AllThingsD » music player

Apple Makes Progress With Ping. Still a Long Way to Go.

Peter Kafka — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 15:58:18 +0000

Apple has made a small but important change to Ping that improves it considerably. It’s not enough to make the much-maligned social network a real winner, but it’s a good start: An update to iTunes now allows you to interact with Ping directly from your music player, instead of having to make a visit to Ping itself.

So now you can recommend songs to your friends, and see the music they recommend, at the same you’re actually listening to songs.

It’s a such an obvious feature that it’s hard to believe that Apple (AAPL) didn’t include it in Ping’s launch. But that just shows you how rough that launch has been. (Click image to enlarge)

And even this tweak shows you how far Ping needs to go to be a genuinely useful service. For starters, it’s still tethered much too closely to Apple’s music store: If Apple doesn’t sell a song, for instance, Ping doesn’t really care what you think. So don’t bother recommending a Beatles tune.

Ping also doesn’t track what you play, even though Apple’s own “Genius” recommendation service does (as do competitors like Last.fm). That could be quite a useful feature, given proper opt-in privacy options.

But most important is that Ping lives in a gated suburb that most of your friends never visit. If Apple is really serious about social, then it has to find a way to integrate Ping with Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the networks your pals are already using. My hunch is that we’ll see that eventually.

Walkman Outsells iPod in Japan–Sort Of

John Paczkowski — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:07:09 +0000

Sony’s Walkman outsold Apple’s iPod in Japan for the first time in more than four years last week, according to a report from research outfit BCN.

The Japanese company’s share of the portable music player market rose to 43 percent, surpassing Apple’s 42.1 percent and ending the iPod’s 241-week run as Japan’s top portable media player.

A noteworthy victory for the Japanese electronics giant, but one that says more about just how far the once great company has fallen than anything else. That it took Sony (SNE) this long to unseat Apple (AAPL) in its home market is astonishing–all the more so given the vast success of the Walkman and the mindshare it once commanded.

And one could argue that Sony hasn’t actually beaten Apple at all. BCN’s survey didn’t include the iPhone because it views that device as a phone. But obviously, it’s an iPod as well–BCN notes that the handset has clearly cannibalized iPod sales. Had BCN classified the iPhone as the media player that it is, Apple would almost certainly have maintained its lead over Sony in the Japanese market.

Walkman Outsells iPod in Japan–Sort Of

John Paczkowski — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:07:09 +0000

Sony’s Walkman outsold Apple’s iPod in Japan for the first time in more than four years last week, according to a report from research outfit BCN.

The Japanese company’s share of the portable music player market rose to 43 percent, surpassing Apple’s 42.1 percent and ending the iPod’s 241-week run as Japan’s top portable media player.

Sony Celebrates an Unhappy Birthday: The Walkman Is 30 Years Old

Peter Kafka — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:54:55 +0000

The Walkman is 30 years old today, but Sony isn’t throwing the iconic gadget much of a birthday party. More of a somber memorial, really: There’s a special exhibit at Sony’s archive, but that’s about it.

Why so reserved? Maybe it’s because Sony (SNE) is struggling through yet another restructuring, so a big party would seem inappropriate. Maybe because Sony views the Walkman’s birthday as a lot of middle-aged people view their birthdays: Markers of bygone eras and missed opportunities. Or else it’s just Apple’s (AAPL) fault. Associated Press:

The manufacturer, which also makes Vaio personal computers and Cyber-shot cameras, hasn’t had a decisive hit like the Walkman for years, and has taken a battering in the portable music player market to Apple Inc.’s iPod.

Sony has sold 385 million Walkman machines worldwide in 30 years as it evolved from playing cassettes to compact disks then minidisks — a smaller version of the CD — and finally digital files. Apple has sold more than 210 million iPod machines worldwide in eight years….

The archival exhibit shows other Sony products that have been discontinued or lost out to competition over the years — the Betamax video cassette recorder, the Trinitron TV, the Aibo dog-shaped robotic pet.

I do remember hearing some Sony folks mutter hopeful words about a new line of Walkmans that came preloaded with music from Sony artists like Beyoncé and were supposedly flying off the shelves at Wal-Mart (WMT). But that was a while ago, come to think of it, and I haven’t heard about it since.

In any case, just because Sony’s being bashful about the Walkman’s history doesn’t make it less interesting. You can learn more about it at Sony’s online archive, which is compelling despite the fact that it’s a stilted corporate hagiography. Start reading at Chapter 17, part 2: “Listening to Stereophonic Sound While Walking.”

The Littlest iPod Packs In Songs and Finds Its Voice

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:02:05 +0000

In these days of economic distress, it’s nice when technology companies add innovative features to the products at the bottom of their price ranges. So it’s notable that Apple’s cheapest iPod, the oft-forgotten Shuffle model, is getting smarter.

In fact, the latest iPod Shuffle, announced Wednesday and available now for $79, is the first portable music player I’ve tested that announces what’s playing. Push a button and it will tell you, in a computerized voice, the title and artist of whatever song you’re hearing. Keep holding that button and it will recite a roll call of all your playlists, allowing you to select among them. In my tests, this worked as advertised.

[ See post to watch video ]

In addition, this new Shuffle is almost impossibly small. The company has moved the playback and volume controls off the device and onto a small, convenient module built into one of the earbud cords. That allowed Apple (AAPL) to severely shrink the player itself, which, like the two Shuffle models before it, lacks a screen. Apple claims it’s the world’s smallest music player, smaller than a AA battery or a house key.

The result is an iPod that contains four gigabytes of memory and holds 1,000 songs — twice the capacity of its $69 predecessor — yet is just a little blank rectangle of aluminum, available in silver or black. It’s a mere 1.8″ long, 0.7″ wide, and 0.3 inch thick — including a stainless-steel clip that’s built into the back for attaching it to clothing or backpacks.

This player is so small and thin that it reminds me of the popular “Saturday Night Live” skit in which an actor playing Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off a series of tinier and tinier iPods culminating in a final fictional model that’s invisible. I actually dropped the new Shuffle while testing it and it took a couple of minutes to locate it behind a table leg.

After using this new iPod Shuffle for a few days, I can say that I like it. It does a good job at playing back music, podcasts and audio books. I found the speech function intelligible and helpful, and the earbud-mounted controls convenient and easy to master. And its tiny size and weight of about a third of an ounce make it an especially good choice for people who use their iPods while exercising.

Apple’s new iPod Shuffle

Only a single button appears on the iPod itself, as opposed to on the earbuds. It’s a sliding power button on the top edge that has three positions — one for “off,” one for shuffling your music, and one for playing your songs in order. Once you set this button, you never have to touch the iPod itself, until you want to turn it off.

The new speech-based navigation feature allows the Shuffle, for the first time, to handle multiple playlists, just like on the larger iPods.

In my tests, I managed to squeeze in more than the 1,000 songs Apple claims. I filled my test Shuffle with nearly 1,100 songs, plus a half dozen podcasts and an abridged audio-book edition of President Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope,” read by the author. My music was organized into about 15 playlists, and I was able to switch among them easily using the voice system.

To pause or resume a song, you click the large center portion of the earbud controller once, quickly. To skip to the next song, you click the same button twice, quickly. To change to the previous song, you click it three times quickly.

If you want the computerized “announcer” to identify the song, you press the center button for a longer time, and you keep holding it to start the playlist roll call. When you hear a playlist you want, you press the button again. Smaller buttons at the top and bottom of this earbud controller adjust the volume up and down. It sounds more complicated than it is. While the voice function is in use, the music keeps playing in the background, at reduced volume.

The computerized voice, available in multiple languages, is hardly perfect. Like all such computer voices, its cadence can sound robotic, and it clips some syllables, but I found it perfectly understandable.

The spoken names of your particular songs, artists and playlists are added when you sync the Shuffle with iTunes. The voice quality is best when using a Mac with the latest operating system. It is slightly cruder on Windows or older Mac operating systems.

Even on the latest Macs, the voice got some words wrong. For a live concert album, it pronounced the word “live” as “liv,” and in another case, it pronounced the Roman numeral “IV” as “eye-vee.”

There are some other downsides. The claimed battery life is just 10 hours, down from 12 on the prior Shuffle model. You can’t fully operate the Shuffle with regular earbuds or headphones that lack the special controller. And, if you have numerous playlists, it could be tedious waiting for the voice control to say all their names until it reaches the one you want.

Still, Apple has packed a lot of new intelligence into a truly tiny music player, at a pretty low price.

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.

Skipping Your Computer's Warm-Up Time

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:10:03 +0000

The time it takes to boot up a computer can be a source of frustration — especially if you’re in a rush and just want to log on, get information and move on with your day. If televisions took as long as PCs take to start working, we’d miss game-winning touchdowns. Slow boot-up times are especially common with the Windows Vista operating system.

One way to evade slow boot-up syndrome is to use a special operating environment that performs a handful of basic tasks and works as an alternative to Windows. If installed on your computer, a system like this can start up instantly when you press your PC’s power button — like turning on a TV.

[ See post to watch video ]

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (PTEC) and DeviceVM Inc. both offer popular quick-start environments. Phoenix offers two solutions, called HyperSpace Dual and HyperSpace Hybrid, for five PC manufacturers, including Lenovo, Toshiba and Acer. DeviceVM’s product, called Splashtop, comes preloaded on PCs from Asus, VooDooPC and Lenovo, and each brand calls this feature something different, like “Quick Start” on a Lenovo laptop. I used HyperSpace Hybrid on a Lenovo ThinkPad X301, but didn’t get a chance to try Splashtop.

Closed Windows

It’s misleading to say that the Phoenix HyperSpace products offer a faster way to start up your computer, because they don’t actually open Windows, which is your computer’s heart and soul. Instead, they offer a primitive, bare-bones user interface that relies on Web-based applications. For example, you can send and receive email, but only by using a Web-based email program like Gmail or Hotmail. Documents must be created using a program like Google Docs, and when you watch videos, you must use a player like YouTube rather than something like Windows Media Player or QuickTime. Photos can be viewed either via a photo Web site like Flickr or in the HyperSpace browser. Nothing like Word or PowerPoint is available in this slimmed-down environment.

HyperSpace Dual, which costs $40 a year or $100 for three years, operates only one environment or the other (Windows or HyperSpace) at a time and must shut one system down to start the other. HyperSpace Hybrid costs $60 annually or $150 for three years and can run both Windows and HyperSpace side by side. Hybrid users can easily toggle back and forth between systems by pressing the F4 key. If your PC meets the required specifications, you can download a 21-day free trial of HyperSpace Dual or Hybrid from HyperSpace.com.

(DeviceVM’s Splashtop doesn’t run side-by-side with Windows, so is more comparable to HyperSpace Dual. But it does have features that are currently missing in both versions of HyperSpace, including a music player, photo manager, Skype and an instant-messaging program that works with popular IM services.)

Though Windows exists on the same machine, its contents aren’t capable of synchronizing with the Phoenix quick-start system. So if I wrote and saved a draft of this column in Windows, and opened HyperSpace on my laptop a few days later, I wouldn’t be able to see my column or any other files on the Windows side. And browser bookmarks don’t synchronize with the HyperSpace browser.

In HyperSpace Hybrid, you can download files from the Web, like photos from Flickr, and save them to a My Documents folder. Confusingly, this has nothing to do with the My Documents folder on the Windows side, and Windows can’t view those files. But anything I download to HyperSpace Hybrid (not HyperSpace Dual) can be transferred to and opened in Windows by clicking an option that says “Open in Windows.” This is essentially using Windows as a viewer.

Using Less Power

In addition to zippy start times, Phoenix claims that its quick-start environment doesn’t use as much power as a full operating system like Windows. According to the company, both versions of HyperSpace are capable of improving a machine’s battery life by up to 30% because while HyperSpace is working, Windows is automatically set into sleep mode, fewer things are happening in HyperSpace compared with Windows, and the processor is operating at a lower speed.

Before I could download HyperSpace, I had to make some adjustments to the laptop’s internal startup system, or BIOS, which I did without much trouble by following some clear directions from HyperSpace’s Web page. I also had to change my hard-disk partition to allow for more room so that HyperSpace would fit. When I finally installed HyperSpace Hybrid, its wireless Internet didn’t work at all, and it also shut down the wireless capability on the Windows Vista side of my machine. Phoenix Technologies said these were special circumstances related to my laptop, and that not everyone would have the same experience I did.

Links to Web Apps

The HyperSpace environment has a left-side panel filled with icons that link to Web-based applications like Facebook, Flickr, Amazon (AMZN) and Gmail. It seems odd that a subscription program comes loaded with what could be seen as advertisements. What’s more, none of these widgets can be removed or repositioned in the panel. And users can’t add their own icons linking to Web sites that they like.

In March, the company says an updated version of HyperSpace will be able to synchronize some information between Windows and HyperSpace, like Internet Explorer favorites, and it will include built-in players for DVDs and music, as well as games like Sudoku. The new version also will let people plug a digital camera into their HyperSpace Hybrid PC to view and save photos; now, USB ports are turned off in Hybrid to save battery life, disallowing digital-photo uploads.

If you dread the time-sucking process of booting up your PC just to do a quick Internet search, you might want to try downloading HyperSpace. But the confusing installation process might persuade average computer users to get a laptop with a pre-installed quick-start program or suffer with slow boot times.

Edited By Walter S. Mossberg

Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://walt.allthingsd.com

Hope You’re Enjoying Your Little Moment in the Sun, Palm

John Paczkowski — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:48:44 +0000

The biggest unknown is price, which went unmentioned during the demo. My assumption is that Palm would try to take market share by coming in significantly lower than the $200 or so Apple wants for its iPhone. But when I ran that theory by Palm CEO Ed Colligan, he looked at me liked I’d peed on his rug. ‘Why would we do that when we have a significantly better product,’ he asked, then walked away.”

– Peter Kafka, MediaMemo

CEOs and Palm evangelists convinced that Palm’s new Pre handset is anything more than table stakes at the handset poker game would do well to consider two bits of Apple (AAPL) news and rumor that suggest Cupertino may be hard at work on a next-generation handset capable of mercilessly beating all others into sobbing submission.

The first: A rumor that iPhone 3.0 will support quad-core processors destined for an upcoming iPhone hardware revision. If this proves true and Apple (AAPL) does release a multi-core GPU iPhone–which is not as much of a stretch as you might think–it would likely support features we’re more accustomed to seeing on the PC. And as The Apple Core’s Jason O’Grady notes, “It would slaughter pretty much every portable gaming platform on the market.”

The second: Apple has applied for a patent on a behind-screen camera that could capture images “while the display elements are in an inactive state (in which the display elements are darkened and at least partially transparent).” It doesn’t take much of a leap to see that technology brought to bear on a next-gen iPhone and the long rumored iChat AV Mobile.

Those are two potential killer features for a device that already has three things the Pre does not: a maturing platform, a thriving developer ecosystem and a market leading music player and store. Are they just rumor and speculation? For now, certainly. But given the pace of innovation in the mobile industry, and more specifically, at Apple–where the multi-touch phone that Palm (PALM) is now aping originated two years ago–they’re not beyond the realm of possibility, are they?

Google Answers the iPhone

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:02:04 +0000

In the exciting new category of modern hand-held computers — devices that fit in your pocket but are used more like a laptop than a traditional phone — there has so far been only one serious option. But that will all change on Oct. 22, when T-Mobile and Google bring out the G1, the first hand-held computer that’s in the same class as Apple’s iPhone.

[ See post to watch video ]

I have been testing the G1 extensively, in multiple cities and in multiple scenarios. In general, I like it and consider it a worthy competitor to the iPhone. Both devices run on fast 3G phone networks and include Wi-Fi. Both have smart-touch interfaces and robust Web browsers. Both have the ability to easily download third-party apps, or programs.

But the two devices have different strengths and weaknesses, and are likely to attract different types of users.

If you’ve been lusting after the iPhone’s functionality, but didn’t like its virtual keyboard or its user interface or its U.S. carrier, AT&T, the G1 may be just the ticket for you. But it does have some significant downsides.

By far, the G1′s biggest differentiator is that it has a physical keyboard, which is revealed by sliding open the screen. The keyboard proved only fair in my tests, with keys that are too flat and that can be hard to see in bright light, and with a bulge in the body on the right side that you have to reach over to type. But, for the many people who can’t stomach typing on glass, the G1 keyboard will be a welcome sight. It’s complemented by a BlackBerry-like trackball for navigation.

The G1 has a smart-touch screen like its iPhone rival, for Web browsing and downloading programs. But it has a physical keyboard for conventional typing.

The G1 has a removable battery and uses removable, expandable memory cards. And it’s even a bit cheaper than its Apple (AAPL) rival: $179 versus $199. Its data plan also costs less — $25 a month versus $30 — and includes 400 free text messages, which cost extra on the iPhone. There’s also a $35 plan that includes unlimited text messages. And both plans include free use of T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi hotspots.

The G1 has a slick, clever touch interface to go along with its keyboard, and it includes a powerful new operating system. The operating system, called Android, was built by Google (GOOG). It is slated to appear on other phones over time, though it likely will look different on other devices because it is fully open to modification by other companies.

On the G1, the touch interface is fast and smooth. Programs appear when you drag up a tab at the bottom of the screen, and notifications of new messages can be read by simply dragging down the top bar of the screen.

You get much more flexibility in organizing your desktop than on the iPhone. In addition to placing icons for programs there, you can add individual contacts, music playlists, folders, Web pages and more. You just press on the screen for a longer-than-usual time, and a list of items you can add appears. It also has a higher-resolution camera than the iPhone, but like the Apple phone, it can’t shoot video.

It’s also much easier to place a phone call on the G1 than on the iPhone. You can just start typing a contact name or phone number while on the home screen, sparing you the need to enter the phone or contacts program. And there’s a virtual phone keypad that allows you to avoid opening the physical keyboard just to dial a number. It’s also much easier to jump to the top and bottom of long lists.

The G1′s Web browser, built on the same technology as the iPhone’s, worked well at rendering scores of common sites in my tests. You can either pan around pages with your finger, or choose to view the whole page at once and zero-in on a section by moving a small rectangle around.

This first Android phone, which was largely designed by Google and built by Taiwan-based HTC, also includes some key features Apple omitted. These include a limited ability to copy and paste text, and the ability to send photos directly to other phones without relying on email, a common phone feature called MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service. And, unlike AT&T (T), T-Mobile (DT) will even allow users to legally unlock the phone after 90 days and start using it on another carrier, provided you pay a hefty early-termination fee.

In my battery tests, the G1 lasted through the day, but I had to charge it every night. That’s better than the initial battery life on the current iPhone, though in fairness, Apple has improved the iPhone’s battery life through software updates, and I found them to be about the same for mixed use.

In my talk-time test, the G1 got just under its claimed five hours, about 19 minutes better than the iPhone.

There are two email programs: one for Google’s Gmail, another for all other email services. There’s an instant-messaging program that works with multiple services. There’s one program for accessing Google’s YouTube service and another for Google Maps. The G1′s Google Maps program even has a feature, coming soon as well to the iPhone, that offers photographic street views of certain locations. But the G1, unlike the iPhone, includes a compass that orients the street views as you walk.

The built-in download store for third-party programs, called Market, worked well in my tests. I was able to quickly download games, productivity programs, and other apps and, unlike Apple, Google says it isn’t blocking any programs.

However, the G1 also has downsides. It’s a chunky brick of a device. While it’s a bit narrower than the iPhone and feels OK in the hand, it’s almost 20% heavier and nearly 30% thicker. It also has a smaller screen and doesn’t accept standard stereo headphones.

The G1 also skimps on memory. It comes with only 1 gigabyte of storage, just one-eighth of what the base iPhone offers. To increase the G1′s memory, you have to lay out more money to buy a larger memory card.

The G1 also limits third-party applications to a paltry 128 megabytes of memory. At one point in my tests, after downloading a bunch of third-party programs, and adding songs and videos, the G1 warned me it was running out of room, a warning I have never seen on my heavily used iPhone.

Another downside for some users: The G1 is tightly tied to Google’s online services. While you can use non-Google email and IM services, the only way you can get contacts and calendar items into the phone is to synchronize with Google’s online calendar and contacts services. In fact, you can’t even use the G1 without a Google user ID and password.

The G1 doesn’t allow the use of Microsoft’s Exchange service for email, contacts or calendar items, or any other company’s over-the-air synchronization for contacts and appointments.

In my tests, synchronizing with Gmail, and with Google’s contacts and calendar applications, was smooth and fast. So, the G1 may be great for dedicated Google users, but not so good for folks who rely on competing calendar and contacts services from, say, Yahoo (YHOO) or Microsoft (MSFT). Future Android phones may not be so tightly tied to Google services, but the G1 is.

It also can’t synchronize any data at all directly with a PC or Mac. For instance, it can’t sync with Microsoft Outlook or Windows Media Player on a PC, with Apple’s iCal or Address Book programs on a Mac, or with iTunes on either Windows or the Mac. It has no PC-based synchronization software of its own, and it offers no way to automatically back up your settings, music, applications, videos or photos, either to a computer or to an online repository, though Google says it plans to add a backup feature.

To get Outlook or iCal data onto the G1, you must install add-on software. To get your songs, videos and photos onto the G1, you must plug the phone, or its memory card, into your computer and manually move the files over.

Overall, I found the G1′s user interface inferior to the iPhone’s. It lacks the iPhone’s ability to flick between multiple pictures and Web pages, or to zoom in and zoom out of a photo or Web page by simply using two fingers to “pinch” or expand the image. It also doesn’t automatically change the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape simply by turning the phone.

Further, many common controls that are easily visible on the iPhone can be accessed on the G1 only by pressing a menu button or by using keyboard shortcuts you have to memorize. Examples are stopping the loading of a Web page or moving forward to the next Web page.

There’s also no on-screen keyboard even for quick tasks, such as typing Web addresses, so you’re constantly having to turn the phone and open the physical keyboard, which quickly becomes a pain.

The G1 also is a greatly inferior multimedia device when compared with the iPhone. Its music player, while adequate, isn’t as nice as the built-in iPod on the iPhone. And it lacks a video player altogether, though a rudimentary one can be downloaded from the Market. The G1 does come with a program for buying songs from Amazon (AMZN), which worked well in my tests.

And then there’s the network. Despite all the troubles AT&T has experienced with its fast 3G network, which is still being built out, that company has 3G service for the iPhone and other devices in 320 U.S. metro areas. By contrast, T-Mobile offers 3G in just 20 U.S. metro areas. Eight more cities are due to come online by year end, which will still leave T-Mobile’s 3G coverage far behind that of AT&T and Verizon (VZ), which will soon introduce its own iPhone competitor, the BlackBerry Storm.

I did 40 speed tests comparing the G1 and the iPhone to see how fast they could download a Web page over 3G. The tests, conducted in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Washington, D.C., showed the iPhone to be consistently faster, by an average of between 50 and 100 kilobytes per second, even though T-Mobile’s network was carrying much less traffic than AT&T’s.

Overall, the G1 is a very good first effort, and a godsend for people who prefer physical keyboards or T-Mobile but want to be part of the new world of powerful pocket computers.

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.

New from Apple: iPod Flamo

John Paczkowski — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:07:59 +0000

After being plugged in for somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes I heard a sizzling sound. I looked down on the iPod just in time to see it explode open and start shooting sparks and spewing smoke. I managed to unhook the iPod from my computer’s USB port immediately. I noticed that a small fire had started on the table I had the laptop and the iPod sitting on, and I managed to extinguish those flames quickly before any apparent damage could be done to my laptop. Unlike in other cases, I’ve read about, my iPod continued to spew smoke and spit sparks while throwing out some kind of sooty substance from the inside of the iPod for several minutes after removing the cable from the computer.”

– A Consumerist reader recounts his experiences with Apple’s iPod Flamo

What an ugly week for Apple. Voice and data reception issues plaguing iPhone 3G, MobileMe still not up to company standards and now reports of sparking iPod Nanos. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is investigating a possible battery defect in Apple’s older iPod Nano music players after receiving reports of minor fires caused by overheating devices. “There have been multiple cases of overheating and fire damage, in particular during recharging, so please use caution,” METI said in a statement on its Web site.

METI is working with Apple Japan to diagnose the problem, which is said to affect only Nanos sold in Japan between Sept. 2005 and Sept. 2006, although there have been reports of similar incidents in the states.

Another tough break for Apple (AAPL), which just can’t seem to shake this negative news cycle.

UPDATE: Apple just issued the following statement:

Apple today responded to statements reported by Japan’s METI regarding batteries in the first-generation iPod nanos. Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in first-generation iPod nanos sold between Sept. 2005 and Dec. 2006 can overheat, causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano. Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nano units), which have been traced back to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model.

Any first-generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Any other customers who have concerns about their first-generation iPod nano battery should also contact AppleCare.

Getting a New Windows Computer With XP

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:45 +0000

Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

I am in the market for a new Windows computer, but I prefer the Windows XP operating system, not Vista. I understand Microsoft has now barred the major PC vendors from selling XP systems. Is there a way I can get around this?

If you want a new, brand-name PC that comes pre-loaded with the seven-year-old Windows XP operating system, you can still get one through an odd and circuitous process. Most major PC makers will sell you selected Vista models with an option, which sometimes costs extra, officially called a “downgrade,” but sometimes marketed as an “upgrade” or “bonus.” You may have to hunt through the selections offered by the computer makers to find one that has this XP option.

When you order a PC in this fashion, you are technically buying a Vista machine, and Microsoft counts it as a Vista sale. But the computer company actually loads XP on the new hardware, in place of Vista, before it leaves the factory. In many cases, you also get discs containing Vista, in the event you wish to switch to the newer Vista operating system later.

I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions of a small, light portable radio-type gadget with earbuds that would be good for me while I do athletic activities like riding my bike. I want something that will give me different pre-programmed selections of music, not something that I have to load with music (I don’t remember names of songs). I love my Sirius satellite radio in my car.

My first reaction is to suggest you simply get the portable, small, personal Sirius radio that is meant for carrying on your person. It’s called the Stiletto 2 and costs around $300. Like the one in your car, it does require a subscription, but it is much smaller. I haven’t tested it, but you can get more information at sirius.com.

However, this unit isn’t in the smallest class of portable music players, so another alternative might be to get a very small portable player, which, while it allows you to download music, also has a built-in FM radio. Among these is the smallest Microsoft Zune, called the Zune 4 GB, at about $100, and the Sansa Clip, starting at about $35. Neither requires a subscription fee. Information is at zune.com and sansa.com.

The popular Rhapsody subscription music service is also available on portable players, and offers pre-programmed channels of music. Some of these players also include FM radios. Information on these is at learn.rhapsody.com/devices.

Last week, you said you didn’t know of a dedicated gadget that simply allows people to both send and receive emails. What about the MailBug?

Thanks for reminding me. The MailBug, which I haven’t tested, is a small, text-only terminal for sending and receiving email over a dial-up connection. It costs about $125 and requires a companion email service that is about $100 a year. It’s made by a company called Landel and can be ordered at mailbug.com.

While the device itself can’t send or receive photos or other nontext attachments, account holders with access to a computer can view such attachments via a Web-based version of their email accounts.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online, free, at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, CEO Steve Ballmer and Windows 7 Preview

John Paczkowski — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:25:31 +0000

With Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates soon relinquishing his daily role at the software company he co-founded as it grapples with Google (GOOG), European regulators, Yahoo (YHOO), and Windows Vista critics hoping to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 (skipping the much maligned Vista entirely), tonight’s conversation with Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be a memorable one in the history of the software sovereign.

Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher take the stage and offer their thanks to the audience, which they say is the heart of the D conference.
Walt: Last year we had a joint interview with Bill and Steve. This year, we have an interview with another Bill and Steve.
Stage darkens and we’re treated to an extended version of the “Bill’s Last Day at Microsoft” video that debuted at CES earlier this year.

The high point of this version is, once again, Gates singing Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin,” although Matthew McConaughey encouraging Gates to scream “I AM LARRY ELLISON” while hitting a punching bag is pretty great as well. I don’t remember that being in the CES reel.
Scratch that. Gates discussing new malaria vaccines in his new office inside a Dairy Queen is great, too.
The Iron Chef “Battle Cheeseburger” with Mario Batali ain’t bad either.
Craig Mundie: “Microsoft Bob? All Bill’s idea.” … You know, there’s probably a really good chance that that’s true …
Video concludes.
Gates and Ballmer take the stage. Presumably audience has been cleared of egg-throwing Hungarian college students.
Walt: This is a momentous occasion, in that Bill, you’ll be stepping back from your duties in a month. To Ballmer: What was Bill like in college? Ballmer: “He was a pretty shy guy… quiet but a with certain kind of spark. Especially later in the day. Bill was usually going to bed by the time I was waking up.”
And what was Ballmer like? Gates says Ballmer was very, very busy. So busy, in fact, that he was too busy to go to a course that Gates was “refusing to attend on principle.”
Kara asks Ballmer how he felt when Gates left Harvard. Ballmer says it never occurred to him to attempt to talk Gates out of leaving. Says Gates never would have listened. “Not even for a nanosecond.”
Kara asks Ballmer about his early CV. Ballmer recalls his early days at Procter and Gamble, working on a product called the Coldsnap Freezer Dessert Maker. “Makes revolutionary desserts you never could have thought of before,” Ballmer says, repeating the product slogan.
Ballmer soon moved on from ice cream mixes … to brownies. A better business, he says.
Ballmer recalls a phone call from Gates feeling him out for a job at Microsoft. Ballmer told Gates he was busy with school. Gates said, “Too bad you don’t have a twin brother,” and hung up.
Ballmer called him back the next day and said, “What about me?” He left Stanford Business School and then moved up to Seattle to work with Microsoft.
Kara: What was the early business like?
Gates discusses his conservative view of finances in those early days: “We had so many customers, so many choices about what we could do next. We’ve always managed the company very conservatively. I had a very conservative view of our financial limits. … If none of our customers paid us for a year, could we make payroll?”
Kara: So unlike, say, the Web 2.0 folks, you actually felt a steady stream of revenue was a business necessity? (Kara Swisher has just thrown a sheep at you SuperPoke!)
Ballmer recalls early difficulties at the company: “I wondered, why did I leave Stanford business school for this? I think I said to Bill at one point, ‘I didn’t leave business school to go bankrupt.’”
Soon after, Ballmer went to dinner with Gates and his dad and Gates described his vision of a computer on every desktop. Gates: “I was forced to be particularly articulate that night.”
Ballmer on Microsoft’s early hiring/management policy: Prove we can hire one good guy and we’ll worry about hiring the next two to 18.
Ballmer notes that Microsoft takes all its risks technologically. “Why take risks financially?” he asks. It makes no sense.
Walt notes that there are very few examples of companies being run by the same two people for as long as Microsoft has. Gates and Ballmer have been working together for 28 years.
Gates is really on a roll tonight: “IBM divorced us a few more times than we would have liked.”

Walt notes the public perception that Gates is the product guy and Ballmer is the sales guy. Is that right?
Gates: “Well, there’s a lot more to building a business than just tech and sales–there’s hiring, and also strategy. And Steve and I have been doing that together since the beginning.”
Walt asks about Windows 1.0. Ballmer: “You would have loved Windows 1.0, Walt. You would have LOVED it.”
Ballmer says the two are both very detail-oriented, with Gates focusing on tech and finances, and Ballmer focusing on management and finances.
Kara to Gates: So would you call yourself a businessman?
Gates: “Well, sales minus cost equals profit. Is there anything else?” Big laugh from the audience. Gates is really on-point tonight.
Walt asks Ballmer if Gates’s fame ever bothered him. Gates, Walt notes, is world famous. Ballmer, not so much (except for those wacky videos, maybe). Ballmer says he was never bothered by it. Bill’s fame was good for the company, says Ballmer. He notes that Gates has always been the figurehead for the company and he never expected it to be any different. “No. I always knew Bill was the senior partner and I was the junior partner… it’s never bothered me at all.”
Gates notes that his transition to part-time effectively makes Ballmer the senior partner: “I’m the junior partner now.” Kara asks if he gets to veto big company decisions. Gates: “No.”
Walt notes that Gates is still chairman of the board and Microsoft’s largest shareholder, and suggests that he’ll clearly hold quite a bit of influence over the company. To Ballmer: Won’t you take some big decisions about the company–say the Yahoo deal–to Gates, the company’s largest shareholder?
Ballmer: “No, I’ll take those decisions to Bill Gates, my friend and confidant.”
Kara: OK, moving on. What’s going on with Yahoo?
Ballmer recites the now familiar party line: We made a bid. There was a difference of opinion over its size. We walked away. We’re now talking to Yahoo about a new deal that doesn’t involve a full-on acquisition. But we reserve the right to rebid for the company if we choose to.
D staff wheels a whiteboard out for Ballmer, who begins to describe how a Yahoo acquisition would have accelerated Microsoft’s scaling up of its search-advertising business. Draws a large circle (Microsoft, I guess) surrounded by the “muscles” of Microsoft’s business: software, advertising, etc. Ballmer says Yahoo would have been an accelerant to Microsoft’s business. It wasn’t a strategy.
Walt: Is there a way for you to do a deal with Yahoo that’s not a full acquisition, that would allow you to attain the sort of scale you’re looking for?

Ballmer says there is, notes that Microsoft is discussing a partnership with Yahoo: “To accelerate scale, it made sense for us to consider a Yahoo acquisition. The truth of the matter is, if nobody else gets scale except the current leader, what happens? … Some day all the ads for The Wall Street Journal Online might be sold by one guy and he’ll tell you exactly how much your editorial is worth.”
Kara: Yeah, like a monopoly. Interesting.
Walt: That’s a great point. That’s exactly the sort of argument that was made against Microsoft.
Ballmer: Am I saying there’s something wrong? I’m just saying we are guys who will compete. That’s all I’m saying.
Gates: Guys like us avoid monopolies. We like to compete.
Walt asks Gates about competing with Google. Gates notes that Microsoft has pulled a team together that is working to improve search.
Walt asks for evidence of that improvement. Gates says, we can see improvements in image search, etc. If that’s the case, asks Walt, why is your search market share dropping?
No answer from Gates.
Walt asks about Microsoft’s new Cashback program, which rewards users for purchases they make via Microsoft’s search engine. Gates says a model that rewards users for their choices is the future.
Google issue comes up again. Ballmer: In our business, people think great things happen overnight. Great things rarely happen overnight. Unseating a powerful competitor takes patience.
Switching gears. Walt asks about Vista and the lousy reception it’s been given. Is Vista a failure?
Ballmer: Vista is not a failure. Is it something we’d like to improve? Of course. Is it something that with 20/20 hindsight we’d do differently? Sure, he confesses. But Vista has sold a lot of copies, he adds.
Walt jumps in and asks about the percentage of Vista sales that result in downgrades to XP. Ballmer dodges. Gates looking a little depressed.
Walt asks if Vista has damaged with Windows brand.
Gates says Microsoft’s philosophy is to “do things better.” And Vista has given us lots of opportunity to do that, he notes. (Audience laughter.) There are plenty of lessons out of Vista–compatibility and other issues vendors are concerned about.
Ballmer says that according to consumer research, the No. 1 complaint about Vista was the change to the Windows user interface. Funny, I’ve heard that it was the entire OS …
The conversation turns to Windows 7, which Microsoft hasn’t said too much about. Clearly, the company has learned from the media beating it took over the defeatured and perennially delayed Windows Vista. Indeed, in a post to the Windows Vista blog today, Microsoft’s Chris Flore noted that Microsoft is being very careful about releasing details about Windows 7. “What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows,” Flore wrote. “So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we’re trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience.”
Well, apparently this is the right time and the right audience, because we’re about to get a Windows 7 demo (Oh, one more thing …. Here’s hoping Microsoft shares only those aspects of the new OS that it doesn’t end up de-featuring at a later date.)
Ballmer says what we’re about to see is “just a snippet” of Windows 7.
Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green takes the stage to conduct the demo. She says Microsoft is using some of the multi-touch technology from Surface (which debuted at D5 last year) to enhance Windows 7.
And there it is … well, damn if it doesn’t look pretty slick. Clearly the Windows dev team’s been busy with more than just Vista service packs.

Larson-Green pulls up a brand new app, “Touchable Paint.” She uses all 10 fingers to draw a tree. Then, she brings up a photo gallery. Noting that multi-touch makes it faster and easier to manipulate photos, she demonstrates … well, she demonstrates a lot of features that anyone who’s ever used an iPhone will already be familiar with: two-finger zoom, flicking through a slideshow, single finger panning through thumbnails.
Moving on to photo management. With Windows 7, Microsoft hopes to create a more life-like photo experience, one that allows users to interact with digital photos as they would with their analog counterparts. New photo applications developed for the OS will allow users to arrange and examine photos as they would on a table. Also allows them to write on them and rotate and zoom them. There are some nice 3D slideshow, grid and scatter views as well.
Here’s a mapping app that was modified from the Surface team’s own Concierge application. Like Concierge, it calls up data from Windows Live Local and Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Nice little pan/zoom on our current locale, Carlsbad, Calif. “Search for Starbucks,” says Kara. My God, there are 83,000 Starbucks here and the city’s just 7.5 square miles. (Kidding.) Pushpins appear on-screen indicating locations. Flip over a pushpin and ba-da-bing, you’re on your way to wherever it is you’d like to go. You can conduct more specific searches, as well. Application offers both “road” and “aerial” views. You can conduct more specific searches, as well. Searching for Seaworld now. The app can provide directions as well.
Larson-Green notes that what we’re seeing is an app that *might* be developed for Windows 7. This demo is all about showcasing Windows 7′s potential.
Walt asks if multi-touch is built throughout the OS. Larson-Green says it is.
Then, another app: Well this is sweet. A multi-touch piano. Looks almost as responsive as the one you can run on a jailbroken iPhone ….
Demo’s over. But here’s a video of what was shown.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7
So is this the next phase of how people will use their computers. Gates says it’s the beginning of an era of computing based on a new hierarchy of input systems. Today the machine is really set up for one person to sit at a keyboard. “We’re at an interesting junction,” he says. “In the next few years, the roles of speech, gesture, vision, ink, all of those will become huge. For the person at home and the person at work, that interaction will change dramatically.”
Windows 7 is apparently months away, due late in 2009.
Walt asks Ballmer if he’s worried about the next iteration of Mac OS X, which will likely be released before Windows 7. Is there a risk that the work you’re doing now with multi-touch will look dated when Apple (AAPL) releases its next OS?
Ballmer says he’s confident Microsoft will have fantastic Windows 7 PCs, regardless of what Apple’s got on the market. “There’s a lot in Windows 7, and our goal is to produce fantastic PCs with our hardware partners.”
Walt presses him, noting Apple’s recent growth in the PC market.
Ballmer notes the difference in scale between the two companies: “We sell 270 millions PCs a year, and Apple sells 10 million. They’re fantastically successful, and so are we.”
Walt hits on Windows quality issue, noting that he’s seen old Macs running significantly faster than new Vista machines.
Ballmer admits there’s room for improvement: Steve Jobs has a great business, he says. His model works well. But so does ours. 10 million people like his model. 290 million like ours.
Kara asks Gates how it feels to have Microsoft defined by Apple via its “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign.
Gates clearly isn’t happy with that question. Dodges. Ballmer jumps in. Hits that 290 million metric again. “Every share point Apple picks up is a share point we don’t like. But we like selling 290 million units.”
Walt’s not letting him off that easy : “C’mon, you CAN’T be happy with the way this Vista thing has gone.”
Ballmer: “What’s an appropriate response to that question?” Gates bristles: “You’re repeating yourself,” he says, alluding to the fact that the question has been asked already.
Moving on to Q&A: Do you feel that the unsuccessful pursuit of Yahoo has tarnished Microsoft at all? Ballmer says no. I think on balance, people don’t think of things that way. “At the very least, people now know we’re serious about our online business.”
Q: We probably spend more time with Microsoft products than we spend with any other products. Has anyone ever considered taking that engagement and leveraging it as an advertising medium?
Ballmer says he’s not sure layering ads on the Windows desktop is a way to improve the Windows experience. That said, he notes, we live in a world where business must think more creatively about advertising.
Gates jumps in and notes that advertising has been moved creatively to other mediums–the mobile arena, for example. But we must be careful of how we do this, he adds, because we don’t want to interfere with the user experience.
Q: What is it that you did early on to find and hire good talent? Ballmer says they looked for people who were very bright and sold the opportunity to work in a company where software is very important. That philosophy remains today. Gates recalls hiring Charles Simonyi, who found Microsoft specifically because of his shared passion for software.
Q from Tim O’Reilly: Microsoft has been playing “me too” these past few years, following the lead of other innovators. Do you have any “big, hairy goals” now, he asks, or do you need to? Gates says the company has an internal program called “Quest” that focuses specifically on identifying new, audacious goals. O’Reilly jumps back in and asks how such a program can really work when the company is so focused on winning in search. Gate’s says O’Reilly’s been paying too much attention to the press.
And next question … Max Levchin from Slide: Asks what the massive audiences Facebook and sites like it have built around Web-based entertainment means for Microsoft’s cloud-computing efforts. Gates notes that whoever succeeds in the cloud-computing office productivity arena must give people the best of both the Web and desktop worlds, not one or the other.
Q from Esther Dyson: Why not make health care one of Microsoft’s big, hairy goals? Ballmer says Microsoft’s core competency is software and to the extent that it can improve in that way it will. But the company feels improving the health-care industry beyond that is best left to others.
Kara: Any parting words as you transition out of Microsoft, Bill?: Gates thinks for a moment. “Yeah, this is probably the last time I’ll get to speak here…” Kara and Walt together: “Nawwwwwww.” Gates continues: “Well, Melinda will be speaking here Thursday, she’ll have more to say about the next phase of my journey.”

And the interview ends.

Video highlights of the interview can be viewed here and here.

More coverage at The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s Tech Trader Daily.