Why Microsoft needs small tablets

This is Microsoft's newly unveiled Surface 2 tablet. Should we expect a smaller sibling soon?

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

When Microsoft releases Windows 8.1 next month, there will surely be new swipe-friendly screens introduced to accommodate it -- and with good reason.

While Windows 8.1 includes some niceties for those who would rather stay in the desktop environment, Microsoft continues to stand firm on sending consumers to the Start screen with its mutated Start button and has introduced a number of enhancements to it and the Modern user interface. These include swiping down to reveal all apps, a way to select multiple Live Tiles, and support for up to three apps in resizable panes.

Following the lead of Android tablet makers and Apple, Microsoft will be enticing its hardware partners to produce smaller Windows tablets, particularly as it has left them an opening by keeping its own Surface tablets above 10 inches. We have already seen Acer jump in with the Iconia W3, along with a recent model announced by Toshiba.

The pricing waterfall among small tablets has challenges aplenty for virtually any competitor. For Microsoft, it's particularly challenging because much of what the company has put behind its tablet strategy becomes even less relevant on an 8-inch device. These include features such as support for external USB devices, keyboard docks, and Office. While Microsoft has allowed the latter to be bundled on smaller tablets, it has less appeal on a smaller tablet than on the current crop of hard-luck Windows tablets.

In short, the smaller the tablet, the less it conforms to notions of what a "PC" is and, indeed, how it's used; this throws off the company's central tablet marketing spin.

Nonetheless, small Windows tablets offer two advantages for Microsoft.

First, smaller tablets tend to be less expensive than larger ones. Although Windows tablets still won't go toe-to-toe with sub-$100 tablets at Walmart, going smaller would at least put them into iPad Mini territory. Second, without the contrivances of keyboards and other peripherals, smaller tablets are more likely to be pure slates. Because of this, there is a stronger incentive for Windows developers to support the Modern UI to reach customers using these devices. It's the flip side of the PC identity correlation.

The smaller the Windows device, the greater the relative value of touch on that device, as per Windows Phone. Indeed, rumors now persist that Microsoft will combine the app stores for Windows and Windows Phone shortly, and may even be working toward combining Windows Phone and Windows RT, the poorly received desktop Windows variant aimed at the same kind of ARM chips used in Windows Phones.

Smaller tablets are also more portable. And without many of the mobile apps shared with smartphones, the proposition for smaller Windows tablets will be weaker relative to the competition than it is for larger Windows tablets.

Still, to be a player in the tablet space, Windows has to have a presence in the middle ground between 10-inch tablets and 5-inch smartphones, even if it further tests the patience of the company and its partners. Tough love is never easy.

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Apple bumps Coca-Cola to become world's top brand

Interbrand said the value of Apple's brand soared over Coca-Cola to become No. 1 in its annual ranking. Google secured the No. 2 spot and is rising fast.

(Credit: Interbrand)

For the first time in its 13-year history, Interbrand has a new leader of its annual study of the most valuable brand names: Apple.

The iPhone maker bumped Coca-Cola, which had led the study since it began in 2000, with a brand value Interbrand assessed at $98.3 billion. And reflecting the rising importance of technology in global business and consumer consciousness, Google came in at second place with a brand value of $93.3 billion, well ahead of the soft drink maker's $79.2 billion value.

Not everyone fared as well in the tech world. As Samsung rose from ninth to eight place with a 20 percent brand value in increase, it traded positions with Intel, which dropped 5 percent.

Interbrand bases its assessment on a combination of the company's financial performance, its role influencing consumer choices, and how well the brand lets a company charge premium prices and deliver profits.

"Every so often, a company changes our lives -- not just with its products, but with its ethos. This is why...Apple now ranks No. 1," said Jez Frampton, Interbrand's global chief executive officer in a statement Monday. The report (PDF) added a cautionary note amid paragraphs of lavish praise: "The focus for the future is clear: Apple must succeed in slowing Samsung's momentum and capture the booming Chinese mobile market."

Apple surged from 36th place in the first Interbrand study in 2000 to the top spot in 2013. No. 2 Google is rising faster.

(Credit: Interbrand)

Apple had been No. 2 in the 2012 study of brand value, and Google was No. 4. IBM, previously No. 3, slipped to fourth place, and Microsoft stayed level at fifth place.

Samsung, which has gained prominence through consumer electronics and Android phones, rose from ninth to eight place with a 20 percent brand value in increase. That let it trade positions with Intel, which dropped 5 percent from the 2012 list.

Interbrand also calls out the companies whose brand value is rising fastest. There, Facebook came out on top, with a 43 percent increase in brand value over the last year. It ranks 52 on the overall 2013 list, up from 69th place in 2012.

Interbrand's study shows the rising value over the last five years of the top companies' brand names.

(Credit: Interbrand)

Facebook's ascent stemmed from its growth in users, including mobile users and people in Asia, and financial results that bested Wall Street's expectations. "Facebook's growth is likely to continue for years to come," Interbrand's report said.

Google was the No. 2 rising brand as well. "Due to evolutionary changes to its core offerings (Search, Android, and Gmail) and new innovations like Google Glass and its self-driving car, Google's brand value increased by 34 percent," Interbrand said.

Next among top risers were Italian fashion company Prada, with a 30 percent increase; Apple, at 28 percent, and Amazon, which rose 27 percent to take 19th place on the list. Its strength stemmed not just from its e-commerce stronghold, but also from Kindle readers, streaming video service, and original programming.

Updated at 1:12 a.m. PT with further detail.

The top 40 companies on Interbrand's 2013 list of the most valuable brand names

(Credit: Interbrand)

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Why the NFL made Twitter its first social draft pick

Anquan Boldin, wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, scores a touchdown against the St. Louis Rams during Thursday Night Football on September 26, 2013. Ahead of the game, fans could watch a pregame analysis video in a promoted tweet from the NFL.

(Credit: Michael Thomas/Getty Images)

The National Football League doesn't like to share -- at least when it comes to the content it licenses to television networks for billions of dollars each year. But for the first time ever, the organization has partnered with a social network to share, in its own terms, "some of the most valuable content in the entertainment business."

The social network in question is Twitter, and the arrangement is such that the NFL will program special video clips that will be delivered as Promoted Tweets through the organization's official Twitter handle. Those video clips will include near-instant replays from Thursday night games, Sunday post-game highlights, analysis, news, and fantasy football advice. Videos will be appended with pre-roll, 5- to 8-second advertisements from Verizon and another unnamed sponsor. Twitter and the NFL will share advertising, though the exact terms of the arrangement are unknown.

For Twitter, the deal means additional revenue in the lead up to its public offering. It also, perhaps equally important, gives the company a coveted asset that its competitors, Facebook in particular, won't have. The other social network has five times the active users and has been aggressively working its way into television and the real-time realm with hashtags, embedded posts, trending topics, and a public feed-sharing partnership with Mass Relevance.

So, why Twitter?

"Because of the nature of their platform, of being open publicly and real time ... and really seeing a synergist experience ... we thought this was a great way to start off with something deep with a social partner," Hans Schroeder, senior vice president of media strategy and development for the NFL, told CNET.

The NFL and Twitter have had an ongoing relationship for years, but conversations about an advertising partnership got serious over the summer, he said, and then moved swiftly. Verizon, the football organization's partner on NFL mobile and the exclusive distributor of live games to smartphones, was game to extend its arrangement with the NFL to run Twitter-sized spots.

"[Twitter] came with a much more robust appreciation for what their distribution could mean for content owners like ourselves," Schroeder said. "For us, one of the real attractive things about this partnership ... is the ability to take our content and use their ability to promote within their distribution network, and make sure a number much larger than 5 million people see this content and become more aware of the conversation around the NFL that happens today."

The NFL has about 5 million followers on Twitter, but the organization eyes the larger potential in the crossover between the 190 million NFL fans in the US and the 100 million people or so who use Twitter stateside, Schroeder said. The NFL really wants broad appeal, he added, and plans to expose its Twitter-specific content to casual and enthusiast sports fans alike.

The promoted tweets, which started Thursday morning with a pregame analysis video released ahead of the evening's football match up, will vary in appeal. Because of complicated licensing agreements, the NFL will only put out in-progress game highlights for the Thursday night games, which air on its own network. Still, Schroeder anticipates that the effort will boost television ratings and bring in new viewers.

"When we tweet out a highlight as it happens and somebody sees that in that Twitter feed, we definitely think it will lead to incremental viewership," he said. "We think ... even on Sundays, when we put out highlights after the game, that it will drive more people back to the television."

Schroeder also said he believes Twitter's real-time feed of tweets to be very complimentary to the football watching experience, which explains, in part, why the organization is investing so heavily in creating original content just for people on the network. The NFL plans to produce, in what Schroeder referred to a "robust and comprehensive content strategy," custom Twitter clips seven days a week. It will tap the "content factory" at the NFL Network and NFL Films to create programming for audiences on the 140-character platform.

Though Schroeder would never say it, the subtext of his comments suggests that Twitter is the only social network in town that the NFL can trust to impact viewership and increase usage of its branded applications. Rather, he'll give you a very diplomatic answer about wanting the NFL's content to "evolve with the broader marketplace."

His remarks leave the door open for the NFL to work with Facebook, but for now we can score this as a game-winning touchdown for Twitter.

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NSA maps some Americans' social connections, says report

NSA Director Keith Alexander

(Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Facebook, Google, and other tech firms apparently aren't the only ones who've been fascinated by the potential of "social graphs" -- maps of people's social connections. The NSA has reportedly been tapping its giant repositories of phone and e-mail data to create complex diagrams of some Americans' interactions, including lists of associates and travel companions; location info; and other personal data.

The US National Security Agency has, The New York Times reports, been creating such graphs since 2010, using setups like the "Enterprise Knowledge System" -- which, according to a leaked document referenced by the Times, is designed to "rapidly discover and correlate complex relationships and patterns across diverse data sources on a massive scale."

Another document -- these being the latest to surface from the cache provided to journalists by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden -- is titled "Better Person Centric Analysis." It discusses 94 "entity types," such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and IP addresses, that are trawled by the NSA using queries like "travelsWith, hasFather, sentForumMessage, employs" to create "community of interest" profiles.

Data is also culled from other sources, such as passenger manifests, voter registration rolls, tax info, GPS location data, bank codes, insurance information, and even Facebook profiles, the Times reports.

This latest revelation about the NSA's practices comes as critics worry about the secretive agency abusing its surveillance powers and as Congress ponders curtailing the agency's programs.

The intention of the NSA social graphs, according to a 2011 agency memo quoted by the Times, is to "discover and track" connections between foreign intelligence targets and Americans. The effort has been facilitated by a policy change at the agency -- made in secret -- that's allowed analysts there to scan communications metadata and create social graphs "without," the memo says, "having to check foreigness" of every phone number, e-mail address, or other identifier that comes up.

The agency had previously required such verification to protect the privacy of American citizens, but had, the Times says, been frustrated by how that restriction slowed or stopped its investigations of various contact chains.

Metadata includes things like location info regarding a given phone number; what calls have been placed from that number and when; and how long the calls have lasted. It doesn't include the actual content of calls (or e-mails), though some have pointed out that it can reveal a significant amount of personal information.

An agency spokeswoman told the Times that the policy change was based on a Supreme Court ruling from 1979 -- Smith v. Maryland -- which the Justice Department and others maintain means that individuals don't have an expectation of privacy in the phone numbers they call. Still others, however, say the case is not only outdated but not exactly relevant either.

NSA officials wouldn't say how many Americans have been swept up in the social graph effort or which phone and e-mail databases are being used, the Times reports. They did say, however, that the effort does not involve the database of domestic call records that was revealed by Snowden's leaked documents back in June.

An NSA spokeswoman told the Times in regard to the social graph effort: "All data queries must include a foreign intelligence justification, period" and that "all of NSA's work has a foreign intelligence purpose. Our activities are centered on counterterrorism, counterproliferation, and cybersecurity."

The idea of social graphs -- though of a markedly different type -- has also seized the imagination of Internet developers. In 2010, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company's "Open Graph" initiative at the F8 conference. At that time, Facebook Director of Platform Product Bret Taylor said, "now for the first time, the likes and interests of my Facebook profile link to places that are not Facebook.com...My identity is not just defined by things on Facebook, it's defined by things all over the Web."

It seems the idea of an uberweb of connections appealed to people in other fields as well.

Read the Times piece here.

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Classics Corner: 16V dreams

When you reach a certain age, you begin to look back on the motoring world with a huge dose of nostalgia. You don't so much visit Specsavers for an annual checkup as to submit a repeat prescription for a pair of rose-tinted glasses. You see, when it comes to cars, time is a great leveller. I introduced this dusty corner of XCAR as a focus on the automotive twilight zone.

The period between classic and modern where only true enthusiasts dare tread. The unashamedly old school and unfashionable department of XCAR. You'll find us in the basement. Head down the fire escape stairs, turn left by the gents, and in the far corner you'll see a single light bulb, glowing dimly in the darkness.

Let me take you back to January 1992. A notable date for me, as it was the month I turned 17. Within hours of opening my birthday cards, I was out taking a driving lesson. I had waited all my life to get behind the wheel, so there wasn't a second to waste. Never again would the thought of driving a white, base-spec Nissan Micra fill me with such excitement.

I still have a copy of "Car Magazine" from that month. In just 150 pages it represents all that is good about cars in the early '90s. My very own "Wonder Years."

It all starts with the cover. Six hot hatches and a Ferrari Testarossa split by a headline proclaiming "Ferrari's new Testarossa and the 16-valve hatches it can't keep up with." And at the very foot of the page, the teasing sub headline "World Exclusive: We drive the Bentley Continental R." If this cover doesn't stir your soul, you're either not a petrolhead or you're clinically dead.

It gets better inside. There's an ad for the Alfa Romeo 164, reviews of the new Mazda RX-7, and Citroen XM Estate, plus a long term test of the Volkswagen Corrado 16v. Perhaps it's me, but these models seem so much more exciting than the range offered by the respective manufacturers in 2012.

But the star of the show is undoubtedly the 16-valve group test. To give it the same impact as "Car" in 1992, I'll present the lineup in glorious upper case: "HONDA CIVIC VTi-v-VAUXHALL ASTRA GSi-v-RENAULT 19 16v-v-FORD ESCORT RS2000-v-ROVER 220 GTi-v-FIAT TIPO 16v."

Boom! How exciting does that sound? Heroes of a distant age that for this 17-year-old were so far out of reach. Even if I could afford the purchase price, the insurance would have been crippling.

In 1992, it would have cost around £90,000 ($145,098 US) to fill your dream garage with these everyday heroes. For a similar price you could have owned a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. Fast-forward 20 years and, assuming you can find them, the entire lineup could be yours for little more than the price of a Dacia Sandero. As Gabrielle once sang, dreams can come true. You just need a little patience.

Reading the group test today is poignant for a number of reasons. Taking the cars to one side for a moment, the article itself was penned by Brett Fraser, a chap whose words I spent a great deal of time reading back in the day. But it also contained "counterpoints" by LJK Setright and Russell Bulgin. Carlsberg doesn't do group tests, but if it did...

As it happened, the writers weren't exactly lavish in their praise for the six road warriors. The Civic was considered the best, even after taking into account the "cramped cabin in rear," "pathetic boot space," "tiring road noise," and "stiff ride in town." It won, purely because it was the most fun. Common sense therefore prevailed.

Today I'd be happy to experience any one of them. The Fiat Tipo would top my own list, but my love of all things French would put the 19 close behind. But we need to move fast to save these cars. At the last count there were just 11 16v Tipos on the road and less than 100 of the Renaults. These cars are fast approaching extinction.

I know I'll be accused of indulging myself in a huge dollop of nostalgia here, but rather like a fine wine, cars like these mature nicely with age. Their respective shortcomings don't disappear of course, but with the onset of time and supposed progress, I can't help thinking that we never had it so good.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on vinyl. See, I told you things were better in 1992...

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Lego shines as beautiful art in new book (Q&A)

Lego fans, rejoice!

This week, bookstores everywhere will begin getting copies of "Beautiful Lego," a new book by Mike Doyle and published by No Starch Press filled to brimming with some of the most stunning Lego art ever seen.

Throughout the 267-page volume, readers are treated to one fantastic Lego work after another. From renderings of Apple's original Macintosh to scenes from Tolkein to faithful recreations of New York's post-9/11 World Trade Center site, "Beautiful Lego" has it all.

As Doyle put it in his acknowledgement, the book (and the art portrayed inside) was "possible only through the amazing work created by the Lego building community. Their work -- shared online and at events -- brings endless inspiration."

Many people no doubt think of Lego as little more than a child's toy. But those who have spent any time around the masters of the craft of Lego building know that a collection of the small plastic bricks can lead to masterpieces of creativity and ingenuity.

CNET caught up with Doyle to learn more about his own inspiration for putting his book together.

Q: Why did you want do this book?
Mike Doyle: I had not seen a book that treats Lego work like an art. So, from the beginning, that was the goal -- to have a book filled with tons of beautiful pictures of beautiful Lego models displayed simply, and in a beautiful way.

How surprised do you think readers will be to see how artistic Lego designs can be?
Doyle: I still can't get over how artistic the works are, and I'm the one who made the book. I think folks will be very surprised and, hopefully, inspired.

What kind of mind does it take to be someone who builds these kinds of designs?
I have found many who build tend to be into the sciences, computer programming, engineering or architecture -- which seems to make sense. All these professions use creativity in a way that is either spatial or puzzle-like in nature. Also, I think designers and artists tend to gravitate to them. My guess is that these are some of the typical minds that are drawn to working with Lego. I think any mind can contribute and create though.

Mike Doyle

(Credit: Mike Doyle)

What amazed you the most as you were putting together this collection?
I would say I am amazed at the clever techniques that individuals develop. The more I look at the photos the more details I see that makes me wonder, "how the heck did they do that?!"

If someone wanted to become the type of artist who can make these designs, how should they go about it?
All that matters is to have the will to do it. Some will be more natural at it then others, but if one works hard enough, they can do anything. That said, the best way to approach it is to look online at what other people are doing. There are plenty of blogs out there (including http://www.brothers-brick.com/), which showcase inspiring work every day. Additionally, folks tend to put their work on Flickr. Carefully studying how others have built their models is a good way to learn the great techniques that are out there. Legos are best purchased at www.bricklink.com which is sort of the ebay of Lego.

How much do you love Lego?
More and more every day.

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TouchCast (iOS)

TouchCast, for iPad only, brings broadcast quality tools for making video blogs, reviews, how-tos, news broadcasts, and more with a touch-friendly and interactive interface. You also can browse and see what other TouchCasters have made and follow them much like you would on a social network.

What sets TouchCast apart from other video creation apps is the ability to add what the developers call vApps (short for video apps), so viewers can interact with the video. So, for example, you might be talking in front of your iPad camera, and next to you could be a photo, your location on a map (via Google), or even a Web page. All of these are touchable by the viewer to bring the content full screen, while the video continues to play in a window. You can even browse a real Web page while the video continues to play. This interactivity gives the app a lot of potential for how-tos and other fun videos, but I'm not sure current TouchCast videos live up to all that potential just yet.

Exploring other user-made videos
There are two sides to the TouchCast app: a place to browse the latest TouchCasts from other users or the "Touch" side, and a place to create them yourself on the "Cast" side.

On the Touch side, the app lays out videos much like a social network feed. There are buttons across the top to explore user-made videos in the Explore section; check out tutorial and example videos from the TouchCast app developers in the TouchFeed; and a place to store and browse your saved TouchCasts in Bookmarks. You also have a magnifying glass for searching all TouchCasts by term or hashtag.

Browse through featured channels to see what other people are making.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

The Explore section has buttons below to break out content into all videos, trending videos, and user-made channels. As an app that just launched a few days ago, there's a pretty good number of videos to explore, but I expect there to be a lot more selection as more people discover the app. Also, it appears people are still getting acclimated with the app, so don't be discouraged if you see amateurish videos early on.

Creating a TouchCast
On the Cast side of the app you can create your own video, and the app has onscreen tools to make it easy to control the content your audience will see.

You start out by choosing the style of your title (also known as the lower third) just like the fancy graphic you see at the bottom of the screen for a television news cast. The app has a few templates to get you started with news, reviews, sports, and a how-to layout, but you also can create your own. With your basic layout selected, you can enter a title that your audience will see.

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Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router

You probably don't need such an advanced home networking device like the new Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router, but you want it, and when you get it, you'll love it.

This router is an excellent upgrade to the already-excellent RT-AC66U that came out a year ago. The new router boasts a fast 800MHz dual-core processor and supports a new Wi-Fi chip that offers up to 1.3Gbps speed on the 5GHz frequency band and up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. It also comes with a new firmware that adds a host of new features.

In my testing it proved to be the fastest Wi-Fi router to date by a significant margin, and also a fun router to use. It basically has everything you'd want from an excellent router, for both homes and small businesses.

Yet, I find it not necessarily perfect for everyone, mostly due to its current high price of about $220, and the fact that you'll need equally high-end Wi-Fi clients to really take advantage of its new fast Wi-Fi speeds. But that aside, as far as Wi-Fi routers go, it's easily the fastest and most comprehensive home networking device to date. For more options on great 802.11ac routers, including those that are more affordable, check out this list.

Unlike previous models, the new Asus RT-AC68U comes with three detachable antennas.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

New design, top hardware components
The RT-AC68U departs from the old design found in the previous models -- the RT-N66U and RT-AC66U -- that stay flat on the surface or tilt 45 degrees with a stand. It now comes in an upright position with no option for wall mounting. It still resembles the predecessors, however, with the solid build and the glossy dark gray finish that doesn't attract fingerprints. The new standing design also means that the router now takes up less space though it's actually slightly larger and heavier than its older brothers. It also comes with three external detachable antennas.

On the inside, it's completely different, boasting the new Broadcom BCM4709 Wi-Fi chipset, an Arm Cortex A9 dual-core 800MHz CPU, and 256MB of DDR RAM. This is the first router I've seen with these high-end specs, though I'm sure other vendors will soon introduce similarly featured products. The RT-AC68U also includes two USB ports, one of which supports USB 3.0.

The most interesting of the above components is the Broadcom BCM4709 chipset, which includes the proprietary TurboQAM technology. This chip offers 802.11ac up to 1.3Gbps, which is not new, but for 802.11n on the 2.4GHz frequency, it now offers up to 600Mbps (up from the old 450Mbps cap speed). (Read more about Wi-FI standards here.) With TurboQAM, each 2.4GHz spatial stream can deliver up to 200Mbps instead of 150Mbps. Needless to say, this chip offers more benefits to the now aging 2.4GHz Wi-Fi than the newer 5GHz Wi-Fi, though you need a TurboQAM-compatible wireless client to really take advantage of it. Current and legacy clients will also see better performance, though not as significant.

The Asus RT-AC68U has an excellent Web interface.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

On the front, the router has the usual array of LEDs that show the statuses of the ports on the back, the connection to the Internet, the USB ports, and the wireless networks. These lights are very helpful in case you want to glance at them to check on the router's condition. However, if you're bothered by them, you can turn them off via a button on the back of the router. This is really a nice design touch that helps make the router bedroom-friendly.

Also on the back, the router has four LAN ports for wired clients and one WAN port to connect to an Internet source, such as a broadband modem. All of these ports are Gigabit Ethernet, which is a must for a fast local network with superfast Internet connection. In addition to being a router, the RT-AC68AU can be used as an access point or a media bridge (you can choose among these roles via its Web interface, in Wireless section under Advanced Settings), and when it's not working as a router, the WAN port can also be used as another LAN port.

On the side, the router has a Wi-Fi on-off button and the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button, which starts a 2-minute window in which other WPS-enabled clients can enter the wireless network. By default, the WPS function is disabled and can be turned on via the router's Web interface, also in the Wireless section.

Easy to set up, robust Web interface, familiar features
Very similar to the previous model, the RT-AC68U comes with a CD that contains setup software that guides home users through the process via a few steps. But you can skip this CD because once the router is plugged into a computer and turned on, the first time you run a Web browser, such as Firefox, it will take you to the Web-based wizard that does the same thing as the software, including picking an admin password for the router. After that you can always go back to the router's Web interface to do more customization by pointing a connected computer's browser to 192.168.1.1, which is the router's default IP address. The log-in credentials are admin for the username and the password you create the first time around. As with all routers, you can always restore it to default factory settings via the recessed reset button on its back.

The router's interface is also similar to that of previous models and offers similar features. There are three major parts of the interface that you access from the left part of the page. The top part is the Setup wizard, which you can use to rerun the initial setup process; the middle is for General items; and the bottom is the Advanced Settings.

General offers a Network Map for viewing currently connected devices, including those connected to the router via the USB ports. You can click on one of the connected devices to interact with it. For example, you can quickly block a Wi-Fi client or set up a network storage feature of an external hard drive. You can also find features such as a Parental Control, a Traffic Manager that also includes the QoS features, and management of the router's USB ports.

The router comes with a on-off button for these LEDs, a very nice touch for those who want to keep their bedroom completely dark.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

The Parental Control feature is very easy to set up; you can quickly add a device to the managed list and quickly pick time slots when these devices can access the Internet. Unfortunately, you can't refine the restriction beyond having or not having access to the Internet. For example, you can't control access to particular Web sites.

The USB ports can be used for a lot of functions. You can connect USB external storage devices or printers to these ports and turn the router into a storage or print server. These ports can also be coupled with a cellular USB dongle so the router can work as a mobile hot spot or host a USB storage device to offer PC-less download, AiDisk, Media server, and AiCloud features.

AiDisk allows you to share the connected storage device's content via an FTP server. Media server enables streaming content from the connected storage device to DLNA-enabled network media streamers and iTunes.

AiCloud allows users to access to not only sharing/streaming content stored on the connected external drive from iOS and Android mobile devices (or computer via a browser), but also content on the computer connected to the router. This means you can easily share data stored on any computer in the network to remote users. For this feature to work, you need to know how to set up a DynDNS account, which can be done in a few steps within the router's Web interface.

In addition to the two main Wi-Fi networks, one for each band, the new router also offers up to six guest Wi-Fi networks, three for each band. While most of the time only two guest networks are needed, having more means you can set up each network for certain type of guest or certain Wi-Fi standards.

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Canon videos show off 70D's dual-pixel autofocus technology

The Canon EOS 70D's autofocus system can focus on a particular subject when a videographer taps on it with the camera's touch screen.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Canon wants to show off what its new EOS 70D camera can do when it comes to one persistent shortcoming in the digital photography revolution: autofocus.

It's posted two videos -- a demonstration video called Handmade and a behind-the-scenes explanatory video about it -- designed to show what the new digital SLR can accomplish with its new Dual Pixel CMOS AF (DPA) technology. Check below to watch the videos.

No doubt the autofocus technology won't work as smoothly in the real world as it does in these promotional videos with bright lighting, carefully arranged sets, and plenty of chances to shoot another take if things don't go right at first. But they're worth watching to at least get a flavor of what's possible and to see a reasonably broad selection of the 103 Canon lenses the company says DPA works with.

Canon's dual-pixel technology works by splitting a photosite on the camera's image sensor into two halves then comparing the light signal between them. That information lets the camera calculate how far the lens needs to be driven -- and in which direction -- to achieve focus. The dual-pixel approach also lets the camera employ a helpfully broad area, the central 80 percent of the sensor, for autofocus.

In effect, the dual-pixel technology moves the fast and accurate phase-detection technology of SLRs' dedicated autofocus system to the image sensor. Before, image sensors only used an autofocus technology called contrast detection that often involves more trial and error since it calculates focus as the lens is adjusted. When shooting video, though, or composing shots with live view on the LCD rather than through an SLRs' viewfinder, the separate phase-detection autofocus system can't be used on an SLR.

Taking video with digital SLRs is often a frustrating experience because of the difficulties of autofocus. SLRs offer great cinematographic possibilities because large sensors and wide-aperture lens let you focus on subjects while blurring backgrounds away into insignificance. That advantage becomes a distracting liability when focus is set wrong, though. And amateurs taking videos of the ballet recital don't have external monitors and a dedicated employee to pull focus.

The 70D is due to ship in September for $1,199 with no lens, $1,349 with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens, or $1,549.00 with the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens.

Via Photography Blog

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T-Mobile vs. Sprint: Who offers a better early upgrade?

There's finally some competition in the early phone upgrade program, and that's good news for you.

T-Mobile might have kicked off the trend to let consumers swap out their phones more frequently with "Jump," but it certainly wasn't the last. With Sprint introducing "One Up" last week, there's finally a legitimate alternative out there.

As the No. 3 and No. 4 national carriers, respectively, it's clear why Sprint and T-Mobile are offering up such a good deal: both are eager to pick off customers from larger Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Verizon and AT&T also offer upgrade programs, but as previously explained here, don't really offer a great deal.

The upgrade programs generally work the same way: customers pay for the device themselves under a monthly installment plan. After a year (or six months, under T-Mobile), customers can trade in their device for a new one, and continue their monthly payments. As always, the devil's in the details, and there are many nuances to consider.

T-Mobile executive Andrew Sherrard, for instance, calls Sprint's One Up "misleading and confusing," noting the seemingly temporary nature to many of the details of the plan.

A Sprint representative responded by reaffirming the company's commitment on the program itself.

So which program is better for you? As always, there's never a clear-cut answer. But CNET breaks it down so you can make an informed decision.

Price
T-Mobile's program, Jump, cost an additional $10 a month. The program applies to all of its plans, which range between $50 a month for the 500 megabytes of high-speed service (which will be throttled after hitting that threshold) and $70 for unlimited data with no throttling.

Jump enables a customer to upgrade their phone twice a year after the first six months. T-Mobile's program also requires an upfront payment on some of its higher end phones. For the purposes of an easy comparison, we'll use the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 5S costs $99 up front, and customers pay $22.91 a month for the next two years. If the customer decides to upgrade, they pay the next upfront payment and continue with the monthly installments for the next phone. It's important to note that the $99 upfront payment that T-Mobile is offering is a promotion, and is likely to go up in the next few weeks.

Sprint's comparison chart from sales material obtained by CNET.

(Credit: Screenshot by Roger Cheng/CNET)

Sprint's One Up program doesn't cost anything, but requires that you sign up for its Unlimited, My Way plan or its $110 My All-In plan, which includes 5 gigabytes of hot-spot data. The individual My Way plan costs $80, but the One Up program includes a $15 discount, bringing the monthly cost down to $65.

For the time being, One Up is offered up with no money down, so a customer can walk in and take an iPhone 5S home without paying anything (assuming you can find one). Instead, the customer pays a higher monthly payment of $27. One Up only offers one upgrade each year, but in theory, customers should be able to trade in the device at no cost, and continue on with their monthly payments. Once the customer pays off the device, presumably after 24 months, the $15 discount disappears unless they re-enroll. But Sprint has presented the no-money-down option as a temporary option, and a representative declined to say when it would end. When looking at comparable unlimited plans, a customer pays a total of $1,192 over the first 12 months for Sprint, according to its own sales material (which includes activation fee and 8 percent sales tax for the $650 iPhone 5S), which claims that T-Mobile's unlimited plan costs $1,420. But if a customer were to take the cheaper $50 T-Mobile plan, that total would drop down to $1,180.

Features
T-Mobile argues that its program still offers a better deal because of the features it packs into its plan. Besides an early upgrade program, Jump also acts as insurance for the phone.

In addition, T-Mobile's unlimited plan also includes 2GB of tethering on a smartphone.

T-Mobile has its own take on the comparison. Unsurprisingly, it comes out looking a lot better.

(Credit: T-Mobile)

Under Sprint's plan, insurance would cost an additional $11 a month, while 2GB of hot-spot data tacked on to its unlimited plan would cost another $20. There's also a 1GB option for $10 a month.

It's up to you on whether you need either of these features. But if you tack on insurance and the 2GB of hotspot data, as T-Mobile wants you to do, the 12-month cost of a Sprint plan is $1,512, compared with $1,344 for T-Mobile, according to a T-Mobile document (the numbers are slightly different because T-Mobile omitted the sales tax on the device).

Network
Price, of course, isn't everything. What good are savings and a new phone if that device can't even get a decent signal?

It's a neck-and-neck race, but Sprint for now has the lead in terms of LTE coverage. The company said earlier this month that it has reached 185 markets with its faster cellular network. Just a few days earlier, T-Mobile said it had reached 154 markets.

A microwave dish used as part of Sprint's network deployment in New York.

(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)

But numbers don't mean a thing if you're not one of the cities benefiting from either of their LTE networks. T-Mobile appears to have the advantage in big cities such as New York and San Francisco. Check out its full list here.

Sprint, meanwhile, has struggled with bigger cities. Notably, it has only managed to cover the majority of the Bronx and Brooklyn, and is still working on the rest of New York. It does have other bigger cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas, but its work has been largely in smaller markets. You can check out the full city list here.

T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray breaking down the network speeds.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Because their respective LTE networks aren't yet ubiquitous, the fallback network is important. It's here that T-Mobile has a bigger advantage. If LTE isn't there, customers end up on the HSPA+ network, which is itself fairly speedy.

Sprint's fallback network is the slower CDMA-powered service, which offers a significant drop in speed. The company dropped its use of an older 4G technology, called WiMax, a few years ago, forcing its customers to stay on the slower network as it deploys its next-generation network. Its current upgrade plans are supposed to improve speed and coverage for both its 3G and 4G networks, but it will take time.

Bottom Line
Both carriers offer competitive plans, and which plan is the right one depends on how you use your phone. If you need insurance and tethering, T-Mobile offers a good deal. If you only care about unlimited data for your phone, and happen to be in a market with LTE, Sprint is attractive. As always, coverage varies greatly, and both have their share of neighborhoods with great and poor coverage.

There are, as always, a lot of questions to ask when committing to a carrier. Hopefully, CNET has provided a few answers for you.

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Ericsson aims to bring cell signal everywhere, one Dot at a time

The Ericsson Dot cell signal radio broadcaster is tiny and easy to install.

(Credit: Ericsson)

If you've been frustrated with the cell phone signal -- or more precisely, the lack of one -- in your office building, relief might be on the way.

Ericsson announced today a new method designed to bring cellular signal to even the most hard-to-penetrate parts of a building. Called the Radio Dot System, this system consists of multiple disc-shaped radio broadcasters called Dots. Each Dot can "provide high-quality access to mobile broadband and voice services" for the surrounding area, and multiple Dots can be used together to broaden the coverage indoors.

To be clear, this system is designed to bring real cellular signal to where it can't reach before, not use broadband network as a substitute, like AT&T's MicroCell femtocell.

You can't just buy the Dots yourself and use them at home, however; this is more of an enterprise solution for big office buildings, stadiums, or college campuses. The Radio Dot System includes a base station, which works as a cellular antenna that connects to the carrier cell signal, and then distributes that to the connected Dots via network cables. The Dots themselves support the Power over Ethernet standard, meaning they don't require a separate power source to work but instead draw power from the network cable itself. This plus the compact design -- each Dot weighs just 0.7 pound -- makes the Dot System very easy to implement.

According to Ericsson, the Dot System will at first offer the cellular data speed of up to 150Mbps, which is more than enough to support the current 4G LTE speed that ranges between 2Mbps and 50Mbps. It can be easily upgraded to support faster speeds. On top of that you can start with just a few Dots in a system and scale up to 96 Dots per system.

Ericsson says the Dot System works with all existing cell phone technologies and can support multiple carriers at a time. However weather or not this is the case in real life depends on the contract between the user and the carrier. This is also the case about its price, which can be just a one-time cost or a monthly subscription.

The Dot System is being introduced to US carriers, including AT&T, which considers it a "key component" in its "next-generation toolkit." It's expected that the Ericsson Radio Dot System will be available to customers by the second part of 2014.

The Radio Dots System's infographics.

(Credit: Ericsson)

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Crave giveaway: 'Tron'-inspired Tokyo Flash Kisai Seven watch

Congrats to Kathleen M. of Savannah, Ga., for winning a Swann Bolt HD wearable action camera in last week's giveaway. This week, we have something you wear on your wrist. Something mighty sleek.

We're giving away a limited-edition green Kisai Seven wristwatch from Tokyo Flash, purveyor of wacky timepieces. The inner ring on the futuristic-looking LED watch functions as the hour hand, and the outer ring as the minute hand. A dark void section in each ring points to the time (dark voids for the win!).

If the Kisai Seven reminds you of "Tron," that's intentional. A few years back, Tokyo Flash solicited watch ideas from fans, and Scott Galloway submitted this design inspired by one of his favorite films (watch this video to see how the watch works).

The Kisai Seven comes in blue, white, and red, with the colors relating to different "programs" in "Tron." This week's winner will get a green version from a very limited-edition run in that shade.

So how do you go about getting a $139 green Kisai Seven absolutely free? Well, there are a few rules, so please read carefully. And while we're on the subject of watches, be sure to have a look at our recent gallery of luxury wristwatches below.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.
• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Tokyo Flash Kisai Seven watch, with a retail value of $139.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Monday, July 22, 12 p.m. ET.

And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, July 22, 2013. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

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Noontec Zoro HD True Sound (Black)

It's easy to mistake the Noontec Zoro HD for the original Zoro on-ear headphones, which became a budget audiophile favorite when it was introduced in 2012. The Zoros offered similar styling to the on-ear Beats Solo headphones but cost a lot less and sounded far more neutral (less bass heavy) -- an appealing trait for those seeking a headphone that sounds good with a wide gamut of music genres.

The original Zoro, which remains in production, can be found for around $70 online, while the new Zoro HD will set you back about $100. The two models look nearly identical, but the Zoro HD delivers more refined sound with plumper, higher-quality bass and adds an inline remote/microphone for cell phone calls. While its "new" sound probably still won't satisfy users who crave really big bass, it's an excellent budget audiophile headphone.

Design and features The shiny plastic headphone's build quality is nothing special. The Zoro HDs fold up into a fairly small bundle for compact storage, but the plastic hinges are the obvious weak point in the design. After folding and unfolding the headphones many times they still seem fine, but anyone who treats their headphones roughly may have problems with this or any $100 hinged headphone.

The comfortable headphones feature nicely padded earcups.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

At 5.3 ounces the Zoro HD is lightweight and I found them more comfortable to wear than the original Zoros. That's strange, because when you look at them side-by-side, the old and new models' earcups, cushions, and padded headband look identical, but don't feel that way on my head. The Zoro HD earpads also produced a better seal, so they blocked out a little more environmental noise, and the improved seal may also be responsible for the Zoro HD's fuller sound balance compared with the standard Zoro.

The headphones have a similar design to the Beats Solo -- but they sound better.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The Zoro HDs have neodymium 40mm drivers and impedance is rated at 32 ohms, so they're easy to drive with phones and other portable music players. The flat red headphone cable is resistant to tangles and plugs into the left earcup. Both ends of the 48-inch-long cable are fitted with 3.5mm connectors. The Zoro HD has a one-button remote and microphone, something the original Zoro lacked. A soft carrying case is the only accessory.

The headphones come with a one-year warranty, and Noontec's importer, ERG Distributors in Carteret, NJ, handles all claims. Note that you'll need a proof of purchase to make a warranty claim.

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Moto X beats out iPhone 5S, 5C, and Galaxy S4 for durability

Apple fanboys and Samsung believers aren't going to like this: Google's Moto X has been crowned the king of durability.

The latest "breakability" score by protection plan company SquareTrade claims Moto X is the best surviving smartphone when it comes to drops, slides, and water dunks. Coming in second place is Apple's iPhone 5S, then Apple's iPhone 5C, and lastly Samsung's Galaxy S4. SquareTrade only tested these four smartphones, so its unclear how other brands and models would rate.

Every year SquareTrade tests the durability of new smartphones to see how they fair during everyday accidents, like toilet plunges, counter drops, and unintended table slides.

SquareTrade first examines the phone's front and back panel design, edge construction, materials, size, weight, friction quotient, water resistance, and grip-ability; and then subjects the devices to break tests. Using robots to drop the phones onto their corners from five feet high, slide the smartphones across a table, and dunk the devices into water for 10 seconds, SquareTrade rates the breakability of each smartphone.

This year, Apple's iPhone 5C suffered a cracked screen in the drop test and finicky response after being submerged in water. The iPhone 5S fared better, with just a dented corner in the drop test and good response after the water dunk, but it failed the slide test by being the only device to glide right off the table.

In years past, the iPhone 5 did better than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and it appears this year wasn't much different. Despite Samsung beefing up the durability of its Galaxy S4, the smartphone still came in last -- being rendered unusable -- in both the drop and dunk test; and, it very nearly slid off the table in the slide test.

While Apple's new iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy S4 got a bit tattered in the tests, Google's Moto X came out unscathed minus a small dent on the corner. SquareTrade said the smartphone's concave backing also "set a new bar" for the durability of its back panel design.

"We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents," SquareTrade CMO Ty Shay said in a statement. "This is the first time we've tested the breakability on a Motorola phone, the only phone we've ever tested that's made in the USA. We were pleased to find that it withstood our drop, slide and dunk test with only the slightest dent. It looks like Google is giving Apple and Samsung a run for their money."

Here's SquareTrade's video on its smartphone breakability test:

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At this pace, iTunes Radio beats Pandora in a month

Apple unveils iTunes Radio at WWDC 2013.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple spent more than a year to bring together the major music labels and realize its vision of an online radio service, and at its unveiling, the world was quick to denigrate the late-stage attempt to enter a space -- online streaming music -- that is growing quickly but already crowded with competitors.

But it only took five days for iTunes Radio's number of listeners to eclipse that of the pioneer in streaming music -- many times over.

Monday, Apple said that iTunes Radio notched more than 11 million unique listeners since its launch on iOS 7 and desktop iTunes software five days earlier.

That's nearly four times the number of unique visitors that the pioneer in online music, subscription-based service Rhapsody launched in 2001, had in the month of July, according to ComScore. Rhapsody's uniques numbered just 2.89 million.

So much for first mover advantage.

This pace of iTunes Radio listener growth -- 11 million in five days -- puts it on track to surpass the current leader of Internet radio in less than 30 days. Pandora, by far the biggest online streaming radio service, had about 64.9 million unique visitors in July, compared with 20.2 million for No. 2 Spotify, 14.4 million for iHeartRadio and 5.4 million for Slacker.

If Apple can keep up its momentum, it would have 66 million listeners in 30 days after launching.

Investors seemed to be crunching those numbers Monday. Pandora shares fell 10 percent to $24.26 apiece Monday after Apple unveiled the iTunes Radio stat. Apple's shares rose 5 percent to $490.64 each.

A Pandora spokeswoman declined to comment on either the stock price or numbers released by Apple, other than to say that Pandora, as always, is keeping its eye on the long term. In the past, Pandora has said iTunes Radio will be a positive development for Internet radio overall, helping bring more people over from broadcast radio more so than poaching listeners from other online services.

Slacker Radio Chief Executive Jim Cady echoed that sentiment in an interview after iTunes Radio launched last week. "Overall having [Apple] come out with a radio solution is good for the marketplace, they will educate the market," he said, adding that Apple releasing a radio product is "a validation."

"We can focus our efforts on building a better solution and not on market eduction," according to Cady.

Indeed, take a step back from Pandora's stock performance Monday and you see a much different picture. Even with the retreat Monday, shares have still jumped 57 percent since the day Apple announced iTunes Radio. Last week, they reached their highest level yet went public in 2011, and that was on the day after iTunes Radio launched.

Andrew Lipsman, an analyst at ComScore, noted that listening among the online radio services isn't a zero-sum game. "Look back to Facebook and MySpace as an example, there were lot of people using those things in parallel at the same time," he said. "Obviously a high percentage of people use Apple in a given month. You can basically convert a percentage of those of people who will at least kick the tiers in the beginning."

"I would caution that it would not necessarily impact the other players" in streaming music, he said.

And Lipsman pointed to another social network as a cautionary tale before the thrill of iTunes Radio's rapid rise takes over: Google+.

"With Google+, it had tens of millions of users almost overnight," he said. ComScore's data soon after Google+ launched showed it growing around 1 million users per day, reeling in 25 million people in a month. Facebook took three years to to hit the 25 million milestone, and Twitter took a little more than 30 months.

Yet once the shine of novelty wore off, there was no doubting Facebook's primacy in time spent on social media.

The question in the online music realm is whether people have already identified the brand they use as their primary service.

"While more high quality digital radio players may eat into terrestrial radio listening, given the quality of the iTunes Radio experience, we have a hard time believing it will not eat into Pandora's market share of active monthly users and time spent listening," BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield wrote in a note last week.

The numbers, here too, seem to work in Apple's favor.

In the U.S., Pandora reaches only about 7 percent of the total radio-listening audience. That leaves a huge portion of the population up for grabs. And the strongest number on iTunes Radio's side is 500 million. That's how many people use iTunes worldwide at Apple's last disclosure. Because of the complexities of music licensing across borders, no one player has emerged as a preferred Internet music brand internationally. Apple already has an installed base of millions using the software that delivers iTunes Radio to desktops, and it just made the iPhone more accessible to millions overseas.

And don't forget, Apple is the company that set the wheels of the current digital-music era in motion with the launch of the iTunes Store a decade ago.

"Apple is actually probably the best at playing that fast follower," said ComScore's Lipsman. "And this isn't a totally new market for them."

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HP, allies launch Mopria to keep printers relevant in mobile era

The Mopria Alliance has set up detailed requirements designed to make it easy for people to print from their mobile devices.

(Credit: Mopria Alliance)

As the computing industry expands its attention beyond PCs to smartphones and tablets, one technology has struggled to keep up: printing. But a new alliance of printer makers and others called Mopria hopes to change that.

The group, which includes Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Samsung, and Xerox so far, announced its existence today that it believes will make printing from mobile devices easy. They've developed a set of interfaces that give mobile operating systems simplified printing software and let apps easily draw on that ability. Mopria technology also governs printer technology so people can send print jobs using Wi-Fi Direct wireless networking or by tapping a printer with a phone that supports near-field communications (NFC).

"If you are a printer vendor, and if you are solely attached to a PC, where is your future? We are moving from a device that is a PC peripheral to a mobile companion," said Phil McCoog, a distinguished technologist with HP's printing business. "You need to be print or you're going to force people to go back to their PC when they want or need to print."

The idea resembles Apple's AirPrint technology, but it's designed to work with any mobile operating system, McCoog said. Right off the bat, some Android devices will support it, including new Samsung Galaxy S4 and Note 3, but Mopria wants to extend much farther.

Mopria has won over Adobe Systems, McCoog said, but with the public launch Tuesday, the alliance will start trying to sign up other companies. He wouldn't comment on Apple support, but said, "Every company is welcome to join," and that companies can build their own extras atop the Mopria foundation.

As with so much in the mobile device market, smartphones and tablets give the printer industry a chance for a fresh start. Mopria is shucking a lot of print driver technology that's decades old, McCoog said.

"What we're trying to do is not just make it as good as desktops, but to make it better than desktops," he said.

For example, people using Mopria technology no longer will have to mess with the sometimes-grueling task of finding and installing print drivers, the software that lets a computer talk to a specific printer.

The Mopria technology is done after a fast-paced development effort that began at the beginning of 2013 and will arrive in the real world this year. It'll come with a logo program, too, that later should become visible to consumers shopping for printers.

HP profits are reliant on selling "consumables" like inkjet cartridges, so the company can't be eager to see that business sidelined by the new prominence of tablets and smartphones. Even though mobile device make it easier to skip the printer in some cases, for example with electronic boarding passes and mapping apps, McCoog doesn't see printing as an endangered business.

The more information is archived digitally, he said, the more gets printed.

"We see it exploding content in the world," he said. "If you increase the content a thousandfold, [and] if printing drops by 1 percent, that's still an increase overall. We're not seeing the threat of printing going away."

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Get a 17.3-inch quad-core desktop replacement for $399.99

Purple!

(Credit: 1Sale)

I quit you, basic black. And garish gray. When it comes to consumer electronics of every stripe, I want a splash of color.

If you feel the same way, and you're in the market for a new desktop-minded PC, and you're not in a huge rush, today might just be your lucky deal-day: Ending at midnight, and while supplies last, 1Sale has the refurbished HP Pavilion g7-2378nr 17.3-inch laptop for $399.99 shipped.

1Sale? That's the outfit formally known as 1SaleADay, well-known to regular Cheapskate readers as the company that takes forever to ship and does a poor job responding to customer-service inquiries.

That said, it's also the company that offers some especially great deals, which is why I continue to (occasionally) spotlight them, and always with the caveat that your order might take a full 3-4 weeks to arrive. For what it's worth, I've ordered from them several times; delivery was always reasonably quick, and the products themselves were as advertised. Your mileage may vary.

If you're still interested after all that, the Pavilion looks like a pretty sweet desktop replacement. It's stocked with an AMD A8-4500M quad-core processor (roughly equivalent to an Intel Core i5), 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and "discrete-class" AMD Radeon HD 7640G graphics.

This last powers a 17.3-inch LED-backlit screen with a native resolution of 1,600 x 900 -- a bit shy of full 1080p, but I'd say it's sufficient for a display of this size.

In true "desktop" form, the Pavilion also has a Super-Multi DVD burner, a Webcam, a memory-card reader, and an extended keyboard with dedicated numeric keypad. Likewise, it offers solid expansion in the form of three USB ports (two USB 3.0) and both HDMI and VGA outputs.

Lastly, it's purple! Maybe not the color of choice for all, but I think it's pretty stylish.

I haven't found any reviews of this particular model, so if you already own one (or one like it), hit the comments and let your fellow cheeps know the score.

Bonus deal: Speaking of color, one of my favorite old-school speaker docks, the Fluance FiSDK500, is now available in a limited-edition color version that can really liven up a room. It normally sells for $199.99, but coupon code FISDK5A drops it to $159.99 shipped. I have the black version and it sounds tremendous. But now I'm totally coveting this beautifully painted objet d'art. Supplies are very limited, according to a company rep. (Before you click through, turn your speakers down or off, as there's an annoying promo video that auto-plays once you hit the product page.)

Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers.

Curious about what exactly The Cheapskate does and how it works? Read our FAQ.

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New OS X Trojan found and blocked by Apple's XProtect

Security company Intego recently found a new malware package for OS X, called OSX/Leverage.A, which appears to be yet another targeted command-and-control Trojan horse, this time with apparent associations with the Syrian Electronic Army; however, Apple has blocked its ability to run with an XProtect update only days after its discovery.

The Trojan horse is distributed as an application disguised as a picture of two people kissing, presumably a scene from the television show "Leverage," hence the name of the Trojan.

When the Trojan's installer is opened, it will open an embedded version of the image in Apple's Preview program, in an attempt to maintain the idea that it is just a picture, while the program installs the true Trojan in the background. In addition, the Trojan is built with a couple of code modifications that prevent it from showing up as a running application in the user's Dock or in the Command-Tab application switch list.

The Trojan itself will be a program called UserEvent.app and will be placed in the /Users/Shared/ directory. It will then install a launch agent called UserEvent.System.plist in the current user's LaunchAgents directory, which is used to keep the program running whenever the user is logged in. These two locations do not require authentication for any user to access, so the Trojan can place these files without prompting for an admin username and password.

This image is downloaded by the malware, suggesting possible association with the politically motivated Syrian Electronic Army hacking group.

(Credit: Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)

Once installed, the running Trojan will, among standard command-and-control activity like grabbing personal information, attempt to download an image associating the nefarious activity with the Syrian Electronic Army, a relatively new hacking group associated with the Assad regime in Syria. When contacted by Mashable, the group claimed that it is not associated with the Trojan.

While this new malware is out there and has affected a few people, it is not a major threat at this time, one reason being that the command and control servers it connects to appear to be offline. In addition, though for now the exact mode of distribution is unknown, if done through a Web browser or Apple's Mail e-mail client, then Gatekeeper in OS X will issue a warning about the program not being a signed package. Additionally, Apple has recently updated its XProtect anti-malware scanner to specifically detect and quarantine this malware.

Beyond these security measures, you can take some additional steps to help secure your system from similar Trojans. Since most malware attempts in OS X have used various Launch Agent scripts to keep themselves running, you can use Apple's Folder Actions feature to set up a launch agent monitor that will notify you of anytime such scripts are being set up in the system.

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Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

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Life on Mars: Down but not out says Mars Society founder

A self-portrait of Curiosity rover.

(Credit: NASA)

Hopes of alien life on Mars were dashed Thursday when a paper published in the journal Science concluded that the Curiosity rover has yet to find any methane gas, a strong indicator of microbial life. But Robert Zubrin, cofounder and president of the Mars Society, says that the search for alien life on Mars is only just beginning.

In fact, the persistence of the methane mystery -- first sparked by a 2003 discovery of methane plumes that has yet to reemerge -- has reinforced his claim that we need humans on Mars alongside a reinvigorated space program to make real progress.

The Mars Society, founded in 1998, is the world's largest space advocacy non-profit organization, with chapters in the US, Canada and nearly every major European country. Zubrin, who's background in science includes a Ph.D in nuclear engineering and masters degrees in both Aeronautics and Astronautics, is outspoken about the stagnancy of NASA and the efforts of the US's various spaceflight missions.

"I don't think people want to have a human spaceflight program that just goes up and down from the International Space Station," Zubrin says.

In a phone interview Friday, Zubrin further outlined what the recent NASA findings mean for the future of finding life on the red planet. He also expounded on what the necessary steps forward are in keeping public interest in the origin of life alive while expanding the goals and focus of the various government-funded and private spaceflight companies.

Q: What's do you think will be the biggest impact of these findings, and where does the pursuit for finding life on Mars now stand?
A: We did not get the home run we had hoped for in finding methane. That was a disappointment. That does not mean that there is no methane on Mars. Just that there is no methane where Curiosity is.

If it had discovered methane it would have proven that there is life on Mars or hydrothermal environments on Mars that host microbial life. But I don't think we will likely find it on the surface. I think we'll find it in ground water.

Mars was warm and wet on its surface during its first billion years and then it became cold and dry and not hospitable to life. I think any Martian organisms who lived on the surface at that time have retreated underground.

So I think to find it we're going to have to go any drill. That will require human explorers.

Q: What will life on Mars look like and what questions will arise when we find it?
A: If we do drill for life on Mars and find it and analyze it, there's a couple things we could find.

Are they just like Earth organisms? And then there's a chance of transfer of life from Earth to Mars with meteorites, or their [Mars'] ancestors being transferred here.

"If all life on Mars was like PCs and we went to Mars and found a Mac ... that would be very interesting."

That could be resolved if we find organisms on Mars that are more primitive in their development than terrestrial bacteria. If we can find organisms on Mars that included things like bacteria but also things more primitive and that would suggest life started on Mars and came to Earth. Because thinking of bacteria as the first organism is like thinking the first machine was an iPhone.

Then finally, if we found life in the ground water that was different than life on Earth. If all life on Mars was like PCs and we went to Mars and found a Mac ... that would be very interesting. That you actually can have two separate genesis events in one solar system.

We know that planets are highly probable, and that would mean that life is everywhere.

Q: When do you think we'll see humans on Mars and what are the obstacles?
A: NASA has the technical abilities, and the US has the money. We could send a human to mars in 10 years. From a technical point of view, we are more capable of sending humans to Mars [now] than we were sending a man to the moon in 1961.

But NASA doesn't have a goal. This is a serious problem. A NASA without a goal may easily find itself cut to pieces because it's difficult to ask for money when it's not clear why you're asking for it.

NASA better get its head together and propose a plan. I don't think people want to have a human spaceflight program that just goes up and down from the International Space Station.

Elon Musk wants to get to Mars. He's got a fortune and a rocket company. The question is whether he'd really want to spend all his own money to send a human mission to there. I think if its a NASA mission to send humans to mars, he could make it more affordable.

Then you have private groups like Mars One who don't have the resources. They have a bolder plan which is one-way mission. That's a settlement mission, not a suicide mission.

And the money is out there. It's out there in all these billionaires running around and out there frankly in the space-interested public. So in principal it's possible, but it's a question of putting it together.

Q: What is left for the Curiosity rover now that one of its principal purposes -- finding evidence of life through methane detection -- has not succeeded?

A: Curiosity rover can do all kinds of things. It could find fossils. It has imaging capability, a telescope for microorganisms. Maybe a puff of methane will come and it will be detected later. There's lot for Curiosity to look for.

If you did discover methane, you might be able to resolve that with correct instruments. Curiosity might be able to resolve that.

And even if you said there was life, was it life transfer from Earth to Mars back when Mars had oceans? Or is it that there are pre-bacteria on Mars. It could fill some missing links: how did life actually evolve?

Alternatively, it could be a second genesis. We wouldn't know the answer. We would need to look at the organisms. We have to send people.

Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Magisto: Magical Video Editor (Android)

With Magisto, you can turn all of your stale mobile footage into a polished compilation video that's ready to be shared. With the help of Magisto's seemingly magical technology, the app analyzes your videos, picks out interesting clips, and automatically edits them together, complete with music and transitions. It requires no editing skills at all.

Right off the bat, Magisto makes things simple with two large buttons that let you either start shooting a new video or jump straight to your Gallery to sift through existing videos.

If you choose to shoot a new video, Magisto jumps to its in-app recorder, which can switch between front-facing and rear-facing cameras. Each time you start and stop recording, your new clip will be saved in a drawer on the side of the screen. From this drawer, you can see what clips you've recorded, and easily delete any that you don't want to include in your final compilation video. Once you're done recording, you can hit Next to begin selecting any other media you might want to include in your final edit.

The video picker interface lets you look through files in your Gallery as well as any media that might be stored on your Google Drive account. Since the app supports all standard video formats, you shouldn't have to worry about transcoding anything. All you have to do is pick the items you want to include in your final edit and let Magisto find the interesting parts to edit together. The problem is that the interface of this video picker is in major need of work. It gets annoyingly tedious, especially if you have a lot of content saved on your device.

Magisto's problematic video picker makes it tough to navigate and select items from your Gallery.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jaymar Cabebe/CNET)

Since there are no filter tools in the video picker -- for example, Videos Only or Photos Only -- you essentially have to scroll through all of your stuff, then tap to select the media you want to include in your edited video. As you can imagine, if you have hundreds or even thousands of files saved, this can take some time. What makes things even more annoying is that there is no way to review only the items that you've selected before proceeding, which means if you suddenly decide to remove a clip, you'll have to scroll through your exhaustive list again to find and deselect it.

Once you've selected your media, Magisto gives you 12 different themes to choose from. There are specialized themes for holidays, as well as more general themes like Street Beats and Sentimental. Overall, the themes cover a broad range of moods, but 12 options just isn't enough. The good thing, though, is that each theme does come with a few different soundtrack options, which are all licensed for personal use (though YouTube or other Web sites might still take them down). Otherwise, you can always upload your own music, but you won't get to pick which part of the song gets used in your movie.

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Daggers out for Windows 8, plaudits for the iPad

The war on Windows 8 continued this week. But there's probably something more to that than an unpopular operating system.

The week began with Dell -- ostensibly one of the biggest proponents of Window 8 -- making bleak predictions about the OS in an SEC filing.

Dell didn't stop there. It had a damning statement about the PC too. "The deteriorating outlook for the PC market [is] a result of, among other things, smartphones and tablets cannibalizing PC sales."

Which brings us to the market-devouring iPad, which, since its release this week, has passed the three-year mark. Business Insider showed how the iPad played a big part in killing PC market growth, contrasting negative PC growth against the meteoric rise of the iPad.

"Apple has sold 121 million iPads, totaling $67.7 billion in sales.... The PC industry is reeling because of the iPad... iPad revenue is bigger than Windows revenue!" the article proclaims.

So, are Windows 8's problems just about an unappealing operating system? I'm guessing not. There are also bigger forces at work. PC growth has slowed (for the reasons cited above) and Windows 8 is collateral damage.

That said, fears of impending Windows 8 doom have not subsided. We have, for example, ZDNet's "Windows 8: Can this OS be saved?" Regardless of the answer, the question, as stated, is rhetorical and clearly makes a negative assertion.

Next we have "Microsoft Windows RT price cuts don't stop the death spiral," at SemiAccurate, a chip-centric site.

"Abandon all hope, ye users of Windows RT" seems to be the message:

These technical problems can be summed up pithily by the phrase, "The OS is awful," and "Devs hate it"...the Win8 app store has very few apps in it. Most of these are not what anyone wants, and what they want is not coming either. This tally is advancing glacially because of one thing, money. No one is voluntarily writing for the Win8 store for both solid technical and financial reasons.

About the only positive news this week was for consumers. Lousy Windows 8 system sales have forced Microsoft and its PC partners to cut prices on laptops and hybrids.

But Microsoft is hardly giving up. We also found out this week that Windows 8.1 is on the way! We'll know later if that's good news -- or not.

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