Playing with the Pantech Breeze confirms that this cellphone has done less than others to be simple. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because it gives seniors and other lesser-techies a range of ease versus power in handsets.

The phone is an attractive clamshell with a white exterior and silver-and-white interior. Big buttons make the keypad more accessible than most standard phones.

Numbers and letters appear to be printed in a dark grey that looks nice with the silver case. Jet black, though, would've made the labels pop for those with failing eyesight. That's typical of the phone's nod, instead of a full bow, to the needs of seniors.

Three dedicated buttons for speed dialing are perhaps the Breeze's most distinctive reach for ease. Labeled with a 1-2-3, the buttons sit apart from the keypad on the phone's upper half. They're also easy to program. But they're recessed, unlike the other keys, and I had to shift the phone in my hand to apply enough pressure. And I'm not sure they're that much better than setting up speed dials on the keypad itself.

To reach other features, the phone displays a simple text menu. Or you can shift to a menu of icons. The latter is clearly more confusing, which is ironic. Weren't graphics supposed to make technology easier?

Phone numbers also appear in giant type when punching them into the keypad.

Otherwise, this feels like most any low-end feature phone, with a multitude of choices buried in sometimes confusing menus. Maneuvering, for example, often calls for hitting the "OK" button. But that doesn't exist because AT&T apparently replaced the "OK" label with its logo.

Features include E-mail, instant messaging, and a camera that also takes video. The phone can access a Web store for ring tones and other applications, such as mobile banking at a few institutions. And it can browse the Web itself.

In short, the phone is an option for someone who might want a touch of simplicity, but no more. AT&T sells it for $50 after rebate with a two-year contract, or $200 without.

Maybe it was too early to call an end to the Psystar saga. The maker of Mac clones still appears to be selling new units on its site, more than two weeks after Apple filed suit to shut it down.

Before you hit that "buy" button, note that Apple demands that Psystar recall every clone it has sold. An actual recall is unlikely. But it's more likely than Psystar surviving to keep the clones operating and updated.

Some people will spend hundreds of dollars on premium HDTV cables. So maybe they're the ones who will spend $1,000 or more to get rid of cables, which can ruin the look of their sleek, flat-screen TVs.

The Belkin FlyWire was one of a number of systems shown at January's electronics show in Las Vegas. In fact, they've been seen there for at least four or five years. Belkin is the first I've seen to commit to shipping in time for the upcoming holiday season.

None of the systems will come cheap. Belkin is taking preorders at $1,000. But owners of big TVs might pay, especially if they've got several sets around the house that can share the wireless video and sound. Of course, other TVs will require added receivers at a price to be named later.

Or, if that's too rich and you just want to untangle one of your television's cables, Belkin next year will sell a one-room version for $700.

The Wii shortage may finally be easing. The popular console has been a hard get in North America since it was launched. But the Wii has been available all day at Best Buy's site (search for product 8008559) at its suggested price of $250.

It even made an appearance at Amazon, where it has only sporadically and briefly popped up. The timing seems to match analyst and game-store projections that Nintendo would finally be shipping more Wiis to North America.

Amazon is reportedly launching a streaming video service that it has been promising for some weeks. The service will join its Unbox downloads. But the only indication today at the site is mention of a beta test that's closed to newcomers. Ian Paul at PCWorld got a look at the service, which is to give instant access to 40,000 movies and TV shows.

He reports the system is better than Netflix's in that videos will also stream to Macs, but is inferior in image quality. He didn't mention testing a feature that also sets the service apart from Apple's iTunes—Amazon will store the videos on its site. That will allow viewing from any computer the renter uses to log in.

Maybe it was good reviews that finally killed the Mac clones. Apple has sued to stop a small Florida company from making its own PCs preloaded with the Mac operating system.

After surviving speculation that it was a fraud, Psystar actually shipped the machines. Reviews said their heftier hardware made them a better buy than Apple's like-priced Mac mini.

Some have speculated that Apple couldn't win on legal grounds. But Apple has deep pockets to withstand a long court battle. I suspect Psystar doesn't, and its site is already down.

The attack of the Apple clones appears over.

It turns out that CVS Caremark has committed to provide prescription records for downloading to Google Health. That's encouraging, suggesting that health providers might ease a new splintering of our medical data, which is already fragmented among many providers, insurers, employers, and governments.

CVS, which owns a large drugstore chain, also will allow prescription data downloads to Microsoft's HealthVault. The agreements link it to the two better-known efforts to give consumers more control over health records. And it's a step better than Walgreens, which so far has committed only to downloads to Google Health.

But the industry has much work ahead to ease data exchange. No word, for example, from either chain about partnerships with Dossia. That new site will store health records for employees at a number of large companies.

And no word from the thousands of other health providers about how data might be shared with the scores of storage sites cropping up. It's a difficult issue, particularly amid sensitive privacy concerns.

Roaming today's Web for video, music, and podcasts can seem overwhelming. Even narrowing the scope with searches, including through sites such as SeeqPod, can result in a torrent of media.

SeeqPod says it feels our pain. The site now offers suggested play lists for Web audio that it calls "PodLists." At the top today is "Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time." It's the magazine's list of timeless hit songs, and a click on each title starts it playing. Much fun.

Word came the other day that CVS Caremark had inked a deal with HealthVault, the Microsoft site for storing personal health records. Oh, no, I thought. Here we go again, fragmenting the already highly fragmented state of our medical records.

Just a few weeks ago, Walgreens had announced a deal with Google Health. So now we have two big drugstore chains signed up with competitors for storing our health records. For those of us who do business with both chains, we'd be stuck using at least two services to download just our prescription records.

So, will my medical insurer sign on with a site that's different from my dental insurer? My doctor? My hospital? My labs? Is this progress?

The HealthVault product manager assures me it is. The good news is that the large holders of medical records, such as the drugstore chains, are willing to participate in these online efforts to consolidate personal medical data and let us better manage our health, says George Scriban at Microsoft.

"We're not interested in creating further silos of data," Scriban says. He says Google, Microsoft, Intuit, and others fully expect to share many partners. Google and Microsoft, for example, already share as a partner Allscripts, which sells software to doctors and clinics.

Google has even partnered with MinuteClinic, which runs a chain of retail clinics and happens to be owned by CVS Caremark. So it would seem, under Scriban's scenario, that CVS sharing its prescription records with Google Health is not far behind. I hope he's right.

Bored at work but nervous about the boss? Try Read at Work.

It's the text of a few classic books, short stories, and poems splashed cleverly across PowerPoint presentations. Someone looking over your shoulder would be none the wiser. Thanks to the New Zealand Book Council (and Tom Grant at Forrester).

Here's something you may have noticed but didn't really think about: Image spam is disappearing. Junk E-mailers have gone back to good ol' text messages, according to BitDefender, one of many companies that sells PC security software.

A year ago, about 60 percent of spam was hidden in bulky, annoying images. That's dropped to just 3 percent. Text spam has jumped from 20 percent to 70 percent.

Spammers have realized that trying to sneak junk through images just wasn't that efficient. Plain text is winning because of its "simplicity, reduced size, and extreme versatility," said Andra Miloiu, BitDefender spam analyst.

In a turnabout, Netflix says it will retain one of my favorite features—multiple profiles on a single account. The profiles allow different people, or pseudo people, to set up their own queues for DVDs they want to order.

In my house, that means a queue under my name for movies, another for TV shows, and one for the kids. A returned disk triggers a shipment from the appropriate queue. Before I discovered profiles, I had to scramble to keep the right mix of movies coming to the house.

Netflix had said it would drop the feature for the sake of simplicity. Apparently, not many subscribers had set up profiles.

But Netflix hadn't done much to promote the option. I discovered it only when I complained to a Netflix PR person about juggling different demands on my queue, and he pointed out the profiles feature. It made Netflix easier to use.

To add insult, Netflix offered no simple way to combine the profiles it was taking away. We were going to have to print them out and type them into a single queue. Yuck.

The feature wasn't used by many, perhaps, but those who have discovered it love it. The outcry was loud. Netflix reversed course with an apology.

RealNetworks says its Rhapsody store will now offer music for sale. But more than just another digital music store, Rhapsody is using cellular downloads to end-run Apple's iTunes service and other competitors.

Verizon Wireless customers are hearing today that they now can get a wide variety of tunes on their handsets without copy protection through Rhapsody. Use the cellular network to download music from Rhapsody's huge library, and know that the music can play on any device. It's a unique pitch, if not entirely true.

Rhapsody's move into selling tracks is a big departure for the service, which until now focused on a subscription model. Music lovers can still get unlimited tunes from Rhapsody, as long as they pay $15 a month. Quit paying and the music stops, literally, which is among the downsides to subscribing for music.

After today, major PC makers can no longer sell new computers with Windows XP preinstalled. Microsoft is enforcing its ban on XP despite continued discontent with Windows Vista, which even chipmaker and Microsoft partner Intel is reportedly avoiding.

There are loopholes—for a price. Consumers can buy a PC with premium versions of Vista that can be downgraded to XP, or they can find a non-name-brand PC maker—a "white box" vendor—who might still sell an XP box.

But most consumers will blindly and perhaps reluctantly accept Vista. They'll have little choice.