AllThingsD » Webcam

Jumio Receives Undisclosed Investment From Citi Ventures

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:03:12 +0000

Jumio, which uses a Webcam to verify identity or scan credit cards, raised $25.5 million in March. The second round was led by Andreessen Horowitz. Today, Jumio announced that it topped off that round with an undisclosed sum from Citi Ventures. To date, the company has raised $35.4 million.

It's Time to Make a Fool of Yourself Catching Popcorn With Your Mouth

Liz Gannes — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:50:04 +0000

If this one doesn’t make you giggle, you’re a Scrooge. A new Facebook app from Orville Redenbacher’s called Pop Cam enlists people to rescue virtual falling popcorn from the air with their mouths.

The twist is: Pop Cam uses a Webcam to identify where players’ mouths are. So in order to play, you’re actually wildly waving your fly trap around like an idiot. It’s great.

Yes, Pop Cam is an ad. It’s also a lightweight augmented reality experience that feels like playing Wii or Xbox Kinect. Pop Cam promises that it doesn’t capture video of people playing, but if I were the folks at Orville Redenbacher’s or Possible Labs I wouldn’t have enough willpower not to file away the tapes for later blackmail.

They did encourage me to save a picture:

Also, I posted this video before, but it bears repeating. The Android game Ant Smasher is kind of like Pop Cam for frogs — only more dangerous:

Eye-Tracking Study Shows Users Perceive Google+ and Facebook Virtually Identically

Liz Gannes — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:50:40 +0000

Google+ was quite obviously designed as a competitor to Facebook, sharing much in common with the leading social network, plus a sprinkling of some innovative ideas of its own.

But if you look at how users perceive the homepage layouts of the two sites, they actually seem virtually identical. Users’ eyes head straight for the big status column in the middle of the screen, then over to the list of categories on the left side, then hop across to alerts on the right.

That’s according to an eye-tracking study conducted last week by EyeTrackShop, which offers an eye-tracking tool that participants use with their own computers’ Webcams.

I can try to describe it, but what really got me were the aggregate order charts — for visual attention patterns and visual fixation — that EyeTrackShop put together, shown here:

A representative for EyeTrackShop said 54 people participated in the study, most of them under the age of 34.

EyeTrackShop was actually looking to establish whether ads on Google+ have more or less potential than ads on Facebook, though that seems a bit premature, given that Google+ has no ads whatsoever yet. The study found that 50 percent of participants fixated — for one second, at approximately five seconds into their session — on at least one of the ads shown on Facebook. When the same ads were overlaid on Google+, panelists responded similarly.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Jumio Sees New Online Payments Opportunity Through the Webcam Lens

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:00:34 +0000

Jumio, a payments company backed by Eduardo Saverin, who still owns a substantial stake in the company as one of Facebook’s original co-founders, is finally unveiling its product today. Called Netswipe, it turns an off-the-shelf webcam into a credit card reader.

Saverin, who also helped inform the plot of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network,” invested in the company’s $6.5 million round back in March. He will also oversee the company’s entrance into the Asian market, although today the company is launching in the U.S. and Europe.

The goal of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company is to make entering a user’s credit card information into an online form a snap, while also making it much more secure, according to Jumio Founder and CEO Daniel Mattes (pictured right).

It works like this: To purchase something online, consumers hold their credit card in front of their webcam. The card is quickly recognized and verified without taking a picture or storing the data on the computer. The information is then entered in the correct format.

The technology will soon also be adapted for mobile phones so merchants can accept payments in person by using the phone’s camera.

Mattes said it solves two pain points — usability and security.

During trials, he said Netswipe was able to decrease the number of consumers who abandoned their purchases at checkout to 21 percent from slightly more than half. It can also cut down on fraud, because consumers must have the actual card in hand.

“It’s almost impossible to make and use fake cards. We can detect if the type is embossed or if there is a hologram,” Mattes said. “We spent a lot of time and money and effort on accuracy.”

With so many advances taking place in the payments space right now, the technology is already similar to a couple of solutions on the market.

First, there’s Square, the well-backed San Francisco start-up, which has created a card reader that plugs into either a cellphone or a tablet, so that payments can be accepted cheaply and easily in person. Second is Card.io, which captures payment data by holding a credit card up to a phone’s camera to automatically read the card information and enter the appropriate data.

Mattes said Jumio is “like Square for online,” although Jumio will also soon be coming out with a mobile version for making in-person payments.

Jumio will have three products initially, which will let merchants decide how comprehensive a payment network they want. If merchants only want to use the scanning technology via the webcam, it costs 15 cents a scan; for more comprehensive services, smaller merchants will pay a flat rate of 2.75 percent per transaction with no set-up or monthly fees.

So far, Mattes said Jumio has five merchants signed up, but he wasn’t willing to name them at this time.

Xbox Kinect: Just How Controlling Can a Body Be?

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:26:29 +0000

This holiday season, the war against couch potatoes wages on with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, the latest in motion-sensing video-game consoles. While the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation Move encourage people to stand and play games using familiar gestures and simple controllers, Kinect encourages people to motion their way through games and screens using their bodies as controllers.

[ See post to watch video ]

Kinect (xbox.com/kinect), a rectangular strip of four microphones, a 3-D sensor and a video camera, is $150 for those who own the Xbox 360. It’s sold in a $300 bundle with the 4-gigabyte Xbox 360 console; $400 with a 250-gigabyte console. (Sony’s PlayStation Move is $100 without the console and $400 when bundled with the 320-gigabyte PS3; Nintendo’s Wii costs $200.)All packages include the Kinect Adventures videogame. There are currently 17 games that work with Kinect, and each costs $50, $10 less than a standard Xbox game.

Kinect can sit on top of, below or beside the TV, plugging into a wall power outlet and the Xbox via a USB cord.The concept used by Kinect has potential far beyond games and might even become a new way of controlling computers of all kinds.

Thirteen of the 17 available Kinect games are rated E for Everyone, and the remaining four are rated T for Teens—a sign that Microsoft is going after a different crowd with Kinect than with its regular Xbox games, which offer a wide range of ratings, including violent games.

It automatically identifies who you are and pauses when you leave its vicinity, so it isn’t hard to imagine this ingenuity controlling all kinds of devices, like a PC, smartphone or tablet.

Over the past few weeks, I played a variety of Kinect games with three other people in the room, one other person in the room and completely by myself. I tried it with a 46-inch, 1080p LCD TV as well as using an old standard-definition TV.

My experiences were mixed. Kinect works beautifully for activities that involve only your body, like exercise classes, running, jumping hurdles, yoga and dancing, with the moves feeling natural and fun. The motion sensor detects even slight movements to reflect what you’re doing on the TV screen. I battled my boyfriend in Dance Central while busting out dance moves called Double Dig ‘Ems and Headwrushes. I sprinted down a virtual track, running in place fast enough to earn a game world record. And I toned my arms and abdominals while punching floating boxes in the Your Shape’s kickboxing class.

But when it came to sports that involved holding or throwing objects like bowling, volleyball or discus, Kinect started to feel a little inauthentic, like I didn’t really have control over the object. When I threw a discus far enough in Kinect Sports to prompt the game’s commentator to shout, “Is that discus a part of the space program?” I didn’t know what I did to get that result.

The same was true for driving a car in Kinect’s Joy Ride game: Players are instructed to hold their hands like they would if they were gripping a steering wheel, turning left or right by moving hands accordingly and leaning back and quickly forward to get a burst of speed. But it’s hard to mimic a motion to accelerate, and I found myself jerking my body all around to get results. My arms also got tired after holding them up for awhile.

Other games, like Kinectimals and Kinect Adventures, play to the Kinect’s strengths by using broader gestures and fewer accuracy-focused tasks. With Kinectimals, I moved my hands to virtually scratch a Bengal tiger cub; the cub even became more familiar with me the more it listened to my voice. I rode a raft in Kinect Adventures by leaning left or right to steer through rapids, jumping up to grab on-screen coins for points and ducking to avoid getting clocked in the head with objects.

Dance Central

In certain games, two people can play simultaneously standing in front of Kinect. The system can identify and sign in up to eight people as they step in and out of play. It recognizes those who are signed into Xbox and playing, so only their gestures maintain control of navigation. Its sensor will identify and log you in a few seconds after you step in front of it. If you walk away in the middle of a game, Kinect will sense that you aren’t there and will pause the game.

Kinect isn’t yet fully integrated into the entire Xbox navigation system. Some tasks still require the old Xbox controller, like opening the Xbox Guide, a quick way of launching anything in the system. Xbox’s Dashboard, which is the first menu you see when you turn on the system, also requires the controller. The Dashboard is separate from Kinect Hub, which lets you use your voice and gestures to do things like opening the system’s disc tray, selecting menus or even pausing a movie—just by saying, “Xbox, pause.” A spokesman said Microsoft plans to integrate these commands throughout the Dashboard. For now, it’s tempting—but futile—to want to use voice and gesture on every screen.

Many Kinect games capture videos of you as you play games and then play them back for you at the end. The results are hilarious. Kinect Adventures gives you a heads-up so you can make an extra silly pose at the right moment. Kinect Sports compiles a highlight reel as you go, playing this video back at the end of your athletic events, goofy sport gestures and all. And Dance Central announces a freestyle dance for all players at the end of each round, capturing video snippets of these moves. Users who are signed into Xbox Live can share these videos with others.

Kinect Adventures

Kinect can also be used to video chat with anyone who’s using Windows Live Messenger and a webcam.

I really enjoyed Dance Central—and not just because I won most of my dance battles (the one who gets the most moves correct wins). This game offered a large variety of songs ranging from old-school rap to Lady Gaga. Each dance was taught in a different virtual venue by an instructor who shouted words of encouragement or instruction, and cheers from the crowd spurred me on.

Navigating the menus in Kinect games is usually more enjoyable with gestures, though it takes a little longer than if you were pressing a controller button to skip ahead. In the Your Shape game, I selected from Personal Training, Fitness Classes and Gym Games using my arm to touch my selection and another red icon below that to confirm it. When I started this game, the sensor scanned my body to measure my height, arm length, leg length and shoulder span, thus customizing games just for me.

In the future, Kinect could use be used to recognize communities like a group of fans all wearing the same team colors while watching a game, in which case the system might display extra on-screen data for that supported team. Another example could include playing along with game shows from home, like reality TV for the masses.For now, Xbox Kinect does well with many games that mimic real-life gestures and motions. Games with specific actions using objects, like rolling a bowling ball, need work to feel more authentic.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

With Video Chatting, It's a Small World After All

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:30:25 +0000

Before my sister and her husband moved to South America about a month ago, they convinced family members to use video chatting as a means of keeping in touch. After helping relatives download Skype onto Webcam-equipped computers and set up user accounts, they were able to fly to Buenos Aires and still see familiar faces via their PC.

Video chatting, helpful as it may be for keeping in touch, can be intimidating. People wonder which service to use and how certain features will work. If they don’t have a Webcam built into their computer, they wonder which Webcam to buy. Below, I’ve compiled some basic information about video chatting.

[ See post to watch video ]

I included the above concerns as well as others, like how video conferencing can work without a computer and how video chats are becoming possible on mobile devices, thanks to front-facing cameras.I list a few examples of services that can be used, but several others exist. If you or someone you know have a Webcam but don’t quite know how to use it, this column could help.

The Right Equipment

Webcams are standard in all-in-one desktops, like the Dell’s Studio One 19 All in One, Hewlett-Packard’s Pavilion All-in-One and Apple’s iMacs. And it’s hard to find a laptop without a Webcam, even cheap netbooks. Computers with Webcams also have the built-in microphones necessary for receiving voices, synchronizing them with the video and sending this to the person on the other end of the chat. If your computer doesn’t have a Webcam or you want to upgrade to a better quality camera, you have several options. Logitech’s Webcams for notebooks range in price from $40 to $100 while desktop Webcams range from $50 to $130; these include two cameras that support widescreen 720p (HD quality). The Webcams available from Microsoft in the past year capture widescreen video at 720p, and prices range from $50 to $80.

Skype Worth the Hype

Skype is a free program that must be downloaded onto your Windows PC (using http://3.ly/sZpm) or Mac (using http://3.ly/wSf3). Users can create accounts with profile details about themselves including a photo and biographical information; these data can be set as visible to anyone or just authorized friends. Skype works for text chatting and voice-only chatting, as well as video chatting. One of the best features in Skype is its ability to let you share whatever is displayed on your computer screen with someone else by selecting a Share option. This comes in handy as a substitute for uploading numerous large files to a third-party service to share them with friends and family, especially if one party is traveling and has a slow connection. My sister and I use this remote access to share photos with each other, narrating as we share slide shows from our computers. Though some images appear a bit pixelated because of her weaker Internet connection, I get the point.

With Skype, users can put one video chat on hold to answer another one, like call waiting. This comes in handy for people who have several friends trying to talk to them at the same time when they’re online.

Video Chat via Google

Google Video Chat can be downloaded (http://3.ly/6flt) if someone has a Gmail account. This video-chatting capability is an add-on for the Google Chat instant-messaging program, which runs in the Gmail home page or in iGoogle, so a Web browser must be opened to access this. Friends who are capable of video chatting (because they have a Webcam) are indicated with a small video-camera icon beside their names, and video chats can be initiated by opening options in the Video and More menu of a chat window.

Google Chat users who have AIM accounts can sign into AIM within the Google Chat program, combining all their friends into one neat list. I started using this feature the first time it was offered and can’t remember the last time I opened AIM as a standalone program.

iChat for Macs

For Mac owners, Apple’s own iChat instant-messaging and video-chatting program comes installed on all desktops and laptops. To use it, people sign in with their MobileMe accounts—Apple’s $99-a-year service—or with an AIM account. An icon beside names of iChat contacts will indicate whether they are using a microphone-only or Webcam computer.

IChat can connect with Facebook friends who are online and using Facebook’s chat service. Once this feature is set up, a list of Facebook friends appears in a panel to the right of the core iChat friends. IChat also has some advanced features, like the ability to include up to four people in multiple places in the same video chat, and allows remote viewing of a computer screen.

Forget the Computer

Video chatting has eliminated the need for expensive videophones, but standalone products made specifically to enable video chats without a computer are still available. Take Asus’s $200 Videophone Touch for Skype (http://3.ly/bIaN), a device with a large touchscreen that connects to the Web using Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable. It will also work with a PC as an alternate Webcam, but doesn’t need to connect to a computer to work.

The $150 FreeTalk TV Camera for Samsung (http://3.ly/SoYe) enables Skype video chatting using certain Samsung TVs, so people can sit in their living rooms during video chats.

Chat on the Go

Front-facing cameras are starting to show up on mobile devices like Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G, due out this summer, and Motorola’s Backflip, which I tested about a month ago. This feature could potentially enable video chatting right from the phone if an app was developed to take advantage of this capability.

So with all these options, there’s no excuse for not taking advantage of your Webcam and start video chatting with friends—whether they’re across the ocean or in the office down the hall.

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Stop Licking Your Monitor

Andrew LaVallee — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:47:25 +0000

Holiday e-cards are everywhere this time of year, but digital agency Rosetta is putting a spin on its version through a mix of Flash animation, facial-recognition technology and motion detection.

Its “Snowday” card is a snowflake-catching game, and if you have a webcam attached to your computer, you can play by simply sticking your tongue out and grabbing ’em.

The game starts by asking you to grant the cam access, then you center your tongue in the screen’s image (in mid-air–you don’t actually need to lick your monitor), and start catching falling snowflakes.

Players get points for each one and can advance through levels such as “Tongue-Tied,” “Sir Licks a Lot,” “Dr. Strangetongue” and the ultimate, “Baron von Tonguemeister.” The game ends by taking a photo of you in tongue-extended play, which you can then post to Facebook or Twitter. There’s also a “tongueless” version for players without webcams, in which you drag an on-screen tongue from snowflake to snowflake.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

New Netbook Offers Long Battery Life and Room to Type

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:02:03 +0000

The brightest spot for Windows PC makers in this awful economy has been the relatively new category of small, light, minimalist and cheap laptops called netbooks.

But there are some significant compromises for consumers who rely on netbooks, which typically sell for between $300 and $500, have screens of 8” or 10,” and weigh under three pounds.

[ See post to watch video ]

Because their screens are not only small, but also tend to offer low resolution, they can’t show as much of a Web page, or document, as a normal laptop screen, so a lot of scrolling is required. Many have cramped, flimsy-feeling keyboards, and undersized touchpads with small, stiff buttons. And many have lousy battery life.

I’ve been testing a new netbook from Toshiba, the last major Windows brand to join the category in the U.S., but a company with long experience in making diminutive, albeit far costlier, laptops. And this new $400 Toshiba, inelegantly called the NB205-N310, stands out for solving some of these common netbook problems, including offering the best netbook keyboard I’ve tested.

The Toshiba shares most of the characteristics of competing netbooks. It has a 10” screen; uses the low-power Intel (INTC) Atom processor; sports a 160-gigabyte hard disk; and has a built-in Webcam. Like almost all netbooks, it runs the aging but familiar Windows XP Home operating system. Its one gigabyte of memory is sub-par for a standard laptop, but generous for a netbook. It has a decent complement of ports and connectors, including three USB ports, one of which can charge accessories like cellphones even while the PC is in sleep mode.

While not the smallest or lightest competitor on the shelf, the new Toshiba’s overall dimensions qualify it as a true netbook: it weighs 2.9 pounds, and is 10.4 inches wide, 7.6 inches deep, and an inch thick at its thinnest point. It fits nicely on the tray in a coach plane seat, and comes in a variety of colors.

But this machine breaks from the pack in several areas. First, it has by far the best keyboard I’ve seen in a netbook. The keyboard design resembles that on Apple’s (AAPL) MacBook Pro laptops —big, raised keys with lots of room in between, and good vertical movement. The space bar, and the “Enter” and “Backspace” keys are wide, and there are even dedicated “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys.

My only major gripe with this keyboard was a baffling decision to shrink the Tab key, which is heavily used to navigate forms on Web pages, to less than half the size of a normal letter key. It is so small I kept hitting the adjacent “Q” key until I got used to it. But, otherwise, this is a great netbook keyboard.

The company offers a model of the NB205 with a flat keyboard for $50 less, but I think the extra $50 is worth it.

The Toshiba’s second big plus is its touchpad and buttons. The pad itself is much roomier and easier to use than on any other netbook I’ve tested, a crucial benefit given that its typical low-resolution netbook screen, while bright and crisp, forces you to scroll a lot. (There’s a button that can zoom out, but I found it clumsy to use.) And the twin buttons, in stark contrast to those on many netbooks, are large and very responsive.

The Toshiba NB205-N310

The third big plus on this new netbook is battery life, which I found to be outstanding. This model comes standard with one of those protruding, six-cell batteries, though it doesn’t stick out as far as some I’ve seen. Toshiba claims you can get up to an impressive nine hours and five minutes of life between charges. (There’s a $330 model with a battery Toshiba claims lasts just 3.5 hours.)

In my standard battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features, crank up the screen to full brightness, leave on the Wi-Fi, and play music continuously, the Toshiba NB205-N310 lasted a whopping six hours and 32 minutes. That means you would likely top eight hours, and maybe approach Toshiba’s claim, in a more normal usage pattern.

The machine properly handled a variety of common programs I tested, including Microsoft Office (MSFT), Firefox, iTunes, Picasa and the TweetDeck program for using Twitter.

But there were some drawbacks. One was performance. Streaming of Web videos stuttered a bit more often than I would have liked. Wi-Fi speed was noticeably less than what I get on a standard Windows laptop.

Startup and reboot speeds were very slow. With one Word document open, two Web sites open in Firefox and iTunes playing a song, it took the Toshiba over two minutes to reboot, compared to about a minute and a half on my last-generation Acer Aspire One netbook running the same things. Starting up cold also took about 30 seconds longer than on the Acer.

This may be because Toshiba has loaded the machine with software many people won’t use, including the Skype communications program and a networking utility that duplicates some of Windows’ built-in functions. Also, the speakers are feeble, even for a netbook.

Still, Toshiba has advanced the netbook category in key respects.

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.

OS X 10.5.8 Kills Bugs Dead

John Paczkowski — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:17:58 +0000

Apple (AAPL) on Wednesday released OS X 10.5.8, the latest point release to Mac OS X Leopard, even as Amazon (AMZN) takes pre-orders for its next iteration, Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6).

10.5.8 is largely a maintenance update, though it does patch a number of security vulnerabilities (18 to be exact), some of them fairly old.

Among 10.5.8’s improvements:

• Upgrades Safari to version 4.0.2
• Improves the accuracy of full history search in Safari 4
• Resolves an issue in which certain resolutions might not appear in the Display pane in System Preferences.
• Dragging an Aperture image into Automator now invokes an Aperture action instead of incorrectly invoking an iPhoto action.
• Resolves an issue that could prevent importing of large photo and movie files from digital cameras.
• Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
• Addresses an issue that could cause extended startup times.
• Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
• Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
• Improves overall reliability with AFP.
• Improves overall reliability with Managed Client.
• Improves compatibility and reliability for joining AirPort networks.
• Improves Sync Service reliability.
• Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
• Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.
• Includes latest security fixes.

Easy Way to Log In Face Time

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:20:02 +0000

Nowadays, new laptops usually come with built-in Webcams, including the ultra-small, inexpensive models known as netbooks. But many people don’t know what to do with these Webcams or how to use them for videoconferencing with other people. Some don’t even realize their computers have these tiny videocameras.

[ See post to watch video ]

This week, I tested a new videoconferencing-software program designed to help these people. It’s made especially for non-techies who simply want to use their Webcams to see someone while they’re talking to them. These people don’t want to conference several people into a call. And they especially don’t want to have to sign up for a confusing, intimidating videoconferencing service.

I used Logitech Vid by downloading it from www.logitech.com/vid. This program comes from Logitech Inc. and makes use of technology from SightSpeed, the videoconferencing-software company that Logitech acquired last fall. Vid works with Macs and Windows PCs that have built-in Webcams or those that use Webcams that plug into a computer’s USB port; it can even work if only one person has a Webcam so the person without one still sees video and hears audio from the other person.

Expiration Date for Some

If this was a free download for all, Logitech Vid would be a slam dunk for the consumer. But as of now, it is free only for people who use Logitech Webcams or the people they invite, and for people who are registered on SightSpeed or Dell Video Chat, Dell’s version of the SightSpeed service, regardless of their Webcam brand.

For everyone else, the software expires after 30 days, with no option to pay for continued use. This means Logitech misses out on the growing number of people whose laptops and desktops have built-in Webcams, but who don’t want to buy a Logitech camera just to use Vid (and shouldn’t have to). Logitech says it intends to add a payment plan for Vid.

I tested Vid with my parents, who recently bought a netbook for the kitchen but — before this column — didn’t quite know how to use its Webcam. I also tried it with tech-savvy friends who have video-chatted with me on programs like Skype, Apple’s iChat and Google Chat. Everyone had the same reaction: They liked Logitech Vid’s refreshingly clean interface and simple setup. My Mom appreciated Vid’s easy instructions, which are written in plain terms that anyone can understand.

Vid worked while I was video-chatting from one Mac to another; from a Mac to a Windows PC and vice versa; and from one Windows PC to another.

Invitations to Chat

I ran into trouble one night when Vid invitations that I sent to friends and family didn’t go through until after several attempts. Logitech says Vid was undergoing some behind-the-scenes server maintenance, which caused the glitches. (People who have trouble sending invitations like I did can alternatively direct friends to Logitech’s Web site to download the software.) And Vid didn’t work properly when I tried using it on my company-issued PC, which runs on a corporate network protected by firewalls. Logitech says Vid is targeted for consumer use, and not for sophisticated corporate environments.

Logitech Vid arranges photos of friends, along with their availability, in a visually pleasing carousel display.

People who are used to more advanced videoconferencing programs may find Vid unsatisfying. It doesn’t let friends instant message or share photos with one another, nor does it pull in buddy lists from outside videoconferencing programs. Vid isn’t designed to record conversations, host multiparty calls or take still photos during chats. Like other videoconferencing programs, slow Internet connections can occasionally cause video and audio to stutter.

But for simple video chats, Vid was a pleasure to use. If not for its 30-day expiration, I would definitely see myself chatting with my parents through this program on a regular basis. I used it to hold up three colors of dresses for my Mom so she could help me decide whether tea rose, azalea or peppermint was the best shade for my sister’s wedding (we’re leaning toward tea rose). My Dad and I had a face-to-face talk about my latest job news, and I saw a New Orleans friend and her dog, Boudreaux, appear on my computer screen almost as if they were in my house.

Smile for the Camera

Vid users invite others to chat by entering the other person’s email address. For invitees to accept an invitation, they must download the Vid software, which could be a deterrent for some. Those who do download the software and start their own Vid accounts (by just entering an email and password) appear to the original inviter in a carousel-like display of their contacts’ photographed faces.

These images are taken by the Webcam when someone sets up a Vid account, rather than allowing one to select his or her own photo from elsewhere on the computer. This is one example of Vid’s nod to simplicity and fewer choices. Likewise, the carousel of friends is organized in left-to-right alphabetical order showing those who are online followed by those offline. A simple status line below each person’s face identifies them as Unavailable, Available or Busy (already in a videoconference).

Clicking on a Pic

I called someone by clicking on their photo. The video-chat screen has four buttons that change its size, hide a small-image view of yourself, pause your video feed or end the conversation.

In a few instances, I heard a steady, high-pitched chirp and so did the person on the call with me. And we occasionally heard the echo of our own voices. Logitech said this sometimes happens when both users have open-air microphones and speakers turned up at the same time. Turning the speakers down usually solves the problem.

By August, all of Logitech’s standalone Webcams will come loaded with Vid software that starts up when the Webcam is plugged in. Now, the software is only downloadable from the Web.

Logitech Vid isn’t fancy, but it works well and presents its users with a satisfying experience so they can concentrate on enjoying their conversations. But it is a shame that Logitech doesn’t offer a payment plan for people who don’t use Logitech Webcams. If it did, Vid could help many people appreciate the Webcams they might never have otherwise used.

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://solution.allthingsd.com

Verizon Now Sells Subsidized Netbook With Cell Service

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:12:03 +0000

As laptops have shrunk in size and price, and cellphones have expanded in size and capability, the two are increasingly overlapping in function. Now, their pricing and sales models are blurring, too.

For a while, some wireless carriers in Europe and in Asia have been selling tiny laptops, called netbooks, equipped with built-in cellular modems, at low, subsidized prices, just as they do with mobile phones. And, just as with a subsidized phone or a plug-in laptop data card, there’s a catch: To get the low upfront price, the customer must agree to a contract and pay a monthly data fee.

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Starting May 17, Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, will try the same thing on these shores, selling a netbook model made by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) at $200, after a $50 mail-in rebate — less than half its usual price of $520. To get this price, the customer must sign a two-year contract and pay either $40 or $60 a month, depending on the amount of data to be consumed.

I’ve been testing this netbook, the H-P Mini 1151NR, a version of H-P’s Mini 1000 series with a cellular modem built-in. This model sports a 10.1-inch screen, and yet is very compact and easy to tote. It weighs just 2.45 pounds, is about an inch thick, and is only about 10 inches long and 6.5 inches deep. It has an Intel (INTC) Atom processor, common in netbooks; runs Windows XP; and includes one gigabyte of memory, a built-in Webcam and an 80-gigabyte hard disk. Like most netbooks, it includes Wi-Fi, but lacks a DVD drive.

My verdict: This netbook is an adequate light-duty computer, and $200 is a low price for a PC with a hard disk running Windows XP. But Verizon’s charge for Internet service is high if you intend to rely on that service as your main online connection, because the data levels covered by the carrier’s plans aren’t unlimited, and cost extra after you exceed a certain amount. It makes much more sense if you travel a lot, stay within the data limits each month, and want to avoid hotel and airport Wi-Fi fees.

But the Verizon (VZ) service is slower than many Wi-Fi connections, and it can be obtained for almost any laptop by buying a plug-in card that carries the same monthly fees. In my tests, at a typical Marriott (MAR) hotel, the Verizon cellular service achieved download speeds of around 1.6 megabits per second, while the Wi-Fi modem in the same PC got over five mbps.

The H-P Mini 1151NR

Also, even for a netbook, the computer itself is underequipped. Its 80-gigabyte hard disk is cramped by today’s netbook standards, and it has only a small three-cell battery that doesn’t last long. In my tough battery test, where I left the cellular Internet connection on, disabled all power-saving features, and played music continuously, the H-P Mini 1151NR lasted a pathetic one hour and 55 minutes. That suggests that, in normal use, you might get around 2.5 hours of use.

A bigger six-cell battery is available for $130 from Verizon, but that’s a huge price premium on a $200 PC, plus it makes the netbook 75% thicker and 30% heavier. Verizon doesn’t offer a larger internal hard disk.

By comparison, you can buy an Acer One Windows XP netbook with the same size screen as the Verizon netbook, and twice the hard disk and battery capacity, for $340. The Acer lacks the built-in cellular modem, but you can buy that from Verizon in plug-in form for $30, with the same monthly fees. Total upfront price: $370, versus $330 for the Verizon model with the bigger battery.

You could also pay much less at a RadioShack (RSH) store, which is selling a subsidized netbook with a built-in cellular modem and required contract (with AT&T) (T) at $60 a month. This model, also an Acer running XP, has a smaller 8.9-inch screen, but most other specs are similar to those on the Verizon model. Yet there’s one enormous difference: It costs only $50, plus a $36 activation fee.

In my tests, the Verizon/H-P netbook handled all common tasks well, if not at blazing speeds. It lacks Microsoft Office, but includes the lesser Microsoft Works productivity suite. I was able to download and run common third-party programs like Firefox and iTunes. The built-in Verizon software for managing the cellular and Wi-Fi connections worked very well, and can be upgraded to a new version with added features.

The hardware has some notable downsides. The keyboard feels too flexible, and some symbols on the function keys are hard to read. The mouse buttons are awkwardly arrayed on the sides of the touch pad, not below it. And the speaker, while loud, is tinny. Also, the machine has a bunch of craplets, mostly links to H-P Web sites or to companies like eBay (EBAY) and Pandora.

Still, if you travel a lot and like using a cellular modem, the machine’s $200 price is compelling, so long as you can handle the wimpy battery and small hard disk.

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.

Netbooks Come Into Their Own

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:10:04 +0000

Somewhere between the laptop and the smart phone, the computer industry has long believed there could be a small, low-cost device that would please consumers and sell well.

The device would be more versatile than, say, an iPhone, but much cheaper and more portable than, say, a ThinkPad. The trouble is, every attempt to create such a category of computer has met with failure — until now.

This year, that in-between type of computer now called a “netbook” has finally caught on. Since I reviewed a pioneering model, the 7-inch, $300 Asus Eee PC back in January, the market has been flooded with new and better, if somewhat more expensive, netbook models. Nearly every company — from big names such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, to obscure ones like MSI — has jumped into the fray.

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Netbooks still constitute a smaller niche than laptops and the exploding smart phone, or hand-held computer, category. But they are threatening to break into the mainstream in a big way, especially in an economic climate where a low price and fewer bells and whistles are suddenly more attractive.

They are much more portable than most standard laptops. They are easier to use on a plane or carry around town. And they are way cheaper, between $300 and $500, than the very lightest, thinnest standard laptops, which often top $1,000.

Compared with even an amazingly powerful pocket device, like the iPhone, the Google (GOOG) G1, or the forthcoming BlackBerry Storm, a netbook, at about twice the price, offers a much larger keyboard and screen. And they can run far more sophisticated software and perform a much wider variety of computing tasks.

But netbooks come with serious compromises. While they are great for light use on the go, their cramped screens and keyboards, and slow processors, make them much less potent and less comfortable to use than even a so-called ultraportable laptop. And, as small as they are, they can’t fit in a pocket like smart phones can, be as easily used as a still camera, or function as a cellphone.

Netbooks aren’t tablets. They look and act like regular clamshell-style laptops with keyboards and track pads, but are much smaller. Most current models have 8.9-inch screens, though some now sport 10-inch displays. Dell (DELL) is even planning soon to launch a netbook with a 12-inch screen for around $600, which will blur the line with traditional laptops, some of which can be bought for less with larger displays.

Compared with sleek, thin, but much costlier notebooks, such as the Apple (AAPL) MacBook Air or the Lenovo ThinkPad X300, the netbooks of today are stubbier and chunkier. But they take up much less room on an airline tray table. When the person in front of you reclines, you can happily keep using them, because their screens are so much smaller and extend upward so much less.

The early netbook models relied on the unfamiliar and somewhat geeky Linux operating system, and most still offer it as an option. But many now also can be purchased with Windows XP, with which consumers are far more experienced, and which can run many more well-known programs.

At the start of this year, most netbooks lacked hard disks, instead offering very limited storage via memory chips — often less storage than a $199 iPhone. They were pitched as limited devices mainly meant for using the Internet — thus the name “netbook” — and their makers assumed users mainly would use Web-based applications.

Now, many offer decent-size hard disks and include serious programs, such as Microsoft (MSFT) Office or Microsoft Works. But none offers a built-in DVD drive, which makes it hard to install some new software.

To offer readers a feel for today’s netbooks, I selected four representative models to test and review. I am not declaring these four as the best on the market, nor do I mean to slight makers like H-P, whose entries aren’t included in this review. The truth is, there are far more similarities than differences among competing netbooks that might make one model stand out from the others.

All four of the models I tested use Intel’s new low-power Atom processor. All have decent screen resolution — much better than the original Asus. But none can display a full Web page, or even most of a Web page, without scrolling. Each has three USB ports.

Three of the four have good battery life, but getting good power in most models means using a larger battery that adds weight and bulk.

All of my test models ran XP, not Linux, because I believe that’s the better choice for average consumers.

Here are minireviews of these four netbooks.

Acer Aspire One: The $349 blue Acer One weighs a little over two pounds with its standard battery, and has a bright, sharp 8.9-inch screen. It comes with a 120-gigabyte hard disk and 1 gigabyte of memory. It’s a little over an inch thick, and its footprint is much smaller than that of a standard sheet of paper.

As on all the other models, I tried a word processor, either Microsoft Word or Works, and several popular non-Microsoft programs: Adobe Reader, Apple’s iTunes and Mozilla’s Firefox browser. The Acer handled all of them well, though, as with all the other netbooks I tried, its speakers are mediocre.

The Acer’s small keyboard is very nicely done. Its keys are large enough, and separated and sculpted enough, to make typing comfortable and accurate, though I wouldn’t want to write a novel on it.

But the Acer has two big drawbacks. Its battery life is miserable. On my tough battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features, crank up the screen brightness, turn on the Wi-Fi, and play a continuous loop of music, it couldn’t even squeeze out two hours. In normal use, that might mean 2½ hours. To fix that problem, you can spend $50 more on a version with a double-size battery, at the cost of added weight and bulk. This costlier version also boosts the hard disk to 160 gigabytes.

The other problem, which can’t be fixed with any factory options, is that the Acer One has a terrible track pad. It’s too cramped vertically for comfortable use, and the buttons, which are mere slivers, are arranged on the sides instead of below the pad. Moving the cursor or selecting text is awkward and inaccurate.

Lesser problems are that the Acer includes only the older, slower, “G” flavor of Wi-Fi and a low-resolution Webcam.

The Dell Mini 9 has an 8.9-inch screen, is compact and has a big battery, but it lacks a hard disk and offers just 8 gigabytes of flash memory.

Dell Mini 9: Like the less costly Acer, the $399 Dell Mini has an 8.9-inch screen, but it’s a bit narrower horizontally. Its standard battery is larger, making it slightly heavier but still very light.

The Dell is a throwback to the older concept of netbooks. It lacks a hard disk and offers just 8 gigabytes of flash memory, plus 2 gigabytes of free online storage. It has just half a gigabyte of memory. For extra money, you can double the flash storage and memory.

Because of its bigger battery, and its lack of a power-sucking hard disk, the Dell beat the Acer handily in my battery test, getting just under three hours, which means that, in normal use, you would likely see four hours.

The Dell has the same wimpy Wi-Fi and Webcam as the Acer. But its track pad, while small, is much larger vertically and easier to use, with buttons where you expect to find them. It ran all my test software OK.

However, the Dell had by far the worst keyboard in my test group. Because of its compact width, the tab, arrow and other keys are squeezed to a ridiculously narrow size that impedes typing.

MSI Wind U100: This is a $399 machine (after a recent price cut) with a 10-inch screen, and comes from a Taiwan company better known in the U.S. for making computer components than entire computers. The model I tested, with a double-size battery, is $429. My test unit was white, weighed a tad over three pounds, and had 1 gigabyte of memory and a 160-gigabyte hard disk.

Despite the larger screen, the Wind still fits very well on a cramped airline tray, and it has a well-designed keyboard. It comes with a button that can slow down or speed up the processor to save battery life or add oomph. And there’s a function that can magnify portions of text.

It has a standard, decent Webcam and can use the newest “N” flavor of Wi-Fi. It ran all my test software just fine.

With my test model’s bigger battery, which protrudes from the bottom, the Wind did very well on my test at its standard processor speed, lasting three hours and 37 minutes. That suggests you could get four to five hours in normal use. Presumably, the standard model with the smaller battery would get half of that life, though you could stretch it by stepping down the processor speed.

Overall, I liked the MSI Wind a lot. My only real gripe is that the track pad is small and has only a single thin button, which performs a left or right click. This button is too small and sluggish for optimal use.

Asus Eee 1000H: Asus, another Taiwan company known as a component maker, is the king of netbooks. In fact, it has so many different, and frequently changing, netbook models that its product lineup can be a blur. The one I tested has a 10-inch screen and costs $475, making it the costliest netbook in this group. It’s also the heaviest, edging out my test Wind slightly.

Like the Wind, my Eee 1000H had a large battery that protruded from the bottom. It doesn’t come with a smaller battery. Also like the Wind, it has a standard Webcam, the faster “N” Wi-Fi, and a 160-gigabyte hard disk with 1 gigabyte of memory.

The keyboard on the 1000H was the best of this lot, with well-designed keys. It also had the roomiest and most functional track pad, though its buttons — integrated with a metal border around the track pad — took some getting used to.

The Asus, like the Wind, has the capability to tweak the speed of its processor. It also has a button that can change the screen resolution, though I found that the nonstandard resolutions looked distorted.

In my battery test, at its standard processor speed, the 1000H got three hours and 32 minutes, suggesting that in normal use it could deliver between four and five hours — more if you use the lower processor speed.

The Asus handled all my test software well. It comes with a greater variety of built-in programs than the others and offers 20 gigabytes of free online storage.

Bottom line: If you want a machine for light use, a light price and a light weight, a netbook is waiting and is worth a try. Just don’t expect the same experience as on a standard laptop or the convenience of a smart phone.

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.

Kinoma Touches Up Clunky Windows Mobile

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:36:02 +0000

Think about a mobile device with a touch screen that’s designed to work with smart software. A single tap on its surface instantly zooms in on images; a flicking gesture moves one photo off the screen and pulls another one on. Menus appear with clever animation, and actions like downloading and emailing photos and videos are intuitively incorporated, rarely more than one step away.

Bet you’re thinking about Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone.

I’m actually describing a Windows Mobile device. In fact, any touch-screen Windows Mobile device made in the past couple of years can perform the aforementioned functions — as long as it’s running a new application called Kinoma Play.

This much-needed shot in the arm for Windows Mobile comes from Kinoma Inc. and for $30 can be downloaded onto a computer or directly onto a device from www.kinoma.com. It works on touch and nontouch screens alike, though touch features do add a lot of pizzazz. After installation, Kinoma Play seems to totally take over the device’s multimedia functions, hiding every trace of Windows Mobile’s clunky, antiquated, menu-driven operating system.

Kinoma Play in action, clockwise from top left: a media interface, touch-screen navigation, upload to YouTube, picture rotation, search by characters, and photo zoom.

It smoothly opens and displays all types of media, including photos, videos and music. But it’s also a fast search engine for multimedia content on the phone, on the Web or even on your computer via remote search. Kinoma Play works with services including YouTube, Audible, Flickr, iDisk, Live365, Orb and SHOUTcast. And a section called the Kinoma Guide compiles over 100,000 podcast episodes, radio stations, videos, live television and Webcam clips, panoramas and photos into easy-to-browse categories.

After almost a week with this application, I changed the way I thought about on-the-go Web browsing for media. I forgot about typical browser functions like typing a Web site’s name into a URL bar and instead did plenty of things online with my portable device without deliberately thinking about being online.

Kinoma Play is so well-designed that I wish it could entirely replace the dated Windows Mobile user interface, which still lags behind the iPhone’s. But, alas, it’s about media only. It isn’t designed to supplant, and doesn’t change or improve, any of the phone’s more common functions, like overall email and Web browsing, calendar, contacts or productivity programs.

Kinoma is working on Symbian, Linux and even iPhone versions of its application and will release one of those versions by the end of this year.

I ran into a few problems while using Kinoma Play. On three different occasions using two different devices, my touch screen froze when I tried to start the application, and the only way I could fix the problem was by completely rebooting my device. Once in a while, I experienced slow performance, though this could have been attributed to my network connection. And Kinoma Play lacks a one-step shortcut to its home screen; currently, users must press a “Back” soft key on each screen until they reach the home screen.

But the pluses of Kinoma Play outweighed these hassles, especially considering how enjoyable this application was to use. I tested Kinoma on two Palm (PALM) devices running Windows Mobile: the not-yet-released Treo Pro, which will be available here in the fall for an unlocked, unsubsidized price of $549, and the $250 (after discounts and two-year-contract rebates) Treo 800w available from Sprint (S). Both have touch screens that work best with an included stylus, though a fingernail or fingertip worked for me in most cases.

Upon installation, Kinoma Play automatically scans a device’s media and organizes it into categories under a section called My Media Files. I was especially eager to see how photos were handled, so I started out in the Pictures category.

All Kinoma screens have a set of familiar navigational tools that appear as soft keys at the bottom of the screen; they show up when the bottom section of the screen is touched and disappear when touched again. On the bottom left, a “Back” arrow takes users to the previous screen. On the bottom right, a list-like icon represents what Kinoma calls the Menu Pod. When touched, this pulls up three succinct menus — for media, settings and another action related to the program that’s open.

I opened some photos that were stored on the Palm Treo Pro and touched the center of the screen with my finger. A quick tap on the screen zooms in on each photo, and a small inset of the photo with a box representing the magnified area appears on the lower right of the screen. I dragged this tiny box around in the inset image to change where I was zooming. To zoom in on a photo slowly, I simply touched and held my finger on the screen for a longer period of time. A quick tap after either zooming method will quickly snap the image back to normal view.

I moved from one photo to the next as I do on my iPod Touch: by placing a finger on one edge of the photo and flicking left or right across the screen. Rotating was fun and easy to do when I drew a circle on the photo with my fingertip in the direction that I wanted it to rotate. The image followed whatever motion I drew. To rotate the photo 180 degrees, I drew a larger half-circle.

I selected Flickr from Kinoma Play’s list of services and signed into my Flickr account in just a few steps. My photos and those of friends were just as easy to browse as my own photos, thanks to Kinoma Play’s built-in tools. The Menu Pod icon offered a one-step way to play all photos in slide shows; music could be selected to play in the background.

With a touch on the Menu Pod icon, users can add any media to favorites or to an “on-the-go” list. This same tool also sends multimedia to others via email; I used it to send friends photos of a recent trip to California as well as a YouTube link to video footage of Sen. Joe Biden speaking.

Kinoma makes something out of every action. The Menu Pod button seems to jump into the center of the screen when summoned, and each of its three menus spins like a tiny top to get out of the way so another menu can be seen. Other screens seemed to do a mini back flip as they opened or closed. And long lists seemed to bounce when scrolling reached the top or bottom.

In the Services menu, I used Audible to listen to part of an audio book and listened to rock and country songs on Web radio stations from SHOUTcast and Live365.

I particularly liked using the Kinoma Guide, which is constantly updated with material that streams to your devices when you open it. I found a Restaurant Guys podcast in which chef Cat Cora was interviewed, and even saved it for later listening by downloading this seven-megabyte podcast to my device in one clean step. Kinoma wisely adds all downloads to a special section that’s easy to find. The last 100 things you looked at on Kinoma Play can be found in a section called History.

These days in the tech world, much attention is being paid to applications sold on Apple’s App Store for use with the iPhone or iPod Touch. But Kinoma Play is one application that is desperately needed by Windows Mobile users, and it just might remind them that they can better navigate media-related Web services — without having to buy a new mobile device.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

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

The TouchSmart Has Improved–But Not Enough

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:01:00 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has been on a roll in the consumer PC market lately, with a new emphasis on attractive designs and a new willingness to take risks. It has competed hard with Dell on price, while at the same time offering some of the style and cool features usually associated with Apple or Sony.

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About 18 months ago, the giant PC maker brought out an unusual desktop computer called the TouchSmart, a bulky model meant for kitchen counters. It was intended as a walk-up home kiosk, with large icons you could activate by merely touching them to check the weather or to consult your calendar.

This TouchSmart was praised for its originality, but it wasn’t as practical as promised, and wasn’t a big hit. Still, H-P is persevering with the concept. It has refined the hardware and the touch-controlled software, and has come up with a new line set to go on sale by mid-July.

This new TouchSmart, which comes in two models priced at $1,299 and $1,499, is a relatively slim, one-piece desktop with a large 22-inch screen. It resembles the Apple iMac or the Dell XPS One and, like the latter, runs Microsoft’s Windows Vista. It has a wireless keyboard and mouse, and can be used as a normal Vista computer.

But, like the first TouchSmart, this new model comes with H-P’s touch-controlled user interface and special programs designed to be manipulated with your fingers. For this model, H-P is de-emphasizing the idea that the machine is meant for the kitchen, but it is forging ahead strongly with the notion that touch control is the wave of the future.

After testing the new TouchSmart PC for a few days, my verdict is mixed. The TouchSmart software is indeed improved. It’s attractive, more versatile and more practical — and fun to use. The hardware is handsome and well-equipped. And H-P deserves credit for continuing to build software expertise in a world where makers of computers and cellphones must become as expert at software as they are at hardware. But the latest effort has some problems.

The TouchSmart interface is inviting. There’s a top row with huge icons, called tiles, displaying your favorite programs, and a bottom row of smaller tiles for other programs. You can scroll each row with a finger and decide which programs go in which row. You can even include in either row not only TouchSmart programs, but the regular Windows programs or Web sites that you like. When you tap on a tile that isn’t for a special TouchSmart program, the computer pops you into the regular Windows interface. To return to the TouchSmart interface, you just tap a home button below the screen.

Hewlett-Packard’s TouchSmart

The TouchSmart software includes a calendar, a weather widget, a clock, music and video players, a program for composing short notes, and even a basic Web browser. All worked OK in my tests, but they’re simple and limited.

The computer itself is fairly powerful. Both models have dual-core processors, large hard disks, and a whopping 4 gigabytes of memory. And both run the special 64-bit version of Vista, which allows more memory usage and can be much faster than regular Vista, but only if you buy special 64-bit software programs. This machine is loaded with every conceivable port and connector, mostly hidden from view, and the high-end model even has a TV tuner.

But this is still a Vista computer, with all of the disadvantages that entails, especially a sluggish start-up and an annoying barrage of pop-up warnings. And the new TouchSmart is preloaded with craplets, those irritating trial programs and come-ons that you didn’t order.

There’s a built-in Webcam that works in low light, but it’s almost impossible to tilt the computer forward to get the best shot. Plus, the TouchSmart software interface is very basic and is ragged around the edges. It isn’t a multitouch interface — like the ones on the Apple iPhone and in the next version of Windows, code-named Windows 7, that recognize a variety of gestures and perform different tasks when multiple fingers are used rather than just one. For example, you can’t rotate a photo on the TouchSmart by grabbing it with your fingers, or move back and forth through Web pages by swiping the browser with your fingers.

The TouchSmart software is just a thin shell plopped on top of Vista, and it crashed on me four times during the course of a few days of testing. Also, the limitations of the TouchSmart applications can be frustrating. The photo application wouldn’t let me create albums. The music application didn’t display artist names for some of my MP3 files, and the calendar application can’t display an onscreen reminder of an event if you’re working in the main Vista interface.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of a quick and simple interface on a handsome one-piece Vista machine, the TouchSmart might make sense. But it doesn’t deliver on the full promise of touch computing.

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