Entries for August 2008

Having announced it will cap monthly Internet downloads, Comcast is reassuring its broadband customers that few of them will be affected. Fewer than 1 percent now exceed the monthly cap of 250 gigabytes, the company says.

It does look hard to reach the cap, according to Comcast's estimates. It involves millions or at least tens of thousands of the E-mails, songs, and photos that most all of us download every day.

A trick is emerging that makes life a little easier with new tech. Gadgets are arriving without installation CDs.

I first saw it in a product called the Tornado. Plug it into a USB port, and it loads its own software for syncing computers. Now I've seen the same thing with two newer products: the ZvBox for Web video and the Palm Treo Pro. Plug them into a USB port and they load their software, after a few mouse clicks.

There's no CD to lose, scratch—or throw across the room in a fit of frustration.

Over the weekend, I spoke with WTOP about the recent spate of problems for Apple. You can listen here, or subscribe to the weekly podcast through iTunes or RSS.

I finally jumped into the "Find a Wii" game, and iTrackr came through. Despite reports (mine included) that the Wii shortage is easing, it's still tough to actually get one.

Hoping to shop from the comfort of home, I'd been using Wiialerts. The site specializes in Web stores and repeatedly alerted me to available Wiis, but I could not snag one. So I went back to iTrackr, which emphasizes brick-and-mortar stores and can hunt a number of products. I queried about a Wii, and it told me a local Gamestop store had them.

A quick trip out and I had a Wii, at the suggested retail price of $249.99.

Starting the other day, I sorta noticed that related words and phrases would cascade below the Google box when I started typing a search. It took me a little while to recognize something new was afoot.

Google has indeed gotten a bit smarter, and more convenient. As explained by Jennifer Liu in the Official Google Blog, the search site has launched what it calls Google Suggest. The feature graduated this week from Google's labs.

Palm's new Treo Pro is the company's best smartphone yet—at least in shape, size, and capability. Too bad it isn't for consumers, at least not yet.

The Pro hits that sweet spot in size between the Centro and the Treo, two popular Palm handsets. The Centro is Palm's small smartphone for consumers, with attractive, smooth lines, and a sleek feel. The Pro bows to its Treo heritage by being bigger than the Centro, giving it a larger screen and a more comfortable keyboard, and packing in capability like GPS, WiFi, and compatibility with overseas networks.

But the Pro is still small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket. And it retains the smooth lines and stylish look of the Centro.

With today's official launch of the TheWB.com., anyone longing for old WB shows can now stream them. The site offers full episodes of numerous network favorites, including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Everwood," and "The O.C."

The site amounts to Warner Brothers' answer to other Web video offerings. The studio also added other shows, including "Friends." Suggesting that "the next great network won't be televised," Warner also commissioned new shows for the site.

The content is fun and entertaining, but the site is cluttered, busy, and, in a brief test this morning, somewhat buggy. Maybe the hectic look, along with social networking tools like mashups, will help draw the 16-to-34-year-olds who were the core market for the old TV network.

Back-to-school shoppers this Labor Day weekend are playing the role of guinea pigs for traditional retailers trying to get cool with the Web's social networking. Some are experimenting with chat rooms, virtual worlds, and interactive video, reports JupiterResearch.

Sears, for example, recently launched a virtual showroom at Zwinky.com that reportedly drew about 750,000 visitors in its first couple of weeks.

JCPenney launched DorkDodge, a game where collegebound women get to experience the geeky guys they'll meet on campus. The game plays off a marketing campaign the retail chain created that showed teens how "to get that look," Jupiter notes. At the end of the game is a link to a JCPenney page on Facebook.

But rather than actually selling something, retailers can mostly hope to build brand awareness, says Jupiter's David Schatsky. So far, he says, "social media has shown little direct impact on actual online retail sales."

The V1 from BlueAnt ($130) is the first headset to respond to voice commands, and it does a good job within its limits.

The headset is limited to a list of voice commands, such as dialing up to 8 numbers programmed into your handset's speed dials. Just push the V1's main button, and a charming man's voice will prompt you to "Say a command." A command of "Dial speed dial 8" results in just that.

Voice-response systems have their own limits. The device isn't smart enough to know when you want to start talking to it, so it requires a quick push to its main button. And to end a call, you need to fumble for the phone, or trust that the other person has hung up (although the V1 eventually confirms "Call terminated").

The V1 shines most, frankly, in managing itself. Other Bluetooth headsets require multiple button pushes and counting LED flashes to know what's happening—if the headset is ready to link with a cellphone, for example. With the V1, the command is "Pair mode." The headset voice not only responds that it is ready to connect to a phone, it talks you through the process with the handset itself.

In fact, when you first turn on the V1, don't bother with the manual. Just stick it on your ear, and the V1 walks through setting itself up and connecting to a cellphone. Nice. It at least works better than following the manual, which frustrated me.

The voice-response system, called BlueGenie and made by a company called Sensory, is surprisingly accurate for such a small device. It's better than the voice system in my Blackberry phone. I can access the phone's voice prompts, by the way, with a command through the V1.

The V1 also goes through a training session, which trains you and not the headset, and is set in its ways. You learn, for example, that you can't interrupt the headset—it must finish its prompt before you can dictate a command.

Incoming calls, by the way, get announced with the number they're coming from. Picking up is as easy as "Answer," and "Ignore" throws them to voice mail.

Sound quality is good on the V1, with calls sounding as clear as on any headset I've tried. BlueAnt has a reputation for making good Bluetooth headsets, and it has pushed the edge with the V1's voice system.

Adobe Systems has announced new desktop versions of its consumer photo- and video-editing software, with new features that remove distracting elements in photos and automate video editing. But the most interesting feature is that the programs will link to new online services and mobile phones.

When they arrive in September, the new versions of Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements will enable automatic backup to a storage and sharing site, to be called Photoshop.com. Free membership will come with a few gigabytes of storage, and $50 a year will buy 20 GB.

Syncing will work both ways. The software enables groups of photos to be arranged in albums that can be automatically synced to the online site. Changes made online likewise get sent to the desktop album.

Adobe is also demonstrating how some mobile phones will be able to upload photos to the Photoshop site, with similar syncing ability.

It's about time that Adobe got in gear—the company's been slow with its online and mobile efforts, points out Jessica Dolcourt at the Webware blog. And the folks at ReadWriteWeb are even tougher, saying it's too little, too late.

Barack Obama's plan to use tech to make his followers feel like insiders fell short, with shoe-leather journalism apparently beating technology. Word that Obama had chosen Sen. Joseph Biden as his VP candidate leaked hours before the campaign sent text messages and E-mails to supporters and the curious (like me).

The text message came across at 3 a.m. Eastern time, a few hours after the first authoritative reports were posted online. I was fast asleep for both, so I woke up to a buzzing BlackBerry after it turned on automatically at 7 a.m. The first message was from the campaign, so, in a sense, it worked for me.

But that's unimportant. What's interesting is how Obama has harvested more cell numbers and E-mail addresses for grass-roots organizing. I expect—and agreed to receive—later notices. I'll probably get invitations to area rallies on behalf of the Dems.

I won't go, but I bet thousands of others will answer the text-message call.

I don't think "Mac Nazi" jokes will do it. I'm a fan of Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian Microsoft has reportedly hired as a key pitchman in ads for Windows Vista. The campaign is designed to boost the image of its beleaguered operating system and answer Apple's wildly successful "Mac vs. PC" ads. (Those ads succeed partly because they poke Windows with gentle humor. The hip Apple guy even appears sympathetic to PC's plight.)

Sympathy and empathy don't come to mind when thinking of Seinfeld. He's known for hilarious satire and snide send-ups, like the infamous "Soup Nazi" who terrorized Jerry and his TV friends. If he wasn't funny, someone might call him arrogant and condescending, two adjectives that haunt Microsoft.

Microsoft already appears patronizing in its campaign. The company is showing how consumers tested an operating system called "Mojave" that was really Vista in disguise. Freed of their silly biases and unfounded apprehensions—and from having to get hardware and software to work with the new system—they love Vista.

Finally, a converter box for digital TV broadcasts that's actually free (if you have a $40 government coupon). And it's one of the best tuners out there, a relabeled DTVPal from Dish Networks.

The DTVPal includes the most cablelike programming guide among five converters I tried, and has other features including an events timer for helping with VCR recording. The satellite TV company had promised a $40 tuner, but originally released the DTVPal for $60. Now, for a limited time, the company has relabeled it as the "TR-40 CRA" and is selling it for $40, plus $9 shipping from the company's site.

Palm is taking aim at globe-trotting execs with its newest smartphone, the Palm Treo Pro. The handset slims and smoothes the physical edges of the company's aging Treos and tries to regain some of the competitive edge it has lost to the BlackBerry and iPhone.

Surprisingly, Palm hasn't lined up a U.S. carrier to sell the phone. Buyers here will have to pay $550 for an "unlocked" phone that can work with T-Mobile and AT&T, including its high-speed data network. Palm will have carriers selling the handset in Europe and Australia when it hits the market this fall.

Besides the sleeker and rounder look than its predecessors, the Treo Pro comes packed with goodies. There is Wi-Fi, GPS, a bigger touchscreen, a 2-megapixel camera, a slot for a memory card, a standard headphone jack, and support for wireless networks worldwide.

Many consumers might want that kind of power, which Palm has proved with its successful Centro devices. But Palm's site markets the Pro at pros, the stiffs who get phones through their companies.

That's reinforced with the Pro using Windows Mobile, which emphasizes getting things done through compatibility with corporate E-mail systems and Microsoft Office software. Palm also has little choice these days, with its still-likable Palm operating system getting creaky.

By the way, it appears the software's successor is limping toward the grave. Several years ago, the company sold its Palm OS to a Japanese company called Access, which is said to have lost the only carrier that appeared ready to release a phone based on Palm's successor.

Interesting research suggests that 1 in 3 Windows PCs is still being sold with the supposedly banned XP instead of the image-challenged Vista. Big computer makers like Dell and HP can sell XP machines to businesses, or anyone willing to pay extra for a business PC. Those licenses allow a "downgrade" loophole to XP.