pennwarrantylitigation.com

Verizon, however, does charge extra for tethering, particularly if the Storm is connected via USB. I have no interest in a USB connection (at least, not at this time) because that defeats the purpose of having a wireless Bluetooth-enabled phone. As people have pointed out, a Bluetooth modem is much more convenient. Particularly for frequent travelers. I can just attach the Blackberry to my belt and use the Air as though it had a built-in 3G modem.

(Also note that a quick search will yield examples of people who have hooked their Blackberry up to a MacBook.)

Do I still wish Apple would build 3G into the MBA? Of course. But I am pretty satisfied with this solution for now. Particularly when it allows me to extract more functionality out of the Storm. (Which as a standalone 3G phone I like a lot and which I will review in the near future.).

After recently picking up a Blackberry Storm (Verizon), I quickly set it up as a Bluetooth “3G” modem by pairing it with my MacBook Air. The Blackberry uses an EV-DO 3G connection.

The MacBook Air can use the Blackberry Storm as a Bluetooth 3G modem

The Storm was relatively easy to set up and “tether” to the Air. And the results were better than I expected. Using Speedtest.net, I got download speeds of up to 1,088 Kbps (though it was typically closer to 500-600 Kbps) and uploads of up to 127 Kbps. Not torrential bandwidth but certainly good enough for the occasions when I don’t have access to Wi-Fi (or when the Wi-Fi is iffy).

Setting up the Blackberry Storm as a Bluetooth modem was relatively easy

But I’m not going to rehash those gripes here (or repeat Apple’s likely reasons for not including 3G). This time I bring good tidings.

By comparison, on my Hewlett-Packard 2510p ultraportable with a built-in Verizon EV-DO modem, Speedtest.net said I was getting download speeds of up to 1,392 Kbps and uploads of 469 Kbps. (The Air’s Wi-Fi connection gets about 2X download and 4X upload more than the Storm.)

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

Though Apple has yet to offer built-in 3G on MacBooks, pairing them up with phones like the Blackberry Storm provides a decent wireless workaround.

In December, I took the MacBook Air (i.e., the designers of the Air) to task for what I thought was a serious technological gaffe: not building 3G into the Air. At the very least, I thought 3G should have been included in the October refresh of the Air.

(Note: A reader in Ireland provided the inspiration to use the Storm as a modem when he correctly pointed out that internal 3G access would start to get expensive if you had a modem in each computer, with each requiring a separate subscription. Or would become inconvenient if you kept having to move SIM cards between computers.)

As to setup: First, pair the two Bluetooth devices, then configure the phone on the MacBook side, telling it during the configuration process that you want to “Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection.” In Verizon’s case, the account name is yourphonenumber@vzw3.com Then, in the next screen, you select “vendor: other” and “Verizon support, PC5220.” (See screen shot of OS X 10.5.6 configuration Network setup.)

Panasonic is also banking on riding on the growing demand for solar batteries, and with the merger expects to expand into the area of solar photovoltaic cells and batteries.

Under the deal, Panasonic will pay 131 yen for every share of Sanyo’s common stock.

Panasonic and Sanyo recognize that existing strategies must not only be accelerated, but also that drastic action is now required for further strengthening initiatives to achieve potential revenue and profit growth in the global economic recession stemming from the financial crisis as well as in the midst of intensified global competition.

With the deal, Panasonic is aiming to increase its share of the rechargeable-battery business and solar-battery market, as well as strengthen its bottom line through consolidating the businesses.

In outlining the deal, the companies stated:

Panasonic announced Friday it plans to acquire Sanyo Electric in a deal valued at 800 million yen ($8.9 billion), giving the electronics giant a leg up in the rechargeable-battery business.

Sanyo is a dominant player in the rechargeable-battery market with its lithium ion batteries. With the merger, Panasonic expects to gain access to Sanyo’s production technology and hopes to invest heavily in batteries for hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles.

Sanyo’s shares closed at 136 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, down 3.5 percent from the previous day’s close.

The deal, which earlier this week reportedly had edged closer to coming together, aims to leverage their operations in light of a weakening economy.

Some researchers have estimated that plugging large numbers of electric cars to charge batteries during peak times, such as the early evening, would tax the grid, making it necessary to build more power plants. But bringing new power plants online is expensive and opposed in many areas because of environmental reasons.

GridPoint earlier this year started a “smart charging” trial with Duke Energy.

“Our combined capabilities will enable utilities to mitigate the impact of plug-in electric vehicles on the grid while reducing carbon emissions and providing their customers with reduced rates for off-peak charging,” said V2Green CEO John Clark in a statement.

The company makes software for utilities to better integrate distributed generation units, such as solar panels, and home devices, such as Internet-connected thermostats, into the power grid. It also makes a home energy storage unit and software for consumers to track their energy usage.

By purchasing V2Green, GridPoint intends to add the capability for utilities to manage an anticipated wave of electric cars being plugged into the electricity grid.

With the additional $120 million, GridPoint has raised over $200 million to date, making it one of the most capitalized private smart-grid companies.

GridPoint said that it has raised $100 million mainly from existing investors, which include Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Robeco, Susquehanna International Group, and Quercus Trust. An additional $20 million is expected later.

V2Green’s software lets utilities manage the process so that charging can take place at night at off-peak times.

Smart-grid outfit GridPoint on Tuesday, flush with an additional $120 million in equity funding, said it has acquired V2Green, a start-up with software to charge electric
cars en masse.

The company’s software also lets utilities draw power from many electric cars’ batteries–another potential method for easing the load on the grid during peak times. The Seattle-based company is staffed with some former Microsoft employees.

Zheng proposes, at a minimum, that Microsoft’s default setting also warn users if a change is being made to UAC itself. That seems reasonable to me.

Blogger Long Zheng, however, is drawing attention to an apparent shortcoming in that approach. Because changes to the user account control setting itself are being made within the OS–and not by a third party–malicious code could turn off such alerts entirely with the user getting little notice that such a change had been made. Zheng said he and fellow blogger Rafael Rivera have come up with a simple proof-of-concept code to show the vulnerability.

Microsoft is trying to thread a difficult needle here. The prompts issued by the User Account Control program, though annoying, help alert users to changes to their system. But if the prompts are so annoying that people turn off the setting–or stick with older operating systems–than things aren’t secure either.

Microsoft’s efforts to make Windows 7 less annoying than Vista may also be making it less secure than its predecessor.

With Windows Vista, the operating system popped up a warning any time a major change was being made to the system, whether by the OS or by a third-party application. With
Windows 7, users can choose how often to be notified, with the current default set to notify only when a third-party application is making a change.

A Microsoft representative was not immediately available for comment.

Virgin America announced Thursday it will offer customers the option to pay a voluntary fee when booking their ticket, which will go toward supporting carbon offset projects.

Consumers could get nitpicky about each individual project. Donating to IdleAire sounds fine, but where is that electricity the truckers’ tap into coming from? Is the local electricity being used generated from a renewable resource or coal?

While it’s not in place yet, the airline plans to offer an onboard option. Through the touch-screen televisions on their flights, consumers will have a second chance to donate once their flight is already in the air.

After all, with Virgin America’s new Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi service, consumers could just as easily donate online to another cause if they’re feeling charitable while airborne.

Perhaps more promising is the second tact Virgin American plans to take.

Will a view of the clouds (and the occasional smog ruining skyline views) shame the guilty into donating? I’m just not sure.

IdleAire lets truckers connect their cabins to electricity sources at rest stops, rather than keep their engines idling to keep their power on. The process saves each trucker about a gallon of diesel per hour, according to Virgin America.

(Credit:
Virgin America)

Many other airlines have tried offering carbon offsets with lackluster results. Virgin Atlantic, admitting its online option wasn’t getting many takers, announced last year it would try guilt by offering an offset in the air alongside the drinks.

While IdleAire sounds like a practical project, it’s questionable whether consumers will go for it.

Then, again, it’s been argued that some water and food shortages can be directly linked to environmental changes in those problem areas. Will consumers feel there’s a long view to be seen and donate toward offsetting pollution with that hope of improving things down the road?

One of the projects from that list that Virgin America chose to support, for example, is IdleAire.

The U.S. domestic airline based in California, of which Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is a minority share investor, has partnered with Carbonfund.org on the effort.

Through Carbonfund.org, the money Virgin America collects from consumers will be directed toward projects sanctioned by the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) official CarbonOffsetList.org.

There’s also the world food shortage, and many poverty and disease-fighting nonprofits struggling from a lack of available charity due to the tough economy. Consumers might place environmental causes at the bottom of their charity list if they themselves are limited to what they can give this year.

A full CNET Review is in the works.

Trend Micro continues to provide free phone, e-mail, and online chat support. This year, Symantec is also offering free tech support with its Norton products.

Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009 includes all the basic features within the Internet security suite plus more wireless networking protection for mobile and laptop users.

New features within Trend Micro Internet Security 2009 include a security activity dashboard, designed to show users where threats are coming from (Web sites vs. e-mail) and which threats have affected them most (Web vs. traditional virus). The suite also includes utilities to clean up disk space, registry files, start-up programs, and browser cache. And, like McAfee, Trend Micro provides consumer access to its new “in the cloud” malware signature database. Trend Micro says it can remediate against an unknown malware sample within 15 minutes, as opposed to the older method of pushing database updates every hour or so.

On Thursday, Trend Micro released its Internet Security 2009 and Internet Security Pro 2009 products for consumers, touting enhanced performance, features, and better end-user education.

OtherInbox is a service that helps with one of the growing problems of using Web services: e-mail overload. More specifically, services that take your information and sell it to third parties–thus filling up your in-box with decentralized junk.

The service may be most useful for figuring out what services are selling out your e-mail address to other parties, but it’s also good for handling bacn–the messages you may want from a service, but not necessarily filling up your in-box. What makes it special is that users can effectively kill off that special address making the messages bounce back to the people who would be spamming you.

OtherInbox lets you use a special sign-up address when signing up for various services. That way you can tell if someone's sold your information to third parties.

(Credit:
CBS Interactive)

OtherInbox works by giving you a special address you can use when you sign up for things and it helps you filter them in a central location with tags and layout akin to Apple’s Mail application. Each “subscription” reads like its own in-box.

One thing to consider is that you can currently do this with Gmail. I do this with my in-box by adding a +servicename after my username, coming out to something like Yourname+Amazon@gmail.com. That way you can phase them out completely using a simple filter if you start getting spammed. OtherInbox offers you a little more security with its block feature, and the fact you’re basically signing up for another address.

The service is currently in private beta, but made its public debut at Monday’s TechCrunch50 conference. On a side note: you need to provide OtherInbox your e-mail address when you sign-up. And we have 25 invites to give out–so go here to get yours while they last.

The new system works just like old one, but has been optimized for over-the-air data transfer. It still relies on Apple’s servers as a go-between to send audio alerts, text messages, and badge notifications. Users still have to fire up the application to get at the data though.

P2P networking and hardware communication
No longer will handsets exist as single entities. A new system, built off Apple’s Bonjour technology, will let devices talk to each other. This would let people play multiplayer games with one another, and potentially exchange data files–all without the need to be connected to a third-party server or a central Wi-Fi hub. To do this Apple is using the iPhone’s built-in Bluetooth antenna.

In-app micropayments

Apple has built in a new system for developers to charge users after they’ve purchased an application. Previously there was no way to do this, forcing developers to hike up the initial price, or use external payment systems, similar to what Amazon did with its Kindle application.

Click here for more stories on iPhone OS 3.0.

Apps will now be able to charge you for additional levels or in-game items like this screen from the upcoming Sims game from EA.

New features

Apple’s new system, dubbed “In-App Purchase” lets developers create an application where extra content can be purchased from within it to expand what it can do. All the billing is handled by Apple, and goes through the user’s iTunes store account.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

Apple on Tuesday unveiled the next version of the operating system that powers the
iPhone, dubbed version 3.0, at an invite-only event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. It will be available for developers beginning today, and to everyone else “this summer.” It’s a free upgrade for iPhone users; those who own the
iPod Touch will again have to pay for the upgrade (Apple is charging $9.95). Here’s a quick recap of what was announced:

News.com Poll Hello, 3.0
What for you is the most notable change in iPhone OS 3.0?

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

View results

Other tidbits

To copy text, simply double-tap the screen, and it pulls up an option to cut, copy, and paste. Then simply drag a start point, and an end point, over the text you want, and then double-tap again. The phone will save the text in a clipboard, from which it can be taken elsewhere. You can also grab entire sections of text using a large rectangle that can be moved around to include paragraphs at a time.

Better GPS baked into apps

Apple announced that Core Location would now be available for developers to build into their applications, meaning they’ll be able to include turn-by-turn directions into their apps. However, they won’t be able to build it off the iPhone’s Google Maps application. Apple says this is due to licensing issues. However, map providers may step up and start selling mapping data to iPhone developers.

Copy and paste for text, photos, and SMS

One of the most-wanted features, the ability to copy and paste text will be making its way to OS 3.0. Users will be able to select sections of text and take them to other applications. This is one of the new APIs that Apple is releasing to developers.

This payment system is only for paid apps, meaning free applications cannot be upgraded to a paid premium version. Apple is also using the same revenue model for per-app purchases, meaning developers can charge whatever they want, and keep 70 percent.

This same system has been used in console games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero with extra music track purchases. On the iPhone this was demoed on the upcoming EA title The Sims 3, which will let users buy items for their virtual character using an in-game store interface.

Systemwide search

Apple has integrated its Spotlight search technology across the entire device. This will let users search for specific e-mail messages, applications, contacts, and any other data from within those applications in one place. Users get to it from a new menu that’s to the left of their first home screen. Swiping to the left brings up an open search box that brings in results as you type, similar to Spotlight search on
Mac OS X.

Cut, copy, and paste
GPS/mapping tweaks
In-app purchases
Landscape mode tweaks
MMS send and receive
P2P networking
Push notifications
Systemwide search

Apple is also opening up how much control accessory makers can have over external hardware. Forstall showed how the iPhone would be able to hunt for FM radio signals using an attached dongle, and even read a patient’s blood pressure–putting the controls on the iPhone instead of the attached device. This is very similar to the partnership that Apple has with Nike and its Nike+ running attachment, which could be controlled using an iPod. This new system works both from the dock connector and over Bluetooth.

Push notifications

The feature that was supposed to appear in September of last year will finally be making its way to phones in version 3.0. Scott Forstall, the head of iPhone software development, noted that Apple had been late on this, and blamed the delay on scaling, saying that the original system was too taxing on both the handset’s battery and its processing power.

Photos: Apple iPhone OS 3.0, copy and paste included

MMS

You can now send and receive multimedia messages (MMS). This means text messages can be sent with photos and voice recordings, all without using the built-in mail application to do it. Missing, however, is any kind of video support, which is an MMS feature found on many other phones with built-in cameras.

To demo this new level of communication, Johnson and Johnson company LifeScan went onstage to show off a new blood sugar application that uses the phone to process what user’s blood glucose level and keep track of it both on the device, and by sending the data to LifeScan’s servers.

Users will now be able to copy and paste text from one app to another.

• Original iPhone users will not be getting all the new features. Apple has already said that MMS and stereo Bluetooth music playback will not be available.

• Apple has sold 13.7 million iPhones through 2008, and 17 million iPhones total. This figure includes first generation hardware.
• There have been 800,000 downloads of the iPhone SDK.

• 62 percent of developers never done an Apple application before.

• Landscape (sideways) mode across all Apple native applications.

• Notes made in the Notes.app can now be synced to your computer.

• Shake to shuffle is coming to the iPhone.

• Safari browser is getting antiphishing and auto-fill.

• Parental controls will work on the App Store. This could mean a new explicit-content rating for applications, similar to what’s been done for music and films.

• No Adobe Flash for the iPhone, although the device will play HTML 5 video, and developers now have API access for streaming audio and video in their apps.

• Ngmoco, the maker of iPhone/iPod hit game Rolando, showed off two new games, Touch Pets and LiveFire. The first is a virtual pet simulator that lets you play with others using the new communication interface. LifeFire is a first-person shooter that lets you play death match-style over Wi-Fi.

• Smule, the maker of the the popular Orcarina application, announced a new app called Leaf Trombone. It emulates the controls of a trombone, letting users slide their finger across the screen to adjust the pitch while blowing into the microphone.

Additionally, copy and paste will work with photos and SMS messages. For instance, if you feel like selecting multiple photos to send in an e-mail you can now select the ones you want, then send them together in one message. Previously you had to select them one at a time–through the Photos application, over to mail. The same goes for SMS messages too, so if you feel like relaying a text message to another contact you can simply forward it.

(Credit:
Apple Inc.)

Companies are salivating over the sales potential of social networks. With Dell racking up $1 million in sales from Twitter, this is long past the proof of concept stage. Imitation being the highest form of flattery and all that. But Twitter is just a delivery vehicle. The bigger question is whether the suits restrain their basic instincts and not turn into spam-happy pains in the neck.

“We did it as an experiment,” said Dell’s Bob Pearson, who heads up communities and conversation for the company. “We wanted to see whether people would sign up.” By that measure, it was a success. Pearson said that about 65 Twitter groups had formed in the last half year. “It showed us that there are a certain number people who want alerts about certain types of products.”

Thinking about the future of online advertising, this much is clear: Customers want to share ideas and in online world people are likely to respect what their peers tell them. If you buy into the argument that the Web reflects reality, then it’s better to be part of the conversation than a bystander.

“It’s not rocket science, but give them credit for jumping on it,” said an executive with another PC maker. “Everyone can do the same thing–and they likely will.”

Before anyone sneers that a million bucks to a multibillion dollar company is relative chump change, who can afford to get blase in an economy where every technology company is super-anxious about making its numbers.

So it was with more than usual interest that I read a piece published by InternetNews.com earlier this week in which Dell’s eponymous company claimed that sales alerts on Twitter had resulted in about $1 million in sales.

Fact is that while Twitter is still figuring out what it wants to be when it’s all grown up, this may be a turning point. I’m hedging here because I can’t pretend to know whether Twitter will make it as an independent company, or wind up as a cool feature in a bigger software maker’s product line. (And anyone who says they do know is just full of it.)

Regardless, the Dell experiment is important because it suggests that Twitter can be a lot more than a boy toy for the cool kids. Indeed, the technology’s potential role as a supplementary sales channel has not gone unnoticed by some of Dell’s rivals.

(Credit:
Dell)

To be continued.

Michael Dell gets a lot of the credit for pioneering the direct sale of PCs to the public. The reality is that there is a legion of now long-forgotten mail order entrepreneurs who came along earlier. He just did it better than all the rest.

Sour grapes aside, that’s an accurate reading. What Dell accomplished isn’t difficult to replicate. The company exploited Twitter’s broadcast appeal to spread the word about periodic online specials. Call it another form of direct marketing, albeit with a Web 2.0 twist. But at its core, Dell simply tapped another channel to communicate with potential sales leads.

Twitter this: There's a sale!

There are the hilarious anecdotes, like the time when someone stole Krucoff’s cell phone and used it to mischievously “check in” to bars where he’d be afraid to show his face (all-male revues, anyone?), or the time very, very late at night when six bloggers were in such a state of intoxication that none of them remembered that they’d been to an East Village nightspot until they saw it in their Dodgeball feeds the next day. There’s also the running joke about that guy that nobody liked, and how everyone else would avoid bars where he’d checked in.

Dennis Crowley (top) created a mobile app called Dodgeball and sold it to Google. But its base never expanded beyond quirky blogger kids like those shown here, and now Google's shutting it down. Nobody's surprised, but some of us are sad.

'John C.' uses Dodgeball to announce his nefarious intentions at Dodgeball founder Dennis Crowley's Christmas party.

(Credit:
Dennis Crowley)

And we’ll miss the Dodgeball days.

According to Harry Heymann, Dodgeball’s No. 1 most-checked-in venue is actually in San Francisco, a bar called Zeitgeist. But in New York, its top venues are a roster that wouldn’t surprise avid users: Brooklyn video game bar Barcade; Lower East Side media hangout The Magician; a bar called Loreley, where seemingly every Dodgeballer was dancing into the early morning hours for longtime user Kevin Kearney’s birthday in November; and East Village hipster music venue Lit Lounge. (The only surprise? No karaoke bars. New York bloggers have been known to adore karaoke.)

The irony was a little too much.

To be sure, Google had every reason to put the kibosh on Dodgeball. It didn’t make the company any money, and its user base had shrunk to a small cadre of digital-media enthusiasts based primarily in New York. It’s sort of the Arrested Development of Web apps: not particularly popular, and most people don’t even seem to really understand it, but those loyalists sure are loyal. And much like a TV show with a small fan base, the corporate parent pulled the plug.

A who’s who of New York’s new-media set were packed into a surreptitious basement bar on Bleecker Street in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday evening, braving rapidly plummeting temperatures and an overnight snow forecast in order to make an appearance at the 35th birthday party of one of the city’s blogger elite.

But clubby and insidery does not a business model make. And when Google chose to cut costs, Dodgeball was an easy target (pun intended). Crowley has been working on its successor for months, a slick iPhone app that he’s calling FourSquare. He wants it to be ready to make a splash at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival in March. Lucky for him, no other location-based networking app has taken off like wildfire yet. But there are plenty, like Loopt and Brightkite, that are vying for the market.

Like so many things involving young bloggers, it was a quirky, albeit cliquey affair: there was a password at the door (”tacos”), the drinks were thrown back a bit too liberally, and someone had used a scarf to hang an oven mitt shaped like a chicken from one of the chandeliers. (That’s an in-joke.) It was also quite possibly the only place in the world where 16 of those present had used mobile where-you-at service Dodgeball to announce their presence. Yes, a few people are still using Dodgeball.

As Crowley puts it, Dodgeball’s total expenses were $20 per month for hosting and $100 on promotional stickers. It eventually became his thesis project at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Shortly after Google acquired it in 2005, it experienced a flurry of interest among digital-media mavens on both coasts. But in the rest of the tech world, it faded from favor, especially when the more open-ended Twitter took off as the mobile group-messaging service of choice, and Crowley left Google in 2007 on less than pleasant terms. But a few dozen people clung to Dodgeball as their companion for navigating the dark, hectic, and cold (this time of year) grid of New York’s streets, and Google kept it ticking.

It was, as a result, also quite possibly the only place in the world where a sizable number of people really cared about the news that Google, which acquired Dodgeball in 2005, was shutting down the little-used service as part of a belt-tightening measure. Dodgeball founder Dennis Crowley was in the room, in fact, and said he’d just heard the news via a phone call from his former business partner, Alex Rainert. Harry Heymann, the lone Googler still keeping Dodgeball up and running, was there too. He hadn’t been told about it.

Crowley, now 32, started Dodgeball as a side project nearly a decade ago while he was working as an analyst at Jupiter Research during the dot-com boom. One of his colleagues, a fellow named Andrew Krucoff, went on to become the writer behind early local blog Young Manhattanite and one of Dodgeball’s most prolific users; earlier this week, Krucoff was using Dodgeball’s “shout” messaging feature to inform his friends on the service that he held them responsible for the swift downfall of his New Year’s resolutions.

(Credit:
Dennis Crowley)

I will out myself: I am a Dodgeballer, albeit late to the party since I didn’t really use it much before last year. I was there at that Bleecker St. bar on Wednesday night, and yes, I “checked in” (Dodgeball’s term for text-messaging your location; the service then finds it in a directory and tells your friends on the service). Dennis Crowley, whom I initially met when I interviewed him for a CNET News story way back in 2006, lives a few blocks away from me. He threw a great Christmas tree-decorating party this year. And I, too, was sad to hear Wednesday night’s news–or rather, see it pop up in my
iPhone’s browser. Because with the death of Dodgeball goes one of the trademarks of New York blogger culture.

Maybe it was fitting that the demise of Dodgeball, the engine behind a few dozen bloggers’ drunken New York nights, surfaced while its most active users were all together to celebrate a 35th birthday, one of those milestones that can make us all awkwardly aware that we’re not getting any younger. Location-based networking, like the rest of digital media, will evolve. Dodgeball never grew beyond a tool for a clique of young urban bar-hoppers, and no one can be a young urban bar-hopper forever. So with its failure the digerati move onward to the next burst of innovation, to the next cool geek toy, to the next chapter in life.