Archive | April, 2009
Pogoplug: Put Your USB Drives on the Web
External USB hard drives and thumb drives are so cheap and useful that they pop up everywhere–except, for the most part, on the Internet. Enter Pogoplug, a new $99 gadget that lets you attach drives to your home network, then get access to them from any computer with a Web browser, and (soon) from iPhones and iPods Touch.
The Pogoplug itself looks like a slightly bulky AC adapter with Ethernet and USB ports. Here it is (it thoughtfully lets you remove the plug and attach a power cord if you like, so it doesn’t block access to your power strip or wall outlet–much like Apple’s laptop power adapters):
E74: Microsoft Recognizes the Xbox 360′s Other Problem
14. April 2009
“Red Ring of Death” has worked its way so thoroughly into gamer lexicon that it’s comical to watch Microsoft work around the terminology. Perhaps the company’s talking heads will have an easier time with “E74,” a different system killing hardware issue whose moniker is so succinct it’ll probably stick. But I digress.
Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb acknowledged this new hardware issue today, announcing that the infamous three-year Xbox 360 warranty will extend its coverage to include E74 along with the “three flashing lights error,” as Hryb calls it. The warranty began in the summer of 2007 in response to Red Ring issues and is good for three years from the purchase of an Xbox 360 console. In addition to covering new E74 repairs, Microsoft will retroactively reimburse anyone who has paid the company to fix the problem. Checks will go out before July 1.
Joystiq has been covering the E74 issue since complaints emerged in greater numbers this year. They believe the problem stems from a faulty solder on the ANA/HANA scaling chip in HDMI models. Lines across the screen or snowy interference typically preceed the fatal error message, which is accompanied by one flashing red light (Quadrant of Death?). Microsoft has not described the nature of the problem except to call it a “general hardware failure.”
Chances are, the company won’t elaborate. Microsoft has claimed that the Red Ring of Death debacle hasn’t hurt the brand, and was reluctant to come clean on the problem for some time, so I imagine the company is tackling this issue with the same bravado. Maybe brand loyalty is okay for the Xbox 360, but Sony would be wise to store these issues in its memory banks for the next round of console wars.
5Words for April 14th, 2009
14. April 2009
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I should be doing taxes:
Microsoft curtails Windows XP support.
Does Facebook make you stupid?
Digital Chocolate for the iPhone.
Facebook Rots Your Brain!
14. April 2009
No doubt we’ve heard from our grandparents how television appartently makes us stupid. Enter Facebook, the latest scorn to our intellgence. A study from Ohio State University of 219 students gauged their school performance against their Facebook usage.
While 79 percent of students expressly denied that Facebook was interfering with studying, there may have been some tangental evidence it does. Users of the site generally studied less (1-5 hours a week), and averaged GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5. However those that didn’t use Facebook studied more (11-15 hours), and had GPAs above 3.5.
Call me crazy, but researchers may have only found the obvious: the more you study, the better grades you’ll get. But continuing on…
“There’s a disconnect between students’ claim that Facebook use doesn’t impact their studies, and our finding showing they had lower grades and spent less time studying,” co-author of the study and a doctoral student Aryn Kapinski said of the study.
Kapinski and crew also found that students were less likely to use Facebook if they had a job, and more likely to if they participated in extracurricular activities.
Science, technology, engineering, math and business majors were most likely to use the service above other discliplines.
Happy Birthday, Game Boy. You’re Weird!
13. April 2009
You think the iPod’s iconic and enduring? Let’s talk come 2021, when it’ll have been around as long as Nintendo’s Game Boy, which turns twenty next Tuesday. To mark the occasion, Benj Edwards found an array of peculiar variations, offshoots, add-ons, and tributes. Never has one pocketable plaything been so many things to so many people.
Game Boy Oddities
13. April 2009
When Nintendo released the original Game Boy twenty years ago next week, wheels of capitalism and creativity immediately started turning in noggins across the globe. From artists mesmerized with the gaming gadget’s iconic status to inventors who saw it as a way to make the world a better place to folks who just wanted to cash in, the Game Boy has inspired weird accessories, variations, and tributes. After seeing the items I rounded up for this extravaganza, you’ll probably agree that the public’s infatuation with this classic handheld has grown far beyond Nintendo’s wildest dreams.
HP’s MediaSmart Servers to Crunch Video, Stream to iPhones
13. April 2009
Microsoft’s Windows Home Server platform has only one major booster among PC manufacturers, but it’s a doozy: HP, whose MediaSmart Servers pack sizable quantities of redundant storage, Microsoft’s software for backing up, restoring, and sharing data, and HP’s own tweaks and additions, such as support for Macs. And today HP announced a software update for its EX 485 and EX 487 models with two significant new features: automatic conversion of videos for streaming and viewing on computers and mobile devices, and a new app called iStream that gives iPhones and iPods Touch remote access to the videos, music, and video you have stored on the server.
The software update, which HP plans to release late this month, can automatically generate high-resolution and low-resolution MPEG4 H.264 video files from multiple formats (including unprotected DVDs–but not, of course, copy-protected ones). I’ve spent enough time tending to computers that were slowly crunching away at video files to find the idea of a sever silently doing it in background mighty appealing.
Downloadable Games, With the Inconvenience of the Store
13. April 2009
A solution for the digital download squeamish: Go to your local video game store, buy a boxed version of a digital download voucher, go home and use the Internet to install the same product that’s being sold cheaper to those who don’t want to leave the house.
Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera has word from a “reliable” insider — with a proven track record of breaking stories — that this will happen for the upcoming PSP game Patapon 2. Kuchera suggests that Sony is testing this retail download model to gauge whether it will work for other games, maybe even setting the stage for a UMD-less PSP.
Why would Sony hang on to retail at all with this release? Because as much as video game publishers would love to kill the middleman, they need that shelf space. Digital distribution doesn’t share equal footing with hard copy sales. Besides, cutting out Gamestop and other retailers could potentially force them to drop the PSP in retribution. Despite the strained relationship between publisher and retailer, no one wants to rock the boat.
As a result, we might have this bizarre solution in which consumers can pay $20 plus a trip to the store for a $15 game that they can download at home. You pay more for the luxury of an empty box.
Whether the rumor is true or not, I can’t imagine retailers lovingly embracing the idea in the long run because they’d be digging their own graves. Once enough retail shoppers realize they’re getting duped at retail, they’ll abandon the store. GameStop also loves the used game market, and won’t give it up without a fight.
Retail downloads might work in the present simply because of shelf appeal, but Sony and other game publishers can’t have it both ways forever. Eventually, they’ll have to commit to a download-only future — brick-and-mortar be damned, consoles can be distributed other ways — or commit to physical media and all the retail baggage that comes with it.
Times Isn’t Just Your Everyday RSS Reader
13. April 2009
Let me start by welcoming you all to a new weekly feature here on Technologizer. We’re calling it Mac Monday, and each week I’ll tackle a new piece of software, hardware, or other topic related to the Apple community.
I’m a visual person…which means that I’m not a big RSS fan. To me, the whole RSS revolution has taken the style out of the Web: while the content remains, the design that encapsulates it is taken away. Sometimes the way information is presented is just as important as what it says. So I’ve preferred to keep my routine of actually visiting Websites in lieu of using a RSS reader. Until now.
Enter Times, a new RSS reader from the folks at Acrylic Software. This software aims to put back into RSS what got taken out: a sense of design. Instead of the bland list design used by competitors, Times lays out RSS in a more visual format, akin to that of a newspaper website.
5Words for April 13th, 2009
13. April 2009
Hey, it’s Monday the thirteenth!
Meet Twitter-annoying teen Mikeyy.
Prince’s $2100 purple iPod Touch.
Amazon: hiding gay-themed books?
Skype should sell to founders.
Palm readying inductive-charging accessories?
Two potential Pre shipping dates.
Buy.com Selling Officially Unlocked iPhones
13. April 2009
Who needs a jailbreak? In a fairly shocking move considering AT&T’s stranglehold on the iPhone market here in the US, Buy.com has begun selling unlocked iPhone 3G 16GB for $799, a $500 premium on the carrier price. These phones are not jailbroken: they were merely never locked to a carrier.
Apple will warranty these phones just the same way as they do the locked models. They will never lock: iTunes will update the phone normally. The only negative to Buy.com’s phones is the fact that instructions may come in a foreign language since they were likely made for overseas use.
So why the change of heart from Apple? It’s not too out of the question to think that the company is probably clearing out inventory ahead of a new iPhone release. Then again, it didn’t do this for the first-generation model, so thats something to consider as well.
Maybe, just maybe, Apple may have a change of heart on one-party rule in the US, but we all can dream, no?
Microsoft’s “Apple Tax” White Paper–Let’s Try That Again!
13. April 2009
Last week, Microsoft sponsored a white paper that expanded upon the mantra in the company’s “Laptop Hunters” ads that Macs are overpriced computers that impose a price penalty based on an ethereal, needless “cool factor.” Said white paper featured charts involving Mac configurations that no longer exist, and calculations of the long-term cost of being a Mac user that seemed questionable at best and nonsensical at worst. I detailed some (but not all) of the issues in this post.
The white paper’s author, Endpoint Technologies’ Roger Kay, blamed some of the data problems on production gaffes by Microsoft. Microsoft has posted an updated version of the paper with updated specs and at least one clarification (it now makes clear that the $149 copy of MobileMe it’s talking about is the Family Pack version). Strangely, Microsoft hasn’t updated the inaccurate chart in the blog post that links to the white paper.
I said in my original post that I didn’t think Kay’s conclusions would be different if the white paper had gotten the specs correct, and I was right: They haven’t changed. And even though the tables now seem to have their specs right, there are multiple places where the math behind his calculation of the “Apple Tax” remains more partisan attack than honest attempt at analysis. Can anyone explain to me, for instance, why he he adds a hefty $750 to the Mac setup for five years’ worth of MobileMe for two computers when MobileMe, which is available for both OS X and Windows, is simply no more mandatory on the Mac than it is on Windows?
Oh, and the paper still has one relatively minor cost attached to the Mac setup–a $99 charge for the iLife Family Pack–which I think is simply indefensible no matter how partisan you might be. Kay doesn’t factor the cost of creativity software into the Windows PC setup in the first place–the theory is that the imaginary family in his scenario has already paid for it for an older computer–but he also doesn’t tack the cost of an upgrade on. Apparently the fact that he has his Mac-owning family upgrading their software after two years but not their Windows counterpart doing so constitutes part of the “Apple Tax.”
I can’t imagine that many people who actually reads the white paper (even in its new, more accurate form) who might consider buying a Mac instead of a Windows PC are going to take the case it makes very seriously. And those people who wouldn’t consider buying a Mac don’t need convincing in the first place.
Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt has theorized that Microsoft’s Mac attack constitutes a trap, and “the Apple press” (of which I don’t wanna be counted as a member) is taking the bait by responding and carping about it. Given that Microsoft is pouring so much money and resources into arguing that you can buy Windows PCs for a lot less than Macs–a point which is obvious to anyone who steps foot inside a computer store, and which helps to explain why Windows’ market share remains huge and the Mac’s continues to be quite small–I wonder whether it’s Microsoft that’s fallen into a trap. I mean, responding to the anti-Windows taunts in Apple ads in kind probably feels really good, but I’m still not sure just who Microsoft’s current round of Apple-bashing is meant to address.
Hey Mikeyy! You’re Making Twitter Miserable!
13. April 2009
This has not been a good weekend at Twitter, where a series of worms has been annoying the heck out of people by infecting their accounts and sending out fake tweets under their name. The first one promoted a Twitter-like site called StalkDaily; others make reference to Mikeyy, who’s supposedly StalkDaily’s 17-year-old proprietor and the perpetrator of at least some of the worms. Twitter says they’re on the case, but as I write this, the fraudulent Mikeyy-related Tweets are still coming fast and furious, including ones with links which, if clicked, infect the viewer:
The attacks leverage a JavaScript cross-site scripting vulnerability, so you’re probably at risk no matter what browser and OS you use. Here’s some advice on avoiding the worm(s) and getting rid of them if you’ve been infected. (Sounds like the single most important piece of advice is to use Twitter via a third-party client like TweetDeck or Tweetie rather than at Twitter.com itself.)
If Mikeyy is real, is seventeen, and is behind these attacks, he’s like a lot of seventeen-year-olds I’ve known–really smart and really dumb at the same time. Here’s hoping he doesn’t get away with it. I’m not sure what the proper punishment is, but more and more, I think that the Internet needs some sort of virtual stockade to enable the painful public humiliation of those who screw it up for the rest of us:
Cooliris: Finally, 3D Browsing That Really is Cool
13. April 2009
For years, folks have been trying to harness the power of 3D graphics to improve Web navigation. (Here’s a review of a 3D browser I wrote almost eight years ago; here’s another that’s currently on the market.) And for years, such products have failed to change the world, or even attract many users at all–to such an extent that I wondered if browsing was meant to remain a basically two-dimensional activity. I’m not the only one, apparently–an imaginary 3D version of Chrome was part of Google’s April Fool’s extravaganza week before last.
But starting today, a browser add-on called Cooliris (formerly known as Piclens) is available in a new version, 1.10. It brings flashy 3D effects to browsing, and it is, indeed, cool–mostly because it’s useful. Cooliris works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, and runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux, and lets you browse massive quantities of images and/or videos from an array of sources–Google Images, Flickr, Facebook, Hulu, Picasa, your own computer, and many other venues–by zipping through a full-screen wall of tiny images that flies around in 3D space. (Its extremely reminiscent of the video-wall imagery Apple uses to promote Apple TV.)
Security for Less!
10. April 2009
Economic meltdown does have its downsides, but here’s one plus: massive discounts by companies hoping to attract a little attention in dire times. Check Point, the company behind the ZoneAlarm line of security software, is planning a one-day sale on its ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. The firewall/antivirus/antispyware package, which normally sells for $49.95, will sell for $9.95–but only for 24 hours starting next Tuesday, April 14th, at 6am PT. Check Point says it’ll donate 50% of profits to tech nonprofit TechSoup, and that the whole stunt is timed to tie in with Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday.
If you’ve got one or more Windows PCs and aren’t running current security software, it’s a deal.
Confirmed: Zune HD is Third Generation Model
10. April 2009
Technologizer has learned that rumors surrounding the fourth third generation Zune model are indeed true, and Microsoft’s music player would be getting a high-definition upgrade sometime in the fall, most likely in September or October. Sources close to the Zune team indicate that Engadget’s shots of the marketing materials are indeed authentic, but are fairly tight lipped on exactly what the player may have.
What we do know is this: the size of the device is set to come in smaller than the iPod touch (although we believe in size, not in thickness). Capacities should be competitive with that of the iPod touch, and like the touch, it would sport a touchscreen interface. The old click wheel would be replaced with a single-button as the pictures show.
We’re still trying to source out more information on it, but we do know with a good deal of confidence that this information is correct — these sources have accurately called the launches and specs of two previous launches (see my stores at Betanews: here and here).
More as we get it…
New Details: We’re being told that the Engadget marketing materials are likely not the final art for any advertising. So while the device is real, this art is probably just a draft.
Update 2: We made a bit of a mistake. While generally every year since their launch there has been some type of revision, this is technically the third gen model, not the fourth.
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14. April 2009
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