Faster Forward

Verizon's Droid reboots its smartphone business

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:07:05 -0500

Whatever happened to the Verizon Wireless we knew -- the carrier with the great network but the boring, uncompetitive phones, the company that never met a phone feature it didn't want to limit or disable? The Motorola Droid, this carrier's first phone to run Google's Android software, doesn't come from the Verizon I've gotten used to. As I write in today's column, this phone reboots the company's presence in the smartphone industry. (I suppose Verizon's PR types are wondering what happened to the Rob Pegoraro they knew, the guy who kept trashing every device they shipped.) The Droid isn't cheap, at $299.99 before a $100 mail-in rebate and with service starting at $69.98 before text messaging and visual voicemail. But like the first Apple iPhone, it justifies that price and lives up to its advance billing with its fusion of advanced hardware and smart, capable software. Let me share a

Twitter adds another way to keep score: lists

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:43:48 -0500

Last Friday, Twitter rolled out a feature it had been testing for a few months: the ability to sort the people you follow on the popular micro-blogging site into lists, much like how Facebook lets you create multiple friends lists. My initial concept of lists was no more sophisticated than that: They'd help me keep from being overwhelmed by the volume of new postings on Twitter. But this site's public nature -- by default, anything you do on the site is visible to the rest of the Internet -- quickly ensured they would become a new social currency. When you log into Twitter, you not only see how many people follow your updates but how many lists include you -- a higher number, as ever, being better. You can then check out lists created by the people whom you follow; if one looks particularly interesting, you can click to follow

Wanted: Guidance for a gadget guide

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:42:47 -0500

At the end of November, I traditionally devote a few dozen column inches to shopping suggestions for a wide variety of gadgets. Last year, for instance, I used my column to outline my advice on computers, flat-panel TVs and smartphones, then covered digital cameras, MP3 players and other devices in accompanying blog posts. We're now planning this year's round of gadget guidance, and I could use your help in putting it together -- subject to two fundamental constraints. First, I generally can't recommend individual products in any one category; I just haven't tried enough of them to offer such specific advice and so I'm better off suggesting features to seek or avoid. Second, I don't have the room or the time to cover every single category of product you're likely to see in an electronics store. With those two things in mind, what would you like me to talk about

Electronic voting lingers on

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:46:25 -0500

I voted earlier today, and I'd like to think that it was the last time I had to deal with an electronic voting machine. But knowing how long old software and hardware can stay in service in large bureaucracies, I fear that I'll have the same experience next year. And the year after that. And the year after that ... My gripes about the e-voting machines used in Arlington should be familiar to regular readers. (Disclosure: My wife works in the county's IT department but has no involvement with elections or voter registration.) Ever since my first experience with these WinVote terminals in 2005, I've resented the casual idiocy on display in their interface: When you select a candidate, his or her name appears in red with a red X to the right--what you'd expect to see after picking somebody you wanted to vote against -- and not the more

A second look at Apple's Snow Leopard

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:59:09 -0500

It's now been almost two months since I reviewed Apple's Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X -- enough time for Apple to have shipped its first major patch to that operating system, and enough time for any new-release shininess to have dulled. Granted, Snow Leopard (aka, Mac OS X 10.6) wasn't that shiny in the first place, as I wrote here at the time. Apple itself calls this version "refined, not reinvented" and sells it for the low, low price of $29. But after two months of using Snow Leopard every day on a roughly three-year-old iMac, how do I appreciate this update? Not all that much, honestly. Some of its improvements have grown less noticeable over time, one problem has become a little more objectionable and one promised improvement has yet to surface. Take Snow Leopard's changes to the Dock: While I find its scrollable "Grid Stack" pop-up

Google's recipe: to serve man?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:07:32 -0500

The odds are pretty good that many of you found this article with the help of a large technology firm based on the West Coast. The odds also suggest that many of you will move on from this page to sites or services operated by the same company -- and that you may also use this firm's software to do so. Ten years ago, the company in question could easily have been Microsoft. Back then, I wrote a long, somewhat angst-ridden column decrying the extent of this Redmond, Wash.-based empire: "It's easy to spend your entire day using Microsoft software and content, with every dime you spend going through a Microsoft server somewhere. Where does it all stop?" Today's column uses similar language -- "You can easily spend a full day on the Web without leaving its sites or applications" -- to assess the reach and influence of a technology

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Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:07:32 -0500

Cutting costs by cutting the cord: an experiment with free TV

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Every time I've written about the annoyances of subscription TV services--like expensive, inflexible programming packages and expensive, inept tuners and recorders--I've seen readers post comments to the effect of "You don't need to put up with that: Ditch your pay service and switch to free, over-the-air TV and free Internet viewing." So that's what my wife and I did last week. We'd been thinking of taking this step for a while, as our once-cheap Dish Network bundle had crept up to nearly $70 a month. Other options from Comcast, DirecTV and Verizon would not have been that much cheaper over time--though at least those other services, unlike Dish, carry Nationals games in high definition. Then a mysterious failure of our Dish-provided DVR wiped out all of our recordings right after we paid about $1,000 more for repainting our house than we'd expected (who knew those columns at the bottom of

Verizon Wireless unveils Droid smartphone

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:35:39 -0500

Verizon Wireless may finally have a phone that can win some respect from iPhone fans. This morning, it unveiled the Droid, a Motorola smartphone running the new, 2.0 release of Google's Android software. This device -- shipping Nov. 6 at $199 for new and renewing customers who sign up for at least a $70 voice/data bundle -- represents two big changes for Verizon. First, the company seems to have recognized that relying on Research In Motion's increasingly uncompetitive BlackBerry devices for its flagship phones wasn't working. Second, in touting Android's "open development" and 12,000-plus third-party applications, Verizon had to abandon its usual control-freak restrictions on phones' functions. (Analyst Michael Gartenberg, marveling at the absence of Verizon's usual "Vcast" services, Twittered that "If VZW would have done this type of deal they'd have had iPhone I suspect.") As Verizon's promotional site (warning: Flash intro and soundtrack) and Motorola's spec sheet outline,

Answers to more of your Microsoft Security Essentials questions

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:08:20 -0500

The state of computing security in Windows is anything but clear for a lot of home users. So I guess I should not have have been surprised that one column and blog posts at the start and end of this month did not suffice to explain Microsoft's new, free Microsoft Security Essentials program. Read on for answers to some of the questions I've received most often about "MSE," a free download for Windows XP, Vista and 7: I can't get MSE to install. What should I do next? Try booting the computer into Safe Mode: Hold down F8 as the machine starts up to run Windows in a stripped-down configuration, then give MSE's setup routine another try. If that doesn't work, I'd have to think your PC has some preexisting condition -- maybe a virus, maybe some other form of "bit rot" that's corrupted the system -- and in that

Microsoft to open Outlook data format

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:52:13 -0500

Microsoft announced Monday that it plans to pry the locks off the closed, proprietary format of its Outlook e-mail/contacts/calendar/tasks/notes application. By documenting the workings of Outlook's Personal Storage Table (PST) format--one of my least-favorite locked formats--Microsoft would make it far easier for developers to write Outlook-compatible software to complement or replace that widely used program. Furthermore, Microsoft plans to publish this documentation under terms that free other developers from having to pay for it, agree to a license or contact Microsoft at all. This move represents a remarkable concession by the Redmond, Wash., firm--on the order of its opening the file formats used by the rest of its core Office productivity applications. The news arrived in a blog post by Paul Lorimer, Microsoft's group manager for Microsoft Office interoperability: "...we will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format. This will allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the

Facebook updates home page, irks users (again)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:27:42 -0500

Stop me if you've read this before: Facebook just revised its home page, and many users of the popular social-networking site are confused or annoyed by the results. That happened in March, when the Palo Alto, Calif., company swept away its home page's modular design to present a single column of updates that flowed down the screen (and then fine-tuned the new setup over the next few weeks). Now the story seems to be repeating itself with the revisions Facebook rolled out on Friday. (Note: The same sort of thing can happen when newspapers change their print format.) The redesign eliminates one of the least-useful aspects of the old home page, the "Highlights" section that either spotlighted paid ads or told you about things you'd already seen. The default "News Feed" now acts more like Highlights, displaying what Facebook thinks were the most interesting updates of the past day. A

Microsoft does Windows users a favor with Security Essentials

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:51:40 -0500

Some weeks, it can seem that my readers hate anti-virus software almost as much as viruses. It's not that people would prefer to see their computers get hacked -- a non-trivial risk with Windows, although Microsoft's last two releases have strengthened its defenses. It's that they don't enjoy having an intrusive program take over the PC, begin ordering them around and then bill them for the privilege. And that's before the security software starts causing weird conflicts with other programs. In recent years, free anti-virus tools have addressed the financial part of the problem but not the subjective end of it. At best, you could say that most anti-virus software has been a digital equivalent of the Transportation Security Administration's screenings at airports -- an inconvenience that helps prevent a much worse problem. You could also argue that at its worst, anti-virus software has been more like ... well, the

Windows 7 arrives; Windows Vista leaves

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:47:23 -0500

The waiting is over, and the upgrading can begin. Today, Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system arrives in stores and on new computers. Microsoft is celebrating the occasion with characteristic hype, staging a gala event in New York to unveil the software. For many PC users, Windows 7's arrival also means it's time to kick Windows Vista to the curb. (Yes, some people say they like Vista; I myself prefer Vista to XP, though that may only reflect how tired I am of the 8-year-old XP.) As I wrote in my column and on this blog last week, I think Windows 7 represents a clear upgrade over its predecessor. But it's too soon to declare every Windows 7 feature a positive (or negative) development. The responses of users, software developers and hardware manufacturers to this operating system will shape those verdicts. For example, will multiple-Win 7-PC households become common enough

Microsoft's Bing adds Twitter search (update: Google will too)

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:50:07 -0500

Bing, Microsoft's surprisingly useful search engine, launched a new option focused on Twitter today. Bing's addition--described at length on the site's blog--aims to help users sift through the stream of posts constantly bubbling up on the popular "micro-blogging" site. Unlike Twitter's own search feature, it parses both the text of a tweet and any links, and it displays the domain names of pages linked to with condensed links. But don't expect to use Bing's latest tool to dig up your first tweet; by design, it only indexes the past seven days' worth of Twittering. Google has yet to add such a feature, so for once there's a category of search wide open to both established companies and startups. (Update: About 20 minutes after we posted this, Google announced its own plan to add live Twitter updates to its search results "in the coming months.") To test Bing's new feature, I

E-reader news: Post readies Kindle deal, Barnes & Noble debuts an Nook tablet

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:05:00 -0500

The newspaper-plus-Kindle deals that Amazon heralded when it unveiled its Kindle DX electronic book reader in May--and then failed to deliver on schedule--are finally about to arrive. Later this week, the plan is for Amazon to start e-mailing select customers outside the Washington area, inviting them to buy a discounted Kindle DX--priced at $449 instead of the usual $489--bundled with one year of the Post's Kindle edition. Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti explained in an e-mail that the newspaper had spent "the past several months" reworking the original concept of having customers pay for a Post subscription to get a discounted Kindle. The concept has evolved to enable Amazon to offer customers in select areas an opportunity to purchase a discounted Kindle and receive a free Kindle subscription to The Washington Post. We have been working with Amazon to identify Amazon subscribers outside of the D.C. area who are not