HP's Racial Webcam

A YouTube video succinctly titled "HP Computers Are Racist" received wide exposure earlier this week; Apparently, HP's Media Smart webcam's Face Tracking software has trouble tracking people with darker complexions.

We decided to take a look at the issue ourselves, gathering volunteers from around the PC World office and sitting them down in front of a PC that uses this technology--the HP Touchsmart 300 (see our video review of this HP all-in-one).
Our Tests

From our testing, it's pretty clear that the Media Smart software does have trouble with darker skin gradients. We aren't experts on the technology, so we gathered folks with a wide variety of skin tones (including the occasional celebrity photo). We also sampled the software in several locations--our brightly lit Test Labs, your typical flourescent-lit cubicle, and a dimly lit office.

Our results seem to indicate that the issue has less to do with race, and more to do with how the algorithm handles lighting. In our own video, we dropped some of our test subjects in front of the camera in a dimly lit office. We had each subject try to engage the face tracking software, and occasionally toggled the lighting. Here's what happened:

While the software missed one of our co-workers with a darker complexion entirely, another who was a bit lighter was tracked with ease--under the right conditions. Wearing glasses or approaching the camera from the wrong angle also confused it a bit.

Conclusion

The problem itself is rather minor: Face Tracking on the Media Smart webcam is optional, designed to keep the camera focused on you during your more animated conversations. It's a feature of little consequence, which has trouble operating under the wrong lighting conditions.

But while the original video is more of a sarcastic poke at a technical snafu than pointed moral outrage, adding Race to the equation turns a glitch into a PR nightmare.

OLPC Plans Super-Thin, Super-Cheap Tablet

The nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child wants to produce a touchscreen tablet computer by 2012 that will cost less than $100. OLPC released its device roadmap this week, which includes two upgrades to the original XO computer, as well as lofty plans for a new 8.5-by-11-inch tablet device called the XO-3.

The XO-3's specs

The design for the XO-3 is ambitious. The tablet would be about 0.24-inch thick (half the thickness of the iPhone), with an 8.5-by-11-inch screen, a virtual keyboard, no buttons at all, and a folding ring for easy carrying. It would be made entirely of plastic, and is designed to be durable and waterproof.

The device would use Palm Pre-style induction charging, so it would use less than a Watt of power, according to Forbes. There's no word on software, but the XO-3 would have an 8-GHz processor.

As if those specs weren't enough of a lofty goal, OLPC's founder Nicholas Negroponte told Forbes the XO-3's "less than $100" target price would be $75--the same number OLPC wanted to hit with its earlier two-screen tablet concept called the XO-2, which has now been scrapped in favor of the XO-3.

Lofty Ambitions

OLPC hopes it won't have to develop the XO-3 alone, and that computer manufacturers will take the lead in developing the device. To that end, OLPC will work on the XO-3 as an open platform that any manufacturer can take over, according to Forbes.

Still, the hardest part for the XO-3 may not be its lofty specs, but its $75 price tag. The original XO fell far short of its $100 price point at $199, and that was for a mere rethinking of existing laptop designs and components. The XO-3, by comparison, would have a more powerful processor than most laptops available today (assuming the 8-GHz spec is not a typo), require significantly less power consumption and use many technologies that are still prohibitively expensive.

Take, for example, Plastic Logic's Que e-reader, which is a real device that has similar hardware specs as the XO-3 concept. However, Plastic Logic has been reluctant to reveal the price for the Que, but it's become clear the all-plastic, super-thin e-reader will not be cheap. Then there's the JooJoo aka CrunchPad tablet, which was planned on hitting a $200 price tag, and is now selling for $500.

The XO-3 sounds like a great idea, but it's doubtful OLPC will be able to make its dreams a reality by 2012. But the group doesn't necessarily have to get all the way to its goal. Negroponte told Forbes if OLPC only achieves half of the XO-3 concept, the resulting device could be a game changer with far reaching consequences.

Other OLPC Plans

In addition to the XO-3, OLPC announced two updates to the original XO laptop:

XO 1.5 - The XO 1.5 is the same industrial design as the XO 1.0. Based on a VIA processor (replacing AMD), it will provide 2x the speed, 4x DRAM memory and 4x FLASH memory. It will run both the Linux and Windows operating systems. XO 1.5 will be available in January 2010 at about $200 per unit.

XO 1.75 - The XO 1.75, to be available in early 2011, will be essentially the same industrial design but rubber-bumpered on the outside and in the inside will be an 8.9", touch-sensitive display. The XO 1.75 will be based on an ARM processor from Marvell that will enable 2x the speed at 1/4 the power and is targeted at $150 or less.

Tokyo Students Design a New Robotic Muscle Suit

Students at Tokyo's University of Science have developed a new version of their muscle suit, a wearable robotic suit that assists the muscles when carrying out strenuous tasks.

The original version of the suit, which has been in production for several years, provides assistance to the arms and back but the new version provides assistance to the back only. That means it is lighter and more compact than the original model.

In a demonstration on Wednesday at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, a student wearing the suit was able to bend down and lift 15 kilograms of weights with the assistance of the robotic suit. Doing so without assistance would be difficult for many people and could cause injury to some.

The university is still developing the suit and the model demonstrated on Wednesday was the first prototype. A production version is due some time in 2010.

With its greater assistance the original version of the suit will remain the most useful for heavier tasks.

In a demonstration of that model on Wednesday a student was asked to carry 10-kilogram bags of rice. With the suit switched off he could manage up to three bags before they started to get too heavy to carry, but with the suit switched on another two bags could be loaded into his arms. He quickly dropped the bags when the suit was switched off as without assistance it was too much weight to carry.

Such suits are being developed with an eye on assisting the physically challenged and workers carrying out physically demanding jobs.

Earlier this year Toyota Motor unveiled similar robot-assisted suits and has been testing them at factories in Japan with workers who have to lift large or heavy sheets of metal or car parts.

Ostendo's 43-Inch Curved Monitor: The Ultimate Gaming Display?

If your existing display just isn't cutting it any more, then it might be time to step up to Ostendo's 43-inch curved monitor. This long-awaited display is now available to buy for just under $6,500.

The Ostendo CRVD is an LED-backlit display featuring a 32:10 aspect ratio. It was first spotted back in early 2008 when Alienware had it on display at the Consumer Electronics Show. It was sighted again a year later at Macworld 2009, this time sporting NEC branding. Since then, we've heard little on when to expect the quad-DLP display.

However, Ostendo has been quietly selling the CRVD since August. The 2880-by-900 pixel resolution monitor is available via Ostendo's Web site now for $6,499.

According to early reports, the CRVD monitor is selling rather well; Early adopters include the military, hardcore gamers, and the Crown prince of Dubai. Recession? What recession?

Ostendo posted a video showing gamer playing on not just one, but three (!), CRVD monitors. Watch in envy as he enjoys nearly $20,000 worth of pixels:

Intel's New Concept CPU: 48 Cores On A Single Chip

A concept chip demonstrated yesterday from Intel's Tera-scale Computing Research Program contains 48 cores on a single silicon chip. Using only as much electricity as a single Intel processor, this experimental chip could enable future generations of laptops to "see" just as we humans view the world through our eyes.

Intel engineers envision this multi-core chip as the future of cloud computing. As all 48 cores of this postage stamp-sized chip use 125 watts at their maximum performance, the advent of similar chips could herald a new era of energy-efficient, smaller data centers, making cloud computing less expensive and more portable.

Applications for these chips include the rapid processing of images, allowing for new methods of interacting with computers with a camera, rather than with keyboards or mice. With so much processing power available in a small area, "virtual dance lessons" and more intuitive controls for video games could become commonplace for laptops.



It could be a while before these chips make their way to the consumer market. Intel plans on sharing 100 of these prototype chips with researchers in order to develop software specially honed for the 48-core chip, but details of the prototypes' availability to industry and academic experts are yet to be released. More information on the chip's design and architecture will be presented at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in February in San Francisco.

Slick Casio EX-G1 is Slim and Smash-Proof

Casio today announced the 12.1-megapixel Exilim EX-G1, which the company says is drop-, cold-, dust-, and waterproof, as well as being the "world's slimmest shock-resistant digital camera." The new ultrathin, ultratough point-and-shoot camera will be available for $300 in December.

Casio says that the EX-G1 can withstand all sorts of extreme conditions, including: multiple falls from heights up to 7 feet, 60 minutes of use underwater at a depth of 10 feet, and temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

The superslim camera is just 0.78 inch thick and weighs 5.4 ounces. It has a thick, pressure-resistant, 2.5-inch LCD and a 3X optical, nonextending zoom lens that reaches from 38mm to 114mm. The camera takes microSD and microSDHC cards only.

The EX-G1 features action-minded shooting modes. Interval shooting, for example, allows users to take pictures while they're doing "extreme" sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, and chess) by automatically snapping shots at fixed intervals. Face-recognition, several scene modes, and a standard-definition, wide-format movie mode (848-by-480 pixels at 30 frames per second in AVI format) are also in the feature mix.

Like other recent Casio point-and-shoot cameras, the EX-G1 also has an "Advanced Dynamic Photo" feature that acts like a green screen: Users can cut a moving subject out of a number of images, then overlay the subject on a separate still shot, all within the camera.

The Exilim G EX-G1 will be available in black or red, and we'll see just how tough it is once we get a test unit in.

Five Best Features in the Office 2010 Beta

Microsoft has unleashed the public beta of Microsoft Office 2010. The Office 2010 beta includes updated versions of Word, excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace, and Communicator. You can download it right now from the Microsoft Office 2010 beta site.

Like Windows XP versus Windows Vista, a fair percentage of users never made the jump from Office 2003 to Office 2007. The Windows Vista backlash had a residual effect which led customers to adopt a 'my-current-version-works-fine-why-change-it' mentality.

Well, for those users (as well as those users who have adopted Office 2007), here are five reasons that you should download the beta and check out what Microsoft Office 2010 has to offer.

1. Ribbons. OK. I admit that the ribbon interface takes some getting used to. If you are still using Office 2003 and you are used to the standard menu options across the top of your Office application screens, prepare yourself for a little learning curve when you start using Office 2010.

That said, once you familiarize yourself with ribbons you will find it hard to go back. The ribbon interface is more intuitive and helps you operate more efficiently (after that requisite learning curve we were talking about). Ribbons existed in Office 2007, but only in certain applications. With Office 2010 Microsoft has built the ribbon interface into the entire suite.

2. Backstage View. This feature is more relevant for users of Office 2007. In Office 2007 a round Office button replaced many of the functions commonly accessed from the menu bar such as saving and printing. That button never really seemed to catch on.

In Office 2010, the button has been replaced with something that looks like one of the ribbon tabs at the top. Clicking on the tab at the far left brings up a separate screen called Backstage View. The Backstage interface displays a list of tasks in a panel on the left, but most of the screen is dedicated to displaying the options available for the selected task.

3. Paste Preview. Microsoft collected user feedback and found that very frequently users end up undoing a paste action once it is completed. Basically, the text or image pasted ends up not looking the way the user intended so they remove it and start over.

Paste Preview allows you to see what the paste will look like if you complete the action, enabling you to save some time and energy and get it right the first time. It also gives you the choice of maintaining the formatting from the source, merging the formatting, or pasting just the text with no formatting.

4. Excel Sparklines. Excel has always had a variety of charts and graphs available to visually depict data and trends. With Excel 2010, though, Microsoft has added a new feature called Sparklines, which allows you to place a mini-graph or trend line in a single cell.

The Sparklines are a cool way to quickly and simply add a visual element without having to go through the effort of inserting a graph or chart that overwhelms the worksheet.

5. Social Networking Integration. Microsoft recognizes the social networking trend by adding Outlook Social Connector to the Outlook 2010 application. Outlook Social Connector will let you see emails, status updates, shared files and photos, and more all in a single view. You will also be able to see who your mutual friends are and other information to help you maintain and extend your social network.

As of the release of the beta there are no social network add-ins, but Microsoft promises to release them over the coming months. With the position Facebook has in social networking, and the relationship Microsoft has with Facebook, it seems safe to assume a Facebook social network add-in might be one of the first available.

There you have it--five reasons to download the Office 2010 beta and check it out. There are a number of other reasons as well, but there is only so much you can fit in one article. The integration with Microsoft Office Web Apps, as well as with other recent and upcoming release like Exchange 2010 and Office Communications Server 2010.

This is not a good year to be anti-Microsoft--Microsoft is on a roll. Bing, Internet Explorer 8, Windows 7, and now Office 2010 have all received a fair amount of praise as they have been unleashed. While other platforms like Windows Vista and Windows Mobile 6.5 have not succeeded in generating much excitement, these other software titles demonstrate that Microsoft still has the ability to develop innovative software that works.

World’s longest marine causeway to start construction by 2010?

The Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Causeway, a 40km long marine causeway featuring a 22km bridge and 18km embankments connecting the west coast of Qatar to the east coast of Bahrain, is scheduled to begin construction in 2010.

The $3 billion project was originally scheduled to begin last year in May 2008, however in a statement from Bahrain's Works Minister Fahmi al-Jowder the new deadline was announced.

"Work on the project will start in 2010 and it is expected to take four-and-a-half years to complete."

"Negotiations are still under way regarding the cost and are expected to be finalised by the end of the year, but initial estimates hover around the $3 billion mark. Bahrain and Qatar have already allocated a budget of $500m to start the project," he said.

When completed, the causeway will be the longest in the world and will also boast a 13 metre wide railroad bridge. Travel time from Qatar to Bahrain by car is expected to be reduced from four-and-a-half hours to around 30 minutes.

According to an estimate, the volume of traffic on the causeway is expected to be around 10,000 to 12,000 vehicles a day.

Construction contacts were awarded to KBR, an engineering company head-quartered in Houston, Texas, "to provide design, project and construction management services for the Qatar-Bahrain road and rail marine crossing." Other groups involved include the Qatar and Bahrain Causeway Foundation and a consortium of companies led by French construction major Vinci Construction and the German Company HOCHTIEF Construction AG and CCC and Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company.

Finland Makes Broadband a Legal Right

The Finnish government has done what no other nation has; it has made broadband Internet access a guaranteed legal right of its citizens. According to Finnish news site YLE, The Ministry of Transport and Communications says everyone in the country will be entitled to a guaranteed 1 Mbit connection by next July. This is fascinating, but it's really only half the story.

The real news is that the country considers this just a preliminary stepping stone to a 100 Mbit service guarantee by the end of 2015. According to the story, "Some variation will be allowed, if connectivity can be arranged through mobile phone networks."

Granted, Finland's population is more like a very large city than a country as big as the U.S. There are 5.3 million people residing in Finland, mostly in the south. This would place the country about 30th in the ranking of world cities by population, but it still makes it bigger than any U.S. city save New York. Which begs the question - if Finland can do this, why can't more major U.S. cities?

Sony Launches 250GB PlayStation 3 for $350

Following its recent PlayStation 3 price cut fete with a high-capacity encore, Sony announced today it'll offer a 250GB version of its slimline PS3 for $350 in North America, on sale November 3. The announcement comes as expected after leaks suggesting the model would arrive sometime in October. The new system will be otherwise identical to the existing $300 120GB model, but offer slightly more than twice as much storage space.

The North American model can't claim firsts: A 250GB slimline PlayStation 3 bundled with Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2 actually launched a few days ago in Spain.

In the press release, Sony also revealed its $300 slimline PS3 (PCW Score: 90%) had sold 1 million units worldwide in the three weeks since its launch on September 1. The announcement comes in advance of NPD Group's September video games retail sales data, which was expected later this evening, but per a last minute advisory, delayed until Monday, October 19.

"The PS3 platform is poised for a tremendous holiday season,” said Sony Computer Entertainment America's Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of product marketing. “We kicked things off early with the new price point and sleek form factor and have continued the momentum with this week’s launch of the universally acclaimed exclusive, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The new 250GB PS3 provides consumers with another compelling hardware option and speaks to the growing consumer appetite for digital content from the PlayStation Network – particularly high-def content that showcases the power of the PS3 system.”

Sony says over 600 million pieces of content have been downloaded from the PlayStation Network as of September and points to upcoming exclusive game downloads like PixelJunk Shooter, Gravity Crash, and Hustle Kings as indications its expanding the Store's lineup in anticipation of the holidays.

The PlayStation Network's video delivery service, which Sony says offers 2,300 movies (one-third in high-def format) as well as 13,300 television episodes, will add recently released movies like Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Bruno.

My take: It's about time someone offered more than 120 measly gigabytes to handle our ballooning multimedia libraries. Now if Microsoft follows suit with a beefier Xbox 360 (and gets on board with the do-it-yourself thing, something Sony's supported from the get-go) we'll have a right and proper holiday competition to cheer along.

Notepad++ Builds on Notepad With Geeky Features

Notepad++ (free) starts with the basic text editing provided by the Windows Notepad program, and adds a slew of features to help programmers and scripters.

The tabbed display, which allows for viewing and editing multiple files within one program window, may look similar to the bare-bones Windows program on first glance. But you'll quickly find many options not available in Notepad, starting with line numbers and current line highlights, and progressing on through features available via drop-down menus and a chock-full toolbar.

For example, Notepad++ allows for creating macros to speed up repetitive typing tasks. You'll also find a wide range of "TextFX" affects for converting regular text to hexadecimal or deleting blank lines, inserting file and directory names and paths, or other programmer-type functions. Still more options allow for quickly switching between different text encodings such as ANSI or UTF-8, and plenty of additional abilities also cater to the coder crowd.

Notepad++ is shared via the GNU GPL v2 license. Its source code is available.

Google Editions Embraces Universal E-book Format

Google will launch an e-book store called Google Editions with a "don't be evil" twist. Unlike Google's biggest competitors, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which rely heavily on restrictive DRM, Google's store will not be device-specific--allowing for e-books purchased through Google Editions to be read on the far greater number of e-book readers that will flood the market in 2010.

Google's e-books will be accessible through any Web-enabled computer, e-reader, or mobile phone instead of a dedicated device. This will allow content to be unchained from expensive devices such as Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. However, as democratizing as this sounds, it's still unclear how many people are ready to curl up with a Google Editions title on their laptop or smartphone, instead of the traditional paper format.

Google Editions: The Basics

The new e-book store will launch sometime during the first half of 2010, and will have about 500,000 titles at launch. Under Google's payment scheme, publishers will receive about 63 percent of the gross sales, and Google will keep the remaining 37 percent.

Google also hopes to offer Editions titles through other online book retailers. In this scenario, online retailers would get 55 percent of revenues minus a small fee paid to Google, and publishers would get 45 percent. Google may also create deals to sell Google Editions books directly through a book publisher's Web site, but no details have been announced for how that scenario would work, according to Read Write Web.

Google Editions as Web Apps?

Google's e-books would reportedly be indexed and searchable like many books are now through Google's Book Search, according to Reuters. Unlike titles offered through e-readers, Google Editions books would not have to be accessed through a dedicated reader or special application.

Instead, any device with a Web browser will be able to access a Google Editions book. After you purchase and access your online book for the first time, it will be cached in your browser making the book available when you're offline.

To me this sounds like Google wants to turn the e-book, or more accurately the e-reader, into a Web App. Considering Google's push with its yet-to-be-unveiled Chrome OS and the Chrome browser, turning books into Web Apps isn't a particularly surprising move.

But Is Google Editions a Game-Changer?

Whenever Google gets involved with any new business, the immediate assumption is that the company will be able to reshape the market. From the sounds of it, Google's plans may do just that, since it will make reading and accessing e-books nearly universal on almost any device that can get to the Web. However, Google is not the first company to deliver e-books to your PC. Companies like Buy Ebook and eBooks.com already do this, and the online social publishing site, Scribd started selling e-books earlier this year.

Google's use of the Web browser as an e-reader may make it slightly easier to access an e-book than these other retailers since Google will essentially shun the ePub and PDF formats. But one hurdle Google can't overcome is the fact that you'll be reading your book on a computer screen. And so far, reading e-books on a PC has not caught on.

Sony Develops 360-degree 3D Display

Sony will later this week unveil a prototype 3D display that can be seen through 360 degrees without the need to wear special glasses.

The display, few details of which are currently available, will premiere at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo. The display is cylindrical so it can be viewed from all sides and is 13 centimeters in diameter. The display and its case is 27 centimeters tall.

Sony envisages the display will be used in exhibitions and public areas for advertising or to relay information or used in the home to display 3D photos and other images. However, the screen in the prototype only supports a relatively low resolution of 96 pixels by 128 pixels.

Sony is heavily promoting 3D imaging and has pledged to launch next year a LCD television that can show 3D images. The company also intends to build 3D support into its PlayStation 3 games console, Vaio laptop computers and its Blu-ray Disc players.

The Digital Contents Expo begins on Thursday and will run until Sunday at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, also known as the Miraikan, in Tokyo's Daiba district. Admission to the expo is free.

Diagram Designer Creates Attractive Flowcharts and Vector Graphics

You're doing a PowerPoint presentation and you suddenly have the need to show a flowchart or other simple vector graphics-based design. Or, you want to show a line graph using a math formula quickly and easily. Enter the free/donationware software Diagram Designer, which, through a simple drag-and-drop interface, allows you to create simple charts to your heart's content.

Diagram Designer's obvious use is in flowcharting, creating a simple diagram-based chart that lets the presentation's audience know how a process works in a visual way. Without Diagram Designer, flowcharts would need to be created by hand or with technically difficult software like Adobe's Illustrator. With Diagram Designer, it just takes a few drag-and-drops. I found Diagram Designer very user-friendly.

The nice thing about Diagram Designer's vector-based approach is that the elements of your flowchart can be any size and without losing image quality. The flowchart will be crystal-clear, especially if you save it in a lossless format such as .GIF or .PNG.

Diagram Designer also includes an equation solver and advanced graphic calculator, for those giving math or science-based presentations. Someone showing a proof in math class might get a few extra points out of it if they use Diagram Designer; the results look very professional.

Asus Debuts First USB 3.0 Motherboard

Asus debuted the world's first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 motherboard this Wednesday, branded with the highly memorable moniker of Asus Xtreme Design P7DP55DE-E Premium. Catchy, I'm sure you'll agree.

The new hybrid motherboard is based around Intel's P55 Express Chipset, which does not support the new faster USB 3.0 standard. As a workaround, Asus makes use of an unnamed third-party USB 3.0 controller to make everything play nicely. This move turns a blind eye to the recent rumours that Intel's very own USB 3.0 friendly chipsets will be delayed, potentially slowing down overall SuperSpeed adoption rates.

So this product announcement comes as a welcome offering, despite Asus' disappointing failed dabble with USB 3.0 motherboards earlier this year.

Asus' well-equipped new motherboard offers a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, a very generous ten USB 2.0 ports, along with two PCIe x16 graphic card slots, six 3Gb per second SATA ports, two 6Gb per second SATA ports and a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Since the motherboard can take advantage of the 6GB-per-second SATA interface, ASUS claims that this new motherboard can achieve super-fast transfer speeds, with a 20GB High Definition movie file transferring in less than seventy seconds.

The Asus Xtreme Design P7DP55DE-E Premium will be available next month for $299 and will ship with Windows 7 drivers.

The Internet’s First 40 Years: Top Ten Milestones

While 40 years in a person's lifetime is a very long time, the Internet -- which turned 40 today -- is really only getting started.

Still, like just about any 40-year-old guy, the Internet has packed a lot of changes into its life so far. No birthday celebration for the Internet would be complete without giving recognition to some of the biggest milestones.

Deciding on which ones is a totally tough call, because the Internet has made such a huge impact on anyone lucky enough to access it.

But as I view things, anyway, it's important to pay tribute to the myriad technologies created over the past four decades to connect people to the Internet -- first through modems and then through wireless and cable -- as well as to let them access communications like data, radio, and TV in ways once unimaginable.

So here, in chronological order, is my rather arbitrary list of Top Ten Internet Milestones, gleaned largely from a nostalgic look back through the pages of PC World.

October 29, 1969. Leonard Kleinrock, a UCLA college professor, sends a two-letter message -- "lo" -- to a computer at Stanford Research Institute. The Internet is born.

October 13, 1994 - The -- eventually to be known as Netscape Navigator -- is released as beta code.

November 6, 1997 - Intel ships a videoconferencing system that runs on the Internet (gasp!) as well as on ISDN phone lines (remember them?) and corporate LANs.

February 18, 1998 - The first V.90 modems, enabling Internet access at the then-whopping rate of 56 Kbps, are shipped to stores by 3Com Corp.

Sometime in September 1999 - An Internet-enabled game machine named Dreamcast debuts, pioneering a pathway that will eventually lead to Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PS3.

June 28, 2000 - Metricom rolls out the then-blazingly fast, 128Kbps Ricochet wireless service in Atlanta and San Diego.

August 21, 2002 - Together with T-Mobile and HP, Starbucks expands WiFi access to users at 1200 coffee shops throughout the US .

Early January, 2009 - Yahoo shows off Connected TV, a platform allowing Web widgets to dock on Internet-connected HDTVs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Early July, 2009 - Internet radio services like Pandora, Blip.fm and Last.fm are saved -- albeit temporarily -- when recording companies agree to make royalty fees more comparable to those paid by satellite TV services, for example.

October 22, 2009 - Microsoft's Internet TV, a new service for accessing Web-based streaming TV shows and movies from directly inside Media Center -- finally leaves beta as part of the launch of Windows 7.

Put Verizon's Motorola Droid to Work with Google Services

The countdown is underway to the Droid invasion. Verizon has unveiled the official specs and contract details, and pre-orders are already underway at Best Buy. By this time next week the Motorola Droid will be unleashed and we will find out if the reality can come close to the hype.

The Droid is the first device built on Android 2.0, the latest version of Google's open-source mobile operating system. Android is a capable mobile platform that offers benefits for any user, but small and medium businesses have even more to gain by embracing Android-based mobile phones like the Verizon Droid.

Building on a Google Foundation

For starters, if you are an owner or IT manager of a small to midsized business and haven't looked into Google Apps, you should. Even large enterprises like Genentech and Delta Hotels have adopted Google Apps in place of more traditional solutions like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange Server.

It is relatively simple to set up Google Apps on your own domain. Google offers two different plans for Google Apps: Standard and Premium. The Standard edition is free and serves up to 50 users with up to 7Gb of storage space per user--more than adequate for many SMB's. For larger companies the Premium Edition costs $50 per year per user (but non-profit and educational institutions can get Premium Edition for free as well).

Google on the Go

Google Apps is not yet fully integrated with the Android operating system, but Google says it is working on it. However, the most critical components--e-mail and calendar--can be leveraged from the Droid right out of the box.

Business professionals on the go need to be able to keep in touch and maintain their schedules. Droid provides access to Gmail and Google Calendar as part of its core feature set, so roaming workers can send and receive e-mails, check their calendar, and schedule meetings while away from the office.

Droid also includes Google's newest free service, Google Nav. The turn-by-turn navigation service is integrated into Android. Comparable to portable GPS devices, or iPhone apps that cost $100 or more, the free tool can help roaming professionals get from point A to point B.

Small and medium businesses can also leverage Google Voice for advanced voice features. Google Voice provides call routing, simultaneous ringing of the desk and mobile phone, custom ring tones based on caller, voicemail transcription, and other features for free.

Enterprise Tools on an SMB Budget

Let's set aside all iPhone comparisons. The bottom line is that the Droid appears to be a more than capable hardware platform, built on an impressive operating system, that is capable of providing small and medium businesses with the communications and productivity tools they need while on the go.

Much of the promise and potential of what Google Apps can do and how all of the Google tools will integrate with Android is yet to be realized. But, the basic business functionality of email, calendaring, and voice can be achieved today, and the foundation is there for the combination of Droid and Android 2.0 with Google Apps to rival RIM Blackberry given time.

Google tools and services are web-based to begin with, so technically speaking any web-enabled mobile phone is capable of leveraging Google to some extent. Google also has a vested interest in having users adopt its tools and services no matter what mobile device they use, so there are tools and connectors available for other platforms as well. But, there is no need to try to fit a square peg in a round hole when the Android OS offers the potential of seamless integration with all that Google has to offer.

By embracing Google Apps and other Google tools, and adopting the Verizon Droid (or other Android-based device), small businesses can create a cost-effective alternative on par with large enterprise Blackberry or Microsoft server implementations.

Sony Unveils Vaio X, Vaio CW Laptops

Sony has unveiled the official specs for its super-slim Sony Vaio X series laptops, which the company was showing off last month at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The specs are pretty close to what was predicted, but there are a few surprises--including a lower-than-expected price. Sony also detailed its upcoming Vaio CW series laptops, which are less expensive than the X series.

The Sony Vaio X is sure to turn heads, with its carbon fiber body weighing in at 1.6 pounds. At only 0.55-inches thick, the new Vaio X is a little bit thinner than the recently announced Dell Latitude Z, and a lot lighter than most ultra-slim notebooks.

You will have to make some trade offs for the Vaio X's sleek chassis, though, starting with its puny 11.1-inch LED backlit screen with 1366 x 768 resolution. By comparison, the MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch diagonal screen and the Dell Latitude Z sports a whopping 16-inch display. As for the processor, Sony will only say it's a 2.0 GHz Intel chip. Early speculation said the Vaio X would come with an Atom processor, which would make the Vaio X's processor the Atom Z550, but that is only speculation.

The Vaio X ships with Windows 7, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 64GB solid-state drive, multi-touch trackpad, Memory Stick Duo and SD card slots, GPS (works in the U.S. and Canada only), Ethernet, Wi-Fi (802.11n) and Bluetooth connectivity, 2 X USB 2.0 ports, and MOTION EYE Webcam. The Vaio X also comes with built-in 3G capability, which requires a Verizon wireless broadband subscription. Available colors include black and gold. The Vaio X's body is made of carbon fiber, but the top case around the trackpad and keyboard is aluminum.

Sony Vaio X pricing starts at $1300, which is much lower than Sony's claim last month that they Vaio X would be priced under $2000. The Vaio X will start shipping in November and can be found on Sonystyle.com right now.

CW Series

For something a little cheaper you can try the Sony Vaio CW on for size. This laptop runs Windows 7, and features an optional Blu-ray drive, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce dedicated graphics card, 320GB hard drive and HDMI out, which Sony says will allow you to playback high-definition content on your big screen TV. Available colors include fiery red, poppy pink, icy white, jet black and indigo purple.

The Vaio CW series starts at $780, but looking around on Sony's Website, the cheapest version I could find of the model described above started at $800. The CW Series will be available at the end of this month, likely after the Windows 7 launch on October 22.

Honda's U3-X: A Geek-Friendly Unicycle

Gentlemen, start your incredibly lazy engines: Honda has a new answer for those of us too tired to get off our keisters. Meet the U3-X "personal mobility device," a unicycle-like ride that makes heading into the kitchen for pie as easy as -- well, pie.

The Harmonious Honda U3-X

Sure to excite mall cops everywhere, the Honda U3-X makes the Segway look like an outdated piece of junk that no one in their right mind would ride. (Actually, the Segway already looked like that. Disregard.) The device is a 2-foot tall infinity-symbol lookalike with two pull-out pads for your tuchas. Marketed as a mobility device that "co-exists in harmony with people" -- yes, seriously -- the U3-X lets you hop a squat and zip around a room simply by shifting your body weight.

Honda says its U3-X allows for "free movement" in any direction, be it forward-backward, side-to-side, or on a diagonal. And the more you lean, the faster you go. At least, until the battery runs out (or someone sees you on this thing and proceeds to beat the living daylights out of you).

The Honda U3-X weighs about 22 pounds and is said to run for an hour on each charge. It'll officially debut at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show next month, after which it'll presumably be ridiculed and then promptly forgotten.

Can You Hear Me Now? iPod Volume Restrictions On The Way

Have you heard? iPods in Europe are about to get a lot more quiet. Regulators have released a new set of standards governing how loud portable music players can go, and that means the default max volume is going take a big dip from where it currently sits.

The EU's New MP3 Player Policy

The European Commission's new policy will require iPods and other MP3 players to have a default maximum volume of 80 decibels. That's considered a "very loud" level by most sound rankings; anything above that mark can be potentially dangerous. Presently, most MP3 players go as loud as 115 to 125 decibels.

For some fun comparisons, we turn to the U.S. National Institute On Deafness And Other Communications Disorders (apparently, every shorter agency name was already taken). According to the, er, USNIODAOCD:

• 80 decibels is equivalent to the level of noise you'd hear on a busy city street;

• 90 decibels is lawnmower-like loudness;

• 110 is as ear-shattering as a loud rock concert;

• 120 to 130 matches the level of an airliner taking off -- or, in less technical terms, "GET USED TO PEOPLE ALWAYS HAVING TO SHOUT AT YOU!"

Some Volume Limit Limitations

Now, the new European MP3 volume policy won't make it impossible to pump up the jam (even if you do make dated references to subpar dance tunes) -- it'll just make it more difficult.

With the new restrictions, MP3 player-makers will only have to preset their devices' default max volumes. They will, however, have the option of allowing users to disable that default and venture into deafening territory, albeit with some sort of warning about the eardrum-puncturing delights that may occur.

So what would this warning actually entail? Per the EU statement:

"A dequate warnings for consumers on the risks involved, and on ways to avoid them, including the situation when the original set of earphones is replaced with another type and this causes higher unsafe sound levels. The mandate is not prescriptive in terms of how this is done. Industry solutions could include, for example, labels or digital information on the screen."

(I'm pretty sure they meant "adequate," not "a dequate." Because, I'll be honest, I have no idea what "a dequate warning" would be.)

Sounding Off

Personally, I think it's great that users will still be able to ignore the advice and subject themselves to harmful decibel exposure. It's perfectly permissible for someone to ruin his own lungs with heavy smoking, after all, or to ruin his own liver with heavy drinking. Why draw a distinction with eardrums?

Seriously, though, the new visual warnings should be a good step toward ensuring people are at least aware of the dangers of rockin' out earbud-style. Unless, of course, they've already had their eyesight damaged by an exploding iPod. Then they're just totally screwed.

Microsoft Security Essentials Launched

If you can't wait to get your hands on Microsoft's upcoming free antivirus app, and you missed the limited public beta period, you won't have to wait any longer. Microsoft has confirmed that its Security Essentials antivirus software will be publicly available tomorrow, September 29.

The download isn't yet available as of this writing, but you'll be able to get it from Microsoft's Security Essentials site. It'll be avaliable for users of Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

Microsoft first announced Security Essentials--code-named "Morro"--late last year, as a free replacement to the paid Windows Live OneCare. The announcement shook up the free antivirus market, and led some to wonder if Microsoft would ultimately end up dominating the desktop security market.

In late June Microsoft offered a limited public beta of Security Essentials. In my initial hands-on, I found the Security Essentials beta to be well designed and easy to use. The main interface uses a single window with four tabs, and a color-coded status bar across the top, so you can see if your PC is protected at a glance.

The Security Essentials public beta also took fourth place in our recent roundup of free antivirus software. Microsoft Security Essentials beta detected 97.8 percent of malware in tests conducted by AV-Test.org, which is decent score compared to other, similar free antivirus tools. Malware scans were a bit on the sluggish side, though, taking longer to scan than a number of competing products.

But Security Essentials has a lot going for it, though it isn't perfect. As our reviewer Erik Larkin put it when he looked at the beta, "If Microsoft can improve the detection rate a bit--and rev up the scan speed more than a bit--before the program's final release, Security Essentials could turn out to be a real contender in the free antivirus arena".

T-Mobile Announces Motorola Cliq

Motorola's entry into the Android game, the Motorola Cliq, is coming just in time for the holidays. The Cliq will be available to existing T-Mobile customers October 19 and everybody else on November 2. The $200 pricetag is comparable to the iPhone 3GS, but $20 more than Sprint's HTC Hero (also an Android phone) and $100 more than the Palm Pre. With less expensive options out there, will the Cliq shake up the competition?

While I only used the Cliq briefly, I could tell already that I liked its design best out of all the Android phones out there. Like the G1, it has a keyboard and a touch screen. A physical keyboard is necessary as the native touch keyboard on the current version of Android is far from perfect (as we found out in our review of the T-Mobile myTouch and the HTC Hero).

The Cliq's keyboard is even better than the G1's, though. For one, the keys are more raised and easier to press than the G1's. The Cliq also doesn't have that annoying inset as seen on the G1. Other things we liked about the hardware: The gorgeous 3.1-inch touch screen (which showcases the MOTOBLUR UI beautifully), the 3.5-mm headphone jack and the 5-megapixel camera.

The Motorola Cliq will also be the first phone to showcase MOTOBLUR, Motorola's skin for Android. While Android is easy enough to use, it lacks the aesthetics and slickness of some other OS's. MOTOBLUR to the rescue: The UI is clean and intuitive and isn't overdone with too much fluff. It is also highly customizable and doesn't look like any OS out there. I'm curious to see how it stacks up to HTC's UI on the Hero, which also impressed us.

Android and Motorola have enough appeal to sway customers from the iPhone or other less expensive offerings? Check back soon for a full rated review of the Motorola Cliq in coming weeks.

Five Reasons to Dive Into Google Wave

Google is inviting another 100,000 people to play in the Google Wave test pool. The developing duo of Jens and Lars Rasmussen envision Wave revolutionizing online communication and collaboration. I am not sure it will be revolutionary, but at first blush it seems at least evolutionary and worth taking a closer look at.

Google Wave is part social networking, and part unified communications, and all Google. Wave combines email, instant messaging, blogging, document sharing, wikis, and multimedia content to provide a seamless communications platform.

Unless you're one of the lucky (relatively) few invited by Google, you can't play with Wave just yet. But, I'll give you five reasons you should be anxiously looking forward to giving Google Wave a try:

1. Single Point of Access. Many of the functions of Google Wave already exist, but require logging into separate applications- email, instant messaging, office productivity, blogging, etc. Google Wave will provide you with one platform that ties all of these separate applications together.

2. Next-Generation Communication. A Wave is part email, part instant message, and part document. It combines text, photos, video, maps, and other elements into a single communication stream, enabling richer, more dynamic conversations.

Wave really blurs the line between the various methods of communication you are used to. You can instantly add new participants to a wave by dragging them from your contact list. You can also link to other waves, photos, and other content elements by simply dragging them into the wave.

3. Real-time Sharing and Collaboration. Arguably the most compelling aspect of Google Wave is the real-time collaboration functionality. Wave participants can comment inline and the statements are accompanied by the user's avatar and a timestamp allowing you to easily identify who said what, when.

Users can see text appear in the wave as it is being typed- even as they typo and backspace to correct the text. Wave participants can view and edit the same content at the same time-collaborating in real-time.

Even cooler is the Playback function which allows new participants who just joined the wave to play the wave stream back post by post. They can add comments and edit text as they go through the stream and get caught up on their own schedule so they can join the real-time conversation.

4. The Wave Lives On. A wave is like an email or instant message on steroids. The entire wave has a life of its own. Participants on the wave are notified as the wave is updated or modified, and the wave can be easily searched based on any content of the wave-dynamically updating potential results as you type.

You can link to waves from other email and instant messaging clients, and you can also embed waves within web sites or social networking services using Google Wave API's.

5. Its in the Cloud. One of the things that Google has always brought to the table is Web-based access. Not only is it nice to combine email, instant messaging, and other online communications in one place-it is also nice to be able to access the platform seamlessly from anywhere in the world. Have Web access? You can Wave.

It still remains to be seen if Google Wave is a competitor for social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, or if it's a unified communications tool competing against Microsoft and Cisco. If it's as revolutionary as Google makes it sound, perhaps it is all of the above and none of the above at the same time.

Will Google Wave Be Another Heartbreaker?

Google Wave is another grab for the Holy Grail of collaborative computing. But, will it be more successful than previous attempts?

Whenever you see something compared to Lotus Notes, as Google Wave has been, you know to expect an uphill slog. Add a comparison to Microsoft Groove, which I have not seen but seems reasonable, and you can expect deep trouble.

Both Notes and Groove are wonderful, innovative applications that have never caught on as I had hoped. Why? They are too difficult to use and develop for. They were way ahead of their time.

Maybe Google Wave, a workplace collaboration application that is being rolled out to an additional 100,000 beta testers, has arrived at the right time, finding the right mix of power vs. ease-of-use, and the right metaphor for delivering it.

We have an excellent story that offers "Five Reasons To Dive Into Google Wave." That is, if you can find a way to get into the beta.

The big question: Can Google Wave succeed where seemingly every collaboration application that has gone has failed?

I would love to say yes, but these applications have been a heartbreak for me. Lotus Notes is, arguably, one of the coolest applications ever. Likewise Groove, another gem from the fertile mind of Microsoft's Ray Ozzie.

Yet, both are what I call "head scratcher" applications. In that, after looking at them, people are prone to scratch their heads and wonder, "What can I do with that?" Then, once they decide, realize that Lotus Notes and Groove implementations are not nearly as easy to accomplish and they hoped.

Wave may have solved this problem. The user interface makes sense, from what I have seen, and it does not seem to overreach, which is a problem both Notes and Groove suffer from.

At the same time, Google's online applications are not particularly inspiring. Sure, Gmail offers neat filters, but that isn't much to hang an app on. Wave needs to be much more exciting than what Google has done so far if it is to succeed big time.

Nevertheless, success is out there. Collaboration really is a Holy Grail of software. Everyone knows they need to collaborate better and most think a computer should be able to help.

If Google Wave is the collaboration platform that people have been waiting on, Google's success as a search engine may become known as its second-greatest accomplishment.

30 Web Design SEO Tips for Web Masters

Tip No. 1 - Study and read everything possible about advanced SEO techniques right from the start of your project.

Tip No. 2 - Always keep in mind that designs are cool, but what is equally important is the code that goes behind it.

Tip No. 3 - Always keep the code optimized, check for W3C compliance right from the start.

Tip No. 4 - Follow the basics, titles, meta tags are still important if not ignored, so keep space for them.

Tip No. 5 - Keep a horizontal directory structure, don’t go too deep with them, the search engines likes easy access to any file in the quickest time.

Tip No. 6 - When you name the files and directories, keep it descriptive and simple. Keep away numbers and weird characters.

Tip No. 7 - Images better be optimized for size, and quick loading. If you can’t keep away from loading that fancy graphic, mix it with the page elements. Don’t make them look blunt.

Tip No. 8 - Make room for a lot of text. As you already know, search engines love text, lot of them.

Tip No. 9 - Flash files are cool. And Search engines have found better ways to crawl and index them unlike old times, but that doesn’t mean you can use them extensively blocking access to relevant text info. So if you are keen on using flash, keep alternate text versions ready.

Tip No. 10 - If you have dynamic content, make sure you keep it simple and split to parts. Also, make sure you have optimized static pages for your primary keywords.

Tip No. 11 - Always do a bit of competition analysis. See what your competition is, if they have a minimalistic design you don’t want to have a flash design, and leaving no room for improvement. Stalk your competition.

Tip No. 12 - Many web designers make the mistake of using a template through out the site and many a times this includes repeating the same title or similar page titles all over the site. Get over this, use descriptive page titles everywhere possible.

Tip No. 13 - Keep the page titles to 65 characters or less in count. Nothing wrong is going over it, but you could avoid a spill over.

Tip No. 14 - The meta descriptions are supposed to be mini ad-copies that should be descriptive of what the page is about. Don’t keep them the same for all pages.

Tip No. 15 - Keep the JavaScript away from navigation menu. Navigation menu is a good resource for gathering information about what your site is about, and using javascript can make it less crawlable by the engines.

Tip No. 16 - Use CSS based navigation if you want fancy effects. Pretty much all of the javasript stuff can be done on CSS, in a more search engines friendly way.

Tip No. 17 - Use the header tags effectively. Don’t limit yourself with H1 and H2. Use H3, H4 and beyond and use it wisely on the page.

Tip No. 18 - Use strong tags wisely. Don’t let them stand out like bolded text, within the content, style it down to show up as normal text within the content.

Tip No. 19 - Use the footer effectively. Of course, you can use it for all your TOS/Legal stuff, but also use it to link to the important pages on your site. It helps.

Tip No. 20 - Identify the most important pages on your site as seen by the search engines, and leverage them to promote other resource pages.

Tip No. 21 - Link well internally, and use descriptive anchor text instead of “click here” and “check this out” like phrases.

Tip No. 22 - Use al tags, Title tags on images and use descriptive filenames. They help search engines find more information about them.

Tip No. 23 - Use a SEO friendly layout, at least one that does not block or hinder the crawling of crucial areas on your site.

Tip No. 24 - Find out the important areas on your website, like the content rich area in the center and keep them above the fold. Not only helps the engines but the user as well.

Tip No. 25 - When designing dynamic pages, try to stick to pages with descriptive URLs and not the one with session ids and other parameters. Google can still get it’s head around them, but its good if you can stick to SE friendly, descriptive ones.

Tip No. 26 - When dealing with CMS’s there might be instances where you have to keep the page URL the default way with the extra parameters. Use URL rewrite mod to re write the most important pages URL’s to SE friendly form.

Tip No. 27 - When using AJAX, load the modules in parts split across pages and not in one single page. Although this defeats the purpose of using AJAX in the first place, you might be able to provide more information to the search engines using other on site SEO parameters.

Tip No. 28 - If you want to block any particular area on your site from the reach of Google spiders, use either Robots.txt commands, or else set up a login access. This is the safest way to block crawlers from spidering vital information.

Tip No. 29 - Keep the meta descriptions descriptive and precise to about 150 characters.

Tip No.30 - Use an SEO simulator to test your design through out the process. And make sure no part of the design blocks/hinders any part of information being accessible to the search engines. So essentially, web designers got to ensure that while their designs are unique and eye-catchy, making sure that there is enough information available in the form of text is always recommended, and leveraging this information by using all the possible SEO metrics in a healthy and balanced way to cater to the search engines is the right way of designing a search engine friendly web design.