Entries for April 2008

What does it say about us as a society that a game like Grand Theft Auto IV, with its violence and sex, is a certain smash hit? It says a lot of people like an action-packed video game with great graphics.

The game reviewers are heaping praise on Grand Theft Auto, which went on sale at midnight. It's sure to be the biggest thing in games this year. The only question was if the new offering from Take-Two Interactive and its Rockstar subsidiary would set a new record for entertainment sales. The movie Spiderman 3 reportedly holds the first-weekend record at $380 million. Some analysts are predicting that GTA IV could hit $400 million.

And it's early, but the outcry from critics appears muffled this time. Sure, the Parent Television Council called for retailers to keep the game away from children. And a few minor politicians and gadflies issued harsher condemnations. But so far, and maybe because it's an election year, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is staying quiet—after having been one of the loudest critics of Grand Theft Auto III, reports Daniel Terdiman at CNet.

Sony and Microsoft, meanwhile, are counting on the game to drive new sales of their game consoles, perhaps helping them make up ground against Nintendo's Wii, which was left out of today's launch.

First came the password, then the fingerprint, and now the face photo. Toshiba said today it's releasing new laptop PCs that use built-in webcams for security.

Four new Satellite models (starting at $950) come with face-recognition software. Users store a photo and tap the software instead of typing in a password to log in to the computer. And don't worry, American Mustache Institute, Toshiba says the software allows for periodic photo updates to keep up with changing looks, "such as the growing or shaving of a beard or mustache."

Having given up on a TV channel, Warner Bros. is now going to try the Internet. The studio is launching several sites to feature the TV network that disappeared when it merged with UPN 18 months ago.

As Hulu.com is doing for NBC Universal and Fox, the Web will give new life to old WB shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Everwood. The free, ad-supported programming will start appearing at TheWB.com in beta testing in May, with a formal launch later this year.

Maybe more interesting, however, is that WB said it will generate new shows just for the website. Look for a new mystery drama called Sorority Forever from McG, the director of the Charlie's Angels movies. Or "Chadam," a 3D animation project from cutting-edge artist Alex Pardee and producer Jason Hall of HDFilms Inc.

The teeth gnashing is getting louder over Microsoft's plans to quit selling Windows XP at the end of June. Many businesses and consumers are crying foul, saying they want to avoid Windows Vista because of complaints that it is incompatible with too many peripherals or runs too slowly on older PCs.

Dell, for one, has posted plans to continue selling Windows XP on some computers until June 2009, and HP has reportedly said the same thing. The equipment builders say they'll use a loophole that Microsoft offers to business customers to downgrade systems from Vista to XP. Dell and HP would make the switch before the computer ships, letting customers get a computer preloaded with the tried-and-true XP.

The switcheroo would help only customers willing to pay more for Vista's Business or Ultimate editions. That leaves out many PCs at retail, which often come with the Home versions installed.

But retailers might see slivers of light at the end of the tunnel. Microsoft could still change its mind if it heard a loud enough outcry about ending XP. Microsoft already extended XP's life once and could again, CEO Steve Ballmer told a group in Belgium late last week.

"If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter," Ballmer said, according to Reuters. "But right now, we have a plan for end of life for new XP shipments."

Digital's growing role in a shrinking music business was the highlight of recent data released by the Recording Industry Association of America.

In 2007, digital sales accounted for 23 percent of the industry's revenue. That's a jump from 16 percent a year earlier. Royalties from those digital sales rose nearly 50 percent.

But digital can't overcome the slump in the sale of CDs, which declined about 20 percent in value. The result was an industry with overall sales that fell about 12 percent last year, accelerating a slump that began in 2006.

I couldn't be sure what it was about, or who it was aimed at, when I first read Microsoft's official description of Live Mesh. I'm still not sure what it will do, but apparently it's worth watching because it's aimed at us consumers.

Essentially, "mesh" is Microsoft's extending the concept of "cloud," which is storing and sharing everything on distant computers managed by others, including companies like Microsoft. Microsoft is planning to add software, "platforms," and "experiences" to mash together a mesh.

To start, it appears Mesh will sync digital files among devices. But it will also be a "new software-plus-services platform" and offer "unified device management." Not sure what those are, though.

Only by looking at screen shots and videos of execs did it become a little more clear, at least conceptually, that Mesh is aimed initially at consumers. The early examples describe sharing photos among friends and family, and include a "Home Desktop" in the network.

Surely the concept will extend to corporate offices. But information-technology folks at businesses usually want to lock out other devices like "Home Desktop." So this one appears to be for us—maybe?

I complained the other day about Apple repeatedly nudging me to install its Web browser, Safari. Well, I've since learned there is a way to shut off the nuisance. Look under "Tools" at the top of Apple's software updater, and click on "Ignore Selected Updates."

I still think it's bad form that Apple makes a Safari download the default choice. It could offer the update and let people opt in if they want, rather than have to opt out. Or at least make it clear how to shut up the hounding.

Many unsuspecting users will eventually install Safari by accident. They won't realize there's a way to turn off the offer. Unless they happen to whine about it in a blog that draws Apple fans, who ever so politely and gently point to the software switch.

We might consider it a noble, collective goal to shut off vampire power, the standby juice that devices suck when we think they're switched off. Nationwide, the phantom load is unnecessarily keeping several power plants busy.

But as individuals, what kind of money do we save if we shut it off? Maybe $50 or $100 a year, experts say, if we could truly kill all our devices when we don't need them.

It's a pain to run around unplugging everything. One answer is getting power strips that are easy to switch off. Another is one of the gadgets that make it even easier to cut standby power. They're among the small moves folks might make to cut their household energy use. I tried a Smart Strip on my TV and DVD players—yes, players, because we have DVD recorder and a now orphaned but still-useful HD DVD player. The strip works as advertised, cutting power to the DVD players when the TV is turned off. I didn't add our TiVo, which I want powered up to record shows.

Then I measured the difference with a Kill-A-Watt EZ, which tracks the power used by devices. I checked how much power the DVD players use when turned off, when left on (oops!), and when left on with a disk playing (double oops!).

Bottom line is that the Smart Strip would most likely save us about $15 a year on our simple setup. The base model costs about $33, so we'd get our money back in a bit more than two years. For as long as the strip lasts after that, we'd bank small but real savings.

The payback would be greater for someone with more devices, say a big sound system, a VCR, and a cable box — especially the cable box, which most people don't think to turn off.

I like the Smart Strip. I don't have to remember to do anything but switch off the TV. Plus, speaking collectively as Earth Day approaches, it seems the right thing to do.

I got my hopes up that Apple would finally leave me alone. The computer maker has been pestering me with an offer to install its Safari Web browser every time I update iTunes or QuickTime.

It seems I have to update one or the other every week. And every time for the past month or so, Apple has been ready to install Safari for me. A Safari download, in fact, is the default. I have to remember each time to tell it not to.

Lots of people are irked by Apple's tactic. Mozilla CEO John Lily, who obviously has an ax to grind, nonetheless seemed right when he said the approach "borders on malware distribution practices."

This morning, on my Windows computer, the Apple software updater didn't include Safari. Yippee!

Oh, wait, it did include an update to the updater. I installed it and, that's right, the Safari pestering is back.

Apple did bow to pressure and put the Safari in a separate category called "New software." But the 23 megabytes of Safari download remains the default choice. I still have to click the little box to say, "No thanks."

Business is business. But are a few points of browser market share worth the bad image?

In case it isn't clear, a recent and sarcastic tirade by a Microsoft exec includes drawings to illustrate his point that a software license is a software license.

Yes, as numerous bloggers have noted, you can install a cheaper upgrade version of Vista on a computer if you don't even own Windows XP, which is required by the upgrade license.

No, Microsoft says, just because you can do it doesn't mean it's legal.

Want your MTV back? For fans who bemoan the lack of music videos on TV, the Web offers a new alternative: PluggedIn.

The site has launched with what it says is a collection of 10,000 music videos from Universal Music, EMI, and Sony BMG, as well as indie labels. It also includes a raft of related features, including info on the stars, networking with other fans, suggestions of music you might enjoy, and, of course, options to buy the music and other merchandise.

But it's the videos that drive my interest in the site. PluggedIn uses its own media player, which it claims can play high-def video without hiccups on a typical broadband connection. The videos I played looked good, but the quality didn't strike me as high-def. And I suffered some stutters and stops.

The whole site, while impressive, seemed rough around the edges. Granted, the launch is as a "beta," so we'll have to see how things smooth out over time.

PluggedIn also promises other features, including integration with iTunes playlists. Upload the list of songs from your computer, and PluggedIn will find matching music videos. That could be useful, particularly as I fumbled to assemble a video playlist using the site's own tools.

It's all free to end users, with the site getting income from ads and helping to sell music and merchandise for partners like Amazon and Apple's iTunes. The price makes PluggedIn, early bumps aside, a good place to find and try new tunes. And you get a look at the performers behind them.

Another article has echoed concerns that new, online services that store patient records present serious privacy questions.

Calling them "patient-controlled health records," two Boston-area doctors point out that services like those from Google and Microsoft don't fall under federal privacy laws. That view has been voiced by others, including privacy watchdogs such as the World Privacy Forum.

Google, Microsoft, Revolution Health, and others say that protecting patient records from unauthorized access is crucial to the success of their services. But it's unclear what regulations, if any, will govern those promises.

The services can improve research and patient care, agree the two doctors in the article in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

The free services also amount to competition for doctors and hospitals that have traditionally administered patient records. The authors of this week's study, in fact, developed Web-based electronic records for patients at Children's Hospital Boston.

Still, the doctors raise interesting questions about medical information once it's more firmly in the control of players outside the medical field. Should patients, for example, be allowed to sell their medical data, perhaps to researchers?

We shouldn't dally in considering the ramifications, says Isaac Kohane, one of the authors: "While PCHRs may seem futuristic, they are here now and will be widely adopted in the not-so-distant future."

Speculation is rife that Psystar won't be shipping non-Apple computers with the Mac operating system. But the mere prospect has unleashed debate about the idea that a challenge to Apple might succeed, at least legally, including an interesting analysis from Bryan Gardiner.

But my favorite has to be the interview that Chris Foresman scored with none other than Stephen Wozniak, Apple's cofounder. Woz agrees that a renegade like Psystar might stand up to Apple, but the giant can simply break the upstart with operating system updates. Still, he adds, "I need another tower and I like the price, so I may get one."

They probably won't last long, once Apple's lawyers get rolling, but a PC company is offering the first Mac clones that I've seen in more than a decade. If you want one, you'd better get them before Apple's lawyers drop a letter, or worse.

We shouldn't be surprised someone would try clones. Once Apple moved from Motorola to Intel chips, it was only a matter of time before somebody had the Mac OS running on non-Apple machines. And a number of people have done just that, after jumping through patches and other techie hoops.

Fringe is back. Not that it went away, but decorative edging on rugs fell out of favor in our household. Roomba, the automated vacuum that's otherwise been a big hit here, choked on the strings.

Some months ago, Roomba's makers at iRobot released the vacuum's next generation. Longer-life battery, more powerful vacuum, fancy new "virtual walls" to guide the robot around the house—and no snagging on fringe. I was skeptical on that last, and while the first three sounded good, they weren't enough to spend several hundred dollars to upgrade.

But in working on a story about personal robots, I had reason to try one of the new Roombas. And glory be, all the claims are true. It does run longer, the virtual walls can now guide Roomba to other rooms, and it sucks up more of the bad stuff. Most important, it sucks up less of the good, meaning no fringe hang-ups. It musses up the strings a bit but keeps on moving.

Now we've one less reason to pull out the push vacuum. We still needed the conventional model to clean the throw rugs. Now, while Roomba still can't clean as well as a plug-in vacuum, it can keep one idle for weeks at a time.

We're impressed and have already ordered our own Roomba 500 series. That'll give us two Roombas (or would that be Roombae?), meaning we may have one upstairs and one down. But with tassels lurking on both levels, I suspect we'll find another, fringeless home for the old model.