Articles by Sharon Fisher

Gateway's MD series tries for the multimedia mid-range

By Sharon Fisher on January 8, 2009, 7:22 PM

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Gateway is announcing two new lines of notebooks: the MD Series, intended for entertainment and multimedia, and the UC Series, intended for "all-around mobility."

The MD Series has a 15.6-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It has an integrated webcam, as well as built-in wireless Internet and gigabit Ethernet. In addition to black, it also comes in burgundy.

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LG: 'Life's Good When It's Green'

By Sharon Fisher on January 8, 2009, 6:48 PM

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Jumping on the green bandwagon, LG Electronics said it, too, was taking steps to make its products easier on the environment, a project it calls "Life's Good When It's Green." The company did not offer specifics on how much energy would be saved or how much packaging would be reduced, but listed a number of components, including design, manufacture, reduced use of hazardous materials, improved recycling, reduction in greenhouse gases by 150 kilotons per year by 2020 in manufacturing and 30 megatons by 2020 in products, imposing similar standards on its vendors, and initiating a labeling program so consumers know about the programs. In the US, LG's 2009 HDTVs will offer the Energy Star 3.0 rating, making them up to 30% more efficient than products without the rating; energy saving options; and electronics recycling options.

Panasonic's latest Blu-ray player is a tag-along

By Sharon Fisher on January 8, 2009, 6:29 PM

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Panasonic announced what it said was the first portable Blu-ray Disc player, which will be available in May for an undisclosed price. The company said the DMP-B15 will have the same functionality as other Panasonic Blu-ray players such as the DMP-BD60, the DMPBD80, and the DMP-B70V, but would include a three-hour rechargeable battery (okay, no epics), and an optional headrest mounting bracket for use in a car (by the passengers, presumably). The device can also be connected to an HDTV or an HD-Audio-compatible AV receiver to be used as a standalone Blu-ray Disc player. In addition, it includes an SD Memory Card slot to enable consumers to view digital photos and HD video recorded on an SD card.

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Toshiba starts integrating DVD into small-screen displays

By Sharon Fisher on January 8, 2009, 3:32 PM

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Want to watch a movie in bed? Cooking programs in the kitchen? Pilates videos in the den? Toshiba America Consumer Products has announced a new line of LCD TV/DVD combination products, which are intended to be used in any room in the house.

Screen size include 19, 22, and 26 inches, all with a 16:9 aspect radio. All the TVs will meet Energy Star 3.0 certifications. The current 15-inch television will continue to be sold.

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Vizio adds IPTV connectivity to its HDTV line

By Sharon Fisher on January 8, 2009, 3:24 PM

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Continuing the move toward integrating the Internet with televisions, Vizio has announced Connected HDTV, a technology platform that it said will be integrated into its displays shipping this fall. The technology, which has both wired and wireless connections built in, will use a customized remote control that will give viewers access to Internet content without interrupting the TV program they are viewing. The company did not say how much this would add to the cost of one of its televisions. Vizio is also partnering with a wide variety of technology and content vendors. On the technology side, the company said the feature will incorporate the Yahoo Widget Engine, which supports a class of Internet services called "TV Widgets" such as weather, news, finance, and sports.The platform will also include support for Adobe Flash Lite, which will help developers deliver applications, content, and video over the Web to the television. Content partners include Accedo Broadband for gaming; Amazon Video on Demand; Blockbuster OnDemand; Flickr for photo and video sharing; Netflix; and Pandora and Rhapsody for music. Vizio's offering helps solve two issues that have dogged Internet-based television content providers, said Nathan Safran, an analyst with Forrester Research. "First, you're not laying out money for a set-top box," he said. Second, the wide number of providers gives users much more content than single-vendor offerings, he said. What remains to be seen is whether it will be priced out of the reach of the average consumer, Safran said. "What I suspect will happen is that it will be priced at a premium over a standard TV, and over time, that will start to close." The main distinction that Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV market research at DisplaySearch, saw between the Vizio offering and that of several other television manufacturers at the show was the customized remote -- and whether that was a good thing or not, he wasn't sure. "I haven't played with it." The company also announced seven new models of HDTV, ranging from 32 to 47 inches, and making use of sound technology from SRS Labs.

Just how fast is Facebook growing?

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 6:53 PM

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Facebook may have become the Internet's second most popular destination after Google, according to recent statistics. But that's if you're willing to believe that the social site is essentially acquiring a small state every day.

By any measure, the social networking site Facebook is becoming a phenomenal success. The BBC reported that it accounted for one in every 22 online visits on Christmas Day, according to Internet research company Hitwise -- up 69% from the same time in 2007 and with an overall market share of 4.65%, making it the second most popular site after search engine Google. Then on January 7, Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- the 24-year-old who is now #321 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans -- posted on the official Facebook blog that the site had hit 150 million active users, almost half of whom are using it every day. What makes this particular notable is that Facebook had just reported hitting 140 million about three weeks before -- meaning the site is gaining some 450,000 people per day, according to AllFacebook, the unofficial Facebook blog. "If the company keeps up this pace for the first half of 2009, the company will easily hit 230 million users," the blog went on. "If the pace continues the whole year, the company will surpass 300 million users." Wow. Imagine how many mob wars, pillow fights, and nicest person requests that'll result in. It could also theoretically result in a skyrocketing of the number of examples of ignoring Facebook application requests (a group called "Ignoring Application Requests" with more than 23,000 members). To throw some more statistics at you: If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria. It is used in more than 35 different languages and 170 countries and territories. In countries such as Italy, Spain, France, and Switzerland, monthly growth rates are reaching 50 percent. What's particularly interesting is the gender demographic. Conventional wisdom is that computer geeks are male, but looking at these on the (truly awesome) demographic analyzer on the AllFacebook unofficial Facebook blog shows that in the US, for example, there's a full 5 million more female users than male. According to Danah Boyd, in her seminal paper "Viewing American class distinctions through Facebook and MySpace," Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only site and slowly expanded to .edu accounts from different universities. In mid-2005, it opened its doors to high school students, but required an invitation, which naturally was more likely for high school students acquainted with college students.

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DivX finds its way into another HDTV, in a likely IPTV move

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 4:19 PM

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Samsung has announced that its first DivX Certified flat-panel high-definition televisions will be available in March. The company announced a licensing agreement with DivX last year. DivX is digital video technology that lets users create and watch content, and only a few years ago was relegated to the task of making ripped videos smaller on PCs' hard drives. But since that time, the company has made a surprisingly reliable video compression format, at least for IPTV. Having the Samsung HDTVs certified by DivX means consumers can play back high-quality DivX video on their displays. Samsung already has a range of existing DivX Certified products including DVD players and mobile phones, but this is its first digital television. According to DivX, LG already has a number of DivX Certified digital televisions, as does HP.

$200 Blu-ray price point now matched by Vizio

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 4:13 PM

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Vizio has announced its first Blu-ray disc player, also supporting BD-Live content and also priced at $199.99.

The VBR100 Blu-ray Player uses 1080p and upconverts from 720p and 1080i -- unlike Memorex', which also upconverts from 480p. Vizio promotes its unit's "super slim" dimensions of 17 X 11 X 2 inches. Memorex has not yet revealed the size of its player. It is scheduled to be available in April, compared to the Memorex unit, which is due to ship in early summer.

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First word on Toshiba's eco-friendly netbooks

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 2:38 PM

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Toshiba has released two ultraportable notebooks intended to be ecologically friendly -- but they're not ultra-low-price. The R600 comes in two models, the S4201 for $2,099, and the S4202 for $2,999. Each has a 12.1-inch screen and starts at 2.4 pounds. The S4201 comes with a 160GB hard disk, while the S4202 comes with a 128 GB flash disk. They both include an optical disc drive and support WiMAX. According to Toshiba, the R600 is ranked as one of the most eco-conscious laptop computers sold in the US by the federal Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). That is actually sort of true, though there are a total of 130 notebooks that received the same ranking and point score as the R600. Indeed, only one notebook beats it: the Toshiba R500.

Memorex Blu-ray tests the $200 price point

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 1:27 PM

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Following the prediction before the holiday shopping season that prices for Blu-ray players would fall further into the $150-to-200 range, Memorex has announced its MVBD-2520, a Blu-ray player for $199.99. The device, due to ship in early summer, includes Profile 2.0 or BD-Live via an Ethernet port, enabling consumers to download extra features and online bonus content, as well as firmware updates. It uses 1080p but can convert up from 480p, 720p, and 1080i. Older models without Profile 2.0 support have already been available under $200.

MicroSDHC capacity to grow yet again

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 1:18 PM

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For people whose phones are crammed full of photos, music, video, and other space-intensive content, SanDisk has announced a 16 GB microSDHC card. Phones from vendors such as Nokia, Google, and Samsung use microSDHC cards. (Similar cards are also produced by Nokia and Toshiba.) The card comes with a MobileMate Micro Reader that plugs into a USB 2.0-compatible port, which makes it easier to put data onto and take data off the card. SanDisk also announced a similar product specifically for Sony Ericsson phones that use Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards. The microSDHC card costs $119.99; the M2 costs $129.99.

Lexar tries to make USB thumb drives fashionable

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 1:11 PM

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For those who like to make a fashion statement with their solid-state memory -- as well as for those who keep losing the caps on the darn things -- Lexar has announced two new families of USB drives that don't have removable caps. JumpDrive TwistTurn has a rotating case (really, "JumpDrive SwitchBlade" would probably describe it better, but that name probably didn't test well), while JumpDrive Retrax clicks in and out like a ballpoint pen. Each model comes in multiple sizes, with colors mapped to the size: 2 GB in white, 4 GB in red, 8 GB in blue, 16 GB in gray, and 32 GB in black. They each have a two-year warranty and come with a free 30-day trial of Dmailer software, which lets users back up and carry files, photos, and videos, as well as Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail. They will be available in March for undisclosed prices.

Toshiba to show off 3D you can take with you

By Sharon Fisher on January 7, 2009, 12:58 PM

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Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. will be previewing 3D technology on handheld 3-inch and 9-inch LCD displays that don't require special glasses to work. The technology works by integrating a 3D film with the backlight modules of small- and medium-sized LCD displays that use Optically Compensated Bend (OCB) mode to deliver clear, true autostereoscopic viewing. Left and right eye images are focused sequentially into the viewer's eyes, allowing for full resolution of the display panel, the company said. The company said it expects to incorporate the technology into products within the next year. It didn't say how much it expected them to cost.

Oh, goody. Something that will let my daughter watch the Hannah Montana movie wherever she goes.

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Motorola puts a green jacket on a carbon-neutral handset

By Sharon Fisher on January 6, 2009, 5:42 PM

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In the latest attempt to assuage consumers into buying more new stuff by telling them it's good for the environment, Motorola has announced a cell phone that it says is made out of recycled water bottles and is carbon-neutral.

"Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola offsets the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation," reads a company statement this morning announcing the company's new Motorola W233, dubbed the "Renew." "The phone has earned Carbonfund.org's CarbonFree Product Certification after an extensive product life-cycle assessment."

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Microsoft claims Xbox 360 sold 8 million more worldwide than PS3

By Sharon Fisher on January 6, 2009, 4:18 PM

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Once again just before CES week, Microsoft is claiming victory in the game console race, at least against rival Sony PlayStation 3. And once again, veteran analyst Sharon Fisher pores over the numbers.

When I was a kid, I used to love word problems. You know, "Sally is 6 years older than Jane, and Jane is twice as old as Margaret. If the ages of all three add up to 21, how old is each girl?"

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New HP Pavilion notebooks go for style, go with AMD

By Sharon Fisher on January 6, 2009, 2:12 PM

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HP has had a reputation for delivering sturdy, competent, but unexciting hardware without a lot of pizzazz in the marketing department. As folks used to say, if HP was selling sushi, they'd market it as "cold, dead fish."

Well, somewhere along the line, Hewlett-Packard appears to have swallowed a marketing person, because the press releases for their new line of Pavilion notebooks -- including a competitor to Apple's slimmer-than-slim "Air" -- all gush about how stylish they are.

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McAfee to acquire network security provider Secure Computing

By Sharon Fisher on September 23, 2008, 7:09 PM

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In an attempt to give it a bigger presence in the enterprise network security market, McAfee announced today that it was acquiring Secure Computing Group for $465 million, or $5.75 per share plus $84 million for outstanding preferred stock.

Part of the attraction of Secure Computing is that it offers little overlap with existing McAfee Inc. products, said Vimal Solanki, vice president of worldwide solution marketing for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company. Users can expect to see a suite product for network security similar to McAfee's Total Endpoint Security and Total Protection for Data, he said.

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Circuit City CEO resigns amid more looming bad news

By Sharon Fisher on September 22, 2008, 7:12 PM

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Presaging dismal second quarter results for next Monday, Circuit City said today that its chairman, president, and CEO Philip J. Schoonover was stepping down, to be replaced by a retail turnaround artist named to the board in June.

James A. Marcum, who has served as vice chairman since August 18, has now been appointed to serve as acting president and chief executive officer.

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Comcast finalizes its network management strategy

By Sharon Fisher on September 22, 2008, 6:22 PM

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In response to an order from the US Federal Communications Commission in August, Comcast Corp. released on Friday a "protocol agnostic" network management plan that could result in poorer performance for the heaviest users.

On August 1, the FCC found the cable operator in violation of net neutrality rules, meaning that despite Comcast denials the agency believed the company was restricting point-to-point traffic such as BitTorrent. Among other things, the report that Comcast released on Friday conceded that the company had indeed done that, though by way of protocols and not content.

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Could SanDisk's plans for a music format get interrupted by Samsung?

By Sharon Fisher and Scott M. Fulton, III on September 22, 2008, 4:06 PM

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SanDisk's potential acquisition, either by hostile Samsung, white knight Toshiba, or some other vendor, is likely to have little effect on its slotMusic product, said an analyst who has been watching the potential acquisition.

"Given that the acquisition, if and when it happens, is several months out, nobody can say," said Jim Handy, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based director of Objective Analysis, a semiconductor market research firm. "If Samsung is true to their word and allows SanDisk to continue to operate as a separate entity, then the service could continue."

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