Asus Eee PC 1000 XP Mini-Notebook

Google's Challenge: Get Buyers to Really Use Android

Google's Rich Miner has identified one of the biggest problems facing mobile phone carriers, manufacturers, and developers: The hardware on the current generation of phones is not being used by many customers.

G1 phoneMiner, Google's group manager of mobile platforms, made the observation at the Future of Mobile panel at Emerging Technology '08.

"Hardware on mobile phones has been outpacing the software capabilities," Miner declared, noting that 80% of mobile phones being sold today have cameras on them, yet the number of people who actually know how to use them or get the images off the phone is between 10 and 50%, depending on the model. "The capabilities on these devices are not being leveraged by people," Miner added. He blamed small screens, bad UIs, and closed systems for the current state of affairs.

The trend has huge implications for Google and its Android partners, including T-Mobile and HTC, whose G1 phone will be released to the public next month. However, Miner seemed confident that Android would prevail, thanks in large part to software improvements, the presence of a true Web browsing experience, and Google's open development platform. "These are factors which are helping to realize the mobile Internet, which has eluded us," he said.

Real Life will Trump Second Life, Microsoft Says

Microsoft's Craig Mundie has dismissed the potential of "synthetic virtual worlds" like Second Life, saying that the potential for immersive environments will be likely realized through 3D tools that capture and model the real world.

Mundie and robot/Photosynth demoMundie, who oversees research and long-term strategy for Microsoft, devoted a significant portion of his "Rethinking Computing" presentation at MIT's Emerging Technology conference to what he called the "Spatial Web," a blend of 3D, video, and location-aware technologies. At the center of several of his demos was Photosynth, a Microsoft software tool that can create 3D models using 2D photographs taken with an ordinary digital camera. In one brief demo he showed how a small, camera-equipped robot could be used to model a large room. In another, he showed a 3D model of a commercial district in Seattle that had been created with Photosynth, and demonstrated how a virtual visitor could come to the district using the Internet, enter an art shop in the area, and examine and buy a virtual sculpture that had also been "photosynthed" by the shop clerks or the artist.

Mundie noted that Microsoft is counting on the creation of a 3D "parallel universe" modeled with tools like Photosynth. However, he dismissed the potential of social virtual worlds that include user-modeled objects. "Many people are familiar with Second Life, which is a synthetic virtual world that people came quite enamored with," Mundie said. "Our view was that there was a fairly limited audience who was willing to deal with the construction of avatars and operating in that virtual space."

Another location-based visual technology demonstrated by Mundie had a lot in common with the "augmented reality" vision that Ray Kurzweil and other futurists have described. He showed how a Sony hand-held computer could display live video overlaid with information about shops and other addresses in the field of view. Mundie predicted that the required processing power for such an application would be available in mobile phones within two years.

The host of the conference, Technology Review Editor in Chief Jason Pontin, pointed to the impressive demos and noted that Microsoft Research has had a reputation of being a "graveyard of good ideas." Mundie responded that his group had a "lot more effective transfer than you see with the naked eye," adding that for many Microsoft tools and features, researchers "have to do some incubation in order to make it more tangible and then figure out how to productize it."

Watch for 'Metal Gear Solid Existence'

A month after Metal Gear Solid 5 was unofficially announced, Konami has registered "Metal Gear Solid Existence" with the Japanese trademark database.

It's unclear when the name was registered, but it exists just the same, reports gaming blog Siliconera. Konami was not immediately available for comment when contacted by GamePro on Friday.

In August, outgoing Konami producer Ryan Payton let slip that Konami is working on Metal Gear Solid 5. "It'll be hard not being involved in MGS5," he said upon leaving the developer for greener pastures. "But I've got the utmost confidence that Hideo Kojima, Ken Imaizumi, and our amazing team will put together another blockbuster game. I'll be cheering from the sidelines."

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is notorious for saying he's done with the series after every release, but it appears he's still on for the next game, tentatively entitled Existence.

Pentax Optio A40 Digital Camera

The Pentax Optio A40 is the latest result of Pentax's tradition of producing simple, usable, ultracompact cameras that have high-quality optics. Retailing for about $250 (as of September 1, 2008), this 12-megapixel black-and-silver model has a serious look.

At 2.5 inches diagonally, the camera's screen is smaller than the screens on some competing models, though it works just fine indoors and out. When I saw how petite the Optio A40 was--it's only about 3.5 inches wide--I was a little concerned about how it would handle, but the camera felt substantial in my hand, and two well-placed grips kept my fingers away from the lens and the flash.

The camera's image-stabilization feature has you covered if things get shaky. Though I'm a pretty steady shooter, this feature worked so well that I kept it turned on nearly all the time. In photos of moving subjects, it definitely improved the sharpness of my shots.

Getting into and around the menus is fairly simple, even without poring over Pentax's detailed manual. If you do have a question, you'll probably find it answered in the documentation. And the Optio A40 has enough dedicated function buttons that you probably won't have to slow down, even in full-automatic mode. Macro, zoom, and flash settings are readily accessible via dedicated buttons, and pressing the menu button lets you change everything else, depending on the mode you're in.

Unlike many other digital cameras priced under $300, the Optio A40 delivered outstanding image quality. Photos was sharp without undue halos or artifacts. Don't expect miracles, though: Like most digital cameras, the A40 is not immune to noise, though it does all right. Shots were occasionally hit-or-miss in my low-lit indoor situations and in quick street snaps, but this Pentax's output consistently beat the results from several competing point-and-shoot cameras I've been testing--and the camera did especially well in bright sunlight.

The Optio A40 includes a setting for expanding its dynamic range; using this setting added quite a bit of detail to shadowed areas in my tests, though it didn't appreciably affect highlights. Overall, my pictures showed good color, sharpness, and exposure. If anything, the camera tended toward underexposure, yielding good-looking, balanced, and saturated landscapes. Highlights were generally under control regardless of whether I expanded the dynamic range.

The Optio A40 throws in a handful of other features that have been cropping up on similar cameras: slide shows in playback mode, face recognition, soft-skin portraits, kids, and even different settings for pets of different colors. You also get a silly feature that adds a cartoon frame around your subject, so you can capture manga-style photo-booth shots wherever you want. Manual settings include manual exposure (in preset, nonstandard increments only), shutter priority (but not aperture priority), saturation, contrast, color filtration effects, and white balance. The camera shoots 640 by 480 video and lets you zoom in and out fairly smoothly while recording.

A few minor complaints: I wish that Pentax had included a RAW image option (at 12 megapixels, why not?). I'd also love to have seen a 5X (rather than 3X) optical zoom and a wider-angle lens. Despite those minor shortcomings, the Optio A40 is a good, no-nonsense camera that captures pictures with surprisingly good image qualit

Rising energy costs may usher in workplace changes

The tipping point on fuel prices arrived about a month ago for Bill Lucas, an engineer in the IT department at Milwaukee-based utility We Energies. He stopped using his car for his 35-minute commute and now takes a bus, which costs only $2.50 each way, thanks in part to a ticket subsidy from his employer. Lucas says he has a lot of company on his bus rides.

At the corporate level, the escalating cost of petroleum products has IT departments at companies such as The Procter & Gamble Co. expanding their videoconferencing capabilities. The technology has helped P&G reduce corporate travel spending over the past year by 15%, said Marta Foster, vice president of business solutions, global business services, at the Cincinnati-based company.

Escalating fuel prices are forcing all kinds of changes by individuals and companies. In interviews at Forrester Research Inc.'s IT Forum 2008 conference here, about a dozen IT managers and senior staff said their companies are either exploring or implementing telecommuting, as well as turning to, more often than not, virtual-meeting technologies.

There is also an awareness of risks for companies that don't take such steps, especially in employee hiring and retention.

Mark Wilson, a managing consultant at Delta Initiative LLC in Chicago, said some clients consider the length of a job candidate's commute in a hiring decision.

"Our clients believe attrition is very connected to the amount of miles [employees] have to drive to work," said Wilson, who added that companies may be more inclined to hire someone with a shorter commute in the belief that a long, expensive commute "is going to wear on them sooner or later." His company provides IT enterprise consulting.

Jim Bagozzi, associate vice president of business solutions at Toronto-based Canadian Tire Corp., said his company is also moving toward expanding telework. The company has already found that in hiring some people with specialized skills, it has had to make it possible for them to work from remote offices rather than commute to headquarters, he said.

Telework is "a fairly new concept for us," said Bagozzi. He noted that Canadians are already on their way to paying what amounts to $5 a gallon for gas. In Toronto, for instance, gas prices are around $1.25 (Canadian) per liter (3.78 liters equals one gallon).

David Trumble, an enterprise architect at a company he asked not be named, said gas prices will likely limit the geographic radius of job candidates.

Trumble, who works in the Boston area, said it wouldn't be uncommon to hire people living in Southern New Hampshire, but he doesn't believe prospective job candidates will want to deal with a commute of 40 to 50 miles. "Time-wise it's reasonable, but cost-wise it really doesn't add up," he said.

Fred Balliet, who works on global IT strategy at London-based AstraZeneca PLC, a global pharmaceutical firm, said his company already has a "fantastic" work/life program that includes flexible schedules and telework arrangements.

Balliet, who is based in the U.S., said the response to rising energy costs has been to increase use of virtual communications and meeting tools. He has cut back on his travel to Europe, as have others at the company.

Balliet said economizing on gas also extends to his personal life. He said his family members now "bundle" their trips; they don't use the car to go shopping unless multiple errands can be accomplished by one trip. "There has to be more than one reason to go seven miles somewhere," he said.

At P&G, Foster said the company is using Cisco TelePresence, which involves having three monitors set up in a conference room. She noted that her company may be the largest user of the technology, outside of Cisco itself.

Foster said P&G is working with Cisco to improve the performance and capability of videoconferencing, but she added that she is pleased with how Cisco TelePresence works. "Within the first three or four minutes of the meeting, you forget that the technology is facilitating the meeting. It really feels like you are sitting across the table," Foster said.

Tom Jackson, an IT manager at a consumer products company he didn't want to identify, said he could work from home every day but does so only two days a week. Jackson said he likes going into the office, even though the trip in his self-described gas guzzler costs him.

New Apple iPod Nano ad

New iPod nano a notch above the rest

Apple Inc. has done it again.

Each year its competitors add new features to their mid-range mp3 players, making already good products that much better. But then September rolls along and the iPod nano undergoes a redesign that puts it just out of reach at the top of the class.

Call it the September syndrome. Watch as it spreads, pushing Microsoft, SanDisk and Cowon back down the charts of the nation’s most popular mp3 players.

With a splash of color – actually nine vibrant selections – Apple revved up for the holiday sales season with the unveiling of the 4th generation iPod nano earlier this month. Gone is the squat body of the 3rd generation. The new nano returns to roughly its original size, but instead of being flat, it’s slightly oval in shape with a curved body and screen. Even the click wheel is slightly bowed to match the curvature of the face.

Inside, the nano now is outfitted with an accelerometer, the same device that debuted in the first iPhone and allows the handheld players to sense when it is rotated or shaken. Turn the nano to the left and enjoy browsing through album covers or watching a movie. If you are left-handed, you will want to turn it to the right in order to keep the click wheel controls in your dominant hand. Shake the nano and it launches into shuffle mode. If you don’t like that first song, just shake it again for a reshuffle.

Lefties aren’t the only group to get consideration from Apple. Visually-impaired users will like the option of spoken menus.

Another new feature is the ability to record voice memos via a line-in microphone. To support the function, Apple next month will release headphones that include a microphone built into the cord.

While gamers will lean toward the iPod touch or iPhone, the nano does offer another new platform for casual gaming. It comes loaded with one game, Maze, which uses the accelerometer. No doubt, more paid games that take advantage of tilting and moving controls will follow.

Consumers looking to directly download music from online stores or listen to their favorite radio stations still will have to look elsewhere to players like Microsoft’s Zune or SanDisk’s Sansa mp3 players. If playing a variety of movie formats appeals, then a Cowon device might be the choice.

However, the latest iPod nano continues to hold the edge over competitors, thanks to two main factors: ease of use and third-party accessories.

While some critics hate the fact that you cannot use an iPod without iTunes, Apple’s online store remains the best. The store’s navigation is brilliantly simple. Likewise, the syncing between iTunes and iPod could not be easier. Never used an iPod? No need to fret because its easy enough to figure out, even without a manual.

Outfitting your new nano is also an easy task – just be ready to spend more than the price of the device if you have any leanings toward being a gadget junkie. While it’s possible to find a few accessories built for Zune or Sansa players, the selection is nothing like that available for iPods. Top audio companies have flooded the market with high-quality docking speakers while dozens of others make everything from cases to video glasses.

The nano comes in 8GB ($149) and 16GB ($199) models. For the first time, all colors – silver, black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and pink – are available for both models.

How to Buy an MP3 Player

Whether you want to get your groove on while working out or would like to amuse yourself as you commute on public transit, a portable MP3 music player could suit your needs. MP3 players--available in a wide variety of styles and sizes and capable of storing thousands of songs--capitalize on digital technology to supplant traditional Walkman-style cassette-tape players and portable CD players.

The Big Picture

Today's players pack loads of songs, and the devices are easy to manage, too. We'll help you figure out which one is best for you. more

The Specs Explained

The storage capacity and battery life of an MP3 player can have a big impact on how much you enjoy it. We'll explain what's behind these and other specifications.more

MP3 Player Shopping Tips

Our advice will help you find the right MP3 player for your lifestyle without paying too much. more

Make Your Mac Speak

Did you know that your Mac can read aloud to you? Mac OS X Leopard includes a cool Text to Speech function that makes the Mac speak selected text in text-based files — including web pages, email messages, spreadsheets, calendar entries, PDFs, text documents, Finder windows, and even iTunes.

To start, open the System Preferences panel under the Apple icon and click on Speech. Select the Text to Speech tab, check the option “Speak selected text when the key is pressed,” and click the Set Key option. Choose one modifier key — Command, Control, Option, or Shift — plus one other key of your choice, then click OK. Now each time you type this key combination, your Mac will read aloud any text you have selected. To stop the speech, type the same key combination again.

You can even choose your Mac’s voice. Mac OS X includes 24 human-sounding and novelty voices, from the suave Alex to the robotic Zarvox. (To see the complete list, click the “Show More Voices” option at the bottom of the pull-down System Voice menu.) You can also ask your Mac to speak more slowly or quickly by adjusting the Speaking Rate slider. Whichever you choose, listening to your text can be a surprisingly useful tool for editing and proofreading.

In addition to speaking selected text aloud, you can configure Text to Speech to announce when an application needs attention or to summon you if you ignore an onscreen alert. This function includes an adjustable delay between the text alert and the spoken announcement, which gives you a chance to tend to the alert before being verbally prompted. You can also have your Mac announce the time on the hour, half-hour, or quarter-hour. To set this up, choose the Clock tab under Date & Time in System Preferences and check Announce the Time.

Companies develop mobile phone with intelligent key

The smarty pants engineers over in Tokyo came up with an absolutely brilliant idea: a mobile phone with a built-in intelligent car key. I've been driving an Acura RL with an intelligent key system for the past three years, and absolutely love it. I can only imagine what will happen next year, if DOCOMO releases a mobile phone that doubles as a keyless entry and ignition device.
The world's first Mobile Phone with Built-in Intelligent Key is a prototype at the moment that will be showcased at CEATEC Japan 2008 next week. The design is a product of the collaboration between DOCOMO, Sharp, and Nissan who are furiously working together to bring this device to consumers as early as next year.

The phone-key handset incorporates Nissan's Intelligent Key system, which is already a standard feature in over 950,000 Nissan models since 2002. This system uses two-way wireless communications technology to automatically unlock/lock and start/stop the engine. The back of the phone is shown in the picture above, although no images of front are available.
This is probably an ideal device for those who don't like to carry too many things in their pockets, but you have to wonder about the security risks that will come with it. What do you think? Do you want a mobile phone that also controls your car? Let me know in the comments.

Apple's Clever iTunes 8

Every time Apple introduces another version of iTunes, it risks turning a large yet muscular media organizer and shopping center into a bloated, unnavigable mess, writes reviewer Matt Vella. iTunes 8 gets it right and adds some useful features like Grid view and a so-called Genius playlist creator. For the next version, however, Apple may need to pull another "leapfrog."

It's been more than seven years since Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Chief Executive Steve Jobs bounded onto the stage at the annual MacWorld conference in San Francisco and took the wraps off the first version of iTunes. And oh, what a difference (nearly) a decade makes: The desktop jukebox has evolved from a simple, no-frills MP3 manager into an ever-expanding media gateway offering music, TV, movies, podcasts and even video games for the iPhone and iPod.

Putting episodes of "Entourage" on the same digital shelf as Kanye West and "Ms. Pac-Man" may have been a stroke of genius. But with each new version, iTunes has risked pulling a Marlon Brando, morphing from a hunky heart-throb into a corpulent has-been. Apple's latest free update, iTunes 8, was released earlier this month, and its design clearly aims to deal with the bloat.

The biggest change to the application, aside from the addition of high-definition television shows to the online store, is a new focus on improving the user interface. A so-called Grid view, and an innovative Genius playlist-creator are the headliners in this upgrade. Both are aimed at improving the ways users access their music. Over two weeks of heavy use, I found that these features are mostly an improvement.

A Whole New View

The most immediately apparent change from iTunes 7.0 is Grid view, a new layout that brings together elements from Apple's iPhoto and from the iPhone. Album covers are set on a dark background and tiled in rows across the screen. Clicking on them once begins playing the album, while double clicking reveals all the songs contained therein. This setup is intuitive, particularly for iPhone and iPod touch users already used to tapping cover art to access an album's contents.
If, like me, you have an obsessive compulsion to keep album artwork accurate and organized, Grid view turns out to be a graphically appealing way to scan your record collection. (Unlike the three-dimensional CoverFlow of iTunes 7.0, which was more novel than useful, Grid view allows you to page through albums quickly rather than just slickly.) Users who don't care for artwork will, however, find row after row of placeholder icons, making Grid view somewhat useless.
In other instances, Grid view is an outright hindrance, adding unnecessary steps to the process of managing, say, podcasts. The traditional list view made it easy to delete multiple episodes, because it displays all the shows in the series. This isn't possible with Grid view, though thankfully it can be turned off for categories that don't lend themselves to a visual treatment.

Here You Go

Borrowing from the playbooks of Web sites like Pandora.com and Last.fm, a new Genius button creates playlists of between 25 and 100 songs that have a similar sound. In my tests, this worked pretty well, dredging up long-forgotten tracks from my music collection. Oddly, though, the service isn't consistent: Genius could not create a playlist based on "Hello Brooklyn 2.0" from Jay-Z's "American Gangster" soundtrack, reporting that the iTunes store didn't have enough data about the song. But it had no problem creating a playlist based on "Blue Magic," a song from the same album.

Overall, iTunes 8 manages to keep itself trim. But, as the application's features and content continue to grow -- HD audio and e-books are two types of media that could be added in the future -- designers will have to dream up more interface improvements to keep navigation simple. Introducing iTunes 1.0 in 2001, Jobs exclaimed, "We're late to this party, but we are going to do a leapfrog." It may be time for Jobs and company to start thinking like that again.

HTC Touch Diamond (CDMA)

The HTC Touch Diamond features a large color touchscreen display with VGA resolution, TouchFLO 3D user interface, voice dialing, 1xEVDO Rev. A packet data, Internet Explorer Mobile, Wi-Fi radio, GPS transceiver, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recorder, Bluetooth with stereo audio support, and 4GB internal memory.

Yahoo revamps sites to add third-party content

(09-11) 18:29 PDT -- Yahoo executives pitched their plan to revamp the company's sites Thursday, emphasizing the addition of third-party content in an effort to become more of a destination for Web users.

The presentation at Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters came as management regroups from a failed takeover bid by Microsoft that has kept the company unsettled and its share prices struggling.

"Obviously, it's been a long six months and there has been a lot going on," said Ash Patel, who heads Yahoo's audience product division. "I'd like to show you what we've been working on during that time."

Executives said the company would emphasize outside content in the redesigns of a number of its sites. In addition, they said a previously announced initiative that allows outside developers to create applications for Yahoo properties should result in some of the applications being placed on Yahoo pages by the end of the year.

Patel demonstrated how one such application, linked with the Netflix movie rental service, would allow Yahoo visitors to access and tweak their Netflix queues within Yahoo Search, the Yahoo home page or Yahoo Mail.

"There's a lot more that we will be opening up," he said. "This is just to give you a taste of how an application can be woven into these experiences." He said a new Yahoo home page would incorporate the applications.

Mark Risher, Yahoo's head of Open Mail, demonstrated another application that would allow users to browse Craigslist and respond to ads from within Yahoo Mail.
"Instead of going off to another site ... let's bring that all into one," he said.
Several Yahoo sites are also being redesigned to emphasize outside content.
A new Yahoo Music page, for instance, will integrate the Pandora radio service and allow users to buy albums on Amazon or iTunes, instead of being filled with only Yahoo's own content, said Scott Moore, who leads the company's media group.
Similarly, a new Yahoo News site will integrate local news from the company's newspaper partners.

"It's not about a direct financial benefit to Yahoo, it's about a better consumer experience," Moore said.

But Hilary Schneider, executive vice president of Yahoo U.S., said the strategy also would make it simpler for advertisers to target consumers.

On that note, Schneider addressed the company's proposed advertising partnership with Google, saying it would lead to a "better consumer experience." The company has said it plans to go ahead with the deal in October, despite concerns from the U.S. Department of Justice, which appears to be preparing to challenge the alliance of the Web's top two search engines.
For instance, she said, if a user searches for "red roses in Birmingham, Alabama" in Yahoo Search, no ads show up in the right-hand column. Under the partnership, though, Google ads would appear there.

The presentation was billed as a way for Yahoo, which has seen its stock price fall close to a five-year low in the wake of Microsoft's withdrawal of its bid, to explain its strategy.
"We've heard from a lot of you that we do a decent job letting you know about products," said Jill Nash, Yahoo's chief communications officer. But, she said, "we've heard from some of you that we could do a much better job providing context about how this fits in to our overall strategy and focus."

On Thursday, Yahoo's stock jumped 4.8 percent or 85 cents to close at $18.55 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

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