You really want an iPad now?

Brett Arends, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says he doesn't want one. Here are a few of his reasons.

1. It'll be cheaper next year.
How dumb are people? Apple is coming out with iPad II in 2011. (Mr. Cordwell predicts April.) That means fanatics won't be seen dead with this year's model, and you'll be able to get it much cheaper. Try eBay or buy it "refurbished" direct from Apple. Price deflation in technology is a wonder to behold. Remember the first iPhones? The 8-gigabyte models cost $599. A few months later they cost $399. Now they're paperweights. The average middle-class American earns maybe $16 an hour after taxes. So if you save, say, $150 on a product, that's more than nine hours' extra work. Of course, if you love your job so much you like putting in an extra day for free, go ahead.

2. It's going to be better next year.
The next iPad will have new features—allegedly including video conferencing and maybe a better screen. This year's model will be so over. When Steve Jobs unveiled the second iPhone in 2008 he actually made fun of the slow first model—the same product that he had hailed a year earlier as the eighth wonder of the world. The audience yukked it up. Me? I'm not a fan of buying a product for $500 from a guy who's going to deride it a few months later.

3. Competitors are coming.
Right now the iPad has just one serious rival, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. So no wonder it's doing so well. But all that will change in just a few months. New tablets, many running on the Android platform, are expected to hit the market as soon as March. These will give you a much wider choice of size, style and operating system. And when these companies duke it out for market share, you know you'll be able to get a deal. So why would I buy now?

How cell phones are changing shopping

More and more people are doing their Christmas shopping on their cell phones.

Shopping on cellphones and portable tablet computers like iPads accounted for about 5 percent of online sales in November, while last year mobile shopping sales were too insignificant to measure, according to Coremetrics, an e-commerce measurement service.

“There were early adopters last year, but it’s absolutely real this year,” said Kelly O’Neill, director of industry marketing for ATG, which provides online and mobile commerce technology to retailers like Best Buy and J. C. Penney. And mobile shoppers are buying high-ticket items like diamond rings and cars, not just virtual goods and ring tones. 

EBay is so convinced of the future of mobile phone shopping that on Wednesday it acquired Critical Path Software, a mobile phone app developer, to speed its move into this new arena. 

An interesting reference to Best Buy, because that company and similar stores aren't doing very well.

The challenges faced by electronics stores were highlighted this week when Best Buy, the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer in revenue, reported that third-quarter net income fell 4.4 percent, to $217 million, and sales fell 1.1 percent, to $11.9 billion. Sales at stores open for more than a year declined 5 percent. 

“The market, which is already weak, is dramatically shifting away from stores and toward online,” said Colin A. McGranahan, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
Online sales in the United States are forecast to account for 20 percent of total consumer electronics sales of $250 billion by the end of this year. 

This doesn't include shoppers using their phones to check prices in stores.

Marketers must contend with shoppers who can use their smartphones inside stores to check whether the specials are really so special, and if the rest of the merchandise is reasonably priced.

"The retailer's advantage has been eroded," says Greg Girard of consultancy IDC Retail Insights, which recently found that roughly 45% of customers with smartphones had used them to perform due diligence on a store's prices. "The four walls of the store have become porous."

Power to the people.

Your smart phone and your car

More evidence that smart phones are taking over tasks previously performed by other devices -- car diagnosis apps.

Here's one for the iPhone, the 2340 KIWI Wifi. The manufacturer's description:

• KIWI Wifi turns your iPhone in to a powerful automotive tool
• Will check for engine diagnostic codes, when your "check engine" light become illuminated you can view and reset the code
• Easy installation, simply plugs into OBDII port and will mount virtually anywhere in your vehicle
• Allows you to view sensor data such as engine RPM, vehicle speed, coolant temperature and throttle position
• MPG gauges, basic engine sensors, check engine scan tool, trip computer

PLX Devices KIWI Wifi is a plug and play wireless device measuring only 2.75 x 1.25 x 0.6 inch. KIWI wifi comes attached with a 6 feet OBDII cable for easy installation. It also comes included with a power switch built-in to prevent the need to constantly disconnect your unit from the OBDII port. This wireless device is compatible with 1996 and later vehicles. Connecting to your iPhone / iPod touch is made by 802.11 a/b/g connection in adHoc mode.

And here's one for Droid phones.

Here come the rabbit ears ... and the FCC

Some viewers who have decided that they are no longer willing or able to pay for cable or satellite service, including younger ones, are buying antennas and tuning in to a surprising number of free broadcast channels, The New York Times reports.

These often become part of a video diet that includes the fast-growing menu of options available online.
The antenna reception has also led many of these converts to discover — or rediscover — the frustration of weak and spotty signals. But its fans argue that it is tough to beat the price.

From April to September, cable and satellite companies had a net loss of about 330,000 customers. Craig Moffett, a longtime cable analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said the consensus of the industry executives he had talked to was that most of these so-called cord-cutters were turning to over-the-air TV. “It looks like they’re leaving for the antenna,” he said.  

Another big change is the rise of Internet video, which can ease the pain of losing favorite cable channels. Not so fast, Sparky.

As details emerge about the Federal Communications Commission's controversial proposal for regulating Internet providers, a provision that would allow companies to bill customers for how much they surf the Web is drawing special scrutiny. 

Analysts say pay-as-you-go Internet access could put the brakes on the burgeoning online video industry, handing a victory to cable and satellite TV providers. 

What's up with that. Glenn Reynolds muses, "A cynic would see this as a payback to the Big Media folks who backed Obama so . . . intensively in 2008."

Chrome vs Firefox

I read this article the other door and decided to give Google's browser, Chrome, a shot. I'd tried it once before but there was enough unfamiliarity to keep me with Firefox.

This time I discovered something the article touted: speed. It is noticeably faster.

Firefox has made leaps and bounds in speed over the past few years, and despite coming out on top in memory use in the last round of tests, Firefox has one very big problem: Firefox users think Firefox is growing progressively slower and more bloated, and at the end of the day, user perception is always more important than all the speed tests in the world.

I can attest to this: When I use Chrome, it feels faster, and that's all that matters. I'd attribute that feeling to more than just interface design (though I wouldn't be surprised if Chrome's sleeker design does color my perception, too). At the end of the day, I want the browser that's going to deliver web sites and information quickly and pain-free. The extensions and other niceties are just jelly; the browser needs to be fast and serviceable before the other stuff really matters. For users who want speed, functionality, and extensibility, Chrome is turning a lot of eyes from Firefox.

I like the auto-fill in the address bar. And I was able to quickly locate Delicious buttons, which I use all day long.

How to deal with tech support

(Thanks, Nick)

Here come the tablets and smart phones

The research firm IDC predicts that in 2011, computing’s third major technology wave will become mainstream, when computers held in one’s hand — smartphones and tablets — really take over and start putting personal computers in the rearview mirror.

Next year there will be 330 million smartphones sold worldwide and 42 million media tablets. Tablet sales are expected to more than double next year, and to keep climbing.

“The PC-centric era is over,” the IDC report says. Within 18 months, it forecasts, non-PC devices capable of running software applications will outsell PCs. In tablets, IDC adds, Apple’s iPad will remain the leader, but lower-cost tablets will begin making inroads, especially as demand for tablets really takes off in emerging markets.

Mainstream adoption, according to IDC, is when a technology moves well beyond 15 percent or so of the market. In 2011, for example, IDC predicts half of the 2.1 billion people who regularly use the Internet will do so using non-PC devices.

Best apps for your Android phone

A few weeks ago I posted a suggested list of the best apps for the iPhone. Here is Bob Tedeschi's list of apps for the Android. I've selected the ones I like. Check the whole list.

GOOGLE SHOPPER (FREE) This app can save you hundreds of dollars by helping you find better prices nearby or online. Scan a bar code and the app takes it from there. If the scan doesn’t work, you can speak the product’s name and the app finds the product. 

GOOGLE SKY MAP (FREE) Some serious eye candy that you’ll want to activate on the next cloudless night. Point your device toward the heavens and Sky Map puts a label on every celestial body you see — and some you can’t.

SOUNDHOUND (FREE AND $5) It’s Android’s best showoff app after Sky Map. Open SoundHound and it identifies nearly any song — even some you hum. It also finds lyrics and YouTube videos of song performances. The $5 version lets you identify an unlimited number of tunes. Users of the free version get five songs a month. 

EVERNOTE (FREE) Can’t afford a personal assistant? This will help. Evernote is a mobile notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your smartphone to take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and the next time you open Evernote on your desktop computer, your mobile notes appear (and vice versa). The free version stores a fair amount of information, but $45 a year buys unlimited storage.

QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($10) You can read Word, Excel or Powerpoint documents on an Android phone, but you can’t edit them without dedicated apps. Quickoffice is, so far, the best of these apps. It lets you create documents in a pinch, but the app’s strength is letting you get bits of work done away from the office. 

Among his honorable mentions is one I'd find very useful: FlightTrack ($5: track any flight and get delay forecasts, seat suggestions and gate information).

Here's a mega list of recommended apps.

Standalone GPS or cell phone?

I've got a Garmin GPS for my car. It's small enough to slip in my pocket, as well. And my cell phone wil tell me how to get where I'm going for a daily fee to Verizon; I haven't tried it yet.

Consumer Reports has some thoughts on the choice between a dedicated GPS and a phone.

• Smart phones are an increasingly popular navigation option, especially among models that come with turn-by-turn guidance built in. Other phones require purchase of a downloadable navigation app or a service subscription. In our tests, we have found that the best navigation applications are made by well-known GPS companies like Navigon, TomTom, and Magellan. These apps look and function much like a standalone GPS unit.

• Virtually any new cell phone is now capable of giving directions, whether it's smart or otherwise. Cell-phone providers, such as ATT and Verizon, offer turn-by-turn directions for a fee, usually about $10 per month or $3 per day. This form of navigation aid is handy for a vacation or if you only need directions occasionally.

• If you choose to go with a phone for guidance, keep in mind that a phone with a large screen will be easier to read and use on the go, and it can come closest to the performance of a portable GPS unit. But with any phone, you'll have to buy a mount and car charger separately, which can add another $50 or so. A good navigation app adds another $50, making the combined cost about as much as a dedicated device. And if you opt for a subscription plan, instead of a downloaded application, the monthly fee can quickly add up to more than the cost of a basic GPS in just a year.

Much more at the link.

Reviewing the 11-inch MacBook Air

Glenn Reynolds, who edits the Instapundit blog, gives his review of the MacBook Air.

So I cracked and bought the 11″ Macbook Air on Friday. I got the basic, bottom-end model since it’s mostly for web-surfing and column-writing. Conclusions so far:

(1) It’s really small and light. And thin.

(2) The keyboard doesn’t feel little at all.

(3) The screen’s excellent.

(4) Battery life is very good. I spent Sunday afternoon at the Lakeside Tavern writing a Popular Mechanics column on airport security. They don’t have wi-fi, so I was running the broadband EVDO card which uses a lot more power than wi-fi. I was there for a couple of hours, then came home and surfed with it on-and-off for a couple more hours, for a total of maybe 2.5 to 3 hours. Had 48% power left. Not bad at all.

(5) I do most of my column-writing, etc. — basically anything less than a law review article or book chapter — on Google Docs now, but I like having a word processing program. I thought from the reviews that the Mac App Store was already open, but it’s not. So I just downloaded OpenOffice for free instead of buying iWork. Did I mention it was free? Sorry, Apple . . . .

If I didn’t already have a 13″ Macbook Pro, I might have gone for the 13″ Air. It’s better than my Asus netbooks (which are good little computers), especially in terms of the keyboard. Helen hates the small keyboard on those. I don’t mind so much, which is odd, because my hands are size XL and hers are tiny. But this keyboard is like a fullsize Macbook, not like a netbook.

Dangers lurking in cell phone apps

People dump all kinds of apps onto their smartphones. The average iPhone user, for example, downloads nine a month. People use them to do banking or to store calendars and other files full of data about them.

But most folks don’t think twice about security, Jim Rendon writes at Smart Money. They should.

Anytime you download something onto your phone, you’re taking a risk it might include malware or spyware—software designed to do you harm. For example, one game hijacked Windows Mobile phones and used them to place calls to Somalia, running up hundreds of dollars in bills. (A spokesperson for Microsoft says the program wasn’t a Microsoft product, and consumers should take appropriate measures to secure their phones.)

John Hering, the CEO of Lookout. says the problem is only getting worse. His December 2009 surveys found there were four pieces of malware for every 100 smartphones; by May 2010 it had jumped to nine. “People need to do their homework,” says

Frank Dickson, VP of research at market-research firm In-Stat. They should read reviews and see who created an application before downloading random files.

And phones should be password-protected, says Hering.

Making the Kinect do amazing things

Oliver Kreylos, a computer scientist who specializes in virtual reality and 3-D graphics, has hacked Microsoft’s new Kinect gaming device and has used it to  create “holographic” video images that can be rotated on a computer screen.




Mr. Kreylos is part of a crowd of programmers, roboticists and tinkerers who are getting the Kinect to do things it was not really meant to do. The attraction of the device is that it is outfitted with cameras, sensors and software that let it detect movement, depth, and the shape and position of the human body.

Building a device with the Kinect’s capabilities would require “thousands of dollars, multiple Ph.D.’s and dozens of months,” said Limor Fried, an engineer and founder of Adafruit Industries, a store in New York that sells supplies for experimental hardware projects. “You can just buy this at any game store for $150.”

Maybe there shouldn't be an app for that

What they know about you

Smart Money has a rather disturbing article about those apps you download for your smart phone. Consider:

App developers know  all about you and how you use their apps. If, for example, an application you use involves banking, a malicious developer may be privy to your account details, according to John Hering, CEO of Lookout, a mobile-security company. Google, Apple and other vendors also know which apps you bought, which you use and which you have erased from your phone. Developers and the analytics companies they employ access much more detailed data about how you use the app. They can see, for example, how often and for how long you played a game and everything you did in it, says Peter Farago, VP of marketing at analytics firm Flurry.

All this data is invaluable to developers, who use it to improve their apps. They can also use it to build audience profiles in order to help attract ad dollars. Advertisers may be looking for gaming fans, for example, and want to target ads to people who spend lots of time using particular titles—information app developers then share with the middlemen who sell ads. “On the mobile platform, you know exactly who you are targeting ads to so you can target more specifically,” says Rob Terrell, founder of the app developer TouchCentric.

What else can happen to your personal information?

All that data about you tied to your smart phone gets circulated through an ecosystem of companies. Problem is, there are no rules about what they can do with it, other than some regulations about when it can be turned over to the government, says Jared Kaprove, former domestic-surveillance counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

More troubling, many of these companies—particularly the small ones—lack clear policies for using and storing your data. It can easily be stolen or misplaced, which can happen even at large corporations with good data-security practices. People simply aren’t aware of how their data gets used and how valuable it is, says Kaprove, and “companies prefer that you just don’t think about it.”

Fearing consumer perception of privacy issues—what Farago calls the “Big Brother creep factor”—the industry is trying to be open about its use of data and allows users to opt out of having theirs collected. But that can be a challenge, says Frank Dickson, VP of research at market-research firm In-Stat. “Any time you’re interacting in the public domain, you are going to leave bread crumbs,” he says.

Glad I have a dumb phone.

What the insurance companies are learning about you

Your online trail is being tracked, and now the insurance companies are following you. From The Wall Street Journal:

Data-gathering companies have such extensive files on most U.S. consumers—online shopping details, catalog purchases, magazine subscriptions, leisure activities and information from social-networking sites—that some insurers are exploring whether data can reveal nearly as much about a person as a lab analysis of their bodily fluids. 

In one of the biggest tests, the U.S. arm of British insurer Aviva PLC looked at 60,000 recent insurance applicants. It found that a new, "predictive modeling" system, based partly on consumer-marketing data, was "persuasive" in its ability to mimic traditional techniques. 

This data increasingly is gathered online, often with consumers only vaguely aware that separate bits of information about them are being collected and collated in ways that can be surprisingly revealing.

A key part of the Aviva test, run by Deloitte Consulting LLP, was estimating a person's risk for illnesses such as high blood pressure and depression. Deloitte's models assume that many diseases relate to lifestyle factors such as exercise habits and fast-food diets. 

Other insurers exploring similar technology include American International Group Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., executives for those firms confirm. Deloitte, a big backer of the concept, has pitched it in recent months to numerous insurers.

Make you nervous? Let the companies know. Here are their contact pages.

Alvia

AIG

Prudential

Deloitte

Google's little games

Turns out those Google searches may not be completely objective. A poster at Slashdot explains:

Technology consultant Benjamin Edelman has developed a methodology for determining the existence of a hard-coded bias in Google's search engine which places Google's services at the top of the results page.

Searching for a stock ticker places Google Finance at the top along with a price chart, but adding a comma to the end of the query removes the Google link completely. Other variations, such as 'a sore throat' instead of 'sore throat,' removes Google Health from its top position.

Queries in other categories provide links to not only Google services but also their preferred partners. Though Google claims it does not bias its results, Edelman cites a 2007 admission from Google's Marissa Mayers that they placed Google Finance at the top of the results page, calling it 'only fair' because they made the search engine.

Edelman notes that Google cites its use of unbiased algorithms to dismiss antitrust scrutiny, and he recalls the DOJ's intervention in airlines providing favorable results for its own flights in customer reservation systems they owned.

Here are the details.

The business end of social media

Eric Lefkofsky is worth some $750 million, it's estimated, which came from online companies he created. Lately he's been playing in the social media field. Consider:

Groupon is a social-coupon Web site that he bankrolled and started in 2008 — a venture that has been called the fastest-growing company ever. Groupon offers its followers a deal-of-the-day coupon, sponsored by a local business, that the followers are encouraged to share with their social networks. The local business gets customers, and Groupon takes a share of the coupon proceeds — a business model that has led to talk that Groupon, still privately owned, could be worth as much as $3 billion. 

Why social media?

"We think that the most disruptive business models will take advantage of that social graph over the next five to 10 years. Take travel as an example. You should be able to plan your entire trip online, invite your friends to come with you and even interact with other friends who have already been to that location. Those people will provide you with content that will augment your experience."

One idea involves hiring.

"Think about the way most companies currently hire. You post a job and then get blind résumés in response. This should be a social experience. If you took everyone and asked them to list everyone they knew, you could create an enormous social graph of several million people. There’s no reason to hire people that we can’t learn something about through some connection of our personal network. There’s no site today that takes advantage of the social graph in this way, yet."

Social networking looks less and less like a fad.

You may be getting your 4G signal from space

SkyTerra Under Construction at Boeing

Boeing has received the first signals from SkyTerra 1, a communications satellite it built for LightSquared that was hurled into orbit aboard a Proton rocket launched from Kazakhstan, Popular Science reports.

The satellite, which will provide signal coverage where terrestrial towers can’t reach, is part of a new LightSquared 4G-LTE mobile broadband wireless system and boasts the largest antenna reflector ever launched into space.

The mesh structure on SkyTerra 1 is an ultra-wide 72 feet across, and the increase in hardware up there should lead to space savings down here. The larger reflector will reduce the need to build bigger antennas and receivers into next-gen 4G devices, so a larger footprint in the sky translates into real estate savings in your pocket.

Boeing and Lightsquared will next initiate on-orbit maneuvers to move the 6-ton satellite into its geosynchronous orbit. It will be joined by SkyTerra 2 next year, and over the next 15 years will augment LightSquared’s ground coverage of North America, which should serve 90 percent of the U.S. population by 2015 under a deal inked with the FCC.

Now you have to pay attention in class

If any of the 70 undergraduates in Prof. Bill White’s “Organizational Behavior” course here at Northwestern University are late for class, or not paying attention, he will know without having to scan the lecture hall.

Every student in Mr. White’s class has been assigned a palm-size, wireless device that looks like a TV remote but has a far less entertaining purpose. With their clickers in hand, the students in Mr. White’s class automatically clock in as “present” as they walk into class.

They then use the numbered buttons on the devices to answer multiple-choice quizzes that count for nearly 20 percent of their grade, and that always begin precisely one minute into class. Later, with a click, they can signal to their teacher without raising a hand that they are confused by the day’s lesson. 

But the greatest impact of such devices — which more than a half-million students are using this fall on several thousand college campuses — may be cultural: they have altered, perhaps irrevocably, the nap schedules of anyone who might have hoped to catch a few winks in the back row, and made it harder for them to respond to text messages, e-mail and other distractions.

A senior computer moment

I had a problem yesterday, so I called Eric, the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over.

Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?

He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.' I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'

Eric grinned.... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before? 

'No,' I replied.

'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'

So I wrote down: 

ID10T

The best apps for your smart iPhone

The Star Walk app for the iPhone

Some 300,000 apps are available for your iPhone. So you're going to spend a few minutes this afternoon deciding what you need?

Here are some suggestions from Bob Tedeschi at The New York Times.

GOOGLE (FREE) You can find Google through your mobile browser, but the app is a major time-saver. The voice search function is seamless. Ask it for specific Wikipedia entries, for instance, and it complies. Or just say "Starbucks" and the app uses the phone’s GPS to find the nearest location. A recent update put the "Goggles" service within the app, so you can snap a photo and let Google search for information on that object. And given Google’s emphasis on mobile, the app will continue to improve. 

EVERNOTE (FREE) The company advertises this as a personal digital assistant, and it’s an apt description. Evernote is a traveling notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your iPhone to copy an image, take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and it appears on your computer (and vice versa). It also recognizes your written text, within limits. The free version stores a fair amount of information, but for $45 a year, you needn’t sweat the data limits.

STAR WALK ($3) Point your phone toward the heavens and this app identifies all you see — constellations, planets, individual stars — in brilliant clarity. If you pivot in another direction, the app follows. It’s an astonishing app that’s great to pull out during dinner parties, beach walks or sleepless nights in bed. You needn’t have a clear view of the sky to experience the starry night.

FIREFOX HOME (FREE) In the same vein as Evernote, Firefox Home is a way to synchronize your desktop and mobile lives. Once you load the app and register, Firefox Home will show your browsing history and bookmarks. If you’re reading an important document online when you leave the office, you can start the app later and pick up where you left off. 


QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($5) The next time someone e-mails you a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document, Quickoffice will open it and allow you to make quick edits from your iPhone. (Otherwise, you can open, but not edit, Microsoft Office files.) You can also create documents with the app, but it is far less useful for that purpose. Rather, Quickoffice offers a way to complete small work tasks easily while you are on the move.

REDLASER (FREE) It may not tell you if a clothing item makes you look fat, but otherwise RedLaser is a perfect shopping companion. Scan a bar code and it retrieves product information, including prices at online merchants and local stores (in case you are in the mood to haggle). Or follow a spouse or child around a store, scan what they like and you have an instant gift list. The app’s scans sometimes fail, but more often than not RedLaser works smoothly.

More at the link.

What the heck's a 4G network?

Those Sprint commercials are  intriguing -- for me, the part about streaming live to the web in particular. I wonder what that's going to do to those big white satellite trucks the TV crews drag around to every news event.

But what is a 4G network? Here's an explanation from wiseGeek:

A 4G network is the fourth generation of wireless communication. While still in development, the foundations for the replacement of the present network is currently being researched and constructed by the cellular phone industry and other technology developers. The overall goal for the network is to provide a comprehensive and secure Internet Protocol solution with much faster data speeds than previous generations.

What works on a 4G network? Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal's personal technology columnist, answers a reader's question.

Q. If I am correct, today's electronic devices made to operate on 3G networks will work on 4G networks. But will the newest of them—such as iPads, iPhones, and Android phones—achieve 4G speeds on 4G networks?

A: You are incorrect, unfortunately. Today's 3G phones and other devices cannot work on the new and coming 4G networks. Those new networks require devices with different internal radios. On the other hand, the few current 4G devices—mainly devices from Sprint—are designed to work the other way. They can use 3G networks if 4G coverage is unavailable.

How widespread is 4G? Mossberg again:

Sprint has a 4G network in scores of cities, and T-Mobile has a souped-up 3G network in many cities that it says can achieve 4G speeds. Verizon has pledged to introduce 4G service in several dozen cities by year-end. AT&T is planning to start rolling out 4G next year.


Two important caveats apply here. First, the term "4G" is a slippery one. While all of these networks offer faster data speeds than traditional 3G, they don't actually meet the technical definition of 4G speeds set by the international standards body that defines such things. Second, to get the full speeds offered by these new networks, most people will need a new phone. Currently, there are only a handful of phones that can do so.

More here about 4G networks.

Gadget lust: wearable video cameras

Given the price -- $200 or less -- I suspect these wearable video cameras will catch on. The New York Times reports:

Cameras worn on helmets or harnesses have been popular during the last decade for specialized uses like skydiving or auto racing. But a new generation of devices that cost around $200, some of them recording in high-definition, may move wearable cameras into the mainstream, offering a new dimension in first-person documentation.  

And they aren't just for fun.

Police officers and building inspectors, for example, may don wearable cameras to document their interactions and observations. Autobiographers may use them to capture all that they see as they wander about each day, and the absent-minded may find them helpful in recalling where they left the car keys. 

The Times highlights a few.

The GoPro HD Hero 960 ($179.99) records high-definition video at 1,280 x 960 pixels and 30 frames a second. This small cube of a camera — it’s less than two inches high — snaps into a waterproof case. Combined, the camera and case weigh less than six ounces. The lens can capture photos or video at an ultrawide, 170-degree angle, and the camera comes with a headband as well as plastic plates that can attach it to flat or curved surfaces.

The Looxcie ($199), a small wearable camcorder introduced recently, loops over the ear. The camera is built into a Bluetooth headset that streams digital images wirelessly to Android phones that use a free Looxcie app. From there, the clips can go directly to e-mail. Soon the company will offer apps that make the camera compatible with other smartphones. 

The Looxcie is not a high-definition camera. It records at a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels at 15 frames a second. But it has a special button that makes it ideal for taking video of unexpected moments. When the camera is running in continuous-capture mode, and the wearer suddenly sees a goal scored at a hockey game, for instance, a quick push of the button will tell the camera to automatically save a clip of the preceding 30 seconds. Then the footage of the puck sailing into the net can be preserved and automatically e-mailed to friends. The camera weighs about an ounce and stores up to five hours of video, he said.

Small video cameras played a role in the recent election, when things happened at political events and the facts were later disputed. These little cameras may well turn out to be like other technological developments: their users will find their uses.

Should your next laptop be something else?

I always read Walter Mossberg's annual computer buying guide. He's the personal technology guru at The Wall Street Journal, and he writes in a way that even I can understand.

This year, he leads off with a curveball: maybe you need something less than a laptop.

If you're looking for a light-duty, highly portable computer, it's worth considering the iPad, which starts at $499, instead of a small laptop. This is especially true if you're in the market for a secondary computer, or one mainly for use on the go. Many owners of iPads, including me, are finding it handily replaces a laptop for numerous tasks, such as Web browsing, email, social-networking, photos, video and music.

It has superior battery life, lighter weight, and it starts instantly. I don't recommend it for people who are creating long documents, especially spreadsheets and presentations, even though it is capable of those tasks. And I don't recommend it for users who require, or prefer, a physical keyboard.

If you don't like the iPad, there will soon be alternatives, Mossberg writes.

For instance, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which has a 7-inch screen versus the iPad's 10-inch display, and runs Google's Android operating system, will be available this month from major wireless carriers. Sprint, for example, will offer it at $400 with a two-year contract. But some tablet buyers may want to wait till the first half of next year, when many more models will be available, and Apple will likely roll out the second-generation iPad.

And, as for notebooks:

These low-cost, low-powered little Windows computers are losing popularity, but are still available, typically for about $350 to $500. They are being hurt by the rise of tablets and by light but larger laptops. Some buyers also find the screens and keyboards are too cramped. But these are evolving.

Some now have bigger screens and roomier keyboards. And Dell will soon introduce a sort of hybrid netbook-tablet. Called the Inspiron Duo, this model, starting at $499, has both a regular keyboard and a touch screen that flips around when the lid is closed to act like a tablet.

It will be interesting to see how many people find an iPad under the Christmas tree this year.

Kiss the remote goodbye

If you lose the thing it may be just as well. You can now control your television set with a smart phone. There is, as they say, an app for that.

TV viewing habits are changing as more Internet and on-demand content — YouTube videos, streaming movies, shopping sites, Facebook photos — flows directly onto big screens. Navigating all of that demands more action from the viewer, including a fair amount of typing, which current remotes cannot handle.

“Everybody realizes that the remote control is the dinosaur of the consumer electronics industry,” said David Mercer, a television analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research and consulting firm. “The cable companies and the TV manufacturers are beginning to realize that they have to start moving away from the traditional, basic remote control.”

There have already been successful attempts to use smartphones as remotes. Sonos, which makes Internet-connected stereos, offers a free iPhone application that replicates every feature of its own $349 touch-screen remote control. Over half of Sonos customers now use the app, which links to the stereo over a Wi-Fi network.

Several television manufacturers, like Mitsubishi and Samsung, are following suit with smartphone remotes, and phone apps are part of both Apple and Google’s TV offerings.

If you lose this remote, you can always call it and make it ring.

What really matters in a digital camera

David Pogue has bought a Canon PowerShot S95 pocket camera and writes that a major feature is its large sensor.

I love the huge light sensor that's inside an SLR. It can take sharp low-light shots without the flash. It can blur the background the way professionals do.

What I've always wanted is a little camera with a big sensor. Is that so hard? Apparently, yes. The problem is covering a rectangular sensor chip with a circle of light from the lens. Bigger sensor? You need a bigger camera. Those are the simple bylaws of physics.

The S95's sensor is 0.59 inches diagonally -- 88 percent more area than most pocket cameras' sensors. What this means:

The little S95, can take amazing, sharp pictures in low light without the flash. The designers have shrewdly dropped the ludicrous quest for more megapixels -- it has 10 megapixels, just right -- in favor of something that really matters, like better photos. So many times I've used it  for pictures at night, indoors, in shadow. Cathedrals, restaurants, parties. No, the results aren't as good as an SLR's -- it still manages to blur a shot, especially in very dark situations when the subject is moving -- but they're light-years better than any other pocket camera can do.

The bottom line is that just counting megapixels won't tell you everything about a camera's performance. Here's a bit more on this, from Digicamhelp:

The size of a camera sensor will have a big impact on the quality of your pictures. The lens gathers light and directs it towards the sensor, and the sensor records the light to create the image.

All things being equal, a larger sensor will receive more light than a smaller one, and produce better images. This is especially important in low light photography.

When light levels are low, a smaller sensor will generate a higher amount of noise, which will decrease the quality of the images. This is why the best low-light setups include a camera with a large sensor (usually a DSLR) and a lens with a large aperture.


In the compact world, most sensors are equivalent in size. Sensor size for compacts is calculated by measuring the sensors diagonally. The most common sizes are 1/2.5 (0.4) and 1/2.3 (0.43) inches. Pretty small by all accounts.

Manufacturers have started including larger sensors in some of their compacts. For instance, Canon’s s90 camera has a 1/1.7 (0.58) niches sensor. This represents a total area 37% larger than most comparable models, and yields much better low light pictures. Compact cameras like the Panasonic LX5 also sport larger sensors.

Something to consider if you're in the market.

Image: Relative sizes of digital camera sensors

Routine maintenance for your PC

Your PC needs some TLC every now and then. You can get a store to do it, for a fee. Staples, hoping to win new customers, will do it for free.

However, you can do it yourself, The New York Times reports. “Tools to do everything that Staples does are built into Windows 7,” said Ben Rudolph, Microsoft’s Windows PC Evangelist. “It’s not that hard to change your own oil.”

Here's the rundown.

It’s important to run antivirus software regularly. Microsoft offers MS Security Essentials, free antivirus software available from Microsoft.com. Mr. Ackerman recommends another free program, AVG Free (free.avg.com).

To avoid leaving any fragments of applications on the drive after you remove a program, use the application’s own removal tool, rather than just putting the program icon in the trash. If you don’t have the tool, do an Internet search for “[program name] removal tool.”

Defragment your hard drive. After extensive use, large programs tend to become “fragmented,” meaning that critical files are scattered across multiple sectors of a drive. It takes the computer extra time to find and assemble all the pieces needed to run the program. Defragmenting the drive will retrieve the files and place them closer together, speeding up the response time when you run the program.

The preinstalled Windows Disk Defragmenter tool, (search for “defragment” under the Start menu in Windows 7, or look for it under Programs>Accessories>System Tools in most older Windows machines) will defragment your hard drive, either manually, or automatically on a schedule you can customize.

Defragmenting a hard drive can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the size of the drive and how cluttered it is.

Most maintenance tools are easily found in Windows 7. Click on the small white flag in the bottom right of the screen to bring up the Action Center. If you haven’t installed antivirus software, you’ll be prompted to find such a program. You’re also given the option to back up your hard drive. 

Reviewing the new MacBook Air

I don't have an iPad, although I can see the day coming. I have a MacBook Pro, which I love and which is too new to replace. When that time comes, it may be that I can have both in the same machine.

Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal's technology guru, has reviewed the new MacBook Air and found:

Some of the nicest, if little discussed, benefits of using an Apple iPad tablet are that it starts instantly, resumes where you left off, and has a long enough battery life that you aren't constantly fretting about running out of juice or looking for a place to plug it in. And it can do a lot of things for which people use laptops.

What if somebody designed an actual laptop that worked this way—you know, a computer with a real keyboard and a larger screen that could run traditional computer software and store more files than an iPad? And what if it was almost as light and portable as an iPad? Well, somebody has, and that somebody is Apple itself.

The new Air, he writes, comes to life almost instantly and yet has tremendous battery life.

In my harsh battery tests, I found the two new Air models almost matched Apple's battery claims, even with all power-saving features turned off, Wi-Fi kept on, the screen on maximum brightness and a continuous loop of music playing. The 11-inch model lasted four hours and 43 minutes, versus Apple's claim of up to five hours. The 13-inch model lasted six hours and 13 minutes, versus Apple's claim of up to seven hours.

It has less storage to make room for its better battery, he notes, a problem for someone needed to store big amounts of video, for example. And other things, like a DVD drive, have to be purchased separately.

"Overall," Mossberg writes, "Apple has done a nice job in making these new MacBook Airs feel more like iPads and iPhones without sacrificing their ability to work like regular computers."

Do you need a PowerMonkey?

I get occasional emails from an outfit I'm fond of -- Extreme Outfitters, your one stop shop for all things tactical. This is the online version of the Army Navy store in my town when I was growing up. It's the place for combat boots, knives, you name it.

This particular email advertised various power supplies, including the PowerMonkey-eXplorer, a portable solar charger for mobile phones, iPods, PDAs and more. I just don't know how I ever did without it. I mean the name alone ...


Here are some details:

From the heart of Africa to the Hardanger Glacier, the powermonkey-eXplorer portable charger has proved to be an invaluable piece of kit, providing essential power in the most remote locations. Incorporating the new solarmonkey solar charger, the powermonkey-eXplorer lets you charge wherever, whenever. 

The heart of Africa! I bet it even works in your cube, if you sit by a window. 

It gives you 96 hours of standby on your mobile, 40 hours on your iPod, 5 hours on your games console, 48 hours on your PDA and 6 hours on MP3/MP4 players. 

More:

Ultra compact, tough, powerful and Made for iPod approved, the powermonkey-eXplorer is water resistant and made from rubberised casing so can take whatever life throws at it, yet it remains the lightest, most versatile portable charger available today.

Seriously, if you go hiking or camping, or you're just on the road and needing some juice, it sounds ideal.

Create your own x-rays

Well,  not quite. But look what happens when you play around with Scotch tape. From Science News:

Forget fancy particle accelerators — a cheaper tool for emitting X-rays is right there in the office supply cabinet. Pulling back Scotch tape emits X-rays, the same high-energy light emanating from airport security scanners and the interiors of galaxy clusters, and scientists now have a better understanding of why.

Scientists have known since the dawn of 3M Scotch tape in the 1930s that pulling the adhesive emits blue light. But to discover that X-rays also fly out was perplexing because X-rays are a hundred thousand times more energetic than the chemical bonds holding the sticky side down.

Here's how it works.

Peeling tape separates positive and negative charges, creating an electric field. The field jump-starts free electrons in the neighborhood, accelerating them fast enough to emit X-ray photons. This bremsstrahlung radiation is like that created in the bellies of particle accelerators as they whip charged particles around near the speed of light.

They say it isn't harmful. Okay, you try it first. At atmospheric pressure, where air molecules bustle, the electrons quickly run into other particles before they can radiate X-rays. But one scientist imagines that soldiers and medical workers in the field could use a hand crank to peel off adhesives and create X-rays. The light is powerful enough to image a human finger.

Should you store your medical record online?

hIt's now possible to store all of you health information online, making it easily accessible anywhere, but only about four percent of people do. Many are afraid of the privacy implications, although these sites use the same technology as banks do to protect your information.

The Wall Street Journal has reviewed three of the most popular sites.

Google Health doesn't have many tools of its own to allow users to evaluate their health. Instead, it focuses on sharing your data with online applications that do such tasks, like the My Diabetes Health Assessment website, which evaluates users' risk of diabetes based on data from their health records.

Microsoft HealthVault, too, has a limited number of self-evaluation tools but connects to a wide variety of helpful services that can extract data from or import data to your profile.

You can accesss WebMD's Health Manager in two main ways: through its public site, WebMD.com, or through the sites of insurance companies and employers that are WebMD customers.

The Journal's assessment:

In the end, we found that each PHR offers a remarkable value for a free application, but none of the three emerged as a clear winner.

Microsoft HealthVault gets high marks for portability, but it has no features for printing. WebMD Health Manager has all of its health evaluation features built in, so you don't have to connect to external applications, but it lacks the ability to export information in some key industry formats. So does Google Health (it says it may add this later), but it does export data to online health applications.

One way to choose among the PHRs is by the applications that link to them. If you want to import data from LifeScan Inc.'s OneTouch glucose monitor into your PHR, for example, currently only HealthVault does that (Google may add this).

On the other hand, if your insurance company (yours or your employer's) is a WebMD customer, you may want to use Health Manager for its easy importing of all the health data your insurance company already has on you.

Also posted on my technology blog, Tell Your Doctor

Reach out and touch some one through Gmail

Does anyone know why we continue to pay hundreds of dollars for phone service?

Consider: Google launched an Internet-based calling service in August. Anyone with a U.S.-based Gmail account, compatible operating system, speakers and a microphone can make and receive phone calls from their inbox, Courtney Banks reports in The Wall Street Journal.

Gmail calling works best with a free Google Voice account, which assigns you a phone number that links to all your other lines – work, home or mobile. It acts like a personal switchboard operator, allowing you to decide which phone will ring when someone dials your Google number. Without Google Voice, you can only place outgoing calls through Gmail. 

"I could choose whether to answer the call on my computer or on my cell phone, and transfer calls between the two by pressing the star key," Ms. Banks writes. "For example, if I was chatting while walking into the house, I could switch the phone to my computer, and switch back if I had to leave. For technical reasons, call transfer only works for incoming calls."

Gmail calling with Google voice is versatile, because it can handle calls to your other phones. For the moment, it's also cheaper for certain types of calls. On Skype, computer-to-computer calls are free. But calling a phone costs 2.3 cents a minute to the U.S. and many other countries, or 2.99 a month for unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada. On Gmail, all outgoing calls to U.S. and Canadian numbers and all incoming calls are free, through at least the end of the year. Charges for calls to international numbers cost from 2 cents a minute to landlines in much of Europe and Asia, to 99 cents a minute to Cuba.

Did anyone say free?

How cell phones can track illness

I've read about putting sensors on cell phones that would automatically tell a central computer that a biological or chemical terrorist attack was underway. Here's the same idea but in a more personal use.

Epidemiologists know that disease outbreaks change mobility patterns, but until now have been unable to track these patterns in any detail. So says Anmol Madan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues gave cellphones to 70 students in an undergraduate dormitory. The phones came with software that supplied the team with anonymous data on the students' movements, phone calls and text messages. The students also completed daily surveys on their mental and physical health.

A characteristic signature of illness emerged from the data, which was gathered over a 10-week period in early 2009. Students who came down with a fever or full-blown flu tended to move around less and make fewer calls late at night and early in the morning. When Madan trained software to hunt for this signature in the cellphone data, a daily check correctly identified flu victims 90 per cent of the time.

Two possible uses for this have emerged.

• The technique could be used to monitor the health status of individuals who live alone. Madan is developing a smartphone app that will alert a named contact, perhaps a relative or doctor, when a person's communication and movement patterns suggest that they are ill.
• Public health officials could also use the technique to spot emerging outbreaks of illness ahead of conventional detection systems, which today rely on reports from doctors and virus-testing labs. Similar experiments in larger groups and in different communities will have to be done first though.

And you don't have to make an appointment

Folks at the MIT Media Lab are playing around with a prototype of Netra, a system that can identify problems with a person's eyesight using only a smartphone, software, and inexpensive optical add-ons. The system could help people who can't afford or get access to full-service optometry.

Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab and the leader of the Camera Culture group there, said it dawned on him that the 300 dpi resolution on a smart phone screen made it the rival of expensive, specialized devices.

Raskar said the ubiquity of smartphones is a key part of what makes Netra attractive. While other systems have been proposed to provide optometry where it isn't currently available, those systems were limited by needing expensive equipment, or by being complex enough that they had to be used by an expert.

Similar hardware add-ons could transform smart phones into inexpensive sensor devices that could serve many medical and environmental needs.

Is this the post-PC era?

Here's a look at the media gadgets Americans own.

The technology research firm Gartner expects sales of 19.5 million units in 2010 for tablet devices like the iPad and Kindle and sees this going to a staggering 150 million units by 2013.

iPad sales are through the record roof

People just keep buying this thing, and it's setting records.

iPad sold three million units in the first 80 days after its April release and its current sales rate is about 4.5 million units per quarter, according to Bernstein Research. This sales rate is blowing past the one million units the iPhone sold in its first quarter and the 350,000 units sold in the first year by the DVD player, the most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product.

“The iPad did not seem destined to be a runaway product success straight out of the box,” said Colin McGranahan, retail analyst at Bernstein Research, in a note. “By any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion.”

The iPad is beating whole categories of electronic devices.

At this current rate, the iPad will pass gaming hardware and the cellular phone to become the 4th biggest consumer electronics category with estimated sales of more than $9 billion in the U.S. next year, according to Bernstein. TVs, smart phones and notebook PCs are the current three largest categories.

This will only grow as Verizon gets into the game.

How do you decide on a Facebook app?

We are strongly influenced by what others do.

Felix Reed-Tsochas of Oxford University's Saïd Business School and Jukka-Pekka Onnela from Harvard University decided to study how users of Facebook use "apps," the little thingies that add to the experience.

The Economist reports:

They pored over (anonymous) data of the entire Facebook population in July and August 2007 (around 50m at the time), and at all but a few of the 2720 apps available for download in the same period. This amounted to a total of some 104m app installations. At that time, a Facebook user's apps were all visible to friends, who were also notified when any new app was downloaded (a practice Facebook has since abandoned). This, along with a display of the total number of installations of each app, were the only ways apps were plugged, permitting the researchers to control for the effects of external advertising. Any effects observed would thus be wholly attributable to social influence, not canny ad men.

Dr Reed-Tsochas and Dr Onnela duly discovered that the social networkers' herd mentality was intact, with popular apps doing best, and the trendiest reaching stratospheric levels. A typical app was installed around 1,000 times, but the highest-ranked notched up an astonishing 12m users. What did come as something of a surprise, though, was that our inner lemming only kicked in once the app had breached a clear threshold rate of about 55 installations a day. Any fewer than that and users seemed oblivious to their friends' preferences. Interestingly, after some serious number crunching, the researchers found that this cannot be put down purely to the network effect, ie, the idea that adopting a certain innovation only makes sense if enough other people have done so. Indeed, this effect appeared less pronounced than might have been expected.

Dr Reed-Tsochas and Dr Onnela suggest that two discrete behavioural patterns emerged. Users appeared to treat any app with more than 55 daily installations differently to those with fewer downloads. Under 55 daily installations, friend behaviour was an instrumental part of the decision to install. Over 55 daily installations, and friend behaviour didn't matter one jot. Virtual lemmings are, it seems, discriminating in ways we still don't quite comprehend. As is, no doubt, the offline troop.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Where am I?

Malls and super box stores are so big these days that we need maps. How about one on your cell phone? The New York Times reports:

A number of start-up companies are charting the interiors of shopping malls, convention centers and airports to keep mobile phone users from getting lost as they walk from the food court to the restroom. Some of their maps might even be able to locate cans of sardines in a sprawling grocery store. 

FastMall is one of the companies.

Users see a floor plan of a shopping mall, for example, with stores indicated by name. Escalators, exits, restrooms and elevators are also marked.

FastMall has a search engine to help users find stores on its maps. Enter “Banana Republic” and the service places a pin on the map to show the store’s location. Tap the “take me there” button and the service plots a route to the destination. To find the nearest restroom, all users have to do is shake their phone. 

A great thing is that many of these services are free: PointInside, FastMall and Micello, which work on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. PointInside is also available for many Android phones.

Using Google to record a phone call

The New York Times explains how:

First, Google can only record calls you receive via Google Voice, not those you dial out yourself. Second, Google announces to all parties that the call is being recorded, so you can’t use it to trap  callers. (Recording a call without the consent of all parties is illegal in some states. Recording a call without anyone on the call knowing it is a federal crime.)



To set up call recording, you must create a Google Voice account. If you’ve already got a Gmail or an iGoogle account, you can use your existing user name and password. Or, you can create one when you first use Google Voice with your browser. The service will give you a Google phone number, with an  area code that may differ from the one on your phone. Then, it will prompt you for a cellphone or land line number where incoming calls to your Google number will be forwarded.

Recording is easy. At any time during an incoming call, press 4 on your phone. A lady’s voice will announce to everyone on the call, “This call is now being recorded.” Continue with your call. After you hang up, Google Voice, whose interface looks a lot like Gmail, will create an inbox entry for the recorded call. You can click to play it in your browser, or download it to your computer as a plain old MP3 file. It’s a lot easier than trying to take notes while you talk, and – provided your caller doesn’t mind being recorded – it’s much less disruptive.

How to find a good cell phone carrier

I have a POP -- plain old phone. I don't text with it; for some reason it's nearly impossible. It's supposed to have a good camera, but I don't use it. It's not good at telling me I missed a call; sometimes I get it a day later. I don't have a smart phone, because I'm not smart enough.

All I want is for it to put through a call when I want to call someone. It does. I'm on the Verizon network, which around here is better than AT&T. I was driving down Main Street in our little town a few years ago and lost the signal three times on AT&T.

I remember sitting at the computer in my house a few years ago and being unable to get a signal. But if I leaned to the left just a bit I could get one.

So I switched, based on word of mouth. SmartMoney has an article describing some other ways to make the decision. The one I like best: throw a party and have everyone bring their cell phones. Check them out.

Here are some others:

There are applications such as CNET’s cell coverage maps and BillShrink’s plan comparison tool out there to estimate signal strength down to the zip code. Those applications and carrier call quality ratings aren’t foolproof, says Kirk Parsons, the senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power & Associates, because reception can vary by block. This, of course, is all subjective. People on a network with wide reports of problems are more likely to notice those misconnections, he says, “And some carriers do a better job of managing customers’ perceptions than others.”

Carriers will let you out of a new contract penalty-free within the first 14 to 30 days. You’ll most likely want to port your number over, but be aware of the timing: if your existing contract isn’t up yet, that will trigger an early termination fee. Use the trial period to test your phone at home, in the office and other places you frequent – it may sound obvious, but a surprising number of people buy a new phone before going on vacation or some other shift in their usual schedule. Not enough bars? You’ll owe only for plan charges during that trial period, whatever plan you sign up for… Of course, then you’ll have to go through the process of porting your number and trying again with another carrier.

Do you really want to insure your cell phone?

Notice how when you buy a toothbrush the salesperson will try to sell you an extended warranty for it? Here's a rule of thumb: when someone is trying hard to sell you something, they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Here are some numbers from SmartMoney:

What’s behind the proliferation of policies? For the companies that write them, they can be extremely profitable, says John Rost, founder and chief executive of Fiesta Insurance Franchise. Insurance is designed so we can all pay a little bit so that a small fraction of us can be covered in the event of a disaster. But many of these non-catastrophic policies don’t quite work that way. Between premiums and the deductible, customers with cellphone insurance could end up paying the insurance company more than it would cost to buy a new phone outright. And acccording to some estimates, the profit margin on extended warranties – basically, a form of insurance to protect your gadgets beyond what the manufacturer’s warranty covers – is a whopping 50%.

Ouch. The answer is to self-insure, not for anything catastrophic like your house or life, but your cell phone ... ?

With average premiums around $5.64 per month, according to Citizens Utility Board, cell phone insurance is cheap. But even with the coverage, losing your phone can still be expensive. The policies usually require a deductible of up to $100, in addition to the premiums, and there are often exclusions for common mishaps like cracked screens. Plus, some cell phone issues are covered by the manufacturer’s warranty anyway, the average cell phone isn’t all that expensive, and the insurance company might replace your phone with a refurbished model rather than a new one. “It’s not worth it,” says Schwark Satyavolu, co-founder and CEO of BillShrink.com.

Cost to “self-insure”: $100 - $600. To cover yourself, you simply want to save enough to replace or repair your phone. The average phone repair usually ranges from about $30 to $100, but new phones without a contract are more expensive. Standard phones cost $189 on average, while BlackBerries, iPhones and other smartphones can run up to $599, according to an October 2010 BillShrink.com analysis.

For a long time I thought about insuring my hair against loss, but it's too late -- a pre-existing condition.

A map of online communities

From xkcd.

Visit the original for a clickable version.

About those "slow script" messages

I've gotten a couple of those lately and wondered what they were -- assuming the worst. They happen when you're browsing and a page is taking a long time to load. The New York Times explains:

Web developers typically use scripts for working with ActiveX controls, performing database queries, running Adobe Flash animations, displaying menus or serving up advertisements on the page you just landed on. Most browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple’s Safari, have a built-in alter timer that goes off whenever a script running on a Web page exceeds the amount of time the browser has given it to perform — usually from 5 to 10 seconds.

Web pages that need to download a lot of data like video and animated graphics often trip the script alarm. The browser alert box gives you the option to stop running that script so that the browser doesn’t get hung up waiting for it to finish. Some scripts are just complex and slow, but some are badly written and slip into an endless loop.


Stopping the script shouldn’t cause any problems, but the page may not work properly. If you want to try some troubleshooting, press Control+F5 to refresh the page and see if the error message reappears. If you have a lot of browser tabs open to pages that may also be running scripts to refresh mailboxes or automatically update themselves, try closing those as well before reloading the page to see if the error message goes away.

Security software my be slowing things down as well, especially if you have it set to investigate JavaScript and other Web-page code for malicious activity. If you do, try disabling that setting temporarily to see if the slow-script error goes sway. If it does, you may just have ignore the warning and wait a little longer for the software to scan.

Microsoft has more information on the error, along with a workaround that simply lengthens the amount of time before the error message appears here.

So it's okay to drive and text?

Laws banning texting while driving actually may prompt a slight increase in road crashes, research shows. Man bites dog.

"Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all," says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, whose research arm studied the effectiveness of the laws.

Researchers at the Highway Loss Data Institute compared rates of collision insurance claims in four states — California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington — before and after they enacted texting bans. Crash rates rose in three of the states after bans were enacted.

The Highway Loss group theorizes that drivers try to evade police by lowering their phones when texting, increasing the risk by taking their eyes even further from the road and for a longer time.

There's some debate about this.

Lund: The findings "call into question the way policymakers are trying to address the problem of distracted-driving crashes," Lund says, calling for a strategy that goes beyond cellphones to hit other behaviors such as eating and putting on makeup. "They're focusing on a single manifestation of distracted driving and banning it," he says.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: "Between 2005 and 2008, distracted driving-related fatalities jumped from 10% to 16% of all traffic fatalities," he says. "In 2009, for the first time in four years, distracted driving fatalities stopped rising, remaining at 16%. ... Tough laws are the first step and enforcement must be next. We know that anti-distracted-driving laws can be enforced effectively."

Here's a number to keep you from going crazy in the car: Last year 5,474 people were killed and another 448,000 injured in crashes involving distracted driving, defined as operating a vehicle in a careless or inattentive manner, the government says.

Keep this in mind: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says just a fraction of the 5,474 people killed and 448,000 injured in crashes involving distracted driving last year involved cellphones: 18% of the fatalities and 5% of the injuries. That means that most distracted driving crashes involved some other behavior.