Blekko, an Interesting First Draft of a New Way to Search the Web

Blekko, a new search engine, opened up to the public today in beta form. Um, a new search engine as in something that intends to compete with Google, the Web’s most deeply-entrenched service? Yup. Unlike certain other past entrants, though, this one’s ambitions–to get at least a sliver of the search business, not to crush Google–aren’t wildly implausible. And even though it could stand more refinement–I found some of its results impressive but others downright disappointing–it brings a new and potentially powerful idea to the table.

That new idea is the slashtag, a keyword you append to the end of a search query to limit results to a predefined list of sites. Many of Blekko’s slashtags Slashtags help you search authoritative sites on a given topic, such as American history. Others are meant to skew results in a particular direction–for example, glenn beck /liberal, glenn beck /conservative, and glenn beck/humor get you radically different results.

Continue reading this story…

Resolved: We Need More Realistic Notebook Battery-Life Claims

One of the best features of Apple’s new MacBook Airs hasn’t gotten all that much attention. Here’s Steve Jobs announcing it last week:

That’s the 13.3″ Air Jobs is talking about–later on at the event, he introduced the 11.6″ version and said it got up to five hours, again with the tougher tests.

I’ve been using the 11.6″ MacBook Air over the past week and a half, and judging from my experience, Apple’s estimate of five hours is indeed realistic. It’s about what I’m getting–which is a pleasant surprise considering that I’m used to discounting the battery life claims made by laptop manufacturers (including Apple) by anywhere from thirty to sixty percent. The Air’s five hours remind me more of the ten-hour claim Apple makes for the iPad; it seems fair.

Continue reading this story…

Delay? Hurray!

Over at Techland, I blogged about why I wish more software companies would follow Mozilla’s lead with Firefox 4 and delay shipment of their products.

Unlimited Smartphone Data: Not Dead Yet!

Verizon Wireless now offers tiered pricing for smartphone data, adding a 150 MB for $15 per month option beneath it’s existing $30 per month unlimited package.

The cheaper plan is a terrible value in terms of price per megabyte, but it’s not unwelcome. I know people who’ve opted for AT&T’s 200 MB for $15 per month package, on the logic that they consume most of their data on home Wi-Fi networks, but still wanted smartphones because, well, they’re cool.

The bigger news here is that Verizon didn’t touch its unlimited plan. AT&T, in the other hand, dropped the limit of it’s most expensive offering to 2 GB per month, and shaved the cost from $30 to $25.

For now, AT&T has the better deal for all but a sliver of smartphone users — the company claims that only 2 percent of its customers use more than 2 GB of data every month — but with a caveat: Smartphone data use is bound to grow, especially as the next generation of wireless networks comes online. Nowhere does AT&T promise that your monthly data allotment will grow accordingly. I’m having premonitions of steep overage charges for all.

Meanwhile, Verizon is sticking with unlimited data, and that’s pretty important coming from the largest wireless carrier in the United States. Of course, nowhere does Verizon promise that it won’t relent and replace the unlimited plan with capped data tiers in a few months (or years). But at the moment, the idea of unlimited wireless data seems safe from peril.

Is Microsoft Turning Off the SilverLight ?

ZDnet’s Mary Jo Foley has an interesting news tidbit: Microsoft seems to be downplaying the original goals for its Silverlight platform, which were to take on Adobe’s Flash as a pervasive plug-in for rich media applications. SilverLight is part of the toolset developers use to build Windows Phone 7 apps, and Microsoft says it’ll be useful for some other specialized applications. But when it comes to making Web sites fancier, the company seems to be turning its attention to HTML5 standards rather than its own proprietary creations.

SilverLight wasn’t without its attractions–waitaminnit, it’s probably premature to be referring to it in the past tense–but I suspect most third-party observers who aren’t developers with an investment in SilverLight will approve of the idea of Microsoft putting most of its eggs in the HTML5 basket. The Web’s going to be a better place once every browser supports all animation, video, and interactivity in the same fashion without the use of multiple plugins. And Internet Explorer 9′s serious HTML5 support is both better for consumers and better for Microsoft’s continuing relevance than any future version of SilverLight could be.

How I Use Photoshop: As, Um, Textshop!

Another post I wrote for the Reimagine ROI site (sponsored by HP): How I use Photoshop. (Generally speaking, it isn’t to edit photos…)

3D Will be Ubiquitous at CES, But Will It be Good?

If you head to CES in January, make sure you pack your Emetrol along with the rest of the first-aid kit.  You’ll be walking through miles of aisles of 3D TVs, PCs, and other gizmos, and it’s not likely you’ll be wearing your 3D glasses.  Life is about to look very out of focus.

Still, like any nascent technology, 3D has its rightful place amongst competitors in our Last Gadget Standing contest. 3D TVs and monitors, profilic as they are, don’t fit in your hand, so we’re not including them in this year’s LGS.

One big topic among our LGS judges is 3D eyewear. What happens when you invite the gang over to watch the big game?  Bring your own glasses?  Compatibility issues?  One-size-fits-all issues? There’s enthusiasm for universal glasses that cross brand lines and work with all 3D systems.

Continue reading this story…

From Flash to HTML5

At Adobe’s MAX conference this week, the company had a tech demo of a neat idea: a Flash-to-HTML5 converter.

Care For a Little RAID?

Last Gadget Standing nominee: Newer Technology Guardian MAXimus Mini

Price: starts at $229.99

Newer Technology’s Guardian MAXimus Mini is an external RAID (0 and 1) storage systen that protects your data by writing it to two drives. Nothing particularly noteworthy about that. But as the “Mini” in its name suggests, it’s small–really small, as you can see by the photo to the right. It also draws its power from its USB FireWire connection, making it truly mobile. It’s meant for Mac users but can be reformatted to work with any OS.

The MAXimus holds two 2.5 drives; a version with two 5400rpm 500GB disks costs $229.99, and there are higher capacity and 7200rpm options. But I’m fascinated by its highest-end versions, which use solid-state disks instead of spinning platters. A model with two 400GB SSDs costs $3299.99. I won’t be buying it, but I think it’s kind of neat it exists. (And I wonder how long it’ll be until falling flash prices make it affordable.)

320 GB Playstation 3 is the Classic Upsell

Sony’s getting creative with its Playstation 3 bundles, adding a 320 GB console for $350.

That’s $50 less than a console with the same size hard drive and the Playstation Move starter kit, which includes the camera, the motion controller wand and Sports Champions. It’s $50 more than Sony’s basic PS3 with 160 GB hard drive.

I’ve read the opinion that the $350 price point shows Sony’s willingness to subsidize the Playstation Move. On its own, the Move starter kit costs $100, so in essence, Sony is cutting the Move price in half when bundled with a $400 console. I think of it in a different, admittedly unsubstantiated way: Sony’s putting out the sans Move bundle mainly to lure people towards its new motion controller.

Continue reading this story…

Livescribe’s Echo Smartpen Acts Like a Graphics Tablet

Smartpen maker Livescribe has released Paper Tablet, a new app for its $169.95 Echo model that lets you connect the pen to a PC or Mac via its USB cable and write or draw directly into desktop applications. As always with Livescribe pens, you write on special paper (which you can buy or print on your own laser printer) with tiny dots that let the pen identify where it is on the page.

Paper Tablet doesn’t exactly render Wacom’s nifty graphic tablets obsolete–for one thing, it’s not pressure-sensitive, so it’s not well-suited to serious art. But it sounds handy if you need to sign or annotate a digital document occasionally or want to try doodling in a paint program. (It’s not, however, compatible with all features of Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator.) Unlike a Wacom, it lets you write or draw with real ink on real paper.

The app is $14.99 and works only with the Echo (the USB jack on the older Pulse model is on the barrel, where it would interfere with your hand).

Help Us Pick the Hottest Smartphones

Seriously, folks–these days, you can barely move your contact list to your new phone before coveting the next one.

I queried a few of our Last Gadget Standing judges and they’ve got no shortage of opinion on which phones should be in the running for the award we’ll hand out at CES next January.

Some voiced concern about the Nokia N8 being an oddity.  Yeah, well, it’s an oddity with a 12 MP camera (with Zeiss lens) and HD video recording.  Those video watchers amongst us will be intrigued by the form factor; those who are dubious about Symbian less so.

Continue reading this story…

Kindle for Windows Phone 7 Coming Soon

Looks like Amazon has some confidence that Windows Phone 7 stands a chance: It says it’ll release a Kindle app for it this year.

For Apple, Sticking it to U.S. Carriers Isn’t That Important

Rumor has it that Apple is secretly building a SIM card as a way to handle all European iPhone sales and activations on its own.

According to GigaOM, this would allow Apple to sell smartphones directly in Europe. Customers would be able to activate their phones through the Web or at an Apple Store, with no need to ever visit a wireless carrier.

Naturally, the discussion has shifted to whether Apple will try to use its own SIM cards to weaken wireless carriers in the United States. As MG Siegler at TechCrunch notes, crazy demand for the iPhone gives Apple a lot of leeway to push carriers around. Once LTE networks are up and running, Apple could sell its own SIM cards instead of locking customers into specific carriers.

It’s a nice concept, but in the United States, I don’t think cutting out the wireless carriers is in Apple’s best interests.

Continue reading this story…

Verizon MiFi: Maybe the Best $60 I Spend Each Month

Here’s another guest post I wrote for the Reimagine ROI site (which is sponsored by HP): It’s on my Verizon MiFi wireless router, and why I came to the conclusion that paying $60 a month to take Wi-Fi with me everywhere isn’t a luxury at all….

Nexus Two? I Like The Sound of That

I admire Samsung’s phone hardware. And it’s pretty clear that the best way for an Android phone owner to get fast access to the latest OS versions is to own a phone for which Google takes an active role in the software side. So the idea of a Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus Two is intriguing…