+1 icon to right of search results

Google has an experimental feature called +1 that you can add to your search results. Once its configured, you’ll see an icon next to your search listings. If you click on the +1 icon your preferences are recorded and it’s quite possible that your friends or even the general public will know about it.

You can sign up for the experiment at Google.com/experimental.

Here’s more on Google +1 from Huffington Post

NetFamilyNews take on Google +1

Google blog about Google +1

The American Academy of Pediatrics is out with its Clinical Report—The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families that has some great advice for parents about how to raise kids in the age of social media, but it also makes the claim that Facebook causes depression.  Here is my analysis of the report from CNET News as well as podcast interviews with the report’s lead author and a researcher cited in the report who says that her research does not point to “Facebook depression.”

Listen to Larry Magid’s CBS News & CNET Tech Talk one-minute Radio segment on the report

by Larry Magid

Showtime last week announced it will stop allowing Netflix to stream some of its current shows, such as “Dexter” and “Californication.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Showtime decided to clamp down on the rights to its first-run programs in an effort to use them as bait to sign up and retain subscribers.”

That’s understandable but regrettable. Imagine if movie theaters stopped selling tickets to individual films, instead requiring you to subscribe for an entire season of movies. I would be tempted to pay the fee to get to see films I love, like “The King’s Speech,” but weeks would go by when there was nothing at the cinema that I would want to watch.

Yet that’s what happens now with premium TV channels such as Showtime and HBO. To see the shows I like, I have to also pay for shows I don’t want to watch.

Unfortunately, the economics of cable and satellite TV more or less dictate that you buy content by subscribing to the basic service and paying extra — sometimes a lot extra — to get packages of programming that include shows you want to watch. Thanks to this system, it’s not uncommon for people’s bills to exceed $100 a month.

Although I’m mostly annoyed by this vestige of 20th-century premium TV pricing and programming, it’s not totally without merit. With the revenues companies like HBO and Showtime make from their popular programs and movies, they are able to invest in more original content, which has resulted in some great programs, and some great jobs for the cast and crew that create them.

But in the age of Internet streaming, this model seems archaic. It’s no longer necessary for companies like Comcast, Dish Networks or Time Warner Cable to serve as gatekeepers. In theory, we should be able to access any content we want directly over the Internet without having to subscribe to premium channels.

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other Internet content aggregators offer a somewhat similar — but I think better — model. Like the premium TV channels, you have to pay for programming you don’t necessarily want to watch. Most reindividuals are likely to sample only a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of movies and programs available on Netflix. But because it’s an on-demand streaming service, you can watch what you want when you want to watch it. For me, that is a lot more satisfying than watching premium content on cable or satellite.

I also find it interesting that Netflix recently outbid the premium channels for the right to broadcast a new original series, “House of Cards,” staring Kevin Spacey and directed by David Fincher, the director of “The Social Network.” The acquisition of the first 26 episodes of this hourlong political drama elevates Netflix into a new position. It’s no longer just the place to go for TV reruns and movies weeks, months or years after they come out on DVD. It’s now a place for what promises to be high-quality original content. Just as HBO and Showtime disrupted the TV and movie business, Netflix has the potential to disrupt cable and satellite TV distribution.

And it’s not just Netflix. Millions of viewers — especially young adults no longer living with their parents or in dorms — have cut the cord to cable, satellite and broadcast to get virtually all of their TV programming via the Internet, whether using legitimate services like Netflix and Hulu or finding alternative (and perhaps illegal) ways to download content.

Zediva is a game changer

And the choices keep expanding. Last week I signed up for a new streaming service called Zediva, which offers content that Netflix and even Apple and Amazon can only dream of. Studios don’t usually give Internet services access to the latest titles on DVD. That not only applies to all-you-can-watch streaming services like Netflix but even pay-per-view services like Amazon on Demand and iTunes. But Sunnyvale-based Zediva has found a loophole.

Rather than stream content from a server, they “rent” you an actual DVD and DVD player that they house at their facility. When you “rent” a movie on Zediva, you’re renting the DVD and the DVD player. They play the movie and deliver it to you via the Net.

For the most part, the experience of using Zediva is similar to other streaming services except, like that old-fashioned video store, it’s possible that the title you want to watch might be “rented out.” But the price is cheaper and length of the rental period longer than what you get from iTunes, Amazon and other services, which typically charge $2.99 or $3.99 for a 24-hour rental. With Zediva, DVDs are $2 each or $1 if you buy 10 credits at a time, and you get to watch them as many times as you want for a 14-day period.

I have a strong feeling the Motion Picture Association of America or its members are going to challenge Zediva’s legal right to stream movies the day they come out on DVD, and I have no idea how a court might rule. But if it turns out to be sustainable and scalable (they need to buy a separate DVD and player for each person who is watching it at a given time), it will be yet another disruption to the ever changing scene of Internet video.

A new iPhone and Android app called Color (for more go to color.com) makes it possible to take photos of people around you and see all of their photos. It’s an interesting type of social network where everything is public.  For more on the privacy implications and the service’s cool features, see my CNET  blog post and my podcast interview with Color founder and CEO Bill Nguyen.  Also see Caroline McCarthy’s CNET post about the service.

Readers will get 20 articles a month for free. Then it will be ”$15 every four weeks for access to the Web site and a mobile phone app, $20 for Web access and an iPad app or $35 for an all-access plan,” according to the New York Times.  It will be free for subscribers to the print edition.

Full Internet access to NYT.com to cost $455 (CNET News)

New York Times article about pay wall

At the All Things Digital conference last June, I had a chance to question Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about when Windows laptops would be able to compete with the iPad when it comes to battery life. He said to stay tuned. I have stayed tuned but haven’t heard much from Microsoft about battery life. However, I did just get my hands on a new Windows 7 notebook PC from Lenovo, which claims to actually outlast the iPad’s rated 10 hours of battery life.

The ThinkPad X220, which will be available in April as both a standard notebook PC and as a convertible PC/tablet, boasts an amazing 24 hours of battery life with an add-on external battery pack that attaches to the bottom of the unit. Even without the external battery, Lenovo says the laptop can get an impressive 15 hours on its internal 9-cell battery. There are caveats to those claims — your actual time will vary and will probably be less.

I didn’t do any formal battery testing but I did use it for several hours with no sign of the battery dying. My sense is that the iPad’s battery will still outlast the Lenovo’s if you don’t add the external battery or take advantage of every conceivable battery saving tip. But the fact that it comes close is impressive considering that the Lenovo is a fast, full-fledged PC with a spinning hard drive.

The unit Lenovo sent me to test had one of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors running at 2.7 GHz, which Lenovo says is 20 percent faster than previous generations with twice the graphics performance. It comes standard with 4 gigabytes of RAM (expandable to and a 320 GB hard drive. The company hasn’t announced pricing, but I believe it will start at about $900.

The new machine has a gorgeous 12.5 inch high-definition display that looked great when running websites and playing movies, and you can actually hear the speakers, which is not the case with some other lightweight machines. One of my pet peeves about some laptops are speakers that aren’t loud enough to hear without headphones.

Lenovo has also improved the microphone to reduce background noise when using it as a phone or for Web conferencing, and to pick up sounds from across the room when using it as a speaker phone.

The unit I’m testing is sitting right next to the 11-inch MacBook Air that I purchased just a few weeks ago. If I hadn’t bought the MacBook, I would be seriously tempted to buy the Lenovo. True, it’s eight ounces heavier and the standard model has an old fashioned hard drive instead of a solid state drive that uses flash memory instead of a spinning disc, but it’s still quite portable and the extra screen real estate is welcome, as is the more spacious hard drive. For those willing to pay extra for a flash drive, Lenovo will offer it as an option. Like the MacBook Air, it wakes up from sleep very quickly, which was one of Apple’s major selling points when it announced the Air.

I also love Lenovo’s excellent keyboard and pointing devices. Lenovo, which bought IBM’s PC division in 2004, has maintained IBM’s tradition of great PC keyboards, even on its ultraportable models. Like the MacBook Air, the keyboard has the same spacing as a desktop keyboard. But unlike the Air, the keys themselves have a lot of “travel” or motion, which provides more positive feedback and helps me type with fewer errors. Lenovo is one of the few PC makers to offer users a choice between a pointing stick, which sticks up between the G, H and B keys to let you move the cursor with one finger, and a button-less trackpad.

My Lenovo test machine arrived a few days before Apple started selling its new iPad 2, which is about one-third of an inch thick and weighs only 1.33 pounds. Of course, there’s no direct way to truly compare a notebook PC with a tablet — they’re different animals. Still, there are people who are now using iPads and other tablets instead of laptops and there are those, including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who talk about the “post-PC era,” implying that tablet PCs will take over a big slice of the portable computing market.

Ironically, the biggest challenger to that premise is Apple, whose 11-inch MacBook Air is only a pound heavier than the iPad 2. And even though the Lenovo is more than twice the weight of the iPad 2, it’s still light enough to carry around all day.

Lenovo will ship a convertible version of the X220 with a touch screen in addition to the keyboard, but it will actually be heavier than the keyboard-only model I tested. Somehow, I think that’s a bit of a non-starter for most people. If you want a tablet, buy an iPad or one of the Android tablets that will be coming out this year.

While the difference between tablets and laptops will start to blur over time, for the moment at least, there is a big market for little laptops, especially for people who do a lot of writing and need a good keyboard and those who need to be able to run Windows or Mac OS X. That may change. But until it does, I’m a big fan of lighter laptops with longer battery life.

After a major disaster like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, millions of people go online to find out how they can help. But, sadly, scam artists also go online to try to take advantage of the tragedy to divert much needed contributions into their own coffers.

“Unfortunately,” said Norman Wright, of the Northwest Florida Better Business Bureau, “we’ve seen time and time again that scammers will try to take advantage of the generosity of the public after a disaster.” Wright urges people to “take your time and do your research before donating to relief efforts.”

Look Up the Charity

The BBB is one of many organizations that operates a charity research tool. Other sources of information about charities include Charity Navigator and GuideStar. The Huffington Post has information and website links for several reputable charities involved in quake relief as does Yahoo.

Don’t Click on Email Links

Avoid clicking on any links in solicitations for money, even if they appear to come from an organization you know and trust. In most cases, email solicitations are scams. If you want to give to that or any other organization, locate their actual web address and type that in, or look for them on a search engine. But also be careful about search engine results. Again, don’t give to organizations that you don’t know or haven’t checked out, regardless of how legitimate they may appear to be.

Report Fraud

If you do get what appears to be a fraudulent solicitation, report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud. You can also report to the Internet Crime Complaint Center and to the BBB.

Also, talk with your kids about donating. It’s great to get them involved and they might be tempted to donate via their mobile phone. That’s great but, as Symantec Internet safety guru Marian Merritt pointed out in her blog post about this, “make sure your children know that text donation services are not to be used without your guidance and permission.”

Follow Larry Magid on Twitter: www.twitter.com/larrymagid

People were lined up around the block at the Apple store in Palo Alto, California to be among the first to buy the new iPad 2. I didn’t count heads but there were certainly hundreds of people on-hand.

Frankly, I was surprised at the size of the crowd considering that the iPad 2 is an evolutionary enhancement over its predecessor. Also, there are now plenty of places to buy the new iPad including even Wal-Mart.

Used iPad 2 to Take Video

Inside the store, I used an iPad to shoot a quick (40 second) video about the new device and all the excitement at the store.

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (Credit: Lenovo)

The Lenovo ThinkPad X220, which will be available in April as both a standard notebook PC and as a convertible PC/Tablet, boasts an amazing 24 hours of battery life with an add-on external battery pack that attaches to the bottom of the unit.  But even without the external battery, Lenovo says that the laptop can get an incredibly respectable 15 hours on its internal 9-cell battery.  There are caveats to those claims – your actual time will vary and will probably be less.

I didn’t do any formal battery testing but I did use it for several hours with no sign of the battery dying.  My sense is that the iPad’s battery will still out last the Lenovo’s if you don’t add the external battery or take advantage of every conceivable battery saving tip, but the mere fact that it comes close is pretty impressive considering that the Lenovo is a fast full-fledged PC with a spinning hard drive.

The unit Lenovo sent me to test had one of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors running at 2.7 GHz, which Lenovo says is 20% faster than previous generations with twice the graphics performance. It comes standard with four gigabytes of RAM (expandable to eight) and a 320 GB hard drive. The company hasn’t formally announced pricing, but I believe it will start at about $900.

The new machine also has a gorgeous 12.5 inch high-definition display that looked great when running websites and playing movies, and unlike some other light weight machines, you can actually hear the speaker.  One of my pet peeves about some laptops are speakers that aren’t loud enough to hear without headphones.  Lenovo has also improved the microphone to reduce background noise when using it as a phone or for web conferencing and to pick up sounds from across the room when using it as a speaker phone.

Listen to Larry’s 1-Minute CBS New/CNET Commentary about this subject

Facebook is offering web developers a new commenting system that requires people to sign-in with their Facebook credentials before commenting on blogs and other sites that use the free service.

Any website operator can add the code to a site by copying a couple of lines of code that you can generate from their comments/plugin page.

With that code in place, visitors to the site see a comment box from Facebook that they can use to make a comment that will appear on that site and, at the user’s discretion on their Facebook profile as well.

Helps Ward Off the Trolls

For site owners, it means not having to manage your own commenting system because Facebook does it for you. It also means fewer really obnoxious or obscene comments because people who log on with their Facebook credentials are less likely to be anonymous and, therefore, more likely to post something that could embarrass them or cause them to lose their Facebook account. The reason I say “less” likely is because this system doesn’t fully guarantee accountability. Facebook has what it calls “a real name culture” and considers it a terms of service violation to register under an assumed identity, but it’s not all that hard to do so, especially if you start by creating a throw-away email address using a web-based service such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Hotmail.

As a site operator, I can relate to this. I’ve actually removed the ability to comment on my sitesSafeKids.com and LarrysWorld.com because of the hassle involved in moderating comments. I love feedback and am accepting of critical comments, but I don’t love having to deal with trolls, spammers and others who post comments that are inappropriate.

What Bothers Me About the Service

But there are a couple things that bother me about the new Facebook service. To begin with, it puts even more power in the hands of Facebook which not only has 600 million people visiting its own site, but now has its tentacles into perhaps millions of other websites. It also bothers me that site owners are turning over the storage and “ownership” of comments and their relationship with the commenters to Facebook instead of being able to manage it themselves.

I’m also bothered that it requires a Facebook membership for people to comment. It becomes one more reason people feel compelled to join Facebook and means that folks who don’t have a Facebook account can’t comment on some other sites.

On TechCrunch, MG Siegler wrote that “overall number of comments have fallen dramatically” after his company started requiring users to use the new Facebook commenting system. The system, he said, has “silenced the trolls” but it may have silenced others too.

As an experiment, I’ve added the Facebook commenting system to one post on my LarrysWorld.com site. I’d be curious about your reaction so — as an experiment, I’ve added the new Facebook commenting system to this page