Google phone coming

Apple iPhone will have a big competition on their hands as Google is set to launch its much discussed smart phone next week.

The new smart phone, Nexus One, may be unveiled Jan 5 when the internet search engine giant holds a media briefing about its smart phone business at its Mountainview headquarters in California.

The Google-branded device will use its latest Android operating system called Anrdoid 2.1.

Android is already being used in more than a dozen smart phones by many vendors, including Motorola and Samsung.

The Google smart phone will compete directly with Apple's popular iPhones in Internet browsing as well as playing video games.

Though the world's second biggest company, valued at more than $196 billion, has mentioned the upcoming briefing as "an Android press gathering," it has not confirmed whether the rumoured smart phone will actually be unveiled that day.

The Nexus One is likely to have a 3.7-inch AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) touch screen. AMOLED, which is a bright display technology, needs no backlighting for the device to function. Since there is no backlight, touch screen looks brighter.

The Google GSM smart phone will also have a 5-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity. According to mobile industry bloggers, Google may sell the smart phone unlocked, thus not locking buyers in long-term contracts with carriers.

The Google briefing is being held just two days ahead of the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas where global giants like Sony and Microsoft unveil their products for the next year.

New OnStar tech keeps stolen vehicles from starting

OnStar's suite of Stolen Vehicle Assistance services currently includes GPS technology that pinpoints a stolen vehicle's exact location, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, which can remotely slow a stolen vehicle to idle speed. Today, OnStar announces Remote Ignition Block, a new tool that will help law enforcement to safely and quickly recover stolen vehicles.

Remote Ignition Block lets an OnStar adviser send a remote signal to a subscriber's stolen vehicle to prevent the vehicle from being restarted once the ignition is turned off. By killing the ignition, OnStar can make sure that the stolen vehicle remains stationary so police can recover it without the need for a dangerous high-speed chase.

The process works like this: First, the OnStar subscriber reports his or her vehicle as stolen to the police and requests stolen vehicle assistance from OnStar. The police confirm to the OnStar adviser that the vehicle is in fact stolen, most likely using a police report number.

Next, the OnStar adviser locates the vehicle using its onboard GPS antenna and sends the Remote Ignition Block to the vehicle. The next time the vehicle is stopped, it will be unable to restart, and the authorities can then pick it up.

OnStar will make Remote Ignition Block available on select GM 2009 and 2010 model year vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.

iPhone OS 3.1 Beta And SDK Already Rolling Out To Developers

It looks like Apple has already started sending out the beta version and SDK for the next iteration of the iPhone OS, 3.1, to developers. The iPhone 3.0 software was released just about two weeks ago, ahead of the iPhone 3GS launch. By most accounts it’s pretty stable, though some users have been having battery issues. That’s why it’s a bit odd that Apple would iterate up to version 3.1 already, instead of something like 3.0.1, which it tends to do for minor updates and bug fixes. Could we be seeing a larger update to the OS already? I’m told that there’s nothing much of interest in the release notes to indicate anything major that is new or changed.

Moblin: A Netbook OS to Watch

Intel's Linux-based netbook operating system gives Windows a run for its money.

The emergence of ultracheap netbook computers has been one of a few bright spots for the PC industry over recent months. Last year, some 14 million netbooks were sold against forecasts of 5.3 million, according to research company Gartner. And at this week's Computex industry conference in Taipei, Taiwan, computer makers and hardware manufacturers will demonstrate a host of new models and netbook-specific hardware.

But the battle to provide the software that runs these streamlined computer systems is becoming increasingly interesting. The first netbooks, released in 2007, provided a rare opportunity for the Linux operating system to reach a wider audience. Since then, however, Microsoft has reasserted its dominance, pushing Windows XP and its next major operating-system release, Windows 7, for netbook computers.

The latest version of a Linux-based netbook OS called Moblin could be set to challenge this dominance. Originally developed by Intel and optimized to run on its Atom netbook processors, Moblin version 2 beta was released last month.

Several lightweight Linux OSes exist already. One is Fluxbuntu, which features just a Web browser, media player, and word processor and runs efficiently even on older PCs. Another is Google's Android, a smart-phone OS that has already been ported to some netbooks.

The difference with Moblin is that it taps into the Atom processor used in many netbooks. It provides support for chip features including Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (for smoother video playback), multithreading (for more-efficient programming), and power-management features.

In April, Intel handed over Moblin to the Linux Foundation, a careful move designed to boost the operating system's potential without souring Intel's relationship with Microsoft.

According to Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, Intel does not want to be so stringently tied to using Windows. "Intel wants to free itself from the Microsoft monopoly," says Gottheil. "With most Intel processors coupled with the OS, Microsoft implicitly controls the total cost of the processor; as a result, the entry price for Intel-based systems is higher than it otherwise would be, and the market is therefore smaller."

So how does Moblin measure up?

We installed and tested Moblin on three netbooks: a Lenovo S10, an Acer AspireOne, and an Asus Eee 901. All three worked well and were snappy for most tasks.

The Lenovo S10 and Asus Eee 901 both ship with Windows XP preinstalled, while the Acer AspireOne comes preloaded with Windows Vista. Installing Moblin was, however, relatively simple: just download the latest image file and copy it to a USB key. All current netbooks support booting from a USB drive.

The Moblin V2 user interface is built on Clutter, an open-source software library that provides easy access to several Web services. This means that it's possible to update your Twitter status or send instant messages directly from the desktop. Moblin also has a browser built on Google Chrome, plus a rudimentary music, photo, and video player.

The user interface still needs some work, though. One glitch is that, whenever a tool with a data-entry field was started, the cursor did not automatically move to that field--the user had to click it first. The Web browser also crashed repeatedly on all three systems and could not process a script in Gmail, which would sometimes cause an all-out system failure. On the Acer AspireOne, there was another problem: the netbook just could not resume after going into a sleep state. The screen would flash and appear for a moment but then go blank again.

The desktop shows a network icon in a drop-down task bar so that a user can select between a wired or wireless network connection. For some reason, Moblin did not support Wi-Fi on the Lenovo S10. (Intel says that the company is investigating the matter.) None of the Moblin installs on the three systems could recognize its built-in webcam, but audio, photo, and video playback worked flawlessly on all three systems.

Moblin supports a data-sync service; you can use Funambol, Memotoo, ScheduleWorld, or Synthesis to back up data, sync your calendar, and store contacts. Moblin V2 beta also includes three simple games (none of which use 3-D graphics), a calculator, a file browser, a terminal app, and a text editor.

There are a few oddities that might surprise Windows users. For example, in Moblin you can't just minimize a window. Instead, a user has to move apps to "zones" and switch between them.

But despite a few quirks and issues, the beta shows great promise. It's extremely fast, and it's one of the most up-to-date Linux distributions out there. It's certainly a good match for the netbook market, and it could yet become a popular OS.

No more Live Search: Bing Is Now Microsoft's Search Engine

Among Bing's core improvements over Live Search, according to Microsoft, are its capability to scour the Web more deeply and to deliver more-relevant search results faster. But the most striking feature of Bing -- setting it apart from Live Search and what Google and Yahoo deliver -- is the way it parses and displays search results.

Whereas Google emphasizes a stark, quick-loading design and a list of highly relevant search results, Bing's search results are organized into what it calls Search Categories -- subdivisions such as Web, Maps, Images, and Health. In a particular search, Bing creates Search Categories dynamically in response to the search query. Bing also packs some new smarts: technology that Microsoft acquired through its purchase of the firm Powerset, which attempts to figure out the searcher's intent rather than relying heavily on matching keywords to Web documents.

Stefan Weitz, director of Live Search for Microsoft, calls Bing a "decision engine" and says that it can help you explore, research, and find what you are looking for. "Google has done a great job of turning the word Google into a verb," he says. Bing is less about repeat searches, which Weitz sees as the key feature of Googling and more about finding the answer you're looking for the first time or helping you refine that search from the search results page.

Microsoft has struggled in the past to compete with Google for search market share. According to Nielsen Online, Google owns 64 percent of the U.S. search market, with Yahoo at 16.3 percent, and Microsoft Live Search at 9.9 percent. Microsoft will attempt to turn those numbers around in the coming weeks with a reported $100 million marketing campaign for Bing.

Will Bing's overhauled search engine and Microsoft's advertising investment woo the masses to Bing? My first impression after testing the preview release of Bing, called Kumo, is that it stands a good chance of succeeding. Still, the challenge of sharply reducing Google's market share is daunting

Search Engine Demographics

Everyone recognizes that the different newspapers have readers with different characteristics, but how many people know that the users of different search engines also have different characteristics? In this article we shall look at the demographic profile of each engine, and the different profiles of those who click on the paid ads and those who use the sponsored search.

Not all search engines were created alike
Nowadays it is commonplace to treat all the engines, portals and directories as if they offered better or worse versions of the same product to the same market. However, this is a misconception, and there are great differences between the different engines and their users. Granted, they all offer the facility to search the internet, but then all newspapers offer the news; and there is a world of difference between the readers of the Financial Times and those of The Sun.

The searcher and his search engine
Search engines are among the most popular sites on the internet. On any given day, 56% of those online use an engine. People generally trust these search engines. Engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN also have strong brand loyalty. Most searchers use no more than two different engines to search.

Although the demographics of those using paid search and those using natural search are very different, only 40% of searchers were aware of the difference between paid and natural results.

What are the major differentiating factors between the engines?
The three largest search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Together they make up 85-90% of all searches, and these different engines all have different users. These users can be divided by gender, by age, by income and by frequency of internet use. This is important information for your campaigns! I shall look at each of these factors in turn.

Gender breakdown by search engine
For the big three here, there are significant differences. A study carried out recently by Hitwise showed that 55% of Google users are male, whereas 58% of MSN users were female. Ask Jeeves and AOL were also more favoured by women than by men. Yahoo searches were split roughly evenly between men and women, with slightly more male users. The percentages may seem small, but when you're talking about the entire internet population, the numbers soon add up.

Gender breakdown by type of ad

Clicked on Organic Ads ......Women 56.9% Men 65.4%

Clicked on Paid Search Ads ..... Women 43.1% Men 34.6%

Here we see a greater difference, and it indicates that women are rather more likely to click on the paid ads than on the organic, or natural, ads. In the survey, we see that just over a third of men click on the paid search, whereas women are 25% more likely to do so. This is partly explained by female reluctance to read more than one page of results.

If a significant part of your clientele is female then you should strongly consider using paid ads to sell your product or service.

Age breakdown by search engine
Here again we see significant differences. Yahoo and Google are the most popular sites with those under the age of 34, whereas those over the age of 55 tend to prefer MSN.

Buying rate by search engine
The latest survey on buying rate indicated that in June 2005, visitors to Google sites were 42% more likely to buy online than the average Internet user, versus Yahoo visitors who were 31% more likely to purchase; MSN users who were 48% more likely to purchase; AOL users, 3%; and Ask Jeeves users, 17%.

However, studies also indicate that these engines are used in different ways. Users of portal search engines such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL tended to put in simpler search queries, of just one or two words. Google users often put in more complex queries. The more general searches are typically carried out at the stage where the user is gathering information, whereas the more precisely targeted searches indicate that the user is closer to making a purchase.

So what does this all mean for your PPC strategy?
Most companies should be running campaigns on all of the major sites to determine which search engine is generating the most cost effective and best converting visitors. Ultimately, the information generated from your website is the best market research.

Second, consider your creatives. By understanding the common characteristics of your customers and writing PPC ads best targeted at the search engine's usage demographics, you are more likely to connect with your audience and improve your website conversion. Also make special note that women are more likely to click on paid ads, and are more likely to buy as well.

Finally, paying heed to the different user profiles, and targeting your campaigns, budgets, creatives and landing pages appropriately will enable your marketing strategy to ultimately achieve stronger financial results for your web business.

LG Electronics launches LG G910 mobile 3G wearable phone in Europe

Orange announced it will be the first operator to offer the world's first Touch Watch phone (LG G910) in Europe, bringing customers the latest in breakthrough mobile technology in this tiny, wearable device from LG Electronics. This market-first innovation, available from flagship stores across Orange's European footprint later this year, will give Orange customers the chance to enjoy a whole new way of communicating.

Yves Maitre, Senior VP of Devices at Orange says, "At Orange, we are always finding new ways to bring mobility to our customers, from the simplest phones to feature rich devices. Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Orange, and LG shares that vision. Together, we are pleased to offer Orange customers the first opportunity to experience this market leading Watch phone."

The compact and stylish wrist watch style phone comes with a blue-tooth headset and features a full touch-screen interface, 3G HSDPA and video-calling capabilities. Whether it is searching for restaurants and making video conference calls, or watching sports clips and listening to music on the built-in MP3 player, Orange customers will be able to enjoy the same multimedia experience on a watch, as they do on other mobile phones.

Yves continues, "This phone really manages to combine form with functionality and its chic styling and mobile broadband connectivity will no doubt appeal to all the early adopters out there. It is a great addition to our range, showing that we can give customers the latest in high-tech design for a totally new kind of mobile multimedia experience, or if they choose, a simple device for calling and texting."

Mr Harrison Lee, Senior Vice President & Head of European Mobile Business, LG Electronics says, "Orange's long heritage in mobile innovation and its proven success at bringing such technologies to its customers means it is an ideal partner to bring the world's first Touch Watch Phone to Europe."

It won't be for a year or more for it to be available in the United States. We hope sooner. Uber chic and portable.

World’s First Internet Car Radio by Blaupunkt and miRoamer

I have been seeing more and more Internet radios on the market these days, and I suppose that it was only a matter of time before someone invented one for the car. At CES, miRoamer, a popular Internet radio site, and Blaupunkt, a leader in automotive multimedia, introduced the world’s first Internet radio for the car.



I know that I have said this before, but I always get suspicious when I hear the words “world’s first” applied to any technological product. Usually, those words mean that “someone else actually did it first, but we are the first to really market it”. However, most of the other Internet radio makers at CES seemed genuinely surprised at the release of miRoamer and Blaupunket’s product, and they all asked the same question: How is an automotive web-connection achieved?

Yes, the Internet Car Radio cannot work on its own, but requires a 3G or GSM phone to be connected via Bluetooth in order to access the Internet. From there, the user is able to access radio stations from miRoamer, which allows the user tens of thousands of music, entertainment, news, and talk stations.

The large screen display allows for easy interface with the many station options, and it includes other features including access to the phone, address book, Bluetooth, not to mention navigation.

So, is the beginning of a new age of Internet radio? I don’t see why not. I think we’ve done all we can with Sirius and XM, so the Internet is really the only other way to go with automotive radio.

DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero coming this Fall

Sure we we're pretty much positive that DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero were coming, but now Activision has made it official, official, and they're coming this fall.

Activision says the games will "redefine the company's popular music gaming platform" and "transform the way consumers enjoy and engage with music."

DJ Hero will expand social gaming to all new consumers with diverse music genres including hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. The game will, as was to be expected, also introduce a new turntable controller.

Guitar Hero 5 will include both modern and classic rock bands and give players an "unprecedented level of control over the way they play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly."

Finally, Band Hero appears to be a Guitar Hero game for the younger crowd. The game will have an E10 rating and feature top-40 hits designed to appeal to a family audience. The game will include guitar, drums, bass and microphone.

"Guitar Hero has made music social again and has become one of the most popular ways to experience music," said Dan Rosensweig, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Guitar Hero franchise. "Today's fans enjoy a variety of music and are looking for more ways to engage with their favorite songs, artists and fellow fans. These games will let them listen, participate and socialize with music in ways they have never been able to before."

The New 17-inch MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo/2.66GHz

Apple’s largest laptop gets unibody design and longer battery life

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro arrived a little late to the unibody makeover party—most of Apple’s laptop line switched to the thinner and lighter, precision-crafted aluminum design back in October 2008. But the new 17-inch laptop is not without under-the-hood innovation. The incremental updates that boost processor, system bus, and RAM speeds are all welcome, but the big news with the 17-inch MacBook Pro is its new battery design. Apple says the new laptop’s battery is 40 percent larger than the battery in its 17-inch predecessor, allowing the new 17-inch MacBook Pro to run for up to 8 hours on a single charge.


Product:
17-inch MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo/2.66GHz Rating
Company:
Apple
Price as rated:
$2,799

17-inch MacBook Pro
What’s changed

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro comes with the same 5,400-rpm 320GB hard drive as the model it replaces, though you can customize the laptop with a faster 7,200-rpm drive of the same capacity ($50), or choose between a 128GB ($300) or 256GB ($750) solid state drive (SSD). Like its predecessor, the new laptop comes standard with 4GB of RAM (you can upgrade to the maximum 8GB of RAM for $1,000), but the memory is now of the DDR3 variety running at 1,066MHz instead of the 667MHz DDR2 RAM used previously. The new laptop uses a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up from 2.5GHz in the last generation, though with the same 6MB of L2 cache, and for $300 more you can upgrade to a speedier 2.93GHz processor. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro also features a 1,066MHz front side bus, up from the 800MHz front side bus in the previous 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Like all of the unibody laptops, the 17-inch MacBook Pro uses an environmentally friendly widescreen display with mercury-free LED backlighting and arsenic-free glass. The screen has a native resolution of 1,920-by-1,200 pixels, and with that many pixels occupying just 17 diagonal inches, it’s easy to have multiple windows open at once. If you’re used to working at lower resolutions (like I am), you’ll notice that everything onscreen appears much smaller. I found myself having to zoom my Office documents to 150 percent in order to work on them, something I don’t have to do with my 15-inch MacBook Pro and its 1,440-by-900 native resolution.

The new MacBook design puts the glossy screen behind a thin sheet of glass. Glossy screens can look great with bright vibrant colors and deep, rich blacks. Some people, including a few of my fellow Macworld editors, despise the glare from these highly reflective glossy screens. For those gloss-phobic folks, Apple offers an anti-glare option for $50. We weren’t able to look at a 17-inch MacBook Pro with an anti-glare screen for this review.

The previous 17-inch MacBook Pro had the optical drive slot located on the front right; in the new laptop, it’s still on the right, but now on the side. All of the ports are now on the left side. I find it handy to have USB ports on both sides, but I’m sure I’ll learn to stop blindly stabbing cables into the optical drive before long.

For connecting an external display, the new Mini DisplayPort takes the place of the full-sized DVI port from previous generations. At this time, Apple is the only company using Mini DisplayPort, and the only Mini DisplayPort LCD is Apple’s 24-inch LED Cinema Display (). Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t include a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter to let you connect the new laptop to the more prevalent DVI connector found on most displays-the adapter costs $29 from Apple.

As with the 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a dual graphics subsystem—a high performance Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT chip with 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory, as well as a lower-performing, battery-saving GeForce 9400M that shares 256MB of RAM with the main processor. The previous 17-inch MacBook Pro had a single graphics engine, the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT with its own 512MB of GDDR3 memory. Our tests found that the 9600M GT graphics offeres a significant boost over the 9400M; the 9600M GT was 45 percent faster in our Quake tests and 18 percent faster in our Unreal Tournament tests.

The big story with the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is its battery life. The new battery is created with lithium polymer sheets instead of cylindrical lithium ion cells; this, according to Apple, creates less wasted space.

Another way to make the battery bigger is to make it a fixed part—it's no longer user replaceable, a controversial decision to say the least. By not having to include the latches and other parts necessary to make a battery easily removable, Apple says it was able to increase the size of the battery so it can carry more juice. Apple also says that the battery’s new adaptive charging technology will significantly increase the overall life of the battery, claiming that it can be drained and charged at least 1,000 times before retaining 80 percent of its original capacity–that’s between 3 and 5 times as many charges as most laptop batteries.

Though it’s difficult to test Apple’s 1,000 charging cycle claims, there are other battery tests to see how long a single charge lasts. Their standard test involves looping a video at full screen from a ripped DVD saved to the hard drive, the display set to full brightness, and the Energy Saver preferences set to never sleep and to use the lower-powered Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics. In that test the new 17-inch MacBook Pro lasted 4 hour, 43 minutes, while the previous 17-inch MacBook Pro lasted 3 hours, 36 minutes, and the new 15-inch 2.53GHz MacBook Pro lasted just 2 hours, 46 minutes.

The next battery test closely resembles Apple’s wireless productivity tests used for its battery life estimates. They used the same Energy Saver preference settings as our video loop test, but we set the display to half brightness and then used the laptop to surf the Web over AirPort and work on office productivity apps like Microsoft Excel and Word. In this test, they were able work for just over 7 hours before the laptop entered its safe sleep state–about an hour short of the 8-hour battery life claim, but still impressive. The test result on the other two laptops: 4 hours, 42 minutes for the 15-inch 2.53GHz MacBook Pro; and 4 hours, 46 minutes for older 17-inch MacBook Pro.

As you’d expect, with a slightly faster processor, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro outperformed its predecessor, but just a tad; the new system was about 1.8 percent faster in our all-around system performance tool, Speedmark 5. Most tests, however, like Photohop, iMovie and iTunes were all within a second or two of each other.

OLED TV's Future

2009 was supposed to be the year of OLED TVs. Sony dazzled us with actually watchable sizes and Samsung flat out said so. So, uh, what the hell happened to OLED at CES 2009?

OLED TVs—a nigh miraculous display tech that blows away plasma and LCD when it comes to sheer Gorgeousness—were supposed to hit their trade-show fantasy prime this year: Still too expensive for you and me, but flooding our greedy retinas with stunning images at every corner, just a few months away from hanging on Usher's bathroom wall. It's not just that there aren't any of the big OLED TVs we'd been hearing about—nothing near 40 inches—we're just not seeing them.

The announcements were really low-key or non-existent. Sir Howard gave a brief shout-out to Sony's new flexible OLED in his keynote. Not a peep of new product in Samsung's conference. The booth footprint is also tiny—remarkably so, considering how hard S & S were cheerleading last year.

OLED TVs being shown off this year would still be crazy expensive, yes, and big ones, retardedly so. But the argument that the economy deflated the rapidly expanding OLED TV bubble doesn't make a whole lot of sense—the economy panic really hit in late summer/early fall, while development cycles are years long. More than that, affordability has never been a tenant or consideration in the annual parade of what's new, what's amazing, what's next. Last year, they said it was OLED. So where is it?

Samsung says they need to run through at least one more generation of LCD—with a new, heretofore unseen generation of LED backlighting technology—before OLED will be ready for primetime. And it's unlikely they're going to let Sony step ahead of them, so now we're talking 2011ish at the very minimum. Not to mention, the plasma guys—Panasonic and Pioneer—aren't even going to talk OLED till they've finished milking their ultra-thin plasma strategy dry.

There is a bright side, at least for a handful of rich dudes: A slowed OLED TV development cycle means their 11-inch XEL-1s will be special for that much longer.

Problems with Window's Vista

Driver problems

Since Windows Vista's launch, the drivers have been a big issue. Lots of hardware components (old and new) had no drivers for Windows Vista or, even if they had, their quality was very poor. One of the most prominent examples is Nvidia. When the GeForce 8800 graphic cards were launched, they were labeled as "Designed for Windows Vista". It is only natural that many people asumed the graphic cards would work well with this operating system. Unfortunately that was not the case, as the Nvidia drivers had lots of issues. There were numerous posts on Nvidia's official forums commeting the bad state of the drivers. Some users even built internet pages such as nvidiaclassaction.info to gather evidence for a class action suit.
Since then, Nvidia worked hard on the Windows Vista drivers and released many new and improved versions. However, their latest driver - Forceware version 158.24 - still has plenty of issues. For example, popular games such as World of Warcraft have low frame rates while others crash during play or have corrupted textures.

Nvidia is not the only company that has these issues. Other big hardware manufacturers such as Creative, renown for their sound cards and sound systems, have similar problems. When Windows Vista was launched, their drivers were mostly in beta stages. Even though they released so called "final versions", their drivers had plenty of issues. Lots of users complained on the official forums and, after a while, Creative announced the ALchemy Project - a project that aims to offer complete DirectSound3D support for Sound Blaster X-Fi products in Windows Vista. Unfortunately, old sound cards such as the Audigy 2 series are not yet supported. Due to lots of users' request, they started the development of ALchemy for Audigy sound cards. However, according to Creative, this products will be offered as a "low-cost" upgrade.

Having bad drivers is always better than having no drivers. Even today there are companies that do not offer Windows Vista compatible drivers for their hardware. For example, Mustek - a company famous for their scanning solutions, has still no drivers ready, not even in beta stages. Since the launch of Windows Vista and until today their driver download page has remained unchanged. The only thing they bothered to do was to state that "Currently we don’t provide drivers or updates for Windows Vista". They have no forums and when we sent an e-mail asking for some feedback regarding Windows Vista drivers we received no answer.

Unfortunately Mustek is not the only example. There are other companies doing the same thing and lots of customers suffer.

Application compatibility

Drivers are not the only problem. Lots of applications do not work either on the new Microsoft operating system. That's because many software developers created applications that function only if the user has full administrative privileges. With the introduction of UAC (User Access Control) and other system changes, lots of old applications have problems. The most prominent example of an application that was incompatible with Windows Vista is iTunes. Whenever the Windows Vista "Safely Remove Hardware" feature was used, it corrupted the user's iPods, requiring a full restore. Also, iTunes text and graphics had display issues with Windows Vista. However, upgrading to iTunes v7.2 or higher solves these issues.

Lots of other applications had or still have problems. Most of these problems are encountered with applications that install legacy drivers in order to function. These applications can be CD/DVD burning utilities, VPN applications, virtualization solutions or even security suites. Other applications just refuse to install even though they could work on Windows Vista. This problem is due to the poor design of their installer. For example, some applications ask for the installation of Microsoft.NET Framework version 1.1 or 2.0. They won't install even though Windows Vista has a newer version of .NET Framework.

Conclusion

Just like with any other new operating system, problems are inherent. What matters most is that both hardware manufacturers and software developers act in a proactive way and offer the required support to their customers in a timely manner. Unfortunately, Windows Vista's launch revealed many problems even though Microsoft released it to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels, months before it was released worldwide to the general public.

Hopefully, both computer hardware and software manufacturers will fix their issues as soon as possible. And, maybe, they will learn from their mistakes so history won't repeat itself with every new release of a major operating system.

Phone numbers for Ebay and Paypal

If you're having a problem with eBay - or with an eBay transaction - you are certainly subject to frustration. You will understandably want to talk to a real human being and will begin looking for an eBay phone number. Sometimes eBay's help is confusing, but you are well advised to try their help page first. That's because you are likely to encounter more problems in the future, given the nature of human beings, some of whom are dishonest. And it's empowering if you can maneuver your way through the maze without having to depend on eBay itself.

Make certain you are prepared before calling:

When you speak with an operator, you are well advised to know the eBay rules. They will ask you what you've already done to resolve the problem and if your answer doesn't fit their rules, you won't get the help you want. For instance, let's say you are upset about an unpaid item. The eBay rules state that

Sellers can report an Unpaid Item up to 45 days after the transaction date (i.e. the date when the buyer commits to buying the item and the seller commits to selling it). Usually the seller must wait 7 days after a listing closes to file an Unpaid Item Dispute. However, in the following exceptional cases, the seller can file a dispute immediately:

* At the time of the filing the buyer is no longer a registered user of eBay.

* The seller and buyer wish to mutually withdraw from the transaction.

So if it's only been three days and the buyer is still a registered eBay user, or it's been 60 days, then you're out of luck and will get no help or sympathy from an eBay rep.

please don't abuse the system by calling with non-issues, they are more likely to change they're telephone numbers because of abuse.

These numbers are for powersellers only! But they will most likely help you anyways.I cannot guarantee the validity of the numbers though.

Ebay phone numbers by country:

eBay customer service can be contacted toll-free using Skype; currently available in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Der Skype-basierte eBay-Kundenservice für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz ist kostenlos.

US eBay phone number toll-free: 1-800-322-9266 or 1-888-749-3229; 24-hour/7-day

US eBay PowerSellers phone number: 1-866-515-3229; 24-hour/7-day

US eBay Stores phone number: 1-866-322-9103; 06:00-18:00 PDT, Monday - Friday

Canada eBay phone number: 416-961-1970 plus above US toll-free phone numbers; 24-hour/7-day

UK eBay phone number: 0700-500-3229, 0700-809-9181, or 0208-605-3000; 09:00 - 18:00 (GMT/BST) Monday - Friday

International eBay phone number: +44-700-500-3229; available same times as UK eBay above

Australia eBay phone number: 02-8280-6400 or 02-8280-6465; during office hours

Australia eBay PowerSellers phone number: 02-8280-6470; during office hours

Germany eBay phone number Deutschland eBay telefonnummer: 0900-1-463229 oder 0900 1 GO EBAY (€0,59/min); Sie erreichen uns täglich von 9.00 - 20.00 Uhr unter

Austria eBay phone number Österreich eBay telefonnummer: 0900-26-32-29 (€0,68/min); Sie erreichen uns täglich von 9.00 - 20.00 Uhr unter

Switzerland eBay phone number Schweiz eBay telefonnummer: 0900-46-32-29 (CHF 1,00/min); Sie erreichen uns täglich von 9.00 - 20.00 Uhr unter

India eBay phone number: 022-24990700 during office hours

Contact PayPal phone numbers

US PayPal phone number toll-free Business/Premier accounts: 1-888-221-1161 or 1-888-204-4481, Personal accounts phone number: 1-402-935-7733 or 1-402-935-2057; 24-hour/7-day

Canada eBay phone number: same as US toll-free phone numbers; 24-hour/7-day

International PayPal phone number: +1-402-935-2050; available same times as US PayPal above

UK PayPal phone number: 08707-307-191 or 0800-358-7929; 06:00 - 22:00 (GMT/BST) Monday - Friday

Ireland PayPal phone number: 1-890-943-220 (Daytime: €0.0492/min, Evening/weekend: €0.0126/min) or +353-1-436-9001; 06:00 - 22:00 (GMT) Monday - Friday, Sat 08:00 - 22:00, Sun 09:00 - 22:00 except public holidays

Australia PayPal phone number: 1-800-073-263 or 02-8223-9500; 08:00 - 18:30 AEST Monday - Thursday, 08:00 - 16:00 Friday - Saturday

France PayPal téléphone numéro (France PayPal phone number): 0821 230 233 (€0,12/min) ou +353 1 436 9005; 09:00 - 17:30 CET Lundi - Vendredi

Nederlands PayPal telefoon aantal (Netherlands PayPal phone number): 0900 265 8950 (€0,10/min), voor België: 070 359 905 (€0,10/min); 08:00 - 16:30 CEST Maandag - Vrijdag

Belgique PayPal téléphone numéro (Belgium PayPal phone number): 070 359 905 (€0,24/min); 10:00 - 16:00 CET Lundi - Vendredi

Deutschland PayPal telefonnummer (Germany PayPal phone number): 0180 500 66 27 (€0,12/min); 8.30 - 19.00 Montag - Freitag zur Verfügung

Österreich PayPal telefonnummer (Austria PayPal phone number): +49 180 500 66 27 (in den USA); 8.30 - 19.00 Montag - Freitag zur Verfügung

Poland PayPal phone number: 00 353 1 436 9001; 08:00 - 16:30 GMT Monday - Friday

Spain PayPal phone number: 902 88 52 48; 08:00 - 16:30 GMT Monday - Friday

Important: Please contact us if any of these telephone numbers are no longer working, or you have any updated PayPal or eBay contact info so we can make it widely available. Both eBay and PayPal do not make it easy to contact their Customer Service by phone.

Extra credit:

Ebay just like any other company files all sorts of financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Comission. This is in accordance with disclosure laws. These reports could be found on the www.sec.gov website. All of the reports muct contain contact information. I don't gurantee that you will get customer support but here.

BUSINESS ADDRESS:

STREET 1: 2145 HAMILTON AVENUE

CITY: SAN JOSE

STATE: CA

ZIP: 95125

BUSINESS PHONE: 408-376-7400

MAILING ADDRESS:

STREET 1: 2145 HAMILTON AVENUE

CITY: SAN JOSE

STATE: CA

ZIP: 95125

Remember: you have to be Ebay Powerseller to get phonesupport! but they will most likely help you anyways.

EBAY Powerseller Titanium Phone Support 24/7

Call eBay (800-322-9266) And Press 1

More interesting extentions:

47205 - Colline McDonald - Trust and Safety

47207 - Sarah Carlson - Trust and Safety

47208 - Chris in Trust and Safety (Works nights) - Handles account suspensions.

55130 - Powerseller titanium support 24/7

65682 - Bill Cobb

77777 - Ebay Security (Security guards office)
Some advice before calling Ebay.

Some suggestions before calling eBay:

* Try the online contact forms first. Go to the front page of eBay and click on the "Help" link at the right top. Why? Because using the eBay contact phone number first can aggravate the personnel and predispose them against you. They will ask you what you've done before contacting them, and they will tell you to go back and fill out forms before they will help.

* eBay knows that they could keep an army of thousands busy on the phone, so if the call volume gets too extensive, they will simply change their phone numbers and we won't be able to contact them in dire emergencies. (Check the online yellow pages and you will see that they are not listed)

* When/if you use the eBay phone number, you will discover that the best you can do is leave a message. No one answers these phones. So, will they call you back? A loud and affirmative "Maybe"!

Their company hours are 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM, Pacific time.

Of course, there's one sure way to get an eBay phone number, with your own personal rep to help: become a Power Seller. They have access to toll free phone numbers.

Troubleshooting a MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro that won't turn on

Symptoms

There are some simple troubleshooting steps you should try if your MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro won't turn on. Use these steps if:

Your Apple notebook's display has no picture after you turn it on.

You don't hear any fan or hard disk activity sounds after you turn the computer on, and the sleep light doesn't turn on.

The computer doesn't seem to have any power when you try to turn it on.

Products Affected

MacBook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air

Resolution

1. If you're running on battery power, check to see if your computer's battery needs to be recharged. Press the small button on the battery. You should see somewhere between one and four lights indicating the battery's level of charge. If you see just one light blinking, the battery needs to be recharged. Run the computer from the adapter in order to recharge the battery.
2. Unplug the power adapter from the electrical outlet and from the MacBook or MacBook Pro. Wait one minute. Plug it back into the wall first, then to the MacBook or MacBook Pro. Make sure the electrical outlet is working by plugging in another device (such as a lamp). When you plug the adapter back into the computer, the power adapter LEDs should light up green or amber.
3. Inspect the MagSafe port on the computer for debris, such as metal stuck to the magnet in the port, which might prevent the connector from seating properly. On the adapter side, look at the DC connector for dust or other debris and check whether pins are missing, bent or stuck down. If you find any of these to be true, see article 303240 for instructions on cleaning the adapter.
4. Make sure you are using the adapter that was designed for your computer. If you aren't sure or if you need a new adapter, learn which adapter is appropriate for your computer.
5. Disconnect any devices connected to the computer including printers, hubs, and third-party keyboards or mice, and test the computer again by trying to turn it on.
6. Press the control key, the command key, and the power button simultaneously and hold for three seconds to try to restart the computer.
7. Reset the PRAM.
8. Reset the SMC by removing the AC power, removing the battery and then holding down the power button for five seconds.
9. If you recently installed additional memory, make sure it is correctly installed and is compatible with your computer. Remove the new memory to see if the computer starts up properly without it.
10. If you are still unable to start up your computer after trying each of these steps, please schedule a service appointment with either an Apple Retail Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Fixing Windows 7 beta problems

I've put the Windows 7 beta through its paces, and mostly have been impressed. But I also found several problems with it, including hard disks that appear to vanish and turn into phantoms. Here are the hacks for fixing those problems

I've been quite impressed with Beta 1. But I've found several problems, one with a hard disk that seems to have vanished, another with wireless networking, and another with getting the new Windows Aero Peek feature to work. After digging into the operating system, and with help from Computerworld readers, I've found hacks to fix them.

First some background about my hard disk problem. My Windows 7 beta is on a dual-boot machine. The C: drive boots to XP and the J: drive boots to Windows 7. When I boot into Windows 7, Windows 7 shows the J: drive as if it were a C: drive. That's not an issue. But the real C: drive is invisible -- it doesn't show up in Windows 7 at all. In Windows XP, there are no problems with recognizing both drives.

I've found that I'm not alone --- several people have reported that multiple disk drives don't show up in Windows 7. And several wrote to me with their fixes. Here's how to do it:

1. Right-click My Computer.

2. From the menu that appears, select Manage.

3. The Computer Management module appears. Click on Disk Management.

4. You'll see all the physical drives on your PC. One of them --- the missing one --- won't have a volume name. That's the problem you need to fix. At the bottom of the screen, right-click that drive and assign it a drive letter. That'll fix it. You can see this in action in the screenshot below.

The next problem I had was that the nifty new Aero Peek feature wasn't working. Normally, to make it work, you right-click the small Aero Peek rectangle at the far right of the taskbar, and select "Preview desktop." But in my case the Preview desktop feature has a check next to it, but is greyed out, so it's not working.

To fix the problem, type Aero into the Search box, and from the results that appear, select "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects." An Aero troubleshooting wizard appears. Click Next, and the troubleshooter turns Aero on.

My problem was that the Desktop Manager Session Manager wasn't running, and that the Desktop Window Manager was disabled. The troubleshooter fixed the problem. You can see the results, below.

However, it only solved it partially, because each time I boot, I have the same problem. If anyone out there has a fix for this, please let me know, below. I did create a desktop shortcut to the troubleshooter, by right-clicking "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects" when it appeared in my search results, and selecting Open. From the screen that appeared, I then right-clicked "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects" and selected Create Shortcut. So now I have a shortcut to fix the problem. But I'd prefer not to have to run the troubleshooter every time I reboot.

The final problem I had was that my wireless network adapter didn't seem to be working. The issue wasn't hardware-related --- Windows 7 recognized and configured the adapter without any problems. The fix here is simple: click the wireless icon then click the troubleshooting link and let a Windows 7 troubleshooter do the rest. On my system, the issue was that the Windows wireless service wasn't running, and the troubleshooter promptly started it up. You can see details in the screenshot below.

However, as with my problems with Aero Peek, that only solved the problem after the fact. I can't figure out how to tell Windows 7 to run the wireless service every time Windows boots. If you've got a solution, let me know, below.

Trouble Installing Midnight Club: South Central Expansion PS3

Apparently, massive amounts of people are having an issue activating the first text (Doc's Garage) to start the South Central missions. Rockstar has made no comment yet on this so we don't know if they are aware of the issue, working on a fix, or even if the SC pack is working right but people just aren't doing what needs to be done to activate it.

Now as for me, i had no problem with getting SC to kick in. After i downloaded the packs i went into the game, drove around and did a few highway races (like 3 i think), and i ended up getting the text to go to Doc's Garage and start the SC missions.

I have asked a lot of people online who are having the issue if they have beaten the regular MCLA city champ. Most of those people did not finish the regular mission. Now i'm not sure if this is the reason why SC is not kicking in (i wouldn't see why you would have to beat the city champ just to start SC), or what is going on. It may just be some type of error in the game file. You must be AT LEAST 15% done in Career mode

What i would suggest trying is this:

1. Delete the "Game Ulitily" file of MCLA. All this does is delete any patches the was added to the game. DO NOT delete your game save file.
2. Then start the game and it will go back to the "update v1.05" and let it install.
3. After that exit the game and go and redownload the free expanded map pack and install it.
4. Once the map pack has been installed, if you bought any of the car packs, go and download them again and install them.
5. When you have done all that start the game up.

Hopefully, after trying that and getting into the game and doing a few races (do highway they easy and fast) you will get a text telling you to go to Doc's Garage in SC.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not sure the above will work so don't come yelling at me if it does not. I'm just trying to give an option to try out.