TidBITS Issue #927

Tech News | 05 May 2008 | Listen

Microsoft Pulls Yahoo Acquisition Offer

So much for that $50 billion... Microsoft has rescinded its offer for Yahoo after upping the offer price to $33 per share, $4 below the $37 per share that Yahoo's board of directors wanted.Show full article

Tech News | 01 May 2008 | Listen

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MozyHome for Mac Online Backup Service Reaches Version 1.0

by Joe Kissell

MozyHome, an online backup service for Macs, has finally reached version 1.0 after more than a year of beta testing. The service offers unlimited online storage for only $4.95 per month.Show full article

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Online backup provider Mozy (now part of EMC, which also owns Retrospect) has announced that their Mac software has reached version 1.0 after more than a year of public beta testing (see "Two Online Backup Services Announce Public Betas," 2007-04-30). MozyHome for Mac offers unlimited online backups for a flat fee of $4.95 per month (a free 2 GB account is also available). The Mac MozyHome software is a 4.8 MB download.

MozyHome uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption for your files as well as 128-bit SSL to protect data while in transit. During incremental updates, the software copies only the portions of files that have changed (block-level incremental backup), reducing the time backups take to complete - a particularly welcome feature for those who want to back up large files that change often, such as Entourage databases and disk images used by virtualization software. Mozy also stores multiple versions of each backed-up file so that you can restore it to its state from any point in the past 30 days. Users can restore files using the Mac client software, download them from the company's secure Web site, or order DVDs (at an extra charge) containing their data.

Version 1.0 contains many changes from the beta versions, including support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mail messages, and files with resource forks. Formerly, backups ran automatically, whenever files changed; now, you can opt instead to run backups on an explicit schedule. You can also now throttle the program's bandwidth (at all times or during certain hours). In addition, version 1.0 features a long list of bug fixes and performance improvements.

MozyHome, as the name suggests, is for individual users. Mozy also announced that business versions of its service, MozyPro and MozyEnterprise, will become available later this year. Pricing details were not released.

I've become increasingly enthusiastic about online backup services as their costs have come down and feature sets have improved (see "Online Backup Options Expand," 2007-04-09), though speed will likely always be a concern, given the significant amount of data most of us have to back up and the limited upstream bandwidth of most consumer-level broadband services. I'll be interested to see how the new version of Mozy stacks up against competitor CrashPlan, which has so far held the lead in both breadth of features and performance.

Entertainment | 05 May 2008 | Listen

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Apple TV Gains Movie Purchases and DVD Date Releases

by Jeff Carlson

Owners of the Apple TV can now purchase movies directly from the entertainment device, and do so from an expanded collection of movies. Also, several studios are making rentals available on iTunes and the Apple TV the same day as the movies are released on DVD.Show full article

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The Apple TV, the company's "hobby" (according to Steve Jobs) media playback device, added to its appeal last week with a pair of movie-related announcements.

First, it's now possible to purchase movies directly from the Apple TV; before, they could be bought only from the iTunes Store on a computer. Movies for sale are available only in standard-definition resolution, not HD, even when an HD rental is available for the same title.

This feature appeared briefly several weeks ago, inconveniently the day I submitted the final version of my latest book, "The Apple TV Pocket Guide, Second Edition," to Peachpit Press. I wasn't able to successfully purchase anything on my Apple TV at the time, however, and Apple didn't get back to me with an answer before the capability disappeared.

The other news from last week goes beyond the Apple TV. A collection of movie studios announced that movies would be available for the Apple TV and other on-demand services on the same date that DVDs are released. Previously, Apple's position was that movies would be available for rent or purchase 30 days after the DVD release date (no doubt a limitation imposed by the studios at the time). The participating studios include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment, and First Look Studios.

The new policy has been slowly adopted for weeks. The Oscar-nominated film "Michael Clayton" appeared for rent at the iTunes Store and on the Apple TV when the DVD was made available, but the timing also coincided with the Academy Awards. I'm guessing the success of that movie on iTunes (where it remained the top rental for several weeks) helped convince other studios that the 30-day limitation was silly.

Could this be the start of a clue among the movie studios? I'm not holding my breath. But it does show that they're finally realizing that although the main content may be the same - the movie - a DVD and a digital download are different offerings. People who purchase DVDs want higher video quality, something they can grab off the shelf that doesn't require an Internet connection, and the multitude of extras available on some DVDs. People who rent or purchase movies from direct services like the Apple TV are looking for near-instant gratification (depending on the capacity of one's Internet connection) and, most of all, convenience.

iPhone iPad iPod | 29 Apr 2008 | Listen

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AT&T Adds iPhone Plan for Hearing, Speech Impaired

by Glenn Fleishman

A new AT&T service plan for hearing- and speech-impaired customers reduces the monthly cost of the iPhone if you don't need any or much voice service.Show full article

Media Creation | 01 May 2008 | Listen

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Lovingly Craft Your HTML

by Glenn Fleishman

Writing HTML by hand has the same relationship to graphical Web authoring tools as a chisel has to a jackhammer.Show full article

Inside TidBITS | 05 May 2008 | Listen

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DealBITS Discount: Save 20% on HoudahGeo

by Adam C. Engst

If you didn't win a copy of HoudahGeo in last week's DealBITS drawing, don't fret, since you can still save 20 percent on the geocoding software through 18-May-08.Show full article

Entertainment | 30 Apr 2008 | Listen

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Thank You for Not Playing: Microsoft Expires DRMed Music

by Glenn Fleishman

Microsoft has chosen to cut the legs out from under customers who bought music from the MSN Music store up until late 2006. Starting 31-Aug-08, that music can no longer be played on computers that weren't previously authorized.Show full article

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Microsoft plans to break their customers' ability to play MSN Music-purchased songs on computers other than those that are currently authorized after 31-Aug-08. When the Zune was introduced in late 2006, Microsoft abandoned its long-time PlaysForSure digital rights management (DRM) system that embeds information in media to control playback. You can read a lovely, snarky annotation of Microsoft's letter to its MSN Music purchasers at eWeek Microsoft Watch.

The Zune Marketplace uses a different DRM system that's compatible with only the Zune. Microsoft currently sells no unprotected music, while Amazon's entire digital music catalog is DRM-free, and a subset of the iTunes Store is sold without device and playback locks. Geoff Duncan wrote about the new and old DRM systems in "Of the Zune, DRM, and Universal Music," 2006-11-13.

Users can continue to play MSN Music audio indefinitely on any machine authorized before 31-Aug-08, and can transfer and authorize songs on up to 5 computers total for any one song until that date. However, because Microsoft's system works on a per-song basis, if someone transferred a large library to another computer, they would need to authorize each song - one source says by starting to play each song, which must be an overstatement - before the August 31st deadline. After that point, music will continue to play only on previously authorized computers. Anyone forced to reinstall Windows, upgrade, or add a new machine is out of luck.

Microsoft suggests burning songs to audio CDs, although it doesn't mention the necessary second part of that transaction, which is to rip the music back as unprotected MP3, AAC, or even lossless music files.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has challenged Microsoft's action as part of their long-running battle against DRM. The EFF is not against copyright, ownership, control of usage, royalties, or reasonable limitations. Rather, they believe DRM is an ineffective method to provide such controls, because DRM punishes only those who opt into it by broadly restricting personal use rights that are encoded in both law and judicial decisions. These rights include being able to make reliable backups, play media on any device one owns, and choose when and how to pause and resume playback; various DRM systems restrict different sets of personal use rights. [Editor's note: For a detailed academic look at the implications of how the content industries are encapsulating intentionally fluid laws into rigid DRM technologies, see Tarleton Gillespie's "Wired Shut." -Adam]

Microsoft is engaged in what many opposed to DRM view as the worst-case scenario: a company sells a lot of media with DRM, then prevents users from continuing to use the media within the constraints imposed on the system, and offers no recompense or reasonable option to work around the shutdown.

What's odd, of course, is that Microsoft is neither going out of business (obviously) nor shutting down MSN. Rather, they made a business decision to shift their entire protected music approach to a new one because PlaysForSure wasn't reliable enough for them to eat their own dog food. This also left in the lurch lots of their partners who had stuck with PlaysForSure through thick and thin.

It's a crummy decision. Microsoft could have used technology to unlock all the music purchased, even if that required them to make additional payments to the copyright holders. They could have chosen to run their DRM authorization servers indefinitely. They could have done lots of things. Instead, they chose the worst possible solution.

The EFF suggests that Microsoft either refund all purchases or provide DRM-free replacements. They also make the implicit point that given the aggressive tactics used by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which includes filing suits against dead people and grandmothers without computers, Microsoft should provide full documentation of purchases so that if their users choose to burn music to CD, they could later prove that they legitimately purchased that music.

I don't know of any individuals who enjoy DRM; this move certainly strengthens the hands of all DRM opponents by providing a case in point: the day the music died.

Media Creation | 30 Apr 2008 | Listen

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ScreenFlow: Screencasting on Steroids

by Matt Neuburg

Make a movie of what's happening on your computer screen - how snazzy can that be? With ScreenFlow, it can be very snazzy indeed. This program has knocked my socks off - with my shoes on.Show full article

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There used to be an advertisement - I forget what it was for, exactly - that portrayed the user sitting in an armchair facing his computer, with his hair, his dog, and everything else in the room streaming backward, blown by the metaphorical force of whatever was happening on the computer screen. Well, that user is me using Vara Software's ScreenFlow. It isn't just good: it's eye-opening. I quite frankly had no idea that an application could look and act like this. This program has knocked my socks off - with my shoes on.

ScreenFlow makes screencasts. A screencast, in this context, is simply a screen capture movie - a movie of your computer screen, capturing what you do (and, optionally, what you say). This might not seem sexy to you, but please accept, for purposes of discussion, that to some of us, screencasts are very, very important. As a documentation writer, I have to explain to users how to work with software. As a beta tester, I have to describe to a developer how to trigger a bug. As a dutiful son, I have to show my mother how to remove Bookmarks Bar items in Safari. In all these cases and many more, I find that one moving picture is often worth ten thousand words.

In the past, I always made screencasts with Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro X. But without prejudice to Snapz Pro - a wonderful utility, which I use constantly - it has never worked as well as it should have for movies. It has no option to compress sound, so narrated movies are always huge; therefore, I always have to recompress afterwards (I use the wonderful QTAmateur for that, as I'm too stingy to pay for QuickTime Pro). Plus, I've never found a setting where onscreen text appears in crisp focus in the resulting movie.

With ScreenFlow, these problems are gone; but that doesn't begin to explain what's great about ScreenFlow. Let me talk you through the process of making a screen capture movie with this amazing program.

Ready When You Are, Mr. DeMille -- With ScreenFlow running, and with your recording options set up, you signal to ScreenFlow that you want it to start recording. (You can use a status menu, the Dock menu, or a global keyboard shortcut for this.) Your screen is momentarily covered by a dark transparent curtain, along with a window that counts down ("5, 4, 3, 2, 1") to the moment when recording will start. The curtain vanishes, and the "camera" is rolling. You do and say whatever you want to make a movie of, and then signal to ScreenFlow to stop recording (in any of the same ways whereby you signaled it to start).

Now, with most screen capture programs, that's effectively the end. (Snapz Pro, for example, when you finish recording, puts up a window where you can enter your QuickTime export settings; at this point, you either save the movie or you don't, and that's that.) But with ScreenFlow, things are only beginning. You suddenly find yourself rocketed into a window that looks very much like iMovie HD - the good old iMovie, the one with timelines at the bottom, remember? There, top and center, is the screen capture you just made. Below it are simple video controls to play, rewind, and advance the movie, and a sound level meter. Below that are your timelines: typically, one for the video, one for the narration.

What's happening is that you're now in a document, within a movie editing application. ScreenFlow is offering you a chance to edit your movie before exporting it. You can edit now, or you can just save the document (and even quit ScreenFlow) and return to it later. What sort of editing can you do within ScreenFlow? Well, for starters:

You can select a region of the timeline and cut it - good for removing that unnecessary throat-clearing at the start of the movie.
You can split a timeline, grow or shrink a timeline segment, and move timeline segments around. You might use this to improve the synchronization of narration and video, or to remove poor narration.
You can add existing media, such as MP3 music or a JPEG picture, to the document. Newly added media appear in a media area at the upper right, much as in iMovie, ready to be dragged into a timeline. Thus you might add background music, or a title.
You can create a new recording - sound, video, or both - and add it to the file as new media. Thus you could redo segments of the narration, or possibly the entire narration (in fact, you can watch the existing video in ScreenFlow while recording new narration).
You can crop the movie frame. Unlike, say, Snapz Pro, where you specify a screen region before recording, ScreenFlow records the whole screen and lets you crop later. Even when you crop the movie frame, ScreenFlow still remembers the entire captured screen (this point will be important later).
You can make other adjustments to your timeline media. For example, you might alter the audio volume, or change the video scale. You can also change video transparency (good for that title we added earlier).
You can make adjustments to video media within the movie frame. For example, suppose that as you recorded the screen, you also had ScreenFlow record an image of you, using your computer's built-in iSight. (Oh, did I neglect to mention that you could do this? Silly me.) When you watch the resulting movie in ScreenFlow, the image of you is a small frame at the lower right, superimposed on the image of your computer screen. If that isn't where you want it, you can reposition it. You can also resize it, rotate it in three dimensions, and even add a reflection and a shadow. But please, don't get carried away. Okay, fine, get carried away!

Lights, Camera, Actions -- But wait, there's more - a lot more. You can also add "Actions" to your movie. To understand, imagine that you are a music engineer. As the musicians play, you are twiddling dials to raise and lower the sound level on various tracks. Now imagine that this twiddling is itself somehow recorded. That's what an Action is: it's a specification of a twiddle, to be applied as the movie plays.

For example, earlier I said that you could alter the audio volume. But what if you want to duck the audio volume - lowering it, not as a whole, but starting some distance into the movie? Simple. Position the playhead at the point where you want the volume to duck, select the audio clip in its timeline, and click Add Audio Action. Now lower the audio volume with the slider. Done! To change the rate at which the volume reduces, widen or narrow the Audio Action, which appears as an overlay on the audio timeline.

You can do the same thing with video. Recall my example where there's a small image of you superimposed on the image of your computer screen, and you reposition it. If you reposition it as part of a Video Action, the resulting movie will show the image of you moving from one spot to another.

Similarly, earlier I mentioned that the whole screen is captured. But suppose you want to zoom in on one area of the screen, or pan a cropped movie from one area of the screen to another. Again, you can do this with a Video Action. To pan a cropped movie, for example, you'd add the Video Action, then slide the crop region to the desired part of the screen.

Thus, by splitting your video into multiple clips and using Video Actions, possibly along with additional media, you can get some very cool transition effects even though ScreenFlow lacks QuickTime "transitions" in the iMovie sense.

I'm Ready For My Close-up -- But wait, there's still more. It turns out that while it was capturing your screen, ScreenFlow was also recording a lot of extra information. You can manipulate that information, as desired, in parts of the movie.

For example, ScreenFlow has remembered all the keys you pressed during the screen capture. Suppose you want all or part of your movie to show the viewer what those keys were. To do so, you add a different kind of Action - a Screen Recording Action. One of the options here is "Show Keys Pressed"; the result is that, once this Action takes effect, key presses are represented textually in a rectangle in the middle of the movie.

Similarly, ScreenFlow has remembered the cursor position and mouse clicks throughout the screen capture, so if you want an enlarged cursor in your movie, or if you want mouse clicks represented visually or audibly, you can have that too. Thus, instead of using another utility such as Mousepose and setting it up beforehand to get these effects, I can just make my screen capture and then include the effects later.

Coolest of all the effects you can add during editing are "callouts." Here, a region of the movie is isolated, to call the viewer's attention to it; the rest of the screen can be darkened and blurred, and the isolated region can be enlarged, as if someone had stuck a magnifying glass over it. You can isolate in this way a circular area around the mouse cursor or a rectangular area matching the frontmost window portrayed in the movie.

Closing Credits -- When you're ready to export your movie, you have access to the full range of QuickTime compression codecs and settings for video and audio, as well as scaling; you can also elect to chapterize your movie using markers you've placed in the timeline. This is only an export and your ScreenFlow document is still a saved document, so if you're not satisfied with the resulting movie - the exported movie is too big, the scaling is too small, you'd like to change some editing decisions, whatever - you can always alter the document, export again with different settings, and so on. And by the way, the exported movies are gorgeously, perfectly focused; the viewer can see every detail of what was on your screen.

ScreenFlow is a stunning, clean, clear, beautifully designed application. I understood most of it within about 10 minutes of trying the demo (whose limitation is that exports are watermarked); but the application also includes very good online documentation, including a tutorial that corresponds to a tutorial document embedded in the application. Also, there are (of course!) some online screencast tutorials, created with (of course!!) ScreenFlow itself.

ScreenFlow costs $99.99. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, a G4 or better (or Intel), and Quartz Extreme capability; and the availability of some features may depend upon the quality of your graphics processor. The demo is a 4.7MB download.

Networking | 27 Apr 2008 | Listen

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Getting to Know the Nabaztag Internet Rabbit

by Joe Kissell

The Nabaztag is a plastic rabbit with motorized ears, blinking lights, and a Wi-Fi connection. Is it a silly piece of kitsch for people with too much money on their hands or a brilliant glimpse into the future of smart objects?Show full article

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Shortly after I moved to France last year, Glenn Fleishman offered to introduce me to his contacts at a company called Violet that's based here in Paris. (And thus, by the way, it's pronounced "vee-oh-LAY.") Violet is best known as the developer of the Nabaztag Internet-enabled rabbit, and this product sounded sufficiently wacky that I was delighted to pay its creators a visit. It turned out they're located just down the street from me, about a ten-minute walk away, and I'd unknowingly passed their offices dozens of times already. So I set up an appointment, and Morgen and I met with Rafi Haladjian (one of the Nabaztag's inventors) and Jean-Fran├ºois Kitten (yes, apparently his real name) for a personal, hands-on demo of the Wi-Fi bunny.

That was more than seven months ago. Ever since, I've intended to write about the Nabaztag and the philosophy behind it, but every time I've started pondering what to say, I've gotten profoundly stuck. Even now, I'm not entirely sure what to think of it. I believe I could argue with equal conviction that this device is surprisingly useful or a ridiculous waste of $165. In any case, there's certainly more to this gadget than meets the eye. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your point of view), little appears to have changed in the Internet rabbit arena since last fall, so I believe my observations are still pertinent.

Nabaztag Basics -- First things first: how does one pronounce this strange word? I wrote it phonetically in my notes the way its designer said it - roughly, "NAB-us-tag," where the stress is on the first syllable and the middle vowel is a schwa. It's the Armenian word for "rabbit," and it seems to make as little sense to French-speaking people as it does in English.

In case you've not kept up with the news in rabbit technology over the past few years, let me give you a quick description of the Nabaztag. It's a rounded conical hunk of plastic about 9 inches (23 cm) tall (including the two protruding ears), with eyes and a nose painted on front, a belly-button microphone, and a single button on top - but no other visible user interface. You plug in the AC adapter (it doesn't work with Energizer batteries, sorry) and it connects to the nearest open Wi-Fi network. (There are provisions to use password-protected networks, too, though they require a bit of fiddling to set up.) When the bunny powers on, several multicolored LEDs glow from behind the plastic case, and the motorized ears spin around in a manner that would surely be quite painful for a real rabbit.

Then you go to a Web page to register your adopted rabbit - yes, they say "adopt" to mean "buy" - and specify a bunch of preferences and personal information such as where you live and what kinds of news and music you're interested in. From then on, your Nabaztag becomes an interactive network appliance that can do any or all of a long list of things. For example, various combinations of lights (solid or blinking, in different configurations and colors) could indicate:

The current or predicted weather
The status of stocks or other financial indices of interest to you
The air quality outside
How many new email messages you have in your inbox
Whether someone has left you a voice message

The built-in microphone and speaker extend the list of capabilities much further. To mention just a few examples, the Nabaztag can:

Read headlines from your favorite RSS feeds in a synthesized voice
Play Internet radio stations or podcasts
Announce the current time periodically
Act as a non-real-time intercom with another Nabaztag - press the button, record a message, and it's sent to someone else's rabbit for playback
Respond to spoken commands (a recording of your voice is sent to Violet's servers, where it's run through a speech recognition algorithm and the resulting command is sent back to your Nabaztag)

Oh, and let's not forget the ears! Normally they spin at various times without any particular meaning. But you can configure them in arbitrary positions and send them to your friend's Nabaztag (alone or along with a voice message) - and your friend's Nabaztag's ears will assume the same positions. (For example, point both ears down to mean "I'm sad" or whatever.) Hey, who needs video, voice, text, or even flashing lights when we have digital semaphores! For some reason, this capability tickled me more than anything else the little bunny can do. (Oh, and if you pair your Nabaztag with someone else's to "hard-wire" messages like ear positions between the two rabbits, that's called marrying them. Yep. To the best of my knowledge, though, they only reproduce within Violet's factory.)

Last but not least is a built-in RFID reader. The idea is that you buy special RFID tags called "Ztamps" to stick on your keys, glasses, and other objects. When these objects come into proximity with your Nabaztag's nose, it notices they're there and can take whatever action you want, such as playing a sound or sending a message. As far as I can tell, the Ztamps aren't yet available separately, but Violet does sell a variety of Ztamp-equipped children's books (in French only, for now). When your child holds one of these books up to the Nabaztag, the rabbit reads the book aloud. That's right: your robot rabbit can relieve you of the tedium of bonding with your kids by reading them their bedtime story. (I have yet to see a child interact with a Nabaztag in person, and I'm thinking it's possibly best that way.)

Although the Nabaztag comes pre-configured to deliver certain kinds of information right out of the burrow - um, box - the company expects and encourages extensive personalization and even hacking; they also offer an API for third-party developers to create their own applications and services. (Some Nabaztag services are free, by the way, while others require a paid subscription.) There's even a healthy aftermarket for replacement ears in a variety of colors and patterns.

By the way, I should mention that the current generation of Internet rabbit is called "Nabaztag/tag" - I guess that's Armenian rabbit-speak for "rabbit 2.0" - the original Nabaztag, which is still available for about $95, doesn't include the microphone or RFID reader, and doesn't support WPA encryption or streaming MP3 audio. The company representatives I spoke to said that future generations would be designated with additional "/tag" endings. Perhaps they'll come with a selection of RFID Nabaztag/tag/tag tags.

Down the Rabbit Hole -- All right, so you can buy this groovy little bunny appliance thingy that can do a million and one things, but who really needs one? The candid answer, according to Violet's Haladjian, is no one. He'd be the first to admit, he says, that Internet rabbits aren't going to change the world, that he's not looking to build the future of his company on plastic bunnies. The Nabaztag is simply the first example of a larger idea Violet is trying to promote - that of leveraging the power of ubiquitous wireless Internet access to turn ordinary objects into smart objects. We're accustomed, he explained, to having a computer screen (or, at least, some kind of screen) mediate our experience of the Internet. But although computers make good all-purpose tools, there's life beyond the PC - and there are other, simpler and more direct ways to use that near-universal connectivity. So think of the Nabaztag as a rather elaborate proof of concept for a future in which lots of friendly little objects can do lots of useful things by virtue of being connected to each other and to a global source of infinite data. Violet's ambition is to connect everything in the world, and they're starting by connecting small, familiar-ish objects.

That word "friendly," by the way, is key. As an example, Haladjian cited home automation systems, which have been around for decades, but which, he says, are still complex and intimidating enough to scare away many people. A little rabbit with funny ears and a single button, on the other hand, isn't intimidating. You interact with it in natural ways like talking to it and holding objects in front of it rather than by connecting wires and looking at a screen and typing or mousing. So it hints at a more user-friendly future of invisible computing in which much simpler objects with embedded computers replace many of the functions for which we currently rely on full-blown desktop or laptop computers.

This idea, of course, is not unique to Violet or the Nabaztag. For example, a company called Ambient offers a number of small Internet-enabled devices, such as the $150 Ambient Orb, which glows in different colors to indicate information like traffic, weather, and stock prices; and the $124.99 Ambient Umbrella, whose handle glows when rain is expected. You can buy standalone devices to stream Internet radio, and even the Apple TV is a type of Internet appliance. (There's also the $179.95 Chumby, a little Wi-Fi-connected gadget that can serve up the time, weather, traffic, news, music, and so on - though unlike the others mentioned here, it still relies on a conventional LCD screen to display data, making it more like a keyboard-less computer than an appliance; see "Chumby: The Beanbag Computer," 2007-12-14.) In any case, the Nabaztag is the only one I can think of with anthropomorphic (or, uh, kuniklomorphic) characteristics.

The question is why someone might find a Nabaztag (or any other such appliance) worth buying when their existing, conventional computer can do almost all the same things (though I've never seen a Mac with motorized ears). The Violet reps suggested that the Nabaztag is especially good for applications that aren't worth your full attention - for providing information in the background, perhaps even while you're focused on some other task on your computer. I think that's on the right track. I can attest that as an introvert, I'd be much less distracted by unobtrusive glowing lights on a device over on the table than by something popping up on my screen all the time, and I might even be more inclined to report my status or mood using rabbit-ear semaphores than typing a tweet or changing my iChat status (see "Instant Messaging for Introverts," 2008-04-04).

Multiplying Like Bunnies -- Apparently enough people have seen past the weirdness of the Nabaztag's design to make it quite a successful product. In fact, according to Violet, when the original Nabaztag was introduced in 2005, their first 5000 units sold out in 10 days, even though it was the middle of the summer and the device had been advertised only by word of mouth.

However, I must confess that I am not myself a Nabaztag owner. Though I left the Violet offices fully convinced of the coolness and usefulness of the Nabaztag, it didn't meet my "can't-live-without-it" test, and I'm not inclined to collect toys just for their conversation value. (Plus, you know, $165 buys a lot of French pastries. Gotta have your priorities.)

My sense, from looking at the activity level of various blogs and forums devoted to the Nabaztag, is that the device's earlier popularity is waning. Violet has been slow to release promised improvements (such as the Ztamps, which had been scheduled for delivery last October), and I've seen no sign of the impending arrival of a Nabaztag/tag/tag. But that may be a moot point, because Violet's stated intention is not to put a Nabaztag in every home. They've got loftier goals, and for all I know, they may be well on their way to meeting them.

As for me, I can certainly get behind the concept of invisible computing, and I can see the value of having lots of smart objects in my home. They may even enhance my communication with others in a way that ordinary computer software never could. The Nabaztag in particular may not quite scratch my itch, but I'll be watching future developments in this area with great interest.

Tech News | 01 May 2008 | Listen

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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 05-May-08

by Adam C. Engst

Notable software updates so far this week include TextExpander 2.1.1, DiscLabel 5.2.1, Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7, Tinderbox 4.2.4, MacPilot 3.0.1, Infovox iVox 1.2, Synchronize Pro X 6.0, 1Password 2.6, an iMac ATI Radeon HD Graphics Firmware Update, and Java 6 for Mac OS X.Show full article

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Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 from Apple installs Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_05 on your Mac, making it possible to run Java applications built for Java 6. Or rather, it does if your Mac is a 64-bit Intel-based Mac that's running Mac OS X 10.5.2, since it won't install on any PowerPC-based Macs or older Intel-based Macs using the Intel Core Duo (versus the Intel Core 2 Duo). Java 5 remains installed, and remains the default version, even though Java 6 has been out since December 2006. (Free, 57 MB)
iMac (Early 2008) ATI Radeon HD Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.1 updates the firmware of the ATI Radeon HD 2600 or 2400 XT graphics card in certain recently released iMac models to improve system stability. Apple's download page explains how to determine if your iMac needs the update, but I suspect that it's best to assume that Software Update will give this update to you if you need it. The updater requires Mac OS X 10.5.2, and won't do anything if its not necessary for your computer. (Free, 848K)
1Password 2.6.1 from Agile Web Solutions enhances anti-phishing features and Web browser support in the password management and form filling utility. 1Password 2.6 provides optional integration with the PhishTank anti-phishing service, adds automatic detection of changed online passwords via Change Password pages, and optionally makes pronounceable passwords via the Strong Password Generator. The update also adds, restores, or improves support for OmniWeb 5.7, the site-specific browser Fluid, the latest Camino nightly builds, and Firefox 3. ($34.95 new, free update, 14.5 MB)
Synchronize Pro X 6.0 from Qdea makes the file synchronization and backup utility significantly more aware of changes that require backup. The new version uses Leopard's FSEvents technology to speed up filesystem scanning time, can trigger backups whenever a folder's contents change, and provides a Web-based interface for monitoring of backup status. ($99.95 new, $49.95 for a two-year license renewal, 2.9 MB)
Infovox iVox 1.2 from Acapela Group and AssistiveWare adds new voices and a pronunciation editor to the collection of international voices that works with any Speech Manager-compatible application (see "Macs Speak Clearly with Infovox iVox," 2007-09-06). The update includes new voices for Finnish, Swedish, Czech, Icelandic, Polish, and Turkish; the final four require Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, whereas the first two work with 10.3.9 and later. The pronunciation editor enables users to add abbreviations or change the pronunciation of individual words. (Prices vary by language)
MacPilot 3.0.1 from Koingo Software adds hundreds of new customization options to the system tweaking utility, bringing the total to over 600. MacPilot helps users customize the Dock, the Finder, Safari, and many other applications by providing a graphical interface to settings that would otherwise require entering commands in Terminal. MacPilot 3 is fully compatible with both Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard, documents all the changes it can make, and can reset options to the default. ($19.95 new, free update for purchases after 31-Oct-07 or $9.95 otherwise, 8.1 MB)
Tinderbox 4.2.4 from Eastgate Systems fixes some cosmetic bugs in the flexible note taking and outlining utility, and fixes some problems with opening old documents on new machines. See "Light Your Fire with Tinderbox," 2002-10-14, for a review of an early version; check the Related Articles list on our site for additional coverage of Tinderbox and similar programs. ($229 new, free updates for purchases in the last year or $90 otherwise, 16.5 MB)
Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7 enables Mac users to participate in corporate messaging systems run by Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, complete with audio and video support. (The audio and video support is available only for the corporate service, but not when chatting directly with other Windows Live users using the personal service.) Messenger 7 also makes it possible to search an address book, adds Bonjour support for detecting presence, and more. Messenger 7 won't replace iChat, but it will make using a Mac in a corporate environment easier, and will simplify chatting with Windows Live users. (Free, 21 MB)
DiscLabel 5.2.1 from SmileOnMyMac adds support for the Dymo DiscPainter direct-to-CD printer, along with other unspecified enhancements and fixes. ($35.95 new, free update, 12.6 MB)
TextExpander 2.1.1 from SmileOnMyMac fixes bugs in the recent release of the typing shortcut and abbreviation expansion utility. Bugs fixed include problems with post-expansion cursor positioning, delimiters that use the Shift key, and more. ($29.95 new, free update, 3.9 MB)

Inside TidBITS | 05 May 2008 | Print

Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/05-May-08

by Jeff Carlson

Nearly every discussion this week touches on a different topic, such as the iPhone's influence among companies marketing on the Web, pruning Time Machine backups, auto-filing email in Mail, replacing graphing functionality found in AppleWorks, and using OmniFocus. Oh, and Canada is finally getting the iPhone!Show full article

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