Does it really matter that the LCD TV has a contrast ratio of 40,000:1 or that the digital camera has a 12-megapixel resolution?
David Colker gets to the bottom of these befuddling questions ahead of the holiday shopping season. He offers an in-depth gadget guide that doesn't make suggestions about what to buy but about how to buy.
--Peter Pae
Google Inc. has shown which way it believes the winds are blowing by forking over $750 million for mobile advertising firm AdMob, one of the Web giant's largest acquisitions to date.
As AdMob itself has described, the volume and effectiveness of mobile advertising has been skyrocketing over the last several years as more advanced smartphones have caught on, making it easier to deliver more kinds of graphical and text-based advertising to phone-toting consumers.
In a recent report, AdMob said that the number of mobile ads it served had increased nearly 540% from September 2007, to 10.2 billion per month from 1.6 billion.
As mobile phones morph further into pocket Internet devices, and consumers grow accustomed to performing online functions like search, gaming and instant messaging on their handsets, opportunities for advertising companies like Google will grow rapidly, analysts expect.
Google says the number of searches performed by smartphone users has increased by a factor of five over the last two years, led primarily by iPhone users and owners of Google Android phones. At least a dozen new Google-powered phones, such as last week's launch of Verizon's Droid, are expected to be released in the coming year.
Google also says that marketer spending on mobile advertising is growing at 30% annually.
AdMob was founded in 2006 by Omar Hamoui, a Web entrepreneur looking to generate traffic for his mobile-based website. The company has taken funding from venture firms such as Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Northgate, and the company's clients have included Ford, Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures.
Google, which already owns a major stake in mobile advertising with its DoubleClick Mobile unit, said it expects regulatory scrutiny of the AdMob deal but hopes the pact will be approved within a matter a months.
-- David Sarno
You can almost hear David Guetta's "Love is Gone" playing on iPods around the world. Have iPhone marriages hit a rough patch?
Apple announced today that the iPhone's App Store broke the 100,000-software mark, and app fever rages on. Heck, there's now an app for driving a car.
But maybe apps aren't enough anymore.
We were taken aback when readers flooded a post about AT&T improving cellphone service in Southern California with comments spitting venom at the telecom and threatening to jump ship to Verizon -- iPhone or not. Funnier still, complaints about AT&T kept rolling in even as T-Mobile was experiencing a full-on outage that affected an estimated 5% of customers.
Could it just be lust for Verizon's Droid, the telecom's first smartphone based on Google's Android operating system?
Either way, it's comforting to know that we here in the States are not alone. CNet UK called the iPhone "the worst phone in the world" on Tuesday, adding that it was a great mobile device but terrible for making calls. CNet lays much of the blame on O2, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 3G S; other carriers offer the older models.
The new iMac, available today, comes with a 27-inch screen in the premium model, and a redesigned, wireless mouse that has a touch-sensitive surface. Credit: Apple Inc.
Apple announced upgrades to its venerable iMac and its low-end (relatively speaking) laptops this morning, plus revisions of other products.
None of the changes were big enough to bring on a Steve Jobs-hosted public meeting, but they do come just two days before Microsoft officially unveils Windows 7 and several new computers tailored to the new operating system.
The Apple upgrades also come when the company is on a roll -- just Monday it announced record quarterly profits.
The new iMac comes in two models -- one with a whopping 27-inch screen (starting at $1,699) and the other with a 21.5-inch screen (starting at $1,199). Both screens are LED-backlit. The basic models in both sizes come equipped with processors that run at a swift 3.06GHz.
What the new iMacs don't have are drives to play Blu-ray discs -- a feature some Apple watchers had predicted.
The newly upgraded 13-inch MacBook laptop is $999 (no price change) and has some features that were available only on higher-priced Apple models, including a longer lasting, non-removable battery, and a multi-touch track pad.
The Mac Mini, which is Apple's lowest priced, stripped-down desktop computer (it comes without a screen, keyboard or mouse) has undergone some performance enhancements. Price remains the same -- it starts at $599.
The most radical changes are to Apple's wireless mouse, which comes with the new iMac models and can be purchased separately for $69. Its entire top surface is touch-sensitive, and it recognizes when you are using two fingers, instead of one, to trigger certain functions, such as right-clicking or going back or forward through pages on the Safari Web browser.
All the new products, with the exception of some processor upgrades to the iMacs, are available now.
-- David Colker
The Cupertino, Calif., company recorded net income of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 a share, on sales of $9.87 billion during the quarter that ended Sept. 26. A year earlier, Apple had $7.9 billion in sales and net income of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 a share.
The results roundly beat Wall Street's already lofty expectations of $1.3 billion in profit on $9.14 billion in sales, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.
Apple characterized the results as its "most profitable quarter ever."
Investors, who had earlier pumped up Apple's stock $1.81 to close at $189.86, rewarded the company further in after-hours trading following the earnings release, driving its shares up by more than $14, or 7%.
Not everything Apple touches has turned to gold, however. Although the company sold 7% more iPhones and 17% more Mac laptops and desktops in the quarter compared with a year earlier, iPod sales fell 8%. For the quarter, Apple sold 3.05 million Macs, 10.2 million iPods and 7.4 million iPhones.
We'll have more after Apple's 2 p.m. conference call with investors.
-- Alex Pham
Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.
Google Voice is again under fire from federal regulators.
The Federal Communications Commission is looking into complaints by AT&T that the Google Voice phone service blocks some calls within the United States to avoid a high connection fee.
The FCC sent an inquiry to Google today seeking information about the software's functionality, its number of users and which companies with which it has partnered.
Google Voice gives users one number to ring all of their phones and a website to log call history and text messages. The service also provides free calls within the United States.
But AT&T alleges that Google Voice refuses to connect calls to rural communities where local telephone companies charge higher fees. AT&T did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.
This isn't the first time Google's foray into telephony has drawn the attention of federal regulators. In July, the FCC began probing a dispute between AT&T, Apple and Google after Apple blocked Google Voice software from its iPhone App Store.
Apple says it has reservations about the application's interface and is still considering it for approval. AT&T says it was not involved in that decision.
In an interview on Thursday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the commission is still keeping an eye on the iPhone dispute.
"We take Apple at its word," Genachowski said. "We'll continue to monitor the specific issue and to monitor the marketplace."
Does the FCC even have the authority to regulate whether Apple carries Google's program or whether Google has to connect every call?
In a response to the former, Genachowski said, "We'll tackle the authority issues when we get to that point." The mentality is part of, as the new chairman called it, a "proactive FCC."
-- Mark Milian
Verizon said it expects to unveil two new Google phones this month, but said those initial entries would be just the first part of a "multiyear roadmap."
The partnership of the two technology heavyweights -- the nation's largest wireless network and the online search leader -- comes as the fight for dominance in the mobile smart phone market grows increasingly contentious.
A spat between Google and technology rival Apple Inc. has escalated in recent weeks over Apple's refusal to allow customers to use Google Voice, the company's telephone application, on the popular iPhone. Google told the Federal Communications Commission that Apple rejected the app for competitive reasons, but Apple denied that, saying it is still studying Google's application.
AT&T, the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone, added fuel to the fire last month when it complained to the FCC that Google Voice blocked calls to certain areas, raising the possibility that Google could be in violation of FCC rules.
Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Lowell McAdam told analysts today that the company would support Google Voice. "You either have an open device or not, and this will be open," he said, adding that Google Voice would be available when Verizon's first Google devices come out.Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt gave plaudits to Verizon for its willingness to adopt Android, which, unlike Apple's system, is an open development platform over which Verizon would have less control. That decision, Schmidt said, was "enormously surprising given the history and the old-line nature of telcos.
"At Verizon, somehow the leadership has decided to embrace a different philosophy which works very well with the Internet," he said.
-- David Sarno
An exception among the generally innovation-averse old-media crowd, CNN has often shown that it is not afraid to embrace new technologies or, when necessary, to invent some its own.
Continuing that trend, the network and its market-leading website, CNN.com, have released a new iPhone app, a kind of fully loaded Swiss Army knife for news.
The app's features include old-school written articles, live streaming video, localized traffic and weather, and -- coolest -- the ability for users to upload cellphone photos or video to iReport, the network's online haven for amateur reporting.
That will be the first time CNN has created a direct uplink from a mobile device to its iReport platform, an enhancement that could make it easier for users to transmit the kind of on-the-ground citizen reports that have grown common during high-profile events.
CNN says its video upload and download features will work fine on the open cellular network, where video features are typically pokey.
The application, available for $1.99 and initially hosting in-app advertising from Chevron and Lexus, is definitely testing the bounds of app simplicity, nearly mimicking a full website with the number of features and multimedia options.
But CNN, with rather unabashed bravado, believes that its users want all that heavy firepower. The new app "is one of the best user experiences around," said Louis Gump, vice president of CNN Mobile, in a statement, "and will quickly become an essential daily news source for many iPhone and iPod Touch users."
Some of that confidence is earned, of course. CNN.com is still the highest-trafficked news site, and it also owns one of the most followed Twitter accounts.
The current king of iPhone news apps is, arguably, NPR, which gives unfettered access to archived content from a huge list of radio stations. But CNN's bold move, bringing TV news to the iPhone, could mean a duel for media app dominance is afoot.
-- David Sarno
iPhone screen shots: CNN
The feature was announced when Apple Inc. unveiled its new operating system for the iPhone 3G and 3GS in June, but AT&T wasn't able to make it immediately available in the U.S. The iPhone's popularity has been a boon for AT&T, which is the exclusive carrier of iPhones, as well as a burden because of all the smartphone users taxing AT&T's network.
The feature can be activated with a simple process outlined on Apple's website. Just update the carrier settings while syncing with iTunes, then restart the phone. The feature does not work on original iPhones, only the 3G and 3GS models.
Commenters on the MacRumors blog celebrated -- but were quick to add their complaints as well. And high on the list is the next service that Apple has enabled on iPhones, but which AT&T has not yet offered: tethering, the ability to use the iPhone's Internet access to get your laptop online.
-- Dan Fost
At long last, details about a super-secret computer tablet have emerged, complete with pictures and even a video showing how it works.
But it’s not the long-awaited tablet that Apple has been rumored to be developing. This prototype reportedly comes from deep inside Apple’s arch-nemesis, Microsoft, where its development has supposedly been so blanketed in secrecy that many high-ranking company executives didn't’know it existed. If it’s real, that is.
The device, code named Courier, showed up on the Gizmodo.com site under the headline, "First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet."
Microsoft neither confirmed nor denied its existence. "We do not comment on unreleased products," company spokesman Doug Free said.
He wouldn't even say whether Microsoft was working on a tablet, which is a type of computer that uses finger touches and/or a stylus to input information directly on the screen.
"There are a broad range of products always underway," Free said, none of which he would describe.
If the tablet unearthed by Gizmodo is a fake, it's certainly an elaborate one. And its features have sparked a lot of buzz in the PC world.
"If it is a hoax, they should look into making it real," said analyst Allan Krans of Technology Business Research. "It looks like a cross between the Kindle, iPhone and a tablet."
The slim Courier opens like a school notebook to reveal side-by-side seven-inch screens. The two-minute, demonstration video on Gizmodo starts off with a furniture designer bringing her address book up on the left screen and a city map on the right. With the flick of a finger (shown in animation) she quickly moves an address of an upcoming meeting onto the map, which reconfigures to show her the exact location.
She then uses the screens to organize samples and other materials for the meeting, and with a stylus she writes notes on what she has found. Everything is done with fingers or stylus -- no keyboard is shown.
Handwriting recognition is not shown in the video, but Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, that goes on sale next month reportedly has handwriting recognition features.
Several tablet computers have come out in the last several years, but none caught on in a big way. Krans said they were too bulky. "The technology did not exist to make them as slim or portable as necessary," he said.
If Courier is real, there's of course no word on when it might come out. Apple is keeping its supposed tablet under wraps, too -- widely circulated rumors say it will debut in February. Of course, just a few weeks ago there were rumors it would be revealed this month.
-- David Colker
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