The Real Deal 164: Chrome vs. Firefox

Tom and Rafe square off on whether Chrome or Firefox is best for your browsing.

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E3 winner: Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo?

With E3 returning to its old, bigger-is-better format, there seemed to be more at stake at this year's show. Could Nintendo provide enough compelling news to hold onto its lead? Would Microsoft trot out something to create new enthusiasm for its Xbox 360 platform? And could Sony reveal anything that might give it some much-needed momentum?

Alas, as it goes most of the time at E3, none of the companies truly hit it out of the park and a lot of what was announced was already leaked to greater or lesser degrees before the show started. However, that doesn't mean we can't try to objectively determine which companies did themselves some good--and which companies may not have.

Here's a quick recap of the news conferences from each camp and my quick assessments. But nevermind what I say, feel free to add your own comments--and try to be objective.

• What's new: Expanded XBox Live audio/video offerings, Facebook and Twitter integration, full game downloads, and a strong selection of XBox 360 exclusives, including Halo: ODST, Forza Motorsport 3, Left4Dead2, Splinter Cell Conviction, and Metal Gear Solid Rising (this isn't an XBox 360 exclusive but it's the first MGS title to appear on the platform).
• Big tease: You are the controller (Project Natal).
• Biggest letdown: I was kind of hoping for a Zune portable gaming device, but all we got was the Zunebrand added to XBox Live.
• Overall message: We're rounding out our already formidable XBox Live offering, serving up solid and sometimes innovative exclusives, and we have some cool motion-controller stuff that will be available for the platform--including existing systems--in the future.

• What's new: Fresh Super Mario Brothers title and Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Other M, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Motion Plus, Wii Vitality sensor.
• Big tease: Nada (sorry, that isn't a code name for a new technology).
• Biggest letdown: No big tease.
• Overall message: We've expanded the gaming audience--and we're going to continue to expand it by doing just what we've been doing, improving our revolutionary motion controller, and adding the word "Plus" to some accessories and games.

• What's new: PSP Go, expanded roster of PSP games and downloadable content, and impressive line-up of PS3 exclusive titles, including Uncharted 2, Gran Turismo 5, Modnation Racers, God of War 3 (March 2010), and the briefly mentioned Rockstar Games' Agent.
• Big tease: Impressive new motion controller that uses the existing PlayStation Eye to rival or beat the Wii's motion controller (it's due out in spring 2010).
• Biggest letdown: No new hardware configuration or price drop for the PS3; PSP should have been priced at $199.99.
• Overall message: We're revamping and reinvigorating the PSP platform and feeding the PS3 with a bigger selection of triple-A exclusive titles that will make you want to buy the system, even if it costs $400.

In my book, I'd give the slight edge to Sony, if only because it was the only company to announce any new hardware (the PSP Go). While its new prototype motion controller seemed silly at first, the demo seemed more impressive and tangible than Microsoft's "future" demo. That said, if pressed, I'd say I lean toward the camp who thinks motion control--and motion controllers--are gimmicky and that Sony and Microsoft are being too reactive to Nintendo's success.

As for Nintendo, its whole presentation once again came across as more of a dud than a bang. But that hasn't hurt the company in the past, so Nintendo fans shouldn't be too worried, right?

Update: Added Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Other M to the "what's new" section of Nintendo. Both titles are slated for release next year.

eMusic raises prices as it signs Sony deal

Music subscription service eMusic has always puzzled me. While it was the first site to offer DRM-free downloads, I never downloaded enough music to justify paying even the lowest subscription rate. The fact that it makes you navigate a long sign-up screen and enter a credit card number before showing you the song selection and other features of the site--even if you just want a free trial--drives me nuts. But despite my skepticism, the site has some big fans among voracious consumers of indie music.

eMusic subscribers are not your typical music fans.

(Credit: Touchstone Pictures via IMDB)

Judging from the angry comments on the site's message board, some of those fans are up in arms. The company announced a deal Monday with major label Sony to add catalog tracks--that is, music released more than two years ago--from Sony artists. But eMusic barely mentioned the fact that it's raising prices at the same time. Specifically:

The lowest-priced Basic subscription ($11.99) now offers only 24 tracks per month (50 cents per track) instead of 30 (40 cents per track). Existing customers will be grandfathered into the old 30-song allotment, according to an eMusic spokesperson cited by the Los Angeles Times.

The mid-tier Plus subscription goes from $14.99 to $15.89 and offers only 35 tracks (45 cents per track) instead of 50 (30 cents per track).

The high-end Premium subscription goes from $19.99 to $20.79 per month and offers only 50 tracks (42 cents per track) instead of 75 (27 cents per track).

Subscribers may be angry, but they shouldn't be surprised. eMusic has periodically raised prices since introducing an all-you-can eat download plan for $10 a month back in 2000. Just look at the prices in CNET's review from 2004 (updated in 2006), and you'll notice that the company has cut download allotments almost in half since the review was written.

Subscription-based music is still an experiment. The royalty structure of the music business was set up to sell individual physical recordings. It's easier to translate that business model to individual downloads than it is to subscriptions. Still, raising prices during the worst economy in more than 50 years doesn't strike me as the best idea.

What really seems to be throwing eMusic fans off, however, is the timing: fair or not, they're blaming the Sony deal for the price increase. Most eMusic fans I've heard from are real music nuts, and are there to sample a wide range of music from relatively unknown cutting-edge acts, not to download music they could find anywhere. Imagine the clerks in High Fidelity suddenly being told that their favorite mail-order distributor is raising prices, but in exchange will now let them order ABBA and Chili Peppers records just like the chain stores in the mall.

IE6 forcing Bing as default search engine

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is looking into an issue in which users of Internet Explorer 6 are forced into having Bing as their default search engine.

"We are aware of the issue with Bing on machines running IE6 and are investigating a solution," Microsoft said in a statement. "This issue is not impacting IE7 and IE8 users."

Although it is only affecting its older browser, many people still use IE6 and Microsoft has faced a lot of regulatory scrutiny over how default search preferences are set and changed within Internet Explorer.

The issue crops up just as Microsoft plans to formally launch Bing. Among its planned promotions is a huge ad campaign as well as an event Tuesday night at Seattle's Space Needle.

The IE6 issue was noted earlier on Tuesday by Search Engine Land.

Tweet your favorite Flickr shots with Autopostr

Twitter and self-promotion go together like peanut butter and jelly, but without the right tools it takes work. I've recently begun using a handy service calledAutopostr that takes most of that work out of the equation, by posting whichever of my Flickr photos I want straight to Twitter with a minimal amount of effort.

On any photo or photos you wish to share with your Twitter buddies you simply add a hash (#) in the title or "autopostr" as a photo tag. The service scans your Flickr account every five minutes, and takes any of those tagged photos and sends them out as new tweets.

Now I wouldn't recommend doing this on more than two or three photos a day since it's a bit spammy, but this system provides a very quick and simple way to promote photos without having to use URL shorteners or sign into your Twitter account. It's also makes it simple to see which photos you've shared to Twitter by sorting out which ones have hashes in the titles or autopostr tags.

Worth noting is that Autopostr won't start sending out your marked photos as tweets until it verifies your information. It also doesn't tap into your Twitter account using the popular Oauth, so you'll have to give it your Twitter username and password for it to be able to post. Creator Tistan Teunissen tells me that's coming soon though.

See also:
flickr2twitter and You can now post pics to Twitter from Picnik

Autopostr checks to see if you added the tag or a # to your Flickr picture, and sends out a Tweet with a link to the image on your behalf.

(Credit: CNET)

Parents beware: Bing previews video porn

Microsoft's new Bing search engine has a highly touted feature that some parents may find troublesome. Bing's video search tool has a preview mode that lets you view and listen to part of a video simply by hovering over it with your mouse. Trouble is, it works with porn as well as "family friendly" videos.

I tested this feature quickly and with great caution on board a Virgin America WiFi equipped flight, being careful to shield the screen from fellow passengers and crew.

When I searched for a word that was sure to bring up porn, I was first warned that it "may return explicit adult content" and told that "to view these videos, turn off safe search." One click later, safe search was off and I was looking a page of naughty thumbnails. And, as advertised, hovering the mouse over a thumbnail started the video and audio. Even when playing in a small thumbnail, it was unmistakably hard core porn.

Of course, kids don't need Bing to find and view porn. You can find it with Google and other search engines, and even though Google has a filtered search option, there's nothing to stop someone from turning that off. But Microsoft makes it a little too easy. If moderate or strict filtering is on and you search for a filtered term, the site simply instructs you to click a link to "change your SafeSearch setting." If you configure Google for "strict filtering," a user who searches for a filtered term on Google simply sees that the word or phrase "did not match any documents." Of course a kid can always go in and change Google's settings but they have to know how to do it and bother doing it. Microsoft makes it all too easy.

I don't know if Microsoft plans to do deal with this issue in any updates, but regardless of whether your kid uses Bing, Google, or Yahoo, or just knows the URLs of porn sites, the only ways to protect your kids from accessing porn is either to watch them, educate them, or filter them.

Watching them might work with very young children but it's not exactly practical for teens or even pre-teens. I recommend that kids under eight be supervised when using a device with Internet access. Education will work with many kids but not all. Parents certainly have the right to set rules and guidelines and impose consequences if their kids access forbidden sites. But, let's face it, hormones, curiosity, and just plain interest in things sexual can have a strong pull on kids, especially teenage boys. Besides, some younger kids could stumble on porn if they use any unfiltered search engine, even if they're just looking for innocuous terms like "Barbie."

Filtering programs (or the parental controls built into Vista and Mac OS X) will block most porn sites, but it's not yet entirely clear which ones will prevent Bing from previewing such sites. Safe Eyes filtering software "blocks all pornographic content on Bing and Google searches out of the box," according to a post on its company blog. From my perch in the sky, I wasn't able to check with other filtering companies, but I'm betting some will and some won't.

Coincidentally, I'm writing this post on the way to Washington, D.C. for the first meeting of the Commerce Department's NTIA Internet Safety Working Group, which I serve on. I have a feeling this will come up at Thursday's meeting. As one of my fellow working group members, Internet Keep Safe Coalition President Marsali Hancock, said by e-mail, "as new technologies release it is critical that industry and child health advocates explore the potential impact on young developing minds and quickly respond to health and safety concerns."

I'm going to keep on top of this issue with Microsoft and the filtering companies and will report back as this story unfolds.

Intel's sales chief talks Netbooks vs. notebooks

Intel marketing chief Sean Maloney

(Credit: Intel) innovation is key no matter what laptop category you're talking about--whether Netbooks or low-cost notebooks, said Intel's sales chief, ahead of this week's Computex trade show in Taipei.

I spoke briefly with Intel's marketing chief Sean Maloney--who is at Computex this week--on Monday night and asked him about how the wave of low-cost, thin notebooks based on his company's "ULV" (ultra-low-voltage) chips may affect Netbook sales.

New, aesthetically appealing, inexpensive notebooks, such as the $699 Acer Aspire Timeline, could make Netbooks less attractive, which pin a lot of their popularity on bargain-basement pricing.

Maloney said Intel is not going to fret over sacrificing one category of laptops because it needs to protect another.

"It's a loser mentality to not develop one segment because you're worried about the other," he said. "I think we have several years ahead of us where we can innovate the heck out of any of these categories without getting defensive about the other one. You just need to unleash innovation in all of the segments and see what happens."

And what about the new 3G-capable Netbooks--which Qualcomm had dubbed "smartbooks"--appearing at Computex from Asus and upstarts like Mobinnnova which are tied to the ARM processor and sold through telecommunications providers? "The more the merrier. The more innovation there will be. It's good for the industry to have competition," Maloney said.

New ULV notebook wave: Acer Aspire Timeline has a number of the same specifications and attributes of the upscale Dell Adamo but is priced more than $1,000 below the Adamo

(Credit: Acer)

Maloney continued. "We've shipped very large numbers of Netbooks through service providers in the last year and a half. Most of the service providers around the world have been shipping Netbooks for some time," he said. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, is now selling an Intel Atom-based Netbook at Verizon stores in the U.S. with 3G built in.

And, how important is the rollout of the new ULV chips? "This is a big announcement and it's kind of on par with the original announcements we made with the original Centrino," Maloney said.

"Fashion is going to play an ever-bigger role (in notebooks). It's like the cell phone industry four or five years ago. An incredible number of designs are coming out in the thin form factor."

"Very light, very thin, and incredibly long battery life," he said of the ULV laptops. Sounds a lot like the evolution of the Netbook--except it isn't called a Netbook. But, as Maloney said, may the best product category win.