April 03, 2006, 4:43 PM PDT
Chevy still feeling the sting of viral marketing gone wrong
Posted by: Molly Wood

The hottest new advertising trend around is to get consumers to do the advertising for you--and the "make your own viral video" is, or rather was, quickly becoming a favorite technique. Until poor GM discovered that if you let people make their own videos, and you upload them to your site, and you don't actually look at those videos before you put them on your site, and your big American SUVs happen to be an easier target for environmentalists than the Exxon Valdez...well, you get this. Which is great for the rest of us. But not so good for the Chevy Tahoe. Sorry, GM. There's a reason that viral is a term originally reserved for communicable diseases.

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April 03, 2006, 4:40 PM PDT
Palm Treo 700w Daylight Savings Time calendar glitch
Posted by: Bonnie Cha

Do you own a Palm Treo 700w? And did it incorrectly alert you to an appointment on Sunday? Well, here's the reason. Palm learned late Friday that there was a bug affecting the smart phone's Daylight Savings Time functions. If you created an appointment on your desktop, then synced it with your Treo, the time should be correct; however, any appointments created on the Treo itself are displayed an hour later than they should be. In addition, full-day appointments may appear one day late. Palm has since issued a workaround, which you can view on Palm's support site. This glitch affects only the 700w and not the Palm Treo 650 or the Treo 600.

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April 03, 2006, 2:26 PM PDT
Make your USB devices more useful
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

Despite my previous protestations that a working person can't travel without his or her own laptop, it continues to get easier to do just that. One way to leave your laptop is to put everything you need on a flash drive or your iPod and use someone else's computer or a PC in an Internet cafe when you need to work. With the latest USB utility software, you can be relatively assured that you won't be leaving any of your personal files behind on the host computer (although I would still worry about keyboard loggers capturing any passwords typed in).

I covered Migo nearly two years ago. It used to come on its own flash drive, but now it's available as software. Its claim to fame is a tool that lets you take your Outlook work space with you on a flash drive. Because of this and its file-synchronization capability, it's a good utility if you want your flash drive to act as a junior version of your desktop. There's also the well-established U3, which requires certified flash drives (there are many available). It supports custom, personalized desktops and runs flash-capable versions of applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype, and Winamp. These apps, when run from a USB drive, leave no traces on their PC hosts, making them ideal for use on other people's PCs. Ceedo is similar to U3.

The latest entrant in this space is StickyDrive, which supports the same flash apps that U3 does (at least for now; the CEO tells me even more are forthcoming). It also has some nice features that make your USB drive a handy traveling companion: There's a built-in slide-show viewer for your images and a music player for the MP3s you copy over. It will also run on any flash or USB device, such as an iPod or even a digital camera. And it is free (none of the other USB utilities are).

StickyDrive is still in early beta and has some user interface warts, but it is a good application to experiment with on your USB drives or your iPod, turning these devices into little personal content showcases. For example, I always carry family photos with me on a USB drive. With StickyDrive, I now have a supereasy way to turn these photos into a slide show when I visit my in-laws.

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April 03, 2006, 1:35 PM PDT
Play ball! Hands-on with Major League Baseball 2K6
Posted by: David Rudden

After six long, fruitless months, the baseball season has begun, and it's plenty apparent here in the CNET offices. When we're not attempting to stream Mets games via the Slingbox (without the express, written consent of Major League Baseball), we're anxiously awaiting this year's crop of hardball video games. We've already seen Sony's impressive MLB '06, but those will remain exclusive to the PS2 and the PSP. 2K Games is publishing Major League Baseball 2K6, which will come out this week for the PS2 and the Xbox, as well as midmonth for the Xbox 360, the GameCube, and the PSP. I got a chance to try out the Xbox 360 and PSP versions last week.

2K Games isn't resting on the laurels of semiexclusivity; it's the only third party that's licensed to put out a Major League Baseball game, which explains why EA Sports is going the college route. 2K is infusing a lot of new features to MLB 2K6, some of which are welcome and innovative, while others could use another season in the minors. The most striking change is the batter-pitcher dynamic on the Xbox 360, particularly in the single-player mode. Quite simply, the catcher is given a far more prominent and much-deserved role in the process. Your backstop calls and places pitches, and it's up to the pitcher to put them in the right spot. The pitching method is fairly intuitive, consisting of picking a pitch and a location, then timing the throw correctly. Unfortunately, the oversimplified batting isn't quite as enjoyable. Taking a page from the golf genre, the hitter's swing is determined by pulling back and pushing forward on the analog stick. As long as the pitch is in the strike zone and you've timed it correctly, the ball will be in play. While I'm sure it'll become more amenable with time, fans such as myself, who like to have a little more control at the plate, may be disappointed.

Along with the standard "all 30 teams and every player except Bonds" deal, 2K Games is including some sweet new licenses this season. There's the World Baseball Classic, which is looking decent, considering how recently the whole tournament came together. There's no international stadiums, and rosters are incomplete--but can anyone outside of South Africa name a player on the South African squad anyway? The other, better-implemented license is from Inside Edge, the scouting agency that provides reports for MLB clubs and media outlets. Before a game, you're given a certain amount of Inside Edge Points that you can spend scouting particular players--better ones cost more, natch--allowing you to neutralize a nemesis on the plate or the mound by revealing a batter's weak spot or a pitcher's favorite pitch. There's no minor league play, which is a bit disheartening, seeing as how nicely EA had been using it before the company lost its license.

Surprisingly, the game looks amazing on the PSP and is, quite frankly, a bit better in the gameplay department. The 360 version looks pretty good--particularly the shading and grass on the field--but the player models could use a bit more detail, as they lack the vibrancy of the NFL and NBA games. That's what a lack of sweat'll do, I guess.

So while there are a couple of minor annoyances in Major League Baseball 2K6, the hour or so I got to spend with it wasn't enough to see if they were the kind that go away with a little familiarity. Expect reviews of the first two versions rather soon from an editor who has significantly more than four innings under his belt.

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April 03, 2006, 12:48 PM PDT
Digital movies for 20 bucks?
Posted by: Jasmine France

Six of the major Hollywood studios--Paramount, Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, and MGM--began selling full-length, digital movie downloads on Movielink today. (Separately, Sony and Lions Gate announced that their movies will be available for purchase through CinemaNow.) I've been expecting the studios to give in and sell their movies in digital format for a while now, though I thought iTunes would be the first to offer the content, along with Apple releasing a more video-friendly iPod. What I did not expect is that these downloads would cost between 20 and 30 bucks a pop--especially considering the very limited DRM that comes with them. You can burn a purchased film to DVD once, but that DVD can be played on only up to three PCs with Movielink authorization. A standard DVD player can't play back the disc. Both Movielink and CinemaNow say that they expect the movies will be able to be transferred to portable devices in the future, but it's up to the studios to allow that type of license. Personally, I'd just buy a standard DVD on Amazon.com for around $15. I still can't copy it to my portable player, but at least I'm not limited to watching it on my computer. What about you? Would you pay $25 for a digital copy of a movie? (Get more info at Yahoo.)

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April 03, 2006, 10:09 AM PDT
Dell Renegades are done--and gone
Posted by: Rich Brown

If you haven't already landed one of Dell's limited-edition Renegade PCs, your time has passed. We were informed on Friday afternoon that Dell's ultra-high-end PC sold out less than a week after it went on sale. And although we certainly did try, we were also sad to learn that we won't be getting one for review (sorry, Kotaku, but if someone extends us an invite, we'll be sure to see if you can come too).

So what to make of all of this? The boutique PC shops pretty much all speculated that the Renegade was a limited run designed to get Dell press, and they were also all annoyed that it seemed to work. My take is that it's refreshing that Dell was willing to try something out of character. It's like the 2006 Ford Tungsten GT. You'll never own one (and, in the case of the Renegade and its two external 3D card power supplies, you wouldn't want to), but it's interesting to know that the old guard can still get creative. We just hope that someday Dell decides to share that creativity with the masses.

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• See product information for Dell XPS 600 Renegade
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April 03, 2006, 8:52 AM PDT
Movie studios come around to movie downloads (sort of)
Posted by: Molly Wood

Seven major movie studios announced today that they'll start offering movies for digital download this week. Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, and MGM will offer downloads through Movielink, while Sony and Lionsgate are going with CinemaNow. Now, I'm trying not to be all Debbie Downer here, but here's the downside: downloadable new releases, at least from Movielink, will cost as much as a DVD--$20 to $30. And even older titles will cost $10 to $20.

For that price, you'll be allowed to burn Movielink downloads to DVD, but only for playback on a PC (who-knows-what infinitely hackable technology will prevent you from playing it in a standard DVD player). While you can transfer movies to two other computers, you can't transfer them to a portable video player. CinemaNow, on the other hand, is taking the "we really don't want anyone to buy these downloads" approach. No burning to DVD, and no transfer to other PCs whatsoever--at least not yet. Sigh. Oh, well. Rome wasn't built in a day. At least they've laid the first stones!

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April 03, 2006, 8:31 AM PDT
Mitsubishi to lose lamps for lasers
Posted by: David Katzmaier

I've heard inklings about this technology before, but since it's covered in today's New York Times leading up to Mitsubishi's 2006 line show, we'll be hearing a lot more about it soon. The so-called big-screen company has announced a new rear-projection DLP technology that replaces the tried-and-true lamp-based microdisplay light engine with three lasers, one each for red, green, and blue.

Compared to current DLP HDTVs, the most promising aspect of the technology seems to be its ability to deliver deeper blacks. Current lamp-driven projection technologies require the lamp to be permanently switched on, which can cause internal reflections and other issues that contribute to a lighter shade of black onscreen. Since the lasers switch off entirely, they have the potential to create a pure black, according to the company. Mitsubishi also claims that the laser light source can produce better color, is more efficient, and has an essentially "permanent" life span, as opposed to the bulb, which needs to be replaced every 3,000 hours or so in standard DLPs. Current DLPs also use a color wheel that can introduce rainbows, artifacts that the three-color lasers would likely eliminate or greatly reduce.

Mitsubishi concentrates primarily on rear-projection televisions, and so its spokespeople sourced in the Times did their best to contrast the laser-powered HDTVs with competing big-screen flat-panel plasmas. They claimed that since 4-inch-thick, 50-inch-diagonal plasmas require a 17-inch-deep stand, the new laser models will have comparable depth--but I doubt you'll want to hang one on the wall. They also said that prices for laser DLPs will be comparable to plasmas sized 52 inches or larger. I assume they mean plasmas such as Hitachi's 55HDT52, which lists for $5,900 and costs significantly less in stores. A $4,999 list price for a first-generation 52-inch laser HDTV sounds about right to me. The laser-powered sets aren't expected to hit stores until late 2007, at which time plasma prices will have fallen even further.

If this kind of alternate-lighting-for-projection technology sounds familiar, you may be remembering Samsung's LED-powered DLP that was announced at CES. HP said it will also deliver LED DLPs this year. For its part, Mitsubishi hasn't announced any LED-powered DLP big-screens, but the company will provide demos of its laser technology at its April 7 line show.

More resources:

Mitsubishi's 2005 rear-projection HDTV lineup

CES 2006: Samsung updates DLP; reinvents the wheel

Editors' top rear-projection HDTVs

Microdisplay HDTV technology explained

CNET's quick guide to TV power consumption

Update: According to Mitsubishi's rep, the target size for laser-powered DLP televisions is 62 inches, not 52 as mentioned in the Times story. Since comparably-sized plasmas and LCDs start at about $8000 today, that information suggests that the first laser-powered DLPs will probably cost more than the $5000 I initially estimated.

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April 03, 2006, 7:34 AM PDT
Little Leica coming
Posted by: Will Greenwald

Camera and lens maker Leica has announced the first model in its new series of ultracompact cameras. The 6-megapixel Leica C-Lux 1 measures a mere 2 by 4 inches with a depth of less than an inch, and it sports a 3X optical zoom lens with optical image stabilization as well as a 2.5-inch LCD screen. Leica's lenses can be found on many Panasonic cameras, such as the Lumix DMC-LZ5, and the C-Lux 1's button layout, indeed, looks very similar to that of the LZ5. Leica also claims that the C-Lux 1 will have "ultrashort shutter delay," but we'll have to test it in our labs before we can confirm that. The Leica C-Lux 1 comes out in May and will be available in silver and black versions, with a suggested retail price of $495.

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