Electronic Crossword Game

With our super-duper new and improved Electronic Crossword Game with Sudoku, as well as carrying around thousands of crossword puzzles in your pocket, now you can carry masses of Sudoku puzzles as well!

No messy scraps of paper to mess about with, no need to search through your pockets and bag for a pen that probably won't work, everything you need is right here. The Electronic Crossword Game with Sudoku is everything any puzzle lover could want in one neat and tidy pocket sized device.

Features:
* Qwerty Keyboard and directional keys for easy input and navigation
* 3 levels - Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced
* Requires 2 x AAA Batteries (Not Included)
* Approximate dimensions 355 x 75 x 255mm (14 x 3 x 10inches)

Crossword Game:

* Based on a 13 x 13 grid
* 30,000 clues and over 27,000 answers
* Hints and clues by letter, word or complete puzzle
* 3 Difficulty levels

Sudoku Game:

* Standard 9 x 9 Puzzle grid
* 1 Million combinations
* 3 Difficulty levels, 2 game modes, classic or timed

Electronic Pocket Sudoku

Sudoku is a simple yet challenging logic game that has taken the country by storm. You would struggle to pick up any sort of printed material today without it having a sudoku, or sudoku-esque puzzle fiendishly concealed somewhere within it's pages waiting to ensnare you into this ludicrously addictive puzzle pastime.

The concept is simple. You have to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9x9 grid made up of 3x3 regions, starting with various digits given in some cells. Each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. You are given a certain number of numbers to start you on your way.

The Electronic Pocket Sudoku lets you take an enormous amount of puzzles with you wherever you go without the need of having to remember a books worth of paper, and a working pen/pencil, and so is perfect for those who like to do puzzles on the move.

Features:
* Pocket Sized LCD Sudoku game
* Makes playing Sudoku anywhere easy and accessible
* Requires 2x AAA Batteries (Not included)

Cell phone for the kids

Finally somebody thought of kids and their safety. I am talking about my children too. There are very many children that are younger than 13 and have a cell phone already. How can you control them when they are away? I couldn so I bought my daughter a cell phone that has been created for kids.

An Italian Cell phones company Vodafone with Disney has created a cool gadget phone that will let you control your kids more. Your will be able to know where they are and what they are doing even if they are away.

Most of the kids use usual cell phones that have been created for adults and I am concerned of the security issue. That is why I bought this gadget.

First, you will be able to know who your children are talking to. Sometimes there are some friends that you do not want your children to hang out with. So all you need to do is just to see who they are talking to in order to feel safe for your children.

Second, you can even trace the SMS messages that they write. You can find out who they are sending the messages to.

Finally if you do not like the number that your kid is calling you can easily block the calls to that number. You will have a function of an administrator for your kid in order to control your kid.

The other cool part about this gadget is that the Internet and multimedia services are limited. It will help you save a whole bunch of money. In some cases if they have it unlimited they can spend very much money.

Having all those function this phone is very simple to use. The new Primofonino for kids can be bought in different configurations. The panels are interchangeable so your will be able to use them whenever you need to.

The first one is with 12 buttons just like a usual cell phone and the other one is with 4 buttons. You can use the 12 buttons one to call anybody you want but the 4 buttons on will only allow you to call four preprogrammed numbers.

I think that it is the best choice for a parent that is concerned about their children’s safety and want to control them more. Kids at that age need to be controlled and they need to communicate more so this cell phone gadget is right for your.

Microsoft To Kill Windows 7 Beta On Feb. 10

Computer enthusiasts who want to get their hands on the trial version of Microsoft's next operating system have just two more weeks to do so.



Windows 7 screen shot
(Click for larger image and for full photo gallery)

The company says it will end availability of Windows 7 Beta on Feb. 10.

There are a couple of loopholes, however. Users who started to download the OS before that date will have until Feb. 12 to complete the process. Also, Microsoft will continue to distribute product keys beyond Feb. 12 to users who have previously downloaded Windows 7 Beta but have yet to obtain a key.

"We are at a point where we have more than enough beta testers and feedback coming in to meet our engineering needs, so we are beginning to plan the end of general availability for Windows 7 Beta," said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a post Friday.




Microsoft will post warnings on its Web site that the download program for Windows 7 is about to end starting Tuesday. A final version of Windows 7, Microsoft's follow-up to Windows Vista, is expected to be available in late 2009 or early 2010.

Perhaps due to Vista's unpopularity, computer users have been downloading Windows 7 Beta in droves. Microsoft dropped limits on the number of available copies of the software after a crush of download requests for the new operating system brought the company's servers to a halt during the first weekend of availability earlier this month.

Windows 7 offers numerous new features, including native support for touch-screen interfaces and more than 20 hotkey combinations designed to simplify use.

Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a hit. Vista has failed to catch on with mainstream computer users and businesses have shunned it outright. Many users have complained about Vista's hardware requirements, intrusive security measures, and lack of compatibility with older applications.

Dissatisfaction with Vista has allowed Apple to gain share against Microsoft in the computer operating system market in recent months. Windows' market share in November fell below 90% for the first time in years while Mac OS is now flirting with the 10% mark, according to market watcher Net Applications.

It's all taking a toll on Microsoft's bottom line. Last week, the company said second quarter profits tumbled 11%. It also announced a restructuring plan that will see it lay off 5,000 full-time employees and an additional 5,000 contract workers.

Google, Now With 58% More Ads

Google on Monday said it would announce its fourth-quarter fiscal results on Jan. 22, and at least one search engine market research firm expects strong results.

In a report planned for release Tuesday, Chicago-based AdGooroo says that search advertising data for December "continues to support our thesis that Q4 will prove to be the strongest quarter on record for Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Live Search."

According to AdGooroo, Google led the competition during the fourth quarter with 58% growth in the average number of ads it showed on the first search results page per keyword (4.01 in 4Q vs. 2.54 in 3Q).

Google ran an average of 4.84 ads per keyword in December 2007, but it also has run fewer ads since then in an effort to improve ad quality and in response to seasonal cycles.


Microsoft Live Search came in second, with 3.37 ads per keyword, representing 42.3% growth.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) came in third with 3.01, representing growth of only 8.8%.

Microsoft continued to close the gap in advertiser share with Yahoo, AdGooroo observed, noting that if the company decided to acquire Yahoo, the number of large advertisers on the Live Search network would increase by 157%.

"This would have a dramatic effect on network CPC [keyword prices] due to increased competitive bidding pressure," the report states. One reason for this, the report speculates, is that "Live Search is widely reported to generate higher ROI for advertisers than Google, in part due to lesser competition for key terms."

IBM Develops MRI With 100 Times More Detail

Researchers at International Business Machines have developed a medical imaging tool that provides doctors with 100 times more picture detail, or resolution, than conventional equipment.

IBM's breakthrough magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology relies on the detection of "ultrasmall magnetic forces," according to the company. The process, called magnetic resonance force microscopy, allows physicians to see below tissue surfaces without disturbing sensitive biological materials.

"This technology stands to revolutionize the way we look at viruses, bacteria, proteins, and other biological elements," said Mark Dean, VP of strategy and operations at IBM Research.

IBM developed the technology in collaboration with the Center for Probing the Nanoscale at Stanford University in California.

"MRI is well known as a powerful tool for medical imaging, but its capability for microscopy has always been very limited," said Dan Rugar, manager of nanoscale studies at IBM.



Unlike conventional MRI machines, which use imaging and gradient coils to scan the body, IBM's device detects minute magnetic forces while the sample rests on a microscopic cantilever—a small sliver of silicon that's shaped like a diving board.

Magnetic spins in the sample's hydrogen atoms interact with a nanoscopic magnetic tip, causing vibrations in the cantilever that are tracked by laser interferometry. "Our hope is that nano MRI will eventually allow us to directly image the internal structure of individual protein molecules and molecular complexes," said Rugar.

In the lab, IBM applied the technique to a sample of tobacco mosaic virus and achieved resolution down to four nanometers, the company said. IBM published the results Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

10 Things That WON'T Happen In 2009

As we ease into the new year, everybody and his brother has predicted what will happen in 2009. But that wasn't good enough for the folks at bMighty.com -- we decided to buck conventional wisdom and tell you about 10 important things that won't happen this year.

So, what can you expect NOT to happen in 2009? You'll have to check out the entire bMighty.com slideshow for the complete list, but here's a teaser:

For one thing, DON'T expect Internet Explorer to lose its role as king of the browsers. Sure, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera are gaining ground, but don't hold your breath -- reports of IE's demise have been greatly exaggerated. For every blissful migration to an alternative browser, there are still plenty of users clinging to IE. The statistics don't lie: IE's market share remains almost 70% and it's not going to slip below 50% this year. No way, no how.


And here's another teaser: DON'T expect blogging to be replaced by Twitter and Facebook and Flickr. There was a lot of talk in late 2008 about how blogging had become bloated, passe, corporate, and overrun with flame wars and spam. (True enough, I guess, except for this blog.) And that Facebook and Twitter and the like are faster, more direct and more personal. Also true enough, at least in some cases. But reports of blogging's death have been greatly exaggerated. If anything, 2009 will see even more blogging than 2008, even as alternative platforms grow even faster. The death of blogging will have to wait.

Want more hints? Well, how about an operating system that WON'T ship, free lunches that WON'T stop, a bailout that WON'T happen, and a sun that WON'T come out.

The New York Times On Ubuntu: Half-Right

When an article about Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical and Ubuntu begins with the words "They're either hapless pests or the very people capable of overthrowing Windows. Take your pick", then I'm fairly sure I'm not about to read a good article about any of the above. But that's the first line of a piece in, incredibly, the New York Times about them.

Part of me remains unsurprised by the continually quizzical tenor of mass-media coverage of open source, for the same reason that their coverage of most anything technology-related tends to be lousy. Finer nuances get scrubbed down or ignored entirely, and hard-won distinctions are blurred.

The article in question -- "A Software Populist Who Doesn’t Do Windows " -- at least gets many of the facts reasonably straight. But that doesn't excuse the way the tone of the whole thing slides into needless snark here and there: "Linux zealots have failed in their quest to make Linux mainstream on desktop and notebook computers. The often quirky software remains in the realm of geeks, not grandmothers." (Left unanswered is the question of whether or not Linux needs to be "mainstream" to be successful, which I think is a big part of the problem right there, but never mind.)

And then there were statements that just made me blink: "Ubuntu [as opposed to Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) or Novell (NSDQ: NOVL)] emerged as a sort of favored nation for those idealistic software developers who viewed themselves as part of a countercultural movement" -- which is a little like saying the only reason people ride bicycles is because they're trying to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

There's also some mention of others within the industry (Matt Asay, namely) who don't feel Mark's model for doing things is sustainable without someone like him at the helm and perhaps a ton of cash in the reserve, too. But more than anything else, reading the piece gives one a very strange funhouse-mirror sense of how the whole issue of open source and free software must seem to people who aren't elbow-deep in it every day.

Microsoft Offers Unlimited Windows 7 Downloads

Microsoft has dropped limits on the number of copies of the Windows 7 beta it plans to make available to PC enthusiasts after a crush of download requests for the new operating system brought its servers to a halt over the weekend.

"Due to an enormous surge in demand, the download experience was not ideal so we listened and took the necessary steps to ensure a good experience," Microsoft Windows communications manager Brandon LeBlanc wrote in a blog post Saturday.

"We have clearly heard that many of you want to check out the Windows 7 Beta and, as a result, we have decided to remove the initial 2.5 million limit on the public beta for the next two weeks," wrote LeBlanc, who said the limitless download period would extend through Jan. 24.


"During that time you will have access to the beta even if the download number exceeds 2.5 million," LeBlanc added.

Last week at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer raised expectations around Windows 7.

"We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever. We're putting in all the right ingredients -- simplicity, reliability and speed, and working hard to get it right, and to get it ready," said Ballmer. Compared with the widely maligned Vista, Windows 7 "should boot more quickly, have longer battery life, and fewer alerts," Ballmer said.

Ballmer also touted Windows 7's improved support for networking and multimedia content, as well as its touch-screen capabilities.

Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a hit. Vista, the current version of Windows, has failed to catch on with mainstream computer users and businesses have shunned it outright. Many users have complained about Vista's hardware requirements, intrusive security measures, and lack of compatibility with older applications.

Dissatisfaction with Vista has allowed Apple to gain share against Microsoft in the computer operating system market in recent months. Windows' market share in November fell below 90% for the first time in years, while Mac OS is now flirting with the 10% mark, according to market watcher Net Applications.

Microsoft is hoping that Windows 7, which is expected to be released in its final form in late 2009 or early 2010, will stem the tide.

AMD Updates Its ATI Mobility Radeon Graphics Chips

By Antone Gonsalves
Read the Original Article at InformationWeek

The 4000 series includes a number of advanced capabilities, such as support for Microsoft's DirectX 10.1, the graphics technology available only in Windows Vista.
Advanced Micro Devices on Friday introduced a line of mobile graphics processors designed for laptops ranging from low-cost models to the high-end gaming machines.

AMD launched the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The series includes a number of advanced capabilities, such as support for Microsoft's DirectX 10.1, the graphics technology available only in Windows Vista, and technology for delivering high-quality digital surround sound.


In general, the HD 4800 line is designed for gaming laptops, the 4600 series for more mainstream laptops that need to balance performance and energy efficiency, and the 4500 and 4300 lines for thin and light laptops. All the processors are aimed at standard-size notebooks, and not mini-notebooks, often called netbooks.

The 4800 series supports AMD's ATI CrossFireX technology, which enables a system to run two Radeon HD 4870 or 4850 graphics processors to break the 1-teraflop speed barrier. A teraflop is equal to a trillion scientific calculations a second.

In addition, the 4800 series supports GDDR5 memory, which is nearly twice the memory bandwidth of previous generations, for better game performance, AMD said.

Overall, the latest chip series is the second generation of GPUs built with AMD's 55-nanometer manufacturing process. The products include a number of energy-efficiency technologies, including AMD's ATI PowerPlay, an activity-based power management system that conserves energy at idle.

The 4000 series is expected to ship in this quarter in laptops from a number of manufacturers, including Asustek and MSI, AMD said.

The latest chips are low-power versions of the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series AMD launched six months ago for desktops.

Apple: 10 Things It Needs To Do In 2009 (part5-End)

7. Clarify Policies In The App Store.

The iPhone App Store is a smash success. Introduced in the summer, the App Store opened the iPhone and iPod Touch to sanctioned third-party applications for the first time. Until then, users who wanted to add additional applications to their iPhones and Touches had to either use limited, JavaScript apps that ran in the device's mobile Web browser, or hack their devices by "jailbreaking" them, a risky process which Apple fights with every firmware update.

But the App Store opened the iPhone and Touch, and users and developers responded in a stampede. By December, users had downloaded 300 million apps out of the 10,000 available in the App Store, according to ads placed in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times by Apple.

The App Store is a trade-off for developers. On the one hand, developers get access to Apple's sophisticated online sales and distribution system. No need to set up their own Web stores and provide installation instructions, Apple handles all that. But that access comes at a price; Apple takes a 30% cut of sales off the top.

And Apple places restrictions on the kinds of applications it will distribute. For example, Apple rejected Podcaster, an app for automatically downloading podcasts wirelessly, saying it duplicates the functionality of the desktop version of iTunes, according to the developer writing on his own blog. He added:

Apple had nothing in the terms prohibiting developers from duplicating features currently available on desktop application. I followed all the guidelines and made sure everything is in the correct place. Yet Apple denies me because I allow users to download podcasts just like iTunes.

The developer noted that Apple allows many other applications that duplicate functionality available in the iPhone -- calculators, weather apps, even other applications that download podcasts -- and accused Apple of being unfair and inconsistent.

Likewise, Apple rejected MailWrangler, a dedicated Gmail client for the iPhone, because it duplicated functionality available in the built-in Mail client.

The seemingly-arbitrary rules for screening apps makes it a gamble for professional developers to work on software for the App Store, said John Gruber at his Apple blog Daring Fireball. Developers can't trust Apple, he said.

I believe that a closed, controlled App Store can work, but by definition that requires developers to place trust in Apple. The problem is that Apple is managing the App Store in certain untrustworthy ways. And I mean trust more in the sense of stability than honesty — like in the way you need to trust a ladder before you'll climb it.

Here is a complete list of what Apple must do to increase developers' trust in the App Store system:

1. State the rules.
2. Follow the rules.

Apple changed controversial developer policies at the app store before, in October, when it dropped an NDA requirement that developers said prevented them from sharing tips even with other developers bound by the NDA.

The company has done a fantastic job with the App Store, so much so that competitors Research in Motion, Microsoft, Google, and Palm are imitating the strategy. But success carries with it a unique risk -- that you'll think you're perfect, you're doing everything right, and resist change and new ideas. Apple needs to make the policies at the app store fair and transparent to developers.

8. Improve Enterprise Support

Apple isn't an enterprise company -- it's a company that happens to sell a significant amount of product into the enterprise. Welch, the Apple enthusiast, IT manager, and blogger and journalist, lays out the strange-bedfellows relationship between Apple and the enterprise.

IT managers demand that their vendors are predictable. They demand to be able to sit down with their vendors and get detailed briefings on product plans, months and years ahead. IT managers demand that vendors never stop supporting features once supported, and they demand to collaborate with vendors on designing upcoming products

That's not how Apple works. Apple likes to surprise and dazzle customers, keeping products secret until they're ready to ship. Apple drops features immediately when the company feels those features are obsolete, from the missing floppy drives on the first iMac, a decade ago, to the missing optical drive on the MacBook Air last year.

Apple will never go along with the changes needed to become a true enterprise company.

This month, Apple took a big step, announcing that it's eliminating DRM from its music store. But that still leaves video and audiobooks. And for consumers who've already bought DRMed music, upgrading is costly -- Apple will collect a $1.8 billion music tax if consumers upgrade all the DRMed iTunes music that's been sold -- and it's a hassle.

Apple needs to take a stand and eliminate DRM from its products, and provide people who've already bought DRMed products a cheap and easy way to upgrade.

What does Apple stand to gain from it? They'll give up the cost of developing and supporting cumbersome and useless DRM technology, and the time, money and hassle spent on having to update the technology when the inevitable bugs appear.

And they also avoid a potentially catastrophic customer-service problem. For now, only a tiny fraction of the public cares at all about DRM. Why should they? Apple has a monopoly on the media market, which makes Apple's DRM mostly invisible. "But if somehow the iPod ever falls out of favor with the general public there will be an outcry like no other when they realize they can't play any of their songs on the new player of choice," writes MG Siegler in a FriendFeed discussion.

He adds that Apple is doing whatever it can to kill DRM. They need to keep it up.

10. Stay Classy, Apple

Apple's products beats the competition on quality across the board. Even as the economy slid downward Apple reported profits rose to $1.14 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 27, as sales increased 27%, driven primarily by iPhone and Mac computer sales, according to an October earnings statement. The company also said that it had surpassed during the quarter its goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year. While overall Mac sales fell behind sales of PCs running Windows in November, MacBook sales outstripped Windows notebooks, increasing 22% year-over-year, compared with 15% for Windows.

The iPhone alone is a smash it, the most popular phone in the US, according to market researchers NPD.

To be sure, the outlook for 2009 is sober for Apple -- but what company doesn't have a sober outlook for 2009?

Apple's success comes from a couple of defining characteristics.

The company often succeeds by defying popular opinion and expert wisdom -- things that "everybody knows" Apple needs to do. The blog CounterNotions has a list of 10 blunders Apple avoided over its history, decisions that made the company great. Many of the mistakes required Apple to defy expert advice, including avoiding licensing Mac OS X to clone vendors, and refraining from selling a Tablet PC before its time.

Another defining characteristic of Apple: The company embraces change -- indeed, it's afraid of not changing, Daring Fireball's Gruber writes. "Where other CEOs can't bring themselves to do something different, Jobs can't bring himself to keep doing the same thing," Gruber says.

So the final bit of advice for Apple is to continue to trust its own judgment, and prosper by selling great products.

Apple: 10 Things It Needs To Do In 2009 (part4)

5. Establish A Clear Path Of Succession.

Following his cancer treatment in 2004, rumors of Jobs's impending death pop up every few months. The latest round of rumors were kicked off by Jobs's announcement in December that he planned to skip this year's Macworld. Later on, Jobs disclosed that he is sick after all, but it's apparently not life-threatening).

Last summer, a hoaxter posted a report that Jobs had had a heart attack, and the stock price plummeted.

So far, most of the talk about Jobs's health has been rumor and speculation. However, one thing is for certain: Everybody dies. Including you, me, and Steve Jobs.

Also, Jobs might simply decide to retire one day. What then?


Every business needs a plan of succession for its leadership. That's especially true of Apple, which as a company is an extension of Jobs's vision. Apple needs to publicize a plan for what the company will do when -- not if -- Jobs is unable, or unwilling, to lead.

Jobs's decision to step aside from this year's Macworld keynote might be the first signal that Apple is drawing up a succession plan, says Vijay Rakesh, a ThinkPanmure analyst, according to Wired. In Jobs's place, Philip Schiller, senior vice president of marketing, delivered the keynote. Rakesh says there'll be a transitional period of six months until the new team takes over.

Jobs's life work is a great American success story. It would be tragic if it failed to survive him. Apple needs to disclose a clear plan of succession for Jobs.

6. Develop Low-power, High-performance Processors For Portable Devices.

Apple bought PA Semi, which makes low-power PowerPC processors that could be used in an iPhone or iPod, for $278 million in cash in April. Later in the year, Apple hired Mark Papermaster, a top IBM microprocessor engineer, to head up iPhone and iPod development at Apple, a move that got bogged down in court. Apple followed up in December by buying a $4.8 million stake in mobile chip maker Imagination Technologies Group, roughly a 3.6% stake in the UK company. Apple licenses Imagination's technology for making semiconductors for multimedia and communications devices.

What's Apple doing with all that microprocessor intellectual property and brainpower? Developing a high-performance, power-efficient, ARM-based system-on-a-chip, says the Apple blog 9to5 Mac. The chip would power a netbook, or similar device, with enough performance to run full-scale Mac OS X and with enough power to run for days on a charge. It could also find a home in the AppleTV.

Power consumption, and the need to recharge frequently, are obstacles to getting the most from mobile computing. A new line of homebrewed mobile processors could help Apple get a bigger place in users' pockets and gear bags.

Apple: 10 Things It Needs To Do In 2009 (part3)

A few other features seem a little trickier to implement, but competing products have them, so why doesn't the iPhone?

* The iPhone needs to be able to run applications in background. Right now, only certain Apple-built apps run in the background, including Mail and the iPod app. For everything else, when you switch between apps, the first app you were running shuts down. I find this most inconvenient when I'm updating an app that synchs to data on the Internet or on the desktop; I need to remember to make sure the application synchs before switching to something else.

* The iPhone probably limits multitasking applications to enhance stability and improve battery life; a misbehaving app could slow down or freeze up the iPhone, and drain power. But a little careful support for multitasking would have a huge payoff for iPhone users. Apple has reportedly test-released tools for updating apps in background, but those tools have never made it into production software.

* The iPhone needs to support real-time, spoken-out-loud, turn-by-turn directions in its mapping software. Right now, I carry my iPhone and a Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS on driving trips to unfamiliar places; I'd like to ditch the 350 and just carry the iPhone. Real-time, spoken turn-by-turn directions might be too demanding for the present-day iPhones, and I expressed skepticism in October that they'd ever materialize on current hardware. But Apple just needs to prove me wrong on this.

Finally, the iPhone needs better battery life.

The iPhone does so many difficult things so well, why does it fall down on these apparently easy things?

4. Come Out With A Netbook

The iPhone demonstrates the value of a relatively inexpensive device that's easy to carry with you and gives you wireless access to the Internet and productivity and entertainment apps. It would be an even better device if the screen were a few inches bigger, and if it had a 10-finger hardware keyboard. It'd probably cost a few hundred dollars more than the iPhone, but it would be worth it for the added usability.

The machine we're describing here would be an Apple netbook. It'd be bigger and heavier than an iPhone, but smaller and more lightweight than the MacBook Air (which has a 13" display and weighs in at 3 pounds). It would have a 7-10" display, touchscreen and hardware keyboard, and be about the size and weight of a hardcover book. It'd be the kind of thing you could tuck into a gear bag and take with you everywhere you go.

The price would be between the iPhone, which sells for $299 maximum, and the $1,000 low-end MacBook. That relatively low price would be a factor in the device's portability. It would be priced low enough so that if it got lost, stolen, or run over by a truck, you'd be disappointed but you wouldn't have a heart attack, and therefore you'd be more likely to take it with you more places.

Jobs seemed to dismiss netbook plans in October, saying, "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA won't let us do that." But that statement leaves wiggle room. A netbook doesn't have to be $500 or less.

And a netbook doesn't have to be junk -- although it is, by most definitions, underpowered compared with a conventional notebook computer. A smartphone, like the iPhone or RIM BlackBerry, is underpowered compared with a notebook, but smartphones aren't junk. Like a smartphone, a good netbook trades performance for low cost and portability.

The Mac community has been buzzing with rumors and speculation about an upcoming netbook. Apple analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said he thinks Apple would do well to release an 11" MacBook Air priced at $800-$1,000 in 2009, followed by a similarly priced tablet Mac in 2010. Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil predicted that Apple will introduce a netbook at Macworld in January, although that prediction seemed unlikely, and turned out to be wrong.

A netbook would fill a hole in Mac users' gear bags, and in Apple's product line. Its relatively low price would be especially attractive in this tight economy. Apple needs to come out with a netbook this year.

Apple: 10 Things It Needs To Do In 2009 (part2)

2. Give Users Something Shiny In Snow Leopard

Apple plans this year to introduce its next significant operating system update -- "Snow Leopard," a follow-up to the Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" operating system introduced in fall 2007. Apple's been making a big deal about how Snow Leopard won't have new features. Instead, they're focusing on performance and connectivity.

Snow Leopard will endear itself to IT managers by including out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 built into Mail, Address Book, and iCal. It supports new standards for multicore processors, increased memory, and faster performance of media and Web applications. And Snow Leopard is designed to be slimmer than previous versions of Mac OS, creating more room on hard drives for documents, photos, music, and other data.

But performance improvements are boring. Fast performance is impressive for about a week. Then we just take it for granted.

Users don't just want performance out of an OS upgrade -- they want features. New, bright shiny things to play with.

Fortunately, I expect that Apple will include new features in Snow Leopard. Sure, they're saying now that Snow Leopard is just a performance upgrade. But this is exactly the kind of little white lie that Jobs loves to tell -- he'll go on and on about how Snow Leopard is just a performance upgrade, end-users will be bored by it, nothing to see here, move along, move along ... and then on the day of the announcement, he'll say, "One more thing..."

And if Apple can't deliver new features, at least it can cut down on the bugs. In the months following the Leopard upgrade, Mac users got hit with the "blue screen of death" and "green screen of death." When Apple upgraded to 10.5.6 in mid-December, users reported widespread crashes and blue-screens of death.

Mac OS X upgrades seem to be like Let's Make A Deal' -- sometimes you get a valuable prize; sometimes you get a live chicken. You run the "Software Update" utility and hope for the best.

3. Add Basic Features To The iPhone

The iPhone is like a brilliant genius who can perform calculus in his head but can't tie his own shoes. I like my iPhone a lot -- it lets me access most Web pages, do e-mail, keep up with Twitter and other social networks, take notes, keep a calendar, manage to-dos, take pictures, read magazine articles, manage my passwords, check the weather, listen to music, and watch videos. It's a pocket-sized miracle device.

It does all those amazing things really well -- so it's amazing that there are simple things it can't do.

The iPhone needs a clipboard, so you can cut and paste text and images between documents.

It needs

* A to-do list that synchs with iCal

* To support multimedia messaging(MMS)

* The ability to synch text memos between the iPhone and desktop. (The free Evernote application provides this capability and a lot more -- but the iPhone needs native memo synching.)

* Better email handling. The iPhone's Mail app needs to provide a unified view of multiple mail accounts -- all new mail in one folder, rather than separate folders for each account. And the iPhone Mail app needs to be support messaging flagging.

Apple: 10 Things It Needs To Do In 2009 (part1)

Like the rest of the business world, Apple is embarking on treacherous times in 2009. But Apple faces special challenges: It sells boutique products that cost more than the competition.


However, Apple also has special strengths: Those same products cost more because they're better, and Apple has a fiercely loyal customer base.

To help Apple successfully navigate the turbulent financial waters, here are 10 pieces of advice on what the company needs to do with its operating system, iPhone, App Store, hardware, marketing, and more.


1. Build A Moat Around Apple Headquarters, Fill It With Crocodiles

Apple set off a bit of a foofaraw in December when it announced it was pulling out of the Macworld conference. The decision set off a wave of theorizing why they were doing it. But the real reason is pretty simple.

CEO Steve Jobs's role model is Willy Wonka. He wants to lock himself up in Apple's Cupertino headquarters and not have to talk to people anymore.

Macworld Expo is expensive, and Apple just wasn't getting the payback for it.

More importantly, Macworld Expo is outside of Apple's control; it's run, not by Apple, but by International Data Group (which competes with InformationWeek's parent company, United Business Media). The Apple community expects a big announcement out of the conference, and Apple would rather roll out announcements on its own schedule.

Moreover, Macworld gives customers and developers Uncontrolled communication with Apple, and Apple hates that, says John Welch, an IT manager, blogger, and sometime InformationWeek contributor, in a profanity-laced blog post. Apple "HATES unmanaged random customer contact," Welch says, and clarifies: "Apple doesn't want to talk to you. Apple has never wanted to talk to you."

Apple wants to limit its contact with customers to the Internet and to the Apple Stores, which are as orchestrated as Disneyland, Welch says. Developers get access to Apple at the Apple-run Worldwide Developers Conference in the summer.

Welch is right -- but I don't think he goes far enough. Apple doesn't just want to control contact with customers and developers, it wants to eliminate that contact entirely -- except for the contact involving customers handing over their credit cards and walking off with merchandise.

Indeed, Steve Jobs doesn't want contact with anyone -- not even Apple employees.

And that's the real reason Steve Jobs didn't attend Macworld this year. He hinted he skipped it for health reasons. But the real reason is that he's on an overseas excursion, looking for Oompa Loompas he can replace Apple's employees with.

Then, Jobs can build a big, wrought-iron fence around Apple's headquarters and chain and padlock the gate shut. After that, nothing will ever be seen going into Apple headquarters, and the only things that'll come out are Wonka Bars and Everlasting Gobstoppers Macs, iPhones, and iPods. Forever.

Macworld Expo Rumors, Predictions, Expectations

Leave it to Apple to steal headlines by doing nothing. The big talk leading up to Macworld Conference & Expo, which kicks off today in San Francisco, was all about Apple's abrupt announcement late last month that Steve Jobs will not deliver his traditional keynote address this year, and that Apple won't exhibit at the conference beginning in 2010.

The announcements set off a tidal wave of speculation and rumors. Many people wondered whether Jobs is pulling out because he's too sick to participate. Jobs survived serious cancer treatment in 2004, and since then there have been several waves of rumors about his failing health. Nobody, however, has presented a single scrap of evidence that Jobs is actually sick. It's all a bunch of gossip.

In the latest round of speculation, the gadget blog Gizmodo last week claimed to have an inside source who says Jobs's health is rapidly declining. Apple's stock price dropped more than three points within minutes of the report. CNBC columnist Jim Goldman said the report is unfounded, noting that if Apple is misrepresenting or withholding information about Jobs's health, "someone -- indeed a lot of people -- could be going to jail." The sharp drop in stock price is an indication of Apple investors being "skittish" and having "little conviction" in Apple, Goldman said.

Kara Swisher, writing on the Wall Street Journal blog All Things Digital, scolded the rumormongers in her grandmother's language, calling them "crepe-hangers." Crunchgear suggested Goldman and Gizmodo settle the dispute with a "slapfight."

But blogger Robert Scoble settled the question: "I'm in Palo Alto. Just had yogurt at shop that Steve Jobs eats at frequently. They said he was in a couple of days ago and is in great health," he wrote on FriendFeed on Tuesday.

Good investigative reporting there, Robert. But what flavor yogurt does Jobs like?

[Update: Jobs announced Monday, 1/5, that he lost weight throughout 2008 due to a hormonal imbalance. He said he is undergoing treatment, is staying on as CEO, and expect to regain his lost weight by spring. ]

Yet another wave of speculation surrounded the future of the conference. Macworld Expo is the big annual reunion for the Mac family, where the most committed users, and vendors large and small, get together to network, communicate, and make deals. Apple's big, sprawling booth and the traditional Jobs keynote are like the anchor stores at a mall. Can Macworld survive without Apple? If it does, it'll be a different show than it was before.

But business continues as usual for the Apple community. This time of year, that means speculation, leaks, and rumors about what the company is likely to announce at Macworld. Philip Schiller, Apple's senior VP of worldwide product marketing, will deliver the keynote in Jobs's place. Let's take a look at what he's likely to unveil.

Fixing Linux: What's Broken And What To Do About It

Despite the fact that it's been around since 1991, Linux remains a work in progress. It's not perfect, nor does anyone pretend it is. The places where it needs the most immediate improvement are also a matter of debate: what's crucially important to some is only marginally important to others.

Still, there's no question that there are key areas where Linux is lacking -- not just missing individual features, but things that are actively dysfunctional and which need immediate attention. I'm going to run down several major areas where Linux, as an operating system and as a platform, needs work.

The software that goes into a Linux distribution is dealt with in chunks called "packages" -- whole applications, support libraries for apps, programmer's tools, and so on. Firefox and OpenOffice.org, for instance, are present in most every Linux distribution's software repository as package sets.

Package Management

The way packages are managed within any individual distribution is entirely up to the maintainers of that distribution. Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) uses its own RPM system, the Debian distributions have their own .DEB format; and so on. Within the context of any one distribution, this isn't a problem: if you're using only Red Hat or Debian, odds are you obtain the software you need from that distribution's repository and are done with it.

This is one of the many fragmentation problems that makes it difficult for commercial software vendors to offer their products for Linux. No one package format will do the trick across distributions -- not without hassle, anyway.

To that end, potential program vendors have three choices: 1) devote time and effort -- and money -- to ensuring that their program installs, runs, and stays cohesive on a variety of distributions (maybe just Red Hat, Ubuntu, and SUSE to keep things simple); 2) make their programs available in a given distro's repositories; or 3) provide source-code packages so that the user can compile the code on any target platform.

Option #3 is pretty much out of the question for any proprietary software vendor. #1 multiplies the amount of work involved to get any given program out the door -- not to a degree that makes it wholly unfeasible, but it does add more work. That leaves #2, which has the advantage of making applications immediately available to the user of any given distribution, and cuts down on the amount of work needed by an end user to get something installed.

Because the demand for commercial apps on Linux is relatively slender right now, the problem isn't as pronounced: most people just get their offerings from their local repository. In the long run, though, if commercial apps take root on Linux, it will become that much bigger an obstacle to making Linux a platform for same, especially where downloading apps freely from the Web is concerned.

Windows 7 Revealed: 24 Screen Shots Of Microsoft's Next Operating System

Microsoft on Tuesday took the wraps of the preview version of Windows 7, which will be the successor to Vista. Julie Larson Green, Microsoft's vice president for Windows experience, hosted a demo in which she walked attendees through the features of the operating system.

At first glance, Windows 7 maintains the streamlined look of Vista, but appears more muted -- even Windows XP-like. Mostly, Microsoft seems to be focusing more on functionality, possibly in a bid to put some distance between Windows 7 and the criticisms which have dogged Vista.

The press release touting the Windows 7 preview, Microsoft framed those functionality issues in general terms. As the release words it, Windows 7 will enable users to "work the way you want," "make everyday tasks faster and easier," and "make new things possible."
Regarding that last bullet point, Microsoft explains this means Windows 7 will be easier to connect to cameras, phones, and printers. That's handled in the OS by Windows 7's new Device Center.

Most obviously, a quick tour through Windows 7 reveals its new taskbar, which is sparser than in previous iterations of the OS. From the screen shots, it's clear that Microsoft has listened to criticism and tuned many features, including search and access to security controls. The look and feel of the user interface is also highly customizable.

The version of Windows 7 previewed at PDC is technically a pre-beta release. The official shipment of the final version is expected in about a year's time.

Coalition Aims To Lower DTV Licensing Costs

An effort to trim digital TV patent licensing fees has been launched by flat panel TV manufacturer Vizio and an organization called Cut Fatt -- an acronym for the Coalition to Terminate Financial Abuses of the Television Transmission.

Vizio and Cut Fatt maintain that "excessive patent charges for DTV" have already totaled more than $1 billion for TV sets that comply with FCC standards for digital television. Cut Fatt representatives said the group is planning to file a petition Monday with the FCC with a goal of reducing costs of TV sets. The issue takes on new importance as millions of the nation's TV owners will see their TV transmission switch from analog to digital reception on Feb. 17.

"This is the great untold story of the transition to digital television," said Amos Snead, spokesman for Cut Fatt, in a statement. "Since 2007, American consumers have been paying more than 20 to 30 times what consumers in Europe and Japan pay in royalties for basically the same technologies."

Vizio and Cut Fatt maintain that patent holders, whom they did not name, bundle "allegedly essential technology with worthless patents" and end up charging consumers as much as $30, compared with a $1 charge leveled in Europe and Asia for similar technologies.

The issue has slowly gathered traction since July 2007 when the FCC ordered digital tuners to be included in all TVs sold in the United States. Vizio, which has become a leading supplier of flat-panel TVs in recent months, said it favors the FCC declaring a violation of FCC rules for royalty demands for fees higher than comparable international fees.

"We believe that any patent holder seeking higher fees should be required to provide to the FCC that their license fees are reasonable and non-discriminatory," said Laynie Newsome, Vizio's co-founder and VP of sales and marketing communications, in a statement. "We also believe the FCC should initiate a rule-making proceeding in order to create a set of basic rules that apply to the licensing of all patents that are required to implement the FCC-mandated DTV receiver standards."

The issue adds another wrinkle to the coming switch to DTV, which has been shaping up as a major telecommunications and broadcasting event as millions of Americans seek to prepare for Feb. 17. Already there are widespread complaints of poor DTV reception, a shortage of converter boxes, and confusion among consumers. Consumer groups have complained that some cable and satellite operators are taking advantage of consumer confusion and apprehension to sell unneeded services.

Facebook Draws Record Holiday Traffic

Facebook users visited the social networking site in record numbers on Christmas Eve, according to Hitwise.

Hitwise reported that traffic rose, bringing Facebook 2.18% of all U.S. Internet visits the night before Christmas. That's up from the social networking site's 1.42% average share of U.S. Internet visits in November. The site ranked fifth among all Web sites, up from its ranking of eighth in November.

Hitwise said it uncovered similar patterns in the United Kingdom and with Facebook's chief competitor, MySpace. Heather Hopkins, senior online analyst for Hitwise, reported the trend. Hopkins said she is unsure what seems to motivate users to turn to social networking sites on the holidays, but she proposed several theories.
She said that winter storms could have helped drive traffic in Chicago and several Northeast cities, which drove more traffic to Facebook than other areas.

However, last year, Facebook traffic peaked on Christmas, so users may just be reaching out to friends because they are bored and "stuck home with family," she said. Hopkins said she believes that the most likely scenario is that member traffic rose because people want to send holiday wishes to friends.

Metrics showing an increase in visits to Web sites that offer online greetings, as well as a rise in visits to e-mail providers, seem to support that theory, she said.

Last year, Facebook traffic declined from the holiday peak during the first quarter, only to return to those levels in midsummer and surpass them as the holidays approached.

Israel-Gaza Conflict Spills Over Into Twitter

Twitter's been in the news repeatedly recently for its emergence as a news source of sorts. It exploded on the scene during the Mumbai bombings in India after simmering during the election and the earthquake in China earlier this year.

Now, it's making waves again, this time as Israel and those sympathetic to its cause wage the battle of words against Hamas and those not so sympathetic to Israel's course of action in Gaza.

Last Tuesday, the Israeli consulate in New York held a question and answer session on Twitter (from the screen name israelconsulate) that was open to anyone with a Twitter account. During the Q&A, Israel was subject to -- and answered or at least dodged -- tough questions about the effectiveness of military action, whether the conflict was tied to upcoming Israeli elections, Hamas' role as an elected government, conditions for a cease-fire, and even pointed attacks accusing Israel of Nazi-like tactics.

From another point of view, Al Jazeera has set up a Twitter account called AJGaza and is affixing text topic identifiers, called hashtags, that are marked #Gaza, to all of its posts. Recent posts highlight President-elect Barack Obama's reaction to the crisis, near real-time reports on explosions and fighting around Gaza, and updates on the Gaza death tolls.

Another account, QassamCount, tallies Qassam rockets fired into Israel by Hamas. Overall, tweets labeled with the #Gaza hash are flowing in at a blistering pace with viewpoints and news updates from all sides in the conflict.

Twitter is only one of several social media sites tracking the conflict beyond the view of television and print media. Social media search engines like WhosTalkin and Social Mention turn up reams of online conversation about the conflict.

NASA Releases Final Report On Columbia Disaster

NASA has released details of the deadly space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003 and completed a report on what went wrong and how similar accidents can be prevented.

NASA said Tuesday that it had finished a comprehensive study of crew safety equipment and procedures during the accident and issued recommendations to improve safety for future flights.

The agency said the final report on the Columbia accident, with 30 recommendations for spacecraft design and crew safety, represents the first in-depth study on surviving a spaceflight accident. No one survived the Columbia disaster, which left thousands of pieces of debris scattered in mostly remote areas of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

NASA plans improved training, procedures, and restraints; enhanced equipment; new spacecraft design recommendations; and new accident investigation procedures. Some of the recommendations are already in use in the Space Shuttle Program and the Constellation Program.

A team of NASA employees and outside experts collaborated on the study at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

"The members of this team have done an outstanding job under difficult and personal circumstances," Johnson Space Center director Michael Coats said in a prepared statement. "Their work will ensure that the legacy of Columbia and her heroic crew continues to be the improved safety of future human spaceflights worldwide."

The report, a fact sheet explaining the recommendations that NASA has already implemented, and records from a teleconference regarding the report, are available on NASA's Web site. The teleconference took place Tuesday with officials and investigators from the Johnson Space Center.

Microsoft Windows, IE Usage Declined In 2008

et share suffered in 2008 while competitors' products thrived.

According to statistics provided by Net Applications, Microsoft Internet Explorer's global market share fell from 78.58% in December 2007 to 68.15% in December 2008.

During that same period, the 10.43 percentage points lost by Microsoft accounted for almost all the gains among competing browser makers. Mozilla's Firefox market share rose from 14.95% to 21.34%, an increase of 6.39 percentage points. Apple's Safari market share rose from 4.85% to 7.93%, a gain of 3.08 percentage points. Google's Chrome browser, introduced in September, reached the end of 2008 with 1.04% market share.




Microsoft Windows remains the dominant operating system among the Internet users tracked by Net Applications, but it's a bit less so now than a year ago. The metrics company reports that the global market share for Windows fell to 88.68% in December 2008, down from 91.79% in December 2007.

Windows Vista use grew 16.06 percentage points during this period, from 5.06% in December 2007 to 21.12% in December 2008. Windows XP, however, lost 16.27 percentage points, dropping from 81.49% in December 2007 to 65.22% a year later. Windows 2000 went from 3.9% to 1.47%.

Apple's Mac OS X, meanwhile, gained 3.23 percentage points over the same period of time, rising from 6.4% to 9.63%. Simultaneously, the company's iPhone -- which, like the iPod touch, runs a version of Mac OS X -- saw its market share rise from 0.04% to 0.44%, taking Mac OS X as a whole past the 10% mark.

In terms of its share of the U.S. search market, Microsoft also fared poorly, declining from 9.8% in November 2007 to 8.3% in November 2008, according to ComScore. Yahoo's search share also declined over the same period, from 22.4% to 20.4%. Google saw its search market share grow from 58.6% to 63.5% over the same span of time.

iPhone 3G Gets Unlocking Software

A group of iPhone hackers has released software that makes it possible to use Apple's touch-screen smartphone on nearly any GSM carrier.

As promised, the iPhone Dev Team released an unlocking software for the iPhone 3G on the first day of the new year. The software, dubbed "Yellowsn0w," requires the user to have a jailbroken iPhone with a baseband of 02.28.00, which is provided in the latest 2.2 firmware from Apple.

Yellowsn0w works by launching a payload injector during the boot, or when the baseband is reset. It's describe as a "small program" that's unobtrusive, and the end user won't notice anything other than the third-party SIM card working. The Dev Team said the software can be easily removed and the software makes no permanent changes to the handset.


But the software is definitely still a beta, and gadget Web sites likeGizmodo and CrunchGear have reported varying degrees of unlocking success.

"The iPhone 3G is used all over the world with all sorts of SIM cards, and we almost certainly will see untested and unexpected situations," the Dev Team wrote on its blog. "If the soft unlock doesn't work for you on day 1 (literally day 1, of 2009!) then please don't panic or be impatient. This is new territory for everyone, so enjoy the ride as much as you can."

In the United States, the unlock means iPhone 3G users can use wireless services from GSM providers other than AT&T. But the touch-screen smartphone still uses 3G frequencies that are unique to AT&T, so unlocked iPhones using T-Mobile's voice network would only be able to access the slower EDGE data service.

The unlock may have more appeal for globe-trotters because voice and data networks are more standardized in other countries. For example, an unlocked iPhone 3G owner could forgo international roaming rates when traveling by popping in a local SIM card.

But the unlocking software carries some risks, as it voids the warranty and Apple could potentially disable the device with a software update.