[H] Consumer

PC Sales Jump In Vista’s Debut Week

A new report says that PC sales jumped 173% during the week of Vista’s debut. While the operating system has taken its share of criticism (even from us), it seems enough people were interested in it to boost sales significantly.

After five weeks of sluggish PC sales, retailers received a big boost during the first week of Vista's launch, according to a report released Thursday by Current Analysis. PC unit sales soared 173 percent at U.S. retail stores during the week ended February 3, compared with PC sales in the previous week, according to the report.

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iPods Could Shift To Flash This Year?

An Analyst from Prudential Equity Group believes that Apple could shift it’s complete line of iPods over to flash memory storage. I don’t see how Apple could pull this off for 80GB models without them costing double what they do now.

The report, from Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora, was spotted by AppleInsider. Tortora believes that by late 2007 Apple could shift the video iPods over to flash memory as part of a redesign of the product. The iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle already use flash memory.

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All Apple Apps Incompatible With Vista?

As most of us wiuth iPods are starting to learn, there are a lot off Apple applications that do not work with Vista. IT World has a tech support document that outlines the list of apps that are currently broken on Vista:

These include: QuickTime, the iPod shuffle reset utility, Bonjour for Windows, AirPort for Windows, the iDisk utility, AppleWorks for Windows, and Apple Software Update for Windows. The stand-alone iPod updater for iTunes 6 for Windows also isn't ready for Vista.

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BBB Involved In Cyberlink “Error 0103” Issue?

Engadget has a story about people that are so upset over the infamous “Error 0103” issue with PowerDVD Ultra that they are taking their case to the Better Business Bureau.

The main problem appears to occur with those using an HDMI or DVI-to-HDMI connection between their video card and display device, with the video reportedly only playing for a few seconds before throwing up an "Error 0103" message stating that the player couldn't be initialized.

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Google Opens Gmail To All

Google says that its Gmail service is now open to everyone, no more invitations are required. I guess now would be a good time to go get a Gmail account if you don’t have one yet.

Google on Wednesday said its Gmail service is now open to anyone who wants an account. Previously the service, which provides users with 2.8GB of e-mail storage space, has been by invitation only.

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Energy Star Ratings For PCs

According to C|Net, PCs will all come with an Energy Star rating in the very near future.

To be Energy Star-compliant, PCs must now use a power supply that converts 80 percent of incoming electricity for use by the PC, Horowitz said. A mainstream power supply these days is about 70 percent efficient, he said.

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ABS Ultimate X8

[H] Consumer has the ABS Ultimate X8 gaming PC on the test bench today. If you are kicking around the idea of purchasing a new gaming rig, head on over to [H] Consumer and see what they had to say about the Ultimate X8.

We’ll especially be looking to see if ABS has improved on its tech support, especially in providing faster RMAs . Since this is a high-end machine, we expect the company’s support to be just as “premium” as the PC itself.

Samsung Pays $90 Million Settlement

Samsung has agreed to pay $90 million dollars to 41 states to settle allegations of DRAM price-fixing. This is in addition to the $300 million fine the company was ordered to pay in 2005.

In addition to paying out $90 million, Samsung also agreed to assist the states in litigating against other computer chip manufacturers that participated in the alleged price-fixing conspiracy, according to the statement issued by Cuomo's office.

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Norway Agency Questions Apple Music Move

Not everyone is impressed with Steve Jobs’ new stance on DRM. Norway seems to think that Apple is skirting key issues passing the buck on to the record labels.

Norway is leading a European campaign to force Apple to make its iTunes online store compatible with rivals' digital music players. This month, Norway's consumer regulator declared the lack of interoperability illegal, and gave Apple until Oct. 1 to change it or face legal action and possible fines.

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Steve Job’s Thoughts On Music

If you are interested in hearing Steve Jobs’ thoughts on music straight from the horses mouth, I suggest you head on over to Apple’s website and read what the man himself had to say. Thank Rich for the linkage.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game.

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Microsoft Ignores Vista Upgrade Loophole

The folks at vnunet.com are saying that Microsoft has no plans to close the Vista upgrade loophole any time soon. This means that enthusiast willing to put a little effort into going this route can save a decent chunk of change when upgrading.

"As such, we believe only a very small percentage of people will take the time to implement this workaround, and we encourage all customers to follow our official guidelines for upgrading to Windows Vista."

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Feds Allocate $65 Billion For IT

ZDNet looks at the proposed $65 billion IT budget for 2008. If you want to know where the money is going and why, this is a god place to start.

"By strategically investing in information technology (IT) and professionally managing those investments, agencies are positioned to more rapidly, securely, and comprehensively provide information resources to Government users and the public."

Wal-Mart Launches Movie Download Store

Wal-Mart has finally launched it’s movie download store. The service has approximately 3,000 films and television episodes from most of the major networks and studios.

A "beta" version of the online video store, which debuted Tuesday, sells digital versions of about 3,000 films and television episodes from all the major studios and some TV networks, including Fox Broadcasting. Wal-Mart will not initially offer content from ABC, CBS or NBC, although the company said it hopes to add shows from those networks.

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Magazines vs. The Web: End of an Era

For an insider’s perspective on the battle between magazines and the internet, head over to [H] Consumer today and read their latest editorial titled “Magazines vs. The Web: End of an Era.” Definitely good reading.

I am a former editor for Maximum PC magazine. I spent approximately five years there writing features, reviewing hardware, writing how-tos, and eventually served as a Senior Editor. I recently decided to move to Austin, TX in order to escape the Bay Area’s obscene housing market, and ended up landing at [H] Consumer.

Super Bowl Infection Widespread

According to InfoWorld, security experts have found an increasing number of web sites hosting malicious JavaScript code that was discovered last week on Super Bowl related sites.

Sites covering topics ranging from health care to government have been hacked to host the JavaScript, SANS Internet Storm Center Director Marcus H. Sachs wrote on the SANS blog, listing some of the hacked sites.

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Consumer Products Drive Semiconductor Record 06 Sales

According to DigiTimes, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported that global sales of semiconductors have hit a record $247.7 billion in 06.

Sales growth was largely driven in 2006 by popular consumer products such as handsets, MP3 players, and HDTV sets. According to iSuppli, the semiconductor content of electronic systems - as measured by cost - has been increasing steadily and now stands at 21.6%.

Dell to Cut Bonuses, Trim Management

It looks like Michael Dell’s return to the CEO position of his namesake company is going to bring about a good many shakeups across the board. Changes include an adjustment in the employee bonus format as well as reducing management in an effort to cut costs.

Michael Dell wrote that the bonus plan would be replaced by "limited discretionary awards" that would be available to all but senior management. He also announced a shortening of the stock-vesting period and an adjustment of the annual bonus plan set "against realistic targets."

Cavalcade of New Security Products Expected at RSA

Some big names in security will be releasing new products for display at the upcoming security trade show. The large volume of expected software on display will make this year the biggest gathering ever.

Everyone from anti-virus vendors to networking companies and compliance specialists are expected to roll out technologies between keynote presentations from the likes of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

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Phishing Overtakes Viruses and Trojans

Phishing scams have now officially overtaken viruses and trojans as the number 1 e-mail attack.

Security mail services vendor MessageLabs reported on Monday that in January 2007, one in 93.3 e-mails (1.07 percent) comprised some form of phishing attack. There were fewer e-mails--one in 119.9, or 0.83 percent--infected with viruses.

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Valid Vista Family Discount Keys on the Way

As we reported on Friday, anyone who had purchased a Microsoft’s Vista Family Discount key was quickly surprised to find their key was invalid. Microsoft is aware of the problem and a working key should be on the way soon if you haven’t received one already.

"Microsoft is aware of the (Family Discount key) issue and is working to address it. New product keys are on the way as of this afternoon to the small group of customers who have been affected. We've also taken steps to ensure that the issue is resolved going forward. We're committed to providing a great customer experience for Windows Family Discount participants."

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Electric Slide on Slippery Slope

We’ve have seen a good many requests in recent weeks from copyright holders requesting their content be removed from sites like YouTube and this story is no exception. However, would you believe the creator of the Electric Slide is even involved?

The inventor of the "Electric Slide," an iconic dance created in 1976, is fighting back against what he believes are copyright violations and, more importantly, examples of bad dancing.

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Windows Vista Down

We haven’t been through a week of Vista’s retail release, and already folks are looking forward to the next version of Windows. The article also brings up the interesting point that Microsoft isn’t really competing against Apple or Linux, the new version of Windows is competing against XP, and a good reason for average users to upgrade.

Here's what we know about Vista: It's too big, still hampered by internal code dependencies and was concocted by way too many cooks. Because of this, the product kept slipping and shedding features, missed the holiday buying season and was released to market before many Microsoft partners (and Microsoft product teams) had delivered Vista-compatible drivers and applications.

If this topic interests you, might I suggest taking a look at [H] Enthusiast and [H] Consumer and their respective thoughts on Vista as well.

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How Long Does It Take To Catch A Computer Virus?

Well, according to this article only about 8 seconds if you don’t implement an Anti-Virus and Firewall. It should be noted that the article sites the machine getting infected with Sasser, which probably also means no Service Packs were applied either.

This brings to mind an image of staking a goat in the middle of a field and waiting for the wolves to come (or the dinosaurs in the case of the movie Jurassic Park). So how long did it take for the wolves (viruses) to attack? Days? Hours? Minutes?

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YouTube has a Control Problem?

Yesterday we pointed out the request from Viacom to pull about 100,000 videos from YouTube. Today people are pondering what exactly can be done about the issue, and if YouTube is standing on a slippery slope.

Rook's film clip was mistakenly pulled as part of YouTube's effort to sweep the site of content owned by Viacom, he said. (YouTube did not return an e-mail requesting more information about about why Rook's clip was taken down.)

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Tech Companies Hope to Score

With the big game coming up tomorrow, there are many companies out there hoping that a mid-game commercial will bring in a big payday.

"As a result of that, our market share jumped from 16 to 25 percent," said Bob Parsons, founder and chief executive of Go Daddy. "It's the one event per year where everyone watches for the commercials. If we run an edgy commercial we'll get noticed."

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Apple's iPhone Stirs Up Rivals

We’ve heard a lot of buzz over the past couple weeks about the coming of the iPhone. A lot of people have been excited about the product overall, but there are some who think that Apple has simply gotten themselves into a huge uphill battle in a market already ripe with competition.

Pablo Gonzalez, a Prada shoe-wearing cell phone connoisseur who jumps from one new handset to the next, is ready to ditch his $1,000 touch-screen cell phone for Apple's iPhone when it becomes available in June.

This article goes hand in hand with our [H] Consumer editorial on Apple entitled Apple: Stubborn, Revolutionary or Both?.

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Dell Faces Investor Suit Over Intel Pact

It looks like Dell is facing a new investor lawsuit that accusing the company of improperly accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from Intel. Dell didn’t comment on the case but Intel denied all allegations and said the company is “moving quickly to defend ourselves.”

The lawsuit accuses Dell of artificially inflating profits "by secretly receiving approximately $250 million a quarter in likely illegal rebate kickbacks payments" from Intel in return for an exclusive deal to purchase Intel's microprocessors.

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Gates Lashes Out Against Mac Ads

Apparently Bill Gates is not a fan of the famous Mac ads. I thought this quote was rather telling:

“And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say?” Gates continues to express his disgust with the Apple ads: “Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it.”

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iTunes Incompatible With Vista?

If you are an iPod owner that uses iTunes, Apple is currently recommending that you do not upgrade to Vista. A lot of people are reporting that music purchased on iTunes doesn’t work on Vista so I tried it out myself. Sure enough, the music will not work. Apple says they’ll fix it “in the next few weeks.”

iTunes 7.0.2 may work with Windows Vista on many typical PCs. Apple recommends, however, that customers wait to upgrade Windows until after the next release of iTunes which will be available in the next few weeks. This document will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Microsoft's Vista Family Discount Keys Invalid

According to Neowin, many people that took advantage of Microsoft’s Vista Family Discount were issued invalid keys. The problem has been escalated to a program manger but, in the mean time, those people are just stuck.

Many (if not all) users who took advantage of Microsoft’s Vista Family Discount have been issued invalid installation keys and cannot install Windows Vista Home Premium. Microsoft confirms that the keys are indeed valid, but not for Windows Vista. The CSR I spoke with was unable to tell what the key was for, but it did appear to be a valid key, for something.

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