Pc News

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Samsung Develops Ultra-Slim LCD

Samsung Electronics has developed what it claims is the thinnest LCD panel, just the thickness of a credit card, designed for use in mobile phones.

The screen measures 0.82 millimeters thick and, combined with a new method for attaching the panel to devices, will allow manufacturers to shave between 1.4 mm and 2.4mm off the thickness of their phones, Samsung said.

New Technology Improves Durability, Readability
The size reduction comes partly from a new assembly technology developed by Samsung called i-Lens. Most phone screens use a piece of reinforced plastic that sits a few millimeters above the LCD to protect it. With i-Lens, Samsung found a way to attach a protective sheet directly onto the display in a way that also improves its shock resistance and readability.

The technique makes the display easier to read outdoors because it eliminates the reflection that occurs on the plastic sheet used in existing designs, Samsung said.

Specs and Production
The screens will be available in 2.1-inch and 2.2-inch diagonal sizes. They offer 240-by-320-pixel resolution and 500:1 contrast ratio. Samsung expects to be mass producing them by the second half of next year.

Since the popularity of Motorola's very thin phones, including the Razr, phone makers are increasingly trying to make thinner phones. The Razr flip phone is 13.9mm thick.

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How to Buy a DVD-Rewritable Drive

A rewritable DVD drive lets you store far more data on a single DVD disc than you could store on a single CD-R disc. Single-layer media lets you store up to 4.7GB on a disc, while dual-layer (also referred to as double-layer) media lets you pack up to 8.5GB on a single disc. Like CD-RW drives, rewritable DVD drives support both write-once and rewritable media; the former is best used for creating DVD-Video discs playable on standard DVD players and for data archiving, while the latter is well suited for regular file backup.

The Big Picture
Formats, speeds, compatibility--which to choose? We'll introduce you to the basics of rewritable DVD drives. more

The Specs Explained
Whether you're shopping for the fastest or the most economical rewritable DVD drive, use these specifications to compare the various DVD burners. more

Rewritable DVD Shopping Tips
Whether you're shopping for the fastest or the most economical rewritable DVD drive, use these specifications to compare the various DVD burners. more

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A Closer Look at the Nintendo Wii

Members of Nintendo's huge, vocal fan base have been salivating in anticipation of the Wii for some time. But the curious and appreciative onlookers that I've noticed during my recent testing of a retail unit suggest that the Wii's appeal may well extend beyond the Nintendo faithful. The Wii seems poised to make console gaming more social, immersive, and--most importantly--fun than it has ever been.

Nintendo has announced that more than 1 million units of the $250 Wii will be available when the model makes its official U.S. debut on Sunday. So your odds of getting your hands on a Wii in the near future are better than your odds of snagging a PS3. Cryogenically freezing yourself to avoid the wait, as one of the characters in South Park did recently, won't be necessary.

Below is a video of the Nintendo Wii in action. To view it, you'll need to have the Adobe Flash Player plug-in installed.

Out of the Box
The Wii is the most compact of the next-generation consoles. It weighs just 2.7 pounds and measures 8.5 inches long by 6 inches wide by less than 2 inches thick. It has clean, sharp lines and an Apple-like glossy white finish, though we'll undoubtedly see units in black and possibly other colors at some point.

Like the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, The Wii can be oriented horizontally or vertically, thanks to its angled plastic stand. Once you've positioned it, your next step is to plug in the power supply (which is about the size a laptop brick), and connect the bundled composite audio/video cables to your television. To output content at the Wii's maximum 480p resolution in 16:9 wide-screen format, you'll have to purchase the optional component cable separately.

Next you must set up the included controllers: a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk--a joystick-style controller that connects to the remote for additional game control. I first hooked up the supplied sensor bar to the console and placed it just under the display of my TV. The sensor bar allows the console to communicate wirelessly (via Bluetooth) with up to four Wii Remotes at a time. The Wii Remote works for games within a radius of about 30 feet and functions as a cursor-type pointing device within about 15 feet. In my testing, the on-screen pointer jittered slightly when I tried to use it from farther away.

Photograph: Chris MannersThe final setup steps are to place two AA batteries into the Wii Remote, rearrange your furniture as necessary to clear plenty of space in front of the TV (to avoid any "Wiinjury"), and fire up the console.

Our colleagues over at GamePro have scanned in the Wii's manual, and it's worth a look to get an even more complete idea of the Wii's setup routine and overall features.

PC World also has a detailed account of a test drive of the PlayStation 3; and a review comparing the PS3 and the Wii.

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The Wii Menu and Online Features
The first time I powered up the Wii, I had to create a gamer ID, which the system uses to save your games and also to identify you online. After creating my log-in and entering the date and time, I was presented with the Wii Menu. This interface, which uses a television/channel metaphor, is where you access the Wii's mostly free online features.

The first thing I wanted to do was jump online. I was particularly interested in the "sleepless" WiiConnect24 service that lets the console automatically download information, even when it's on standby.

The Wii includes a built-in 802.11b/g wireless network adapter, but you can also go online by using extra-cost options such as a LAN adaptor or a Wi-Fi USB adaptor that shares a PC's Internet connection. I tested the integrated Wi-Fi, and setup was a snap. The Wii scanned for and found my wireless ADSL router, and it let me type in the network's WEP key via an on-screen keyboard. I found that I could select letters and move around the Wii Menu using the Wii remote in the same way that I'd use a computer mouse. The remote even vibrated subtly in my hand as I hovered over menu options. Tactile feedback: great!

Unfortunately, since Nintendo's servers won't be up and running until the Wii launches, my online experience was limited. But the Wii will link to a lot of online elements after launch:

Wii Shop Channel (and Virtual Game Console): Nintendo's online store will eventually offer various extras to download, but the most notable one at launch is the Virtual Console, which will allow gamers to download and play games from past consoles such as the Nintendo 64, NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx16. Nintendo will offer 12 classic console games at launch, including Donkey Kong (NES), SimCity (SNES), Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), and Bomberman '93 (TurboGrafx16). Some 30 virtual console games should be available for download by year's end, according to Nintendo. The online shop will operate on a payment system called Wii Points. You'll be able to purchase Wii Points at retail outlets or with a credit card online. They'll be available in blocks of 2000 for $20 a block (which means that 1 Wii point is worth a penny, and 100 are worth a dollar). The retro NES games will start at 500 Wii points, TurboGrafx16 titles at 600 Wii Points, SNES and Sega Genesis games at 800 Wii Points, and N64 classics at about 1000 Wii Points.

Internet Channel: A customized version of the Opera Web browser (with Flash support) will be available for the Wii, Nintendo says. We can't tell whether it'll be ready for download at launch, nor how much it will cost, but Nintendo has confirmed that you'll have to surrender Wii Points to obtain it.

Forecast Channel: On this channel you'll be able to browse a 3D globe to obtain weather forecasts that are automatically updated each day.

News Channel: This channel will automatically display the latest news from around the world. The Associated Press will supply the headlines, Nintendo says.

Wii Message Board: Here you can post messages on a calendar for other Wii players in your house, exchange messages with Wii users around the world, and gather information about the latest game updates.

Photo Channel: The Wii's photo management and sharing options are far deeper than those of the PlayStation 3. You can use this channel to access digital photos via the Wii's SD card slot or a mobile phone. And besides just viewing the images, you'll be able to zoom in; create slide shows, a photo gallery or photo puzzles; draw on images; adjust colors in various artistic ways; and send your creations to other Wii users.

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Mii Channel: This channel invites you to create customized caricature avatars for yourself; use them in a variety of Wii games; and save them to the Wii Remote for use later--even at a friend's house. You can store up to ten Mii characters on a single Wii Remote.

Disc Channel: Clicking here starts a Wii game disc that you've inserted.

Those Controllers
Wii controllers are designed to be perfectly usable whether you're left- or right-handed.

For games, the Wii Remote has a plus pad (D-pad), a large A button, an underside B trigger, and buttons labeled 1 and 2. The main surface has other buttons as well: power up, minus and plus (for escaping game menus, and the like) and a home button (for switching back to the Wii Menu and checking controller battery life).

The Wii Remote also contains a control for adjusting force feedback, a built-in speaker, a wrist strap (in case the remote flies out of your hand), and four blue LED lights that indicate which player/controller number you've been assigned. An expansion port on the remote lets you connect the Nunchuk and other optional controllers. The supplied Nunchuk controller is used in conjunction with the Wii Remote and provides an analog thumb stick, and two front trigger buttons labeled C and Z. A second Wii Remote costs $40, and a second Nunchuk costs $20.

Another option is a classic-style controller (which Nintendo has priced at $20) for non-motion-sensing titles such as fast-paced fighting games. At E3 last spring, I took photos of the classic controller and Nintendo's concept "Zapper," a gunlike shell for the Wii Remote.

As time goes by, you can expect independent vendors to offer a multitude of plastic shells to slide your Wii Remote into--all of them promising to improve your gaming experience. One product already on sale is UbiSoft's $20 Wii Steering Wheel. Web rumors suggest that Electronic Arts may be working on a way to let you strap the Wii Remote to your foot in order to play its FIFA soccer game. Another rumor has it that the Nintendo DS handheld's touch screen will be able to act as a controller for Wii games.

Nintendo has experimented with different controllers in the past. Anyone remember the Power Glove or Virtual Boy? This time however, the company's efforts seem to have produced a winner.

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Experts Endorse 'Peanut Butter' Yahoo Memo

Industry observers agree with the tenets of a scathing Yahoo internal memo that calls for a major reorganization at a time when many say the Web portal has lost its edge and trails competitors large and small.

Yahoo must stop spreading a thin layer of "peanut butter" across myriad opportunities and instead focus on key areas, improve upper-management accountability, and reorganize, including a head-count reduction of up to 20 percent, wrote Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's senior vice president of communications and communities.

"The basic idea is very much on the mark, and I'd expect Yahoo would try to respond and become more focused," says financial analyst Clayton Moran, a senior vice president at Stanford Group. However, he cautions that sharpening its focus will not be easy, given the portal's current structure.

Memo Leaked
The confidential memo, which the Wall Street Journal obtained and posted on its Web site, says Yahoo lacks "a focused, cohesive vision" that has made it "reactive" and eager to be "everything to everyone." By "reactive," Garlinghouse may have been referring to how Yahoo has seen nimble startups like MySpace, later acquired by News Corp., and YouTube, recently snapped up by Google, become leaders in areas like social networking and online video sharing. Meanwhile, Yahoo continues to trail Google in Internet search.

"We agree with the memo's point that Yahoo needs to be more focused and differentiate itself, and build a brand in certain categories, as opposed to being one portal for all categories," Moran says, adding that Yahoo should identify the next hot Internet trend and build a leadership position in it.

For Gartner analyst Allen Weiner, Yahoo has become a victim of its own success. By nailing the all-in-one Web portal model in the 1990s, it became the dominant player in that market, but now it must adapt to the changing landscape. "Yahoo is by no means out of the game, but the time is now to execute on a more tightly focused vision. That's what's missing. Garlinghouse is right in saying there are way too many people doing way too many things," Weiner says.

Background
The Wall Street Journal reported that Garlinghouse wrote the memo in October and circulated it among Yahoo's top executive brass. In response, chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig appointed Garlinghouse to head a committee to study the memo's issues, the newspaper reported.

Yahoo remains the world's most popular Web site, with 480.6 million unique visitors in October, according to comScore Networks, but it has disappointed Wall Street with its financial performance in recent quarters.

It has been seen as proactive in acquiring social-media startups like the photo sharing site Flickr and the social-bookmarking pioneer Del.icio.us, two companies Garlinghouse uses as examples of overlapping services that Yahoo should consider consolidating. In addition to Flickr, the company has a similar service called Yahoo Photos, while Yahoo's MyWeb is identical in focus to Del.icio.us.

"We need to get the discussion going; change is needed and it is needed soon. We can be a stronger and faster company," Garlinghouse wrote.

Reaction
Asked for comment about the memo, a Yahoo spokesperson provided a prepared statement via e-mail that says that during Yahoo's most recent earnings conference call, chief executive officer Terry Semel said that the company is narrowing its focus on boosting search and graphical ad sales and on prioritizing social media, video and mobile.

"We're moving forward aggressively on these priorities," she wrote. "The memo itself highlights that we have an open, collaborative culture and a senior management team that is intensely committed to helping Yahoo fulfill its potential as an Internet leader."

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First Look: A New Treo for the Masses

With its distinctive candy-bar design and carefully crafted thumb keyboard, Palm's Treo has become an iconic PDA phone--but new models generally debut at prices only serious mobile professionals can easily stomach. The Treo 680 arrives with a lower price tag (especially if you buy the first carrier-subsidized model, from Cingular), a sportier and slightly svelter look, and features designed to attract a much wider audience. However, this successor to the aging Treo 650 also suffers from some drawbacks that seriously hobble the effort.

The first has to do with the pricing, and it's important enough to preface this review. Starting Friday, Cingular will sell you a Treo 680 for $300, but only if you commit to a two-year contract with a voice plan costing at least $40 a month. (It will cost $375 with a one-year contract.) You can bring the price of the device down to $200 through a mail-in rebate--but this also requires a two-year commitment to Cingular's all-you-can-eat PDA Connect data plan, which costs $40 a month. So to get the phone for $200, you must be prepared to shell out $80 a month for voice and data services.

Cingular's $20-a-month, all-you-can-eat MediaConnect data plan, which many people have been using with the Cingular Treo 650, will not be an option for 680 buyers. (Cingular says this plan was intended only for people whose smart phones don't have keyboards, and who are therefore likely to use a lot less data.)

If I'm going to pay more for data services, I'd want them to be faster than the dial-up-like EDGE service the Treo 680 supports. (At this writing Cingular has introduced only one PDA phone--the HTC-designed Cingular 8525--that supports its superfast, EvDO-competing HSDPA service.)

If you don't want to sign a contract (or are an existing Cingular customer and don't qualify for a phone-upgrade subsidy), the Treo 680 will cost you $450. In that case, you might want to consider getting an unlocked version of the quad-band GSM phone from Palm, which says that the units will go on sale on Palm's Web site and in retail stores for $400 starting December 1 (you can preorder one now on Palm's site).

A New Look
Announced six weeks ago, the 680 looks jazzier than its predecessors, in large part because it lacks the antenna stub found on all other models. The unlocked version will be available in four different colors: arctic (a sort of pale silvery grey), copper (orange), graphite (a darker grey similar to the color of the Cingular 650), and crimson (red). Cingular, disappointingly, is selling only the graphite model.

Some subtle sculpting on the case has made for a softer, less boxy look and a nicer feel in the hand. Palm has also tweaked the keyboard, making the keys slightly larger and flatter; though the change isn't the dramatic improvement that the 650's keyboard represented over the 600's, it does seem for the better.

But while the 680 is lighter than the 650 (5.5 ounces versus 6.3 ounces) and a tad thinner (0.8 inch versus 0.9 inch), it doesn't really feel like it's a whole lot lighter and thinner. And whatever progress Palm has made in slimming down the Treo is dwarfed by the skinny profiles of recent competitors such as the Nokia E62 and T-Mobile Dash.

The button layout on the 680 is similar to that of the 700p. A red power/hang-up button and a green send button flank a five-way navigation button. Surrounding it are phone and calendar buttons on the left and messaging and applications buttons (the latter bringing up the familiar icon-based Palm apps menu) on the right. Like other models, the 680 has a volume button and a customizable side button on the left; on the right, though, the 680 introduces a covered SD Card slot (previously located on the top, alongside the ringer on/off switch that hasn't moved). The Palm's SD support is limited to 2GB; you can't use some of the newer 4GB SD cards.

Speaking of storage, Palm has apparently learned its lesson following the fiasco surrounding the 650's launch with scarce and inefficient memory: The 680 has 64MB of user-available memory for storage of applications, and 64MB of SDRAM for executables (compared, respectively, with 24MB and 32MB on the 650).

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Interface Changes
When you power up the Treo, you see the first visible indication that the Palm operating system has a new corporate owner: After the round orange Palm logo, a blue Access logo appears.

Next up, on the Cingular model, is the default phone screen with the default Cingular logo as its wallpaper. The bottom of the interface, however, has changed: Instead of four rectangular buttons with text that send you to your contacts, call log, voice mail, and the like, you see tabs with simple icons. I found the icons a bit cryptic at first, but I quickly adapted to not having the text cues.

Some go to the same places as the old buttons--tapping the human figure brings up contacts, tapping the list icon shows call logs, and tapping the phone keypad brings up--surprise!--the soft phone keypad. A new star icon brings up a useful, customizable list of Favorite buttons that can launch an application, send an e-mail or text message, initiate a call to a specific number, browse a specific Web page, or even show how much you owe on your Cingular bill or how many minutes you've used out of your monthly plan allocation.

And I really liked the 'Ignore with Text' phone feature introduced with the Treo 700 models: You can opt to answer an incoming call with a text message, which can be very useful if you're not able to talk but would like to give the caller something more personal than your standard voice-mail greeting.

Like previous Treos, the 680 is more usable as a phone than many other PDA hybrids. It's reasonably comfortable to hold to the ear, in part because it's not as wide as many competitors (2.3 inches, compared with, for example, the 2.8-inch width of the Nokia E62). I found the voice quality decent, and the volume seemed somewhat better than the 650's. The integration with Palm contacts remains a strong feature; the five-way navigation button lets you easily initiate calls with one hand, whether you're working from an address book entry or the call logs. (We have not yet lab-tested the Treo 680's talk-time battery life; check back for a full review.)

People who send a lot of text messages will appreciate Palm's threaded chat application for this sort of communication, which displays exchanges much the way they would look in an instant messaging application.

Software Goodies
The 680 comes with a robust bundle of software, some items preinstalled and some available on the Palm desktop setup CD. Cingular's included Xpress mail application makes getting just about any standard corporate e-mail on a Treo easy: Using a desktop redirector, I was even able to get my Lotus Notes mail and calendar on the 680. For standard POP3 and IMAP e-mail, you can use the included VersaMail client. The Treo also comes with support for GoodLink mail servers (Cingular has special rate plans for these users).

For productivity, you receive the Microsoft Office-compatible DataViz Docs to Go 8.0; for multimedia, you have the basic version of NormSoft's Pocket Tunes, a much nicer app than the Palm version of Real's player. Pocket Tunes plays MP3s and lets you create playlists; however, to play WMA files or music from online stores, or to stream Internet audio and enable crossfade (overlapping the end of one tune on a playlist and the beginning of the next), you must upgrade to the deluxe version. The speaker on the 680 seemed nicer than the 650's, and the audio quality sounded superior.

Also preinstalled is Google Maps, an invaluable aid for travelers who don't want to spring for a GPS kit or TeleNav service. Another freebie, but one you'll have to install from the CD that comes with the device, is the original version of the hit game Bejeweled (a great little waiting-room diversion).

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Windows Vista FAQ

The long road to Windows Vista is nearing its end. Microsoft has finally released its latest OS to manufacturers, which are busily tuning drivers, updating software, and readying their first hardware and PCs to ship with Vista preinstalled.

Whether you plan to upgrade right away or prefer to hold off while the early adopters work out the kinks, our Windows Vista FAQ can help you finalize your Vista plans. We've collected answers to every important Vista question we could think of, and we'll continue to update this FAQ with more details as Vista rolls out. In the meantime, check in at the forum thread below with your own Vista questions, and we'll see if we can dig up the answers.

Also, don't miss our twin features, "Everything You Need to Know About Windows Vista" and "Vista: The Upgrade," from the January 2007 print issue of PC World.

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Tokyo Edge: Battery Rechargers, UMPCs, and a Tiny Sony Laptop

TOKYO -- While electronics products are getting more and more energy efficient, there's certainly a long way to go before some products can be considered a technological advance on the power front. Just look at PDP (plasma display panel) televisions--they might be thinner than old CRT (cathode ray tube) models and provide a better picture, but in many cases they are using more power than the sets they replaced--hardly a step forward when it comes to lowering the amount of energy we use.

With that in mind, take a look at Sanyo's new Eneloop solar charger. Sanyo is doing a lot for energy efficiency--it's already one of the world's largest makers of rechargeable batteries and solar panels, and now both come together in this product. It's truly a way to get green energy and just the thing to power the array of portable gadgets in all our homes that seem to eat through disposable AA or AAA batteries.

This month we also take a look at new Ultra Mobile PCs from Samsung, the tiny Sony VAIO G notebook, and other cool gadgets.

Sony VAIO G Laptop
Pick up this laptop and you'll be in for a surprise. At just 32 ounces--a little under 3 pounds--the machine is much lighter than you'd expect from looking at its 12.1-inch screen. Sony says the VAIO G is the lightest laptop of its class in the world, and that's probably right. Its light weight is due in part to a carbon body. Sony has also employed carbon in the heat sink for the processor and graphics chips to further reduce the size and weight. The machine will work for about 6 hours on a fully charged standard battery and will survive a drop from a table without damage, Sony says. There's also a light AC adapter that is the same thickness as the computer so it won't cause a bulge in a bag. It will be available in Japan in December and is aimed at business users. Sony hasn't disclosed plans for an overseas launch. It will cost between $1830 and $2085, depending on configuration.

Samsung SGH-X830 Cell Phone
Is it a phone? Is it a music player? A quick look at Samsung Electronics' SGH-X830 might make you think of the latter but it's closer to the former. The phone, which bears a striking resemblance to a certain well-known American music player with a display screen and a scroll wheel, will be available in Europe in late November and in other GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) markets during the following months. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera, 1 gigabyte of built-in memory, and support for a host of popular audio and video formats. Price will depend on carrier subsidies.

Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC
The latest two versions of Samsung's UMPC don't look any different from the launch model, but these Q1 Ultra Mobile PCs pack new processors and new prices. The Q1-Pentium runs on a 1-GHz Intel Pentium M 723 processor, and the Q1b is based on Via Technologies' 1-GHz C7 processor. The original Q1, which was launched with great fanfare at this year's CeBIT show in Germany in March, ran on a 900-MHz Intel Celeron M processor. The Q1-Pentium has a 60GB hard disk and 1GB of memory, while the Q1b has a 40GB drive and 512MB of memory. The latter configuration is similar to the original model. The Q1-Pentium is priced at around $1250 and the Q1b at around $900. They're now available in the United States.

Sanyo Eneloop Solar Charger
Rechargeable batteries have just become more environmentally conscious with the debut of Sanyo's Eneloop charger. The charger makes use of the company's own solar cells and also includes three lithium ion batteries. The solar panel charges up the lithium ion cells, and they can then rapidly charge one to four AA- and AAA-sized Eneloop batteries. It is also possible to mix AA- and AAA-sized batteries in the charger and charge them at the same time, and there's a USB power connector to charge up USB devices. It will be available in Japan in mid-November for around $170. Sanyo is also planning to put on sale an Eneloop hand warmer in December. The hand warmer, which promises to be just the thing for cold winter mornings, also contains lithium ion cells.

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Elecom iPod Charger
Yikes! Several more hours to go on that long cross-country journey and your tunes are gone because the iPod battery is flat? If you carry one of these iPod portable chargers from Elecom, you'll be able to juice up your iPod on the go with a pair of AA batteries. Similar to the emergency cell phone chargers that you can now find in any convenience store--at least here in Japan--they're cheap and just the thing when you run out of power. They are on sale in Japan for about $17 and are likely to be on sale in other countries through other distributors.

Sony Walkman S700 Series
Sony is packing its new Walkman digital music players with noise-canceling and other audio enhancing technology in its latest attempt to challenge the dominance of Apple Computer's iPod. The system uses a microphone built into the headphones--so it will work only with the supplied earbuds--and is tuned to cancel out the low-frequency noise often present on trains, aircraft, and cars. Two other features, both of which are headphone independent, include "clear stereo," a system that better separates the left and right channels and stops audio bleed between channels, and "clear base," which improves the bass response. The players have a battery life of 50 hours and can display album art on a small color OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display panel. They are available now in Japan and in other markets later this year. The S700-series will come in versions with 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of memory and will cost between $152 and $245.

R&D Corner: Chi Mei High-Definition Screen
Flat-panel maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics is looking ahead to a day when high definition is even better than it is now. The Taiwanese company has developed a 47-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) panel that has 1440 horizontal picture lines (current high-definition TVs have 720 or 1080 picture lines) and plans to put it into production in 2007. Support for 1440-line video is included in the new HDMI 1.3 specification and could be used by computers or future television broadcasts or as a way to show a full-HD broadcast with additional information around the edge of the screen. Look for it in displays starting late next year.

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U.N. Summit Addresses Growing E-Waste Problems

Devising measures to reduce the millions of tons of electronic waste generated each year by manufacturers of computers, mobile phones, and other consumer electronic products is the focus of a United Nations-sponsored conference this week in Nairobi, Kenya.

Delegates from about 120 governments gathered there today to begin week-long talks on how to reduce the use of toxic substances, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury, found in PCs and cell phones, and to promote programs for recycling and reusing as many components as possible.

The U.N. estimates that up to 50 million metric tons of "e-waste" are generated worldwide every year, representing more than 5 percent of all municipal solid waste. In the United States alone, as many as 20 million PCs are thrown out every year.

A good chunk of that waste ends up in Africa and other developing countries, according to the U.N.

Every month, more than 100,000 discarded computers enter the Nigerian port of Lagos alone, said U.N. Undersecretary General Achim Steiner in a speech.

Landfills Are Depositories
Local experts estimate that up to 75 percent of the used PCs, TVs, and phones sent from developed countries are unusable and end up in the landfills of developing countries, where the items are often burned, releasing toxic fumes and leaching chemicals.

On the table at this week's meeting are proposals to encourage manufacturers to take more responsibility for their products, from the design stage through the supply chain to final disposal.

In a speech, Sachiko Kuwabara-Yamamoto, executive secretary of the Basel Convention, which monitors hazardous waste, pointed to a partnership with several mobile-phone manufacturers and operators, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, and Vodafone Group PLC to develop programs for recycling and reusing the millions of mobile phones now sold worldwide every year.

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Sony Reports Digicam Glitch

TOKYO -- Problems with the image pick-up in eight models of Sony digital still camera could mean the inability to take clear pictures or any photos at all, the company has acknowledged.

Sony has found the charge coupled device (CCD) in eight models of its cameras sold worldwide between September 2003 and January 2005 could become faulty. The models are the DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40, and the DSC-U50.

Free Repairs Offered
Problems have generally been reported by users in countries where the weather is hot, said Tomio Takizawa, a Sony spokesperson. Sony will repair the camera at no charge if it shows the problem, he said.

Sony's announcement last Friday broadens a problem first reported by the company in October 2005. At that time the company listed 20 models of digital still camera with the same potential fault and offered.

Sony is one of the world's largest producers of CCD image sensors, which are the chips that sit behind the lens of the camera and convert light into electronic pulses. Because its sensors are used by other companies the 2005 problems reached beyond Sony and potentially touched more than 100 models of digital still camera.

At that time several other digital camera makers including Canon, Konica Minolta, Nikon, and Fuji Photo (Fujifilm) announced plans to replace faulty CCDs for problems similar to those described by Sony.

Quality Control Challenges
It's the latest in a string of quality control problems to hit the Japanese consumer electronics giant. Earlier this year problematic metallic particles inside Sony-made batteries caused several fires and led to laptop computer makers recalling or offering to replace around 9.6 million laptop batteries. Sony expects the battery problems will cost it around $440 million.

In the wake of the battery problems Sony assigned Makoto Kogure, who was the head of its TV division, to oversee product quality and safety. It was the first time that such a high-level member of staff had taken that position at Sony.

[Rasputin]

The Truth About Shopping Engines, Part 1: How They Work

Online comparison shopping sites make finding competing prices on many different products a cinch. But as anyone who has used one of these services knows, they're not perfect. It's easy to find customers complaining of being lured into doing business with online stores that subject them to high-pressure sales calls, bait-and-switch techniques, delivery no-shows, or the delivery of refurbished items advertised as brand-new.

To help you figure out how to get the best deals, save time, and avoid shifty retailers, we went snooping in the online sales world. What follows is the real story of how these shopping engines work.

Paying for Prominence
Most shopping engines are biased toward companies that pay them fees for prominent placement. Comparison shopping engines like Shopzilla.com, Shopping.com, and PriceGrabber.com work with merchants who sign up to make their product inventory available for the engines to search by keyword. Merchants don't pay to have links to their products; rather, they pay the shopping engines when customers click on the links to their stores.

In addition, any company that wants to be first in the unsorted search results can have that position--if they pay for the privilege. To be the first merchant listed in the "LCD" subcategory (Computers>Monitors>LCD) at NextTag.com, for example, a company must pay NexTag at least $1 for every prospective customer who clicks a link to its store from the NexTag site. The more a merchant is willing to pay for clicks to its site, the higher it will rise in search results.

Stores that pay for placement on shopping engines are always identified. The meaning of a "Sponsored Links" list on a page is obvious, but you may also see logos on shopping engines' sites that say "Featured Stores" or "Featured Merchants"; such logos denote paid placement. (Clicking on the words "Featured Store" or "Featured Merchant" inside a store's ad should pull up an explanation of what the terms mean exactly to each shopping engine.)

Tip: To eliminate such artificial emphasis, always re-sort your search results based on price or user review rankings.

Some shopping engines don't charge merchants to be included in search results. Among the no-charge engines are Google's Froogle, ShopWiki, TheFind, and Microsoft's Live Product Search Beta. These shopping search engines crawl the Web looking for products and also allow merchants to submit their product catalog for free.

Ever find that a search engine doesn't have any results for a product you know is available? Shopping engines don't always report the most comprehensive list of products, according to Brian Smith, an industry analyst with research firm Comparison Engines. That's because merchants often remove low-margin and low-cost items from the product catalogs they share with shopping engines, Smith says.

Some Logos Not for Sale
Shopzilla offers a "Smart Choice" seal that cannot be bought and is given to the store that offers the lowest price and has the highest customer ratings. Similarly, Shopping.com highlights a search result called "Smart Buy"--a title the company says cannot be bought. This, according to Shopping.com, indicates "the lowest available price from a Trusted Store." (In tomorrow's story, we'll examine how these endorsements can encourage you to deal with stores you might best avoid.)

Despite the claims of such site picks, a look at the legal fine print at most shopping engines reveals that they take no responsibility for the merchants they recommend. One exception among leading shopping engines is Yahoo Shopping. With select merchants and purchases less than $1000, it offers a Buyers Protection Program. When you buy from a participant in the program and that merchant either fails to ship or delivers something other than what you ordered, Yahoo Shopping offers an expedited process to get your money back.

[Rasputin]

Updated Xandros Desktop Professional Linux Software Released

Linux vendor Xandros today unveiled version 4 of Xandros Desktop Professional, its enterprise Linux operating system, which debuts two days before Microsoft launches the enterprise version of Windows Vista.

Xandros Desktop Professional Version 4, which retails for $100 and is available in a boxed version or as a download, includes Bluetooth wireless support, desktop search, ISV support, and advanced 3D desktop graphics effects. The new OS maintains what Xandros says is seamless compatibility with Windows, Linux, and Unix networks, including Windows domain authentication--plus support for log-on scripts, group policy profiles, and Microsoft Exchange.

Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos said in a statement that Linux continues "to make inroads in the enterprise as Windows replacements," meaning companies must figure out how to manage disparate systems in mixed Windows and Linux networks. "Today, most companies utilize a silo-based approach by managing Windows and various Linux versions separately, each with their own administrators and toolsets."

But Xandros's latest release is designed to help companies "manage their mixed environments holistically" with tools that deliver seamless integration and help simplify the management of the mixed-network environment as if it were homogeneous, he said. "Our new desktop release does just that with its enhanced network integration, Windows application and file compatibility, and mass-deployment capabilities using the Xandros Deployment Server."

Windows Alternative
The operating system is being pushed as a low-cost, full-featured alternative to Windows--a strategy the company has been pursuing for several years with mixed results, based on its small market share.

Dana Gardner, an analyst with Interarbor Solutions in Gilford, New Hampshire, says Xandros is one of several Linux distributions that remain very much on the fringe in terms of usage. But opportunities exist, he says, for smaller Linux vendors that team up with partners that help make their products more popular. Deals with service providers, such as Voice-over-IP services and telecom providers, could add the operating system into the mix and create a product useful for many users.

"I think the next step for these desktop distributions is to find those kinds of partners," Gardner says.

Linux Not Widely Used
Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminata in Nashua, New Hampshire, says the problem that Xandros and other small Linux vendors face is that desktop Linux still has not caught on as its advocates had hoped. "At this point, I don't think Linux is ever going to be as important as a traditional Windows-like fat-client operating system," Haff says. "Yes, there will be people who want it, and it may even gain market share," but it won't overtake Windows in the marketplace, he says.

"There aren't the applications, there aren't the drivers" to make Linux a simple drop-in replacement for Windows in all uses. Haff says Linux could be successful in augmenting Windows in thin-client systems, where users are less concerned about what operating system is being used.

Xandros Features
Xandros Desktop Professional 4 integrates with existing Windows networks with support for full domain authentication, log-on scripts, and group policy profiles. It also features access to shared Windows folders and printers, the ability to write to Windows NTFS disk partitions, connectivity with Microsoft Exchange, support for third-generation mobile technologies, support for thin clients and terminal emulation, and support for dual-core, SMP, and hyper-threading processors.

Also included is a full-featured Microsoft Office-compatible productivity suite, as well as the latest version of CrossOver Linux, which enables users to run Microsoft Office 2003 and other Windows programs directly on Xandros. The OS uses the latest standards, including the Linux Standards Base 3.1 and the OASIS OpenDocument format for global file compatibility. Portland 1.0 tools allow third-party software developers to integrate their applications regardless of the desktop deployed.

The Xandros Security Suite, which is included, offers home folder encryption and secure VPN connections to protect business data.