Author: CNET

Security expert Marc Maiffret parlayed his teen hacking skills into getting paid to find holes in Microsoft software. Now, he says, Adobe and Apple can learn from Microsoft’s past. More »

Apple’s plans for cloud computing go beyond music.

The company’s representatives have recently spoken with some of the major film studios about enabling iTunes users to store their content on the company’s servers, two people familiar with the discussions told CNET. That’s in addition to streaming them television shows and music.

Apple has told the studios that under the plan, iTunes users will access video from various Internet-connected devices. Apple would of course prefer that users access video from the iPad, the company’s upcoming tablet computer, the sources said. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Apple doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.

The news comes a month after Apple spoke to the major record companies about a similar plan involving music. Apple’s vision is to build proverbial digital shelves where iTunes users store their media, said one of the sources. “Basically, they want to eliminate the hard drive,” the source said.

By cramming digital songs, videos, and all manner of software applications on computers and handheld devices, there’s some indication that consumers are maxing out hard drives, particularly on smaller mobile devices. That’s led to speculation among Apple watchers that some consumers might slow their purchasing of new content if they have nowhere to easily put it.

It’s a bit of leap to reach that conclusion, certainly when a stagnant economy might be hampering sales, but there are some worrisome signs. The NPD Group reported last week that the number of people who legally downloaded songs dropped by nearly a million, from 35.2 million in 2008 to 34.6 million last year. Screen Digest, a research firm that focuses on the entertainment industry said Monday that growth in movie downloads slowed dramatically in 2009 following sharp increases in the two prior years. Screen Digest had projected that total U.S. online movie sales for 2009 would come in at about $360 million, but the total only reached $291 million, the company said.

Before iTunes users can store their movies and TV shows in Apple’s cloud, the company must get the studios to sign on. This may not be easy. The studios want to make sure that whatever Apple plans are friendly to other non-Apple devices and services.

Hollywood isn’t interested in any walled gardens, said James McQuivey, a media analyst with Forrester Research.

“The studios are very concerned that they’re going to get roped into somebody’s proprietary platform,” McQuivey said. “They want a world where consumers have a relationship with the content and not with the device or the service. They are in a position to force Apple to go along and make sure that if content bought from iTunes will play on a Nokia phone. That is very un-Apple like.

“Apple would prefer not to do this,” McQuivey continued. “But it just doesn’t have the leverage it once did. Apple can’t dictate terms or position itself as a digital savior.”

The reason that Apple doesn’t wield the same power over the film and TV industries that it did with music is that there’s more players that are willing to give the studios what they want.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) is a consortum of heaving-hitting media stakeholders lining up to create standards for file formats, digital rights management, and authentication technologies. The group includes Adobe, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Intel, HP, Lionsgate, Fox, Microsoft, Netflix, Panasonic, the four largest recording companies, Samsung, Sony, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

DECE’s goal is to make sure that a movie or TV show bought from Comcast’s video service will play on Samsung devices or on Netflix’s service.

Not all the studios have joined. Disney has create a DECE-like service called KeyChest, which is supposed to be DECE compatible.

Applying more pressure on Apple is Google, one of its main rivals. Google, obviously, has YouTube. It’s also eyeing some start-ups with cloud technology to beef up its streaming services.

Two weeks ago, sources told CNET that Google had informal acquisition talks with Catch Media, a Los Angeles company that wants to become a clearinghouse of sorts, where consumers move media around the Web and Catch handles the permissions and licensing.

So what’s Apple’s answer to the Google threat? Apple is building a new data center in North Carolina that, according to reports, will be the backbone of its streaming offerings. In December, Apple bought Lala, a struggling music service with an expertise in cloud computing. Google was also trying to acquire the company but Apple outbid them.

The one thing that could help Apple pull away from Google and give it some clout with the studios and TV networks is if iPad catches on with consumers.

The Web-enabled computer tablet, which is due to hit store shelves later this month, features a 9.7-inch display screen and can playback video in up to 720p, the sources said. If consumers start buying video to watch on the iPad, Hollywood could soften its stance on standards. But McQuivey says Apple can’t create any proprietary formats at this point.

“Apple can’t suddenly make the iPad a closed environment,” he said. “Netflix, and Amazon have built apps (for the iPhone) and Apple is not any position to refuse to limit its customers’ choices. By pioneering (the apps), Apple is stuck doing what’s right for consumers.”

In response to complaints regarding black level performance in its plasma TVs, Panasonic has issued a statement admitting that “background brightness will increase,” but described the change as “automatic” over the TVs’ lifespan and being intended to mainta optimal performance.

It also said that newer plasma TVs will include a “more gradual change in Black Level over time,” but made no mention of a fix for existing plasma TVs, whose owners first noted the issue at enthusiast Web site AVS forum.

Here’s the entire statement as e-mailed to CNET, entitled “Automatic Control of Contrast over Operational Lifetime.”

Panasonic Viera plasma HDTVs deliver exceptional picture performance throughout the lifetime of these products. Various elements and material characteristics of all electronic displays change with use over time. In order to achieve the optimal picture performance throughout the life of the set, Panasonic Viera plasma HDTVs incorporate an automatic control which adjusts an internal driving voltage at predetermined intervals of operational hours.

As a result of this automatic voltage adjustment, background brightness will increase from its initial value. After several years of typical use, the internal material characteristics will stabilize and no additional automatic voltage adjustments are required. The Black Level at this stabilized point will yield excellent picture performance.

The newest Viera plasma HDTVs incorporate an improved automatic control which applies the voltage adjustments in smaller increments. This results in a more gradual change in the Black Level over time.

More Questions Than Answers

I first contacted Panasonic seeking comment on January 11 , and the company has not responded until this statement, which was e-mailed to me Wednesday, February 3. Though arguably better than silence, the statement leaves too many major questions unanswered.

I have followed up with Panasonic seeking those answers, asking, among other questions, if/when a fix is planned for current TVs to address owner complaints; at what “predetermined intervals” do the the voltages increase; when do the materials stabilize; what the quantitative difference is between the initial black level and the “stabilized point”; which are the “newest Viera plasma HDTVs” referred to in the statement; and what should owners do who are unsatisfied with the picture quality of their TVs. I’ll update this story when I receive a reply.

The Big Picture for Plasma

As I mentioned in the original report, I haven’t seen a Panasonic plasma affected by the lighter black levels yet, so it’s impossible for me to reply to the big question of whether the loss of black level performance is significant enough to make the TV pale in comparison to its competitors. Many eyewitnesses believe it is, judging from the original thread at AVS forum and from a few of the comments on the report, but other owners are less definitive or report no change.

I began a long-term test using two 2009 Panasonic plasmas in my lab, but it will be at least a month before I can expect to notice any change in black level. Of course, I’ll report back when that happens.

I’ll also report that since 2005, my main TV at home has been a Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK plasma, and I’ve never noticed a change in its black level performance. At CNET, we didn’t hear of this issue until we read the reports on AVS forum, and to our knowledge, past Panasonic plasmas, as well as models by LG, Pioneer and Samsung, have delivered basically consistent black levels over time.

That’s why, despite Panasonic’s statement that “all electronic displays change with use over time” and that after said change its sets still have “excellent picture performance,” I tend to believe owners who describe the black level increase in the company’s latest plasmas as unusual and ultimately detrimental to picture quality.

A quote included in my original report accords perfectly with much of Panasonic’s eventual statement, enforcing that belief. In it a respected calibrator who goes by the screen name D-Nice, citing sources within the company, called the too-aggressive voltage increase a “goof” on the part of Panasonic engineering. The closest Panasonic has come to admitting as much is contained in its reference to an improved, more gradual change in new models.

Now What?

My main job at CNET is to provide buying advice regarding TVs, and Panasonic plasmas were one of my go-to recommendations. The 50-inch G10 was the most popular TV on CNET during 2009, and the V10 series earned the only Editors’ Choice award I handed out to any flat-panel TV last year. In fact, after I reviewed the 2009 models, my dad bought a TC-P42X1, two of my colleagues at CNET, Matthew Moskovciak and John Falcone, bought TC-P50G10s and another, David Carnoy, bought a TC-P65S1 (we’re keeping tabs on the black levels of those sets, too). It’s safe to say that many readers of this Web site did the same thing dad, John, Matt and David did: buy a solid-to-excellent HDTV for a good price, and be perfectly happy with the picture quality. Judging from reader reaction, that happiness may be in jeopardy.

Nothing halts a shopper’s reach for his wallet better than doubt, so I believe it’s in Panasonic’s best interest to answer those lingering questions. Until that happens, it’s going to be hard for me to recommend the company’s TVs without a degree of uncertainty.

This story originally appeared on CNET

Google is looking for customer support professionals to handle its Nexus One phone, a clear sign it has recognized that its self-service support model has limits.

Digital Inspiration noticed a posting on Google’s job boards looking for a “Phone Support Program Manager, Android/Nexus One,” to be based at Google’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. “As Phone Support Program Manager for Android and the Nexus One, you are responsible for ramping up and managing operations of Google’s telephone support for our direct-to-consumer Android/Nexus One customers,” Google wrote in the ad.

Google has gotten by with a pretty bare-bones customer support operation to this point in its history. Forums, FAQs, and e-mail support are pretty much the extent of what Google offers to everyone other than paid customers of Google Apps.

But following the launch of the Nexus One, Google’s support forums were flooded with questions from customers who were having shipping and technical issues. Google attempted to direct questions to HTC and T-Mobile, its hardware and carrier partners on the Nexus One, but the Nexus One is being sold exclusively through Google at the moment, and it’s the company that customers look to when they have a complaint.

Google declined to share specific plans for Nexus One customer support provided by live human beings, but confirmed the job posting was legitimate.

“We’re working quickly to solve any customer support issues as they come up, and we are trying to be as open and transparent as possible through our online customer help forums. We continue to address all issues in as timely of a manner as possible, and we’re flexible and prepared to make changes to our processes and tools, as necessary, for an optimal customer support experience,” the company said in a statement.

It seems no matter how Google builds out its customer support team, it will likely do so in its own way. One of the job’s responsibilities will be to “define and implement scalable business practices that leverage our internal best practices in one-to-many support to create efficiencies in high-touch support activities through channels such as phone and chat,” according to the post. The person will also be responsible for coordinating support efforts with partners, such as HTC, T-Mobile, and other carriers that will eventually support the Nexus One. [Digital Inspiration]

This story originally appeared on CNET

Months after Verizon Communications began issuing warnings to accused file sharers, the company has acknowledged that multiple offenses could result in a service interruption.

“We’ve cut some people off,” Verizon Online spokeswoman Bobbi Henson told CNET. “We do reserve the right to discontinue service. But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have bandwidth caps.”

What this means is that Verizon, one of the country’s biggest broadband providers, appears to have adopted an approach to illegal file sharing that sounds very similar to one promoted and pushed heavily by the music industry.

In December 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America stunned the digital-music world by announcing that it would no longer file lawsuits against individuals accused of file sharing. Instead, the RIAA said it had “agreements in place” from a group of major Internet service providers that would adopt a “graduated response” to copyright infringement.

The RIAA said a graduated response would start with a warning. A notice would inform a customer that he or she had been accused of illegal file sharing. If the person continued, the ISP would send more—perhaps more strongly worded—warnings. When it comes to chronic offenders, the RIAA has tried to convince ISPs to suspend or discontinue service.

But a year after the RIAA made its announcement, not one major ISP had acknowledged supporting the RIAA’s plan. The question raised by Henson’s statement is whether Verizon has quietly signed on. An RIAA representative declined to comment.

While Verizon did not disclose how many customers’ service it has cut off, Henson said the numbers are small. She added that litigation in this area is down significantly and that the number of subpoenas or court orders Verizon gets “are isolated and not at all widespread.”

But Henson also noted that what’s really important about this is that issuing warning letters is proving to be effective. Verizon has been sending letters to DSL and Fios broadband subscribers since last April and warning them that they—or someone in their household—may have been illegally downloading copyrighted content.

Can a simple scolding e-mail turn illegal downloaders into model Internet citizens?

“We’ve found that we don’t have to warn most people a second time,” Henson said. “Most people stop. Or they tell whoever is doing it to stop.”

Henson said a lot of people are unaware that someone in their house is downloading copyrighted material—most notably music, movies, and games—until they get the warning e-mail. “You get a teenager doing it, and the parent gets the e-mail, and they tell them to cut it out.”

Verizon says it isn’t actually monitoring what its customers download on the Internet. Rather, copyright owners are capturing Internet Protocol addresses and requesting that Verizon send out e-mail warnings. Henson, who did not disclose how many such warnings Verizon has sent, was careful to note that her employer does not give information about its users to copyright owners without “due process,” which means that Verizon must receive a court order before it would hand over any contact information. She also adds that if customers believe they’ve received a warning notice in error, they could contact Verizon.

Once a warning e-mail is received, just how many customers jump ship to another ISP or seek ways to mask their IP addresses (to circumvent detection) isn’t known. But at least one reader who sent us his warning e-mail claimed that he’s been scared straight.

I’m “stopping cold turkey,” said the reader, who, not surprisingly, wishes to remain anonymous. “With Netflix at $10 a month, it’s not worth it for me to risk a possible big fine. I’m going legit.”

Below is the text of the e-mail the reader received, edited to protect the customer’s anonymity:

Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:06:57 -0500
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Notice of Claim of Copyright Infringement

Dear Verizon Online Customer:

We are writing to advise you that Verizon recently received a notification from a copyright owner of a possible copyright violation that appears to involve your Verizon Online account (the “Complaint”). The work(s) identified by the copyright owner in its Complaint are listed below.

We are contacting you because our records indicate that the Internet Protocol (IP) address provided to us by the copyright owner was assigned to your service on the date and time identified by the copyright owner. While this activity may have occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, or perhaps by a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, as the primary account holder, you are legally responsible for all activity originating from your account.

Copyright work(s) identified in the Complaint:

Copyright infringement level: 1
Notice ID: XXXXXXXX
Title: XXXX (XX)
Protocol: BitTorrent
IP Address: XXX.XX.XXX.XXX
DNS: pool-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.XXXXXX.XXXX.verizon.net
File Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
File Size: XXXXXXXXXX
Timestamp: XX-XX-20XX XX:XX:XX UTC

Copyright infringement is a serious matter that violates U.S. copyright law and subjects infringers to criminal and civil liability. It also violates our Acceptable Use Policy (http://www2.verizon.net/policies/acceptable_use.asp) and Terms of Service (http://www2.verizon.net/policies/tos.asp). If you, or someone using your Internet connection, are engaged in the conduct alleged by the copyright owner, we urge you to stop (and ensure that anyone else who might have access to your Internet connection also stops).

Protecting Your Privacy: The copyright owner has not asked Verizon to identify you, and Verizon will NOT provide your identity without a lawful subpoena or other lawful process. However, if the copyright owner does issue a lawful subpoena or other lawful process that seeks information about your identity or account, Verizon will be legally required to provide the requested information to the copyright owner.

If you have questions regarding this notice or would like to view Frequently Asked Questions about copyrights and piracy, please visit us at www.verizon.net/copyrightfaq.

We appreciate your cooperation on this matter.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online

This story originally appeared on CNET

AT&T has fixed several problems that caused some AT&T customers to log into the wrong Facebook account when using their mobile phones, an AT&T spokesman said on Monday: “In a limited number of instances, a server software connectivity error resulted in some AT&T wireless customers being logged in to the wrong Facebook account when they accessed Facebook through their mobile phones.”

AT&T added new security measures to prevent the problem from happening again and worked with Facebook to disable subscriber identification information as an option for automatic log-on, Coe said. The subscriber identification is the session identification number that gets added to the URL, he said.

AT&T also fixed a separate problem in which a customer in Atlanta was able to log into the wrong Facebook account on a mobile phone. In that “isolated” case, the problem was due to a misdirected cookie on the customer’s phone, Coe said.

“We worked with the customer to resolve the issue,” he said. “It is unclear how this cookie was set on the phone.”

Asked for comment, a Facebook spokesman said: “We don’t have anything more than what AT&T is saying.”

The Associated press first reported on the problems this weekend.

This story originally appeared on CNET

When it comes to 3D television, I don’t see it. Literally. The technology that’s supposed to convince me that a 3D image exists when I look at a 2D screen doesn’t work for me.

Nor does it work for a small but significant percentage of the population—4 percent to 10 percent, depending on which expert you ask. Millions of people like me are being left behind by content and hardware companies as they move to 3D.

I don’t mean to complain. It’s not the end of the world. Flat-viewers, like me, can watch 2D versions of 3D content. I saw “Avatar” in the non-3D version. As a bonus, the theater was nearly empty—the 3D showing down the hall was more crowded. Plus, we didn’t have to wear those dorky glasses.

Of course, we are social beings, and not being able to view 3D means that group or family outings to 3D showings are awkward for the flat viewers, who may have to sit through a showing that will cause headaches or just look bad to them. But the flat-viewer’s experience with 3D imagery can vary. While I find viewing 3D imagery uncomfortable, Daniel Terdiman, another person at CNET who can’t see 3D, saw the 3D version of Avatar and wore the 3D glasses. It looked fine to him, just not 3D.

Manufacturers are mute
At CES this year, the trend toward 3D in home television sets was unmissable, but there was no mention by the manufacturers of how this move would affect flat viewers. I was curious how the hardware companies, which fight for every point of market share jealously, could cavalierly ignore the large number of us who won’t like this new direction. It’s a lot of market. How are they planning to deal with losing it?

Oddly, none of the HDTV manufacturing companies I reached out to could provide a direct comment on this topic, but I did talk with people familiar with the industry and with an optometrist who has a vested interest in promoting the growth of 3D content viewing.

Bruce Berkoff of the LCDTV Association and formerly a marketing executive at LG, noted that for all the hype around 3D, the television manufacturers are not really investing much in putting products on store shelves, nor are they expecting consumers to pay for it yet. Adding the capability for televisions to display alternating images for stereoscopic viewing through electronic shutter glasses is not expensive. It’s the glasses themselves that are, and only a few 3D-capable sets actually come bundled with them. So consumers will be able to soon buy televisions ready for 3D without spending much.

Berkoff, and everyone else I talked to about 3D TV, reminded me that a good 3D TV is also a good 2D TV. You should be able to turn off the 3D display features and view content designed specifically for 3D but in 2D: You just show the view for only one eye. If the refresh rate of the program is high enough, you should not notice much of a difference in picture quality.

Get your eyes examined
From the optometrist’s perspective, the inability to process stereoscopic imagery is, for many people, a treatable condition. Dr. Brad Habermehl, president of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, told me, “You don’t have to be a 3D refugee if you get to the root of the problem. The majority of stereo-blind people really can be helped.”

Habermehl says that there are methods to teach people to see in 3D. Using graduated methods and physical aids (lenses) as “training wheels,” he says, people can eventually learn how to “point both eyes to focus on the same space.” It’s like riding a bike. Once you learn, the training wheels come off and you can’t imagine not doing it. “Vision is definitely learned,” he says. “That’s what vision training is.”

The doctor sounded to me suspiciously like a spokesperson for the 3D television manufacturers, or at least a recipient of some marketing dollars from them. But he’s not. “It would be nice if they would fund us,” he said. But after reminding me that “Avatar” had already made $1 billion in box office receipts, he added, “I don’t think the industry is worried about this.”

Personally, I have no interest in undergoing medical treatment just so I can spend more money on consumer electronics. Although Dr. Oliver Sacks, in a compelling New Yorker article, Stereo Sue, did make me wonder what my kind is missing. (Related reading: Fixing My Gaze, by Sue Barry, a subject of Sacks’ story.)

And regardless of whether you see in 3D or not, the technology is inexorably changing the visual language of movies and television shows. When directors create shows for 3D, they can’t rely on cinematic methods viewers are used to in 2D for conveying action, depth, and movement. Hard cuts and swooping camera moves can disorient viewers new to 3D. The new standard of practice is to lock down the camera and move the action around it, instead of the reverse, which is the case in today’s 2D movies. Good 3D movies today will appear subtly more stately and cinematic than 2D shows.

The future of the 3D feature
For all the hype at CES, 3D for the next few years is likely to be a “feature” in the new crop of TVs, according to Gary Merson of the HDGuru3D site. “It’s not black-and-white to color,” Merson says. “It’s a feature, like Internet connectivity and stereo.” He also points out that the content is not there yet, and that many consumers have only recently upgraded their tube televisions to HD flat screens.

For people like me, for whom the world is flat, this feature can not roll out slowly enough.

This story originally appeared on CNET

Google on Tuesday is making a big move with its Docs service, opening it up to all types of file uploads. This includes photos, movies, music, and ZIP archives, all of which will be stored on Google’s servers.

Along with opening up Docs to additional file types, Google is also dramatically increasing the size of individual uploads. Where the company will still limit users to 500KB for Microsoft Word documents, and 10MB for PowerPoint presentations and PDFs, the new limit for all other files that cannot be converted into a Google Docs format is 250MB. This is 10 times the size of what’s allowed as an attachment in the company’s Web mail service Gmail.

In a post on the company’s blog, Google Docs’ product manager Vijay Bangaru said that the new size and file type allowances serve to make Docs a replacement for USB drives, allowing users to access their files between computers. The company is also applying the same permissions-based sharing system it has for documents that it hosts, allowing users to share files with one another.

That said, the amount of space for non-Google Docs files that are stored within Docs will only be 1GB. Users can upgrade though, and Google is planning on that.

Just like users can purchase additional space for other Google services like Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, users will soon be able to rent space from Google. For standard Google Docs users this will be 25 cents per gigabyte, per year, while Google Apps enterprise users have to pay $3.50 per gigabyte, per year. That’s a hefty price difference, but customer support, and a service level agreement that guarantees uptime add costs.

Bangaru says the new file storage features will be rolling out to users within the “next couple of weeks.” In the meantime, Google has been busy readying a new documents API that will take advantage of the storage, giving third-party programs read and write access. This turns Google into more of a traditional storage provider than it’s ever been, completely cutting out the need to visit the Docs site itself to add or remove files. The only caveat here—and it’s a big one—is that users will need to Google Apps premier edition customers to access the API, leaving free users of Docs and lesser Apps subscribers out in the cold.

Three companies that are coming out of the gate with support for this new API are Syncplicity, Manymoon, and Memeo Connect. All three will be tapping into it to do things like file sync, upload, and backup.

So is this the GDrive?

Signs that Google was readying Docs for file storage came in late July of last year, which is when the company quietly added the “files” menu to the Docs interface. It’s since been under-utilized as a place for users to store PDFs that could be read within Google’s document viewer. Attempts to upload other files that could not be converted into Google’s own formats simply did not go through.

But do these changes make Google Docs the long-awaited GDrive? In a way yes, but it’s far from the game-changing storage service that many thought would come by now. The expectation has always been that if Google came out with its own storage service, it would be deeply tied into its properties. And more importantly, that it would be something readily available to all users.

This time last year the company had alluded to as much, almost by accident. Bundled deep within the code of the company’s “Google Pack” software (which includes a handful of Google, and non-Google software installers), was mention of a service called “GDrive.” It was billed simply as a tool for online file backup and storage. That included “photos, music, and documents.” The software also promised to let users access these files from a variety of locations—including the operating system and mobile phones.

Sound familiar? Google Docs now does all those things, at least with the help of some third-party programs. However, the one remaining hurdle is getting the sync to non-enterprise users, which for the time being is not happening.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though. This year, Google brings its cloud-centric Chrome OS to Netbooks, and you can be sure that storage will be an important part of the equation. It’s much easier to sell the idea of a cloud-based lifestyle when you can give people a place to dump their existing files. This is especially true given what could be a very limited amount of storage in the first crop of Chrome OS hardware that will be sporting solid state drives—a technology that costs considerably more per gigabyte than platter-based hard drives.

Suddenly 25 cents a gigabyte doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Where Google still has a lot of work to do is unifying its storage offerings into one big drive that’s shared across all of its services. As it stands, depending on what type of media you’re giving to Google, and from what service you’re uploading it to, there’s a different bucket with a different limit. This is further complicated by the fact that many of the services have trouble talking to one another. If they did, it would allow Google to group search indexes into one place where users could sift through content they had stored across all of Google’s properties.

While Google may get there by the launch of Chrome OS, it doesn’t have to. Just consider Tuesday’s news proof enough that Google, at the very least, has the ball rolling.

This story originally appeared on CNET

If you think all high-end products are stupid expensive or mammoth monstrosities, the MiniWatt vacuum tube integrated amplifier should change your mind.

What differentiates high-end gear from mass market technology is performance; mainstream manufacturers know sound quality isn’t much of a priority for most buyers, so they build their products to sound just good enough.

By high-end standards at least, the MiniWatt is dirt cheap, just $229 (shipping is $40). And measuring just 5 by 4 inches, the little guy can fit anywhere. Powerful it’s not, just 2.5 watts for each channel, but that should be plenty for desktop applications with wee speakers, like the Audioengine P4s I recently wrote about.

Not convinced? Over at ToneAudio magazine, they hooked up the MiniWatt to a pair of $3,500 Zu Essence tower speakers and were blown away by the sound—so much so that ToneAudio named the amp “Product of the Year” in its budget audio category.

You can get yours in black, silver, gold, red, blue, or green.

Downsides: You get just a single stereo input, but you could add some sort of external switcher to accommodate more sources. You have to buy your own AC power cord; the MiniWatt doesn’t come with one.

The mini wonder is garnering raves from a number of audiophile magazines worldwide, and I think that’s just great. If you’re curious about the sound of tubes, here’s your chance to get in on the fun.

This story originally appeared on CNET

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden “GodMode” feature that lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

To enter “GodMode,” one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder’s icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. I’m not sure it’s my idea of playing God, but it is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.

I’ve asked Microsoft for more details on the feature and how it came to be. But so far, Redmond is silent on the topic.

This story originally appeared on CNET