AllThingsD » keyboard

One Small Keyboard for Logitech, One Giant Leap for iPad Productivity

Lauren Goode — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:00:08 +0000

With my column this week, I did something I’ve never done before: I typed the entire thing on my iPad.

That’s because I’ve been testing Logitech’s new Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad, which has changed the way I feel about productivity on the iPad.

You see, I’m not a huge fan of touchscreen keyboards. Many other consumers share this sentiment, as much as they might love their tablets.

Hardware makers have addressed this by offering a variety of accessory keyboard options. They range from Bluetooth-enabled wireless keyboards to tablet cases with built-in keyboards, like the $70 Belkin YourType Folio, and plastic overlays that create tactile keys on top of the iPad’s touchscreen. Companies have even tried experimenting with laser-projected keyboards — though those still won’t give you keys you can actually feel.

But some of these solutions are bulky, or add too much extra weight to the iPad. Not the $100 Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard. The successor to the Logitech Keyboard Case by Zagg, the Ultrathin is a sleek, super-slim Bluetooth keyboard that also works as an iPad cover. It works with both iPad 2 and the new iPad.

[ See post to watch video ]

I’ve been trying out the Ultrathin with an iPad 2 for over a week now, in part to determine whether it’s worth its $100 price tag. Despite the fact that it scratches easily and doesn’t firmly support the iPad when the tablet is in the vertical position, I would buy this device.

The Ultrathin Keyboard Case is 9.5 inches by 3.5 inches. It’s just .39 inches thick — thinner than all three of the iPads themselves. Made of aluminum, it mimics the look of the back of the iPad. When the keyboard isn’t in use and the case is being used as a cover, it looks very much like you’ve mashed two silver iPads together. On its own, it weighs roughly 12 ounces. The combined weight of the case with the Wi-Fi-only iPad 2 is 2.071 pounds; the case plus the new iPad weighs 2.185 pounds.

Like Apple’s own cover for the iPad, the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover comes with magnetic grips that firmly latch onto the long edge of the iPad.

To get started using the Ultrathin, I powered on the keyboard, then turned on the iPad’s Bluetooth. The iPad quickly recognized the device, and I paired the two by selecting the keyboard from the iPad’s list of recognized devices.

Next, I tested the keyboard. I positioned the iPad horizontally in a thin, white trough that runs across the top of the keyboard. The magnetic pull was so strong that the iPad snapped into place. This propped the iPad up at an angle in front of me, and I was ready to begin typing.

Set in a smooth, black, recessed tray, the keys are black, Chiclet-shaped and made of etched plastic with slightly raised lettering. Despite the shallowness of the tray, the keys have a nice spring to them.

Alternating between the touchscreen and the keys took some getting used to, but typing on the iPad using the Ultrathin was fluid and easy. I answered emails, jotted down some thoughts in the Notes app, filed a short blog post and wrote this column.

I also used some of the shortcuts available through the function keys at the top of the keyboard: There’s a home key for returning to the iPad’s home screen, while the function key plus the “1” key launches spotlight search. Function and the “3″ key makes the iPad’s virtual keyboard pop up, and function plus 6, 7 and 8 allow users to cut, copy and paste.

Logitech says the keyboard’s battery life is expected to last six months with two hours of daily usage. The keyboard also goes into sleep mode when it’s not in use for 20 minutes, thus conserving battery life. Charging it requires a micro-USB cord, which goes into a small port on the keyboard and a regular-sized USB port on your laptop or computer. Unfortunately, the $100 you’ll pay for this won’t cover the cost of a wall adapter.

There are some less-desirable aspects of this product. For one, it only works with the iPad. Logitech does make a $70 Bluetooth keyboard that works with Android tablets, but it’s a separate wireless keyboard.

Another drawback: The “delete” key is way too small — one of the downsides of cramming an entire keyboard into such small physical real estate. It sometimes took me three tries to make contact with the delete key while typing.

The Ultrathin only covers the iPad display screen, and not the backside of the iPad, which is prone to scratching. As it turns out, the cover side of the Ultrathin is also prone to scratching, as I discovered after a week of throwing it in my bag and toting it around.

Users that don’t want to deal with scuffs or that are looking for more iPad coverage will likely want to consider something like the Belkin I mentioned earlier, the $100 Zaggfolio iPad 3 keyboard case, or Logitech’s $130 Solar Keyboard Folio.

The magnetic clips that hold the tablet in place are super strong, but that’s only when it’s propped up horizontally. While, technically, the iPad can rest in a vertical position in the keyboard’s tray, it doesn’t feel like it’s firmly in place.

Also, though I love how thin and lightweight this thing is, it’s so light that it sometimes creates an awkward balance between the keyboard and the iPad. When I was sitting on my couch, with my feet up and my iPad and its keyboard on my lap, it was fine. But when I was sitting upright in my desk chair with the iPad and Ultrathin on my lap, it felt a little unsteady.

However, the benefits outweigh the downsides of this keyboard and case. I didn’t get to try out the Ultrathin on an airplane, but I did test it during a train ride. It was the perfect travel accessory, and now I can’t imagine traveling without it.

Take a Note: Typing With No Hands

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:08:24 +0000

I am writing this paragraph on an iPhone. But I am not typing it on the phone’s virtual keyboard. I am dictating it using a little-known feature that allows you to employ your voice instead of your fingers, wherever text entry is possible on the device.

[ See post to watch video ]

And now, for this paragraph, I have switched to an Android phone. Once again, I am composing these words using only my voice, and not typing them on the virtual keyboard.

Those two paragraphs, dictated as emails and then cut and pasted into this column on a computer, required far fewer corrections than you might think, given the bad reputation for accuracy that voice input on digital devices has acquired. I only had to add a comma I’d forgotten to specify in the first paragraph and capitalize the word “Android” in the second paragraph.

For me, a daily user of virtual keyboards, the process was quicker and more accurate than typing would likely have been, even for the relatively short blocks of text typically composed on phones.

So, on the suspicion that dictation on smartphones might prove useful for others as well, I’ve been testing it heavily over the past week. I used a top phone with Google’s Android software, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and an Apple iPhone 4S. In general, I found that, while dictation could occasionally fail badly, it worked surprisingly well in a wide variety of environments and applications.

On both leading smartphone platforms, I found that relatively short dictation—such as emails, texts, tweets, Facebook posts and notes—was at least as accurate, and often more, as typing on a glass screen. It was better in quiet environments, but did OK even in most noisy places like grocery stores, coffee shops and carwashes. It was also faster, since, as long as you don’t have to correct numerous errors, speaking is usually faster than typing on glass.

For this review, I am not mainly referring to Siri, the widely publicized, voice-controlled feature on the new iPhones, which can do things like tell you the weather, or stock prices. Nor am I discussing the “voice actions” on Android, which can perform Web searches and other tasks. Both can also help with some text dictation. I concentrated on a much simpler feature of both platforms: a small microphone key that’s included right in the phones’ on-screen keyboards.

Apple’s dictation system did better at capitalizing proper names.

Android phones have had this microphone key for a couple of years, and Apple added it to the latest iPhone, the 4S, last fall, and to the new iPad, when it came out last month. But I’m guessing that many users of these phones either haven’t used this special key, or haven’t even noticed it.

While the microphone keys work a bit differently on the two platforms, they are basically similar. When the keyboard appears, ready for you to type, you can instead hit the microphone key and simply dictate what you want to say. The phones then send your spoken words to a remote server, which rapidly translates them into text and sends them back to the phone’s screen. If corrections are needed, you make them by typing, though both platforms make this easier by indicating the likeliest errors, and suggesting alternatives.

A couple of caveats are in order. I didn’t compare dictation to typing on a phone with physical keys, whose devotees are often speedy and accurate. Instead, I thought the apt comparison was with a virtual keyboard, which is becoming the norm on phones, but is still a source of frustration for many users.

But Android was more reliable.

I also didn’t try dictating a long document, like this column, because phones are rarely used for lengthy composing.

I found that both platforms’ dictation systems worked well enough for me to recommend them. In case after case, both phones got it right, or close enough to require little correcting.

But there are differences. Android has an advantage in that, in the newest version of its operating system, it displays the dictated text almost in real time, lagging just slightly behind your spoken words. On the iPhone, the system only reveals its rendering of your dictation after you’ve tapped on a “Done” button.

Android’s dictation system also supports many more languages than Apple’s—40 languages and dialects, including Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew. On the iPhone, only English, French and German are currently supported, though Apple says Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish will be added later this year.

However, I found the iPhone 4S worked better than the Galaxy Nexus in noisier environments. For instance, in a crowded shopping-mall food court, while neither phone was perfect, the iPhone understood me to say: “I am dictating this email from the very noisy Court at Montgomery Mall on the iPhone”—missing only the word “food” and capitalizing “Court.” The Android phone mangled a very similar sentence as: “I am dictating this email on droid phone from the bearing noise for it montgomery mall.”

Google notes that, unlike Apple, it supports many phones, and that the results might have differed on another model, with better noise cancellation. Apple says the iPhone 4S does have noise cancellation. And, in any case, the two phones’ results were more comparable in quieter settings.

Apple’s system also did better at capitalizing proper names, like Stradivarius, or Red Sox, or even Google (which my Android phone, ironically, always rendered in lowercase). But Google says it will be updating its dictation feature in weeks to better handle proper names.

On the other hand, I found that, when Android did err, it had a more extensive and easier to use manner for correcting those mistakes than the iPhone did. Android was also more reliable; sometimes the iPhone returned no text at all.

Still, I found these differences less important than the fact that, for me, the results on both platforms were impressive. On both, if you say words like “period” or “comma,” you generally get the punctuation mark (though both try to make the distinction when you actually want a word like “period.”)

And, in test after test, both did a good job. Errors were generally fewer than if I had typed the words quickly.

Both have a downside: Because they do the transcription on their servers, and they are anxious to improve, they do retain some information about what you’re saying. Both companies say they respect your privacy, but, if you worry about transmitting your messages or notes to Apple or Google, don’t use dictation.

Otherwise, especially for those who find typing on glass clumsy, the microphone key on Android and the new iPhone is something you might want to add to your arsenal of ways to use your phone.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Dell Goes on Ultrabook Diet With Slimmed-Down Laptop

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:03:02 +0000

As 2012 rolls on, consumers shopping for a PC will be seeing more of the thin, light, quick-starting Windows laptops called ultrabooks.

Big names like Lenovo and Toshiba already have entered this new category, and on Tuesday, Dell will introduce its first ultrabook, the XPS 13, starting at $999.

[ See post to watch video ]

Dell has had difficulty lately attracting consumers. At one time, it was the go-to brand for many people looking to buy a computer. But, in recent years, its consumer business has faltered as individuals, especially in the U.S., have flocked to Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and even once obscure brands such as Acer and Asus.

Now, the Texas tech titan is making a renewed push for the affections of consumers and the XPS 13 is an important weapon in that push. Like other ultrabooks, it’s an attempt to emulate Apple’s popular MacBook Air by offering a thin, light laptop with good power that has a full-size screen and keyboard, starts up and resumes quickly, uses a solid-state drive and claims decent battery life.

The XPS 13 uses a thinner screen border and a full-size keyboard.

However, Dell’s entry offers an interesting twist: It packs a 13-inch screen into a footprint that is closer to that of models with just an 11- or 12-inch display. This makes it easier to fit in a briefcase or on an airplane tray table in coach. When placed atop a MacBook Air with the same-size screen, the Dell is noticeably smaller.

Dell uses edge-to-edge glass for its screen and leaves much less of a bezel, or border, around the screen, than the Apple does. The XPS 13 isn’t smaller than its competitors in every dimension. It’s thicker and a tad heavier than the comparable MacBook Air. And, like the Apple, it’s significantly heavier than Toshiba’s ultrabook. But the shorter width and height are a nice touch.

I’ve been testing the Dell XPS 13, and there is a lot to like about it, even beyond its compact dimensions. I found it to be solid and well built, speedy and with a good, backlit keyboard, a bright screen, and good looks. It emerged from standby mode quickly and reliably. But this machine has a major downside: subpar battery life. In my standard test, it fell about an hour short of the longest-lived competing ultrabook I’ve tested and two hours short of the 13-inch MacBook Air.

Like other ultrabooks, the XPS 13 isn’t a bargain computer. It’s costlier than the typical, bulkier Windows laptop, which can be had for $400 to $700. But, at $999 with 4 gigabytes of memory and a 128 gigabyte solid-state drive, the Dell is $300 less than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the same specs. Both machines use Intel’s midrange i5 processor. Dell offers an otherwise identical model with double the solid-state storage for $1,299, and a model with double the base storage and a more powerful processor for $1,499.

The model Dell sent me for testing was high end. But based on my tests of other ultrabooks—all designed to tight standards promulgated by Intel—I have no reason to doubt the base model with the midrange processor also is speedy, and no reason to recommend the costlier chip.

The XPS 13, which runs Windows 7 and is part of Dell’s premium consumer line, has a silvery aluminum top and a base made of carbon fiber. It rests on two long rubber runners. The battery is sealed and ports are minimal. There are two USB ports—one is the faster USB 3.0 type—and a video-out port called a Mini Display Port.

The spacious keyboard has nicely separated keys. The touch pad is large, with no physical buttons. But I found it required tweaking in its buried settings screen before it felt right for me.

I was annoyed that, out of the box, the top row of function keys that is commonly used to adjust things like brightness and volume also requires you to hold down a special key to get to these controls. But this can be changed in a settings panel and Dell says it’s considering changing the way this works.

The 13-inch screen fits nicely in a smaller footprint than the Mac’s, but has a lower resolution than the Apple screen of the same size. So, an identical Web page in the identical browser displays more on the MacBook Air than on the Dell XPS 13.

Dell says this is because it had to use the lower-resolution panel for a special manufacturing process it employed on the new ultrabook. It says it will increase the resolution later this year.

Dell’s ultrabook comes with a standard suite of Microsoft and Dell software, including the Windows Live Essentials consumer package, which includes email, and a photo and video program. A starter edition of Microsoft Office contains somewhat stripped-down versions of Word and Excel.

The computer easily handled other programs I installed, including the Google Chrome browser, and Apple’s iTunes.

But Dell still clings to the bad old habit of loading in software you may not want, for which it presumably gets paid. In particular, it has added a Dell-branded Bing toolbar to the Internet Explorer browser.

As noted above, battery life was disappointing. In my test, where I use full brightness, disable power-saving software, leave on the Wi-Fi, and play a loop of music, the battery on the XPS 13 lasted just under four hours, the worst I’ve seen on an ultrabook.

By contrast, in the same test, the longest-lived ultrabook I’ve tested, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, got nearly five hours, and the MacBook Air almost six hours. I estimate you could likely get five hours on the Dell in a more normal usage pattern.

Ultrabook shoppers looking for a well-built, unusually compact 13-inch model should consider the Dell, but the relatively poor battery life might be a deal breaker for some.

Write to Walt at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

Touchscreen vs. Keyboard, the Sequel

Lauren Goode — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:34:46 +0000

Last week, I wrote about how touchscreens are forcing the reinvention of keyboards, looking into how touchscreen keypads are easily updateable, yet can be cumbersome to type on. The post also highlighted a few solutions that tech companies are working on in this area.

The piece elicited a variety of reactions — even Roger Ebert seems to think it might be too late to learn a new keyboard. I also received a fair number of follow-up emails pointing out some interesting technologies that I’d missed.

So here are some other options for the touchscreen-averse:

Talk Emo to Me

A company called Siine is trying make touchscreen typing even quicker by replacing words or entire phrases with emoticons.

The Siine Writer app is based on editable icons. Each icon, or “Siine,” is supposed to convey three different words or phrases, depending on how many times the user taps it.

So, instead of typing out a text-laden message, users tap a series of visual cues that send the message to the person on the receiving end.

Users make the Siines by downloading the app from the Android market, going to the emoticon screen, holding down an emoticon and selecting “create,” to assign a new picture, a name and the corresponding text for the emoticon. After that, the Siine emoticon will appear on the user’s keyboard.

It’s a pretty nifty idea, though there would likely still be a need to enter text for more random words, and words used less frequently.

Siine is based in London and Barcelona; the company launched in 2007, and received funding last February from Atomico, the VC firm of Niklas Zennstrom, best known for co-founding Skype.

The free app is available in both English and Spanish for devices running Android OS. There’s also a tablet version of the app, available exclusively from Samsung Apps; at the moment, there isn’t a Siine app available for iPhone or iPad.

The Next Productivity Killer at Work

Here’s a familiar sequence of events: You’re typing away at your desk, and your phone pings — loudly — alerting you and the rest of the office to the fact that you’ve got a message. You’re in the middle of doing work, so you ignore it. But you don’t, really: You glance at your phone’s interface, quickly, just to check. But, wait — it’s your friend, asking if you want in on tickets that are going to sell out in exactly 47 seconds. Or it’s your significant other, asking if you could meet the handyman at the apartment. Or it’s your mom. You simply have to respond.

What if you could just keep typing on your desktop keyboard — and still respond to your urgent calls?

That’s the kind of keyboard Matias has come up with.

The Canada-based company uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly connect your phone to your keyboard and toggle between your desktop screen and phone — you’re still typing on your keyboard, but the text is appearing on the screen of your smartphone. (Here’s a video from CES that shows how this works, courtesy of Engadget.)

There are three Matias models — the $79 Slim One Keyboard, the $99 One Keyboard and the $199 Tactile One Keyboard — and all of them work on both PCs and Macs. The One and the Slim One are available now; the Tactile One will begin shipping in May.

The cheapest model, the Slim One, does not include a hub for your phone. The $99 One Keyboard includes a USB 2.0 hub and in-keyboard stand to hold your phone. The $199 Tactile One Keyboard has all of that, plus Alps mechanical key switches, which means there are real switches under each key.

And for those of you who wrote to me and suggested the Dvorak style of keyboard as an alternative to the traditional keyboard layout — Matias also makes a Dvorak keyboard for PCs and Mac computers.

Projecting Into the Future

We’ve seen at least one example of a laser-projection device that can create a keyboard out of any opaque surface. But what if you could make a keyboard out of any surface? What if you could make a keyboard … out of thin air?

MicroVision, a company specializing in laser-display technology, announced earlier this month the availability of its new laser-display engine, the PicoP Gen 2 HD laser display (the company’s patented display, PicoP, is actually the tech behind OmniTouch, mentioned in the previous article.)

The Gen 2 display takes it a step further: MicroVision’s PicoP Gen 2 can turn any projected image into a virtual touchscreen, regardless of the surface it’s being projected onto — or whether there’s even any surface at all. The PicoP Gen 2 HD laser display engine boasts 720p HD image projection and interactive displays up to 200 inches diagonal. MicroVision also announced technology for 3-D projectors, which could project 3-D images from a small display device.

While this kind of technology might have a more obvious place in the gaming market, it can also be used in conjunction with mobile devices to allow users to “step away from the screen.”

The company is emphasizing that this is still a prototype; MicroVision expects to begin sending samples to selected manufacturers for testing sometime early this year.

(There aren’t any images of this technology being deployed, so you’ll just have to imagine that keyboard in thin air for now.)

Forget the Keyboard — It’s All About Voice

Still other readers threw the four-letter word at me. Not that one. They were talking about Siri — and her competitors — saying they believe that touchscreen technologies, tactile or otherwise, are all moot because of the emergence of voice-command technology. Voice recognition is now in smartphones, gaming consoles and “smart” TV sets; is it only a matter of time before we’re dictating everything to our computer screens?

How Touchscreens Are Forcing the Reinvention of Keyboards

Lauren Goode — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:16:08 +0000

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show, an Israel-based company called Snapkeys invited showgoers into a booth to test its new keyboard technology. Within a few minutes of using it, the company said, people were already getting the hang of Snapkeys, which consolidates the letters of the alphabet into just four keys.

The idea behind Snapkeys isn’t new; the company says it has been working on it for more than 10 years.

A snapshot of Snapkeys' redesigned keyboard.

But the more recent emergence of touchscreen devices — and the complaints from even avid users about typing on them — means that Snapkeys’ research and development has been serendipitously well-timed.

“We think the end user is finally ready for an upgrade to the old Qwerty keyboard, after almost 150 years,” said Ryan Ghassabian, a Snapkeys business development manager. “Today, there are just too many new devices — phones, tablets — that are changing everything.”

“And Qwerty is just not meant to be on touchscreen devices,” he added.

Snapkeys is just one of a growing number of devices and applications that aim to change the way users interact with the traditional keyboard.

That doesn’t necessarily mean altering the layout of the Qwerty keyboard. The popular keyboard add-on Swype, recently acquired by Nuance, uses a standard layout, but lets users trace a word with their fingers.

While many companies work on technology for onscreen keyboards, still others are trying to create smart, ultra-portable or “invisible” keyboards.

Celluon's Magic Cube laser-projected keyboard.

Korea-based Celluon, which works on portable input applications, has introduced a “Magic Cube” device that connects wirelessly to an iPad or iPhone and projects a laser keyboard image onto an opaque surface for users to “type” on. The idea is that the user would only have to tote the palm-sized, battery-operated cube around, instead of a full keyboard.

Mozilla Labs’s Seabird project uses two Pico projectors to spit out keyboard imagery on either side of a smartphone to establish a full keyboard for typing.

Others believe the answer to typing on touchscreens lies in somehow adding a tactile set of keys — ones that people can actually feel, as they’re accustomed to — to those sleek glass displays.

Part of this stems from the simple fact that many consumers find typing on raised keys easier than typing on touchscreens. A study conducted last year at the University of Washington’s Information School in conjunction with Microsoft Research found that when users typed on a flat surface lacking tactile feedback, they were subject to inadvertent touches, and typing speed was 31 percent slower than it was with a physical keyboard.

Five years ago, manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung were trying everything from vibrating screens to sensor pads underneath keys to create the sensation of keys you could feel on touchscreens.

And consumers seem to want options beyond just attaching a full keyboard to a mobile phone or tablet. Last fall, two Seattle-based designers received $201,400 dollars in pledges on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, after having set an initial goal of just $10,000. Their product: A thin, light keyboard overlay called the TouchFire that goes over the iPad’s touchscreen and creates a sense of keys.

But tactile touchscreen tech still hasn’t made its way into the mainstream.

While physical buttons certainly have their advantages, software keyboards, in the meantime, are showing a tremendous amount of potential. For example, keyboards can simply be reconfigured based on context. When in a browser, dedicated keys can be presented for “www” and “.com”. If the entry is for a ZIP code, a screen with only numbers can be offered.

Also, soft keyboards can do interesting things using prediction. Based on what the next character is likely to be, the software can actually assume which letter is likely to be pressed next, making those keys bigger, either physically or just by favoring those keys.

Above all, software keyboards, unlike physical ones, disappear entirely when they are not needed. The trend away from physical keyboards, which began with the iPhone, has continued unabated, with full touchscreen smartphones making up a steadily increasing portion of the market.

Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. candidate in Carnegie Mellon’s Human Computer Interaction Institute, says that while tactile feedback is “kind of the holy grail of input,” we’re still years away from tech that offers true tactility on touchscreens. “Right now, there are ways you can take really inaccurate input and make it usable — look at something like BlindType — so that’s what you’ll see getting pushed out in the next two or three years. Maybe in five years or more, we’ll see the technological breakthrough of ‘shape-shifting’ the keys on touch surfaces, so people can feel them.”

OmniTouch: A new kind of "Palm" phone?

Harrison has spent the past two and a half years working with Microsoft on skin-sensory computing technology, called Skinput. The technology includes specialized sensors that gauge vibrations happening inside of the human body and enable graphical multitouch. The idea, basically, is that by tapping a projected image on your forearm, you can tell your computer — or another electronic device, like your TV — what to do.

More recently, Harrison and Microsoft have retailored the tech, which is now called OmniTouch, to use it on variety of surfaces — not just the epidermis, but also walls, tables, and notepads.

And while Harrison is laser-focused on changing the way we input information, he expressed a different sentiment than Snapkeys does it when it comes to the keyboard.

“The physical keyboard is an amazing thing, and the fact that it hasn’t changed much in almost 150 years is a good thing,” he said. “If you brought back an old keyboard, people will still be able to type just as well, and there aren’t many technologies as durable as that.”

Readers, which do you prefer for typing: Touchscreens or tactile keys?

(Magic Cube photo courtesy of Flickr/AsiaClassified)

AllThingsD’s Ina Fried contributed to this report.

There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!

Kara Swisher — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:26:06 +0000

Just as the annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this week, according to a report from the NPD Group: Consumer electronics sales during this past holiday period dropped six percent from last year.

That should be some not-so-welcome news for the vendors at the Las Vegas gadget confab, which is seeking to show off new wares to excite said consumers.

Those offerings had better step it up, from a look at the NPD Weekly Tracking Service, which noted that the decline was coming off another decline from a year ago.

While 2011′s drop was not as bad as 2010′s, it’s not the right direction, although the tally did not include some of the more explosive device categories being prominently featured at CES, such as tablets.

Said NPD: “Total consumer technology sales (excluding cell phones, tablets, e-readers, and video games) fell 5.9 percent to around $9.5 billion for the 5 weeks ending December 24, a slight improvement over the 6.2 percent decline in 2010.”

Sales of personal computers and televisions fell 4 percent, with flat unit volumes.

“2010 was the first year in quite awhile where the real drags on the core CE marketplace were not TVs and PCs,” said Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis at NPD, in a press release. “Revenue for those two segments outperformed while the rest of the market dropped by more than 7 percent. The accelerated rate of decline in older technology categories such as DVD, GPS and MP3 players put a ceiling on how well the industry could perform during the holiday.”

Consumers did snap up flat-panel TVs, with screen sizes of 50 inches and higher rising by 32 percent in unit sales.

And the rocky 3-D TV business also grew by more than 100 percent, with TVs with “3D capability accounting for more than one in every five dollars spent on TVs during the holiday.”

Also up: Home theater systems (10 percent) and stand-alone streaming devices (65 percent).

But those increases did not stem the overall negative tide.

For other sectors, here’s the damage to holiday revenue in percentage change from 2011 dollars spent:

Blu-ray players: Down 17 percent.

Camcorders: Down 42.5 percent.

Digital picture frames: Down 37.5 percent.

GPS: Down 32.6 percent.

HDD: Down 25.1 percent.

Mice and keyboards: Down 7.1 percent.

MP3 players: Down 20.5 percent.

Multifunction printers: Down 9.9 percent.

Point-and-shoot cameras: Down 20.8 percent.

MORE CES NEWS:

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Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote

Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV

Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV

Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share

Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)

Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile

AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works

LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way

LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum

Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia

CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret

Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?

Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service

There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!

CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!

Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2

RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES

Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops

At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch

Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month

Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show

Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month

Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year

Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

Razer Raises $50 Million to Design Cutting-Edge Products for Hardcore Gamers

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:02:38 +0000

Razer may have raised some serious money, but don’t take it the wrong way– it is still focused on making fun stuff for the hardcore gaming market.

The Carlsbad, Calif.-based company has raised $50 million in a first round of capital led by by IDG-Accel China Capital Fund.

Despite raising that large chunk of cash, the founders are working hard to keep their playful image intact.

In a press release, co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan joked that Razer knew IDG-Accel was the right partner when they didn’t “freak out” after Razer disappeared for a week in the middle of the deal, for the launch of the Skyrim game.

Razer also showed a sense of humor when it came to explaining how it would spend the money.

In addition to funding technology and innovation, it said it was also going to blow the cash on “the video gaming habits of the management and staff.”

They may kid around, but Razer is designing some pretty serious equipment the most hardcore gamers.

For example, the sleek curves of the company’s computer mice have been replaced with tough-looking sharp angles and a modern design. On the more practical side of things, some of the mice feature a 12-digit numeric keypad on the side for single-handed gaming. Likewise, Razer’s keyboards look nearly robotic, with special features like na LCD track-panel and slim keys for shorter travel distances.

Special editions have been released for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Battlefield 3.

Why take the money now?

CEO Tan had a smart response for that, too:

“We’ve been having fun and kicking ass while being funded by our internal operations these couple of years — now imagine the kind of badass products we’ll be designing with the resources that IDG-Accel will bring to the table,” he said. “I just hope that IDG-Accel is aware that our board meetings generally start with a game of Counterstrike, and the losers have to buy coffee.”

Solid Keyboard Elevates This Tablet, Though Software Lags

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:03:52 +0000

One of the biggest things that deters people from relying on tablets is the lack of a convenient physical keyboard. Now, Taiwan-based Asus is attacking this issue with a new Android-based tablet and accompanying keyboard dock, due on store shelves in the U.S. on Dec. 15.

[ See post to watch video ]

This 10-inch tablet, called the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, starts at $499, the same price as the market leader, Apple’s iPad 2. But it has twice the memory—32 gigabytes—at that price. The keyboard dock, with an additional battery and added ports, is an optional extra for $149.

The new Asus has another notable feature: It is the first tablet to use a new processor from chip maker Nvidia that has four cores, double what other recent tablets use.

Asus and Nvidia, which developed the product jointly, claim this processor, called the Tegra 3, offers more power when it’s needed, and the flexibility to sip less power when it’s not, for overall better performance and battery life. I expect this same chip to show up in other tablets in coming months.

I’ve been testing the Transformer Prime, and I found it to be the best standard Android tablet I’ve used. In my tests, the Prime had snappy performance, and decent battery life, though less than the iPad’s (more on that later). It is a tad lighter and thinner than the iPad 2 and has a sharp, pleasant screen.

The Transformer Prime tablet starts at $499. Keyboard dock is an extra $149.

Plus, when the tablet is coupled with the keyboard dock, by nestling it into a hinge, it becomes the screen of what is essentially an Android netbook. When docked, the tablet even folds down over the keyboard like a lid. I found typing on the keyboard to be easy and accurate.

However, as with all other tablets based on Google’s Android platform, its weak point is software. The tablet-oriented Honeycomb version of Android on the Prime isn’t as slick or smooth as the iPad’s operating system, though the Prime’s potent processor makes it more fluid than is typical on such Android devices. And Google’s Android Market offers only a small number of tablet-optimized apps, compared with 140,000 for the iPad.

The Transformer Prime

In addition, the Prime lacks access to a large, unified ecosystem of music, videos and books, unlike the Apple or Amazon’s Kindle Fire. It does offer Google’s new music store, and a movie-rental service. But, when I tried to rent two movies, neither would play.

The Prime will gain a fresh version of the Android operating system, called Ice Cream Sandwich, early next year, according to Asus. The company says early buyers of the Prime will be able to upgrade for free.

Fans of the iPad will point out that it, too, can work with optional physical keyboards. But Apple doesn’t make one that couples with the iPad 2 the way the Asus docking station mates with its tablet, and the extra battery in the Prime’s keyboard dock can supposedly add up to six hours of unplugged power, a claim I didn’t test. The Prime’s dock also has a USB port and a memory card slot.

The Prime is actually the third try by Asus to mate a tablet with a physical keyboard. An earlier, bulkier version of the Transformer wasn’t embraced by many consumers, and a thick tablet with a cramped slide-out keyboard, called the Slider, also hasn’t been a big hit. But Asus is hoping that the slimmer, lighter Prime and its dock will do the trick.

The Transformer Prime, when coupled with the keyboard dock, can fold down like a lid.

The stand-alone tablet is 0.33-inch thick and weighs 1.29 pounds. The dock adds 1.18 pounds and 0.4-inch of thickness. Together, they cost $648, just $49 more than the cheapest 32 GB iPad, but hundreds more than many standard 10-inch Windows netbooks.

The companies are stressing how the processor improves the graphics and speed of games on the tablet, and boast that the Prime can be used with gaming-console controllers. This is good news for tablet gamers, and, in my tests, some sample games the companies provided looked impressive. But I wasn’t blown away with their superiority over iPad games.

To me, the keyboard dock is the big story here. I found it to be a solid companion. Its keys were well spaced despite the unit’s small overall size, and the hinge that holds the tablet as a removable screen was sturdy. Special keys control Android functions such as Home, Back and Search. And there’s a roomy, responsive touch pad.

The screen was responsive and the speakers were good. In my tests, email, Web browsing, and streaming of music and videos worked well over good Wi-Fi connections. But the Prime lacks any cellular connectivity, meaning it is crippled when you’re out of Wi-Fi range. When I tested it at a hotel with slow Wi-Fi, the Prime was notably pokier at streaming the same YouTube video as an iPad 2 using Verizon’s 3G cellular network.

Gauging the battery life on this tablet is a bit complicated. I performed the same battery test I have used for every tablet since the original iPad appeared. In that test, I set the screen brightness to 75%, leave the wireless on and play locally stored videos back to back till the unit dies.

The Transformer Prime lasted just shy of seven hours, compared with slightly more than 10 hours for the iPad 2, a big difference. Still, that seven hours was better than many other full-size Android tablets have achieved in this test.

Asus and Nvidia build in three battery modes, and I tested only the one called Normal. Unfortunately, Nvidia now says that nomenclature is misleading, and that Normal is really meant for only high-performance tasks. So, early next year, when it switches to the next version of Android, it plans to rename Normal as “Performance,” to steer users to a less power-hungry mode called “Balanced.” I can’t say how the Prime’s battery will perform in that scenario with the new OS.

I still believe the iPad 2 is the best overall tablet available. However, if you’re looking for a model using Google’s Android interface and are yearning for a well-designed, easily integrated keyboard solution, or want to play more power-hungry games, the Transformer Prime is a good choice, as long as you can tolerate its software limitations.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Nuance's Swype Bill: $102.5 Million

Peter Kafka — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:51:22 +0000

Nuance has spelled out its acquisition plans for Swype, the company that makes virtual keyboard software for Google’s Android handsets. Nuance will pay $102.5 million in cash for the start-up, with $77.5 million coming upfront and the rest paid out in 18 months.

Yahoo's Dueling Internal Memos: Board, Followed by CEO, Spam Employees in Race to Explain

Kara Swisher — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:17:28 +0000

Today, Yahoo leaders — all of them in two different memos — took to the keyboards to fill their 14,000 employees in on what’s up.

Reading them, Yahoos must now be more confused than ever.

To summarize: Yahoo is for sale, sort of. But we’re taking it slow, because we always like to drag out the uncertainty here at Sunnyvale HQ. Hey, keep working hard and innovating, despite the still-matrixed system. But don’t fret that your job and career hang in the balance. And have a good weekend!

In the first email, Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang — also a director — penned a rambling missive, which finally admitted the company was indeed, as was first reported here, for sale.

Yahoo said hired-gun investment advisor, Allen & Co., was “fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options.”

Not to be a niggler, but didn’t Yang tell the troops at an all-hands meeting recently that Yahoo was not for sale?

Details! Thus, said the memo, until the company sorts out all the offers just pouring in — not so much, but when you’re selling a house, you put on the dog — Yahoos had to keep working hard.

Therefore: “What Yahoo! needs to do better — and we’ve talked about this — is accelerate innovation, reignite inspiration, and give our users what they want now — great content that is engaging and easy-to-use on any device and provides an experience in which they can participate and contribute. Perhaps most importantly, we need to anticipate what they will want next.”

You’ve. Talked. About. This. You mean to try to make cool stuff like every other tech company — Apple, Facebook, Google — already does? Mind-blowing.

After a little throat-clearing on its fake search for a new permanent CEO and some media-bashing (yes, this all my fault!), the memo noted that all this fancy strategery is going to take “months, not weeks.”

(Is it just me or does it feel as though former CEO Carol Bartz was fired a badillion years ago, instead of just weeks ago? Plus, I actually believe I officially now miss her kooky-but-genuine Friday staff emails.)

The Gang of Three email was followed by one from the incredible shrinking interim CEO Tim Morse, who said Yahoo was not in “limbo,” due to all this obvious limboness about the strategy.

“That means we will not be sitting still over the next few months,” Morse wrote. “We are actively making decisions and taking action.”

In other words, nothing to see here. Except everything.

Oh, I give up — just read for yourselves:

Dear Yahoos:

In our recent all hands meeting, we talked about the Board’s strategic review to help return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. While our teams are working to evaluate the many opportunities by which Yahoo! can continue building on our success, all kinds of people have been — and will continue — speculating in the media about where that work is headed, so we thought it best to provide you with some additional context directly from those of us who are closest to it. We don’t have specific news to share with you today, but we are committed to communicating with you directly from time to time — especially given the level of external swirl — so that you know where we are in the process. You can expect periodic updates from us and we encourage you to communicate with us as well.

At the heart of what we are doing is our belief that Yahoo!’s core strengths are not only relevant to where users are going today, but can serve as a foundation for the next phase of our company’s growth. Consider our strengths: we have 680 million users worldwide. We have nine of the #1 properties in the U.S., and we are a leader in display advertising. Our brand is iconic — we are not the only ones who bleed purple. By whatever measure you want to use — engagement, quality of products and services, our value to our advertisers — we all feel that we have what it takes to succeed. Also, our Asia assets remain one of our top priorities and we continue to work well with the teams there. As you may have seen, Alibaba Group has just announced a liquidity event for its employees that reflects a continued appreciation in its value, and therefore of the value of our stake.

What Yahoo! needs to do better — and we’ve talked about this — is accelerate innovation, reignite inspiration, and give our users what they want now — great content that is engaging and easy-to-use on any device and provides an experience in which they can participate and contribute. Perhaps most importantly, we need to anticipate what they will want next. That is the path to enhancing the value of Yahoo! for all of its stakeholders, including its users, customers, shareholders, partners and Yahoos everywhere. Our strategic review is designed to help us map out the best way to achieve that.

At this point, we cannot offer many specifics about the Board’s review; we’ve just gotten started. You should know that the entire Board and management team are fully aligned and unanimous in their views regarding the scope of this work. Allen & Company was a logical choice to help us in this review, because they have been one of our advisers for some time, and this is familiar territory for them. Achieving success in our sector is intrinsic to what they do for a living, and they will be constructive partners.

Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively. At the same time, they are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options. We will take the time we need to select and structure the best approach for the company, its shareholders and employees.

In addition, as we announced previously, the Board has commenced a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer. That process also continues.

When we have updates that we can share we will do so. There will be plenty of rumors and speculation as different parties try to advance their agendas in the media — but it is important that we not be distracted by the rumors and speculation.

You are instrumental to the success of our business — we can’t do it without you. While we will move with a sense of urgency, this process will take time. Months, not weeks. We know that’s a lot of potential distraction, but we believe it will be worth the wait. We are forging a path to a next phase of growth for Yahoo! that feels like our best days: fun, full of possibility, and always in search of how to deliver the new thing people want from us. Together, we can write the next great chapter in the Yahoo! story and secure our place as one of those rarities: an internet company that endures.

Jerry
Roy
David

Yahoos,

I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the note from Jerry, David and Roy. I want you to know that while the Board works through all of our options, CEO Staff and I have been charged to move the company forward.

That means we will not be sitting still over the next few months. We are actively making decisions and taking action.

In fact, for three days this week, CEO staff and I met to do just that. Our planning for 2012 is well underway, and we continue to execute on our current plans — such as our Social Chrome announcement this week. (I want to make sure to give a big shout out to the team behind it; it’s getting some great press.)

You see, the Board is confident we can execute our current game plan in the short term. We’ve done some truly great work on updating the foundation of Yahoo!, and we’ve got some good things in the immediate pipeline. So, the Board’s focus is where it should be — on our long-term outlook, and how we best position ourselves to be successful in 3-5 years.

We need a flexible, visionary plan. That’s why the Board is actively looking at all the options available to put Yahoo! on a strong trajectory.

That being said, while the Board makes this decision, it does not mean we are in limbo. We have to keep Yahoo! moving ahead. And to do that, there are three things I need Yahoos everywhere to focus on:

1. Speed: Emphasize quick execution and decision-making

2. Accountability: Do what you say you’re going to do — and take ownership for time to market, monetization, user engagement, quality, or whatever metric defines success for your team

3. Purpose: Rally behind our mission and purpose: creating deeply personal digital experiences.

In the meantime, we will keep you updated as much as we can. And we will earn your trust — we know we have to.

Have a good weekend.

Tim

A Tablet With a Keyboard

Walt Mossberg — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:52:13 +0000

I am going to purchase a tablet computer. I was thinking of buying the Asus Transformer tablet, as it has a keyboard add-on. What are your thoughts on this tablet?

I haven’t reviewed it, but the Transformer’s optional keyboard, which costs $150, is really a docking station that includes an extra battery and various ports.

If you just want a separate keyboard, you should know that other Android tablets, as well as Apple’s iPad, can connect easily to simple, less expensive wireless keyboards.

Is it true that Apple has stopped including iDVD, its longtime DVD-creation app, on new Macs? Has the program been killed?

Yes and no. According to the company, new Macs with the Lion operating system no longer come with iDVD or another former standard program, iWeb. However, both programs are still included in the $49 iLife suite, which is sold separately. Apple defends the decision to drop iDVD on grounds that more people are sharing photos and videos online and not on disks. The company also has dropped DVD drives from some of its popular laptops.

You provided instructions on how to delete old email addresses on Gmail. I have the same problem with Apple Mail, only the old addresses aren’t in the address book but still appear when I type their names in the To field. How do I delete these?

Apple Mail suggests previously used email addresses even if they aren’t in your address book. To get rid of one, accept it, so it appears in the To field. Then select it and click on the downward-pointing triangle at the right. A menu will appear. From that menu, choose “Remove from Previous Recipients List.”

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columnsat the new All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com.

Typing With the Original iPad

Walt Mossberg — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:59:49 +0000

I am looking for a simplified PC for my elderly relative, and was disappointed that you couldn’t recommend the Telekin PC for seniors. Are there any alternatives?

I don’t know of any other entire, multi-function computers aimed at seniors. But there’s a new program that claims to turn a standard Windows PC into an easy-to-use machine for seniors. It’s called Seniorama Pointer 2011. It costs $97 for a five-year license and offers large-type, simplified interfaces for email, Web browsing, photos, games, and Skype video and audio calls.

I haven’t tested it, so I don’t know how well it works. But the website notes that the program has some limitations. For instance, its email program requires a new email address, and its photo program only handles pictures received via email.

I read your review of cases with built-in keyboards for the iPad 2. Are there similar products for the original iPad?

Yes. I haven’t tested them, but if you search the Web or look in stores, you can find some.

For instance, the Zaggmate aluminum keyboard case for the original iPad, which is quite similar to the Logitech keyboard case for the iPad 2 that I tested, is still being sold at zagg.com and elsewhere for $100 or less.

An earlier iPad 1 model of the Kensington keyboard case I reviewed, called the KeyFolio (not the KeyFolio Pro,) can still be found at Kensington.com and elsewhere for $100 or less. And there are others.

We will soon be moving to a rural area where the only opportunities we have for decent Internet service will be cellular data or satellite.

Is there a device that can access the Internet via 3G cellular and wirelessly serve our two laptops simultaneously?

Yes, there are a number of them. Perhaps the most common are small, dedicated mobile hot-spot gadgets sold by the major wireless carriers, such as the Novatel MiFi. These connect to the 3G or 4G cellular networks and then convert that Internet connection into a Wi-Fi signal that can be used by multiple laptops or other devices.

The devices are often inexpensive, but the monthly rates can be stiff, depending on how much data you use.

Another approach is to use a smartphone. Many of these, including the iPhone 4 and Android phones, can be turned into hot spots that act like the dedicated gadgets described above.

However, extra monthly fees apply for this functionality, and they can add up if you use a lot of data.

Write to Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

How to Outfit the iPad 2 to Make Typing Easier

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:04:29 +0000

Although it’s a smash hit, Apple’s iPad isn’t winning the hearts of users who find it difficult to type on its onscreen keyboard. And even for many who love their iPads for other things and can type shorter items on the screen, the lack of a physical keyboard has meant they still must turn to their laptops for intensive typing tasks.

[ See post to watch video ]

One solution to this dilemma has been to carry a separate wireless keyboard. But that means carrying two things. So a number of companies offer protective cases for the iPad 2 with low-profile, but real, keyboards built right into their inner surfaces. These keyboards appear when you open the cases, which act as stands for the tablet while you type.

I’ve been testing four such iPad 2 combo keyboard cases, each of which lists for $100. I also took a look at a slightly different accessory, a new full-size $130 keyboard and stand for the iPad 2 that folds up and holds the tablet for carrying, though it doesn’t cover or protect the screen.

If I were personally going to buy one of these, it would likely be the Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2, a thin, light and sturdy aluminum enclosure with a keyboard I liked. But this is a personal decision, involving the look and shape of the case, the feel of the keyboard and the angles at which they prop up the iPad. I strongly recommend going to a store and trying some before choosing one.

Though these rival cases differ, they all have certain things in common. They all make the beautiful, slim iPad 2 much bulkier and heavier. Also, the keyboards inside these cases require recharging after a few weeks or months, depending on how heavily they’re used. And none comes with a charger. You have to charge them from a laptop, or by using the wall adapter that you use to charge the iPad itself, or another USB-compatible charger.

In addition, these cases only work well for typing when you place them on a flat surface. And I found they make it clumsier to hold the iPad for reading. They have special keys for such things as replicating the iPad’s home button; searching; volume; copy, cut and paste; and controlling music and video playback. Most also switch the iPad’s screen on and off when you open or close them. Finally, with each keyboard, you have to perform a simple, one-time Bluetooth “pairing” process with the iPad the first time you use them.

Here are some features and downsides to the cases and keyboards I tested.

Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2

This is the simplest of the keyboard cases I tested. It’s just a thin, rigid aluminum tray with a recessed keyboard in the bottom. To use it as a carrying case, you snap your iPad 2 into the tray, where it’s held tight by rubbery pads in the corners that keep the screen from touching the keyboard. You can still charge the iPad while it’s in the case. When you’re ready to type, you remove the iPad 2 and stand it up in a groove above the top row of keys, in either a horizontal or vertical position.

This case is the only one I tried that doesn’t completely cover the iPad 2. It uses the tablet’s aluminum back as a part of its protection. I found it to be lighter, thinner and yet sturdier than the others. I also liked the feel of its keyboard and found the angle at which it held the iPad to be excellent. The product was developed by a small company called Zagg, which made a similar case for the original iPad. Logitech is coming out later this month with a version for the 10.1-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.

Zaggfolio

Zagg also has come out with its own new design for the iPad 2, a hard-plastic wraparound case that completely covers the tablet. The iPad snaps inside the top cover, and the cover, when opened, tilts forward to allow the tablet to nestle into a groove in a keyboard that is almost identical to that of the Logitech. One difference: The folio allows the iPad 2 to be used only in horizontal mode while in the case.

The first units of the folio, which came out in July, had a defective closure. That has been fixed and the company is offering to replace the early units. I tested the revised version and it closes tightly. The folio comes in a variety of colors, as does its removable keyboard—the only removable keyboard I tested. This case also had the best-aligned cutouts for the iPad 2′s buttons and ports of the wraparound models tested.

Kensington KeyFolio Pro

This is a soft-plastic case that, like the Zagg, stores the iPad 2 inside the top lid and places the keyboard inside the bottom lid. It has no latch, and doesn’t switch the iPad screen on and off. The Kensington differs from the others in that it has a swivel mechanism that allows the iPad 2 to be used vertically or horizontally while tucked into the top cover. However, I found the angle at which it placed the screen to be too straight for comfortable viewing while typing. And, in vertical mode, I found the screen was a bit wobbly. I liked the feel of the keyboard, but it was the only wraparound that lacked dedicated buttons for copy, cut and paste.

Belkin Keyboard Folio

This is another soft plastic wraparound model, but I found it too complicated and bulky. It tucks the keyboard under the top flap that holds the iPad 2, so you can use it as just a stand. But this made it thick and, to my eye, odd-looking, when closed. On the plus side, it offers multiple angles, though it only allows horizontal use of the iPad.

I found the keyboard more cramped than those on the others. I also found the iPad hardest to insert and remove on the Belkin, and the holes for the ports and buttons to be the least aligned.

Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard

This isn’t actually a case and it doesn’t protect the screen at all. Instead, its main selling point is that, unlike the others, it packs in a full-size keyboard that protrudes beyond the iPad’s dimensions via a clever design. The keyboard is hinged in the middle and folds out from beneath a hard-plastic cradle that holds the iPad 2 face up and allows access to all the ports and buttons. When the keyboard unfolds, it raises the iPad into a standing position, in horizontal orientation. It probably will appeal most to people just carrying an iPad around the office or home. It costs $130, and, to protect the screen, you’d have to shell out another $40 for Apple’s own screen cover. It will be unveiled next week and available in September.

Bottom line: You don’t need either a case or a keyboard to use an iPad 2, but if you want both in one package, there are plenty of choices.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

A New BlackBerry That Pushes Few Buttons

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:15:46 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Finally, Research In Motion has its first true touchscreen BlackBerry without a keyboard.

This smartphone, called the BlackBerry Torch 9850, improves on past BlackBerry models like the Storm, which nixed a physical keyboard but required users to press down on its screen as well as touch its glass, and the Torch 9800, which offered a real touchscreen but maintained a slide-out keyboard.

I’ve been testing the Torch 9850 over the past several days and while its looks will lure you in, its place in the mobile-app ecosystem will push you away. This device, which uses an upgraded 7.0 version of the aging BlackBerry operating system, becomes available from Sprint on Sunday.

The Torch 9850 is the first BlackBerry with a true touchscreen. Above, the Torch in camera mode.

It costs $150 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate that comes in the form of an American Express rewards card.

Two other new BlackBerry models with touchscreens and physical keyboards will be out on Sunday: the $250 Bold 9930 from Sprint—a Verizon model is available online now—and the $50 Torch 9810 from AT&T; all prices require two-year contracts.

Neither device has a remarkably different design from its predecessor; rather, they have better processors and run the 7.0 BlackBerry operating system.

Big Screen Display

The Torch 9850′s thin, tapered design houses a gorgeous 3.7-inch, high-resolution touchscreen—the largest display yet on a BlackBerry.

One end of the device holds the four familiar shortcut buttons and small optical trackpad, which is a huge help for precisely selecting a word or object on the screen. And the 9850′s speedy processor gives it fast, responsive performance.

BlackBerry users who are tired of feeling like they’re behind the times whenever they pull out their smartphones will surely save face with this model.

Indeed, the appeal of this new Torch is mostly superficial. The user interface of RIM’s new 7.0 operating system isn’t noticeably different from its predecessor, 6.0. What’s worse is that the selection of apps that run on this new operating system is even smaller than the number of apps available for older BlackBerrys.

A RIM spokesman would only say that “thousands” of apps currently work on the 7.0 OS and that the number would steadily grow. But the overall BlackBerry App World holds 35,000 apps, while Apple’s App Store offers 425,000 apps and Google’s Android Market offers over 250,000 apps.

Waiting for an Upgrade

RIM fans are holding out for a BlackBerry that will run QNX, the company’s next-generation operating system that could give BlackBerrys an operating-system overhaul with a dramatic new user interface. But Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-CEO, announced that a BlackBerry with QNX won’t be available until early 2012. People hoping to upgrade their current BlackBerrys in the meantime will be disappointed to hear that none of the BlackBerrys released before this group can be upgraded to the 7.0 operating system.

The device’s home screen

The first thing hard-core BlackBerry fans will ask is how the on-screen keyboard on Torch 9850 works. I was skeptical throughout my first day with it.

Like all on-screen keyboards, using this one requires an adjustment period, and I felt much more comfortable using it after several days. But even after that adjustment period, I still reached for my old BlackBerry with the physical keyboard to compose long emails. New Torch users should consider going cold turkey with a physical keyboard to prevent such relapses.

RIM’s SureType technology tracks users’ typing patterns and frequent-word occurrences to smartly predict what they’ll most likely be writing, so the Torch’s touchscreen keyboard does get better the more a person uses it.

An Email Machine

Email has always been a strength of the BlackBerry, and the Torch 9850 is no exception. Enhancements in its new operating system include smarter handling of Gmail messages by stacking messages according to conversations. If you read the most recent message in a conversation thread but there’s a message further back in that same thread that you haven’t read, a yellow glow appears below the icon representing the top message. Emails can also be starred, like in the Web version of Gmail, but can’t be automatically sorted into categories of “Important and Unread” and “Everything Else” like the Web version.

Each model in this new crop of BlackBerrys has what RIM calls Liquid Graphics technology, a feature that intends to deliver fast and smooth touchscreen performance. I found the performance to be noticeably better than any previous BlackBerry, but it didn’t feel dramatically faster than an iPhone 4 or new Android device.

Likewise, the Web browser on the new 7.0 operating system felt speedy and did a good job displaying Web page contents, but it didn’t play Flash videos.

Universal search was already enhanced in the BlackBerry 6.0 operating system, but in 7.0 it now works with voice searches. I tried this several times with good luck.

One-Step Picture Sharing

I used the Torch 9850′s five-megapixel digital camera to capture handsome photos, quickly uploading them to social networks like Twitter and Facebook in one step. The Torch 9850′s fast processor speed really shined when I restarted the BlackBerry after installing an updated version of an app—something that usually takes several minutes took seconds.

If you’re wedded to the BlackBerry and you’re eager to upgrade, the BlackBerry Torch 9850 is a slick device that’s fast to respond in various tasks. But the scant number of apps available for it will be a real drawback and won’t satisfy BlackBerry fans looking for an iPhone equivalent.

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

Swype Keyboard Gets New Features in Software Update

Ina Fried — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:06:59 +0000

Swype, the maker of the speedy keyboard software, said on Monday that it has a new version of its beta that aims to make it even easier for those looking to enter text on their mobile devices.

The latest version of the software, Swype 3.0, adds two main features — predictive text recognition and the ability to select a word from a horizontal list as opposed to a popup window of word choices.

There is also a resizable and movable version of the keyboard designed specifically for Honeycomb tablets.

Swype, which allows people to enter text by tracing from one letter to another, says its software has now been installed on 50 million devices. The Seattle company nabbed $3.5 million in additional funding back in March.

[ See post to watch video ]

Swype Grabs More Funding, Looks to Trace Path Into New Areas

Ina Fried — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:52:56 +0000

Swype, the Seattle company known for its fast text-entry method, is looking to speed its growth even further.

The 70-person start-up is in the midst of rolling out new versions of its software and taking on additional funding. The company just closed $3.5 million in funding from Ignition Partners and expects to announce deals with other backers in the coming weeks.

Ignition partner Adrian Smith said he is glad to be investing in the company, since he’s been doing unpaid advertisements for the technology for quite a while now. “I’ve actually been an avid Swype user since the beta came out,” he told Mobilized.

For those who don’t know Swype, it augments the standard mobile device software keyboard by allowing users to trace the word they are trying to enter rather than pecking away one key at a time. The company’s software is loaded on about 26 million phones so far and is the default means of text entry on about half of those.

CEO Mike McSherry declined to say whether the company is profitable, but suggested the new funding was more about the opportunity to cement relationships than needing the money.

“This was an opportunistic fund raise for us,” McSherry said.

The new funding follows investments of roughly $6.5 million in late 2009 and early 2010 from Nokia, Samsung and DoCoMo, among others.

Next up on the product front is the addition of predictive text to the traditional Swype motion.

“We think that is going to be received very well,” McSherry said.

Most of the company’s business is being preloaded on Android phones, especially from Samsung, HTC and Motorola, though it is also adopted on Symbian phones as well as older Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.

Neither the iPhone nor Windows Phone 7 allow third parties to customize their software keyboards, effectively shutting out Swype on those platforms. However, McSherry said that the company has had talks with both companies.

“We want ubiquity and scale, so of course we would like to be on those,” he said. “We’ll see where those chips fall.”

The company also has its eye on tablets and other devices, as well as ways in which Swype could play a broader role in the phone’s user interface.

From McSherry’s way of thinking, the keyboard can be a starting point rather than just the last step in navigating a cell phone or other device. Why not, he suggests, start typing and then make a gesture to send the entered text as an email or to search the Web. McSherry said he can imagine even being on televisions and having a direct connection to a cloud service.

McSherry said that the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft could open things up on the WIndows Phone front, given that Nokia is a big backer of Swype, with CEO Stephen Elop tweeting in December about Swype as the best means to enter text.

“I would hope that would help us in trying to get on that platform,” McSherry said.

Smith said he likes the core technology because it allows people to be more productive on their phones. “You can Swype much more quickly than you can hunt and peck,” he said. But, he agreed that Swype needs to be more than just a one-hit wonder to reach its full potential. “There are a lot more things that they can do,” Smith said. “To me, if it was just a keyboard entry it wouldn’t be very exciting.”

News of Swype’s latest fundraising was reported earlier by Seattle-area tech news site GeekWire.

IPad 2 for Techies and Virtual Keyboards

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:23:18 +0000

In your iPad 2 review, you recommended it over all other tablets for “average, nontechie users.” Does this mean you don’t recommend it for techie users?

No, not at all. I merely phrased it that way because mainstream, average, nontechie users are my target audience, and I don’t review products through the eyes of techies, enthusiasts, hobbyists, or corporate IT departments. I never have. I have used similar phrasing in other columns over the years. I’m sure many people who consider themselves techies would find the iPad 2 to be the best tablet as well.

I intend to buy an iPad 2, but I also have an iPhone 4, which can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Will this hot-spot feature work with an iPad 2? Does it mean I don’t need to get the model with the cellular network feature?

Yes. I tested this scenario with a Verizon version of the iPhone 4 that had the hot-spot feature set up, and the iPad recognized it as a Wi-Fi network. And this method isn’t limited to Apple phones. I also tested the iPad 2 successfully with the hot-spot feature of an Android phone.

I’m thinking about replacing my old laptop with an iPad 2 but am somewhat reluctant considering that tablets do not have physical keyboards. How do you think the lack of a physical keyboard affects the use of a tablet vs. a new laptop?

My own experience, with both iPads and other tablets that use virtual keyboards, is that they are just fine for things like email or short documents, once you get used to typing on glass.

However, if you never get the hang of that, the iPad works with wireless Bluetooth keyboards, and some iPad cases come with built-in physical keyboards. You would have to be the judge of whether this is a better solution for you than a small, light laptop like a MacBook Air, or a Toshiba Portege R700 series.

Email mossberg@wsj.com

INQ Mobile Decides to Friend Facebook and Spotify for New Android Phone (Video)

Ina Fried — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:03:35 +0000

It’s not the Facebook phone, but it is a phone with a whole lot of Facebook.

INQ Mobile on Wednesday is announcing its new Cloud line–Android phones that have Facebook features deeply integrated into their core as well as a dedicated music service from Spotify. The Cloud’s home screens feature a trove of Facebook options ranging from a visual news feed with images and video to one-button access to features like Facebook Chat and location-based check-ins.

“We want to do for the Facebook generation what BlackBerry did for the enterprise market,” INQ Mobile CEO Frank Meehan said in an interview in San Francisco last week. “For someone under 30 this is the stuff you want to see all the time.”

The Cloud line comes in two models–one with a keyboard and the other with a pure touchscreen. The bad news for you Americans (Mobilized is feeling very British here in London) is that the phone is coming to the U.K. in April, with no firm plans yet for when it might arrive stateside. INQ Mobile currently sells phones with Telus in Canada, but its devices are not yet sold in the U.S.

INQ Mobile made their announcement just ahead of Mobile World Congress, the cell phone industry’s big trade show which gets under way on Sunday in Barcelona.

There have been rumors of an INQ-built Facebook phone for some time–rumors that have been conflated with an official Facebook entry into the mobile market. HTC is also expected to debut a Facebook-heavy phone, though it has yet to announce its plans.

For its part, Facebook praised the INQ device.

Facebook mobile head Henri Moissinac said in a statement that the Cloud phones “bring Facebook to people with a single touch while they are mobile and demonstrate the power of socially aware devices.”

Although the selling point of the INQ Mobile phones are the connections to Facebook and Spotify, the Cloud line is pure Android. The Facebook features themselves are just elaborate home screen widgets tied to the social network, while Spotify replaces the default music player.

In doing so, INQ is looking to strike a balance between offering something unique while maintaining compatibility with Android.

“People haven’t had an emotional attachment to Android,” Meehan said, noting that users have such an affinity for the iPhone, and to some extent even the BlackBerry, or at least its messenger program.

The Cloud phones use a modest 600MHz processor from Qualcomm and feature version 2.2 of Android (a.k.a. Froyo), though the devices are designed to be upgradeable to the Gingerbread version. Meehan said that INQ is deliberately keeping the devices low-cost so they can sell for just a fraction of the iPhone’s price tag, making them attractive to a different segment of the market.

“We’ve taken very much a mass market approach,” Meehan said. “We’re going after the LGs, the Samsungs. We’re not going after people who are going for an iPhone.”

He also sees an opportunity to nab some BlackBerry Curve users.

“The Curve market is ripe,” Meehan said. “They have been sitting there with a terrible browser.”

There are also some family ties involved in the phone’s direction. INQ Mobile is owned by Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa, which, through a subsidiary, is also an investor in both Facebook and Spotify. INQ Mobile started in 2008 and has grown to more than 200 employees, said Meehan, who also is a member of Spotify’s board of directors.

As for when the company might bring the Cloud line (or any phones for that matter) to the U.S., Meehan said it could be as early as the second half of this year.

“Let’s see how it goes,” he said. “I’m not rushing into it.”

Of course, it might also help if Spotify launched in the U.S., something that always appears to be on the verge of happening “in the coming months.”

[ See post to watch video ]

The iPad Now Can Take Command of Computers

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:03:08 +0000

It has long been possible to control one PC or Mac from another, legally and with permission. Though the process can be tricky to set up, companies often use it as a maintenance and training tool, and some consumers use it to help others solve computer problems, or to reach back to their home or office machines while on the road to access information.

But what about remotely controlling a PC or Mac from the newest category of digital device, a multitouch tablet? Well, it turns out there are apps for that.

[ See post to watch video ]

Such apps have been around on super-smart phones like the iPhone for years, but phone screens are so small that using them to open and operate programs and folders on a Mac or PC is very frustrating, at least to me. The iPad, with its roomy 10-inch screen, is a different story. It actually has the real estate to make the process much more practical.

I’ve been testing a couple of these apps on my iPad, using them to remotely control Windows PCs and Macs at my home and office. In fact, I’m typing this paragraph in Microsoft Word on a Mac remotely from the iPad.

My conclusion is that these apps do work, but even on the large iPad screen, they’re too clumsy and confusing to use on a regular basis, mostly because touch-screen tablets aren’t a great match for the way traditional computers—designed for a mouse and a physical keyboard—work. Also, the apps have some functional limitations, and they are heavily dependent on the speed of the network or Internet connection, which can make them slow at demanding things like video.

A view of a Windows PC on an iPad via LogMeIn Ignition.

For my tests, I selected two apps squarely aimed at average consumers. One is called LogMeIn Ignition, and is the iPad and iPhone incarnation of a longstanding computer-to-computer remote-control product called LogMeIn. The other is called iTeleport. It has been around, under various names, since the early days of the iPhone, and now comes in an iPad edition as well.

Both apps get around the complexity of setup by installing a special free program on the computer you wish to control that talks to the iPad app. The apps can see and control all the computers on which you have installed companion programs. I found setup easy and the connections generally reliable and fast enough, except for video.

But the big drawback to these products is that they are clumsy in controlling the target computer. Each allows two basic methods for this. In one, your finger moves the computer’s mouse cursor and you click the virtual mouse by tapping. In the other, you can directly tap on things on the remote screen. In my view, LogMeIn was better at the first method and iTeleport was better at the second. But I found both clumsy and tedious in both programs, especially when I tried to combine controlling the remote computer with the frequent need to use touch to move the image of the screen around the iPad’s display.

LogMeIn Ignition costs a one-time fee of $29.99. The iTeleport app can be used free for 30 days, after which it costs either $2.99 a month or a $24.99 one-time fee. For the next seven days, iTeleport is running a sale that cuts the price to $1 a month, or $10 for the one-time fee.

Both apps can control multiple Windows or Mac computers, at no extra cost. For my tests, I used each to remotely access the same two Windows PCs and two Macs, both desktops and laptops. One limitation: neither app allows you to transfer a file from a computer to the iPad.

While there are some differences between the products, they are fundamentally similar. Once you log in, you see the remote computer’s screen on your iPad screen. In my tests, with both products, I was able to open Web pages, check email, view photos and use productivity apps. I also was able to print documents from the computers on my home printer, even while I was miles away.

In both apps, you pinch and zoom to enlarge or reduce the view of the target computer screen, and can rotate the image of the screen.

The iPad can’t play Flash videos, but these apps allow you to view such videos from your PC or Mac on the iPad. But there are catches. For one thing, neither program lets you hear audio from the computer through the iPad, so the videos (and music you play remotely) are mute. Also, in my tests, even over a fast connection, I could never get a video from the remote computer to play smoothly over either app.

LogMeIn also offers a version for Android, unlike iTeleport, and that allows audio to be transmitted. I tested this on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and it worked.

One big difference is in the level of security or privacy the two apps offer. Both encrypt the remote connection, but LogMeIn requires you to sign in twice: once to its own service and once to the computer itself. iTeleport skips the computer login, so it feels less secure. In addition, iTeleport outsources its authentication to Google. You sign into the product using your Google credentials. This is simpler, but requires you to trust Google with the privacy of the contents of your computer.

Each program has special keyboards and shortcuts to add things to the iPad that computers use but the tablet lacks, such as function keys. Each also has various gestures you can use as shortcuts. But the overall effect is confusing.

Bottom line: You can control a PC or a Mac from an iPad, without any complex setup, using these two apps. But, unless you spend a lot of time learning to get good at it, the process is clunky and best used only when you absolutely must.

Find all Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Exploring iStuff at CES With Mobilized (Video)

Ina Fried — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:14:59 +0000

With a little time left at the end of the Consumer Electronics Show, I finally had a break from private meetings, press conferences and onstage interviews. I used the time on Saturday morning to briefly tour a section of the massive show floor.

Given that I only had about an hour for my grand tour, I decided, in true Vegas style, to explore the first thing that came to me when I entered the show floor. Fortunately, since I cover mobile stuff, that turned out to be the iLounge-sponsored Apple area. It took me back to my early days of covering MacWorld Expo, back when it was an event Apple attended.

Some of the vendors were names I recognized, like Speck and Griffin and Mophie–companies that I had covered since their early days, companies that I had watched transformed from start-ups to serious players amid the explosion in the market for companion products to the iPod and, later, the iPhone.

There were also plenty of companies that I had never heard of, eager to find global distribution for ideas ranging from an iPod speaker resembling a gramophone to stickers that make the back of an iPad appear to be etched with a portrait of Barack Obama, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, among other famous faces.

There were also T-shirts, headphones, keyboard attachments and even a booth with a representative of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

My only purchase of the day came after I had left the show entirely, though. With some urging from BoomTown’s Kara Swisher, I splurged on Pinball Magic, an accessory that transforms an iPod Touch or iPhone into a pinball machine, which was on clearance for $25 at the Brookstone store in the Las Vegas airport.

Here’s a video look at some of what I found.

[ See post to watch video ]

Tablets Flying Fast and Furious at CES

Ina Fried — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:12 +0000

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show figured to be the year of the tablet, and so far it hasn’t disappointed on that front.

On Wednesday, Motorola formally announced its Android 3.0-based Xoom tablet, while LG announced plans for the T-Mobile G-Slate, which will also run the Honeycomb version of Google’s Android operating system. Samsung, meanwhile, said it plans to add a Wi-Fi-only model to its Galaxy Tab model. The device will use version 2.2 of Android and hit the market in the first quarter, though the company did not announce a price or exact timing.

The Motorola Xoom packs a 16-by-10 aspect ratio, a dual-core processor, 1080p playback and Flash support, and will run on Verizon’s network. Initially, the tablet will run on Verizon’s 3G network, but Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said the Xoom that goes on sale in the first quarter of this year will be upgradeable to 4G by the end of the second quarter.

“The software is not completely done,” Jha said, adding that the hardware isn’t either.

Google Android boss Andy Rubin had briefly showed a prototype Motorola tablet at last month’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference and said that Honeycomb was being designed expressly with tablets in mind.

The Xoom, Wi-Fi Samsung Tab and G-Slate are in addition to the Toshiba, Asus and Vizio tablets announced earlier in the week.

Nearly all of these tablets are running some flavor of Android, though a handful of Windows 7 tablets are also being shown in Las Vegas.

However, the scene in Vegas offers a somewhat skewed view of the tablet market. Outside Sin City, the iPad is still the dominant player, while a number of tablet competitors expected soon have opted not to launch here. HP is having an event next month to focus on future webOS devices, while Research In Motion has said it will launch its PlayBook before the end of March.

Motorola also used some of its afternoon event to show off the Motorola Atrix 4G, a smartphone introduced at an AT&T event earlier in the day. It packs a fingerprint reader, a dual-core 1GHz processor, and the ability to dock to an 11-inch screen and keyboard to act as a mini-laptop, with eight hours of battery life.

When docked, the phone can power a full desktop version of Mozilla, including full Flash support, allowing for a PC-like experience all powered by the smartphone. AT&T Senior Vice President Jeff Bradley said it is too soon to say how much the device will cost, but promised the price will be competitive. Although AT&T has the U.S. exclusive on the Atrix, Motorola said it will be offered through Bell Canada and Orange UK.

In addition to the Atrix and Tablet, Motorola announced its first phone to run on faster LTE networks–the dual-core Droid Bionic, which is slated to arrive early in the second quarter on Verizon Wireless. Motorola also introduced the Cliq 2, an update to Motorola’s first Motoblur phone for T-Mobile.

Update 5:45 pm PT: As for timing, I confirmed that the Motorola Xoom is indeed the “lead device” for Honeycomb and will be the first on the market when it ships later this quarter. The LG model is slated to ship “in the coming months,” and other Honeycomb tablets will follow.

Google isn’t sharing a lot of new details on Honeycomb, but Rubin did make a short blog post and upload this YouTube video, which touts Google Talk video chatting, a specially designed YouTube App and access to Google Books.

“Many of Android’s existing features will really shine on Honeycomb: refined multi-tasking, elegant notifications, access to over 100,000 apps on Android Market, home screen customization with a new 3D experience and redesigned widgets that are richer and more interactive,” Rubin said in the blog post. “We’ve also made some powerful upgrades to the web browser, including tabbed browsing, form auto-fill, syncing with your Google Chrome bookmarks, and incognito mode for private browsing.”

Sprint Kicks Off Marathon of CES-Timed Mobile Phone Announcements

Ina Fried — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:56:01 +0000

Just ahead of the start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sprint revealed the details on the HTC Evo Shift 4G and the Novatel MiFi 3G/4G portable Hotspot. The announcement bulks up Sprint’s 4G lineup ahead of what is expected to be the announcement of several phones for Verizon’s new LTE-based 4G network. Sprint said that the Evo Shift, which had already made a cameo in a leaked Radio Shack advertisement, will be available for $149 after rebates starting Jan. 9, while the MiFi won’t hit stores until Feb. 27. Among the Shift’s features are a slide-out keyboard, Android 2.2 and a 5-megapixel camera.

Mossberg’s Best and Worst Products of 2010

Walt Mossberg — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:00:53 +0000

This week on WSJ Digits, Walt shared his thoughts on his best and worst reviewed products for 2010.

[ See post to watch video ]

Taking Walt’s top spot this year was none other than Apple’s iPad. For a 1.0 product, the iPad was amazing. With the new iOS 4.2 operating system and its huge selection of apps, the iPad continues to stay ahead of the competition.

High-speed 4G networks in the United States took the second spot. As the world goes more mobile, the availability of faster networks is critical. Today, 3G networks are bursting at the seams, and the promise of these networks will be something to watch closely in 2011.

Tied for third were the Samsung Galaxy S and the Apple iPhone 4. The Galaxy S is representative of the powerful force that Android has become within the smartphone marketplace. Despite no longer being the only game in town and all the initial controversy over its antenna, the iPhone 4 is still the best overall smartphone, according to Walt.

Turning his attention to his worst reviewed products for 2010, Walt gave the Dell Streak tablet a thumbs-down. Calling the Streak a tweener, he believed this Android device was too big to be a phone yet too small to be a tablet.

While no company got it right when it came to integrating the Internet with the television, Google TV was certainly not ready for prime time. Walt felt that it was basically a geek product, with a confusing user interface and clumsy keyboard options. Finally, the TiVo Premiere was another product that failed to meet Walt’s expectations. As a TiVo fan and user, he felt TiVo Premiere, with its cluttered interface, shared Google TV’s shortcomings. Simply put, the execution was not there, and the price was too high.

Walt did stress that these products might be great someday, but 2010 was not their year.

Walt’s Best Products of 2010

Walt’s Worst Products of 2010

Google Goes To the Cloud For New Idea In PC System

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:03:25 +0000

In the personal-computer industry, where things change fast, one fact has been a constant for years: There are two major, mainstream operating systems for consumers. One, Microsoft Windows, runs on many brands of hardware and dominates sales. The other, Apple’s Mac OS X, runs only on its maker’s Macintosh computers, and has had a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Other contenders, such as various versions of Linux, have remained on the fringes.

[ See post to watch video ]

Next summer, however, Google hopes to add a third broad-based computer-operating system to challenge the duopoly. It’s called Chrome OS, and is based on Google’s Chrome Web browser. With Chrome, Google isn’t just aiming to elbow its way into the OS business. It’s hoping to change the entire paradigm. Instead of storing most programs and files on your computer itself, the Chrome OS will mainly run programs from, and require you to keep your data in, the cloud—remote servers located on the Internet. In effect, it turns your entire computer into a giant Web browser, instead of treating the browser as just one among many local programs.

The Chrome OS isn’t finished, and isn’t ready for broad public testing. Google readily concedes it has lots of bugs and rough edges. But the company has designed a small test laptop with the new operating system installed and distributed “a few thousand” of them to outsiders to try.

A Cr-48 test machine, with Chrome OS installed. Chrome will be licensed to select manufacturers.

I have been using this machine, called the Cr-48, for about a week, and have some explanations and first impressions to share. This isn’t a formal review; that will have to wait till the product is finished and is on commercial computers.

I focused mainly on the software, which is built on a Linux underpinning. That’s because Google doesn’t ever intend to sell the Cr-48 hardware, an all-black, unbranded laptop with a 12-inch screen, a rubbery surface and a large, buttonless touchpad that resembles those pioneered on the Mac.

In my tests, I found this early Chrome OS machine to be fast, with decent battery life and almost instant resumption from sleep. It handled most Web sites fine, and worked almost exactly like the very nice Chrome browser on Windows and Mac.

I also liked the one hardware feature worth mentioning: a radically redesigned keyboard. Instead of function keys, or various legacy keys such as Caps Lock, Chrome OS keyboards feature dedicated browser-oriented keys, like ones for moving back and forth among Web pages and windows, refreshing a page, entering full-screen mode, or quickly opening a new tab and beginning a search.

The Chrome OS will have a big advantage. Because it is mainly a front-end-to-cloud service, if you lose your laptop, you can get another one and just sign into your cloud accounts. You should be able to find all your stuff waiting for you.

However, users of the Chrome OS will have a huge adjustment to make. They will have to give up the rich, local programs they have spent years learning to use and tweaking to their liking. You can’t install local programs on a Chrome OS computer. Instead, Google provides a Web Store inside the browser that allows you to download icons for “Web apps”—mostly websites designed to look and work like standard programs.

Some of these, like Gmail, are familiar and popular. Others are newer. For instance, the New York Times and AOL already designed Web-based news apps for Chrome OS, and there is a Web-based version of the TweetDeck program for Twitter. These apps, and the store’s own icon, appear on the new Tab screen of Chrome OS (and also are available in the current Chrome browser.)

In my tests, I found these apps generally worked fine. But most aren’t as rich and versatile as local Windows and Mac programs. For example, there was no way to play my local, personalized iTunes music collection, unless I spent many hours uploading it to some Web-based service.

I also had to settle for Web-based productivity programs—like word processors and spreadsheets—with many fewer features than standard local ones, such as Microsoft Office.

And I ran into plenty of frustrations. At this stage, Chrome OS can’t do anything with USB flash drives or SD memory cards, and can’t synchronize phones. And it has a very limited ability to store, or allow you to do anything with, email attachments or other files you might download and prefer to keep locally rather than on a server controlled by somebody else.

Printing was a chore, requiring a complicated setup on a Windows computer that Chrome used as a conduit to a printer.

Plus, Chrome OS is hardly stable yet. I suffered numerous crashes of Adobe’s Flash player, and even Google’s own Google Talk instant-messaging service, which appears in a little pop-up window on top of the browser. The company says it hopes to fix these problems by next summer.

Finally, the biggest downside: Because it’s a cloud-oriented system, Chrome OS is almost useless if you lack an Internet connection. Google says it plans to offer some limited offline functionality, and to encourage makers of Web apps to do the same. It will also eventually be able to make some use of some files stored on external hard disks. But the basic operating mode will require you to be connected to the Internet.

To help with this, the Cr-48 has a Verizon cellular modem built in, to supplement its Wi-Fi connectivity. Verizon is offering 100 megabytes of data free, but that is a small amount, and you have to pay for more.

Like the Mac OS, but unlike Windows or Google’s own smartphone operating system, Android, the Chrome OS will be deeply integrated with hardware. So, Google doesn’t plan to distribute or license the new operating system to every hardware maker—at least not at first. You won’t be able to install it on an existing computer. It will be available in 2011 on a limited number of computer models from selected manufacturers.

Google says this is because security is a high priority and requires special hardware designs that tightly bond with the software.

Also, Chrome OS computers will, in some respects, be more like iPads than laptops. They won’t have hard disks, just a limited amount of flash-memory storage, and they won’t have DVD drives.

They are an attempt to realize the old idea of a “network computer,” or one which is mostly a front end for network services.

Of course, many people already spend most of their time with their PCs and Macs connected to the Net. Many use Web-based email programs or streaming music programs instead of local software.

So the time may be right for a cloud computer, a change in the paradigm. Google certainly hopes so.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Qualcomm CEO Explains What Happened to Smartbooks

Ina Fried — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:30:22 +0000

A year ago, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs was talking a lot about smartbooks.

Today, well, not so much.

For those who have already forgotten what the smartbook even was, the idea was to have a low-cost device that looked a lot like a netbook, but offered far better battery life and instant-on capabilities.

But once Apple released the iPad, everyone started focusing on tablet devices rather than on little notebooks.

“Obviously, tablets are the flavor of the day,” Jacobs said in an interview on Tuesday, ahead of his panel discussion at the Churchill Club.

The good news for Qualcomm, Jacobs said, is that the tablet requirements are basically the same as those for a smartbook.

“We probably did ourselves a little bit of a disservice by using [the term] smartbooks because people then thought notebooks and therefore it was a clamshell form factor,” he said. “We always thought about them not in terms of form factor but in terms of what they did, meaning always on, instant on, always connected, always downloading–the tablet designs that are out are doing that.”

Jacobs said we will probably see some devices with a physical keyboard, but said that next year we’ll continue to see far more slates than clamshells. The same, he notes, is also holding true for the phone.

“Keyboards on smartphones have become less and less evident for most of them,” he said.

For its part, Qualcomm is working on making its processors faster and more power efficient. A dual-core chip, due in the first half of the year, will offer five times as much performance or provide the same oomph as the current chips while using only a quarter as much power.

Since Jacobs has a good view of all the various devices coming to the market, I asked him whether he thinks that a couple of years from now we will still see five or six competing smartphone operating systems.

“A couple years from now I think we will,” he said. “Five to 10 years from now, I think there will probably be some winners and some losers although it’s pretty hard to say who those are going to be because different companies bring different things to the table.”

The carriers will bring some pressure, he said, given they have to provide support and shelf space to all the different operating systems. However, he also said it’s likely that some alternate channels will emerge beyond just sales from the carriers.

“It’s hard to put a time frame on when more consolidation will happen,” he said. “I think right now we are in a period of expansion. You are going to see more stuff….Everybody is chasing [Google] Android and Apple right now, but I think there’s room for a lot of diversity, at least in the near term.”