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Leading PC chipmaker Intel announced this week that its third generation Atom mobile processor, formerly code-named "Cedar Trail" is now available, and that systems using the platform will be available in early 2012.

Though Intel is concentrating on "ultrabooks" (i.e. thin and light notebooks with at least a 10" screen) as the latest growth platform for PCs, the company is not letting netbooks disappear just yet; and these Atom chips are smaller and less power consumptive.

With an estimated 20 percent reduction in power consumption, Intel says this series of Atom processor offers up to 10 hours of active battery life, and "weeks" of standby. With this quality, netbooks can be permanently left on like media tablets are.

Intel's usual partners (Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba) will be debuting netbooks based on the Cedar Trail platform early in the year, and we expect to see some, if not all of them at the Consumer Electronics Show beginning on January 10.

But the thing we're most anxious for is Intel's "Medfield" processor family, which may or may not be displayed at CES this year.

The hardware platform is meant to push Intel and the X86 architecture into the mobile realm, and earlier this year Intel announced it would be developing mobile communications devices running Android. We're scheduled to sit down with Intel for a chat at CES, so we're going to find out all we can about this.

The Windows event logs can be a mine of useful information about the state of your PC, and understanding what they contain is often key to troubleshooting any problems you might have.

And so it’s a shame that the standard Windows Event Viewer makes accessing this data so awkward: it’s a bulky applet, horribly slow and with an intimidating interface that means even expert users can take a while to find the information they need. There are simpler alternatives around, though, and the Windows Inspection Tool Set includes a particularly appealing example.

Launch the program, click Windows Event Log, and the program will extract the contents of your logs. There’s a lot to examine so this will take a while, although it should still be far quicker than the regular Event Viewer (it was more than 4x faster on our test PC).

The information you get is presented in a single list, too, sorted chronologically, with the most recent at the top. So if you want to know what’s happened on your system in the last hour or two, then it’s available immediately, at a glance, no need to go clicking through the various individual logs. (You can also filter by logs, sources, error codes and more if you like, and there’s support for regular expressions, too.)

And conveniently, the display will continue to be refreshed regularly, so if something happens while you’re working then any new events will pop up at the top of the screen (they’re even highlighted in green for a while, just to be sure you won’t miss them).

The Windows Event Viewer is far more sophisticated, then, with powerful viewing options which allow you to zoom in precisely on whatever you need. But if you just want a quick way to view the most recent events, then the Windows Inspection Tool Set is a whole lot easier to use.

And as a bonus, the program also has an Event Monitor of its own which can track your system resources, process starts and exits, driver loads and unloads, network connections, Windows services, disk space and more. All of which can be logged to file, or displayed in an “always on top” window, which again may be useful for troubleshooting purposes.

The Windows Inspection Tool Set also includes a few other system information modules, which can for example display details on running processes, Windows services, loaded modules, installed drivers and so on. These are rather weak, though – forget Process Explorer, they’re not even up to Task Manager standards -- and so if you install the suite, we suspect the Event Monitor and Event Log is where you’ll spend most of your time.

Today is unofficially "Dump Go Daddy Day", as people across the Internet express their outrage at the registrar's open support (retracted six days ago) for proposed legislation Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. I still contend there's hysteria here, by singling out Go Daddy and ignoring other SOPA supporters. But the registrar is easy target, in part because people can so easily protest SOPA by moving their domains, and there is founder Bob Parsons' lingering public image problems -- if for no other reason than the "elephant incident".

My decision has little to do with the anti-Go Daddy mob but several considerations, SOPA being just one. While Go Daddy customer service has been good, I never liked the idea of moving my domains there. The garish website and other attributes about the business bothered me. But Go Daddy offered cheap domains compared to Network Solutions. Then came Parsons' elephant hunting video in March, and that really bugged me. SOPA support added to my displeasure. Finally, after calling NSI yesterday, I got an acceptable transfer deal that makes good economic sense right now.

What Irony

I want to address something before telling my domain transfer story: There's a strange irony to Go Daddy's SOPA support -- or perhaps not. The registrar is fighting off several copyright infringement lawsuits, including one from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Infringement would make Go Daddy liable to all kinds of nastiness if SOPA became law.

House representatives introduced SOPA in late October, following Senate bill PROTECT IP ACT, or PIPA, introduced in May (Review the bills for yourself: PROTECT IP. SOPA.). 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.

Go Daddy is a potentially big infringement target, since it registers and hosts domains. Perhaps executives hoped to mitigate problems with entertainment industry infringement lawsuits or to influence SOPA's refinement, potentially limiting liability should it, or PIPA, become law. Whatever the motivation, Go Daddy stopped supporting SOPA on December 23.

Be Gone Daddy

I initiated transfer of 25 domains, from Go Daddy to Network Solutions, late yesterday afternoon. I had forgotten Tucows is a registrar and would have contacted them otherwise. Melbourne IT ranked high on my list of choices, but from past experience the time difference between Australia and the United States is a problem when support is needed. I have 34 domains with Go Daddy, the majority transferred there from NSI over the last two years. The nine left behind mostly represent those ineligible for the deal offered (.tv, for example) and a few domains I don't care about keeping. Network Solutions charged me $6.99 per domain and $6 per private registration. Other registrars offer better deals, but I wanted to go back to NSI. The transfer keeps existing time I have for each of the domains and adds 12 months to it. Private registration is for 12 months only.

My budget is tight after Christmas, but my father-in-law generously gave cash, which, coincidentally, just covers the cost of the domain transfers. By the way, domain name prices go up in mid January everywhere. I got 12 months more for each of mine, with private registration, at a bargain price -- well compared to what Go Daddy and Network Solutions typically charge -- and locked in before price increases. From that perspective, the economics made enough sense for me to spend now.

I often make decisions based on intuition. I had felt antsy about Go Daddy for a long time, well before this SOPA business started. Transferring back to NSI felt good, despite the $350-plus spent doing so. I acted yesterday because, coincidentally, two domains expire today.

Transferring domains isn't difficult, certainly nothing like when I got my first in August 1995. I called Network Solutions to begin the process over the phone, while unlocking them in the Go Daddy control panel at the same time. If you don't unlock the domains, and they should be locked otherwise, the transfer will be denied. Later I went through each of the domains in Go Daddy's control panel requesting activation code for each; these were emailed. Then I waited on NSI to send me email for accepting terms and service for each domain, after which I went to "Transfer Status" in the domain manager to enter the codes sent by Go Daddy. This process begins the official transfer request.

Overnight, Go Daddy denied all 25.

Turns out Go Daddy requires that private registration be removed from all domains before transfer. I've never seen this before. Certainly I didn't need to turn off private registration when moving domains from NSI to Go Daddy. It's a little spite -- kick in the ass -- as you go out Go Daddy's door and defeats the purpose of having private registration in the first place.

If you have a domain and don't use private registration, you really should. Otherwise your information goes into the public WHOIS database. For me, it's not a privacy issue. I like the concept of an open database of domains. But spammers like the concept even more. Spammers mine WHOIS for personal information. Within four months after I first used private registration, the volume of spam going to the primary email address declined by over 95 percent. So I'm pissed at Go Daddy compelling me to put the info into the clear.

Go Daddy uses a separate operation to manage private registration, but I couldn't log in. So I called support for assistance (and reset the password). I really, really, really felt sorry for the guy on the other end of the line. Typically when I've called Go Daddy in the past, service reps were friendly and jovial. This guy was polite but clearly haggard. He understood that I must be turning off private registration to transfer domains. He asked if I knew that Go Daddy had changed its stance on SOPA. I panged with guilt, realizing it can't be a good time to be working for Go Daddy, at least in his role. I then called Network Solutions, to make sure the transfer requests had been re-initiated. They're now pending ICANN registry approval.

Viewpoints

Yesterday I asked: "Who's dumping Go Daddy to protest SOPA?" Dora Smith is "dumping Go Daddy! I don't want to do business with any company in that much of a hurry to empower the government to dump my website, with no due process and no recourse, should I become the target of a copyright dispute, which are commonplace on the Internet. Copyright law is often misunderstood and often abused. It was meant to be civil law and needs to stay that way".

Johnny91:

Go Daddy no longer supports SOPA or PIP or any of the things the crowd doesnt want them to support. But the crowd is leaving anyway. Good message to send the rest of the SOPA supporters. Back down and we will still boycott your company. Might as well stick with SOPA because changing your stance doesnt matter to the boycotters. The boycotters are like bad blackmailers. They blackmail someone and the person pays. Then they release the blackmail material anyway.

Yeti McMellenstein: "The migration away from GoDaddy is still ongoing but should be complete for all of the domains I manage by tomorrow. For me, Go Daddy's support for SOPA (now tacit if not explicit support) is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Initially attracted to them by price, I have been increasingly put off by their escalating sexist marketing, unconscionable video of elephant slaughter, just to name a few issues".

"I don't care about 'the principle'", sapphir8 comments. "I am happy with their service and if they decide to backtrack and support another SOPA thing, oh well. Doesn't bother me".

Photo Credit: Rikke/Shutterstock

In both the home and work environment, there are numerous uses for remote access tools. For home users, the ability to not only access the files stored on a computer housed in another room but also take full control of it as if you sit in front of it can save a great deal of legwork reviewing a document you need to read or checking the status of a download, all without having to run up and down stairs. Used for work, the possibilities are almost limitless. Network administrators can control their entire network from almost anywhere -- homeworking becomes a possibility for a far larger number of people; the list just goes on and on. There are a number of remote access tools available for iOS, LogMeIn is not only one of the best known, it is also one of the best. And the great news is that it is now completely free of charge.

The app was previously available for $30, and while many people could see the benefits of using such a powerful and useful tool, the price was a little off-putting. With the launch of a free version of the app, which is mercifully light in the restrictions department, the world of VPN has opened up to a whole new audience who are now able to take advantage of remote access from a well-known name without having to part with any cash.

The free version of LogMeIn is a universal app, and while the app can be installed on both iPhones and iPad, tablet owners are in for a treat with a version of the software that has been optimized for use on a larger screen. This is obviously a great advantage when remotely connecting to a computer as it is likely to have a display that is at least 17 inches in size. This is not to say that LogMeIn is not a good app when used on an iPhone; the interface has been designed in such a way that navigations and remote use are perfectly usable on the smaller screen.

The app can be used to take remote control of your Mac or PC, assuming that you have installed the necessary client software and your computer is switched on. Working with an iPhone, after logging into your account, you can see a small portion of your desktop at any one time, unless you adjust the zoom level, and you can then pan around using a fixed mouse cursor and onscreen mouse buttons. This system takes a little getting used to, but after a few minutes you will find that it work well and allows for easy navigation of your files and desktop.

Remote Desktop Access

Whether you are using an iPhone or an iPad, an onscreen keyboard is available that can be used to type in remote apps so you really can use your remote computer as if you were sitting in front of it. Things do get a little cramped on the iPhone’s screen when the keyboard is activated, but it’s hard to see how this could be avoided. The extra screen space available to iPad users means that the remote access experience is even more pleasing. The larger screen means that your remote desktop can be viewed at a larger size and the virtual mouse cursor can be moved around the screen rather than having to move a desktop aperture as on the iPhone. When the keyboard is activated, a larger section of your desktop remains visible, which is a great help.

The app can be used to access both Macs and PCs, and although this free app does not include an integrated way to transfer files from one device to another, the overall experience is very good. Some additional features are available if you decide to upgrade to a LogMeIn Pro account, and these can be unlocked via an in-app purchase should you decide that you need them. Paid-for features include the ability to stream audio and HD video as well as support for printing to AirPrint compatible printers. There are also additional file management options, such as the ability to transfer photos and other files to and from your iPhone or iPad, as well as the My Cloud Bank feature taht provides access to cloud storage services.

While these are features that are going to be useful, or even essential, to some people, they are features that the majority of potential remote computer users could live without. Even if you find that you cannot possibly do without the ability to transfer photos from your iPhone to your computer, for example, there are ways around these minor limitations if you still do not feel inclined to part with any money. You could simply email files from your phone to an email address that you can remotely access on your computer and you can then save the image to that computer, where you are free to work with it in whatever way you want.

The slightly more basic feature set of the free version of LogMeIn exceeds that found in other similar tools and provides the quality and reliability that we have come to expect from LogMeIn.

The possibilities for remote computing are wide and varied. Whether you want to be able to access your files when you are on the move or would like to be able to provide remote assistance more easily, the fact that there is now a free version of LogMeIn available means that there has never been a better time to implement such as system for yourself.  Grab yourself a copy of LogMeIn Free for iOS from the App Store to see what all the fuss is about.

Leading online retailer Amazon.com has never been forthcoming with exact sales figures for its Kindle e-reader platform. Instead, the company uses ambiguities like "the current generation Kindle is selling twice as many units as the previous generation," or that the current generation is the fastest-selling model yet.

For the first time, Amazon has given a more concrete idea about how many Kindles are selling. In a roundup of its 2011 holiday season sales, the company said it was selling "well over" one million Kindle devices per week in the month of December, and that the best-selling, most gifted, and most wish-listed product across all of Amazon's product listings is the low-cost Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon said its three newest devices: Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch and fourth-generation Kindle held the top three best selling spots. Last Christmas, that top three list included Kindle (Wi-Fi), Kindle 3G; and Apple iPod touch 8GB.

Unfortunately, though, Amazon doesn't break down sales into a specific device-by-device mix, and the retailer's Kindle Device page actually includes every version of Kindle all the way back to the first generation model that sells for just $45 used. It is entirely possible that the 4+ million Kindles sold in December included a lot of older models.

Still, this figure provides a general foundation for industry watchers who believe the Kindle Fire will be the second-best selling media tablet behind the iPad by using a cost leadership strategy.

Hardware aside, Amazon still leads the e-book market. In late November, Juniper Research estimated $3.2 billion worth of e-books would sell this year, and that the market would be worth $9.7 billion globally by 2016. Today, Amazon said e-book sales were up 175% between Black Friday and Christmas Day, and that Christmas Day was the company's all-time best single day for Kindle book downloads.

Amazon's principal competitors in the e-book space: Barnes and Noble, Apple, and Google, have not yet released holiday e-book download figures.

It's only fair. When iPhone 4S customers complained about poor battery life, I raked Apple for ongoing design problems. Now that I'm having problems with Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and AT&T, the Android camp deserves its due. Perhaps with different AT&T customer service you wouldn't see this post at all.

There's a problem with the Skyrocket I purchased on November 8 from AT&T. Battery life sucks. But it wasn't always that way. During the first 3.5 weeks, battery life was exceptional -- on par with what I had with iPhone 4. Then something dramatically changed, quite suddenly, like someone cutting the electric lights and replacing them with candles. My experience went from bright to dim, and I don't like living in the darkened room.

I posted to Google+ on December 12:

Say do you have Galaxy S II Skyrocket? How's your battery life? Mine dramatically changed about a week ago -- from 24 -40 hours between charges to, ugh, much less. I'm 9 hours and 50 min on current charge. Battery is 14 percent, after setting idle overnight.

It's likely local issue. Cell reception sucks in my apartment building and could be sucking dry the battery. But this is iPhone 4S-like drainage on a handset with stellar battery life just a week ago. So, while troubleshooting before writing about it, I'd like to see how anyone else is doing with their Skyrocket.

Looks like I was right about the antenna sucking the battery dry, just wrong about the reason. But I didn't know that until last night.

Troubled Troubleshooting

Occam's Razor suggested software problem, which I investigated. I hadn't installed anything new in the days before battery life started draining fast -- most shockingly just setting idle. For example, the phone had 71 percent charge went I crawled into bed about Midnight last night. At 4 am PT, Skyrocket woke me with the chime for low charge. It was dead when I got up 90 minutes later; it's charging now.

That's not just bad, it's terrible. Worse, my wife uses Skyrocket now. This battery thing isn't good for the relationship. I may have to move her back to Google Nexus S. She inherited the S2 phone after I purchased Google Galaxy Nexus 14 days ago from Verizon. We waited until Christmas week, when I ordered her a new phone case, before switching handsets. In process, I restored Skyrocket to factory settings, assuming still some errant app was cause. Nothing changed; charge still drained fast.

I moved next to the battery. Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S II Skyrocket use the same 1850 mAh battery. I bought a charger and spare from Amazon and swapped in the new battery. Nothing changed, and that really surprised me. I was so sure bum battery had to be the problem. This had become a matter to take up with AT&T. I've been busy here at BetaNews and couldn't get to the AT&T corporate store until last night, where, like troubleshooting the Samsung smartphone, things didn't go as I expected.

AT&T Disappoints

Perhaps Apple customer service spoiled me. Apple Store has always stood by its products, at least with me, with amazing tenacity. Most recent example: In March, my 11.6-inch MacBook Air failed. This is a computer I purchased in November 2010, so the hardware failed after about four months. How did the Apple Store resolve this problem? I walked out with a brand new MacBook Air. Now that's customer service! Surely AT&T would replace my smartphone, which I purchased less than 2 months earlier.

Fat chance of that. A store rep, and later the manager, told me there is no replacement after 30 days -- that is at their store. AT&T has a service center, which conveniently is located about half-a-mile away, that could swap phones. The rep called to make sure the service shop was open (this was around 7:15 pm before 8 pm closing) and whether there was a Skyrocket replacement on hand. Open, yes; replacement, no. I would have to get one by mail order. "Say, what?"

So I asked to speak to the manager about getting in-store replacement after the service center determined the Samsung smartphone was in fact defective. Absolutely not, he said. I scolded him: "You make me regret not buying iPhone. Apple would have replaced it already".

Busted Antenna

I trucked off to the AT&T Service Center, where Skyrocket was examined. But first, while waiting my turn, I noticed something really, really odd. LTE occasionally showed up under the 4G in the upper right-hand screen. LTE!!! San Diego isn't supposed to have the service yet. So I installed SpeedTest.net app and readied for mind-blowing results, which I got but at the wrong end of the scale. Cough. Cough. 678kbps.

My turn came. The tech did some quick diagnostics and then we talked about the troubleshooting I had already done. He honed on the antenna. The signal indicator danced around dramatically, something I hadn't paid much attention to before. He also noticed LTE lighting up, and told me the going from one to five bars to LTE and variations in-between was abnormal and indicated that something was wrong with the antenna. Before he explained further, I understood. The phone gobbles up heap loads of charge as it constantly looks for a signal across the networks, 3G, HSPA+ and LTE. He said that being a LTE phone that's the network Skyrocket would look for first.

The phone needs to be replaced. Wrinkle: I would have to take a remanufactured (e.g., refurbished) Skyrocket, sent by mail, the tech told me. Like hell! I have a practically new phone that has been properly cared for -- never dropped or otherwise mishandled. The problem started suddenly, within 30 days of purchase. But that's failure I must take responsibility for, not rushing down to the AT&T store.

I took the phone home. The tech made notes in the account, and I will call AT&T customer service later today in a last ditch effort to get a new phone. I had expected more from AT&T and perhaps too much, having been spoiled by Apple.

The AT&T employees were friendly and helpful, but their corporate procedures left this customer dissatisfied. When Apple replaced my MacBook Air after four months, I wrote about it here at BetaNews, as I likely would have done about getting a new Skyrocket. Instead, it's a story the Apple Fanclub and those folks hating AT&T will delight in. The point: Customer satisfaction should be the only goal to any transaction. It's one reason Apple's brand is so popular -- satisfied customers leaving the Genius Bar. AT&T needs to raise its customer service IQ. Perhaps I'll have to settle for less, but I won't forget when it comes time to renew cellular contracts.

Update: I contacted AT&T customer service, and spent 45 minutes on the phone. The initial rep kicked me up to a "customer retention" specialist after I asked what the termination fee would be for my existing lines. He attempted to assist but claimed AT&T's system wouldn't allow any other option but remanufactured phone under warranty.