July 05, 2006, 6:38 PM PDT
UMPC updates
Posted by: Andrew Gruen

Two bits of UMPC news this evening: Impress Watch has its hands on a Sony VAIO UX with a 16GB flash memory-based hard drive, and the Asus R2H received FCC approval.

In an effort that improves battery life on its not-a-UMPC VAIO UX, Sony has added an option for a 16GB, flash-based hard drive. According to the Google translation of Impress Watch's hands-on review of the flash-based UX, the new drive improves the standard UX's weight and battery life. The updated UX is 27 grams lighter and can be used on battery power for an additional 30 minutes. Poor battery life has plagued the UMPCs to date, so perhaps other manufacturers will adopt and improve upon Sony's formula of better battery life through more energy-efficient storage.

For more information, check out our review of the standard Sony VAIO UX.

In more UMPC news, the Asus R2H has received FCC approval. Its manual is posted on the commission's Web site, giving us a preview of what's to come. Features include a built-in GPS receiver, an SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports (one standard and one mini), a Webcam, Bluetooth, 802.11 wireless, and TPM.

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July 05, 2006, 6:01 PM PDT
Yet another social bookmark service: BlueDot
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

I just heard about a new social bookmarking system, BlueDot. If you're not currently using a bookmark collector, such as Del.icio.us, BlueDot is definitely worth checking out. It's easy to use, and it has a nice social network function: You can, if you want, review not just your own bookmarks (boring) or the world's (overwhelming), but those from people in your buddy list (just right, if you have buddies on the system).

BlueDot is really easy to use, and it creates clean pages of links. It has a few clever flourishes, too. Each bookmark you create inherits a picture from the bookmarked site, and BlueDot makes it easy to scroll through all the pictures on the page to pick the one you like best. Also, if you bookmark an item on a commerce site (I tried Amazon), BlueDot automatically adds a Buy This button (former Amazon developers are at the company).

Dozens of social bookmark systems are already out there, and I wouldn't recommend that anybody abandon whatever system they're using right now to get onboard with this one. But the service shows how the social bookmarking concept is evolving. If you are new to social bookmarking, give it a spin. Or wait a few months and check out the dozens of new services that are probably in development.

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July 05, 2006, 4:54 PM PDT
Cingular lands LG CG225
Posted by: Kent German

Another phone we saw at April's CTIA show is out in the real world now that Cingular has added the LG CG225 to its lineup. Features on the midrange flip phone include a 65,000-color internal display, a monochrome external display, a VGA camera with 4X digital zoom, quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support, messaging, a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser, and a duplex speakerphone. The LG CG225 is on sale for a reasonable $99, but you should be able to get it free with a service plan.

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July 05, 2006, 1:58 PM PDT
Monetizing videos: the rush is on
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

Forget sharing videos for free. The trick right now is to make money from them. To that end, new video sharing sites are springing up that promise to share the revenues created from videos with the users who post them. We've already seen Revver and Blip.tv. And this weekend Eefoof launched. That prompted Seth Alsbury, the CEO of Panjea, to contact me, claiming an even more robust content economy than the other services.

Panjea pays its users for content in two ways: First, it operates an online store where content creators can sell downloads of the audio and video files (and eventually, tickets to events). Second, Panjea gives users a cut of advertising revenues. And not just from ads in the videos like most other video sharing sites do; Panjea also cuts in its content-creating users on ad revenues from their static Web content (such as profile pages).

To keep users on the site, Panjea also awards "points" for just browsing. These points can be used like money on Panjea to purchase content from other members.

How good is Panjea? From a user's perspective, it's a nice site on which to browse media. The pages look good, and the media player works well (although an expandable video window would be a good idea). The social networking functionality (the member pages) takes a backseat to media, though, so fans of musicians might not feel as at home on Panjea as the musicians themselves.

From a business perspective, for Panjea itself, as well as for the artists on the site, it all depends on winning over the advertisers. Panjea is running Google AdWords on its member pages, which is a good way for the company to kick-start the advertising revenues. The video and audio advertising strategy has yet to reveal itself.

The upshot: If you're a musician or a video artist, go ahead and put your work on Panjea. You might eventually make a few bucks. But I still think artists should take a portfolio approach to community sites and put their content on a bunch of them (for example, YouTube, MySpace, Imeem, and such). You never know where the fans are going to end up.

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July 05, 2006, 1:21 PM PDT
2006 Jeep Commander Limited first take
Posted by: Kevin Massy

The 2006 Jeep Commander Limted is a car for men. And we're not talking girlie-men here, we mean real men: the square-jawed type who do one-armed push-ups and drink beer straight from the can.

Before you even get in it, the Jeep Commander conveys an imperious, military impression; its square lines and rugged-looking grille and wheel arches suggest that it would feel more at home on a battlefield than in a parking lot. This is a new model in the Jeep lineup, and despite its lack of experience, we think that it will quickly be adopted as the commanding officer of Chrysler's SUV offerings. Our test car was equipped with an optional 5.7-liter hemi engine (3.7- and 4.7-liter models are also available), which makes the Commander snap to attention with a depression of the gas pedal and gives it the ability to quick-march from 0 to 60 in less than 7.5 seconds.

As confirmation of the Commander's ruggedness, it comes "trail rated," which, according to Jeep, means that it has been tested "on the toughest trails on the road" and has been found equal to performance challenges in five categories: traction, ground clearance, maneuverability, articulation, and water fording. While the 14mpg (city) V-8 might not get much respect from ecowarriors, the Commander does deserve some recognition for its multidisplacement technology (MDS), which, like the active fuel management system in the 2007 GMC Yukon, allows it to switch to four cylinders when engine load demand is low.

In the cabin, the Commander's interior features are as boxy as its exterior profile. The dashboard has a vertical face into which is set the head unit and the heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC, in military speak) controls. Room in the front two rows is adequate though by no means spacious, and the third-row seats will accommodate only the smallest members of the infantry.

Our test model came loaded with tech options, including optional navigation and Sirius Satellite Radio packages. Programming the nav system was a pain. As the Commander's LCD screen is not touch-screen enabled, destinations must be entered letter by letter using a goofy joystick knob to the right of the display. Even more cumbersome is the fact that selection of each letter has to be made by pushing the Enter button beneath the joystick, a procedure that must be performed with both hands if you don't want to spend all day in the parking lot before setting out for your destination. When finally programmed, Jeep's navigation system performs well, giving turn-by-turn directions by voice and presenting maps in a useful split-screen mode, showing an overhead plan of the route in the left window and details of the next turn on the right. On the downside, the system was slow to recalculate a route for us when we willfully got off-track, taking more than a minute to even realize that we had strayed from the suggested route.

The highlight of the Commander's interior features is the sound quality of its Boston Acoustics audio system. As with the navigation system, the LCD interface can be cumbersome to program when selecting MP3 tracks: a Microsoft Windows-esque convention of navigating folders and files is time-consuming to navigate using the single-click joystick, and there is no shortcut enabling users to scroll through options. However, when you finally find the track or album you want, the stereo rocks. Nine-inch speakers in the front doors and four-inchers on the dash provide an immersive audio experience, with clear bass and excellent separation right up to earsplitting volume. While the stereo provides detailed information for MP3 files, it gave our homemade WMA disc short shrift: after chewing it over for 20 seconds or so, it spat the disc out with the message "no audio files."

Other tech high points on the Commander include trizone climate control, heated front seats, and a tire-pressure monitoring system. Chrysler's Bluetooth UConnect hands-free calling interface is available as a $275 option, but our car did not come so equipped. Armed with all its tech options, our test Commander reported for duty at just less than $43,000.

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July 05, 2006, 11:46 AM PDT
The Sanyo Katana is here
Posted by: Nicole Lee

Sanyo's answer to the Razr is finally here, and we've got our hands on it. The Sanyo Katana is the latest skinny flip phone to hit the market, and it's a Sprint exclusive. Featuring a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and a 2.2-inch display, the Katana will be available in Mystic Black, Blue Sapphire, and Cherry Blossom Pink. According to our Sprint contact, the inventory for all colors of the Katana will be low until July 10. Stay tuned for our full review.

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July 05, 2006, 9:59 AM PDT
Bubble 2.0: Rocketboom down (?), Gawker Media winged
Posted by: Molly Wood

Pinpricks in the blogging bubble? Perhaps. Last week, Nick Denton of Gawker Media announced that he's laying off two bloggers at top properties Gawker and Gizmodo, putting the Sploid and Screenhead blogs up for sale (which I guess makes sense, since I've never heard of either), and reshuffling staff and management all over the place. Denton describes it, basically, as a cold-eyed attempt to get out ahead of possible shifts in advertising spending and to cut the ties with underperformers.

Meanwhile today, the Internet is abuzz with a video of Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon apparently reporting her, uh, firing (note: the sites are getting hit pretty hard, and the video may not work on first clicking). Now, Rocketboom has been among the top video blogs in the world almost since its inception (despite recent waning), so I'm still holding forth the slight possibility that Miss Congdon could be pulling a little Star Jones satire on us all. But I stress slight--the good-bye video seems pretty real.

So, all this, combined with last week's musings that YouTube might be doomed to the lack-of-business-plan graveyard has an all too familiar year-2001 feel about it. And I don't like it. Come on, everybody! Let's go click some banner ads!

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July 05, 2006, 8:14 AM PDT
RIP eMac
Posted by: Matthew Elliott

The eMac, Apple's low-end, all-in-one computer, is no longer. Apple announced today that the CRT-based eMac will be replaced by a low-end $899 version of the iMac, Apple's other all-in-one PC that uses an LCD. The $899 iMac will feature a 17-inch display, a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 512MB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, and integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics. You won't get Apple's SuperDrive DVD burner at this price, but you'll get a 24X combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive instead. The $899 education-only iMac will ship with built-in 802.11g wireless networking and Apple's iSight video camera, plus Apple's superior software bundle, which includes Mac OS X 10.4.6, Front Row, and iLife '06.

Released in 2002 and sold exclusively to educators and educatees since last year, the eMac will continue to be sold via Apple's education store until supplies run out. Act now, and you'll likely be the only kid in your dorm next year with such retro Apple styling. It'll look smashing next to your first-gen iPod of the same era.

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