Technology & Science

November 03, 2006 (Computerworld) -- We live in, arguably, the golden age of leaks about yet-to-be-released gadgets. Reading about these leaks is great fun for enthusiastic consumers eager to know details about forthcoming media players, smart phones, online services and the like.

But while these leaks are fun for consumers and keep columnists like me busy, they're bad news for the companies that produce gadgets. In the ongoing battle for wallet-share, consumer electronics companies want desperately to keep product plans secret.

These companies compete in a cut-throat, zero-sum marketplace in which each pours enormous resources into beating the others to market with the best combinations of design, technology and features. In this highly competitive environment, secrecy enables companies to blindside competitors and gain what venture capitalists (and annoying technology columnists) call "first-mover advantage." It can also slow down counterfeiters, who in recent years have been able to get exact copies of gadgets into the market even before the originals ship. Perhaps the best reason to clamp down on leaks, however, is to control the all-important first impression of a product in the public eye.

Gadget vendors employ a wide range of tools to control information leaks about feature sets, branding, marketing strategy, design, partnerships and technology. Tools include nondisclosure agreements, proprietary information agreements and even the old-fashioned practice of threatening to fire employees who blab about product plans.

But 10 years ago, keeping gadget information secret was easy -- companies had only to withhold information from the press. Today, such secrets remain nearly impossible to keep. So why can't these guys keep a secret?

Three relatively new phenomena have changed everything: globalization, digital cameras and blogs.

It takes a village to launch a consumer electronics product. A smart phone designed in the U.S., for example, must be vetted and tested globally by cellular carriers and other service providers and approved by foreign governments. The phone may be manufactured in Asia while packaging and user manuals might be designed in Europe.

Tech support could be offshored. Online stores around the world need significant advanced notice involving feature details, high-resolution photographs, pricing, availability and more.

A company may be able to suppress loose lips at its headquarters, but how do you keep a lid on leaks by partner companies in far-flung offices, each partner company with its own corporate cultures, laws and security systems?

The Internet has globalized information as well. Google makes available -- and even translates -- news, blogs and reports from all over the world. If juicy gadget information is posted anywhere, in any language, it will quickly spread globally in dozens of languages.

Tiny, cheap cameras are everywhere these days, including built into the nearly ubiquitous cell phone. When a potential leaker anywhere stumbles across a prototype gadget -- at a factory, trade show or the desk of a colleague -- chances are high he will have a digital camera readily available. Pictures can be posted in minutes and circulated globally in hours. And photos tell so much: branding, logo, partnerships, look-and-feel, size and more.

Some of the best content on the big gadget blogs, such as Engadget and Gizmodo, feature low-quality "spy" photos of upcoming products "spotted in the wild" by anonymous characters exposed to the devices in unknowable, random circumstances. Many of these posts show the product from front, rear, side, top and bottom views. Sometimes even the internal electronics are exposed for all to see. These posts can appear out of nowhere months or even more than a year before the products ship.

If the Internet is the glue that binds product information leaks with the curious public, then blogs are the superglue. If some interesting tidbit or photo is posted anywhere on the Internet, some gadget blogger will find it and link to it. A hot product leak that emerges on an obscure blog can spread like a virus, showing up on thousands of sites within a week, aided and abetted by social bookmarking services like Slashdot and Digg as well as message boards of every description.

It isn't just loose-lipped employees and alert gadget enthusiasts that find and leak information. Much information is also readily available from other sources, such as governments and disgruntled workers.

Many national governments (including the U.S. government) publish product information as part of the patent, trademark and licensing processes. One of the best sources of leaks is the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which must approve new cellular devices. When it does so, a shocking level of details appear on the FCC's Web site, including full specifications, color photos, preliminary user manuals and other documents. Here, for example, is a link to the FCC's posting for the AsusTek o2 XDA Graphite smart phone, which doesn't even have a ship date yet.

Another example: The U.S. Patent Office posts on its Web site details, often in the form of diagrams, of all patents granted in an easily searchable format. Gadget bloggers and columnists frequently visit the U.S. Patent Office Web site to search for company names like Apple, Microsoft and others. Seeing what product ideas and design concepts companies patent may expose, at least in outline, future product plans. The Patent Office also posts searchable trademarks.

Other countries have patent offices as well. Rumors about an Apple cell phone ran wild recently when Apple reportedly filed trademark applications for "iPhone" in a few Asian countries. These applications included some product information as well.

Such governmental procedures once attracted little notice. But when the publishing medium is the Web, everything changes.

Disgruntled employees

The traditional source for product leaks is the disgruntled or grandstanding employee who works either for the gadget maker or one of its partners. In the old days, company secrets might end up in the hands of a business reporter. Now, employees go straight to bloggers or post anonymously on message boards.

What can a company do?

While consumers may love all this leaking, it harms the ability of a company to extract maximum revenue from its intellectual property and hard work.

That's why, while we may currently live in a kind of temporary golden age of gadget product information leaks, in the future, companies are likely to take stronger action to put a stop to it all.

Apple is by far the strongest major consumer electronics company when it comes to stopping leaks. There is probably more interest and effort at divining Apple product secrets than at all other companies combined. Yet Apple somehow still manages to surprise the industry at most of its big product announcements.

One of the ways it does this is to turn the screws on leakers with credible threats of legal action. Bloggers, journalists, anonymous employees -- no one is safe. Another advantage to Apple's approach is accidental. There's so much interest in Apple product launches that every leak is accompanied by 10 false rumors. You never know what to believe until Steve Jobs takes the stage.

I think companies will increasingly follow Apple's strong-arm model when it comes to leaks. And I wouldn't be surprised if gadget companies send more lobbyists to Washington to do something about the rules governing what's posted on Patent Office and FCC Web sites.

So enjoy this era of product leaks while it lasts. Today's uncontrolled product exposure will probably become increasingly rare in the years to come.

BEST SITES FOR GADGET LEAKS

Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine. He can be reached at mike.elgan+computerworld@gmail.com or his blog: http://therawfeed.com

REDMOND, Washington (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is giving its Web browser software its first major upgrade in years, amid signs that Internet Explorer's market share is eroding.

The release late Wednesday brings Microsoft's browser more in line with competing products such as Opera Software ASA's Opera and Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox. Internet Explorer 7, or IE7, adds features such as tabbed browsing, which lets people open several Web pages without cluttering their desktop with multiple open browser windows.

Microsoft has been heavily testing the new browser, releasing five beta versions over 14 months, and has periodically offered security updates for IE6, first released in 2001.

Still, a lag of more than five years between official releases has cost the company. Web analysis company WebSideStory estimates that Internet Explorer's U.S. market share is about 86 percent, while Firefox commands about 11 percent of the market and smaller offerings account for the rest. Two years ago, IE had about a 93 percent share.

Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's general manager for Internet Explorer, acknowledged the company could have done more sooner, but he said the new version should address users' concerns.

"We did have active development," he said. "The question is whether it was enough."

Matt Rosoff, analyst with independent researchers Directions on Microsoft, said Internet Explorer is important to Microsoft's business because most people believe an operating system should include a way to immediately access the Web.

Still, he said, Microsoft may not have seen much reason to spend a lot of money upgrading sooner since most people continued to use the older version.

Rosoff said the new product includes enough improvements to lure back some users.

But Colin Teubner, an analyst with Forrester Research, said people already using Firefox and rival products might not immediately come back. That's partly because those users have soured on Microsoft, he said, and partly because IE7 doesn't break much new ground.

"A year ago Firefox was head and shoulders above Microsoft's current offering, and I think even with IE7 it's mostly playing catch up," Teubner said.

But he does recommend that IE6 users upgrade, and he believes Microsoft may surpass competitors with future improvements.

Besides tabbed browsing, Microsoft has improved security to help keep users from falling victim to things like malicious software attacks and phishing scams. Microsoft products are a near-constant target of Internet attackers, and some people have recommended switching browsers because a less high-profile product might be more secure.

The Redmond software maker also has added a box in the browser that lets people search the Internet without going to a separate Web page, much like competitors.

In a last-minute change, people who are upgrading from the previous version of the browser will now have a clearer way to choose whether they want to use Microsoft's search engine or a competing one from companies like Google Inc. or Yahoo Inc. The change announced Friday was one of several aimed at soothing antitrust worries in Europe, where Microsoft faces a longrunning regulatory battle.

Microsoft is offering IE7 as a free download. Next month, the company also will begin delivering it to Windows XP users who have signed up to automatically receive security fixes. Hachamovitch said that's because the product makes major security improvements.

Such distribution also will provide a powerful tool in countering competition from rival browsers.

Security updates typically download with little or no user intervention, but with IE7 people will get an extra opportunity to elect not to upgrade. Also, even people using automatic updates will have to agree to let Microsoft check whether their copy of Windows is pirated before they can get IE7.

Microsoft expects that it will take months to gradually release IE7 automatically. The browser also will be an integral part of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, due out for big businesses in November and for consumers in January.

Hacker claims to have cracked iPod restrictions

POSTED: 1522 GMT (2322 HKT), October 25, 2006

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- A hacker known for cracking the copy-protection technology in DVDs claims to have unlocked the playback restrictions of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and iTunes music products and plans to license his code to others.

The move by Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," could pit the 22-year-old against Apple's lawyers, experts say, but if successful could free users from some restrictions Apple and its rivals place on digital music.

Today, songs purchased from Apple's online iTunes Music Store can't be played on portable devices made by other companies. Songs purchased from many other online music stores also won't work on iPods because they similarly use a form of copy-protection that Apple doesn't support.

Johansen said he has developed a way to get around those restrictions. But unlike his previous work, which he usually posts for free, the Norway native plans to capitalize on his efforts through his Redwood Shores-based DoubleTwist Ventures, said the company's only other employee, managing director Monique Farantzos.

An unnamed client will soon use the technology so its copy-protected content will be playable on iPods, she said, declining to give any specifics.

"There's a certain amount of trouble that Apple can give us, but not enough to stop this," Farantzos said Tuesday. "We believe we're on good legal ground, and our attorneys have given us the green light on this."

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said the company did not want to comment.

A few others, including RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer Music Store, have also tried to circumvent Apple's copy-protection technology, called FairPlay, but haven't gained much traction.

Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney at the privacy-advocacy group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Johansen is treading carefully this time, consulting with lawyers, but isn't necessarily cleared from a legal fight over copy-protection laws.

"There is a lot of untested legal ground surrounding reverse engineering," he said.

Johansen became a hero to hackers at age 15, when he posted software called DeCSS to unlock the Content Scrambling System, or CSS, the film industry used on DVD movies to prevent illegal copying. The act made Johansen, who was then living in Norway, a folk hero among hackers.

After the film industry complained, Norwegian authorities charged him with data break-in, but Johansen was acquitted.

He has since become a strong advocate of the open-source philosophy of making software code freely available for inspection and sharing.

Cave an Ice Age time capsule

POSTED: 2040 GMT (0440 HKT), October 30, 2006

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (AP) -- The bear that left a 3-foot-long claw mark in an Ice Age clay bank was the largest bear species ever to walk the earth, about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and capable of moving its 1,800 pounds up to 45 miles per hour in a snarling dash for prey.

The claw mark by the extinct giant short-faced bear still looks fresh today in a southwest Missouri cave that some scientists are calling a national treasure -- an Ice Age time capsule sealed for thousands of years.

Discovered accidentally five years ago on the outskirts of Springfield, Riverbluff Cave is slowly yielding its fossil treasures as a small team of scientists and volunteers gingerly explores it while trying to preserve a rich bed of remains, from bones to tracks and dung.

"We found 5,000 microfossils in just one 1-foot by 2-foot block of clay," said lead paleontologist Matt Forir, the naturalist for Springfield-Greene County Parks.

Remains in the cave date back at least 830,000 years and possibly over 1 million years. At some point at least 55,000 years ago, it was sealed by rocks and mud until a construction crew blasted a hole in one end while building a road in September 2001.

The first major excavation is set for this fall after years of carefully surveying the 2,000-foot-long cave and collecting remains from the cave floor or protruding from the limestone and clay walls.

Just based on what was on the surface, the finds so far include mammoth and horse bones and beds clawed out of the clay by the short-faced bear, possibly while denning with cubs. Peccary tracks are the first proof that herds of the pig-like animals roamed in caves rather than just being dragged in by predators.

There are tracks of large cats, possibly saber-toothed tigers or American lions. Foot-long shells of previously unknown turtle species stick out of a wall.

Forir said every discovery raises new questions. Mammoth bones and a juvenile tooth dated around 630,000 years ago came from one of two species and it will require more adult remains to tell which one it is. He hopes the excavation will provide answers.

"We either have the oldest wooly mammoth in North America or the youngest Meridian mammoth. Most of the stuff in this cave is like that, always raising more questions," he said.

Paleontologist Larry Agenbroad, who heads a major mammoth excavation project called The Mammoth Site in South Dakota, said the number of remains of large animals and the fact that Riverbluff Cave was sealed like a time capsule make it a rarity.

"This is a national paleontological treasure," he said.

Greg McDonald, senior curator of natural history for the National Park Service, said Riverbluff Cave offers rare insight into Ice Age ecology. By combining animal bones with other traces, including tracks and dung, it can show how Ice Age animals lived, what they ate and what killed them off.

"It's a unique combination of traces and the quality of preservation that makes it such a phenomenal site," McDonald said. "It's probably going to become a major reference site that will help us better understand the remains we have at other sites."

If research confirms that dung in the bear beds is from the short-faced bear, it would be a first and could provide real clues about what the bears ate, McDonald said.

Forir said the short-faced bear was the largest land predator of its time, roaming much of North America and catching its prey with a jaw power of more than 2,000 pounds per square inch. Its name comes from a shortened muzzle, more like a lion's than a black or brown bear's.

"It was the T-Rex of the Ice Age," Forir said.

The cave remains closed to the public to preserve its remains. After an attack by vandals, it was sealed by the county behind locked metal doors equipped with an alarm.

But with the help of the Springfield-Greene County library system and Ozarks Technical Community College, Forir installed a fiber optic network that lets him broadcast pictures from the cave for school classes and the public.

"This is where the Ice Age meets the Space Age," he said.

The cave has also spawned another educational project, Missouri's first natural history museum.

Forir won a grant to build a 4,000-square-foot building near the cave that will house a new Natural History Museum of the Ozarks. The museum, which should be constructed by early 2007, will showcase the cave's findings as well as regional natural history.

Stem Cells - Learn more about the promise and the controversy in our cutting edge special report .

Fast-forward to the end of the 21^st Century: surgeons can create new organs to order, regrow crippled spines and hearts and reverse the damage of Parkinson's disease or diabetes with ease. Immune rejection and waiting lists for replacement organs are consigned to history.

Stem cells may have the potential to fulfil this promise and much more, but there are still many technical, ethical and political obstacles to overcome before real therapies are possible.

Doctors have been transplanting adult blood stem cells, in the form of bone marrow transplants, for many decades, but stem cells from human embryos were only isolated and cultured in 1998. Though research has progressed rapidly since then, we still have much to understand; not least what gives stem cells their unique properties, but also how exactly they are able to differentiate into the 300 or so different types of human cell.

Despite their medical promise, stem cells have been dogged by political and ethical controversy because some are derived from discarded human embryos, and because of fears and confusion about links with human reproductive cloning. The future of stem cell therapies was thrown deeper into doubt in late 2005, when a leader of the field - Woo Suk Hwang, South Korea's stem cell king" - was found to have forged key discoveries and flouted ethical protocols. So has the stem cell miracle been postponed?

Full of potential

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) come from fertilised human embryos - pinhead-sized balls of cells called blastocysts - just a few days old. In the embryo, these cells go on to form all the tissues of the developing body. They have generated so much interest because they are virtually immortal in the laboratory and can also generate any tissue type from bones to brain cells - making them pluripotent.

So far, most existing ESC colonies come from human embryos leftover from infertility treatments. But women are now donating eggs specifically for stem cell research in some countries.

The cells could potentially be cultured in the lab as an unlimited source of repair tissue for many ailments. Humans might even one day regenerate missing parts, as newts do.

Besides regeneration, stem cells could also be studied to provide insights into how human bodies develop from fertilised eggs. Stem cells with genetic defects could further be used to understand how congenital diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, develop. Stem cells might also be used to test new drugs in the lab on a range of tissues, instead of on people or animals.

Adult stem cells

As well as the fetus, stem cells are also found in the placenta, amniotic fluid and umbilical cord, and they remain in many adult tissues. Cord blood is sometimes collected at birth today, and the stem cells stored.

Adult stem cells have been found in: bone marrow, blood, the cornea and retina, intestine, liver, muscles, nervous system and the brain, pancreas and skin. These "multipotent" stem cells are less flexible than ESCs and are typically only able to form cells of the tissue in which they reside. "Adult" distinguishes these cells from their embryonic equivalents, but they are present in children too.

For example, hematopoietic stem cells are blood-forming stem cells, which largely reside in bone marrow. They are responsible for replenishing all blood cell types on a continual basis. It is these stem cells that rebuild the damaged blood system of leukaemia sufferers after successful bone marrow transplants. Mesenchymal stem cells, also found in bone marrow, can go on to form cells including muscle, fat, skin and cartilage.

Though adult stem cells are less flexible than ESCs, and are not immortal in the laboratory, they sidestep the ethical quandary of destroying embryos. Furthermore, we may be able to stimulate the adult stem cells we already possess to travel to and repair damaged tissues within our bodies.

Currently stem cells of both types are being tested to treat many conditions, including: Alzheimer's disease, blood disorders, blood loss, baldness, blindness,cystic fibrosis, deafness, diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, liver damage, lupus, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries and stroke.

Stem cells have also been used to fight cancer, treat dogs and race horses, and provide tissue for human breast implants and replacement teeth.

Researchers still have much to learn about how to direct stem cells to form and repair different tissues and how they behave within a patient's body. Even identifying stem cells is difficult currently. Concern that stem cells could divide uncontrollably to form tumours called teratocarcinomas is also likely to delay major clinical trials for some years. Stem cells might also become cancerous in the lab.

The cloning connection

The most significant hurdle however, is immune rejection. As with any tissue transplant (from a donor other than an identical twin), the body will recognise ESCs as foreign and mount an attack which could destroy them. ESC recipients would have to take immune suppressant drugs for the rest of their lives.

Multiplying a patient's own adult stem cells in the lab and then reinjecting them is one way to avoid rejection. Duping the immune system is another possibility, perhaps using stem cells from the brain that somehow avoid detection.

Therapeutic cloning is a clever technique that circumvents the problem. We can make custom-made ESCs using a patient's own DNA and a donor egg. In the same way as reproductive cloning, the nucleus of a skin or muscle cell from the patient is added to an unfertilised egg that has had its own genetic material removed. This egg is then persuaded to divide as though it had been fertilised and, with luck, goes on to form the ball of cells called a blastocyst. At this point, the inner cell mass is removed and cultured in the lab to derive stem cells. These stem cells now contain the DNA of the recipient and would not be treated as foreign by the immune system.

But, in theory, the cloned embryo could be implanted into a womb where it might develop into a cloned human baby. This would be reproductive cloning, and is the same method used to produce Dolly the sheep.

Ethical minefield

Producing viable clones of many species is a lengthy and difficult problem, and has yet to be proven in humans – despite questionable claims of success.

In any case, reproductive cloning has been banned in many countries for ethical reasons and because of suspected health risks to the clone. It was banned in the UK in 2001. Despite strong opposition, it has yet to be banned in the US.

For many, the destruction of embryos for scientific purposes is unacceptable, so numerous countries – such as Germany and France - also support bans on therapeutic cloning and using embryos to derive stem cells. A total of 87 nations voted for a resolution totally banning both types of human cloning in March 2005, but it was abandoned due to failure to agree on therapeutic cloning.

For others, the medical benefits outweigh these concerns. For example, in the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, China and South Korea, therapeutic cloning has been allowed, but regulated. In the UK, licenses have been granted for studies into diabetes and motor neuron disease. ESC lines have been created in the UK since 2003. The EU provides some funding for ESC research in those countries that have embraced it.

In the US, the situation has become complicated. Disagreement between the religious groups who want a total ban on cloning and an equally vociferous pro-therapeutic cloning lobby has stalled legislation. In the place of a ban, US president George W Bush introduced legislation that restricted federally funded research to 22 stem cells lines created before 2001. However, research now suggests that these lines may have been tainted with material from mouse feeder cells in the lab, rendering them useless for human therapy. New ESC colonies free of this contamination have now been created.

Some US states have taken the situation into their own hands. California agreed a plan in 2004 to provide $3 billion for stem cell research over 10 years. By contrast, the Bush administration has pledged just $25 million annually to stem cell research.

In response to these restrictions, the race is on to find an ethical stem cell source - one that does not involve destroying embryos. One method does exist, but it creates ESCs with abnormal chromosomes. Other methods extract stem cells without destroying embryos, or create embryos that could never become babies. Further possible sources are: baby teeth cells, "universal" adult stem cells umbilical cord blood and testicle cells.

Fall from grace

Politics is not the only controversy that has gripped the stem cell world.

In May 2005, one of the world's top stem cell scientists - South Korea's Woo Suk Hwang – announced that his team had used therapeutic cloning to produce 11 ESC lines tailored to individual patients. This was one of a string of remarkable achievements. In 2004 Hwang cloned human embryos for the first time, and he later produced the world's first cloned dog - an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

Then in late 2005, the research community was rocked by claims that Hwang had flouted ethical guidelines by obtaining eggs from women in his own research group. As investigations proceeded and other transgressions unfolded, it became clear that much of his research had been fabricated. There are now questions over his use of funds too.

The fall from grace has been spectacular for a man who was revered as a national hero in South Korea, and the repercussions have travelled far and wide. Collaborating researchers have been tarnished by association, other stem cell science is under doubt, investors are wary of stem cell medicine, and there are now questions about how easy it is to fabricate results.

The already controversial field of stem cell research was brought further into disrepute, and it remains to be seen how much the scandal will delay the development of the miracle therapies that are so desperately desired.

The world is not flat -- but soon the average TV will be. According to recent data from research firm iSuppli, shipments of LCD TVs, much loved for their compact, flat designs, will rise from nearly six million in 2005 to well over 32 million in 2010.

At the same time, shipments of bulky CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs -- the kind seen in most homes today -- will drop from 19 million in 2005 to just over two million in 2010 as the market for the older technology dwindles away.

Steve Kovsky, principal analyst for digital TVs and displays at Current Analysis, said that people don't buy flat panel TVs because of their dropping price tags -- which are still higher than CRTs -- or even for their sleek form factors.

"People think they're cool," he said. "And they are cool. It's fashion."

Kovsky also said that flat panel TVs help in a field where you'd least expect them to matter: the eternal battle between husband and wife. How? Kovsky, an expert on consumer electronics trends, said he wonders whether some women have grown tired of old-school big screens and their endless diet of football, baseball, and, on slow days in the sports world, bowling.

"They've put up with big screen TVs for decades and had these huge ugly monstrosities the size of a Buick in their living rooms," he said. "Many men will say this has been a sore point." With a pause, he adds: "And many women, too."

Marriage issues aside, Kovsky noted that consumers have a love of flat panels that, at times, defies explanation.

"It really isn't rational behavior," he said, noting that owners of flat screen TVs often keep them away from the one place they were designed to be. "Most people don't mount their TVs on the wall, which is where the sort of irrational behavior comes in," he said.

He also noted that other technologies offer a high-quality image at a better price. "A projection TV is a lower cost per inch," he said, "and the picture is comparable, too."

But perhaps the allure of the flat screen is simply too much to resist -- for consumers and experts alike. Kovsky said he often receives flat panels and other gadgets for review, and as he discussed their pros and cons, he mentioned that a colleague was at that very moment smuggling a flat screen away from his office stash.

"It's still in the box," he said, his voice touched with more laughter than chagrin.

DVD Recorder Buying Guide

Find the DVD Recorder that's Right for You

A Sony DVD Recorder is a great alternative to a traditional VCR for recording and viewing home videos, as well as your favorite TV programs. Not only is the quality of video and sound much higher, but a DVD Recorder also offers many additional features that are far superior to those offered by a traditional VCR. To find the best DVD Recorder for you, first you need to understand the different features and benefits.

A DVD Recorder is the perfect addition to your home theater. It provides an easy way to transfer home videos to DVD, record your favorite TV programs, and view videos and pictures from your digital video camcorder or camera. But, with all the options and confusing features out there, how do you decide which DVD Recorder is best for you? Let’s demystify the technical details so finding the perfect DVD Recorder for your system is simple.

Preferred Features

So you've decided to convert your home videos to DVD, you've assessed your collection, learned the ins and outs of DVD conversion, and are simply in need of a product to meet your requirements. Any DVD recorder can convert analog videos to DVD; however, you should also think about the future. What other functionality do you want in the long term when you add a DVD recorder to your home entertainment system?

A DVD recorder does more than merely serve as an archival aid in transferring home videos to DVD. It can also record analog television programming and standard-definition digital television programming to either a DVD or a Hard Disk Drive (HDD).

Note: Today’s DVD recorders can't record high-definition television signals. Expect this functionality sometime in the future for a higher definition disc-based format.

The Sony RDR-HX715 DVD Recorder & Hard Disk Drive Combo is superior to hard drive devices and comparable to cable television services for recording televised programming. A DVD recorder is certainly the victor when compared to VCR offerings, with much higher quality sound and video, and an intuitive user interface that makes recording your favorite shows a snap. In addition to a 160 GB hard drive, which can store up to 260 hours of your favorite home videos or television programs, the RDR-HX715 provides a television tuner and an electronic program guide.

Television Tuner

DVD recorders use an analog television tuner to record television programming. With a built-in tuner you can program different channels for recording. This works just like when you program your VCR to record different channels. The tuner receives television channels via cable, satellite, or antenna and saves them either to a DVD or a hard drive. This feature is important if you plan to record television programs for viewing later.

Electronic Program Guide

Electronic program guides are available through most cable and satellite companies. These guides make recording simple by walking you through the process using an interface that displays all of the television programming available for a certain period. You see a menu on your television from which you select options. You're already familiar with programming guides if you have a cable or satellite box because you use the guide to select shows to watch. The difference is, with the right DVD recorder, you use this same guide to select programs to record.

Recordable DVD Format and Pre-recorded DVDs

All DVD players can play pre-recorded DVDs. You'll have no problem viewing DVDs of the latest television shows and movies you buy at a store or rent from the video store. However, the DVDs you record from your existing video tapes will be viewable only on a DVD recorder that uses the same DVD-recordable format. Many DVD recorders support only one format, like DVD/R, for example, although some manufacturers make products that support multi-formats. It's worth your time to consider a DVD recorder that offers you this flexibility.

The Sony RDR-GX315 DVD Recorder is compatible with DVD+RW/+R, DVD-RW/-R, and DVD+R DL for longer playing time and maximum compatibility. It also supports MP3 on CD-R/CD-RW Playback, and i.LINK® Interface for DV & Digital 8® Camcorders so it's easy to view or listen to your pre-recorded home movies and music.

Additional Functionality

Moving beyond preferred functionality in a DVD recorder, there are a many additional features for you to consider. If you want a DVD recorder with diverse functionality that can respond to both your present and future needs, look for units with the following features:

Tip: If you plan to edit, you want non-linear editing options. You'll save significant time by getting to pick and choose footage out of sequence.

Taking the time to understand how you're going to use your DVD Recorder, what formats you need to support, and how much editing functionality is useful in determining which Sony DVD Recorder is right for you. You have learned more about the technical features and benefits available to you, now replace that outdated VCR and upgrade to the high quality sound and video provided by a DVD Recorder.

Boosting Internet speeds without fiber-optics

POSTED: 1803 GMT (0203 HKT), October 10, 2006

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A group of technology and telecoms companies, including Spanish giant Telefonica, joined forces on Tuesday to boost the Internet speeds of copper telephone wires to almost equal that of fiber-optic cable.

"It will allow telecoms companies to provide high-bandwidth services cost-effectively ... rather than replacing all copper wires with fibre-optics up to the subscriber premises," said Zvika Weinshtock, vice president marketing for broadband access at Israeli telecoms equipment maker ECI Telecom.

The new technology, dubbed Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM), promises speeds to rival those of fibre-optic networks, much faster than currently available on broadband -- DSL.

Telecoms operators in Europe and the United States have pledged to invest tens of billions of euros (dollars) by extending their fiber optic core network closer to homes and boost the speed of their networks.

Faster speeds are needed, because even with the latest DSL broadband technology, called VDSL2, operators struggle to offer high quality television and video-on-demand services.

Lower cost, faster speed

In the United States, Verizon plans to invest $22.9 billion on a new fiber network right to homes and businesses to compete with the multimedia offerings from cable TV carriers.

AT&T is also building a fiber network but its lines will not cover the last mile to the home.

Deutsche Telekom is considering bringing the fibre network directly to the consumer, but operators and analysts estimate wiring a household with "fiber-to-the-home" costs between 1,000 euros to 1,500 euros.

The companies developing the new technology will form a consortium to develop DSM, which they expect to provide reliable, fiber-optic-like rates over the existing telephone copper wire infrastructure.

"DSM is expected to have a significant impact on the market, as the DSL industry is looking for solutions beyond VDSL2 to increase subscriber broadband rates (speeds)," the new consortium said in a statement.

A senior executive at French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel, which is one of the main providers of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services equipment and software to telecoms operators, said on Tuesday that some carriers had delayed the launch of IPTV services to customers, partly due to technical glitches.

"Yes, we have seen in a number of cases, roll-outs that were slower than some service providers had anticipated ... Everybody is learning a lesson. They did not focus enough on the integration of the underlying infrastructure," said Michel Rahier, head of Alcatel's fixed communications division.

ECI Telecom will be leading the consortium. Other members, apart from Telefonica, include Israeli operator Bezeq and technology firms Actelis, RIT Technologies and Amethist.

Academic institutions, including the Technion, Bar Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, will also work on the project which is part financed by the Chief Scientist Office of the Israeli Government.

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POSTED: 1422 GMT (2222 HKT), October 19, 2006