Industry Standard Views & Analysis

Should You Use Standby or Hibernate?

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:20:16 -0800

It's an age-old question: When you're done using your laptop, or just taking a break from work, should you put it to sleep, let it hibernate, or turn it all the way off?

Allow me to answer by way of a mnemonic: hibernate is great. You see, sleep mode (a.k.a. standby) puts your system into an off-like state, allowing you to pick up where you left off after just a few seconds (unlike rebooting, which can take minutes). But a PC in standby mode continues to consume battery power, so it's not uncommon to return to a "sleeping" PC to find that it's just plain dead.

Hibernate, on the other hand, writes your machine's current state to a temporary hard-drive file, then shuts down completely (much like "off"). When you start it up again, it loads that file and returns you to where you left off--no booting required.

Both ends of the hibernate process take a little longer than standby (usually 10-20 seconds, in my experience), but you avoid any of the issues that can arise when Windows suddenly loses power. What's more, standby is a notoriously flaky mode. I've encountered plenty of systems that refuse to wake up properly, so you end up losing whatever work you were trying to preserve.

Consequently, unless you're running your laptop on AC power, I recommend using hibernate most of the time.

And here's a handy related tip: You can change the function of your laptop's power button so that pressing it automatically activates hibernation.

Green Computing: The Good And The Bad

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:18:36 -0800

It's becoming increasingly easier to make your PC setup more eco-friendly, thanks to a wide range of both software and hardware solutions available to help you go green.

The green-computing movement, which begin with the Energy Star program back in 1992, strives to ensure that the computer industry adopts various environmentally sustainable practices, such as creating more environmentally sound products and ensuring that those products' manufacturing processes, overall design, everyday use and eventual disposal have as small an environmental impact as possible.

It's no secret that not every manufacturer is as eco-centric as they could be, but with the help of certain product makers and a handful of selected software, you can do your part.

Bad Eco-Design

One example of poor eco-design comes courtesy of the new USB Eco Button.

Saving some money on your energy bills is one thing, but saving the entire planet is a much more admirable goal. Unfortunately the recently released USB Eco Button, which promises to save both the planet and your wallet, fails on both counts, adding to the ever-growing list of useless gadgets.

The device, which is essentially a USB-powered plastic button, puts any Windows based machine, except those running Windows 7, into a low-power energy saving mode. Once activated, the included software will then monitor your computers power usage, in addition to recording how much CO2 the Eco Button has saved.

The problem? The Eco Button is largely unnecessary, since such low-power modes can be implemented via software-only fixes. Considering the materials and energy used to manufacture it, the Eco Button could be doing more harm than good. The final icing on this not-so-green cake? The $14 'Eco Button' seems to be a second-rate imitation of another previously released--and trademarked--'Ecobutton'.

That said, there are numerous other ways to green up your OC.

Environmentally Sound Solutions

Lowering your CO2 emissions (and in turn, your bills) by reducing your power consumption can be achieved by turning to more environmentally friendly products and services. Francine Kizner looks at how you can make your office more green with this run-down of eight handy eco-gadgets, but for those more concerned with going green at home be sure to read over the following tips:

Manage Your PC's Power Usage With Eco Software

Now that we've established that you do not need a plastic button to put your computer to sleep,here are a number of programs can do the job by putting your PC into the deepest sleep possible without compromising your session:

Edison from Verdiem - Free energy monitoring software that can help reduce your PC's power usage.
PowerManager 3 from DSSW - A Mac-only power management app, which aims to save you hundreds of kilowatts-per-hour (kWh) per year. A free 30-day trial is available.
WatchOverEnergy from AKS-Labs - Although now a fairly old piece of freeware, this Energy Star approved Windows only program could help you save up-to $75 per year in energy thanks to its power management tools.
PowerSave - Available for both PC and Mac, PowerSave promises intelligent power management. Free trial available.
BizEE Benchmark from BizEE Software - Although aimed primarily at business users, this software can be tweaked for home use, creating your very own home energy audit.
JSutils - JSutils has a range of energy saving software worth checking out.

In addition to the various software solutions, the major OSes all have built-in power-saving modes, such as OS X's Energy Saver and Windows' Power Options control panel and sleep mode, which my colleague Jason Cross discusses in greater detail here.

Switching To Green Hardware

Changing your PC's various components, amongst other gadgets, to greener alternatives is another way to reduce your environmental impact. Apple is well-known for its recent green efforts, even managing to please Greenpeace this year and moving up a place in their rankings. Sony Ericsson has also been getting in on the eco-act this year with greener cell phones. Unfortunately due to the economic downturn the interest in tweaking products to be green has decreased, but some companies are still offering ecological hardware options:

Western Digital - WD offers a whole range of green hard drives, which promise to save, on average, 4 or 5 watts over other similar drives.
MSI - Last year MSI introduced the Wind board, a motherboard aimed designed to save power. When idle, it uses 10% less power than comparable products.
Antec - Antec provide a variety of power supply units (PSU) that boldly claim to be amongst the most power efficient PSU's on earth.
NEC - A recent offering from NEC is the new eco-conscious MultiSync 17-inch monitor. It has a special eco-mode designed to save over 42% in power versus similar speced monitors. It also has an Energy Star approval.

By using some of the products mentioned above , along with various other alternatives, you can save yourself some money over time, while doing your bit for Planet Earth.

Have you gone green, or do you make use of some green products when it comes to computing? Be sure to let us know in the comments and share your eco-experience.

Follow GeekTech and Chris Brandrick on Twitter.

Q&A: isoHunt founder says P2P can help create post-piracy world

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:41:30 -0800

Gary Fung founded BitTorrent search engine isoHunt.com in 2003 when he was a 19-year-old student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. With the demise of The Pirate Bay , isoHunt is now the second most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing site today behind Mininova , and ranked in the top 250 Web sites in the world by both Alexa and Quantcast.

Fung talked with Computerworld about how isoHunt has evaded legal trouble so far, why he holds out hope of working together with Hollywood and the music industry, and how he's launched a new P2P site for just that purpose.

How did you start isoHunt? I was studying engineering and physics at UBC when I started isoHunt. I just wanted to learn some new programming.

Were you an active file-sharer? Not really. Frankly, I wasn't even using Napster back then. But I saw how potentially disruptive P2P was to the entertainment industry and content distribution in general. There was a gap in terms of a good search engine for file-sharing networks. Google was getting big back then, but wasn't yet on top. Neither Pirate Bay nor MiniNova were around yet.

How is isoHunt different from them? The Pirate Bay gathered the torrents that point to files and hosted them on its own servers on something called a BitTorrent tracker. A tracker is like a traffic cop for content: it tells a downloader who else has the content you're looking for.

Pirate Bay also categorized torrents for easier browsing. Both BitTorrent trackers and categorization are touchy issues, legally. Because the law is all about intent, whether you are intentionally leading people to copyright infringement.

isoHunt is a search engine, which most of the others are not. We go out and index the torrents on other BitTorrent trackers, including MiniNova, LegalTorrent.com and others: sites with Creative Commons-licensed music, as well as BitTorrent sites with just Linux and open-source software.

As a search engine, we don't host torrents, nor do we edit or categorize them. We just link back to the sites hosting the torrents, as well as cache a copy of those torrents.

Google does the same thing. If you go to Google and type in a TV show's name and add "filetype:torrent" you will see torrents, too.

I don't think isoHunt would be better as a directory. You saw the competition between directories versus search engines: Yahoo versus Google. We all know how that went.

How big is IsoHunt today? We get 30 million unique visitors a month. And I think we are the largest site in terms of quality and quantity of torrent files in our index.

We use the open-source Lucene software for search. We've done a lot of custom tricks to improve it.

Our index takes up 30 GB on MySQL databases. We program in PHP. PHP has its problems, but it has a lot of history, a lot of libraries, and is very fast. The fact that we have only 14 servers in Toronto is testimony to how fast PHP is.

Counting me, there are 5 employees. There are two systems administrators and two developers and me. I develop and do a whole bunch of other stuff.

And you make money by selling ads? Our ads are mostly general, though some advertisers will try to target younger, technical audiences. So we get some ads for consumer electronics.

I saw an ad for Qwest Communications. Who would've placed that ad? Some ad agency, though there are a lot of different intermediaries. But Qwest should be aware -- and they're not complaining. So you can draw your own conclusion.

Any other big-name advertisers? I'd rather not say, because mentioning it might raise more eyebrows.

Have you turned away a lot of adult advertising? Yes, we try to make our site as clean as possible. We don't do gambling ads, we don't do adult ads, no prescription Viagra ads, which is common for a lot of other [P2P] sites.

We also don't allow pop-up ads, or anything malicious, like ActiveX embedded ads. When we see those being slipped into advertising networks, we try to hunt them down.

We do allow Flash ads, as long they don't do anything super-annoying like flash, shake or start a song without people mousing over or clicking on them.

Is it lucrative enough to justify all of the risk? We have a lot of volume, but our monetization is below average, because, frankly, we face a lot of stigma.

But times are changing. Look at Hulu.com and YouTube, that kind of social and viral video-sharing is where the market is heading.

P2P has a bad name now. But more and more people are using it, and more legitimate content is being shared on it. And more advertisers will become receptive.

isoHunt faces lawsuits from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). I'd be pretty frightened to go up against their high-paid lawyers. What gives you the guts to do it? Because there's no other choice. Think of the Jammie Thomas case in Minnesota -- that woman got a $1.9 million fine for downloading music. It is quite apparent that if we don't fight, then they would get a default judgment, and a similarly ridiculous number would be thrown at us. So I really don't see any choice but to fight them.

What do your parents think about having such powerful enemies at such a young age? Worried, I suppose, for sure. Otherwise, it's the cost of doing business.

Still, I'm surprised that how long you've been able to resist, considering you're just across the border. Maybe we are lucky, or maybe we are doing something right. We have been fighting lawsuits longer than any other group still standing -- 3 years now. Pirate Bay and TorrentSpy have both been shut down, but our case still hasn't even gone to trial.

I don't know if you can call that victory or not. But I think it makes a difference that we are a search engine like Google. Thus, we have a lot of immunity under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and its Safe Harbor provisions. Also, we work with copyright owners to take down infringing content as prescribed by U.S. copyright law.

There are horror stories about malware on P2P sites or in the files themselves. How do you combat that? We mostly rely on user reports. Some of the really shady advertisers try to sneak in malicious ads from time to time. We work with ad networks to locate them.

We can't do anything about viruses or malware in the files being shared. But we do have a fairly good system for users to comment on and rate files. They show up next to the search results. If you see a negative rating, you can guess that it might be a fake file. We can't do those kinds of checks ourselves.

Do you think Hollywood or record companies will seed P2P networks with dud files? Yes. There were those e-mail leaks that showed MediaSentry working with Hollywood to send out fake files to P2P. It's a prime example of how the content industry sends out their own fake files to entrap users, either to sue them or annoy them into thinking P2P is not easy.

This goes back to our legal fight. They are telling us we have all of these infringing files on BitTorrent. At the same time they are contributing to this by adding their own fake files. How am I supposed to know what is fake, what is spam, and what is infringing?

I have done what I can in terms of working with content owners to take down torrents. I extended the invitation to Hollywood. If they want to work with us on taking down something that is infringing, we will gladly take it down. They have not responded to that invitation.

Has anyone? Yes. I won't say their name, but it is one of the members of the MPAA, ironically. The MPAA is suing us, but one of their members is working with us just like a normal copyright owner should. That is what we are arguing to the courts. But the MPAA simply wants to shut us down for its own PR and political reasons. It has nothing to do with actual copyright infringement or damages.

How about TV or movie studios actually seeding trailers or TV shows onto P2P networks? Like leaking a TV pilot before it airs to generate more publicity and hype? There's no definitive evidence they are doing that, but it would make sense as a marketing ploy, so I wouldn't be surprised.

There is also a lot of content that is being openly uploaded and promoted on P2P. I've been talking to a lot of independent filmmakers who make their own Webisodes.

There are also indie musicians and videogame studios that use BitTorrent. For example, World of WarCraft uses BitTorrent to distribute patches. These are big files, so it saves on their bandwidth costs.

So what would you suggest to a movie studio or a music company about how to make money from P2P? You look at the way Hulu embeds ads in TV shows that you can't skip. It's brilliant, and they are making good money.

There are a lot of different ways you can monetize that haven't been explored. And I would very much like to explore them.

I just launched a new site, Hexagon.cc , where I want to work with copyright owners to help them distribute, market and make money. It might be indirect, like MySpace, where musicians put up profiles and songs for exposure.

But MySpace already exists. Why go to Hexagon? We focus on the files, while adding more and more social features. Sharing is, after all, inherently social. In Hexagon, we let you easily create groups in which you can invite your school friends or workmates or other social contacts. That way, you only share with people you know or share the same interests. That's different than isoHunt.

We also encourage sharers to use Creative Commons licenses when they upload their songs or movies.

To avoid competing with established communities like Facebook, we will eventually let you invite your friends and import your contacts from other sites to Hexagon.

How did you get the idea for Hexagon? I think the only way forward for file-sharing is not to go against the content owners. When content owners sue their own customers, there is a whole lot of hatred from consumers. We are between the two parties, trying to figure out how we can be the intermediate solution, between outright suing of consumers, to having consumers downloading without paying a dime.

So, you're inviting Hollywood to use you as a marketing channel? Yes, and eventually a full retail store, like Apple's iTunes or Amazon's video-on-demand.

That's what the company BitTorrent Inc. unsuccessfully tried to do several years ago. All I can say is that was a case of exceptionally poor execution. BitTorrent offered exactly what people didn't want: $4 for movies protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). You might as well go to Netflix and pay less and not have to worry about whether the DRM was going to keep you from watching that movie you downloaded on your PC on your TV. That's tedious.

Did BitTorrent Inc. feel like it had no leverage, and that this is what the content owners wanted? Yes. I think Hollywood knew that this model -- pricing it unreasonably, with DRM -- wouldn't work. They simply wanted to be able to tell the judge in court that they tried their best, and that this ( BitTorrent's failure ) shows that working with filesharing doesn't work. It wasn't a sincere effort.

Would you ever do P2P and stream content like Hulu or YouTube does? That is one thing in the works. The technology is in progress, but it's not useful enough to be ready for public use.

Do you think isoHunt will still be around five years from now? Judging from the fate of many other filesharing sites, I do see a lot of bad precedents. At the same time, I am hopeful that there will be positive change so that we can actually work with copyright owners, instead of them continuing to play Whack-a-Mole with us.

Legally, I'm hoping that we will have the same happy ending as Sony did with the Betamax VCR. Hollywood was crying foul over the VCR, like they are now with P2P. The courts said that as long as there is a lot of non-infringing use cases, you can't just make a new technology illegal.

I think that is a fair judgment and a very big precedent for technologists and copyright owners to go by, and we are hoping that we can rely on that precedent in our case.

Ironically, Sony is now one of the Hollywood companies suing me.

You know, I love to see movies. I go all the time, and pay Hollywood to see them. I'm not trying to fight them, or make them become like me. I simply want to make the distribution channel more efficient and social.

Boycott over Modern Warfare 2 with Steam 'Trojan Horse'

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:15:50 -0800

Steam, it seems, may finally have tromped across the proverbial bridge too far. The online PC games storefront with the sales leverage of a lion but the transparency of a two-way mirror reportedly signed a deal with Activision to load its Steamworks technology into retail and digitally distributed PC copies of Modern Warfare 2, and its online competitors are bristling.

Don't call them nonplussed, though. Key digital storefronts Impulse, Direct2Drive, and GamersGate--all three boasting comparable games software catalogues--have responded by stating they simply won't carry Activision's first-person modern military shooter. Their rationale? Put it this way: Would Walmart sell retail products that required the customer periodically drop by Kmart or Target for service, support, or just basic use?

"We don't believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse," a spokesperson for Direct2Drive told games blog Kotaku. The company's Modern Warfare 2 store page no longer offers pricing or game information, and instead displays the following notice:

At Direct2Drive, we believe strongly that when you buy a game from us, you shouldn't be forced to install and run a 3rd party software client to be able to play the game you purchased. Because COD MW 2 requires you, the consumer, to do that, we aren't able to offer the game via Direct2Drive at this time.

"We share some of the same concerns as Direct2Drive over the bundling of the Steam client with the game," an Impulse spokesperson told Voodoo Extreme. "The most obvious issue is the forced inclusion of a competitor's store that blocks us from carrying the game."

Steamworks, it's important to note, isn't synonymous with Steam. Steam comprises Valve's combination online storefront and social gaming network, a relatively low-impact wrapper that embeds itself in your operating system and puts its tendrils into your gaming environment. The Steam client is necessary not just to purchase games from Valve, but also to play them thereafter. Without the Steam client and steady online access, games can't be purchased, downloaded, played, backed up, or restored.

Steamworks, by contrast, is a separate (but related) set of development tools--an API, if you will--designed to help publishers keep games up-to-date, handle DRM, and manage saved games.

It's not yet clear which of the above components come bundled with the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, and whether you'll be forced to access the Steam client and/or storefront itself every time you want to play the game. In either case, it raises questions not just about fair market competition--this is unambiguously a hostile move on Valve's part--but also digital rights management (what's the difference between Steam and something like SecuROM?), application-encapsulating (how many "fail points" should we tolerate?), and privacy rights, i.e. the traditional right to play a game without feeding back unlimited "User Generated Information" to a company that brazenly states it "may share aggregate information and individual information with other parties" in its privacy policy.

Follow me on Twitter @game_on

Black Friday Starts Now for Savvy Shoppers

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:14:28 -0800

If you love Black Friday bargains, but hate the idea of pre-dawn lines, surly shoppers, and the risk of bodily harm just to score a bargain Blu-ray player or Xbox console, major U.S. retailers have an alternative: Why not shop early? Some pre-Black Friday sales start Saturday, Nov. 7. Start brewing the coffee now.

The early sales from JCPenney, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart are designed to drive traffic to brick-and-mortar stores and retail websites--and possibly entice consumers to start their holiday shopping a little early. Some big box retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, offered pre-Black Friday loss-leaders last year too.

If you'd rather not leave the house, Kmart's "Better than Black Friday" online extravaganza kicked off today, and runs every Friday through Nov. 20.

" 'Black Friday' has become a buzzword. People associate it with really good deals," says Michael Brim, founder and president of BFAds, a site that sends subscribers email messages about Black Friday bargains.

At a typical pre-Black Friday sale, such as Sears' "Black Friday Now" event that starts Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7 a.m., retailers trot out "maybe two or three Black Friday store-busters," Brim says.

This year's best tech bargain? According to BFAds, Wal-Mart is effectively selling an Xbox 360 Arcade console for just $100. While the advertised price is $199, the retailer is giving away a $100 gift card with each Xbox 360 Arcade purchase. "Consoles have a minimum advertised price," says Brim. "Retailers can't advertise anything lower than that."

Other pre-Black Friday tech bargains (courtesy BFAds) include:

HP 15.6" Laptop w/ 2.2GHz Processor (G60-W519WM) - $298 (Wal-Mart)

Zenith 42" 720p Plasma HDTV - $499.99 (Sears)

Sylvania 32" 720p LCD HDTV - $349.99 (Kmart)

Sharp 42" 1080p LCD TV (LC42SB45UT) - $498 (Wal-Mart)

If you try to land these bargains, remember to wear protective gear--and don't forget your stun gun.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com.

Verizon's Droid: 10 Apps to Get You Started

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:12:23 -0800

So, you've got your spiffy new Motorola Droid phone from Verizon. Now what?

When it comes to applications, the Android ecosystem is pretty different from that other far more controlled alternative. Sure, the Android Market may not have 100,000 options just yet. But it does offer plenty of powerful programs -- somewhere around 10,000 total -- and, in a refreshing twist, it lets you decide what apps you want, instead of frequently censoring selections for you.

We've compiled a list of 10 top-notch Android apps to help get you going with your Android experience. These are all highly ranked programs that'll be strong starting points as you work to make the most of your new Droid device. After all, the much-discussed turn-by-turn GPS navigation system isn't the only thing out there.

Remember: This is only the beginning of the conversation. The Android Market is expanding every day, and there's no end to the interesting options it holds. If you have a favorite we didn't include, add it onto our list in the comments section below. Your recommendation will help other Droid users find even more cool ways to enjoy their new phones, too.

1. Twidroid

If you're a Twitter user and used to the iPhone, the first thing you might notice is that Tweetie isn't in the Android Market. Not to worry, though: Twidroid has your back. The Android-based Twitter app is available in a free and a pro (paid) version.

Both of Twidroid's offerings provide most every Twitter function you might need, from the basic -- viewing and sending tweets, following and unfollowing users, viewing profiles -- to the more advanced: saved searches, URL shortening, photo posting, and geo-location support. The pro version adds support for multiple accounts, bit.ly integration, video posting, and a handful of other options. It runs about $5.

2. Meebo for Android

Twitter? Check. Instant messaging? Check. Our second featured app will keep you connected to all of your IM accounts while you're roaming around with your new Droid. Meebo links multiple IM protocols into a single app that you can always keep running on your phone. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, MySpace IM, Google Talk, Jabber and ICQ are all supported -- and, if you create a Meebo account, you can save a collective log of all your chats that'll be accessible online.

The Meebo for Android app is free.

3. Pandora on Android

Crank up the tunes on your new Droid immediately by installing Pandora's Android app, available for free in the Android Market. Like its online and on-the-iPhone counterpart, the Pandora Android app lets you listen to personalized radio stations based on your favorite artists or songs. Thanks to Android's multitasking capabilities, you'll be able to rock out while running other apps -- something the iPhone can't handle.

4. Google Voice for Mobile

File this one under "outlawed on iPhone," too. The official Google Voice for Mobile app fully integrates Google Voice functionality into your new Droid phone. Once installed, you can make outgoing calls from your Google Voice number with the touch of a button, right from your contacts list. You also gain easy access to voicemail and Google Voice-based SMS messaging.

The Google Voice for Mobile app is free to install and use. You do need to have an existing Google Voice account, however, for it to work.

5. Locale

Take control of your phone with Locale, one of the coolest apps available for Android. Locale lets you customize your phone's settings based on your location. You could program the app to set your phone to vibrate every time you're at your office, or set it to go silent when you enter the perimeter of your local movie theater. You can get advanced and make exceptions for VIP callers, too.

6. ActionComplete

Another handy location-aware app for Android is ActionComplete. ActionComplete is a high-tech to-do list for your Droid phone. It makes it easy to organize your tasks and appointments, using a system developed by "GTD" (Getting Things Done") guru David Allen. You can even set reminders that'll pop up based on where you are, allowing you to remind yourself of certain tasks at the office, others at the home, and so on.

ActionComplete is free.

7. Google Sky Map

Stare at the stars with Google Sky Map, the "mobile planetarium" for Android phones. The Google Sky Map app, free, actually overlays information about the night sky onto your Droid display. It uses a combination of GPS data, compass data, and date and time information to help you identify planets, stars, and constellations.

8. KeyRing

Get rid of all those annoying membership cards with KeyRing, an Android app that puts your barcodes into your Motorola Droid. Simply scan your various cards -- anything from gym memberships to drug store discount clubs -- and Key Ring will categorize them into a drop-down menu.

The next time you need a card, you just pull it up on your phone -- no need to actually carry the physical piece of plastic.

9. Compare Everywhere

While we're on the topic of barcodes, you may want to grab Compare Everywhere. With the program installed, you can scan a barcode in any store to get instant information about any product. Compare Everywhere will connect you to reviews and pricing details to make your shopping simpler.

Compare Everywhere is a free download.

10. Sherpa

Ready to explore? Check out Sherpa, an Android application that helps you find new places based on your own personal preferences. Sherpa "learns" your likes and dislikes, then uses your location information to suggest restaurants, stores, and attractions in your area that might float your boat.

The best part? Sherpa won't cost you a dime to download.

Got Apps?

So there you have it: 10 top-notch Android apps to get you started with your new Motorola Droid experience. There are so many more to explore, so help your fellow Droiders out and leave your recommendations below.

For more on the Droid phone, click over to "Verizon's Droid Launch: Your Complete Guide." And if you're still feeling inadequate next to Apple's 100k-strong app selection, read "Apple's App Store: 100,000 Apps, But Most Are Unused." As you'll see, size isn't necessarily everything.

JR Raphael writes geek humor at eSarcasm. You can keep up with him on Twitter: @jr_raphael.

Google Dashboard: Transparent, maybe. Private? No.

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:26:53 -0800

What does Google know about you and when did they know it? Those are the questions Google claims it's trying to answer with the new Google Dashboard unveiled yesterday.

Simply put, the Dashboard gathers up almost every Google service you've signed up for and displays the most basic settings for each on a single page. Here's how The Official Google Blog describes it:

In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings.

[ Even the Great Googley Moogley stumbles from time to time, as Cringley notes in "Gmail Gfails, Internet survives again" | Stay up to date on Robert X. Cringely's musings and observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]

Sounds peachy, doesn't it? Finally Google is giving us what we want, control over own data. Saints be praised.

Well, not exactly.

Let's start with the privacy angle. Google puts a "people" icon next to account information that's available to anyone Googling -- er, searching the Net. That's useful info. But if you want to make that stuff private -- or just find out if it's even possible to make it private -- you have to go deep into the settings of each Google app. If you don't already know where to go to change this setting, you may not get there.

For example, I have seven Google Calendars (yes, I am freakish in that way). Google's Dashboard told me one of them was public, but didn't identify which one. A public calendar can reveal scads of sensitive info -- like the names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of people you're meeting with, or when you'll be out of town for an extended period. It's one-stop shopping for identity thieves and/or your local cat burglar.

I had to go through my calendar settings one by one until I identified the culprit (which, fortunately, was one I never use for personal info). Had Google really wanted to enhance "transparency, choice, and control" they would have made this a one-click operation.

Similarly, for people who were appalled to discover just how deeply Google was embedded in their lives -- quite a few of them, judging from the blog chatter -- there's no easy way to simply unsubscribe from these services. I have an Orkut profile I set up once for research purposes and never used again. How do I get rid of it? I still can't figure that one out.

Or, once I finally do figure out how to kill one of my Google accounts, what happens to the information associated with it? Does Google keep it? And if so, for how long?

Then there's all the info Google isn't sharing on the Dashboard. As AllThingsD's John Paczkowski notes:

Noticeably absent from Dashboard is any view of the cookie data Google uses to target ads. Essentially, all Dashboard does is consolidate the admin pages of the services associated with a user's account in a single place. Convenient, yes. But does it tell us anything we didn't already know? Or, more importantly, how Google is using that information? No.

The day Google tells me how it's using my information to make money -- and gives me the opportunity to say thanks but no thanks -- is the day I believe Google is really interested in "transparency, choice, and control."

Meanwhile, as PC World's Tony Bradley notes, gathering all this info in one tidy spot makes it easier for anyone who's hacked your Google account to dip his slimy fingers into the corners of your life like a biscotti into a venti latte.

And then there's the possibility of Google screwing up and sharing this info with the wrong people, as it did earlier this year with Google Docs. Following that breach, the Electronic Privacy Information Center called upon the FTC to investigate the security of Google services that collect data (which is to say, pretty much all of them).

Is Google Dashboard a step in the right direction? Sure. But that's all it is. If anything, its greatest value is in demonstrating just how dependent many of us have become on our G-benefactors.

The day Google decides to go all in with Satan and use its powers for evil, we're screwed. Even if the company remains well intentioned, it also has to be extremely competent.

So the big issue still remains: Can we really trust these guys?

Will the "G" turn out to be like the "V" -- seemingly beneficent creatures hiding their evil reptilian plans? E-mail me: cringe@infoworld.com.

Take the InfoWorld news quiz.

This story, "Google Dashboard: Transparent, maybe. Private? Not so much," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the ongoing shenangigans of the tech industry in Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Field blog at Infoworld.com.

Introducing Speedmark 6

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:15:59 -0800

Back in August, Apple entered the era of Snow Leopard. Today, Macworld's Speedmark test suite enters the Snow Leopard's den.

Speedmark is Macworld Lab's standard test tool for benchmarking new and upgraded systems running Mac OS X. It uses real-world applications and everyday tasks. It is a general-purpose suite that includes tasks everyone from a high-end user to a new user performs every day.

Macworld Lab follows a detailed script to perform the 17 tasks. Each task is performed three times. We compare the results to a 2.13GHz MacBook with 2GB RAM (Mid 2009), which is assigned a score of 100. We then take the geometric mean of the normalized scores.

Apple's latest Mac OS X operating system, 10.6, focuses more on refinements rather than features. But the new OS does boast some new technologies meant to help your Intel Mac take better advantage of its central and graphics processing units. Unfortunately, in order to make these refinements and improvements, Apple made the decision to pull the plug on Power-PC equipped Macs, offering no support for any pre-Intel hardware.

The Macworld Lab has been hard at work tweaking Speedmark, our overall system performance testing tool, to better accommodate Snow Leopard and to test the Macs on which it runs. Of course, that means that the new version, Speedmark 6, runs on Snow Leopard and supports only Intel-powered Macs.

We have Speedmark 6 scores for 19 Intel Macs, including the new MacBook, iMacs, and Mac minis released last month. Please note that because Speedmark 6 uses different tests and a different OS, Speedmark 6 scores can't be compared to the scores of Speedmark 5, the previous version of our test tool.

For your convenience, we offer the complete scoresheet as both a Microsoft Excel file and a PDF for download. These scoresheets have the Speedmark 6 scores, as well as the performance scores for each application.

Speedmark 6 scores

Like Speedmark 5, Speedmark 6 consists of 17 tests. Many of the tests are new and few of the new tests reflect reader suggestions. Here's a look at the new task list.

Mac OS X Finder

Duplicate 1GB file
Compress 2GB folder
Uncompress 2GB file archive

Pages '09

Open 500 page Word document

iTunes 9

Convert 28 AAC files to MP3 from hard drive

iMovie '09

Import two-minute clip from camera archive
Share two-minute movie to iTunes for mobile devices

iPhoto '09

Import 150 photos from hard drive

Parallels 5

WorldBench 6 Multiple Page Loading Test on Windows 7

Call of Duty 4

Timedemo run at 1024-by-768 with 4X anti-aliasing

Cinebench R10

CPU test
OpenGL

Compressor 3.5.1

Convert DV file to MPEG-2 for DVD

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Actions script run on a 50MB file

Handbrake 0.9.3

Encode one chapter from DVD to H.264

MathematicaMark 7

Evaluate Notebook test

Aperture 2.1.4

Import 150 photos and build thumbnails and previews

[James Galbraith is Macworld's lab director.]

The Beauty of Technology

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:14:47 -0800

It's a natural thing to want to improve one's self, no matter which aspect of it needs enhancement. And for a cosmetics and skin care firm like Forever Flawless, helping others improve their physical appearances entailed improving their company's business processes first. That is one of the reasons why they made the decision to take their business under the knife and undergo a major technological facelift.

At the time when beauty and skin boutique Forever Flawless was still beginning its small operations, they handled their stream of information through a stand-alone program called Magnus POS, which effectively managed their minimal amount of data at that time.

But the growth of their business eventually became inevitable--starting with a few 12 branches sprawled across Metro Manila to as much as 30 clinics and a little over four hundred employees to date--and so was the growth of their data, especially their bill of materials.

"Our business is different from others of the same medical nature," explains Reylourd Tinamisan, IT supervisor of Forever Flawless. "Because we provide both products and services, we require a full inventory of our materials."

A full inventory of materials requires the accounting of all the supplies used in their clinics, down to the last kilogram of alcohol or the last ball of cotton. Compared to a whole inventory--which accounts only for the whole units consumed--Ti namisan says the former is harder to do and manage than the latter.

"That is why we are still in the development stage of our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software," he says. "We are continually adding data for our inventory and constantly fine-tuning the system."

INTEGRATING THE BUSINESS

It came as no surprise to them, therefore, that implementing an all-in-one, streamlined and interconnected solution would greatly lessen the stress they get from day-to-day operations and significantly benefit their organization.

"Around two years ago, we deployed an SAP Business One All-in-one solution to handle our business processes," explains Tinamisan. Their acquisition included programs for the purchasing, inventory, business partner, marketing, cashier operations and CRM functions of the business.

The solution not only empowered their firm through every step of the business process--from warehouse management, inventory, stock transfer to branch inventory, sales, and customer data management--but integrated and interconnected their branches as well.

"With the old system, our problems stemmed mostly from it being a stand-alone application," Tinamisan laments. "Our systems were not yet interconnected, so the application would generate reports as spreadsheet files and we would have to wait for the branches to forward them to the head office."

With the new acquisition, all their branches became automatically synchronized with their head office. "The change has been quite drastic and very much beneficial, especially because we now have the capability to acquire information at a faster rate," he adds.

With the implementation, Tinamisan says, they became literally a point and a click away from managing the voluminous amount of data that course through their network pipeline each day. "Most changes in the inventory and customer data happen in real time. So if a branch, for example, runs low on a certain material today, we are alerted immediately and are able to deliver the necessary products the next day," he proudly shares.

Operations are likewise functioning better now, Tinamisan recalls. "SAP allows for 24/7 accessibility, and changes can be done remotely," he says. "So if I'm out of the office but there are problems in the system, I can address it anywhere there's an Internet connection."

Since they are a cosmetics company, taking note of the customers' physical changes is one of their priorities. "The SAP solution enabled us to efficiently take photos of customers," Tinamisan narrates.

EXPANDING THE BOTTOM LINE

Aside from quicker transmission of data, Tinamisan reveals that the solution significantly broadened their company's bottom line by lessening the staff needed for manned operations and delivering critical information for important business decisions.

"We have less staff manning our back office now, although they were merely transferred than let go," he expounds, adding that their IT department, for instance, has only five employees taking care of everyday operations.

Other than having less human resource requirements, Tinamisan says Forever Flawless benefited from the SAP solution in determining its roadmap for future plans. "With faster generation of reports, we are able to know our revenue right away," he proudly says. "And acquiring accurate and timely information about which of our products are slow- or fast-moving is really helpful for marketing purposes."

But a common concern among CIOs and IT managers regarding application implementation these days is the return on their investment. "With our implementation, I'd say we got our ROI within a year's time," Tinamisan figures. This increase in revenue allowed their business to grow, with the faster processes allowing them to focus more on their core business, he adds.

With this positive return in mind, Tinamisan says their company is looking forward to improving more business processes in the future, which calls for acquiring several more applications. "We're definitely looking into acquiring more solutions, since the ERP is only phase one of our project," he explains. "The next phase would be the upgrading of our POS system, after which we will need to implement a system for our payroll management."

A HERCULEAN TASK

Despite all the benefits stemming from their new system, Tinamisan cautions companies who are thinking of streamlining their business processes. "They must first determine if the system is right for them, since not all solutions fit every kind of company," he explains, adding that it takes a few years before the full benefits of these implementations are realized.

Small and medium businesses should likewise be weary of the cost of implementing these applications. "They must study the nature of their business, and try to see what solutions are best for them," he says, adding that knowing all these information beforehand would prevent companies from losing their hard-earned investments.

"We were fortunate because most of us in the IT department came from other companies, so we have a wealth of knowledge and experience at our disposal. Because of that, we already know which problems and issues need to be addressed head-on," Tinamisan says, alluding to his previous experiences in other retail companies.

But these quick wins from the SAP applications are just a percentage of what they hope to achieve with the implementation. "We are still developing the system, and even though all our issues have been addressed by the application, we are still far from maximizing the benefits from the software," he relates.

Forever Flawless is simply one of the majority of SMBs in the country that has implemented software solutions that have brought numerous rewards to their organizations. With this realization, Forever Flawless has experienced a more efficient business process, and has since then seen the beauty of technology.

SketchBook Mobile for iPhone

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:24:47 -0800

One of the better painting and drawing apps on the iPhone, and one of the most useful creative tools I've seen, SketchBook Mobile is an indispensable tool if you are a real artist. For everyone else, it is still a fun diversion and extremely easy to use.

The core principle behind this app from Autodesk is ease of drawing. The tools never get in the way, but they are always easy to access.

SketchBook Mobile opens to a black canvas where you can start drawing right away. You access brushes and other tools from a faint, tiny palette on the lower portion of the screen. Tap once, and you'll see a pencil, spray gun, fat brush, erase, brush set, layer icon, color wheel, and a mirroring tool. Each of these will be familiar to canvas painters and Photoshop artists alike. The brush variety tops Brushes because you can tweak just about any variable, including the radius, opacity, and spacing of the thistles. There are brushes that mimic chalk, pencils, and felt tip pens. With this variety, it is possible to create stunning works of art.

There's a caveat, though. Unlike Corel Painter 11 for the Mac or other programs designed in equal measure for artists and non-artists, SketchBook Mobile shines when in skilled hands. If your drawing ability amounts to a few smiley faces and stick figures, SketchBook Mobile won't turn you into an artist. That said, because the tools are so easy to access, the app is fun to use even for novices. For artists, the iPhone's screen becomes a handy replacement for a sketchpad, going well beyond offering a blank sheet and some brushes.

For example, you can paint in layers and, thanks to the recent 1.1 update, control opacity for layers. So, in one example, an artist added a layer for a guitar, then painted on a second layer to add some accents. There are six layers available on the more powerful iPhone 3GS and three on the original 3G. You can even export these layers to a Photoshop PSD file.

SketchBook Mobile has 10 layers of undo. (Either double-tap on the lower left of the screen or access the palette and tap the undo icon.) The app zooms all the way to 2500 percent for fine detail work. The mirror tool--used for symmetric drawing, allows you to paint one side of an image and duplicate it as you draw. The color wheel is also useful: you can save swatches and even paint small areas on the screen like a true Picasso.

File management is as easy as choosing brushes and saving layers. The app creates its own gallery, and you can easily select and save images, rename them, add blank canvases, or delete the ones you don't want. You can import images from the camera roll, either as the base image to paint on or as a new layer.

My only gripe with SketchBook Mobile--and it's a small one--involves changing the brush size. You have to tap and drag on a center dial on the palette--with this approach, it's unfortunately easy to select the wrong area and mistakenly paint on your image. (Thankfully, these mistakes are easy enough to undo.)

In many ways, the real brilliance of this app is all about the iPhone's touch-screen interface. It is so accurate, and so fast at rendering what you draw, you can add fine touches to an image. The demo reels reveal how a true artist can create amazing images.

In a future release, I'd like to see some canvas treatments--painting on a watercolor board, for example. And, while the help features are detailed, I'd prefer YouTube videos right on the iPhone that show me exactly how to paint.

In addition to SketchBook Mobile, Autodesk also offers a slimmed-down version, SketchBook MobileX. This free app is limited by a smaller canvas (320x480) and three layers (instead of six), plus a few other minor differences from its $3 sibling.

SketchBook Mobile is not just for pro artists. It's a rare app that appeals to novices who just want to try painting on the iPhone and professionals who are struck by an idea and want to see how it looks without using up expensive brushes and paper.

[John Brandon is a 20-year veteran Mac user who used to run an all-Mac graphics department.]

Windows 7: Putting Early Sales Figures in Perspective

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:23:38 -0800

Initial sales numbers for Windows 7 are in and it seems that the operating system is delivering the redemption for Windows Vista that Microsoft was hoping for. Lower revenue and lower PC hardware sales figures related to Windows 7 hint at issues, but those figures have to be put in perspective.

Microsoft has reported that Windows 7 sales are 234 percent higher than Windows Vista for the initial week after its release. That figure however is tempered with the statistic that Windows 7 has not prompted the same surge in PC sales that accompanied the release of Windows Vista.

Does that mean that Windows 7 isn't incentive enough for users to purchase new computers? Not really. First of all, when Windows Vista was released the Windows XP operating system had been the flagship desktop operating system for more than 5 years. Users who had jumped on the Windows XP bandwagon early would have been more than ready to make a hardware upgrade when moving to the new operating system.

For users that have held on to Windows XP through the dark years (the timeframe between the release of Windows Vista and the release of Windows 7), that same fact may still hold true. However, many Windows XP users have upgraded the PC hardware since 2001, but have bought new Windows XP systems or re-installed their Windows XP operating system on the new hardware.

While Windows Vista faced a variety of issues both real and perceived, there are still millions of users that have embraced the operating system. Windows Vista makes up nearly 19 percent of the desktop operating system market. Whether those users like Windows Vista or hate Windows Vista, the hardware they are using should be sufficient when upgrading to Windows 7.

Timing also has a huge impact on the PC hardware sales figures. Windows Vista was released in January--after the holiday season. With Windows 7 being released in October, users who just want the operating system software may jump on board, but customers that are interested in purchasing a new system with Windows 7 installed are likely holding out for holiday bargains and Black Friday deals. Talk to me again in January about PC hardware sales related to Windows 7.

Another factor in the sale of new PC hardware is corporate adoption of the new operating system. Many enterprises held on to Windows XP and are now planning to upgrade to Windows 7, but massive hardware and operating system upgrades take careful planning and time to implement. Many large companies also operate on funky fiscal year calendars which can affect the timing of the Windows 7 upgrade.

Certainly other operating systems have had an impact as well. The issues surrounding Windows Vista opened the door to alternative operating systems and caused many users to think twice about sticking with Windows. As much success as Mac OS X or Ubuntu Linux have experienced though, they are still niche operating systems with less than 5 percent of the market combined. The vast majority of users and businesses are not giving any serious consideration to them or considering adopting an alternative operating system.

The fact that Windows 7 is doing so well so soon is a good sign. With the holidays and the new year, things will continue to pick up. When we look back next October and compare first year sales of Windows 7 versus Windows Vista rather than first week sales, the picture will look different and the comparison will be on a more level playing field.

Tony Bradley is an information security and unified communications expert with more than a decade of enterprise IT experience. He tweets as @PCSecurityNews and provides tips, advice and reviews on information security and unified communications technologies on his site at tonybradley.com.

Intel antitrust, 'Net bug, coding error

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:16:36 -0800

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed federal antitrust charges against Intel this week, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission expected to follow suit. Security problems yet again snagged a lot of IT headline attention, including news about yet another flaw affecting Facebook and MySpace users. To mix things up, we've got IT angles to Beatles music and the Boston Celtics in there, too.

1. NY attorney general files antitrust lawsuit against Intel FTC expected to take antitrust action against Intel: Cuomo alleges in the lawsuit that the company employed a "systematic campaign" of illegal conduct, including exclusive agreements and threats of punishment, to protect its microprocessor monopoly. The FTC is widely expected to take its own antitrust action against the Intel.

2. Vendors scrambling to fix bug in 'Net's security: Software makers worldwide are trying to fix a serious flaw in technology that securely transfers information (or at least is supposed to securely transfer information) over the Internet.

3. Major Facebook, MySpace flaw may expose users' private data: Yet another threat, this time via coding errors, emerged for the privacy of personal data of Facebook and MySpace users.

4. Who's in charge of Android development: Google or developers?: For those who have suspected all along that Google is much more in charge of Android development than its "open-source" tag would suggest, various industry observers, including Google partners, contend that's the case. But there may be good reasons for that, chief of which is to make sure that software actually gets released.

5. The definitive Android smartphone guide: And for those who are trying to figure out which Android-based smartphone to buy, Network World's Brad Reed has done the heavy lifting of comparing features and prices in this informative -- and, at least for the moment, definitive -- slideshow.

6. Business interruptus: Plan now to avoid H1N1 flu outages later and CDC adopts new, near real-time flu tracking: Companies should be preparing to deal with swine flu outbreaks that could leave a lot of employees sick and unable to work, experts say. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has adopted a system for tracking data about the novel H1N1 virus and seasonal flu.

7. FBI warns of $100M cyber-threat to small businesses: Thieves are hacking into the computer systems of small and medium-sized businesses weekly, stealing millions of dollars in an ongoing scam, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned.

8. BlueBeat says Beatles' songs are its own creations and Beatles ban takes effect at BlueBeat: The BlueBeat Web site and record company EMI continue to battle over BlueBeat's insistence that it can legally sell downloads of Beatles' music. By week's end, BlueBeat had complied with a court order that it has to stop selling Beatles' tunes online. (We never thought we'd get tired of Beatles' music, but we have to say the recent inundation of everything-Beatles is, indeed, making us weary.)

9. Switcher's Guide: Moving from Windows to the Mac: Macworld asked Harry McCracken to put together a guide to how to make the jump from Windows to Mac. The result is an informative how-to from Harry, who uses a Mac and a Windows netbook, by the way.

10. Boston Celtics clamp down on spam: We're still excited about the news earlier this week that the Boston Celtics anted up to sign a multiyear US$55 million deal with point guard Rajon Rondo, who is worth every penny, in our humble opinion. So, we're as pleased as can be to offer a Celtics IT story to round out the week. The Celtics' organization is an interesting case study in how to update e-mail infrastructure and keep spam from dribbling through.

Birth of the Droid Fanboy

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:56 -0800

It had to happen eventually. The launch of Motorola's Droid makes room for a new kind of fanboy in the tech world: The Droid fanboy, armed at last with a phone that fits with any anti-iPhone lifestyle.

Are they legion? Not yet, though the queues have formed in Boston and Manhattan, packed with people who needed a nimble touchscreen smartphone but couldn't part with Verizon Wireless. The real surge will come in the weeks and months ahead, as people use and learn to love their shiny new Droids.

Take, for instance, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, who today counted the many ways in which he loves the Droid (though he adds, "Until something better comes along.") I have a feeling iPhone fans will be hearing a lot about the Droid's better-than-your-phone features, such as the ability to dock it in a car while using Google Maps Navigation, run Internet radio in the background of another app, and switch on the fly between a physical and virtual keyboard.

But what's really needed are some classic fanboy accommodations. A fan site, DroidForums.net, should act as a home base. Next comes the commentsphere, taking the propaganda to any journalist or columnist who hasn't seen the light. You can already get an Android T-shirt (that robot is so cute!), and I don't think it'll be long until Droid-specific threads arrive.

Already, the battleground is set. Fueled by an ad campaign that attacked the iPhone, a handful of anti-Droid sites have popped up. There's Droid Doesn't, which hosts a video mocking the original Droid commercial. You'll also find a couple blogs dedicated to smearing Motorola's new phone: Droid Won't features a post called "The Android Logo is the Toilet Sign Logo," while DroidDoesNot.com proudly proclaims, "Let's face it, the Android is an iPhone with a physical keyboard."

I know the feeling. I own an iPhone, and I know it demands unwavering loyalty despite its imperfections. That's what happens when you commit $200 and two years of your life to a material object that sits in your pocket for much of the day. The Droid breeds a special group of fanboys because its attitude of choice, openness, and freedom is the iPhone's tonic, even as it commands its own smug satisfaction.

Let the flame wars begin.

Add more effects to Photo Booth and iChat

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:57:51 -0800

As you know, Photo Booth includes a collection of image-altering effects you can use to distort your photos; just click the Effects button to see the collection of 24 effects, and to apply them to your photos. A subset of these effects (16 in all) are available in iChat, too, for use in creating some truly strange looking iChat image icons. But in case that's not enough effects for you, here's a way to add over 20 additional effects to both iChat and Photo Booth.

To use today's hint, you'll need a text editor that can handle binary plist files--Apple's own Property List Editor (included with Xcode), or BareBones' free TextWrangler, for instance. There's a bit of editing to do, but it's not hard.

To start, open two Finder windows. In the first, navigate to /System -> Library -> Compositions. In the second, navigate to your user's Library folder. If you don't see a Compositions folder there, create one, and then navigate into it.

Next, copy a number of the compositions from the first (System-level) window to the second (your user's Library -> Compositions folder). Note that there are many entries in the top-level Compositions folder, but not all will work well with iChat and Photo Booth. So how do you know which ones to copy?

Thankfully, Mac OS X Hints reader Anthony Saxon has done the hard work for you. He reports that the following effects work well:

ASCII Art, Blue Print, Blur, City Lights, Color Controls, Color Invert, Compound Eye, Concert, Crystallize, Dot Screen, Exposure Adjust, Gamma Adjust, Kaleidescope, Line Overlay, Line Screen, Monochrome, Neon, Pixellate, Pointillize, Posterize, Sharpen, Tracer, Zoom Blur

Copy as many or as few of those as you'd like over to your user's Library/Compositions folder. (If you're running 10.6, you'll see a preview of each effect in its icon, or you can use Cover Flow view to see a larger version.)

Before proceeding further, please note that some users who have tried this have reported crashes with Photo Booth or iChat after adding some new effects. I have removed the known troublesome effects from the list, but that doesn't mean there might not be more issues (particularly on Snow Leopard machines).

If the thought of some possible short-term application instability is a concern, you should probably not read any further--although I do provide instructions below on how to recover from a crash if you experience one.

Once you've copied over the files you'd like to use, you'll need to edit each one, and delete a few lines. Launch TextWrangler, and use File -> Open to open one of your copied files. These files will all look relatively similar, especially near the beginning of each file, which is the part you're interested in editing. Look for these five lines:

<key>excludedHosts</key> <array> <string>com.apple.PhotoBooth</string> <string>com.apple.iChat</string> </array>

You want to delete all five of those lines, then save the file.

Because of the slim chance that an effect may cause a crash, I suggest testing each before editing the next (or do them in small batches). This makes recovery easier if you do experience a crash.

Once you're sure a given effect works, repeat the editing with the next file you copied across, and test again.

As you can see in the image at right, Photo Booth (and iChat) will add additional effects pages to accommodate your added effects; I've added eight effects, so Photo Booth is showing them all on one additional page.

So what happens if you have a crash after adding these effects? Say Photo Booth or iChat quit then refuse to launch, or maybe your machine kernel panics (gray and white screen appears, telling you you must reboot)?

If this happens to you, the fix is thankfully simple--just don't try to launch iChat or Photo Booth until you fix the problem. The actual fix is what you might have guessed: simply remove the added effects from your user's Library/Compositions folder, and all will be back to normal.

While crashes are never nice, I haven't experienced any after adding eight of the above effects to Photo Booth on my MacBook Pro--and my daughters love playing around with the Tracer effect, so I think these added effects will stay around for a while!

The Craziness Pandemic, Part II

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:56:35 -0800

Last week I began documenting the pandemic of craziness that is sweeping the globe.

In that column it was Japan and All Nippon Airways trying to improve their carbon footprint by asking their passengers to relieve themselves before takeoff (if you missed that column you might want to check it out … don't worry, we'll wait for you).

This week, our attention turns to the United States where the net neutrality furor continues unabated with a huge outbreak of craziness being added to the mix.

I wrote about the topic some weeks ago and, since then, the Federal Communications Commission, which has become the leading proponent of preventing the ISPs from "shaping" traffic for commercial purposes, has stiffened its sinews, summoned up the blood and disguised fair nature with hard-favor'd rules … and got a lot of push back.

The craziest push back came from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who has put forward a bill that is diametrically opposed to the FCC's proposals and called "The Internet Freedom Act of 2009".

If ever there was a bit of flimflammery so blatantly designed to mislead, this is it. McCain's press release claims, "This government takeover of the Internet will stifle innovation, in turn slowing our economic turnaround and further depressing an already anemic job market."

Senator, are you kidding me? You really think that constraining the ISPs so they aren't allowed to provide preferential transport of their own commercial services or those of partners is tantamount to a "government takeover"?

Between you and me, just admit that you're indulging in something that sounds an awful lot like Orwellian Newspeak. What you're suggesting is like asserting that regulating the food industry will reduce the food supply thereby causing people to die. And what you're proposing would be like removing all regulations from food production and I think we can all imagine how well that would serve us.

What I find so disturbing about the bill is that, all the way from its title through its rhetoric, it is so obviously and transparently designed to obfuscate the issues and mislead.

Here's the big reveal. Guess who got more ISP lobbying money than any other politician? Yep -- McCain. At $894,379 McCain garnered more than double the amount taken by the next-largest beneficiary of ISP lobbying funds, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate Majority Leader, at $341,089. I'm not suggesting the McCain and Reid have been bought by Big Telecom, I'm just pointing out the facts.

But there's more craziness swirling around net neutrality. It seems AT&T, not content with buttering up senators with dollar bills, is trying to persuade its staff to promote its agenda in defeating the FCCs proposed new rules.

A couple of weeks ago AT&T's senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, Jim Cicconi (who used to be AT&T's top lobbyist), sent a memo to all U.S. managers saying, "We encourage you, your family and friends to join the voices telling the FCC not to regulate the Internet. It can be done through a personal e-mail account by going to www.openinternet.gov and clicking on the 'Join the Discussion' link."

This is bad enough, but Cicconi actually provides talking points! And to round it off he finishes the memo with wording weaselly enough to be in McCain's bill: "Thank you in advance for taking action that supports our customers, our company, and our country's commitment to ensure that every American has access to broadband."

It is the glorious snake oil salesman's conflation of disparate and unrelated ideas that makes the pitch so powerful and at the same time so essentially free of a logical argument.

Why not be honest? Why not write, "It's our network and we want to wring every cent we can out of it and we don't want any kind of interference." If Cicconi were really honest he would add, "And if you don't help us lobby against net neutrality you could lose your job if things get tight after we pay for our enormous executive salaries."

The current pandemic of craziness is growing wildly like the H1N1 virus, but unlike the virus, it appears there's no limit to its spread.

Windows 7 Sales Up, But is it Really a Hit?

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:37:53 -0800

The numbers are in and Windows 7 sales are strong, but with lagging PC sales and increased competition from other operating systems, is Windows in trouble? Apple recently reported one of its best quarters ever, and interest is high in current and future products coming out of Cupertino. Then there's the recent release of the latest Linux distribution, Ubuntu 9.10, and let's not forget pressure from Google Chrome OS, scheduled for release in the second half of next year. Put it all together, and we may be slowly approaching the end of Windows' dominance.

Windows 7 by the Numbers

Windows 7's U.S. sales were 234 percent higher over the first few days of its availabilty compared to Vista sales over a similar time period. But to get there, Microsoft had to go the extra mile and offer what were, by Microsoft standards, some deep discounts. The average selling price of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade was $76, according to market research firm NPD group, which is significantly less than the advertised presale price of $120. By comparison, the original preorder price tag to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium was $160 in 2007.

Despite these discounts, PC sales are lagging, down 6 percent compared to Vista's launch period. This may include a number of factors including the availability of other versions of Windows (XP and Vista), which NPD says made up 20 percent of computer sales during the Windows 7 sales, as well as the reluctance among Vista owners to buy another new computer after upgrading just a few years ago. But if Windows 7 is set to boost a lagging computer market, as some researchers believe, current PC sales may be some cause for concern.

Apple Growing

Earlier this year, Apple released its own updated operating system, Snow Leopard, which also saw a respectable increase in sales. NPD Group measured the new Mac OS' performance over a two-week period, and said Snow Leopard sales were more than double its predecessor, Leopard, over the time frame. Recently, Apple reported that sales for its Mac computers grew by 17 percent during the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008.

The Linux Gang

But Apple isn't the only competition Microsoft has to worry about. Ubuntu, one of the world's more popular Linux distributions, recently launched its latest version, Ubuntu 9.10, and impressions about the new OS are largely positive. Of course, this is not the first time that a Linux OS has been praised, and seen as the Linux version that is finally ready for widespread adoption. But Ubuntu 9.10 does offer improved compatibility with peripheral hardware such as printers and scanners, there are a wide variety of available applications for the OS, and Ubuntu is absolutely free making it a significantly cheaper alternative to Windows.

Then there's Google's coming Linux-based OS alternative, called Google Chrome OS, that many tech pundits are excited about, but nobody's really sure what the new system will be able to do. But given current interest, Chrome OS could be a big hit when it debuts next year.

With so much variety in the world of the operating system, is Microsoft's dominance threatened? For the moment, no. Windows is still the dominant operating system in the U.S., but it is slowly losing market share to Apple, Linux and others. Microsoft is still the top for now, but for you there's never been a better time to try out an alternative to Windows.

Upgrade the Mac mini in six minutes

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:36:27 -0800

I've upgraded quite a few Mac minis over the past several years, from the original 2005 model to the latest version, released last week, and some in between. We've also covered the topic of Mac mini surgery on the Macworld Podcast. But we still regularly receive questions from readers about whether or not performing such upgrades yourself is a good idea--many have heard that it's quite difficult to open the Mini, or that doing so voids your warranty.

Apple's official policy is that you can upgrade the mini yourself as long as you don't break anything in the process; if you do, that damage isn't covered under warranty. But how much risk is there of actually doing such damage? (It can certainly feel like you're breaking something when you pry off the Mac mini's top case.) And once you get inside, how hairy is the disassembly procedure? It's difficult to judge by looking at photos on a Web site.

To satisfy your curiosity, in this week's video, I show you the entire process of upgrading the Mac mini's RAM and hard drive, from cracking the case to snapping it back together again, pointing out some of the tricky steps along the way. Believe it or not, the entire process took me under six minutes--and that's including several places where I got slowed down by a tiny screw or spring that didn't want to cooperate.

(Note that the Mac mini in the video is actually an Early 2009 model, but that model is identical to the just-released Late 2009 minis when it comes to internal design and the upgrade procedure.)

Download Macworld Video #133

* Format: MPEG-4/H.264

* Resolution: 480 by 272 (iPhone & iPod compatible)

* Size: 13.2MB

* Length: 6 minutes, 42 seconds

Show notes

You can view iFixit.com's guides to upgrading the mini's RAM (PDF version) and hard drive (PDF version). If you're looking to upgrade or repair any other component, iFixit has a complete list of guides for the mini.

In addition to a thin, metal putty knife, I used Newer Technology's $18 11-Piece Portable Toolkit for the procedure. This is a handy tool set that includes eight screwdrivers (three Torx, two flathead, and two Phillips), two nylon "spudgers" (the green-plastic pry tool you see in the video), a large set of tweezers, and a scissor clamp.

I also used Newer Technology's $20 Express USB drive enclosure for 2.5" SATA drives. I placed the new drive in the Express, cloned the mini's original hard drive to the new drive, and then swapped the drives. This let me boot the mini off the new internal hard drive with no down time. It also let me use the original drive as an external backup drive.

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Switchers Guide: Understanding Mac security

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:21:24 -0800

When it comes to security, using Windows can feel like living in the heart of a big city--the kind of place where you can install all the locks and alarms you want, but you still worry. The vast number of computer users who run Microsoft operating systems form the biggest, juiciest target cybercriminals could dream of. Which is why there are more than twenty-two million unique examples of Windows malware out there.

Using the Mac, by contrast, is like living in the country. Even if you don't arm your home like a fortress, chances are vastly lower that anyone will break in, simply because the Mac is a much less attractive target to bad guys. Documented examples of OS X viruses and spyware doing damage to real Mac users remain astoundingly rare. So while OS X security software such as Norton Anti-Virus certainly exists, a high percentage of Mac users do without it.

Which is not to say switching to the Mac means you should stop worrying about Internet risks entirely. Like any operating system, OS X isn't hacker-proof: Apple regularly releases fixes for newly-discovered vulnerabilities, and is sometimes criticized for moving too slowly to do so. And some threats and annoyances, such as phishing and spam, aren't platform-specific.

So what's a smart Mac newcomer to do?

* Stay informed about Apple's updates and install them promptly via Software Update (located in the Apple menu).

* Use OS X's security tools (it's had a firewall for years, and Snow Leopard introduces a basic malware scanner).

* Take advantage of safety measures built into the software you use (all major OS X browsers have malware filters, and Apple Mail includes anti-spam features).

* If you run Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp, VMware Fusion, or Parallels Desktop, protect it just as you would any copy of Windows--it's just as vulnerable. (Both VMware and Parallels bundle security software.)

* Keep your wits about you. OS X users may have much less to fret about than folks who run Windows, but you don't want to be the one who discovers that hackers have finally turned their full attention to the Mac.

Switchers Guide: Run Windows on a Mac

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:20:56 -0800

These days, buying a Mac doesn't mean you have to leave Windows behind. In 2005, Apple started building Macs with Intel processors. Among the other benefits of that switch: You can run Microsoft's operating system on Apple's hardware.

That's a huge help, particularly at work, if you've got Windows programs that you just can't live without and that aren't available in Mac versions. It can also be handy for maintaining compatibility with Windows-using co-workers.

There are three main ways to run Windows on a Mac. First, OS X itself includes Boot Camp, a utility that lets you install a copy of Windows (which you supply) on your Mac. You can then boot into either OS. Windows will run just as fast as on any PC with comparable specs, and all Windows-compatible applications and peripherals work. The disadvantage of Boot Camp is that it's either/or: You have to boot into one operating system or another; you can't Command-Tab to switch between Windows and Mac apps.

To do that, you need to use one of two programs that let you create a virtual PC within OS X: Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. Both of these programs let you run Windows in an OS X window, either in full-screen mode or side-by-side with your OS X apps. And both have tools to help you transfer your old copy of Windows to your new Mac--applications, settings, and all. The $80 VMware Fusion 3 lets you do it via a wireless or wired network; Parallels's $100 Switch to Mac Edition includes a similar feature, except it does the transfer over a bundled USB cable.

Virtualization has its downsides: There's a performance hit (particularly when you're running games), and battery life on notebooks can suffer. While most peripherals work in both OSes, some won't. Still, a Mac running Snow Leopard and a virtualized copy of Windows delivers the best of both computing platforms on one machine.

Switchers Guide: Moving hardware and software to Mac

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:20:30 -0800

When you're switching from a Windows PC to a Mac, there's one piece of good news: Most of the peripherals you used with your PC--including printers, digital cameras, networking equipment, external drives, and scanners--should work fine with your Mac. The best way to confirm that is to plug each piece of hardware into your new Mac, one at a time; if OS X doesn't automatically identify it and set it up, visit the manufacturer's Web site and look for a downloadable driver.

Sadly, Mac compatibility remains spotty in a few hardware categories, most notably MP3 players that aren't made by Apple (it's assumed that Mac users buy iPods) and cell phones. In some cases, third-party tools (such as Mark/Space's Missing Sync utilities) can help.

While most hardware peripherals can work with PCs and Macs equally well, software apps can (by definition) work with only one operating system. Unless you plan to spend all your time running Windows on your Mac (which would seem to be missing the point), you'll need to replace your Windows apps with Mac equivalents.

Many Windows programs have Mac versions. Unfortunately, in some cases those versions are entirely different from what you used on your PC. But not to fear: OS X apps--both Apple's own and those from third-party vendors--can be really impressive. Specifically, here are some of your options in the most important software categories:

Web browser Most leading Windows browsers--including Firefox, Opera, and Apple's own Safari--are available in essentially identical Mac versions: (The last one, naturally, comes bundled with every Mac.)

The one Windows browser you won't find on the Mac happens to be the one with the highest market share: Microsoft's Internet Explorer. If you've been using IE, give Safari or Firefox a try. You can use the free Xmarks plug-in to transfer your bookmarks from IE (or Firefox) on a PC to Safari or Firefox on your new Mac.

Office suite Office 2008, Microsoft's Mac suite, is very different from Office 2007 for Windows. It has fewer applications and fewer features overall, and its user interface only roughly approximates the Windows version's. (To be fair, Office 2008 also has some features that Office 2007 lacks.) The Home and Student edition is $150. Apple's own iWork '09--which bundles the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet, and Keynote presentation package together for a reasonable $79--is slick but not as full-featured as Office.

E-Mail and calendaring All Macs come with Apple's more-than-respectable Mail and iCal--and the new versions in Snow Leopard can connect to the Microsoft Exchange servers used by many businesses. That's good news, given that there's currently no version of Outlook for OS X--Microsoft plans to release one in 2010, but Office 2008 comes with a different, skimpier e-mail/calendar package called Entourage.

Personal finance On the Mac, finance mainstay Quicken is stuck on the antiquated 2007 version; it isn't even Intel-native. A new edition was originally due in 2008 but Intuit now says it will appear in February 2010. If you can't wait, check out Moneydance or Mint.com.

Creativity One of the best thing about Macs is that they each come with a copy of Apple's bountiful, innovative iLife suite of tools for editing and managing photos (iPhoto), video (iMovie), music (Garageband), DVDs (iDVD), and Web sites (iWeb). Even if you've never used iLife, it'll probably feel familiar--many of its features have been adopted by Windows apps. Try iLife before you buy anything else; if you're not satisfied, you can always spring for meatier third-party alternatives such as Adobe's Photoshop Elements photo editor and Roxio's Toast Titanium for burning CDs and DVDs.

Security Chances are you've girded your Windows PC with anti-virus or anti-spyware tools, or a full-blown security suite. You could do the same on your Mac. But, given the extreme rarity of hacker attacks on Macs, you may not want to. See Macs: Safe and Secure?

Utilities OS X comes with Disk Utility, an essential tool for formatting, partitioning, and otherwise keeping your drives spinning; its Repair Disk Permissions feature can fix a remarkable percentage of otherwise mysterious Mac problems. Two solid third-party packages cater to hardcore utility fans who want more than Disk Utility can provide: TechTool Pro and Disk Warrior.

Switchers Guide: Getting used to OS X

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:19:58 -0800

Though neither Microsoft nor Apple would care to admit it, Windows and OS X are in many ways strikingly similar. That's good news for switchers: If you're familiar with Windows, adjusting to OS X is less like learning how to drive than figuring out the controls in a new car. Windows XP is Mac-like in many ways; Windows Vista is even more so; and Windows 7 is the most Mac-esque version to date.

Some features in the two operating systems, such as Windows Vista's search and OS X's Spotlight, are practically identical. Keyboard commands you know from Windows tend to work in OS X, too, as long you hold down the Command key instead of Ctrl. Even Alt-Tab app-switching is nearly identical, except that you use Command-Tab instead.

What's different As familiar as OS X may feel in many ways, a few fundamental differences can trip up anyone accustomed to Windows.

For instance, in Windows, menus are attached to application windows. But in OS X, there's a permanent Menu Bar affixed to the top of the screen. Specific items on that Menu Bar may change, depending on the app you're using. But many of its elements (particularly those on the right side) stay the same no matter the app.

The left-side menu with the little Apple logo stays the same no matter which app you're using. It contains some essential system-management features, including Software Update (a less intrusive counterpart to Windows Update) and the Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down options that Microsoft puts in Windows' Start menu. It's also where you'll find System Preferences, OS X's equivalent to Windows' Control Panel.

The buttons in the upper-left corner of each window are also different. If you click the red circle (which would seem to be the same as clicking the X in the upper right-hand corner of a Windows window), you'll close that window, but leave the application open. To shut down an entire app in OS X, you have to press Command-Q, or select Quit from the menu named after the app you're using. (If, for example, you're using Microsoft Word, you'd select Word -> Quit.) If you forget that the red circle only closes individual windows and not the application itself, you may belatedly discover that your Mac's memory is bogged down by programs you thought you'd closed.

As in Windows, OS X's yellow button minimizes the window. But by default, minimized windows are tucked into the right-hand side of the Dock where they're easy to miss. To minimize them into their icons on the left side, go to the Dock's settings in System Preferences and select Minimize Windows Into Application Icon.

OS X's green button maximizes the window. But rather than expanding it to fill the entire screen, that button makes the window just big enough to comfortably accommodate the Web page you're viewing, the word-processing document you're editing, or whatever else the window contains. To make a window really big, drag it to the upper left-hand corner of the screen, then grab hold of its lower right-hand corner and drag until you hit the screen's edge.

Other essentials With any luck, you won't need another item on that Apple menu very often: Force Quit lets you shut down applications that are misbehaving so badly that you can't exit them through normal means. (OS X may run more smoothly than Windows, but programs can still choke, crash, and otherwise muck things up.) Using it is the equivalent of pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete in Windows and then using the Task Manager to nuke an offending application, except that Force Quit tends to work faster and more reliably.

Installing and removing programs is generally less complicated in OS X than in Windows. When you insert a software disc in your Mac and open it in the Finder, you'll usually see an icon for the program and a representation of your Applications folder, where nearly all apps live. To install the new program, you just drag its icon into Applications. (If you downloaded the application, it'll typically show up in OS X as a virtual disk; after you install the software as above, use the eject icon to the right of the "disk" in the Finder sidebar to get rid of it.)

Most of the time, uninstalling software is way easier than in Windows: Just find the unwanted program's icon in Applications and drag it into the Trash. There are no uninstallers or folders full of related files to worry about, nor a Registry to get messed up if the uninstall goes badly.

What's better Before you finish exploring Snow Leopard, be sure and check out features that have no real counterparts in Windows. Stacks, for instance, is a bit like the Start menu but faster and more fun: Drag any folder into the right-hand region of the Dock, and from then on clicking on it in the Dock causes it to spring open, providing quick access to its contents. And Spaces (which you set up in the Expose and Spaces section of System Preferences) lets you create multiple desktops that you can switch between with a single keystroke. It's kind of like a multiple-monitor setup that only requires one monitor.

There's no way I could explain everything about the Mac interface here. But among the platform's many virtues--after its sleek design, consistent features, and lack of bloat--is its discoverability. Poke around and you'll find all kinds of cool features and intelligent design decisions. All of which add up to one of the biggest benefits of switching to the Mac: In less time than you might think, you can go from clueless newbie to confident power user.

Switchers Guide: Move your files from PC to Mac

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:19:31 -0800

If you've been using a Windows PC but now want to move to a Mac, you likely have files--documents, PDFs, photos, music, and videos--that you want to bring with you. If you've had that PC for a while, that could mean you have many, many gigabytes of stuff to move. These days, most common file-types will work just fine on the Mac, without any need for conversion or special software. (One notable exception: If you have music and/or video in Microsoft's Windows Media formats, get Flip4Mac so you can play them in OS X's QuickTime.) The trick is getting those files from one hard drive to another.

Use an external Hard Drive

Apple's support site suggests several different methods for transferring files from a PC to a Mac. My personal recommendation is to use an external USB hard drive: Connect the drive to the PC, drag your data onto it, then disconnect it, attach it to your Mac, and drag the data onto the Mac's hard drive using the Finder (OS X's equivalent to Windows' Explorer). (Your Home folder, which appears in the left-hand pane of the Finder and is equivalent to My Documents, is a good place to copy your personal files--it's got folders for Documents, Movies, Music, and Pictures.)

If you don't already have an external drive, there's no better time to buy one: They're cheap, and you'll probably want one to use with Time Machine, OS X's built-in backup tool. For data-transfer purposes, make sure the drive is formatted using Windows' FAT32 file system, so both your Windows PC and your Mac can read and write to it; after you're done copying files over, use OS X's Disk Utility to reformat the drive as Apple's HFS+ so you can use it with Time Machine.

if you want to transfer your files directly to a virtual version of Windows, consider using the transfer utilities that come with virtualization software.

Move your E-mail

Getting your old e-mail from your PC onto your Mac is easy if you've been using a POP3 or IMAP account that leaves messages on the server: Just launch Mail on your Mac (it's the postage-stamp icon in the Dock). The first time you do so, it'll walk you through the process of adding your account and it will then download your mail.

If you haven't been using an e-mail account that stores your messages on a server, but stores them on your computer instead, transferring them to a new machine is trickier. Where and how those e-mails are stored depends largely on which e-mail client you use. Mail can import messages in the mbox format (via the Import Mailboxes in Mail command found in the File menu). If your old e-mail client can export in that format, you can make the transfer that way. Otherwise, my best advice is to Google the name of your Windows e-mail client and transfer e-mail and see what you find.

If you're willing to invest $40 in simplifying the moving-to-the-Mac process, consider Detto Technologies' Move2Mac. This migration utility not only transfers your files (via network or external drive, moving items from Windows' My Documents to OS X's equivalent folders), but it also moves your Outlook e-mail and address book, browser favorites, even your wallpaper.

Switchers Guide: Moving from Windows to the Mac

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:19:08 -0800

[Editors' note: We asked Harry McCracken, the former editor of PC World and the editor of the Technologizer blog, to write a guide to switching to the Mac from Windows. We hope that it's a good resource for anyone--including the friends and family of long-time Mac users--who are making the move from Windows to the Mac. McCracken is himself a semi-switcher--he uses both a MacBook Pro and a Windows netbook every day.]

Remember the last time you moved? For all the promise that the move would make your life better, there was at least some short-term pain: boxes to pack and unpack, a new house or office to get used to, a new neighborhood to learn.

Moving from a Windows PC to a Mac--at the office or at home--presents the same kinds of opportunities and challenges. It requires some up-front effort: Transferring your data from your old machine to your new one, getting your hardware and software to run, and learning your way around OS X, the Mac's operating system. (For the purposes of this story, when I say "OS X," I mean OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard.)

But the move doesn't have to be that hard. In the stories that follow, I've assembled a quick guide to making the switch as easy as possible. Don't worry: it doesn't have to be onerous or time-consuming. And the quicker you get it out of the way, the sooner you'll be able to get to work on your new Mac.

If you want to learn more, check out Macworld's Mac Basics Superguide; you can buy it in our Superguide store. The current edition of that guide is all about Leopard; we'll have another edition, updated for Snow Leopard, coming out later this year.

Dell Vostro 320 All-in-One

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:01:31 -0800

The Vostro 320 is Dell's contender for a business all-in-one PC. Minimalistic, simple, and well-designed, it is ideal for businesses primarily interested in a space-saving, clutter-free desktop PC.

Design

Similar in concept to the Studio One 19, Dell's mainstream consumer all-in-one, the Vostro 320 fuses together a traditional desktop's monitor and CPU cabinet into one single entity. This not only helps save space on or below the work desk, but it also makes for an appealing, good-looking computer to work with.

Encased in glossy black plastic, the Vostro 320's centerpiece is undoubtedly its 19-inch LCD screen. It is non-glossy in nature--perfect for business usage--and has a widescreen resolution of 1440x900. We don't mind that it doesn't support touch input, as text is crisp and easy to read on the evenly lit screen and viewing angles are acceptable. The screen also has a 1.3-megapixel webcam and microphone grooved into its top bezel--engaging enough for video chats.

The Vostro 320 is supported by an adjustable stand on its back which allows it to tilt upward. Besides this, the Vostro 320 also has a VESA wall mount compartment--the stand for which Dell sells separately. The overall build quality of the Vostro 320's good, and its photo-frame-style stand is small but robust.

Hardware Specs

The Dell Vostro 320 is very well looked after in terms of internal hardware. An Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8-GHz processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 160GB 7200rpm storage drive are very good basic building blocks for a work machine. No discrete graphics here, obviously; only onboard Intel GMA X4500 to suffice with. It has support for Wi-Fi connectivity, but no Bluetooth. There's a dual-layered DVD writer on the Vostro 320's left edge, while a multicard reader, three USB ports, FireWire port, and two audio jacks reside on its right screen edge.

There are plenty more connectivity ports at the back: three more USB ports, Ethernet, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. There's also a serial and parallel port thrown in on the Vostro 320's back to plug in an old printer or camera, but no VGA-out port. The optional wireless keyboard and mouse combo is exactly similar to the one sold with the Studio One 19, but the wired ones we received with our Vostro 320 aren't bad at all. Keys are nice and springy to type on, while the mouse is quite big and responsive. The Dell Vostro 320 comes with Windows Vista Business 32-bit edition.

Performance

With a fast processor, fast-spinning hard drive, and adequate RAM, it is no surprise the Dell Vostro 320 achieves a WorldBench 6 score of 107. This is a shade below the Studio One 19, but well over the scores of the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 and Apple iMac 20-inch. You can multitask with ease on the Vostro 320--whether you browse the Web, work with productivity suites, or tune into some music. Even watching HD movies, both 720p and 1080p, was a smooth and enjoyable experience. Its twin 2W onboard speakers, situated on the back, aren't very loud but clear, and good enough for an office setting. The overall power footprint of the Vostro 320 is also pretty good. Apart from a stack of bundled software, the Vostro 320 comes with a useful backup and restore utility.

Verdict

The Dell Vostro 320 brings a refreshing new look to the otherwise drab and boring traditional business desktop. It isn't just a fad but quite practical and works well as a sleek mainstream business machine. It offers very good performance, and its all-in-one design certainly helps save desk space--at a price, though.

eBay Reaches Deal With Skype Founders

IDG News Service — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:56:43 -0800

Skype users can breathe easier, now that one of technology's greatest business blunders has been fixed. The outside chance of a Skype shutdown has gone away, messy lawsuits have been resolved, and Skype's founders are back helping run the company.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will join the consortium that is buying the company, taking a 14 percent stake, and joining the company's board.

The two founders will also make an "undisclosed cash investment" in Skype, according to the Journal. More importantly, they will withdraw their lawsuits and contribute the Joltid software, key to Skype's operation, to the new company.

All this is necessary because in 2005, when eBay CEO Meg Whitman purchased Skype, eBay bought the company but its founders kept the Joltid technology its service was based upon. The deal cost eBay about $2.6 billion in cash and stock.

In the heady days of the supposed eBay/Skype "synergy" this may have seemed like a good deal, but only if you weren't very smart. Which describes eBay's thinking that purchasing Skype was somehow going to benefit auction customers.

It never did and as the deal turned sour--and especially after Whitman left--eBay started looking for ways to unload Skype. First, through a public offering and finally by selling Skype to an investment group that hopes to do more with the company than eBay has been able to accomplish.

The new owners include an equity investment company, Silver Lake; Netscape founder Marc Andreessen's venture fund; and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. Together, they own 56 percent of the company, while eBay retains a 30 percent interest.

The big loser in the deal, besides Whitman, who may face "what were you thinking?" questions during her California gubernatorial bid, is Index Ventures, a VC firm apparently forced out of the deal by Skype's founders.

An Index employee formerly worked for Joost, another company owned by the founders, complicating the legal entanglements.

Today, one of the sorriest chapters in Silicon Valley business history has ended. Skype users no longer have to worry about major changes to the service, necessary if Joltid were removed, or even potential shutdown.

In the end, the money eBay is getting, reportedly $2 billion, removes some of the sting from the Skype purchase. The 30 percent ownership stake that eBay is retaining gives it considerable upside potential if the new owners are successful. (eBay's share was lowered from 35 percent in the final agreement).

There is an important business lesson here: A contract that seems to make sense when everyone is happy and the sun is shining can become a nightmare when clouds gather and relationships sour. Good contracts always consider the great possibility that a deal will go wrong and help solve that problem in advance.

Allowing Skype's founders to keep Joltid was a huge mistake that severely limited eBay's options, probably lowered the eventual selling price, and took fancy maneuvers to fix.

Glad this is out of the way.

David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.