Rumors of Apple TV sets have been swirling for months. And the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes added to the mix today, with word that its supplier sources say Apple is ordering components to build 32-inch and 37-inch TVs that should go on sale in the second half of 2012.
There have been rumors floating around for years that Apple is building its own TV. The speculation got amped up this fall after Walter Isaacson revealed in his biography of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs that Apple had finally figured out how to build a user-friendly integrated TV.
"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs was quoted as saying. "It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."
A recent Wall Street Journal article, citing sources, claimed that Apple is already talking to media executives about what content to make available for the Apple TV set. In October, Bloomberg reported that its own sources have said Apple has tapped iTunes creator Jeff Robbin to head up the television's development. Those sources said Apple currently has a TV prototype.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has been one of the biggest drivers behind chatter about potential Apple TV sets, has been speculating that Apple may charge up to twice as much as regular TV makers for its integrated TV sets. In other words if a regular TV costs $800, Apple's could cost as much as $1,600 for the same size and similar specs.
It's difficult to say whether any of these rumors will come to fruition. Jobs' biographer Isaacson threw cold water on the notion that an Apple TV set would come to market anytime soon when he was interviewed by CNET's Josh Lowensohn. Isaacson said in that interview that Apple wasn't "close at all" to getting its integrated TVs on the market.
"He told me it was very theoretical," Isaacson said of Jobs. "These were theoretical things they were thinking about in the future."
Keep your eye on both of these aircraft in the years ahead: the KC-46A tanker and the F-35 jet fighter.
(Credit: Boeing)
In 2011, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner carried passengers for the first time, and the space shuttle landed for the final time.
For aviation buffs and aerospace junkies, those were the signature events of the year. In the case of the shuttle, there were actually three such moments, and each time we got more verklempt: Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis all flew their final missions. But as the door closes on that 30-year piece in history, a window is opening to private space ventures like SpaceX and the newly unveiled Stratolaunch effort from Paul Allen and Burt Rutan.
Boeing got a lot of mileage out of the hoopla around its Dreamliner, but the company also scored a major win from the Pentagon with the $30 billion contract to build the KC-46A aerial tanker.
To borrow and bend a little from "The Graduate," however, we really have just one word for you: drones. As unmanned aircraft like the Predator continued to fly over places like Afghanistan, there were other cutting-edge robo-planes catching the spotlight, if not always for the right reasons--yes, we're looking at you, RQ-170 Sentinel, on the ground in Iran.
Next year is one of those years that can't come soon enough for Microsoft.
It's not that 2011 was a particularly difficult year. The company posted record revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30. And its 2-year-old PC operating system, Windows 7, hit 500 million copies sold, further embedding it as the most widely used operating system in the world. But 2011 had few big product launches at the company, Office 365 and Internet Explorer 9 notwithstanding.
Next year will be altogether different. Microsoft is prepping the big kahuna of its product arsenal, Windows 8. The company hasn't set a date, though most analysts expect the flagship operating system to debut before the end of the year, and perhaps in time for back-to-school shopping. From that product, much else from Redmond flows.
So here are five things to look for from Microsoft in 2012: 1. Windows 8 tablets
Windows 8 is one of the boldest bets Microsoft will make, radically changing the interface on the operating system to the company's tile-based Metro look, first used by Windows Phone 7 last year. The familiar desktop photo covered with application and file icons will be available to PC users who want it. But Microsoft is pushing the new touch-friendly interface to convince consumers to buy tablet computers that will run it.
It won't be an easy sell. Microsoft will be coming to the tablet market more than two years after Apple iPad launched and quickly became a commercial success. And this holiday season, Amazon debuted its Kindle Fire, which became the first non-Apple tablet to gain a meaningful foothold. Market analyst Forrester recently reported that consumer interest in Windows tablets is waning.
As the core of computing moves beyond the PC, Microsoft needs Windows 8 tablets to succeed. It's all the more pressing as PC growth sputters and the tablet computer market soars.
The market muscle of Microsoft and its partners will help propel Windows tablets at their debut. But unless Microsoft can convince developers to create tablet-specific apps that users can't live without, the devices will have a hard time making a dent in iPad's massive lead. 2. Xbox moves farther into live TV
Even in its earliest days, Microsoft's video game console business was pegged as a Trojan Horse to bring the company's technology from the office to the living room. But the brains behind Xbox knew they had to make a great gaming experience job No. 1. Now, leading the United States in console sales in 2011, Xbox is pushing in earnest beyond gaming.
Microsoft just brought the first hint of live TV to Xbox consoles with an updated look to its Xbox Live service earlier this month. In addition to introducing the Metro-style look to Xbox, it also let customers of Verizon's Fios cable television service choose from 26 different live TV channels--Comedy Central, HBO, and Nickelodeon. A handful of other partners are offering live programming through Xbox as well.
That's clearly just the start for Microsoft. The company is moving toward the goal of getting consumers to fire up their Xbox whenever they flip on their TVs, not just when they want to play a game. Next year will see more live television content come to Xbox Live. It's a foundation that Microsoft will build out as it readies the next version of the Xbox console, something a source on the Xbox team says will happen in 2013. 3. Windows Phone: We're No. 3
It may be a measure of the decade-long struggle to succeed in mobile telephony that, for Microsoft, a victory would be grabbing the third place spot in terms of smartphone market share for its Windows Phone software. While the company has wrestled to arrive at a winning formula, rivals Apple and Google have introduced mobile-phone operating systems that have seized business that Microsoft had hoped to grab.
Microsoft rebooted its phone effort at the end of last year, introducing a passel of new phones from partners running its brand new operating system, Windows Phone 7. The slick-looking software, refreshed in September with an update dubbed Mango, has won plaudits from reviewers for its animation and app integration.
While the technology is catching up with rivals, Windows Phone's market share hasn't. According to market research firm Gartner, just 1.5 percent of the smartphones worldwide run Microsoft's operating system. And rivals aren't standing still. Apple's new iPhone 4S has outsold every other mobile phone since its debut in October. And despite the market fragmentation of Google's Android, with different handset manufacturers running different versions of the mobile operating system, it continues to pull ahead in the marketplace.
There's little doubt that Windows Phone share will grow, if only because of the marketing push Microsoft and partners, particularly Nokia, will make, coupled with the tiny toehold it currently has. But it's most likely to grab customers from Research In Motion's foundering Blackberry business rather than established Apple and Google customers. 4. Patent litigation aggressor
The ground Microsoft hasn't been able to take away from Android in the marketplace may well be covered by the revenue it's able to generate through the threat of litigation. The software giant has persuaded several handset makers--including HTC, Wistron, and Compal-- to pay it a vig for each Android device they sell to settle allegations that the mobile operating system violates Microsoft's patents.
The Android device makers that don't pay? Microsoft's taking them to court. Two high profile cases will move toward resolution next year-- Microsoft's suit against Barnes & Noble, whose Nook e-reader runs Android, and a separate suit against Motorola. (Google is in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility.)
The tactic has proven so successful that in 2011, Microsoft started collecting fees from companies that make devices running Google's Chrome operating system as well, including Acer and ViewSonic. Expect Microsoft to continue to press device makers that use its rival's technology. Likewise, count on those manufacturers, particularly the smaller ones, to pay up rather than face Microsoft in the courthouse. 5. Growing search through social
Like the mobile-phone business, Microsoft has bounced from one strategy to the next in a bid to be more relevant in Internet search. It's re-branded its search engine a few times, added key partners, and cycled through senior executives, and still significantly trails market leader Google.
There's one Microsoft partnership that could start to pay off in 2012, and it's not the deal to handle search queries from Yahoo. It's Microsoft's deal with Facebook. In May, Microsoft began including recommendations from Facebook friends into its Bing search engine, creating customized results by elevating the ones that receive a "like" from someone in the searcher's Facebook network. So when someone is looking for a Thai restaurant in Seattle, for example, a spot that earned a like from a Facebook friend will rise in that person's particular search rankings.
Google is on to the same formula too, creating its Google+ social network to infuse its search results with customized answers to Web surfer queries. But in social networking, Facebook remains king. Using Facebook "likes" are just the first step. Microsoft clearly plans to add more social signals to Bing in 2012. And while that won't topple Google, it does offer the opportunity to grab a large slice of the search business by providing more relevant results.
As it's done in years past, Google's put a bit of holiday cheer on its usually stark white search page.
The new design went live today ahead of Christmas. The doodle changes colors and plays "Jingle Bells" after users light up each note with their mouse. Clicking on the page itself does a search for "happy holidays."
The design itself is strongly reminiscent of the glowing Lite-Brite toys, which light up in various colors after being poked through thick, black construction paper. Once animated it looks like plain old holiday lights.
Last year's doodle was a bit more abstract, with a smattering of paintings that could be hovered over to enlarge. Together they spelled out Google, though at first glance looked more like a funky art exhibit. This time around, it's a fixture of easily identifiable holiday symbology, with snowflakes, Santa Claus, bells, snowman, candle, and wrapped present.
Here's what it looks like in action, courtesy of YouTuber MrDwiky01:
This is just the latest piece of Google's holiday-related efforts. Once again, the company is running its Santa tracker, a collaboration with NORAD that shows Santa Claus' location around the globe. Google-owned YouTube is also offering a snowflake button that adds gently falling snow on top of whatever video you're watching, as well as turning the progress bar counter into a single flake. And if that's not enough for you, Google is also offering a way to leave voice messages for Santa, as well as creating personalized video and audio messages for others using its SendACallFromSanta.com site.
Google's doodles have long been a fixture to mark news, events, and people of interest. The designs are all made by Google's in-house team, who create everything from simple static images to more advanced interactive doodads, one of which was recently a full, working version of the game Pac-Man. For more on how doodles came to be, and what goes into making them, read my colleague Daniel Terdiman's story on the creative process. Updated at 6 p.m. PT to note that the feature is once again live.
Welcome back to Apple Talk Weekly. We're back from hiatus with a weekly dose of the top Apple news and rumors.
Despite the holiday season being in full bore, it's been a busy week for Apple, starting with a win against HTC in its complaint to the International Trade Commission. That was followed shortly thereafter by the apparently successful purchase of an Israeli memory chipmaker, and another legal volley against Samsung in an Australian court.
There were, of course, other goings-on, like some changes to the iTunes store, talk of "prototype" Apple retail stores, and a posthumous Grammy win by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Read more about those stories, and the rest of this week's Apple happenings below. Apple Talk Weekly rounds up of some of the top Apple-related news and rumors. It appears every Saturday morning and is curated by CNET's Apple reporter, Josh Lowensohn. News Apple sees victory against HTC in ITC patent case
The International Trade Commission this week ruled in favor of Apple in its complaint against HTC, alleging that the Taiwan-based company was infringing on 10 of its patents with its mobile devices. The ITC ruled that HTC was in fact, violating one of those patents, and gave the company until April of next year to comply with a software fix. Later in the week, HTC said it already a workaround for the issue ready to go. See also: HTC loses key patent battle: How does it affect you?
Anobit's mobile storage technology, now reportedly Apple's.
(Credit: Anobit)
Apple spends reported $400-500M on memory company
Israel-based flash memory maker Anobit is now owned by Apple, according to reports this week. A story from Israeli news site Calcalist says the deal has gone through, and cost Apple somewhere in the $400 million to $500 million range. The apparent acquisition should beef up Apple's in-house hardware efforts, and adds to its previous hardware acquisitions including Intrinsity and P.A. Semi. Apple takes aim at Samsung in Australia, again
A federal court in Australia was the scene of another Apple legal volley against Samsung this week. In a hearing, Apple said Samsung was infringing on "at least 10" of its design patents with the designs of its smart phones and 10-inch Galaxy Tablet. This follows moves by Samsung to change its tablets in that market to comply with a previous Apple complaint. Steve Jobs nabs a Grammy
Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will be posthumously awarded a Grammy this year. The Recording Academy this week said that Jobs was to be given one of the organization's Special Merit Awards for helping how people consume music, TV, movies and books. Apple itself nabbed a technical Grammy in 2002 for its audio software efforts. Apple building "prototype" store in Palo Alto
Apple is planning to give its Palo Alto, Calif., retail store a reboot as part of an upcoming construction project that will build a new store just a block away. The $3.15 million project will bring a 15,030-square-foot store to the area, which Apple says will serve as a prototype of sorts. It's the latest in a series of projects to revitalize some of Apple's retail locations.
Bought a TV show from a series? Apple now offers the option to get the whole season at a discount.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)
Apple tweaks "complete my season" and "album" iTunes Store services
Apple made two key adjustments to its digital media store this week, the first being the quiet removal of a policy that would only give users 180 days to complete an album at a limited price after purchasing selected tracks. The second bit adds the completion feature to TV shows on iTunes, letting users subscribe to an entire season after having purchased an episode or two, without having to re-buy those same shows when purchasing a whole season. Apple replacing overheating first-gen Nanos with new models
Despite having promised those with recalled first-generation iPod nanos replacements from the same generation, some users have been getting back Apple's latest model instead. Apple's original stance on the issue when the recall went out last month was to provide users with refurbished versions of the same model.
Rumors Apple chatting up TV plans with media execs
A report from the Wall Street Journal earlier this week noted that Apple's been talking to a handful of media executives about TV, particularly with how it could make use of voice and physical movement. Apple is expected to debut a TV set as soon as next year. The company's current living room effort centers around its $99 set top box, the Apple TV. Apple working on wearable Siri gadgets
Apple and Google are said to be working on gadgets that can be worn, things like wristwatches and curved glass iPods. Those details, which came from a New York Times report this week, said such ideas were still in the conceptional phase, and could tap into Apple's recently-released, iPhone 4S exclusive Siri voice assistant to become more useful.
A smaller iPad 2012? Nope says analyst.
No 7-inch iPad in 2012, analyst suggests
With a recent rumor pointing to a smaller version of the iPad being on the way, analyst Brian Blair of Wedge Partners this week told investors that such a product would be unlikely. "(Steve) Jobs was emphatic in his view that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival, and we believe it would be unlikely to see the company test the waters in this category anytime soon," Blair wrote. As an alternative, Blair suggested that Apple would keep the iPad 2 around, like it does with previous versions of its iPhone, and selling it at a lower price point. iPad 3 launch to coincide with birthday of Steve Jobs
A report out of Focus Taiwan this week (via 9to5Mac) claimed that Apple was pushing its suppliers hard to get the next iPad ready to go in time for the birthday anniversary of late company co-founder Steve Jobs on February 24. That included making employees at Apple's manufacturing partners avoid taking vacation during the holidays.
We'd understand if holiday shopping kept you too busy for Crave-ing this week, and that's why we have a gift of our own for you: links to some of the week's top stories, all wrapped up and ready to be ogled!
• Star Wars: The Old Republic landed in our galaxy.
• Speaking of highly anticipated games...
Click on the image for more on making your own photographic wrapping paper.
(Credit: Photojojo)
• Batteries powered by paper? That's not (pulp) fiction anymore.
• Sphero the new robotic ball: stupid or clever?
• Hands on with the PS Vita (Jeff's got a gripe).
• The intro to the '60s Batman show as nature intended it: in Lego form!
• Self-healing circuits don't need human help.
• Latest Gresso phone costs $50,000, isn't even a smartphone.
• Turn your Netbook into a telepresence robot.
• And the most-watched YouTube video of 2011 was...
• Tweeting via postcard could be good news for USPS.
• And this week's podcast will definitely be good news for you:
Ep. 70: Buying back the '80s
Got a holiday gift for us (or just a comment, question, or story idea?). Write to us at crave at cnet dot com. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @crave.
Following criticism from customers for its support of the Stop Online Piracy Act, domain registrar Go Daddy today said that it's no longer backing the legislation.
"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation - but we can clearly do better," said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman in a statement. "It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."
In addition, the company has also taken down blog posts where it outlined its support for portions of the bill.
Introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith in late October, SOPA quickly became a source of controversy. It would allow the Justice Department to seek an order making allegedly piratical Web sites virtually vanish from the Internet.
The legislation has created a divide amongst several major technology companies with support from businesses like Adobe, Comcast, Dell and Sony, with opposition from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn.
Go Daddy's place in the debate became of particular significance given its place as an Internet domain registrar. Just yesterday, the creator of icanhascheezburger.com, among other sites, vowed to move 1,000 domains held by parent company Cheezburger, Inc. to another registrar if Go Daddy did not change its stance on the matter.
That move was preceded with an anti-Go Daddy thread on social site Reddit, which drew more than 3,000 comments and the creation of godaddyboycott.org, a site set up to let users voice their disapproval with the company's support of SOPA. And today, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales tweeted that the company was moving away from using Go Daddy given the company's support for the bill. CNET News Senior Editor Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.
When you sign a new wireless contract and pay $200 for the latest smartphone, you expect that device to last at least until the end of your two-year contract. Right?
Unfortunately that's not the case for many smartphone subscribers. If your device has issues within the first year, consider yourself lucky since the repair is likely covered under the manufacturer warranty. But if it craps out 13 months into your contract, you may be screwed. Ask Maggie offers some advice for how to protect yourself. And in a second question, there's some advice for keeping an older iPhone alive as long as possible. Busted smartphones and busted wallets Dear Maggie,
My question is regarding cellular service contracts and smartphones. I am a longtime Verizon Wireless customer. In our household, we have owned five smartphones over the past three years. Four out of those five smartphones have failed prior to the two-year contract expiration. There have been software issues, touch-screen failures and one of the phones just went bonkers.
These smartphones all made it past the one-year warranty, which leaves us with an inoperative phone and usually about one more year of a contract to fulfill. Verizon has no good answer for this. Their remedy is to purchase another phone with data at full price. I have purchased two used smartphones in order to fulfill my contract. Now that I am due for a new contract, I am afraid to purchase another smartphone. Prices for new smartphones are now even higher, and it appears contract periods are lengthening. What do you suggest?
Thanks,
Mike in Ohio Dear Mike in Ohio,
It sounds like you have terrible luck with smartphones. But unfortunately, I am sure your experience isn't unique. I know lots of consumer electronics poop out just after the warranty expires. And it's frustrating.
But you are caught between a rock and a hard place. You could go back to a basic feature phone, but you'd be giving up the convenience and utility of a smartphone. Instead, I'd suggest you do some research to find smartphones or manufacturers with a better track record when it comes to reliability. Then I'd consider getting an insurance or extended warranty plan for your phones.
In terms of the research, I'd ask friends and colleagues how satisfied they are with their phone's reliability. Then you can look on the Internet for consumer feedback on particular phones.
PCWorld recently surveyed readers and found that two smartphone manufacturers received better-than-average marks for reliability: Apple and LG. Near the bottom of the heap were BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and Samsung. I'm not saying that you should only buy an iPhone or an LG phone and that you should avoid RIM and Samsung phones, but you may want to consider this as one data point in your assessment as you talk to others and research complaints of specific phones you're interested in buying.
The second thing I'd suggest is for you to consider buying either an insurance plan or an extended warranty for your devices.
Verizon Wireless offers insurance for all devices bought for its network. So you may want to consider getting the insurance. But honestly, I still think it's a bit pricey. The total price for one device is $167.76 for over the 24 months of a contract. If you have multiple handsets in the family, as you do, that really adds up.
Also, the insurance comes with a $99 deductible. So if you need to replace your phone, it will still cost you at least $99. That said, Verizon's service is insurance and not a warranty. This actually offers more protection than you'd get with a basic warranty. For instance, if the phone is lost or stolen or it's damaged in some other way, the insurance should cover the repair or replacement of your phone. Read the terms of the Verizon insurance and your manufacturer's phone warranty to get exact details.
Verizon isn't the only company to offer insurance for smartphones. There are several third-party smartphone insurance providers, but typically these policies also have a deductible of about $100. I suppose if you're looking at potentially spending $600 on a new phone without a subsidy, the cost of the insurance and subsidy may be worth it. But again, I think it's rather pricey.
You can also buy an extended warranty for your smartphones. A company called SquareTrade sells an extended warranty for about $125 for two years. This is a reasonable price given that some retailer extended warranty plans, such as BestBuy's, can cost $15 a month for a smartphone for a total of about $360 for two years of coverage.
SquareTrade's warranty covers things like cracked screens, dropped devices, spills, and other things that may happen to a smartphone, but aren't necessarily covered under a manufacturer warranty. Like the insurance plans, it also includes a deductible. But it's less expensive at $50.
If you buy an Apple iPhone, you can get AppleCare+ for $99, which extends the hardware warranty and also offers software support.
Unlike other third-party warranty programs there is no deductible for AppleCare+, so that's a plus. Apple also does offer up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage, but that is subject to a charge of $49 for each incident.
The AppleCare+ warranty also applies to accessories that come with your phone. So if your headphones start rattling 13 months after buying your iPhone, you can get them replaced. I like the AppleCare+ option also because it includes software support. In your original question you mentioned that some of the problems you've had with your smartphones have been software-related. Software isn't typically covered under warranties, so keep that in mind as well as you decide whether to invest in insurance or an extended warranty.
One other thing to keep in mind if you are considering either a warranty or insurance is to know the difference between the two options. A warranty mainly covers defects in the device, whereas insurance will cover damage inflicted on the device as well as offer coverage if your device is lost or stolen.
I'm not saying that insurance or an extended warranty is the way to go for you. But it does sound as though you've had trouble in the past. And if you can afford the additional coverage, it may be worth it for you in the future.
If you don't want to spend the money for additional coverage, then make sure to buy your new smartphones on a credit card that offers an extended warranty on purchases. For example, American Express offers extended manufacturer warranties up to one year past the original warranty. The extended manufacturer warranty is free, and you don't have to sign up to get the benefit. It will also extend the warranty an additional year after a third-party purchased warranty expires.
One thing to keep in mind with smartphones is that the credit card company will only cover the replacement or repair of the product up to the amount that was charged for the device on your card. So if you buy a new smartphone as part of a new wireless contract and you only pay $200 for it, that will be the amount that the credit card company will pay you if there is damage. This means that if your smartphone breaks in its second year of your service contract, American Express or whoever will only credit your account up to $200 if a replacement is needed. Meanwhile, it may cost you another $400 to replace the phone with a new out-of-contract device. But getting $200 back is better than nothing, since you did not have to pay for insurance or an extended warranty.
Here's a brief recap of what I think you should do:
Research the phones you're interested in buying to see what others say about their reliability. Check the Internet, as well as talk to friends and family.
Consider insurance or an extended warranty.
Purchase the new devices on a credit card with an automatic extended warranty. Be sure to keep the original sales receipt, credit card receipt, and manufacturer warranty. And make sure you store these documents together in a safe place.
I hope this helps and good luck! Battery life issues Dear Maggie,
I have an iPhone 3GS. And I just noticed that my phone, which had been working perfectly fine for two and a half years, is now losing its battery charge halfway through the day. And sometimes, I just get a black screen and it shuts down. I recharge it, and then it seems to work again. But this battery life issue is a huge pain!
So I am wondering if I should just give up on my old phone and get the iPhone 4S? Or do you have some advice to help me fix this problem. I am eligible for an upgrade now, but my contract isn't up until April. I'm thinking about switching carriers when my contract expires, so I don't really want to enter into a new two-year contract now. And I would like to see what new iPhone Apple introduces next year.
Is there anything I can do to hold onto my old 3GS a little longer? I haven't upgraded to iOS 5 yet because I'm afraid it might make things worse. What do you think?
Thanks, Diane Dear Diane, I am with you. I wouldn't want to ditch my iPhone with only a few months left before your contract ends. So if you can hang onto it a little longer, that's what I would do. After all, you don't want to sign up for a new contract when you can't even consider all your alternatives. And if you can wait until the spring at least, it seems like we may have more clarity about Apple's timing for a new iPhone.
So what should you do? Well, the first thing is that you need to update the software on your phone. This may take a little while, so don't try to do it in the morning before you leave for work. Also, before you get started make sure you do two things: 1. Back up your phone, so in case something goes wrong, you've got all your most recent music, contacts, SMS message conversations, etc. saved so it can be restored on your iPhone. 2. Make sure that your iTunes software on your computer is also up-to-date.
The thing about cell phone batteries is that they don't last forever. After a period of time all cell phone batteries hold less charge. So there is a certain amount of battery life loss that everyone can expect with any device over time.
That said, new software updates, like iOS 5 can help improve how your phone functions so that it can extend or preserve battery life. There are also things you can do to make sure your phone uses less power throughout the day.
I had a similar battery issue with my 2-year-old iPhone 3GS, and the problem went away after I upgraded the phone to iOS 5.
But if you install the new software, and you're still having trouble with the battery life of your iPhone 3GS, make an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar to see if there is anything they can recommend.
In the meantime, there are several things you can do to try to extend battery life on any smartphone.
Turn off unused radios. If you're in the subway or in your office where you get no signal or a weak signal, put your phone in airplane mode. That way it won't be searching for a signal and eat up your battery. The same goes for your Wi-Fi radio. If you aren't using Wi-Fi, then turn it off. It takes more energy to power these extra radios.
Close unused applications. Lots of applications can be running on your phone at the same time. But you are likely focused on one task at a time. So turn off location-based services when you don't need them and the Bluetooth functionality for your hands-free headset when you're not in the car. These things eat up a lot of battery when you're not using them. You may also want to turn off push notifications for e-mail and other apps. Again, if your phone is doing something, it's using the battery, so shutting down some of that activity will help preserve your battery.
Dim your screen. Turn down the brightness on your screen, and it will use less power.
Turn off vibrate on your phone. It takes more power to make your phone vibrate when you are receiving a phone call or text message than the ringer. So turn off vibrate, and instead just use the ringer.
Turn off your phone. If your phone can't make it through the day, then turn it off when you're not using it. For example, if you're going into a meeting for work and you'd usually put your phone on silent, turn it off instead. You can always turn it back on when you're available for phone calls and text messages.
I hope this advice was helpful. And good luck! Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page. Marguerite Reardon
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies.
Phase One's IQ180 sensor mounted to the 645DF camera body and Schneider-Kreuznach's 120mm tilt-shift lens. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
When describing Phase One's IQ180-based camera system, there are plenty of superlatives you could pick.
High resolution is one choice: the sensor captures 80-megapixel photos measuring 10,328 by 7,760 pixels.
Expensive is another obvious candidate: the IQ180 image sensor costs $43,990. Adding in the 645DF camera body and Schneider-Kreuznach's 80mm LS lens bumps the price to $47,990.
But the one that intrigued me the most was outstanding color.
Over two weeks shooting with the IQ180 and 645DF medium-format camera body, I was consistently impressed with the depth and subtlety of its images' color. As often as not it was the color, not the high resolution, that made me want to dive into the photos (having a high-gamut display helps a lot) and print posters. Skin tones look more alive and natural, and I found myself shooting to capture color much more than I usually do.
I spent an afternoon at Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, France, with blazing orange nasturtiums and his house's shutters painted bright green. Just as rewarding, though, were more subdued colors--the purply-green nymphaea Monet liked so much, the warm hues of a building at sunset, and the fallen leaves fading from yellow to brown.
Of course, for this price, the color better be good. Photography pros
It probably goes without saying, but the IQ180 is for professionals. Medium-format cameras' image sensors are considerably larger even than top-end cameras of the 35mm lineage, whose "full-frame" sensors measure 24x36mm. Phase One's IQ180 is 53.7x40.4mm.
A close-up of a flower shot with the Phase One IQ180 digital back and 645DF camera body with the Phase One/Mamiya 120mm Macro f/4.0D lens. 1/250 sec at F7.1, ISO 200. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Eighty megapixels is more than even most professional photographers need today. Indeed, too many pixels can cause problems: squeezing in so many makes for physically small pixel sizes and correspondingly high noise that degrades the image. But the IQ180's spacious chip permits pixels to be relatively large, which satisfies professionals' needs for high resolution without introducing too much in noise.
Which professionals? Chiefly those who work in a studio for big-budget shoots. The IQ180 is the sort of camera that's used for big, finely detailed ads of fashion models, luxury hotels, fancy cars, Swiss watches, and diamond jewelry. These are premium shoots for premium clients, where it's more likely investments in expensive gear can be justified.
The high resolution is good for posters, top-quality reproductions, editing flexibility, and more. It's darned impressive, too. I've included a couple of images in this story that you can zoom into, but this iris photo below shows the uncropped frame above and, below, a 100-percent zoom of the area marked with a green rectangle.
A close-up of an iris at Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, France. The area in the green rectangle is shown at 100 percent zoom below. This was shot with Phase One's IQ180 and 120mm macro lens at 1/125 sec. at f/10 and ISO 200, with no extra noise reduction applied. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
And if you zoom into this portrait I posted on Microsoft's Zoom.it service (it's also in this story, a few paragraphs down), you can see reflected in the boy's eye the following: me, holding the camera and silhouetted against the window; the railing, sky, and trees outdoors; and colored paper and two plates on the table. Also worth a deep dive is this photo of the side of Claude Monet's house.
Still, a tough competitive challenge faces Phase One and its Japanese subsidiary, Mamiya, which builds medium-format lenses and camera bodies. Even as several medium-format rivals faded away in recent years, Nikon and Canon full-frame SLRs are much cheaper and steadily improving in resolution, too. Those manufacturers have a wide selection of high-quality lenses and accessories such as wireless flash controllers. Plenty of professionals cut their teeth on SLRs and stay there. And their sensors are tied to the consumer market, benefiting from rapid technology advances and manufacturing efficiencies.
So Phase One must stay a step ahead with its premium products. Here, the IQ180 is more compelling than its predecessor, the Phase One P65+ digital back I tried last year. Usability improvements
One very big improvement is usability. The IQ180 has a touch screen that's vastly easier to use than the four-button interface of the the P65+. Quick taps on the screen let you zoom in all the way to 100 percent so you can check focus. Other taps let you more easily delete photos, give them star ratings, and change camera settings.
The screen is responsive, unlike some touch screens I've used, and when you're looking at zoomed-in images, you can flick to pan around more easily. That's a huge improvement over the unintuitive controls of the P65+.
The screen itself is much nicer to look at, too--brighter, more detailed, with colors that aren't so washed-out. The IQ180 has live view, great for close-up macro focusing while the camera is on a tripod; otherwise you can stick with the nice viewfinder.
Other refinements over the predecessor was faster autofocus (though it only works with the center point of the lens) and vastly improved automatic white balance.
Overall, the IQ180 was more alive than the P65+, farther removed from the inert film packs that digital backs replace. That made it much more useful as a tool to get the right shot when you're taking the photos.Improved usability doesn't mean the camera system is a dream to use, though. It's a hulking piece of machinery, with heavy lenses. Passersby will notice the loud "ka-chizzer-flop" noise from the shutter and mirror. The camera system is at home on a sturdy tripod--close-up shots with an 80-megapixel sensor reveal even tiny camera movements. It's best to arrange shots in advance rather than burn 20 or 30 frames on a subject and then pick the best later on your computer. This medium-format system is not well-suited to improvisation and fast-changing scenes.
Also, because the sensor is independent from the camera, it can be awkward for the average SLR photographer to get used to some controls such as shutter speed being on the camera body and others such as ISO being on the sensor module. An integrated design is convenient--that's the approach top rivals Hasselblad and Pentax have taken--but it also means some extra expense for those who want to upgrade sensors more often than camera bodies, and it means the sensor back can be used with exotic cameras from companies such as Arca Swiss.
As with any camera, the more care you put into using it, the more you get out of it. It reminded me of a high-performance sports car: capable of amazing achievements, but rough around the edges. You won't get the cupholders and ergonomic refinements of a mainstream sedan, but you're buying the machine for its performance. (Unless you're just flaunting your wealth.)
And like some sports cars, the hardware can be finicky. I had some issues with autofocus hunting, the CompactFlash memory card could be hard to extract sometimes, and the digital back can really drain its battery fast if you use the screen a lot. Fortunately, you can shoot while the camera is plugged into power, and for that matter while tethered to a computer with its USB 3 or Firewire connection. It's got a built-in charger, too, so when it's plugged in the digital back will charge its battery. Stressed-out software
Another good reason not to shoot dozens and dozens of photos of a subject is that the photos themselves are taxing. Raw files for me were generally 60MB to 90MB in Phase One's IIQ format and 90MB to 120MB when converted to Adobe's DNG format. Adobe Lightroom groaned under the load: rendering 1:1 previews (in which you can zoom in 100 percent so each pixel in the photo matches a pixel on your display) took about 20 seconds on my quad-core laptops. Adobe's software can handle IIQ files and many Phase One/Mamiya and Schneider-Kreuznach lenses, but of course Phase One would prefer you use its own Capture One software.
Happily, the photos that came out of the camera were generally good enough that I didn't feel a compulsion for lots of post-processing.
A close-up of a strawberry shot with the Phase One IQ180 digital back and 645DF camera body with the Phase One/Mamiya 120mm Macro f/4.0D lens. 1/10 sec at F9, ISO 35. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
The IQ180's low noise and high color is best when set to its impressively low ISO 35, but it worked well at ISO 100 and 200, too. ISO 800 is the highest the camera goes at full resolution, and I don't recommend it. Phase One's Sensor+ technology, which bins pixels together, runs from ISO 140 to 3,200 but only shoots 20-megapixel images. It's great that you can push to higher ISOs, but the noise is an issue. This is where you'll see the performance of relatively mainstream SLRs such as Canon's 21-megapixel 5D Mark II come out ahead, even though that's a 3-year-old model now.
People shooting in studio environments with controlled lighting don't have to worry so much about dynamic range, the ability of the camera to capture a full range of bright and dark tones. But even then it's important--pulling out details in dark hair or dimly lit tire treads, for example. I was pleased with how much information the camera captured. The 16-bit-per-channel data likely helps here. (That means that there are 65,536 gradations between the maximum and minimum brightness each sensor pixel can capture. For comparison, higher-end SLRs offer 14 bits, which is pretty good, and JPEG can handle only a pathetic 8 bits, which is why you have to shoot with raw image formats to take full advantage of these cameras.)
The three Schneider-Kreuznach lenses I tried--55mm, 80mm, and 110mm models--were all impressive, as befits their prices: $2,490, $3,990, and $4,490, respectively. Chromatic aberration wasn't worrisome, and their sharpness matched the high-resolution sensor's abilities. They're leaf-shutter designs, which means they have a built-in shutter that permits higher shutter speeds than the camera body itself, which is nice for fashion photographers shooting moving models.
I also spent a lot of time with Phase One's $3,390 120mm macro lens. It wolfed down impressive amounts of detail at close range. Remember when the HD video industry realized the higher-resolution TV cameras meant they had to apply makeup more carefully? I had the same problem, discovering flecks of dust I wouldn't have worried about before. It seems optimized for macro use, though. I wasn't as happy with the lens when shooting subjects that were, say, 15 or 20 feet away, when the Schneider-Kreuznach's 110mm fared better.
Sadly, I only had time for a taste of another lens, Schneider-Kreuznach's $4,990 120mm tilt-shift. I can't comment on its abilities, but I will say it's probably the most beautifully machined object I've handled. (Tilt-shift lenses can be oriented at unusual angles and alignments compared with ordinary camera lenses, which lets photographers dramatically alter the focusing depth of field and correct perspective issues such as converging parallel lines of a building photographed from street level.) Getting your hands dirty
Shooting with a camera of this caliber is a different experience from much of what you'll get from today's digital photography.
Gone is much of the hurry, because you can't just whip the camera out and snap that candid portrait that lasts only a fleeting moment. Back is much of the patience and deliberation that's become hard to find since the camera industry hitched itself to Moore's Law. Gone, too, is much of the automation of today's photography that I believe offers a lot of help for most folks' pictures.
But there's a place in the world for a more painstaking approach. For those who can afford it, Phase One's equipment fits the bill.
Big-budget special effects could soon be within the grasp of low-budget film-makers thanks to a new technique for automatically replacing one actor's face with another's.
Face replacement is a much-used effect in Hollywood productions, even cropping up in realistic drama films such as The Social Network, in which two unrelated actors played a pair of twins. The complex and expensive equipment it requires, not to mention dedicated visual effects artists, have kept it out of low-budget movies, though.
No longer. "We achieve high-quality results with just a single camera and simple lighting set-up," says Kevin Dale, a computer scientist at Harvard University who came up with the new technique.
Dale and colleagues start a face "transplant" with an algorithm that creates 3D models of each face. Their system then automatically morphs the image of the donor's face to match the recipient, but that alone doesn't create a realistic-looking video – a joining seam is visible. "One frame might look good, or many frames in sequence might look good individually, but when you play them together you get flickering," explains Dale.
So his system calculates the position on both actors' faces where the seam will be as unobtrusive as possible. It also ensures that it doesn't jump around from frame to frame to avoid flickering. The whole process takes about 20 minutes to produce a 10-second video on an ordinary desktop computer and requires only a little manual interaction. Users can place facial markers on the first frame to generate the 3D facial model, but in some cases the system "worked right out of the box", says Dale.
Hybrid performances
In addition to performing face transplants, Dale says directors could also use his system to blend multiple versions of an actor's performance into a single scene. It can combine the mouth from one take with the eyes from another, for example, because it can match slight differences in movement between two videos. It can't handle every situation, however, and videos with complex or very different lighting won't match up well.
"It's a step towards making this more automatic," says Paul Debevec, a computer graphics researcher at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, whose work has been used in films such as The Matrix and Avatar. He says that Dale's technique is unlikely to be used by film industry professionals, who can already achieve the same effect, but it could be made into a YouTube plug-in or a similar easy-to-use tool. He warns that people may struggle to match lighting between videos made at home, though.
Journal reference: ACM Transactions on Graphics, DOI: 10.1145/2070781.2024164
The new home screen for the Xbox 360 dashboard.
(Credit: Microsoft)
Microsoft will push out an update to Xbox consoles Tuesday, designed to get consumers to turn on the device every time they flip on their televisions, not just when they want to play games.
Though most gamers will notice a dramatically different interface, and some will take advantage of more advanced voice-recognition controls, the real significance of the update is how boldly the software giant is putting itself at the core of the TV entertainment experience. Microsoft is partnering with 40 content providers from around the globe to significantly increase the amount of live and on-demand content available on Xbox.
Over the next month, Microsoft will add content in the United States to the Xbox from Verizon's FiOS TV, ESPN, and the Syfy channel among others. Next year, HBO Go and Comcast's Xfinity on Demand will come to U.S. customers. Many of the apps from partners are only available to customers who purchase an Xbox Live Gold Membership.
Microsoft is also adding new programming to the Xbox experience abroad. Canadian customers will get content from Rogers Media, Maple Leaf Sports, and TMZ, among others. And new programming will roll out in Europe, Australia and Asia.
The newest iteration of Xbox software, which Microsoft first unveiled at E3 this spring, does away with the interface in which users scrolled up and down to hubs such as Video Marketplace or My Xbox. After they got to a hub, users could then dive deeper into each topic by toggling to the right to the specific content they wanted.
Microsoft has replaced that look with the so-called Metro interface that it first introduced with Windows Phone 7. It's also designing the Metro interface into Windows 8, expected to launch at the end of next year. With Xbox, the Metro look starts with the content hubs--such as video, games, and social--displayed horizontally across the top of the screen. Selecting a hub shows the rectangular tile Metro-look. Each tile displays content, such as the latest games played or the hottest movies available on demand.
"The menu takes a back seat and the content comes front and center," said Mike Suraci, Director of Product Management in Xbox.
Microsoft has also baked in deeper voice control of the console for consumers using its Kinect sensor. The Kinect is better known as motion-controller that gives gamers the ability to use gestures to play games. But Kinect also has a microphone array in it. When Kinect debuted last year, games could use their voice for some limited voice-controlled navigation.
The new iteration goes far deeper. Now users can jump from hub to hub with their voice and select games, movies, and other programming just by uttering the title. It's not entirely intuitive, though. If a user wants to catch an episode of, say, "Breaking Bad," they first need to go to the video hub to request the show. They can't simply say "Breaking Bad" from the home screen.
Xbox also lets users search for content using Bing with their voice. They need to call out words in the correct sequence to make it work. To watch an episode of "30 Rock," for example, users can say, "Xbox. Bing. 30 Rock," and the console will display all of the available programming with "30 Rock" in the title. That includes the TV show as well as, for example, the album, "Greatest Hits: 30 Years of Rock" by George Thorogood & The Destroyers.
The results from those Bing queries also display content from Microsoft's partners. The idea is to do away with the endless searches for content among the various silos of services. So searching for "Super 8," for example, will give customers the opportunity to rent the movie from Vudu, which is Wal-Mart's video-on-demand service, and Netflix, as well from Microsoft's Zune marketplace. And Comcast subscribers will be able to find all of its video-on-demand titles from their Xbox, when its application debuts early next year.
The move could pull customers away from Comcast's set-top box interface, essentially handing over control of that experience to Microsoft. But Marcien Jenckes, senior vice president and general manager of video services at Comcast, said the company needs to be make sure its offerings are available broadly.
"We should be everywhere that the consumer is," Jenckes said.
Verizon has taken a different approach with Xbox. It's putting 26 channels of live television--including Comedy Central, HBO, and Nickelodeon--on Xbox through its FiOS TV application. With only 26 channels, there are plenty of holes, including all the broadcast networks as well as popular channels such as Discovery and ESPN (though ESPNews will be available). So if users want to, say, flip during a The Daily Show commercial break on a Monday night to check in on the score of Monday Night Football, they're out of luck with that application.
That's largely a function of obtaining the rights from the various networks, a time consuming endeavor, said Verizon director of product management Joe Ambeault. But the company is working toward that goal.
"This is just our Day 1," Ambeault said.
Ultimately, he sees a future where there won't be a need for consumers to own set-top boxes. Eventually, consumers will get all of their connect from providers such as Verizon through Xbox consoles, Blu-ray players, and digital media gadgets such as Roku and Boxee devices.
That's been Microsoft's long-term vision for Xbox from the day it dreamed up the console more than a decade ago. The company has always wanted a beachhead in living rooms around the world. The latest iteration of the Xbox interface isn't perfect. But it moves the company one step closer.
Apple made the tablet viable. Amazon showed that a populist concept can work. Now Asus may bring the latest wrinkle to the market.
Before we get to Asus, let's look at two of the most prominent players as of December 2011.
Apple's iPad 2:
Screen: A gorgeous 9.7 inch screen: the perfect size for me.
Interface: Ditto. iOS-based interface is the gold standard.
Speed: Apple's A5 chip delivers good performance for a tablet.
Responsiveness: No lag to speak of jumping between apps.
Apps: Plenty of those.
Battery: Acceptable but worse than the original iPad.
Features: Two cameras; 3G (Verizon, AT&T 3G)
Expansion: Limited ports.
Design: Good balance of sturdiness, thinness.
Price: But it's (too?) expensive, starting at $499.
Amazon's Kindle Fire:
Screen: Good 7-inch screen: a little on the small side (for me).
Interface: Amazon did an admirable job: clean, easy to use.
Speed: Not iPad 2 fast but a Texas Instruments dual-core chip is inside.
Responsiveness: I've found that lag is acceptable but on the slow side.
Apps: Solid basic apps. Not iOS but a good start.
Battery: Excellent. Sometimes as long as three days on one charge.
Features: No cameras, no 3G.
Expansion: One port.
Design: A small black monolith. I have no complaints, though.
Price: Ah, but it's very cheap at $199. This is what ignited the Fire's popularity.
Which brings us to Asus' latest, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, slated to be available later this month.
Do our smartphones spy on us? That's what millions of users want to know after a security researcher revealed the widespread use of an app from Carrier IQ, which makes software intended for network metrics but which perhaps could be used to do much more. Meanwhile, AT&T faces off with the FCC, Facebook gets ready for Wall Street, and security wonks light a fire under printer makers.
There have been rumors floating around for years that Apple is building its own TV. The speculation got amped up this fall after Walter Isaacson revealed in his biography of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs that Apple had finally figured out how to build a user-friendly integrated TV.
(Credit: Microsoft) 
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• Batteries powered by paper? That's not (pulp) fiction anymore. 
Unfortunately that's not the case for many smartphone subscribers. If your device has issues within the first year, consider yourself lucky since the repair is likely covered under the manufacturer warranty. But if it craps out 13 months into your contract, you may be screwed. Ask Maggie offers some advice for how to protect yourself. And in a second question, there's some advice for keeping an older iPhone alive as long as possible.
