TechVines: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

Microsoft Introduces ... The Horse and Buggy Era - The Mac Observer

The saga of Windows 8 continues this week with a gloomy outlook for traditional PCs. An analyst has cut his estimate for Microsoft's growth in 2013, PCs are in trouble, customers want svelte, light pure tablets, and Microsoft has just announced how power hungry and expensive the Surface Pro tablet will be. How long can Microsoft keep a straight face?

The story of Windows 8 just gets weirder. First, Microsoft ignored what happened to Apple when it tried to push some iOS-ification agenda down the throats of its users. Windows 8, however, is fully ossified. As a result, we see that Windows 8 is "off to an awkward start."

Microsoft also shipped a Windows 8 tablet (well, maybe a notebook computer with a detachable keyboard) that doesn't run x86 Windows binaries. Huh?

Now, for an encore amidst the chaos, Microsoft has announced that the Surface Pro, the real Microsoft tablet that runs legacy Windows software, will be expensive and have half the battery life of the Surface RT. With 128 GB of storage and a keyboard, we're looking at over US$1,100. (Then you'll need to cough up more for MS Office.)

Here's what Warner Crocker just wrote about Microsoft's clueless marketing.

For those who say the price point makes sense because of USB ports and the ability to run x86 Legacy Apps, you are part of the problem. The mobile computing world is moving (has moved) far beyond that kind of thinking. Weâ€™re not talking horse and buggy vs automobiles just yet, but weâ€™re damned close."

Henry Ford may not have uttered that wonderful quote, but still...

The source of this problem is the idea that Windows 8 has to do double duty as a desktop and mobile OS in order to preserve both the Windows legacy and MS Office. Here's what I said about that.

And now we're seeing the very first fallout from Microsoft's decisions. What do you do after you ship a tablet that no one wants? Ship an even more expensive version with a power hungry i5 CPU that cries out to be slaved to a desk and power adapter.

Cough. Horse and buggy indeed.

Tech News Debris

If you thought Crapware had been embarrassed out of existence in Windows 8, think again. Here's why based on some investigation with the PC Vendors. "Crapware Lives On Windows 8."

I know that there are a lot of satisfied Apple customers who use iCloud. I use it on a very, very limited basis, and it's been very helpful for syncing my calendars and contacts across Macs and iDevices. But, on a deeper level, one has to wonder what's going on when some users get into real trouble. It's one of those things where, when it works, it's great. But disasters are awesome and virtually unfixable. I'm not condemning here, just offering some food for thought. "Apple needs to learn how the Internet works before iCloud evaporates."

One reason I may be one of the lucky ones is that I've always used the exact same mac.com user name on every single device. Mr. Agreda speaks to that.

A trend we see today is that Apple's competitors have learned how to sell smartphones and tablets. That has Wall Street worried. Can Apple survive? Thrive? Or is Apple doomed?

It's too bad the analysts don't read Jonny Evans, one of my favorite tech columnists. Jonny actually thinks about what's going on and draws reasoned, insightful, experienced conclusions. This is must-reading: "Apple 2013: iPhone diversifies as Cupertino fights back."

Do you have a fear of losing your iPhone? How long can you go without checking on it? Or checking your messages? Are you concerned that an electronic wallet, in your smartphone, if lost, would be an even larger disaster? There's sooooo much to worry about. I have a feeling I'll be writing an article in 2013: what to do when your iWallet is gone, gone. Meanwhile, if you're in good spirits, check out, "Fears of losing your iPhone may only accelerate with iWallet."

Finally, with iTunes 11 now available, Jacqui Cheng has written a charming retrospective on "iTunes through the ages." Very nice.

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Horse & Buggy images via Shutterstock.

In a blow to Android, judge says Moto patents can't get injunctions - Ars Technica

The Seattle federal judge who recently oversaw a two-week trial between Microsoft and Motorola over standards-based patents handed down a key order today, finding that Motorola won't be able to use its patents to get an injunction against Microsoft.

That means that while Motorola might be able to use its patents to win some money from Microsoft, it won't be able to get the ultimate reward of a successful patent suit: the ability to kick an opponent's product off the market.

The patent dispute was initiated by Microsoft, which is arguing that Motorola's Android cell phones infringe its patents. Motorola counter-attacked with its own patents, saying that Microsoft's Xbox infringes its own patents. However, because Motorola used patents that are tied to widely used technological standards, it turns out there are major flaws with its patent "ammunition."

In addition to the fact that Motorola can't get an injunction, it may not be able to collect as much money as it would like for those patents, either. US District Judge James Robart, who is overseeing the case, just heard a two-week bench trial regarding how much money Motorola can get for its standards-based patents, which are supposed to be priced on a "RAND" basis. (RAND stands for Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory, which is how standards-based patents are supposed to be priced; it's sometimes referred to as FRAND, for Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory.)

Motorola said the RAND rules should go by the wayside since Microsoft sued it; but Robart didn't accept that argument and indicated he's going to set a range on what those patents can be licensed for whether Motorola likes it or not. The purpose of the bench trial was to present evidence to determine that price range. The trial ended earlier this month but Robart hasn't issued a ruling in that case yet.

Many other Android handset makers have paid licensing fees to Microsoft, but Motorola has resisted. Google purchased Motorola after the litigation was filed and has continued to fight. The Google-Motorola acquisition has turned this lawsuit into the first case of the "smartphone wars" where arch-rivals Microsoft and Google have faced off directly.

No irreparable harm

The fact that the bench trial over pricing was held at all wasn't a good sign for Motorola, and this new ruling is an additional blow against it.

The problem for Motorola is that it can't show it deserves anything more than monetary damages.Â An injunction is a powerful remedy, and in order to get it, a company has to prove it's been harmed in a way that a money award can't compensate for. But in this case, money is enough, US District Judge James Robart ruled.

"Because Microsoft will pay royalties under any license agreement from the time of infringement within the statute of limitations, this license agreement will constitute Motorolaâ€™s remedy for Microsoftâ€™s use of Motorolaâ€™s H.264 standard essential patent portfolio to include the Motorola Asserted Patents. Accordingly, Motorola cannot demonstrate that it has been irreparably harmed."

Robart went further than just dealing with the patents in his case. His order, he specified, applies "for Motorola's entire H.264 standard essential patent portfolio," including certain European patents at issue in a German action.

Last chance at the ITC?

Microsoft and Motorola have also gone after each other at the International Trade Commission, a venue that doesn't award monetary damages but can issue a ban on importation, which amounts to the same thing as an injunction. Motorola won a case against Microsoft using many of the same patents it's using in this case, but it has been remanded to the ITC judge for reconsideration.

Meanwhile, the ITC as a whole has indicated that it is concerned about use of standards-based patents as well. In a case between Apple and Samsung earlier this month, the ITC asked for both the parties and the public at large to weigh in on the question of how standards-based patents should be considered.

Robart's ruling is bad news for all Google and all Android makers who want to use standards-based patents to defend themselves from patent attacks by competitors. In both the bench trial and this order, Robart has shown he believes sharp limits should be placed on the use of these patents, which have been the weapon of choice for Android phone makers.

Samsung used such patents to counter-attack Apple during its giant summer trial. The judge in that case did not limit the Korean company to RAND rates, and Samsung asked for almost $400 million in compensation; however, it was a moot point because the jury decided that Apple didn't infringe the patent in any case.

Even though Robart's order today doesn't bind other judges, there aren't many rulings so far on the issue of RAND patents and it wouldn't be surprising if other judges choose to take his order into account.

Apple Rolls Out a Cleaner iTunes - New York Times (blog)

November 30, 2012, 7:14 pm

Well, it finally happened: Apple got around to fixing iTunes.

Over the years, that program had become more and more cluttered as Apple saddled it with more and more burdens. In the beginning (2001), it was meant to be nothing more than a jukebox program. Then it became the loading dock for the iPod. Then it was the front end for the iTunes Music Store online. Then it was asked to manage TV shows and movies. Then podcasts. Then e-books. Then it became the syncing headquarters for iPhones and iPads. Then it was supposed to manage apps. Then it was the front end for Ping, Appleâ€™s flopped music-discussion service.

Eventually, it became a sluggish, cluttered, spreadsheety hangnail on our digital lives.

On Friday, Apple introduced the free iTunes 11 for download (Mac and Windows). Itâ€™s still the front end for music, videos and iGadgets, and its features and personality are much the same. But the design has been overhauled â€" deeply, controversially, but, in general, successfully.

Youâ€™ll probably notice the declutterization first, what Apple calls â€œedge-to-edgeâ€ design. Thereâ€™s nothing on the right, left or bottom borders: the entire window is filled with album covers, or song lists, or whatever view youâ€™ve selected in the bar across the top.

You can restore the left-side list of sources and the bottom-edge status bar if you miss them. But the proposed setup works fine: You choose the file type from the top-left pop-up menu (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Podcasts, Apps), then click a category button across the top to change the display (like Songs, Albums or Artists.).

Each of those criteria (Songs, Albumsâ€¦) has its own layout now. The Album view is especially cool. You see a grid of your album covers; when you click one, an information strip appears beneath, listing the songs. The strip is color-coded to the dominant color of the album cover itself. Slick.

Little buttons with â€œ>â€ on them appear on just about everything; each produces a pop-up menu of options for that song, album or video (Add to Playlist, for example, or Show in iTunes Store).

A great new feature called Up Next is a list of songs that iTunes intends to play next â€" because theyâ€™re in a playlist you made, or theyâ€™re part of an album, or iTunesâ€™s Genius feature is lining them up like a robot D.J., or just because you feel like building an on-the-fly playlist. You can delete the ones you donâ€™t want to play, drag new songs into the lineup or reorder the songs that are there.

You can now redeem iTunes gift cards without having to type in that 723-digit code number. Just hold the bar code up to your computerâ€™s Webcam; iTunes does the rest.

Apple also fixed some of the dumber design elements that have always plagued iTunes. For years, the store was represented only as one item in the left-side list, lost among less important entries like Radio and Podcasts. Now a single button in the upper-right corner switches between iTunesâ€™s two personalities: Store (meaning Appleâ€™s stuff) and Library (meaning your stuff).

And you know those three round buttons in the upper-left corner of the window? Theyâ€™re supposed to mean Close, Minimize and Maximize. But the green one, for years, didnâ€™t maximize the window â€" it shrank the window to a miniplayer, in frustrating violation of Appleâ€™s own design guidelines.

Not anymore. Now the green button does what itâ€™s supposed to â€" makes iTunes fill your screen â€" and a new Miniplayer button opens a new, better floating Miniplayer window.

The miniplayer offers far more power now. You can search your entire library, switch to a different song or playlist and manipulate the Up Next list, without ever having to jump back to the full iTunes window. At last, you can park the miniplayer in a corner of your screen as you do other work, while still flinging new songs into the lineup.

Unfortunately, Apple hasnâ€™t fixed the Search box. As before, you canâ€™t specify in advance what youâ€™re looking for: an app, a song, a TV show, a book. Whatever you type into the Search box finds everything that matches, and you canâ€™t filter it until after you search. It feels like a two-step process when one should do.

And then, of course, thereâ€™s the eternal question: â€œIs iTunes doing too much?â€

Sometimes, thereâ€™s synergy. Sometimes, it seems to make sense that the jukebox, video, store and iGadget-loading features are all mashed into a single program â€" but not always. Sometimes, you feel like youâ€™re using separate, grafted-together programs.

In many ways, iTunes 11 is a classic Apple move. It replaces something you knew with something that Apple considers better â€" with little regard to the time it will take you to learn where everything went. Online, thereâ€™s already a lot of â€œNoooo! They eliminated feature X!â€ â€" when feature X has just been moved or demoted.

iTunes 11 is, on the whole, better than what came before it â€" if only because itâ€™s faster, far less cluttered and laid out more sensibly. Yes, change always ruffles peopleâ€™s feathers â€" you could argue that Appleâ€™s specialty is feather-ruffling â€" but this time, at least, the overall direction is up.

Appellate judge compares Aereo's antennas to tax dodge - CNET

NEW YORK -- A federal appeal's court here sounded highly doubtful of Aereo's claims that by using thousands of tiny Internet-connected antennas to deliver live TV to customers, the company had successfully sidestepped copyright infractions.

Aereo is the Barry Diller-backed Internet video service that currently provides users in New York with live TV. For $12 a month, Aereo will connect subscribers, via the Web, to a tiny antenna that captures over-the-air TV signals and enables them to watch TV on their PC. Aereo managers don't pay a dime to access these shows.

They should, according to the top television broadcast companies. Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS (parent company of CNET) alleged in a lawsuit earlier this year that Aereo's service violated their copyrights and said the service must pay them retransmission fees. The broadcasters appealed a district-court decision rendered in July to allow Aereo to keep operating and were before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today to argue that Aereo must be shut down immediately.

During arguments, the panel, judges Denny Chin, John Gleeson and Christopher Droney, showed very clearly that they found some aspects of Aereo's business unsavory. Aereo enables users to watch broadcast signals via their own personal antennas and the company argues that this makes it a private performance and not a public performance.

Unboxing the New 27-Inch Apple iMac - PC Magazine

Unboxing the Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012)

We just got the 27-inch version of Apple's new, slimmer iMac into PC Labs. As usual, the new iMac has a new set of packaging, which is functional and sets the system apart on the store shelves. The new iMac box is tapered, minimizing the amount of cardboard you'll be schlepping around after your purchase. The top is slimmer than the bottom, so the packaging subliminally lets you know that the new iMac is thinner than its predecessor.

The iMac packaging shows a full color picture of the iMac in front of a white background, keeping with Apple packaging conventions of the past. We found that the system was securely immobilized in the packaging with a few key pieces of Styrofoam, which were easily removed from the iMac itself. You should have no problem rearranging the packaging back into the box, so you can keep it in your collection, or hold it in storage just in case you need to return the iMac to Apple for repair at some future point.

The eighth-generation iMacs have the same silver and glass design as the previous two generations, but now they sport a much slimmer profile since Apple has dropped the optical drive for iMacs. The display measures an incredibly thin 5mm at the edges, though the center of the back panel still bulges out to accommodate the stand, cooling, and the power connector.

We got the 27-inch iMac with Apple's Fusion Drive, which Apple promises will perform better than a system with a simpler, spinning hard drive. Though bulky, the system was easy to move around our labs bench. Keep the included microfiber cloth handy: the screen instantly picks up fingerprints when you touch it. At first glance, the new 27-inch iMac should take up the same amount of desk space as the last version, so it will be a drop-in replacement for many users.

We'll be running the new iMac through our usual set of strenuous benchmark and hands-on tests, so stay tuned for a full review on PCMag.com in the coming days.

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Surface Pro Battery Life: With 'Approximately Half' The Power Of Surface RT, It ... - Huffington Post

We really wanted the Microsoft Surface to succeed, if for nothing else but to light a fire under Apple to step its game up on the iPad. And with sales of the basic Surface RT apparently "modest," according to CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft needs its more heavy-duty Surface Pro tablet to catch consumers' eyes. After all, Surface Pro comes with the processing power and Office software that are suppose to appeal to Windows-using business types.

Too bad suits will hardly be able to open a spreadsheet without draining the battery down to nothing.

On Thursday, among the other details we learned about Surface Pro, set to hit shelves in January, Microsoft exposed a fatal weak spot in Microsoft's $899 super-tablet: It has half the battery life of Surface RT.

Just read what Microsoft's @Surface handle tweeted to a customer:

@shahroom Hey Shahroom, #Surface pro will have approximately half the batter life of Surface RT.
â€" Surface (@surface) November 29, 2012

Microsoft has officially advertised the RT's battery life at 8 hours of reading and 7.5 of video time; some reviews, such as Engadget's, were able to eke out an extra 1.5 hours more. Thus, a conservative estimate for Surface Pro battery life would peg it at 4.75 hours. At worst, the tablet's battery life would last only 4 hours.

The iPad, by comparison, gets 10 hours of battery life "while surfing the web on WiFi, watching videos, or listening to music," according to Apple. What's worse, the iPad's price tag starts at $400 less than the Surface Pro.

Tech blog after tech blog has joined the pile-on that ensued over Microsoft's tweet. The New York Times' Brian X. Chen even tweeted a preemptive eulogy for the Surface Pro: "RIP in advance".

In 2012, a tablet device with a 4 or 5-hour battery life doesn't look all that appealing (especially when its price tag is significantly higher than the most popular device on the market). Users -- especially businesspeople on the road -- are away from power outlets for more than four or five hours practically every day.

Maybe Microsoft has another explanation. If it does, we're willing to wait for it because, again, the Surface was supposed to be a new hope against the Apple empire. Until then, Surface Pro may very well be D.O.A.

[h/t ZDNet]

Check out the reviews of Microsoft's other tablet, the Surface RT:

Loading Slideshow

'It Is Undercooked'
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5953866/microsoft-surface-rt-review-this-is-technological-heartbreak">Gizmodo's Sam Biddle</a> had plenty to praise for the Surface RT -- for its design, its version of Internet Explorer -- before listing a litany of flaws and recommending not buying it. Wrote Biddle: <blockquote>We're not there yet. Surface is a fantastic promise, and holds fantastic potential. But while potential is worth your attention, it's not worth your paycheck. Surface RT gets so many things right, and pulls so many good things together into one package. But it is undercooked.</blockquote>
'Yes, You Can Use It As Your Only Computer'
Like Biddle, <a href="http://www.wired.com/reviews/2012/10/microsoft-surface/">Wired's Mat Honan</a> complained about typing difficulties and lack of apps, but overall was pleased. <blockquote>Yes, you can use it as your only computer. I would never have made that claim about an iPad or Android tablet. But if you only need to live in Microsoft Office and the web and e-mail, and use your computer for media consumption, youâ€™ll do great with this. I used it as my primary computer for several days. There were applications I missed, and I would never want it to be my only computer (the keyboard and screen are just too small) but it worked. I was fine.</blockquote>
'A Brilliantly Conceived Machine Whose Hardware Will Take Your Breath away â€" But Whose Software Will Take Away Your Patience'
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/technology/personaltech/microsoft-unveils-the-surface-its-first-tablet-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&">The New York Times' David Pogue</a> laments the "split personality" of the tablet: It's hardware is beautiful, it's software is heartbreaking. "In time, maybe the Windows RT apps will come. Maybe the snags will get fixed. Maybe people will solve the superimposed puzzle of Windows RT and Windows 8," Pogue writes hopefully. "Until then, the Surface is a brilliantly conceived machine whose hardware will take your breath away â€" but whose software will take away your patience."
'A Slate Upon Which You Can Get Some Serious Work Done'
<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/23/microsoft-surface-rt-review/">Engadget's Tim Stevens</a> makes another distinction: Between those who want a tablet to create or to consumer. The former, he says, will want to look closely at the Surface RT. From Stevens' review: <blockquote>The Microsoft Surface with Windows RT's $499 starting MSRP means those thinking about making the investment here will be carefully cross-shopping against same-priced offerings from Apple, ASUS and others. Where does this one rate? Very well -- but very differently. While those devices are primarily targeted at content-hungry consumers, the Surface is a slate upon which you can get some serious work done, and do so comfortably. You can't always say that of the competition.</blockquote>
'Surface RT Isnâ€™t A Tablet'
Ultimately concluding that consumers should wait out this generation of Surfaces until Microsoft does some improvements, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/microsoft-surface-rt-review/">TechCrunch's Matt Burns</a> argues that this really isn't a tablet: "Itâ€™s not a legitimate alternative to the iPad or Galaxy Note 10.1. Thatâ€™s not a bad thing," he says. "With the Touch Covers, the Surface RT is a fine alternative to a laptop, offering a slightly limited Windows experience in a small, versatile form. Just donâ€™t call it an iPad killer."
'Surface Is The Most Flexible Tablet I've Ever Used'
<a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/6385/microsoft-surface-review/12">Tech blogger Anand Shimpi</a> called the tablet "recommendable" in a generally positive review. He writes thus: <blockquote>Surface is the most flexible tablet I've ever used. Through two seemingly simple additions to the design (but incredibly complex to actually develop and implement), Microsoft took a tablet and turned it into something much more. If you're frustrated by productivity limits of currently available tablets, Surface really seems to be the right formula for a solution. </blockquote>
'It May Give You The Productivity Some Miss In Other Tablets'
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204425904578074752984926268.html?mod=djemptech_t">The Wall Street Journal's Walter S. Mossberg </a>argues that if you can look past the flaws (mediocre battery life, poor app selection) buyers who want productivity out of their tablets should consider the Surface RT. "Microsoft's Surface is a tablet with some pluses: the major Office apps and nice, optional keyboards," he writes. "If you can live with its tiny number of third-party apps, and somewhat disappointing battery life, it may give you the productivity some miss in other tablets."

Earlier on HuffPost:

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7 features Apple killed off in iTunes 11 - CNET

Apple's latest iTunes brings plenty of new features, but also puts some golden oldies out to pasture.

The software, which went out yesterday as a free update, comes with a redesigned player and a more extensive album view for browsing music. Apple's also more deeply integrated iCloud and its stores within the software.

But some of that march towards simplicity has come at the expense of some old features. Few of the deep-sixed features seem like logical deletions, and others are already bringing ire from longtime users who expected to see them on the other side of the update.

Read on to find out what's gone.

1. Cover Flow
Cover Flow was the headlining feature of iTunes 7 in 2006. The feature put album covers in a "flow" together, that let you flip between them as if they were floating in front of you.

Short of the built-in visualizer, it was really one of iTunes' biggest eye candy features, but it was also a way to show off the fluidity and smarts of the software when browsing through music with a multitouch trackpad. Apple's even been sued over using it, and initially lost a $625 million patent lawsuit until the judge reversed the jury verdict.

Apple completely nixed Cover Flow in iTunes 11 in favor of its new album view, which will expand out an album to show you the songs within when you click on it. The Cover Flow feature remains on iPhones and iPods.

2. The de-duper
In the world of collecting and organizing digital music, you might get a duplicate or a thousand in your library. By default, iTunes won't let you re-add another music file if you've already added it, but accidents happen and large libraries can overlap.

In iTunes 10.7 and earlier, Apple offered a built-in tool that would sniff out duplicates and put them on a single page. It wasn't great, but it was something, and free. In iTunes 11, the feature is missing in action.

Third-party tools like $40 TuneUp can bridge the gap with a feature that finds and deletes duplicates, grabs album art, and fixes metadata. Mac users can also use the $15 Dupin.

3. iTunes DJ
iTunes DJ was a neat feature that would let you put together a never-ending playlist in a pinch. You could even tweak it to make sure it wouldn't play the embarrassing chunks of your music collection by limiting selections to a certain playlist or genre (see above).

What made it really stand out, however, was a feature Apple added in iTunes 8.1 that let other people at your party put in a request for a song from their mobile device, and even vote on upcoming tracks. If a party host agreed, that song would go on, making the whole thing feel a little more social. Google's defunct Nexus Q device (which is currently being reworked) wanted to take that same idea and turn it into a standalone product. In iTunes 11, though, it's MIA.

4. Gapless playback editor
As the name suggests, the gapless playback feature plays songs back to back, without any break -- something that's useful for tracks meant to be in immediate succession. One of the best examples: Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

Curiously enough, gapless playback in iTunes 11 still works just fine. You just can't tweak any of your existing music to make use of the feature from the options editor. That's a bummer for any live-show or big 1970s concept CDs you might have planned on ripping.

What devil magic is this?

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

5. Multiple windows
In an effort to simplify iTunes' user interface, Apple also stripped out one of the features power users loved: the option to break out functions into their own windows.

This was particularly useful if you wanted to do a little multitasking, like listening to Internet radio while going through and producing a playlist, all the while keeping those two actions separate. Another example: shopping in Apple's online store while managing an iOS device.

With iTunes 11 you're limited to just that one window and whatever task is in front of you -- just like on the iPhone or iPad.

Maybe it's not such a bad thing this is gone.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

6. The other sidebar
Apple merely hid the source list sidebar, but you can still get that one back. What we're talking about is the feature that would give you genius recommendations based on any song you were currently on, often polling the iTunes Store for music you might not even have.

On the plus side, this means Apple is not jamming its store down your throat nearly as much, but it's moved some of those recommendations so far out of the way that you really have to hunt to find them.

Apple's effectively replaced this sidebar with a special genius recommendations menu that pops out right next to a song when you click on a context menu. This shows you songs you already have in your library, but doesn't introduce you to new stuff that might be a better match. For that you need to look at the "related" or "listeners also bought" links from within a song's page on iTunes -- assuming it's there.

7. Quick volume control, song progress in mini player
Apple's mini player now does quite a bit more than it used to, such as providing search and displaying album art. Even so, it's missing a few handy things such as the volume knob and progress indicator that would show you how far along in a song you were.

The mini player in iTunes 10.7 (top) and in iTunes 11 (bottom).

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

You can still access the volume settings without leaving the mini player, though it takes an extra step -- you can either click on the AirPlay icon and adjust the master volume, or click on the album art and adjust it from the pop-up window. But the progress bar? That's long gone.

Anything we missed? Leave it in the comments. Also be sure to read CNET's full review of iTunes 11 right here.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Review - SlashGear

With the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 comes the most well-rounded Amazon content delivery system youâ€™ve ever held in two hands â€" but thatâ€™s all it is. This device is being sold as exactly the device it was meant to be: the Amazon Vending Machine HD 8.9, and it takes its job seriously. If you could never bring yourself to pick up an iPad and the Apple-bound content environment that is iTunes, nor could you purchase a Nexus 7 or 10 as connected to Google Play, Amazon might be the third heat you were looking for.

Content Delivery System

Itâ€™s a mistake to compare the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 to any other tablet on the market not inside the Kindle Fire family unless youâ€™re a software developer, a hacker, or youâ€™re just about to jump into the digital content arena and have never before purchased yourself a digital video. With the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, the iPad 4th generation (the one with the Lightning port thatâ€™s in the store now), and the Google Nexus 10, youâ€™ve got extremely high definition displays, and itâ€™s there you should start if youâ€™re demanding to see the best hardware package.

But hereâ€™s the thing: thereâ€™s a massive amount of Android tablets on the market today, each of them able to access the whole of the Google Play store. Thereâ€™s several iPad models in the lineâ€™s history, and a set of rather similar Kindle Fire models tablets out there able to access the Amazon content system â€" but Amazonâ€™s system doesnâ€™t stop at the Kindle Fire. The only system that stops at the hardware (and vice versa) is the iPad.

What the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does is place the Amazon content system directly at the center of a machine thatâ€™s been checked and approved by Amazon itself. With that, itâ€™s been limited to the Amazon content system so that you can be assured an experience that Amazon approves of â€" Apple does that same thing with the iPad. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is indeed a fabulous place to access your Amazon content.

The connectivity on this device is wi-fi but a 4G LTE bit of AT&T mobile data is available from Amazon if you pick up the edition with that ability. The offer behind that LTE is interesting at $50 a year, but with a limit of 250MB of data a month â€" this means youâ€™ll be able to use this device for email using that data, and if you start watching streaming content or downloading media, youâ€™ll go over in no time at all. Watch the overage costs rack up and that smile will turn upside down real quick.

Hardware

The display is extremely nice, bringing on a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels over 8.9 inches, that being 254ppi. Thatâ€™s less than the iPad 4 and less than the Nexus 10, but up at this resolution weâ€™re not able to tell the difference without getting up real, real close â€" closer than weâ€™d get on any normal day, thatâ€™s for sure.

Colors are reproduced extremely accurately and with the darks on this machine being as deep as they are, weâ€™ve been using this machine as a content machine via the miniHDMI as a top pick. Downloading an HD video from Amazonâ€™s collection and playing it on the device or through the microHDMI port to an HDTV makes for a massively impressive experience â€" amongst the best on the market if not straight up the best there is with a wire.

The speakers on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are Dolby powered and stereo â€" bringing on two channels for real. The speakers on this device are loud enough that youâ€™ll not want to be a room away from a sleeping baby when them turned all the way up â€" youâ€™ll wake that baby up. Itâ€™s unfortunate that theyâ€™re facing backwards as most of the tablet universe still has them aiming, but holding the tablet with two hands has the sound bouncing off your palms â€" thatâ€™s good enough for most.

Battery life on this device is rather good, especially since youâ€™re only working with wi-fi connectivity at this time. LTE might make you bust down a bit quicker when it comes around, but for now youâ€™ve got a couple of days at least with daily usage as a game-player and TV show downloader/watcher. Chatting on Skype (which is, mind you, generally OK but certainly not the nicest Skype experience on the market by a long shot due to less-than-perfect video quality) will drain your battery quickest.

Thereâ€™s also a rather nice case/cover that youâ€™ll probably want to pick up from Amazon if/when you purchase the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Itâ€™s made by Amazon and looks like what youâ€™re seeing above, complete with a magnetic â€œsmartâ€ off/on function (as the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does indeed have that sensor) and has a rubbery bumper that allows it to stand up like youâ€™re seeing here too.

Performance

With the processor mentioned above youâ€™ve got a suitable environment in which you can play most if not all of the most high-powered games on the market. What youâ€™ll see in the video below is Asphalt 7, a racing game, opened and tested in a real basic way just so you can see how quick everything renders out and responds â€" just as nice as the nicest devices on the market today.

Weâ€™ve heard of some people having small problems with the user interface and non-immediate opening of apps and switching between screens, but any such problems were negligible from our perspective. This is a high-quality device and Amazon has created a user interface over the top of Android that should do the original creators proud.

Youâ€™ve got a processor from Texas Instruments thatâ€™s one of the rarest on the market today, the OMAP4470 dual-core used only on the Nook HD family, Samsung Galaxy Premier, the BlackBerry Dev Alpha B, and a variety of oddities. This processor works perfectly well for this device, comparing in performance with the other dual-core processor on them market in a very general sense to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor weâ€™ve seen on a large number of smartphones this year including the Galaxy S III and HTC One series.

The processing power here does not bring us as ultra-swift a system as weâ€™re seeing on the Nexus 10 or the iPad 4th gen â€" but the difference is invisible if youâ€™re not using both one next to the other or doing extensive processor tests in a lab. Once youâ€™ve got it in the lab, on the other hand, youâ€™ll find the device ranking up on systems such as AnTuTu benchmark system with a score of 7247 â€" nowhere near the quad-core competition.

Store Access

If youâ€™re not planning on purchasing videos from Amazon, you donâ€™t want to use Amazonâ€™s system for music, youâ€™ve got no intention of purchasing any ebooks from Amazon, and you donâ€™t want to use Amazonâ€™s App Store, this is not the tablet for you. This unit is first and foremost a window into the Amazon library of digital content, and youâ€™re going to have to pay for it.

The Amazon store exists at all corners in this device, and the different kinds of media youâ€™re consuming here sit right up front and center. The first display you see on this device once youâ€™ve started it up is a giant set of icons in a side-scrolling gallery that says quite clearly â€œyouâ€™re about to startâ€ rather than â€œwelcome to your Amazon tablet.â€ If thereâ€™s a scale from tablet interfaces that goes from standard computer to window, it starts at Android, moves up to the iPad, and ends at the Amazon Kindle Fire â€" this is not a device youâ€™re going to use like your notebook or your desktop, itâ€™s a consumption window.

X-Ray

Thereâ€™s a brand overlay that exists between two different bits of in-content excellence that come with this device working with content from Amazon called X-Ray. This system works in videos as a direct connection to IMDB, showing the actors that are working in essentially any given scene and with books showing keywords and connections to them throughout the story youâ€™re reading â€" find all the Ali Babas in the story and link in to them with ease.

This system works with a lovely collection of ebooks and videos coming from Amazon â€" not every single piece of content coming from Amazon, but certainly enough to warrant calling it a great selling point for this tablet. Weâ€™re always wondering who the heck that guy is getting his face cut off by the monster in the horror film scene weâ€™re watching â€" now we know!

Kindle FreeTime

The folks at Amazon have come up with an extremely simple home screen replacement app that brings forth an environment for your kids. This environment is created by you, the parent, and is so simple that you canâ€™t mess it up. You open up Kindle FreeTime and select the profile you want, deciding there what settings you want your child to work with and what apps/media theyâ€™re going to be able to see, and bang, youâ€™re done.

From there the person in that profile â€" child or not â€" needs a password to exit again. Thatâ€™s so simple that we wish Amazon would release FreeTime for the Google Play app store â€" please? Pretty please? For now youâ€™ll need a Kindle Fire to use Kindle FreeTime â€" and for some parents that might be a deal-maker.

Wrap-up

If youâ€™re deeply invested in the Amazon universe for content, this device is the best content delivery system youâ€™re going to be able to buy today. Itâ€™s the biggest tablet Amazon makes at the moment and gives you access to all of your Amazon-held content in high definition, top to bottom. Itâ€™s not an Android tablet (as far as the Google Play store is concerned), itâ€™s not an iPad, and itâ€™s not a Windows device. Itâ€™s a unique tablet thatâ€™s deeply engrained in the Android environment.

The price of this device in its wi-fi configuration â€" that being the one weâ€™re looking at here in this review â€" is $299 USD, and for that price thereâ€™s no competition unless you want a smaller display and a different content environment. For Amazon users, thereâ€™s nothing else â€" unless of course you consider the smaller version: see our Kindle Fire HD 7 full review as well.

Report: Microsoft Slashes Orders for Surface RT Tablets in 2012 - PC Magazine

Unboxing the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT

Facing lackluster demand for its new Surface RT tablets, Microsoft has reportedly slashed 2012 orders from its Asian manufacturers from 4 million to 2 million units.

The reportedly sluggish start for Microsoft's first ARM-based tablet might prompt it to lower the price of the Intel-based Surface Pro due out in January, according to DigiTimes. Citing unnamed supply chain sources, the paper said Friday that Surface RT orders have been halved through the end of December.

"While we have nothing new to share regarding supply or sales at this time, this report is inconsistent with comments Steve Ballmer made several weeks ago regarding Microsoft ramping up supply and distribution for Surface with Windows RT," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "As Steve mentioned, the reception to Surface has been 'fantastic,' which is why he also stated that 'soon, it will be available in more countries and in more stores.'"

The other makers of Windows RT-based tabletsÂ—Asus, Samsung, and DellÂ—are also experiencing "weak" consumer demand for those devices, according to DigiTimes.

The Taiwanese tech site said sources suggested that Microsoft might be considering bringing out its x86-based Surface Pro before the end of the year, instead of in January.

Redmond could also be contemplating a price reduction for the Surface Pro, according to the tech site. Microsoft announced this week that prices for the tablet would start at $899 for a 64GB version, with a 128GB model also available for $999.

That pricing structure has come under considerable fire from critics. The 64GB version of the Wi-Fi-only Surface Pro is currently priced at $200 more than Apple's fourth-generation Wi-Fi-only iPad with 64GB of onboard storage. The 4G-LTE-enabled version of the 64GB iPad, priced at $829, is $70 cheaper than the 64GB Surface Pro.

With Apple adding the iPad mini to its already potent iPad stable and Android-based slates beginning to make some real noise at the value end of the market, Microsoft is already facing an uphill battle in the consumer tablet arena. Pricing the Surface Pro higher than practically any other equivalent product out there was a puzzling move, according to Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst for Moor Insights & Strategy.

"Microsoft needs to be doing everything they can to project an image of success for Surface and Windows 8. The $899 starting price for Surface Pro will significantly limit penetration," Moorhead said. "Microsoft needs a starting configuration at $699 to drive significant volume and then have a step-up configuration to $899."

Redmond appears to be hoping that consumers will see enough difference between the capabilities of its Surface Pro products running a full PC operating system and other tablets running mobile OSes that direct price comparisons become less meaningful.

As per its national ad campaign featuring the Surface RT converting from a slate to a laptop configuration and back again, Microsoft is also pitching the tablet as a very different animal from products like the iPad in terms of how it can be used.

But the accessories required to make the tablet a hybrid computing device aren't all tossed in with the base Surface package. The Surface Pro comes with a Surface pen with Palm Block technology, but Microsoft's Touch Cover and Type Cover will cost consumers an additional $119.99 and $129.99, respectively.

Microsoft also has yet to establish that very many consumers want a full-blown PC experience on a tablet rather than a tool for basic media consumption, simple gaming, and the like.

For more, see PCMag's full review of the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT and the slideshow above.

For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.

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iTunes 11 tips and tricks - CNET

With the release of iTunes 11, Apple has made some significant adjustments to the media player. While Apple has removed some items including Cover Flow and iTunes DJ, it has offered a number of other features such as a new "Up Next" playlist feature and a radically altered MiniPlayer window. Even though there are some major changes to the program, the essence of iTunes is still there; however, there are a few hiccups you might run into when using it that require small behavior adjustments on your part to get by. This might be as simple as clicking a new option or selecting a feature from a menu.

When playing songs, the standard options of double-clicking a title or selecting it and pressing the Play button will get you going, and changing to a new song in a similar manner should work as well; however, Apple's new Up Next feature now takes priority when put in use, so this behavior changes if you use this feature.

The iTunes MiniPlayer gives you access to the new Up Next feature.

For example, if you have an album such as Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" playing and in the middle wish to have Michael Jackson's "Bad" be the next song, then you can right-click this song or click the arrow next to its name and choose "Play Next" or "Add to Up Next" to add it to the Up Next list and have it or others play when the current song is over before iTunes returns to "The Four Seasons." You can also add songs to this playlist directly by holding the Option key and clicking the plus button that appears next to its name in the iTunes library.

If you try this feature then the prioritization of Up Next means iTunes will present you with a warning to either play through the current song or clear the Up Next list if you try to change songs. Without being familiar with Up Next, this warning at first may not make much sense at first, but simply means you have already created a temporary playlist of songs to play next. While this warning provides the options for managing this situation, until you get used to Up Next you may encounter this error a few times.

Another feature that Apple has changed a little is iTunes' Genius options for creating suggested playlists based on your available music and the current song choice. To do this, simply click the arrow next to a song name (or right-click it) and choose "Start Genius" and a new active playlist will be generated. Alternatively, you can choose the "Genius Mixes" option in the sidebar to get a number of such playlists based on the genres in your library. When played, the songs in these playlists can be managed in the Up Next menu.

Some of the main new features in iTunes can be accessed and adjusted in these areas. Hold the Option key to reveal the plus button for adding songs to the Up Next list (accessed at the arrow), and change search behaviors in the menu for the search bar. The iTunes interface can also be reverted to its classic look in the program's View menu.

iTunes' search feature has also undergone some changes, where it now by default lists results in a submenu of the search field. This menu offers a similar approach to the Up Next menu, where you can click the plus symbol next to a song or album listing to add it to the Up Next playlist, or click the arrow next to the song for more options such as creating a Genius playlist based off the song choice.

If you click the search menu's spyglass then you will see options to limit searches to song name, composer, album, and other criteria, but in addition you will see a "Search Entire Library" option that is enabled by default. This feature activates the new menu-based search results, but if instead you prefer the older filtering option where search results are revealed in your library, then select this feature to uncheck and disable it.

Despite the new features and approaches in iTunes 11, the program still retains a number of features of the older version of iTunes that are simply hidden or disabled by default, which means that if you would prefer some of the older behaviors of iTunes 10 then you can still enable some of them. Granted features like Cover Flow and iTunes DJ are no longer here, but in terms of the interface you can tweak it a bit to be the similar to the prior iTunes version.

By holding the Option key when the program starts, you can choose or create a new music library to use. This feature has been kept with iTunes despite some other significant changes to the program.

The first is to change the search behavior as mentioned above to filter the iTunes library instead of providing a results menu. Additionally, in terms of the interface, you can enable the iTunes sidebar from the View menu (which now returns colored icons). You can also access the same menu to reveal the status bar at the bottom of iTunes. Unfortunately some features like the background in Grid view cannot be changed to darker colors that some people prefer, but while this may be doable by tweaking hidden preference settings for iTunes 11, so far the options for doing this have not been revealed.

iTunes also retains some troubleshooting features that can be useful for managing your iTunes library or add-ons you have installed for iTunes. By holding the Option key when loading the program you will get a window that allows you to select a new iTunes library or create one, which can be convenient for keeping songs separate. For example, if you use GarageBand to compose music and save compiled songs to iTunes, then you might wish to have these be separate from your other music, so this option is great to have. In addition to library selection, by holding Option-Command at launch you will load iTunes in Safe Mode to disable third-party plug-ins that might cause problems with the program.

A final feature in iTunes that, while not new is perhaps oddly amusing and fun, is to choose the About iTunes option from the iTunes menu, and then by pressing the Option key you can reverse the scrolling direction of the program's credits. This is perhaps one of the most useless features of the program, but if you find yourself extremely bored at any point then you can use this to watch the credits scroll up and down to your heart's content.

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LA Auto Show 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle

The winged "Smart forjeremy" special edition Smart Car from Daimler AG is unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto show in Los Angeles on media preview day, November 28, 2012. Smart forjeremy is the creation of fashion designer Jeremy Scott, who conceived of the special edition car with fiberglass wings which double as tail lights. The LA Auto Show opens to the public on November 30 and runs through December 9. Photo: Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images / SF

The winged "Smart forjeremy" special edition Smart Car from Daimler...