Review: Apple's LED Cinema Display a boon for Mac laptop users

To most people, Apple Inc.'s new 24-in. LED Cinema Display looks like a stylish aluminum-and-glass monitor featuring a bright, sharp screen saturated with vivid colors. But this environmentally friendly monitor is also a modern take on a docking station for Apple's newest generation of equally stylish laptops.

In fact, that's how Apple has positioned the $899 LED display, which was announced in mid-October at the same time the company unveiled two new "unibody" MacBooks and two new 15-in. MacBook Pro models. Those new laptops -- and the revamped MacBook Air -- were redesigned with this LED display in mind: They all feature a Mini DisplayPort, Apple's version of the new industry standard DisplayPort, which feeds video from the laptop to an external monitor.

I'll explain more about the new Mini DisplayPort and how it works with Apple's newest laptops in a bit. First, let's look at the display itself. It replaces the now-discontinued 23-in. Cinema Display, which offered the same screen resolution in a slightly smaller size and did not use LED backlighting.

A stunning display

The 24-in. display Apple sent over for review purposes last week is, in a word, stunning. If you like the LED displays Apple has in its laptop lineup now, you're going to swoon when that same brightness, color saturation and razor-sharp text rendering is blown up on a 24-in. screen. Of course, you're paying something of a premium for that big-screen perfection; other 24-in. displays sell in the $500 to $600 range, a lot less than the $899 Apple wants for the Cinema Display. But they aren't LED-backlit, nor are they anywhere as stylish. And since they aren't LED-based, they can't make the environment-friendly claims Apple can.

The 21-pound Cinema Display looks a lot like Apple's 24-in. iMac without the extra "chin" below the screen. Like the iMac, it's adjustable up and down, but doesn't swivel from side to side. The viewing angle is great: 178 degrees along both the vertical and horizontal planes.

The main chassis -- constituting the back and sides of the display -- comes from a single chunk of aluminum, just like the new unibody laptops. The glass panel in front is surrounded by a shiny black bezel, again like the screen used in the new MacBooks and MacBook Pro. And while the measured brightness is down a bit from Apple's other displays -- 330 instead of 400 nits -- the new glass allows for better contrast. The instant-on LED display has a contrast ratio of 1000-to-1, instead of the 700-to-1 ratio its siblings offer. The upshot is a screen with exceptional brightness and contrast, even in a bright office setting with sunlight-drenched windows.

The glossy screen does reflect a bit, but I didn't find that to be a problem. It goes with the territory: Glossy screens, while offering reflections in bright settings such as fluorescent office lights, compensate with brighter whites, deeper blacks and saturated colors. I'll take the trade-off.

IDC: Economic crisis will kill off some PC makers

With credit in a tight squeeze and the economy in free fall, the next few years should see the collapse of some small PC makers and a restructuring of the rest of the industry, according to an industry research firm.

Richard Shim, personal computing research manager at IDC, told Computerworld that he expects a consolidation of the market. However, he doesn't think that the big PC players, like Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc., will gobble up smaller hardware vendors. Instead, he said those smaller players will simply fold up shop as the faltering economy keeps companies and individuals from buying new computers.

"It won't be so much about acquisition but the smaller players will just go away," said Shim, adding that he thinks the industry could lose fewer than 10 companies. "The big players are feeling the hurt as well. Right now, everybody is beating each other up in price. If some are going to die off anyway, what's the sense in buying them?"

Just yesterday, IDC reported it is projecting that worldwide PC sales will quickly drop off because the sagging economy is causing people to hold onto their savings while credit is unavailable. IDC noted that it expects PC shipments to inch upward by 3.8% in all of 2009, but added that the values of those shipments will drop by 5.3%. In the U.S., expectations are bleaker as IDC predicts that shipments here will decline by almost 3% in 2009 with low single-digit increases in the next few years.

Shim noted that he thinks MPC Corp. kicked off the consolidation early in November when the PC maker filed for bankruptcy. In mid 2001, the business was sold by parent company Micron Technology, and later changed its name from Micron Electronics to MPC. A little more than a year ago, MPC bought Gateway Inc.'s professional business division.

And MPC won't be the only mid- to low-tier PC maker to fall, according to Shim. He said 2009, 2010 and maybe even 2011 will be tough years for the industry.

Just a few weeks ago, iSuppli Corp. slashed its 2009 growth forecast for worldwide PC shipments by nearly two-thirds because of the deteriorating economy. The analyst firm is now projecting that worldwide PC shipments will rise by 4.3% in 2009, down from its previous forecast of 11.9% growth. ISuppli also adjusted its expectations for 2010, dropping its initial prediction of 9.4% growth to 7.1%.

ISuppli's adjustment to its PC forecast came on the heels of the firm downgrading its estimates for global semiconductor revenue for the year. The researcher projected that 2008 semiconductor sales will decline by 2% to $266.6 billion, from about $272 billion in 2007. In October, ISuppli had predicted that 2008 semiconductor sales would grow by 3.5% over last year's. The researcher also predicted that the negative momentum will continue into the fourth quarter of this year, with the overall market expected to drop by 10.9% compared with the same quarter last year.

Shim noted in an interview on Thursday that the economic crisis likely will reset many vendors' business models.

"If you change selling prices, you need to find new ways to do business, like skimping on quality or coming out with new models," he explained. "A lot depends on how drastic the situation gets."

De Beers tries to force spoof news Web site offline over fake ad

A provision in the federal Communications Decency Act (CDA) protects domain name registrars and Web hosting providers from being held legally liable in most cases for the content that clients post on their Web sites. But that hasn't stopped some companies from trying to pressure Internet intermediaries into disabling Web sites that contain what they consider to be objectionable material.

The most recent example involves South Africa-based diamond conglomerate De Beers, which is trying to get domain name registrar Joker.com to take down a spoof of the Web site of The New York Times. The spoof site includes a fake De Beers ad that takes a satirical shot at the company, saying that diamond purchases would enable De Beers "to donate a prosthetic for an African whose hand was lost in diamond conflicts."

The Web site includes an online version of a 14-page knockoff of the Times that was published on Nov. 12 and distributed for free to commuters in New York. The paper, which is datelined July 4, 2009, includes made-up stories about the end of the Iraq war, the indictment of President Bush on war crimes charges and the passing of a maximum wage law by Congress, along with other satirical ads in addition to the De Beers one.

The spoof is believed to have been the work of a group called the The Yes Men, which is known for such satirical work. However, the nytimes-se.com domain name is registered with Switzerland-based Joker.com under an apparent pseudonym: Harold Schweppes, who is listed as living in a fictitious town called Son of Triumph, Pa.

In a letter that was sent Nov. 19 to EIS AG, which owns Joker.com, Brian McGinley, a Kansas City, Mo.-based attorney at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP who is representing De Beers, demanded that the registrar "immediately disable" the spoof site.

McGinley wrote that his firm's attempts to locate Schweppes had proved futile and that both Schweppes and the address listed for him appear "to be entirely made up." Because whoever registered the domain name had provided false information to Joker.com, it was the registrar's duty to disable the site, the lawyer added. Computerworld obtained a copy of his letter from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which says it is representing the person behind the Schweppes name.

McGinley contended that the fake De Beers ad wasn't a parody and instead contained "offensive, disparaging, damaging and inaccurate statements" about the company. He warned that if Joker.com didn't disable the spoofed site, the registrar itself would be considered a primary infringer by De Beers and would be subject to any legal action that the company decided to take to protect its "valuable name and goodwill."

Neither De Beers officials nor McGinley have responded to requests for comment on the matter. Officials at Joker.com also couldn't be reached for comment, but the fake Times site hadn't been taken down as of this afternoon.

Windows users indifferent to Microsoft patch alarm, says researcher

When Microsoft Corp. issued an emergency patch for a critical Windows bug six weeks ago, it warned that attacks were in progress and told users to patch immediately.

The message didn't sink in, a security company claimed today.

Based on scans of between 200,000 and 300,000 Windows PCs owned by its customers, Qualys Inc. concluded that the patching pace for the October update -- which Microsoft released out of cycle, or outside its normal monthly schedule -- was similar to the rate at which users fixed flaws that the company disclosed several weeks later on its usual "Patch Tuesday."

"When Microsoft releases a patch out of cycle, we tend to think, 'Wow, why are they doing this? There must be a reason,'" said Wolfgang Kandek, Qualys' chief technology officer. "But it doesn't look like people pick up on that."

Over a six-week span, Qualys tallied the machines vulnerable to the MS08-067 vulnerability Microsoft patched off-schedule in October and counted the PCs vulnerable to a pair of patches released on Nov. 11, tagged MS08-068 and MS08-069. "We counted them, and normalized them against the scan numbers," said Kandek.

The result was surprising. "While we saw reductions in the number of [vulnerability] occurrence found every week, they are fairly even and in line with normal patching distributions we have seen before," said Kandek.

Only in the past week or so did Qualys' data show a sudden drop in the number of machines not yet patched with MS08-067.

Kandek had a ready explanation. "We saw it move [down] when Microsoft and Symantec and Trend Micro said last week, 'We found a worm, here it is and it's spreading,'" he said, referring to the reports this week and last week of a worm, dubbed Conficker.a by Microsoft and Downadup by Symantec, that was aggressively exploiting the MS08-067 vulnerability.

Monday, Trend Micro's researchers said that the worm was a key component in the buildup of a massive botnet and had already hijacked half a million machines.

So even though Microsoft hit the alarm button for MS08-067, it wasn't until news broke about the Conficker.a worm that users began applying the patch at a higher-than-usual rate, Kandek concluded.

Six weeks after it released the emergency fix, Qualys' data indicated that the number of unpatched PCs had been reduced by about 70%. "The number [of unpatched systems] is down, but 70% -- that's still bad," said Kandek, considering that Microsoft tagged the update as so critical it departed from its usual schedule, something it has not done since April 2007.

"We [wanted] to see how Microsoft customers apply these patches and if they pay special attention to the highly critical out-of-band vulnerabilities," Kandek said. "Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case."

MS08-067, which patches a bug in the service Windows uses to connect to file and print servers, can be downloaded via Windows Update, Microsoft's default update service.

Telstra Readies 21M Bps Mobile Broadband Service

Telstra will boost data speeds in its Next G mobile network to 21M bps (bits per second) early next year, and will conduct tests of the faster service this month, equipment vendor Ericsson said Friday. However, customers may have to wait longer for the arrival of compatible phones, which haven't yet caught up with prevous improvements to network performance.

The technology that will make the higher speeds possible is High Speed Packet Access Evolution, also known as HSPA+ or Evolved HSPA.

The move to HSPA Evolution from the HSPA systems in use today requires a software upgrade to base stations, whereas LTE will require new base stations, said Jeanette Fridberg, director of marketing for radio access networks at Ericsson.

Subscribers, on the other hand, will need new hardware to take advantage of the higher speeds. Telstra is working with Sierra Wireless, Qualcomm and Ericsson to develop devices, it said in October.

Ericsson is now offering the first version of HSPA Evolution, but next year speeds will double to 42M bps downstream and 11M bps upstream, according to Fridberg.

The HSPA technology used in existing 3G (third generation) mobile networks tops out at around 14.4M bps, but there are only five operators which have that speed in service. About another 40 operators are offering download speeds at 7.2M bps (which is also what the fastest phones currently available can handle), according to data from industry organization GSM Association.

For example, Telstra and StarHub in Singapore are on the list of operators offering 14.4M bps service. StarHub is also moving to HSPA Evolution, but with equipment from Huawei. The upgrade should be done by the second quarter of next year, according to Huawei.

Vodafone is also considering making the move to HSPA Evolution, according to a spokesman. In February the company announced a trial with Ericsson, Huawei and Qualcomm. That trial is still under way, and Vodafone wants to make sure the technology can deliver what it promises before making the final decision, the spokesman said.

Most large operators will go to HSPA Evolution in anticipation of the next technology upgrade, LTE (Long Term Evolution), especially in countries where mobile broadband has already taken off in a big way, said Fridberg.

For Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics Research, though, operators will use HSPA Evolution to put off the upgrade to LTE, while operators who have already set their sights on LTE will let nothing deflect them from that.

Hands on With HP Mini, Lenovo S10, BenQ U101

With netbooks selling well in the run up to the holidays, I took a look at three of the latest entries into the fray, Hewlett-Packard's Mini 1000, Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 and BenQ's Joybook Lite U101.

The reason for putting these three devices all together in one "Hand's on" story is because newer netbooks are starting to look a lot like what's already out there. This generation of Intel Atom-based netbooks has reached a certain maturity, with similar components, functions and size, as well as similar prices. The best bet for anyone considering buying one is to figure out as close as you can, what you want to do with it and what functions you want the most. Then find the best price.

Netbooks are the computer industry's answer to the desire for more mobility in devices. Asustek Computer started the netbook craze with its Eee PC line of devices, which deservedly won a product of the year award from Forbes Magazine. The company's netbooks continue to be best sellers according to Amazon.com's rankings, which also include Acer's Aspire One and Samsung Electronics' NC10 among top-selling computing devices.

The standard netbook today weighs around 1 kilogram, comes with a screen between 8.9 inches and 10.2 inches across the diagonal, and has a Web cam, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, 1G byte of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM, USB and Ethernet ports and slots for memory cards and more. It typically has a variety of wireless technologies including Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth, runs either Microsoft Windows XP or a Linux OS, and has either a hard disk drive (HDD) up to 160G bytes in capacity or a solid state drive (SSD) with 8G bytes or more of flash memory.

HP Mini 1000

HP has made marked improvements with its second netbook, but the price tag may still be high considering the large number of rival devices with similar functions. I tested an HP Mini 1000 with an 8.9-inch screen, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, Microsoft Windows XP, 512M bytes of DRAM and a 60G byte HDD that ran at 4200 rpm (revolutions per minute).

The company actually offers a variety of component options on the HP Mini 1000, including a 10.2-inch screen and SSDs for storage.

One thing that really stood out about the HP Mini 1000 was the high definition audio, especially the sound quality of the onboard speakers. Songs play well, as does the sound on videos. Speakers may not be that important to some people considering netbooks are often used in coffee shops or other public places where headphones are more appropriate, but good audio is a nice touch on a device otherwise very similar to what's already on the market.

Typing on the Mini 1000, another major consideration because netbooks are much smaller than regular laptop PCs, is great. The Mini 1000 has a keyboard 92 percent the size of one on a normal laptop. Keys are spaced out to make typing comfortable. One area I wasn't as impressed with was the trackpad. HP opted to use a trackpad similar to Acer's Aspire one, with the left and right mouse buttons at the sides of the trackpad instead of below. It's workable on a small device, but it's not as comfortable as having them below the trackpad.

Battery life is one of the top considerations in a netbook. Some people may choose a 3-cell battery because it will make the overall device slightly lighter and less expensive, while others will prefer the extended life of a heavier 6-cell battery. For me, the cost and weight differences are far less important than being able to use the device for hours on end without needing a battery recharge.

The 3-cell battery in the device I used ran for just over 2 hours of typing and Internet use, about standard. But the HP Mini 1000 apparently doesn't yet offer the option of a 6-cell battery, and so does not even come close to rivals in battery life.

HP-Taiwan told me there will be a 6-cell version available that will raise battery life to 5 hours to 6 hours, but the company was not able to say when that product might be out. According to HP's Web site, it's still not available.

Price is also an issue on the Mini 1000. HP's Web site lists the basic configuration, with an 8.9-inch screen, for US$399.99, while the recommended model is $504.99. On Amazon.com, the lowest price for an HP Mini 1000 was $549.78. That's a lot more expensive than the Acer Aspire One's on Amazon.com, which carry similar components, for $384.99.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

Lenovo was late to the netbook market, but its first offering is a solid star. Its components are nearly identical to the standardized netbooks already on the market. I used an S10 with a 10.2-inch screen, a 1.6GHz Atom microprocessor, 1G byte of DRAM, a 160G byte HDD, and Microsoft Windows XP. The rest of its components are standard fare.

The IdeaPad S10 booted in 36 seconds, exactly the same as the HP Mini 1000 I used and fairly standard for most netbooks using Windows XP. One thing about the Asustek Eee PC and Acer Aspire One I tried is both companies added embedded Linux OSs that open in about 8 seconds with full access to the Internet, e-mail, messengers, songs and other data. Windows XP opens in the background while you're already off surfing the Web. Asustek uses an embedded OS called Express Gate, while Acer uses one from Linpus.

The typing pad on the IdeaPad S10 also works well with comfortable, well-spaced keys. The trackpad was a bonus, with the left and right mouse buttons at the bottom like in a normal laptop. One nifty trick on the trackpad was a way to enlarge and reduce text and pictures on the screen using gestures. Touching the trackpad with your thumb and forefinger, and then spreading them apart, you can enlarge text on the screen. Draw your thumb and finger together and the text shrinks again.

The S10 I used was lightweight for a 10.2-inch screen model, just 1.1 kg, but that may be because it only had a 3-cell battery. Lenovo devices with 6-cell batteries aren't available yet, I'm told.

Overall the IdeaPad S10 is a very standard device with a decent price on Amazon.com of $449.99.

BenQ Joybook Lite U101

Few reviews have been written about this device from BenQ in part because they're not easy to find. The company announced them just a few months ago and they aren't available in most markets.

I used one with a 10.1-inch screen that was on sale in Taipei for NT$14,999 (US$447.35). It had Windows XP, a 1.6GHz Atom microprocessor, 512M bytes of DRAM (though I was offered a free upgrade to 2G bytes) and a 160G byte HDD.

The only really standout feature I found on the U101 was the display screen. The picture was among the best I've seen on a netbook, at 1024x576 pixel resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio. I watched a movie on the device via an attached DVD drive (no netbook so far comes with a DVD drive onboard because netbooks are so small).

The keypad on the Joybook Lite was good and while BenQ placed the mouse buttons below the trackpad, it was one solid button instead of two. Two are better than one.

BenQ does offer Joybook Lite U101s with 6-cell batteries, but the above price is for a device with a 3-cell battery.

Facebook Virus Turns Your Computer into a Zombie

Hey, I have this hilarious video of you dancing. Your face is so red. You should check it out.

If you've received a message like that through Facebook or MySpace, you may have been exposed to the "Koobface" virus. "Koobface" comes through an e-mail sent by one of your social networking site friends inviting you to scope out a video.

Once the URL is clicked, "Koobface" prompts you to update your Flash player before the video can be displayed. Therein lies the virus, cloaked in a "flash_player.exe" file. According to the Kaspersky Lab, an antivirus organization working closely with Facebook, "the worms transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets."

The McAfee Security Blog explains that when "Koobface" infects your computer, it prompts a downloaded service named Security Accounts Manager (SamSs) to load on start-up. SamSs then proxies all HTTP traffic, stealing results from popular search engines and hijacking them to lesser-known search sites.

A clear eye for fraud will help you avoid this mess. You can usually spot phony e-mails by their titles. Kaspersky found the following: Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments. My own "Koobface" attack came in an e-mail entitled, lool, yoour blushingg afce is so funny! Checkk out. Obviously, Paris Hilton never threw dwarves, and in all likelihood, my 26-year-old friend knows how to spell more than two words. These are clear indicators you're being attacked.

Facebook has posted instructions about how to remove the "Koobface" virus: give your computer an antivirus scrub-down and change your Facebook password.

This attack on the world's most popular social networking site and its 120 million users comes just weeks after Facebook won an $873 million lawsuit against several people accused of hacking user accounts and spreading spam.