At a conference in Malta, a group of American bloggers had a bit of a culture clash with some European and Asian journalists.

Read Larry Magid’s report on CNET News.com

Podcast — Larry Magid and CNET’s Executive Editor Tom Merritt talk about the panel

I don’t know why it took so long, but Microsoft has finally fixed Vista. Only it isn’t calling it Vista. Instead the company is working on what it’s calling a new version of Windows, Windows 7. The operating system isn’t commercially available, but is likely to be out by the end of the year.

I don’t know how much Microsoft plans to charge for the upgrade once it’s officially available, but the company should give it away free to anyone who bought Vista or a PC with Vista preinstalled. Even though there are some new features, Windows 7 strikes me mostly as a bug fix. It speeds up Windows and fixes one of its most annoying “features” and makes one particularly useful change to the user interface. It seems to me that anyone who paid for Vista is entitled to this upgrade.

Microsoft has launched a free, public, beta test of the software, but to participate you must download it by Feb. 10. It’s not for everyone. Microsoft strongly recommends that “only experienced computer users sign up” for the beta program. Displayed on the screen is the caveat, “For testing purposes only.” The beta will expire in August, but should be replaced by a newer beta or the real product. If you’re game, you can download the beta test of Windows 7 at Microsoft’s Web site › Continue reading…

My original review from the Jan 29, 1984 Los Angeles Times

by Larry Magid
As published on January 29, 1984 in the Los Angeles Times

I rarely get excited over a new computer. But Apple’s Macintosh, officially introduced last Tuesday, has started a fever in Silicon Valley that’s hard not to catch. My symptoms started when I talked with some devotees from Apple and the various companies that produce software, hardware and literature to enhance the new computer. By the time I got my hands on the little computer and its omni-present mouse, I was hooked. Apple has a winner.

The Mac, which retails for $2,495 is about 14 inches tall and takes up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It is smaller and lighter than most of the so called “portable” machines. The entire system can be slipped into an optional ($99) padded carrying case to be hoisted over your shoulder or placed under an airline seat. The case and computer together weigh 22 pounds.

Of course any computer’s real value is based on what you can do with it. For the first 100 days, Apple is including two valuable programs, MacPaint and MacWrite free with the machine. MacWrite has most basic word processing features with one outstanding addition. It can vary the size and style of your type on the screen and on paper, when used with Apple’s new $495 Image Writer printer. This computer/printer/software combination produces the first truly “what you see is what you get” word processing system on a moderately priced microcomputer. You can vary the type size from 9 point (about the size used in most newspapers) to 72 point headlines. You can also change your type style, selecting an Old English font or one of the more common type styles. Your type can be in bold, italic, underline or even shadow print. All this magic is controlled by the computer itself — the software merely takes advantage of it. › Continue reading…

by Larry Magid
reposted from CNET.com

A long awaited report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force concludes that children and teens are less vulnerable to sexual predation than many have feared. The report also questions the efficacy and necessity of some commonly prescribed remedies designed to protect young people.

The task force was formed as a result of a joint agreement between MySpace and 49 state attorneys general.

Over the past couple of years, several state AGs have been looking into potential dangers to youth, and some have called for social-network sites to use age verification technology to confirm the ages of users in an attempt to prevent adults from or interacting online with minors. The task force includes representatives of Internet and social-networking companies, security and identity authentication vendors, and nonprofit advocacy organizations. It’s chaired by John Palfrey of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Disclosure: I served as a member of the task force, representing ConnectSafely.org, a nonprofit internet safety organization I co-founded along with Anne Collier. ConnectSafely receives financial support from MySpace, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and other Internet and social-networking companies. I am also founder of SafeKids.com and am on the board of directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is represented on the task force.

Based on data analyzed by its Research Advisory Board, the task force concluded that “actual threats that youth may face appear to be different than the threats most people imagine” and that “the image presented by the media of an older male deceiving and preying on a young child does not paint an accurate picture of the nature of the majority of sexual solicitations and Internet-initiated offline encounters.”

While the task force found that youth risk from predators is a concern, the overwhelming majority of youth are not in danger of being harmed by an adult predator they meet online. To the extent that young people have received an unwanted online sexual solicitation, data from a 2000 study and a 2006 follow-up from the Crimes Against Children Research Center concludes that “youth identify most sexual solicitors as being other adolescents (48 percent in 2000; 43 percent in 2006) or young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 (20 percent; 30 percent), with few (4 percent; 9 percent) coming from older adults, and the remaining being of unknown age.” › Continue reading…

The first event at the Consumer Electronics Show, called CES Unveiled, actually takes place a couple of days before the show officially opens. The press reception, which is sponsored by CES’ host organization, the Consumer Electronics Association, is an opportunity for a small group of exhibitors to preview what they plan to show at CES.

As usual, products range from somewhat wacky to actually practical. One of the more unusual products was a 3D Webcam from Manchester, U.K.-based Promotion & Display Technology.

The Minoru 3D Webcam has two lenses, which makes it look a little like a cute creature from outer space. You mount it on your monitor, and it transmits moving images in 3D and, yes, your viewers need special glasses to see you in 3D. The software that comes with the Minoru has “stereoscopic anaglyphic processing,” that creates the 3D effect.

The $89 price includes the camera, software, and five pairs of red and cyan 3D glasses. I have no idea if it will catch on with the public, but it did win the Fan Favorite award at the Consumer Electronics Association I-stage event in October. The folks behind this product had better hope that those fans, and plenty more like them, have the vision to turn into customers for this unique device.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700ds has a second pull-out screen.

(Credit: Lenovo)

Also on the wacky side, Lenovo showed off a notebook that definitely looks strange but might actually be practical. The ThinkPad W700ds has two screens (the “ds” stands for dual screen). The primary screen is 17 inches, but if you need extra screen real estate, you can slide out the 10.6 secondary screen from the right side of the unit, adding about 40 percent more screen space.

The secondary screen can be adjusted to your preferred viewing angle, “similarly to how a car’s rear-view mirror tilts,” according to Lenovo. The idea is to give you additional space while working with photographs, Web browsers, or other applications that might otherwise overwhelm the notebook’s main screen.

Lenovo, which several years ago acquired IBM’s personal-computer division, also introduced its first all-in-one integrated desktop PC, which features a remote control that gamers can use like the innovative controller of the Nintendo Wii. Its “motion drive” feature allows the user to use the remote as if it were a virtual tennis racket or other moving object.

The remote also doubles as a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) handset that you can use to make Internet phone calls. The computer itself uses various flavors of Intel Core 2 Duo processors, an optional ATI Radeon graphics card, up to 4GB of memory, and as much as a terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of hard-drive space.

And for anyone coveting the ultrathin MacBook Air whose wallet might be too thin to actually afford one, help is on the way from MSI, a Taipei-based company that showed off its X-Slim Series X320 “Super Slim” Notebook PC which, at its biggest point, is only .77 inches thick, which is pretty close to the thickness of the Apple MacBook Air.

Unlike the Air, which starts at $1,799, the MSI notebook is expected to sell for between $700 and $1,000 when it becomes available later this year.

After devouring plenty of finger food at the reception, I’m not sure how thin I’ll be, considering that hard-working journalists like me will have to attend several more receptions before CES is over. But it’s my duty to press on, so damn the calories, and pass the egg rolls.

I just returned from riding around in a car watching live TV on my Blackberry.

Research in Motion hasn’t added a TV tuner to any of its popular Blackberry devices but Sling Media just introduced software that enables Slingbox owners to watch content from their home TV on a Blackberry connected to the AT&T or T-Mobile networks. The company is working on a version for other Blackberries and it’s likely to announce an iPhone version at next week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

The Slingbox, which was first introduced in 2005, already offers software that works with Windows Mobile and Palm smart phones. The Slingbox also allows you to watch TV on an Internet-connected Windows or Macintosh laptop or desktop PC.

To use the service you must first connect a Slingbox to whatever source you use for TV. It can be a cable or satellite box or a Tivo or other personal video recorder (PVR). The $300 Slingbox Pro HD has a high-definition tuner and four video inputs so it also allows you to connect it to an antenna for over-the-air signals as well as to a DVD player. The $180 Slingbox Solo connects to a single standard or high definition input source.

The Pro allows you to watch programming in HD on a remote device while the Solo down-samples the signal to standard definition which, frankly, still looks pretty good on a tiny smart phone or even a small laptop screen.

There are no monthly fees to use a Slingbox but Sling Media typically charges $30 for software to use it on a mobile device. For a limited period, the Blackberry software can be downloaded for free.

I borrowed a Slingbox Pro HD and connected it to the Dish Network PVR in my living room. After downloading and configuring the software for both the Blackberry and my laptop PC, I was able to watch live TV and recorded shows. I was also able to use both the Blackberry and the laptop to reprogram the PVR away from home, selecting new shows to record. Of course, if someone is watching a show remotely via the Slingbox, anyone sitting in front of your home TV will be watching the same show unless you’re using an alternative input source such as the dual tuner that you get with some personal video recorders.

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Podcast: Larry Magid reviews a new program allowing Slingbox owners to watch TV on their Blackberrys.

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One might ask why someone would want to be able to watch their home TV programs from a smart phone or laptop. As it turns out, there are plenty of reasons.

For one thing, it’s a relatively easy and cost-effective way to distribute TV around the home. My indoor exercise bicycle is in a room that doesn’t have a TV or satellite box but I can now prop by laptop on the bike’s handlebars and watch my favorite TV shows while I burn up calories. If the device you’re using to watch the program is on the same home wired or WiFi network as the Slingbox, the picture quality is quite good because you’re streaming the video at the full speed of your home network. Sling also sells the Slingcatcher ($300) that lets you watch programs on a remote TV anywhere on your home network. The Slingcatcher also lets you watch internet video from a PC or video files from an external USB hard drive.

Another use for the Slingbox is to be able to enjoy your home local programming — including local sports programs — from the road. Most hotels now have WiFi so instead of turning on the hotel TV; you can watch your own TV shows on your laptop. It does require a broadband Internet connection so forget watching shows from a plane unless you happen to be on a flight with Internet connectivity. College students living away from home could access watch their home TV programs from a dorm room.

I can also think of a few reasons to watch the Slingbox from a smart phone such as a Blackberry. When I go to the YMCA, I usually have to wait in line to get access to a treadmill or elliptical machine with a TV but if I have my Blackberry with me, I can watch my own TV. I have a friend who uses his Windows Mobile device to access his Slingbox on busses and commuter trains or when waiting for a plane to take off. I’m not a big fan of letting kids watch TV from the car (I’d rather they look out the window and talk with other occupants) but it certainly is now possible to hand them your smart phone and let them watch shows while you drive.

Of course, you do need a good 3G connection to the Internet which may or may not be available depending on where you are but as I rode (yes, someone else was driving) around Silicon Valley, I had an excellent signal and an excellent view of my home TV, albeit on a very small Blackberry screen.

by Larry Magid

No earth-shattering new technologies emerged in 2008, but it was an eventful year.

It was a year of definition for high-def TV, because Toshiba in February dropped its support for its HD DVD standard, allowing the industry to unite behind Blu-ray.

Standard wars such as the two-year battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray stall technology adoption. Even though it’s now safe to buy Blu-ray, sales are still tepid and will probably remain so until the economy picks up and Blu-ray player prices fall to below $150. I can safely predict a drop in Blu-ray drive prices in 2009 but have no idea when the economy will pick up.

It was an interesting year for smart-phones. Apple, which introduced the iPhone in 2007, hit a home run with its 2008 model, the iPhone 3G. At the same time, Apple opened its iPhone application store with thousands of free and modestly priced programs for the new and old iPhone and Apple’s iPod Touch. These applications are proving popular with iPhone users and signal the transformation of smart-phones into third-party-application-friendly computing platforms.

Apple said it sold 6.9 million iPhones from June to September. During that quarter, according to Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Apple outsold Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry phone. But RIM isn’t conceding. In addition to maintaining its strategy to dominate the corporate and government market, RIM took major strides into consumer territory in 2008 with the release of the Curve, Bold and Storm models, all of which have cameras, digital media players and — my favorite — a jack that lets you use any standard off-the-shelf headphones.

Google also entered the smart-phone market in 2008 with the release of the T-Mobile G1, the first phone powered by Google’s open-source Android operating system. The G1 met with mixed reviews, but Google is working with other carriers and phone manufacturers and will be releasing several new models next year. The key to Android is the open application development platform which — if the hardware sells well — should spawn a vibrant software market for the device.

PCs don’t generate all that much excitement these days, but 2008 saw the growth of a new trend that’s picking up steam. Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo, Asus, Dell and others have introduced what are being called netbooks, which are basically small and inexpensive laptop computers that typically start at under $400. Some run Windows XP or even Windows Vista but others come with a version of the Linux operating system. Using Linux lowers the cost because the manufacturer doesn’t have to pay Microsoft a royalty and it improves performance because it’s typically faster and less resource-hungry than Windows.

Probably because of netbooks, the third quarter of 2008 was the first time that notebook PCs outsold desktops on a quarterly basis, according to research firm iSuppli. The report singles out Acer, whose unit market share grew by 45 percent, largely because of its leadership in the netbook category.

Apple made a little bit of laptop news in 2008 with the introduction of its ultrathin MacBook Air in January. The MacBook Air isn’t the first PC with a solid state hard drive but it is the thinnest PC currently on the market.

On the Web side of the equation, 2008 was a bad year for Yahoo, which saw its share price fall by about 50 percent from December 2007 to December 2008. In February, the company turned down a $31-a-share buyout offer from Microsoft. Yahoo shares closed at $12.32 Wednesday.

Facebook seems to have had a pretty good 2008. Earlier this month, the privately held company announced that it had more than 140 million active users with more than half its users “outside of college” where Facebook got its start. In June, ComScore reported that Facebook pulled ahead of MySpace in terms of worldwide users.

And, of course, one can’t comment on 2008 and tech without noting that the first tech-savvy president was elected this year. Technology played a major role in President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign and promises to play an even bigger role in his administration, which means there will be lots of fodder for those of us who cover tech and care about politics.

I was not surprised when iSuppli announced that notebook sales exceeded desktop sales for the first time in the third quarter of this year in what the research company called a “watershed event.” The report singled out Acer which “grew its unit shipment market share by 45 percent, and by 79 percent on a year-over-year basis.”

The Taiwanese company, according to the computer analysis group, shipped nearly 3 million more notebooks in the third quarter than in the preceding quarter, “with the majority of those 3 million being the company’s netbook products.”

“Netbook” is a relatively new category of notebook computer noted for being smaller, less expensive and generally more energy efficient than typical notebook or laptop PCs.

In many ways, netbook is simply another name for subnotebook PCs, which have been on the market for a long time or “ultra-mobile” PCs, a category championed by Microsoft, Intel and other manufacturers in 2006. Ultra-mobile PCs were typically tablet PCs, sometimes without keyboards, while most netbooks are basically just smaller versions of traditional laptop PCs.

I’m writing this column on an Acer Aspire One, a 2.2 pound netbook PC that can be purchased stand alone for as little as $350 or for $99 at Radio Shack along with a two year commitment to an AT&T $60 a month Wireless broadband service. I’m not sure that Radio Shack’s marketing idea makes much sense. People are price sensitive enough to buy $99 PC over one for $350 or so are probably not going to spend $60 a month for wireless broadband. I have Verizon wireless broadband in my laptop and love it but I’m a frequent business traveler. For personal use at home and at my usual local haunts, I’m content to use Wi-Fi.

With a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1 gigabyte of memory, the Aspire — running Windows XP — is a bit more sluggish than many full sized laptops but it’s powerful enough to run Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and most of the other standard applications that people typically use. The 160-gigabyte hard drive provides ample room for applications.

In order to keep its size down to 9.8 by 6.7 by 1.4 inches, Acer shrunk the size of the keyboard by about 10 percent, which is slowing down my typing and slightly increasing my typos.

The 8.9-inch screen is considerably smaller than than other laptops, but it’s not a bother. I find the size adequate for things I would do on a small computer. My only design complaint is the narrow buttons on the left and right side of the track pad.

To its credit, the Aspire One has three USB ports which make it easy to plug in an external keyboard and mouse. There is also a VGA port for an external monitor. The Aspire also has an Ethernet port, a slot for an SD memory card and jacks for a headphone and external microphone.

Acer is not alone in this product category. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo also have their netbook or mini-notebooks.

Although the unit that Acer sent me is equipped with Windows XP, Acer, Dell, and HP also offer versions equipped with Linux. I didn’t try any the Linux versions but based on my experience with that leaner and faster operating system, I doubt if it is will be nearly as sluggish as with Windows XP.

What excites me most about this category is that it makes notebook PCs affordable to a wider audience, including high-school students who — in many cases — could use this as their primary home PC as well as a classroom tool.

by Anne Collier
NetFamilyNews.org

If your family celebrates Christmas, you can track Santa’s global progress on Christmas Eve, thanks to Web 2.0!

You can get minute-by-minute reports on Twitter’s noradsanta feed.  As I write, Santa was just spotted in Kango, Gabon.  Earlier, I watched as he, his reindeer and sleigh visited Southeast Asia, and threaded their way through the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.  (Rudolph’s apparently quite a hotdog.)

You can also follow Santa on SantaCam video thanks to a partnership between NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) and Google.  NORAD has been tracking Santa every Christmas Eve since 1955.  You can see his global progress and flight path here.

I learned about Santa’s Twitter feed and the SantaCam from the Toronto Globe and Mail in an article that describes how NORAD began tracking Santa and provides more details about the new Web 2.0 tracking tools.  I love that  “kids can follow along in seven languages through the website or on a smart phone by using Google Maps.”I just checked the Twitter feed and since I began writing, Santa has reached Berlin, Germany!

Happy whatever holidays to every last one of you!

News that Microsoft had to issue an emergency patch to fix a flaw in all versions of Internet Explorer reminds me how important it is for parents to make sure that all the computers in your household have up-to-date anti-malware software and the latest updates to the operating system.

While Windows PCs seems to attract a lot more attacks than Macs, the Apple Macintosh is not invulnerable to malicious software.  That’s why Apple regularly updates its operating system as does Microsoft — and why some leading security software companies including Symantec and TrendMicro offer Macintosh security software.

The latest threat is a flaw in all versions of Internet Explorer that makes it possible for an attacker to take remote control of your PC, capture user names and passwords and log keystrokes.  All you have to  do to be exposed is to visit an infected ‘Web site, whether it is a site set up by a hacker or even a legitimate site that been injected with the malicious code.  The Associated Press reports that “thousands of Web sites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit the flaw.” That’s because the flaw was disclosed about a week before Microsoft issued a fix.

Microsoft was expected to release a fix on Wednesday, December 16, which would be automatically applied to any machine that has automated updates turned on.  To be sure, you can manually scan your computer to see if its security fixes are up-to-date by visiting WindowsUpdate.microsoft.com.  For this particular site, you must use Internet Explorer (other browsers such as Google’s Chrome and Mozilla Firefox works with the vast majority of sites but not this one).Speaking of other browsers, only Internet Explorer is affected by this particular flaw but that doesn’t mean that Firefox and Chrome are exempt from other vulnerabilities.

PC security is a cat-and-mouse game. The good guys are always trying to catch up, but, with billions of dollars of ill-gotten gain at stake, the bad guys are always thinking up something new.

And parents, be sure your kids know not to download anything without your permission  — and don’t you download anything unless you know it’s from a reputable site. Even then, make sure you have a good Internet security suite installed and that it’s up-to-date.