Finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction are
Sherman Alexie for War Dances;
Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna);
Lorraine M. López for Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories;
Lorrie Moore for A Gate at the Stairs;
Colson Whitehead for Sag Harbor.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
How To Use Google Buzz
How to Use Google Buzz
If you're a Gmail user, chances are you now have Google Buzz in your inbox. Here's how to make the most of it (or just get rid of it).
Patrick Miller, PCWorld
Feb 12, 2010 7:00 pm
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On Tuesday, Google announced Buzz, a new social networking service integrated with Gmail. On Wednesday, you probably mashed your F5 key waiting for it to arrive in your Gmail account--and maybe you even tried to cut in line. By Thursday, you were likely worried about the privacy issues. Well, if you're buzzing about Buzz, we have the tips you need to make it work for you. And if you're wishing it would buzz off, we'll show you how to remove it from your Gmail account.
Keep Buzz Out of Your Inbox
Set up filters in Google Buzz to keep your inbox clean.Google Buzz's default settings send you an e-mail notification every time someone mentions you in a post with an @ reference or replies to one of your buzzes. Since all this stuff also shows up in your Buzz stream anyway, the redundant reminders get annoying fast.
In the filter rules, specify what should happen to Google Buzz alert messages.Fortunately, Buzz e-mail notifications are easy to eliminate with Gmail's filter tools. Just click the Create a filter link at the top of the page, to the right of the search field. In the 'Has the words' field, type label:buzz and click OK. In the next screen, select Skip the Inbox and Mark as read to ensure that the message doesn't show in the inbox or set off your Gmail notifications (alternatively, you can choose to delete the notifications entirely).
(For more Buzz filtering tips, read "Google Buzz: 5 Tips for Power Users.")
Hide Your Followers
To keep your following/follower list from displaying, uncheck the appropriate box in your Google profile.While Twitter users adore broadcasting their follower counts to the world, Buzz users have plenty of good reasons to keep such information private--particularly since in Buzz, the following/follower lists are not attached just to a cryptic pseudonym but to publicly viewable account names complete with a first name, a last name, and in many cases an e-mail address and links to Picasa and Blogger accounts.
You might not want to show the world your Google Buzz followers.Combined with Buzz's opt-out privacy policy and automatically suggested followers, this arrangement can lead to uncomfortable situations for some users, such as one user who ended up automatically adding his landlord, another who involuntarily added a one-time contact from a Craigslist transaction, and still another whose list somehow included her abusive ex-husband. If you don't want your contacts to be a matter of public record, you can hide your following/follower list by going to your Google Profile, choosing Edit Profile, and unchecking the Display the list of people I'm following and people following me box.
Learn to Love the Side Menu
Muting this post will get rid of annoying buzzes.If your Buzz feed is getting out of hand, look for several management features embedded in the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of each post. For other people's buzzes, you can choose to mute a particularly active buzz that you don't care about, or stop following that person. For your own buzzes, you can mute, edit the content of a buzz, delete some of the comments, or delete the buzz itself.
Prep Your Contacts List
Make sure to keep your Google Buzz privacy on point. A good first step is to control your Gmail contacts list.Buzz's privacy settings are based on your Gmail contacts list, so if you haven't already set that up you'll want to go through it before getting too busy with Buzz. You can do so via the Contacts menu on the left side of the Gmail window (just click the New Groups button to the left of the Search Contacts field), or through the Buzz input box's privacy settings (click the Public button and pick Private to get the option to publish to existing Contacts groups or create a new group).
Decide which groups of Gmail contacts may see your Buzz activity.You'll probably want to create a few commonly used groups before diving into Buzz--having to spend a few minutes dealing with the privacy settings each time you want to post a new buzz to a new group kind of kills the spontaneity of it all. (Also, the Buzz Web app doesn't let you specify new groups--you have to do it from the normal Gmail page.)
Tie Your Sites Together
Specify which other networks should connect with your Google Buzz activity.Now that you have your Buzz feed under control, it's time to start tying in your various social networks. When Buzz first surfaced in your Gmail account, you created a Google Profile (if you didn't have one already). At that time, you should have had the option to link other networks to your Buzz account--Flickr and Picasa accounts for sharing pictures, for example, or your Blogger feed. As of this writing, you can officially link only Blogger, Flickr, Picasa, your Google Reader Shared Items, GChat status, and Twitter accounts to your Buzz feed, though WordPress blogs can connect to Google Buzz with a little more work.
To add these sites, just click over to the Buzz tab in your Gmail and click the X Connected Sites link to bring up a window that lets you pick which ones to add. If you have an account or a page you want to link that isn't showing up, go over to your Google Profile, click Edit Profile (in the upper-right corner) and add it to your Links list there.
While you're connecting these sites, you can also set them to share only to certain groups of friends, which is worth doing if you don't want buzzes about your public tweets, photos, and so on to be indexed by Google as part of your Buzz account.
Keep in mind that if you're an avid user of Google Reader, all of your Shared Items will also be posted as buzzes. This means that anyone following you through Buzz and Reader (which is bound to be a decent amount of your follower base, considering that Buzz pulls from your Google Reader followers) is going to get hit with twice the posts, so you might want to consider keeping them separate until Google comes out with more-integrated sharing functions.
Buzz by E-Mail
You can Buzz via e-mail by sending a message to buzz@gmail.com. This works only with messages sent from your Gmail address, though, so SMS and MMS items sent through an e-mail gateway won't do the trick.
Since you can't define privacy permissions within an e-mail, you need to set them in advance. Start by sending a test e-mail to buzz@gmail.com; once it goes through, you'll see that the Connected Sites option now includes privacy settings for 'Posted via Buzz@Gmail'. Set it to Public or Private as you wish.
At the moment, only the e-mail's image and subject heading will show up in the buzz. Anything you put in the main e-mail field will not.
POP/IMAP mail-client users will want to read Gmail's desktop client support page for help in making sure that they're sending from the right address (for more, see "Google Buzz: 5 Tips for Power Users").
Touch Up Your Text
Though Google Buzz's input box lacks the rich text formatting options of an e-mail or blog post, you can still use a few tricks to make your text stand out. Bracketing your text with *asterisks*, _underscores_, and -dashes- will turn it into bold, italicized, and struck-through text, respectively.
Grab Some Add-Ons
Chrome Buzz lets you view your buzzes from the Chrome browser menu bar.Already, a handful of Buzz add-ons to help you integrate Buzz into your social life have surfaced. Firefox users should check out Buzz It, which lets you share your current Web page in Buzz via Gmail (useful if you want to keep your Google Reader shares separate from your Buzz shares.) Chrome users have Chrome Buzz, which adds a menu item that keeps tabs on your Buzz feed so that you don't have to keep checking back to the Gmail page. And WordPress users can add their buzzes to their WordPress blog with the Google Buzz ER sidebar widget.
Push Your Buzzes to Twitter
You can peruse your Google Buzz feed just as you would read any other RSS feed by going to the URL http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/username/public/posted, where username is your Google account name. This is a feed of all your public buzzes, which can then appear in any application that can use RSS feeds--handy if you want to see buzzes in an RSS reader, for example.
TwitterFeed can publish your Buzz feed to your Twitter account.Combine this feature with TwitterFeed, a service that lets you use RSS feeds to publish in Facebook and Twitter, and you can get Google Buzz to publish your buzzes to Twitter. The arrangement isn't perfect--the RSS feed refreshes every 30 minutes--but considering that there's no native support for Buzz-to-Twitter publishing, it's worth trying out for now. You'll want to set TwitterFeed to post only the description, or you'll end up with a lot of tweets saying "Buzz from your username"; to do so, under Advanced Settings in the Create Feed page, set 'Post Content' to Include description only.
Kill Buzz Dead
Gone through all this and still don't like what Buzz has to offer? You're not alone. Unfortunately, truly getting rid of Buzz takes some doing.
This link will turn off Google Buzz, but you'll need to do more to kill it completely.You can disable Buzz by scrolling down to the bottom of your Gmail page and clicking the tiny turn off buzz link, but that won't get rid of it completely--you'll still have followers and connected sites, you just won't see them from the Gmail page. (Logging in through the mobile Web app, for example, should still work fine.)
Before you eliminate Buzz entirely, you need to go through a few steps. From the main Buzz page, click the Following X People link and unfollow everyone; then click on the X followers link and block everyone. Next, you need to delete your Google Profile: Go to Google Profiles, select View My Profile, Edit profile, scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and select Delete profile.
Once you've done that, disable Buzz from the Gmail window. You'll have successfully killed your Buzz.
Have your own Google Buzz tips? How about horror stories? Share them in the comments!
Patrick Miller is a staff editor for PCWorld. Catch him off-duty @pattheflip or follow his newfangled Google Buzz page.
If you're a Gmail user, chances are you now have Google Buzz in your inbox. Here's how to make the most of it (or just get rid of it).
Patrick Miller, PCWorld
Feb 12, 2010 7:00 pm
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* ShareThis
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* 185 Yes
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Recommends
On Tuesday, Google announced Buzz, a new social networking service integrated with Gmail. On Wednesday, you probably mashed your F5 key waiting for it to arrive in your Gmail account--and maybe you even tried to cut in line. By Thursday, you were likely worried about the privacy issues. Well, if you're buzzing about Buzz, we have the tips you need to make it work for you. And if you're wishing it would buzz off, we'll show you how to remove it from your Gmail account.
Keep Buzz Out of Your Inbox
Set up filters in Google Buzz to keep your inbox clean.Google Buzz's default settings send you an e-mail notification every time someone mentions you in a post with an @ reference or replies to one of your buzzes. Since all this stuff also shows up in your Buzz stream anyway, the redundant reminders get annoying fast.
In the filter rules, specify what should happen to Google Buzz alert messages.Fortunately, Buzz e-mail notifications are easy to eliminate with Gmail's filter tools. Just click the Create a filter link at the top of the page, to the right of the search field. In the 'Has the words' field, type label:buzz and click OK. In the next screen, select Skip the Inbox and Mark as read to ensure that the message doesn't show in the inbox or set off your Gmail notifications (alternatively, you can choose to delete the notifications entirely).
(For more Buzz filtering tips, read "Google Buzz: 5 Tips for Power Users.")
Hide Your Followers
To keep your following/follower list from displaying, uncheck the appropriate box in your Google profile.While Twitter users adore broadcasting their follower counts to the world, Buzz users have plenty of good reasons to keep such information private--particularly since in Buzz, the following/follower lists are not attached just to a cryptic pseudonym but to publicly viewable account names complete with a first name, a last name, and in many cases an e-mail address and links to Picasa and Blogger accounts.
You might not want to show the world your Google Buzz followers.Combined with Buzz's opt-out privacy policy and automatically suggested followers, this arrangement can lead to uncomfortable situations for some users, such as one user who ended up automatically adding his landlord, another who involuntarily added a one-time contact from a Craigslist transaction, and still another whose list somehow included her abusive ex-husband. If you don't want your contacts to be a matter of public record, you can hide your following/follower list by going to your Google Profile, choosing Edit Profile, and unchecking the Display the list of people I'm following and people following me box.
Learn to Love the Side Menu
Muting this post will get rid of annoying buzzes.If your Buzz feed is getting out of hand, look for several management features embedded in the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of each post. For other people's buzzes, you can choose to mute a particularly active buzz that you don't care about, or stop following that person. For your own buzzes, you can mute, edit the content of a buzz, delete some of the comments, or delete the buzz itself.
Prep Your Contacts List
Make sure to keep your Google Buzz privacy on point. A good first step is to control your Gmail contacts list.Buzz's privacy settings are based on your Gmail contacts list, so if you haven't already set that up you'll want to go through it before getting too busy with Buzz. You can do so via the Contacts menu on the left side of the Gmail window (just click the New Groups button to the left of the Search Contacts field), or through the Buzz input box's privacy settings (click the Public button and pick Private to get the option to publish to existing Contacts groups or create a new group).
Decide which groups of Gmail contacts may see your Buzz activity.You'll probably want to create a few commonly used groups before diving into Buzz--having to spend a few minutes dealing with the privacy settings each time you want to post a new buzz to a new group kind of kills the spontaneity of it all. (Also, the Buzz Web app doesn't let you specify new groups--you have to do it from the normal Gmail page.)
Tie Your Sites Together
Specify which other networks should connect with your Google Buzz activity.Now that you have your Buzz feed under control, it's time to start tying in your various social networks. When Buzz first surfaced in your Gmail account, you created a Google Profile (if you didn't have one already). At that time, you should have had the option to link other networks to your Buzz account--Flickr and Picasa accounts for sharing pictures, for example, or your Blogger feed. As of this writing, you can officially link only Blogger, Flickr, Picasa, your Google Reader Shared Items, GChat status, and Twitter accounts to your Buzz feed, though WordPress blogs can connect to Google Buzz with a little more work.
To add these sites, just click over to the Buzz tab in your Gmail and click the X Connected Sites link to bring up a window that lets you pick which ones to add. If you have an account or a page you want to link that isn't showing up, go over to your Google Profile, click Edit Profile (in the upper-right corner) and add it to your Links list there.
While you're connecting these sites, you can also set them to share only to certain groups of friends, which is worth doing if you don't want buzzes about your public tweets, photos, and so on to be indexed by Google as part of your Buzz account.
Keep in mind that if you're an avid user of Google Reader, all of your Shared Items will also be posted as buzzes. This means that anyone following you through Buzz and Reader (which is bound to be a decent amount of your follower base, considering that Buzz pulls from your Google Reader followers) is going to get hit with twice the posts, so you might want to consider keeping them separate until Google comes out with more-integrated sharing functions.
Buzz by E-Mail
You can Buzz via e-mail by sending a message to buzz@gmail.com. This works only with messages sent from your Gmail address, though, so SMS and MMS items sent through an e-mail gateway won't do the trick.
Since you can't define privacy permissions within an e-mail, you need to set them in advance. Start by sending a test e-mail to buzz@gmail.com; once it goes through, you'll see that the Connected Sites option now includes privacy settings for 'Posted via Buzz@Gmail'. Set it to Public or Private as you wish.
At the moment, only the e-mail's image and subject heading will show up in the buzz. Anything you put in the main e-mail field will not.
POP/IMAP mail-client users will want to read Gmail's desktop client support page for help in making sure that they're sending from the right address (for more, see "Google Buzz: 5 Tips for Power Users").
Touch Up Your Text
Though Google Buzz's input box lacks the rich text formatting options of an e-mail or blog post, you can still use a few tricks to make your text stand out. Bracketing your text with *asterisks*, _underscores_, and -dashes- will turn it into bold, italicized, and struck-through text, respectively.
Grab Some Add-Ons
Chrome Buzz lets you view your buzzes from the Chrome browser menu bar.Already, a handful of Buzz add-ons to help you integrate Buzz into your social life have surfaced. Firefox users should check out Buzz It, which lets you share your current Web page in Buzz via Gmail (useful if you want to keep your Google Reader shares separate from your Buzz shares.) Chrome users have Chrome Buzz, which adds a menu item that keeps tabs on your Buzz feed so that you don't have to keep checking back to the Gmail page. And WordPress users can add their buzzes to their WordPress blog with the Google Buzz ER sidebar widget.
Push Your Buzzes to Twitter
You can peruse your Google Buzz feed just as you would read any other RSS feed by going to the URL http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/username/public/posted, where username is your Google account name. This is a feed of all your public buzzes, which can then appear in any application that can use RSS feeds--handy if you want to see buzzes in an RSS reader, for example.
TwitterFeed can publish your Buzz feed to your Twitter account.Combine this feature with TwitterFeed, a service that lets you use RSS feeds to publish in Facebook and Twitter, and you can get Google Buzz to publish your buzzes to Twitter. The arrangement isn't perfect--the RSS feed refreshes every 30 minutes--but considering that there's no native support for Buzz-to-Twitter publishing, it's worth trying out for now. You'll want to set TwitterFeed to post only the description, or you'll end up with a lot of tweets saying "Buzz from your username"; to do so, under Advanced Settings in the Create Feed page, set 'Post Content' to Include description only.
Kill Buzz Dead
Gone through all this and still don't like what Buzz has to offer? You're not alone. Unfortunately, truly getting rid of Buzz takes some doing.
This link will turn off Google Buzz, but you'll need to do more to kill it completely.You can disable Buzz by scrolling down to the bottom of your Gmail page and clicking the tiny turn off buzz link, but that won't get rid of it completely--you'll still have followers and connected sites, you just won't see them from the Gmail page. (Logging in through the mobile Web app, for example, should still work fine.)
Before you eliminate Buzz entirely, you need to go through a few steps. From the main Buzz page, click the Following X People link and unfollow everyone; then click on the X followers link and block everyone. Next, you need to delete your Google Profile: Go to Google Profiles, select View My Profile, Edit profile, scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and select Delete profile.
Once you've done that, disable Buzz from the Gmail window. You'll have successfully killed your Buzz.
Have your own Google Buzz tips? How about horror stories? Share them in the comments!
Patrick Miller is a staff editor for PCWorld. Catch him off-duty @pattheflip or follow his newfangled Google Buzz page.
How To Save A Whole Web Page
Save a Whole Web Page
Lincoln Spector
Feb 22, 2010 9:56 am
Rwiringa asked the Answer Line forum how to save an entire Web page, including images, for off-line viewing.
You've got a number of options here.
The first is to do just that: Save the page and its image files. And the current versions of most browsers make this very simple.
In either Firefox or Chrome, press CTRL-s to bring up the Save As dialog box. In the 'Save as type' field, select Web Page Complete, and save the file to your desired location.
If you're using Internet Explorer, select Page (near the upper-right corner), then Save As. In IE, the ‘Save as type,' menu offers two "Webpage complete" options. You want Webpage complete (*.htm; *.html).
When they save the page, all three of these browsers create an .htm file, plus a folder containing all the necessary images. The code in the .htm file has been altered to look for image files in that folder.
The result isn't always perfect, and heavily coded pages may not render properly. I tried several pages from pcworld.com, and found various images missing, although the ones you'd most want--those that are part of the editorial content--were there.
Another problem with this method: If the .htm file and the folder get separated, or if you change the folder's name, the page won't find its images.
Internet Explorer offers a one-file solution that gets around this problem: Web Archives. To create one, select Page, then Save As. For ‘Save as type,' select Web Archive, single file (*mht). Now you know why IE offers two Web Archive options.
These archives aren't perfect, either. You can only view them in Internet Explorer (a serious problem if a Linux user must look at them), and they still drop a lot of images.
The final solution is to save the page as a .pdf file. These files are compact, don't have to travel with a folder of images, can be read with a free reader that almost everybody has, and include all of the images on the page.
But how do you convert a web page to a .pdf? There are plenty of programs available that can do it for you. Many of them install as print drivers, so that anything you can print can be converted. I'm currently using the free Bullzip PDF Printer, and see no reason to change.
But there's an even easier way to convert a Web page into a .pdf file. Copy the URL to the clipboard, go to pdfmyurl.com, paste the URL into the appropriate field, press ENTER, and save the file. My thanks to forum regular Oldschooljohnny for introducing me to pdfmyurl.com.
Lincoln Spector
Feb 22, 2010 9:56 am
Rwiringa asked the Answer Line forum how to save an entire Web page, including images, for off-line viewing.
You've got a number of options here.
The first is to do just that: Save the page and its image files. And the current versions of most browsers make this very simple.
In either Firefox or Chrome, press CTRL-s to bring up the Save As dialog box. In the 'Save as type' field, select Web Page Complete, and save the file to your desired location.
If you're using Internet Explorer, select Page (near the upper-right corner), then Save As. In IE, the ‘Save as type,' menu offers two "Webpage complete" options. You want Webpage complete (*.htm; *.html).
When they save the page, all three of these browsers create an .htm file, plus a folder containing all the necessary images. The code in the .htm file has been altered to look for image files in that folder.
The result isn't always perfect, and heavily coded pages may not render properly. I tried several pages from pcworld.com, and found various images missing, although the ones you'd most want--those that are part of the editorial content--were there.
Another problem with this method: If the .htm file and the folder get separated, or if you change the folder's name, the page won't find its images.
Internet Explorer offers a one-file solution that gets around this problem: Web Archives. To create one, select Page, then Save As. For ‘Save as type,' select Web Archive, single file (*mht). Now you know why IE offers two Web Archive options.
These archives aren't perfect, either. You can only view them in Internet Explorer (a serious problem if a Linux user must look at them), and they still drop a lot of images.
The final solution is to save the page as a .pdf file. These files are compact, don't have to travel with a folder of images, can be read with a free reader that almost everybody has, and include all of the images on the page.
But how do you convert a web page to a .pdf? There are plenty of programs available that can do it for you. Many of them install as print drivers, so that anything you can print can be converted. I'm currently using the free Bullzip PDF Printer, and see no reason to change.
But there's an even easier way to convert a Web page into a .pdf file. Copy the URL to the clipboard, go to pdfmyurl.com, paste the URL into the appropriate field, press ENTER, and save the file. My thanks to forum regular Oldschooljohnny for introducing me to pdfmyurl.com.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Nominations for 2009 Agatha Awards Announced
Malice Domestic has announced the nominees for the 2009 Agatha Awards, which honor the traditional mystery, books similiar to Agatha Christie mysteries.
Best Mystery Nominees:
Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews;
Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett;
Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen;
A Brutal Telling by Louise Penny;
Air Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Best First Mystery Nominees:
For Better, For Murder by Lisa Bork;
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley;
Posed for Murder by Meredith Cole;
The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth Duncan;
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff.
Best Mystery Nominees:
Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews;
Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett;
Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen;
A Brutal Telling by Louise Penny;
Air Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Best First Mystery Nominees:
For Better, For Murder by Lisa Bork;
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley;
Posed for Murder by Meredith Cole;
The Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth Duncan;
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Popular Mystery Writer Dick Francis Dead
So far, it has not been a good year for writers and their avid readers. Dick Francis, a champion jockey for the British royal family who left racetrack to write crime fiction, died February 14 at the age of 89. Francis wrote 43 novels and sold more than 60 million books. His protagonists often were former jockeys. He won many awards for his novels, including the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award an unprecedented three times. In the last several years, since his wife's death, Francis coauthored books with his son Felix. Their book, Even Money,was published last September. Their latest book, Crossfire, is scheduled to be released later this year. In his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, Francis wondered how he would be remembered: "I heard one man say to another, a little while ago,'who did you say that was? Dick Francis? Oh yes, he's the man who didn't win the National!' What an epitaph!"
Monday, February 15, 2010
New Microsoft Windows 7 Phone
Windows Phone 7: An In-depth Look at the Features and Interface
Windows Phone 7 adds new social networking and productivity features all within a clean and touch-friendly interface.
Ginny Mies, PCWorld
Feb 15, 2010 10:03 am
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Microsoft took the wraps off of Windows Phone 7 Series (the official name for Windows Mobile 7) here Monday at Mobile World Congress. Slated to launch on handsets by holiday season 2010, Windows 7 is a complete overhaul from previous versions of the OS.
Slick, touch-friendly user interface
If you're familiar with the Zune HD's user interface, you'll feel right at home with Windows 7. Microsoft hinted that the Zune and Windows Mobile teams were working closely and you can definitely see this relationship in Series 7. The menus and interface have the same fluid animations and clean typeface as the Zune HD's.
The Quick Launch screen is a far-cry from the old Windows Mobile start screen. Large, colorful tiles serve as shortcuts to your most-used or favorite apps or Web sites. You can also place live tiles on the screen with links to your Facebook profile or friends.
These tiles are live, meaning if the content of the app or site is updated, the tile will update on your screen. So if you have a link to a friend's Facebook profile on your Quick Launch screen, that tile will update when they change their picture. It is a bit creepy if you don't know them very well, but cool nonetheless.
With a tap and drag, you can easily move them around in any order you like or press a broken heart icon to remove them from the screen. Swiping right takes you to a list of all of your apps. If you want to move one of your apps to your Quick Launch display, you simply press down on the app and select "add to quick launch." When you're in an app, you'll see a row of other menu options at the top of the display. Like the Zune, you can "pan" through these menu items with a flick of your finger. If you want to go back to the previous menu, you simply hit the arrow key at the top of the interface.
Social and Productivity Hubs
The People Hub aggregates you friends from all of your social networks in three screens: Recent, All, What's New. Recent will show you friends who have just updated their profiles or statuses while All will show you all of your friends. What's new quickly aggregates status updates all into a single feed. You can also quickly share your own status update.
The Pictures Hub lets you see all of the pictures on your hub, your most recent pictures and what's new with all of your friends. The phone will pick the latest pictures you uploaded or have taken with your phone. And, like the People Hub, What's New in pictures shows your friend's most recent picture uploads. The Pictures Hub allows you to easily share your own photos with your social networks.
The Office Hub lets you easily sync your documents between your phone and your PC. Office Hub comes with OneNote, for notetaking, Documents and Sharepoint for presentation collaboration. Users will also have access to an Outlook Mail application which gives similar features, like flagging important e-mails, that you'd find on the desktop version.
Zune Player and Xbox Live Comes to Windows Phones
Despite the rumors leading up to the conference, there was no "Zune Phone" announcement, but all Windows 7 phones will ship with the same music and video features as the Zune HD. Users will also be able to manage their music with the Zune PC software. Does this mean the death of the standalone Zune HD player?
If you're an Xbox owner and want to keep tabs on your friends' achievements, Windows 7 phones will come with a mobile version of Xbox Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer's avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. Users will also be able to purchase games and apps easily from the Windows Marketplace as well.
Windows 7 phones will also ship with Bing Maps, which has some unique features that are on par with Google Maps. Bing Maps dynamically update with street-view photos, 3D graphics and directions. It also shows you real-time traffic updates and reviews of local businesses via Yelp.
Microsoft Holds More Control Over Hardware Partners
According to Microsoft, hardware partners will not be able to replace the Windows 7 UI. So if you're a fan of HTC's TouchFLO user interface, which runs over older versions of HTC Windows Mobile phones, you're out of luck. It is a bit surprising that Microsoft has locked in the Windows 7 interface because one draw of the platform was the number of different flavors you could get it in.
Microsoft is also taking further control over the hardware side. All Windows Series 7 phones will ship with three hardware buttons: Home, Search, and Back. They'll also all be capacitive touch-enabled with multitouch.
Microsoft's hardware partners include Dell, HTC, Garmin ASUS, LG, Samsung, SE, Toshiba, HP and Qualcomm. NVIDIA, which provided the Tegra chip in the Zune HD hardware, is noticeably absent. Microsoft had no comment.
Microsoft plans on bringing Windows 7 phones to all four major US carriers, but are working with AT&T and Orange more closely to bring full lines of Windows 7 phones to the carriers. Microsoft plans to have Windows phones in the market by the end of this year for the 2010 holiday season.
Windows Phone 7 adds new social networking and productivity features all within a clean and touch-friendly interface.
Ginny Mies, PCWorld
Feb 15, 2010 10:03 am
RSS
8 Comments
ShareThis
121 Yes56 No
Recommends
Microsoft took the wraps off of Windows Phone 7 Series (the official name for Windows Mobile 7) here Monday at Mobile World Congress. Slated to launch on handsets by holiday season 2010, Windows 7 is a complete overhaul from previous versions of the OS.
Slick, touch-friendly user interface
If you're familiar with the Zune HD's user interface, you'll feel right at home with Windows 7. Microsoft hinted that the Zune and Windows Mobile teams were working closely and you can definitely see this relationship in Series 7. The menus and interface have the same fluid animations and clean typeface as the Zune HD's.
The Quick Launch screen is a far-cry from the old Windows Mobile start screen. Large, colorful tiles serve as shortcuts to your most-used or favorite apps or Web sites. You can also place live tiles on the screen with links to your Facebook profile or friends.
These tiles are live, meaning if the content of the app or site is updated, the tile will update on your screen. So if you have a link to a friend's Facebook profile on your Quick Launch screen, that tile will update when they change their picture. It is a bit creepy if you don't know them very well, but cool nonetheless.
With a tap and drag, you can easily move them around in any order you like or press a broken heart icon to remove them from the screen. Swiping right takes you to a list of all of your apps. If you want to move one of your apps to your Quick Launch display, you simply press down on the app and select "add to quick launch." When you're in an app, you'll see a row of other menu options at the top of the display. Like the Zune, you can "pan" through these menu items with a flick of your finger. If you want to go back to the previous menu, you simply hit the arrow key at the top of the interface.
Social and Productivity Hubs
The People Hub aggregates you friends from all of your social networks in three screens: Recent, All, What's New. Recent will show you friends who have just updated their profiles or statuses while All will show you all of your friends. What's new quickly aggregates status updates all into a single feed. You can also quickly share your own status update.
The Pictures Hub lets you see all of the pictures on your hub, your most recent pictures and what's new with all of your friends. The phone will pick the latest pictures you uploaded or have taken with your phone. And, like the People Hub, What's New in pictures shows your friend's most recent picture uploads. The Pictures Hub allows you to easily share your own photos with your social networks.
The Office Hub lets you easily sync your documents between your phone and your PC. Office Hub comes with OneNote, for notetaking, Documents and Sharepoint for presentation collaboration. Users will also have access to an Outlook Mail application which gives similar features, like flagging important e-mails, that you'd find on the desktop version.
Zune Player and Xbox Live Comes to Windows Phones
Despite the rumors leading up to the conference, there was no "Zune Phone" announcement, but all Windows 7 phones will ship with the same music and video features as the Zune HD. Users will also be able to manage their music with the Zune PC software. Does this mean the death of the standalone Zune HD player?
If you're an Xbox owner and want to keep tabs on your friends' achievements, Windows 7 phones will come with a mobile version of Xbox Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer's avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. Users will also be able to purchase games and apps easily from the Windows Marketplace as well.
Windows 7 phones will also ship with Bing Maps, which has some unique features that are on par with Google Maps. Bing Maps dynamically update with street-view photos, 3D graphics and directions. It also shows you real-time traffic updates and reviews of local businesses via Yelp.
Microsoft Holds More Control Over Hardware Partners
According to Microsoft, hardware partners will not be able to replace the Windows 7 UI. So if you're a fan of HTC's TouchFLO user interface, which runs over older versions of HTC Windows Mobile phones, you're out of luck. It is a bit surprising that Microsoft has locked in the Windows 7 interface because one draw of the platform was the number of different flavors you could get it in.
Microsoft is also taking further control over the hardware side. All Windows Series 7 phones will ship with three hardware buttons: Home, Search, and Back. They'll also all be capacitive touch-enabled with multitouch.
Microsoft's hardware partners include Dell, HTC, Garmin ASUS, LG, Samsung, SE, Toshiba, HP and Qualcomm. NVIDIA, which provided the Tegra chip in the Zune HD hardware, is noticeably absent. Microsoft had no comment.
Microsoft plans on bringing Windows 7 phones to all four major US carriers, but are working with AT&T and Orange more closely to bring full lines of Windows 7 phones to the carriers. Microsoft plans to have Windows phones in the market by the end of this year for the 2010 holiday season.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Black Quill Awards
Dark Scribe magazine has announced the winners of the Black Quill Awards,honoring the best work in dark horror, suspense and thrillers--were named by Dark Scribe magazine. Editors' choice and readers' choice prizes were given in each category.
For novel of the year, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn was the editors' choice and Drood by Dan Simmons the readers' choice. The "Best Small Press Chill" awards went to Kelland by Paul G. Bens Jr. (editors' choice) and As Fate Would Have It by Michael Louis Calvillo (readers' choice).
For novel of the year, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn was the editors' choice and Drood by Dan Simmons the readers' choice. The "Best Small Press Chill" awards went to Kelland by Paul G. Bens Jr. (editors' choice) and As Fate Would Have It by Michael Louis Calvillo (readers' choice).
Monday, February 8, 2010
HTML 5 vs. Flash
Is It Time for the Web to Abandon Flash?
More… Facebook Twitter Digg Print
By Tony Bradley
The public battle between Adobe and Apple over bringing Flash to the iPhone, and now iPad, platforms has heated up the debate over the life expectancy of Flash as newer technologies, specifically the emerging HTML5 standard, enter the scene.
Adobe Flash helped to fill a void for a cross-platform multimedia experience on the Web. With the glaring exception of the iPhone and upcoming iPad, Flash can be found on virtually every other operating system--desktop and mobile, and for every Web browser.
Flash is almost a standard in and of itself. Just try surfing the Web without installing the Flash Player software and you will quickly see just how pervasive Flash is. As close as it is to being a standard, though, it is still a proprietary technology from one vendor.
The advantage that HTML5 has over Flash, and other proprietary Web development platforms like Microsoft's Silverlight, is that it is a protocol standard--or at least it will be once it's finalized, not a single-vendor solution.
Small and medium businesses (SMB's) pay huge sums of money, at least huge to them relative to their overall budgets, to developers to create and maintain Web sites. Many of those Web sites rely heavily on Adobe Flash to provide animations and other cool, interactive content.
Abandoning Flash would require a Web redesign, which can be a formidable, frightening, and costly undertaking. However, if Flash is dying a slow death SMB's might be doing themselves a favor by hitching their sites to a rising star like HTML5--even if only by attrition rather than a complete revamp of the site.
Flash isn't truly dead yet, though. In fact, it could be a long while before HTML5 gains enough traction to truly threaten Flash.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Naranyen said during the Adobe Q2 2009 earnings call "I think the challenge for HTLM 5 will continue to be how do you get a consistent display of HTML 5 across browsers. And when you think about when the rollout plans that are currently being talked about, they feel like it might be a decade before HTML 5 sees standardization across the number of browsers that are going to be out there."
HTML5 has been under development since 2004, and only now is it becoming mainstream enough to start showing up in Web browsers and Web sites. But, the current versions of the top three browsers--Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome--all contain elements of HTML5 compatibility.
HTML5 doesn't have to mean the death of Flash, though. There is also an opportunity for Adobe to adapt and evolve Flash to continue playing an important role even in an HTML5 world. HTML5 may deliver much of the same features and functionality that developers rely on Flash for today, but HTML5 won't be perfect and it won't do everything, so Adobe can reinvent Flash to fill a new void.
Still, Flash is a single-vendor solution that requires users to install additional software in order to view it, and the battle with Apple illustrates why Flash may not be available for all platforms. Small and medium businesses should seriously look into migrating to HTML5 for future Web development projects to embrace the coming standard and stay ahead of the game.
Tony Bradley tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW , and can be contacted at his Facebook page .
More… Facebook Twitter Digg Print
By Tony Bradley
The public battle between Adobe and Apple over bringing Flash to the iPhone, and now iPad, platforms has heated up the debate over the life expectancy of Flash as newer technologies, specifically the emerging HTML5 standard, enter the scene.
Adobe Flash helped to fill a void for a cross-platform multimedia experience on the Web. With the glaring exception of the iPhone and upcoming iPad, Flash can be found on virtually every other operating system--desktop and mobile, and for every Web browser.
Flash is almost a standard in and of itself. Just try surfing the Web without installing the Flash Player software and you will quickly see just how pervasive Flash is. As close as it is to being a standard, though, it is still a proprietary technology from one vendor.
The advantage that HTML5 has over Flash, and other proprietary Web development platforms like Microsoft's Silverlight, is that it is a protocol standard--or at least it will be once it's finalized, not a single-vendor solution.
Small and medium businesses (SMB's) pay huge sums of money, at least huge to them relative to their overall budgets, to developers to create and maintain Web sites. Many of those Web sites rely heavily on Adobe Flash to provide animations and other cool, interactive content.
Abandoning Flash would require a Web redesign, which can be a formidable, frightening, and costly undertaking. However, if Flash is dying a slow death SMB's might be doing themselves a favor by hitching their sites to a rising star like HTML5--even if only by attrition rather than a complete revamp of the site.
Flash isn't truly dead yet, though. In fact, it could be a long while before HTML5 gains enough traction to truly threaten Flash.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Naranyen said during the Adobe Q2 2009 earnings call "I think the challenge for HTLM 5 will continue to be how do you get a consistent display of HTML 5 across browsers. And when you think about when the rollout plans that are currently being talked about, they feel like it might be a decade before HTML 5 sees standardization across the number of browsers that are going to be out there."
HTML5 has been under development since 2004, and only now is it becoming mainstream enough to start showing up in Web browsers and Web sites. But, the current versions of the top three browsers--Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome--all contain elements of HTML5 compatibility.
HTML5 doesn't have to mean the death of Flash, though. There is also an opportunity for Adobe to adapt and evolve Flash to continue playing an important role even in an HTML5 world. HTML5 may deliver much of the same features and functionality that developers rely on Flash for today, but HTML5 won't be perfect and it won't do everything, so Adobe can reinvent Flash to fill a new void.
Still, Flash is a single-vendor solution that requires users to install additional software in order to view it, and the battle with Apple illustrates why Flash may not be available for all platforms. Small and medium businesses should seriously look into migrating to HTML5 for future Web development projects to embrace the coming standard and stay ahead of the game.
Tony Bradley tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW , and can be contacted at his Facebook page .
Friday, February 5, 2010
Make The Most Out of Your Home and End Keys
Make the Most of Your 'Home' and 'End' Keys
Rick Broida
Feb 2, 2010 4:00 pm
You know me: I love a good keyboard shortcut. The Home and End keys aren't shortcuts in the traditional sense, but many users never bother to lay a finger on them--and that's a mistake.
Indeed, you may hold Home and End in the same regard as Pause/Break and Scroll Lock, but while those keys are downright useless, your Page Up/Page Down neighbors most certainly are not.
Here are three places the Home and End keys come in very handy:
In Microsoft Outlook:
While in Mail view, a tap of the End key jumps you to the bottom of your Folders list, Inbox, or individual message (depending on which pane is selected). Tapping Home jumps you back up top.
In Your Word Processor:
I'd wager Home and End were created with word processors in mind, as the programs make valuable use of them. Tapping End moves your cursor to the end (natch) of a line, while Home moves it to the beginning. Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End, meanwhile, jump you to the top and bottom of your document, respectively.
In Your Web Browser:
Borrowing from word processors, Web browsers use Home and End to jump to the top and bottom of a Web page. The only difference: no Ctrl key required.
Have you found any other dynamic uses for this venerable pair of keys? If so, shout 'em out in the comments!
Rick Broida
Feb 2, 2010 4:00 pm
You know me: I love a good keyboard shortcut. The Home and End keys aren't shortcuts in the traditional sense, but many users never bother to lay a finger on them--and that's a mistake.
Indeed, you may hold Home and End in the same regard as Pause/Break and Scroll Lock, but while those keys are downright useless, your Page Up/Page Down neighbors most certainly are not.
Here are three places the Home and End keys come in very handy:
In Microsoft Outlook:
While in Mail view, a tap of the End key jumps you to the bottom of your Folders list, Inbox, or individual message (depending on which pane is selected). Tapping Home jumps you back up top.
In Your Word Processor:
I'd wager Home and End were created with word processors in mind, as the programs make valuable use of them. Tapping End moves your cursor to the end (natch) of a line, while Home moves it to the beginning. Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End, meanwhile, jump you to the top and bottom of your document, respectively.
In Your Web Browser:
Borrowing from word processors, Web browsers use Home and End to jump to the top and bottom of a Web page. The only difference: no Ctrl key required.
Have you found any other dynamic uses for this venerable pair of keys? If so, shout 'em out in the comments!
Why Does My PC Slow Down
Sudden Temporary Slowdowns
Lincoln Spector
Shermlindcastle asked the Answer Line forum why his PC occasionally slows down to a crawl.
There's nothing pretty about software overburdening your CPU and slowing everything down. And finding and fixing the cause isn't always an easy task. These suggestions will hopefully help.
The first thing to do is check for an infection. Malware isn't the most likely cause, but it's the most potentially dangerous, and is relatively easy to identify and fix.
Don't trust your regular, always-on antivirus program this time. If your PC is infected, that program has already failed and is probably compromised. Try the free version of either SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Better yet, try both.
If the scans don't find anything, chances are your PC isn't infected (unless you have other reasons to think so; see Remove a Virus or Other Malicious Infection). But your Registry could be corrupted, and a scan of that should be your next step. In fact, such a scan solved Shermlindcastle's problem. CCleaner (another excellent, free program) found about 200 Java errors. Uninstalling and reinstalling Java fixed the problem.
But if you're not so lucky, you'll have to find the culprit on your own. Start searching your memory (your brain's memory, not your PC's). When did the problem start? What did you do to your PC just before that? Did you install anything new? Allow Windows or an application to do a major upgrade?
Also, note what programs are running, and what peripherals you're using, when it happens. Keep a journal--on paper, so you don't have to type an entry into it when Windows is moving like an exhausted turtle.
Another idea, suggested by forum moderator Scott Maxwell: Keep an eye on your processes: When things are fine, right-click the taskbar and select Start Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, then click the CPU column heading once or twice to put the most demanding processes on the top. Keep the Task Manager running at all times.
When your PC slows down, check the Task Manager window to see what's at the top of the list.
When you've identified the culprit, ask yourself how badly you need that program. If you need it, see if there's an update or a bug fix, and if there isn't, complain to the manufacturer.
Or you can just uninstall it. Don't simply use the program's own uninstaller (or Control Panel's program removal tool, which simply launches the program's own uninstaller). These uninstallers are often horribly inadequate, removing a program's functionality while leaving behind the problems. Instead, use the free, portable version of Revo Uninstaller or the $30 version of Total Uninstall. Why consider a $30 program over a free one? The free version of Revo can't handle 64-bit applications (not an issue if it's not a 64-bit PC), and Total Uninstall does a better job in situations where an uninstall requires a reboot.
Lincoln Spector
Shermlindcastle asked the Answer Line forum why his PC occasionally slows down to a crawl.
There's nothing pretty about software overburdening your CPU and slowing everything down. And finding and fixing the cause isn't always an easy task. These suggestions will hopefully help.
The first thing to do is check for an infection. Malware isn't the most likely cause, but it's the most potentially dangerous, and is relatively easy to identify and fix.
Don't trust your regular, always-on antivirus program this time. If your PC is infected, that program has already failed and is probably compromised. Try the free version of either SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Better yet, try both.
If the scans don't find anything, chances are your PC isn't infected (unless you have other reasons to think so; see Remove a Virus or Other Malicious Infection). But your Registry could be corrupted, and a scan of that should be your next step. In fact, such a scan solved Shermlindcastle's problem. CCleaner (another excellent, free program) found about 200 Java errors. Uninstalling and reinstalling Java fixed the problem.
But if you're not so lucky, you'll have to find the culprit on your own. Start searching your memory (your brain's memory, not your PC's). When did the problem start? What did you do to your PC just before that? Did you install anything new? Allow Windows or an application to do a major upgrade?
Also, note what programs are running, and what peripherals you're using, when it happens. Keep a journal--on paper, so you don't have to type an entry into it when Windows is moving like an exhausted turtle.
Another idea, suggested by forum moderator Scott Maxwell: Keep an eye on your processes: When things are fine, right-click the taskbar and select Start Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, then click the CPU column heading once or twice to put the most demanding processes on the top. Keep the Task Manager running at all times.
When your PC slows down, check the Task Manager window to see what's at the top of the list.
When you've identified the culprit, ask yourself how badly you need that program. If you need it, see if there's an update or a bug fix, and if there isn't, complain to the manufacturer.
Or you can just uninstall it. Don't simply use the program's own uninstaller (or Control Panel's program removal tool, which simply launches the program's own uninstaller). These uninstallers are often horribly inadequate, removing a program's functionality while leaving behind the problems. Instead, use the free, portable version of Revo Uninstaller or the $30 version of Total Uninstall. Why consider a $30 program over a free one? The free version of Revo can't handle 64-bit applications (not an issue if it's not a 64-bit PC), and Total Uninstall does a better job in situations where an uninstall requires a reboot.
Set Up Your HDTV for Watching Sports
Set Up Your HDTV for Watching Sports
We have three tips for optimizing your big screen for the big game.
Lincoln Spector, PCWorld
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 06:00 PM PST
You're all geared up for Super Bowl Sunday--or, if football isn't your thing, maybe you're anticipating the men's slalom at the Winter Olympics. Either way, you have your pizza, your beer, and your brand-new, beautiful HDTV. But is that HDTV giving your favorite sport everything it's capable of giving?
Even if your set is already perfectly calibrated, three extra adjustments can help your new plasma or LCD present sports in their best light. In tweaking your settings, you should compensate for daytime viewing, make sure that you're not losing image quality through your DVR or set-top box, and take full advantage of your 120Hz or 240Hz set.
Here's why--and here's how.
Fix Your HDTV for Daytime Viewing
Sports events often happen during the day, and if you prefer watching them live, that means viewing them with the sun shining through your windows. Even if you've placed your HDTV where sunlight won't hit the screen directly (and you should), you must compensate for the presence of any window in the room by making the picture brighter.
Simply turning up the brightness won't help. The Brightness setting on most HDTVs doesn't actually control brightness, but black level; turning it up makes the image brighter, but more washed out. To fix that, you have to increase the Contrast (called Picture on some sets), which controls the white level. You'll probably have to fiddle with both controls, going back and forth between them, until you're pleased with the result. Then fiddle with them again the next time you watch TV at night.
You have other options. If you own an LCD set, for instance, the Backlight control changes the picture's brightness without throwing any other settings out of whack--so if sunlight is making the game hard to see, just turn up the backlight. (If you have a rear-projection set, the Iris setting will do the same thing.)
Plasma sets offer no such convenience, so your best bet in this case is to set up separately calibrated modes for day and night viewing. Most HDTVs offer various modes, some preset and some user-configurable. In some HDTVs, even the presets are configurable. If your set has two or more configurable modes, calibrate one at night and one during the day. (How do you know if a preset mode is configurable? Select it and start trying to configure the TV. If the mode name changes to something like 'User', that's the only configurable mode.)
If your plasma HDTV doesn't allow you to configure more than one mode, or if the above steps sound like too much trouble, experiment with the preset modes and hope that you find a good one. The Sports mode, if your TV has one, is an obvious choice, although it might not actually be appropriate for your situation. Vivid mode may also work well during daylight hours.
Don't Let Your Set-Top Box Get in the Way
If your TV signal passes through a set-top box or a DVR, it could be arriving at the television in an altered, lower-quality form. You can fix that with the right setting.
First, some background: HDTV broadcasts come in two standard resolutions, 1080i and 720p, each with its own advantages. Though 1080i has more pixels and therefore offers more detail, it interlaces the image, drawing only half the lines with each pass (first the odd lines and then the even ones). This approach can cause problems with rendering fast-moving objects. In contrast, 720p--the p stands for progressive--draws all of the lines with each pass, avoiding those problems. (1080p offers the best of both worlds, but it isn't a broadcast standard.)
Converting either format to the other one will compromise image quality. Converting either to 1080p--which any 1080p HDTV will do automatically--will do little or no harm, depending on the quality of the TV's upscaling circuitry. Keep in mind that much of what you watch on a 1080p set (except a Blu-ray Disc or material from a 1080p streaming video source such as Vudu) is upscaled, deinterlaced, or both; but not all TV upscalers are created equal, and image quality can vary accordingly. If your TV signal passes directly from the cable or antenna to your HDTV, your TV alone will convert the image, and you don't have to worry about this problem at all. But if your signal goes through a DVR or set-top box (a certainty if you have satellite, and a likelihood with cable), that box is probably set to output everything at one of the broadcast HD resolutions--and as a result, the quality of material sent at the other resolution is being hurt by the conversion.
What to do? Go into your DVR or set-top box's Setup menu and look for a setting called Video Output, Format, or even TV Type. Once there, if you find a Native option, which sends everything to the TV without changes, pick that. If Native isn't available but a 1080p option is, go with that one. You can keep either of these options indefinitely, because it allows every broadcast, no matter the resolution, to upscale to your TV's resolution without going through another, potentially harmful conversion first.
If neither option is available on your set, you'll want to change the output setting to match the broadcasting standards of the television station. If you're going to be watching ESPN, Fox Sports, or ABC, set the DVR's output to 720p. For CBS or NBC (broadcasters of the Super Bowl and the Olympics, respectively), go with 1080i.
Go for Smoother Motion
Many of today's LCD HDTVs have 120Hz or 240Hz refresh rates. Among other advantages, these faster sets can interpolate extra frames, smoothing out fast motion--if you set them correctly.
You won't find the word interpolate in your set's manual. TV manufacturers give the function trademarked names like Motionflow, Smooth Motion Technology, or Auto Motion Plus. HD video runs at 60 frames per second. With interpolation turned off, a 120Hz HDTV simply shows each frame twice. With the feature turned on, the TV creates an extra frame based on what it thinks should be in between each two.
Not everyone agrees that this approach really helps. My own experience is that it definitely helps with text crawls running at the bottom of the screen (pretty common in sports broadcasting), and that it sometimes makes a slight improvement with a moving camera or a ball flying across the screen. But I've also noticed that, when set too high, interpolation can create a slight but unfortunate judder effect.
Manufacturers say that their default settings reflect their recommended optimization for the widest variety of circumstances. My recommendation is to find the option to control this feature (it probably has the word motion in its name), pick a middle setting, and judge how it looks for the material you're viewing. Don't use the highest setting, though: You'll see more distortion than advantage.
With your HDTV properly set, nothing will stop you from enjoying the big game or any other competition--unless, of course, you bet on the loser.
We have three tips for optimizing your big screen for the big game.
Lincoln Spector, PCWorld
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 06:00 PM PST
You're all geared up for Super Bowl Sunday--or, if football isn't your thing, maybe you're anticipating the men's slalom at the Winter Olympics. Either way, you have your pizza, your beer, and your brand-new, beautiful HDTV. But is that HDTV giving your favorite sport everything it's capable of giving?
Even if your set is already perfectly calibrated, three extra adjustments can help your new plasma or LCD present sports in their best light. In tweaking your settings, you should compensate for daytime viewing, make sure that you're not losing image quality through your DVR or set-top box, and take full advantage of your 120Hz or 240Hz set.
Here's why--and here's how.
Fix Your HDTV for Daytime Viewing
Sports events often happen during the day, and if you prefer watching them live, that means viewing them with the sun shining through your windows. Even if you've placed your HDTV where sunlight won't hit the screen directly (and you should), you must compensate for the presence of any window in the room by making the picture brighter.
Simply turning up the brightness won't help. The Brightness setting on most HDTVs doesn't actually control brightness, but black level; turning it up makes the image brighter, but more washed out. To fix that, you have to increase the Contrast (called Picture on some sets), which controls the white level. You'll probably have to fiddle with both controls, going back and forth between them, until you're pleased with the result. Then fiddle with them again the next time you watch TV at night.
You have other options. If you own an LCD set, for instance, the Backlight control changes the picture's brightness without throwing any other settings out of whack--so if sunlight is making the game hard to see, just turn up the backlight. (If you have a rear-projection set, the Iris setting will do the same thing.)
Plasma sets offer no such convenience, so your best bet in this case is to set up separately calibrated modes for day and night viewing. Most HDTVs offer various modes, some preset and some user-configurable. In some HDTVs, even the presets are configurable. If your set has two or more configurable modes, calibrate one at night and one during the day. (How do you know if a preset mode is configurable? Select it and start trying to configure the TV. If the mode name changes to something like 'User', that's the only configurable mode.)
If your plasma HDTV doesn't allow you to configure more than one mode, or if the above steps sound like too much trouble, experiment with the preset modes and hope that you find a good one. The Sports mode, if your TV has one, is an obvious choice, although it might not actually be appropriate for your situation. Vivid mode may also work well during daylight hours.
Don't Let Your Set-Top Box Get in the Way
If your TV signal passes through a set-top box or a DVR, it could be arriving at the television in an altered, lower-quality form. You can fix that with the right setting.
First, some background: HDTV broadcasts come in two standard resolutions, 1080i and 720p, each with its own advantages. Though 1080i has more pixels and therefore offers more detail, it interlaces the image, drawing only half the lines with each pass (first the odd lines and then the even ones). This approach can cause problems with rendering fast-moving objects. In contrast, 720p--the p stands for progressive--draws all of the lines with each pass, avoiding those problems. (1080p offers the best of both worlds, but it isn't a broadcast standard.)
Converting either format to the other one will compromise image quality. Converting either to 1080p--which any 1080p HDTV will do automatically--will do little or no harm, depending on the quality of the TV's upscaling circuitry. Keep in mind that much of what you watch on a 1080p set (except a Blu-ray Disc or material from a 1080p streaming video source such as Vudu) is upscaled, deinterlaced, or both; but not all TV upscalers are created equal, and image quality can vary accordingly. If your TV signal passes directly from the cable or antenna to your HDTV, your TV alone will convert the image, and you don't have to worry about this problem at all. But if your signal goes through a DVR or set-top box (a certainty if you have satellite, and a likelihood with cable), that box is probably set to output everything at one of the broadcast HD resolutions--and as a result, the quality of material sent at the other resolution is being hurt by the conversion.
What to do? Go into your DVR or set-top box's Setup menu and look for a setting called Video Output, Format, or even TV Type. Once there, if you find a Native option, which sends everything to the TV without changes, pick that. If Native isn't available but a 1080p option is, go with that one. You can keep either of these options indefinitely, because it allows every broadcast, no matter the resolution, to upscale to your TV's resolution without going through another, potentially harmful conversion first.
If neither option is available on your set, you'll want to change the output setting to match the broadcasting standards of the television station. If you're going to be watching ESPN, Fox Sports, or ABC, set the DVR's output to 720p. For CBS or NBC (broadcasters of the Super Bowl and the Olympics, respectively), go with 1080i.
Go for Smoother Motion
Many of today's LCD HDTVs have 120Hz or 240Hz refresh rates. Among other advantages, these faster sets can interpolate extra frames, smoothing out fast motion--if you set them correctly.
You won't find the word interpolate in your set's manual. TV manufacturers give the function trademarked names like Motionflow, Smooth Motion Technology, or Auto Motion Plus. HD video runs at 60 frames per second. With interpolation turned off, a 120Hz HDTV simply shows each frame twice. With the feature turned on, the TV creates an extra frame based on what it thinks should be in between each two.
Not everyone agrees that this approach really helps. My own experience is that it definitely helps with text crawls running at the bottom of the screen (pretty common in sports broadcasting), and that it sometimes makes a slight improvement with a moving camera or a ball flying across the screen. But I've also noticed that, when set too high, interpolation can create a slight but unfortunate judder effect.
Manufacturers say that their default settings reflect their recommended optimization for the widest variety of circumstances. My recommendation is to find the option to control this feature (it probably has the word motion in its name), pick a middle setting, and judge how it looks for the material you're viewing. Don't use the highest setting, though: You'll see more distortion than advantage.
With your HDTV properly set, nothing will stop you from enjoying the big game or any other competition--unless, of course, you bet on the loser.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
More Author Goodbyes
Louis Auchincloss, who wrote more than 60 works of fiction, literary criticism, and biographies, died January 28 at age 92. He was best known as a chronicler of the New York old money elite. Gore Vidal once wrote of Auchincloss: "Of all our novelists, Auchincloss is the only one who tells us how our rulers behave in their banks and their boardrooms, their law offices, and their club. Not since Dreiser has an American writer had so much to tell us about the role of money in our lives.” Auchincloss’s last book, published in 2008, wasThe Last of the Old Guard, and many believe the title aptly describes the author.
Ralph McInerny best known for his mystery novels (Father Dowling series), died on January 29 at the age of 80. A Renaissance man, he published more than 80 books, wrote numerous scholarly articles, edited 3 national magazines. He also wrote poetry, and he was a full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Of his writing, McInerny said "Finally, that is what any writer does, return again and again to the original aspiration that came to him when young. It is the writing, producing a well-made story, that counts. All the rest is gravy."
Howard Zinn, historian and civil rights activist, died on January 27
at the age of 87. He taught at Spelman College and Boston University and was a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He is best known for his revisionist A People’s History of the United States which has sold nearly two million copies. “Our nation had gone through an awful lot —the Vietnam War, civil rights, Watergate — yet the textbooks offered the same fundamental nationalist glorification of country,” Mr. Zinn recalled in a recent interview with The New York Times. “I got the sense that people were hungry for a different, more honest take.” He served on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and marched for civil rights. He traveled with the Rev. Daniel Berrigan to Hanoi to receive prisoners released by the North Vietnamese and wrote the antiwar books Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal and Disobedience and Democracy . His memoir appropriately was titled You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
Ralph McInerny best known for his mystery novels (Father Dowling series), died on January 29 at the age of 80. A Renaissance man, he published more than 80 books, wrote numerous scholarly articles, edited 3 national magazines. He also wrote poetry, and he was a full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Of his writing, McInerny said "Finally, that is what any writer does, return again and again to the original aspiration that came to him when young. It is the writing, producing a well-made story, that counts. All the rest is gravy."
Howard Zinn, historian and civil rights activist, died on January 27
at the age of 87. He taught at Spelman College and Boston University and was a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He is best known for his revisionist A People’s History of the United States which has sold nearly two million copies. “Our nation had gone through an awful lot —the Vietnam War, civil rights, Watergate — yet the textbooks offered the same fundamental nationalist glorification of country,” Mr. Zinn recalled in a recent interview with The New York Times. “I got the sense that people were hungry for a different, more honest take.” He served on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and marched for civil rights. He traveled with the Rev. Daniel Berrigan to Hanoi to receive prisoners released by the North Vietnamese and wrote the antiwar books Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal and Disobedience and Democracy . His memoir appropriately was titled You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Facebook Chat Firefox Add-On
Add Facebook Chat to Your Firefox Sidebar
Rick Broida
Jan 28, 2010 2:50 pm
Already this week we've looked at reducing feed clutter from your Facebook home page and downloading entire Facebook photo albums with just one click.
Today, let's solve another Facebook hassle: when you leave the site, your chat sessions get left behind. Wouldn't it be nice if you could keep a Facebook chat going regardless of what site you're viewing?
If you use Firefox as your Web browser, you can add Facebook chat to the Sidebar, thus keeping it alive and active even while you browse elsewhere. (I also find it a more convenient location than the bottom-right corner of the screen, which is where Facebook shoehorns it.) Here's how to make it happen:
1. In Firefox, press Ctrl-B to open the Sidebar in Bookmarks view.
2. Right-click the bookmark folder where you want to add Facebook chat, then choose New Bookmark.
3. Name the new bookmark Facebook Chat, then paste the following URL into the Location field: http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
4. Check Load this bookmark in the sidebar, then click OK.
Now just click your new bookmark and presto: Facebook chat in the sidebar. Not too shabby, eh?
Rick Broida
Jan 28, 2010 2:50 pm
Already this week we've looked at reducing feed clutter from your Facebook home page and downloading entire Facebook photo albums with just one click.
Today, let's solve another Facebook hassle: when you leave the site, your chat sessions get left behind. Wouldn't it be nice if you could keep a Facebook chat going regardless of what site you're viewing?
If you use Firefox as your Web browser, you can add Facebook chat to the Sidebar, thus keeping it alive and active even while you browse elsewhere. (I also find it a more convenient location than the bottom-right corner of the screen, which is where Facebook shoehorns it.) Here's how to make it happen:
1. In Firefox, press Ctrl-B to open the Sidebar in Bookmarks view.
2. Right-click the bookmark folder where you want to add Facebook chat, then choose New Bookmark.
3. Name the new bookmark Facebook Chat, then paste the following URL into the Location field: http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
4. Check Load this bookmark in the sidebar, then click OK.
Now just click your new bookmark and presto: Facebook chat in the sidebar. Not too shabby, eh?
Laptop Buying Guide
Jason Cross, PCWorld
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 05:30 PM PST
Perhaps no common computer product has as many variations, with as wide a performance range, as the modern laptop PC. From tiny netbooks to big and powerful desktop-replacement systems, the differences in pricing, features, and performance are staggering. Follow our comprehensive guide to make sure you get the laptop that's right for you.
Buying a new notebook can be tough because you have so many options to consider, and no shortage of reasons for purchasing one. Maybe you're about to head off to college and you need to take notes in class. Perhaps your current laptop labors when running today's applications, and it's time for an upgrade. Or maybe you're happy with your desktop PC, and you want a companion device for surfing the Web from your couch. Even if you know what you want to do, with so many laptop models available it can be hard to decide among them. The potential for confusion is enough to make you choose something that just looks cool or happens to be available on your warehouse store's shelf--but that approach can end in heartache.
It's best to start by deciding which category of laptop you're most interested in. Laptops fall into four main categories: netbooks, ultraportables, all-purpose laptops, and desktop replacements. The laptop category that is right for you depends on the kind of user you are.
Once you have decided on a category of laptop, it's time to start considering the specs. To learn how to wade through all the product names and acronyms, check out "Laptop Buying Guide: Making Sense of the Specifications." And before you ask the store to run your credit card, read our advice in "Laptop Buying Guide: Shopping Tips."
Netbooks
For their intended purpose, netbooks are a great choice. They aren't powerful enough to do everything you need a PC to do, but are rather meant to be companions to your main PC. Small and light enough to carry around all day, they're the perfect device for taking notes in class or surfing the Web on a commuter train. A typical netbook weighs about 3 pounds or less and has a screen size of 6 to 10 inches. Most cost around $300 to $400.
If you're seeking a new primary PC, you'll want to look elsewhere. Netbooks' limited screen resolutions (10-inch netbooks typically top out at 1280 by 768), RAM, and processing power make editing photos and spreadsheets a pain. In addition, some Web pages, Flash games, and applications simply don't fit well on a small screen. Still, there's something to be said for a system with a battery life of 6 or more hours; in our PCWorld Labs tests, that's how long most of the newest netbooks last.
Most netbooks are based on Intel's Atom line of processors. These chips can run the standard Windows operating system you're accustomed to and all your usual applications, but they're not very fast compared with more-expensive Intel CPUs such as the Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron found in ultraportables, or the Core 2 Duo and Core i5 found in all-purpose or desktop-replacement laptops. Couple this limitation with the fact that netbooks typically have only 1GB of RAM (very few offer 2GB as an option), and you're looking at pretty slow performance.
A netbook is fine for simple Web browsing or word processing, but it struggles on streaming video, editing photos, or running multiple applications simultaneously. And if you're thinking of playing 3D games, forget it: The majority of netbooks use Intel's integrated graphics chips, and not very good ones, at that. Some netbook models may have one of nVidia's Ion GPUs (graphics processing units), which are a lot better at handling graphics and decoding video, but even these won't play the latest and greatest games well, especially in combination with the low-power Atom CPU and limited RAM. Alternatively, some netbooks now supplement their Intel GPUs with a Broadcom decoder chip that does nothing but speed up video playback and improve its quality; if you want to use your netbook to watch a lot of Hulu or YouTube videos, you may want to pay a little extra for this option if it's available.
One more drawback: Netbooks almost never have an optical drive, so you can't play DVDs or load software off a disc without buying and using an external, USB-attached DVD drive.
Ultraportables
Slim and light, ultraportable laptops are a step up from netbooks. Sure, in choosing an ultraportable over a netbook you tack on maybe a pound of weight, but that added weight means a more powerful processor, more RAM, and often a larger screen. These systems are ideal for users who need a fuller PC experience but still want a machine that's easy to carry around. Screen sizes vary, from around 11 inches to 14 inches, but models with larger screens are usually considered "ultraportable" only if they're especially thin. You can expect an ultraportable to weigh from 3 to 4.5 pounds, typically; battery life extends from 4 to 6 hours. Prices generally land in the $600-to-$800 range, but some superthin models with larger screens can cost more than $1000.
Compared with netbooks, ultraportables have more processing power. Ultraportables use either dual-core CPUs--the same as you might find on an all-purpose laptop--or low-voltage processors from Intel or AMD that aren't as powerful as what you find in bigger notebooks (or more expensive ultraportables) but are far more capable than Atom netbook processors. Most ultraportables have 2GB to 4GB of RAM, too. As a result, ultraportables perform a lot better than netbooks on everyday applications, and they're far more suited to running multiple applications at once.
In the name of saving weight, cost, and battery life, many ultraportable laptops stick with integrated graphics chips that lack the oomph to handle modern games or video decoding. Still, it's not too hard to find ultraportable PCs with dedicated GPUs from nVidia or ATI; typically these laptops are powerful enough to run modest 3D games, and they do an excellent job on accelerating video.
If you're interested in playing DVDs, or if you often need to load software from a disc, you'll want to make sure to look for an ultraportable with an optical drive. In slimming down, many ultraportables these days have omitted the optical drive, but you can find some models (typically the pricier ultraportables with dual-core CPUs) that incorporate them (unlike netbooks, which eschew the optical drive entirely).
All-Purpose Laptops
Models in the all-purpose laptops category are, well, all-purpose: They're large and powerful enough to serve as your everyday computer, but portable enough to accompany you when you're on the go. This category has more options than almost any other class of laptop. You can find durable ruggedized laptops for business travel, convertible laptops with reversible screens that turn them into tablets, gaming laptops, cheap notebooks, expensive and stylish laptops, and more.
Generally an all-purpose laptop is defined as a system with a screen from 14 to 16 inches, and weighing more than 4.5 pounds. Most of these models use full-power dual-core and quad-core laptop CPUs (as opposed to ultra-low-voltage processors or Intel's energy-sipping Atom CPUs), and you can expect even entry-level systems in this category to have about 4GB of RAM, often with options for up to 8GB. The weight can vary widely depending on the model and configuration, but 5 to 8 pounds is common.
You'll find a wide range of prices as you shop for a general all-purpose laptop. Low-cost models can be as cheap as $400, but piling on extra options or choosing a system with a sleeker body or a better processor and graphics configuration can drive the price to $1500 or more. Optical drives remain standard, and Blu-ray Disc drives are optional on many all-purpose laptops.
You can get an all-purpose laptop with almost anything you desire, if you're willing to pay for it. Some have integrated graphics, others have drastically more powerful discrete mobile GPUs that will let you play the latest 3D games. Want a Blu-ray drive and an HDMI output so that you can hook the laptop to your HDTV? Some models have those features. Looking for 1TB of hard-drive space? You can get that, too. A touchscreen? Check. The array of features and options is dizzying. Manufacturers sometimes prepackage sets of features into specific laptop models for sale, whereas companies such as Dell, Fujitsu, HP, and Lenovo give you some level of customization of your laptop, so you can buy a configuration that best matches your needs.
Larger screens and more-powerful processors mean shorter battery life, though. Most all-purpose laptops last from 2 to 5 hours on a charge, depending on the model and how you use it; playing games and using Wi-Fi drains the battery faster than light Web surfing does, and cranking up the display's brightness shortens battery life considerably.
Desktop-Replacement Laptops
A desktop-replacement laptop (also known as a power laptop) is just what it sounds like: a larger laptop aimed at people who need the performance and large display size of a desktop computer but want to be able to move the machine from room to room easily. Screen sizes start at 16 inches and go up to 18.4 inches; models with higher screen resolutions are ideal for photo or video editing. Don't expect to carry one of these notebooks around with you all day, though--typically they're too large to fit in a regular backpack, and at 8 to 12 pounds they're tough on the shoulders. Consider these laptops as being more "luggable" than "portable."
The processors in these beefy laptops are typically top-of-the-line, either dual-core or quad-core chips whose performance rivals that of the CPUs found in all but the most powerful desktop computers. Discrete graphics chips from ATI or nVidia are standard on most desktop replacements, too. If you pick the right power laptop, you can play even the most demanding modern games. As for the amount of RAM, 4GB is the bare minimum. A hard drive of 500GB or more is common, while some laptops have up to 1TB of storage.
Of course, all of that power comes at a price. The battery won't last long (typically 2 hours or less with heavy use), so you shouldn't stray too far from an outlet. The high-power CPUs and GPUs run hot, too, making it uncomfortable to rest a desktop replacement notebook on your lap. And then there's the literal price: Cheap models may cost $1000 or less, but a nicely loaded desktop replacement will easily push $2000 or more.
This category is really for two types of people: Gamers, who need tremendous CPU and GPU power to play the latest titles, and professionals (such as video editors, photographers, or engineers) who need large displays and lots of horsepower to do their work.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 05:30 PM PST
Perhaps no common computer product has as many variations, with as wide a performance range, as the modern laptop PC. From tiny netbooks to big and powerful desktop-replacement systems, the differences in pricing, features, and performance are staggering. Follow our comprehensive guide to make sure you get the laptop that's right for you.
Buying a new notebook can be tough because you have so many options to consider, and no shortage of reasons for purchasing one. Maybe you're about to head off to college and you need to take notes in class. Perhaps your current laptop labors when running today's applications, and it's time for an upgrade. Or maybe you're happy with your desktop PC, and you want a companion device for surfing the Web from your couch. Even if you know what you want to do, with so many laptop models available it can be hard to decide among them. The potential for confusion is enough to make you choose something that just looks cool or happens to be available on your warehouse store's shelf--but that approach can end in heartache.
It's best to start by deciding which category of laptop you're most interested in. Laptops fall into four main categories: netbooks, ultraportables, all-purpose laptops, and desktop replacements. The laptop category that is right for you depends on the kind of user you are.
Once you have decided on a category of laptop, it's time to start considering the specs. To learn how to wade through all the product names and acronyms, check out "Laptop Buying Guide: Making Sense of the Specifications." And before you ask the store to run your credit card, read our advice in "Laptop Buying Guide: Shopping Tips."
Netbooks
For their intended purpose, netbooks are a great choice. They aren't powerful enough to do everything you need a PC to do, but are rather meant to be companions to your main PC. Small and light enough to carry around all day, they're the perfect device for taking notes in class or surfing the Web on a commuter train. A typical netbook weighs about 3 pounds or less and has a screen size of 6 to 10 inches. Most cost around $300 to $400.
If you're seeking a new primary PC, you'll want to look elsewhere. Netbooks' limited screen resolutions (10-inch netbooks typically top out at 1280 by 768), RAM, and processing power make editing photos and spreadsheets a pain. In addition, some Web pages, Flash games, and applications simply don't fit well on a small screen. Still, there's something to be said for a system with a battery life of 6 or more hours; in our PCWorld Labs tests, that's how long most of the newest netbooks last.
Most netbooks are based on Intel's Atom line of processors. These chips can run the standard Windows operating system you're accustomed to and all your usual applications, but they're not very fast compared with more-expensive Intel CPUs such as the Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron found in ultraportables, or the Core 2 Duo and Core i5 found in all-purpose or desktop-replacement laptops. Couple this limitation with the fact that netbooks typically have only 1GB of RAM (very few offer 2GB as an option), and you're looking at pretty slow performance.
A netbook is fine for simple Web browsing or word processing, but it struggles on streaming video, editing photos, or running multiple applications simultaneously. And if you're thinking of playing 3D games, forget it: The majority of netbooks use Intel's integrated graphics chips, and not very good ones, at that. Some netbook models may have one of nVidia's Ion GPUs (graphics processing units), which are a lot better at handling graphics and decoding video, but even these won't play the latest and greatest games well, especially in combination with the low-power Atom CPU and limited RAM. Alternatively, some netbooks now supplement their Intel GPUs with a Broadcom decoder chip that does nothing but speed up video playback and improve its quality; if you want to use your netbook to watch a lot of Hulu or YouTube videos, you may want to pay a little extra for this option if it's available.
One more drawback: Netbooks almost never have an optical drive, so you can't play DVDs or load software off a disc without buying and using an external, USB-attached DVD drive.
Ultraportables
Slim and light, ultraportable laptops are a step up from netbooks. Sure, in choosing an ultraportable over a netbook you tack on maybe a pound of weight, but that added weight means a more powerful processor, more RAM, and often a larger screen. These systems are ideal for users who need a fuller PC experience but still want a machine that's easy to carry around. Screen sizes vary, from around 11 inches to 14 inches, but models with larger screens are usually considered "ultraportable" only if they're especially thin. You can expect an ultraportable to weigh from 3 to 4.5 pounds, typically; battery life extends from 4 to 6 hours. Prices generally land in the $600-to-$800 range, but some superthin models with larger screens can cost more than $1000.
Compared with netbooks, ultraportables have more processing power. Ultraportables use either dual-core CPUs--the same as you might find on an all-purpose laptop--or low-voltage processors from Intel or AMD that aren't as powerful as what you find in bigger notebooks (or more expensive ultraportables) but are far more capable than Atom netbook processors. Most ultraportables have 2GB to 4GB of RAM, too. As a result, ultraportables perform a lot better than netbooks on everyday applications, and they're far more suited to running multiple applications at once.
In the name of saving weight, cost, and battery life, many ultraportable laptops stick with integrated graphics chips that lack the oomph to handle modern games or video decoding. Still, it's not too hard to find ultraportable PCs with dedicated GPUs from nVidia or ATI; typically these laptops are powerful enough to run modest 3D games, and they do an excellent job on accelerating video.
If you're interested in playing DVDs, or if you often need to load software from a disc, you'll want to make sure to look for an ultraportable with an optical drive. In slimming down, many ultraportables these days have omitted the optical drive, but you can find some models (typically the pricier ultraportables with dual-core CPUs) that incorporate them (unlike netbooks, which eschew the optical drive entirely).
All-Purpose Laptops
Models in the all-purpose laptops category are, well, all-purpose: They're large and powerful enough to serve as your everyday computer, but portable enough to accompany you when you're on the go. This category has more options than almost any other class of laptop. You can find durable ruggedized laptops for business travel, convertible laptops with reversible screens that turn them into tablets, gaming laptops, cheap notebooks, expensive and stylish laptops, and more.
Generally an all-purpose laptop is defined as a system with a screen from 14 to 16 inches, and weighing more than 4.5 pounds. Most of these models use full-power dual-core and quad-core laptop CPUs (as opposed to ultra-low-voltage processors or Intel's energy-sipping Atom CPUs), and you can expect even entry-level systems in this category to have about 4GB of RAM, often with options for up to 8GB. The weight can vary widely depending on the model and configuration, but 5 to 8 pounds is common.
You'll find a wide range of prices as you shop for a general all-purpose laptop. Low-cost models can be as cheap as $400, but piling on extra options or choosing a system with a sleeker body or a better processor and graphics configuration can drive the price to $1500 or more. Optical drives remain standard, and Blu-ray Disc drives are optional on many all-purpose laptops.
You can get an all-purpose laptop with almost anything you desire, if you're willing to pay for it. Some have integrated graphics, others have drastically more powerful discrete mobile GPUs that will let you play the latest 3D games. Want a Blu-ray drive and an HDMI output so that you can hook the laptop to your HDTV? Some models have those features. Looking for 1TB of hard-drive space? You can get that, too. A touchscreen? Check. The array of features and options is dizzying. Manufacturers sometimes prepackage sets of features into specific laptop models for sale, whereas companies such as Dell, Fujitsu, HP, and Lenovo give you some level of customization of your laptop, so you can buy a configuration that best matches your needs.
Larger screens and more-powerful processors mean shorter battery life, though. Most all-purpose laptops last from 2 to 5 hours on a charge, depending on the model and how you use it; playing games and using Wi-Fi drains the battery faster than light Web surfing does, and cranking up the display's brightness shortens battery life considerably.
Desktop-Replacement Laptops
A desktop-replacement laptop (also known as a power laptop) is just what it sounds like: a larger laptop aimed at people who need the performance and large display size of a desktop computer but want to be able to move the machine from room to room easily. Screen sizes start at 16 inches and go up to 18.4 inches; models with higher screen resolutions are ideal for photo or video editing. Don't expect to carry one of these notebooks around with you all day, though--typically they're too large to fit in a regular backpack, and at 8 to 12 pounds they're tough on the shoulders. Consider these laptops as being more "luggable" than "portable."
The processors in these beefy laptops are typically top-of-the-line, either dual-core or quad-core chips whose performance rivals that of the CPUs found in all but the most powerful desktop computers. Discrete graphics chips from ATI or nVidia are standard on most desktop replacements, too. If you pick the right power laptop, you can play even the most demanding modern games. As for the amount of RAM, 4GB is the bare minimum. A hard drive of 500GB or more is common, while some laptops have up to 1TB of storage.
Of course, all of that power comes at a price. The battery won't last long (typically 2 hours or less with heavy use), so you shouldn't stray too far from an outlet. The high-power CPUs and GPUs run hot, too, making it uncomfortable to rest a desktop replacement notebook on your lap. And then there's the literal price: Cheap models may cost $1000 or less, but a nicely loaded desktop replacement will easily push $2000 or more.
This category is really for two types of people: Gamers, who need tremendous CPU and GPU power to play the latest titles, and professionals (such as video editors, photographers, or engineers) who need large displays and lots of horsepower to do their work.
Author Visit with Chris Bohjalian
Best selling novelist Chris Bohjalian will be at the Vernon Area Public Library this Saturday, 2/6/10, at 11:00 a.m. He will read from his latest novel, Secrets of Eden. Books will be available for sale and signing. Bohjalian's other novels include: Before You Know Kindness, Double Bind, Midwives, Skeletons at the Feast.
The Vernon Area Public Library is located at 300 Olde Half Day Road in Lincolnshire. Call to register: 847-634-3650 or register online: www.vapld.info
The Vernon Area Public Library is located at 300 Olde Half Day Road in Lincolnshire. Call to register: 847-634-3650 or register online: www.vapld.info
Monday, February 1, 2010
Author Kage Baker Dead at 57
January has been a bad month; we have been saying goodbye to many beloved authors. On Sunday, January 31, Kage Baker died of cancer. Baker was best known for her Company series of time travel novels and stories. The Empress of Mars was an expansion of her 2003 novella, which won a Sturgeon Award and was a Hugo and Nebula finalist. She also wrote fantasy, including The Anvil of the World and The House of the Stag. In 1999, she was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She published about 70 short stories, including Hugo finalist "Son Observe the Time" and World Fantasy finalist "Caverns of Mystery."
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