August 07, 2006, 11:00 PM PDT
2007 BMW 3-Series Coupe first look
Posted by: Kevin Massy

We just got back from the U.S. launch of the 2007 BMW 3-Series Coupe at a swish event here in San Francisco. The press event came complete with the usual glib and glossy PR trappings, including a real-life German engineer in the shape of Udo Lindner, who is the project manager for the drivetrain of the new model. With the aid of a slide show, Lindner went to great lengths to underscore just how unique the new 3-Series Coupe is--particularly the many ways in which its external design differs from that of the 3-Series Sedan, which was released in the United States last May.

The six-cylinder '07 3-Series Coupe arrives at U.S. dealers next month in two incarnations: a naturally aspirated, 230-horsepower 328i, and a twin-turbocharged, 300-horsepower 335i. Lindner justified the turbo option--traditionally a source of concern due to lag and poor fuel economy--by focusing on what he called BMW's "efficient dynamics," which includes the use of high-precision fuel-injection systems. The result is a six-cylinder car that competes with V-8s for performance while beating them on fuel economy, he said. The 335i will be offered with a six-speed manual gearbox and as an automatic with available steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

As well as the two launch models, an all-wheel-drive 328xi incorporating BMW's xDrive system will be available in October, just in time to attract buyers in the U.S. snow belt. The 328xi will be the first 3-Series Coupe to offer xDrive.

Bi-xenon headlights, adaptive brake lights, and run-flat tires will come standard on all 2007 3-Series Coupes. Optional tech features include GPS navigation (as part of the iDrive interface), Bluetooth (as part of the BMW Assist package), keyless entry and start, and adaptive cruise control. The 328i Coupe will base at $35,995, while the 335i Coupe will start at $41,295.

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August 07, 2006, 5:46 PM PDT
Desktoptwo, a slick suite in a browser
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

I'm a fan of Web-based applications, such as Writely and Zoho Writer. But I've yet to be sold on a Web-based desktop like Glide Effortless, Goowy, or YouOS. The latest online desktop to pique my interest, yet confound me a bit when it came time to do the write-up: Desktoptwo, from Sapotek.

Desktoptwo is a Flash-based desktop suite. It's good-looking and slick, even in its current beta form. For communication it has an e-mail program and an IM application that supports MSN, Google Talk, and Jabber, and for publishing a blogging platform and a Web site editor. There's also an MP3 player and a file storage system (1GB is free; additional storage will cost you). It also has a browser, which is superfluous since the suite itself runs in a browser (clicking the browser application just opens another browser window anyway). For productivity, it will launch the OpenOffice word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation manager, although at this point in the beta, the applications are poorly integrated into the main Desktoptwo platform.

This suite has a lot of what the average consumer needs day to day. Desktoptwo is free and much less expensive to operate than a PC with a suite of separately licensed software. It is also convenient to be able to access your online workspace from any computer.

Still, this suite, and others like it, remains a curiosity for people with access to their own computing equipment. Dedicated applications on a desktop or a laptop have more functionality and run more quickly. And when you have your hardware, you always know where your data is.

But for the billions of people without the resources to call a single computer their own, Desktoptwo could a great gift--a decent desktop suite that runs almost anywhere.

Found on e-Hub.

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August 07, 2006, 5:02 PM PDT
Snakes on a phone!
Posted by: Nicole Lee

We spied this cool little link on Digg as well as on the Buzz Out Loud forums, but we didn't get the message (literally) until last week. As part of the Snakes on a Plane promo, you can now send a personalized talking message in Samuel L. Jackson's voice to someone you know. Customize the message by selecting a few details about the person, enter in your phone number as well as the recipient's, then hit Send. (You can also send it via e-mail instead of as a phone call, but where's the fun in that?) This author was the recipient of such a call last week, and it made her laugh out loud despite her illness.

Do note that you can send the message only between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., and once you send a message to a phone number, you can't do so again to the same number. (There will be an error that says, "Sorry, I already called that phone number.")

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August 07, 2006, 3:35 PM PDT
New waterproof camera from Pentax
Posted by: Philip Ryan

Pentax has been creating new waterproof--or water-resistant--cameras for a few years now, and the latest is the just-announced Optio W20. While it looks almost identical to the Pentax Optio W10, the W20 adds a handful of new features, including a blur-reduction mode that boosts the camera's sensitivity to ISO 1,600 to capture images in dim lighting without a flash. The new face-recognition mode is intended to find a face and focus and meter for it, while the autotracking AF mode is designed to track your subject so it won't be out of focus if it moves before you snap your shot.

This time out, Pentax boosted the resolution to 7 megapixels, but kept the same 3X optical, 38mm-to-114mm zoom lens and 2.5-inch LCD. The camera also has the same JIS Class 8 waterproof and JIS Class 5 dustproof ratings, so, like its predecessor, you can use it as deep as five feet underwater for as long as 30 minutes, as well as in harsh, dusty enviroments, without a special housing. The Pentax Optio W20 is expected to ship in September with a price of about $300.

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August 07, 2006, 2:39 PM PDT
No iPhone at WWDC: Back to the waiting game
Posted by: Kent German

So despite all the rumors of an iPhone, Apple did not unveil anything related to a cell phone at its Worldwide Developers Conference today. The new Mac Pro and updates to OS X were the highlights of the keynote, along with a series of jabs at the folks in Redmond, Washington. The audience oohed and aahed throughout, but we never heard the phrase "one more thing" from Steve Jobs. So we're back to the waiting game to see if Apple ever joins the cell world and what its entry product will be. And considering it's been almost a year since the ill-fated Motorola Rokr made its debut, we figure the Cupertino crew has to roll out something really big soon. Will it be a phone? Will it be cellular or solely VoIP? Will Apple start its own MVNO? Stay tuned.

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August 07, 2006, 1:38 PM PDT
Things not looking rosy for Napster
Posted by: James Kim

ZDNet reports that Napster's subscription base has decreased 7 percent over the March quarter (as of June 30, 2006, Napster had 512,000 paid subscribers). Napster CEO Chris Gorog in a conference call with analysts said he wasn't going to rule out the sale of the company. Napster reported a net loss of $9.8 million for the first fiscal quarter compared with a year-earlier loss of $19.9 million. Do you think music subscription services are doomed, or do you think there's a solid place for them (as I believe)?

Read the full article at ZDNet.

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August 07, 2006, 1:27 PM PDT
Microsoft to demo Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on today?
Posted by: John P. Falcone

Greg Sandoval reports at CNET News.com that Microsoft is scheduled to demonstrate the HD-DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360 at the North America DVD Forum Conference today in Los Angeles. Indeed, a quick perusal of the event's itinerary shows five slots with a Microsoft speaker.

Microsoft officially unveiled the HD-DVD peripheral at May's E3 show but has yet to specify pricing and availability, aside from promising that the unit would be available by year's end. We'll have additional information as soon as it becomes available.

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August 07, 2006, 1:07 PM PDT
Add RSS feeds to your page with Grazr
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

The Grazr Web widget will add an RSS feed to your Web site or blog in no time. Like the Bitty Web browser plug-in, it's a full content reader in an embeddable component.

Users of RSS aggregators such as Bloglines or NetVibes won't need this tool (it'd be redundant), but it is a neat little gizmo for people who maintain public pages. I hope it gets added to the WidgetBox gallery soon.

Here's a Grazr sample, configured to display News.com's Web 2.0 blog:

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August 07, 2006, 12:38 PM PDT
And another thing...(about the XPS 700 delay)
Posted by: Rich Brown

Something else occurred to me since I posted about the Dell XPS 700 delay earlier this morning. If you wouldn't receive a system until mid-October, there's a strong likelihood that whatever graphics cards you order now will be out of date by then. ATI and Nvidia's forthcoming DirectX 10 3D cards notwithstanding, Dell hasn't even added Nvidia's GeForce 7950 GX2 cards to its configurator yet, presumably because Dell is waiting for the drivers that would support two of them in a Quad SLI configuration.

Dell is already offering customers who have ordered an XPS 700 with a Pentium D 900-series chips a free upgrade to the equivalently priced and faster Core 2 Duo CPUs. But among other questions we'd like to ask Dell is whether it will offer upgrades for the other parts in the system that might be obsolete by the time the XPS 700 finally ships. A lot of new hardware can hit the market in three months, especially around the holiday buying season.

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• See product information for Dell XPS 700 (Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800)
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August 07, 2006, 12:34 PM PDT
Post-WWDC keynote impressions
Posted by: James Kim

Now that was a Monday morning. Properly caffeinated and ready to go with my wireless input device at Moscone West, I waited anxiously for the bassy PA system to die down and for the Apple keynote to begin (meanwhile, Jasmine France was hanging out at the Apple Store, ready to pounce on any new iStuff). When Steve Jobs popped onstage, I just knew we weren't getting an iPod, or an iPhone, or an iTunes Movie Store. This (and all the show floor buzz prior to the keynote) was all about the D in WWDC, nothing else. So we got the final link in the Mactel chain (the Xeon-powered flagship Mac Pro), a pimped-out server, and a preview of the upcoming Leopard variety of OS X. As Steve wrapped up his presentation, the whole auditorium knew the patented "one more thing..." message was not going to happen.

Though Leopard's visually pleasing features, such as Time Machine, Web Clip, fancy-looking e-mail, and Core Animation were impressive (while all the snarky Microsoft bashing was less impressive), we were left wondering what all that pre-event hype was all about. We got widgets instead of gadgets. No fault to Apple--it'll probably send out an evite for a special "red carpet" iPod event soon enough--but expectations were set pretty high by rumor-mongering media. So I ask, are you sick of the rumors? Or is this just about pure entertainment?

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