The latest numbers for web browser use show that Internet Explorer is down nearly ten more points.  Internet Explorer 6 use has waned quite a bit, but, for Google, it is not enough on both accounts.  Wanting to shore up its new web offerings and, presumably, its browser, Google has developed something called the Google Chrome Frame for Internet Explorer.  What this does is make the Chrome browser available as a plug in.  The reason, according to Google, is that they don’t want to be bothered trying to get its Google Wave to work with the industry leading browser. 

Google has made its intentions known that it wants to dethrone Microsoft…and any other company that markets desktop software and operating systems.  That includes Apple, though not right away it seems.  This very public slap in the face of Microsoft has the potential to be somewhat dangerous and confusing to IE users.  Mozilla has actually come out on Microsoft’s side, sort of.

Mozilla released several statements, all of which make more sense than what Microsoft has stated.  The Mozilla statements, from Mike Shaver and Mitchell Baker point out (and it is surprising that Microsoft did not state this) that the plug in could prevent browser features from functioning correctly.  For example, it would keep such innovations as the web accelerators and add ins that work on the content area from working.  Worse, it could prevent the security features from working.  And in IE 7 and 8, security is far better than most of the other browsers.

Microsoft, instead of pointing out what Mozilla pointed out, released a statement that just bad mouths the plug in without really saying why.  It did make one statement that made sense: "Given the security issues with plug-ins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plug-in has doubled the attack area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take”.

Mozilla has its own reasons for seemingly siding with Microsoft:  Firefox.  This same thing could very easily happen to them.  In fact, it could happen to any browser that supports a plug in model.  It also skews the numbers.  If Chrome ran in Firefox, than anytime a user browsed a site that invoked the plug in, then Chrome becomes the browser and NOT Firefox, or whatever browser is actually hosting the plug-in.

So, for anyone who was applauding Google for ‘doing the right thing’ by replacing the IE rendering engine with Chrome, think about it carefully.  Google could do this for any browser, including Firefox and Safari.  And what’s to prevent Google from implementing a ‘phone home’ feature in the plug in.  Do you want Google collecting this type of data as well?  And if Google is successful with this plug in, other companies will certainly follow.  I think this is a terrible idea and hope that no one else adopts it.

(Lest you think I am defending IE, I’m not.  I use Firefox and Safari now.  IE 8 is just too unreliable.  I love its features except for the randomness of actually rendering a page.)

Links:

• Mike Shaver's Blog
• Mitchell Baker's Blog
• eWeek post about Microsoft and Google responses

Over the last few days, I noticed, on several of the computers in the house that run iTunes, that the Apple Software Update app kept popping up ‘suggesting’ that I wanted to install the iPhone configuration utility.  That would probably be something really helpful…if I actually owned an iPhone.  I don’t.  No one in my house owns the device.  I unchecked the box and closed the update. I just kind of let it go.  Until, that is, I read Ed Bott’s column about it on ZDNet. 

Ed is right.  While dismissing the app is no big deal and the planet won’t cease to spin on its axis, the point is an update application should not be offering up a totally new application.  I don’t mind it telling me about a new version of iTunes or Quick time.  I do use those, so I don’t mind being told when a new version is available. 

As many Apple defenders have pointed out, you can instruct the update app to ignore select apps.  That’s great, but I should not have to do this.  If I truly wanted a new configuration app for the iPhone-assuming I owned one-the first place I’d go is the Apple web site and NOT an application that is supposed to update my existing applications.  To echo many others who have also written about this, if a certain other company did this, Apple would be calling for some kind of governmental investigation, the Apple fan kids would be out in droves complaining about this.  But, when the table is turned, those same people are offering up all kinds of ‘help’, often in a very rude and disrespectful manner and NOT saying ‘Apple should not be doing that.’  Instead, they offer up the ‘you can just uncheck it’ or ‘…but I would not expect anything else from an idiot windohs’ user.’  Yeah, clever huh?  That reminds me, and I think I pointed this out recently, such things as ‘windoze’, ‘windohs’ and ‘M$’ are old.  Come up with something new, people.

Ed notes in an update to his column that the application in question no longer appears in the updates list.  Good for Apple, someone there was paying attention.

Of course, in the larger picture, this is a very minor and trivial argument and I am a bit surprised that Mr. Bott wrote of it, but, he did.  And the conversation has been very interesting.  It has really showed me the uglier side of the Apple fan kid.  I knew they were a rabid bunch, but…man, they can be pretty rude and childish too.  I guess Apple really was looking out for my best interests here.  Maybe they can send me an iPhone to go along with the app.

For the fifth time since its release, the webOS that powers the Palm Pre has been updated.  Today’s update is a fairly significant one and appears to fix some bugs and enhance a few of the built in applications including the browser, which got some nice new enhancements.  I won’t bore you with a rehash of what was changed, you can go here and here for that. 

I’ll just touch a few of the bigger changes.  First, the App Catalog.  In preparation for the ‘paid’ apps, Palm made a few changes to accommodate the actual purchasing ability.  They tweaked the interface a bit and you will have the ability to download an application that you’ve already purchase again at no charge.

The browser got a few decent upgrades.  Chiefly, you can now actually download files directly to your Pre.  This omission has always seemed just odd to me, but, whatever.  You can download now.  Cut, copy and paste have been enhanced.  You select paragraphs and images as well.  Tapping on a text field will cause the browser to zoom in on that field, a nice touch.  Holding down the ‘orange’ button and then tapping a link or an image now brings a context sensitive menu, giving you the options to opening the item in a new card, sharing the link via email or copying the URL. If it was an image, you get an extra option to copy the image to the Photo app.

The fact that Palm has updated the webOS five times now, two of which were significant upgrades, shows its commitment to the platform and customers.  Many of the features added were a result of user requests. Or, so it appears, anyway.

Oh, and one more thing…iTunes sync is still ‘broken’.  Who cares.

One of the perceived benefits from the iPhone/iPod Touch is the App Store.  So much so, that other companies have scrambled to open up their own app stores.  The LACK of an app store, or, more specifically, third party apps, is also a perceived barrier to entry for many devices such as the Pal Pre, the Zune HD, phones from LG and Samsung and other similar devices.  Being to purchase, download and install said applications on said devices is seen as a must.  While the ability to do the entire transaction on the device is a huge benefit, I don’t see it as 100% necessary.  In fact, why such an ecosystem THAT important?

There are many reasons why you’d want such an ecosystem.  To extend the functionality of the device, perhaps, is probably the most important aspect of the ecosystem.  For example, the GPS ability of the iPhone and Palm Pre  (most modern phones, in fact) is kind of pointless with out software that can actually use the data.  Be it a Google Maps app or something like an app that can tell you what restaurants are close to you, for example.  What good is that always on Internet ability if there’s no other use for it other than a browser? 

Getting third party developers involved and having them pump out applications, easily enough, is one of the reasons that Windows is so ubiquitous today.  Apple knew that, at some point, it would have to open up the iPhone to third party development.  When it released, all that was available were web apps.  Now, I mean no disrespect to the developers of those apps, but the very notion of a web app is that it will be limited.  You can only use them while connected.  Fortunately for the iPhone, this limitation only lasted a year.  Apple finally released its SDK for the device and then opened the App Store.  Once it got its flawed approval process going, the flood gates, so to speak, were open.  As of now, there are supposedly over 75 thousand applications in the App Store.  Quantity, however, speaks nothing of quality and data seems to indicate that while there are those 75 thousand apps in the App Store, most are of dubious quality and rarely get used more than a few times once purchased.  And therein lies the flaw of the App Store.

Having that many applications in one place, while convenient, is not necessarily a good thing.  And the fact that you can ONLY get apps onto the device, legitimately, is through the Apple designed mechanism (iTunes + App Store) is not only limiting, but anti competitive as well.  But, Apple is not alone here.  Verizon has its own app store and they are configuring their phones to ONLY allow applications from that store.  Other companies are following suit, though some are less restrictive than the others.

A knock against the Palm Pre when it released was its lack of applications.  Indeed, the pickings were paltry and it took several months to hit fifty applications in the App Catalog.  However, the Pre is built on an open platform:  Linux.  webOS is really just a set of API’s and not really an ‘operating system’ in the strictest sense.  As such, people found out how, early on, to ‘side load’ applications.  Palm has done nothing to prevent this and, in fact, has unofficially embraced it.  Many of the applications that are now showing up in the App Catalog were developed and ‘beta’ tested by enthusiasts of the device.  Once the App Catalog begins its ‘paid’ operation, that is, when you have to actually start paying for apps, we’ll see just how generous Palm will be.

Most of the app stores seem to follow the Apple model:   apps can be any price, including free, and the there is a 70/30 split.  Some companies, like Microsoft, want to discourage the 99 cent application, telling developers that their work is worth more than that.  It is a way to say “we don’t want the same junk that Apple has”.  In other words, they don’t want a ton of flashlight, fart, roll the die or other such ‘apps’ to muddy up the app store experience.

Once again, we are back to the quantity of apps.  There are so many in the Apple App Store that it is difficult to find those that you want.  It became such a problem (and, I suppose, a good one to have) that Apple came out with the App Genius.  Like the music counterpart, the genius will analyze the apps you purchase and provide recommendations.  Somehow, I don’t see this as being all that successful.  We’ll see.

Microsoft recently introduced its Zune HD device.  It has the ability to run applications.  Microsoft did add an app store, of sorts, to the Zune Marketplace.  However, they are not opening it up to third parties.  They want to keep that for the Windows Mobile platform.  So, out of the gate, they are crippling what is an excellent platform.  Zune HD is leaps and bounds better than the previous gen hardware.  But, by closing the app store to third parties, they seem to be hindering the acceptance of the device.  Or are they?  While being able to check my Twitter feed or do a quick check of the weather would be really handy if I only have the Zune HD on me, it isn’t necessary.   I will have my Pre with me, so I could use that.  Moreover, the HD has a web browser, so I could use that if I have a connection.  But, all I really want the Zune HD for is the media player.  So, for me, lack of applications is not a big deal.  To others, it could be.  And I do think that Microsoft should open the platform up (it sort of is, you can use Visual Studio and the XNA SDK to create software for the HD as well as the older gen devices) to third parties AND encourage them to develop for the platform. Ultimately, I don’t think lack of apps will hurt the Zune HD, it certainly won’t do much to help it either.

While the Apple App Store has been a game changer, I think it was unintended.  I think if Apple could put the genie back in the bottle, they would.  They were taking a beating for not opening it up in the first place.  They HAD to do it.  That it was so successful, I believe, was a huge shock for the company.  I think if Steve Jobs could easily turn it off, he would do so.  Apple has, for all intents and purposes, lost control of the platform.  They just don’t know it yet.  They lost control when they started rejecting apps for, seemingly, no good reason.  And to reject an app because it might compete with something they did is absurd.  That one can ‘jailbreak’ the phone to get something ‘unofficial’ on the device says that Apple has failed to maintain its notorious control over the device.  They have real problems with the whole App Store ecosystem, but I think they will be OK.  These others companies, like Palm, like Microsoft, need to study, carefully, the failures of the Apple App Store and NOT repeat them.

Engadget has published a story about Intel’s new ‘light peak’ connectivity format.  According to the story, Apple approached Intel about developing the new standard.  As early as 2007, Apple, apparently, approached Intel about replacing things like USB, Firewire and its own Display Interface with one connector.  The new format would have to handle large amounts of data without any delay in order to work. 

The article claims that Steve Jobs spoke to Paul Otellini directly about the new standard.  One of the demands of the standard is that it allow multiple devices to connect to a SINGLE Light Peak port.  My guess is that Mr. Jobs also has an aversion to having multiple connectors on his ‘beautiful’ designs…like having no buttons on the damned iPhone or iPods.  I’m surprised he has not embraced Bluetooth or another wireless solution and do away with all the bloody connectors save the power connector.  He’ like to do away the keyboards as well, I’m sure. (That reminds me, why doesn’t the Mac have problem free voice recognition…if it did, problem solved, right?)

While the prospect of one connector doing it all may sound nice, I would be concerned with what it would take to keep those multitude of signals and the associate processing all separate and deliver the performance we get now.  Throwing digital video into the fray seems to be the real issue with something like this.  But, then, I’m no engineer and Intel does have a few very smart people working for it.

The article states that Light Peak could make its debut in new Macs as soon as late 2010.  I can only imagine the cries from people who buy a Mac only to find it has no display port, USB or Firewire and they must now buy a new monitor, printer, camera adaptor, etc.   There will be ‘official’ Apple adaptors that will cost ten times what they should and be serialized so ONLY they will work with Macs and not any ‘unofficial’ pieces parts. Of course, after the initial shock wears off (after what, a day?) the Apple apologists will then make statements ‘well, I don’t use my USB stuff that much’ and ‘who STILL uses USB?’ and, perhaps, ‘Oh, that new Light Peak monitor is gorgeous…I just HAVE to get one!’  Well, yeah, you will.

Snarkiness aside, faster is always better and it would be very nice to have a single standard for devices that everyone would support.  Oh, wait, we have that.  It’s called USB and it is getting faster now that USB 3.0 is upon us.

Link:

• Engadget Light Peak article

For the last week or so, I’ve been reading and hearing about how awful the ‘Windows 7 House Party Prep’ video is and how stupid the dialog was.  Well, I’d say the video has accomplished more than what it was designed to accomplish:  Get the word out about Windows 7 launch (October 22) and keep Microsoft in the news.  Or, at least, the tech world news.  So what if it is poorly acted and written?  It has kept both Windows 7 and Microsoft ‘out front’, so to speak and has made folks aware of the ‘house parties’ as well.  I thought the whole house party thing was kind of dumb, but, now, I’m not so sure about that.  This may, in fact, be marketing genius.  It is certainly going to attract a certain amount of publicity when launch day arrives.  I’m sure more than a few television stations around the country will get wind of the geeks out there holding a Microsoft party, provided it is a slow news day, of course. 

At the very least, the whole house party thing has gotten people talking about Windows 7, Microsoft and the big M’s advertising-good and bad.  And, maybe, just maybe, that’s all it really was supposed to do.

Windows 7 Parental Controls are very similar to those found in Vista.  Most of the functionality is unchanged or has changed very little.  The walkthrough below is taken directly from a post I did in 2008 about Vista’s parental controls.  I have updated the text and images where necessary, but the post is mostly the same.

Diving In

The first thing you need to do is create a STANDARD user account for the child.  You can do so by going to the  control panel and selecting USER ACCOUNTS AND FAMILY SAFETY.  Next, create a new user, fill in the name and make sure STANDARD USER is selected.  Next, you are presented with a dialog box containing icons of the available users.  Select the user you just created and then click the SETUP PARENTAL CONTROLS link under the Additional Things That You Can Do section.  Another dialog box will popup containing the parental controls options.  The first thing I did was set time limits.  This is important, especially during the school year, as you can tell Windows just how long your child can use the computer.  So, click the TIME LIMITS link.  You will be presented with a grid.  The grid is a laid out in days of week and hours in the day format.  Simply click in the boxes that corresponds to the times that you DO NOT want your child to use the computer.  The blocks will turn blue, indicating that that block of time is off limits.  For my son, I have the computer log him off at bedtime and not allow login until after 6am, Sunday night through Friday morning.  On Friday and Saturday, I am more lenient with the times.

Web Limits

Windows 7 no longer contains the built in web controls.  You now have to select your own provider.  Microsoft, for reasons unknown to me, has moved this functionality to its Windows Live Family Safety.  It is a small and free download from the Windows Live Essentials bundle.  It still works like the old integrated stuff that was in Vista.  You set it up a bit differently, and can manage it from the web.  To add an account,  click the Windows Live Family Safety link.  You’ll see the setup window.  Select the user you wish to monitor and click Next.  On the next panel, select what you wish to do for the accounts listed and click SAVE.  That’s it.  You can refine the monitoring by going to the web site.  The link on the same panel.

The Web limits will work with Internet Explorer 7 and higher or the latest version of Firefox.  Earlier versions of both browsers do not recognize the controls and, thus, can circumvent this.  Also, Opera and Safari do not work with the controls.  You add the browsers that are non-compliant to the program limits.  Web Limits can be as loose or tight as you like.  Microsoft maintains a list of 'bad' sites and will prevent your child from surfing to these site.  Conversely, you can choose to only allow a certain site or sites. There is a list that you can maintain and the browser will only allow the child to visit these sites.  Also, the language filter works very, very well.  I've seen it prevent my son from going to certain forums that looked innocent, but were, in fact, full of foul language.  It also appears to prevent him from visiting forums where certain words-not foul language-used in certain ways to allude or describe drug use or other more adult subjects.  I have been very  impressed by the filters.  I feel much more at ease with him visiting his favorite forums and message boards.  I have also locked out instant messaging.  I don't trust it and won't allow it until he is older.  I also preview new places he wants to go before I will allow it. 

Game Limits

There is also a game limit section.  This will allow you to prevent Windows from running games that are a certain rating or higher.  It also allows you to prevent games that might fit your  rating, but contain subject matter you do not wish your child from seeing.  An example of this might some games like Street Fighter, which has a teen rating but is very violent. Or games like Grand Theft Auto.  You have many, many choices.

NOTE:  Game and program limits do NOT work on FAT formatted drives.  I was not aware of this limitation in Vista, but it is certainly there in Windows 7.  You will be warned about.

Miscellaneous

Parental controls can log everything your child does.  It is pretty thorough and shows things like how long they are logged in, what programs they run, what web sites they visit, games they play, how they played the games and more.  If your child tries to do something they are not supposed to do, Windows 7 User Access Control dialog pops up.  The child can then get you and you can decide to allow or disallow the action.  Warning:  the child cannot install anything without your approval.  Why did I say Warning?  Simple...anytime they get a game or a program, you must install it as they will not have permission.  I suspect most people will just install it anyway, but I'm sure there will be times that you forget and then junior will be coming back to get you.  The UAC message will also pop up if they try to go to a web site that has been deemed questionable.  Sometimes, it does prevent some legit sites like NickJr.   I have to figure that one out, but there was something that the filter did not like.

All in all, Microsoft did a great job with Windows 7 parental controls.  If your child has a computer that can run Windows 7, I highly recommend installing Windows 7 and setting up the parental controls.  Parental Controls alone make Windows 7 worth the upgrade.  Of course, your child may argue that. 

Ah, Adobe, our second favorite company that likes to over price its products.  A friend of mine sent me the image you see here.  The image is derived from the Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac page.  The application is not yet out, but you can preorder it-NOW-for $99.99.  BUT…if you act now, you can get it for $79.99, a twenty dollar savings (US dollars, that is)…what a deal, huh?  Oh, wait.  Look closely there…it is a REBATE! Worse, it is a MAIL IN REBATE, on a WEB PAGE.  So, you give them a hundred dollars for the software…a DOWNLOAD, at that.  You get no disk and no box.  So, for the SAME amount of money, you can go to any software shop that sells Mac software and buy the application AND the DISC AND get a nice box…OR, you can preorder a DOWNLOAD, no disc, no box.  But, hey, you can wait six more weeks and get your twenty dollar check from Adobe.  Oh, and that is only after you SNAIL MAIL the freaking request too.  Adobe, what are you thinking?

Oh wait, there’s more…the rebate is also available for the Windows version as well.  The ‘fine print’, as it were, says it could take up to EIGHT WEEKS.  You have to mail a form and wait up to eight weeks for something you purchased ON THE WEB.  What are you thinking, Adobe?

I normally don’t acknowledge the fact that Sony still makes video game consoles, but I am making an exception.  Earlier in the year, Sony showed off a prototype ‘motion controller’ for its floundering PS3 console.  The ‘motion controller’, like Nintendo’s Wii controller, is in two parts:  a sensor and a hand held unit.  That is, however, where the similarity ends.  While Nintendo’s solution is rather elegant, the Sony solution is rather bizarre.  Sony is using its Eyesight camera with integrated microphone and a rather odd looking hand held device.  The camera looks like an old Creative labs web cam with a HUGE microphone grafted on top.  The hand held unit is even worse.  It looks like a late nineties contoured flashlight with a stupid looking orb on top.  The orb changes colors.  Unlike the Nintendo solution, which uses accelerometers, the Sony solution simply follows the glowing orb.  It is less  ‘motion controller’ and more of a tracking system. 

The demos, however, looked rather nice.  The PS3 has terrific graphics and great sound.  One can just salivate over the possibilities of mixing the awesome power of the PS3 coupled with the great game play of the Nintendo Wii.  The profoundly stupid looking Sony controller aside, it would be pretty cool to play Mario Kart in glorious PS3 graphics.  The real question here is this:  are the Sony developers clever enough to really take advantage of the ‘motion’ control scheme?  Nintendo is, for the most part, spot on with its blend of motion control play and traditional game play.  Sony is hell-bent on the gee-whiz factor, but rather light on game play, unless you want slash your way through.  There is no doubt that some of the third part devs, like EA, could utilize the new scheme, but I doubt Sony can pull this off.  At least, not right away.

So, why am I talking about this now?  Simple…rumor has it that Sony will introduce its new control scheme in spring of 2010.  Not only that, they are also rumored to, and contrary to what they have stated, restore PS2 compatibility.  Even though they have categorically stated that they will NOT EVER be doing this, it seems they are.  Hmm…I guess that makes them as believable as the boy who cried wolf.  Or Apple saying that they did not reject Google talk.

Wow, Windows 7’s launch is still a month away and, already, news of Windows 8 is starting to ramp up.  Today’s ‘All About Microsoft’ column by Mary Jo Foley is about Windows 8.  Still in the planning stages, Foley cites Stephen Chapman, of the UX Evangelist site (great site, btw) who has ‘uncovered’ job profiles of people who have worked on various pieces parts that may, or may not, be part of Windows 8.  Huh.  Among the enhancements for the new, new OS include:  Patch Guard enhancements (protects the kernel); a new file compression engine and others.  Maybe they’ll finally finish fixing the UI inconsistencies as well.

Again, even though Windows 7 is still a month away, Microsoft has already released a true compatibility update to the operating system.  Some of the fixes include compatibility improvements for various Trend Micro anti virus products, Alcohol 52% compatibility improvements and others.  This should be the first in many similar updates.

Gizmodo ran a story about the purported Microsoft phones.  They have photos of two alleged Microsoft phones from its ‘pink’ project.  One phone, the ‘turtle’, is a cute little phone that resembles an old Blackberry.  The screen swings out to reveal a tiny keyboard.  I’m guess it is aimed at young ladies, but I may just be sexist here.  Not sure.  The other phone looks more like the Danger Sidekick and an LG slider type phone. The phones will be, supposedly, manufactured by Sharp.  Sharp produced the Danger hardware prior to the acquisition by Microsoft.  While the operating system is still unclear, it would be, most likely, some flavor of Windows Embedded or Mobile and feature Zune services.  The renderings in the photos look very Zune-ish.

Two other strange stories arose this week in the Microsoft universe.  One was about the Windows 7 launch parties and the other was about Microsoft trying to ‘steal’ away Apple retail store employees.  The latter story I find really interesting.  Microsoft plans a chain of retail outlets to promote and sell Microsoft products.  The stores will, presumably, resemble the Apple stores including Microsoft Guru bars.  The interesting thing here…and a huge complement to Apple…is that by trying to poach these employees, Microsoft is saying ‘Apple hires quality people.’  I think that is probably true.  The Apple store experience is a quality retail experience and if Microsoft can come close, they will be successful. As for the launch parties, really?  I suppose this is an attempt to be ‘hip’ or, at least, stretch the hype machine a bit further.  But, seriously?  Launch parties?  I don’t see the point.  Where’s my invite anyway?

I saw a couple of stories today about the Nintendo Wii.  You know, the little white console that ‘serious’ gamers-whoever they are-constantly put down and the tech press love to say that no one plays.  The two stories were about Nintendo lowering the price to $199 (US) and that an ‘HD’ version, presumably one with higher resolution graphics, will be out by 2011.  The thing that amazes me with Wii is that it still sells very well, three years after its introduction.  It does not have the abilities of the XBOX 360 or the PS3-two very over engineered consoles. Even so, both the XBOX and the PS3 are very nice pieces of hardware.  The PS3, especially, does quite a bit and you do get a lot of hardware for the money … now.  Sony recently lowered the price to a more palatable three hundred dollars.  Still expensive, but you get allot of hardware for that money.

This noise about gaming hardware got me thinking.  Thinking about the types of games I play and the types of games that we allow my son to play.  We are probably a bit too protective with him.  He is not allowed to play games like Grand Theft Auto and just about any of the first, second or third person shooter games.  He’s never really asked to play them.  We do have some of those games, for the PS2 and the original XBOX.  I don’t play them often and, when I do, it is generally when he is asleep or not home. Mostly, though, those games just sit and collect dust.  I don’t know quite know why I bought them, I guess just to see if were missing anything.  I’m not.  And there is my question:  why are these things so darn popular?  I do like to put in Quake or Doom 3 once in awhile to let loose some frustrations, but, mainly, I prefer thinking games.

I find myself playing games on my computer more than the consoles.  Rise of Nations, Age of Empires 3 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 get lots of play on my computer.  On my Wii, its Dr. Mario.  On the XBOX, it is NASCAR 2003 or one of the classic game collections.

My son loves to play Rise of Nations with me.  We play it using the LAN multiplayer option.  He also plays Animal Crossing allot.  He has it for the Wii, DS and GameCube.  He plays all but the GameCube version online with his friends.  We race each other allot with Mario Kart Wii.  We also play it online.  He is also a Rollercoaster Tycoon fan.  He plays all three, but mostly #2 because it is the best version.  We both get into old Atari games as well as a couple of Intellivision games. 

Thinking about all of these games and how much we enjoy them also brought to my attention the things they all have in common:  great gaming and state of the art graphics…state of the art years ago.  We don’t play any game that requires graphics ability much past what a GameCube can render (or, in PC terms, a direct x 9 video card.)  The games themselves are fun and, except for Rise of Nations’ war aspect, they relatively violence free.  Sure, the racing games allow some mayhem, but, the mayhem is not bloody violence and none of the games would embarrass me in as far as admitting I allow my son to play them.

So, just what is it about ‘serious’ gaming that I am missing?  What makes games like Grand Theft Auto and God of War more enjoyable than, say, a game like Age of Empires or any of the Sim City games (which we also have  a fondness for)?  Dr. Mario is quite addicting as is Rise of Nations.  Neither of these games have cutting edge graphics or involve carnage like God of War.  I can play them for hours.  So can my son.  What are we missing?

I’m in my mid-40’s now.  Maybe I am just too old to get it.  My son is 12.  Is he too young, still, to WANT to play these games?  

I’d love for someone to enlighten me.  What is the appeal of Grand Theft Auto, God of War or any of the ‘eye candy’ games?  They seem to lack any depth.  What is it?  I’d love to know.

Wow.  Is the reality distortion field finally starting to crumble?  I have not seen this much complaining about an operating system upgrade since the Chris Pirillo started complaining about his decade old printer not working with Vista (because, you know, printer company’s and Microsoft should support hardware going back to the old ASR 33 Teletype.) Seriously, Leopard was a disaster but Snow Leopard seems to make it look like Windows XP:  it ‘worked’ so well, you know and EVERYTHING was compatible.  Out of the box.  Right?

Lately, I’ve been reading what are normally pro-Apple blogs and listening to Apple fan kids openly discuss the problems.  Funny, though, they still give Apple a pass.  They complain and then turn around and defend Apple…kind of like some Microsoft fans I know. Like myself. See, how I did that?

Apparently, printer drivers and software compatibility seems to be the biggest complaints, but stability is another I hear quite a bit about.  Installation seems to be another problem area.  Machines won’t recognize the installation medium, get stuck in a reboot loop, installation just fails, etc .  Some people have experienced system crashes and, according to the Apple discussion forums, random freezes and lock ups.  This sounds VERY familiar. 

Vista got a bad rep because of early issues for some-and the constant berating in the press-but those issues were fixed, yet Vista still is regarded as a bad OS even though many of the people who called it a turkey now say ‘its not that bad at all.’  Except for Steven Vaughn-Nicholls and InfoWorld, that is.  He is still, desperately, trying to prove his point that XP is better and that Microsoft needs to go backward.

I’m wondering if Snow Leopard, indeed, Leopard, will be regarded the same way IF Apple is capable of fixing the operating system before moving on to its next iteration.  Snow Leopard was supposed to fix Leopard.  So far, though, it does not seem to have done so.

And Snow Leopard is not alone in the buggy Apple OS arena.  Seems that the latest release of the iPhone OS, 3.1, is also buggy.  According to the Unofficial Apple Weblog, they have been flooded with folks reporting problems with the upgrade.  Everything from poor battery life since the update to bricking of the device. 

Could it be that the years of public beta testing that Microsoft has done is helping it squash problems quicker and more efficiently than the fruit company can? (Would ‘fruities’ be an inappropriate nickname for the Cupertino company and its fans? ) Is Apple in a slump?  Have they always been this way and we only now find out because of the greater number of users and the emergence of blogs? 

Two disastrous Mac OS X releases and now a mangled iPhone upgrade?   Personally, I think they are just spread too thin and need to loosen up a bit and allow more people, outside of the company, to test their software.  They may control the hardware, but it seems there is enough of a variety of it out there that they need to open the doors of secrecy a bit for a wider range of testers. 

Even with all of these problems, I seriously doubt we’ll being ‘PC’ offering to help ‘Mac’ in those silly commercials.

Microsoft has had a busy week.  Not only have they released a new Zune, there was plenty of other news relating to the company.

Bing’s Visual Search

When Bing launched, one of the things that set it apart from other search engines was it’s visual previews for video and pictures.  Microsoft has taken that concept a bit further with the Visual Search Gallery.  There are several galleries already assembled as well as the Featured Galleries.  A gallery is a category that is displayed as icon stacks.  You select a category and another gallery will open.  This second gallery will open up to a page that displays sub-categories, arranged alphabetically in yet more stacks.  Click a stack and search results are returned in the traditional manner.  So, say you want to search cell phones.  Click the Cell Phone stack from the Visual Search Gallery.  (I find it funny that a Palm Pre is displayed on the top of the stack.)  Next, you’ll see a page with a perspective style, alphabetized set of rows of stacks.  Scroll forward or backward to the letter you want and then click the stack of your choice.  Once you do that, you’ll see the traditional set of results.  This is an interesting and entertaining way of looking for something as well as a somewhat better method of organizing searches that can return thousands of hits.

Cheap Windows 7 for Students

Microsoft announced a new program that will allow college students purchase Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional for $29.95.  The program will run through January 3, 2010.

Microsoft loses a major Office customer

IBM has mandated that its 360,000+ employees use its Lotus Symphony office suite instead of Microsoft’s suite.  Lotus Symphony-no, not the early nineties product-is an office suite built from OpenOffice.  Symphony looks nicer than the vanilla Open Office, but it works no better than Open Office.  Both suites suffer from compatibility and performance problems,  though they are far and away better than they used to be and Symphony seems to be more stable.  Both now allegedly are Office 2007 compatible.  I suspect the guys in Redmond are not crying over the loss of this customer.

Snow Leopard could eat Windows 7 alive

Here’s an interesting take on sales figures:  an article by ChannelWeb blogger Ed Moltzen says that the ‘aggressively priced’ Snow Leopard upgrade, coupled with its ‘ease of upgrade’ will allow the Cupertino company to give Microsoft ‘an ugly time’.  The article, citing analyst Stephen Baker from the NPD Group, tries to say that Windows 7 high cost and lack of ‘direct upgrade from market-share leader Windows XP’ will give Apple the edge.  Right.  What Mr. Moltzen fails to point out is that Microsoft has already pre-sold Windows 7 at $49.95(US), is offering the operating system in a ‘family pack’ for $149 for three licenses, had record downloads of the release candidate, already has businesses running the operating system and that pre-release chatter has been overwhelmingly positive, something Vista failed to generate.  I don’t think Redmond is too concerned about Cupertino giving them an ‘ugly time.’

Windows 7 advertising campaign begins…requires a visit to the dentist

The campaign, featuring the sweet little girl from the Windows Live advertisement, has begun.  The spot features Kylie making a video using Movie Maker that is made up of things she found on her Dad’s computer.  You are then treated to the finished movie.  The spot is nice, but doesn’t really show off Windows 7 or why you would want to upgrade.  Instead, you see what others are saying about the ‘new’ operating system from Redmond.  The cute video is wrecked, however, by a god-awful soundtrack.  Click here to watch the spot.

No more Windows Mobile phones from Palm

Palm announced, during its earnings call, that it will concentrate solely on producing phones that utilize its new-ish webOS operating system.  Jon Rubinstein said:

“Due to importance of webOS to our overall strategy, we've made the decision to dedicate all future development resources to the evolution of webOS. Which means that going forward, our roadmap will include only Palm webOS-based devices”

Over the last two weeks, both Apple and Microsoft released new media players and, along with them, new versions of the desktop management software.  Both iTunes and the Zune Marketplace software had new releases and each introduced new features.  iTunes 9 got a visual maker and some incremental feature updates while Zune Marketplace received a few new features like QuickPlay and SmartDJ as well as movie purchases and rental.

iTunes was born from an application that Apple PURCHASED, not developed themselves. Called SoundJam MP, Apple purchased the product in 2001, incorporated their own features and rebranded it ‘iTunes’.  Of course, the first three versions were Apple only.  iPod integration came in version two of the product and Windows support was in version four along with the introduction of the iTunes Store.  MacLife has a nice history of the application here.  iTunes 9, the most recent release, introduces a few new features, which are mostly geared toward to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Apple introduced its ‘genius’ feature in iTunes 8.  Genius will analyze your library and based on data in the iTunes Store, various databases and the libraries of the millions of other users,  it will create playlists of music with similar themes, types, etc.  It’s a nice feature, but one that I had not really paid much attention to since I have such an odd taste in music-or, so I am told.  Genius has now been expanded to include applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch.  With thousands of apps in the Store, this feature, no doubt, will be a godsend for users.  It’s ability to return a list of similar apps should make discovery much easier.

Other new features include iPhone and iPod Touch application screen management.  You can arrange your apps in any order you want, in iTunes, and upon your next sync, your apps will be arranged the same way on the device.

iTunes Store also got a visual make over.  Store categories are now buttons along the top of the Store window.  There is a lot black instead of the gray and white theme.  It’s pleasant, but nothing earth shattering. The new arrangement is a bit more difficult to find things but, once you get used to it, it isn’t horrible.  It’s just not all that good either.   They did put your you balance in the same tool bar, next to your login ID. 

Apple did nothing, however, to improve performance of the application.  It seems to take a bit longer to start than the previous versions did.  Switching to the Store is not quick and loading the artwork seems to bog it down a bit.  I’m running it on a quad core machine with 8gb of RAM.  I expected better performance, especially on this machine.  Microsoft, however, didn’t do much better with performance with the Zune 4 software.

The Zune Marketplace, like iTunes, was born from another application.  Unlike Apple, however, the application that served as the Zune Marketplace foundation was developed in house.  More commonly known as Windows Media Player, the Zune 1.0 software was horrendously bad.  Essentially a skin over WMP, Zune 1.0 difficult to manage and not easy on the eyes either.  It had a black and orange theme and, for me, the contrast between the colors was painful.

Zune 2.0 was a major step up.  It was more pleasing on the eyes, easier to use and made shopping the Marketplace a snap.  Performance, however, was just awful.  It only got better with Zune 3.0.  But, only a little better.  Some of the categorization and rating system features that were in the Zune 1.0 software were missing or lacking in Zune 2.0.  Users who had taken advantage of them in the 1.0 software were outraged when the features were removed.  I never quite understood the furor, but if I had used them, I’d probably be upset as well.

Zune 4 is an incremental upgrade.  There’s no major UI changes other than the QuickPlay page.  Subtle changes, here and there, but nothing major.  You can now select the page that displays when the software is started and some of the smaller UI elements now have added functionality. For example, hovering over an icon in the Music/Artist page will reveal player controls.  You can start playing the album/song, start the SmartDJ or show the Mix View for the album/artist.  Another nice change to the UI is that it now displays how many free tracks you have remaining if you subscribe to the Zune Pass.  A nice feature.  The software is also supposed to let you know when the billing cycle is nearly over and you still have tracks remaining.  I have not yet seen this work.

Performance wise, as previously stated, the software has not made any significant improvement.  I have seen, though, that the more I use its features, the better it performs. Switching from my music collection to my video collection is, however, much snappier than in the previous releases.  Going to the Marketplace is much quicker as well.  Downloads, still, slow it way, way down.  And one thing that Microsoft did that really annoys me is to NOT allow you to set the affinity for the application.  Previously, you could bring up the task manager, right click on the Zune process and select ‘set affinity’ and assign the process to one or more cores if you had a multicore CPU.  This seemed to help quite a bit.  You can no longer do this.

Overall, both media managers have received decent upgrades.  Apple could make iTunes better by removing some of what it does.  It seems to try to do too much.  Microsoft is headed the same way with Zune as well.  Both companies need to work on improving the performance of the applications. 

Both applications are free for download and neither require that you actually own an iPod or a Zune.  For Windows, the Zune software works very well as a media manager.  I am guessing that the same applies to iTunes on the Mac. 

Downloads:

• iTunes
• Zune Marketplace

Links:

• iTunes history

Zune 4.0 software

So, the new Zune HD and Zune 4.0 software made their public debut today.  While I don’t yet have the device, I did upgrade to the 4.0 desktop software. My first impression was…wow, this thing is SLOW.  Not only is it slow, it is DOG slow.  However, the more I use it, the better it gets.  I suspect it is having to download content as you go along.  It still maintains its speed disadvantage while downloading podcasts, but other things like browsing the Marketplace and using the SmartDJ feature seem to be getting faster the more I use them.

Right off, you know this is not the older version.  When the software starts up, you see a black background with minimal text and graphics.  This is the ‘Quickplay’ screen and it looks really nice.  However, once you move from this screen, it very much looks like the older software, which is just fine.  I don’t think I would want every screen to be black, but I was expecting something a bit different.  However, there really wasn’t anything wrong with the way the older software looked, so this is OK with me. 

The QuickPlay screen is nice.  Here, you can ‘pin’ content for that quick play, see your newest content, see your recent play history, go to the Marketplace or your collection. Your SmartDJ lists are here as well and when you switch modes on QuickPlay, you get a cool animation that flips the two feature sets.  Very nicely done and, I suspect, a major selling IF explained properly.

SmartDJ is a feature that goes through your music collection and assembles choices that are similar in style.  iTunes has its Genius feature, which this is very close to in function.

The MarketPlace now contains movies that you can purchase or rent.  So far, the selection is sparse, with titles from Universal, Lions Gate, Paramount and a couple of other distributors.  High definition versions of the movies are available.

There are a couple of nifty little features for the 4.0 software that are worth mentioning.  It has a ‘mini’ mode which will shrink the interface way down to just a small square with next, previous, pause and play controls. It is also Windows 7 friendly and takes full advantage of jumplists and incorporates play control in the taskbar preview.  This is very similar to Windows Media Player’s taskbar integration.

Overall, Zune 4.0 is a nice upgrade.  Performance issues aside, it is well worth moving to and has so many content management features packed into a nice looking and well thought out design. 

Zune 30 and 2nd gen firmware upgrades

Yes, I said upgrades.  The first upgrade set the version number to 3.2 (34) and the second put it at 3.2 (35).  I don’t see any visual changes to the firmware other than the version number.  I don’t know what has changed, and have not been able to find anything about the changes on line.  The device seems as responsive as it did prior to the upgrade.  I have not found any new settings or menu options.  The changes are, likely, under the hood.  Maybe they fixed the January 1 issue.  If anyone has a clue about this, please enlighten us.

One of the things I do to help me keep up with what’s going on in the world is to read lots of blogs and forums postings.  Problem, though, is that the intelligence level of both seem to be on a downward spiral.  This is true more for forums than blogs.  I have pretty much given up on reading the comments on Digg.com because it seems to be populated by a bunch of immature teenagers who think that being anti anything is cool and that if you do not agree with them, then you are some kind of <insert expletive>.

Lately,  I have noticed several trends and, unfortunately, I am guilty of some this myself.  The biggest trend I have seen is fanboyism.  It has always been there, but it really seems to be out and about in a big way.  Some blogs are worse than others.  Take Engadget.  They have always been a major Apple hype machine.  Lately, it has gotten worse.  Did you know that Flip cameras and the Nintendo DS are going to obsolete very soon because Apple has a device with both functions?  Or, according to Joystiq, the Sony Playstation 3 is FINALLY going to kick some gaming butt and you’d be a fool if you didn’t waste three hundred dollars on the super-duper amazing PS3?  Now, Joystiq and Engadget are both AOL properties.  Engadget seems to think that we’ll all be buying movies and TV shows via iTunes and watch them on our iPhones or Apple TV’s.  Joystiq thinks we’ll be buying tons of Blu-Ray discs because, you know, they kicked HD-DVD’s bee-hind.

Trolling through the comments on these two sites is even worse.  Few, if any, of the commenter's can spell, many do not know how to properly case their comments (either all lower OR ALL UPPER) and almost none can post anything with some kind of expletive being used, usually the ‘F’ bomb is dropped liberally.  And if you post an opposing view to the majority of commenter’s, you get branded a fanboy for the opposite ‘side.’  And, heaven forbid say anything wrong about two certain companies (hint: Microsoft is not one of the two.) 

Sometimes the comments can be entertaining, but mostly they just get old.  I find it hard to believe that any of the commenter’s are older than 15 or are capable of independent thought.

There are places on the ‘net where intelligent forums exist.  Many of the Live Spaces blogs I visit are this way.  I think it has to do with the general audience.  Live Spaces, for example, consists of quite a few tech blogs and the people who visit them are well educated and usually don’t post something unless it is germane to the topic.  You also need a Live ID to post.  I think this probably keeps out the people who would, likely, make the juvenile comments one sees on the sites I mentioned above.  For those sites, you do not need an ‘account’ or have to log in to post. You simply supply a valid email address and then wait to confirm the email.  Once you do, your comments are posted.  Many sites don’t even do this much.

I know that everyone is entitled to an opinion and I have no problem with that.  I don’t have problems taking it on the chin, so to speak, as long as the argument or criticisms are valid. 

It is very easy to get caught up in some of these things.  I have, a few times, engaged in such juvenile conversations and then, later, regretted doing so.  I do tend to get inflammatory on this site about certain things.  I try to keep it toned down, but, once in awhile, something sets me off and, before I know it, I’ve clicked the Publish button.  I have even removed things, sometimes a year later, because when I reviewed them, I was embarrassed that I wrote such stuff. 

Probably, the best thing to do is to just ignore the comments.  It is difficult to do and even harder to not participate. But, then that is counter to what the Internet is about.  Exchanging ideas and thoughts.  I just wish that people would be a bit more polite and think more carefully about what they say before they say it.  And, for heaven’s sake, use the speel checker!

Long before the advent of email, there was another ‘series of tubes’ that could transport mail and small items very quickly.  This system was used, primarily, in office buildings but was also employed inside of cities.  Pneumatic tube systems were employed as early as 1853 in London.  The London Stock Exchange was linked, via pneumatic tube, to the main telegraph station, a distance of 220 yards in 1853.  Most of the systems employed were for mail, currency or other small items, but the notion of using the technology to move people was always at the forefront.

In 1812, George Medhurst proposed blowing passenger vehicles through a tunnel.  His idea never came to fruition, but it is the earliest known idea using the technology.  One of the earliest, functional, true pneumatic transport system was built in England in 1861.  The Pneumatic Dispatch Company built a system that was intended for cargo, but the Duke of Buckingham and some members of the company board of directors travelled to the Euston station, a five minute ride.

In the United States, development of a people transport was underway in New York in 1869.  The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company built a block long subway utilizing pneumatics.  It operated briefly but was unable to sustain itself because the company was denied permission to fully develop it past the one block.  Nothing remains of the Beach line today and even its importance is in dispute.  In fact, the article about the line on the New York Subway website dismisses the line as a ‘mere curiosity.’ 

The oldest surviving system, for mail, is the Prague pneumatic post. Begun in 1889, the system remained in use until it was partially destroyed in 2002 by floods.  It is being restored but the effort was slowed due to funding issues.

While things like automobiles, airplanes, email and the internet have pretty much negated the need for pneumatic technology, the technology can still be found.  Most commonly at bank drive troughs.  Those little capsules that you put your money in or get it out of in the drive through lanes uses pneumatic tubes.  You may also still see it in some department or large warehouse style stores.  Some high rise buildings still have operational tube systems that are in use.  Many others have them, but they are either not in use or are no longer functional.  Hospitals still employ them, though not as much as they used to.

Pneumatics were also the stuff of fiction.  Jules Verne often employed them in his stories.  In all of the stories, from Verne and others, the tubes were everywhere.  It was the technology of the future.

It’s always interesting to look back on a ‘hot’ technology that, while used for well over a century, never really seemed to live up to its potential.  Even though it was never fully realized as a human transportation system, it did manage to see widespread use and is instantly recognized by people the world over.  It’s system of tubes can be, even today, found in any city in banks and many other places.  Senator Stevens would be proud.

Finally!  A few ‘I’m a Mac’ ads that I like, really, really like.  One discusses the new Nano with camera and the others talk about Apple’s fantastic ‘new’ operating system, Snow Leopard (you know, the service pack that just got an update, one week after its release.)  The ads are very well done and wrought with the typical humor you would expect from the campaign.

Click here to view the ads.

I wouldn’t normally talk about any Android phone, but, today, one came out that has me interested.  The Cliq, from Motorola, was shown off today at the Mobilize 2009 conference in San Francisco (where else?) looks to be a decent effort from Moto.   Moto has taken Android and made it better, at least, it appears that way.  Like Palm, Moto has chosen the ‘cloud’ as the basis for its sync operations.  Like Synergy, MotoBlur can help you keep up with various contact lists from various sites in one space on the phone. It lets you, seamlessly, keep up with your Twitter, MySpace and Facebook streams.  You can reply to one or all at the same time, etc.  It also features Exchange and Gmail integration as well.

The phone itself looks nice, kind of like a more rounded iPhone.  What is it, by the way, with this odd fascination with super rounded phones and handheld devices?  Really, it’s getting quite old now and is, in fact, my biggest complaint with my Pre.  Moving on…the phone is a slider.  Turn it sideways and slide the top up to reveal a nice QWERTY keyboard and joystick like nub control. The front of the device has three soft buttons on the surface.  On the back is a five megapixel, autofocus camera that, unfortunately, only does 24fps QVGA video.

Other features include remote wipe, GPS, Bluetooth, WIFI, MicroUSB, Android 1.5, 3G and EDGE, 320x480 screen and visual voice mail.

Video playback is pretty nice with h.264, h.263, MPEG 4, ‘YouTube’ (Flash, maybe?), and 3GP.  It records video in MPEG 4 format.  It handles AAC, MP3, WAV, MIDI, AMR NB and AAC+ audio formats.

I hope this phone does well for Moto.  I have a soft spot for them, like I do for Palm.  My first flip phone was a Moto StarTac.  My last Moto phone, the Q, was probably my least favorite phone, but only because of the operating system…the hardware was fine.

The Cliq will be available ‘in time for the holidays’ on T-Mobile.

Links:

• Motorola Cliq/Motoblur site
• Engadget 'hands on' with Cliq

The Pixi, the Pre’s little sibling, looks to be a solid phone.  At first glance, it may seem to be an inferior phone to the Pre.  However, a closer examination of the device reveals a pretty decent phone.  Engadget has a nice mini review (or preview, rather) and some videos as well.  The information below is culled from this and other sources.  Go here to check out what Engadget has to say.

First, lets see what it lacks:

• WIFI
• 3mp camera (has a 2mp camera instead)
• smaller screen
• the processor is not as fast as the Pre’s TI OMAP3 processor

Now, lets take a look at what it has and, possibly, what’s better than the Pre.

The keyboard seems to be better.  It has slightly bigger keys.  They are taller since the device is not a slider.  The reviewer seemed to prefer it over the Pre’s keyboard.  I don’t really have a problem with the Pre’s keyboard.  I don’t make nearly as many mistakes with it over what I had with the Motorola Q.

The ‘home’ button is gone.  Many Pre users claim to ‘never’ use the button.  While its absence may be seen as a plus to some, I’m baffled by its omission.  I like the button, but can see where not having it on the gesture area can be an improvement.

The phone is thin, really thin.  In fact, it is thinner that the iPhone 3GS.  The build, according to the reviewer, is solid and the back is a soft touch material (like the Q, I’m guessing.)  It has the ringer on-off switch on the side, as well as the volume up and down buttons and the MicroUSB connector is there as well.  The 3.5mm headphone jack adorns the top of the tiny device.

Perhaps the biggest difference is the availability of custom backs.  Like many consumer devices, snap on backs of different designs can be purchased and used on the device to make it yours.  In addition, the backs all work with the Touchstone charger.

On the software front, a real Facebook application will be available for both webOS devices and there will be an air hockey game coming to the App Catalog.  Both are demonstrated in videos in the Engadget hands on review. In addition, LinkedIn contacts can now be synced via Synergy as well as Yahoo! mail and contacts.  Having another choice, in addition to Google, for synchronization is nice.  These features will be part of webOS 1.2.

The Pixi will launch sometime in the fall on the Sprint network.