IT News, Softwares, Exam Notes & Dumps

Famed baseball announcer Bob Uecker might have described a Wednesday promotion for Google's Chrome as "just a bit outside."

Google posted a link Wednesday morning on Twitter and its official blog to a cute little Flash game called FastBall, designed to promote the latest version of Google's Chrome browser with its built-in Flash player. Unfortunately for Google, for the first hour after it was live, the game was still having trouble loading in various browsers on YouTube, although it did finally starting loading without incident about an hour and a half after Google launched the promotion.

It's a bit embarrassing for Google, which supposedly has one of the more robust Internet infrastructure setups in the world and has been a big backer of Adobe's Flash, defending the company during its public fight with Apple and posting an essay Tuesday night explaining why Flash-based video is here to stay for the conceivable future.

The source of the problem was not readily apparent, but it was somewhat surprising considering the volume of traffic that passes through YouTube every day. Company representatives did not immediately return a request for comment on what went wrong.

Once it finally loads, the game involves a take on Google's recent videos promoting Chrome's speed mixed with questions involving various Google searches: answer the questions correctly, and you get to see the next video.

Researchers at the school for really smart people, MIT, have come up with a novel way to conduct eye exams--looking into your mobile phone screen. With some custom software and a small plastic device, this can be done very inexpensively, making it possible for people in poverty-stricken countries to get prescriptions quickly.

According to MIT News, the system could be implemented like this:

In its simplest form, the test can be carried out using a small, plastic device clipped onto the front of a cell phone's screen.

The patient looks into a small lens, and presses the phone's arrow keys until sets of parallel green and red lines just overlap. This is repeated eight times, with the lines at different angles, for each eye.

The whole process takes less than two minutes, at which point software loaded onto the phone provides the prescription data.

Watch the video below to get an idea of how Netra (Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment) works. This appears to be an excellent idea. Even if folks in remote, developing-world locations don't have mobile phones that can run the app, aid workers probably will. They can bring lots of used glasses to help the underprivileged, but will still need tools to assign the correct prescriptions.

YouTube users who want to add music to their uploaded videos can now buy lifetime licenses for certain songs thanks to the company's new deal with Rumblefish.

Unveiled on Tuesday, Rumblefish's new music program, dubbed FriendlyMusic, offers a catalog of copyright-cleared songs, which YouTube videomakers can purchase for $1.99 each and legally edit into their videos before posting them online. The new feature is YouTube's answer to users who have had their videos blocked in the past due to the unauthorized use of copyrighted music, according to the company's blog.

The new deal confirms reports that Rumblefish and YouTube owner Google were planning a new service to let YouTube videomakers grab licensed music. FriendlyMusic is also an extension of the companies' previous agreement in which users were able to get music from Rumblefish through YouTube's Audioswap site.

To pick up a song from FriendlyMusic, first search or browse the catalog for the right song. From the list you can listen to the entire track of any song. You then download and purchase the song you want. The $1.99 price tag gives you an official lifetime license for that song so you can use it permanently in any YouTube video you create.

YouTube's blog does clarify that many of the tracks you'd find in FriendlyMusic are still available for free through Audioswap. But it touts the new feature as offering assurance that your songs are pre-cleared for you to use and edit in your videos upfront.

How is this different than just using a song you've bought somewhere else? YouTube explains that music download rights are different from soundtrack rights and that a song you've downloaded elsewhere may not be licensed for use in a video soundtrack. FriendlyMusic provides users with an MP3 version of the song they bought, plus the license to add it to their video using any standard video-editing software.

"Music licensing is rarely user friendly," Glenn Brown, head of music partnerships for YouTube, said in a statement, "but FriendlyMusic.com is a big first step toward changing that."

Sony announced Wednesday that it plans to recall around 535,000 Vaio laptops due to overheating problems.

The company said that a flaw in the temperature control can create an excessive buildup of heat that distorts the shape of the unit. Though Sony hasn't heard of any problems with the Vaio in Japan, it said it received 39 complaints of overheating and distortion from customers abroad.

The company also noted the possibility that the heat buildup could create skin burns but hasn't received any report of this, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The recall would encompass some 259,000 laptops in the U.S., 103,000 in Europe, 120,000 in Asia, and 52,000 in Japan and include F and C series Vaios on the market since January of this year, said the Journal. Users who own Vaios covered by the recall can either have Sony pick up the laptop for repair or download a software update that would fix the temperature flaw.

Sony, which is eyeing a return to the black for its fiscal year ending March 2011, doesn't expect the recall to put a major dent into upcoming earnings.

This isn't the first time Sony has had to issue a recall due to heating problems. In 2008 the company recalled more than 400,000 Vaio laptops due to overheating issues. And in 2006 Sony conducted a massive recall of notebook batteries after it discovered that some were overheating or exploding. This defect affected not only its own laptops but those of other PC vendors, such as Dell, HP, and Apple, which all used Sony batteries in their portable PCs.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell has been teasing its customers with a new Adamo laptop since early September, when the outfit announced the Adamo XPS laptop. Said to have been “crafted to fall in love with,” said Adamo XPS is expected to become a competitor for Apple's much-hyped MacBook Air, one of the first laptops to adopt a thin and light design. On that note, it appears that we now have a couple of new photos of the machine, which the PC vendor is yet to announce.

The gang over at gizmodo have been among the first to publish the photos of the new laptop, but a couple of other sites quickly followed with more pictures of the product, including Geek.com. Unfortunately, there aren't many technical details available, alongside this round of pictures, but the interesting fact is that the much-anticipated laptop seems to have adopted a design that could definitely place it as the main competitor for the aforementioned Apple system.

The machine is part of Dell's latest Adamo line of portable computer systems, a line that has been created for those who are looking for more than just a regular laptop, but rather a system that comes with an elegant design, coupled with the necessary specifications to run some of the most basic applications available on the market today. With the new XPS model, the PC vendor has gone one length further, having managed to develop a system that is impressively thin.

Unfortunately, until we have the necessary details on the product's internal specifications, we can only speculate on the performance levels this new laptop can achieve. There's a good chance that Dell will adopt one of Intel's latest platforms for low-power, ultra-thin designs, with a choice for a CULV processor.

NEW YORK CITY--Lines formed early at AT&T stores here as the iPhone 4 went on sale, and stores quickly sold out of stock.
Customers started lining up as early as 5 a.m. EDT in front of the AT&T store on 95th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. By 7:20 a.m. the store was out of the 32GB phone. And by 7:30 a.m. store representatives said they would not have enough 16GB phones to make it through the 60 or so people left in line, which snaked down the block.
Potential buyers were given the option to wait in line to sign up for an iPhone 4, and come back later in the day to pick it up after the store receives more shipments. Sales representatives said they weren't allowed to say how many phones the store received prior to the launch or how many they'd be getting in on Tuesday.
Dave Norfleet-Vilaro, who lives on the Upper West Side near the AT&T store, said he had gone to the Apple Store at noon on Friday, the day after the iPhone 4 launched, but could not get his hands on one. Apparently, arriving at 6:50 a.m., 10 minutes before the AT&T store opened, was also not early enough. Norfleet-Vilaro was one of the many people standing in line who would have to wait to pick up an iPhone 4 until later that day. Still, Norfleet-Vilaro, a loyal Apple fan, said he was not deterred. He planned to continue waiting in line so that he could order the phone and pick it up later.
"I don't mind," he said. "At this point I might as well wait. I really love the design of the Apple product. But it's just ironic that I am waiting at an AT&T store where I've received the worst customer service."
Unlike Apple and other retail stores, which started selling the iPhone 4 on Thursday, AT&T that day only sold phones that had been preordered. It waited to start selling the device to walk-ins until Tuesday.
It should not come as a surprise that lines were long at AT&T stores this morning. The iPhone 4 is an even bigger hit than previous versions of the device. Apple reported Monday that over the weekend it had sold 1.7 million devices in the first three days the phone was on sale.
Demand is so high that many people looking to buy an iPhone 4 are having trouble finding one in stock.
Norfleet-Vilaro said sales reps at the Apple store on Fifth Avenue were answering phone calls over the weekend this way: "We have no iPhone 4s in stock. And we don't know when we will be getting more shipments."
It seems that the reported issues with the iPhone 4's antenna have not dampened enthusiasm for the device. Stefani Bennett, also of the Upper West Side, came to the AT&T store at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday to make sure she could get an iPhone 4. She said she wasn't concerned about reports that gripping the lower left-hand corner of the phone might cause reception issues.
If she discovers it's a problem for her, she said, she'll simply buy a rubber bumper that fits around the device.
"It's not that big of a deal," she said. "I've always had crappy reception with my iPhones. I'll just get the bumper. It looks a little tacky, but if I have to, I'll buy it."

Google publicly declared its intention in March to move its Chinese-language Internet search operation in Hong Kong in hopes of bypassing censorship laws for companies that operate in mainland China, but the public showdown with the Chinese government never seemed destined for a happy ending. Google announced late Tuesday night that China will not renew its Internet Content Provider license--a key authorization scheduled to expire Wednesday--unless Google stops redirecting Google.cn visitors to Google.com.hk.

It seems unlikely that its newest strategy will pass scrutiny either. Instead of automatically redirecting Google.cn users, Google has created a landing page at Google.cn "where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering," Google said in a blog post. "This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page."

However, the only thing on that landing page is a giant hyperlink to a special Google.com.hk site; visitors to that landing page can't actually do anything but either stare at the page or click the giant link in the middle to visit Google.com.hk. After they click through to that special version of Google.com.hk, some services, such as maps and translation, are available with a .cn domain, but news, images, and other services are directed through the .com.hk domain. Google.com.hk, reached directly through the URL field, appears to be a different site altogether.

Perhaps not surprisingly given the hour of its announcement, Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further clarification. It's impossible to see how this new approach will work: sure, Google isn't automatically redirecting Google.cn visitors anymore, but it sure isn't giving them a lot of options.

"Over the next few days we'll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page--and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach," Google said. "We are therefore hopeful that our license will be renewed on this basis so we can continue to offer our Chinese users services via Google.cn," the company said, and it doesn't seem likely to find any takers on that wager.

China has been a headache for Google nearly from the moment it set foot in the country, perhaps naively believing it could change government policies bent on controlling the flow of information to its citizens by offering a quality Internet search service. Instead, it was forced to compromise its morals in order to offer a working service until it was attacked in what many security professionals believe was a cyberattack originating from inside of China that targeted Google intellectual property and e-mail accounts of critics of the Chinese government.

Google has started sending out Android 2.2, aka Froyo, to those with its Nexus One phone.
"Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive the Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) over-the-air software update on their phones," according to a Monday blog post about the Froyo update. "This update will be rolled out gradually to phones--and most users will receive the notification by the end of the week."
Froyo adds better performance; the ability to turn the phone into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot other computers can use to access the Internet; better support for Microsoft's widely used Exchange software for e-mail, calendar, and contacts; a streamlined Android Market interface. For a full list, check Google's Android 2.2 highlights page.
And in an alliance that Google and Adobe Systems both are promoting heavily, Android 2.2 supports Adobe's Flash Player 10.1. Adobe said its final release of the software would come when Froyo hit the market.
Android, mostly open-source software, competes strongly against Apple's iOS but also with a handful of other smartphone operating systems, including Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS, Palm's WebOS, Nokia's Symbian, and Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Phone 7. Apple's iOS, though, was first out of the gate for the new generation of advanced smartphone operating systems and has been leading the charge in the market, helped by the fact that it runs on iPod Touch and iPad devices as well as just phones.
Google has been racing to add features, though, and Android sales are strong, with 160,000 phones activated daily at present. A range of manufacturers, including HTC, Motorola, and Samsung, are building Android phones, and more Android devices are expected.

Cisco on Tuesday introduced a home energy management system which it will test with customers of utility Duke Energy and offer to other utilities.

The two companies said that Cisco will supply a home energy "controller," a countertop touch-screen display for people to monitor electricity usage and to program home energy to reduce waste and take advantage of off-peak pricing.

Duke plans to pilot test the devices and back-end services starting this summer for a year with customers in Charlotte, North Carolina and Cincinnati, Ohio which already have smart meters installed.

The home energy controller will act as a hub for networked devices in the home, which can report energy usage and be controlled from the display over a wireless network. Existing appliances can be connected using two-way thermostats or smart plugs, which talk to the controller via Zigbee. Cisco plans to support other wireless protocols over time, it said.

The device will also allow people to participate in demand-response programs, where the utility offers a rebate in some form for cutting electricity usage during peak times. For example, a dishwasher could be timed to run in the middle of the night or a hot water heater could be turned down temporarily to lighten grid load during a hot day.

Cisco plans to sell the product bundle to utilities for $900 which will make it available to consumers as an energy-efficiency tool. Duke and Cisco said they plan to work with manufacturers of appliances and electronics so that they can connect other gear into the home-automation network.

Although a number of utilities are moving ahead installing smart meters, there's growing recognition in the industry that meters need to be coupled with home energy management tools for consumers to take advantage of the real-time capability of two-way meters.

Duke said that the Cisco home energy controller is designed to be very easy to use and not require a significant amount of time or attention.

"Customers want to save money on their energy bills, but it has to be easy. With Cisco's proven expertise in Internet Protocol-based, open system networks, we're confident our collaboration with them will result in a solution that provides customers back-of-mind simplicity and real, back pocket rewards," Gianna Manes, Duke Energy senior vice president and chief customer officer, said in a statement.

Google Chrome is now the third-most-popular browser in the U.S., behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, but ahead of Apple's Safari for the first time, according to a study by Web analytics company StatCounter.
Chrome overtook Safari during the week ending June 27, and now has a share of around 8.97 percent of the U.S. browser market, just ahead of Safari at 8.88 percent. Internet Explorer and Firefox still dominate with shares of 52 percent and 28.5 percent respectively, all versions combined, StatCounter said.
Outside the U.S., Chrome passed Safari some time ago, and now has a 9.4 percent share, compared to Safari's 4 percent. That may be down to the two applications' support for different languages: Safari is available in 16 languages, while Chrome covers more than three times as many.
StatCounter said it based its statistics on an analysis of 3.6 billion page views, 874 million of them in the U.S., captured from its network of counters embedded in the pages of 3 million Web sites.

The VG2427wm, a 24-inch widescreen LCD monitor, performed well in our image quality tests. Text on a page of fonts of different sizes looked sharp, even when at a very small (6-point) size.

The VG2427 also did a fairly good job of rendering color, though in one photo--a picnic scene with various red, green, and blue hues, we found the color to be slightly dull in comparison to the way other screens, such as the Asus VH236H, rendered it.

In our motion tests, the VG2427wm stumbled a bit, displaying some just-detectable jittering of our test image. Though the jittering was slight, it was noticeable enough that active gamers might find it distracting.

The VG2427wm's 1920-by-1080-pixel native resolution theoretically makes it 1080p-ready, and well-suited for HD content. Unfortunately, the display lacks an HDMI input, offering only DVI and VGA ports. ViewSonic says that it intends the monitor for corporate and office use; but to take full advantage of its resolution, an HDMI input would seem to be a necessary feature. The VG2427 does include three USB ports at the rear.

Four buttons on the bottom of the front bezel control the on-screen display (OSD). The power button lies at the center of the cluster of buttons, which unfortunately increases the likelihood that you'll press it by accident while aiming for the button for cycling through the OSD's menus.

The display tilts and swivels with ease. It also has a height adjustment, which works smoothly as well. Its bezel has a pleasant, charcoal-black finish.

At $400, the VG 2427wm is quite reasonably priced for a 24-inch widescreen in today's monitor marketplace. It would make a good choice for users who need a big screen for text-intensive work, but the less-than-totally-smooth video playback and the lack of an HDMI-in port may disappoint for gamers and movie watchers.

The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 color inkjet multifunction printer (which handles printing, scanning, copying, and faxing) is priced on the high side ($300 as of June 4, 2010), but it's packed with features that would satisfy a busy home or small office. Lexmark sweetens the deal with supercheap black ink and a five-year warranty.
Admirably, Lexmark has customized the setup routine by skill level. If you want hand-holding, you can click through a long parade of dialog boxes that explain every minute detail, from plugging in the AC cord to inserting the cartridges. If you don't want the walkthrough, you can skip it. Wireless is a breeze, too: The onboard routine searches for and lets you join any available network in just a few steps. USB and ethernet connections are also available.
The Pinnacle Pro901's standout feature is its 4.3-inch touchscreen control panel, which gives the machine a cleaner look than a raft of buttons would. Even better, the menu structure is intuitive, easy to navigate, and well thought out. Other features include a roomy, 50-page automatic document feeder atop the unit's letter-size flatbed scanner, and automatic duplexing (two-sided printing). The under-mounted, 150-sheet front paper tray provides adequate capacity, though it feels flimsy when you remove or insert it. An optional second 150-sheet additional tray costs $100 from Lexmark. Media slots accommodate SD, xD, MS/MMC, and USB/PictBridge media. Lexmark's bundled software is great for controlling the scanner and the printer, though it lacks some editing and creative amenities that more-consumer-oriented models offer.
Small and home offices print a lot of plain text, which is where the Pinnacle Pro901 shines. Its speed is nothing special: 6.3 pages per minute on the PC, and 3.9 ppm on the Mac--but text quality was unbelievably black and crisp. What's more, this model and its other high-priced cousins (the Lexmark Platinum Pro905 and the Lexmark Prestige Pro805) can use the 105XL high-yield black cartridge, which costs just $5 and lasts for 510 pages, which works out to a scant penny per page. It's enough to make a monochrome laser printer nervous. Avoid the 100XL high-yield black, which also fits this MFP but is extremely expensive--as are the standard-size 100 cartridges.
Color quality and pricing are less impressive. On the PC, 4-by-6-inch photos printed at 1.8 ppm. On the Mac, a 7.5-by-9.9-inch, high-resolution photo took about 85 seconds to print; a 600-dpi scan of the same photo took just over a minute, while a 1200-dpi scan of a 4-by-6-inch photo took about 75 seconds. Color images had a fine-grained look--slightly foggy, but even. While fleshtones tended toward yellow and colors tended toward pink, they were believable. Color scans tended to be dark, but only color copies truly disappointed us, with distracting crosshatch patterns. The 600-page 100XL C, M, Y cartridges cost a middling $18 apiece (or 3 cents per color per page). Lexmark's standard-size color inks are incredibly overpriced and best avoided.
Lexmark's Pinnacle Pro901 is a worthy contender for your small-office bucks. Though we consider the Canon Pixma MX870 a better overall package for a lower price, the Pinnacle Pro901 supplies the cheapest black ink and the longest warranty.

The Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD media player ($150 as of June 9) picks up where its predecessors, the WD TV and the WD TV Live, left off, adding integrated Netflix support to the previous versions' ability to play HD media from USB drives and (in the case of WD TV Live), local network and several popular Web sites including YouTube on your HDTV. But like the earlier versions, it lacks built-in Wi-Fi support so you'll need to either hook it up to your network via an ethernet cable or buy an optional USB Wi-Fi adapter.

In appearance, the WD TV Live Plus looks a lot like its predecessors-it's a small (about 5 by 4 by 1.6 inches) black box with a remote that fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. The WD TV Live Plus has HDMI, digital audio (SPID), and composite video outputs for connecting to your TV; two USB ports for media; and an ethernet port for hooking up to your home network. It comes with only composite and component video cables, however; you're on your own for the HDMI, digital and ethernet hookups. (In my tests, I connected the WD TV to a free LAN port in a HomePlug AV switch.)

Once connected to your home network, WD TV Live can stream media from any other network-connected drive you have permissions to access, as well as any plugged-in USB drives, and supported Web-based media services (Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, Pandora Radio, Live365, and a range of AV content via the MediaFly content distribution network). The user interface is straightforward: You scroll down through a list of media types and settings, then across to access content (or options, in the case of settings) within each.

Netflix support--in 720p high-definition--is the primary "Plus" here, as otherwise the WD TV Live Plus is basically the same as the WD TV Live. The Netflix interface will look familiar to anyone who's used the service on a Roku media streamer (which lacks support for media on a local network): It's exceptionally easy to navigate. I particularly appreciate the use of thumbnails to show where you are in a video when you're fast forwarding or rewinding.

Like the original WD TV Live, the Live Plus also has integrated YouTube support, and here again, the interface is excellent, with support for logging in to your account, accessing and designating favorites, and searching. Of course, YouTube videos vary widely in quality and resolution; low-res videos look pretty bad blown up on an HD screen. Also, YouTube's DRM technology bars playback of a lot of commercial content: You get a message saying that the content owner does not permit playback on TV-connected devices.

Flickr support is less robust: You can search for your own photos (by userID, tag, or keyword), but you can't actually log into your account. Thankfully, you can save yourself as a contact to gain easy access to your photos (you can also save tags).

You can log in to your Pandora account, play your custom stations and rate the songs. Same with Live365 (WDTV offers a trial of that service's premium paid membership, too). In general, music sounded good, but I do have one gripe about CDs streamed from DLNA-compliant network sources: Songs are always played in alphabetical order, unless the file names have numbers to show their order on the CD.

WD TV Live Plus has a few more customization options than the original WDTV: You can, for example, opt for a list view of folder contents instead of simply viewing icons. The icon view displays thumbnails, but can be a little confusing since you don't see a folder's name until you select it, at which point the name appears below all the icons. This can make it difficult to figure out where you are since the highlighting of a selected folder isn't very dramatic. Another little nicety: You can opt for fade-in, fade-out transitions between screens (as opposed to plain vanilla transitions).

A file management feature in the settings allows you to transfer files from a networked device to a thumb drive plugged into the WDTV Live Plus, which can come in handy if you're not happy with the quality of multimedia streamed over the network. For video especially, you get better results with files played locally. Of course, you could copy the files on a PC, but the ability to do so through the media player is convenient.

WD TV Live Plus supports several dozen multimedia file formats, including playlists and subtitles--but only for DRM-free content. There's an interesting media library compilation feature for files on a USB drive: You can run it to get your files sorted by media type. Settings for audio and video include HDMI deep color mode (8 bit or 12 bit), aspect ratio, and digital (vs. analog) audio.

The 15X-optical-zoom Samsung HZ35W ($350 as of June 1, 2010) had the best overall performance score and feature set of any camera in our latest pocket megazooms test group, but our hands-on tests of the camera exposed a few things to think about before you rush out to buy it.
Let's start with the laundry list of positives. The HZ35W's 15X lens (24mm to 360mm) offers the largest optical-zoom range of any compact camera currently available, and this model's dual stabilization feature proves amazingly effective in correcting everything but the most severe shaking. To play back images and frame shots, you use the camera's 3-inch-diagonal AMOLED screen, which is impressively sharp and easy on the eyes.
The geotagging feature works well, going a step further than the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V--you don't need to install software on your computer and offload images to see the GPS features in their full glory. Navteq's mapping service is installed on the HZ35W, letting you view your photos on a map on the AMOLED screen. It also displays the city name when you're viewing your geotagged images on the camera, rather than just a number-soup of coordinates.
The HZ35W also takes one heck of a picture. It logged the best overall performance scores in PCWorld Labs subjective tests, thanks to the sharpest images in our pocket megazooms test group, excellent color accuracy, and good exposure quality. Overall image quality earned a score of Very Good.
No CIPA battery-life rating is available for the HZ35W, so we can't judge it in that respect.
So where can such a high-performance, full-featured camera go wrong? For one thing, the HZ35W's video performance was among the worst of the cameras we tested, and the camera didn't pick up clear audio from its microphone. Here are sample clips that we shot in bright indoor lighting and in low light with the HZ35W. For the highest-quality clips, select 720p from the drop-down menu in the lower-right corner of each player.
An even bigger drawback is the menu system, which is complex and hard to navigate. Some settings are buried a few too many button presses deep, and some are categorized unintuitively. For example, you get fun in-camera effects that mimic a tilt-shift lens, a fish-eye lens, and sketch drawing, but they're hidden deep in the menus under the Smart Filter header; most users would probably look for them in the scene-mode offerings. And even though the camera's manual settings include aperture- and shutter-priority modes, you can't adjust those settings while you're framing a shot; you have to dive one layer into the menus to do so.
What's more, the camera's excellent dual-stabilization mode is available only via a dedicated selection on the mode dial; you don't have access to its image-stabilizing powers in any of the manual modes or other settings.
Last on the list of drawbacks is the camera's bulky size and somewhat slippery body. It's a bit chunkier and deeper than the other pocket megazoom cameras in our latest test group, and the body doesn't offer much of a raised handgrip. A grooved thumb rest is below the shutter button on the back of the camera, but it doesn't give you much traction. This camera might get slippery with sweaty or wet hands.
The Samsung HZ35W is an excellent camera with tons of options, but you may spend a lot of time searching for settings in the menus. We love its image quality and its GPS interface, but you'll need more than intuition to get the hang of this camera.

The raw performance of the Micro Express Microflex 88B desktop is admirable, and the system's price of $1299 price (as of June 7, 2010) is quite reasonable for the category. But competing systems on PCWorld's Top 10 Performance Desktop PCs chart trump it on general performance and on gaming-test frame rates. Nevertheless, PCs that deliver the Microflex 88B's performance numbers at its price and with the array of next-generation connection options that it offers are hard to find.

The 88B's 3.06GHz Intel Core i7 880 processor outpaces competing PCs that stick with slower-clocked CPUs--but not by a lot. Of course, the machine's general performance undoubtedly reflects the heavy load it bears: 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 60GB solid-state drive for booting, and a 500GB hard-disk drive for storage. The 88B turned a score of 156 on our WorldBench 6 test suite--10 points higher than the mark of 146 earned by the HP Pavilion HPE-170t, which offers a 2.80GHz Core i7 860 processor and 8GB of DDR3 memory for just over $1400.

The 88B's ATI Radeon HD5770 graphics board helps the system reach an average frame rate of 68.5 frames per second on our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmark run (tested at 2560 by 1600 resolution, at high quality). That's not the best score on the charts, but it beats the HPE-170t's average of 65.4 fps.

Where next-generation connectivity is concerned, the Microflex 88B shines. The front of the case offers three USB ports, a FireWire 400 port, and a multiformat card reader. On the rear of the system, you'll find eight USB ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two eSATA ports, two Firewire 400 ports (one mini), two gigabit ethernet ports, SPDIF out, and integrated 7.1 surround sound. The video card offers two DVI connectors, one HDMI connector, and one DisplayPort connector. Few machines in the Performance PC category have begun to offer USB 3.0 (Polywell's Poly X5800A3 is another example), and its presence is sure to appeal to users in need of high-speed interfaces.

Though the system's internal wiring takes up some space, it's relatively neat. Better yet, the chassis's four free 5.25-inch drive bays and one free 3.5-inch bay come with screwless locking mechanisms preinstalled. Should you want to replace the system's combined Blu-ray reader/DVD burner, you'll be able to slide in and secure a new component in a matter of seconds.

In contrast, the system's free PCI Express x4 slots (two), PCI slots (two), and PCI Express x16 slot (one) all use screws to lock in additional cards.We can't complain about the upgradability, however: Should you want to fire up a CrossFire setup to boost the 88B's gaming capabilities, you're free to do so.

The mouse that ships with the 88B is drab and generic,. but the Microsoft-branded keyboard comes with a substantial number of extra buttons for one-touch application launching, volume adjustments, media playback control, and zooming.

You can find faster systems than the 88B, and you can find better gaming rigs than the Microflex 88B (the aforementioned Polywell PolyX5800A3, for instance, or the CyberPower Black Pearl). But the 88B's combination of performance, gaming smarts, and low price, plus wide-ranging connection options, may be unique.

Dell's Vostro 3300 inherits its svelte design and thin esthetic from the original Dell Adamo design, though the 3300 isn't quite as skinny or light as the Adamo. Even so, Dell's new small-business laptop offers combination of hardware and support options well tuned to its target market. With Dell's current discounts, the Vostro 3300 starts at $599 (as of 6/18/10).
At a little over 4 pounds with the bulkier 8-cell battery (5.2 pounds with the power brick), the Vostro 3300 won't strain your shoulder as you lug it along on your daily travels. That weight includes a tray-loading DVD recordable drive, so you're not sacrificing optical storage just for thinness. The 13.3-inch, LED-backlit screen offers a matte finish, something we'd like to see more of, since the glossy screens that seem so common these days can be annoying to use in most normal lighting situations.
Our test unit included a dual-core Intel Core i5-520M CPU running at 2.4GHz, though it can push as high as 2.93GHz when running in turbo mode (with one CPU core active). And nVidia's discrete GeForce 310M graphics processor is a welcome addition. The 310M offers limited 3D performance and isn't well suited for gaming, but it will offload other graphics chores from the CPU, like Windows Aero and DVD playback. It's may also prove useful with the emerging generation of GPU-accelerated applications. Alas, the Vostro doesn't take advantage of nVidia's Optimus automatic GPU-switching technology.
Performance is about what you'd expect, posting a score of 112 on WorldBench 6--slightly above average, but not exceptional for this class of laptop. You can run some games on the Vostro, but I suggest you steer away from leading-edge titles, and stick with DirectX 9 mode in whatever game you run. Even then, you'll need to dial down the game's graphics features to get good performance.
The display offers good color rendition and, despite the lack of glossy finish, is more than bright enough for daily use. DVD upscaling was fine with the DVDs we tested, including HBO's Band of Brothers DVD set and Serenity. We also checked out a couple of 1080p WMV HD files, and, as expected, those looked pretty good too.
I can't say much good about the audio, however. The Vostro appears to have only a single speaker, on the left side of the unit, and its tonal balance is far from accurate. It's far better to just bite the bullet and use a good set of headphones or in-ear phones for listening to music or movies.
The port selection is good, with three USB 2.0 ports--two on the right and one on the left. One of the right-side ports is a combo USB/eSATA port. The 3300 lacks FireWire capability, but that's increasingly less important. A 5-in-1 flash memory card reader is built into the front, next to the audio input and output jacks.
Network connectivity was trouble-free in our network environment, which is built around a Netgear WNDR 3700 wireless router. The Vostro also comes equipped with a now-familiar gigabit ethernet port. Our test unit lacked wireless broadband capability, but Dell does offer a wireless 3G card as an option.
The Vostro 3300's performance also seemed good subjectively. We opened the latest version of Google's Chrome browser with 31 active tabs (including a number of flash-heavy sites) and ran Windows Live Writer at the same time. Typing still seemed responsive, and browsing performance was snappy. Documentation is sparse, limited to online help that's not particularly robust.
Overall, the Vostro 3300 hits a solid combination of features in a sleek, compact package. Dell has managed to make an ultrathin small-business laptop that's just a little sexy, but also just boring enough not to attract too much attention.

It happened to me on my first phone call with the new Apple iPhone 4: The display screen flashed on during the call, and I managed to inadvertently put the call onto speaker. Twice.

Now, I could crack a joke about having a talented cheek, but this isn't a joking matter: I never had these problems with my iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS. I didn't feel as if I was holding the phone any differently; I even paid close attention over the course of subsequent e-mails, and confirmed I wasn't doing anything different.

What I did notice as the weekend wore on, however, was this was not a one-off occurrence. I regularly activated the touchscreen during a call. Typically, I managed to activate the keypad (and subsequently dialed numbers), mute button, or speaker; sometimes I ended up going into the contacts screen, or activating FaceTime (which in turn gave me an error message, given that I wasn't on Wi-Fi).

The first Windows 7 Launch Parties got the green light the past week, and they all have one thing in common. According to Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, all the Windows 7 Launch Parties in the week of October 5th were hosted by Microsoft employees. LeBlanc noted that the Redmond company had sent Windows 7 Launch Party packages to a few thousand Microsoft employees. In fact, Microsoft employees were the only ones to host Windows 7 Launch Parties before the official release of the operating system coming on October 22nd, 2009. The public Windows 7 launch parties will come only after the Windows 7 general availability deadline.