Zune Sales Start to Lag

In what should come as a surprise to no one who’s read any of the Zune reviews, sales of the Zune have started to trail off as it looks like the public is losing interest after the initial hype.

The player, which stayed in the top 10 in sales in the Amazon.com electronics category for several days following its launch, has now nearly fallen out of the top 100. As of midday Tuesday, only the black player registered, coming in at #96.

Several other manufacturers beat out the Zune: Apple held six of the top 10 spots; SanDisk’s Sansa M240 held eighth and 14th spot; Creative’s Zen Vision:M also made an appearance in the top 20. Analysts pointed to the player’s low rank as an indication that many consumers are passing over the Zune in favor of more established brands. Source: BetaNews

Whether it’s HW or SW, I’ve always felt that Microsoft’s first releases of anything leave something to be desired. It’s possible Zune 2.0 will fix a lot of the issues that have been seen by reviewers.

How to Take Care of Your Music Files

The title of this article is kind of tongue-in-cheek, right? Obviously once you download a file from iTunes or rip it from your CD, you’re done right? I mean it’s on your iPod and it’s safe, right? You don’t havfe to keep from scratching it like perhaps a CD, right?

Right …

An article on MonstersAndCritics.com reminded me of this fallacy. But it really has to do more with they way people treat their PC or Mac hard drives as well.

Most people don’t bother backing up the data on their hard drives, and that’s what your music is once you’ve downloaded it your your hard disk. Data.

And your iPod, that’s just another hard drive as well (and Nanos are just flash memory sticks … and flash memory, despite what you may think, have a limited lifetime as well).

Kate Syred, commercial director at Privilege, said: ‘Our research has highlighted the risk music-lovers are taking by not insuring their favourite downloaded music collections. Many consumers do not realise quite how much it would cost, or how long it would take, to replace their music downloads.’ Source: MonstersAndCritics.com

And sure, it’s possible to get your downloaded music insured but some insurance policies don’t cover your PCs and they certainly don’t cover a hard drive crash. Your best bet is to back up your PC and thus your music collection.

Bomb-Sniffing Bees to Help Homeland Security?

Most people have heard of bomb-sniffing dogs (among other things they sniff for), but bees? Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have trained bees, yes, bees, to sniff for bombs.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said they trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis — the tube they use to feed on nectar — when they smell explosives in anything from cars and roadside bombs to belts similar to those used by suicide bombers.

Researchers in the program, dubbed the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project, published their findings Monday.

“When bees detect the presence of explosives, they simply stick their proboscis out,” research scientist Tim Haarmann told Reuters in a telephone interview. “You don’t have to be an expert in animal behavior to understand it as there is no ambiguity.” Source: CNN

The idea would put them into hand-held devices or even robotic devices that security guards could use. I can see there being a new requirement for Homeland Security jobs, though … “Must not be allergic to bee stings.”

‘American Father of the Prius’ Killed in Plane Crash

Despite the arguments about the Prius and its ability to save money … and there have been plenty (here and here for example) … there’s no denying the Prius has changed automaking. Although the Insight was first, the Prius is still the most popular, and one needs only peer into the carpool lane in California to see tons of them.

Much of the design was done in Japan, of course, but David Hermance was a major contributor in the US, and was among the country’s top experts on gas-electric hybrid vehicles. He was piloting an experimental plane when it crashed on Saturday afternoon.

David Hermance, 59, was piloting an experimental plane when it went down Saturday afternoon about 50 yards off Los Angeles’ San Pedro area.

While much of the car’s technology was developed in Japan, Hermance was perhaps the “American father of the Prius” for his tireless work evaluating and promoting it in the U.S., longtime colleague Bill Reinert said.

“When that car came out, no one knew what it was,” said Reinert, a Toyota national manager. “Dave dedicated his life to championing this technology.” Source: MSNBC

I scoffed at hybrids at first, but the Prius, at least the second generation which I now drive, won me over. I’m sure Hermance’s work at promoting it had something to do with it.

Which Version of Windows Vista is Right for You?

Windows XP was fairly straightforward. There was Home, Professional, and later, Media Center. But when you add up all the versions of Windows Vista including those for the EU only, etc. etc., you come up with 17. Which one is right for you, or in this case, me? VIA Arena has a nice article to help make the decision.

I’m not really worried about anything except gaming. Of these features, I can live without Parental Control and Bitlocker full drive encryption. If I really want drive encryption, I can go with TrueCrypt, open-source and respected (and more likely to be trusted by me than a new Microsoft product). For parental control, I’d probably go with NetNanny.

For me, then, the ideal version is Windows Vista Business. The reason I went through this exercise is because a number of manufacturers are offering Express Upgrades (read: free) to Windows Vista from Windows XP Professional, and I’ve been hard-pressed to wait because I could really use a new PC (oh, all right … I don’t really NEED a new PC; I WANT a new PC).

For those of you still needing more help on deciding, the full article is here.

"Locked" Cell Phones to Be a Thing of the Past?

Just in case you don’t know what cell phone locking is, take a look at your GSM phone. If you know what a SIM is, that’s what really represents, so to speak, you and your phone number to your carrier.

Now, the US still has CDMA networks, such as Sprint and Verizon, but most of the world works on GSM networks with SIMs. The beauty of a GSM phone is being able (theoretically) to swap the SIM between phones and thus use a different phone with the same number.

However, most phones are locked … that means the carrier has programmed the phone to ONLY work with SIMs issued on its network. Thus, a T-Mobile SIM wouldn’t work on a Cingular phone, unless the Cingular phone has been unlocked.

Although there are companies that will sell you unlocking codes, and these companies (you can easily find them on the web), if you ask your carrier, you may get a different answer.

… at least one company had filed lawsuits, claiming that breaking the software locks violates copyright law, which makes it illegal for people to circumvent copy- protection technologies without an exemption from the copyright office. Source: IHT

However, a new set of copyright rules will soon eliminate such arguments.

Owners of cellphones in the United States will soon be allowed to legally break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers, under new copyright rules.

The new rule was approved Wednesday by the U.S. Library of Congress, along with other copyright exemptions. The other changes will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational purposes and will allow blind people to use special software to read copyright-protected electronic books. Source: IHT

Sanity and fair use, if you ask me. With this ruling in place, perhaps carriers will stop issuing locked cell phones in the first place, or offer a pricier unlocked version for consumers. Nah! Now where’s that unlocking code for my phone?

Tired of Email Attachment Limits? Pando May Be the Answer

How many of you have said “This is a great picture; I have to send it to Mom”? Or a video clip or some other large file? Only to find when you tried to send it, your email, whether it’s Gmail, Hotmail, AOL or whatever, simply would not allow it. Or even worse, it would allow it, but whoever you sent it to couldn’t download it because of limits on his or her end? Frustrating, eh? Pando Networks thinks they have the answer.

“Everybody has experienced problems of, ‘I want to send something but it’s too large to send by e-mail,’” said Robert Levitan, Pando’s chief executive.

With Pando, files larger than a specified size are automatically converted. A copy of the file is sent to Pando’s servers, and only a small attachment gets sent to the recipient, who must have or obtain the free software from Pando. Source: MSNBC

Pando 1.2 Beta has plugins that work with some web-based mail services,including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and Hotmail … but you have to use Internet Explorer and Windows (no Firefox!?). There are standalone apps for Mac and Windows, and also a plug-in for Outlook. It will also allow you to send 1GB files.

It still doesn’t fix my real problem though … the fact that either DSL or cable doesn’t upload as fast as it downloads!

PC Dealers, Car Dealers in Second Life

A few days ago I wrote a piece at RealTechNews about Dell opening a store in Second Life. General Motors’ Pontiac Division is setting up shop as well, but it’s only products will be computer-generated cars, purchasable with Linden Dollars.

For now, at least, the Pontiac dealership will offer just one model: the Pontiac Solstice GXP. But you can have it in any color you want. And we do mean any color. Stripes, spots, plaid, purple daisies. No problem. There will be no repair shops.

“I would hope you wouldn’t have a virtual breakdown of a virtual vehicle,” said Pontiac Spokesman Jim Hopson. Source: CNN

Wait, we’re talking about a GM car here, right? My personal experience with Pontiac cars, plus what a lot of buyers seem to think, would tend to indicate, these cars might be a little buggy and they should have a CG repair shop there somewhere!

Need Help Deciphering Your Teens’s IMs?

I wrote about New Zealand’s decision to allow text message speak on exams. I think the graders will have to bone up on acronyms. Similarly, it’s also tough for parents to decipher their teens’ IM messages. Not that they would be monitoring or anything.

Despite the secrecy, Internet-savvy parents have more and more tools to decipher the code, causing a kind of chat-and-mouse game. Befuddled by lingo seen through monitoring software or over their kids’ shoulder–like “wu” for what’s up, or “plox” for please–parents are turning to sites like NoSlang.com, Teenangels.org and Teenchatdecoder.com for their acronym dictionaries–much to teens’ chagrin.

“I get praise from parents and hatred from teenagers,” said Ryan Jones, a 25-year-old engineer from Detroit who runs NoSlang.com in his spare time. He recently updated the site with thousands of new acronyms and downloadable plug-ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Source: News.com

Guess I was wrong, since the article says they are befuddled by stuff seen through monitoring software. Mr. Jones better hope a hot-shot teen-age hacker doesn’t take aim at his site.

PS3 for over $15,000 … Are You Nuts?

I’m a gamer, but a PC gamer. Especially when you look at the price of the Playstation 3, in my mind I can buy a cheap laptop for that price (not one that will play games, mind you). Honestly, I prefer playing with a keyboard and mouse, also.

So I definitely wouldn’t risk my life standing in line for a PS3, nor would I pay $15,000 for one.

We nearly fell off of our chairs when it went to $15,000 with mere seconds to go; and finally the winner of the hotly contested bidding war, which began at $1, was a user from the UK who bid $15,100 to become to proud new owner of a Playstation 3. Source: TG Daily

As the article pointed out, you could buy a car for this price! Sure, the guy must have some real disposable income, but come on. If you want to spend about $14,500 over the list price (basically throwing it away, if you just weren’t so impatient), how about using that $14K for oh, say, charity?