October 03, 2006, 10:55 PM PDT
SimpleSeating not yet ready to make you a better host
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

Note: This post has been updated from the original. The third and fourth paragraphs have changed.

I finally got access to SimpleSeating, the Web 2.0 application that helps you create seating diagrams for parties. It's free for guest lists with fewer than 50 people, but the creators plan to charge if you want to use it for larger events. The site is still in private beta but should launch soon.

The site has received a fair bit of press (including on CNET). Why? Because it's cute. It's simple. And it's a great example of what Web 2.0 is all about--it's a cheap and easy way to do something online that previously had to be done manually or with installed software.

I hate to be grumpy about everybody's darling, but the current beta of SimpleSeating is more glitzy than useful. You can't print your seating charts, and since the charts you create don't get static URLs, it's unclear to me how to even share your charts with others, for example, your caterer. The service doesn't do the job you would expect of a computerized version of a seating chart product. It does not automatically juggle seating assignments, placing people important to you in premium seats while simultaneously keeping the right groups together and also making sure that other groupings (such as your divorced parents) don't take place. If I'm going to use a computer for a seating chart, I want it do a better job than I could do myself. If the product would just follow simple dinner party guidelines, I'd be more impressed. SimpleSeating's Steve Swedler told me that the company plans to add printing, sharing, and autoplacement before public launch.

I love Web-based applications, but I think utility is more important than flash. SimpleSeating is a good idea, but it needs the features I mentioned above to make it actually useful.

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October 03, 2006, 4:08 PM PDT
Make sense of medical bills with MedBillManager
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

Despite my best efforts, I am in the dark when it comes to understanding my family's medical expenses. I cannot make sense of the multiple bills, statements, and insurance notices that I get. I'm pretty sure I'm getting ripped off fairly frequently. I just can't figure out how.

Intuit makes a product to track medical expenses, but based on its lukewarm user reviews and its $49 price, I've opted to skip it. However, recently I heard from the founder of MedBillManager, a free online service that's trying to do the same thing: give you a place to enter in all your medical billing paperwork so that you can begin to correlate who is billing you and what your insurance companies have paid. Theoretically it should help you spot misbillings and make it much easier to document insurance disputes. The service is in gated testing now; sign up on the site, and you might get a trial password.

The service is certainly simple to use. Or rather, it's as simple as it can be, considering the Byzantine nature of the data it's trying to make sense of. Entering bills, insurance data, provider (doctor, hospital), and Explanation of Benefits statements is straightforward. One small snag, though, is that if you're entering a record (say, a bill), and you need to add a related entry, such as a service provider, clicking the Add Provider link takes you to a new page and erases the data you've already entered into the bill. That problem should be easy to fix as the product matures.

Of course, one big advantage to using PC software vs. a Web application is privacy. Do you really want to post your medical records on a start-up's Web site? MedBillManager execs say they are committed to privacy (and there are federal regulations that govern how they handle the data), but posting this info online may still be a scary prospect for some. I guess as long as the site is free, you can always register under a fake name. Still, with a local app, you'll generally have a better sense of where your data is at all times.

One feature you can't get on stand-alone software, though, is MedBillManager's very interesting social network (of a sort) for medical bill payers. It will let you see aggregate billing and insurance data from other people in your area who are paying for similar medical procedures. This should help you spot bills that are higher than they should be or insurance payments that are too low. I've heard that the health care industry isn't too thrilled about this feature. Good.

MedBillManager is still in development. Some features, such as bill comparison, are not yet live. And I haven't had the time to determine if it's comprehensive enough to handle the actual stream of medical billing paperwork that my family gets. But it looks like a good start, and I am definitely going to try out the system when I get my next batch of incomprehensible medical papers.

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October 03, 2006, 2:07 PM PDT
Ha ha. The Firefox zero-day flaw is a hoax
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

Over the weekend, Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi told a crowd at the Toorcon security conference in San Diego they had found and exploited a flaw in the way Firefox handles JavaScript. Now they say they made it up, that the code presented does not, as they insisted over the weekend, compromise a vulnerable PC. Security experts are not laughing, however. For more on their story, see Joris Evers' report on News.com.

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October 03, 2006, 11:28 AM PDT
Sony goes rock-bottom with MP3 playback
Posted by: Wayne Cunningham

All tech-savvy drivers want their car stereos to play MP3 CDs and have a hookup for an MP3 player. Sony shows that it gets this market with the launch of four new car-stereo head units. The bottom-end one, the CDX-GT110, sells for about $80 and has an auxiliary input on the faceplate. And of course, it plays MP3 CDs. The top of the line of the newly announced head units, the CDX-GT510, retails for about $140 and not only has the MP3 player jack on the faceplate, but plays CDs with MP3-, WMA-, and AAC- (iTunes-) formatted songs. It's also satellite ready, has dual preamp outputs, and can control a CD changer. The two middle units, the CDX-GT210 and CDX-GT310, have features in between the top and bottom units. While iPod integration would be a nice add-on, these head units should meet the needs of anyone with a hard drive full of MP3s.

Correction: The CDX-GT110 does not play MP3 CDs, just Redbook CDs. Sony makes an adaptor that adds iPod integration to some of these units.

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October 03, 2006, 11:21 AM PDT
Sprint goes crazy with the Krzr
Posted by: Kent German

One of the worst-kept secrets in the cell phone world is now out in official news. Sprint said today it would offer its own version of the Motorola Krzr K1m by early November. Sprint's announcement comes just days after Verizon launched the Razr-like handset on its Web site for $199 with a two-year contract. Sprint didn't reveal a price for its version of the Krzr, but the carrier did say it would offer full access to Sprint's video and music services including Sprint TV, Sprint Power View, Sprint Movies, and the Sprint Music store. Subscribers can sign up on Sprint's site for more information.

Sprint also revealed it would launch its own versions of the Moto Razr and Slvr. Stay tuned for exact details on the devices.

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October 03, 2006, 9:41 AM PDT
Logitech elevates the wireless keyboard
Posted by: Rich Brown

We liked Logitech's DiNovo Media Desktop über keyboard set well enough when it debuted back in 2003. It's since undergone various updates, but the core design has remained the same. As you can see from its picture, Logitech's new laser-cut Plexiglas, brushed-aluminum DiNovo Edge, announced this morning, is more than a simple update.

Logitech brought the DiNovo Edge by for us to play with briefly a week or so ago and explained some of the reasoning behind the new design. Apparently one of the most requested capabilities was making the wireless keyboard rechargeable. That's what the base unit is for, which also doubles as a display stand. The new unit no longer comes with a mouse, as Logitech found that most people would rather bring their own. In its place, Logitech has added a touch-sensitive pad on the side to help with navigation.

Design-wise, the DiNovo Edge looks just as pretty in real life as it does in its picture. One appearance tweak we really like is the hidden hot keys, which aren't really keys anymore. Instead, when you hold down the Fn button, an orange light illuminates previously invisible symbols behind the top row of F-buttons, indicating their alternate functions for launching e-mail, a Web browser, and other applications. You'll note that it doesn't have a number pad, which helps reduce its width for a more living room-friendly appearance. And, like the original DiNovo, the Edge comes with Bluetooth capability, but Logitech has added its own RFID-based Bluetooth pairing technology between the keyboard and the USB mini receiver, circumventing Windows' cumbersome Bluetooth install process.

Like all of the DiNovo keyboards, the Edge won't come cheap. When it hits stores in the beginning of November, it'll cost about $200. We'll let you know if it's worth it just as soon as we can get one in for a full review.

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October 03, 2006, 8:12 AM PDT
Sony's PS3 controller named, accessories priced in Japan
Posted by: David Rudden

After eight years of the DualShock being the company's primary PlayStation controller, the loss of vibration functionality has forced Sony to rename it. The PlayStation 3's standard first-party controller will be called SixAxis, referring to its ability to sense six degrees of movement. The SixAxis will sell for approximately $43 when it comes out in Japan and will run for almost 30 hours on a single charge via USB. Other accessories announced at the show with pricing in Japan include the USB Memory Card Adapter, available at launch for about $13, which will allow you to transfer PS1 and PS2 saves to the PS3, and the PS3 Blu-ray remote for roughly $31, which will come out on December 7. Will the U.S. launch adopters be stuck using the controller to watch Blu-ray flicks, too? We should know more concrete U.S. accessory details after the company's annual Gamers' Day conference on October 19.

Source: Kotaku

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October 03, 2006, 7:13 AM PDT
The scariest video games ever
Posted by: Will Greenwald

The world's most terrifying mascot is getting three of his own video games this holiday season. The Burger King, Burger King's megacephalic spokes-stalker, will appear on three budget Xbox titles, available at Burger King from November 19 to December 24. Pocket Bike Racer puts the King and BK spokespeople Subservient Chicken and Brooke Burke onto minibikes for racing fun. Big Bumpin' puts the three into bumper cars. Sneak King has the King stalking people and giving them Burger King food. OK, these won't be epic sagas, but at $4 each with the purchase of a value meal, it's still hard to say no to them. Even if it's just so you can say to your friends, "Silent Hill? Fatal Frame? That's not scary. Check this out..."

Source: Game Informer

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October 03, 2006, 6:58 AM PDT
IMSafer scans your kids' IMs for Foleys
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

A few months ago I wrote about a cute little application called OhDontForget, created by UI designer Jason Stirman. I wondered when he was going to do something serious. He has. Here it is: IMSafer, a new service designed to protect children using instant messaging from online predators.

Part of this solution is software that you download to your computer. It monitors IM traffic for text that's likely coming from (or going to) a predator or pedophile and sends an e-mail alert to the person who set up the service. IMSafer does not allow parents to spy on everything their child is saying in IM (who has time to read IM logs anyway?), only the context around words and phrases that it flags as potentially dangerous. Parents should also know that IMSafer is not a totally stealthed application. While the monitor runs very unobtrusively, it can been found and disabled if your child knows how to do such things.

What's clever about the service is that if the software is installed on another computer--say at a friend's house or at your kid's school--alerts generated from your child's IM account at that location will be sent to you, not to the owner of the other PC. Likewise, if a friend of your child sets off an alert at your house, their parent will get the alert. Of course, you do have to get other parents and schools to install the software for this to work, and unfortunately there's no Mac version yet. Also, the program checks IM traffic from only AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo; support for other services (including IM embedded in social networking sites) should be added soon.

Setting up IMSafer is very easy, and you don't have to know the IM screen names your child has; it tracks all conversations on the PCs you install it on, then it watches for those accounts to be used on other PCs that have IMSafer installed. The Web site could have offered parents more control over which accounts are managed, however. For example, if your child first logs on to an IM account at another location, you won't get his or her alerts, and it's unclear to me how you could claim this user ID as your child's even if you knew that it was.

I tried out the system by telling a shopping bot I wanted to meet in the real world. It accurately flagged the text and sent me an e-mail alert. Since IMSafer uses lexical analysis, it can't be perfect, but over time it should get even better at spotting dangerous communication. Brandon Watson, IMSafer's founder, is sure that the system would have flagged the explicit IMs that congressman Mark Foley sent to a former page, had it been installed on the page's PC.

The system lets parents vote on alerts that have been sent to other parents, and if enough parents think the alerts are justified, it marks the accounts of the senders of those messages so that if a person who regularly sends inappropriate messages to other children tries to communicate with yours, you'll get an alert.

IMSafer looks like a good online chaperone, one that will improve as the company tweaks its analysis engine. I don't know of any other system that can keep an eye on kids' IM behavior when they're away from home like this one does.

See also BeNetSafe, which monitors your child's MySpace activity.

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