Peeking into Microsoft's retail store (photos)

The Microsoft retail store in Mission Viejo, Calif., as seen from outside the shop, is one of two the company opened earlier this fall. The other is in Scottsdale, Ariz. CNET recently took a look around Microsoft's store in Orange County, Calif., to see for itself how Redmond is doing in its retail push.

Photo by Ina Fried/CNET

Caption by Ina Fried

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Images: What else is in Windows 7

The Windows Biometrics Framework is a setup that allows applications that use fingerprint input to have a standard way of talking to certified fingerprint sensors.

Photo by CNET Networks

Caption by Ina Fried

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Screenshot tour of Chrome OS (images)

Google released the source code for Chrome OS on Thursday, beginning the process of producing a browser-based operating system by the end of 2010 for lower-end PCs called Netbooks. Although Linux runs under the covers, the applications all run within Google's browser.

The upper-left corner has an applications menu with links to a variety of Web applications. Those applications can be permanently lodged as narrow tabs between that menu and ordinary browser tabs. More Details...

Making an Internet list, and checking it twice

NICE, Calif.--Over the last few days, I spent hours with my wife's parents, Tyler and Donna, helping them adapt to the first Internet connection they've ever had. For them, living on top of a mountain at 4,000 feet, in the middle of a national forest, and entirely off the grid--this has been a big step.

For my wife and I, it's also been a big project, at least in terms of teaching them the basics, and helping them get ready to learn on their own. While their Internet proficiency is still low, they are learning fast, and over time, it should be interesting to see how much progress they make, and how they make it.

Three-part series
Getting my in-laws online, at last
Big progress for off-the-grid Net-newbie in-laws
Making an Internet list, and checking it twice Over the few days that we just spent on the mountain with them, these are many of the things (in no particular order) we talked to them about, showed them on their new MacBook, and explained that they might want to investigate in the future:

• Undo/Control-Z. They wanted to know if there was any way to undo a mistake on their computer, and we explained that Control-Z (Command-Z on a Mac) is the way to do that.

• Pandora. They haven't used it yet, but we explained how this free service makes it easy for anyone to create a totally custom Internet radio station based on their musical interests. They asked how Pandora makes money. I couldn't answer that very good question. More Details

Waze rolls out crowdsourced traffic data app

Using smart phones as navigation tools is all the rage these days, what with a slew of applications available for the iPhone and Android platforms that utilize those devices' built-in GPS systems in determining users' real-time location.

One such service is from Waze, which in August released its iPhone app after being available on Android for several months. Waze's service is meant to help drivers figure out where they are and how best to get where they're going, all with the help of a large community of other motorists.



Waze gives users many different views of the road, including this one, in which users' avatars turn into a Pac-Man-type creature when going down previously undiscovered roads.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Among the information that Waze provides are traffic flow, road reports, and warnings about where drivers might run into speed traps.

At DemoFall 09 in San Diego on Tuesday, Waze plans to unveil its latest steps forward, which include rolling out its service on every major smart phone platform (except BlackBerry) and offering, for the first time, voice prompts for directions.

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Crowdsourcing coming to iPhone apps, big time

If you've ever been driving down the highway and looked at the Google Maps application on an iPhone to see what traffic is like ahead, you may have wondered where the data behind the green, yellow, and red lines indicating real-time vehicle flow come from.

In fact, the data are coming from people just like you: users of smartphones with GPS who, by the very act of driving down the highway, are feeding back information about how fast they're going to Google, which in turn is sending it back to users of its mobile map apps.



Users of the Google Maps iPhone app can get real-time traffic flow data that is based on the passive participation of other users. This is an example of mobile crowdsourcing, something that is a growing trend, especially on iPhones.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Which means, of course, that the application itself is crowdsourced--that is, based on the mutual contributions of many users, all of whom are participating in the product, and without whom, the product would be worthless.

These days, the concept of crowdsourcing--defined by Jeff Howe, who literally wrote the book on the subject, as, "the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call"--is all the rage, and there are no end of well-known examples, especially on the Web: the Netflix prize; Twitter search; public tagging of Library of Congress archival photos; even Wikipedia. Indeed, much of the concept of user-generated content is really about crowdsourcing.

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Internet Archive's BookServer could 'dominate' Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO--An initiative in the works from the nonprofit Internet Archive to centralize the electronic distribution of commercially viable books could upend the publishing industry and declaw Amazon.com, an industry analyst said.

On Monday, the Internet Archive, which among other things has been working for some time to digitize countless numbers of public domain texts, showed the first public look at its BookServer project, an initiative its dubs, "The future of books."

Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told CNET News that BookServer is about creating an open system that allows search engines to index books that are available from a wide group of sources. Effectively, commercial publishers, lending libraries and even individual authors would have a way to index their work and offer easy digital distribution under BookServer, Kahle said.


Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, on Monday unveiled an initiative called BookServer, aimed at making all books availble for digital distribution.

(Credit: Internet Archive) Kahle's timing is interesting. Also on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported details on Barnes & Noble's $259 e-reader called the Nook, which will compete with Amazon's Kindle and Sony's E-Reader, a move which heats up the market. More interesting may be Google's announcement last week of its "Google Editions" store, an initiative aimed at offering digital editions of books from publishers with which it already has distribution deals. Google said that should mean about a half-million books would be available initially, either through Google itself, or through sites like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

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Bad PDF formatting reveals Google Voice numbers

Google Voice may not have made it onto the iPhone yet, but the service has still managed to attract more than 1.4 million users.

In a story posted Friday, BusinessWeek is reporting that Google Voice has grown to 1.419 million users, 40 percent--fully 570,000--of whom use the service every day. The information comes from documents in which Google responded to questions from U.S. regulators interested in whether the search giant is improperly blocking calls to phone numbers in specific rural areas of the country.

But while the information about the number of users of the service was included in the documents Google handed over, they were not meant to be made public.

"Though the number of Google Voice customers was redacted in the version that was made public, BusinessWeek reviewed the information in the redacted sections," BusinessWeek reporter Arik Hesseldahl wrote. "'We had intended to keep sensitive information regarding our partners and the number of Google Voice users confidential,' Google said in a statement to BusinessWeek. 'Unfortunately, the PDF submitted to the (U.S. Federal Communications Commission) was improperly formatted.'"

Hessedahl added that subsequently, the FCC has replaced the first letter on its site with one in which the information originally intended to be redacted has been blacked out.

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Video game ratings board releases iPhone app

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) announced on Tuesday its new iPhone app, which is designed to put the board's full written summaries of more than 2,500 video games right at parents' fingertips.


A new iPhone app from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board allows parents to see the full ratings summaries of more than 1,500 video games.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET) The idea is that with the app--officially called ESRB Rating, and available now, for free, in Apple's App Store--parents can punch in the name of any game rated by the board after July 1, 2008, and see not just the official rating--such as "M" for those 17 and up, or "E" for everyone--but the ESRB's full written summary of the title. The ESRB began writing the full summaries on July 1, 2008. Users of the app can also search for information about titles from before that date, but they will see only the basic letter rating and a brief content description.

Just over a year ago, the ESRB began making those summaries available to the public through its Web site, and through a mobile site (m.esrb.org). But the Web site isn't convenient to a parent who is actually out shopping for junior, and the mobile site is not something that many people who have standard cell phones will use, especially if they have to pay extra for data. An iPhone app is just so much easier.

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Google mobile coupons save a buck or two

Google has been giving companies in its business listings ways to offer digital coupons to visitors since 2007. It wasn't until this week, though, that Google could bring the same coupons to mobile users.

It works like this: Businesses add a coupon to their listing in Google's Local Business Center. When you search a Google local listing from your Internet-enabled phone, any available coupons show up. As with other mobile coupon sites and applications, you'll simply present your phone face at the check-out stand. The checker will enter in the coupon bar code and you'll get your discount.

Google's mobile expansion of its digital coupons brings the search and advertising giant in direct competition with coupon providers like Coupons.com, Coupon Sherpa, Cellfire, and Yowza. With the exception of Yowza, which is a mobile-only application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, each service has a mobile coupons site and at least an iPhone app. Yelp has also jumped into the mobile deal business by letting businesses place special offers to Yelp users on Yelp.com and in its iPhone app.

Users' biggest complaints with mobile coupons tend to boil down to one thing: variety. While national chains are easier (and generally more effective) for a coupon service to sign, millions of other shoppers may prefer discounts for local or specialized brands, restaurants, and stores. Any business model that can capitalize on a self-service coupon sign-up for local and national businesses should have the upper hand.

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Chrome and Android

As Google Android is for the smartphone market, Chrome will be for the Netbook industry. At least, that is Google's hope. The company views its two platforms as not necessarily replacements to existing operating systems, but rather as alternatives. And as part of its quest to get users on the Internet and connect to their services, Google created Android and Chrome.

Much of today's mobile applications run in the cloud, pulling data from a server as opposed to loading files from a device. If you have an Android handset, you know about the constant sync between your phone and the Google cloud. Indeed, contacts, e-mails, and more are literally updated by the minute. Chrome looks to be an extension of this idea, but designed for larger screens.

With Chrome, there will be no need to worry about whether an app is compatible or updated because it will not reside on any hard drive. Instead, everything comes from the cloud. At first, people might think they'd miss out on some of the day-to-day function of their desktops, but a closer look will show that much of what you do offline can be replicated when online. Google Docs, Calendar, and Reader all have replaced native apps on my desktop. Android does this very well with devices like the Archos A5 media tablet.

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One of Google Chrome OS's hardest tasks? Printing

Many challenges will have to be solved before Google is ready to release Chrome OS, it's browser-based operating system for Netbooks. One of the biggest ones could be something as far offline as it gets.


Google is looking at unique ways of solving the problems posed by the lack of standards among printer drivers.

(Credit: Brother) Driver support has derailed many an operating system release, perhaps most recently causing headaches for Microsoft and Windows Vista. As a result, Google is paying close attention to the thorny problem of making sure Chrome OS will work with the myriad devices consumers can be expected to connect to those Netbooks, said Linus Upson, engineering director for the Chrome browser and Chrome OS.

"The good news is that for most input devices today, there are basic standards that allow them to operate without needing a specific drive for each device," Upson said. For instance, manufacturers of USB storage drives and cameras have all pretty much settled on standards that make it easy to ensure those devices will work with your software.

But printers are another story. Printer drivers are generally unique to the device and pose problems for computer makers.

"We want to get out of the business of printer drivers. All the problems related to drivers we want to go away," Upson said.
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Microsoft actively urges IE 6 users to upgrade

Microsoft has begun a campaign to actively urge users of its 8-year-old Internet Explorer 6 browser to upgrade.

After launching IE 8 in March, Micosoft has concurred with critics that IE 6 is outdated. Many people have dropped the older browser, but the remaining users are often the tough cases--those who don't have a choice because of corporate computing policy or who aren't tech-savvy enough to realize there's a reason to move on.


This eBay 'Web slice'--basically a live bookmark in Internet Explorer 8--is part of Microsoft's effort to get people to upgrade from IE 6.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) It's this latter population Microsoft is targeting with a campaign that runs through June 2010 that touts its own IE 8 as a better alternative. The campaign's first visible elements are a video aimed at online holiday shoppers and a Web slice to promote daily deals at eBay. Web slices are basically live bookmarks that can show miniature Web pages in the browser.

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Chrome extensions site now open for uploads

Google has opened up its gallery for developers to share Chrome extensions, a step that soon should make it easier for people to customize the open-source browser.

Aaron Boodman, a leader of the Chrome extensions effort, announced the move on a mailing list posting Monday, and programmer and "gallery master" Lei Zheng shared details in a blog post.

So far, only uploads are permitted. Google plans to let some testers use the gallery to download extensions, too "in the next few days," Zheng said. "We are making the upload flow available early to make sure that developers have the time to publish their extensions ahead of our full launch."

Extensions, a major asset of the Firefox browser and the headline feature of the upcoming Chrome 4 beta, let people modify the browser more to their liking. With them, the browser itself doesn't have to be bogged down with numerous features and configuration options that most people don't want.

One feature of Google's system is that add-ons are automatically updated on Chrome users' computers once the developer uploads a new version.

For developers, the extensions gallery comes with a set of terms and conditions.
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Latest Firefox beta offers file-handling feature

Mozilla, determined to release Firefox 3.6 before year's end, is also determined to squeeze as many features as possible into the new browser.

The latest example: support for the File interface that adds more sophistication to uploading and some other chores.

Support for the feature is one of the 133 changes that arrived in Firefox 3.6 beta 4, which the Mozilla project released Thursday for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The File API (application programming interface), a draft standard at the World Wide Web consortium, lets browsers handle files better. Among its abilities are uploading multiple files at once, showing thumbnail previews of images that have been selected for upload, breaking a long video upload up into chunks to protect against network interruption problems, and integrating with drag-and-drop Web applications.

While many software projects use beta testing periods to shake down their code, Mozilla isn't afraid to add new features as it goes. That can mean new ideas arrive sooner, of course, but it also can delay the completion date of the new version. What was to have been a quick Firefox 3.1 release was pushed back months as new features were added and the version ultimately was renamed Firefox 3.5.

For those who want to dig into the File interface, Mozilla offers a Web developer guide to using it.

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Yahoo stopping mobile 'Go' app in 2010

On Wednesday, Yahoo will tell some mobile phone owners that it's pulling the plug on the mobile app called Yahoo Go (video). Yahoo Go was Yahoo's all-in-one native app of Yahoo services for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones, since January 2006. It gathers together Yahoo's services around a rotating carousel motif, the application's start page.

Yahoo Go, which first emerged at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2006, was full of content--but information was buried and the app wasn't intuitive to customize. Yahoo pretty much halted work after January 2008 with Yahoo Go 3.0 beta, and began concentrating more on its Web portal. Yahoo's mobile-optimized Web site, m.yahoo.com, contains Yahoo Go's core features, like search, weather lookups, and RSS feeds for information like headline news and stocks. Yahoo's revamped mobile site also lets you check e-mail, send IMs, and track status updates on social networks.

Killing Yahoo Go is in line with Yahoo's mobile strategy, says Yahoo's global head of mobile product marketing, Adam Taggart. "In the past 18 months, browser quality has been increasing at an accelerated rate. We've doubled down on our mobile Web strategy."

While Yahoo pours resources into streamlining its mobile Web presence, it also continues to release Yahoo Mobile applications for some mobile platforms, like the iPhone. On top of Yahoo Mobile are more focused standalone applications. iPhone owners interested in stocks can download the Yahoo Finance app, for example. Sports enthusiasts have Yahoo Fantasy Football.

Microsoft's Mehdi on financial impact of Yahoo deal

Although Microsoft and Yahoo have only just inked their final search deal and still need regulatory approval, Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi talked on Tuesday about the economics that the deal will bring.
Speaking at a Credit Suisse technology investor conference in Arizona, Mehdi said that both Microsoft and Yahoo should see a double-digit increase in revenue per search, once the two companies have a single paid search system.

Mehdi(Credit: Microsoft)
Putting their two separate paid search systems together will take longer than just setting up Yahoo to use Bing's algorithmic search.
"That is going to take some time," Mehdi said in the speech, which was Webcast on Microsoft's investor site. Just closing the deal has taken quite awhile. There was the months of talks of an outright acquisition, then the eventual search deal Yahoo, Microsoft reach search, ad deal -- Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009" announced in July, and then several more months spent ironing out the final details.
Now Microsoft is waiting on regulatory approval on the deal, but Mehdi said he remains optimistic that it will get the nods it needs in time to close the deal early next calendar year.
The integration is also going to be expensive Mehdi acknowledged, reiterating a past estimate that Microsoft will spend $100 million to $200 million in transition costs during the first year. Mehdi said the company has not said how much it expects to spend in the second year, but said that after that, the deal should be a boon to Microsoft's financial results.
As for Bing, Mehdi said executives are pleased with the results for its first six months, citing ComScore U.S. search query market share figures that show Microsoft growing from 8.4 percent to 9.9 percent over that period. That said, Mehdi acknowledged that "we have a very long ways to go against a tough competitor."
Several Microsoft executives will be in San Francisco on Wednesday to talk about some new moves in search, including some developments in mobile and mapping. Google, meanwhile, is planning a search event of its own on Monday.