Three distinctive point-and-shoots

Hundreds of point-and-shoots were on view at the PhotoPlus Expo this past weekend in New York. Many offer the same ol' specs and features: 3x optical zoom, 10 megapixels. 2 1/2- to 3-inch LCD. Here are three that stood out:

The Nikon Coolpix P6000 (Click on image at right for a closer look), a pricey compact for $500, does have some advanced features, such as being able to shoot RAW files. But that's not what makes it unique: It has a built-in GPS that lets you tag photos with the geographic location at which they were shot. Here's how this works: The camera embeds location data in the EXIF data file. Once you embed this info, you can access it with any image editor and use it with online map programs such as Google Earth to see exactly where your photos are taken. (For more, check out our previous post on geotagging.)

Cameras go to extremes at PhotoPlus Expo

Most of the major camera manufacturers are here at this year's PhotoPlus Expo at the Javits Convention Center in New York showing off their latest point-and-shoots, SLRs, camcorders and camera accessories.

Two products are generating a lot of buzz, though they're not quite ready for prime time:

One, from Olympus, is based on the innovative micro four-thirds system used by Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 and combines a large sensor, similar to those SLRs use, with a small camera body. The camera (Click on image at right for a closer look) shown here at PhotoPlus Expo debuted last month at the Photokina show, in Germany. It will be similar to the first micro four-thirds camera, but the version I saw looked even smaller than the G1. (In case some Olympus SLR owners aren't interested in going the micro four-thirds route, the company also has another "concept" camera that will be based on the older, larger four-thirds camera design. This E series model should be out in 2009.)

A second camera, Leica's S2 (Click on the image at right for a closer look), is all the buzz among pros. This is truly an SLR-on-steroids, with a 37-megapixel image sensor, which is more than 50 percent larger than a full-frame sensor SLR. Although the model on view is still a prototype and the product may be modified, it's a really big, bulky camera, larger than almost any consumer or prosumer SLR. But what really adds heft to this camera is that the lenses are also gargantuan. So whereas the micro four-thirds products appear to be shrinking the size of cameras, Leica is expanding their size.

Neither the Leica nor the Olympus have prices yet. But the Leica will probably be more than $10,000. My guess is the Olympus will be around $700 or $800.

—Terry Sullivan

CEDIA gets the Blus: New Blu-ray models debut from major brands

Reflecting the market's inexorable move to high-definition content, a number of manufacturers introduced Blu-ray players at CEDIA. Several are so-called Profile 2.0 models with a feature called BD-Live, which enables you to download Internet content such as movie trailers. If you want Internet connectivity, look specifically for a player that has BD-Live (or can be upgraded to include it), as earlier designs lack this capability.

Here's a rundown of what we've seen at the show so far:

LG launches Netflix-enabled player

LG Electronics surprised audiences when it revealed the price for the previously announced BD300 player: $400, which is $100 less than expected. The BD300 (click on image above for a closer look) is a BD-Live model with the unique ability to stream movies and TV episodes from a Netflix online library of about 12,000 titles (a Netflix subscription is required). The player offers internal decoding of the new Dolby TrueHD high-resolution audio format, and will presumably pass DTS-HD Master audio as bitstream (the specs are a bit unclear). The BD300, which has a USB port for playing back digital music, photos, and videos stored on a flash drive, will be available next month.

Epson, Panasonic add new 1080p front projectors

Epson has joined Sanyo in offering a 1080p front projector for less than $2,000, clearly the new entry-level price point for these models. 

Epson's PowerLite Home Cinema 6100, a 3LCD model with a price tag of $1,999, has a manual lens shift, six color modes, and a 2.1x optical zoom. Sanyo's new projector is the PLV-Z700, mentioned in an earlier blog.

Epson also introduced two other 1080p LCD-based projectors the step-up PowerLite Pro Cinema 7100, a sub-$3,000 projector with ISF certification, and the PowerLite Pro Cinema 7500 UB, a $4,500 LCD model with improved contrast and additional features, plus a spare bulb and ceiling mount. The 6100 has a 2-year parts and labor warranty; the 7100 and 7500 UB come with 3-year warranties.

Meanwhile Panasonic announced the LCD-based PT-AE3000, a 1080p model with a unique feature—called Lens Memory—that lets you lets you project a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (increasingly common in movies) without the use of an anamorphic lens. It will be available in October at a price of $3,500. This projector also has 120Hz "frame creation" technology, which analyzes adjacent frames to interpolate new ones, essentially doubling the frame rate to help reduce motion blur. For 24p signals, the frame rate is quadrupled to to 96 frames per second.

—James K. Willcox

CEDIA Report: New technologies hit LCD TVs from Sharp, Toshiba and Sony

LCD TVs took center stage at CEDIA yesterday, with manufacturers showcasing technologies designed to improve color, brightness, motion smoothness, and sharpness, as well as super-slim designs. Here are some of the highlights.

Sharp adds LED-based LCDs

Sharp announced the Aquos HDTV LE (Limited Edition) series, which uses colored LEDs that offer a wider color gamut, according to the company, and local dimming, a technology that can apply different brightness levels across sections of the screen. The new sets also use 120Hz technology, which Sharp calls Fine Motion Enhanced, to minimize motion blur. The sets have slim-profile cabinets—as shallow as an inch in some areas—and a separate media module that houses five HDMI inputs and two component-video inputs, all of which can receive 1080p signals. The line, which debuts next month at yet-undisclosed prices, will be offered in 42-,52-, and 65-inch screen sizes.

The company also unveiled the Aquos D85U series, which includes 42-, 46-,  and 52-inch sets. All are 1080p, 120Hz sets with improved contrast and response times, the company says, and similar inputs to the HDTV LE series models, above. Prices range from $1,900 to $2,600.

Sony gets thin, adds 240Hz model

Sony will offer the first Bravia LCD model, the KDL-52XBR7 (shown at right), that includes 240Hz technology (MotionFlow 240). The TV essentially quadruples the video frame rate by interpolating three new frames to help reduce motion blur. 

The company also announced the Bravia KLV-40ZX1M, a 26-pound LCD monitor that's just 9.9mm deep, or "about the thickness of a Blu-ray jewel case." The 40-inch set uses LED backlighting,and includes 120Hz MotionFlow technology. It's a monitor, meaning it lacks a built-in tuner.

Both the 52XBR7 and the KLV-40ZX1M will be available in December at prices to be announced later.

The company unveiled two new LCoS-based (SXRD) 1080p front projectors, the VPL-VW10 ($3,500, September) and VPL-HW70 ($8,000, November). The more expensive model is designed for the custom-installation market, and has greater contrast, more picture adjustments, and can accept an optional anamorphic lens for 2.35:1 images.

Report from CEDIA: Next-gen TVs come into focus

What's the next big thing in the fast-changing HDTV market? I'm in Denver this week at a trade show called CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installers Association) to find out. Much of the focus is on pricey gear that needs to be custom-installed by a dealer, but manufacturers usually give us a glimpse of key trends and new products likely to make their way into the mainstream next year.

Here are a few things I expect to see:

LCD's 120Hz technology jumps to 240Hz

In the LCD TV arena, 120Hz technology—which essentially doubles the TV's frame rate to help reduce motion blur—has become a popular new feature. I expect to see several leading manufacturers, including Sony and Samsung, showcase new TVs with 240Hz technology, presumably with the belief that if doubling the frame rate is great, quadrupling it will be spectacular.

Sony has said it will offer two 240Hz models—the 46-inch KDL-46W1 and 40-inch KDL-40W1 in Japan by the end of the year. Based on my conversion of the price in yens, those sets will sell for about $3,700 and $2,700, respectively, but there's no word yet on arrival here in the U.S. At a recent European trade show called IFA, Samsung showed a prototype set that won't arrive for a few more years.

LG unveils its BD300 Blu-ray player

As we reported yesterday, at a press event in New York City last night LG Electronics took the wraps off its new BD300 Blu-ray player, which can stream movies and TV shows from the Netflix website directly to a TV.

Also unveiled were two previously announced LCD TVs—the company's first LCD to use LED backlighting, and two additions to the company's "Scarlet" line of highly stylized LCDs. The company also disclosed plans for a national consumer-electronics recycling program.

As we learned yesterday, the BD300 Blu-ray player will be available in the fall, and can stream movies and TV shows from Netflix's online instant-streaming service. Last night, the company filled in a few blanks, saying that it would be priced "well under $500," and that the streamed content would be standard definition. To access content from Netflix, users will have to have a Netflix subscription that starts at $9 per month.

LG's first TV to use LED backlighting with local dimming is the 47LG90 (see image at right), which will be available in September with a $3,600 price tag. The 1080p TV's backlight is broken into 128 sectors, each of which can be controlled individually for improved contrast and energy savings. The sets have a "teardrop" design and blue color accents.

At the event, LG executives introduced two new super-slim Scarlet "sisters": 42- and 47-inch LGX-series LCD models that are just 1.8 inches deep (and unlike Hitachi's new 1.5-inch models, these sets include built-in tuners). Both models—the 42LGX ($2,700) and 47LGX ($3,000)—are 1080p sets that include LG's TruMotion 120Hz technology to help reduce motion blur. The 42-inch set is already available (see image at left), and the 47-incher will hit stores in October. Both bear the trademark Scarlet design scheme of piano-black fronts and all-crimson back panels.

The company also announced a partnership with a company called Waste Management to launch an electronics recycling program that will allow consumers to drop off unwanted or broken CE gear at one of the company's 106 recycling centers. The number of centers, run by its subsidiary, WM Recycle America, will continue to grow, and there will be sites in all 50 states by September, they said. There's no charge for LG-brand goods (LG, GoldStar, or Zenith), while a "modest" fee will be imposed for items from other brands. To find the center closest to you, call a toll free number, 1-877-439-2795.

—James K. Willcox

Two promising new non-iPhones

Cell phones with iPhone-like design are garnering most of the attention as manufacturers begin to roll out their 2008 models. But we're also impressed with some conventional handsets that are taking more original, if not subtler, steps toward better cell-phone design. Here are two of them:

LG enV2 by LG. The original enV, with its tiny, hard-to-see keypad didn't impress us much when it debuted a more than a year ago. But, based on an initial look, this second incarnation, available this month from Verizon for $130 with a 2-year contract, seems to have fixed the problem. For one thing, the keypad is wonderfully large—roomy enough to accommodate the widest thumbs. It's also noticeably thinner and smaller, measuring just 4 in. x 2.13 in.  x 0.65 in. (For a closer look at the enV2, click on the image at right and the one immediate below.)

Like the old enV, it opens up like an eye-glass case to reveal a 2.4-in. screen, stereo speakers, and full QWERTY keyboard to satisfy heavy texters and multimedia addicts (though the keys did appear to be a tad more narrow than those on the original). Other niceties include support for GPS navigation and stereo Bluetooth headsets.

(Complete details of the original LG enV are found in our Ratings of cell phones, both available to ConsumerReports.org subscribers.)

Motorola MOTO Z9. GPS navigation, while flourishing on the Sprint and Verizon networks, has not been an option for most AT&T customers, save for a select group of smart-phone users (that doesn't even include owners of the iPhone, which lacks true GPS). That changes with the Motorola MOTO Z9, available now from AT&T for $250 with a 2-year contract. (Click on the image at right for a closer look.)

This GPS-enabled phone, which is compatible with AT&T's 3G data network, has a large, 2.4-in display that promises comfortable viewing of real-time, turn-by-turn directions offered by the extra-cost service. The Z9 is also compatible with AT&T's Video Share, which lets you stream live, one-way video of your special moments to another compatible phone. You can also download content directly music from eMusic and sideload tunes from Napster To Go. Other features include support for microSD cards up to 8GB and stereo Bluetooth headsets.

—Mike Gikas

Kids turned cybercriminals

You might know this kid. He's as young as 12 or 13, not all that popular in school. He spends a lot of time online. You figure he's playing World of Warcraft, constantly refining his MySpace pages, or maybe hanging out in Habbo, a virtual world popular with kids. But he may also be wreaking havoc on social networking sites, selling a veritable supermarket full of his own malware, and creating packages of phishing tools.

"These kids are obsessed with phishing," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research for Facetime Communications during a presentation at the RSA Conference, here in San Francisco. They don't see phishing as a problem, Boyd says, because they typically start out stealing large numbers of MySpace pages, then move on to stealing a few PayPal accounts—but for a lot more money.

Today's young hackers consider themselves stars of the cyberworld, not aware or not caring that what they're doing is illegal. "For these kids, it's a game, a hacker version of American Idol," Boyd said. "But the TV show they're really on is America's Most Wanted."

RSA Conference: Assessing online threats

I'm attending the RSA Conference in San Francisco—billed as the "world's largest security conference and expo"—where security software maker Symantec today revealed a few of the latest online threats, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff offered a few insights into what the federal government is doing to protect U.S. cyberspace.

The biggest threat to your personal data, according to Symantec, comes from the loss of laptops, hard drives, and USB drives, which accounted for 57 percent of the data loss outlined in the company's latest Internet Security Threat Report, released today. In addition, 70 percent of the malicious code unleashed in the last six months of 2007 was meant to steal confidential information. Finally, the creation of malicious software is now outpacing the creation of "good" programs, said Steve Trilling, vice president of Symantec Research Labs.

All this stolen information ends up in an underground marketplace that works just like a legitimate economy, Trilling said. Stolen eBay accounts go for about $8, e-mail passwords for $30, credit cards for as little as 40 cents, and bank accounts for up to $1,000 or so, depending on how much money is in the account. Interestingly, the virtual world is one of the most lucrative. A stolen World of Warcraft account can be worth 100 times more than a credit card.

Send in the iClones

Last week at CTIA 2008, the biggest tradeshow in the U.S. devoted to cell phones and other things wireless, key manufacturers Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson didn't even try to deny that the upcoming models they eagerly trotted before us bore a strong resemblance to the iPhone.

The newcomers unabashedly borrowed from Apple's hit multimedia smartphone in looks and ergonomic design. Like the iPhone, the Samsung Instinct, the Sony Ericsson X1 (click on the image at right for a closer look), and the LG Vu have a large, dark touch screen (about 3-in. measured diagonally) framed by a shiny metallic edge. Their interfaces, though distinct, all provide a quick way to jump in and out of their many functions, from phone calling and text messaging to media playback and Web browsing. And like the iPhone, if you select the wrong application icon, pushing a home key brings you right back to the main menu.

Pending our thorough tests of these pending pretenders, we can't say how well they stack up against their inspiration. But used briefly on the tradeshow floor, their performances seemed quite impressive, and some even add useful features the iPhone lacks.  Here are my first impressions:

Announcing a new feature for the Electronics Blog

As our annual State of the Net survey has shown for the past several years, the insecurity of online consumers is a severe national problem that affects nearly everyone and costs American consumers billions of dollars annually.

Coverage of this important subject has become an integral part of our electronics content, both in print and online. While we will continue reporting on Internet threats of all types, and testing the key products and services that help you protect yourself online, this year we will begin to do even more.

Flat-Panel TVs in 2008: Fewer LCD brands, lesser price drops

If you've been putting off buying a flat-panel LCD TV with the hope of getting one for a dramatically lower price this year, it looks like you're out of luck. During the DisplaySearch Flat-Panel TV conference I'm attending in La Jolla, Calif., this week, panelists said they expect price declines in 2008 to be moderate, and some LCD models may actually be a bit more expensive.

There may also be fewer LCD brands to choose from, several panelists warned. Less familiar brands may be pushed off shelves as some better-known brands, including Sony and Vizio, continue to market models specifically for mass-market market retailers such as Wal-Mart.

In plasmas, the other major flat-panel technology, panelists predicted more and deeper price drops than for LCDs, though nothing to rival the declines of the past few years. In both plasma and LCDs, price drops will be greater for 1080p (so-called "full HD") models than for those with 720p resolution.

Both technologies will continue a growing overlap in screen sizes. In addition to a growing number of sub-40-inch plasmas, some 55-inch LCD models are expected. Ross Young, president of DisplaySearch, predicts we'll also see 46-inch plasmas emerge to compete with 46- and 47-inch LCD TVs.

PMA2008: Two serious printers for serious photographers

HP and Epson, as well as other printer manufacturers, showed a variety of printers, from the very inexpensive snapshot models to very large-format models costing thousands. Two in particular caught my eye: The Epson Stylus Photo R1900 (right) and the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo (below). (Click on the images for a closer look.)

The pair have several things in common. Both were announced in January and are targeted at the advanced amateur, one who most likely owns a digital SLR and wants to get the most from those photos. Both can print up to 13- x 19-inch prints (or longer panoramas). They each use an 8 pigment-based cartridge system, as opposed to a dye-based one, since the longevity of pigment is supposedly twice as long. Both are priced around $550. And from the specs and product demos, both offer quite a variety of printing options that will be quite exciting for most any photographer, from the ability to print on paper of varying texture to traditional black-and-white prints.

One of the improvements on the Epson R1900, the successor to Epson's R1800, is (according to Epson) enhanced gloss in the ink, making it much smoother than the R1800's gloss coating. The ink set itself has also undergone an overhaul: the new Ultrachome Hi-Gloss 2 ink set now includes a new red and orange cartridge, which Epson says offers more accurate facial color tones. Epson's also says that it has improved the printer's speed, which can now produce photos (in the highest quality mode) from 37-41 percent faster than its predecessor. Among other improvements on this model are two USB 2.0 ports. (The new HP printer includes one port.) The R1900's highest resolution is 5760 x 1440 dpi.

The HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo printer (left), which has a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, is roughly the same size as Epson's R1900, although a bit heavier. Like Epson, HP claims that its new-pigment based inks are more water-resistant and resilient than dye-based inks from previous printers. HP claims to have a better color system for handling black-and-white prints, since it includes not only matte black and photo black ink cartridges (as does Epson), but also a light gray cartridge (Epson does not have a gray cartridge).

HP also said that they've worked with Adobe and other software companies to make the B8850 (and its driver software) integrate more seamlessly with image editing programs like Photoshop CS3. For many photographers, color management can be tricky and time-consuming HP claims that they've reworked their system to make that easier, too.

To show the value of using its branded inks, HP offers an online demo showing the effects of aging on two versions of the same photograph: one using HPs inks, the other a third-party ink. You can upload your own image to see how it might age. It's an intriguing visual demo on how digital color photographs can age and fade.

The Epson R1900 will be available later in February, the HP PhotosmartPro B8850 in April.

—Terry Sullivan

PMA2008: A Glimpse through the Looking Glass

There are lots of SLR lenses on view here at PMA2008. I'm not sure if there is more emphasis than previous years, but from low end to high, photographers are finding lots of intriguing pieces of glass.

On the low end, one intriguing development is that both Canon and Nikon are offering image-stabilized kit lenses in their consumer-targeted SLRs. You can tell when you look at the labels: Nikon's 18-55mm lens (click on the image at right for a closer look) has a "VR" (for "Vibration Reduction") at the end of the name. Canon's 18-55mm lens has the more commonly used "IS" at the end.

The primary benefit of  image stabilization is that you can get sharper photos in low-light, which often requires a slower shutter speed that makes your shots  more susceptible to camera shake. But word from the manufacturers is that these lenses have a better construction than previous kit lenses and have been tweaked to perform better. We’ll have the final word on how good these lenses are when we get them in to our labs, but if the claims true, better kit lenses in SLR packages would be good news for camera shoppers.

PMA2008: Sony Deepens its SLR line

This morning, Sony held a press conference at which they unveiled a new high-end SLR, which will be launched by the end of 2008. The SLR, which they're referring to at the moment only as "The Flagship," will include a 24-megapixel "Exmor" CMOS image sensor. (Click on the image at right for a closer look.)

The sensor will also be a full-frame sensor. (My previous post about the Canon EOS 40D digitial SLR has more details regarding full-frame sensors in the "Sensor Size and Lens Magnification Factor" section.)

In addition, this sensor will be image stabilized using Sony's Super SteadyShot system, which resides inside the camera body itself and so should work with any lens. (Canon and Nikon incorporate image stabilization into their SLR lenses.) Additional specs and features are sketchy on this camera for the moment, but it appears that Sony's commitment to SLRs is deepening.

The company also recapped many of their new product announcements from recent months, including two new consumer-targeted SLRs, both with live-view capabilities and articulating, swiveling LCDs. The two new SLRs are the 10-megapixel alpha DSLR-A300 ($800 with kit lens) and the 14-megapixel alpha DSLR-A350 ($900 with kit lens). (Click on the images for closer looks at the A350, on the left, and at the back of the A300, lower right.)

In addition, Sony revealed that they'll be entering the digital picture frame market by announcing three new S-series photo frames: DPF-V900 ($250), DPF-V700 ($190) and DPF-D70 ($140) digital photo frame models.

—Terry Sullivan

PMA2008: A Snapshot of New Cameras

There are lots of new digital cameras here at PMA this year, although many offer just modest changes from previous models, such as slightly more megapixels or a wider LCD. Here are a few of the more interesting ones I’ve come across since I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday:

The 10-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35 (click on the image at right for a closer look) is a sporty ultracompact that has lots of intelligence—at least according to its specs. It boasts Intelligent Exposure (to determine or adjust for exposure), Intelligent ISO (to adjust ISO depending on whether the camera senses movement), Intelligent Scene Selector (to detect lighting conditions and set the camera to the appropriate scene mode), and face detection. But the smartest thing about this point-and-shoot is that its 4x optical zoom lens has a very wide wide-angle setting: the equivalent of 25mm for a 35mm film camera. The last point-and-shoot that made a big splash with this wide a lens was Kodak's EasyShare V570. List price will be around $350. It will be available in March in silver, black and blue.

GE or General Imaging, a newcomer last year, is back again this year with a compact for under $100. The 7-megapixel GE A735 will have a 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD. It will also have smile detection and blink detection features, similar to Sony’s Smile Shutter feature. Not bad for a camera with a list price of $90 to $100.

There's quite a bit happening at the high-end point-and-shoot market too, a part of the market greatly affected by price drops in SLRs. Fujifilm released the FinePix S100FS (click on the image at left for a closer look), an 11-megapixel camera almost as large as an SLR. The reason for its size? It's got a 14.3x optical zoom lens (28-400mm, 35mm film equivalent). It's also got optical image stabilization, which Fujifilm says is a first for them. Other intriguing features include a menu setting (Film Simulation mode, which is where the "FS" comes from) that Fujifilm says will emulate the color of some of the company's great camera films, such as Provia and Velvia. There are many other features as well; Fujifilm says it's after the serious consumer, the "prosumer" in industry lingo, that may a camera that's like an SLR, but with a fixed lens. List price will be around $800 and it will be available in February.

—Terry Sullivan

Macworld 2008: Add to your iPhone; handsfree talk

Besides printers, scanners, and networked storage solutions, which you always expect to find at Macworld, the focus this year seemed to have shifted towards new 3rd-party peripherals revolving around iPhone. Dozens of new headset, headphones, and docking options have recently become available to support Apple's new flagship product.

Macally, a long time provider of Mac peripherals, offered Tune Pro and FlexTune. Designed for the iPod, TunePro is an audio minisystem with a flat-panel appearance and includes an alarm clock—perfect for the nightstand; FlexTune is a small but very versatile charger and speaker set for both iPod and iPhone. What was interesting about the latter was the way the speakers could slide laterally so the iPhone could be rotated to landscape mode for video viewing, to minimize the device's footprint on an office desk.

Skullcandy offers creative designs that appeal most to a younger crowd. They recently introduced the iPhone FMJ headset. They also offer full-featured wireless headphones. Most of their prices are under $100, except for the high-end phones, which retail for $169.95.

Ultimate Ears offered four models of high-quality headsets for iPods and iPhones: the Custom, the Triple.fi, the Super.fi, and the Metro.fi for the style conscious.

I briefly stopped by Xtreme Mac as well, and saw a wide variety of good-sounding, aesthetically-pleasing docking stations, speakers, and clock radios, most notably the Luna X2 and the Tango X2. They also offered nearly a dozen varieties of cases, pouches and protective covers for iPods and iPhones.

One of the more interesting presentations I attended was from Altec Lansing, who said their new T612 iPhone dock and speaker system (Click on the image at left for a closer look.) is the first to be "Apple certified", meaning Apple agrees to sell them in Apple stores. Apparently such certification is difficult to attain, as Apple has very tight engineering standards regarding specific emissions and GSM shielding. Capable of both desk and wall mount, the sound is very rich and clean. It is also backward compatible with dockable iPods.

Macworld 2008: Some software and audio odds and ends

Some MacWorld miscellany, beginning with four operating-system/software entries:

Improvements to MS Office. I said earlier in the week I'd say something about the new MS Office 2008. The features are more or less in parity with the Office 2007 product that's been out for a year, now. Entourage plays better with Exchange Server, to address concerns about corporate distribution, and I was assured by the lead developer for Word08 that the "Normal" file, a file that holds all of your custom stylesheets translates fully from older versions. The only other thing to note here is that with Office08, virtually every major Mac application suite has made the transition to Universal Binary code base and is Intel-native. That means there's no longer any need for Rosetta, the built-in code translator between G5 Mac processors and Intel Windows processors.

A new Windows on Mac option. Another interesting entry in the "virtualization" competition comes from Codeweavers, who were demoing their "Crossover" product. Crossover allows someone who wants to switch to Mac and still protect their Windows software investment to actually install and run their legacy Windows programs natively in OS X; no virtual disk image or Windows OS is required. The downside is that this capability has to be customized by Codeweavers for each legacy Windows application. Consequently, the company has concentrated on a limited list of only the most used Windows apps to date, like MS Office, Access, Visio, etc. (You'll find the list of supported apps at http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/.) The result is very fast and responsive. If you use those apps, this could be of real value.

MacWorld 2008: Will Macs Become Less Secure?

With Mac sales up, and many new users coming to the platform, will malware writers begin to seek fresh targets? I asked the chief technologists at security companies Intego and McAfee what they saw as the primary threats to the Mac platform, both today and looking ahead.

While both agreed that Mac OS X is solid when it comes to security, they also fear that malware attacks on the Mac are inevitable—it's just a matter of when.

According to George Heron, the chief scientist at McAfee, 35% of the malware currently threatening computer users has been discovered in the past two years. In 2002, there were about 100 new detections a week. By 2007, that number had skyrocketed to 2000-plus. That's probably because the profile of cyber-criminals has changed. It's not about impressing your fellow geeks with your virus-writing prowess anymore. Today, money rules in the cyber-underworld, with malware going after financial information, credit cards, and bank accounts. Large, well-organized, highly sophisticated hackers design spam and phishing scams on a massive scale, largely operating out of China, Brazil, Russia, and the Middle East, according to Heron. More Macs in the marketplace means a growing profit opportunity in a highly profitable industry that steals billions worldwide.

Intego's Jack Nahan told me that the biggest threats to Mac users going forward are phishing, trojans, and ID theft. The two most interesting and insidious to date have been a scam where the user is invited to download a supposedly friendly new piece of anti-virus shareware called "Macsweeper" (it installs a trojan), and a "screen scraper" app that comes off the Web and never resides locally. It just copies whatever is on the user's screen (including banking information) and returns it to the scammer.

For more information on how to protect your computer (Mac or PC) and your information while online, check out these free resources on ConsumerReports.org:

• Cyber-security Central
• Best ways to stay safe online
• Best security software

And if you subscribe to ConsumerReports.org, you'll have access to:

• CR's latest Ratings of security software suites
• CR's latest Ratings of antivirus software
• CR's latest Ratings of antispyware software
• CR's latest Ratings of antispam software

—Thomas A. Olson

MacBook Air: Some closer looks

A Consumer Reports colleague (Joyce Ward) and I met privately with Apple reps Tuesday afternoon for a personalized demonstration of the MacBook Air and other products. It was fun to take a closer look at these new offerings, even if just for a short time.

They say the MacBook weighs three pounds, but it honestly didn't feel even that heavy when I held it in my hand—it seemed lighter somehow. The screen was bright, the keyboard a joy to touch, and the trackpad "touch" software had specific settings for one-, two-, and three-finger operation. One finger can click, drag, or double-click. Two fingers flip, rotate, magnify, or minimize images or web pages by using a "pinching" motion. Three fingers let you "slide" from page to page, image to image. This software utility is currently fully compatible only with the Leopard Finder, Safari Web browser (seen on a Windows XP machine at left), and most of Apple's "iApps." Expect third-party support in the future.

Of course, one of the first things that came to mind when seeing the MacBook Air was, "How's this battery deal gonna work?" In case you hadn't heard, the battery in the MacBook Air is not user-replaceable. As a long-time traveling laptop user, that worries me. I always found having the occasional spare battery to be a good thing, especially on those extra-long excursions.

Apple insists its batteries are absolute state of the art, hold a charge very well, and have a very long life. (The 17-inch MacBook Pro's battery lasted 5.25 hours in our latest tests.) Nevertheless, Apple will try to ease your worries with a Battery Replacement Program: Bring your MacBook Air to the nearest Apple store, and the techs will replace the battery (while disposing of the old one in an environmentally responsible manner). Total cost: $129, the same as a new battery you would replace yourself in other models. In addition, more and more airlines today offer laptop power ports on their planes, and both Apple and third parties sell adapters. So as time goes on, the need for having all that extra battery power handy is becoming less necessary. (It was unclear whether this Apple store program was a "while you wait" service, or a "drop it off and pick it back up tomorrow" sort of thing. Time will tell.)

Apple's goal with the MacBook Air was to design a sleek laptop without most of the tradeoffs associated with ultra-portables. The full 13.3-inch backlit LED screen with 1280 x 800 widescreen resolution bears this out, as does the standard MacBook keyboard and an oversize trackpad that supports the one-, two-, and three-finger multi-touch technology used on the iPod Touch and iPhone. Nevertheless, for power users, there are some tradeoffs: There's only one USB port, no Firewire, no DVD, and the custom battery.

Which led to my next question for the Apple folks:  What if you're on the road, your Time Capsule (seen at right) is at home, and your system has a meltdown? Low odds, mind you, but there it is, coming from a geek who can't be too paranoid. They recommended two solutions. The first, of course, is to carry that $99 external DVD drive and your install disk with you. Another possibility is to install, from that disk, a copy of the Remote Disk application on someone else's Mac (or PC!) with a wireless card. Then you can piggy-back on their CD drive and run the installer to restore your hard disk. Clever, but all you're doing is imposing on a friend's good will—sooner or later you'll have to connect to some physical media to restore your system.

Next up in our interview session was the "Time Capsule" wireless backup solution. Security was my main worry with this product, so I asked our Apple reps: Should I be concerned with potential man-in-the-middle attacks when wirelessly backing up your hard drive? Not necessarily. Time Capsule is essentially a full Airport Extreme base station (a fancy term for "wireless router") combined with a server-class hard drive. It supports all the wireless security protocols found in any other wireless router, including WPA and WPA2. That was the answer I was looking for, but it was still unclear how simple that would be to set up for the uninitiated. It's not normally much fun for those who do it for a living. All that wireless security is well and good, but sometimes to an old school guy like myself, there's nothing more secure than a good honest wire, and fortunately for me, Time Capsule has three gigabit-Ethernet ports included. (See image at left.) But of course, that does me no good with the MacBook Air, which has not a single Ethernet port built-in.

—Thomas A. Olson

Free Internet Radio in Your Pocket

The Internet offers a growing range of free music services, from Napster, which allows you to stream albums at no cost, tailored to your taste, to sites like Pandora, Slacker, Finetune, AOL Radio, and others that let you create your channels that select music based on your preferences, and even adjust their programming on the fly as you tell the service what you like and don't like among the selections they've delivered.

Until now, listening to streamed music away from your computer has often meant paying a subscription, typically $15 a month, to online services like Napster and Rhapsody or the satellite radio services, XM and Sirius. You can then stuff a compatible portable player—sometimes a regular MP3 player but often a proprietary player you need to buy—with the service's music.

But Slacker is now one of the first online music services to offer portability without a subscription. You do need to buy a proprietary player, one of three new Slacker portable players launching later this month for $200 to $300. But you can then store free music from the site's 2-million-song library, either capturing it from their 100 channels or from the customized channels you've created at Slacker.com.

MacBook Air, super-thin notebook, introduced

What may be the most talked about of Apple's four major product releases Steve Jobs introduced today is a new addition to the MacBook line called the MacBook Air. With a teardrop profile only 0.76 inches at its thickest point, it's the thinnest notebook computer ever. (You can get closer looks at the new MacBook Air by clicking on each of the embedded images.)

Apple didn't compromise much on features. There's a full-size, backlit keyboard, 13.3-inch screen, iSight webcam, large trackpad with multi-touch gesture support (similar to the iPhone's, which lets you use your fingers in more ways than the traditional tapping and sliding), plus a new magnetic latch.

There are only three ports on the right side: USB2, MicroDVI, and a headphone jack. (There's no Ethernet port for wired networking, but that's not really an issue with a notebook designed for extreme portability.) Apple says that the 1.6-GHz Core 2 Duo processor is 60 percent smaller than chips made for other models. The standard MacBook Air comes with an 80GB hard drive—or a 64GB solid-state drive for an additional $999. The standard memory configuration is 2-GB and Apple claims 5 hours of battery life. The built-in wireless capability supports 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

There's no internal CD/DVD burner; to use discs you need the $99 external MacBook Air SuperDrive which connects to the USB port. Also, a new custom application in Leopard called "Remote Disk" lets you wirelessly "borrow" other users' CD/DVD drives.

In keeping with Apple's environmental initiatives, MacBook Air notebooks have a fully recyclable aluminum case, displays that are mercury and arsenic free, and logic boards that are BFR and PVC free. In addition, the packaging has 56 percent less volume, to save trees.

The base model, which starts at $1,799, pairs a 1.6-GHz processor with an 80-GB Parallel ATA hard drive. A second model that features a 1.8-GHz processor and 64-GB solid-state drive starts at $3,098. Both ship in two to three weeks, but can be pre-ordered starting today.

Compared with Windows-based 13-inch slim-and-light notebooks we've rated (Consumer Reports' Ratings are available to ConsumerReports.org subscribers only), the MacBook Air is pricier and its hard drive is a bit slower and has a smaller capacity, but weighs more than a pound less. When compared with notebooks in the 3-pound range, such as the Sony TZ series 11-inch or Toshiba Portege R500 12-inch, its pricing is very competitive.