AllThingsD » Consumer Reports

Picking the Brightest, Most Efficient Bulb

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:41:30 +0000

The light bulb used to be one of the simplest hardware-store purchases. Now a walk down the lighting aisle prompts an assortment of questions. Is it energy efficient? Will it switch on fast? Can I put it on a dimmer? What is a lumen? How long will it last? Why so pricey? Why is it a weird color?

[ See post to watch video ]

Here’s a brief guide to some bulb basics, with help from Consumer Reports ratings, and a peek at what the future holds for the light bulb (hint: lower prices and remote control).

The Big Three Plus One

Bulbs can be divided into three main categories: incandescents, compact fluorescents (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). We’re most familiar with incandescents, which make use of technology from over 100 years ago. These cost the least, but emit heat and use up the most energy. An incandescent lasts an average of 1,000 hours, or 125 days when used for eight hours a day.

Lighting Science Group’s World Bulb uses less than 13 watts and will cost less than $15 a bulb.

More recently, halogen incandescent bulbs have become popular. The bulbs, which cost as little as $3 for two, look and behave like incandescents by dimming and turning on immediately, but use less energy. The Philips EcoVantage line, which became available in April, uses 28% less energy: A 72-watt bulb replaces a 100-watt, and a 43-watt bulb replaces a 60-watt. Halogen incandescents last as long as a traditional incandescent bulb.

Compact fluorescents, the spiral bulbs that became popular about five years ago, use less energy than incandescents but made a rough first impression. Compared with incandescents, compact fluorescents can appear harsher in color and most don’t turn on immediately. They’re made of glass, like incandescents, cost about $5 to $10 each and have an estimated average lifespan of 10,000 hours, or about 3½ years at eight hours a day. They contain a small amount of mercury and can be recycled at stores like Home Depot.

LEDs, which look roughly like the incandescents we’re used to, are the latest hit in energy-efficient bulbs. They’re also the most expensive, costing around $20 to $60 a bulb, though this will drop in coming months as they become more prevalent. These bulbs, which don’t contain mercury, turn on immediately, even in cold weather. Some are made of a durable plastic and many can be dimmed. Their light-emitting surfaces remain cool to the touch. The hue of light from these LED bulbs appears more like that of the traditional incandescents. They are estimated to save up to 85% more energy than standard incandescents, with a lifespan of 20,000 to 50,000 hours, or 20 to 40 years. At seven hours a day, one bulb could last an average of 17 years.

New Labeling Explained

For years, we’ve measured light bulbs by watts, which indicate how much energy a bulb uses. But bulb brightness is measured in lumens. Many of the new light bulbs’ boxes list lumens and include helpful notes about how the bulb compares with the wattage you are looking to replace. An incandescent 40-watt bulb gets replaced with a 450-lumen bulb; a 60-watt bulb with a 800-lumen bulb; a 75-watt bulb by a 1,100 lumen; and a 100 watt by a 1,600 lumen.

The Philips L Prize Bulb consumes less than 10 watts and has a lifespan of more than 25,000 hours.

More light bulbs are now packaged with a “Lighting Facts” label. Besides lumens, this may include factors like lumens per watt (bulb efficiency); watts (energy used to make the light); correlated color temperature, which indicates cool or warm color (about 2700 Kelvin replicates what we’re familiar with in a traditional incandescent); and a color-rendering index (the measurement of a light’s appearance on objects).

Best in Show

Consumer Reports recently tested several bulbs for factors like brightness, warm-up time, light distribution and actual lumens. The $10 GE Energy Smart SAF-T-GARD earned the highest overall ranking for 60-watt equivalent spiral CFL bulbs.

The $25 Philips AmbientLED 12.5W ranked best overall in the 60-watt equivalent A19 style (the typical pear-shape found in incandescent bulbs) covered bulb category.

Future Is Bright

Lighting Science Group Corp., maker of Home Depot’s EcoSmart bulbs, unveiled its sub-$15 World Bulb in December. This is a redesigned, 60-watt-replacement LED bulb that uses less power than the 13 watts of the company’s current equivalent bulb. It’ll be available in India in February and later this year in the U.S.

Lighting Science Group also has paired with Google to create the Android@Home Intelligent LED bulb, which people will be able to control using an Android smartphone, tablet or a computer. The bulb, which is expected to come out before June, will have an embedded chip and works with a gateway box that hooks into a router.

By June, Philips Lighting North America will debut its L Prize Bulb, an LED bulb that was the first to win the Department of Energy’s “L Prize,” an award for energy efficiency. Designed to replace a 60-watt incandescent, the LED bulb consumes less than 10 watts, according to Philips. In rigorous testing, the Energy Department said, the bulb had a useful lifetime of more than 25,000 hours. The bulb will likely start out at about $50.

Picking a Bulb

Light-bulb savings calculators found online, like one from National Geographic, give people a rough idea of how much they may save over time with incandescent, compact fluorescent and LED bulbs.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katherine.boehret@wsj.com

Consumer Reports Survey Again Dings AT&T, Praises Verizon

Ina Fried — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:10:57 +0000

Newsstand browsers will be forgiven if they pick up the January issue of Consumer Reports and aren’t sure if they have a new issue or an old one.

Once again, the magazine has found that, when it comes to the national wireless carriers, consumers are most satisfied with Verizon and least so with AT&T.

Potentially more interesting was that the annual survey found that three smaller carriers — U.S. Cellular, Credo and Consumer Cellular — all scored higher than any of the Big 4 wireless providers. Several prepaid brands, including TracFone and Straight Talk, also scored higher than the big brands.

“Our survey indicates that subscribers to prepaid and smaller standard-service providers are happiest overall with their cell-phone service,” Consumer Reports electronics editor Paul Reynolds said in a blog posting. “However, these carriers aren’t for everyone. Some are only regional, and prepaid carriers tend to offer few or no smart phones.The major carriers are still leading options for many consumers, and we found they ranged widely in how well they satisfied their customers.”

Also notable was the fact that the national carriers achieved higher scores for their prepaid service than they did among their traditional contract-based customers.

The magazine also called out new “value” pricing plans from T-Mobile which allow even contract customers to get their phones unsubsidized in exchange for a lower fee. Though the plans are a bit hard to wrap one’s head around, they can be money savers over time.

Update: AT&T said it will use the survey as a learning opportunity, but stressed the investments the company has been making.

“While we’ll of course evaluate and learn from the Consumer Reports survey, we made significant progress in our network in 2011 including a 25 percent improvement 3G dropped call performance, 48,000 network improvements (more capacity, new cell sites, faster data speeds, and better connections), and many billions of dollars in capital investment to continue to improve our network,” the company said in a statement to AllThingsD. AT&T also contends that its service would benefit further if it were allowed to buy T-Mobile, a deal that has been opposed by U.S. regulators.

Consumer Reports Says iPhone 4S Fixes Antenna Woes, Can Finally Recommend

Ina Fried — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:40:19 +0000

Consumer Reports, which has long had issues with the iPhone, says Apple has finally come out with a smartphone it can recommend.

The magazine initially withheld its recommendation because of call-quality issues. Even when Apple added a Verizon model, Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the phone because of the “Antennagate” issue, in which holding the phone a certain way could affect the phone’s signal.

“In special reception tests of the iPhone 4S that duplicated those we did on the iPhone 4, the newer phone did not display the same reception flaw, which involves a loss of signal strength when you touch a spot on the phone’s lower left side while you’re in an area with a weak signal,” the magazine’s Mike Gikas said in a blog post.

The company noted the battery issues that some users have been experiencing with iOS 5, and said it would retest the device when Apple releases its software update.

Although it added the new iPhone to its recommended list, Consumer Reports said that Apple’s model still trails several of the newest Android devices in its rankings, including Samsung’s Galaxy S II family of phones and Motorola’s Droid Bionic.

The Nook Gets a Nudge From Consumer Reports

Peter Kafka — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:19:09 +0000

Barnes & Noble’s newest Nook has fewer features than its predecessor, as well as many other rivals. That’s great, says Consumer Reports, which has crowned the new $139 device its favorite e-book reader. It’s the first time the magazine has put an e-reader made by anyone other than Amazon at the top of its rankings.

MacBooks Sweep Consumer Reports Laptop Ratings

John Paczkowski — Wed, 25 May 2011 08:10:42 +0000

Consumer Reports may have twice declined to recommend Apple’s iPhone 4, but it has no such compunctions about endorsing its laptops. The product evaluation company recently added Apple’s newest MacBooks to its online database and they dominate the entire class, scoring top ranks in literally every size category.

Among the 11-inch laptops Consumer Reports reviewed, the MacBook Air scored a 62 out of 100 possible points, besting a Gateway machine that scored 52.

Among 13-inch laptops, the MacBook, MacBook Air and 3 models of the MacBook Pro took first through fifth place with scores that began at 76 (MacBook Air) and ended at 67 (MacBook).

Among 15- to 16-inch laptops, the MacBook Pro took first, second and third place, with scores of 78, 77 and 76, beating out Dell’s MacBook Pro-esque XPs 15 and HP’s Pavilion.

And, finally, among 17- to 18-inch laptops the MacBook Pro took first and second place with scores of 81 and 80. HP’s Pavilion ranked a close third with a score of 79.

Minor Controversy: Zuckerberg Wants Young Kids on Facebook

Liz Gannes — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:51:13 +0000

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview this week he would like to create a safe and educational social networking environment for kids younger than 13. (According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million such American kids already use Facebook by lying about their age.) “That will be a fight we take on at some point,” Zuckerberg reportedly said of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which mandates parental permission and other protections for young users. And here we thought China was Facebook’s next big controversy…

Bezos Says Stay Tuned for That Amazon Tablet We All Know Is Coming

Ina Fried — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:10:49 +0000

It’s always hard to identify the worst kept secret in technology, since there are so many poorly guarded ones, but Amazon’s Android tablet is certainly creeping up the ranks.

It climbed another notch this week as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told Consumer Reports to “stay tuned” for word on the company’s tablet.

“We will always be very mindful that we will want a dedicated reading device,” Bezos told the magazine. “In terms of any other product introductions, I shouldn’t answer.”

His comments suggest that any tablet would be kept distinct from the company’s Kindle e-reader, which uses a grayscale E Ink screen well suited to reading but not so hot for things such as video and advanced gaming.

Although this was Amazon’s most official comment yet on the long-rumored tablet, there has been no shortage of signs that the company is headed that way. In addition to reports of manufacturing plans, there are the steps Amazon has taken to pave the way for such a product, including the launch of its Android App Store as well as a tablet version of Kindle Reader (though admittedly Amazon has apps for nearly every mobile platform out there).

Rival Barnes & Noble has been inching toward all-purpose tablet status itself, though with a different approach. The company’s Nook Color has always been Android-based. However, it has been getting additional tablet features over time. Last month, the Nook Color gained an email program as well as access to a Barnes & Noble-curated store of approved apps.

Meanwhile, dedicated e-readers have come under fierce competition from general purpose tablets like the iPad that have e-book apps, including Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, but can also do everything from play movies to surf the Web and do 3-D gaming.

Millions of Kids Are Sneaking on Facebook

Liz Gannes — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:33:03 +0000

While Facebook requires users to be at least 13, Consumer Reports projects that an estimated 7.5 million kids are lying about their age so they can use the service, and five million of those kids are age 10 and under. The magazine notes that children may be exposed to privacy and security risks, and tsk-tsks, “What’s even more troubling was the finding from our survey that indicated that a majority of parents of kids 10 and under seemed largely unconcerned by their children’s use of the site.” Facebook, for its part, spun the news by thanking such reports for bringing attention to the issue.

IPad Takes First and Second Place in Consumer Reports Tablet Ratings

John Paczkowski — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:17:15 +0000

The tablet wars rage on, but Consumer Reports has already declared a winner: Apple’s iPad 2, which outscored rival devices from Motorola, Dell, Samsung, ViewSonic and Archos. Judged against 17 criteria, including touch-screen responsiveness, versatility, portability, screen glare, and ease of use, the 32GB Wi-Fi+3G verison of the iPad 2 came out with a top rating of “Excellent” in nearly all of them. Its closest rivals were the Motorola Xoom and the first generation iPad, which tied for second place.

Consumer Reports Continues Its Love-to-Hate Relationship With the iPhone 4

Ina Fried — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:50:53 +0000

Consumer Reports said Friday that the Verizon version of the iPhone–like its AT&T sibling–is susceptible to signal problems if held the wrong way.

In a blog post,, the publication said its lab tests showed phone problems could occur if the gap in the metal casing was blocked by a hand.

“The Verizon iPhone 4 closely resembles the original AT&T iPhone 4 in many positive respects, including offering great multimedia functionality, a sharp screen, and the best MP3 player we’ve seen on a phone,” it said in the blog. “Unfortunately, it also shares with its sibling the possibility of compromised performance in low-signal conditions when used without a bumper or case.”

The publication said its testing showed that the issue is specific to the iPhone and doesn’t appear to happen with other phones.

“The only phones in which the finger contact caused any meaningful decline in performance was the iPhone 4, the sides of which comprise a metal band broken by several thin gaps,” it wrote. “As with our tests of the AT&T iPhone 4, putting a finger across one particular gap–the one on the lower left side–caused performance to decline. Bridging this gap is easy to do inadvertently, especially when the phone is in your palm, which might readily and continuously cover the gap during a call.

As with the AT&T version, a case can help alleviate potential problems.

Consumer Reports declined to recommend the AT&T iPhone over the antenna issues, even though it still gave the device the highest smartphone ranking.

The Verizon iPhone is getting similar mixed signals, with Consumer Reports giving it high rankings but leaving it off the recommended list due to the antenna issues.

Update: Verizon said in a statement that its customers are experiencing “stellar network performance” with less than one half of one percent of iPhone 4 calls being dropped in major cities such as New York and San Francisco.

Sprint-Nextel CEO Dan Hesse Talks About Clearwire (Video)

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 05:24:18 +0000

In an interview at D: Dive Into Mobile, Sprint-Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said that despite the fact it owns roughly 54 percent of Clearwire, Sprint doesn’t control the company or its board of directors. Walt Mossberg gave him a little grief about it, asking, “Who did that deal?”

Also during the interview: Why it made sense to have an outside company build its 4G network, what’s different between 3G and 4G and whether or not 4G is really unlimited. He also talked about why he likes Consumer Reports while other wireless executives don’t.

[ See post to watch video ]

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse at Dive Into Mobile

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:45:26 +0000

When Sprint CEO Dan Hesse joined the company three years ago, the third-largest carrier was bleeding subscribers from having a poor reputation for customer service and facing stiff competition from the likes of AT&T, which holds the exclusive on the iPhone.

Since then, Sprint has stemmed the losses, mostly by beefing up its customer service and by investing in the prepaid sector to attract a wider audience during the economic downturn. Going forward, Sprint looks to its 4G strategy for growth through its ownership stake in WiMax-provider Clearwire. Next up, Hesse joins Walt Mossberg onstage.

3:45 pm: Walt welcomes Dan Hesse to the stage. You can’t have mobile without networks, says Walt. You’ve led the way on 4G; tell us about it.

3:46 pm: Dan: We are getting San Francisco up soon, and will have 120 million POPs by the end of the year, or about a third of the country.

He explains what 4G is: 3G for was email and Web pages, but 4G is for multimedia and video.

The best analogy is that 4G is the wide open freeway vs. an interstate that provides the same speeds, but you have to stop along the way.

3:48 pm: Walt: Why are you using WiMax when the two other carriers are using LTE?

Hesse: Back in 2008, we wanted to be first, and WiMax was available right now. (Lots to do with TDD, and other technical mumbo jumbo). Technically, there’s no difference. I can’t deny that LTE will be a bigger ecosystem, but we couldn’t wait. We thought the market was ready.

With the success of the iPhone, we thought it was ready now.

Walt: How much leadership did it give you?

Hesse: Well, it made Verizon move a lot faster….In 2010, we’ll have 120 million POPs, and the EVO and Epic (two 4G phones) have been really successful.

Walt: How successful?

Hesse: If you were to go to Clearwire’s wholesale numbers, you should think of Sprint’s lion’s share of the wholesale numbers.

Walt: Was it worth the investment?

Hesse: I think so.

3:53 pm: Hesse: 4G is one element of many.

Walt: You like Consumer Reports, unlike the guy here earlier [AT&T's Glenn Lurie].

Hesse: Sprint is the fastest growing brand of postpaid in the U.S.–not the Nextel brand, where we’ve been losing subscribers.

3:55 pm: Walt: Are you going to get the iPhone?

Hesse: Can’t say.

Walt: Would you like the iPhone?

Hesse: Under the right conditions, yes, I would. It’s a wonderful phone.

3:56 pm: Backing up a bit, Walt now asks about an industry trend toward tiered pricing for data plans, where the more you use, the more you pay.

Sprint hasn’t yet limited users’ traffic.

Hesse: Customers will pay a premium for simplicity. Even if it’s not in their best economic interest, they will go with the unlimited plan. We were the first to come out with truly unlimited text, voice and data with the Simply Everything plan.

3:59 pm: Walt: Are you not going to do tiered pricing?

Hesse: So far, we aren’t, he says, which gets a round of applause from the audience. But Sprint did up the cost of the unlimited plans of the most capable devices on the network.

4:00 pm: Walt: Unlimited means unlimited or doesn’t it?

Hesse: No, it doesn’t. What if they have the SlingBox streaming 24×7?

4:01 pm: Hesse: The trend is toward one plan for all of your devices, like tablets, phones, PCs, etc.

Walt: Are you going to offer plans for all those devices?

Hesse: We are thinking about it. That’s the next step to simplicity. Three years ago, it was about one device.

4:02 pm: Walt: People aren’t counting minutes, now they are counting megabytes and things people don’t understand.

Hesse: Something has to give; what’s going to be the form? Do you have meters, do you have tiers, do you increase the price of the unlimited plans?

Another option is to have a lot more spectrum available to add capacity at a lower cost.

Walt: Are you talking about taking away the spectrum that the elderly use to watch their TV?

Hesse: If more spectrum is available, you can use more frequencies, which is a lot less expensive than splitting cell sites and putting in more towers.

Walt: There’s some confusion about Clearwire. They are opening stores and selling laptops and modems. You own most of that company, and they are building your WiMax network. Why are they competing with you?

Hesse: I have a wholesale business that resells minutes to Leap, so it’s the same thing.

4:06 pm: Walt’s giving Hesse grief about the structure of the Clearwire deal. Despite Sprint owning roughly 54 percent of the company, Sprint doesn’t control the board.

Walt: Who did that deal?

Hesse: Two thumbs pointing at himself [me]. When you have this many owners of the company, we can’t agree.

4:08 pm: Walt: What’s the value of 4G?

Hesse: The experience is really fast, and we offer unlimited plans on 4G. There’s a five-gigabyte cap on 3G, but 4G is completely unlimited.

Walt’s curious if 4G is really life-changing and transformative. Sprint’s beating the other guys by 2x, not 10x or 20x.

Hesse: My son showed me his speed test on his EVO at home, and it was over 8 mbps, so it depends.

4:11 pm: Questions from the audience. The Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley asks about the potential deal between Clearwire and T-Mobile, which may be falling apart because of Clearwire’s recent $1 billion in debt that it has raised.

Hesse deflects the question despite several reports to the contrary, by saying he didn’t know anything about that.

Another audience question: What’s your stance on network neutrality?

Hesse: The FCC has come out with a proposal, and we are very supportive of it.

Consumer Reports Slams AT&T (Again)

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:33:50 +0000

Consumer Reports has been taking swings at AT&T’s cellphone service for a while now. But the carrier finds itself in its crosshairs once again.

The January 2011 issue ranking cellphones and services carries this headline on the cover: “Best and worst providers (Sorry AT&T).”

I’m going to try to pick up a copy this morning and will then update, but here are the highlights, according to the Houston Chronicle. AT&T got the magazine’s full black dot rating (that’s as low as it gets) in almost every nationwide category, while Verizon topped the rankings.

AT&T sent out the following statement in response to the rankings: “We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience. The fact is wireless customers have choices and a record number of them chose AT&T in the third quarter, significantly more than our competitors. Hard data from independent drive tests confirms AT&T has the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network with our nearest competitor 20 percent slower on average nationwide and our largest competitor 60 percent slower on average nationwide. And, our dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent–the equivalent of just one call in a thousand–of the industry leader.”

On the device side, the iPhone (the same one that the magazine once recommended against buying) tops the list of phones available at AT&T, the Droid X and Samsung Fascinate tied for best Verizon option and Samsung’s Epic and Vibrant top the options at Sprint and T-Mobile, respectively.

MacBook Air Rises to Top of Consumer Reports Ratings

John Paczkowski — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:48:54 +0000

More good press for the MacBook Air. Consumer Reports updated its computer ratings earlier this week to include the machine, and while it had some criticisms, it ranked the 11-inch Air and its 13-inch sibling at the top of their respective categories and gave both machines a “recommended” rating. (Sorry, full rating access is for subscribers only.)

The 11-inch Air scored 67 points out of 100, well above its closest rival, the Toshiba Satellite, which scored a 51. Meanwhile the 13-inch model scored 78 points out of 100, two points better than the Toshiba Portege. The publication found the Airs’ performance, displays and ergonomics to be their stand-out features, but wasn’t quite as impressed by the speakers on the 11-inch model and the versatility of both, which it rated as “fair.”

And then, of course, there is the issue of price. Both Airs exceeded their closest rivals on that front as well. At $1,300, the 13-inch Air is $520 more than the Portege, and at $1,000, the 11-inch is approximately double the price of the Satellite. ’Course, the Satellite also weighs over a pound more and pales in the performance, ergonomics and display categories, so there are obvious trade-offs here.

In any event, a good showing for Apple. If the Air truly is the future of the MacBook, as Steve Jobs claims, Apple has a lot to look forward to.

Digital Cameras Improve Zooms, HD Function

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:26:27 +0000

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, so, too, comes the start of the holiday shopping mayhem. Once again, digital cameras are rocketing to the top of wish lists, and once again, shoppers are tentatively entering electronics stores with bewildered looks on their faces.

[ See post to watch video ]

To alleviate some of that shopping stress, I’ve compiled a buyer’s guide for different camera categories with prices and pointers to innovation. This year, manufacturers have improved photo-location tagging and are offering artistic photo alteration and clever ways to label images for future sharing on social networks.

Let’s Get Physical

Consumers are starting to understand that better sensors make it possible to do things like taking photos in low light, which can really make a difference in photo quality. Some high-quality sensors are making their way into affordable models, like the CMOS sensor in Nikon’s $300 Coolpix S8100. High megapixel counts aren’t overly important, though more megapixels per photo still make it easier to zoom in while editing and give higher resolution in a larger photo or poster. A 14-megapixel camera like the Olympus FE-47 costs just $100, but a recent Consumer Reports review gave it low marks in handling shake and liquid-crystal-display screen quality. Optical zoom, or the physically manipulated distance between the camera and a subject, is still more important than digital zoom, and it’s easy to find many models with 7x optical zoom or better. LCD screens on digicams are so large that they leave little room for optical viewfinders, thus making built-in image stabilization all the more important. Image stabilization comes on nearly all new cameras. And more digicams than ever are capable of recording high-definition videos.

Breaking It Down

Digital cameras can be divided into four broad categories: pocket-size, point-and-shoot, super- or mega-zooms and digital single-lens reflexes (D-SLRs). I’ll leave SLRs out of the discussion, since they’re still primarily aimed at hobbyists who don’t mind the cost and effort of buying additional lenses, filters, flashes and other accessories.

Most pocket-size digital cameras cost between $100 and $300, weigh no more than seven ounces and lack optical viewfinders, forcing users to look at LCD screens to compose pictures. Most of these LCD viewing screens measure between 2.6 inches and 3.5 inches diagonally. Samsung, however, has an even bigger touch-screen LCD, at 3.7 inches, on its CL80 camera priced at $350.

These small but powerful machines capture images with 10, 12 or 14 megapixels and their optical zoom lenses usually range from 3x to 7x, though a handful of manufacturers are boosting their cameras’ optical zooms. The $170 Casio Exilim EX-H5, for example, is equipped with a 10x optical zoom lens.

Today’s point-and-shoot digital cameras are sleeker and more stylish than they used to be, though they remain somewhat bulkier than their pocket-size relatives. The point-and-shoot size can allow for better optical zoom lenses, and these models sometimes cost less than the pocket sizes. The $300 Canon PowerShot SX210 IS and $280 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 are equipped with 14x and 12x optical zoom lenses, respectively.

Super-zoom or mega-zoom digital cameras satisfy people who want the power of a great zoom and optional manual settings without the hassle and expense of an SLR. At a glance, you might mistake these models for SLRs due to their bulkier bodies, and, in some cases, detachable (or hot-shoe) flashes. Nikon’s $400 Coolpix P100 offers a 26x wide-angle optical zoom, and Olympus’s $350 SP-800UZ is the smallest camera with a 30x wide-angle optical zoom. Both cameras have built-in flashes, but the Nikon includes an optical viewfinder while the Olympus offers only an LCD screen for viewing and capturing photos.

Shaking It Up

Camera manufacturers are adding creative new features to these devices. Starting the week of Thanksgiving, Casio will provide Hybrid GPS on its $350 EX-H20G, which geotags (adds digital location information to) images indoors where GPS satellite signals can’t reach. This works using a combined GPS radio and motion sensor to measure the direction in which the camera has moved, and how fast. When you’re back in satellite range, the camera corrects the geotag by cross-referencing its own estimates with satellite-provided latitude and longitude.

Olympus now has art filters, which let you view your subject with special effects before capturing the photo. Some filters supply gentle sepia, soft focus or grainy film. There is also a drawing filter, which makes a subject instantly appear as a sketch.

Samsung’s $150 PL90 model has a pop-out USB arm that reminds me a lot of the pop-out USB connector on Cisco’s popular Flip camcorders. Samsung’s USB arm eliminates the need for messy wires, or the removal of a memory card to transfer photos from a digicam to a PC.

Many cameras have and continue to supply guides that appear on screen as a photo is being captured. Sony’s NEX-5 offers this, and the Olympus Live Guide let you preview photo adjustments—like brightness or color saturation—on the screen as you make them. Nikon’s Scene Auto Selector, found in the Coolpix P7000, Coolpix S8100 and Coolpix S80, will automatically adjust the camera’s settings so users can stop worrying about scrolling through menus to select the right scene from a list.

Fujifilm offers the only true (not simulated) three-dimensional digital camera in its $500 FinePix REAL 3D W3, which I reviewed in August. These 3D images can be seen through the camera’s LCD viewing screen but not on laptops or television sets unless they’re 3D-capable and you’re wearing 3D glasses.

Kodak is trying to encourage sharing with its cameras by including a Share button that, when pressed, digitally tags images and videos with labels for Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Kodak Gallery or email, then automatically sends the photos to those places when you next plug the camera into a PC.

One last warning: Don’t be seduced by lower prices or better technology alone. Be sure you try a camera in the store before buying it. The way it feels or works for you is just as important as any technological specification.

Email Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Any Skin in the Game is Fine with Microsoft Kinect

Nick Wingfield — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:16:01 +0000

Last night, the game news website GameSpot kicked up a controversy over a new camera-based game controller from Microsoft, Kinect, with a post that said two dark-skinned GameSpot employees had trouble with the system’s facial recognition feature.

That prompted the website of Consumer Reports to run its own tests to see if it could duplicate Kinect’s alleged discrimination. The publication just posted its results under the headline, “Consumers Reports debunks the ‘racist’ Kinect.” (That headline was a bit of a straw man since GameSpot didn’t say definitively that dark skin was the cause of the problems, much less claim Kinect was racist. Plus can objects be racist?)

Consumer Reports said they found the problem GameSpot wrote about was related to low room lighting, rather than skin color. Like GameSpot, Consumer Reports found the issue only occurred with Kinect’s facial recognition, a feature that allows players to automatically log in to their Xboxes when they stand in front of Kinect’s camera to load their personal gamer profiles. Lighting conditions didn’t affect playing actual games with Kinect, Consumer Reports said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Apple's "Back to the Mac" Event by the Numbers

John Paczkowski — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:05:55 +0000

As Apple events go, Wednesday’s was a bit lighter on metrics than some others we’ve seen this year. Still, there were quite a few worth noting, beginning with 13.7 million–the number of Macs sold in the fiscal year that ended in September–and continuing on with those listed below.

13.7 million Macs sold in FY 2010

That’s 3 times the number of Macs Apple sold just five years ago

The Mac’s installed base is 50 million

Mac sales accounted for $22 billion in revenue in FY 2010

That’s 33 percent of Apple’s revenue

And it’s enough to make the company’s Mac business No. 110 on the Fortune 500–if it were a standalone business

Quarterly Mac sales grew 2.5 times faster than the rest of the industry (according to IDC)

The Mac has outgrown the PC market for 18 straight quarters

The Mac claims 20.7 percent of the U.S. retail market (according to NPD)

There are 600,000 Mac developers

The above number is growing by 30,000 per month

Mac customer satisfaction is the highest in the industry

It’s No. 1 in customer satisfaction (according to ACSI)

It’s No. 1 in tech support for the last seven years (according to Consumer Reports)

It’s No. 1 in customer support (according to PC World)

There are 318 Apple retail stores in 11 countries

Apple retail stores sold 2.8 million Macs last year

50 percent of them were sold to first-time Mac buyers

Apple sold 2 million iPhoto photo books in the past year

There are 5 million GarageBand users

Consumer Reports Can't Recommend iPhone, Can Recommend Consumer Reports Shopping App

Peter Kafka — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:14:50 +0000

Consumer Reports’ odd love/kinda-love relationship with the iPhone continues. The buying guide continues to give Apple’s iPhone 4 “stellar” marks, but won’t actually recommend it, because of antennagate.

But if you do go ahead and buy the new handset, or any other iPhone model, Consumer Reports supports your decision! Because it would like to sell you its new iPhone app for $9.99.

The Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper offers what several shopping apps do–the ability to scan a bar code and get information about a particular product, as well as the ability to browse through the shopping guide’s ratings for other data.

Other apps, including Best Buy’s Tecca, are free, so Consumer Reports is betting that access to its data is worth the premium. But that seems to work for it online, where it has some three million subscribers.

If you’re on the fence, consider jumping in sooner rather than later: The app’s price will jump to $14.99 on January 1. A version for Google’s Android is in the works.

Consumer Reports: Hey! Look at Us! We're Not Recommending the iPhone 4 Again!

John Paczkowski — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 21:00:31 +0000

Just when Apple (AAPL) thought it had closed antennagate, Consumer Reports has thrown it wide open.

The company’s discontinuation of its iPhone 4 case program has prompted the publication to once again deny the device its endorsement. Because, why not, right?

“Our tests found the Bumper successfully mitigates the iPhone 4′s reception issue, which was a weak point in the phone’s otherwise-stellar performance in our tests,” Consumer Reports said in a post to its blog today. “And we agree with Apple that not all iPhone 4 owners will experience reception difficulties with the device. But putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us. We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and to call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone’s reception issues.”

And, judging from iPhone 4 sales to date, consumers will likely continue to pay little attention to CR’s continued non-recommendation. After all, the publication did rate the iPhone 4 “Excellent” in its display, navigation, Web browsing, multimedia and battery life categories, “Very Good” in phoning and messaging and “Good” in voice quality.

[Note: Obviously Photoshopped image obviously Photoshopped]

PREVIOUSLY

iPhone 4 Full Coverage on AllThingsD.com

Apple Ends iPhone 4 Case Program, Says Attenuation Issue Is “Even Smaller Than We Originally Thought”

Apple Hopes for Best Case Scenario in iPhone Flap

Apple’s “Just Encase” Answer to iPhone 4 Complaints [Live Blog]

What Will Apple Say Tomorrow? Your Guess Is as Good as My Analyst’s.

Apple Releases iOS 4.0.1 for iPhone, iOS 3.2.1 for iPad

The Reality Distortion Field Appears to Be Suffering Attenuation Issues as Well

Analyst: “Highly Unlikely” iPhone 4 Recall Could Cost Apple $1.5 Billion

Apple Snips Needling Threads From iPhone 4 Forums

IPhone 4 Recall? Get a Grip!

Consumer Reports: By the Way, the iPhone 4 is Also the Best Smartphone on the Market

Duct-Tape Makers Look for Boost From Consumer Reports iPhone Verdict

Consumer Reports: We Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4

Apple: Your iPhone 4 Antenna Is Fine, and So Is Your Reception–But We’re Fixing Our Software Anyway

Grip Different: Apple, AT&T Sued Over iPhone 4 Antenna Issue

Gripping Antenna Drama Won’t Hold iPhone 4 Back, Says Analyst

Apple on iPhone 4 Reception Problems: Grip Different

Apple Snips Needling Threads From iPhone 4 Forums

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:34:03 +0000

Yet another twist in the iPhone 4 antenna saga: Apple’s Support forum moderators have deleted some–but not all–threads discussing Consumer Reports’ refusal to recommend the device.

As public relations moves go, “moderation into oblivion” is a poor strategy. Though the deleted threads are no longer viewable on Apple.com, you can still find them in Bing’s cache. As a wise man once said, “You can’t take something off the Internet…that’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.”

Consumer Reports: By the Way, the iPhone 4 is Also the Best Smartphone on the Market

John Paczkowski — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:07:48 +0000

Well, this is ironic. Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 4, the smartphone that Consumer Reports says it can’t recommend, is also the one ranked highest in its latest ratings. The device scored 76 out of 100 points–two points ahead of its closest rivals, the iPhone 3Gs and the HTC Evo 4G (click on image above to enlarge).

The product evaluation agency rated the iPhone 4 “Excellent” in its display, navigation, Web browsing, multimedia and battery life categories, “Very Good” in phoning and messaging and “Good” in voice quality.

In short, the iPhone 4 is hands-down the best smartphone available today, but Consumer Reports advises against buying it.

[Image credit: Consumer Reports]

Duct-Tape Makers Look for Boost From Consumer Reports iPhone Verdict

John Paczkowski — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:52:53 +0000

So Consumer Reports, proprietor of the largest nonprofit consumer-product testing center in the world, says not to buy Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 4 (or, alternatively, have some duct tape handy). How will that affect sales?

Tough to say. The much-publicized reception issues surrounding the iPhone 4′s antenna design do not seem to have slowed uptake noticeably yet. But now that those issues have been verified under laboratory conditions by an independent review organization, particularly one as influential as Consumer Reports, you’d expect sales to suffer at least a bit. Right?

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz thinks they might, or rather he thinks there’s a risk that they might. “At this point, concerns around iPhone 4 reception do not appear to be impacting demand, but we think there are risks when a well-respected product rating agency such as Consumer Reports issues an unfavorable report,” he said in a note to clients, adding “The report should turn up the heat on Apple.”

Or spike sales of the company’s iPhone 4 Bumpers…or duct tape.

Consumer Reports: We Can't Recommend the iPhone 4

John Paczkowski — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:40:45 +0000

Consumer Reports has just finished up its lab tests on the iPhone 4, and the results do not reflect well on Apple. According to the publication, the iPhone 4 is more prone to signal-strength issues than other smartphones. What’s more, those issues are likely not related to faulty software, as Apple claims.

After testing three iPhone 4 handsets purchased from three New York-area retailers, the magazine concluded signal strength is degraded when the device is held in a manner in which its external antennas are bridged.

“There is a problem with its reception,” the publication explains. “When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side–an easy thing, especially for lefties–the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.”

That’s quite a change from the publication’s stance earlier this month, when it said that “there’s no reason, at least yet, to forgo buying an iPhone 4 over its reception concerns.”

Evidently, there is now, though Consumer Reports gave the iPhone 4 high marks in other areas, like display quality and battery life.

There is an easy solution for iPhone 4 owners suffering reception problems, the publication notes. Cover the device’s antenna gaps with a piece of duct tape. “It may not be pretty, but it works,” CR says, adding, “But Apple needs to come up with a permanent–and free–fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.”

But in the end, does that recommendation even matter? And will its absence hurt sales? At this point, the antenna issue does not appear to be impacting demand for iPhone 4.

Apple (AAPL) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Image credit: Peter Morgan / Flickr]

Gawker Settles a Libel Suit With a Correction, but Not a Check

Peter Kafka — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:09:59 +0000

Sometimes Nick Denton likes to boast about Gawker Media’s legal battles. Other times, he keeps quiet.

Like earlier this month, when Denton settled a libel suit filed by motorcycle-maker Confederate Motors. His blog network’s only comment about the case is an oblique “correction” on his Jalopnik car blog, noting that Confederate does not appear to be “unable to do business” in New York.

MediaPost and media law blogger Ben Sheffner seem to be the only two outlets keeping tabs on the case, and you can get the full download at their sites.

But the very short story is that Confederate sued Gawker over an April 9, 2009, post (now deleted, though Google shows traces) about some of its vehicles.

Things Confederate (Really! I know!) didn’t like included an assertion that its bikes are “so unreliable you’ll have to push them” and that “we heard the Alabama-based company was being sued so heavily in state courts by disgruntled owners that they were unable to do business here.”

The Jalopnik post seems to be the sum total of Gawker’s concessions to Confederate. Gawker COO Gaby Darbyshire tells MediaPost her company didn’t pay Confederate a penny and that it settled only “because it was too trivial an issue to take to court….One must pick one’s battles.”

Sounds reasonable! Especially when there are much bigger battles looming on the horizon.

AT&T's Mottoes: "Profit Over Performance" and "We've Got You by the Calls" [UPDATED]

John Paczkowski — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:00:18 +0000

At least $5 billion, and perhaps as much as $7 billion. That’s what it would cost AT&T to match Verizon’s current level of investment in network infrastructure and, presumably, match its performance.

According to TownHall Investment Research, AT&T (T) spent about $21.6 billion on its wireless network from 2006 through September 2009. Meanwhile, Verizon (VZ) spent $25.4 billion. That disparity in investment, says TownHall Investment Research analyst Gerard Hallaren, has caused AT&T’s network to perform poorly compared with Verizon’s, particularly as it struggles to meet the data demands of devices like Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone.

Making matters worse, AT&T invests more in its wired infrastructure than in its wireless network, says Hallaren. Though 57 percent of the company’s operating income comes from wireless and only 35 percent from wired services, wireless gets only 34 percent of the capital expenditures, while wired receives 65 percent.

In other words, AT&T has been shortchanging wireless at the expense of wired. And it’s been shortchanging its customers above all. According to Hallaren, AT&T spent $308 per subscriber on network improvements from 2006 through Sept. 2009. Verizon spent $353 per subscriber. Sprint spent $310.

That’s exactly the sort of network capital expenditure strategy that lands you in the pages of Consumer Reports–for all the wrong reasons.

To be fair, though, AT&T is increasing investment in its network. According to the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information’s Broadband in America Report, a study prepared for the Federal Communications Commission this past November, the carrier plans to spend $5.625 billion in 2010, $5.875 billion in 2011, $6.114 billion in 2012 and $6.347 in 2013. (See tables above; click to enlarge. The full report appears below.)

UPDATE: Reached for comment, AT&T took issue with TownHall’s report and its research methods.

“Town Hall does not provide a complete picture of AT&T’s significant investments to support our mobile broadband leadership,” a spokesperson told me. “They draw their conclusions on incomplete information. For example, fiber and bandwidth to cell sites are the most significant investments for mobile broadband, but they are booked to wireline. In 2009 we deployed five times the number of fiber-optic backhaul connections than we did in 2008. We spend time on a regular basis speaking with analysts about these issues, and we’d welcome time to do the same with Town Hall. AT&T supports 21 percent of the world’s 3G HSPA broadband customers, more than any other HSPA carrier worldwide (GSMA, August 2009) and twice the number of smartphone customers than any other U.S. provider. We would not be in a global leadership position without aggressive investment in our mobile broadband network.”

Broadband in America -2009 –

[Image credit: Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, Broadband in America Report, 11.11.2009]