PC Magazine December 2009

At Microsoft’s Open House Event, there was a roundtable discussion featuring Robbie Bach, president of the company’s entertainment and devices division (and head of its mobile effort). I wish I could say that Bach told tales out of school—but he didn’t. During the hour-long chat, which occurred just hours after the Windows Mobile 6.5 rollout, Bach stayed on message. He didn’t share about Windows Mobile 7, and he scooted around questions regarding all future product plans. Instead, he offered only that the company was pleased and excited with Windows Mobile 6.5 and a bunch of new phones. That said, one part of the afternoon’s discussion made me wonder: How many mobile applications are there? Coming Up Short? Concurrent with the Windows Mobile 6.5 update is access to Microsoft’s application Marketplace. This move surprised…

Sitting Out on Social Networks I just read Tim Bajarin’s column “The Future of Social Networking, Part II.” Eeeek! I think social networking will be transformed to resemble some Second Life state. Yet the question remains: How much of social networking really is social? The only things I see on MySpace and Second Life are ads and marketers. It’s great that we have a Do Not Call registry for our phones, but in the world of Social Networks 3.0, anything goes. I don’t want to be pestered by a virtual door-to-door salesman. With increasing bandwidth, we should have enough time to do things more efficiently and therefore have enough spare time to step outside and meet our neighbors for the first time.—Anthony Huff Going to the Dogs In regard to your review of…

To get customers to buy, tech companies will need to focus on deals, deals, and more deals. The holiday season of 2008 was a great time for the Grinch. Consumer sales were down a staggering 15 percent and what is usually a boom time for businesses turned out to be a major disappointment. But this year, will our nation’s kids still see fewer presents under the tree? Despite signs of economic recovery, the holiday shopping season will still be slowgoing for retailers, but there are promising signs that shoppers are interested in consumer electronic products now more than ever. Though overall spending might not be as high as retailers would like, about 80 percent of consumers said they wanted technology as a holiday gift—a slight increase from last year’s 79 percent and…

BLINDSEARCH If you’re not sure whether you would be better off using Google, Bing, or Yahoo for your Web search needs, try BlindSearch, a free Web app that searches all three engines and displays the top results from each.—Alan Henry MARINETRAFFIC With MarineTraffic.com, a Google Maps mashup site, you can pick your patch of sea and see who’s out there right now, including naval vessels from various nations, research ships, cargo ships, tankers, and even cruise and luxury ships.—AH TWITCRITICS TwitCritics sources movie reviews from Twitter posts, scanning Twitter for movie titles and whether the movies were mentioned in a positive or negative light. It then gives you a percentage of positive Twitter reviews.—AH…

As the net neutrality war goes on, a new battle has broken out, this time pitting Congress against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In late October, the FCC proposed official net neutrality rules, with stakeholders having until early next year to submit comments. The FCC plan extended net neutrality, which holds that every person or company should have equal access to the Internet at equal speeds, to the wireless industry. Executives at tech company Mozilla, such as CEO John Lilly and Mozilla Foundation chairperson Mitchell Baker, even issued their support for the FCC plan in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. Some members of Congress, however, are seeking to squash such rules. In November, House Republican introduced a bill sponsored by Representative Marsha Blackburn (R–TN). The Real Stimulus Act of 2009…

GOODCLEANTECH Tesla Roadster Sets Record Looks like Tesla Motors wasn’t kidding about the Roadster’s 200-mile range. A pair of drivers in Australia set an EV range record of 313 miles (501 kilometers) with a Tesla Roadster in the 10th Annual Global Green Challenge. Tesla Roadster owner Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas completed the trip on a single charge. The prior record was set back in April, when another Tesla Roadster completed the entire 241-mile Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies.—Jamie Lendino SECURITY WATCH Beware of Facebook Scams There have been many reports recently of Facebook phishing and other scams. The most serious example appears to be a fake e-mail with a malicious attachment, according to a report in The Tech Herald. The e-mail pretends to be from “The Facebook Team” (support@facebook.com) and has a ZIP file…