi/Shutterstock

Monitor the Windows Registry changes in real time

Posted: November 29th, 2011, 8:11am MST by Mike Williams

Observing Registry activity on your PC can be very useful when you’re troubleshooting odd problems. There are some great tools around to help. Sysinternals Process Monitor is probably the best: set it running and it’ll record exactly which Registry keys your processes are reading and writing (amongst other details), and browsing the report later will usually give you a much better idea of what’s going on.

Of course this approach really only works when you have some specific event you’d like to monitor, such as the launch of an application. If you’re experiencing some intermittent problem then what might be more useful is a program that tells you which Registry keys have changed in the last 5 minutes, say. And that’s where NirSoft’s RegScanner comes in.

If you’d like to find out more about recent Registry activity, then launch the program, and choose the areas of the Registry you’d like to be checked in the “Scan the following base keys” box.

Or, better still, clear that checkbox and select a base key closest to the one you’d like to monitor from the list at the top of the RegScanner window. If you’re just hoping to see general application-inspired Registry changes, for instance, HKCU\Software is a good place to start.

Next, ensure “Display only keys that their modified time is within the following range” is checked. By default this will look for Registry keys which have changed in the last hour, but that could produce a lengthy report, so it’s best to minimise this if you can. If your intermittent problem only happened five minutes ago, say, set the “From” time to perhaps ten minutes ago and that should be fine.

Now choose “Registry item contains any value” in the “Matching” box, to ensure that RegScanner displays everything it finds.

Finally, click OK, and RegScanner will examine your specified area of the Registry, checking each key in turn, and displaying any of those that have changed recently.

The final report can’t compete with the level of detail you’ll get from Process Monitor. You’re only seeing keys that have been altered, not accessed; you can’t tell which processes have altered them; and so there’s no way to see what a specific application has done.

Still, clicking the “Key Modified Time” column header will sort your keys in the order they were modified, which can help you figure out the sequence of events. And if you’re only interested in the changes made to a particular application’s Registry settings, say, they’ll be very obvious and you’ll immediately see what’s happened. On balance, then, RegScanner more than deserves its place in your troubleshooting toolkit: go download your copy immediately.

Seagate's 3rd gen Momentus XT hybrid HDD/SSD is ready to steal the show

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 10:00pm MST by Tim Conneally

Seagate has officially taken the wraps off of its third generation hybrid HDD/SSD drive, the Momentus XT, a drive which the company has tailored to the demands of tech savvy users and "prosumers."

In its third generation, Seagate's XT line finally looks to be mature and ready for widespread use.

Seagate will be the first company to tell you that the first generation of its hybrid hard drive wasn't anything to crow about in 2006. It just didn't live up to expectations, the company admits.

After working on the product for more than two years, the big development in Seagate's Momentus XT last year was that it had broken free from Microsoft's ReadyDrive, a feature from Windows Vista that let hybrid hard drives access data from the nonvolatile cache, allowing the hard drive to remain spun down for longer periods of time. With the ability to work with any OS, Momentus XT shipped in late May 2010 with just a single OEM...Asus.

But over the course of the year, Dell, Alienware, Toshiba, and Sony all got on board with the Momentus XT, and now over 1 million have shipped.

The third generation Momentus XT will launch with all these OEMs plus two more that Seagate hasn't yet announced, it will have 50% larger capacity (750GB/500GB models) and double the NAND flash memory (8GB/4GB), be 1.5x faster than the last generation with a 2x faster interface speed (6 Gbps SATA) and feature new "FAST Factors" (fast boot, adaptive memory, and fast management.)

Often, we hear boot time used as one of the big metrics for the speed of a drive. Seagate said that even though the new Momentus XT cold boots twice as fast as the last generation, nobody really cares. Ideally, we'd only have to do one cold boot per day, so the real important metrics are reliability, overall performance and battery life.

So in terms of reliability, Seagate says the 750GB/8GB model has 600,000 load/unload cycles. In terms of performance, it has SATA data transfer rates of 6,3, and 1.5 Gb per second, and an average seek time of 11 milliseconds for read and 13 milliseconds for write. And in terms of battery life, it typically consumes 1.1 Watts of power at idle and 3.3 Watts when seeking.

On their own merits, these specs aren't too difficult for a modern notebook HDD to outdo, so the important part is the integration with the SSD component and how this affects performance as it learns user behaviors and allocates storage accordingly. As we see in the graph below, Seagate was able to get applications to start just as quickly as a full SSD drive.

The third generation Momentus XT 750GB/8GB model carries an MSRP of $245 and will be available today through Amazon, Newegg, Tigerdirect and several other retailers; and will be available as an option through PC manufacturers soon.

Microsoft is in trouble

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 5:45pm MST by Robert Johnson

From a technology perspective, Thanksgiving 2011 ranks as one of my most insightful and frustrating holidays ever. I'm an enthusiast who wants to see Microsoft make a strong comeback among consumers. Unfortunately, three Turkey Day incidents left me disheartened.

Microsoft has got a big perception problem.

Three Thanksgiving Day Tales

Incident #1: All Windows PCs are cheap and unreliable. The holiday started at a friend’s house for our yearly Thanksgiving brunch. He and his wife were looking for a new laptop for his parents, because their previous portables -- two Acer netbooks -- finally crapped out on them. My friends told me their budget, and we began our search on Craigslist, then moved on to a few other sites.

As we looked, his wife said she not only wanted to look at Windows PCs but Macs as well. I acknowledged and as we searched, one other person chimed in and said that anything Windows was cheap and unreliable. I asked her why she felt that way and before I could explain why her statement was not true she told me about spending $2,000 on a Gateway machine years ago only to have it give up on her after a few years of use. I explained that Gateways weren't anywhere close to being high-end, and that there are plenty of reliable, handsome and affordable Windows PCs to choose from now.

At this point, my friend's wife is only looking at Macs and not considering Windows PCs at all.

Incident #2: Windows Phones are dead. Later on, my buddy’s brother walks up to me to ask me what cell phone I use. "Original Motorola Droid. But I will be switching to Windows Phone once they go on sale for one penny". (Since, I am officially a new Windows Phone user, by the way.) His response: "Why? Everyone has stopped selling those phones because they are not selling well".

I told him that wasn't true because Windows Phone 7.5 models started selling a few weeks ago and what he had heard or read was most likely retailers clearing out older stock. I told him that Nokia has bought into the WP7 platform and that their new Lumia 800 smartphone sells well -- it's even sold out in some markets.

I then asked him where he was getting his news from and he said, "Google searches that lead to various articles". I told him that was his first problem and suggested several sites to get more accurate technology news.

A similar scenario played out a few minutes later when I shared with my buddy excitement to order my first Windows Phone. "Why? Why not get an iPhone?" My answer is better suited for another post, but he seemed to understand how Windows Phone would better fit my needs.

Incident #3: Microsoft’s absent marketing. I'm a football junkie every Thanksgiving Day -- who isn't? I watched the Packers and Lions, Cowboys and Miami (Go Cowboys!) and my beloved Aggies and Longhorns (how devastating!). One thing I noticed during commercial breaks: Apple and Samsung (to a lesser degree) dominated technology advertising. Where was Microsoft? One commercial: where the dad is in the store using his Windows Phone OneNote application shopping list. Perhaps you saw more?

Microsoft’s Big Problem This Holiday Season

As I contemplate the three incidents, it becomes very apparent to me that Microsoft has some pretty large hills to climb. I can't escape the feeling that they may be in really big trouble. Have things really gotten so much out of hand that no matter how amazing Windows 8, Windows Phone 7.5/8 or any manner of Xbox integration into these platforms is, that Microsoft will not be able to overcome the odds that are stacked against them? I personally do not believe that is the case but let me explain briefly why I believe these three incidents pose some very big challenges for CEO Steve Ballmer and Microsoft.

Cheap-quality Windows PCs? Many people really do believe that the Windows PCs they see in BestBuy, Walmart, Target and many other retailers represent the entire PC industry, that every PC is cheap -- and why not when Macs cost so much more? Why would Apple charge so much more for pretty computers if they weren't better? Many consumers have this unfortunate mentality.

This perception hurts Microsoft. HP and Dell have been running commercials advertising high-end PCs in the Envy and XPS lines that easily compete with Macs. But commercials like these are not enough to change perceptions.

Microsoft has a perception problem and they need to address it much more stridently in their marketing. Many Windows PCs really do offer better value and provide a much more solid user experience than can be obtained on a competing Mac. But who really knows this!

There is a generation of young people growing up with iPods and Macs -- and all they know is Apple. They have never used a Windows PC. Someday this generation will become the decision makers in IT departments and they will choose Macs over Windows PCs. They'll know pretty Apple products and believe Windows PCs are cheap, unreliable and destructive to the financial bottom line of IT departments. They will want something they think is more reliable, and an Apple logo will be on it.

What is a Windows Phone? Version 7.5 "Mango" launched nearly eight weeks ago, and the first new WPs started earlier this month. While I have seen some TV commercials for the products, there are nowhere near as many as iPad and iPhone 4S.

I am not a big fan of Microsoft's "We’re a Family" commercials so far because I do not think they do the best job at clearly articulating why a Windows Phone, PC or Xbox is better than the competition.

It’s my personal opinion that Apple is onto something with their commercials. In many of them they pick one feature and hammer it home. I prefer this approach because there are so many people who do not know that Windows Phone also includes the ability to talk to the phone and have it perform certain tasks, for example.

Thanksgiving football is a perfect opportunity to get your products on the minds of millions the day before Black Friday. How Microsoft could be so absent in its advertising at this critical juncture is appalling. Just like with Windows Vista, they’re letting someone else -- Apple obsessed-biased media -- tell the story of one of their key but struggling products.

What Do You Think?

I really believe Microsoft has created some compelling products in Windows Phone and Windows 7. But I don't think they are being aggressive enough at combating some of the negative perceptions that work against them. Many poeple are unwilling to give Microsoft products a try because they automatically assume that anything with an Apple logo is anointed with unicorn tears.

What do you think? Is Microsoft in trouble? Is their Windows Phone marketing ineffective so far? What can Microsoft do to overcome the perception that all Windows PCs are unreliable pieces of junk? Sound off in the comments below.

Robert Johnson is a user interface developer specializing in the user experience (UX) of .NET-based web applications. He has been working in some form of web development and graphic design for 14 years. He loves technology in general, particularly that of Apple, Google and Microsoft. He is a Betanews reader.

Would you pay $200 for Motorola XOOM LTE?

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 1:38pm MST by Joe Wilcox

Verizon kicked off helluva holday sale for XOOM LTE on Black Friday -- and you can still get it today online: $199.99 with new two-year activation. But hurry, if interested. Surely pricing like this can't last. That's $529.99 less than the closest comparable iPad 2, and you won't get an LTE radio from Apple.

Is that price low enough for you to buy? In February, when XOOM pricing first leaked, I asked: "Would you pay 800 bucks for the Motorola XOOM?" Eh, no, you wouldn't. You didn't like $600, when I asked about it later on. But now the price is way less, so I'm asking again. Would you pay $200 for Motorola XOOM LTE? Please answer in comments.

Based on a BetaNews tablet pricing poll, $199.99 is just about right. Among the 1,200-plus respondents, 30.31 percent said $199 would be low enough for them to buy a media tablet. For $199 and below -- 64.53 percent; $299 and below -- 92.96 percent. So the majority of respondents aren't willing to pay as much as the cheapest iPad 2: $499. The comparable Apple tablet, with 32GB storage, sells for $729.

Of course, that XOOM requires a 2-year data contract, which the non-LTE, 3G/WiFi iPad 2 doesn't. But for anyone planning to regularly use data anyway, does it matter? You pay less up front and get big data-speed boost. Verizon promises 5Mbps-12Mbps downstream over LTE compared to 600Kbps to 1.4Mbps over 3G.

Let's do some real-world price comparison. Upfront cost for XOOM LTE is $199.99 with minimum $30 per month for 2GB data. Upfront cost for comparable iPad 2 is the aforementioned $729. XOOM LTE then has, comparably, a $529.99 credit to apply against data service -- 17 months against the 24-month contractual commitment. Unless the iPad 2 buyer only plans six months of data, XOOM LTE is the better deal -- and that's ignoring faster bandwidth benefits.

Looked at differently, and acknowledging the iPad 2 user isn't committed to any contract, the holiday-priced XOOM LTE costs $919.99 over two years compared to $1,449 for Apple's tablet, when including data. Buyers could reduce iPad 2 data costs by $120 buying an AT&T model, if opting for the 2GB plan, which is $25 a month. AT&T offers 250MB plan for $15 a month, too. I wouldn't take it for a tablet.

By the way, Verizon's no-commitment, month-to-month data option raises price to $669.99, which is still less than the 32GB iPad 2.

Quick specs:

XOOM LTE: 1GHz dual-core nVidia Tegra 2 processor; 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution; 1GB of RAM; 32GB internal storage, expandable to 64GB with MicroSD card; 5-megapixel back-facing and 2-megapixel front-facing cameras; 720p video recording; 1080p video playback; HDMI and USB 2.0 ports; WiFi N; Bluetooth; accelerometer; barometer; gyroscope; Android 3.2 (Honeycomb).

iPad 2: 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 processor; 9.7 inch display with 1024 x 768 resolution; 512MB of RAM; 32GB internal storage (non-expandable); front-and-rear cameras; 720p video playback; WiFi N; Bluetooth; accelerometer; barometer; gyroscope; and iOS 5. There is no HDMI port and external USB connector costs $29 extra.

I've been using a XOOM WiFi, and really like it -- more than the iPad 2 I sold several months ago. Both products appeal differently, and I won't debate Android vs iOS. I leave that to commenters. The point of this post is twofold: To see who finds $199.99 low enough for XOOM (or any tablet) and to compare Apple and Motorola tablets on a purely cost basis, which is the criteria that will matter most to many bargain shoppers over the Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday shopping period. Geeks argue operating systems and ecosystems.

So, would you or will you buy Moto XOOM LTE for $199.99? Please respond in comments.

Authorities squash 150 sites that sell counterfeit professional sports attire

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 1:14pm MST by Tim Conneally

Department of Justice officials on Monday seized 150 domain names for selling counterfeit goods such as professional sports jerseys, golf equipment, DVD sets, footwear, handbags and sunglasses.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced the seizures today, as a continuation of "Operation Save our Sites," a federal initiative to crack down on counterfeiting and piracy on the Internet.

This action represents the single largest seizure since the operation launched in June 2010, and brings the total of seized domains to 350.

Of that total, 116 sites have been forfeited to the U.S. government, and many of the sites each run a public service announcement that discusses the effects of counterfeiting and copyright infringement. We've embedded the video below.

Though there were a few exceptions, practically all of the seized domains (PDF here) appear to revolve around professional sports. 118 of the 150 seized domains contain the word "jersey" or "NFL."

The enforcement actions announced today were done by the Department of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property (IP Task Force).

Attorney General Eric Holder created this group to: "combat the growing number of domestic and international intellectual property crimes, protect the health and safety of American consumers, and safeguard the nation's economic security against those who seek to profit illegally from American creativity, innovation and hard work."

Apple iPhone violates airline's no-smoking policy

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 11:45am MST by Joe Wilcox

It brings new meaning to Black Friday.

Three days ago, airline Regional Express dropped a press release about a passenger's cell phone "emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow". That must be air industry lingo for fire. That's a word you don't want to hear aboard jetliners in flight. Running for the exits could be worse. Of course, no airline wants to admit to flaming anything inside one of its cabins. The smoker was an iPhone, by the way. Can you tell from the photo whether it's the 4 or 4S? The incident occurred on a flight from Lismore to Sydney, Australia -- yes, on Black Friday.

"In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the flight attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully", according to a Regional Express statement. In other words, he or she put out the fire! No one was harmed in the incident, according to the airline, which claims to be Australia's largest independent carrier.

My colleague Tim Conneally spotted the press release, but he didn't want to write the story. But I asked, pleading "I'll be called anti-Apple" -- again. Since many readers will do just that in comments anyway, they should have reason. So here's one: I propose that the aviation administrations and airlines the world over ban iPhones on all flights. The reason: Non-removable batteries, which sometimes smoke and glow. ;-)

Did you get a great Black Friday deal? Tell us about it

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 10:34am MST by Joe Wilcox

The tech gods blessed those who worshiped at the Black Friday altar, or so claim industry analysts releasing numbers yesterday and today. I confess to taking my daughter to an outlet mall, where the checkout line at the Sony store snaked from register to door. But I bought nothing. What about you? Did you do the Black Friday diddy? Please tell your story in comments.

Doorbuster sales -- those with really low prices for people willing to wait in line -- started as early as 10 pm local time Thursday night. Many tech retailers, Best Buy and Microsoft Store among them, opened Midnight Friday. "More than one-in-three (36 percent) Black Friday tech purchasers bought a doorbuster item -- an increase of four percentage points compared to 2010", says Ben Arnold, NPD's director of industry analysis. By NPD estimates, more broadly, American consumers completed one-quarter of their holiday shopping on Black Friday. However, tech buyers finished significantly more -- one-third.

Deep discounting, early Black Friday sales and retailer nervousness about the economy contributed to tech shoppers' bargain successes. The latter is most disturbing with possible collapse of the Euro zone imminent. This Economist editorial claims the "single currency could break up within weeks". Meanwhile, stateside, the Economic Security Index, which measures the number of Americans who experience a 25 percent or greater decline in household income, released startling stats. After dropping sharply during the housing bubble, the share of Americans "who experience a major financial loss" tops 20 percent this year.

Many retailers are taking a "sell it now while we still can approach" to Holiday 2011, because the Grinch and not Santa may come in a few weeks, if the Euro collapses.

"Rock-bottom prices and record early-opening hours illustrate the concern of the entire technology industry views this holiday season", says Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis. "NPD has been predicting that this would be the worst holiday since 2008, on a revenue basis, and the early season aggressiveness from the industry confirms this level of concern".

Among the many debates every year is brick-and-mortar vs online -- which will be more. NPD sees nothing in the early sales trends to suggest that online will be bigger. Still, online is big if for nothing else than research. "Technology purchasers favored online sources for information on sales and Black Friday doorbuster deals leading up to the event with 59 percent indicating this", Arnold says. He adds:

I fully expect mobile apps (used by just 3 percent of purchasers this year) to gain more traction as smartphone adoption increases. Prior to my outing Thursday evening, I used a few retailer apps (most notably apps from Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy) to find store hours, locations, and product pricing. Another tool that was truly valuable was Twitter which enabled me to search tweets referencing 'Black Friday Deals' for real-time updates on sales and stock levels. A search of local tweets in my area was also great for gauging how long lines were at the stores.

As for actual online sales, comScore offers insight. Online Black Friday spending rose 26 percent year over year to $816 million. Thanksgiving Day bargain buyers spent $479 million, up 18 percent from last year. For all November through Black Friday: $12.737 billion spent, up 15 percent.

"Despite some analysts' predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for ecommerce", comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni says. "With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it's clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels".

About 50 million American shoppers spent some time at online retail sites this Black Friday, whether buying or doing the research Arnold calls out. That's a 35 percent increase from last year. Most visited retail sites (other than auctions) from first to fifth: Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple. I wonder how many of those online Apple shoppers actually bought, considering the retailer had some of the stingiest deals of the day, ranging from 7 percent to 16 percent.

Would you stand in line at Apple Store to save 10 percent on MacBook Air? Perhaps I shouldn't ask, since so many people will wait for iPhone for full price. Beware the real bargain hunters, by the way. They are ruthless. The big Black Friday story out here in California was the woman who pepper-sprayed other shoppers. She wanted her cheap Xbox, and who doesn't?

I wonder if she bought the weapon of mass-Black Friday destruction at Walmart, which sells the "Sabre Red USA-Formula Pepper Spray Keychain" for just $7.97. Oh, but wait it's suddenly "not available at this time". You want to guess why?

If you were pepper-sprayed or peppered with bargains on Black Friday, do tell us, please, in commments below.

Photo Credit: K2 images/Shutterstock

RPost debuts registered email app for BlackBerry

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 9:53am MST by Tim Conneally

RPost provides a service for serious emailers that turns e-mails from any origin into official registered documents that can be encrypted, tracked, and verified for legal purposes or "e-signed" for contractual reasons.

This week, RPost is officially launching its registered email service for BlackBerry with the RPost app for BlackBerry. This application integrates into BlackBerry's native email client, and lets users choose to "Send Registered" emails from their mobile devices, which are the same trackable, encrypted, time-stamped messages that are sent from RPost's other platforms.

The principal features of the service are its HIPAA-compliant encryption; the ability to track when the recipient opens the email with an official timestamp; the ability to send e-signature documents; and the ability to receive auditable, time-stamped proof of content in replies to the BlackBerry sender’s email.

"Normally, people don't send very long documents from their mobile devices," Said Fernando Neves, General Manager at RPost. "And the use is a little different from your usual emails. But we see a lot of things going on. Many professionals, such as corporate lawyers or real estate agents, need to be able to compose secure, verifiable, legally provable documents at all times. This way, they can protect future discussions and cover any liabilities. When times get tough, people do need to be protected."

RPost has been testing this mobile client in closed beta since October of 2010, and until now, only existing RPost customers could get the application to deploy to their internal users. Now, the beta period is officially over, and the company is looking to extend its reach to new clients...not solely RPost subscribers, but BlackBerry users.

"Right now we have an adoption rate around 41 or 42 percent for the mobile client," said Neves. "We expect a lot of BIS users, subscribers with AT&T and Verizon, to consider the service."

Got non-Apple SSD and Lion? Check out Trim Enabler 2.0 beta

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 8:38am MST by Nick Peers

Trim Enabler 2.0 Beta 2 has been released for Apple Mac owners running OS X Lion on non-Apple SSDs. By default, OS X only supports the TRIM command -- a technology designed to keep SSDs running at optimum performance over a prolonged period of data writes and deletes -- on Apple SSD drives. Trim Enabler is designed to extend this support to cheaper SSDs manufactured by third parties too.

Version 2.0 is a major rewrite of the original code, which was optimized for Snow Leopard users. Although marketed as Lion-compatible, the free app’s author (Cindori), has since admitted that the older version wasn’t optimized for use with the newer OS.

Previous versions of Trim Enabler replaced the existing SSD driver with an older version that supported TRIM. The new version simply patches whatever driver is currently installed with the necessary TRIM support.

Version 2.0 has also been completely rewritten from its original AppleScript in 100 percent Objective C, and features a new built-in SMART tool that provides information about the drive’s physical health.

If you’re a Lion user upgrading from version 1, you’ll need to follow the advice posted on the Trim Enabler blog to restore your original SSD driver before installing the new version.

Trim Enabler 2.0 Beta 2 is a freeware download for Apple Macs with non-Apple SSDs running OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7.x (Lion). As it’s still classified as a beta release, we strongly urge caution using the software.

Find files faster on your NTFS drive

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 7:45am MST by Mike Williams

German developer JAM Software has released the latest version of its speedy MFT-based file search tool, UltraSearch 1.60.

The program makes use of the NTFS Master File Table to enable very fast searches, without having to spend valuable time and system resources in building any indexes. So you can just launch UltraSearch, type a keyword, and any matching files or folders will appear almost immediately.

The big addition this time around is Explorer integration. If you’ve ever tried to use the Windows Search tool to display all the files in a particular set of folders -- \Program Files, say -- then you’ll know this can take a little while, especially if the location isn’t indexed. In UltraSearch 1.60, though, it’s now just a matter of right-clicking the folder, selecting UltraSearch, then watching as a table of files appears in perhaps two or three seconds.

And if this doesn’t deliver quite the report you need, then as with previous UltraSearch versions, there are some useful configuration options that may be able to help you out. If you know you’ll never be interested in particular folders or file types, for instance, you can add them to a set of “Exclude” filters and they’ll never be included on the list, so helping you zoom in on what’s really important.

This kind of technology does have its limits, of course. As UltraSearch doesn’t index your files, you can’t search for metadata, emails or file content in general: it’s strictly file and folder names only. And the program only works with NTFS drives, so you won’t be able to use it to search most USB keys, memory cards or other FAT-based storage devices.

UltraSearch is free, fast and easy to use, though, and could be particularly handy if you’ve disabled the standard Windows search tool to try and save system resources. If you’re interested then version 1.60 is available now.

Photo Credit: Angela Waye/Shutterstock

Tweak your PC with Ultimate Windows Optimizer

Posted: November 27th, 2011, 12:20pm MST by Mark Wilson

The number of tools that can be used to tweak and customize Windows does nothing but increase, and the claims made by many of these utilities can be difficult to believe. So a program that claims to be the Ultimate Windows Customizer gives itself a lot to live up to. But the title is well-deserved, as the tool perfectly balances the tweaks that make a difference to system performance with those that allow you to stamp your mark on the operating system.

Tasks such as editing the context menu or tweaking the shortcuts that appear in the navigation pane of Explorer have long been possible by editing the registry, but this is not something that everyone is comfortable with. Ultimate Windows Customizer eliminates the need to delve into the darker recesses of your OS if you are uncomfortable in doing so, but this does not mean that you must compromise on features and options.

The program makes it easy to add new entries to the context menu, change settings for libraries, skin Windows Media Player with your own custom background image and even hide individual items in the taskbar. If you like the idea of choosing a custom button for the Start Orb, you can do so with this application. A backup of system settings is made every time the program is launched so it’s easy to experiment with different settings and reverse them if you change your mind about them.

Another great things about the tool is that it is an on-going project, and new features and options will be added over time. With this in mind, and to avoid the need to have to keep checking back to see when a new version has been released, the Ultimate Windows Customizer will automatically check for updates when you start it up. It is easy to dismiss programs like this as ‘just another tweaking tool’, but it is well worth downloading this one to see what it could do for you.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Ultimate Windows Customizer review page.

Apple is the new Dell

Posted: November 27th, 2011, 11:19am MST by Joe Wilcox

I sat eating lunch with coworkers when we saw the news over the wire. Dell announced the end of retail sales, taking its business direct to customers -- that was 1994. We laughed about the craziness. Compaq dominated the PC market, leveraging a huge partner network of dealers, resellers and retailers. Cutting out the middleman meant more margin for Dell, and presumably lower costs for businesses and consumers, but how would the brand maintain visibility without shelf space? Dell direct seemed destined to failure.

Succeed it did, making Dell the No.1 PC maker, based on shipments, by decade's end. Dell didn't just go direct but redefined PC distribution, manufacturing and marketing. The Austin, Texas-based company later adopted real-time manufacturing logistics that made competing operations from Compaq, HP and IBM look antiquated. While their managers guessed how many PCs to produce and ship to the channel, Dell provided component suppliers access to orders in real time, which kept the company from over-ordering, dramatically cut component costs and let customers configure exactly what they wanted. More than a decade after Dell's high (and today's subsequent low), Apple distribution, manufacturing and marketing is the envy of competitors. Both companies achieved similar supply-chain dominance, but theirs is a fascinating study of similarities and contrasts.

What's in Store

As unbelievable as Dell direct seemed in 1994, opening of the first Apple stores in May 2001, equally perplexed. Recession gripped America, the failed PowerMac G4 Cube contributed to a massive inventory build up of unsold computers, Apple's stock had fallen from more than $70 a share to just a few bucks and the company issued profit warnings (and eventual losses). Meanwhile, Gateway was in process of shuttering all its retail operations. But Apple pushed ahead with the first stores, with then CEO Steve Jobs pledging Mac market share would exceed 5 percent globally. A decade and 330 stores later, in third quarter 2011, Apple reached the 5 percent milestone.

The real achievements were iPod, iPhone and iPad and the distribution and supply-chain logistics Apple CEO Tim Cook put in place when working in lesser roles, most recently as chief operating officer. These categories were not dominated by the Windows monopoly, which market share choke-hold no vendor could break. Hell, Apple took 10 years to reach 5 percent share. But there were no monopolies in these device markets, even considering Nokia's huge global cell phone share during much of the 1990s and the Noughties. Strangely, Cook applied the kind of channel logistics he learned while working at Compaq (and also IBM) to Apple.

Yes, Compaq. The king clone maker that freed MS-DOS from IBM's clutches by reverse-engineering Big Blue's BIOS and literally launching the Microsoft PC era. Compaq's success assured Apple's failure during the Macintosh-DOS/Windows PC wars of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The same Compaq that laid foundation for competing Dell direct and helped bring Apple so near bankruptcy in 1996 that Michael Dell barked the Mac maker should sell off its assets and give the proceeds to shareholders.

Be Direct and Indirect

Apple-Dell manufacturing and distribution similarities and contrasts are startling:

Whereas Dell went direct without retail, Apple did so with its own stores, later using its success to broaden distribution relationships for iPod that also benefited the Mac.
Dell and Apple are both aggressive marketers, particularly television, which is just as important advertising medium today as the 1990s.
Both companies seek to control the customer experience end-to-end, from pre-sales to sales, setup and service.
Dell's is the Burger King business -- have it your way. By contrast, buyers have it Apple's way. There are fewer configurations, which better fits Apple's more channel-centric supply-chain model.
Apple and Dell both use economies of scale to get the best prices from suppliers.
But their supply-chain approaches differ. Dell uses real-time manufacturing to secure best prices, although nothing like a decade ago. Apple orders large volumes of components ahead of time, locking in lower prices and also locking out competitors from getting them. There's risk, if people don't buy, however.
Apple uses its supply-chain efficiencies to preserve margins. Dell uses them to pass on lower prices to customers.

Apple's supply-chain bears more similarity to Compaq's than to Dell's, although really it's mixture of the two. Apple sells direct online and through its retail stores, but also through tens of thousands of third parties. When Apple opened its California and Virginia shops in May 2001, major retailers had dropped or soon would stop selling Macintosh. But demand for iPod in the mid Noughties opened up new retail channels, which Apple seized. Securing them later proved immeasurably valuable for launching iPhone and iPad.

There were problems with Dell's direct distribution model that Cook overcame. During the company's heyday, Americans eagerly purchased direct but much of the rest of the world preferred buying from dealers and resellers. Dell didn't have the international reach necessary when major mature markets saturated, because the direct model limited reach and sales. PC manufacturers with broader global reach do better. For example, HP is No. 1 globally and, during third quarter 2011, in a stunning upset, Lenovo snatched second place from Dell. Today, Dell sells through retail, too, but not with the global reach of its two major competitors.

Cook not only ensured that iPod had global reach but that it was everywhere -- more than 40,000 retail outlets. That kind of distribution hugely benefits iPhone and iPad today. For example, during Apple's calendar Q3 conference call, Cook described China as second-most important market, accounting for 16 percent of revenues. Get this: 63 percent of calendar Q3 revenues came from international sales.

Apple has the right Cook

Tim Cook was Steve Jobs' best hire, and the former COO doesn't get enough credit for Apple's present-day success. Jobs gets too much of it. Without the distribution and manufacturing logistics that Cook put in place over 10 years, Apple wouldn't be the tech giant it is today -- or the supply-chain envy of competitors. It's the place of sales dominance and envy Dell held during an earlier computing generation. What a juxtaposition. Today Apple looks down on smitten Dell. Roles are reversed, and CEO Cook and his top managers should reflect at length about it. As Dell demonstrates, today's supply-chain king is tomorrow's pauper.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dell competitors changed their ways, improving manufacturing and distribution logistics and eventually eliminating the direct-PC maker's supply-side advantages. Consolidation helped, as competitors acquired Compaq and Gateway and IBM sold off its PC business to Lenovo. Dell competitors improved supply-side and sell-through efficiencies while still maintaining strong dealer, reseller and retail channels and broadening direct sales. But margins declined for everyone, as Dell and HP, particularly, fought a series of aggressive PC price wars.

Apple's situation today is similar, which is one of two reasons I call it the new Dell. The other is supply-side and sell-through efficiencies that put Apple head and shoulders above many competitors. But its manufacturing and distribution advantages can easily be imitated, perhaps more so than Dell's. Reach is the first -- how many places sell Apple products, particularly iPad, iPhone and iPod, and third-party add-ons and peripherals. Economies of scale, which let Apple negotiate and lock in component prices and availability, is the other.

Apple has the right Cook in the kitchen, but celebrity chefs are sure to follow. They'll adapt and improve Apple's supply-chain recipe, just like Dell's PC competitors did a decade ago. As significant, as more manufacturing capacity comes online, Apple won't as easily get the best prices or, by monopolizing supply, shut out competitors producing smartphones, tablets and other connected mobile devices. As components become more readily available and for lower costs, competitors can improve margins and still lower selling prices against products like iPhone and iPad.

Finally, look at the competition. Samsung sells smartphones and tablets that compete with iPhone and iPad and produces components Apple uses in them. Samsung has capability to eventually improve the Apple recipe, as does Lenovo, which now sells Android tablets, and Nokia, as it reinvents around Windows Phone. Apple is the Dell today because of supply-side and sell-through logistics. Apple doesn't want to be Dell tomorrow, beaten back by better cooks in the kitchen.

Photo Credit: pcruciatti/Shutterstock

We give thanks to these 25 app downloads

Posted: November 26th, 2011, 4:35pm MST by Mark Wilson

If you live in the United States, a four-day holiday weekend of feasting and shopping soon ends. Thanksgiving didn't stop developers from pumping out new wares this week. We pick 25 worth your attention, if not some warm thanks.

For many people, the Start menu is one of the most visited aspects of Windows, but if you’re looking for an alternative program launcher, Winstep Nexus 11.10 is a great option. This free tool is not only a great time-saving dock style launcher that can be used to access your programs, it is also an extremely attractive widget manager that can be used to monitor everything from CPU usage to the weather.

From the same company, Winstep Xtreme 11.10 is another step up the desktop customization ladder. It enables you to not only replace the Start menu with a new tweakable launcher, but completely replace Windows’ Explorer shell with something that is far more customizable.

If you would prefer to keep your copy of Windows looking much as it normally does, but make a few tweaks here and there, Ultimate Windows Customizer v1.0 may be what you have been looking for. This free tweaking tool can be used to change the appearance and function of various elements of Windows without the need to edit the registry or work with complex settings files.

Creating a web site, like writing a novel, is something that many people express an interest in doing, and WYSIWYG Web Builder 8.0.1 is a tool that can help you to achieve at least one of these dreams. Eliminating the need to work with raw HTML code, the program provides you with DTP style tools that will enable you to create a site in next to no time.

If you need help preparing images for use on your new web site, Free Image Convert and Resize 2.1.14 makes it possible to quickly resize or convert large numbers of images in batches. Should you decide to host video on your web site, Free WebM Video Converter 5.0.1 can be used to convert is to a suitable format, but can also be used to convert videos ready to copy to a range of different devices. From the same company, Free YouTube Download 3.0.18 can be used to download individual videos from YouTube, or entire channels. Also available is Free Studio 5.3.1 which includes each of these three tools in one handy package -- as well as a number of extra utilities that will enables you to manage all of your different media files.

When it comes to viewing videos, it is important that you have the correct codecs installed or you may end up with no picture or sound. K-Lite Codec Pack Full 8.0.0 is a massive bundle of codecs that should enable you to playback almost any video file you come across. If you don’t feel the need for quite so many codecs, K-Lite Codec Pack Standard 8.0.0 and K-Lite Codec Pack Mega 8.0.0are also available. If you are having problems playing back a video, but you know that you have the correct codec installed, K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool 5.1.0 is a free tool that eliminate problems with broken codecs, reset incorrect codec configurations which is immensely powerful in the right hands.

There are not many things in life that are free, but Microsoft Office Starter 2010 is a cut-down version of Microsoft’s famous office suite. Comprising slightly restricted versions of Word and Excel, this is a limited suite, but one that will meet the need of anyone who does not need too much from their word processor or spreadsheet.

Speccy 1.14 is a free system analysis tool that can provide you with a wealth of information about your computer. The program can reveal details about the hardware you have installed, motherboard slots that are in use and specifications for individual hardware components. If you are the sort of person that gets called on to troubleshoot and fix the computers of your friends and family, Speccy Portable 1.14 is a USB drive compatible version of the app that is well worthy carrying around with you.

On the subject of USB drives, RemoveDrive 2.2 helps you to reduce the risk of data loss or corruption by providing you with a shortcut to safely eject a drive you have finished using.

Another handy USB drive utility released this week is WinToFlash 0.7 beta which can be used to create a bootable USB drive based installer for Windows using your installation CD or DVD. It is possible that you are more comfortable with standard recordable media such as CDs and DVDs, and if this is the case, Ashampoo Burning Studio 11 can be used to create and burn disc images, backup data and much more.

If you are more concerned with security, Hotspot Shield 2.16 is a free tool that can be used to ensure that you are secure when making use of wireless connections. The program also acts as a proxy, making it possible to access sites that may have been blocked by the system administrator.

Artweaver Free 3.0 is a completely free painting tool that can be used to work with Photoshop files or to create works of art from scratch. Used in conjunction with a graphics tablet, or even just with a mouse, truly stunning images can be created thanks to the wide range of realistic and customizable tools that are on hand. When you have spent a little time getting creative, you may want to share your work with others. Should you find that your files are too large to attach to an email, you can use PeaZip 4.2 [32-bit] to shrink them down to a more manageable size.

For fans of 64-bit Windows, PeaZip 4.2 [64-bit] is also available. The final title in this week’s roundup isEssentialPIM Free 4.5 which is a powerful personal information manager that can be used to organize your emails, contacts, notes and lists in one place. There is also a portable version of the app available in the form of EssentialPIM Free Portable 4.5 while EssentialPIM Pro 4.5 which adds options such as the ability to synchronize data with mobile devices.

Counter holiday consumerism with a little Android 'maker-ism'

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 2:06pm MST by Tim Conneally

Today marks the official beginning of the holiday gift shopping season in the United States; a time when commerce shifts into high gear and product sales spike for the year.

And with each passing holiday, retailers seem to focus even more closely on consumer electronics.

It's difficult to substantiate a claim that consumer electronics are somehow more important now than they had been in previous years, but one really only needs to watch the video I've embedded below to witness a graphic illustration of the idea. It shows a Black Friday sales rush in a Puerto Rican Best Buy that took place earlier today.

In the video, eager shoppers force their way underneath a steel security shutter before the employees can even raise it one quarter of the way.

The promise of sale prices on electronic gear is enough to make these Puerto Rican consumers do an Indiana Jones-style roll under the closing gate and howl with satisfaction as they amble into the store.

Meanwhile, the top of many retailers' Black Friday sales lists are populated by consumer electronics devices. Wal-Mart's top billing item today is a Samsung Television, for example, and Target's is a Canon DSLR camera.

Even the most commonly searched toy line at Toys R' Us today is the result of the cultural impact of consumer electronics: Angry Birds.

And though any of these things would be great gifts to receive, the problem with consumer electronic gifting is that these are all mass-produced, manufactured goods. Everybody who gets one as a gift is getting the same one everyone else got.

Consumer electronics don't make for very personal gifts.

Some of the most thoughtful and treasured holiday gifts are made from the very hands of the giver, and not an offshore manufacturing facility. After all, why do you think your parents are still holding onto those macaroni-and-glitter christmas ornaments you made for them back when you were seven years old? The gift was so much more special because you made it with your own little hands.

That being said, it would be a bit more than completely ridiculous to expect someone to build a TV, PC, tablet, or smartphone from scratch to give as a gift.

Fortunately, though, most people own one or more of these things already, and we can now build cool accessories for them to give as holiday gifts.

One of the more interesting and exciting announcements at Google I/O 2011 was the introduction of Android Open Accessory, a new mode for Android that lets developers build their own external USB devices specifically for Android-powered devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Recently, Colorado electronics company SparkFun Electronics debuted its newest board called the Electric Sheep to take advantage of Android's new open accessory protocol. The board gives developers access to a phone's sensors and processors, and lets them develop Arduino-based accessories for Android without writing any Java code or installing the Eclipse IDE and Android SDK by using Arduino IDEA and Handbag.

The idea behind SparkFun as a company is to make electronics more accessible to everyone from beginners all the way up to experienced engineers, and with Electric Sheep is making Android hardware development directly accessible to Arduino developers. So if you have experience with physical computing and Arduino, maybe you can make one of your Android fanboy friends a slick one-of-a-kind gift.

Electric Sheep is available now for $79.99 directly from SparkFun.

Retailers prepare for Black Eyeday

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 12:35pm MST by Joe Wilcox

By measure of discounts, tech retailers are running scared this holiday -- well, all perhaps other than Apple, which discounts range from puny 7 percent to 16 percent. Elsewhere big discounts mean retailer state of fear and expected Grinch-like consumer demand.

"Overall we have seen nothing, either in the first couple of hours of Black Friday shopping or in the pricing and product tactics of the industry, to make us change our viewpoint to expect a very weak holiday season", Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, says. How grim will be the Holiday reaper? "NPD has been predicting that this would be the worst holiday since 2008, on a revenue basis, and the early season [discount] aggressiveness from the industry confirms this level of concern".

He emphasizes:

Weak economy, and considerable consumer anxiety have shifted the retailer focus to promoting products that can drive incremental traffic into the stores. As a consequence, we have seen record-low pricing across a number of core categories with TVs leading the way. Notebook PCs, video game systems and software, and Blu-ray players have also seen significant price drops with the hope of driving motivated customers into the stores.

Arguably the hottest category of the season sees the fewest discounts. "We haven’t seen as aggressive pricing in tablets and e-readers where the leading products are typically covered by MAP pricing, and the alternatives are not perceived to be of sufficient customer interest to be worth the expense of Black Friday pricing and promotion", Baker says. For Black Friday, Apple discounts the entry-level iPad 2 for 10 percent. That's not exactly a fire sale.

Not surprisingly, the National Retailers Federation puts a smiley face on the first big sales weekend. The trade group predicts 152 million Americans plan to shop over the three days. But the number is really a stretch. Only 74 million definitely plan to "hit the stores", while 77 million will wait and see on sales and other promotions.

Many stores opened late Thanksgiving evening or Midnight today. My local Microsoft Store did 12 am, for example.

NRF coordinated with BIGresearch on Americans shopping plans, which include watching for deals through social networking sites. "Social media will play a big role in how shoppers follow company sales announcements this holiday season", Phil Rist, BIGresearch executive vice president, says. "From Facebook to Twitter and even group buying sites, social retailers may be rewarded this season in terms of additional holiday sales".

Seventeen percent of shoppers plan to monitor retailer Facebook pages, while another 11 percent will look to Groupon and LivingSocial, according to NRF. Tablet shoppers will go social for deals -- 21 percent looking on group-buying sites and 31 percent monitoring retailers' Facebook pages. However, based on NPD's research, deals won't be many. I haven't seen much. Have you? But soon after I posted a Verizon ad on BetaNews led me to one: Motorola XOOM LTE for $199.99 with new 2-year activation. Whoa.

By the way, Betanews reader "wav" suggested "Black Eyeday". He writes in email: "I think I've coined the term, Black Eyeday, and I think it should be used. Since I am no journalist I am passing it on to you. :)" I Binged and Googled and didn't find the term used in context of Black Friday.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Get a better command line with Gnu on Windows

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 11:29am MST by Mike Williams

Open the Windows command line and you’ll get instant access to a reasonable set of utilities, which can then help you to analyze, troubleshoot and generally manage your PC.

Even the most enthusiastic Microsoft fan would have to agree that the Linux command line offers considerably more power, of course. But that doesn’t have to be a problem, as installing Gnu on Windows will make over 130 essential open-source Unix tools instantly accessible from your PC command prompt.

Bash and zsh will be on hand for shell scripting, for instance; zip, gzip, bzip2 and compress cater for your archiving needs; grep, agrep, less, cat, tail and head are useful for text handling; and you also get putty, cURL, vim, grep, mv, cp, du, ls and a whole lot more. Each of which provide a great deal of essential functionality with a host of configuration options.

Take wget, for instance. At its simplest you can use it to automate the download of a single file. But you can also configure it to retry if there are errors; check the time stamp of the remote file so you only download this when it’s changed; authenticate your connection with a user name and password; limit the download rate so it won’t hog your bandwidth; and configure details like cookie handling, your user agent, [HTTPS] setup, and a whole lot more. Essentially you’re getting more functionality then you’ll see in many Windows download managers, but in a very compact form that is easy to automate and script.

Well, fairly easy; wget does have more than 100 command line switches all on its own. You don’t have to learn every single one, though; the basics are straightforward; and if you need more help then there’s plenty of assistance available online (just search for “wget examples”, say).

Of course there are more complex projects around, like Cygwin, which also try to bring some of the Linux look and feel to the PC. We prefer Gnu for Windows for its simplicity, though. Install the program and basically it just adds a 13MB folder of tools to your path, so every utility is instantly available from the command line. Entering:

gow -L

This displays the full set of tools, and launching any of these individually will reveal more about what it can do. So whether you’re already a Linux fan, or you’ve never used it before, Gnu on Windows will prove a quick and easy way to extend your command line capabilities.

Which store offers better Black Friday deals? Apple or Microsoft?

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 10:20am MST by Joe Wilcox

Consider yourself lucky if living nearby one of the 14 Microsoft stores -- there are big savings for you today and over the weekend. Live nearby one of the 330 or so Apple shops -- well, you can shop Microsoft Store online for real bargains.

Black Friday is perhaps the one day of the year where Apple and Microsoft differences in retail pricing and digital lifestyle are most pronounced. Apple continues its "pay-more" philosophy, which granted is good for margins and keeps shareholders happy, while Microsoft focuses more on value. That's all assuming Windows PCs at much lower selling prices are more valuable to you than costlier Macs. Hey, more Americans drive mini-vans than Mercedes. But plenty of others can afford and will pay more.

Probably Apple's best deal going is 11.6-inch MacBook Air for $898 -- that's $101 off -- and gets it down to the price of new competing Ultrabooks from HP and Toshiba. Or you could spend a lot less on a Windows laptop. The two best deals already are sold out online (and they weren't available in stores, being older models):

Acer Iconia dual-screen toucbook -- $599, dropped from $999. I've seen this beast in stores. It's huge and strange conception, being two screens and touch keyboard.
Sony VAIO S137GX -- $599, discounted from $999. It's not the newest model or most-recent Intel Core i5 processor, but there's much to like here, such as the luscious 13.3-inch display.

As I write, the Samsung RC512 laptop is still available online for $499, which is $300 off, and in stores. It's a beast -- 15.3-inch LED display but with only 1366 x 768 resolution, 2.3GHz second-gen Core i5 processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, 500GB hard drive and all the extras you expect, including two USB 3.0 ports.

Back at Apple Store, iPhone 4S is available for helluva discount during Apple's "special pricing event": None. It's standard starting pricing of $199 for the newest model, no savings for you. However, you can score, HTC Arrive (Sprint), HTC Radar 4G (T-Mobile) or HTC Trophy (Verizon) for free with two-year contract. The Radar ranks among the best Windows Phone 7.5 models for design and specs. Apple's idea of free is the two-generations old iPhone 3GS. Free from Microsoft, using Radar 4G as example, means better camera and faster data than the 3GS, among other capabilities.

Some other Microsoft deals are only available online, like the "Ultimate Gaming Bundle", discounted $200 to $394.94. Comes with: Xbox 360 250GB; Kinect controller; Xbox Live Gold 3-month membership; 1600 Microsoft Points (for buying stuff from Live); Razer Onza Tournament Edition gaming controller; 8GB SanDisk flash drive; and free game of your choice (from limited selection).

For those shopping in store (and, of course, online) this weekend, Microsoft offers the Xbox 250GB Kinect Holiday Bundle for $299 -- that's $100 off -- or same as regularly priced non-Kinect model.

Microsoft offers 25 percent off all accessories (from any manufacturer), while Apple discounts some of its stuff. The Apple Magic Mouse is $58 -- that's 11 bucks off. Microsoft Touch Mouse costs more, $59.97, from a higher starting price ($79.95). Apple Wireless Keyboard is 11 bucks off at $58. Microsoft's Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 (with ergonomic keyboard and mouse) is $59.97. Price is a little higher, but, hey, there's a wireless mouse, too.

Apple discounts iPad 2, and you won't find much comparable at any price from Microsoft Store. The entry-level price is $458 today, or a $41 savings. You can invest that extra in a Product Red smartcover, selling for $58, which is $11 off.

If you spend $699 or more on a Windows PC, Microsoft offers a $100 store coupon (e.g., gift card). Okay, maybe. Sales rep at my local Microsoft Store, which opened at Midnight, says that special ended at 6 am. However, online the deal is listed as still available.

Finally, in store only, Microsoft offers heap big discounts on overall purchases -- 15 percent for $100 - $499, 20 percent for $500 - $999 and 25 percent for $1,000 or more. Microsoft advertised those discounts before Black Friday. I saw them in store last week. So, I'll correct that statement about Microsoft not offering much discounted against iPad 2. With Microsoft Store's 20 percent discount, the Acer Iconia Tab W500 tablet, with dual-core processor, 32GB SSD and ATI graphics running Windows 7 Home Premium, would be $439.20, nearly 20 bucks less than Black Friday-sale priced iPad 2.

By the way, circling back to where I started, MacBook Air, Microsoft's 25 percent discount puts the comparable Samsung Series 9 laptop at $861.75, or $36.25 less than MBA. Apple's special pricing is today only. Microsoft's discount goes longer.

Where will you shop today? You see better deals elsewhere? Please share with other readers in comments.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Replace Windows' Taskbar with Mac-like Dock

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 8:55am MST by Nick Peers

Anyone who’s ever used a Mac will probably be aware how beautiful and functional its dock is. In comparison, the Windows Taskbar, even the revamped version sported in Windows 7, can feel a little outdated.

If you’re hankering to ditch the Taskbar in favor of something more akin to the Mac, take a look at Winstep’s Nexus, a powerful -- and free -- dock that aims to supplant the Windows taskbar in your affections.

Download, unzip and install Nexus, launching the app when prompted after setup completes. After a short period, the main dock will appear. It looks okay, but nothing fanciful at this stage. Roll your mouse over it, though, and you’ll see icons leap out at you, ready to be engaged.

You’ll see some useful icons appear, such as a weather report and shortcuts to your browser and email program. Right-click the dock and you can start tweaking it to your exact requirements.

Add new entries -- folders, programs, special modules like the CPU meter and weather widget already present, and a series of "internal commands", which allow you to go to town on what Nexus displays, including the system tray icons (vital if you intend using Nexus in preference to the Windows Taskbar) and running apps.

While there’s lots of tweaking options via other right-click menus, cut the middleman and jump straight to selecting Preferences to open Nexus’ Options dialog. You’ll probably want to start by changing the look of Nexus -- the default theme is, shall we say, functional rather than spectacular. To do this, switch to the Themes tab and browse those on offer -- choose Leopard if you’re desperate to ape the Mac’s own dock.

Now you can finish off customizing Nexus to your exact requirements; choose where to place it on-screen (Position tab) and hide the Taskbar (General tab), for example. There are literally too many options to talk about -- just take the time to go through everything carefully.

The end result is a dock that is almost infinitely customizable to your exact requirements. But if for some reason you find yourself hankering for even more features you’ll need to shell out the princely sum of $24.95 for WinStep Nexus Ultimate.

Spendthrifts get loads of bonus features for their outlay, such as support for multiple docks and nested sub-docks. There’s also a tabbed docks feature for keeping things neat and tidy, while you can customise the System Tray icons so they’re more in keeping with their new surroundings.

Winstep Nexus is a freeware download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. Nexus Utimate costs $24.95 and must be purchased directly from Winstep -- there’s no trial version available.

AT&T takes $4 billion charge as it pulls T-Mobile merger application with FCC

Posted: November 24th, 2011, 4:10pm MST by Ed Oswald

It's a working holiday for many involved with the proposed $39 billion merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. Representatives for AT&T informed the Federal Communications Commission through its online filing system late Wednesday that it had pulled its application for merger approval. The move signals an apparent surrender at the nation's second biggest carrier, and throws the entire merger into serious doubt.

It also suggests that AT&T feels the oncoming battle with the FCC is one that it cannot win. Chairman Julius Genachowski has put forth an order for its own hearings on the deal, but it was a statement from an anonymous FCC official that struck many: "The record clearly shows that -- in no uncertain terms -- this merger would result in a massive loss of US jobs and investment".

AT&T cannot pull its application on its own: it must receive the blessing of the FCC, which has several options:

First, it could approve it without prejudice, meaning AT&T could refile a new deal
Second, it could deny the request and move on with Genachowski's hearings
Third, it could approve it with prejudice -- meaning any deal would be permanently killed

In preparation for failure of the deal, AT&T plans to take a $4 billion charge in this quarter to cover dissolution costs. This covers the cost of breakup fees due to Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA.

"AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG are continuing to pursue the sale of Deutsche Telekom’s US wireless assets to AT&T and are taking this step to facilitate the consideration of all options at the FCC and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice either through the litigation pending...or alternate means", AT&T says in a statement.

AT&T will likely seek to settle with the Justice Department before a trial begins in February, and use that settlement to reapply for merger approval with the FCC. The $4 billion charge is likely an effort to prevent an unforeseen financial hit to the company's books.

Regardless of the end game, it appears that a deal for a combined AT&T and T-Mobile will look drastically different than it did just eight months ago.

One possibility posed by Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins to Barron's earlier this week was for AT&T to purchase only T-Mobile's network assets, but not its customer base. This would turn the carrier into the nation's largest "mobile virtual network operator".

"The structure would facilitate a stronger path for AT&T to improve the quality and capacity of its network, and to quicken its migration to offer 4G LTE services, while achieving net synergies that we estimate would be accretive to AT&T’s current valuation under our analysis", he argues.

Photo Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

Use command line to safely remove USB drives

Posted: November 24th, 2011, 11:27am MST by Mike Williams

USB flash drives are a supremely convenient way to store and transfer information. Easy to carry around, they allow you to plug in to almost any convenient PC, and access your data and programs, before disconnecting and moving on to the next system.

Except, of course, there is one potential complication. If you remove a USB drive that has a document open, or where some information is yet to be written, then you’ll probably lose that data (and maybe corrupt the file).

To avoid this you’re supposed to open your system tray, find and right-click the "Safely remove hardware" icon, then find and choose the icon representing the USB drive. And Windows will then make sure it’s safe for the drive to be unplugged. If you find this a little tedious, though, or you just forget occasionally, you might prefer to use RemoveDrive, a command-line tool that will programmatically prepare the drive you specify for safe removal.

The program is very easy to use. If your USB drive is always drive K:, say, then all you have to do is create a shortcut to run RemoveDrive like this:

RemoveDrive K:

And the program will try to prepare the drive for removal. This may fail, though, if for instance a document is open on the drive, so it’s generally better to use the loop switch (-L), like this:

RemoveDrive K: -L

RemoveDrive will then keep trying to prepare the drive for removal until it’s actually possible. Which also means its program window will stay open, and you’ll have a visual indicator that very obviously shows that it’s not safe to unplug the drive yet.

Of course USB drives will often be assigned different drive letters, but fortunately the author has thought of that, too. As well as a drive letter, RemoveDrive can accept the name of a drive, either in full or using wildcards, like this:

RemoveDrive "Corsair UFD USB Device"
RemoveDrive *corsair*

The first option looks for a drive called "Corsair UFD USB Device"; the second looks for a drive with "corsair" anywhere in the drive name. (Again, it’s probably a good idea to add a -L loop switch for the best results.)

The program has many other switches and options available, if you’re interested. It can stop the Windows indexing service for a moment, if you like, useful if removal is blocked because Windows is indexing the drive. And RemoveDrive supports ErrorLevel, useful if you plan to build it into a script or batch file. The text file bundled with the executable has all the details.

The real bonus comes in the program’s portability, though. You don’t need administrative rights to run it. And you’re able to launch the program from the USB drive you’re trying to remove, and it’ll copy a temporary file to the host system to make this happen. That’s not bad for a 41KB executable (32-bit version), and more than justifies RemoveDrive‘s place in your portable toolkit.

Photo Credit: chien321/Shutterstock

11 things Microsoft should be thankful for in 2011

Posted: November 24th, 2011, 11:11am MST by Joe Wilcox

This year I revive my annual "give thanks" series -- what Microsoft has to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day. In 2006, "employee bloggers" topped the list and "Google's woes", following a year-long collapse of the search giant's shares, in 2008. What about 2011?

I present the list in reverse order of importance. No. 1 is the last item and the reason for which Microsoft should give most thanks this year (so far).

11. Ethics award. In March, Ethisphere announced the 110 most ethical companies. Microsoft joined the list, while competitors like Apple, Facebook and Google were absent.

I'm not so surprised to see Microsoft on the list so much as not seeing it sooner -- at least since 2008 (that's how far back I looked). The company really cleaned up its corporate behavior during the new millennium and even has taken a leadership role among tech companies. Trust me, this kind of distinction means something when Microsoft engages enterprise customers.

10. Steve Ballmer vote of confidence. Every month or so someone calls for the resignation or ouster of Microsoft's CEO. During this year's annual shareholder meeting, 92 percent of Microsoft shareholders voted to keep Ballmer. The number is down a few percent from last year, but, hey, 90-percent-plus of anything is outstanding. Then, again, it would be a little disheartening if Ballmer's shareholder confidence turns out to be less than Windows market share.

9 Skype. In May, Microsoft announced plans to buy Skype; the $8.5 billion acquisition closed in October. Skype will probably make next year's list but higher, when Microsoft has integrated the video technologies across products.

Skype corrects an important Microsoft failure. In early 2005, Ballmer passed on buying YouTube for $500 million. Google snatched up the video service for $1.6 billion in October of that year. Microsoft chose to build rather than to buy a video service, which later proved to be a huge blunder.

Now video is front and center again, but instead of impersonal content posted for the world to see, Microsoft is betting on intimacy -- whether personal or professional communications. Advertising will be one of Microsoft's core objectives for monetizing Skype, and you can be sure search, too.

8. Best workplace. In late October, the Great Places to Work Institute chose Microsoft as the, well, best place to work globally. It's a huge distinction, which importance cannot be understated. People are the muster behind great tech companies, and hiring the best and brightest is highly competitive. You could seek a job at Google, but, hey, Microsoft is the best place to work.

7. Marketing. Microsoft advertising, once lackluster, is simply exceptional. Starting with "I'm a PC" three years ago, Microsoft has had a string of marketing success. Among those standout in 2011: "It's a great time to be a family" Kinect, Windows Phone and Windows 7. Then there's smart product placement, where the tech is actually used as part of the story, on TV shows like "Hawaii 5-0".

The advertising isn't just about selling Microsoft stuff, it's more about rebuilding brand image.

6. Nokia deal. In February, Microsoft and Nokia announced a distribution deal making Windows Phone primary operating system for the Finnish manufacturer's handsets. The deal is nothing but trouble for Nokia during a difficult transition period, but it's mostly upside for Microsoft.

The software giant essentially becomes a handset manufacturer without the risk or expense, despite the hefty sum paid to Nokia as part of the arrangement. Microsoft's biggest problem developing a mobile operating system is licensing it and in doing so losing control over hardware integration. The Nokia deal gives Microsoft the closest thing to Apple's vertical integrated hardware, software and services approach without making a phone. By letting Nokia take some responsibility for Windows Phone development, Microsoft can assure that at least one handset manufacturer's devices will tightly integrate with its software and services.

Then there is Bing. The future of search is mobile. Nokia may be declining, but it's still the world's largest handset manufacturer -- and it will bring Bing everywhere.

The first Nokia Windows Phones, the Lumia 710 and 800, hit the streets in November. Nokia would have ranked higher on the list, if the new handsets had shipped in the United States.

5. Samsung. The South Korean conglomerate became Microsoft's most-important OEM partner in 2011. I can't believe that statement isn't about Dell or HP -- although it could be for Lenovo. Samsung doesn't have anywhere the reach as the others in PCs but it's products are consistently the most bleeding edge:

Samsung's Series 9 notebook brought thin-and-light, MacBook Air-like design and portability to Windows laptops about 8 months before the first Ultrabook shipped.
Microsoft distributed approximately 5,000 Samsung slates running a Windows 8 preview to developers during September's BUILD conference.
Samsung's Series 7 slate is among the most compelling Windows 7 tablets, pushing ahead of competing models for style and features.
Samsung Focus S is arguably the best Windows Phone handset available. It's thin, light, handsome and delightful. That's not to dismiss the HTC Radar, which appeals, too.

That said, Samsung's importance is less certain in 2012, particularly in light of the Nokia deal.

4. Android patent licensing. Perhaps Microsoft's strangest business activity of the year is about Google's mobile OS. The company has successfully convinced more than half of Android licensees to pay Microsoft patent fees. The tactic is sheer brilliance. Microsoft essentially attaches a licensing fee to an operating system otherwise with none and collects, too. Meanwhile, related cross-licensing deals protect Microsoft from patent lawsuits in arguably the most important tech category of the decade -- mobile devices.

There's loads of cash to be made here. IDC predicts that 1 billion smartphones will ship in 2015, with Android and Windows Phone comprising about 64 percent of the operating systems. That makes for easy math -- Microsoft collects some kind of licensing fee on as many as 641 million smartphones.

Let's assume, for the sake of simple calculations, that Microsoft collects $10 per license. That works out to a cool $6.4 billion in licensing fees a year by 2015, for Android and Windows Phone. I believe the $10 estimate is a low, but workable figure since it's unclear how many of the nearly 40 Android licensees will pony up and the figure doesn't include tablets, which Microsoft can collect on, too. It's a helluva business opportunity.

3. Kinect. A year ago, when Microsoft shipped the first Kinect game controller, it looked like nothing more than that. Today, Kinect is an emerging development platform and one that looks to transform how people interact with all kinds of products. Kinect is a transformative user interface that businesses already use for medical research and diagnosis and for education, among others. What's exciting about Kinect is the sheer potential. I've repeatedly asserted that the most natural user interface is you.

Microsoft released the Kinect for Windows SDK beta in June and plans commercial release earlier next year. Technology like Kinect is the stuff of science fiction. If Microsoft and its partners do what's right with connect, you'll start reading and viewing more of the "i" associated with Microsoft. Not "i" as in iPhone but innovation.

2. Windows 8. One word: Metro. Another: ARM. Windows 8 Developer Preview has renewed excitement in Microsoft's flagship operating system. ARM support opens Windows 7's successors to new classes of mobile devices and truly marks end of the Wintel era. Of course, Windows 8 will support x86 processors, but ARM dominates mobile device markets.

Metro is a stunning revision of the user interface that looks lots like Windows Phone's tile motif, which inherits qualities from Zune. Touch is common denominator going from Zune HD to Window Phone 7.5 handsets to Windows 8 PCs. Tiles are the means of unifying the user experience across devices.

Metro is task-oriented, mixes cloud and desktop content and works well on tablets. Metro reminds of Microsoft attempts to bring live content to the desktop during the Window 98 era. The strategy flopped for many reasons, limited bandwidth being one of them. That vision is fulfilled in Windows 8's Metro. The Internet is as much a part of the UI as local file storage.

Changes to Windows plumbing, such as WinRT, will matter as much, if not more, to developers. The new API lets developers write native code -- and that's a big push for Windows 8.

The new OS likely will ship in 2012, which makes it strange placer so high on this year's thankful list. But developers and tech analysts and writers already have received Windows 8 well. Windows' future is so bright, you'll have to wear shades.

1. US antitrust oversight ends. In May, after nearly 10 years, government watchdogs got off Microsoft's back. In September I explained in detail how antitrust oversight hobbled Microsoft innovation and kept the company from using tactics like cross-product/feature integration competitors could use. (Have you looked at Google integration lately, for say G+, which is being bolted onto pretty much every other product or service the company offers?)

The software giant settled its US antitrust case in November 2001, but the judge didn't approve it for another year. The consent decree had a term of five years, but oversight continued much longer for many reasons -- Microsoft's reluctance to share server protocol information among them.

Two years ago next month, I called 2000-2009 "Microsoft's decade of shattered dreams". Antitrust oversight, and its impact on what Microsoft leadership decided they could do, negatively hobbled effective decision making. There were many false starts and second guessing that put the company at huge competitive disadvantage.

Microsoft is free to compete again and to integrate as freely as Apple and Google do today. Already, based on the Windows 8 Developer Preview, integration is a top-design priority, which can be seen from inclusion of antivirus and tight integration with Live services. Microsoft will bring Kinect to Windows next year. I'm not sure the company would have done so at all, or with surety, if antitrust watchdogs were in the room.

Finally, Microsoft is free to truly innovate again.

Photo Credit: Karen Roach/Shutterstock

Can't afford Microsoft Office? Take Starter for free

Posted: November 24th, 2011, 10:32am MST by Mike Williams

If you’re looking for a free Office-compatible suite then there’s plenty of choice around, with tools like LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org offering a host of powerful features.

Another option is simply to install Microsoft’s Office 2010 Starter edition, though. It’s cut down, but still has more than enough functionality for many purposes, and can be used without a product key. The package only includes Word and Excel, and if you’re familiar with the regular editions then running either of these will quickly reveal some limitations.

There are less tabs on the ribbon, for instance (References, Review and View are all missing from Word). The other tabs have fewer options: click Insert in Word and there are no SmartArt, Bookmark, Cross Reference, Quick Parts or Equations buttons. And as you use the programs so you’ll encounter other restrictions: no table of contents support in Word, for instance, and no PivotTables or password protection in Excel.

The programs also display ads next to your documents. These are small and unobtrusive, no web-like animations to distract you, but they still take up valuable screen real estate that now isn’t available to your documents.

By way of compensation, though, the Office Starter "Tools" menu includes Microsoft’s "Office Starter To-Go Device Manager", which allows you to create a portable version of the suite which you can save on a USB flash drive and use on any convenient Vista or Windows 7 PC.

And while it is a little cut down, which may cause problems if you have to import complex documents created by others, there’s still plenty of functionality here for basic letter and report writing, organizing your finances in Excel Starter, and more. So if your requirements aren’t too strenuous then give Office 2010 Starter a look: it could provide enough to satisfy all your productivity software needs.

The Chinese are coming, and they're taking your smartphone

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 1:35pm MST by Ed Oswald

Highlighting the increased clout of the Chinese consumer in today's high-tech marketplace, research firm Strategy Analytics released results of a study Wednesday that finds smartphone shipments to China eclipsed the United States for the first time last quarter. At 24 million units, China is now the largest smartphone market in the world.

The findings show why phone manufacturers have increasingly turned their attention to the Far East. Apple began selling the iPhone in China in 2009 on China Unicom, and other manufacturers increasingly are looking to the country and its TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE homegrown networking technologies.

Smartphone sales are going in two different directions, depending on the country. In China, sales were up 58 percent over the second quarter, while in the United States they fell by 7 percent. In other words, there's a lot of money to be made across the Pacific.

"China's rapid growth has been driven by an increasing availability of smartphones in retail channels, aggressive subsidizing by operators of high-end models like the Apple iPhone, and an emerging wave of low-cost Android models from local Chinese brands such as ZTE", Strategy Analytics director Tom Kang explains.

Whereas in America HTC leads all smartphone manufacturers with 24 percent share, in China the leader is Nokia. The Finnish phone maker's strength here can be seen as nothing but good news, considering its weakness worldwide. Capturing a third of the market just a year ago, Strategy Analytics found its worldwide share cut by over half to 14 percent in the third quarter.

"China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile computing boom", executive director Neil Mawston adds. "China has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore".

Photo Credit: Koshevnyk/Shutterstock

Is Microsoft preparing another Yahoo bid?

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 12:24pm MST by Ed Oswald

The stage is set for an eventful holiday season at Yahoo. Sources close to the struggling Sunnyvale, Calif. search company tell the New York Times that Microsoft has signed a non-disclosure agreement which allows it to look into the media giant's books. The Redmond, Wash.-based company joins Silver Lake, TPG Capital and several others as potential suitors.

Talk of a Yahoo sale has increased since September, when a memo from former CEO Jerry Yang leaked to the press. "Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively. At the same time, they are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options", the note reads.

Yahoo's NDA forbids those pursuing the company from talking to other potential bidders. Microsoft may have found a way around that provision though, as it has already held discussions with some of the bidders including Silver Lake, according to the Times.

Microsoft does have a business interest in Yahoo. In July 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo signed an agreement outsouring search. Thirteen months later, Bing started serving up Yahoo search results. The agreement has helped make Microsoft search a viable alternative to Google; combined Microsoft and Yahoo US search share was 30 percent in October, according to comScore. Not playing a part in where Yahoo ends up could prove detrimental to Microsoft.

The company appears to be mounting an effort to purchase Yahoo outright rather than take a minority stake. Other potential suitors will likely take that route. There are other companies also considering bids including Alibaba, which Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake in.

This would be Microsoft's second shot at Yahoo. The software giant mounted a $44.6 billion hostile takeover in February 2008, which failed. Neither company responded to BetaNews' request for comment. The NDA would likely prohibit Microsoft and Yahoo from confirming any new bid.

EssentialPIM 4.5 Pro syncs with Google Docs

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 11:27am MST by Nick Peers

Astonsoft Ltd has released version 4.5 of both free and Pro editions of its personal information manager, EssentialPIM. Version 4.5, which is also available as a portable build, adds a number of new features and improvements.

The most notable new features -- full sync capabilities with Google Docs and Google Tasks, a new Attachment Manager and support for custom fields and filters in the To Do Module -- are restricted to EssentialPIM 4.5 Pro only.

Other minor new features are available to both Free and Pro users. EssentialPIM 4.5 gains support for one-way syncs with all supported online services, with a new option for choosing whether to synchronize First/Last or Last/First names. The password module is also the recipient of several unspecified “improvements”.

The email module has also been improved, with a new compress command for each IMAP folder helping reclaim lost disk space. Email can also now be received through a proxy server, and Unicode attachment support has also been added.

EssentialPIM 4.5 also adds support for Plaxo import and LinkedIn import and export. The interface has been refreshed with a new font and the Attachments toolbar has also been improved. In terms of performance tweaks, the program claims to open EPIM Today and Mail modules quicker than the previous build.

EssentialPIM 4.5 Free and EssentialPIM 4.5 Free Portable are available for free download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. EssentialPIM 4.5 Pro is also available as a free trial download – the full version costs $39.95.

Photo Credit: tele52/Shutterstock

Ashampoo Burning Studio 11 treats cloud and desktop the same

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 10:35am MST by Mike Williams

Ashampoo’s Burning Studio has never made quite as many headlines as the big disc burning suites, perhaps because the program concentrates on ease of use rather than forever adding unnecessary "bonus"features that you’ll never use.

The package still manages to include interesting capabilities that you won’t always find elsewhere, though, like the ability to create interactive autostart menus for your data discs. And the latest release, Ashampoo Burning Studio 11, continues this tradition with easy and time-saving integration for your Facebook, Dropbox, Picasa and Flickr accounts.

The idea is a simple one. Traditionally disc burning tools have assumed any files you’d like to burn are located on your own PC, but these days there’s a good chance that at least some will be stored in the cloud somewhere. And so whenever you add files to a project, Burning Studio 11 now uses a custom dialog that allows you to directly access your Flickr, Picasa, Dropbox and Facebook accounts, browse your stored files and select whatever you need, just as easily as if they were on your own desktop.

Other additions this time around are much smaller, though very practical and still worth having. So, for instance, Burning Studio 11 can burn audio CDs from many common playlist formats. The program has an option to normalize the volume of MP3 and WMA CDs. And as well as creating and burning images, Burning Studio 11 now makes it easy to browse them, and extract whatever files and folders you like.

Not every new feature is quite as interesting. The new Compact Mode, for example, just reduces the program to an icon, where you can drag and drop files whenever you want to burn discs. Which is fine, but others have done something similar with desktop gadgets for quite some time.

Overall, though, Burning Studio 11 remains an excellent program, which manages to be easy to use without compromising on functionality. It now also performs better than ever, thanks to new multi-core optimizations, and so if you’re looking for a burning suite without all the usual bloat then this could be a sensible choice.

ArtWeaver 3 adds team creation features

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 10:23am MST by Nick Peers

Boris Eyrich Software has released version 3.0 of its painting application. Artweaver 3.0 Free, which is also available as a paid-for Plus edition with more features, adds a new collaborative feature that allows artists sat at different computers to work on the same document -- either over their local area network or via ArtweaverTeam.com (free account required).

This is the only new feature in the free version, and is accompanied by a number of unspecified bug fixes. The Plus Edition, which costs €29, boasts many more new features to go with its enhanced feature set, plus performance and interface improvements.

The new collaborative feature works across local area networks or, from free accounts, the Internet via ArtweaverTeam.com. It’s managed via a new Team window where users can come together to work simultaneously on the same document, using the window to chat as they work.

The Plus edition adds a number of new features: two new brushes (warping and coloring), a Filter Gallery, new views for preset selectors (List and Thumbnail) and a new layer properties dialog with extra settings. Improvements include faster read operations, better drag-and-drop palette docking and various interface tweaks.

Artweaver Free 3.0 is a free-for-personal-use download for PCs running Windows XP or later. Artweaver Plus 3.0 costs €29 and can be downloaded as a 14-day trial separately.

PhatPad for Android tablets launches in beta: dumb name, but great app

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 10:16am MST by Tim Conneally

PhatWare, makers of WritePad, CalliGrapher, PenOffice, and PhatNotes, launched the public beta of PhatPad for Android on Wednesday, a brainstorming, note taking and free drawing app for tablets.

PhatPad lets users draw with their fingers, jot handwritten notes, or use a mixture of pictures and drawings, handwritten text, typed text, and audio notes in a single field. With its handwriting recognition engine, users can hand write notes, and then convert them to copy-and-pasteable text. Documents created in PhatPad can then be synchronized with Dropbox, or exported as a PDF to local storage.

PhatPad was released one year ago for the iPad with essentially the same features as this Android beta version, and it eventually got some powerful additional features like synchronization with Evernote and Google Docs, and AirPrint compatibility. Since its release, it has received good reviews and enjoyed modest success.

The initial beta test period will only last until December 31, and the .apk is available immediately, the company expects the final version to be released before the beta ends. The launch price hasn't been announced yet, but the final app on iOS has cost between $4.99 and $7.99 at different times of the year.

Download PhatPad Beta 1 for Android by clicking here.

O&O releases new defrag and disk image server software

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 10:07am MST by Mike Williams

Hard drive management specialist O&O Software has revealed the latest Server Editions of its flagship defrag and disk imaging tools. But while the packages are clearly targeted at businesses, they could be useful to anyone who has to manage a network.

The core functionality is the same as you’ll see in the other editions. So, for instance, DiskImage 6 Server Edition is a versatile tool for backing up everything from selected files and folders, to individual partitions or complete hard drives. It’s highly flexible (you can exclude particular files from an image backup, or restore only whatever elements of an image that you actually need), and is packed with essential features.

And Defrag 15 Server Edition is perhaps even more configurable, with multiple defrag methods (on demand, on schedule, at boot time, automatically, and more) and strategies so your system is always running at its peak performance.

In combination with O&O’s Enterprise Management Console, though, you’re able to deploy and remotely install the programs on other networked PCs, then control them from your own system. So in just a few clicks you’re able to set up jobs to automate the backup or defragmentation of your entire network, but without ever leaving your own PC, or requiring other network users to do anything at all.

And, as you might guess from the “Server Edition” name, the programs can also be installed on Windows Server (2003, 2008 and 2008 R2). While other business-friendly features include O&O Defrag 15 Server Edition’s Active Directory integration.

There is a price to pay for this extra power, of course. O&O Defrag costs $23 for the Professional Edition, $99 for the Server; DiskImage 6 is $29.95 for the regular Professional Edition, $99 for theServer option. The network management features could save you a great deal of time, though, and of course if they appeal then you can sample the trial version before you buy.

Photo Credit: Raimundas/Shutterstock

'The Next Big Thing' isn't iPhone

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 9:11am MST by Joe Wilcox

Last night I watched Samsung TV commercial "The Next Big Thing is Already Here" about a dozen times on YouTube. I'm a sucker for good advertising, and this one is clever to a punch and already is viral among tech blogs. Apple used to make adverts like this one -- inventive, clever, memorable -- now they're staid and boring. Anyone remember Apple's hugely successful "Switchers" and "Get a Mac" marketing campaigns from the last decade? This new TV spot is a hilarious poke at yokels waiting in line for the newest iPhone, all without mentioning Apple; meanwhile something better is already here -- from Samsung.

Now before some commenter calls me anti-Apple, because I watched the commercial a dozen times and it snarks the iPhone cult, my interest is bigger. The advert is clever in so many ways, particularly how it uses jump cuts or little touches make it real. Example: When the iPhone line waiters ask to see a Samsung Galaxy S II, the owner holds it up. Someone in the line leans forward, raises his arm and says: "Can I see it with my hands?" I've embedded the long version above, which isn't as tight or dramatic as the 60-second spot. There's something to be said about tighter editing, more closeups and shorter jump cuts. The 30-second edit is good, too. Update: The 15-second ad is absolutely cruel.

"The Next Big Thing" is among the best tech ads I've seen in years. But it's not the only one recently notable, and, unsurprisingly, to sell smartphones. Last week, I praised the new commercial for the Google-branded, Samsung-manufactured Galaxy Nexus. The advert is aspirational in the best ways, showing how the phone can empower you. Both commercials share a similar quality: Emphasis on the individual, over the crowd, which is startling considering how group oriented is the Millennial generation -- where sometimes it seems standing out is a crime.

"You" is everything in marketing. The best advertising shows how product X, Y or Z makes your life better. It's part of the allure of Apple nomenclature, by the way -- the "i" products. You read iPhone, iPod or iTunes but the connotation is something bigger: I, the capital letter. When I stands alone it is capitalized and refers to you, the subject. You read iPhone but really say IPhone as in my phone. Subliminal connotations have emotional hooks that, whether people want to admit it or not, impact buying decisions. Ask yourself: How often do you buy something ultimately because it feels right?

Circling back to this empowering the individual theme, there are other recent, excellent smartphone advertising examples. HTC's "Get Closer to Your Contacts" is another exceptional commercial. Here a female artist uses the photos of friends from the People hub of her Windows Phone to create a collage. The phone empowers her to express individual creativity from those folks most important to her: "In the right hands it brings you closer".

The commercial's tone reminds of an older promotional for the Nokia N79. Here a fashion designer uses the phone: "My online life has to stay with me all the time". Nokia doesn't get enough credit for its marketing, that's in part because there's so little of it in the United States and tech bloggers and journalists here are too obsessed with iPhone. Nokia marketing is exceptionally good, and it's one of the major reasons for the mobile device maker's global success. Nokia's challenge now is to reignite the kind of marketing for Windows Phone that put Symbian into the hands of billions.

By comparison, Apple advertising, while still aspirational, feels all the same. There's a dryness to commercials promoting Siri on iPhone or iPad 2 benefits. They're not bad adverts, just not as clever or memorable as those from the last decade. Meanwhile, competitors do much better. I can't emphasize the importance of that. I remember, for example, when only Apple advertised MP3 players, so is it any wonder people bought iPod when seemingly the only choice? Apple is renown for its marketing, but that's an advantage competitors are chipping away. Enjoy the embedded videos.

Nokia Siemens to lay off 17,000, eliminate unfocused business groups

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 7:23am MST by Tim Conneally

Network infrastructure joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks announced on Wednesday its plans to cut more than a billion Euro in overhead by the end of 2013. These plans involve refocusing on mobile broadband infrastructure, and cutting its global workforce by 17,000 workers.

As of November first, Nokia Siemens Networks employed 74,000 globally, so this will constitute a 23% reduction in workforce.

The joint venture today said the reductions will include the elimination of the company’s matrix organizational structure, consolidation of sites, transference of activities to global delivery centers, consolidation of certain central functions, and elimination of redundancies from the integration of Motorola’s wireless assets it acquired for $1.2 billion last year, as well as efficiencies in service operations, and process simplification.

Nokia Siemens did not announce the countries in which it plans to institute these reductions, but says it will add more information "as the process proceeds."

Additionally, the company says the business areas that do not mesh well with the focus on mobile broadband will be divested or sold off.

“As we look towards the prospect of an independent future, we need to take action now to improve our profitability and cash generation,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks. “These planned reductions are regrettable but necessary, and it is our goal to make them in a fair and responsible way, providing the support we can to employees and communities.”

Photo: Karen Roach/Shutterstock

Microsoft states the obvious about Kinect for Windows

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 5:27pm MST by Joe Wilcox

There's going to be a controller. Enough people inquired about the obvious that Craig Eisler, Kinect for Windows general manager, felt obliged to answer.

"We’ve been asked whether there will also be new Kinect hardware especially for Windows", he blogs today. "The answer is yes; building on the existing Kinect for Xbox 360 device, we have optimized certain hardware components and made firmware adjustments which better enable PC-centric scenarios".

Like, why wouldn't there be Kinect hardware for Windows?

"Simple changes include shortening the USB cable to ensure reliability across a broad range of computers and the inclusion of a small dongle to improve coexistence with other USB peripherals", he writes. Wow. I'm simply quaking at the keyboard.

"Of particular interest to developers will be the new firmware which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision, with graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters", he continues. Oh? Do tell more.

"'Near Mode' will enable a whole new class of 'close up' applications, beyond the living room scenarios for Kinect for Xbox 360", Eisler explains. "This is one of the most requested features from the many developers and companies participating in our Kinect for Windows pilot program and folks commenting on our forums, and we’re pleased to deliver this, and more, at launch".

Microsoft released the Kinect SDK for Windows beta in June. Commercial availability is expected in early 2012. Shall we guess Consumer Electronics Show in January? That's what I expect. Timing and venue are appropriate.

Meanwhile Eisler will be busy with another project: "The Kinect Accelerator". According to Microsoft:

Through this program, Microsoft is supporting entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators like you to bring to life a wide range of business ideas that leverage the limitless possibilities Kinect enables. Following a competitive screening process, ten finalists will be chosen for this unique three month incubation program running from March to May, 2012 in Seattle, WA.

Accelerator resonates with Microsoft's recently debuted "Kinect Affect" marketing campaign promoting the natural user interface technology outside of gaming, particularly for business purposes.

It's preparation for the big Kinect for Windows push that could dramatically change how businesses and individuals interact with their computers. No one should underestimate just how Kinect could revitalize the Windows PC's importance -- transforming it from that box people take for granted into something quite wondrous. You don't believe me? Watch some of the Kinect Effect videos and see how the technology is already changing lives -- all without the new hardware or final SDK.

FCC: AT&T/T-Mobile merger would cause massive US job losses

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 3:59pm MST by Tim Conneally

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski on Tuesday put forth an order for a hearing to re-examine the proposed merger between national wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile. If approved, the hearing would have to take place after the Justice Department submits the merger to an antitrust trial, and could delay the merger by a few more years.

"The FCC’s action today is disappointing. It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment and the creation of many thousands of new jobs at a time when the US economy desperately needs both," said Larry Solomon, senior vice president of Corporate Communications of AT&T. "At this time, we are reviewing all options."

An anonymous statement from a senior FCC official on Tuesday evening echoed the belief held by many in the telecommunications industry: "The record clearly shows that -- in no uncertain terms -- this merger would result in a massive loss of US jobs and investment."

Though Genachowski today proposed a hearing which will definitely slow the merger process between AT&T and T-Mobile, and could potentially shut it down completely, it wasn't all bad news for AT&T. Genachowski did give a green light to AT&T's $1.9 billion acquisition of Qualcomm's FLO TV wireless spectrum in the 700MHz band, that AT&T can use as a supplemental downlink to increase 4G LTE network capacity in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Photo Credit: iQoncept/Shutterstock

Can 'Buffy' slay Facebook Phone rumors?

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 3:33pm MST by Ed Oswald

Rumors persist over the mythical "Facebook Phone". This time it's Ina Fried and Liz Gannes of All Things Digital, claiming sources say the social network is working with HTC on an Android powered device -- codenamed "Buffy" -- to launch in about 12 to 18 months. It deeply integrates Facebook services into the experience, and relies on HTML5 as a platform for applications.

But Fried's and Gannes' report may not be accurate. In a "He Said, She Said" response, Inside Facebook followed up saying its own sources call Buffy a "trainwreck". Reporter Kim-Mai Cutler says that the phone would have a host of issues, including always being one step behind the latest version of Android due to the deep customization that Buffy would require.

Mobile is key to Facebook's business: data shows that increasing numbers of social networking users access there accounts while mobile. A recent study from comScore shows that in August of this year some 72 million users accessed social networking sites or blogs on their phones, an increase of 37 percent year over year.

"This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month, highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices", comScore senior vice president for mobile Mark Donovan said at the time.

The AllThingsD bloggers claim HTC won out over Samsung, which was also considered as a possible partner, to build Buffy. HTC as manufacturer isn't surprising. The Taiwanese smartphone maker announced the Status back in June, one of the first devices to come with a dedicated Facebook button and integrated functionality. AT&T offers the phone free with a two-year service contract.

Cutler debunks this scenario, observing that 12 to 18 months would put the Facebook phone two-and-a-half years behind laggard Windows Phone 7. The only reason Facebook has stayed on the project is because "they don’t know what to do", claims one of Inside Facebook's sources. More: "Buffy 'was an interesting story six months ago', says the source. 'But it isn’t anymore'".

Other jounralists are sniping at Fried's and Gannes' reporting. MG Seigler took issue with the fact that the story made no reference to a piece by TechCrunch posted a year earlier, and a post he wrote in September on Facebook's continuing denials that the device exists.

"Facebook [is] playing a bullshit game of semantics. And I’m sure that will continue right up until the day they release the phone, at which point it won’t matter anymore", he writes to his personal blog. "So no, there’s no Facebook Phone. Until a year from now when there is one. Consider it fait accompli".

Some Black Friday deals are duds

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 2:03pm MST by Andrew Eisner

Editor: Earlier today Retrevo offered a list of Black Friday deals. But we think many BetaNews readers will be just as interested in the duds and perhaps benefit more. You want to take this holiday, not get taken, right? Please add your own Black Friday duds in comments.

Mixed in with some great bargains this year are some questionable ones like a $38 Toshiba Blu-ray player that requires a $49 adapter to make its Wi-Fi work. We offer this selection of deals we think you might be better off avoiding.

LG 47-inch LCD TV and 42-inch Panasonic at Sears

Although a nice LED backlit LCD TV, the 47LV4400 is listed on Sears’ Black Friday deals for $679.99 but is available on Amazon for just $9 more. Similarly the TC-L42E3 listed for $599.99 at Sears is selling for that same price now at B&H Photo.

Panasonic TC-P50S30 50-inch Plasma for $699

We hate to pick on Sears but it looks Best Buy is selling this set for $100 less on Black Friday.

Is Toshiba Blu-ray Player’s Price Too Good?

We’ve seen the Toshiba BDX2150 "connected" Blu-ray player listed for as low as $39, which looks like an irresistible deal if you don’t mind hooking up an Ethernet cable. If you want to use its Wi-Fi "ready" capability you’ll need to buy a $49 adaptor. We think you might be better off spending more for a Sony connected Blu-ray player seen from $79 - $109.

Magnavox Blu-ray Player Makes Annual Appearance

This Blu-ray player gets trotted out every year on Black Friday. Not that it’s a terrible player for $79, we just think there are some better players to consider.

Not All Core i3 Laptops Are Equal

Intel didn’t make it easy for consumers to spot the new Sandy Bridge versions of the Core i3, i5, or i7 chips. The easy way to tell is that new versions have four numbers in the model (e.g. Core i3 21xx), while older versions have three. For example, the HP laptop offered by Office Max for $389 touts a Core i3 but the -370M suffix gives it away. At least this version has the graphics engine built in.

BlackBerry Playbook is No Bargain at $199

Yes, the Playbook is a well designed, good looking 7-inch tablet that is selling for a lot less than originally intended but it runs RIMs own OS not Android and so you won’t have that huge library of apps available to download.

Why Buy a Non-HD Camcorder?

The Sony DCR-SX85 camcorder normally sells for around $250 and Best Buy will offer it at $149 on Black Friday. It has 16GB of Flash memory and offers a long 60x optical zoom but it doesn’t shoot HD video. Why bother?

Photo Credit: Kenishirotie/Shutterstock

Andrew Eisner is Retrevo's resident gadget enthusiast. The former PC World executive producer helped establish Ziff Davis' premiere test lab, where he led a team testing the latest high-tech gear.

The Cloud isn't elastic enough

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 1:25pm MST by Robert Levitan

By now, we all can see that the Internet will become the dominant media distribution platform.
We can easily imagine (and expect) that all content will be digitized and distributed online. Every song, every movie, every video game, every software program, every live television event, every business document and more will be instantly searchable and retrievable via a range of connected devices. It will all be magically available to stream or download on-demand through "the Cloud".

This was the dream when I started my first Internet business in 1995. Now, people think it is the reality. And, while we are making great progress towards such a future, unfortunately, we are not there yet. The demand for online media consumption is simply too great and is growing even faster than we can deploy cloud services to meet it.

Because "the Cloud" is on-demand infrastructure that enables many businesses to scale without having to provision hardware, many people believe the Cloud is infinitely elastic. The cloud concept has become so familiar so quickly that it is commonplace to now hear "Just upload it to the Cloud" or "Just download it from the Cloud", as if it’s truly ubiquitous or that easy-to-use.

The Cloud may be elastic enough to meet certain needs, but it’s far from being ready to meet consumer media demand. Some examples during the month of November illustrate this point, such as last week’s stream of the Republican candidates’ debate on CBSNews.com, during which people were denied online access to the second half of the debate because of bandwidth limitations. The free-to-play release of DC Universe Online by Sony Online Entertainment is another example; that release overwhelmed the game servers, and the release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 caused the Activision gamer social network, Call of Duty Elite, to crash. The common theme of all of these situations is summed up by an Activision executive: "We knew there would be a tremendous amount of traffic. It was a lot more than we anticipated".

Media and game companies have not been the only ones bumping up against online distribution limitations. In July of this year, Apple planned to release the Lion operating system with only digital download distribution, but broadband limitations led to Apple offering two other methods: in-store digital downloads and an install via a USB flash drive. In January 2009, Microsoft had to delay the Windows 7 beta release because the anticipated download demand exceeded the capacity of the MS servers.

All of these events experienced outages or degraded delivery. And this is not just a problem for one-time special events. Have you ever tried to stream Netflix in primetime? Can you imagine what will happen when millions of gamers download new releases and patches of popular MMOG game titles (some up to 16GBs in size) as the video game industry takes full advantage of digital distribution and embraces the free-to-play business model?

We speak of the cloud as being infinitely elastic but it is not. There are physical limitations. Surely, capacity will continue to improve, but many different solutions will be needed to help scale the cloud. More data centers filled with more hardware and using more bandwidth is not the only answer and certainly not the most efficient or green solution. Some solutions might include faster broadband networks, better compression technology, redesigned browsers optimized for media delivery, more efficient operating systems, smarter media players and client-side software that can make the cloud more elastic and allow capacity to scale up or down to match demand.

As more and more devices connect to the Internet, the demand for media delivery will continue to rise at an accelerated pace. I believe online media consumption will surpass industry projections, which were made to date in a certain context that actually is rapidly changing. We may look back at the early decades of the Internet and find there is, in fact, a Moore’s Law for the volume of online data delivered.

Robert Levitan is CEO Pando Networks. Prior to founding Pando, he cofounded iVillage, Flooz.com and YearLook Enterprises. In between starting companies from scratch and some adventures in world travel, Levitan serves on the board of the Executive Council of New York and New York Cares, a service organization that coordinates volunteers who work with children, the homeless and the elderly.

Photo Credit: file404/Shutterstock

Arbitrators tell Western Digital to pay Seagate $525 million in trade secret spat

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 11:46am MST by Ed Oswald

Western Digital is liable for $525 million in damages to Seagate following an arbitration decision regarding the misappropriation of trade secrets. The ruling stems from a court case brought by Seagate in 2006 against Western Digital and one of its former employees who had taken a job with its competitor.

That employee is accused of sharing information with his new employer, although court proceedings were stayed while the two sides entered arbitration in 2007. The arbitrator sided with Seagate in the matter.

"We do not believe there is any basis in law or fact for the damage award of the arbitrator", president and CEO John Coyne says in a statement. "We believe the company acted properly at all times and we will vigorously challenge the award". Coyne claims the judgement will not affect Western Digital's business operations or its planned acquisition of Hitachi's hard drive business announced in March.

Seagate also announced an acquisition of its own in the space -- Samsung's hard drive division in April. The mergers put the two companies in control of a large portion of the hard drive market, with third-place Toshiba fighting for what's left.

If Western Digital is forced to pay Seagate, it should have no problem doing so: at the end of last quarter it had nearly $3.7 billion in cash on hand.

That said, many hard drive makers, including Western Digital, are recovering from devastating floods that struck their Thailand plants during the summer. That alone could cost the hard drive company hundreds of millions to recover from, exacerbating the financial hit of the arbitrator's ruling.

AT&T discloses 'organized and systemic' hack to steal customer information

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 11:00am MST by Ed Oswald

AT&T is alerting affected customers to an "organized and systematic" attack on its website that attempted to steal their data. The nation's second-biggest carrier says in a letter to those customers that it "[does] not believe that the perpetrators of this attack obtained access to your online account or any of the information contained in that account", but decided to warn users "out of an abundance of caution".

Less than one percent of the carrier's 100.7 million customers are affected, but that still puts nearly one million at risk due to AT&T's size. Hackers employed an automated script to see if cellular numbers were linked to AT&T accounts, which the script tried to pair with logins. All attempts appear to be unsuccessful.

"No accounts were breached and our investigation is ongoing to determine the source or intent of the attempt to gather this information", AT&T spokesperson Mark Seigel says.

AT&T advises customers to remain vigilant and do not respond to suspicious text messages or e-mails seeking personal information. Seigel declined to elaborate on any possible attack vector.

This is not the first time AT&T has found itself the target of online attacks. Two men were charged in connection with a hack that exposed the email addresses of 114,000 iPad users in June 2010. One has since pled guilty, and the other has been granted additional time in order to make a plea deal with prosecutors.

Monday's hacking disclosure also follows news of another serious hack involving a small water utility in Illinois. The attack -- believed to have originated from Russia -- caused a water pump to fail by rapidly turning it on and off. While no serious damage was done to the plant, it highlights the increasing threat IT departments face as hacking attempts escalate.

Photo Credit: Mikael Damkier/Shutterstock

Nvidia shows off Asus Transformer Prime tablet running Android ICS on Tegra 3

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 10:29am MST by Tim Conneally

Using the upcoming Asus Transformer Prime which was rumored to be the first Tegra 3 tablet graphics company Nvidia on Tuesday officially showed off what Tegra 3 and Android 4.0, "Ice Cream Sandwich" can do.

This early demonstration quickly shows off the 1080p video playback, and an all-too short demo of Android game Tegra 3-optimized racing game Riptide GP from games studio Vector Unit.

"Tegra 3 players get extra-high-detailed normal-mapped waves, realistic water splashes on the camera, and a dramatic motion blur effect when boosting. Riptide GP looks even better thanks to the power of Tegra 3," Vector Unit said of the game.

Nvidia says this demonstration was recorded on November 16th, just two days after the Ice Cream Sandwich code dropped, so there is still a potentially long wait before this powerful Android tablet is released.

Non-iPad buyers 'Think Different'

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 10:14am MST by Joe Wilcox

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo."

That's some of the text from Apple's famous "Think Different" marketing campaign from 1997 to 2002. The promotional likened Apple and Mac users to legendary individuals who stepped outside the mainstream, who expressed their independence and defied convention. Today, iPad is the status quo for tablets. What irony. Buyers of 1.2 million non-iPad tablets, sold at US retail, are the individualists -- the rebels who dared buy something else.

"Seventy-six percent of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business", Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, says.

Today, NPD released non-iPad sales figures for January through October. Retailers -- brick and mortar and online -- sold 1.2 million tablets, generating $415 million in revenue. It's a puny amount compared to iPad. NPD didn't release iPad sales figures, but they're easy enough to figure. Globally, during third calendar quarter, Apple sold in about 10 days as many iPads as all other tablets combined at US retail for the first 10 months of the year.

"I think the biggest takeaway is how weak the non-iPad tablet market really is" , Baker told me today. "The HP Touchpad was on the market for what 6 weeks and was still the best-selling tablet for the whole year, even with the crazy pricing. That is still a pretty damning statement".

Yes, HP is non-iPad market share leader, bolstered by summer's $99 TouchPad fire sale. The PC maker discontinued the tablet after just six weeks of sales. Non-iPad market share leaders:

HP -- 17 percent
Samsung -- 16 percent
ASUS -- 10 percent
Motorola -- 9 percent
Acer -- 9 percent

Non-iPad sales doubled from second to third quarter and tripled from first to second quarter. HP's fire sale, in late August, lifted the category during first half of the year.

Light the Kindle Fire

Looking ahead, "of course the sales of the non-iPad tablets are likely to be considerably higher for the holiday", Baker told me. I asked about Kindle Fire, which went on sale last week.

"Don't forget the Fire is benefiting not just from price but holiday timing -- at $199 it is a good gift and with a huge percent of iPads sold as gifts last year I suspect the same will be true about the Fire and the rest of the tablet market".

My wife received Kindle Fire last week as an early Christmas present. For days I've repeatedly heard: "Wow". "Amazing". "This is amazing". I asked for her quick review and she responded: "Kindle Fire is to the Kindle [reader] I got for last Christmas what the abacus is to the calculator". She had no interest in iPad 2, by the way; she's among NPD's 76 percent.

In late September, Baker and I discussed a looming tablet price war for the holidays. But there's no clear sign yet that will happen. Tablet is the "one category I am not seeing any evidence of that yet", he told me. "Not sure why except that no one wants to upset the apple cart and they aren't comfortable with the demand that they can generate by being extra low prices".

Much may depend on how well $199 Kindle Fire does as holiday sales pick up following Black Friday. Then there is iPad. I asked Baker: "And Apple has demand such it doesn't need to lower prices?" He answered: "Nope. There's no reason for them to do anything".

By the way, NPD does with tablets what yesterday I said Canalys should do: Categorize tablets by form factor. Canalys considers tablets as PCs. Gartner and IDC break out media tablets from those running Windows, which count as PCs. NPD does it right, by counting all slate form factors, even those running Windows, as tablets. That said, Windows tablets sales are negligible, according to NPD.

Circling back to where I started. Who are some of these individualists who "Think Different" about tablets. Betanews reader Jack Mabry is "enjoying my Acer Iconia A500. It has the entertainment side covered, and I've found it very useful in meetings for taking notes".

Reader shy_one "bought an Asus Transformer...it's nice -- does almost all that I want it to and my cousin's 4-year and 7-year olds love to play with it when I come over, and the keyboard/extra battery pack makes sure I have enough power to go a couple days between charges".

Do you own a tablet, and it's not iPad? I'd love your story, either here in comments or by email (joe at betanews dot com). What you bought, why and why not iPad?

Photo Credit: Pixel 4 Images/Shutterstock

Microsoft acquires VideoSurf to make Kinect do what Google TV can't

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 9:46am MST by Tim Conneally

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it had acquired video search company VideoSurf, which in September launched its technology for identifying video content based upon images captured with a mobile phone camera. Microsoft says it will add this technology into the Xbox 360 ecosystem, improving the search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox Live.

To bring live television to Xbox Live, Microsoft has partnered with more than 40 different content providers in over 20 countries, including television networks and multi-service operators. Microsoft on Tuesday said the acquisition of VideoSurf will help these companies integrate their content into Kinect voice search.

"VideoSurf's content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform," said Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf's technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results."

Microsoft first debuted Kinect Voice search at BUILD in September, which showed how Microsoft planned to add Bing-driven voice search to Xbox 360.

Like Google has attempted (and largely failed) to do with Google TV, Microsoft is attempting to add rich web-like search capabilities to television, but instead of utilizing a keyboard, remote control, or huge video game-like controller, it is harnessing the power of the natural user interface with Kinect.

Mimo's 10.1" touchscreen monitor doubles as a 'tethered tablet'

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 8:51am MST by Tim Conneally

Mimo Monitors, the company that specializes in USB-powered mini-displays, launched its first two monitors that use capacitive touchscreens just like those used by smartphones and tablets.

Like Mimo's other products, both the Mimo Magic Touch and Magic Touch deluxe are powered by a single USB connection and are meant to give your PC additional screen real estate and an additional interface that doesn't take up much room. Unlike Mimo's other monitors, however, the Magic Touch line is styled to be more like 10.1" mobile tablets that can be used in a dock or as a hand held device.

You see, you can use your iPad or Android tablet as an additional monitor for your PC with software like Maxivista or iDisplay, but those applications are high latency and low power. So Mimo looks to be offering the general touch tablet experience but with the refresh rate of a monitor.

Mimo's Magic Touch monitors are 10.1" in size with a 1024 x 600 resolution, and they measure one inch in thickness and weigh less than one pound. Both models come with a dock/stand and VESA 75 mounting bracket. The standard Mimo Magic Touch model offers a single USB 2.0 connection for connectivity and power; and the Mimo Magic Touch Deluxe has a base with two additional USB ports and AC power in.

Priced at $299 and $329, Mimo Magic Touch monitors are available for sale today, with shipping expected on December 20.

Android apps come to Windows XP with BlueStacks update, Mac OS next

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 2:07pm MST by Tim Conneally

BlueStacks App Player, the Windows application capable of smoothly virtualizing Android apps has launched for Windows XP. The alpha version that launched in October only ran on Windows 7 machines, but the company says nearly 20 percent of Android users are also Windows XP users, so this new version is for them.

So far, BlueStacks App Player has been downloaded by 500,000 people, an impressive feat for a company that was unheard of just six months ago. With this new version, the application's reach will grow even larger.

After the alpha of App Player launched, BlueStacks announced that XP support was pending, so today's release was wholly expected. However, the company officially announced for the first time today that it will have a version for Mac OS some time next year.

Click Here to become a tester of BlueStacks App Player for Windows XP right now!

Would you pay $299 for Google Chromebook?

Posted: November 21st, 2011, 1:27pm MST by Joe Wilcox

"Beginning this week Acer and Samsung Chromebooks will be available starting at $299", Googler Venkat Rapaka blogs today. Is that price low enough for you or perhaps as present for a relative? For $100 more than Kindle Fire, you get a keyboard, double the storage (16GB vs 8GB), similar cloud connected benefits, comparable battery life and bigger display. Well, I had to ask.

If you want to answer, fire off in comments. This is a serious question. Because there is a right price, one making Chromebook an appealing alternative to a new laptop or tablet. Before the price cuts, Acer and Sumsung models started at 349.99. Some commenter surely will claim price cuts are sure sign Chromebooks aren't selling well. Oh yeah? Consider this: Samsung is releasing a black Series 5 Chromebook (to go alongside grey and white ones) and prices fall for lots of reasons, such as economies of scale when products sell well, lower component prices or holiday prices. Reasons aside, is $299 low enough for you?

Amazon already lists the Acer AC700-1099 Chromebook for $299.99. Specs: 11.6-inch LED-backlit display (1366 x 768 resolution; 16:9 aspect ratio; Intel Atom N570 dual-core processor; 2GB DDR RAM; 16GB SSD; Graphics Media Accelerator 3150; 1.3MP HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone; two USB 2.0 ports; 4-in-1 memory card slot; HDMI port; WiFi N; and Chrome OS. The Acer Chromebook is about the same size as MacBook Air and some Windows PC ultrabooks, but selling for $700 and $600-$700 less, respectively.

Chromebooks run Google's ChromeOS, which heavily relies on the cloud but not exclusively. Main benefits include:

Fast start-up (about 13 seconds)
Near instant recovery from sleep (about 1 second)
Ease of setup -- just log into Google account -- that's it
Long battery life, which for my Chromebook was 8 hours or more

I got a taste of this alternate computing universe when during August and September a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook was my primary PC early on and exclusive one for most of the two months. In early October, I gave up my Chromebook experiment, switching to the delightful (and considerably faster) Lenovo ThinkPad T420s. But others carry the torch. Ian Betteridge is near the end of his own 30-day Chromebook adventure.

My 70 year-old mom continues to use a Chromebook, for nearly four months now. I've heard no complaints, but no praise either. Her G5 iMac developed graphics problems. I couldn't afford to buy her a new Mac, and there was a spare Chromebook in my bedroom closet. I wouldn't have spent $449.99 on a Samsung Chromebook (price at the time) over a low-cost laptop. But I would consider $299.

BetaNews reader S. Deemer is a Chromebook user: "I travel a lot by motorcycle, and the Chromebook makes a perfect travelling companion, with long battery life and, for the odd time when no Wi-Fi is available, 3G data connectivity without paying extra for a monthly plan. I have never used up the entire 100mb monthly 3G data allocation".

Matt Plemmons is another, in September writing: "I have been using my chromebook exclusively for 3 months now. While there where some question marks in the beginning, frequent updates have remedied most buggyness and with the onset of offline Gmail, Calendar and Docs I see this product really blooming".

Commenter boby_k doesn't share the enthusiasm: "I have Chrome machine that Google sent me. I dont like the hardware and with 100MB plan, it is almost useless. I keep it in my car for occasional use. Wireless connection takes too long and is not ready when browser comes up most of the time".

Now the question comes back to you. Is $299 low enough for you to buy Chromebook? Please answer in comments.

Editor's Note: Kindle Fire memory corrected.

The results are in to BetaNews poll "US Congress is considering two new copyright bills: PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Do you support them?" Among the 2,560 people who responded to the question (so far), 63 answered "Yes". Who are these people? I'm surprised it's that many. Only 95.43 percent answered "No" to legislation with wide bipartisan support and likelihood of passing both Houses in some form.

"Whenever you hear about something having 'bipartisan' support, hold onto your wallet and don't pick up the soap" writes commenter psycros. My own reaction is equally strong, and the proposed bills are supposed to protect me. I'm a victim. Everyday people steal copyrighted content BetaNews paid to produce and posts it for their own profit -- if nothing else feeding off the Google economy. PROTECT IP and SOPA are supposed to protect my writing and livelihood as a copyrighted content producer. No thanks.

To recap, Senators introduced PROTECT IP in May and House representatives did likewise with SOPA in October. Either bill would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much. (Review the bills: PROTECT IP. SOPA.)

Government's Facebook Killer

Based on my reading of both proposed bills, some of the most disrupting and socially transforming websites/cloud services wouldn't exist today if enacted, say, in 2005. YouTube, which opened to the public in November 2005 and Google purchased 11 months later, could have been killed in its infancy because users posted copyrighted content they didn't own. The bills would have empowered the US Justice Department to seize the website and its domain, potentially stifling a new industry.

Americans watched an average 19.5 hours of online video in September 2011, according to comScore. Google sites, mostly from YouTube, handily topped the list, with 161.4 million unique viewers. Second ranked VEVO: 57.3 million. Number of videos watched, respectively, between the two sites: 18.6 billion and 748 million. Also in September, number of video ads reached more than 50 percent of the US online population -- a milestone. But the video sites and burgeoning ad market behind them likely wouldn't exist today if government, at the behest of Hollywood, seized YouTube and other video sites in the late Noughties.

Then there's Facebook, the most socially disruptive and empowering website/service to come along in a generation. Thirteen months ago, writing for The New Republic, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig observed that many "The Social Network" reviewers overlooked the movie's most important character: The Internet, and the ease with which it allowed Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook. Lessig uses the founding of Nantucket Nectars as vehicle for comparing the old and new worlds:

At each step after the first, along the way to giving their customers what they wanted, the two Toms had to ask permission from someone. They needed permission from a manufacturer to get into his plant. Permission from a distributor to get into her network. And permission from stores to get before the customer...

Zuckerberg faced no such barrier. For less than $1,000, he could get his idea onto the Internet. He needed no permission from the network provider. He needed no clearance from Harvard to offer it to Harvard students. Neither with Yale, or Princeton, or Stanford. Nor with every other community he invited in. Because the platform of the Internet is open and free, or in the language of the day, because it is a 'neutral network' a billion Mark Zuckerbergs have the opportunity to invent for the platform.

If either PROTECT IP or SOPA was law, Zuckerberg would need permission, and with or without it he could easily be shut down by Harvard or government intervention, simply because Facebook users post or even link to copyrighted content.

US Congress is considering two new copyright bills: PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Do you support them?

Guilt by Association

Still, piracy, whether or not intentional, is widespread. I won't state figures here, believing most are overstated by groups like Business Software Alliance that assume most or every pirated created work would be a sale -- that's unlikely.

Commenter Rsharp20 writes: "Piracy is a problem, and the only people who do not want such a bill are the people who do pirate". I don't pirate anything, but I oppose the bills, even though they would, in theory, protect me from pirates.

Nicole F. sees the situation differently:

To those who support the bill, mainly those that think that the only people opposing this bill are pirating individuals or that the bill has merit for its plans against pirating: The written intentions are good, but the problem with this bill is that is so vague and gives corporations way too much power.

Rather than holding the individual accountable for piracy, it holds the entire website accountable. This bill gives corporations the power to take down said websites for even one comment, post, etc. that they deem inappropriate/illegal (which, might I add, would be the responsibility of the individual, not the website itself -- so long as it clearly states legal policies in line with the gov to users and requires that they adhere to them).

This means that massive sites whose primary function are for social networking and sharing of user-created media, not for piracy, can be shut down completely (just because of a few idiots that would risk the whole website and all its users to get some videos or music for free). This is a HUGE threat to freedom of speech since many of these sites are where ideas are expressed and shared, where inspiration happens and movements begin.

In reviewing the bills, I take away similar impression. So it's not just that Mark Zuckerberg couldn't create Facebook, it wouldn't be sustainable because of what people post or link to. Does the government have the legal authority to take down sites that link to others promoting illegal activities like drug trafficking? But, hey, it's okay to seize sites and domains because of Harry Potter?

Protect Copyrights or Free Speech?

But there's another way to look at both bills, as BetaNews commenter scophi observes:

It's about shutting down major websites that are intentionally mass pirating software, products, medical prescriptions, stolen identities, etc. It's an effort to get companies to stop doing business with known traffickers. It's about closing down available outlets for pirates/thieves to trade their stolen goods. It's an attempt to stop mass criminal activity on the web.

Additionally, IP is not over-protected here. If anything, it's the opposite, given our country's economic and political upbringings. That's why the bill is called PROTECT IP, because there's so little of it right now. The bill is looking to expand IP protection.

Without IP, there is little motivation for R&D, authorship, or marketing. It's the basis for pharmaceutical companies, technology patents, musical groups, artists, engineers, writers, and virtually any field where innovation is possible. America is built on IP and ownership of ideas...The right to self-ownership and the ability to profit from your own efforts is the foundation of modern civilization.

Freedom of speech and free flow of information also are foundations of American civilization. In the late 1700s, a young United States government set up boundaries for copyrights and patents, granting limited, short-term monopolies over creations/inventions before they become public domain. Let the inventors profit for a time, but allow all society to later benefit. There appears to be some conflict between free speech rights and those protecting copyrights. If you've got time, Stanford Technology Law Review paper "A Free Speech Theory of Copyright", by Steven Horowitz, is worthwhile reading.

My question to scophi and others; Isn't Congress proposing to use a bazooka to kill mosquitoes? Should all mosquitoes be exterminated?

In a February 2011 interview, writer Neil Gaiman offers startling perspective about online piracy: "Places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia -- people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading it out into the world -- I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated, and then they were going out and buying the real books. When a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies".

Another example predates the YouTube and Hulu era of streaming content. Back in 2004-2005, NBC Universal's Syfy (previously known as SciFi) network broke into limited streaming after observing the strange benefits of pirating. Mindjack's May 2005 story on BitTorrent trading of "Battlestar Galactica" episodes is a harrowing tale of piracy boosting TV viewership. "Battlestar Galactica" aired in the United States before the United Kingdom, making its way to BitTorrent in the between time. Mark Pesce explains the outcome:

While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, 'Battlestar Galactica' has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for 'word-of-mouth' to spread about 'Battlestar Galactica.'

NBC Universal and Syfy responded by streaming select "Battlestar Galactica" episodes by summer 2005. Full-episode TV streaming was pretty novel in early 2005. Would it exist today at all, if PROTECT IP or SOPA was law six years ago?

Many opponents argue that both bills would curtail free speech, empowering the US government, or even big business backing it, to censor unwanted information online. Electronic Frontier Foundation says "this legislation invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers Internet innovation".

Perhaps I'm naive questioning that as overt outcome. But it's easy to see unintentional consequences, because of the potential impact on social networks that Nicole F. observes and, frankly, the way the World Wide Web has operated since its conception more than two decades ago. Still, both bills would allow the take down of websites and seizure of domains without much due process. As I asserted earlier, it's guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation.

"Once these powers are granted they will be difficult if not impossible to take away", Betanews commenter Dirtanian warns. "Though this result has been inevitable since the dawn of the Internet. The web is like the wild west and there are those with power that feel it must be tamed by any means necessary".

Photo Credit: conrado/Shutterstock

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