Convert Firefox into a text-only browser

By Dennis O'Reilly

Last week I described how to use a simple Javascript to determine the age of a Web page. The only problem: if the page has any dynamic elements that update automatically when the page loads (and these days most Web pages do), the script shows the current time and date.

For pages without auto-update content, type javascript:alert(document.lastModified) into the address bar and press Enter to see a window pop-up with the date and time of the page's last update. I'm still looking for a way to find out how recently specific content on a Web page was updated.

As I was looking for such a method, I stumbled upon a great Firefox add-in from Chris Pedericks called the Web Developer Toolbar (download). As the name implies, the free toolbar is intended to help Web designers test their pages, but it can also be used to show only the text of Web pages, which often makes them easier to read--and to print out.

After you download the toolbar, click Options and check Persist Features. Next, click CSS*Disable Styles*All Styles. Now click Images*Disable Image*All Images. Lastly, click Disable*Disable JavaScript*All JavaScript. You'll see only the page's text, and perhaps a couple of broken-image place markers. Be warned, however, that the results are rarely pretty.

In addition to making the pages easier to print, the text-only versions are also much easier to scan for specific information. (Note that you can retain much of the page's original formatting--minus images--by keeping CSS enabled.)

Tomorrow: Put Microsoft Word's styles to good use.

Google's privacy faux pas with Reader

By Elinor Mills

In its attempts to add social elements to products, is Google pulling a Facebook?

Google Reader has allowed people to share items they are interested in with others since 2006 with hyperlinks, clips on blogs and storing them on a public page that you had to know the URL for to see.

Last week, Google tweaked Google Reader so that your shared items are automatically made available to your Google Talk contacts.

But, as anyone who uses instant messaging knows, not all of your IM contacts are friends. Many are acquaintances or people you barely know and with whom you may not want to share a reading list.

Recently, Facebook was forced to modify its new Beacon ad targeting service that notifies friends in your network when you buy things on sites of Facebook partners. Facebook made that an opt-in feature, however, after consumer groups and Facebook members complained the service violated people's privacy.

Google, too, has been crucified in the blogosphere over its Google Reader change, with bloggers saying the Google Talk contact sharing feature should be opt in, not opt out.

To calm the masses, Google posted an item on the Google Reader Blog that explains the company's reasoning behind the change and tells how to clear the shared-items list and how to tag items to share with a limited number of people.

"We'd hoped that making it easier to share with the people you chat with often would be useful and interesting, but we underestimated the number of users who were using the Share button to send stories to a limited number of people," the blog says.

Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Land blog, writes: "Frankly, a better solution would be to dump the friends sharing feature until it comes back in a new form, where you specifically and deliberately create a list of contacts that you do want to share material with."

How to find a Wii

by Daniel Terdiman

After spending hours driving more than 60 miles Tuesday in search of a Wii, I am pretty much convinced that there are next to none available in retail stores anywhere, nor are any stores likely to be getting more before Christmas.

You never know, of course. A call I made to a Nintendo representative revealed that it's not entirely clear if retailers will be getting more before the holiday. But time and again, salespeople told me that they didn't expect to get any more after receiving shipments last Sunday that quickly sold out.

So what's a Wii hunter to do?

As a Toys "R" Us salesman told me during my stop at one of their stores, one method would be to "Call everywhere in the world, every single day of your life if you really want one."

But if that doesn't work, here's what else you can try.

First, GameStop retailers are having a promotion on Friday in which they will accept paid preorders and will guarantee delivery of a Wii sometime in January.

But this program has gotten enough attention that I was told by one GameStop clerk that you'll probably have to line up to preorder.

You could also try buying one online. eBay, for example, seems to have many of the consoles for sale, though I would tend to doubt at this point that you could get delivery prior to Christmas. But you never know. It's certainly worth checking out the possibilities.

This is what Nintendo recommends:

"Get to know your store managers. Ask them when their shipments come in, so you can be on hand the day they show up."

"Call around. You can increase your odds by checking in with more than one store."

"Try smaller stores in out-of-the-way places. Many different kinds of stores sell video game products, so don't go to the same megamall that everyone else is going to."

"There's no one surefire way to find a Wii. But by teaming up and getting creative with your approach, you're bound to have more success than the people who just go to their local mall and do nothing else."

"If you see one, be sure to grab it!"

This is surely fine advice, and if you follow those suggestions, you'll probably find a Wii eventually, though it may still take you some time. Certainly, try to temper your kids' expectations that there will be a Wii under the tree on Christmas morning, because if you don't have one already, odds are you're not going to find one.

For its part, Nintendo is certainly aware that the shortages of the console are causing consternation among consumers, but it is taking the position that it's doing what it can to address the issue.

"If it were possible to snap our fingers and manufacture millions more, we would do it," Nintendo said in a statement it delivered to me Tuesday. "We're continually putting more and more Wiis into the pipeline, but they all sell through almost instantly. Production has already been boosted more than once, and we are actively increasing the number of systems provided to retailers around the world."

That's all fine and good, but it certainly doesn't put a Wii under your tree. And from my experience, it doesn't look as if much will. The best bet at this point is to accept that you're going to have to wait.

My advice? Keep your tree up, and when you finally find a Wii, wrap it up, put it under the tree, and pretend Christmas has been extended into January. What kid wouldn't love that idea?

Firefox 3 beta 2 is out and about

Mozilla fans can now download Firefox 3 beta 2 for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

The new version sports a wide range of improvements over the first test version of the browser upgrade, most notably plugs for memory leaks, security fixes, and a download manager that includes improvements previously available only through plug-ins.


The security enhancements get fairly technical, but the Firefox developer's Web page states that the new version offers "protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of Web site identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, antivirus integration in the download manager, (and) version checking for insecure plug-ins."

The updates to the download manager are pretty good, and they're far easier to parse. The new manager lets you resume stopped downloads, and it has the aforementioned built-in virus checker.

You can also zoom in on parts of a Web page, and the integration between bookmarks, the location bar, and bookmark folders has become tighter. There's now one-click bookmarking, smart folders for bookmarks, and the location bar checks against your bookmarks and history for page titles and URLs.

The Firefox developers also claim that Web site rendering is now faster than it was in FF3 beta 1, but empirically, I couldn't detect any difference. Either way, it's definitely faster than it is in FF2.

If you're a bit nervous about accidentally damaging your current installation of Firefox 2, but you'd like to try out the Firefox 3 beta, I recommend installing the portable version. It doesn't affect your old settings, though you can't run both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 beta portable simultaneously.

Yahoo Maps gets drag-and-drop rerouting, enhanced business listings

By Josh Lowensohn

Yahoo's mapping service has been tweaked today to include a rerouting feature similar to the one Google's had since June. The new addition lets you pick up and drag your directions at any point to get the service to reroute according to the guidelines you give it. Once you've made changes, the service will pop up with a small comparison to show you how many miles have been added (or taken away) and how the change affects the time on your original commute recommendation.


Rerouting is a handy feature, and if you've given Google's implementation a try, you'll know how nice it can be to not have to create two or more separate sets of directions to help get you from point A to point B when including shortcuts or side trips. I have to give a slight nod to Google's version, however, as it shows you street name, mileage, and time estimates while you're in the middle of dragging the marker around.

In addition to directions, Yahoo has also made some slight improvements to the business listings that show up on the map, which now include photos and user ratings that have been pulled in via Yahoo Local. You get to see only one photo and review before having to jump off to the attached Yahoo Local page. The process isn't nearly as seamless as Google Maps, which allows users to read several while remaining on the page, but it makes the service feel like more of a directory.

Yahoo Maps has rolled out some pretty cool features this year, including a send-to-car option, an all new look, travel maps, and tighter integration with Flickr.

DNA dating site predicts chemical romance

By Elsa Wenzel

The first dating service to use lab-based genetic profiling launched online last week. Scientific Match promises to pair up people who will be physically attracted to each other because their DNA is different.

Well-matched couples will like each others' natural scents, have more fun in bed, and bear healthier children than those who are genetically similar, the company claims.

The service, available only in the Boston area, charges $1,995 for a year-long subscription.

"I strongly believe this will dominate the future of dating services," said founder Eric Holzle, a mechanical engineer.

Members swab their cheeks and send in saliva samples. A lab spends two weeks analyzing the immune system genes, and then the company matches individuals with genetic profiles that are unalike.

"We look at six specific genetic reference points on DNA, and none of those six can match to make a match," Holzle explained.

He was inspired by a well-known "sweaty T-shirt" study of a dozen years ago, in which biologists found that women liked the smell of dirty shirts worn by men who were immunologically dissimilar to themselves.

As with other online dating sites, Scientific Match's users can fill out written profiles and upload photographs. Genetic details are not displayed, except to indicate a match. The service runs criminal background checks to exclude anyone who has committed crimes involving violence or identity theft.

Scientific Match is open to straight and gay people. However, women taking the birth control pill are turned away because some studies show they are more attracted to men with similar immune system genes.

The success or failure of the service can't be measured, however, with only a handful of customers so far. Although Holzle doesn't guarantee finding one's true love, he insists that people paired by Scientific Match will at least smell appealing to each other.

The romantic role played by scent is well-documented in poetry and science. Perfumers even add synthetic versions of pheromones, suspected aphrodisiacs found naturally in the body, to fragrances that include Paris Hilton's eponymous perfume.

But the ability to bottle attraction or to predict it through genetic profiling remains unproven by science.

Scientific Match sounds more like pseudoscience to Dean Hamer, the molecular biologist and author credited with discovering "gay genes."

"That sounds like a complete and utter rip-off that preys on people's lack of knowledge of causation and correlation," he said, adding that people could wrongly write off a potentially great mate due to genetic discrimination. "Why don't they just smell their underarms?"

Nevertheless, entrepreneurs are sure to try to capitalize on advances in genomics and biotechnology to reshape the landscape of high-tech matchmaking. The field is wide open. For instance, nobody has tried to set up couples based upon genes that have been linked to promiscuity or libido strength.

And Googling a date's full genetic code could be on the distant horizon. The cost of sequencing someone's DNA has dropped to the low six figures.

The latest online services to incorporate genetic testing include startup 23andMe, Ancestry.com, and the Genographic Project, which sell swab-and-send testing kits for uncovering the deep roots of a family tree.

Opera Mini browser getting ready for Verizon--sort of

Jessica Dolcourt

Verizon users with high-end phones may soon have another choice for surfing the Web--Opera Mini 4 (on CNET Download.com). Opera Software announced on Thursday compatibility with Qualcomm's BREW platform, on which Verizon and many other carriers worldwide run.

Although Opera Software has ported code for its mobile browser to the BREW platform, you won't be downloading the app tomorrow. It will remain unavailable until BREW carriers certify or license the browser, and decide if it will be made available through the Opera Mini Web site or through the carrier's interface. The only exception? Verizon BlackBerrys, which are compatible with Opera Mini now, though they lack a minor functionality.

Since Qualcomm approved developers and requires a digital signature for each product, the implementation process differs for the BREW and Java environments.

Visit the Opera Mini Web site for a list of compatible phones, and watch this First Look video to see how the Opera Mini 4 mobile browser works.

YouMail manages mobile voice mail like e-mail

Jessica Dolcourt
I'll come right out and say it. The biggest problem with my first experience with YouMail may have been my own human error, or bad timing. The biggest problem with my second experience is a controversial capability I tackle later on in the review--so keep reading!

In my original review of the voice mail system that lets you manage voice messages online, I said YouMail had a lot of potential, but wasn't delivering on its promise of catching my voice mail messages. It could be that I skipped a beat, and missed punching the crucial star (*) key when entering YouMail's phone number into the Motorola Razr V3 handset I tested with. Or, offers YouMail's PR representative Derek Brookmeyer, I may have actually done this as the signal cut out, in which case YouMail would not have completed my voice mail forwarding, and Verizon would not have warned me the action was unsuccessful.

So now, the complete review:

YouMail's concept fits snugly into the intersection of two meta trends--personalized greetings (such as Vringo) and online mobile management (such as Dashwire). However, since you program YouMail to take over native voice mail duties, it involves a lengthier time investment up front.

YouMail users receive notification of new voice messages from both text and e-mail (you can disable that if e-mails start building up.) Checking voice mail on your mobile phone reroutes you to YouMail's service, which plays your message, and which gives you options to reply, save, delete, or skip messages, or change your individualized greeting for the caller.

Clicking the e-mail notification opens a new YouMail.com window and plays the voice message. On YouMail.com, voice messages are indeed handled like e-mail, with the regular functions to save, trash, flag, and sort messages. Replying to a message sends the caller either a text or an e-mail wrapped in YouMail's branding, your choice. Users are also able to record customized greetings for select callers, a really unique surprise for a buddy. Or a nasty one, depending on the message you leave. I'm imaging high school break-ups via YouMail: "If you're wondering why I'm not picking up the phone, it's because we're over!"
In addition to YouMail getting interactive with a hands-on approach to voice mail management, it also goes Web 2.0. with a few publishing tools. This is, perhaps, a little too chic for comfort. Users who enable message sharing can choose to broadcast voice mails they receive by e-mailing the message, linking to it, embedding the WAV or MP3 file onto a Web page, or publishing it to Digg, Del.icio.us, Furl, or Spurl with a single click.

While YouMail's privacy statement promises to shield your e-mail address and phone number, it says nothing about walling off your voice content. In fact, YouMail stands behind sharing, explaining to me in a PR conversation that there's little difference between YouMail's message broadcasting capabilities and the tape recording taken of Alec Baldwin's incriminating voice message left on his daughter's cell phone. If I had let that PR call go through to voice mail, I could have embedded it here.

The comparison doesn't inspire much confidence, and it's YouMail's biggest flaw. As much as I'd love receiving a sweet or funny voice note directed to me when I call a friend, I cringe at the thought that any message I leave them could be so swiftly distributed. Of course, with a few tools, anyone is capable of digitizing a voice message that anybody else leaves, but the fact that callers have no choice in the really simple publication of their voice message could, at the very least fuel some individual embarrassment, and at the most, fuel an ugly debate about digital voice rights. For now, as with e-mail messages, letters, and other forms of private communication-gone-public, it comes down to a users' judiciousness and sensitivity.

Apart from that, YouMail's free voice mail management is a well-integrated solution for making more out of mobile messages. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile subscribers can most easily try YouMail for themselves by following directions online. Have your phone ready. Sprint subscribers have to ask a customer service representative to implement the voice mail forwarding to YouMail's central number. Do this only if you have minutes to spare.

How do you like YouMail? Tell us your take on the service in the comments below.

Be careful when shopping for a replacement laptop battery

The batteries in laptop computers are expensive (a quick review of prices at Lenovo.com shows they range from $119 to $179) and like any battery, they have a limited lifespan. When it comes time to replace the battery inside your laptop computer, you may be tempted to save a few bucks and buy a replacement from a company other than the one that made the computer.

Don't.

In a widely reported story, someone in Ohio purchased a battery for their ThinkPad laptop from a company called Shentech rather than directly from Lenovo or IBM (in 2005 IBM sold the Thinkpad line of laptops to Lenovo). No doubt they paid less than IBM or Lenovo would have charged. When I checked today, a battery for a T40 ThinkPad that Lenovo sells for $119 is only $65 at Shentech. Was it a bargain? Not at all, the battery caught on fire.

The story made news not because of the fire but because the battery, bearing an IBM logo was a fake (allegedly). After examining the faulty battery, IBM purchased additional batteries from Shentech and they too were (allegedly) fakes. Needless to say, IBM is suing Shentech (that they list a Post Office box and no phone number on the Contact Us page of their website doesn't inspire confidence).

Unfortunately, the laptop battery igniting in flames was not, in and of itself, newsworthy. After all, last year there were a slew of battery recalls. The big story was Dell recalling 4.2 million batteries made by Sony, but overall approximately 10 million Sony batteries used in machines from Apple, Sony, Lenovo/IBM, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sharp and Dell were recalled. In May of 2005 Apple recalled iBooks and PowerBooks with batteries made by LG Chem Ltd., of South Korea. Lenovo/IBM has also recalled Sanyo batteries. It must be hard to make a safe Lithium-ion battery.

The lesson here is to only buy replacement batteries from the company that made the computer. Off-brand batteries are more likely to scrimp on safety features.

And, should there be a recall of the battery in your laptop, make it easy for the manufacturer to contact you - register your computer purchase.

Your BatteryIf you are curious about the battery in a laptop computer running Windows XP, go to the Control Panel, open the Power Options, click on the Power Meter tab and, finally, click on the battery icon. In the screen shot above, you can see the battery was made by Sanyo.

ThinkPad owners should have a ThinkPad configuration program installed (available from Start -> Programs -> ThinkVantage, at least in Windows XP, I'm not sure about Vista) that shows additional information about the battery. As you can see above, this includes the manufacture date and the first-used date.
The Status Detail tab (see above) also shows, among other data, the current temperature of the battery which might bear watching every now and then.

If you know of other software that shows important information about the battery in a laptop computer, please leave a comment below.

Microsoft releases final version of HD Photo plug-in for Photoshop

Microsoft has taken the beta tag off a plug-in to let Photoshop read and write files in the HD Photo format, which Microsoft is standardizing as JPEG XR.

The free plug-in is available for download for Windows and Mac OS X systems. The plug-ins work on Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and Photoshop CS2 or CS3, Bill Crow, who's overseen the HD Photo and JPEG XR effort, wrote on his blog Thursday.Microsoft hopes HD Photo eventually will replace the ubiquitous JPEG standard overseen by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Among the HD Photo advantages that Microsoft touts: it offers more efficient compression, richer color and a much wider dynamic range; it can optionally store images without data loss from compression; it's free of royalty and licensing constraints; and it can run in camera hardware. Support for the file format, initially called Windows Media Photo, is built into Windows Vista.

HD Photo also can be used to show images online at different resolutions, transmitting only the portion of the image that's shown on the screen. That's useful for zooming in to a high-resolution photo without having to download a vast image, a technology Microsoft uses in its HD View software for viewing detailed images online. One organization using HD View is Xrez.

However, Microsoft faces significant challenges in encouraging adoption of the technology. Building it into Vista is a big step, and an endorsement from Photoshop publisher Adobe Systems helps, but JPEG is deeply entrenched. Standardization through JPEG could encourage industry players to adopt the standard--in particular those who are leery of Microsoft's power.

But there are plenty of standards that never catch on. What could really tip the balance in favor of HD Photo/JPEG XR is if it gets built into cameras directly so photographers can start using it from the outset.

The final version of the plug-in, developed in part by Pegasus Imaging Systems, looks mostly like recent betas, Crow said.

"All the changes we've made since the last beta are under the covers, fixing a couple minor bugs, addressing several theoretical security vulnerabilities and generally bringing the code up to current Microsoft standards for released software," he said. "Don't forget that the beta versions will expire on December 31st, so you should definitely download and install these new released versions."

Firefox churns to version 2.0.0.11

By Stephen Shankland

Mozilla on Friday released the third update to Firefox this month, version 2.0.0.11, to fix a stability problem in the previous version.

"We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release," a post on the Firefox developer blog said.

The open-source Web browser update arrived swiftly after version 2.0.0.8, released October 18, version 2.0.0.9 from November 1, and version 2.0.0.10 from November 26. Which explains why I'm getting a lot of software update messages from my Web browser.

Version 2.0.0.10 broke a feature that lets images be displayed with special effects such as rotated pictures and image reflections, according to Mozilla's bug-tracking site. The problem was fixed within a day and distributed within five, but not before some whose sites were affected by the bug had voiced frustration.

"Customers are complaining because their Firefox automatically updated to 2.0.0.10 and now they can no longer order photo prints in our shop. I think this is a very serious problem and I hope it will be fixed immediately in a 2.0.0.11 update," a post by Klaus Reimer said.

In an indirect response, Firefox coder Nick Thomas pointed to mailing lists that people can use to test their sites with imminent new Firefox versions. Thomas also said that the five-day turnaround is "the fastest turnaround between Firefox releases to date."

As long as the Mozilla coders are stamping out bugs, one that's annoyed me has become more prominent of late because it shows up when I install a Firefox update.

When I restore my Firefox browser sessions upon rebooting my computer, it's impossible to get rid of the "You've been updated to the latest version of Firefox" page. Even if I close that tab, it comes back later, so I have to start with a clean browsing slate to make it go away. It's not a stability or security problem, but it's not a credit to what is a notably influential project.

Mozilla released the first beta version of Firefox 3, called Gran Paradiso, less than two weeks ago. The second Firefox 3 beta should be done in "late December" if all goes well, according to another Mozilla developer blog post Friday.

Transferring big files with DropSend and TransferBigFiles

By Michael Horowitz

If you need to send files to someone and they are too large to email, there are untold numbers of web sites offering this service, both for free and commercially. However, if you need to transfer very big files, your choices are more limited. When I recently needed to transfer some files of 650MB to a client, I tried a handful of these services. Previously I wrote about free services from SendThisFile and EatLime. Here I relate my experiences with the free services from DropSend and TransferBigFiles.


All these services operate by letting you upload files to their servers, notifying the recipient that the files are ready to be downloaded and providing a link that points to the file(s). Some of the services have optional software, but installing software scares me, so I used nothing but a web browser (except in one instance).

DropSend

DropSend offers to send files up to 1 gigabyte for free (the same limit applies to their paid accounts). They allow only five file transfers per month, but also include 250MB of permanent online storage. The limit of five transfers does not apply to uploads to the permanent storage.

Registration is required, they ask for your name, email address and require you to chose a password.

The status display while transfers are in-flight is pretty complete, you see an estimate for the remaining time in minutes, the upload speed and the upload progress both in percent and total megabytes.

A constant annoyance with bandwidth speeds, nothing specific to DropSend, is that they are reported as "bps" and sometimes the "b" stands for bits and sometimes bytes. I emailed DropSend asking if the speed they display is bits/second or bytes/second. I never received a reply.

I didn't like the fact that DropSend opens a new browser window to display the upload status, it crowds the tasksbar. The new window opened despite the fact that Firefox was configured to open new windows in a new tab.

After an upload completes, DropSend tells you the number of megabytes transferred and how long the transfer took. No other service I tried did this.
TransferBigFiles

TransferBigfiles is, according to their website, an "experimental project". The word "BETA" appears in read at the top of each web page. In politics, they call this lowering expectations.

The maximum supported file size is either 1 or 2 gigabytes. In describing their optional software it says "Upload up to 1gb per file". However, in their FAQ it says "TransferBigFiles does not limit the amount of space your account can use on our servers, the only storage limit we have is that your files may not be larger then two (2) gigabytes." Apparently "beta" applies to the documentation too.

A great thing about TransferBigFiles is that neither the sender nor the recipient needs to register. To use the service, as shown above, all you need to do is select a file on your computer and provide an email address for the recipient. It couldn't be any simpler.

While a file is being uploaded, you see the upload speed, an estimate of the time remaining and an estimate of the overall time. For a 650MB file, the initial estimate was 3.14 hours. The first time I tried it however, the upload failed with a Timeout error.

The next day, I tried again to upload a 650MB file and after a while a window popped up with a Timeout error. However, after clicking OK, the upload kept on chugging along. Soon there was another Timeout error and again after disposing of the error window, the upload continued. In all there were a handful of Timeout errors, but the upload completed nonetheless.
The information provided afterwards was disappointing, there were no stats of any type, just a message that the upload worked.

On November 24th, I tried to upload another 650MB file using Firefox and it failed with "The connection was reset - The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."

About 45 minutes later I tried again using Internet Explorer. This time the upload never even started, after clicking on the start upload button, IE hung and eventually gave up saying it couldn't find the server. I waited about 3 hours, tried yet again and this time too the upload never started.

Thinking maybe they were just having a bad day, I tried again on November 25th. Still, the upload never even started. Instead, Internet Explorer reported that "The page cannot be displayed - Cannot find server or DNS Error".

At this point, I installed their free DropZone client software in a Windows XP SP2 virtual machine. Or rather, I tried to install the software, the install failed with a message that "The application failed to initialize properly".

Not being able to take a hint, I instead researched the software requirements for DropZone. Turns out it needs the .NET framework, an optional component of Windows XP. Specifically, it needs version 2 of the .NET framework, which also comes in versions 1 and 1.1. XP users can check if they have it installed using the "Add or Remove programs" applet in the Control Panel (look for "Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0"). Installing the .NET framework fixed the problem and I was able to install and run DropZone version version 1.1.7.23433.

The website doesn't say it, but to use the DropZone software you have to register for a trial account and provide a valid email address.

I started small with DropZone, transferring an 11K file. Or trying to, this transfer also never started. After waiting a while, I clicked on the Retry button but Windows complained the application was not responding. Task Manager showed it was using 99% of the cpu. I killed it an re-booted.

Next, I tried DropZone with a 1.4MB file. Yet again, the transfer never started. I let it sit for about 30 minutes but still nothing. As before, I right clicked on the file name and click on Retry. Again cpu usage spiked to 100% but the transfer still didn't start.

On November 28th I tried again transferring using the web interface. This time, I was in a different location and using Windows 2000 instead of XP. Despite these changes, the upload again wouldn't start. The error this time was unknown.
Persistence eventually paid off though, shortly thereafter I was able to upload a couple small files. But this turned out to be a waste of time as I sent the file to myself and I never got the notification email informing me that a file was ready to download. After a few hours, I uploaded another file to a different email address of mine. This time the upload failed with the unknown error.

Just for good luck, I tried again late on December 2nd. Again, the upload failed with the unknown error.

Final Thoughts

Despite not being able to transfer a 650MB file, EatLime was, in some ways, the most appealing. There is no registration and thus no password to remember, and, they never learn any email addresses. I was able to send small files with it a number of times. I persisted with TransferBigFiles because it has the simplest user interface, but the many failures speak for themselves. SendThisFile was slow, but reliable (see first posting).

It should go without saying, but never send anything you consider sensitive with any of these services, unless the file is encrypted before it leaves your computer.

Finally, there is another approach altogether, one that cuts out the middle man. You can install software that directly connects two computers over the Internet and lets them transfer files to each other. This approach shouldn't have any inherent limit on file sizes. I didn't try this because the sender and recipient both have to be online at the same time.

Digg images going live later tonight, News Corp. buyout next? [PICS]

By Josh Lowensohn

Digg's long-awaited images section will go live later tonight. Similar to the way Facebook's sharing tool works, users submitting stories to Digg will have the option to pick and choose from thumbnails that have been crawled from whatever URL was supplied. There's no need to upload anything, or hotlink to an image--it'll simply be made available. To help users sort through it, Digg has also reconfigured Digg's category system, letting users submit all three types of media (news, images, and video) into any category. This aims to get rid of the previous system of users figuring out their own ways to get through Digg's limited categorization methods, by inserting "[PIC]" or "[VIDEO]" into submitted titles.

To help make use of the new visual draw, Digg's also launching a new way to browse through images using a "mosaic" view. It looks a little bit like Johnathan Harris' 10x10 project by organizing upcoming and popular stories in a cloud of thumbnails (which you can see in the screenshot at the bottom of the post). The company is also attempting to curb duplicate submissions using image recognition from Toronto-based Idee Inc, which is already listing Digg on its featured clients page.

One of the more interesting tidbits from the launch of Digg images is the partnership with Photobucket. The photo service is supplying integration with member images, giving users a new submission button that will jump them straight to a tailored Digg images submission page, as well as giving Photobucket users a whole new channel of photos that have been submitted to Digg. If you've been keeping track of any of the Digg buyout rumors, you should know that Digg's recently gotten deep integration with the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal to let WSJ readers submit stories to Digg, while allowing Digg users to read the premium content free of charge. Photobucket also happens to be owned by News Corp. While News Corp. owns two of those pieces (WSJ and Photobucket), why not go for all three?

Adobe slashes price for Flash Media Server

By Martin LaMonica

Adobe Systems on Tuesday is expected to announce that it will dramatically cut the price of its server software for streaming video over the Web.

Flash Media Server 3, which is set for release in January, will now come in two versions. Flash Media Streaming Server will cost $995, and Flash Media Interactive Server will cost $4,500.

With the current version, Adobe sells its Media Server for between $4,500 and $45,000.

The company is lowering prices in response to customer requests, said Kevin Towes, product manager for Adobe Media Server. "What we've been hearing is that the cost of streaming video over progressive download is the barrier," he said.

The new server is also designed to cut the cost of deploying streaming video with the ability to better utilize a server's network card, he said. A typical media server with a 1-gigabit network card could serve about 2,000 people.

Also on Tuesday, Adobe is scheduled to release a version of its Flash Player that supports the high-definition video standard H.264.

Although Flash is widely used on the Internet for streaming video, it is facing growing competition from Microsoft and its Silverlight plug-in, which is going after the same digital media market.

Hands-on: Two free video-to-iPhone converters

There's no shortage of video-to-iPhone converters on the market, but these two freeware contenders do a more-than-decent job of making individual files iPhone-ready. Don't expect much interface gloss or batch conversion with either. However, both apps quickly produce workable iPhone videos without much fuss.

Free Video to iPhone Converter tells it like it is. The rough 'n' ready app takes up minimal screen space and memory. Browsing for links and converting quickly is easy, since there aren't too many additional tabs or buttons where you can get lost. There is, however, a useful function for trimming videos before converting them.

Videora is a larger and busier, app by Red Kawa. On the plus side, Videora lets you format videos for iPhones and three flavors of iPods, including the iPod Touch. You can also browse for and convert YouTube videos online. Videora's multiple tabs and settings let you control advanced encoding and conversion details; it can also pop the finished product straight into iTunes (download,) which can in turn autosync to your iPhone.

Step-by-step prompting (which you can step down or turn off) is useful for walking you through the process, but the double-pane interface adds confusion and superfluous steps for an essentially simple program. The end product was just as good as Free Video to iPhone Converter, but took far more clicks and doesn't have the added advantage of trimming a clip. Dragging a file to the iTunes library is hardly a hardship, though Videora's autoload feature is still a convenient perk.

I currently prefer Free Video to iPhone Converter myself, though Videora will appeal to those further up the power user scale.

Gmail integrates AIM, adds colored labels

By Seth Rosenblatt

Gmail and Google Talk users can now chat with their AOL Instant Messenger buddies through the Gmail interface, Google announced today. Rolling out to all English-based users by the end of the day, the new feature will let you seamlessly jump from chatting with a Google contact to an AIM buddy without having to use two separate chat clients.


The AIM integration feels native to Gmail. The AIM log-in panel is behind the "Set status here" upside-down triangle under the Contacts list. Click there, and if the feature rollout has hit your account, you'll see a "Sign into AIM" option on the drop-down menu with AIM's yellow running man icon next to it.

A new window opens when you choose to sign in, so be sure that you don't have a pop-up blocker enabled for Gmail.com. Enter in your AIM username and password, or hit the link at the bottom of the window to create a new AOL account, and you're good to go. AOL buddies will appear in the Contacts list, mixed in with Google Chat contacts. The running man icon for AIM contacts appears on the right side of the chat list.

Click on the "Set status here" triangle again, and you'll notice the AIM login option has changed to a logout. Once you've logged out, your AIM contacts disappear, although the next time you log in you won't need to re-enter your password. To use a different AIM account, you need to go to the Chat tab under Settings.

This integration comes right on the heels of Google Chat rolling out group chats and more developed smileys last week. Individual chat and the ever-important smileys are there, but any other ancillary AIM features you might be interested in require the full AIM client.

Google was cagey about whether Gmail will feature other chat protocols such as ICQ in the future. Jason Freidenfelds, a spokesman for Google, said only that he couldn't comment on whether they were looking at including other chat programs.

Another new feature that Google added last night was colored tabs for labels. This feature, previously only available through plug-ins like Better Gmail, lets users assign colors to labels to make it easier to keep track of them. From the Labels panel, click on the square next to the label and a drop-down menu of colors will appear. Select a color and your e-mail list will refresh, with the label name on e-mails now in vibrant life-affirming hues.

Besides making it easier to see labeled e-mails, when you click on an e-mail that's been labeled you can now search for all e-mails with that label or remove the label from the e-mail directly from buttons next to the e-mail's subject line.

While colored labels aren't a killer feature, they're small touches that make the interface that much easier to use. Combined with the AIM integration and other recent changes, it's hard to understate the usefulness to users of the recently rewritten Gmail source code.

Better Gmail gets even better

By Seth Rosenblatt

If you're tired of waiting for Google to make some much-needed improvements to Gmail, Better Gmail has been adding useful functionality to the e-mail client since earlier this year. An update earlier this month finally gave Gmail what users have been clamoring for: integration with Google Reader.

Written by Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani, the extension is basically a collection of her favorite Greasemonkey scripts. It does more than just slap your feeds onto the bottom of your in-box, though. It adds a Collapse/Expand Gmail link to the top-left nav, just under the Compose link. This hides your e-mail and pulls the Reader up to the top, and swtiches to Expand when the in-box is hidden. It also adds a control panel to central left nav for managing your feeds, a neat work-around so that you can collapse the Reader's built-in navigation. The Reader pane is collapsible, too, so you can hide the perpetual distraction of feeds from the perpetual distraction of e-mail.

New Meebo Firefox extension puts notifications in your Web chats

By Josh Lowensohn

Meebo released its Firefox extension earlier this morning. It lets you chat with people on six different popular chat clients, or sign in to all at once with your Meebo ID using a sidebar in your browser. The 64k extension is aimed at solving the problem of providing active notifications for friends and conversation activity--one of the most widely requested features from Meebo users, and the hardest to implement without something that has deeper access to your browser. If you've ever used Meebo before and have been annoyed that you can't tell a whole lot about what's going on when it's not your main tab or when minimized, this extension solves that with colored taskbar pop-ups. And as an added bonus for the lazy, there's an option to automatically sign into the service every time you start your browser.

Once installed, the buddy list can be hidden and summoned with a shortcut button that sits next to your home button. You'll also get a brief overview of what a buddy has written right in your sidebar, and a numbering of missed messages both in the bottom corner of your browser, and by their username.
Any conversations take place in a special browser window that's tied to the side bar. The one caveat of using the service is that this tab needs to be open at all times, and that conversations take place there until you pop them out. Closing it out will simply sign you out. According to Meebo's "marketing dude" Daniel Bernstein, there are no plans to get rid of that open tab. Considering Meebo's monetization strategy relies on the advertising and content partnerships that you'll find in the Meebo home screen, the company isn't trying to replace the need to see that screen with the extension.

As an added bonus for Meebo users who feel like sharing content they find around the Web, the extension lets you drag over links, or entire chunks of text from other windows. It's similar to Meebo rooms, although lacking the neat video drag that will open up the Flash video right in the IM. Also, speaking of rooms, you're not going to be able to access them from the sidebar--that functionality remains a part of Meebo.com.

Internet Explorer users looking for a little Meebo love in their browser will be getting their own extension "really soon." In the meantime, Firefox users can pick it up here.

Visual search comes to Nokia phones

By Leslie Katz

If you start seeing people pointing their Nokia camera phones at books, product packaging and other print materials, it's not that they have some weird cell phone-related tic. More than likely, they're using the Thrrum Visual Browser for Cameraphone Search.

The browser lets users point the camera in their phones at objects of interest and get relevant information, product prices and more, right on their handset. Mountain View, Calif.-based 23half, which makes the software, just announced that the app will be available for select Nokia Nseries phones, including the N73, N73ME, N95 and N95-3. It's also supported on a number of Sony Ericsson models.

The Thrrum Visual Browser software can be downloaded from Thrrum.com. The software costs $5.99 and includes the accompanying Cameraphone Search service.

The Thrrum Visual Browser isn't the first application to wed visual recognition technologies and information search in the context of mobile phones. Fujitsu has created software that links product images taken with a camera phone to Web sites, videos or other advertisements. That technology is currently deployed in Japan as part of a partnership between Fujitsu and the country's largest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo.

Gemini: A virtual mobile world wakes to life

By Jessica Dolcourt

Second Life may have nudged its Grid onto the mobile screen, but it's Gemini's eXplo platform for enabling mini virtual worlds that earned a spot on Deloitte's Wireless Fast 50 list at the CTIA Wireless conference (coverage).

In S'town, a game built on the eXplo platform, users can chat on screen, buy products, stare at advertising billboards, and meet up with online friends, even whooshing to a meeting point on the other end of the expansive world. That's in Japan, where impressive phones on the Softbank network are already attracting a demographic of "young, active, and 'fun'" 18 to 24 year-old women who don't mind expressing themselves in one of 11 rudimentary avatars.

North America's S'town is apparently a much different world. This audience will be able to integrate with services like YouTube and Facebook. In a demo, Stephen Sims, Gemini's Director of Product Management for eXplo, walked a bouncy, pig-tailed avatar into a Facebook gallery whose virtual walls were decked with album images. In another view, pressing the phone's soft key button reeled through images vertically as if on a giant turbine, from the far "wall."

North American carriers will begin marketing games like S'town using Gemini's platform "sometime in 2008," Sims assured me. Europeans will likely get them much sooner; carrier talks are underway.

Samsung BlackJack II makes official debut

Well, well, guess who decided to show its pretty little face at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address this morning--mmm hmm, the Samsung BlackJack II. Today, Samsung and AT&T officially introduced the successor to the BlackJack, but it won't be available till "later this year"--you guys are such a tease! A majority of the changes are on the hardware side. You now get a slightly larger 2.4-inch QVGA display (previously 2.25 inches), the scroll wheel on the right side has also been removed in favor of a front jog wheel, and the bottom row of the QWERTY keyboard now includes more shortcut buttons to the smartphone's various apps. In addition, the BlackJack II is slightly (and we mean slight; this is still very much a sleek phone) thicker, but for good reason. The extra room was needed to store a higher-capacity 1,700mAh lithium ion battery. We know battery life was an issue with the original BlackJack, so we really hope the issue has been resolved in this iteration. Unfortunately, at this time, Samsung couldn't give us any specific numbers on rated talk time or standby time.

Feature-wise, the BlackJack II is pretty stacked. Starting with the new, there's built-in GPS and it's the first smartphone to support AT&T's Video Share service, which lets you make video calls. The camera's been upgraded to a 2-megapixel lens and you get a built-in RSS Reader client. Samsung also said they made improvements to the speakerphone for louder and clearer performance and increased standard memory. Other oldies but goodies include HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile for stereo Bluetooth headsets, Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition, AT&T Music and CV support, and quad-band world roaming.

As we mentioned earlier, a specific availability date was not given but pricing is set for a very reasonable $149.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates. It will also be available in two colors: black and burgundy. I got a sneak preview yesterday, and I've got to say I'm pretty excited about the device. The form factor is still sexy and slim, and the burgundy model is gorgeous--appropriate for both men and women. The front jog wheel felt a bit loose to me, and for those of you accustomed to the side-mounted control, it's going to feel a bit weird at first. I only got about 10 minutes of hands-on time with the BlackJack II, so it's hard to say if the performance is any better, but I'm about to run over to the show floor to get some video, so check back soon for your own first look.

Reuters, Nokia collaborate on project for reporters on the go

By Caroline McCarthy

Reuters and the Nokia Research Center have announced that they are working on a joint project to enable journalists to file and publish stories and multimedia news content from handheld devices instead of computers. Called Reuters Mobile Journalism, the initiative relies upon connecting peripherals to Nokia's high-end N95 device--a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard, a small tripod for video interviews, and a microphone that can plug into the mobile handset--as well as software to make it easier to put together text, images and streaming media.

"By running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene," Nic Fulton, chief scientist of Reuters Media, said in a statement from the two companies. "This saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date."

It would also, of course, require that the reporter in question be equipped with an N95 handset.

Over the summer, Reuters ran trials of mobile journalism in situations as varied as the U.S. presidential primary campaign events, the Edinburgh TV festival and New York Fashion Week, where stories were filed from the field. Currently, the plan is to make the finished product available to professional journalists, but a number of university students will be used for a trial run to see how the "toolkit" fits into the ever-growing citizen journalism niche.

NoiseFree VoIP hushes the rabble on Skype, Yahoo, Google calls

By Jessica Dolcourt

NoiseFree VoIP has just launched a fresh all-software solution to those often noisy VoIP calls. Skype, Yahoo Messenger with Voice, and Google Talk are great ways to save money on long distance, but if you're calling anywhere near civilization, you're bound to get interference. A noisy line can undo the advantage of free Internet calls.

Until December 31, 2007, NoiseFree VoIP is offering a free beta of its noise-canceling software to registered users. I gave it a go at CTIA (coverage), and was impressed with the demo. There was noticeable improvement in call quality when I toggled the software on and off, though the background buzz in the busy room didn't and couldn't have faded completely.

NoiseFree VoIP launches as a window that detects when you use VoIP. It doesn't add on to or interfere with your voice program of choice, operating invisibly. The app window can be set to start with Windows or with a browser launch. It minimizes to the system tray and can be called on for a few very minor tweaks.

WeatherBug now forecasting on iPhone

WeatherBug knows how to get around. The detailed weather reporting application for most combinations of desktop and mobile downloads, plus a WAP site, has let iPhone into the club. Now iPhone users can check out seven-day forecasts, animated radar maps, and real-time images from street-level weather cameras.

Incidentally, I learned an interesting factoid about WeatherBug. It began as educational curriculum and still has a strong program for schools and organizations subscribing to its weather warning alert system (e.g., "chance of lightning, soccer canceled.") That explains why the view of Sunnyvale, Calif., is taken from what looks like the roof of the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School, a small private school, rather than this well-known landmark.

Microsoft acquires equity stake in Facebook, expands ad partnership

By Caroline McCarthy

Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook during its next round of financing, valuing the company at a whopping $15 billion.

News.com's Ina Fried in her Beyond Binary blog reported earlier Wednesday that Microsoft had beaten out Google in the high-stakes bidding war for the slice of tasty Facebook cake. The final deal resulted in a 1.6 percent stake in the social-networking company, notably smaller than the 5 to 10 percent that had been talked about in recent weeks.


"We are pleased to take our Microsoft partnership to the next level," Owen Van Natta, vice president of operations and chief revenue officer at Facebook, said in a statement. "We think this expanded relationship will allow Facebook to continue to innovate and grow as a technology leader and major player in social computing, as well as bring relevant advertising to the more than 49 million active users of Facebook."

In a conference call on Wednesday afternoon with press and analysts, Van Natta and Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's president of platform and services, emphasized that this deal is all about the existing advertising partnership between the two companies, which has been going on for over a year now. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, it should be noted, was not present on the call.

"It's a strong vote of confidence in the innovation that Facebook is doing," Johnson said of the deal, which was signed Wednesday. It's ironic, considering that just earlier this month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer brushed off Facebook and other youth-friendly social-networking sites as a "fad."

Under the terms of the new agreement, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party advertising partner for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social-networking site, and the Microsoft ads will expand beyond the U.S. to Facebook's international presence. So far, the advertising deal does not appear to have expanded beyond its current 2011 expiration date.

"It's pretty clear that Microsoft wasn't investing in this as an economic move. This is clearly not just about adding a company to your portfolio," Gartner analyst Andrew Frank told CNET News.com. "Microsoft is looking to anchor itself in the emerging ecosystem of social-media advertising, and getting this partnership with Facebook is a good way to get a structural advantage."

Developing a robust advertising strategy is clearly a pressing issue for Facebook, which has come under scrutiny in recent months for showing only lukewarm signs of long-term profitability. Earlier on Wednesday, Facebook confirmed rumors that it will be making a major advertising announcement on November 6 in New York.

Van Natta and Johnson stressed that Wednesday's deal, at least on the surface, doesn't go far beyond advertising and the "$240 million poke." There won't be any integration of Facebook into Microsoft services, nor will Microsoft's non-advertising properties--like Windows Live Messenger, for example--be worked into Facebook.

But Frank speculated after the call that the partnership could easily grow. "I think (Microsoft) may get more. I think that the language of the press release, which is always rather contrived, emphasizes what they agreed to emphasize at this juncture, but I think they left the door open for a whole lot more stuff down the road," Frank said. "Microsoft will continue to have influence beyond just being an ad platform."

But on the call, Van Natta and Johnson repeatedly referred to it as an expansion of an existing partnership. When asked what had happened with Google, widely rumored to be another major bidder in the Facebook stake competition--and which serves the ads for Facebook's chief rival MySpace--Van Natta answered that it was because the partnership with Microsoft was already in place.

"We were very fortunate to have a lot of folks that were interested in partnering with us around advertising," Van Natta said. "We've been working with Microsoft for over a year now in the U.S., and it's been a partnership that's been really great for both of us."

Google's reaction
Speaking to journalists near the end of Google's Analyst Day, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that "it's not appropriate for us to comment without taking a look." He added that Google is "very happy to work with Facebook and anyone else," but when asked if his company had been in talks to acquire the stake, Schmidt said that he "would rather not talk specifically."

Google co-founder Sergey Brin had more to say to journalists, though he was not specifically speaking about Facebook. "Occasionally we've lost one here, one there," Brin observed. "Some of our competitors might be willing to spend very large amounts of money...and we're really interested in doing sustainable economic deals, so we would rather not participate in those sorts of transactions. But we definitely wish those companies well."

"Overbidding," Schmidt added, "always upsets me, and Sergey calms me down." (Again, Schmidt was not talking specifically about Facebook.) He then elaborated. "Sometimes people include a revenue guarantee, an absolute number, or on a per-ad basis or per customer...a guarantee (that they will pay the publisher)," Schmidt said. "And they do that to enter a market...It's perfectly legal as far as I can tell...It's essentially a subsidy."

Much of the fine print on the Microsoft-Facebook deal has not been disclosed, including the specifics of how the advertising strategy will work--which goes into the question of exactly how much Facebook user data Microsoft will have access to. "User trust is core to what it is that we focus on every day at Facebook," Van Natta said, but would not provide details.

The executives also asserted that there will be no new rules or restrictions on the thousands of developers who have been working with Facebook since the social-networking site opened its platform to third parties in May.

As for the rest of the social-networking world, Gartner's Frank said that even Facebook's competitors should consider the Microsoft partnership a good sign overall.

"Clearly a rising tide floats all boats, and so the fact that Microsoft is making a big commitment to the medium itself will probably help the overall sector because it gives it credibility, and gives it some long-term interest from a pretty serious company," he observed. "The effect on the sector probably outweighs any competitive effects because if the sector grows as fast as Microsoft seems to think it will, there should be a lot of room for growth for a lot of different players beyond Facebook."

But, Frank added, there's still some uncertainty involved. "There are still risks inherent in the category of advertising in social media. I think that no one has figured out the perfect formula for it...There's risk around trust factors and privacy that haven't really fully been explored. I wouldn't say that the market is anywhere near mature enough to call it risk-free."

Hot deal: Canon PowerShot SD1000 Elph for $170

As a back-pocket backup, the Elph series is well respected and widely enjoyed. Canon left off the manual controls on this snapshooters' favorite, but for what it is, it's a sound product and a great deal. It started out on the market earlier this year at $220 or higher, and sellers are starting to lower the price. On Thursday, Amazon's winning the race to the bottom, especially since in most cases they offer free shipping for this item.

According to CNET Reviews, the SD1000 Elph offers unusually good image quality, "solid build quality, speedy performance, an optical viewfinder, (and) face detection" along with assorted preprogrammed settings, a 2.5-inch LCD screen, and admirable speed.

What: Canon PowerShot SD1000 Elph pocket digital camera
How much: $169.95

This week in cameras

This week includes a new Sony camera, suspiciously similar advertisements, and Hello Kitty merchandise. It's a win for everybody!

• Apple, Sony photos: Coincidence?
• AVCHD video: The hardware is willing, but the software is weak
• A cat head for a camera
• Depth of field: The small sensor difference
• Flickr to upgrade photo printing
• Flickr to use Picnik for online photo editing
• Hasselblad deep-sixing H2 hybrid camera
• Hot deal: Canon PowerShot SD1000 Elph for $170
• How deep is your field?
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T2: Memory cards? Who needs memory cards?
• Tamron's superzoom lens set to launch
• Turn junior into an indie filmmaker

Apple, Sony photos: Coincidence?

An excellent item last month comparing the desktop designs of Apple and Sony by our colleague Matthew Elliott drew some of the most reader comments seen on Crave in months. We won't wade into that territory again but wanted to pass along this item from Engadget Japanese to show that we're hardly the only ones to draw parallels between the two companies.

Engadget says the photos are "official, un-doctored press shots from both Apple and Sony" of an older iPod Nano and the new Sony Cyber-shot released yesterday, respectively. Even the colors and position of the gravity-defying gadgets are the same. Coincidence? It may be time to call in Oliver Stone.

The guitar wars just got kicked up a notch. The craze fueled by Guitar Hero and Rock Band has led some big bands to lend their names to custom controllers made by ArtGuitar.

KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Pantera will have their images and logos emblazoned on the "AG RiffMaster Guitar Controller," which Slippery Brick describes as a full-size Peavy guitar that's been turned into a game controller. The limited editions are going for $399, so these aren't for the kids. For them, there are other, less dangerous alternatives.

Technorati CEO Dave Sifry steps down

By Caroline McCarthy

Dave Sifry, founder and CEO of blog search company Technorati, has stepped down from his post according to an entry on the company blog. The resignation is effective immediately; he will remain chairman of Technorati's board. Meanwhile, CFO Teresa Malo, vice president of engineering Dorion Carroll and vice president of marketing Derek Gordon will jointly run the company while seeking a new chief executive.

"Making tough choices is a daily reality," Sifry wrote. "But some choices are tougher than others, particularly when they involve one's own self." Technorati, an early entry in the blog search market, has recently been plagued by technical difficulties, revenue headaches and competition from Google Blog Search. Sifry's resignation, as he notes, was not unexpected: "For those of you who follow Technorati regularly, you know that we've been conducting a CEO search since Spring and that it was just a matter of time before I made a transition," he explained. "Rather than waiting for the process to play out, I would go ahead and transition to the board exclusively, taking on the role of Chairman of the Board."

Sifry also announced that eight members of Technorati's staff have been laid off in a move to "adjust our expense structure to be more appropriately aligned with our priorities moving forward."

$100 laptop: The end of Moore's Law?

by Rory Reid
The One Laptop Per Child organization's XO computer, aka the $100 laptop, has just started mass production. And while Crave is happy that thousands of underprivileged African children will reap the benefits of a PC and the Internet, we can't help but feel a little jealous--and even embarrassed.

Here we are, extolling the virtues of laptops such as the $4,000+ Sony Vaio TZ, when for most users the $100 XO would be just as effective. Sure, it doesn't have a premium badge on the lid, and its 433MHz AMD CPU won't win any speed records, but it'll let you surf the Web, send email, enjoy audio and video, and even, as some Nigerian children have discovered, allow you to browse for porn.

Think about your own PC usage--does it honestly include anything more demanding than Facebook stalking, laughing at idiots on YouTube or hitting the digg button underneath the latest lolcat? Can you justify spending $4,000 when a machine costing $100 pounds will do exactly the same thing? Crave thinks the world can learn a lot from the XO, the ClassMate PC and its ilk. These devices could change the computing world as we know it. And despite its makers saying it's exclusive to the developing world, the XO absolutely should be brought to the West.

Since 1965, the tech world has obsessed about keeping pace with Moore's Law--an empirical observation that computing performance will double every 24 months. Concurrently, consumers have lusted after the latest and greatest computing hardware, encouraged in part by newer, fatter, ever more demanding operating systems and applications.

Moore's law is great for making tech faster, and for making slower, existing tech cheaper, but when consumers realise their personal lust for faster hardware makes almost zero financial sense, and hurts the environment with greater demands for power, will they start to demand cheaper, more efficient 'third-world' computers that are just as effective?

We think so. The amount of interest generated by the XO, the ClassMate PC, and more recently the £200 Asus Eee PC is phenomenal. Most people in the Crave office are astounded by their low price and relatively high functionality, and are finding it difficult to justify buying anything else. If you want to play the latest games, well, the latest games consoles, while power-hogs, are relatively cheap and graphically very impressive.

It's almost poetic that the poorest nations in the world have the potential to push the Western tech industry in a new direction. Don't get us wrong--we love fast, outlandish laptops and PCs as much as the next blog, but we'd be idiots not to show you the alternative. And what a fantastic alternative it is. We predict some very interesting, and money-saving times ahead.

Nokia buys media-sharing site Twango

by Caroline McCarthy

Media-sharing site Twango updated its Web site on Monday to announce that it's been chomped up by cell phone manufacturer Nokia. With its cool new toy, Nokia hopes to make it easier for handset owners to share multimedia content among desktop, Web, and mobile platforms.

"The Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our consumer Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks--at any time, anywhere, from any connected device, in any way that you choose," said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice president and general manager of multimedia at Nokia, in a joint statement We have the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences including music, navigation, games, and--with the Twango acquisition--photos, videos, and a variety of document types."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

I played around with a Twango account for a bit after testing it out when the Redmond, Wash.-based start-up (yes, it was founded by Microsoft alums) came to the DigitalLife trade show in New York last October. It's sort of like a mix between Flickr and multimedia "channel" creator Kyte.tv, facilitating the storage and sharing of a variety of media types and allowing them to be organized into "channels." To be honest, the structure of the site confused me somewhat (are "channels" like Flickr "albums" but with audio and video too?) Then again, I also can't seem to wrap my head around all those fancy Nokia N-series handsets that you can play with at the company's nightclub-like flagship store in midtown Manhattan.

But the match makes sense: it's clear that both companies pursue a strategy that focuses on the ultra-functional, the feature-heavy, and the if-it-counts-as-media-we'll-help-you-share-it mentality. It's unlikely that this acquisition will affect a whole lot of people who aren't Nokia customers (and it's not yet very clear as to how Twango itself will change) but it'll be interesting to see how this affects mobile media-sharing.