Filed under: Features, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

At Microsoft, we know that customers appreciate the importance of choice and compatibility. If you’re in the market for a new digital media player, look for the logo that ensures interoperability with a wide variety of players from our valued partners and wretched competitors such as Creative, Samsung, iRiver, Archos and Sandisk. PlaysForSure means that you won’t be locked into one company’s digital media player. On the other hand, isn’t that worth the convenience and elegant integration you’d get with a sweet, sweet Zune player?

PlaysForSure also means that you’ll have access to the widest variety of digital music stores, so you can choose from content offered by Napster and Yahoo! Music or, for an even better experience, you can take advantage of the great integration of MTV Networks’ Urge with Windows Media Player 11 — an experience so good that we’d just as soon pass on it in favor of a whole new music management application that will integrate with our own player and store. Finally, we’ll have something to compete with that company that owns MSN Music. There are also a number of excellent PlaysForSure video services such as CinemaNow and Vongo that we’re going to trounce with the service supporting Zune.

One of the best features of PlaysForSure is the ability to subscribe to all the music you want for a low monthly fee. But that becomes really cool when you can share that music wirelessly with other subscribers, and for that PlaysForSure will be as useful as a broken m:robe 500. PlaysForSure also won’t do much to ensure a wide variety of dockable accessories, another area where Zune will beat the skins off any PlaysForSure player

PlaysForSure isn’t just about portable media either. Using certified digital media receivers such as those from Roku and Slim Devices, you can stream protected audio from your PC to any room in the house. That kind of functionality is tough to beat, but we feel up to the challenge.

So look for the PlaysForSure logo with its five-part badge system that’s significantly easier to figure out than the homeland security threat level indicator. In fact, look hard for it, because you won’t find it anywhere on our own digital music player. Remember that if your player doesn’t support PlaysForSure, you risk purchasing the product with the broadest industry support or ours, which we think will be the best on the market.

If you’d like more information on PlaysForSure, head on over to your PC and check out the PlaysForSure web site. Or you may want to wait until the next Super Bowl when traffic will be low as we’ll be driving it somewhere else entirely.

Microsoft. Your products. Our prerogative.

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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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Filed under: Features, Peripherals, Wireless

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

During the spring CTIA conference of 2005, a Switched On column expressed hope for Bluetooth. Bluetooth phones were becoming more broadly available in the US and headsets were becoming more affordable, trends that have continued. However, the potential of Bluetooth has been cut short by carriers that have disabled or “crippled” parts of it functionality. The two most common profiles that carriers have disabled are DUN (dial-up networking) which lets you use your Bluetooth handset as a wireless modem, and OBEX (object exchange), which lets you wirelessly trade files between your handset and PC.

DUN is generally disabled to prevent users from taking advantage of data plans intended for the kind of relatively light data usage patterns of a smartphone, whereas some carriers disable OBEX to prevent circumventing cellular-based transfer services, like Verizon, for instance, and photos. While carriers have eased up on some of the profile disabling, the Sidekick 3, for example, supports only headset and file sharing functions.

Communicating Bluetooth compatibility has always offered a dilemma because the wireless technology encompasses several different benefits. Do you go the route of the WiFi Alliance and offer one logo that might leave out details such as operating frequency, and speed or do you go the PlaysForSure route and offer a confusing composite badge that details all the capabilities?

Be it via cost-cutting or carrier caprice, though, consumers are getting a warped idea of what Bluetooth is and what it can do. Putting aside newer features such as A2DP audio and EDR enhanced speed, the Bluetooth SIG needs to confront the issue of phones not supporting the expected features of DUN and OBEX — features that could conceivably interfere with carrier revenue models. That’s why it should reward carriers that support phones with these capabilities via a “True Bluetooth” certification.

“True Bluetooth” would tell consumers that a specific phone on a specific network offers the essential – if not full — promise of what a Bluetooth phone should be. Promotion of “True Bluetooth” would be done via the handset manufacturers that have been most aggressive in supporting Bluetooth such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. These companies are motivated to have carriers support the features that they’ve spent valuable development time engineering.

Carriers would also benefit from “True Bluetooth” as they would have a simple way to distinguish phones where they support features such as DUN from those that don’t, and market the right handsets to advanced users who want to use these features without resorting to hacks. It’s high time the Bluetooth SIG put some teeth back in Bluetooth with “True Bluetooth” — the way to hold its standard to a higher one.

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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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Filed under: Features

Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, an opinion column on entertainment and technology:

It’s official; the video blogging world is coming into its own. The harbinger to this digital coming of age? Well it might just be the explosion of everybody’s favorite rocket, Rocketboom. After all — a medium can’t be truly successful if there aren’t the predictable pulls over money and the ever-present “creative control.”

Arguably the most successful video blog ever, Rocketboom and its host Amanda Congdon have heretofore been the poster children for video blog victory. Fueled by its seductively simple recipe of one part clever writing, one part quirky-but-likeable-host, and about ten parts really tight sweaters, Rocketboom has from its October 2004 inception grown to a massive daily audience of 250,000.

In December of 2005 Rocketboom took yet another step towards legitimization when it became featured content on TiVo’s video download offering.

Rocketboom followed up on this TiVo victory in February by selling its first advertisement block (via eBay) for $40,000 dollars. Over the course of the following months Rocketboom sold other chunks of advertising, and while it hadn’t sold enough advertising to firmly label it a long-term success, the future for Rocketboom was definitely looking bright.

Yet, despite the introduction of money (or perhaps because of it) all was not well in Rocketboom land. And while Rocketboom is a product of the Internet, the story is as old as television itself. It’s the age old battle between the “talent” and the “management.”

On July 5th Amanda Congdon let the world know via a self-produced video blog entry that her tenure at Rocketboom had rather abruptly come to an end. What followed over the next 24 hours made Britney Spears’ latest Dateline interview look like a well-oiled PR machine. Andrew Baron, the site’s founder and majority owner, said she made unrealistic demands. Congdon shot back, all but using the phrase “constructive termination” to describe her new role in the organization. It was a mess, and the result is an “unboomed” Amanda and a Rocketboom looking for a replacement.

To the outside observer this might look like just another typical playground spat where one child boldly announces to the others “I’m taking my ball and going home.” However, underneath the adolescent name-calling and airing of public laundry, there actually is a serious issue which has the potential to affect the entire industry: when it comes to video blogging, who really owns the brand?

Yes, it’s clear that Andrew Baron as 51% owner (as opposed to Congdon’s 49%) of Rocketboom owns the Rocketboom name. However, is that really the brand that matters? Many viewers are quick to point out that Amanda is the “brand” to which they relate. At the end of the day it’s possible that the same refreshing “just Amanda and the camera” style which helped vault Rocketboom to internet stardom ironically might also be its downfall.

Unlike traditional “talent” vs. “management” debates where the talent is held in check by a certain amount of infrastructure, video blogs have very little to keep a well-liked host / writer tied to a brand. Furthermore, the audience for these shows is often bloggers and similarly tied-in viewers. This could spell disaster for a company like Rocketboom, but it could also have an adverse effect on companies looking for funding in the field. As one ex-VC put it, “I think that you’ll see a lot of companies re-examining their non-compete clauses when it comes to on-air talent. You just can’t afford to let your brand walk out the door.”

As for what this means for Rocketboom’s relationship with TiVo, TiVo declined to comment on their Rocketboom deal and whether or not the departure of Congdon will have an effect on it.

The next few weeks will certainly tell us a lot about the industry. Will Congdon be quick to grab the reins and start her own video blog? Will bloggers spread word of the new home? Will this result in a mass exodus of Rocketboom viewers?

One thing is clear. After this latest incident both Congdon and Baron will probably spend a little more time and be a little more careful before they pick their next partners.

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If you have comments or suggestions for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Features, Peripherals

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

“Hey there. Is this place new? I’ve been to this mall many times and never saw it before.”

“Yes, sir. Welcome to The Hewlepsmark Inkjet Printer Cartridge Experience.”

“No kidding. A whole location devoted to just to printer cartridges?”

“Not just any printer cartridges. Only Hewlepsmark inkjet printers. You see, after some failed early experiences with tech manufacturer-direct stores from Gateway and Microsoft, the past few years have seen Apple, Sony, Nokia, Palm, Nintendo, and now Pioneer move forward with their own retail stores. Even Dell and Samsung are using their own retail space to showcase their products. Soon we’re bound to see Coby Corner, Craighead, and jWINdow Shopping. It’s all the rage.

“So, we thought, as one of the world’s premiere printing companies, why not develop an environment where we can really reinforce the brand identity and provide a showcase for our great variety of inkjet colors, the best printer cartridge shopping experience possible. We also have weekly seminars, like the one next Wednesday about the link between third-party refill kits and gingivitis.”

 

“Really? I had no idea. Well, I guess this store isn’t a bad idea. I sometimes can’t find some of the specialty papers I use for my graphics arts projects.”

“Oooh, I’m sorry, We don’t have any papers here. Just printer cartridges.”

“I see. It’s kind of like that old sketch about the store that sells only Scotch tape.”

“Actually, the 3M store is just down the hall, over by the food court. You can’t miss it as it’s below a 30-foot cube made entirely of Post-It Notes.”

“Right. Well, it just so happens that I own one of your printers and its driver software has prevented me from opening any programs that can print until I get a new printer cartridge. It put up one of those little bubble alerts saying something about wanting to make sure I don’t get caught unable to share my output.”

“Ah, yes, that’s our new ‘proactive print protection’ feature. Pretty effective, don’t you think?”

“Well, it’s better than when my Phanatoshnysung Hi-Blue DVD player disabled my plasma TV when I tried to mod-chip it. It even used its on-disc printing technology to deliver a summons!”

“Ooooh, sorry to hear that, sir. Well, you said you’re in the market, then, for one of our cartridges? We have every one of our 16.7 million colors on display right over here.

“That’s great. I’d like a cyan, please, and I could use a new black ink cartridge as well. How much will that be?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. We don’t actually sell any printer cartridges here.”

“What? But I thought this was a store?

“Actually, sir, this is the printer cartridge experience. We wouldn’t want to compete with our valued retail partners, so I can either print you out a list of local retailers that have your colors in stock or I can place an online order for you. Your printer cartridges would arrive in three to five business days.”

“Ugh, this is ridiculous. I just need to mail a letter. I’ll write it out.”

“Good luck with that. This location was the only Mont Blanc store in the mall.”

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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com. 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

It's not very often that we here at Engadget adopt an issue and stand behind it; one of the only notable examples includes the Broadcast Flag, which in 2004 -- very early on in its life -- we made our feelings pretty well known. But when one Joseph Ferrara emailed us to point out a New York Times story that slipped beneath, well, just about everybody's radar, we knew we had to look further into the matter. After all, it shouldn't surprise you that we wouldn't take it lightly when someone threatens to raze the birthplace of the cellphone.

The facility in question, one time Holmdel, New Jersey home to Bell Labs -- one of the most prolific technology innovators of the 20th century -- was owned by Lucent technologies until a recent round of asset liquidations. Barely 40 miles out of New York City, in its heydey the six-story, two million square foot campus, employed over 5,600 people who toiled away in its bowels; it became home to the work of numerous Nobel laureates, and has long since been cemented in the annals of tech history as the birthplace to some of the most important communications technologies ever conceived. And it'll soon be torn down.

Designed and erected between 1957 and 1962 by the inimitable and infamous Eero Saarinen, Holmdel is former home to Bell Labs' optical transmission, microwave, and wireless work, including the High-Speed Networks Research Department, High Speed Mobile Data Research Department, and Data Networking Systems Research Department. It was Holmdel's Wireless Research Laboratory, however, and the work Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel that ranks among all Bell Labs' most notable contributions. In the early sixties Frenkeil and Engeld led a team of over 200 engineers to develop the first cellular wireless voice transmission technology, and eventually created AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), the first and one of the most widely deployed cellphone technologies (still active even today in many parts of rural America). Holmdel is effectively the birthplace of global wireless movement, possibly the most crucial communications development of the 20th century, the internet notwithstanding. But there's more. Lots more.

Before the current facility was erected, Harald Friis' work at Holmdel in 1938 produced one of the first microwave communications and RADAR systems, which was utilized by the US in World War II to defend against enemy munitions; Friss also worked closely with Bell Labs scientist Karl Guthe Jansky at Holmdel, who developed there the rotating antenna (aka "Jansky's merry-go-round") and was credited in 1933 with the discovery of the science of radio astronomy. This, in turn, gave birth to the research and work of two later Holmdel scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who in 1964 used the Bell Labs' infamous horn antenna (above) to lay the scientific groundwork for a little something they later dubbed the "Big Bang Theory" (for which they were jointly awarded 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics).

We could go on about Holmdel's technological contributions, from Linn Mollenauer's groundbreaking work in the development of multimode fiber transmission systems and Andrew Chraplyvy's, Kenneth Walker's, and Robert Tkach's invention of optical fiber for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) -- some of the technologies which now enable the fiber optic backbone of today's internet infrastructure; to the lab's direct contributions to Telstar, the first communications satellite, which prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send a message of his own into space by way of Holmdel; to Jerry Foschini's BLAST technology (1998), the original precursor to MIMO wireless transmission systems; to Steven Chu's Nobel Prize-winning work in cooling and trapping atoms with lasers; to Arthur Schawlow's and Charles Townes' 1958 invention of the frickin' laser. But somehow we think you get the point.

So what is to become of this irreplaceable landmark? Well, Lucent sold the site to a billion dollar real-estate developer known as Preferred Real Estate Investments, whose founder and CEO Michael O'Neill remarked the "useful life" of this facility is over. Perhaps O'Neill might is right that as a hotbed of technological ferment and advanced research and development Holmdel's life may have come to an end -- but certainly not so as a historic site for technology and the communications industry. Preferred Real Estate Investments has expressed their intentions not to repurpose the facility as such a historic site, or even retrofit the mammoth campus as an office space anew, but instead to raze and replace it with a three facility office park.

So if you're anything like us, you immediately began wondering what we can do about this. Unfortunately they now own the property, so legally the general public's options are limited. First, someone who knows the score needs to get in touch with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Historic Preservation Office and file with them to enter the Holmdel Bell Labs facility into the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places; though this might not ultimately make it an illegal act to destroy the labs, it would certainly make it morally and officially reprehensible for PREI to create their new office park; if nothing else, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 might at least call for an MOA for the facility to be properly documented for the ages in such an event that it is to be demolished.

The other option, of course, is to directly petition Preferred Real Estate Investments whose founder and CEO (Michael O'Neill), board of directors, and senior management can all be reached by phone or email here. (We will not post O'Neill's email and phone number here -- they're currently listed under "Principals" -- but we imagine a torrent of phone calls and emails might soon find that page removed from their site, so we assume you, dear readers, will take care of preserving that information for others.) We do not suggest anything but metered, reasonable, and kind -- but firm -- requests of PREI to suck up the financial burden and reinvigorate the Holmdel facility into a museum of science and technology -- perhaps even under the auspices of Lucent -- as well as gutting and repartitioning the old space for use by new technology companies in the New York metro area. Because honestly, it really doesn't take a Bell Labs scientist to see what a remarkable and truly historic monument to man's technological ingenuity the Holmdel facility is -- while it's still around, anyway.

IEEE's "Lab for Sale," Bio of Harald T. Friis
CE Hall of Fame - Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel
MIT's Inventor of the Week Archive
Bell Labs / Lucent - Penzias and Wilson, Chraplyvy, Walker, and Tkach, Foschini, Linn Mollenauer
Reference.com - Karl Jansky
GA - Saarinen's work at Holmdel
Images via Bell Labs and DLT Consulting

Additional research and thanks to Joseph Ferrara.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, an opinion column on entertainment and technology:

Congratulations!  You’ve taken the first step; you’ve decided to buy a new television.  

The problem, as you quickly discovered, is that the world of televisions is a crowded place.  Determining which set is worthy of your hard-earned cash can be a daunting experience. Oh sure, you’ve done a little research. “Research,” of course means that you cornered the first “TV geek” friend you could find and asked him (uh, or her) the ridiculously open-ended question “Which TV should I buy?”  

Your friend, having been suckered by this question before, looked at you with an expression that clearly said, “Would you walk into a random doctor’s office and nonchalantly ask ‘What surgery should I have?’” and went on to do some skillful hand-waving that ultimately deflected your question. Your friend (no idiot) knows that if he actually answered the question, he’d forever be held responsible for the “quirks” any TV is bound to have.

We here at Engadget feel your pain. We don’t feel your pain enough to tell you what to get, but we do feel your pain.  So, to help you out a little, we’ve compiled a list of “IT” TV’s. Below are five of the top “mob-selected” televisions.  In some cases they are the best of the best. In other cases they provide good value.  However, in each case, you won’t be alone if you’re looking at these sets.  In short, these are five of the top buzz-worthy TVs, and just for fun we’ve included each set’s “IT” girl equivalent.

#5 Westinghouse LVM-42W2

It’s been a long time since the Westinghouse brand-name has been relevant. This once-proud American firm long ago sold its credibility, tradition, trust name to the highest bidder. The result was a long dark period for Westinghouse products. Well, that could just be changing with this latest line of LCD televisions. 

Since re-emerging on the scene, Westinghouse has released a slew of 1080p LCD televisions. Targeted at the price-conscious consumer, the LVM-42W2 packs quite a few goodies for its relatively low price. Its 8ms pixel response time greatly reduces the ghosting often associated with early-generation LCD televisions, and its ability to accept 1080p signals will be much appreciated by future PS3 owners. Overall, it’s considered a solid performer for those looking to join the 1080p crowd without breaking the bank.

The closest “IT” girl to the Westinghouse? Paris Hilton, of course. It comes from a once proud name.  It’s rail thin and cheap. (And yes, I did get this far without using the phrase “bang for your buck.”)

#4 Samsung HL-S5679W

Samsung DLPs are the Lindsay Lohan of the television market. Just when you think that they’re looking a little bit worn and are about to lose their “IT” status, BAM! They do something to get the public interested again. 

In the case of this latest Samsung, they’ve made the jump to an LED light-source. This change accomplishes a few things. First, it eliminates the need for a color-wheel. (Note: that doesn’t necessarily equate to the elimination of rainbows. The rainbows are caused by the sequential layering of colors. Until they switch to a three-chip solution, there will always be the theoretical possibility of seeing rainbows. With that said, eliminating the wheel should, in practice, eliminate rainbows.) The LED light source also means a quick boot-up and a “bulb” which, for all intents and purposes, will last for the life of the television set. Add to the mix improved color accuracy, and you’ve got yourself a little more life out of the Samsung DLP line.

#3 Sony KDS-50A2000, KDS-55A2000, KDS-60A200

If you’ve always drooled over the picture quality of Sony’s SXRD (Silicon Crystal Reflective Display) rear-projection televisions. But couldn’t afford the hefty price tag of the Qualia 006 (the first generation), or later you boycotted the KDS-RXBR1 series (the second generation) because it didn’t accept 1080p signals, this new line might just be for you — third time’s a charm, after all.

While you will certainly pay a premium for the KDS over similarly-sized DLP units, you’ll also get a picture few can argue with. They’ve also finally fixed what many considered the fatal flaw of past versions of the SXRD line — its inputs now accept 1080p. Like its predecessors, the new KDS line runs at a native 1920 x 1080 resolution via a three-chip SXRD set-up.

The equivalent “IT” girl? Eva Longoria. Why? No reason in particular. It’s just quite nice to look at and a little more upscale than your typical teeny-bopper TVs.

#2 NEC 50xr5

If you crave those gorgeous black levels but don’t have the room for a CRT (or you simply lack the willingness to deal with a traditional CRT rear-projection in this digital world) plasma is still king. While Panasonic and Pioneer are certainly darlings, NEC is quietly making some noise with their 50xr5 model.

Wrapped in a sturdy but quietly elegant casing, the 50xr5 displays a very well-balanced picture. Skin tones are rich and true. Black levels excel. While not 1080p, the NEC does an admirable job putting that 1365 x 768 resolution to work. The end result is a picture that makes you forget that you’re watching TV, and, in the end, isn’t that what it’s all about?

And, for those keeping track at home, you can’t look at the delicate beveled casing and the rich skin-tones and not immediately think Keira Knightly.

#1 VPL-VW100 AKA “The Ruby”

It should come as little shock to anyone that the number one “IT” TV (well, projector really) is Sony’s gem, the Ruby. The VPL-VW100 is nearly identical to its older sibling, the $30k Qualia 004, but rings up at one third the price.

The Ruby is the dream projector for those with the ability to buy at the $10k price-range. In fact, when Engadget headquarters was looking to blanket all four walls of the conference room with digital projection, there was little debate — the quad set of Rubys gave just the performance needed to create our own private holo-deck.

The VPL-VW100 pumps out full 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution, accepts 1080p signals, and is whisper-quiet. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

The Ruby is the Charlize Theron of projectors. It’s gorgeous. It’s versatile and, most importantly, it’s got the skills to back it up.

You see — picking a new TV can be as easy as choosing your “IT” girl of choice.  So get out there and pick one because heaven knows that Bea Arthur model of yours isn’t doing that Xbox 360 any justice.

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If you have comments or suggestions for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Today in Engadget Mobile

News

• KT Powertel introduces South Korea to BlackBerry
• Get your Q now in "just 2 easy steps"
• The BlackBerry 7130e: Sprint gets shown up again
• Nokia E62 on Cingular soon
• ASUS releases P525 Pocket PC phone
• Nokia cracking down on counterfeiters
• Pantech C300 drops on Cingular, sort of
• Das BlackBerry 8707v now available on Vodafone Germany
• Vertu looking to expand infection of world's jet set
• Samsung ZX20 poised to usher in HSDPA age on Cingular
• 911 Cell Phone Bank takes old phones, postage paid
• Debitel launches Samsung P900, T-DMB in Germany

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Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

Stop growing? Yes, stop growing. YouTube's success might just be killing them. They've already gained the elusive "mindshare." People are familiar with YouTube. People know YouTube. Any further growth is just an ego-quest; it's not a quest for money and it's certainly not a quest for a sustainable business. Furthermore, added growth might just hinder long-term aspirations. With the majority of their traffic falling into one of two camps: a) illegal traffic (e.g. the much-talked-about "Lazy Sunday" clip) or b) traffic which will never make them a cent, it's time for YouTube to take a step back and ask the question "How do we attract more quality and less quantity?" The answer (as always) is money.

There's an old eBay story (whether or not it's apocryphal I can't say) that goes something like the following: it was when eBay started charging for its auctions that the site became useful. Until that point in eBay's existence, "good" auctions were often hard to find amidst the sea of "bad" auctions. By adding a little money into the mix, serious buyers were able to find serious sellers and vice versa. While not exactly the same thing, it is time for YouTube to start courting quality content producers.

"How might this work?" you say. Well, I'm glad you asked.

This past week I must have watched Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance" clip five times. It was funny. It was quite funny, actually. It's a shame that Judson won't get paid for that work. Imagine, on the other hand, if YouTube had placed an advertisement before that clip and paid Judson for every time that clip was watched. Take this a step further. Imagine if you, as a website owner, were also given a cut of the advertising revenue every time someone watched that clip on your website. All of a sudden you've got a system whereby quality content owners are eager to submit their work and websites have an incentive to find the best quality clips to feature on their sites. It's the elusive win-win-win.

There's often an attitude that advertising ruins things. While it's true that ads can be annoying, ads or, more to the point, the money they represent have an uncanny ability to drive quality. By giving people and organizations proper incentive to use YouTube's distribution system, money could help to achieve the goal of making quality content extremely web-portable. This in turn, would drive YouTube's ultimate success.

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If you have comments or suggestions for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Features

Plugging the USB port into a Windows PC prompts you to use the browsing software resident on the device. The interface, created in Adobe (nee Macromedia) Director software, is similar to the one on the DVD-ROMs created from Pure Digital’s processing retailers, and makes it easy to share video clips with friends via email, automatically downsizing them to save download time. Unlike with the disposable camcorder, there is no option to have the video hosted and transcoded on the fly for the best platform and bandwidth, but Pure Digital says it is working on adding that functionality.

Advanced users can dispense with all this, of course, and just drag video files from the camcorder’s icon since it mounts like a USB flash drive. And Apple fans: the Point and Shoot camcorder can now be the other white little digital media gadget you carry with you everywhere; the camcorder comes with Mac OS X software.

Until now, the flash camcorder space has been bifurcated between high-end options from the likes of Panasonic and Sanyo that can cost $600 or more after a beefy SD card, and what I call “cramcorders” — gadgets that do a generally poor job at a variety of tasks including taking photos and playing music. The Point and Shoot camcorder is affordable and singularly focused. In fact, according to Pure Digital, its reliance on a relatively low-resolution sensor helps avoid the noise problems in low-light video common among even more expensive offerings; I was impressed with the low amount of noise in indoor video. Furthermore, the Point and Shoot camcorder captures video at VGA, four times the resolution of its disposable doppelganger.

The result is video that lies between acceptable indoors, where more compression artifacts can be noticed, and good outdoors. Whereas Pure Digital overpromised with the quality of its initial disposable offering, it offers credible video quality with this follow-up, good enough for its target of “everyday video.” When compared with video captured by a Canon PowerShot SD400, the digital camera’s superior optics and lower compression created a sharper image, but again the Pure Digital offering excelled in reducing low-light noise.

Digital cameras will be the toughest competition for the new device. While they offer as good if not better daytime video, though, their bundled software isn’t tuned to handling video the way Pure Digital’s is, and whereas most PC novices would never be able to create a DVD from a digital camera’s video clips, the same service providers that can master DVDs from the disposable camcorders can also do so with this one (although it remains expensive). For those looking for a straightforward way to take decent digital video, it’s a winner.

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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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Filed under: Features, Wireless

It’ll probably work with other software packages, but may require some small modifications.
For today’s how-to you’ll need:

• IR(Infrared) LED (RS 276-142)
• IR Receiver module (RS 276-640)
• 4.7uf and 100-220uf capacitors
• 47ohm and 4.7k resistors
• Sub-D 9 pin Female Connector
• NPN Transistor (cheapies from RS are fine)
• PC Board
• Sacrificial USB Cable
• Tools, hookup wire, solder, etc.

Everything can be picked up at RadioShack or your favorite electronics supplier. We dressed ours up a bit, but you can succeed with just these parts. We hear that the RadioShack IR receiver we used has been known to produce flaky data, but ours worked fine.

The receiver portion is pretty simple. Rather than use extra parts to generate stable power from the serial port, we decided to steal 5 volts from the USB port.

The transmitter is a little bit more complicated. The resistor is 47 Ohms, and the capacitor can be 100 to 220uF. The WinLIRC project recommends using the TX pin of the serial port for better performance.

To test our our customized circuits we built it on a breadboard first. Using WinLIRC (which is getting kind of old at this point) we easily recorded commands from our remote and got around 10 feet of range with our transmitting LED. We suspect you can get even more range, but the surround receiver we tested with is a bit picky.

Breadboards just aren’t good enough for us, we had to pull out the soldering iron. Here’s our Serial connector with USB connector to supply a solid 5 volts to the transceiver. And yes, we’ll cover those exposed leads with some heat shrink tubing.

We built our remote transceiver to use a standard piece of Cat-5 so we can easily place it wherever we need it. Upstairs, the ceiling… or next to the hot tub.

Download WinLIRC and unzip the folder to wherever you want it to reside. There’s no installer, so somewhere on C: or in Program Files might be a good idea. Double click the remote + computer icon labeled winlirc.

The first thing you’ll get is an error message. Click OK to pull up the configuration window.

Select the correct COM port. Usually it’ll be either COM1 or COM2. Most of the default values are fine. The receiver should be DCD and under Transmitter, TX should be selected. Finally, click Browse next to the Config line. To get started, select sample.cf and hit OK. It won’t let you create a new blank config. If you think everything is correct, click on the Raw Codes button. If everything is correct, you’ll get a new window. Otherwise you get an error message.

Point a remote at the receiver. If you see codes, it’s working! Close the window and click on the Learn button in the main configuration window.

WinLIRC will complain some more. Click Yes.

Now we get the Learn remote window back again. This time we get prompted. Enter a name for the remote like VCR and click Enter. Next, the default error margin of 25 should be fine. Type in 25 and click Enter again. The next question lets you tune a custom gap length between signals. Leave it blank and click Enter again. Next you’ll be asked to press a button. Just follow the prompts. Don’t worry about which buttons you’re pressing. WinLIRC is just checking out the signal timing you’re sending it until it asks for the name of a button.

When asked for a name, enter something like Power and click enter. Now you’ll be asked to hold down the button. Aim the remote at your receiver and watch the signal count rise.

Finally, you get to declare if you want to keep the recording of each button. Repeat this for every button on the remote you wish to store. When you’re done, click Enter without typing anything in the box. You should get a confirmation message that the config was saved.

More WinLIRC silliness. Just click OK, then click the Analyze button back in the main config window. If you’re done, click OK in the main configuration window. Now WinLIRC will hide in the TaskBar as an icon. The icon will change colors to show status. It turns green if it gets a signal it recognizes.

Clicking on the icon will bring up a WinLIRC window. To test sending a code you’ve recorded, select the remote and the code you want, and click Send Code. You’ll need to aim the transmitter at whatever you want it to talk to.

Now that it’s working, you’ll want to make it do something besides make a green dot on your task bar. On the WinLIRC page you’ll find links to various pieces of software that supports WinLIRC. Go forth and vanquish TV signals, friend, or whatever unusual things one does with a fully customizeable homebrew IR blaster / receiver.

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Filed under: Features, Portable Audio

For today's how-to you'll need:

• Laser printer
• Staples basic gloss photo paper (Item #471861)
• Clothes iron
• Nail brush
• Safety gear (goggles, gloves, etc)
• Copper clad pc board
• PC Board Etchant
• Acetone
• Synthetic abrasive scrubbing pad
  

Before we get started, you'll want our latest zip file. [update: the latest file is coming soon... Will] It contains the library, schematic and our board layout. First we'll print out our board pattern using a laser printer. We're going to use heat to transfer the laser toner from the paper to our PC board. Laser printer toner contains plastic, so it will resist etching chemicals. Make sure you know which way to insert the paper in your printer to print on the glossy side.


Load up the board in EAGLE and hit the layers button. Unselect everything and choose Top, Pads, Vias and Dimension.


Now print the board. For the top layer, we'll need to mirror the print, choose solid and black as well. Now hit layers again, deselect Top and select Bottom. Print again, but deselect the mirror option.


Now you should have the top and bottom patterns on two pieces of the gloss paper.


Cut down the PC Board to the size of the board layout. A couple quick sharpie marks are sufficient. The saw pictured is a printers saw, originally made to cut lead lettering for a printing press.


Get rid of the rough edges on the board by rubbing it on a piece of sandpaper or with a fine file.


Rub the faces of the board with a scrubbing pad. Steel wool can work but a synthetic pad is better.


Lastly wipe the board down with some acetone. Nail polish remover is mostly acetone. Let it dry and don't touch the copper surface with your fingers, handle the board by the edges.


Place the two patterns face to face. If you don't have a light table, Hold them up to a florescent light and line up the board edges. When the dock connecter appears almost solid black, you've got it right.


Cut around the patterns, leaving at least an inch or two around the edges. Double check your alignment and lay them on top of an ironing surface. An ironing board is a bit flimsy, so we use the back of a legal pad on top of the workbench.


Place your prepped pc board between the two patterns and put your preheated iron, on the setting just below steam on top of the papers and board. Let the iron heat it up for about 5 minutes, then press down firmly for 30 seconds or so. Then work the tip of the iron over the entire board to ensure good transfer. Carefully flip the board over and repeat the process for the other side.


Soak the board in soapy water for at least 15 minutes. Scrubbing the back of the paper with a nail brush can help soak it a bit faster.


Once the paper is thoroughly soaked, carefully peel it off. Don't force it, just gently pull. Soaking the remnants and further gentle scrubbing with eventually get the paper cleaned off the board.


Use a fine tip sharpie to touchup areas where the transfer didn't stick or the trace looks thin.

This is where most of our first-timers will turn away -- and where it gets interesting. We'll be working with some caustic chemicals. Safety gear is cheap, so get some. Heavy chemical resistant gloves are handy. If you want disposable, get nitrile. (Latex doesn't do any good around acids.) We snagged a new pair of sealed vent chemistry goggles at the university bookstore for $2.25 and a simple apron was a mere $5. If you decide to work with acid, keep baking soda around to neutralize any spills.

A chemical etchant is needed to remove the extra copper from the board. Ferric chloride can be bought at RadioShack, but it's opaque, and sort of slow to etch if it's not heated. We tried one of the trendier etching cocktails - hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide. 3% hydrogen peroxide can be had at any grocery store. 31% hydrochloric acid is available at the hardware store under the label of muriatic acid. It's used for pool maintenance and etching concrete.


Here we're prepared to start etching. We have baking soda, water, acid, peroxide, a cereal container, a containment bucket to catch spills, an air pump to agitate the solution and our board. We drilled one mounting hole in the board and strung a strand of wire from some CAT5 through the hole. The air pump will agitate the solution during etching. The acid has some serious fumes, so we've set up shop outdoors. A folding plastic table is ideal, since it too is chemical resistant.


Carefully measure out the chemicals. The easiest mixture to use is two parts hydrogen peroxide to 1 part hydrochloric acid. For safety, pour the acid into the peroxide, not the other way around.


Once the mix is prepared, lower the board into the etching solution. It will begin to turn green almost immediately as copper is oxidized from the board.


Even thought the solution is clear, give it an inspection, here it's just a couple of minutes from completion.


When it's finished, rinse the board with water. Once it's rinsed and dried, get out your acetone again and gently scrub all the etch resistant material off the board. A gentle run down with the scrubbing pad will get everything shiny.


Carefully inspect the board and remove any shorts that may have snuck in. We used a routing bit with our dremel to remove excess copper from a few locations.


Drilling out all the pins and vias takes time, and a few sacrifical drill bits. The ringed bit is a resharpened tungsten carbide bit from Drill Bit City.


Fitting each connector takes some patience and a decent collection of drill bits. The IC socket has a couple of extra pins, so we just trimmed the leads for the last two. Soldering the connectors is standard fare.


Getting the two sides of the dock to line up perfectly is a challenge. It's ok as long as they're pretty close. One side was out of alignment by almost a pad width. We added some solder to the leads, then tweazed them in place and soldered each pin individually. Be careful not to install the dock connector upside down, like we did in this photo.


Our nearly completed dock. We didn't install our MAX232 yet because our shipment of capacitors is apparently sight seeing in Singapore. The audio out from the RCA connectors sounds fantastic, even without sheilding. And at this point what you mount it in and how you fashion it is entirely up to you. Go ahead, make the hi-fi you really wanted from the Hi-Fi.

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

That’s not to say that YouTube’s success has come entirely from amateur content. Like all newly-emerging
media companies, YouTube has had its run-ins with the established media giants. Earlier this year, YouTube was on the
receiving end of an NBC nastygram which ever-so-politely requested the removal of the cult hit “Lazy Sunday”
(aka The Chronic-what-cles of Narnia” ). The company acquiesced (as is its policy) and removed the offending clip.
Perhaps as a result of this (and other network threats requests) YouTube made some modifications to its
policies in order to avoid future copyright issues. Most notably, the company now limits the length of uploaded videos
to 10 minutes or shorter.

Ironically enough, however, it’s YouTube’s philosophy of small, digestible
content and their willingness to avoid copyright issues that has positioned them to answer the age-old question of
“What is fair use?”

While fair use discussion has, in the past few years, been dominated by DVD
ripping and TV Show “sharing,” YouTube might just find itself at the heart of the another oft-overlooked
aspect of fair use, reporting and education. Just as blogs have re-written the rules of print media, YouTube has
quietly positioned themselves (or found themselves) at what could be the heart of the next major copyright battle:
video clips. You see, spread throughout the amateur videos are a slew of tightly-edited clips designed to illustrate
points. These clips are often the property of a media giant. However, as uploaded and used, many of these clips
represent “reporting.”

For instance, maybe you’re preparing a blog post about the refereeing
in the NBA playoffs. Sure, you could attempt to describe the events in question blow-by-blow. However, that just
doesn’t have the impact of including the video clips. It’s much easier and more effective to just show why href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7iTtjMTUkw"> Raja Bell was suspended for a game or href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFcinlrgojk"> why Reggie Evans is now the most feared man among the male
population. YouTube makes this possible.

In an effort to distance themselves from “works in their
entirety” and thus stay on the righteous side of Fair Use, YouTube has attracted a new breed of
“reporter.” Sites use YouTube to quickly post video proof of the latest current events or examples of their
points.

While, in the past, the RIAA, the MPAA, the NAB, etc. have been able to bully media services that
trafficked in copyrighted material, the same brute-force logic of “It’s mine, you can’t play it” is no
longer applicable with much of the YouTube content. Unlike some of its less legitimate brothers, YouTube is doing
everything it reasonably can to respect the honest rights of the copyright holders. YouTube has shown very little
interest in bolstering its userbase through flagrant copyright violations. YouTube has even been lauded by industry
groups for its responsiveness to DCMA issues. However, that’s not to say that YouTube will bend to the will of
industries.

It’s this compliance with the spirit of copyright law that would make YouTube an awfully tough
opponent should content owners ever try to challenge YouTube’s right to post content. Will big media content owners
cross the line with their removal requests? Will YouTube be forced to take a stand? Will they be the advocates of Fair
Use that we hope they will be when the content isn’t as cut and dry as “Lazy Sunday?” It’s unclear. What is
clear is that YouTube might just have the ability to wrestle back some of the content-rights users have been slowly
losing. Let’s hope they exercise it when the time comes.

---

If you have comments or suggestions
for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Misc. Gadgets, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Household, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Handsets

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

"This isn't some program that we can port for you."

"Bill... listen clearly: Apple wants to build a Media Center box with Windows Media Center Edition pre-installed."

"Don't you already have an OS? Marmot? Crocodile? Aardvark?..."

"Tiger, Bill, It's called Tiger. Why do you always have to do that joke?"

"HA! It's always funny, Steve. It's always funny."

Bill paused and pondered the enormity of it all. Finally he would have an OEM whom he could trust to get it right.

"Well… who am I to say no?"

"That's great. I'll have my people call your people."

With business concluded they talked for a few more minutes. Bill admitted that he used an iPod. Steve implied that Windows was his work OS. In truth, both already knew each other's secret. The conversation was pleasant if not revealing.

Steve gathered his belongings and headed for the door.

"One more thing," Bill said with a half chuckle. "Do you have a codename for this project?"

"Yes. We call it iRobot." Steve said as the door closed behind him.

---

Officially the above meeting never took place and, quite frankly, the concept is little more than the fanciful dream of one writer. However, once the knee-jerk reaction wears off, one must ask the obvious question, "Why not?"

Yes, the idea is: insane, ludicrous, downright stupid, and, once again, insane. However, that doesn't mean that it's wholly without merit.

Let's look at the facts.

Fact 1: There is one thing that both the most ardent Apple fans and the Microsoft loyalists will always agree on: Apple has made a pretty good living producing hardware that's elegant, fashionable, and over-priced when viewed strictly on a function-for-function basis with its competition.

If ever a computer called for Apple's expertise, it's in the world of Media Centers. While traditional PC OEMs such as Sony and HP have been getting better, none have been able to strike a chord with the buying public like Apple would. Apple could immediately step in and corner the market.

Fact 2: Steve Jobs has shown little interest in going the route of the DVR. Apple has dipped its foot into the pool with Front Row, but few consumers are likely to buy a dedicated computer for Front Row. This means that the entire dedicated Media Center market would be fresh meat fruit for Apple. Show me a business that doesn't like exploiting a non-cannibalizing market-segment and I'll show you a company with a losing business plan.

Fact 3: Apple does have a long-term strategy for being in the living-room. It's clear that digital entertainment will play a large part in the future of entertainment. Don't expect Apple to miss out on it. However, Apple believes in attacking the problem closer to the source. Expect Apple to do deals closer to the content layer and to then, once these deals are in place, provide alternate distribution mechanisms. The problem is that this takes time and often produces a "chicken and egg" scenario.

Fact 4: It's not really a technical problem. Apple's move to the Intel platform and their subsequent unveiling of Boot Camp put them in a great position to take the next logical step.

Does this mean Apple would be abandoning MacOS? Heck no. This all returns back to the secret codename, "iRobot." The plan is simple. Each of Apple's Media Center boxes would ship with both operating systems. Slowly but surely these boxes would find their way into the living rooms of the world. Then, one day, when Apple was, once again, ready to change the world, Steve Jobs would climb into his secret tower and begin transmitting "the signal."

All around the world the pleasant blue LEDs on the front of these sleeper-agent Media Center PCs would change to the more ominous RED. This would alert owners that it was now time to give these boxes the OS Alt-TAB and return their boxes back to their rightful state. It was time for them to return to being Macs.

---

If you have comments or suggestions for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

Do not look at the man behind the curtain.
Marque Cornblatt is at the controls of Sparky 1.0, the bot
pictured above. Sparky 1.0 is a ‘roving self portrait’ , another in a series of art projects by Marque.
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href="http://graffitiresearchlab.com/">Graffiti Research Lab brought their portable lab (AKA matte black school
bus). They used conductive paint to create traces to power LEDs mounted in strategic locations. Pictured is one of
their programmable controllers for cycling the LEDs.

href="http://www.pacificpuzzleworks.com/">Lee Krasnow showed off his sweet modified table saw he uses to create
precision wood puzzles and boxes.

If you find the rising cost of gas
alarming, you might consider modding a diesel van to run on vegetable oil like href="http://makezine.com/pub/ev/85">Brandon Woll. His van features his own custom made oil pre-heater dubbed the
"hot potato veg oil heater."

Now you don’t have to wait for your pictures
to come back to see those red eyes. The light from the LEDs in the goggles built by href="http://rebeccahinden.com/">Rebecca Hinden reflects in others eyes making all your friends look posessed. />

The rear end of href="http://www.damienstolarz.com/">Damien Stolarz’s MP3car Toyota has just a few aftermarket bits. We couldn’t
pry people out of the inside to grab photos of the passenger area.

href="http://brainwagon.org/">Mark VandeWettering built his own enigma machine out of his old Atar 2600. He even
put vintage graphics on his ENIGMA MACHINE cartridge.

This uh, slightly overbilt
reading lamp was covered by hack-a-day recently. It’s
touchpad controlled, network enabled and could probably jack up your car in a pinch.

align="center"> src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/weather-baloon-text.jpg" />