Hands-On With the Sony X-Series Walkman

Sony's finally taken the wraps off its latest addition to the infamous Walkman family, the X-Series. We first saw a glimpse of the X-series OLED Walkman in a glass case at CES. An OLED touchscreen display? Integrated noise cancellation technology? The specs seemed almost too good to be true. I got some hands-on time with the X-series and I was definitely impressed with what I saw.

Some of the previous Walkman models felt a bit cheap in build, so I was initially disappointed when I saw press photos of the X-Series. Its geode encasing looked a bit like those stone Legos I had as a child. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when I saw the X-Series in real life. The build is study and feels good in hand while the design is slim and pocketable.

The headlining feature, of course, is its touch OLED display. Unsurprisingly, the quality is fantastic. Motions and animations rendered smoothly, while colors looked brilliant and accurate. One of the many advantages of OLED technology is that it draws less power from a battery than an LCD screen. Sony said that the X-Series has nine hours of video battery life, three hours more than the iPod Touch.

Of course, you can't talk about portable media players without mentioning Apple's hold on the market. Frankly, I think the X-Series has what it takes to shake up the iPod-centric world. It doesn't try to emulate the iPod/iTunes model (like, ahem, the Microsoft Zune) and instead offers something totally different--Slacker Radio. You can select up to three stations and hundreds of songs are pushed to your device free of charge. And the device's built-in Wi-Fi will refresh your content automatically--pretty cool.

Sony's 16 and 32 GB models cost $299 and $399 respectively, the same prices as Apple's iPod Touch models. But unlike Apple, Sony does not offer an 8 GB model. Stay tuned for a full rated review of the Sony X-Series Walkman when it debuts mid-June.

Gmail Makes Switching E-Mail Services Easier

Gmail is making the frustrating process of switching e-mail providers just a bit easier. Google introduced a new feature for its Webmail service that allows new users to easily import all their e-mail and contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL accounts, just by typing their username and password.

The feature allows new Gmail users to enter their Webmail account details into Google's service, and over the next 24 to 48 hours all their e-mails and contacts will be automatically imported to their new account. A 30-day test-drive mode is also provided, giving you time to decide whether you like Gmail.

The new importing feature is available for all new users, and will be slowly rolled-out for older accounts over the coming weeks. Older users can still use POP3 mail fetching and importing contacts via a CSV file while they wait for the new feature.

Google also added a few more features for Gmail yesterday. The recently-launched standalone contacts manager can now unify all your contacts by importing contacts from Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail and Yahoo in CSV format, and OS X Address Book in vCard format. A birthday field was added upon user request as well.

The Google Calendar app got an update and can now support tasks, in a similar way to how Gmail handles them. While they appear in a separate calendar in the app, Google Calendar tasks cannot send SMS notifications or synchronized with other applications.

Gmail is trailing webmail leaders Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail, with approximately 29.6 million users. It will be interesting to see over the coming months whether this balance will shift with the introduction of this easy to switch feature in Gmail.

Mozilla's Prism: a First Look at a New Firefox Add-on

Mozilla Labs has unveiled the beta of a new application called Prism 1.0 that takes the Internet off your browser and plants it onto your desktop. Prism is both a useful Firefox extension and a desktop app -- the latter for those who needlessly cling to Internet Explorer.

Prism 1.0 works in a similar fashion to the "create applications shortcuts" option in the Google Chrome browser. It culls data from the Web site of your choice and converts it into a desktop application. The app functions separately from the originating Web site, so when Firefox (inevitably) crashes, the desktop app is not affected.

The Mozilla blog presents a few improvements and benefits to using desktop apps rather than solely relying on a Web page:

* New API functionality to allow Prism-enabled Web sites more desktop-like power.
* Capability to set fonts, proxy settings, and other application-specific settings.
* Capability to clear private data on demand.
* Applications are automatically updated when new Prism versions are available.
* Tray icon support, and submenus for dock and system tray menus.
* Full OS X 10.4 support, and further OS X specific enhancement.
* Support for SSL exceptions.

As the first bullet mentions, not all Web sites are Prism-enabled, but Mozilla claims there are "tens of thousands" already playing well with Prism, and hopes for more to come. The mainstays you'll be using -- Gmail, Facebook, other favorites -- are Prism-enabled.

The Prism download page presents two options: You can grab the Firefox extension or the standalone desktop app. The Firefox extension downloads via the Firebox browser just like all extensions. All you need is to reset the browser after the app is finished and a new option appears in your Tools menu: "Convert Website to Application."

From there, you can rename the shortcut, move it to your desktop or your Windows start-up bar, and even change its representative icon (most of the automatic icons are low-res).

The standalone desktop app works in precisely the same fashion, except you have to open it and manually insert the URL you'd like transformed into an app. If you're using Firefox, I'd recommend skipping the middleman and downloading the extension. If you're using Chrome, you have this feature already. If you're using Internet Explorer, first, you need to stop; and second, you can use the somewhat clunky standalone app.

Web apps are a great timesaver for those who loathe cycling through multiple Web pages to find what they're looking for, and Prism 1.0 delivers on this. The extension is perfect but the clunkiness of the standalone app needs improvement. Since this product is still in beta, we can expect enhancements and updates in the future.

Search Engine Wolfram Alpha Focuses on Great Answers -- Not Movie Times

The natural-language search engine Wolfram Alpha is expected to launch May 18 and more details about the site are emerging. Most notably, Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Alpha's creator and the brain behind the computational software Mathematica, says his site is not the next Google killer, but an add-on for your Web searches.

Wolfram Alpha can't help you find movie times, the best deal on a netbook, or a link to the latest viral video like Google can. That's because Wolfram Alpha doesn't index Web pages like a traditional search engine. Instead, the site processes your natural-language query against its database of facts that have been gathered, fact-checked, and organized by Wolfram Alpha staff, according to The New York Times.

When I first covered Wolfram Alpha in March of this year, I said the search engine could only answer a fact-based question that has a specific answer. However, Wolfram Alpha doesn't just spit out one result but compiles a "mini dossier on the subject compiled in real time...It's like having a squad of Cambridge mathematicians and CIA analysts inside your browser," according to Wired.

While having your own electronic research assistant sounds impressive, the site's capabilities do have limits. The Times points out that Wolfram Alpha can tell you how far the Moon is from the Earth and the average body mass index of a 40-year old male, but the search engine is stumped by simple queries like "obesity rate" or "housing prices New York."

Wolfram Alpha's creator, Stephen Wolfram maintains that Wolfram Alpha is a work in progress that will never be a complete storehouse of knowledge since human understanding is continually evolving. Wolfram has even built the notion of constant change right into the search engine's name with the term Alpha, which tech companies typically use to identify a product in its early development phase.

Of course Wolfram's qualifier of "change" could also be a cop out in case the product fails. Wolfram Alpha claims to be the first search engine capable of delivering relevant and specific results based on a natural language search query. But that claim has been made before by many different search engines including Powerset (which has since been bought by Microsoft), Ask (twice) and most recently Google. None of these sites, and many others, have truly delivered natural-language results, and I have my reservations about Wolfram Alpha.

Wolfram's new search engine has been getting a lot of attention lately and some positive early reviews. But the true test of its effectiveness will come when Wolfram Alpha is available to the public in the next few weeks at Wolframalpha.com. So what do you say -- will Wolfram Alpha be the answer to all your queries or just another over-hyped search engine?

What's up, bot? Google tries new Captcha method

Google has released research results about a new test to foil computers pretending to be humans by requiring them to orient an image so it's upright.

A persistent problem on the Internet is screening out automated computer systems that can be used, for example, to sign up for spam-sending e-mail accounts or post comments designed to improve a site's search results. Google, which already devotes a lot of resources to block e-mail and Web spam, has tried a new test to keep the bots at bay.

The test is the latest variation on a screening technique called a Captcha (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart). The idea is that people can often tell which way is up in a photo, but computers have a harder time.

Captchas are in widespread use today, usually in the form of obscured or distorted text that people can still read. But there's a lot of work in the area, including identifying 3D images and distinguishing between cats and dogs.

Here's how Google authors Rich Gossweiler, Maryam Kamvar, and Shumeet Baluja described the image-orientation technique in their paper (click for PDF):

This task requires analysis of the often complex contents of an image, a task which humans usually perform well and machines generally do not.

Given a large repository of images, such as those from a web search result, we use a suite of automated orientation detectors to prune those images that can be automatically set upright easily. We then apply a social feedback mechanism to verify that the remaining images have a human-recognizable upright orientation.

The main advantages of our Captcha technique over the traditional text recognition techniques are that it is language-independent, does not require text-entry (e.g. for a mobile device), and employs another domain for Captcha generation beyond character obfuscation. This Captcha lends itself to rapid implementation and has an almost limitless supply of images.

We conducted extensive experiments to measure the viability of this technique...Our Captcha technique achieves high success rates for humans and low success rates for bots, does not require text entry, and is more enjoyable for the user than text-based Captcha.

The tricky part is finding the right balance between too easy and too confusing. Some images are hard for people to orient correctly, and some have cues--faces, text, blue skies, and green grass--that computers can use to figure out which way is up.

To get around this issue, while being able to draw from the large number of images on the Web, the technique presents people with new images as well as those known to perform well. If people have trouble consistently telling which way is up, that image isn't included in the library.

The researchers like their system in part because the image doesn't have to be obscured or distorted, as in text-based Captchas such as those Google currently employs. But image-based Captchas aren't immune from the bot vs. Web site arms race.

"As advances are made in orientation detection systems, these advances will be incorporated in our filters so that those images that can be automatically oriented are not presented to the user," the researchers said. "The use of distortions may eventually be required."

Faster Bluetooth 3.0 Launches with WiFi Twist

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group today officially launched Bluetooth 3.0 with some big claims for the short-range wireless standard. The biggest improvement for the new standard is speed, which jumps from a top transfer rate of 3 Mbps found in the current Bluetooth standard to 24 Mbps in 3.0, according to the Bluetooth SIG. Faster speeds are accomplished because 3.0 employs the 802.11 radio protocol--basically allowing the Bluetooth protocol to piggyback on a Wi-Fi signal when transferring large amounts of data like videos, music and photos.

However, laboratory tested speeds don't always work out as advertised when used in everyday scenarios. Nevertheless, in an e-mail interview Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, stands behind the speed claims adding that the average user will experience transfer rates between 22-26 Mbps with 3.0. This is a great advantage for devices that use an ad hoc connection, because it means you can transfer data between two devices at high speed without using a USB cable or logging on to a Wi-Fi network.

Other new and notable Bluetooth features include Unicast Connectionless Data giving 3.0 devices improved responsiveness and noticeably better battery life; and Enhanced Power Control which reduces the incidence of disconnects caused by movement such as placing a phone in pocket or purse.

From its All-Hands Meeting in Tokyo today, the Bluetooth SIG said manufacturers Atheros, Broadcom and CSR are already shipping 3.0 computer chips to device manufacturers and 3.0-enabled gadgets should be on store shelves within the next 9-12 months. There's no word yet on what devices will be the first to benefit from the faster Bluetooth speeds. But Foley says he's seen interest from computer and cellular phone makers, and even Television manufacturers.

While it's pretty much a given that computers and mobile phones will employ the new standard, TV makers are not a part of the typical Bluetooth crowd making it interesting to see if any TV makers adopt Bluetooth into their sets. If they did, it wouldn't be the first time TV makers had flirted with Bluetooth. As recently as last summer, LG Electronics announced its 7000-series of LCD and Plasma televisions would let you use wireless headphones via Bluetooth. Wireless headphones are one of the more common uses for Bluetooth, but with the faster transfer rates television manufacturers may find more interesting uses for 3.0.

With faster speeds, Bluetooth 3.0 promises to help increase adoption among users and manufacturers; however 3.0 also faces competition from an emerging short-range standard: Wireless USB. Using ultrawideband (UWB) technology, Wireless USB claims blazing fast speeds of up to 480Mbps between two devices within ten feet of each other.

Yet there is a possibility that Bluetooth could adopt UWB since the technology's guardian, the WiMedia Alliance, last month transferred the specifications for the UWB radio to the Bluetooth SIG and the Wireless USB Promoter Group. "Should UWB prove viable," Foley said. "It could be considered for a version of Bluetooth technology down the road, but at this point it's too early to tell."

For the moment, Bluetooth has staked its future on the more familiar 802.11 protocol, and you can be sure that PC World will put Foley's speed claims to the test once 3.0 devices become available.

GE Crams 500GB of Data on DVD with Holographic Tech

General Electric Global Research says it has figured out a way to put up to 500GB of data on a regular-sized DVD disc under laboratory conditions. GE says its breakthrough was achieved by writing 3-dimensional patterns that represent data onto a disc made of highly reflective material. The disc then acts as a mirror that makes it possible for a laser to pick up the entire piece of data. GE's process doesn't just put information onto the surface of the disc -- as DVDs and CDs do -- but etches the micro-holographic patterns below the surface of the disc as well.

Holographic disc-based storage is a long ways off from consumers, but its potential has many in the storage community excited. Experts see micro-holographic players and discs over time have the potential of becoming a low-cost storage alternative to DVDs and Blu-ray discs. By comparison, the highest capacity Blu-ray discs can store up to 50GB of data, while the most common type of DVD holds less than 9GB of information. GE's eventual goal is to store up to 1 TB of data on the new disc format. GE says its micro-holographic technology is backward compatible -- able to read CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

GE says it is eager to take its micro-holographic technology out of the lab and put it on store shelves. GE says its first step in that direction is to target data-intensive business customers like movie studios and medical researchers, but the eventual goal is to put micro-holographic players in the home.

New Format, New Headaches, New Expenses?

While GE's 500GB disc breakthrough sounds wonderful, will consumers be willing to shell out money for a new disc format. Some early adopters are still licking their wounds after the wake of the Blu-ray versus HD DVD format war.

A micro-holographic format war may not be on the horizon (thanks to reverse compatibility), but will anyone out there really want to invest in a new format in 2011 or 2012 when GE hopes to see consumer devices on the market? There's also the question of whether there will be a big commercial demand for physical storage at all in the future when it comes to content distribution. Streaming content from sites like Hulu and YouTube will only become more popular in the coming years especially as streaming ability is embedded into televisions. Many people are also bypassing physical retailers of movies and CDs and turning to online services like iTunes and Amazon.

However, GE's technology could find an enthusiastic market in the data storage niche. The ability to write 500GB of data onto one disc could be cheap alternative to Blu-ray and multiple DVD backup solutions. However, external hard drives would still remain a faster, safer, cheaper, and more reliable form of backup. The GE micro-holographic disc initially will be very expensive with many predicting the cost will be $50 a disk. Over time, with mass production, that price could drop considerably.

Back to the Future with Holographic Storage

GE may have had a breakthrough, but they are not the first to flirt with holographic technology and other mass storage solutions. InPhase Technologies and Maxell in 2006 were showing off holographic storage technology that was supposed to be available in 2007. Those discs only held 300GB of data, and the technology was also supposed to start with business consumers since drives were priced between $15,000 and $20,000, and discs were supposed to cost $150. Last summer, Nintendo was in talks with InPhase to put its holographic storage technology in the Wii. Call/Recall, a research company, in 2007 said it had discovered a way to store 1 TB of data on an optical disc using 2-photon 3D technology.

Another company called Optware was supposed to have 1TB optical discs out by the end of 2002. Considering that GE's competitors were first out of the gate and still haven't made it to store shelves yet, it may be a while before GE's technology makes it out of the lab and into your living room.