Pc News

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New High-Capacity Flash Memory

Samsung Electronics showed off its first 40-nanometer chip, a 32-gigabit NAND flash memory module that can be used in memory cards able to store up to 64 gigabytes of data, or 40 movies.

The latest step into smaller chip manufacturing methods brings Samsung to the forefront of chip production, putting it ahead of other manufacturers, including Intel, which has only announced chips built at 45nm. The chips are also the seventh generation of NAND flash memory to follow in a Moore's law-type theory posited by Samsung, that the company will double the capacity of NAND flash every 12 months (read "Samsung Readies 32GB Memory Cards" for background.

Smaller Chips Needed
Such advances are vital to the consumer electronics industry. Users are demanding ever smaller devices that can do more, such as handsets with built-in mobile phone, computing, camera, and digital music playing functions. Demand for more storage to keep photos, videos, songs and other data has expanded rapidly over the past few years, and analysts expect the trend to continue.

The 40nm chip production technique is key to making chips smaller, faster, more powerful, and cheaper to produce. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, and the measurement is a guide to the size of the transistors and other parts that are etched onto the chips. Typically, the more transistors, and the closer they are together, the faster the chip can perform tasks.

New Design Technique
The company also revealed a new design technique, Charge Trap Flash (CTF), that will allow it to eventually shrink NAND chip features to 20nm, and produce 256-gigabit chips. In the 32-gigabit chips, the control gate in the CTF is only a fifth as big as conventional control gates on chips in a typical floating gate structure. With CTF, there is no floating gate. Instead, data is temporarily placed in a holding chamber made of silicon nitride.

Chip for Hybrid Drives
Samsung also released a new chip for its hybrid drives, a kind of hard drive aimed at laptops that uses NAND flash as a disk cache, to speed boot-up times and reduce power consumption

The new chip, dubbed an SoC (system-on-chip) because it does the work of several chips, incorporates up to 4-gigabytes of NAND flash as a data buffer and helps further speeds boot-up times while lengthening battery life, the company said.

The chips will be in mass production in November.

Samsung is one of several companies working on hybrid drives. Seagate Technology and Intel are also developing the technology for notebook computers.

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McAfee Apologizes for Bugs in Falcon Roll Out

McAfee has apologized to users for bugs in the company's new line of client protection software, released last month.

In an e-mail sent to some users last week, McAfee Executive Vice President Bill Kerrigan acknowledged that there had been glitches in the roll out of the "Falcon" antivirus software. "We would like to extend our sincere apologies to anyone who may have had problems with their computers due to the upgrade," he wrote.

Not all McAfee customers have been given the new software, which is going through a phased roll out, according to a McAfee spokeswoman. However, users who receive software updates from McAfee directly, or who purchased the software in the past month may have had problems, she said.

Both McAfee and rival Symantec have been contending with Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare, its recent entry into the antivirus market, hoping to stay one step ahead of their new competitor. With this new line of products, code-named Falcon, McAfee introduced a new user interface as well as its SiteAdvisor Web site-rating software.

McAfee estimates that fewer than 1 percent of customers who downloaded the new software have had difficulties, but the problems they experienced could be annoying.

The Problems
The new software didn't work well with some ISP (Internet service provider) software, causing browsing slow-downs for some users, the company said. And customers who had disabled firewall protection would be presented with notification messages that could not be ignored, an annoyance for some.

Some customers were simply confused by the new user interface, McAfee added.

"While we believe no one's computer protection was compromised, we have worked quickly and hard to resolve the issues," Kerrigan said. "In fact, we have already sent out an update that automatically fixed the glitches caused by the upgrade."

Customers who have complained about the bugs are being offered a free 3-month extension to their subscription, a McAfee spokeswoman said.

The Effect on Users
The bugs made Web surfing a drag, said Matt Saefkow a programmer in Cleveland. "One out of every 10 images would not load unless I refreshed the page a number of times," he said. "I was frustrated to the point where I no longer had any interest in trying to fix a program that should have helped my computer stay alive."

Even before this latest update, Saefkow had experienced problems running FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software on his PC, but the Web browsing bug was the last straw, he said. He has chronicled his difficulties with the software.

"When McAfee itself is causing a computer to feel like it's affected [by malicious software] that's counterproductive," Saefkow said. "I'm not going to be spending money on antivirus."

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Why We Love to Hate Our Cell Phone Company

Maybe it's a $3-a-month charge from Verizon Wireless for Roadside Assistance that you don't remember requesting. Maybe it's an $18 "upgrade fee" that Cingular Wireless neglected to mention when you bought that snazzy new Motorola Razr phone. Or maybe you're just peeved about dropped calls.

Whatever the cause, if you've had it with your cell phone company, you're not alone. Consumers are mad, and the lawsuits are flying.

Driving Discontent
According to the Better Business Bureau, cell phone companies drew 30,483 consumer complaints last year to become the top-ranked industry for grievances. The most common complaints: inaccurate bills, inadequate customer service, and deceptive contract terms. Cell phone companies were the subject of more complaints than such perennially unpopular businesses as car dealerships, hotels, retail outlets, and insurance companies, BBB statistics show.

Experts attribute the rise in customer dissatisfaction to fallout from mergers and acquisitions in the wireless industry, including the Cingular-AT&T Wireless and Sprint-Nextel mergers.

***k Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power and Associates, says a study by the famed market research firm found that consumer satisfaction with wireless phone service providers in 2005 was down 10 percent from 2004 levels.

Below are details about some of the most common cell phone complaints, as lodged in recent lawsuits and filings to the Federal Communications Commission and the Better Business Bureau.

Roadside Assistance Rage
At least two federal class-action lawsuits have been filed over Roadside Assistance charges of $2 or $3 a month on Cingular and Verizon Wireless bills. In separate lawsuits, customers of both carriers say they never ordered the optional service, which Cingular and Verizon say will provide emergency service to auto drivers who get stranded on the side of the road.

Cingular's Roadside Assistance is an emergency insurance program for motorists that Cingular markets on behalf of Asurion Insurance Services. Should a subscriber have a flat, get locked out of their car, or run out of gas, they can call a special number on their Cingular handset and someone will come to their assistance, free of charge.

Michael Gellis sued Verizon in Oakland, California, Circuit Court, while Cingular Wireless customer Margaret Moffatt filed suit against the firm in Wayne County, Michigan, Circuit Court. Both customers say that for more than two years, without their consent, the carriers had added charges for Roadside Assistance to their monthly bills.

Both suits allege violation of state consumer protection laws, breach of contract, and "unjust enrichment." Both suits were eventually transferred to U.S. District Court in Detroit, where attorney Peter Macuga of Macuga and Liddle is representing both plaintiffs.

Cingular declined to comment on the two pending cases. However, its representatives said Cingular typically offers a free 60-day trial of the Roadside Assistance program to customers when they upgrade or change their plan. If the customer doesn't cancel the service after the trial period ends, Cingular begins adding the charges to their monthly bill.

Cingular says it never initiates the free Roadside Assistance trial without the customer's consent, whether in writing at one of the carrier's stores, verbally over the phone, or by clicking to accept a terms-of-service agreement online. "If folks have had that on their bill, and they didn't order it, obviously there is a mistake somewhere and we can correct it," says Cingular spokesperson Mark Siegel.

A Verizon Wireless press contact also said that the company doesn't add services to a customer's calling plan without consent, adding that Verizon would work to resolve disputes related to any charges. Verizon also declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Singularly Aggravating
Cingular is facing additional complaints stemming from its merger with AT&T Wireless in October 2004.

One group of customers--people with older phones that use AT&T or Cingular analog or TDMA networks--is complaining about Cingular's announced intention to charge them $5 per month for continued service. Another group--former AT&T Wireless customers who still use that company's TDMA network--is angry about what they describe as deteriorating network quality in the wake of the merger.

Both groups say Cingular is trying to force them to upgrade to more expensive phones and rate plans on the company's newer GSM/GPRS network.

Cingular says the $5 monthly fee is needed to recoup costs associated with maintaining the older networks. Currently, 4.7 million subscribers, about 8 percent of Cingular's total, use Cingular's TDMA or analog networks, Siegel says. Cingular had no comment about the alleged deterioration of service on the old AT&T TDMA network.

Forced to Switch
Yet another group of angry Cingular customers are former AT&T Wireless customers who did switch to Cingular's GSM service following the merger--and found that they not only had to buy a new phone, but had to pay an $18 transfer fee that Cingular charged them simply for switching to Cingular's GSM network. Those customers also had to pay $18 for the SIM chip that contains the phone number and other user information that is required by GSM handsets.

And switching wireless carriers to protest against Cingular was not an attractive option: People who tried to leave Cingular with time remaining on their AT&T contract were subject to an early-termination fee of $175.

In response to these complaints, Cingular in July 2005 began waiving the transfer fee for former AT&T Wireless customers who migrate to a Cingular plan. Cingular subsequently also waived the charge for its own customers who buy new phones to switch from older networks to GSM service. However, these concessions came too late to pacify some customers.

Several consumer advocacy groups headed by the Santa Monica, California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights filed a federal suit in Seattle, alleging that following its acquisition of AT&T Wireless, Cingular intentionally degraded service on legacy AT&T networks in hopes of driving AT&T's customers to Cingular's GSM network. The suit also accuses Cingular of charging AT&T customers unfair fees to make the switch.

One State's Fee Fine
Meanwhile, Cingular's business practices in California have drawn the ire of state authorities. In July, a state appeals court upheld a $12.1 million fine imposed on the carrier in 2004 by the California Public Utilities Commission. The judges agreed with CPUC regulators who said Cingular knowingly signed up more customers than its network could handle, while at the same time charging early-termination fees--sometimes amounting to hundreds of dollars--to customers who cancelled their service.

The CPUC also said Cingular failed to provide customers with an adequate trial period and ordered Cingular to refund early termination fees charged to customers who cancelled their contracts between January 2000 and May 2002, refunds that could cost the company millions of dollars.

Cingular has since extended its trial period from 15 days to 30 days.

Consumer organizations such as the U.S. Public Interest Research Group have applauded California's efforts to combat unreasonable early termination fees. "Early termination fees make it easy for companies to deliver bad service," says Ed Mierzwinski, USPIRG's consumer program director. Such fees give customers little recourse if service deteriorates midway through a contract, he explains.

Fees for Phone Upgrades
Cingular's transfer fees aren't the only ancillary charges frustrating wireless customers. Leading carriers routinely charge an upgrade fee simply for switching to a new phone. Sprint Nextel charges customers $18 when they upgrade to a different handset. Cingular charges a similar upgrade fee of $18. Verizon Wireless customers who buy new handsets within 22 months of signing up for service (or of a previous handset upgrade) are subject to an upgrade fee of $20.

In posts on gripe sites such as My3Cents.com and Planet Feedback, some customers say they were never told about these fees at the time of purchase and were surprised to see them on their phone bill, typically two months after purchase. By then, the window for cancellation of the purchase without termination fees had expired.

People are particularly aggravated to see the fee after purchasing a phone that the carrier had marketed as being "free" after rebate, or during an "instant savings" promotion that's supposed to refund the cost of the phone. These promotions are common with all the major carriers.

Sprint and Cingular officials say these fees cover service and administrative costs associated with upgrading customers to a new handset. The officials also say their sales representatives and Web sites make all fees clear to customers when they purchase a new phone.

The Biggest Gripe
Wireless industry experts including J.D. Power and Associates' Parsons say that much of the frustration experienced by Cingular, AT&T Wireless, Sprint, and Nextel customers stems from the complexities involved in merging the technologies and billing processes of huge networks.

Parsons adds that consumer expectations have risen as the cell phone industry has matured. "Today's cell phone users have zero tolerance for dropped calls," Parsons says.

However, dropped calls don't top the list of cell phone gripes. Instead, billing issues account for three times as many complaints as service quality, according to the FCC's May 2006 Quarterly Report on Informal Consumer Inquiries and Complaints.

Billing issues have prompted several state-level initiatives by consumer groups attempting to change the way wireless carriers do business.

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Microsoft's New Search Engine Exits Beta Status

Microsoft this week will remove the beta, or test, tag from Live Search, its next-generation search engine, and make it the underlying search tool at its MSN.com portal.

The move comes as Microsoft anxious attempts to gain traction in the search engine market, where it remains a distant third behind leader Google and Yahoo. Because search engine-based advertising is a fast-growing, multibillion-dollar business, Microsoft has invested heavily in improving its search tools and accompanying ad network. It has, however, failed to make a dent in Google's dominance.

So Far, Third Place
In June, Google nabbed 45 percent of all U.S. search engine queries, while Yahoo got 29 percent and Microsoft 13 percent, according to comScore Networks. This represents a market share reduction for Microsoft of almost 3 percentage points from June 2005.

The enhancements in Live Search are notable, but many of them are available from other providers, so they aren't likely to boost Microsoft's market share in any significant way, said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

"Microsoft has to exceed Google's capabilities, not just match them," Sterling said. "Search engine usage is fairly habitual right now. Microsoft has to come up with dramatic innovations and create an obviously better search experience. That's difficult given the fierce competition."

Timetable for Switchover
Tomorrow through Thursday, Microsoft will replace the current MSN Search engine on MSN.com with Live Search, which features a revamped image search service, an improved local search, a redesigned user interface and new tools to refine query results, said Derrick Connell, general manager of the Microsoft search business unit. The change will take place progressively on different MSN host servers.

When users run a search on MSN.com, they will be taken to a Live Search results page on the Live.com domain, but there will be links there to guide users back to the MSN.com portal, he said.


Live Search went into public beta testing in March at Live.com, the home page of the Live-branded initiative Microsoft launched last year to boost its software-as-a-service offerings. Live.com also exits its beta status this week.

Among the enhancements in Live Search are new options to view full-size photos in image search results and an increased number of "bird's eye" aerial images in local search, which is shedding its beta label in its U.S. and the U.K. services.

Live Search also features a new social search service called QnA, in which users can pose questions and have others chime in with answers. Yahoo, Google, and others have similar question-and-answer search services.

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Feds Ask About HP Spying Allegations

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking questions about conduct by Hewlett-Packard that has embroiled the technology company in controversy.

HP acknowledged in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing today that it is cooperating with an inquiry by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California into possibly illegal tactics used by investigators hired by HP to investigate news leaks from the company's board members.

HP described the U.S. Attorney's inquiry as "informal" and said the questions are similar to those asked by the attorney general of California. HP is based in Palo Alto, California. "We are cooperating fully with these inquiries," HP said in its SEC filing.

New Developments
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, Luke Macaulay, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is joining the U. S. Attorney in "investigating the processes employed" by HP.

The probes are looking into the use of "pretexting" to search phone records to determine which board members may have been talking to reporters. The phone records of nine reporters from various news organizations were also obtained to determine who their sources from within HP might have been on stories about the company.

Pretexting in this context refers to the practice of posing as a phone company customer to get access to personal records. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says a crime was committed in connection with the pretexting, but his office is still investigating what crime and by whom it was committed.

Also Monday, the two top ranking members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee asked HP Chairman Patricia Dunn to disclose the identities of the outside firms that conducted the investigation for the board.

The committee is investigating the protection of personal information from Internet data brokers and gave HP until Sept. 18 to provide detailed information about its probe, according to a letter to Dunn co-signed by U.S. Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and John Dingell (D-Michigan).

"The committee is troubled by this information, especially given that it involves HP--one of America's corporate icons--using pretexting and data brokers to procure personal telephone records...without [people's] knowledge and consent," the representatives stated. The letter was also co-signed by ranking members of the committee's Subcommitteee on Oversight and Investigations.

HP spokesman Ryan Donovan said HP "intends to cooperate ... and will provide the necessary facts and information requested by the subcommittee." HP has previously declined to identify the private firms employed to conduct the probe.

Dunn Under the Gun
The scandal has brought pressure on Dunn, who ordered the investigation but claims she didn't know the outside investigative firm hired to trace the leaks would engage in pretexting. HP's board met today for the second straight day to discuss its response to the controversy.

Former HP director Thomas Perkins, who quit in protest in May because of the way the investigation was conducted, called on Dunn to resign. His statement, released Saturday by his attorney, was prompted by Dunn's comments in media interviews last week in which she alleged that it was Perkins who wanted "more aggressive measures" used to investigate the leaks, including use of lie detectors on board members.

"I am saddened, but not surprised, that Patricia Dunn has attacked me personally for doing my job. I acted not from any ill will toward Ms. Dunn but to protect the best interests of HP. I think the past months and days have shown that those interests are best served if Ms. Dunn would resign from the board," said Perkins in his statement.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission also is investigating HP. The FCC reportedly sent a "letter of inquiry" to AT&T asking how its customer phone records may have been accessed, according to an Associated Press report. An FCC spokesperson could not confirm that.

HP's internal probe identified director George Keyworth as the source for a CNET story about HP's strategy, which the technology news Web site posted in January. He refused to resign when asked to do so by Dunn in May, but the board has since voted not to renominate him to his seat.

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EU Expands Intel Probe

The European Commission has expanded an ongoing antitrust probe of computer chip maker Intel to examine claims that the company has been pressuring the Continent's largest computer retail chain not to sell computers containing chips made by archrival Advanced Micro Devices, Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed Monday.

"The Commission is concerned that Intel has been putting pressure on Media Markt not to stock computers that include AMD chips as opposed to Intel chips," Todd said.

Media Markt is a German chain of over 360 stores spread across 11 countries in the European Union. In July AMD complained to Germany's antitrust office, the Bundeskartellampt, that it didn't have access to this vital sales outlet.

The Commission decided to examine the claim because of the cross-border nature of the alleged antitrust abuse involving Media Markt and because, if true, Intel's links with the retailer would strengthen its ongoing antitrust case (read "AMD Files Antitrust Suit Against Intel" for background).

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Samsung Electronics showed off its first 40-nanometer chip, a 32-gigabit NAND flash m

Motorola and Nokia are partnering to make sure their mobile TV phones and network equipment work together in an effort to speed the introduction of new services, they said on Monday.

The mobile giants plan to make sure their DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld) phones and equipment are interoperable, so that handsets from each manufacturer will operate on network gear built by the other.

Cooperation Should Speed Adoption
DVB-H is a standard, approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and products that conform to the standard should interoperate in any case. But many standards require vendors to work closely with each other to ensure their products work well together.

"By testing our solutions we are enabling operators to bring these services to their subscribers faster," Rob Bero, director of broadcast technologies for Motorola, said via e-mail. The partnership will assure operators evaluating mobile TV that services will work smoothly regardless of which of the companies' handsets and network gear they are using, he said.

In addition to working with each other, Motorola and Nokia will continue to take part in industry-wide standards efforts, they said.

Competing Mobile-TV Standards
DVB-H is one of a few competing standards in the mobile TV arena. Motorola and Nokia say that support DVB-H because it offers high service quality, low battery consumption and the ability for users to receive TV broadcasts at the same time they use other phone functions, such as voice and Internet access.

In Germany, service providers launched mobile TV offerings in June using another standard, T-DMB (Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting). And in the U.K., British Telecommunications PLC uses a combination of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and IP in a mobile TV network that Virgin Mobile plans to start offering next month.

Qualcomm has developed still another mobile TV technology, MediaFLO, which it is using to build a network in the U.S. Many operators are also delivering mobile TV by streaming programming over their mobile Internet networks.

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High-Capacity, Dual-Format DVD

Toshiba and Memory-Tech have developed a three-layer optical disc that can be read by both DVD and HD DVD players.

The disc, which could be on the market early next year, will make it possible for movie companies to package both a standard definition and high-definition version of the same movie on a single disc. That would mean consumers wouldn't have to repurchase the same movies when or if they make the jump from DVD to HD DVD.

A Higher-Capacity Disc
The two companies previously developed a two-layer optical disc that can store both DVD and HD DVD, and commercial content on such discs is already on sale in Japan. The addition of a third layer means more standard or high-definition content can be recorded on the disc.

Each layer is capable of storing about two hours of standard and four hours of high-definition content, the latter assuming the MPEG4 AVC compression is used. That means about four hours of SD and HD content can be stored if two layers are used for DVD and one layer for HD DVD.

Before the disc can be commercialized it must be approved by the DVD Forum as an accepted standard. Toshiba will submit the required paperwork soon and hopes to get approval before the end of the year, said Yuko Sugahara, a spokesperson for Toshiba in Tokyo. If it succeeds then the disc could be offered commercially sometime early next year, she said.

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HP Considers Next Steps

Hewlett-Packard's board of directors took no action at a special Sunday meeting and will reconvene late Monday to continue discussions about the scandal that has occupied the company over the past week.

The board held a teleconference Sunday morning for several hours, according to a brief company statement issued Sunday afternoon, to discuss reports that outside investigators, acting on behalf of the board, obtained phone records of directors and journalists to trace the source of information leaks regarding board meetings.

The investigators' tactic of disguising their true identity in order to gain access to customer records, called "pretexting," may be in violation of the law and the California Attorney General's office is investigating the case.

HP gave no reason in its statement for the move to adjourn Sunday's meeting to Monday.

Dunn Willing to Step Down
HP board Chair Patricia Dunn has been criticized for launching the investigation, including calls for her resignation. Dunn said she was "appalled" that the investigators engaged in pretexting but said that she was not told details of how they conducted their probe. While she has said that she won't resign on her own, she would step down if the board requested her to do so.

The investigation determined that HP director George Keyworth was the source of a CNet story in January about HP's business strategy. When Keyworth was asked to resign from the board in May, he refused. But board member Thomas Perkins, a renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist, resigned in protest over the way in which the investigation was conducted.

HP Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd, in a letter to company employees released late Friday, urged them to keep focused on their work. "The media coverage and speculation regarding the recent actions of the HP Board ... have nothing to do with the strategy or operations of Hewlett-Packard," he said.

Hurd, who emphasized that he was speaking as CEO and not as a board member, added: "There has been a long history of leaking company information with the HP board that clearly needs to be resolved."

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Computer firm Apple has announced plans it hopes will put it at the heart of consumers' home entertainment systems.
On Tuesday it unveiled a device which will stream music and video wirelessly between televisons and computers.

The plug-in hardware is due to be released early next year and has been given the temporary name of iTV.

As well as announcing updates of its best-selling iPod music players, Apple also launched a new service allowing users to download films.

The move into movies was widely predicted by observers, and follows a similar launch by online retailer Amazon.

Pretty much whatever kind of setup you've got, iTV fits in

Steve Jobs
CEO, Apple


Euro debut for iTunes challenger
Check Apple's share price

Deals have been done with Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax and also Disney - where Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs also a director.

Living rooms

The new box - about the size of three stacked CD cases and selling for $299 (£160) - is intended to plug the final connection between computer systems and home entertainment.

For some time Microsoft has sold "Media Center" PCs, which are intended to sit in living rooms.

But the machines have failed to reach critical mass.

Although several devices exist to pipe satellite and cable TV to computers, it has so far proved difficult to persuade users to make the connection in the opposite direction.

Apple's system is intended to make that easier, for both PC and Mac users.

Stored music can also be piped to stereo systems and controlled via the TV.

"Pretty much whatever kind of setup you've got, iTV fits in," Mr Jobs said.

"Now, you can get great content online. It's playing now on a computer near you. You can play it on an iPod near you and it is coming to a TV near you."

'Competition'

By announcing iTV well in advance of its release Apple is building momentum as it seeks deals with more movie studios

Ian Fogg
Analyst, Jupiter Media

The system could prove a challenge not only for other computer makers - but for broadband firms too, said senior analyst Ian Fogg from Jupiter Media.

"Broadband could become a trojan horse that enables companies like Apple to compete with cable tv companies and DSL providers that want to offer TV as well," he said.

"Companies like NTL have an existing TV business, which is facing new competition. BT has a plan for TV and Sky has moved into broadband too.


The new iPod shuffle is the world's smallest MP3 player

"If Apple can deliver movies and TV easily, then that could be a big problem for them.

"By announcing iTV well in advance of its release, something the firm rarely does, Apple is building momentum as it seeks deals with more movie studios."

Films for download

Apple's move into movie downloads - priced at a minimum of $12.99 (£6.93) for new releases and $9.99 for older films - comes several days after Amazon's launch of its own system, Unbox, aimed only at PCs.

In a presentation in San Francisco, Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs said the films would be sold at "near-DVD quality".

It was unclear whether - as is still the case with TV downloads - films would be available only to US customers.

Hardware

The firm also introduced new, larger-capacity versions of its iPod music players.

The iPod nano, its middle-sized machine, is to get a new aluminium case, an an upper size of 8 gigabytes (GB) and longer battery life.

Many users have complained that the first-generation Nano scratched too easily.

For the main iPod player, Mr Jobs said it had improved the brightness of the screen and cut the price to $249 for 30GB and $349 for the new 80GB model.

It also added several new games, including Tetris, Pacman and Texas Hold 'em poker - for download at a cost of $4.99 each.


The unveilling of new products was highly anticipated

Both iPods have longer battery life and quicker searching of their song archives, Apple said.

And the Shuffle, Apple's smallest - and screenless - music player, has been shrunk to less than a third the size of a credit card at a price of $79 for 1GB.

iTunes update

At the same time, Apple announced updates to the company's online music and video store, iTunes.

The firm said users of the iTunes music store would automatically download graphics of album covers for music ripped from CDs, allowing them to search through animations of album art as well as by name lists.

The same system, Mr Jobs said, would allow easy searching of TV shows and movies downloaded.

All video would now be delivered at TV quality, Mr Jobs said, and would allow automatic recording of seasons of TV.

Mr Jobs said programmes and music bought online could easily be transferred between machines - a long-standing niggle for iTunes users.

Reputation

Apple's announcements come after a year in which the firm has swapped all its computers over to Intel microchips.

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Testers: Vista RC1 Appears Stable

Early feedback from testers already using Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 report that the OS is more stable than expected, which bodes well for Microsoft's plan to have Vista out according to its current schedule.

Microsoft has said since March it will release Windows Vista to business customers in November, and consumers in January 2007. Though many have suspected the release will slip further, testers now say there's a good chance the company will meet its goal if the condition of RC1 is any indication.

"Overall I think Vista is looking very good at this point. ... I think all the worries of Vista slipping went out the window," said Brandon LeBlanc, a writer for LonghornBlogs, via e-mail.

LeBlanc said that Microsoft has made performance and stabilization tweaks that testers requested after Beta 2, and the latest test version of the OS--which could be the final one before Vista is released to manufacturing--is solid enough for regular use.

"RC1 is quite usable for everyday work, as I am currently doing myself," he said.

LeBlanc said Vista is so far along in RC1, he does not think another release candidate will be required before final changes are made and the OS is sent off for manufacturing. The previous major client release of Windows, Windows XP, had two release candidates before it shipped to manufacturers.

Bugs Remain
To no one's surprise, however, there are still bugs to be ironed out before Vista will be ready for its final release.

LeBlanc said the OS needs some work in terms of its user interface, for example. The test version "does lack some of the UI polish we were expecting at this point," he said. In Vista, Microsoft has completely revamped Windows' user interface with a new 3D interface called Aero.

Another Vista tester, Andrew Brust, chief of new technology for New York consulting firm Twentysix New York, said the latest test release of Vista feels more "grown up," even on hardware that is not necessarily optimized for the OS.

"Besides the fact that it's just a really nice OS, it feels very sprightly even on hardware that wasn't designed for it," he said.

Even trivial applications such as Solitaire and Minesweeper games have a next-generation look and feel in Windows Vista RC1, Brust said. "It's a trivial example, but it shows a certain attention to detail [on the part of Microsoft]," he said.

Harrison Hoffman, another Vista beta tester and one of the writers of the LiveSide blog, agreed that the latest test version of the OS could be used as a person's main desktop OS, even though it definitely needs some fit and finish before final release.

"Although it might not be quite ready for prime time, if you really wanted to, you could use this build as your primary operating system, but be prepared for a few applications and devices to not work correctly," he said via e-mail. "The OS does not hang, lag or crash as consistently as it used to. The performance has been greatly improved."

However, both LeBlanc and Hoffman noted that Windows Vista is still lacking driver support, a particularly sore subject because Vista has been billed as an OS in which devices will work as soon as you connect them without any further hassle, Hoffman said.

"The philosophy of Vista has been to have things 'just work' when you connect them and right now, some things just do not," he said. "Obviously this issue is going to get better with time and as hardware manufacturers work closer with Microsoft to remedy these problems."

LeBlanc sized up the hardware driver situation in Windows Vista RC1 this way: "Some work, some dona??t," he said. "Heck, Microsoft doesna??t even have Vista drivers for some of their own hardware, including their new LifeCams."

Twentysix New York's Brust called driver compatibility Microsoft's "biggest impediment" to getting Vista out in time. "Driver compatibility will be key for them," he said.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft Sets Vista Pricing, Expands Tester Base

Microsoft today released the pricing for Windows Vista, about a week after online retailer Amazon.com disclosed the operating system's pricing on its Web site.

The company also expanded the tester base of Vista to about 5 million users as it begins gearing up for Windows Vista's widespread release, which is scheduled for early next year.

Microsoft's suggested retail pricing for Windows Vista is as follows: $399 for Windows Vista Ultimate, $299 for Windows Vista Business, $239 for Windows Vista Home Premium, and $199 for Windows Vista Home Basic.

Upgrades to Windows Vista from XP are $259 for Windows Vista Ultimate, $199 for Windows Vista Home Premium, and $99 for Windows Vista Home Basic.

The prices are the same as the ones listed on Amazon.com's Web site last week, except that the online retailer listed an upgrade for Vista Home Basic as $0.95 more. Amazon.com is already taking pre-orders for Vista, and lists on its Web site that the OS will be available on January 30, 2007. Microsoft has not given a firm date for Vista's release, but is targeting sometime in January for the OS's general release. The company plans to release Vista to business customers in November.

In a related blog item, PC World Associate Editor Danny Allen compares Vista's prices and features with those in Windows XP.

Vista Release Candidate 1 Available
Microsoft late last week made available Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of Windows Vista, which means that the OS is in its final testing phases. The release was initially made available to only about 20,000 users who are in Microsoft's TechBeta and Technology Adoption Program program, but today the company said that in the next few days it will expand that release to some 500,000 members of its Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet program (for developers and IT pros, respectively).

Microsoft said it will also make RC1 available to the more than 2 million members of the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program who received Beta 2, and will reopen the program to new testers. Additionally, Microsoft plans to distribute an estimated 2 million copies of RC1 on DVDs bundled with magazines. All told, some 5 million users worldwide will have access to RC1 as Windows Vista goes through its final testing, Microsoft officials said.

Feedback on RC1
Shanen Boettcher, Microsoft's general manager of Windows client product management, said the early feedback the company has received on RC1 has been positive. He said Microsoft will determine whether to make a second release candidate available based on tester feedback to RC1.

Windows XP had two release candidates before it was shipped to manufacturing. Analysts have said that if Windows Vista follows the same path, it will be a tight squeeze for Microsoft to get the OS out according to its current schedule.

Windows Vista's release has been delayed several times, and industry and financial analysts have said they think the release will slip even further into 2007. However, analysts today said that the release of RC1 and the Vista pricing announcement are positive signs that the company could be on track to release the OS on time.

Computerworld has the results of an initial test drive of this build of Windows.

[Rasputin]

First Windows Vista Release Candidate Available

Microsoft took a big stride today toward finalizing Windows Vista by issuing a first release candidate for its next-generation operating system.

A release candidate is a near-final version of the OS that is supposed to be changed only to fix bugs and tweak performance. The arrival of Vista RC1 keeps Microsoft on track for shipping the OS in November as planned.

Jim Allchin, Windows Platforms and Services copresident, announced the completion of RC1 in a blog posting to some 20,000 business and IT users in Microsoft's Technical Beta and Technology Adoption Program. Code was made available to these testers today, but Allchin promised it would go out to the additional 500,000 IT pros and developers in the Microsoft Software Developers Network and Technet next week.

"You'll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2," Allchin wrote. "We've made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We're not done yet, however--quality will continue to improve."

"The operating system is in great shape with RC1," Allchin added in his message to Microsoft's core beta testers, "but there's still a lot of testing to do. You've come through for us so far, and I'm asking you to once again put the pedal to the metal and send us feedback."

In addition to members of the technical community, some 1.5 million general users have received Beta 2 since its release last May by signing up for the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program. At the time, Microsoft said these users would have access to RC1, but there was no immediate word on how the company would be servicing them.

(For those who like to keep track of such details, RC1 is build 5600; Beta 2 was build 5384.)

Microsoft officials say RC1 will time out on May 31, 2007, meaning that people who install it will have to upgrade to the shipping OS by then. It's not clear whether they'd be able to roll back to Windows XP.

What's New Since Beta 2?
Christopher Flores, group product manager for Windows Marketing Communications, said one area in which RC1 is most visibly different from Beta 2 is in its handling of User Account Control technology, which seeks to improve system security by requiring approval, even from people logged in with administrative privileges, for software installations or settings changes.

Testers had complained that the OS popped up windows requesting approval for changes that were trivial or that clearly came from trusted sources (such as Microsoft itself, in the case of Windows updates). Microsoft eliminated some of these prompts, such as those seeking approval to view firewall settings, open the Scanners and Camera control panel, or perform Media Player's Express setup. Also, UAC requests no longer appear as windows that steal focus from applications, which can be distracting. Instead, they appear on the taskbar as flashing buttons.

The OS also now uses less system memory to run, which should speed up overall performance. And it includes support for both of the high-definition video media formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Vista's underlying WinFX graphics system (now called .NET 3.0) is installed by default; previously it had to be user-installed.

Media Center viewers now recognize user-applied tags to photos and videos, and can filter content accordingly. System pop-ups are automatically suppressed when using presentation settings. Additionally, Flores says this version of Vista comes with drivers for thousands more devices than were included with Beta 2.

Microsoft still plans to release final code to volume license customers (primarily enterprises) in November. Systems with Vista preinstalled and upgrade versions of the OS at retail are slated to follow in January.

[Rasputin]

Internet Tips: Safeguard Your Reputation While Socially Networking

Teenagers have long been the vanguard of popular culture, which explains why so many adults are only now taking a close look at the social-network sites that young folks have been flocking to in recent years. The MySpace personal Web page service boasts more than 90 million accounts, primarily registered by teens. Similarly, college students account for most of the 7.5 million users of Facebook, though the service is expanding to include other schools, companies, and geographical regions.

Social networks are far from the sole province of youngsters, however. Services such as LinkedIn and Ryze have a clear business focus. But whether for work, fun, or a combination of the two, it's vital that you maintain strict control over your various online personae.

Turning traditionally private pursuits into public events often comes back to haunt online revelers. Just as companies create a corporate image that conveys their core purpose and virtues, individuals project an online image through social networking sites, blogs, e-mail, photo and video sharing, and other online activities. Your image can have an immediate impact on how friends, family, strangers, and prospective employers view you. You want to express your individuality, but you also want to get hired. By following the proper steps, you accomplish both.

[Rasputin]

Why We Love to Hate Our Cell Phone Company

Maybe it's a $3-a-month charge from Verizon Wireless for Roadside Assistance that you don't remember requesting. Maybe it's an $18 "upgrade fee" that Cingular Wireless neglected to mention when you bought that snazzy new Motorola Razr phone. Or maybe you're just peeved about dropped calls.

Whatever the cause, if you've had it with your cell phone company, you're not alone. Consumers are mad, and the lawsuits are flying.

Driving Discontent
According to the Better Business Bureau, cell phone companies drew 30,483 consumer complaints last year to become the top-ranked industry for grievances. The most common complaints: inaccurate bills, inadequate customer service, and deceptive contract terms. Cell phone companies were the subject of more complaints than such perennially unpopular businesses as car dealerships, hotels, retail outlets, and insurance companies, BBB statistics show.

Experts attribute the rise in customer dissatisfaction to fallout from mergers and acquisitions in the wireless industry, including the Cingular-AT&T Wireless and Sprint-Nextel mergers.

***k Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power and Associates, says a study by the famed market research firm found that consumer satisfaction with wireless phone service providers in 2005 was down 10 percent from 2004 levels.

Below are details about some of the most common cell phone complaints, as lodged in recent lawsuits and filings to the Federal Communications Commission and the Better Business Bureau.

Roadside Assistance Rage
At least two federal class-action lawsuits have been filed over Roadside Assistance charges of $2 or $3 a month on Cingular and Verizon Wireless bills. In separate lawsuits, customers of both carriers say they never ordered the optional service, which Cingular and Verizon say will provide emergency service to auto drivers who get stranded on the side of the road.

Cingular's Roadside Assistance is an emergency insurance program for motorists that Cingular markets on behalf of Asurion Insurance Services. Should a subscriber have a flat, get locked out of their car, or run out of gas, they can call a special number on their Cingular handset and someone will come to their assistance, free of charge.

Michael Gellis sued Verizon in Oakland, California, Circuit Court, while Cingular Wireless customer Margaret Moffatt filed suit against the firm in Wayne County, Michigan, Circuit Court. Both customers say that for more than two years, without their consent, the carriers had added charges for Roadside Assistance to their monthly bills.

Both suits allege violation of state consumer protection laws, breach of contract, and "unjust enrichment." Both suits were eventually transferred to U.S. District Court in Detroit, where attorney Peter Macuga of Macuga and Liddle is representing both plaintiffs.

Cingular declined to comment on the two pending cases. However, its representatives said Cingular typically offers a free 60-day trial of the Roadside Assistance program to customers when they upgrade or change their plan. If the customer doesn't cancel the service after the trial period ends, Cingular begins adding the charges to their monthly bill.

Cingular says it never initiates the free Roadside Assistance trial without the customer's consent, whether in writing at one of the carrier's stores, verbally over the phone, or by clicking to accept a terms-of-service agreement online. "If folks have had that on their bill, and they didn't order it, obviously there is a mistake somewhere and we can correct it," says Cingular spokesperson Mark Siegel.

A Verizon Wireless press contact also said that the company doesn't add services to a customer's calling plan without consent, adding that Verizon would work to resolve disputes related to any charges. Verizon also declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Singularly Aggravating
Cingular is facing additional complaints stemming from its merger with AT&T Wireless in October 2004.

One group of customers--people with older phones that use AT&T or Cingular analog or TDMA networks--is complaining about Cingular's announced intention to charge them $5 per month for continued service. Another group--former AT&T Wireless customers who still use that company's TDMA network--is angry about what they describe as deteriorating network quality in the wake of the merger.

Both groups say Cingular is trying to force them to upgrade to more expensive phones and rate plans on the company's newer GSM/GPRS network.

Cingular says the $5 monthly fee is needed to recoup costs associated with maintaining the older networks. Currently, 4.7 million subscribers, about 8 percent of Cingular's total, use Cingular's TDMA or analog networks, Siegel says. Cingular had no comment about the alleged deterioration of service on the old AT&T TDMA network.

Forced to Switch
Yet another group of angry Cingular customers are former AT&T Wireless customers who did switch to Cingular's GSM service following the merger--and found that they not only had to buy a new phone, but had to pay an $18 transfer fee that Cingular charged them simply for switching to Cingular's GSM network. Those customers also had to pay $18 for the SIM chip that contains the phone number and other user information that is required by GSM handsets.

And switching wireless carriers to protest against Cingular was not an attractive option: People who tried to leave Cingular with time remaining on their AT&T contract were subject to an early-termination fee of $175.

In response to these complaints, Cingular in July 2005 began waiving the transfer fee for former AT&T Wireless customers who migrate to a Cingular plan. Cingular subsequently also waived the charge for its own customers who buy new phones to switch from older networks to GSM service. However, these concessions came too late to pacify some customers.

Several consumer advocacy groups headed by the Santa Monica, California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights filed a federal suit in Seattle, alleging that following its acquisition of AT&T Wireless, Cingular intentionally degraded service on legacy AT&T networks in hopes of driving AT&T's customers to Cingular's GSM network. The suit also accuses Cingular of charging AT&T customers unfair fees to make the switch.