Make your web search more visual

There’s got to be a better way to visually find media on the web. That’s the mantra at Cooliris, a California start-up, that offers a small browser download to search for media visually, instead of just a list of links.

On Monday, Cooliris opened to the general public, with pictures and video searches presented with results on a video “wall,” just like you see at Best Buy. Instead, it uses the photos or videos from your hard drive, or a collection of clips from the Web. I’ve been playing with the plug-in, and it’s fun and addictive.



To move things along, you put your mouse over the media to find the little Coolris icon, and that opens the video wall. To go forward, you grab the middle button in the Cooliris browser. The plug-in works with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, but not Google Chrome.

Additionally, the plug-in, for now, only works with “approved” sites, which includes YouTube, Flickr, Google, Yahoo, Hulu, Blinkx, Amazon, Picasa Web Albums and deviantART.

Coolris says that in a world where 13 hours of new video is added to YouTube every minute, and Facebook gets more than 850 million photos monthly, a new interface is needed to help folks find what they’re looking for.

The company announced a $15 million round of funding from investors Monday, including Kleiner Perkins and DAG Ventures.




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Microsoft to cover ‘E74′ errors on the Xbox 360

Xbox 360 owners who have been hit with an “E74″ hardware error will now be covered under the console’s warranty, says an article on the Xbox Support site.

According to the article, Microsoft will cover any repairs resulting from an error displaying E74 on the television screen. Microsoft will also refund customers who paid for repairs related to the E74 failure. Here’s the full statement from the Xbox Support site
While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error that displays “E74” on their screen. After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console. As a result, we have decided to cover repairs related to the E74 error message under our three-year warranty program for certain general hardware failures that was announced in July 2007.

This is not the first time Microsoft has dealt with hardware issues pertaining to the Xbox 360. As many readers will recall, the company extended its warranty coverage for the console in 2007 to three years following numerous reports of a hardware failure known as “The Red Ring of Death,” in which three flashing red lights appear on the front panel.

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Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product

SAN FRANCISCO—At a highly anticipated media event Tuesday at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs introduced a new Apple product he said would "revolutionize" the process of unveiling new products throughout the world.

"In 1984, Apple introduced the Mac," Jobs said to an overflowing crowd as an image of the first Macintosh computer was displayed on a giant screen behind him. "We changed the face of the music industry with the first iPod in 2001. And in January, we showed off the revolutionary new iPhone. Today, Apple is releasing a piece of innovative new technology that will forever change the way innovative new technology is released."
Jobs introduces Jobs introducing the iLaunch, Apple's new product-unveiling product.

The iLaunch, as the new product is called, was then raised up from below the stage, prompting the audience of technology journalists, developers, and self-professed "Apple fanatics" to burst into a five-minute standing ovation.

"Get ready for the future of product introduction," said Jobs, looking resplendent in a black turtleneck and faded jeans. "The iLaunch will be able to make announcements from this, or any other stage, making human participation in generating consumer awareness almost entirely unnecessary."

The iLaunch runs Keynote-formatted presentations in high definition through a built-in projector while displaying a 3-D rotating image of the product. Voice-recognition software, Apple's most advanced to date, can recite a speech highlighting the features of the device while injecting several clever digs at competitors. Should a product demonstration experience a glitch or malfunction, the iLaunch boasts a complex algorithm that can automatically produce humorous and distracting quips.

Described in its patent filing as a "hype-generating mechanism with fully integrated Mac compatibility," the iLaunch is powered by Intel dual-core processors optimized to calculate a product's gravitas. Apple claims the iLaunch can garner the same amount of press attention as a major scientific discovery, high court ruling, celebrity meltdown, or natural disaster at 200 times the speed of a traditional media-fostered launch.

"If you want to condition the public to liken your product to the telephone and the internal combustion engine in importance, that's now possible with iLaunch," Jobs said. "And it's so easy, even an intern can use it."

According to Jobs, the innovative iLaunch not only makes product launching infinitely easier, it could forever change corporate structure itself.

"For too long, hands-on, maverick CEOs have devoted their valuable time to strutting around on stage and breathlessly describing the features of their new products, in the process encouraging cults of personality that could have a detrimental long-term effect on their companies," Jobs said. "Apple's goal within the next 12 months is to make me totally obsolete."

This comment earned the Apple CEO another, slightly longer, standing ovation.

As his presentation wound down, Jobs said there was "one more thing" he wanted to mention: The iLaunch automatically saves a significant, salient product feature for the end of a presentation, to surprise and delight audiences.

"Do you want to know what the surprise of this unveiling is?" said Jobs to the eagerly nodding crowd. "The iLaunch itself generated this entire presentation, as well as this very surprise."

Even amid fevered speculation, Apple was typically mum before the launch product's launch, and Mac rumor websites failed to predict any major details about the new offering, other than the fact that it was going to "change everything" and "be huge."

Post-launch reaction has been even more ecstatic.

"Before today, I couldn't imagine paying $12,000 for a product-unveiling product," CNET editor Jasmine France said after the presentation. "Now I can't imagine living without it."

Shortly after Jobs' address, Microsoft announced that they are working on a similar product, the Launch-O, due to debut in 2009.

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Apple iphone Features

Phone, iPod, Internet, and more.

Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again.


Phone
Make a call by tapping a name or send a text with the intelligent keyboard.

iPod
Enjoy music and video on a widescreen display and shop for music with a tap.

Internet
Browse the web, get HTML email, and find yourself with GPS maps.

What’s new on iPhone 3G

3G Speed
3G technology gives iPhone fast access to the Internet and email over cellular networks around the world. iPhone 3G also makes it possible to do more in more places: Surf the web, download email, get directions, and watch video — even while you’re on a call.

Maps with GPS

Maps with GPS
Find your location, get directions, and see traffic — all from your phone. Maps on iPhone 3G combines GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell tower location technology with the Multi-Touch interface to create the best mobile map application ever.

App Store
Tap into the App Store and you’ll find applications in every category, from games to business, education to entertainment, finance to health and fitness, productivity to social networking. These applications have been designed to take advantage of iPhone features such as Multi-Touch, the accelerometer, wireless, and GPS. And some are even free. You can download them wirelessly and start using them right away.

iPhone in Enterprise
Get push email, calendar, and contacts with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.


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RSS Hugger Review

I just signed 10kluke.info up for a new site called rssHugger. The brainchild of Collin LaHay, it is an interesting, and unconventional blog-promoting tool. I think it has the potential to become a very big name in the blogging industry.

While the original plan was to charge a $10 entry fee, it is currently possible to get in the directory for free. In exchange for writing a review of rssHugger, and provided you can pass a manual inspection for quality non-spam blogs, your entire RSS feed will be featured in their searchable directory. The review can be avoided if you want to pay $20 to be featured directly.

In addition, there’s the top 100 list, which goes by whose site is viewed the most. Furthermore there’s a list of the 100 most recently added sites — so you get some free link-backs for as long as your site is fairly new, or relatively popular.

rssHugger is an excellent example of search-engine savvy viral marketing, due to the fact that it is designed to get thousands of independent reviews across the internet. This strategy is likely to build it’s pagerank, which will in turn benefit blog owners who list with it.

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Flip-Pocket Camcoders

GADGETS
Gadget of the Stars

The Flip line of pocket-size camcorders has become the latest must-have device. Rivals are taking aim.

If the measure of a gadget's success is its ability to win over the rich and famous, Pure Digital's Flip line of pocket-size camcorders has arrived. As with the Palm Pilot, the Motorola Razr, the BlackBerry and the iPod before it, a host of boldfaced names—Tyra Banks, Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba, Dr. Phil and Ellen DeGeneres—have either sung its praises or been photographed wielding the device. But as grateful as Pure Digital CEO Jonathan Kaplan may be for their attention, there's one celebrity whose endorsement meant the most: Oprah Winfrey. "When you invent a product and you have Oprah hold it up and tell the world that it's one of her favorite things, it's hard to beat," he says. "The actual change on the business has been greater from other things. But I will say that Oprah holding the product has been one of our greatest accomplishments."

If buzz were all Kaplan had accomplished, he and his company would already be a Silicon Valley footnote. But his product line of compact, Flash memory-based video recorders have already captured 24 percent of the overall U.S. camcorder market (second only to Sony), a category that has been flat for the past few years. And when Flash-based camcorders are separated from their counterparts based on videotape, DVD and hard drives, Pure Digital is far and away the leader in that market segment with a 32 percent share, according to NPD Group; Canon's share is 10 percent and Sony's is 8 percent. In mid-November, the company released its first high-definition camcorder in the same slim-form factor. At a cost of $230, Kaplan is hoping that early adopters who want a high-definition camcorder but can't justify high-definition prices will take a serious look.

For a company that's on the cutting-edge of personal video, it's hard to believe that Pure Digital got its start making disposable digital still cameras for drugstores and camera shops. But when Kaplan founded the company in 2001, his goal was to make the entire digital-imaging process more accessible. By 2003, people could buy a Pure Digital camera at places like Walgreen's or Ritz Camera, snap their pictures, then return the cameras and let the retailer handle making prints and putting the images on a CD rather than suffer through that experience themselves.

Next, the company started making disposable video recorders that users could drop off at a drugstore and have the footage burned onto a DVD. But Kaplan discovered something he hadn't expected: consumers wanted to hang on to their camcorders rather than have to return them because it took them much longer to record all 30 minutes of footage than, say, the 25 pictures on a disposable still camera. So in 2006, Pure Digital tested the Point & Shoot Video Camcorder by releasing it exclusively through Target, winning raves from such influential gadget gurus as The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg for its simplicity. The following summer, Kaplan released the re-christened $150 Flip Ultra to more accolades; it zoomed up the sales charts at Amazon and other retailers, and never looked back.

While gadget geeks were among the Flip's earliest adopters, the first wave of user testimonials Kaplan received came from mothers who had been looking for an easier way to record their children and teenagers who wanted to put themselves on YouTube. "They hadn't been able to use a camcorder as easily as they could a digital camera," Kaplan says. The Flip cameras are a breeze to use: press the big red button once to start shooting; press it again to stop. The flip-out USB connector lets you transfer clips to your PC or Mac, and also recharges the device. But its best attribute, which has since been emulated by the majority of competitors, is that its video-management software is stored on the device itself. That allows you to edit and share clips on any computer that has a USB port—without having to schlep around a CD-ROM or other accessory. To hear Kaplan tell it, traditional camcorders are akin to the darkroom era of still photography, and products like his have ushered us into the point-and-shoot age in which video is accessible to the masses.

With Flash-based recorders projected to increase their share of the camcorder market again in 2009, the competition is gunning for the privately held Pure Digital, whose revenues Kaplan projects to rise from nearly $50 million in 2007 to more than $100 million this year. Audiovox senior vice president Ralph Etna, whose company came out with a $160 HD camcorder earlier this year, plans more-aggressive marketing and pricing. "In this economy, people are looking for value," says Etna. Kaplan is appropriately paranoid about the challenge that well-heeled rivals pose, but he's holding the line by keeping his core products easy to use rather than feature stuffed. "We want to show the world that we can innovate with tech and fun," Kaplan says. One such example is the Pure Digital online store: consumers can choose to upload their own patterns and designs which are then printed on the body of their new Flip— at no extra charge. We think the kids will approve.

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Hide Secret With File Extension PUB From Microsoft

The most exciting doing newsletter, pamphlets, brochure, flyers, or even website basically is with Microsoft Office Publisher. I’m preferred using with it than the other software. I know Publisher is too simple, but the result in me was nice, I guess. But if you can use it maximal, I do believe it can be good. Not have to install some expensive and high-end entry-level software from some famous trademark or what. But one thing that you must underline here is…

Do not ever remove File Extension PUB from the Microsoft Publisher packaging itself. You see, the advantages having this File Extension PUB inside the package is allows us for customization, personalization and individualization of the documents.

Now using mail merge work well even across platforms would be run smoothly with File Extension PUB included.

But what if your computer has been missing this file? Don’t worry, you can put back or easily recognize the File extension PUB by following some steps from fileextensionpub.net site. You will be introducing into driver detective for repairing your system and up dating your drivers first, and then…Well better if I’m towards it into the website directly. Further information about file extension PUB, just visit www. fileextensionpub.net.

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Garmin Nuvi 880

Product summary

Product Spesification.

The good: The Garmin Nuvi 880 crams in a number of features, including text-to-speech functionality, MSN Direct services, and Bluetooth, into a compact design. The portable navigation system offers the best and most accurate speech recognition capabilities we've seen to date.

The bad: The Nuvi 880 is expensive, and route calculations can be sluggish.

The bottom line: As we've come to expect from the Nuvi line, the Garmin Nuvi 880 offers an impressive feature list and solid performance, but it's the accurate speech recognition that really pushes the Nuvi 880 over the edge and makes it one of the best GPS we've tested to date.

Specifications: Destination: Automotive ; Weight: 6.2 oz ; Audible assistance: Street name announcement , Navigation instructions.


Product Review

Ever since the Garmin Nuvi 880 was announced at CES 2008, we've been excited to get our hands on this portable navigation system. Given the good track record of the other Nuvi series devices, we expected more of the same, solid feature list and good performance. However, we were most looking forward to taking its speech recognition capabilities out for a test drive. To be honest, we were a bit weary since we've tried other such-equipped GPS devices, including the Magellan Maestro 4250 and the TomTom GO 930, and while they worked, there weren't the most accurate and the capabilities were limited. This isn't so with the Nuvi 880. We were blown away at the accuracy of the speech recognition, the range of features you can use it with, and its overall ease of use. This, in combination with the navigation offerings, sleek design, and solid performance, makes it worthy of our Editors' Choice award. The only downfall is that you're going to pay for these features. The Garmin Nuvi 880 has a price tag of $ 1,071.41, but you can probably find it for a bit less online.


Design
Like the rest of the Nuvi series, the Garmin Nuvi 880 is sleek, compact, and simple. It measures 4.9 inches wide by 3.1 inches high by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 6.2 ounces for easy portability between vehicles. The small size also comes in handy when using the it outside of the car as an entertainment device or travel aid, since the Nuvi comes loaded with games and travel tools.

Another benefit is the Nuvi 880's spacious 4.3-inch touch screen. With a 480x272-pixel resolution, the display is bright and easy to read, whether you're reading maps or using the other features. You can adjust the screen's brightness and there's an automatic mode that switches the map colors for optimal viewing during the day or night. The touch screen was responsive to our commands, and the onscreen keyboard is available in QWERTY or ABC format. The keyboard is on the small side, so users with larger fingers might have some problems. The good news is that it has predictive text, so it will automatically pull up possible search results as soon as you start inputting a couple of letters.

The user interface and software is intuitive. All the icons and menus are clearly marked, and we found that you could pretty much figure out the basic operations just by playing with the device. However, for some advanced tasks such as planning a multidestination trip or setting up Bluetooth, you might want to consult the user manual.

On the left spine, you will find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD expansion slot, and a mini USB port. There's a power button on top, and the bottom of the unit holds an external antenna jack and power/cradle connector.

The Garmin Nuvi 880 comes packaged with a vehicle mount (windshield and dash), a car charger, a USB cable, a speech recognition remote control, and reference material. The vehicle mount is simple to install and attach, and it securely held the Nuvi 880 in our road tests. We found it interesting that there is a separate remote control for the speech recognition capabilities. On other systems with this technology, it is simply built into the device. The control consists of on and off buttons to activate the feature, and a rubber strap so you can attach it to some place in your car, such as the steering wheel. It's a bit of an eyesore, but we're willing to overlook this minor inconvenience since the accuracy of the speech recognition capabilities are the best we've seen to date (see Performance for more).

Features
The Garmin Nuvi 880 comes preloaded with City Navigator NT maps of North America and millions of points of interest. Perhaps the biggest highlight, though, is its speech recognition capabilities. We've seen this technology in other systems, such as the Magellan Maestro 4250 and TomTom GO 930, but the Nuvi 880 is the most impressive with the breadth of its capabilities and accuracy. In all, you can use voice commands to perform 30 functions, including entering addresses, adjusting the system volume, activating the hands-free speaker system, playing/stopping the music player, viewing the trip computer, and accessing MSN Direct services.

To start planning a trip, whether by using your voice or the touch screen, you can enter a specific address, choose a POI, or select a location from the Recently Found or Favorites list. The Nuvi 880 can store up to 500 favorites/locations. In addition, it supports multidestination trips and you can add waypoints on the fly. You have your choice of three route preferences (faster time, shorter distance, or off-road) and three usage modes (automobile, bicycle, or pedestrian). You can avoid certain road types if you choose, such as toll roads and highways. There's also a detour function if you want to avoid a certain part of the given route and if you happen to get off track, the Nuvi 880 can do automatic route recalculations. If you don't need guidance, you can just have the Nuvi track your movements by tapping View Map.

The POI database contains all the major categories (gas stations, lodging, ATMs, restaurants by cuisine type, and so forth) and more specialized interests, including golf courses, gyms, and nightclubs. On top of the preloaded entries, you can add custom POIs, such as safety cameras and school zones. In addition, the Nuvi 880 ships with a three-month complimentary trial to MSN Direct services, which lets you get traffic updates and movie times by title or theater, and searches for nearby gas stations by fuel prices. You can also plan your trip from your PC via Windows Live Local and send it wirelessly to the Nuvi 880 as well as get the latest weather forecast for your area, news, stock prices, and local events. After the three months are up, you'll have to purchase a subscription plan, which starts at $49.95 for an annual plan or a one-time payment of $129.95. The MSN Direct receiver is built into the car charger, so you don't have to worry about purchasing an extra accessory.

Maps are available in 2D and 3D view with day and night colors, and you can change it so north is always at the top of your screen or the direction in which you are driving. A plus and minus icon on the map screen lets you zoom in and out, and there's a trip information page that displays your speed, direction, trip time, and so forth. In addition to the visual aids, you, of course, get voice-guided turn-by-turn directions with text-to-speech functionality. The Nuvi 880 also has a built-in FM transmitter so you can pipe the audio through your car's stereo for better volume.

Like the more recent Nuvi devices, the Garmin Nuvi 880 has the "Where am I?" feature, which gives you the coordinates of your location, the nearest address, and intersection. It will also list the closest hospitals, police stations, and gas stations to your position, giving you a bit of peace of mind if you're in unfamiliar territory and need access to any of these services, or if you need to give your location to a tow truck. You'll be able to call any of these services or other businesses or POI directly from the Nuvi 880 since it has integrated Bluetooth. We're happy to report that your phone's address book and call history will automatically synchronize with the GPS for easy data transfer.

Finally, the Garmin Nuvi 880 includes a host of other tools that can be useful outside the car. There's a Travel Kit like that included with other Nuvi models that consists of an MP3 player, an Audible book player, a JPEG picture viewer with a slide show function, a world clock, currency and measurement converters, and a calculator. It also comes loaded with a ton of games, including Solitaire, Sudoku, and Space Shooter.

Performance
We tested the Garmin Nuvi 880 in San Francisco, and from a cold start, it took the unit about two minutes to get a fix on our location under partly cloudy skies. Subsequent starts could take up to a minute, but more often than not, the system was able to acquire a fix within a few seconds. While running errands around the city, the Nuvi 880 did a good job of tracking our position. It did lose the lock as we drove through the Broadway Tunnel (a normal occurrence with GPS) but was able to re-establish a connection once we exited.

We planned several trips using the Nuvi 880: all originating from San Francisco's Marina district to Roseville, Calif., Sunnyvale, Calif., and CNET's downtown San Francisco headquarters. For the first trip out to Roseville (near Sacramento, Calif.), we entered the trip information using the standard touch-screen method and added several stops along the way. It may have been the extra destinations, but it took the Nuvi 880 a couple of minutes to calculate a route. Nothing horribly inconvenient, but just something we noticed. That said, we found the directions to be accurate and it got us to our destinations. The text-to-speech feature did a good job with street pronunciations, and the voice prompts were always loud and clear. We also missed several turns and exits, and the Nuvi 880 was able to get us back on track in a timely manner.

For the next two trips, we used the speech recognition capabilities and we were blown away at its accuracy. With the other systems, we had to ensure that we were in a quiet environment and even then, they were numerous errors. However, this wasn't the case with the Nuvi 880. We were able to launch the various applications and enter addresses with such ease. Even with the radio in the background, the system was able to understand and compute all our voice commands and more importantly, perform them accurately. There was no need to shout, and only once or twice did we have to repeat ourselves. It was truly impressive, and it's the first time we felt it's actually worth using the voice commands over the touch screen.

Last but not least, we were able to successfully pair the Nuvi 880 with the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310. The setup process was easy. All our phone book information instantly transferred over to the Nuvi 880 and we had no problems making or receiving calls. The Nuvi 880 has a rated battery life of four hours. The battery is replaceable, so you can purchase an extra battery ($30) to keep as a backup.


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Website Directory Submissions

Just like anything else you must learn in the world of website promotion, it is necessary to understand what you are dealing with before you jump in with both feet. It is no different with website directory submissions. This article will delve into the basics: the things you must be aware of so you swim instead of sinking.

There are literally hundreds of website Directories on the Internet one can submit their website to. A Directory as used on the Internet is a repository or a huge database of information about websites that is heavily optimized for reading and a directory supports search and browsing in addition to simple look-ups. A website directory does not list every website on the Internet, but they do catalogue all sites that submit their site for that purpose. The best example of a Directory that I know of would be Yahoo.


Are you asking yourself just how to go about submitting your website to directories. Well, first, remember that there are literally hundreds of website directories on the Internet. It is imperative that you locate and submit your website to as many as you can find appropriate to your niche.

You can do a keyword search for website directories, Directories or Website Submissions Directories and go take a look at every one you can find. Make certain that you create you own list of directories as you will want to submit your website to them once a month or so. Be aware that it is recommended that you select Website Directories that focus in your niche or select those that will accept all niche's. Just like anything else, it will not do you any good to submit your Internet Marketing website to a Directory that focus' on Healthcare.

The one significant advantage you will derive from directory submissions are the number of one way back links you get to your website. Free website Directories with higher page ranks are where I submit my sites. Why, well, remembering that a higher page rank is more important to search engine rankings, I find it is better to put my energies into submitting to Directories with a Page Rank of 3 or more. Of course, considering the simplicity of the act of submitting your website to Directories, it would not waste your time to submit to even the lower page ranked sites as well, which I will do time allowing. What's that old saying: The more the merrier!

Submitting to website directories enhances your chances of being crawled by search engine spiders faster then if you did nothing but wait to be spidered or submitting to a search engines "add url" form. One of my major goals of website directory submissions is to get indexed by the search engines. By being indexed in website directories, it becomes practical to expect that search engines will be spidering/crawling these established sites more often the your new site. Once the spider sees a back link to your website, the spiders will then as a matter of course crawl your website soon afterwards.

There are submission software programs available that make the process much easier. Considering that each website directory is different from the next, it is logical that each website directory requires different information upon signing up to submit. You can expect, though, generally to be asked for:

1. Your site name and URL.

2. A short description or summary of your sites focus.

3. Many will ask you for the keywords for your site.

4. And you will be required to select a category for your site. Some website directories start with a simple category structure. When their high level categories become saturated they will begin to add new categories. Website directories also may offer regional categories such as countries, states, cities, continents and Islands.

High page ranked website directories receive much more traffic then those with lower rankings. I think it fair to say that you should expect moderate traffic at best from any directory unless they are extremely well ranked and have a high Alexa rating too. Directories such as Yahoo and The Open Directory Project (ODP) will receive much more traffic then the other lesser ranked website directories. The ODP is also referred to as the 'dmoz' which is derived from it's original domain name 'directory.mozilla.org'. The ODP is owner by Netscape and is constructed and maintained by a group of volunteers.

A few examples of website directories you may wish to look into might include:

1. Ansearch - Focusing on the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

2. Best of the Web Directory - Best of the Web lists content rich, well designed websites categorized by topic as well as by region.

3. JoeAnt - This is a group of editors the once volunteered for the now defunct go.com directory.

4. Open Project Directory - (aka dmoz or ODP). This is the oldest website directory online.

5. Starting Point Directory - Organizing sites by category, this website directory is edited by human volunteers.

6. World Wide Web Virtual Library - This is the oldest website directory online.

As a free website promotion technique, website directory submissions is a great way to enhance your websites positioning with the search engines. There are basically three choices to choose from. First, you can do it yourself: this method is certainly the least expensive as the only cost you incur is the cost of your time. Or you can hire it done or outsource it. SO the next best thin is to hire and SEO company that offers website directory submission services. This is still manually submitting your website but you are just contracting with someone else to do the actual work. Then you have your automated software technique. Get ready to tick off a bunch of Directory owners if you go the automated software route. Using this type of software, you have limited to no control over what you submit, which will invariably cause you a mountain of problems later on.

There is; however, a "VERY HAPPY MEDIUM". I use a software program that automates the actual form filling but you make the primary decisions of what category you select or how you want your summary to read etc.. Bottom line, I find this method a great deal more effective: I get the benefits of auto-filling the website directory forms but the control of a manual submission. It really is the best of both worlds. It does take a little longer but it is well worth the extra effort in the short and long run.

by: Jimmy Oakley

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Sony Vaio C Series

The recently introduced Sony VAIO C Series laptop sports an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 13.3" widescreen display, features sleek styling with a selection of colors and starts at about $1,099. That description sounds suspiciously like the Apple MacBook, and there's no doubt Sony is trying to take a bite out of Apple's recent success in the portable notebook market space with the VAIO C.

Overview
The Sony VAIO C comes in a number of configurations and colors. You can configure a VAIO C online at SonyStyle.com or buy a stock configuration from various retailers. When you configure the VAIO VGN-C190 at SonyStyle.com you have a dizzying array of colors to choose from (Green storm, Pink swirl, Angel, Red storm, Blue streaks, Urban Gray, Spring Green, Blush Pink, Espresso Black, Sea Shell White). Sony also offers a free 60 character engraving in the top left side of the screen -- I don't recommend this if you want to protect resale value of your notebook though.

Sony offers a free 2-line 30 character per line engraving on your VAIO C190 notebook if you configure online (view large image)
Processor wise you can choose either a cheapy Intel Celeron processor for the VAIO C or select from the full range of Core 2 Duo processors (from the Intel T5500 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo up to the T7600 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo). The only screen offering is the 13.3" WXGA and the base amount of RAM is 1GB, since this notebook is being touted as "Vista Compatible" Sony made a wise decision here. Built-in wireless 802.11 a/b/g is standard. Finally you can choose from a range of 40GB - 120GB hard drives and have the choice between a DVD burner (dual-layer) or a more basic CD Burner / DVD optical drive.

For this review we're taking a look at the Sony VAIO VGN-C140G/B that was purchased for $1,179.99 before rebate from Amazon.com, but after a mail-in rebate of $100 that price gets knocked down to $1,079.99. Following are the specs for the notebook under review:
• Screen: 13.3-inch screen WXGA (1280 x 800) with XBRITE-ECO (glossy finish)
• Color: Espresso Black with copper accents
• Processor: 1.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500
• Hard Drive: 120 GB hard drive (SATA, 5400RPM)
• Memory: 1 GB RAM (PC4200, 533 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM, 2 x 512 MB) -- 2 GB max memory
• Optical Drive: multi-format/dual-layer DVD/CD burner
• Ports and Slots: Two USB 2.0, one FireWire 400 port, one ExpressCard 34, one S-Video, memory card reader adapter, headphone / line-out, microphone-in, modem, 10/100 Ethernet
• Wireless: Tri-mode Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g)
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (128 MB of shared RAM)
• Operating System: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Windows Vista capable and Windows Vista Premium ready)
• Dimensions: 9.28 inches, 12.98 inches, 1.47 inches (depth, width, thickness)
• Weight: 5.1 pounds, travel weight of 5.8 pounds with the adapter and battery
Build and Design
You have to hand it to Sony, they've done a nice job with the styling of the VAIO C and the selection of colors and designs is unprecedented. The Espresso Black with copper accents that comes with the C140 is sleek, cool and professional looking. The slightly dimpled finish on the keyboard and palm rests area is effective in making the notebook look more spritely. The pinhole sized LED indicator lights at the front of the notebook are attractive looking, albeit hard to read what they actually mean. The translucent power button is easy to find and also effective in making the VAIO C look more suave -- I'm a sucker for nice looking power buttons.
The lid of the VAIO C also has a nice look, the silver VAIO badge is pleasong and the look is very clean.Build-wise the VAIO C is classified by Sony as a thin-and-light notebook. At 1.5" of thickness it's not exactly skinny, but it's not as thick as one of those 2-inch thick 17" screen notebook monsters. Honestly, I would have liked to have seen this notebook at 1.2" of thickness. If you're looking for a true thin and light weight 13.3" screen notebook the Sony VAIO SZ is a better option, but much more expensive.

The case of the VAIO C case is composed of plastic while the lid is some type of magnesium-alloy to offer better protection of the screen area. I was bracing myself for a dissapointingly cheap plastic case with a lot of flex to it, but to my pleasant surprise that's not what I found. The VAIO C offers a very sturdy and relatively thick plastic casing. While the VAIO SZ offers a high-end carbon fiber build case that makes the SZ lighter, I don't think it's a ton better in terms of sturdiness than the C. I stood in a Best Buy with a VAIO C next to a VAIO SZ and did my standard push and flex tests all over each notebook and found them to be about equal.

The VAIO C lid does not have a latch to hold it closed, which is a little disappointing to me, but once closed the lid does stay firmly down. The trick is opening it, you really have to use two hands and get one finger under the lid to lift it open. The hinge for the screen is very good, it is firm and holds the screen in place well -- I even found the VAIO C to have a more convincing hinge mechanism than the somewhat wobbly VAIO SZ hinge.
One knock against the VAIO C is that for the ExpressCard 34 slot Sony gives you a plastic dummy to fill the slot when it's not in use, having a spring based flap would be preferable, removable plastic pieces are easily lost.
Performance and Benchmarks
The Core 2 Duo that comes with the VAIO C-series is no laggard in terms of performance, even at the 1.66GHz low-end we have configured. Having said that, the VAIO C is not being pushed by Sony as a portable performance machine as it does not offer a dedicated graphics option -- that's the realm of the VAIO SZ series. The 120GB hard drive provided does spin at 5400RPM, so that's pretty decent. The two 512MB memory sticks included are 533MHz variety and Sony doesn't even offer 667MHz memory if you configure a C190, surprising since the FSB on the Core 2 Duo can support speeds of up to 667MHz, so there may be a slight performance bottleneck there.

Cinebench is a good rendering benchmark tool based on the powerful 3D software, CINEMA 4D. Its rendering tasks can stress up to sixteen multiprocessors on the same computer. It is a free benchmarking tool, and can be found here: http://www.cinebench.com. The basic CPU test provided the following results, you can see the VAIO C failed to match the similarly priced MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz based notebook but of course did better than an old Pentium M based ThinkPad T43.

The 120GB hard drive size is nice and certainly appreciated, especially good is that it spins at 5400RPM and not a slower 4200RPM. I wouldn't want a 7200RPM spinning drive in this type of laptop, it drains the battery too much -- bettery to add more RAM for performance.
Screen
The 13.3" screen is a WXGA 1280 x 800 job, it's a comfortable size for viewing and in my opinion quite a sweet spot for portability. I like how Sony made it so the display sits down slightly below the base, thereby giving the VAIO C a lower overall profile when in the open position (good for tight quarters such as use on a plane).
The display is nice and fairly bright with even backlighting, it offers 8 levels of brightness. The display is an XBRITE-ECO type, this is not as bright as the plain old "XBRITE" display. Sony claims the XBRITE-ECO to offer better power efficiency, but really it's just a dimmer backlight than what you get in say the VAIO FE or VAIO AR where the display can get as bright as the sun (seemingly). Nonetheless, I found the XBRITE-ECO display to be quite bright enough, and the glossy finish makes the colors vibrant for watching movies.
What I didn't like about the display is the very poor vertical viewing angles. If the display isn't aligned just so with your eyes then screen colors distort really fast. Horizontal viewing angles weren't fantastic, but acceptable.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Other Input Buttons

The keyboard on the VAIO C is quite usable, it's got 86-keys spread out over 6-rows and the keys are full sized. The key travel is decent and the touch is light. If you have long fingernails it's kind of easy to catch the key above the key you're pushing down and pop it up a bit -- so trim those nails or you might be popping off keys (I've seen this happen on the VAIO SZ). The keyboard is really pretty firm too, there's a little bit of flex on the side areas, but nothing horrible and will be unnoticed by most.
The touchpad is very usable and just the right size. The mouse buttons are a good size too, I'd rather they have a bit more travel and springiness to them and were a little less noisy, but they're not horrible and most certainly usable.
With the VAIO C the only dedicated hardware buttons we get are the power button and Wireless on/off button that's located on the front of the notebook. It's dissapointing Sony didn't include more media buttons along the top like they did on the VAIO SZ.

Input and Output Ports

The port selection is actually quite good, except for the fact we only get two USB 2.0 ports. I'd like to see three, but I can get by with two on a notebook of this size. It's the same number of USB ports as the competing MacBook.
Sony included a reader for the Memory Stick Duo on the front of the notebook and then provided a 5-in-1 memory card adapter that fits in Express Card 34 slot to read SD/xD/MMC/MemoryStick type cards. Why didn't Sony just upgrade that front memory card reader to a 6-in-1 instead of giving us two memory reader slots.

Audio
The VAIO C has stereo sound via speakers on the left side and right side. If you check out the pictures of the sides of the notebook you'll see the speakers located on flanking side areas. With the speakers being on the side they don't exactly direct the sound at you and I thought this would be problematic, but the audio is surprisingly good and volume level also quite good. They're actually some of the better speakers I've heard from a notebook of this size. The headphone jack is located on the left side when you want better audio quality or need to avert disturbing others.
Heat and Noise
The VAIO C runs nice and quiet with the 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo. It would run warmer if say a faster 2.33GHz was configured, but as far as this review unit goes there's nothing to complain about. The bottom right side gets a bit warm, but never so much that it would be uncomfortable on the lap. I ran three benchmarking tools at the same time to stress out the machine and make it work hard, but even then temperatures stayed reasonable and comfortable to the touch. So while I complained about the thickness of this notebook, the amount room inside allows things to stay cool so extra thickness isn't all bad.
The fan is on the back right side and it is quiet when running, you have to put your ear down at desk level to hear it over any other ambient noise in the room. Some people would prefer not to have the fan on the right side as it can push warm air onto your mouse hand, but during these colder months I actually appreciate that.
Battery and Power Adapter
Sony quotes the battery life of the included 6-cell battery at 3.0-4.5 hours of use depending on how you use the notebook. In my test of using the notebook at half screen brightness, wireless off, and idling for 2 hours and then light usage (typing in Word) for 1 hour I got exactly 3 hours of use. So that falls on the low-end of Sony's claim, and if I were doing anything during that 2 hours of idle time you'd get less battery life. You can get a 9-cell battery ($299) for a longer usage time unplugged, but the 9-cell will stick out from the back and add weight to the system.

The power adapter for the VAIO C is unnecessarily huge. If you take a look at the pictures of the adapter next to the notebook you'll see what I mean -- this brick adds a full .7 pounds of travel weight to the VAIO C. Dissapointing since Sony is touting it as a travel friendly notebook, why not make the adapter travel friendly too?
Software
Sony includes some useful and a lot of not so useful software with the VAIO C. Here's a rundown of what you get
• Click to DVD - Sony DVD Creation software
• DVgate Plus - Sony Digital Video editing software
• Trial Versions of Sony popular games (Bewitched, Jeopardy!, Da Vinci Code, Wheel of Fortune)
• DISCover My Games application
• Microsoft Works 8.5
• 60-Day Trial Version of MicrosoftOffice 2003
• Norton Internet Security 60-Day Trial
• Napster
• TrendMicro Anti-Spyware 30-Day Trial
• A bunch of AOL Software (AOL Explorer Browser, AOL High Speed trial, AOL 5GB storage , AIM, AOL Video, AOL Desktop Search, AOL Music)
All I can say is Sony has broken a record for the amount of AOL trial software on one notebook. What a shame, I didn't even know there was an AOL Video or AOL Music application but unfortunately you get them along with a garbage AOL toolbar showing up by default on your Internet Explorer browser.

All this software is unappreciated, it slows down the system and takes up hard drive space.
Conclusion


The Sony VAIO C ends up being a decent portable notebook that's very nice looking and is built well. It overlaps a bit with the VAIO SZ, but because it's cheaper and not quite as powerful due to the integrated graphics, there's room for it in the VAIO lineup. It also stacks up well feature for feature against the MacBook. The VAIO C is of course missing the built-in camera, slot loading drive and OS X that the MacBook has. On the flip side, the VAIO C offers a media card reader, Wireless on/off switch, S-Video and an expansion slot in the form of the ExpressCard that the Apple MacBook is missing. If you'd like to be able to use Mac OSX I'd say go with the Apple MacBook, but if you're sure that Windows XP or Vista is your OS of choice I think the VAIO C should win out so long as price is in line between similar configurations of these notebooks (and at the current time they are).
Pros
• Very nice looks with a bevy of color options when configuring
• Fast Core 2 Duo processor and base 1GB of RAM amount ensures good system performance
• Good build quality and sturdiness
• Good abilities to read all types of media cards, albeit through use of two media card slots
• 13.3" form factor is nice and fits easily in any backpack
• Stays cool and makes little noise
• Good keyboard
Cons
• Too much garbage software installed, especially AOL stuff
• Screen has bad vertical viewing angles, could be a bit brighter
• Only two USB 2.0 ports
• Power adapter is big and overall travel weight of close to 6 lbs is too much for a notebook of this size
• Only 533MHz speed memory is available in the C series at time of review




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Oakley Warden Sunglasses

The Bottom Line One of the best pair of sunglasses you can buy. This is my summary on Oakley sunglasses. I love these things and you’ll soon figure out why. Why I got it I originally bought my first pair because I needed a good pair of glasses for riding (on a motorcycle.) They needed to be resistant to debris that is kicked up by other vehicles, protect my eyes from the wind, and be comfortable for long periods of time. I had bought a couple of cheaper pairs of goggles and sunglasses that just did not do the trick but the Oakley brand met those requirements. I have not had any regrets about it since. What I own. M frames- These are great glasses because they offer maximum protection and do not have a blind spot. The other great benefit is the lenses are interchangeable. I have a very dark lens and a yellow set that I switch out for night riding. These glasses are very comfortable and very secure. Minute- I bought these because I wanted a pair of sunglasses that looked cool. The M-frames are much more practical than this pair but not as stylish. I used this pair mostly for driving. They are also a comfortable and secure pair of glasses (notice a pattern yet?). The thing I dislike about this pair of glasses is they have a blind spot so I have to turn my head a little more to see any vehicles on my side. Why 8.0- I bought these because they had greater coverage over my eyes than the minute and they do not have the blind spot. They also look more stylish than the m-frame. I never felt comfortable using the Minute as my riding glasses but I do feel comfortable using these. And these glasses are also prescription glasses thanks to a very nice benefits package my employer gives me. This pair of glasses is comfortable and secure. They are secure. All of the Oakley's I have tried on are very secure. I can shake my head violently and was not able to dislodge the glasses, yet all of the glasses were relatively comfortable. I have tried on about a dozen of their glasses when I went shopping for the various sunglasses I have bought over the years and all but 2 felt comfortable to me. You should have no fear about having your glasses fall off during a roller coaster ride or other violent experiences (including falling off a motorcycle at 40 MPH).Comfort The only problem I have had with some glasses I have tried is the tips of the arms pinched me. This I assume is a personal issue but it is also something I recommend you look at carefully before purchasing a pair of Oakley's. Most pairs I have tried, including the one's I own, do not do this to me. Also the nosepiece's are comfortable and secure. I do not have to readjust them every time I look down, just when my baby girl tries to take them off my face. About prescription lenses I finally bought a pair this past December that were prescription based and I love them. The only drawback is price. These glasses are expensive. Not only do you have to pay for the normal price but you have to pay additional prices for things like drill holes, The first thing you should know is that stores like REI cannot order prescription glasses, and I tried to get them to. I had to go through my optometrist. Also if your Optometrist is not a certified vendor then you will not be able to get Oakley sunglasses. My co-workers that have Kaiser as their insurance will not get their insurance to pay for any of the Oakley line of sunglasses, my insurance company paid for half of these glasses which cost around $450. They can start at $125 Lens tints The lens tints vary from 9%-93% light elimination. This ultimately depends on what you want to do with your glasses. Most of us will go as dark as possible just remember that some of the iridium lenses can get scratched more easily (that may have changed now but that is what I was told about 3 years ago.) If you want to play sports then you want the clear ones. If you ride/drive at night then you will want the yellow lenses. The yellow eliminates the blue colors and actually makes it easier to see. I was amazed at the difference the first time I tried on a pair of yellow glasses. But for those of you that are worried about looking stylish wearing yellow… don’t… you will look like a geek.

UV protection
This is not an option, it is on every lens and you shouldn’t buy a pair of sunglasses from anyone unless you have UV protection. Ultraviolet rays are above the light spectrum (and are the same rays that cause sunburns) so they are not blocked by tinted glass, only rays in the light spectrum are. Non-UV sunglasses will damage your eyes because the darker glasses opens up your pupils more which allows more UV rays to enter in and can increase damage to your eye. In summary, this is a bad thing.

Polarization
This is an option for non-prescription and prescription glasses. Basically it works just like a polarized lens on a camera in that it eliminates light waves that come in at certain angles. This will not only make the sky bluer but it eliminates certain reflections from water and other reflective surfaces. In summary, it is not an essential feature but a nice one that I recommend for the extra money.

Price
These glasses are not cheap. I would say that if $100 is too much for a pair of sunglasses then look elsewhere. But for me $100 is not much for the comfort and eye protection they provide me. For prescription glasses, expect to pay $120-$500 for a pair (depending on model and options.)

How can I get a discount on a pair of Oakley's?
An old friend of mine worked in a pharmacist office that sold Oakley glasses. This conversation took place before I bought my first pair and it started when he noticed I was drooling over the case. Well he proceeded to tell me what great glasses they were and what a controlling company they were. They are very careful who they allow to sell their products. The store or pharmacist has to go through classes and be trained on the product. What it told my friend was that they cared a great deal about their product and who sold it. Oakley takes a great deal of pride in their name and wants their vendors to do the same. They also want to keep the value of their product very high.
The following is an example of Oakley’s control of their product. REI every year has a 20% off sale on one item in stock.....except for Oakleys. They even have to put a disclaimer on the window of the store. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t get the discount. The REI salesman told me that they would lose their right to sell Oakley’s if they discounted Oakley products. This company policy insures that Oakley products stay the same price no matter who sells it.

How come Costco discounted their Oakleys several years ago?
Because Costco did not buy their glasses from Oakley. Basically Oakley sells a lot of their outdated designs to other countries and then these countries sell it back to certain U.S. companies. Companies like Costco then sell the Oakley glasses they got to the general public at a discount. But what the general public does not know is there is no warranty on these glasses. So if you do buy a discounted product just hope it is not a defective product, otherwise you are stuck with the defect.

Do they protect your eyes?
The lenses are more expensive then normal sunglasses because of the lenses. They are rated at a much higher level for impact resistance. This is the reason I bought them for riding. Athletes know this and use these glasses (in addition to other companies with high standards.) And for the record, I have not had an experience where my Oakley’s were put to the test (thankfully) so I am relying on what the company says. And I apologize to those of you in advance that want me to take a hammer to my glasses while they are on my head, I’m not really in the mood to do my typical tests today. The following website lists their tests and does a better job than I can in explaining what they do.
http://oakley.com/technology/impact_protection/
But to summarize one test, they shot a quarter inch steel ball at the lens as just over 100 MPH and no part of the frame or lens contacted the eye. I am quite sure you would need a new pair of glasses after that happened but not a new eye.
Another design feature of a pair of Oakley sunglasses is they are angled to deflect, instead of absorb, the force of an impact.
The following story is a precautionary tale for parents and outdoor enthusiasts alike. I had an old co-worker that ran a skateboarding club after school. One day he was doing a trick that flipped the skateboard 360 degrees in the horizontal plane. Well while trying this trick, the skateboard went flying into the air and hit him in the eye. It dislodged the nerve cord that connects his eye causing partial blindness. He regrets to this day not wearing his Oakley's that were in his classroom 50 yards away. For legal reasons I can’t say that a pair of Oakley glasses would have prevented his eye from being damaged but both he and I feel that his glasses would have deflected the force of the skateboard and decreased the trauma substancially. This is also the reason I will have no problem spending the money on a pair for my kid when he starts doing crazy stuff like skateboarding and riding a motorcycle. J

Accessories available
Cases- Oakley makes some very nice cases. I have two. One is designed perfectly for the M-Frame and one extra pair of lenses and the other came with my prescription glasses. They are made out of some woven material but are very durable. They also have cases that are encased in some type of metal.
Lenses- Some glasses like the M-Frames have interchangeable lenses. For me I have yellow lenses for night riding/driving and dark lenses for daylight.
Straps- They even sell straps as an accessory. These appear to be mainly for sport activities.

My maintenance issues with my m-frames and other problems
I had a problem with my m-frames within 6 months. The earpiece (arm) broke off from the front frame. My wife simply dropped them off at the Oakley offices in southern California and they replaced it without any questions. I was very pleased and impressed.
The only other problem we have had is my wife just broke her minute glass by having my daughter sit on them. The arm was already weakened by having my daughter play with them a few weeks earlier. Since I have been using my prescription glasses (since I no longer wear contacts) I just gave my wife my pair of minute glasses.
Other than that I have had no problems, not even with scratches. Just keep in mind that different models will fit people differently so try them on before you buy.

Features As stated on their website.
-Lens Tints that optimize performance for any light condition.
-Lens material that blocks 100% of all UV Radiation.
-Impact Protection that surpasses ANSI Industrial Standards.
-Technology that produces the Best Polarized Lenses on the Planet.
-Patented lens geometry that offers razor-sharp Optical Clarity.

Summary
I feel these are the best sunglasses you can buy. Yes I am biased, I have owned three pairs and my wife one. Not only are they comfortable, but they are extremely durable. I have never tried on a pair of sunglasses that are more comfortable, in fact I prefer to wear my prescription sunglasses indoors instead of my normal prescription glasses. The company honors their warranty when something does go wrong. The only drawback to these glasses is the price, but once you get past that you will not be disappointed.



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BlackBerry Review

If you were feverishly anticipating a cellphone this year, it was one of two phones: this is the other one. That's because the BlackBerry Bold is RIM's most powerful, polished handset ever. With 3G, a glossy new UI, a real web browser, serious hardware and an almost beautiful body, the Bold doesn't redefine the BlackBerry experience, but it does elevate to the highest point its ever been.

Let's be clear: If you hate BlackBerry phones, you will still intensely dislike the Bold. As many coats of polish as RIM has thickly layered on the Bold, it is still a BlackBerry, with all of its suit-and-tie DNA fully intact. Fundamentally, it works and plays just like every other BlackBerry, but with a load of small-to-medium improvements, updates and tweaks that add up to a richer, more refined phone that also looks far better than the rest while doing its thing. Screen Yes, the Bold's 480x320 screen is dazzling enough to warrant its own section dedicated simply to praising it. Incredibly rich and contrast-y with stunning pixel density, it's so nice you want to touch it.

I actually tried to once or twice to hit okay on a dialog box, forgetting that it wasn't the touchy kind of screen. It almost makes reading the plain text of an email depressing, knowing you could be looking at a gorgeous video instead. Keyboard A BlackBerry lives and dies by its keyboard. When RIM diehards countered reckless banter about the death of the BlackBerry per the iPhone's Exchange support by pointing to the keyboard. After you get used to the slight angle shift in the Bold's keys, they're fantastic, like a delicately balanced wine, with a perfect blend of springy, punchy and spongy. The glossy navigation keys are overly large for reasons I cannot quite divine. The backlighting is beautiful. Body It's hands-down the best looking phone RIM has put out, not to mention one of the most attractive pieces of kit on the whole market, even if the clean chrome on black is borrowed from another phone (and we're not saying it is). It looks like an incredibly modern business device, what you imagine people with more important jobs than you would carry to conduct business that's more important than yours, while talking to their accountant about how much fatter their bank account is than yours.

It exudes power. Welcome to 2008, RIM design department. It's larger and wider than the Curve, but it still feels fine in my hands, which aren't giant-sized by any means. The faux-leather backing, however, is absolutely puzzling, like RIM tried to add a touch of class in the same way Donald Trump's hairdo gives him a touch of handsome. In other words, it's fake as crap and feels tacky. Insignificant, really, but it's actually the thing I hate most about this phone. Nonetheless, it feels rock solid. Connections It has everything you want: 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi. Despite earlier reports that it suffered from bad 3G problems, I found that it was more consistent and reliable with its 3G connection. It wasn't uncommon to grab four bars of signal where, say, the iPhone only saw one. (I realize bars are not standardized or totally accurate, but the disparity between the two was often significant, two or more bars.) In drive-testing, handoff went smoothly. GPS was slower than I would've liked, more often than not taking up to a minute to get a lock, and the maps app could be snappier (and prettier) than it is, but it'll do.

At least on AT&T it will immediately have a decent navigator app. Battery It's a champ. Despite lots of 3G browsing, email and other everyday app use, a half charge right out of the box got me through an eight-hour day with no problem. Expect more detailed battery test update later, but all indications are that this thing will last you throughout the day with no problems at all. Way to go, RIM. Browser Okay, so there was some controversy about how quickly its browser renders compared to the iPhone. In my tests over Wi-Fi—and believe me, I triple checked to make sure it was on Wi-Fi—it was either tied with, or just behind the iPhone, like the dude who lost to Michael Phelps by a finger tip. The speed difference really is trivial. It's the best BlackBerry browser ever (this phone is a lot of "best BlackBerry ______ ever"), and one of the most usable mobile browsers around. In other words, it's actually usable. Not a miracle. The trackball isn't the most elegant way to navigate pages—largely because of the zoom metaphor—but it gets the job done, and the vast majority of the time, the Bold shows you pages the way they're supposed to be.

It definitely sets a standard for what mobile browsers should do at a minimum, and it's fine for light surfing. Email What's a BlackBerry without email? Perhaps wisely, RIM chose to mostly not fix what ain't broken, adding small but significant tweaks like the ability to see pictures in message, full HTML and attachment viewing. Otherwise, it's basically the same experience you're used to. The higher res screen makes the text pop more and adds clarity, but it's not any prettier, which somewhat stands out against the rest of the overhauled UI. Media The Roxio-powered desktop Media Manager still sucks total balls—can you please get a decent integrated manager, RIM? And the music/video setup is essentially unchanged—same menu system and organization—but it has a cleaner, less tacky skin on top that makes it look like it's greatly improved, even though it isn't. But! Watching videos on this thing is a-maz-ing. The sample Speed Racer trailer was so gorgeous and yummy, I almost wanted to watch that 80-car-pile-up of a movie. Almost. The external speaker is surprisingly good, too, with richer sound than most other handsets. Still, this is one of the areas of the phone that needs work—the video quality nearly woos me into giving it a pass—but I can't emphasize enough how much it needs a decent media manager. OS & UI RIM has re-skinned the entire operating interface, shifting from pixel-y, realish bitmaps to slick, almost Tron-like high-res icons that have a neon pseudo-science fiction modernist feel to them. One issue: It's no longer immediately apparent what each icon does, so expect to hover initially. (With Precision Zen, the theme with splashes of color, it's easier to discern what icons represent.) I like them, but it's really an issue of personal taste—still, future skins will benefit from being able to go high-res. All of the top-level menus have been cleaned up as well, with crisp white text on a black background. It feels nice, and goes with the look of the handset itself, conveying the sense of it being modern and powerful. Unfortunately, when you go into applications themselves—mail, contacts, etc.—or deep into settings, you feel like you've entered a time warp three years into the past. It's like eating a tuna sandwich after a piece of sashimi—the tuna sandwich alone, uncontextualized, is fine, but next to a pure, clean slice of maguro it looks like crap. Startup on this device has been exceptionally slow—I initially thought my unit was busted or something (maybe it is), though I suppose BBs are always damn sluggish on cold starts. For the for first minute or so after booting, the OS kind of chugs as well, but after clearing the pipes, I guess, it runs totally smoothly, as it should with its speedy 624MHz processor. Still, overall, it's the same BlackBerry OS as before, just prettier and running on snappy hardware. If you're used to a BlackBerry, you won't have any problems getting around. If you're not, well, it's one of the easier mobile OSes to learn and deal with, everything is more or less up front, and on top, at least, it's pretty. Conclusion This is RIM's best phone ever. Does that mean it's the phone for you? If you're a BlackBerry fanatic, yes—it really is the phone you've been waiting for, if you're not hoping RIM radically changed the recipe. Because they didn't. It's cleaner and brighter, but it's not an overhaul by any means. It's a more powerful and beautiful distillation of the same experience. For other people who were eyeing it as the time to switch to BlackBerry, the issue is less straightforward. As I said in the intro, it's coming into a complicated world, where it has more consumer crossover appeal than a flagship RIM device—currently, the 8800—ever has before. (No doubt, even more people are looking at it in light of 3G problems on other handsets, either suit-and-ties who were considering the jump, or people looking for their first high-end smartphone, though more of the former.) At its heart, this thing is a corporate workhouse. It will play movies, music, browse the internet and all of the things consumers usually want—and do it well—but it is coming from a different mindset than the iPhone, something to keep in mind if you're torn between these two phones.



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$1,975 iPod

Every living thing knows about iPhone. Apple and AT&T saw to that in their unprecedented campaign to prime demand for a mobile device that has been dubbed "revolutionary" and "game changing." After nine days doing nothing but living, breathing, and dissecting a 4GB iPhone, I am captivated by it. I'd challenge any gadget hound to find a more satisfying, status-elevating way to blow half a grand.

iPhone is good enough as a phone, a PDA, a media player, and a mobile browser to hit the sweet spot of those consumers who can afford the device, along with activation and monthly service fees. So, I say it again: If it's a gadget you're after, you're looking at a $499 wide-screen iPod with oodles of extras. If that's the perspective you bring to your consideration of iPhone, you have the right one. Declare yourself an early birthday.

Now it's time for consumers and gadget freaks to tune out because the rest of this review is aimed at those who rely on mobile devices as their lifeline to customers, clients, patients, management, team members, field staff, or hosted data and services. If that's you, understand that I know you came here because you want an iPhone. Apple went to great lengths to tick the feature table boxes that make the device look like everything a professional could want in a mobile device: cell phone, PDA, e-mail, Internet client, and media player.

iPhone fulfills the media player role well — although surprisingly not as well in some regards as a less costly iPod and not leagues better than a smartphone. It fulfills its secondary role, PDA, about as well as a BlackBerry. For phone, mobile messaging, and Internet access, iPhone will get you worked up but let you down once you get to needing it.

The unhappy fact is that for all the glamorous marketing and positioning, iPhone turns out to be the worst $1,975 investment (iPhone plus two years minimum, mandatory service) you could make in mobile communications. If you put that kind of money into a BlackBerry, Treo, Windows Mobile, or Symbian device, you will be blown away by what a genuine professional mobile handset can do for you, out of the box, through incremental improvement by the manufacturer and wireless operator, and extension by downloadable third-party software.

If the iPhone circus opened your eyes to the possibilities offered by high-end mobile devices, that's a good thing. Read this review, realize that what iPhone does is done well by other devices, too, and understand that iPhone's limitations with regard to professional use aren't present in competing devices, even those sold by AT&T.

Funny business
iPhone might be the perfect mobile device if it weren't for a certain pair of CEOs. iPhone users are forced to buy into an extremely narrow range of overpriced rate plans (with no option for a data-only plan), a mandatory two-year contract term, slow EDGE wireless data service, no device discount, and no handset protection. They built the only smartphone that does not function, not even as a calculator, until the buyer pays a $36 activation fee and signs up for a two-year service commitment at a minimum cost of $59.99 per month, plus the usual small-print charges.

Paying full retail ("unsubsidized") price for any other smartphone or PDA in AT&T's catalog frees the buyer from a term commitment and opens up pay-as-you-go and data-only rate plans, as well as plans that let you use your device as an Internet gateway for a notebook computer. Not iPhone — it is truly in a class by itself.

Apple and AT&T created the world's first nonprogrammable $500 mobile handset: No Java, Flash or native applications can run on iPhone. That means that the innumerable features found in other $500 smartphones, PDAs, and Pocket PCs are absent in iPhone. Those include: voice dialing; Bluetooth stereo-headset support; VoIP over Wi-Fi; instant messaging (Web alternatives exist, but they don't signal you on incoming messages); audio recording; standards-based tethered and over-the-air sync; remote lock-down and management; Bluetooth file transfer; movie recording; rich document editing; offline document and Web content access; mail viewing with HTML images and JavaScript disabled; mail rules; MP3 ring tones; video and audio codec support beyond QuickTime media types; access to non-HTTP TCP/IP ports and protocols; and so much more that won't be added until Apple decides to do it. And since Apple never discusses its plans, there's no way of knowing which of these limitations it will attack with future software updates. But one thing is certain: If Apple doesn't do it, the company won't let anyone else do it — at least not legally.

Screen meets keyboard
You already know iPhone. It's a 3.5-inch glass LCD with just enough metal and plastic wrapped around it to hold it together. There are four tactile buttons: home, volume up, volume down, and power. Everything else, including the QWERTY keyboard, shows up on the display.

iPhone's display is touch-sensitive to the extreme. It is designed for fingertips, not for styli. Most stylus-sensitive mobile devices also respond to the touch of a finger, but the stylus comes in handy as a proxy for a mouse, which most Web 2.0 applications expect.

iPhone needs a stylus as an option: There are places where the pad at the tip of an adult finger spreads out on pressure to cover an awfully large swath of display space. The result is a human interface that responds beautifully to grand gestures such as one- and two-finger sweeps to scroll content, and two-finger pinching and spreading to zoom out and in, respectively.

But if user interface controls are packed too closely together, which applies to most Web sites with forms, it's impossible to aim for a radio button or a check box without slipping and activating an adjacent control.

It doesn't help that iPhone isn't tunable. No two people hold iPhone exactly the same way, and your angle of view makes all the difference when you're poking at a small target on iPhone's screen. This really shows when you're using the on-screen keyboard. Its keys are huge, which is both boon and bane. The large keys are easy to read, and pressing one makes a flag pop up above your finger that echoes the key you pressed. This is necessary because you can plant your finger squarely on a key and have iPhone register the key next to it. Once you get used to the technique, you learn that if you slide your finger to the proper key before lifting it, you can get the right letter. I found that keys toward the sides of the display register erroneously more often than others.

iPhone attempts to counteract this effect by presenting word-completion options that cover many "missed by one key" typing errors. It's like the correction that Microsoft built into its block-handwriting recognizer, but you shouldn't need a facility like that with a keyboard. iPhone's keyboard is very cool to watch, but despite the invitation to do so, you can't set upon it with thumbs a-blazing. You just miss too many keys.

iPhone supports BlackBerry-like contraction substitution: Type a contraction without an apostrophe and iPhone will add it. However, it lacks a modifiable shortcut dictionary. And while iPhone tries to provide correction for missed keys, it doesn't flag or correct misspelled words, and most of its normal word completion suggestions are nonsense.

Safari stumbles
As nice as iPhone's Safari browser is for reading the newspaper, iPhone is a bit oversold as the ideal mobile front end for Web 2.0 applications. The device will not upload or download files, and Safari does not allow JavaScript applications to persist data in iPhone's memory for use when the device is offline.

Safari's JavaScript interpreter proved too slow to support smooth motion in Web 2.0 applications with rich interfaces, and the animated GIFs that site builders employ for browsers that lack Flash Player support are often not rendered properly.

Safari does not allow a Web page to sense finger motion using standard events, so drag, slide, and drag/drop operations require special effort while other devices with touchscreens will mimic a mouse well enough to permit these actions in a desktop style.

iPhone offers no clear way to select, copy, or paste text in edit fields, and repositioning the text cursor in a multiline edit field requires two-finger scrolling in a tiny space above the pop-up keyboard.

While Safari works considerable magic to make some HTML controls, like combo boxes, easy to use on a small display, this does not extend to other types of controls that may be too small to hit while at a zoom level that lets you see an entire form or grid of controls. In one common annoyance, aiming for a button with an adjacent text field ended up selecting the text field, which pops up the enormous, opaque QWERTY keyboard. For Web pages, a translucent keyboard that passed finger gestures to the underlying page would be a major improvement to iPhone. However, on pages with multiple text fields, iPhone's text window presents Previous and Next buttons so that you can hop from field to field without having the keyboard pop up and down.

Safari lacks the ability to adjust a Web page's text size, relying on zoom to make text large enough to read. When Safari's auto-zoom feature — which zooms and centers on a column of text or a group of controls — works, it's marvelous. When it doesn't work, you end up pinching and spreading and scrolling this way and that to read and operate HTML form controls.

Web sites must be designed for iPhone because its browser does not restructure HTML, especially forms, for use on its display. All modern mobile browsers, including Internet Explorer and BlackBerry's standard browser, have view options that can reorganize text into a single scrollable column. iPhone will zoom a column of text to fit the screen width, but you have to scroll to the top of the next column manually.

Safari will not store or open local HTML, XML, or script files, and in fact, iPhone allows users no access to its storage at all. Even the cheapest iPod can be accessed as a USB storage device, but arbitrary file system access to iPhone is prohibited. The only path between your PC or Mac and your iPhone is a USB cable and a copy of iTunes.

iPhone hang-ups
iPhone is barely passable as a phone, with an extremely weak speaker, comparatively poor signal clarity, and radio frequency interference so powerful that when I tried to attach an iPod voice recorder, iPhone would not support it but still suggested that I shut down the wireless features (activate Airplane mode) to reduce interference.

I can't overstate the interference issue. I'm wearing a pair of noise-reducing headphones, and whenever iPhone polls for e-mail or checks in with the cell tower, I pick up the buzzing and chirping familiar to BlackBerry users who set their devices down too close to the bedside radio. But iPhone's interference can be heard through a tuned-in FM radio from a fair distance away. It is loud. Steve Jobs attributed iPhone's delay to market to FCC testing. I can understand why.

As a phone, iPhone is stunningly innovative in some very practical ways. Its dial pad is big and easily readable. Each digit you dial lights a halo around your fingertip when you make contact. That contact requires only a feather touch, and you can easily dial and scan your Contacts database with your thumb (although it's optimized for righties). For quiet times, a flip of a side-panel switch kills the speaker, not just the ringer — Apple got this right — and activates the first truly silent vibrating motor I've encountered in a phone. People won't be able to tell how you knew you had a call coming in. That's the fringe benefit of a virtually seamless case.

Answering an incoming call is supposed to be as easy as raising your iPhone to your head. That never worked for me, but your head may vary. In any case, if you add up what iPhone does, and what it's supposed to do, it appears you have a phone that you can operate one-handed and safely answer in the car. But no. iPhone lacks voice dialing or commands, so you can't use the phone truly hands-free.

While you're on the phone, even the freshest face will leave an oily smear on the display, and during every call, you're bouncing a hypersensitive touchscreen full of active buttons against your face. The side of my face matches the contour of the phone, but an assistant with more angular features was always muting his call with his cheekbone.

iPhone, being thin and slippery when wet, is a phone that you will drop, and often, and you'll have fun pinching its skinny head out of your pocket or purse before it stops ringing. Apple bundles a headset made of iPod earbuds with a cord-mounted microphone. The stereo 'buds sound good, and hitting the mic switch will kill the music and take a call, but this is not professional grade, and iPhone's 1/8-inch diameter headset jack is fitted for headphones, not an industry-standard telephone headset. Every iPhone buyer will need a Bluetooth headset and a holster or slipcover of some kind; be sure to audition both before you leave the showroom because compatibility is not assured in either case.

In all other regards, iPhone is a mediocre phone. Its speaker is too quiet for speakerphone use, and the audio quality of the headset is inferior to that of BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices I have for contrast tests. Visual Voicemail, which creates a browsable inbox for voice mail, is a nice feature. You can jog through each message and view details of its sender, the time, and the date, as well as return the call with a button click. But you cannot forward the message to someone as e-mail or voice mail.

Pricey iCandy
I have plenty more to say about iPhone and plenty to show. I'm chopping up videos I've shot demonstrating the issues I describe in this text and in the notes that I'll share with you in coming days in my Enterprise Mac blog.

The upshot is that iPhone is a really sweet mobile device. If you could buy it without AT&T's service, I'd tell everyone to do so: Its flaws are perfectly tolerable if you acquire it as someone who's looking for a wide-screen iPod with Wi-Fi interface. However, since it is impossible to buy without $60 monthly payments, its quality as a phone and mobile browser is overstated, and it is a platform closed to third-party development, I can't recommend it. A professional or business user who buys into iPhone will be buying a smartphone or PDA to replace it before their contract is out. Lust lasts only so long.

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Google Web Optimizer

On Wednesday Google unveiled a brilliant new tool, the Web Optimizer, at this year’s E-Metrics Summit. It puts the power of multivariate testing on an array of web metrics in an elegant and simple-to-use online tool. What was once a tedious process involving capturing web statistics, downloading log files, importing them in a statistics package, and performing complicated regression analysis has now been made simpler. Users will be able to more easily test multiple versions of a page and the effectiveness of individual elements on those pages to determine which combinations result in the highest conversions.

From the press release:

This multivariate landing page optimization tool enables marketers to test different ideas for variations of headlines, promotional copy, or images and provides easy-to-read graphs showing which variation resonated best with their site visitors….

…By giving website owners the tools they need to improve their website content, Google is helping improve user experience on the internet as a whole…

…By allowing site visitors to determine what content is most useful, as indicated by the highest conversion rate, we are removing the guesswork and trial-and-error experiments that used to be the norm for determining landing page optimization…

Presently, Web Optimizer is in a limited beta and those interested in taking it for a spin are asked to apply for the beta test. A fairly comprehensive overview of the tool is available and contains screen shots of a sample combination report and page section report.

Sample Combination Report

What Web Optimizer Will Allow Users To Do

Google claims that Web Optimizer will allow users to ‘test different ideas for variations of headlines, promotional copy, or images’. However, with a little imagination, insight, and trickery the service should also allow one to test versions of graphic designs elements, navigation menus, page layouts, optimal text sizes and line heights and more. Theoretically speaking there is no real limit to the kinds of variables that one can test using multivariate analysis or this tool.
What Web Optimizer Cannot Do

There is an important caveat to the above statement outlining what the tool will allow user to do: technical limitations, dynamic elements, and variables that are not discrete elements on a static page limit the utility and capacity of Google’s Web Optimizer. In other words, the tool will not work on all pages and will not work on certain dynamic elements within a web page. It will also not be able to track the user interaction across different pages and states. For example, it will not give any insight into how various aspects of a user interaction impacts conversion rates for multi-state or multi-page dynamic systems like shopping carts and applications.

In addition, Google is marketing Web Optimizer as a tool that the average person can implement and use. The official press release reads: “This tool does not require consulting or professional services to implement.” Those that do not have an analytical background or training will likely be limited to carrying-out simpler tests; despite what Google claims, professional help will still be needed for more in-depth research. Perhaps it is without coincidence, then, that a consulting firm specializing in multivariate testing is collaborating with Google on this venture.
What Does It All Mean?

I cannot understate the importance of this service for the greater internet community. It will give web site owners, administrators, developers, and designers a tool to conduct basic multivariate testing to optimize single landing pages. This is significant. However, Web Optimizer only scratches at the surface of a comprehensively optimal user experience, and user experience designers, analytical consultants, and web designers will certainly not become obsolete. In fact, this tool can make those professionals even more effective. We at Montparnas hope that this tool will be made available to everyone, and we hope to use it as an integral part of our services. I myself will be all too happy to scrap the process of importing CSV files and doing all the multiple regression analysis by hand!

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Web Stats To Sell

After you have a website for a while, you start to learn a lot of tips and tricks for doing business on the web. One of the best marketing tools you have is right there on your server and you'd be amazed at how many people don't use it. That tool is your website statistics. If you've never examined your web stats before you're missing out on a real gold mine of information. They are usually found in the control panel section of your web hosting company. Most web hosts will email them to you if you can't access them yourself.

Learn Important Pages Viewed Information

You are most likely familiar with your "hits" on your web stats for finding out how many people have visited your website. Most stats programs will not only tell you how many visitors you have had to your site, but what pages on your website they visited, how long they stayed on a particular page and what page they last viewed on your website before they surfed on.

Valuable Keywords and SEO

If you're interested in search engine optimization for your website and you aren't sure what keywords to use for your site; there is usually a section in your web stats file that shows you what keywords a person entered to find your site and what search engine they used. You can put those keywords around your website on various relevant pages to increase the search engine optimization of your site. That won't catapult your website to the number one position on Google overnight but it will increase your rankings if done correctly.

The Magic of Referrers

Another great feature is the referrer section. Know what sites or search engines are referring your website visitors. Referrals can come from other websites, news groups, clubs and forums or even competitors - if people are being referred to your website, find out by who. In many cases, someone that had a great experience with your firm will be referring your company to someone on a message board that is looking for a similar product or service.

Use Your Web Stats

If you notice people are leaving within a few seconds of hitting your index page. Look at it in a few different browsers because they are not all created equally. What loads like a champ in Internet Explorer may look like garbage in Firefox or Opera browsers; or it simply may take too long to load. If you notice people are leaving at a point in your shopping cart - either your shipping is too high or your program may be faulty. Find out what items are getting the most looks and promote those to bring in more visitors.

Now that you know how your web stats can work for you, jump start your Internet business today.

by.Aviva Brown

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