Microsoft announces development of Internet Explorer 9

Developers have long complained about Internet Explorer's lack of adherence to Web standards as the below Google Sidewiki entry from the Microsoft home page details.

This lack of standardization has affected consumer experiences as sites are forced to either dumb down their web sites to work adequately on all browsers or develop a separately designed site to work just with Internet Explorer.

Today, Microsoft announced that they had begun development on IE9 and they promised that this version would take steps toward compatibility with standards that matter most to web developers.

The work we do here, both in the product and on test suites, is a means to an end: a rich interoperable platform that developers can rely on.

Microsoft is also promising to improve the speed of JavaScript execution in the browser as IE has lagged behind its competitors in this area. This JavaScript speed improvement has the potential to make for faster and smoother web experiences for IE users when IE9 is released.

No release date has been set for IE9, but Microsoft's dedication to improving IE ensures continued competition and innovation, as browser producers fight to be your first choice when you access the Internet.

An Early Look At IE9 for Developers [IEBLog]

Share your experiences with TV, Internet, and phone bundles

We’d like your help as we prepare our annual report, on bundled telecom services—those packages of television, Internet and telephone service sold by cable, phone, and satellite-TV companies.

Specifically, we’d like to know your experiences with, and some details about, your home telecom service. We’ve prepared a questionnaire that asks about how you get these services, whether they're bundled, and how easy or hard it was to sign up for them. The 20 questions—any or all of which you can answer—include queries about how you selected providers and whether you negotiated with them over prices.

Begin the quiz by clicking here. After you’re done, you’ll be taken to the results page, where you’ll get an early look at what other readers have reported.

A holiday gift to all: Recycle your old electronics (and get cash back)

With early Black-Friday deals abounding, maybe you're planning on getting some sleek, new electronic item to replace an old clunker. And you’re probably planning on heaving that old computer, TV, printer, or whatever to the curb, right? Do us all a favor and recycle it.

"Cell phones can be loaded with toxic metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, and mercury," says Urvashi Rangan, the director of technical policy at Consumers Union. "Old televisions and computer monitors can contain up to eight pounds of lead. When they break in a landfill, then can pose an environmental and a neurological hazard."

Unfortunately, our recent survey of green behavior found that only 12 percent of consumers are recycling large electronics and 17 percent recycle small electronics.

You don’t even have to be a complete altruist. Sears is offering cash (in the form of a Sears gift card, of course) for your old electronics. Value is based on the quality of the trade-in.

So, please, keep us neurologically sound. GreenerChoices.org offers help in finding places to recycle computers, cell phones, TVs, and more. A number of manufacturers and retailers (like Best Buy, Staples, and Office Depot) also offer recycling services. For more, check out our video: “Getting Rid of Old Electronics." —Nick K. Mandle

E-books: Reading on a computer vs. reading on a reader

Amazon Kindle's new computer app

Amazon this week unveiled its Kindle app for PCs, available free for Windows 7, Vista, and XP machines; a Mac version is also promised "soon." Since similar apps are offered at the Barnes and Noble E-Bookstore and Sony's EBook Store, you can now read books from the three leading digital bookstores on a computer or an e-book reader. (These devices include Amazon's Kindle 2, Barnes and Noble's upcoming Nook, the upcoming Irex DR800SG, and Sony's line of Readers, including the upcoming Daily Edition.)

There are also apps for the iPhone and, sometimes, other smart phones, from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, though not from Sony. So this face-off focuses on the respective advantages of dedicated readers and computers:

Advantage e-book readers:

• Compactness. Compared with portable computers, readers are smaller--and especially thinner--than even a netbook; most measure about 5 by 8 inches and are about as thick as many smart phones.

• Better ergonomics. Readers are "sit-back" devices that fairly closely duplicate the experience of holding a book. Computers are "lean-forward" devices on which extended reading isn't that natural or comfortable, even on a laptop or netbook. Tablet computers, another flavor of portables, are more booklike in shape, but they cost upwards of $1,200; see this guide at tabletpc2.com.

• Superior battery life. Where laptops and netbooks run for hours on a charge, e-book readers run for days, thanks to e-ink technology that sips rather than drinks power.

• More comfortable ergonomics. For extended reading, e-ink screens are easier on the eyes than the backlit screens of computers. And e-book type is easier to read in bright sunlight.

The elements of Apple style

Apple’s computers are elegantly styled by anyone’s measure, and the careful—one might say obsessive—design extends even to the out of box experience. The packaging is ergonomically designed to smooth and guide the setup process. On the newest iMacs, each provided part is snugly wrapped in clear plastic with easy-to-peel tabs for removal. (This contrasts with the fingernail-defying protective film on a lot of other PCs; an HP all-in-one we are testing had six separate peel-off pieces on the mouse alone, and eight on the main unit.)

The manual and system DVDs are cached in two DVD-sized slipcases, one labeled “Everything Mac” and the other “Everything Else.” The silicone power cord unrolls with no kinks, and the back of the system unit is as clean-looking as the front. No brand names, feature lists, or “Designed for Windows 7” or “Intel inside” type stickers distract you from the basic functionality, save for the understated Apple logo. There’s a luxurious feel to the whole package.

That’s not to say there haven’t been notable gaffes in Apple’s designs through the years. The puck mouse on the original iMac was universally derided, and some people don’t like other Apple mice for various reasons. Some Mac laptops got much too hot in use, or had their wrist-rest surface discolor. And before Apple improved their batteries, there were lots of complaints of premature failures or even batteries puffing up like balloons. Their keyboards lack a number pad and have small cursor keys. And the iMac’s minimalistic design places all connections on the rear, making it a bit of a chore to plug in a USB flash drive or an audio headset.

But Apple’s product design is still a tough act to follow, if the industry’s clamor to create Apple-look-alikes is any measure. We have yet to see an MP3 player as coveted as the iPod line, nor have the bulk of iPhone users longed for much besides possibly better cell coverage. And, Mac computers remain the alternative to the Windows PC world that people choose most. —Dean Gallea

Get free Wi-Fi in airports, courtesy of Google and Bing

Google has announced its holiday "gift" to millions of travelers: free Wi-Fi now through January 15th.  The search giant is sponsoring the offer at 47 airports nationwide and on Virgin America flights. While you're waiting to board, Google hopes you'll make a donation to any of three participating nonprofits: Engineers Without Borders, One Economy Corporation, and Climate Savers Computing.

Not to be outdone (and looking to increase its visibility among Web searchers), Microsoft Bing is partnering with JiWire to offer free Wi-Fi at airports and hotels in exchange for one Bing search. —Nick K. Mandle

Intel Reader: A device that turns any book into an e-book

The Intel Reader (Click to enlarge.)
[PHOTO: Intel]

Today, Intel launches a mobile reading device that converts printed text to digital text and then reads it aloud. The device weighs a little more than one pound, has a 4.3 inch screen and a 5 mega-pixel camera with a flash. Similar to netbook computers, the Intel Reader is powered by an Atom processor and promises long battery life: more than 4 hours of book "reading" or the ability to remain in standby mode for up to 5 days.

This small, portable device will allow blind or dyslexic users to gain freedom and independence by being able to read everything from menus to tax forms without waiting for assistance.

Last week, I got a chance to try out the device and was impressed by its ease of use and versatility. For starters, it is significantly smaller than previous reading assistance devices that were often confined to a desk at a local library. Capturing text from a book or magazine with the Intel Reader was made easy by the fact that the camera faces downward, perpendicular to the screen, allowing the user to hold the device comfortably in front of them. This innovation may spread to cell phones and shopping devices as it is currently very awkward to photograph text or bar codes with the rear facing camera on most cell phones.

A look at Apple’s new MacBook and Mac mini

The new Macbook 13-inch laptop

Continuing my look at Apple’s newest computers, here’s my take on the new Macbook 13-inch and Mac mini.

MacBook 13-inch

Apple’s replacement for the 13” plastic-case MacBook keeps the price at an entry-level (for Apple) $1,000. They’ve given it the large glass-surface, multi-touch, gesture-enabled trackpad of its bigger siblings. They’ve also rounded the case’s edges, switched to an LED-backlit screen, and installed a non-user-replaceable, 10 percent higher-capacity battery with twice the claimed service life (1000 charges) and two hours longer claimed charge life (7 hours).

A couple things were dropped from the previous model: the external battery-charge indicator, the FireWire port, and the remote-control pickup. I guess Apple doesn’t consider this a media-centric laptop.

Under the hood, Apple has bumped up the processor from 2.13 GHz to a 2.26 GHz Core-2 Duo. The hard drive went up from 160 GB to 250 GB. The weight has gone down about 5 ounces to 4.7 lbs.

Some nice touches: The cover snaps closed magnetically, and has a thin, soft-plastic gasket around the edge that might help keep moisture from reaching the keyboard in transit. The seamless bottom panel is actually plastic-coated aluminum, which should help spread out the heat and reduce hot spots on your lap. The top surface of the wrist-rest area stayed cool in our tests.

All in all, this MacBook is a better value than the prior one: a little faster, a little lighter, a little longer running, and able to hold more stuff.

The new Mac mini

Mac mini

Apple’s latest entry in the compact desktop arena hasn’t changed on the outside, but has the expected configuration improvements inside. The Mac mini $600 model goes up from the previous 2 GHz to a 2.26 GHz Core-2 Duo processor, doubles the memory to 2 GB, and expands the hard drive from 120GB to 160GB. It keeps the FireWire 800 port, the generous 5 USB ports (though two are taken if you use a wired keyboard and mouse), and the mini-DVI port along with the adapter needed to connect a DVI display (you can buy a $19 adaptor for a VGA display.) Apple has added a mini-DisplayPort connector, now standard on Apple PCs, for Apple displays and the few non-Apple displays that can fit it.

For $200 more, the sibling model has a 10 percent faster processor (2.53 GHz), doubles the hard drive to 320GB, and doubles the memory to 4 GB.

The Mac mini remains an enigma, being shipped without a keyboard and mouse, presumably to keep the price low. If you add Apple’s wired ones, the price goes up $100, or you can go wireless for $40 more. You’ll also want speakers if you plan to play music, since the mini’s internal speaker is insipid.

In my next post, I’ll take a further look at the design and style of Apple’s new computers. —Dean Gallea

Apple’s new iMacs: A closer look

The new iMac

Amid the hoopla surrounding the release of Windows 7, Apple introduced refreshed lines of iMac computers. We took a look at the 21-1/2 inch model ($1,200 to $1,500) and the 27 inch one ($1,700 to $2,000). (See how we rated previous iMac models in our desktop computer Ratings, available to subscribers.)

Both iMacs have larger displays than their predecessors (20-inch and 24-inch respectively) and come with the latest Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system. They include a newly-designed wireless “Magic Mouse,” and a wireless keyboard, both of which use a Bluetooth connection. (For a glossary of standard computer features, see our free Computer Buying Guide.)

Magic Mouse. This has a touch-sensitive top surface that senses left and right clicks and lets you slide your finger around to scroll a window’s content in any direction. Slide your finger up and down for a normal scroll, or with the “control” key depressed to zoom the whole screen for a closer look. It takes a bit of practice and some independent finger dexterity to use the scrolling, but we were able to get pretty good at it.

The mouse also lets you use a two-finger swipe to navigate back and forth in the Safari web browser, and browse album covers in iTunes and photos in iPhoto. But we couldn’t get that feature to work on either of our iMacs. Apple’s helpline wasn’t able to help us—the products are apparently too new. But we found an Oct 27th software update for the Magic Mouse on Apple’s “support downloads” website that fixed the problem when installed.

Sprint sells its first netbook, expands its 4G network

Sprint today began selling its first subsidized, network-connected netbook and announced the expansion of its fourth-generation wireless network to a further 10 cities

The netbook Sprint is selling, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, does not rank among the best performers in our Ratings, available to subscribers. However, where the Mini 10 currently sells for $349 from Dell, Sprint will sell it for $199.99, after a $100 mail-in rebate. The catch, as with netbooks sold by other carriers such as AT&T and Verizon is the requirement to sign up for a two-year broadband plan for the device, which costs $59.99 a month.

The Sprint Mini 10 is currently available only at Sprint Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sprint's news release does not detail further availability, but other such launches by competing carriers gradually rolled out to a number of cities across the country.

Sprint is the first carrier to roll out a fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless network. The 10 new cities added today, including Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth, expand Sprint's network beyond the 25 cities where they already have at least some 4G service, including Philadelphia and Las Vegas.