October 04, 2006, 9:47 PM PDT
Hava Wireless: a better Slingbox alternative for Windows Media Center owners?
Posted by: John P. Falcone

Remember Hava? When we previewed it back at January's Consumer Electronic Show, the folks at Monsoon Multimedia were touting it as a better Slingbox than Slingbox. But once the show ended, we promptly forgot about the Hava box. Until those same Monsoon folks knocked on our door last week to give us a demo.

Like Slingbox (and Sony's LocationFree TV products), Hava lets you digitize your home TV signals and stream them to any broadband-connected PC. But the Hava includes a few noteworthy features you won't find on the Slingbox. First and foremost, it has a built-in 802.11g wireless capability, so it should be able to interface with any existing wireless or Ethernet network (Slingbox is Ethernet only). Secondly, it can be tightly integrated with a PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition, which enables the ability to record live streaming video directly to the PC (a standalone PC viewing application is provided for non-MCE machines). And finally, the Hava allows multicasting--multiple clients can view the stream within a home network while a single remote client simultaneously views over the Internet (Slingbox allows only a single viewer at a time). The Hava box includes component (HD), S-Video, composite, and RF inputs and can control set-top boxes with an IR blaster--by comparison, the Slingbox Pro requires a $50 component-video dongle to accept HD video.

You can buy the Hava Wireless box right now at the snappymultimedia.com Web site for $249, but Monsoon is planning on expanding the line to include a Hava Pro model for $199 (with the same overall feature set, but with no wireless capability), and a Hava Pro Compact (composite and S-Video only) for just $99. Moreover, the company is looking to license its technology to OEM partners, so it's possible you'll be seeing Hava-powered boxes from a variety of third-party manufacturers.

The current hardware and software iterations on the Hava Wireless box certainly didn't have the refined polish that we've come to expect from Slingbox products. But given the comparatively rich feature set as well as the low prices of the Hava products, we suspect a lot of prospective placeshifters would say, "So what?" While the built-in wireless and multicasting capabilities were enticing, it's the Media Center functionality that was particularly impressive. Essentially, the Hava lets Windows think that it is the PC's built-in TV tuner--whether it's two rooms or two continents away. That leaves you with all of the great Media Center functionality--including DVR-style controls (pause, play, rewind, fast forward) and recording abilities--without the need to be tethered to your cable or satellite box.

We're looking forward to putting the Hava to the test in the near future. Our review sample is on the way, and we'll be following up with a full, hands-on review soon. Stay tuned.

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October 04, 2006, 4:42 PM PDT
Nissan steps into the hybrid waters
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

The much-anticipated Nissan Altima Hybrid was unveiled today at the Orange County Auto Show, marking Nissan's first hybrid vehicle and a potentially strong competitor to Toyota's Camry Hybrid. Nissan offered some impressive stats with its new car, notably a total 198 horsepower rating for the electric motor and 2.5-liter four cylinder engine, 41 mpg city and 36 mpg on the highway, along with a 700 mile range. That horsepower rating, along with the electric motor's immediate torque, also suggests a car that's going to leap right off the line and hold strong acceleration all the way up to freeway speeds. Nissan is using a similar hybrid system to Toyota's Synergy system, meaning the Altima can travel under electric power only at low speeds. All the good cabin tech, such as Bluetooth and navigation, is optional. Launching at the Orange County Auto Show is a bizarre choice for a car that won't be available until early next year. The company could have exercised just a little restraint and waited for the Los Angeles Auto Show at the beginning of December. But the launch location makes sense in that Nissan will offer the Altima Hybrid only in California and the seven other states that use California's emissions standards.

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October 04, 2006, 12:39 PM PDT
Google Groups offers an online clubhouse
Posted by: Elsa Wenzel

You can locate like-minded people and intriguing events within Google Groups, but until now its interface has been pretty ho-hum. For instance, I tend to rely on Google Groups' messages within my Gmail account and never visit the online arm of the service. But Google is aiming to offer members of Groups an attractive, shared destination on the Web. The new features, which remain in beta testing, let you make a quick multipage Web site in a few steps with the WSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface of Google Page Creator. You're no longer stuck with a few predesigned templates. Plus, you can upload your own logo and add a welcome message. You can check out the Google Groups 3 beta at groups-beta.google.com.

Whether you're looking for fellow Liberace fans, planning a fondue party, or setting up a business meeting, those blanket e-mail messages your group shares can now point to common pages and personal profiles. The uncluttered interface of the Google Groups 3 beta lets you manage discussions, files, and members with a minimal number of mouse clicks. This service has some of the features of a wiki, à la JotSpot, but without the wiki label that may stump newbies.

You can chat from the group page or within Gmail and upload files to the group site. To show your face, just upload a picture and bio to your own profile. And of course, Google's search engine can dig up stuff within your group or any other public groups. There are some low-key text ads within the interface, no big deal. While Google Groups isn't yet a finished product, we'd like to be able to tag our files and discussions the way Gmail allows. And so far, we don't see a way to incorporate databases or events the way Yahoo Groups allows.

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October 04, 2006, 11:33 AM PDT
Google Gadgets: more widgets for Web sites
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

We're entering an era of widgets. People have taken to building Web pages by piecing together chunks of functional code that come from all over. If you're interested in adding widgets to your pages, though, there are at the moment only a few good directors to grab them from. One of them is Widgetbox, which I've covered previously. And now there's Google, which has made it possible for widgets written for its own Google Desktop app to be installed in your own Web pages. Here's the current directory. See the news story.

Mashable points out that Google's widgets use JavaScript, which is blocked on many social network sites (such as MySpace). However, people who run their own blogs or sites should not have a problem using the widgets. MySpace and other social network users should check out the SpringBox, MySpace's own entry into the widget space. Its widgets can be embedded almost anywhere.

I imagine it's just a matter of time until Yahoo figures out how to make its excellent Yahoo Widgets gizmos insertable into Web pages.

Be prepared for a lot of cluttered, widget-drunk Web pages. On the other hand, there are very good and reasonable uses for widgets on business sites: maps with traffic information, shipping cost calculators, store cams, live chat windows, and so on. Widgets can make Web pages both more useful and more cluttered. We're going to see both.

By way of show-and-tell, this is the Google moon phase widget:

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October 04, 2006, 11:11 AM PDT
Blu-ray and flash-based hard drives on display at CEATEC
Posted by: Matthew Elliott

The Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, or CEATEC, got underway yesterday in Japan. While I can't claim to be on the show floor or, truth be told, anywhere near the land of the rising sun, Akihabara News has correspondents onsite. Blu-ray announcements are dominating the coverage, with solid-state storage garnering headlines, as well.

In next-gen optical storage news, Blu-ray looks to be outpacing rival HD-DVD at the show. Hitachi is showing off a number of camcorders, including a model that uses mini Blu-ray discs. Sony announced its VAIO L series all-in-one PC, which will feature a Blu-ray burner, while NEC showed off a sub-$1,000 ValueStar PC with a Blu-ray drive (BD-ROM means reading but, sadly, no writing). Sony also had a pair of stand-alone Blu-ray recorders on display, as did Pioneer, while Toshiba countered with a prototype of an external (USB 2.0) HD-DVD player.

Tired of hard drives that have the gall to spin in order to find your data? Then take a peek at the flash-based drives that TDK and Taiwanese company iNNODISK have on hand. It'll be interesting to see what new laptop designs these small, fast, and durable drives will afford. Perhaps such mobile devices will dominate next year's show.

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October 04, 2006, 10:56 AM PDT
Samsung YP-T9 details surface
Posted by: Jasmine France

OK, so maybe the details about Samsung's sleek T9 MP3 player were already available to our Asian counterparts, but I waited patiently to get the official product fact sheet from my U.S. contact so that I'd have accurate info for a stateside version of the device. Good thing that I did, too, because as it turns out the T9 that'll go on sale in the United States doesn't have the most touted feature: built-in Bluetooth capability. (Someone remind me again why Asia gets all the cool stuff?) Well, maybe I'm more than a touch disappointed, but the T9 still looks like a promising device. The slick black player features a cell phone-like design, much like its predecessor, the YP-D1, but it's slimmer and sleeker, measuring 1.7 by 3.3 by 0.4 inches. I'm also liking the player's graphical navigation icons (as with the K5) and adjustable menu colors--you can select from blue, green, purple, pink, and orange. What can I say? I'm a sucker for colorful lights.
As for the rest, here 'tis:

• Flash MP3 multimedia player
• Plays MP3, WMA, and WMA DRM 10
• Plays video (MPEG-4)
• JPEG photo slide shows with zoom features
• 1.8-inch TFT LCD color screen
• 2GB and 4GB available
• Subscription service compatible (Janus DRM)
• DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine)
• Digital clock
• FM tuner and recorder (variable MP3 bit rate)
• Voice recorder (variable MP3 bit rate)
• Built-in li-poly rechargeable battery: audio playback time--up to 30 hours; video playback time--up to 6 hours
• Text viewer, file browser
• Plays Macromedia Flash games
• Dynamic Macromedia user interface
• Easy five-button front control
• Shows album art, visualizers, screensavers, and custom wallpaper
• Firmware upgradable
• Supports playlists, delete from device, on-the-go (favorites) playlist

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October 04, 2006, 8:53 AM PDT
Eye-Fi's SD Wi-Fi to go (beta)
Posted by: Philip Ryan

When Wi-Fi for cameras first emerged, it didn't work well, sometimes entailing awkwardly long SD adapters, and wasn't all that we'd hoped it would be. Now, as camera makers are refining their Wi-Fi offerings and putting it into more cameras, such as Nikon's new Coolpix S7c, a company called Eye-Fi has made a 1GB SD card called Eye-Film with built-in 802.11g connectivity. It isn't available yet, the company doesn't explain exactly how it's really going to work, and there's no hint of pricing, but the blogging world is still abuzz. About the only thing the company has said is that it has no plans to offer the cards for PDAs or any devices other than cameras, though I'd imagine that would come eventually if they are successful in cameras. Plus an image in the solution portion of the company's site certainly hints that it has bigger plans.

Of course, since most cameras with built-in Wi-Fi include a fair amount of control through their menus, it's hard to imagine just how well a card like this will work, especially with existing cameras. And even if it does work well, without the level of control offered by something like the Nikon S7c, which is made to work with T-Mobile hot spots so that you can e-mail photos straight from the camera, it's hard to see how a simple card like this will be able to compete. The company says that the card doesn't require any upgrade to your camera and that "if your camera has been qualified by Eye-Fi, the card will just work." This leads me to think that the company is trying to work with camera makers to build support for Eye-Fi into future products, though the company hasn't said that explicitly. If so, there's a chance that this horse won't even get out of the starting gate, since a lot of camera makers seem content to do Wi-Fi on their own.

According to a post on Engadget, a beta test is expected to start this month, and details and sign-up procedures should be available within days. The Engadget post says that the SD card will come with a CompactFlash adapter, but a FAQ on the Eye-Fi site just says that a CompactFlash version of the product will follow after the SD version. If you want to be among the first to know about the beta test, the company has a mailing list you can join. As usual, as we find out any more deets, we will share them with you.

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October 04, 2006, 8:47 AM PDT
Symbian and Palm support for Slingbox: later rather than sooner?
Posted by: John P. Falcone

Will you be able to stream your favorite TV shows from your Slingbox to your Treo 700p or Nokia N-series smart phone? Eventually, yes, but maybe not quite as soon as some had hoped.

When second-generation Slingbox products began hitting stores last week, it didn't take long for astute observers to notice the presence of logos for Symbian and--concealed under a black sticker--Palm on the side of the box. We've since confirmed with Sling Media that the company is "working with partners to deliver clients for other mobile platforms including the two mentioned [Symbian and Palm]." However, the same Sling spokesman threw a bit of cold water on an Engadget report pegging the Symbian release by the end of October and the Palm version by the end of the year. Instead, his e-mail specified that he wanted to "reiterate the fact that we have not communicated a release date for these clients."

What does it all mean? I think Sling is just trying to manage expectations. Delays happen (the logos on the boxes certainly indicate that the company expected those clients to be ready by the time the hardware launched), and withholding an "official" announcement gives the company a degree of plausible deniability when the inevitable consumer frustration mounts. Just ask Mac users, who've been waiting for the Mac SlingPlayer client for months. They're the ones who've been the most vocal detractors of the new Slingbox products, and rightfully so: despite the Mac OS logo (right next to Palm and Symbian) on the Slingbox packaging, the Mac client remains in a closed beta.

Of course, we've seen the Mac client in action (Sling execs demoed it for us a few weeks ago), so I'd guess that will be the first non-Windows one to become available. And we hope Sling is just being overly conservative by not officially announcing release dates for the Symbian and Palm versions, both of which would bolster the products' potential usefulness (and audience) immensely.

For all we know, there are even more potential SlingPlayer versions on the agenda. Interestingly, in a recent interview, Sling execs went out of their way to point out the Nintendo DS would be a "better platform" for remote TV viewing than Sony's PSP, and were noncommittal on the possibility of a Zune client. Hmmm...

Photo credit: Zatznotfunny

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October 04, 2006, 8:39 AM PDT
Interview: Falcon Northwest CEO Kelt Reeves on the HP-Voodoo PC deal
Posted by: Rich Brown

First Dell bought Alienware, then HP scooped up Voodoo PC. If those deals are bad news for Falcon Northwest, it's not because CEO Kelt Reeves isn't dedicated. Dude just answered our questions from his Hawaiian vacation. Maybe it's all that sun, but he doesn't sound too worried.

Were you surprised by HP's acquisition of Voodoo?

I don't know anyone who wasn't surprised. That said, with the Dell/Alienware deal as precedent, it was a logical fit from a business perspective. What was so surprising about it is that [Voodoo President and CTO] Rahul [Sood] has made a name for himself as a blogger by predicting other deals, such as the ATI/AMD buyout and Dell's aquisition of Alienware. The one he could've predicted with perfect accuracy was the one he was very good at keeping secret.

What do you think it means for the future of Falcon Northwest and the boutique PC market in general?

That's probably a more loaded question than either of us can imagine right now. This is definitely an "inflection point" for the entire PC market. It depends on how the two companies fit together. We found that as Alienware grew, they strayed further from the enthusiast/custom/boutique market. The Dell deal seems to have clinched that. It works out well for us because essentially we're serving two different markets. Alienware may be sleeping on a big bed of money these days, but it hasn't seemed to come at our expense...the net effect on us is neither Dell nor Alienware seems to be on our turf anymore, and strangely, their combined impact on us is less than it used to be with Alienware alone.

HP's aquisition of Voodoo PC seems to be structured much more effectively, and if it works, it could keep the rest of the boutique market on its toes. It appears HP understands that a boutique's real value isn't from volume, but as a proving ground for showing off new technologies and getting real-time enthusiast feedback. And most importantly, filtering enthusiast PC ideas to mainstream products quickly. Another Web site likened it to HP buying a Formula 1 team. In that sense, they could be very valuable to all of us enthusiasts by bringing enthusiast PC thinking to more mainstream customers.

Do you plan to capitalize on your new status as the best-known indie PC vendor?

I've received a lot of "what's it like to be the last one?" e-mails this week. While not technically true, I can see how a lot of people are viewing us that way. The enthusiast market perceives going mass market as "selling out." The very day Alienware went into Best Buy years ago we heard nothing from our clientele except "they sold out." A bit unfair on day one, but I guess it's just the price you pay for making ties with any big company. Falcon's not going to go taking out advertisements saying "Hey we're the last of the 'big 3' independents, so you should buy from us and stick it to The Man!" We're going to do what we've always done: provide hardware and services that are an alternative to the big PC makers.

Alienware has Michael Dell's checkbook; Voodoo has the keys to the HP R&D kingdom. How does Falcon plan to compete?

In theory they do, but I doubt it's that simple. Alienware has a sliver of Michael Dell's checkbook, and Michael Dell is using many more slivers to make his own gaming-focused XPS line. It must be maddening for Alienware's management, but they wouldn't be allowed to say so if it is. Voodoo may find HP already has a long list of its own projects, and Voodoo may not be as important to HP's $80 billion worldwide sales as it is to Canada's enthusiast community.

These trade-offs could be tough on a small company that's used to moving fast and not having to ask for budget approval on projects. But it would be foolish to suggest that having big company funding was on balance a disadvantage. I'm sure the funding will give them a competitive advantage. But Falcon has always fought the big guys; I've never seen being small as a disadvantage. On the contrary, being small means I make our decisions quickly, without politics, and with our clients a bigger priority than stockholders.

One speculation is that Gateway or another large vendor might come knocking on your door. Thoughts?

Obviously, the fit between a boutique and a volume player makes sense to a lot of people, including me. That said, it would be very hard for any bigger fish to swallow Falcon without destroying what it is that makes it special. We've passed up many opportunities to "go big" over the years. These opportunities may have made a lot of business sense, but I'd rather protect what Falcon Northwest is and who it serves.

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October 04, 2006, 8:12 AM PDT
I spy new HP printers
Posted by: Matthew Elliott

When shopping for a new printer, odds are two names are at the top of your list: Canon and HP. We've covered a bunch of Canon printers and all-in-ones recently, and we will soon be able to even out our printer coverage with reviews from HP's new laser lineup, which the company unveiled yesterday. It includes seven new all-in-ones and two printers.

In addition to five monochrome-only LaserJet all-in-ones that target large enterprises with prices that range from $1,499 to $3,999 and print speeds that range from 27ppm to 35ppm, there are two all-in-ones that are slower and cheaper and give you the option for color prints:

HP Color LaserJet CM1015 MFP
$499; 8ppm for both color and monochrome
HP Color LaserJet CM1017 MFP
$699; same speed as above, but it's networkable and can hold additional memory

The two printers announced yesterday boast impressive print speeds for businesses with high-volume printing needs:

HP LaserJet P3005
$549; 35ppm monochrome only
HP Color LaserJet CP4005n
$1,299; 25ppm for color and 30ppm for monochrome

HP says the P3005 is available now and the CP4005n will start shipping on November 1. The others will ship in either late November or December.

Looking forward to next year, HP announced that some of its high-end business printers will begin using the company's Egdeline printing technology, which it introduced in in-store retail photo-printing kiosks last spring. With Edgeline, a printer is constructed so that the printheads stretch across a whole page so that they don't need to move. The paper moves, but the printheads remain stationary, and prints can be completed in just one or two passes. According to an HP VP, it's four times faster than any HP printer on the market today, and because the printheads are motionless, you'll get more accurate ink placement and better image quality.

Source: PC Magazine

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