By LAURA M. HOLSON
THERE is a scene in the movie “He’s Just Not That Into You” in which Mary, played by Drew Barrymore, laments the numerous technological ways she is being rebuffed by a potential beau. E-mail. Text messages. MySpace. “It’s exhausting,” she complains.
Well, Mary, it’s even worse after the relationship.
Ask Kashmir Hill, who was stung one day when she logged into a former boyfriend’s e-mail account — they had agreed to share passwords — and read a note he sent his mother explaining why he was no longer in love. The couple shared an online bank account and, for months after the breakup, Ms. Hill pored over the balance as it dwindled to $10. She cried when she finally closed the account.
“It’s enough to get rejected in real life,” said Ms. Hill, 28, who blogs about legal issues and lives in New York. “But does it have to happen so often in my online world too? It makes me want to keep my digital life separate in future relationships, whomever they are with.”
A new dating order has emerged in the era of social media. Couples who used to see each other’s friends only at parties now enjoy 24-hour access to their beloved’s confidants thanks to Facebook. Sharing passwords to e-mail accounts, bank accounts and photo-sharing sites is the new currency of intimacy. And courtship — however brief or intense — is wantonly scrutinized by the whole world on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
As a result, the idea of what it means to break up is also being redefined. Where once a spurned lover could use scissors (literally) to cut an ex out of the picture, digital images of the smiling couple in happier days abound on the Web and are difficult to delete. Status updates and tweets have a way of wending their way back to scorned exes, thanks to the interconnectedness of social media. And breakups, awkward and drawn-out in person, are even more so online as details are parsed by the curious, their faces pressed against the digital glass.
“When you make a decision to be with a person in cyberspace you are making a commitment to their network of friends and acquaintances,” said Liz Perle, a co-founder of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit watchdog group that studies families and media. “People have so many online strings that bind them that cutting one does not sever the relationship. There are always more.”
One byproduct of the digital revolution is that trust is being assigned new meaning. According to the Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center, one in five teenagers polled shares online passwords as a way to build trust and foster romance. Grown-ups, explained Lee Rainie, the project’s director, are exhibiting similar behavior. And it is not just women affected by changing rules of digital etiquette, but men too. (Several men contacted for this article declined to discuss their breakups publicly.)
Some family law practitioners say they are grappling with the complexities of online entanglements in real-world divorce.
Randall Kessler, a lawyer in Atlanta, said he advises divorcing clients to change their passwords, stop posting on social networking sites, acquire a new e-mail address, and secure or make copies of whatever is posted about them online. Users, of course, control what they post on private accounts. Where it gets tricky, though, is when photos, videos and comments have been forwarded, retweeted or reposted to friends’ accounts or on public Web sites.
“There are whole new rules of digital etiquette we are going to have to figure out,” Mr. Rainie said. “Right now, we don’t have the tools. That makes it very confusing for most people.”
Sam Altman, the chief executive of Loopt, a mobile tracking service that allows users to monitor friends’ locations using the G.P.S. software on their cellphones, said he was seeing social mores shift firsthand. About 20 percent of Loopt’s users are couples who buy the service to keep track of each other’s whereabouts. But in the past six months, there has been an increase in the number of customers who use fake locations as a decoy so a person doesn’t know where they are, Mr. Altman said, a service that Loopt offers.
He explained that some of those customers have broken up and now want privacy. At the same time, they don’t want to offend an ex by overtly letting them know they have been blocked. “People who break up always want to change their location immediately,” Mr. Altman said. At the same time, “unless it was nasty, they don’t want rush to tell everyone they’ve split up either,” he said. “Better to be cautious than hasty.”
The reason is simple: some hope the romance will be rekindled. Similarly, closing a joint bank account or switching to “single” status on your Facebook page suggests a permanent break.
Debora Spencer, a Seattle photographer, split up this summer with a longtime boyfriend with whom she lived for four years. Like many exes, she grappled with whether to remain Facebook friends. “At first I could not defriend him,” she said. “It seemed so high school. I mean, I’m 50 years old.”
Early in the relationship, Ms. Spencer’s partner had friended many of her Facebook pals so their networks overlapped. After the breakup, she still received his status updates and read comments he posted on her friends’ walls. That made her realize that he knew everything she was doing, too.
So she defriended him, hoping it would stop the flow of news.
It didn’t. One friend continued to forward her ex’s status reports and comments. Another called Ms. Spencer after seeing a photograph of her former boyfriend with another woman. “It’s not like I wanted to know this,” Ms. Spencer said. Finally, she decided to block her ex completely and asked friends to stop sending updates.
“You learn things so quickly, within minutes,” she said. “Even if we had lived together in a small town, I don’t think I would have learned half of what I did as quickly as I did on Facebook.”
Still, with any failed romance, there is always the temptation to follow up with an ex. And social networks, by design, sate hungry curiosity. Sally Che, a 25-year-old medical student at George Washington University, ended a possible romance three years ago after the man started dating a former girlfriend. (Ms. Che learned about the affair in a status update on his Facebook page.)
She hasn’t spoken to him in years and has no desire to restart their relationship. Despite that, the two remain Facebook friends. And, every now and then, and against her better judgment, she said, she trolls his page seeking fresh news. “The temptation is to look and find out what someone is up to even if it hurts,” Ms. Che said. “People who you would never talk to again are only a click away. You see where they are traveling. You check out the picture of the new girlfriend to see if he downgraded. There is this fine line between being that crazy girl who de-tags photos and gets rid of every little thing and the one who willingly continues the charade of friendship.”
“It’s hard to figure out the middle ground,” Ms. Che said. “The thing is you never really get out of the relationship.” Ms. Perle of Common Sense Media told the story of a friend, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who broke up recently. Her dilemma was different from Ms. Spencer’s: She wanted to sever ties with the man but not with his children. So she defriended him while remaining friends on Facebook with his children.
Still, photographs of the couple during happier days abound online. “These pictures travel,” said Ms. Perle, as she recently clicked through a Web slideshow of the couple. “You have no control once they are integrated into other people’s pages.”
In other words, she added, “you cannot de-boyfriend yourself.”
Showing posts with label Digital World News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital World News. Show all posts
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Cheap Mobile Calls, Even Overseas
Recently, my parents returned from Italy with a few bottles of Chianti and $750 in AT&T calling charges. Buon giorno!
Racking up exorbitant mobile charges is easy to do if you are not careful about using your cellphone internationally. AT&T charges 99 cents a minute to use your phone in Italy (rates vary by country), and that is if you pay for the carrier's international calling plan. If you do not, the charge goes up to $1.29 a minute.
What my parents did not realize was that they could have nearly eliminated those charges if they had set up their (in this case) iPhone and BlackBerry to take advantage of mobile Internet calling services: That $1.29-a-minute charge would have gone down to a much more reasonable 2.4 cents a minute (or nothing at all if they were on a Wi-Fi network).
The Internet has been used to make calls for some time. One of the largest providers of the service, Skype, was founded in 2003 and has more than half a billion user accounts. And while many people gather around the PC to talk to far-flung friends and family, new apps and services can replicate that experience (and that savings) on cellphones.
To transform your mobile phone into a device capable of making cheap international calls, you need to consider a few things. Ideally, you have a smartphone that can access Wi-Fi, like an iPhone or a Droid. Wi-Fi ensures the best call quality, since it's carried over a high-speed Internet connection rather than through third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks.
But if you don't have a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, you are not out of luck. There are calling services that use local phone numbers rather than wireless data connections to place calls, making them compatible with a wide range of devices. Applications can dial a local access number as if you were placing a regular call; and your call is routed over the Internet at similarly discounted rates.
There are also free calling mobile applications, each with its own layout, feature list and call quality. In my tests of more than six different applications by calling friends in Europe and Africa, these stood out:
SKYPE FOR MOBILE Like the program for Mac and PCs, Skype Mobile lets you make free calls and send instant messages to fellow Skype users. You can also call non-Skype landlines and cellphones using Skype Credit, a fee-based service that charges pennies per minute for international calls.
Skype offers several mobile versions, including Skype for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Skype Lite for Java and Android phones, and Skype for Windows phones.
The application for the iPhone and iPod Touch most closely resembles Skype's familiar desktop program. Though I could send text-based chat messages to my Skype-using friend in Belgrade over AT&T's 3G network, I needed to connect the phone to a Wi-Fi network to make a call. (You currently cannot make Skype or other Internet-based calls on the iPhone via AT&T's 3G network, though that could change soon.) After a simple tap of the call button, I could clearly hear his familiar accent without any noticeable lag or choppiness.
Similarly, a call I made to a friend's cellphone in Senegal using Skype Credit was crystal clear in sound and connected in only 15 seconds. We chatted for 10 minutes, which cost me only $2.40. That same call on AT&T, even if I signed on to its international calling plan (which costs $4 a month), would have cost $8.80. Without the international calling plan, the fee would have climbed to $27.80.
For those without iPhones or Windows Mobile devices, Skype provides its Skype Lite application. Skype Lite cannot make calls over Wi-Fi or 3G networks, but instead routes calls through a local cellphone number.
It isn't as complicated as it sounds: when using a MyTouch 3G phone, I selected a Skype contact in London. The application started the phone's dialer and automatically routed the call to a local number. My British pal came through clear and static-free.
One thing to remember is that while calls made with Skype Lite are local and your carrier won't exact a long-distance fee, you are technically making a call. So those calls will count against the minutes in your calling plan.
FRING Picking up where Skype Mobile leaves off, Fring provides an even richer experience on more phones. It supports calling over Wi-Fi and 3G on Android and Nokia devices; iPhone 3G calling is on the way. In addition to free calling to Fring members anywhere in the world, the service connects to Skype, Google Talk and MSN Messenger contacts.
After installing the Fring application from the Android Marketplace on Sprint's HTC Hero, I tapped into my Skype account to call my Belgrade friend over Sprint's network. Since I didn't need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot, I made the call while walking down a noisy New York street.
Unfortunately, because 3G data networks weren't built for packets of data as fast-moving as a cellphone call, the connection was weak and kept fading in and out. When I was standing still, the call was slightly clearer but like a dialogue between in-studio anchors and on-the-ground news correspondents, there was a noticeable lag in the conversation.
That all disappeared when I connected the Hero to a Wi-Fi network; we talked for five minutes with no interruptions or delay.
If you are a fan of Skype's desktop video-calling service, you may be wondering when it will be appearing on its mobile app. Fring's already beaten Skype to the punch on this feature. The company recently updated its iPhone application with one-way video calling. "One-way," because the iPhone doesn't have a front-facing camera — so you can see your caller but your caller can't see you.
TRUPHONE Truphone, which works a bit differently from Skype and Fring, is available for a number of devices including the iPhone, the iPod Touch and Android, Nokia and BlackBerry handsets.
Truphone doesn't have a 3G calling option, but offers calling over Wi-Fi for Android, Nokia and iPhone handsets. The company offers Truphone Anywhere, a service similar to Skype's Lite application that routes long-distance calls first over a local number and then via the Internet for lower rates.
Though Truphone permits you to sign into your Skype account and call Skype users, you can also make free calls to other Truphone users. When I called a Truphone friend in London on his cell using a Wi-Fi network, call quality was decent and there was no background hissing.
Blending the functionality of both Fring and Skype, I discovered the true beauty of Truphone when I ventured outside of Wi-Fi territory and was able to automatically call Truphone users and international numbers by using my phone's own dialing capabilities. Although I needed to buy Truphone credit, the call was routed over a local number and then to Truphone's network.
What's the benefit of that, rather than it switching to 3G like Fring? Much better call quality. Just as with Skype Lite, when I dialed my friend in Israel, Truphone called a local New York City number, and connected me to her cell. Her voice was as clear as if she was sitting right next to me.
Clearly, making a choice about which service to use to reduce the cost of international calling will depend heavily on what cellphone you have and whether you have easy access to a Wi-Fi network.
But no matter which option you select, you will definitely save some money. AT&T may have heavily charged my parents one time for their globetrotting calling habits, but with so many new and cheaper options, that won't happen again.
Racking up exorbitant mobile charges is easy to do if you are not careful about using your cellphone internationally. AT&T charges 99 cents a minute to use your phone in Italy (rates vary by country), and that is if you pay for the carrier's international calling plan. If you do not, the charge goes up to $1.29 a minute.
What my parents did not realize was that they could have nearly eliminated those charges if they had set up their (in this case) iPhone and BlackBerry to take advantage of mobile Internet calling services: That $1.29-a-minute charge would have gone down to a much more reasonable 2.4 cents a minute (or nothing at all if they were on a Wi-Fi network).
The Internet has been used to make calls for some time. One of the largest providers of the service, Skype, was founded in 2003 and has more than half a billion user accounts. And while many people gather around the PC to talk to far-flung friends and family, new apps and services can replicate that experience (and that savings) on cellphones.
To transform your mobile phone into a device capable of making cheap international calls, you need to consider a few things. Ideally, you have a smartphone that can access Wi-Fi, like an iPhone or a Droid. Wi-Fi ensures the best call quality, since it's carried over a high-speed Internet connection rather than through third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks.
But if you don't have a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, you are not out of luck. There are calling services that use local phone numbers rather than wireless data connections to place calls, making them compatible with a wide range of devices. Applications can dial a local access number as if you were placing a regular call; and your call is routed over the Internet at similarly discounted rates.
There are also free calling mobile applications, each with its own layout, feature list and call quality. In my tests of more than six different applications by calling friends in Europe and Africa, these stood out:
SKYPE FOR MOBILE Like the program for Mac and PCs, Skype Mobile lets you make free calls and send instant messages to fellow Skype users. You can also call non-Skype landlines and cellphones using Skype Credit, a fee-based service that charges pennies per minute for international calls.
Skype offers several mobile versions, including Skype for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Skype Lite for Java and Android phones, and Skype for Windows phones.
The application for the iPhone and iPod Touch most closely resembles Skype's familiar desktop program. Though I could send text-based chat messages to my Skype-using friend in Belgrade over AT&T's 3G network, I needed to connect the phone to a Wi-Fi network to make a call. (You currently cannot make Skype or other Internet-based calls on the iPhone via AT&T's 3G network, though that could change soon.) After a simple tap of the call button, I could clearly hear his familiar accent without any noticeable lag or choppiness.
Similarly, a call I made to a friend's cellphone in Senegal using Skype Credit was crystal clear in sound and connected in only 15 seconds. We chatted for 10 minutes, which cost me only $2.40. That same call on AT&T, even if I signed on to its international calling plan (which costs $4 a month), would have cost $8.80. Without the international calling plan, the fee would have climbed to $27.80.
For those without iPhones or Windows Mobile devices, Skype provides its Skype Lite application. Skype Lite cannot make calls over Wi-Fi or 3G networks, but instead routes calls through a local cellphone number.
It isn't as complicated as it sounds: when using a MyTouch 3G phone, I selected a Skype contact in London. The application started the phone's dialer and automatically routed the call to a local number. My British pal came through clear and static-free.
One thing to remember is that while calls made with Skype Lite are local and your carrier won't exact a long-distance fee, you are technically making a call. So those calls will count against the minutes in your calling plan.
FRING Picking up where Skype Mobile leaves off, Fring provides an even richer experience on more phones. It supports calling over Wi-Fi and 3G on Android and Nokia devices; iPhone 3G calling is on the way. In addition to free calling to Fring members anywhere in the world, the service connects to Skype, Google Talk and MSN Messenger contacts.
After installing the Fring application from the Android Marketplace on Sprint's HTC Hero, I tapped into my Skype account to call my Belgrade friend over Sprint's network. Since I didn't need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot, I made the call while walking down a noisy New York street.
Unfortunately, because 3G data networks weren't built for packets of data as fast-moving as a cellphone call, the connection was weak and kept fading in and out. When I was standing still, the call was slightly clearer but like a dialogue between in-studio anchors and on-the-ground news correspondents, there was a noticeable lag in the conversation.
That all disappeared when I connected the Hero to a Wi-Fi network; we talked for five minutes with no interruptions or delay.
If you are a fan of Skype's desktop video-calling service, you may be wondering when it will be appearing on its mobile app. Fring's already beaten Skype to the punch on this feature. The company recently updated its iPhone application with one-way video calling. "One-way," because the iPhone doesn't have a front-facing camera — so you can see your caller but your caller can't see you.
TRUPHONE Truphone, which works a bit differently from Skype and Fring, is available for a number of devices including the iPhone, the iPod Touch and Android, Nokia and BlackBerry handsets.
Truphone doesn't have a 3G calling option, but offers calling over Wi-Fi for Android, Nokia and iPhone handsets. The company offers Truphone Anywhere, a service similar to Skype's Lite application that routes long-distance calls first over a local number and then via the Internet for lower rates.
Though Truphone permits you to sign into your Skype account and call Skype users, you can also make free calls to other Truphone users. When I called a Truphone friend in London on his cell using a Wi-Fi network, call quality was decent and there was no background hissing.
Blending the functionality of both Fring and Skype, I discovered the true beauty of Truphone when I ventured outside of Wi-Fi territory and was able to automatically call Truphone users and international numbers by using my phone's own dialing capabilities. Although I needed to buy Truphone credit, the call was routed over a local number and then to Truphone's network.
What's the benefit of that, rather than it switching to 3G like Fring? Much better call quality. Just as with Skype Lite, when I dialed my friend in Israel, Truphone called a local New York City number, and connected me to her cell. Her voice was as clear as if she was sitting right next to me.
Clearly, making a choice about which service to use to reduce the cost of international calling will depend heavily on what cellphone you have and whether you have easy access to a Wi-Fi network.
But no matter which option you select, you will definitely save some money. AT&T may have heavily charged my parents one time for their globetrotting calling habits, but with so many new and cheaper options, that won't happen again.
AT&T to Sell Smartphones Using the Android System
LAS VEGAS — AT&T said on Wednesday that it planned to sell smartphones running the Android mobile operating system by the second half of the year, including Dell's first smartphone.
The company said it expected to sell five new devices created by handset manufacturers that also included Motorola and HTC.
AT&T is the last major wireless carrier in the United States to add an Android-powered smartphone to its lineup.
Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices at AT&T, said that the carrier had been slow to adopt the Android system.
"We hung back and watched the market very carefully," he said during an interview after the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show here. "When we saw the demand was there and the product was ready, we decided to bring it out."
AT&T is expanding its stable of smartphones even though it has the exclusive rights to sell the popular Apple iPhone in the United States.
"AT&T needs another leg to stand on beyond the iPhone, which has been this pillar of strength for the company," said Roger Entner, at telecommunications analyst at Nielsen. "If and when the iPhone exclusivity goes away, they want to have a well-rounded portfolio."
Mr. Entner said the announcement also was an indicator of how powerful Google, the developer of the Android mobile operating system, had become in the smartphone market. "If consumers want an Android-powered device, it doesn't matter which carrier it's on. AT&T doesn't want to be left out," said Mr. Entner.
In addition, AT&T said it would also introduce two devices running on the Palm mobile operating system, though it did not reveal specifics. Palm currently offers two phones running on that software, the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi, which have been available only on Sprint's wireless network.
Recently, AT&T has faced considerable criticism by iPhone owners for delayed text and voice messages, sluggish download speeds and other network problems. Android phone users are also prodigious users of network resources.
Mr. Bradley said the company was repairing its taxed network by upgrading software to increase data delivery speeds and by erecting new cell towers.
"We have been extremely focused on the challenges that the network has faced," he said. "We are going to make sure the network is ready and capable to handle all the new devices announced."
The company said it expected to sell five new devices created by handset manufacturers that also included Motorola and HTC.
AT&T is the last major wireless carrier in the United States to add an Android-powered smartphone to its lineup.
Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices at AT&T, said that the carrier had been slow to adopt the Android system.
"We hung back and watched the market very carefully," he said during an interview after the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show here. "When we saw the demand was there and the product was ready, we decided to bring it out."
AT&T is expanding its stable of smartphones even though it has the exclusive rights to sell the popular Apple iPhone in the United States.
"AT&T needs another leg to stand on beyond the iPhone, which has been this pillar of strength for the company," said Roger Entner, at telecommunications analyst at Nielsen. "If and when the iPhone exclusivity goes away, they want to have a well-rounded portfolio."
Mr. Entner said the announcement also was an indicator of how powerful Google, the developer of the Android mobile operating system, had become in the smartphone market. "If consumers want an Android-powered device, it doesn't matter which carrier it's on. AT&T doesn't want to be left out," said Mr. Entner.
In addition, AT&T said it would also introduce two devices running on the Palm mobile operating system, though it did not reveal specifics. Palm currently offers two phones running on that software, the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi, which have been available only on Sprint's wireless network.
Recently, AT&T has faced considerable criticism by iPhone owners for delayed text and voice messages, sluggish download speeds and other network problems. Android phone users are also prodigious users of network resources.
Mr. Bradley said the company was repairing its taxed network by upgrading software to increase data delivery speeds and by erecting new cell towers.
"We have been extremely focused on the challenges that the network has faced," he said. "We are going to make sure the network is ready and capable to handle all the new devices announced."
Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards
LAS VEGAS — To the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat.
Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.
This week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the neon-drenched annual trade show here, these companies are demonstrating the breadth of their ambitions, like 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and Web pages.
The first wave of these "infotainment systems," as the tech and car industries call them, will hit the market this year. While built-in navigation features were once costly options, the new systems are likely to be standard equipment in a wide range of cars before long. They prevent drivers from watching video and using some other functions while the car is moving, but they can still pull up content as varied as restaurant reviews and the covers of music albums with the tap of a finger.
Safety advocates say the companies behind these technologies are tone-deaf to mounting research showing the risks of distracted driving — and to a growing national debate about the use of mobile devices in cars and how to avoid the thousands of wrecks and injuries this distraction causes each year.
"This is irresponsible at best and pernicious at worst," Nicholas A. Ashford, a professor of technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of the new efforts to marry cars and computers. "Unfortunately and sadly, it is a continuation of the pursuit of profit over safety — for both drivers and pedestrians."
One system on the way this fall from Audi lets drivers pull up information as they drive. Heading to Madison Square Garden for a basketball game? Pop down the touch pad, finger-scribble the word "Knicks" and get a Wikipedia entry on the arena, photos and reviews of nearby restaurants, and animations of the ways to get there.
A notice that pops up when the Audi system is turned on reads: "Please only use the online services when traffic conditions allow you to do so safely."
The technology and car companies say that safety remains a priority. They note that they are building in or working on technology like voice commands and screens that can simultaneously show a map to the driver and a movie to a front-seat passenger, as in the new Jaguar XJ.
"We are trying to make that driving experience one that is very engaging," said Jim Buczkowski, the director of global electrical and electronics systems engineering at Ford. "We also want to make sure it is safer and safer. It is part of what our DNA will be going forward."
Ford's new MyFord system lets the driver adjust temperature settings or call a friend while the car is in motion, while its built-in Web browser works only when the car is parked. Audi says it will similarly restrict access to complex and potentially distracting functions. But in general, drivers will bear much of the responsibility for limiting their use of these devices.
Computer chips and other components improve every year while dropping in cost, allowing carmakers to introduce more sophisticated devices. Harman, based in Stamford, Conn., and a maker of such systems for cars, has created a pair of high-end multimedia systems due out this year that use full-fledged PC chips from Intel and Nvidia. Such chips once consumed too much electricity to be used in cars.
"We have always looked at the PC market with envy," said Sachin Lawande, the chief technology officer at Harman, which works with Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and others. "They've always had these great chips we could not use, but now that's changing."
A complex new dashboard console from Ford, which it plans to unveil Thursday, brings the car firmly into the land of electronic gadgets. The 4.2-inch color screen to the left of the speedometer displays information about the car, like the fuel level, while a companion screen on the right shows things like the name of a cellphone caller or the title of the digital song file being played. An eight-inch touch screen tops the central console, displaying things like control panels and, when the car is not moving, Web pages.
The system has Wi-Fi capability, two U.S.B. ports and a place to plug in a keyboard — in short, many of the features of a standard PC.
The automakers' efforts are backed by companies that make chips for PCs and that want to see their processors slotted into the 70 million cars sold worldwide each year.
"Cars are going to become probably the most immersive consumer electronics device we have," said Michael Rayfield, a general manager at Nvidia, a chip company that on Thursday plans to announce a deal with Audi. "In 2010, you will sit in these things, and it will be a totally different experience."
The giants of the industry contend they are giving consumers what they want — and the things that smartphones and the Internet have trained them to expect.
"Customers are expecting more and more, especially business people who expect to find in the car what they find in their smartphone," said Mathias Halliger, the chief engineer for Audi's multimedia interface systems. "We should give them the same or a better experience."
The muscle of the computer industry adds powerful new backing to efforts by carmakers to introduce new technologies as a source of profit. Once they promoted advanced stereos, but now navigation and integrated phone systems are the hot items.
"Carmakers assume, as most consumers do, that most cars are alike in terms of line quality and safety, and all the old attributes," Art Spinella, an auto industry analyst with CNW Research, said. "Now the way to distinguish yourself is through higher tech."
"But they're totally ignoring one of the key issues of the future of driving, which is distracted driving."
Awareness of that issue is growing. Even in 2003, when fewer people were multitasking in cars, researchers at Harvard estimated that motorists talking on cellphones caused 2,600 fatal accidents and 570,000 accidents involving injuries a year.
Charlie Klauer, a researcher at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, says motorists face a much greater crash risk when looking at a screen, even if it is just a simple GPS map. She says the overall danger for drivers will rise as screens deliver additional streams of data.
The longer a motorist looks away from the road, "the risk of crash or near crash goes up exponentially — not a linear increase, but exponentially," Ms. Klauer said. "So when you start introducing things like e-mail, Internet access, restaurant options or anything like that, the risk goes up."
Regulators worry about the developments, too. Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, said the companies involved were on the wrong track.
"The idea they're going to load automobiles up with all kinds of ways to be distracted — that's not the direction we're going, and I will speak out against it," he said.
The companies contend that they are creating helpful systems that display crucial information. And they are quick to point out that more computing power could mean better safety technology as well, like sensors that try to predict dangerous driving situations.
Ford and Audi say they extensively tested and tweaked their systems to cut down on the amount of time that drivers spend looking at screens. Brad Stertz, a spokesman for Audi of America, said that this testing was voluntary.
"Because a lot of this is so new, there's not a ton of regulatory testing that's required, like would be required with crash testing," Mr. Stertz said. He added that the company was also hoping to avoid legal troubles, saying, "It could be a legal issue if someone gets into a car accident and the cops blame the car company for a system that's too elaborate."
Darrin Shewchuk, a spokesman for Harman, said his company was working on safety technology like voice systems for listening to and composing e-mail messages. But he said that "generally speaking, the safety testing is really the responsibility of the automakers."
Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.
This week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the neon-drenched annual trade show here, these companies are demonstrating the breadth of their ambitions, like 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and Web pages.
The first wave of these "infotainment systems," as the tech and car industries call them, will hit the market this year. While built-in navigation features were once costly options, the new systems are likely to be standard equipment in a wide range of cars before long. They prevent drivers from watching video and using some other functions while the car is moving, but they can still pull up content as varied as restaurant reviews and the covers of music albums with the tap of a finger.
Safety advocates say the companies behind these technologies are tone-deaf to mounting research showing the risks of distracted driving — and to a growing national debate about the use of mobile devices in cars and how to avoid the thousands of wrecks and injuries this distraction causes each year.
"This is irresponsible at best and pernicious at worst," Nicholas A. Ashford, a professor of technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of the new efforts to marry cars and computers. "Unfortunately and sadly, it is a continuation of the pursuit of profit over safety — for both drivers and pedestrians."
One system on the way this fall from Audi lets drivers pull up information as they drive. Heading to Madison Square Garden for a basketball game? Pop down the touch pad, finger-scribble the word "Knicks" and get a Wikipedia entry on the arena, photos and reviews of nearby restaurants, and animations of the ways to get there.
A notice that pops up when the Audi system is turned on reads: "Please only use the online services when traffic conditions allow you to do so safely."
The technology and car companies say that safety remains a priority. They note that they are building in or working on technology like voice commands and screens that can simultaneously show a map to the driver and a movie to a front-seat passenger, as in the new Jaguar XJ.
"We are trying to make that driving experience one that is very engaging," said Jim Buczkowski, the director of global electrical and electronics systems engineering at Ford. "We also want to make sure it is safer and safer. It is part of what our DNA will be going forward."
Ford's new MyFord system lets the driver adjust temperature settings or call a friend while the car is in motion, while its built-in Web browser works only when the car is parked. Audi says it will similarly restrict access to complex and potentially distracting functions. But in general, drivers will bear much of the responsibility for limiting their use of these devices.
Computer chips and other components improve every year while dropping in cost, allowing carmakers to introduce more sophisticated devices. Harman, based in Stamford, Conn., and a maker of such systems for cars, has created a pair of high-end multimedia systems due out this year that use full-fledged PC chips from Intel and Nvidia. Such chips once consumed too much electricity to be used in cars.
"We have always looked at the PC market with envy," said Sachin Lawande, the chief technology officer at Harman, which works with Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and others. "They've always had these great chips we could not use, but now that's changing."
A complex new dashboard console from Ford, which it plans to unveil Thursday, brings the car firmly into the land of electronic gadgets. The 4.2-inch color screen to the left of the speedometer displays information about the car, like the fuel level, while a companion screen on the right shows things like the name of a cellphone caller or the title of the digital song file being played. An eight-inch touch screen tops the central console, displaying things like control panels and, when the car is not moving, Web pages.
The system has Wi-Fi capability, two U.S.B. ports and a place to plug in a keyboard — in short, many of the features of a standard PC.
The automakers' efforts are backed by companies that make chips for PCs and that want to see their processors slotted into the 70 million cars sold worldwide each year.
"Cars are going to become probably the most immersive consumer electronics device we have," said Michael Rayfield, a general manager at Nvidia, a chip company that on Thursday plans to announce a deal with Audi. "In 2010, you will sit in these things, and it will be a totally different experience."
The giants of the industry contend they are giving consumers what they want — and the things that smartphones and the Internet have trained them to expect.
"Customers are expecting more and more, especially business people who expect to find in the car what they find in their smartphone," said Mathias Halliger, the chief engineer for Audi's multimedia interface systems. "We should give them the same or a better experience."
The muscle of the computer industry adds powerful new backing to efforts by carmakers to introduce new technologies as a source of profit. Once they promoted advanced stereos, but now navigation and integrated phone systems are the hot items.
"Carmakers assume, as most consumers do, that most cars are alike in terms of line quality and safety, and all the old attributes," Art Spinella, an auto industry analyst with CNW Research, said. "Now the way to distinguish yourself is through higher tech."
"But they're totally ignoring one of the key issues of the future of driving, which is distracted driving."
Awareness of that issue is growing. Even in 2003, when fewer people were multitasking in cars, researchers at Harvard estimated that motorists talking on cellphones caused 2,600 fatal accidents and 570,000 accidents involving injuries a year.
Charlie Klauer, a researcher at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, says motorists face a much greater crash risk when looking at a screen, even if it is just a simple GPS map. She says the overall danger for drivers will rise as screens deliver additional streams of data.
The longer a motorist looks away from the road, "the risk of crash or near crash goes up exponentially — not a linear increase, but exponentially," Ms. Klauer said. "So when you start introducing things like e-mail, Internet access, restaurant options or anything like that, the risk goes up."
Regulators worry about the developments, too. Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, said the companies involved were on the wrong track.
"The idea they're going to load automobiles up with all kinds of ways to be distracted — that's not the direction we're going, and I will speak out against it," he said.
The companies contend that they are creating helpful systems that display crucial information. And they are quick to point out that more computing power could mean better safety technology as well, like sensors that try to predict dangerous driving situations.
Ford and Audi say they extensively tested and tweaked their systems to cut down on the amount of time that drivers spend looking at screens. Brad Stertz, a spokesman for Audi of America, said that this testing was voluntary.
"Because a lot of this is so new, there's not a ton of regulatory testing that's required, like would be required with crash testing," Mr. Stertz said. He added that the company was also hoping to avoid legal troubles, saying, "It could be a legal issue if someone gets into a car accident and the cops blame the car company for a system that's too elaborate."
Darrin Shewchuk, a spokesman for Harman, said his company was working on safety technology like voice systems for listening to and composing e-mail messages. But he said that "generally speaking, the safety testing is really the responsibility of the automakers."
10 Ways to Cut Your Travel Costs This Year
LAST year was arguably the year of the travel deal, with resorts and airlines practically begging for bookings, and many travelers finding bargain airfares and hotel rooms as a result. But airlines have cut back capacity, meaning there will be fewer seats going unsold, and resorts may not be as quick to cut rates to attract guests, now that the economy looks as if it might be on a slight rebound. So now is the perfect time to review your booking strategy. Here are 10 simple steps you can take to help cut your travel costs in 2010.
1. Sign Up for a Twitter Account
An increasing number of travel companies are using Twitter to market their brands, often by tweeting exclusive deals to followers. JetBlue calls out last-minute discounts at JetBlueCheeps on Tuesday mornings. A recent example: "$89 BOS to LAS this Sat. LAS to BOS this Mon. or Tues. 25 seats avail or til 6 pm ET." Fairmont Hotels offers its Twitter followers special discounts before anyone else. Farecompare's "flyfrom" Twitter feed offers location-specific fare sales when you plug in your home airport's three-letter code, as in flyfromNYC.
All you need to do is sign up for a free account at Twitter.com and start following the companies you like or travel experts who do the work for you. (You can find me at MichelleHiggins.)
2. Find the Cheapest Dates to Fly
ITASoftware.com, which provides the technological backbone for many airfare shopping sites, allows users to scan an entire month's fares for the least expensive rate. (Log in as a "guest" and click on "month-long search." ) In January, the 28th and 30th were the cheapest dates to fly nonstop to London from New York ($536) for a week's vacation, according to a recent search. The next best was Saturday, Jan. 23, at $640. To book the ticket, users must go to another site. Kayak.com has a flexible-dates option (registration is required) and a calendar that shows the best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours. Bing Travel, the Microsoft search engine, offers a similar option, found under "plan trips," about halfway down the page.
3. Consider Nearby Airports
A recent Web search showed nonstop flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Miami International from $299 round trip on American in early January. But flying into Fort Lauderdale, roughly 30 miles north of Miami, was $219 on Virgin America, an $80 saving.
4. Go Against the Grain
If possible, avoid popular travel dates like holidays and spring break because airlines have begun to charge anywhere from $10 to $30 extra at those times. Farecompare.com offers a handy breakdown of the new fees by date, airline and amount. Early-morning and late-night flights may also be cheaper depending on the route.
5. Track Price Even After Buying
Airlines have long offered to refund the difference in their fares (minus a change fee) in the form of a voucher to customers who ask. Using your confirmation number, Yapta.com will automatically track the price of your ticket, taking the airline's fees into consideration, and send you, without charge, an e-mail message or Twitter alert notifying you of the lower price. You can then call the airline to claim the credit.
Similarly, Travelocity.com promises to refund the difference in price for prepaid hotel reservations if you find the same room for a cheaper rate online before check-in.
6. Take the Bus
Cheap express buses with names like BoltBus, Megabus and Washington Deluxe have become increasingly popular along the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere, with seats for $25 or less, depending on when you reserve. With amenities like more legroom, power plugs at every seat and free Wi-Fi, the bus ride, though longer, can often be more tolerable than a flight that costs 10 times as much. Search for seats at GotoBus.com or BusJunction.com.
7. Roll the Dice
Sites like Priceline.com, Hotwire.com and Lastminutetravel.com offer deep discounts to travelers willing to pay before learning the names of the hotels, airlines or car rental agencies they're committing to. To help you find the best rate, Biddingfortravel.com and Betterbidding.com provide strategic advice and offer tips from other travelers on how to navigate the system.
Getaroom.com offers a new twist to this gamble that may be more agreeable for risk-averse travelers. Unlike these other discounters, Getaroom tells customers the name of the hotel and price before booking. But it offers an even lower rate through its call center — typically 10 to 25 percent off — to travelers willing to pay for the room before finding out just how much of a discount they're getting.
8. Go Rental
Tourists in most European cities can easily pay $200 a night for basic hotel rooms. By contrast, an apartment or villa can be rented for as little as $1,100 a week in Paris or Rome. Homeaway.com, Zonder.com and Rentalo.com are just a few of the many rental Web sites available. Some specialize in specific regions like Rentvillas.com for Europe or Wimco.com for the Caribbean.
9. Make Yourself at Home
For a 6 to 12 percent booking fee, AirBnB.com connects budget travelers with locals who are offering a place to bed down. The Times's Frugal Traveler, Matt Gross, described it as "a cross between CouchSurfing.com and the vacation rentals section of Craigslist." There were more than 2,000 listings in a recent search for New York including a futon in a one-bedroom near Gramercy Park ($65) and a bedroom with private bath and separate entrance in Hell's Kitchen ($150).
10. Study the Fine Print
Play close attention to which airline you are actually flying, particularly on international flights. With code sharing, you may book a flight to Paris on Delta, for instance, and end up traveling with Air France, a code share partner with Delta.
But while the flight may be the same, the price often is not. Sometimes the difference can be negligible — say, $609 on SAS on a January nonstop flight from Newark Airport to Stockholm versus $627 for that same flight when booked through United. Or $817 for an American flight from New York to Lima versus the $693 that same flight would cost when booked through American's code share partner, LAN.
There are times though when the difference can be substantial, particularly when the code share partner may be a foreign carrier not well known to American travelers.
Here are some examples, based on a search on Kayak.com for flights in late January, where the round-trip fares vary greatly depending on which code share partner you book through. (Click on "details" for a breakdown of the flight's particulars.) New York to Singapore: $1,319 on Cathay Pacific; $1,817 on American. New York to Marrakesh: $1,098 on Royal Air Maroc; $3,257 on Delta. New York to Cairo: $908 on Egypt Air; a stunning $4,650 on United.
1. Sign Up for a Twitter Account
An increasing number of travel companies are using Twitter to market their brands, often by tweeting exclusive deals to followers. JetBlue calls out last-minute discounts at JetBlueCheeps on Tuesday mornings. A recent example: "$89 BOS to LAS this Sat. LAS to BOS this Mon. or Tues. 25 seats avail or til 6 pm ET." Fairmont Hotels offers its Twitter followers special discounts before anyone else. Farecompare's "flyfrom" Twitter feed offers location-specific fare sales when you plug in your home airport's three-letter code, as in flyfromNYC.
All you need to do is sign up for a free account at Twitter.com and start following the companies you like or travel experts who do the work for you. (You can find me at MichelleHiggins.)
2. Find the Cheapest Dates to Fly
ITASoftware.com, which provides the technological backbone for many airfare shopping sites, allows users to scan an entire month's fares for the least expensive rate. (Log in as a "guest" and click on "month-long search." ) In January, the 28th and 30th were the cheapest dates to fly nonstop to London from New York ($536) for a week's vacation, according to a recent search. The next best was Saturday, Jan. 23, at $640. To book the ticket, users must go to another site. Kayak.com has a flexible-dates option (registration is required) and a calendar that shows the best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours. Bing Travel, the Microsoft search engine, offers a similar option, found under "plan trips," about halfway down the page.
3. Consider Nearby Airports
A recent Web search showed nonstop flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Miami International from $299 round trip on American in early January. But flying into Fort Lauderdale, roughly 30 miles north of Miami, was $219 on Virgin America, an $80 saving.
4. Go Against the Grain
If possible, avoid popular travel dates like holidays and spring break because airlines have begun to charge anywhere from $10 to $30 extra at those times. Farecompare.com offers a handy breakdown of the new fees by date, airline and amount. Early-morning and late-night flights may also be cheaper depending on the route.
5. Track Price Even After Buying
Airlines have long offered to refund the difference in their fares (minus a change fee) in the form of a voucher to customers who ask. Using your confirmation number, Yapta.com will automatically track the price of your ticket, taking the airline's fees into consideration, and send you, without charge, an e-mail message or Twitter alert notifying you of the lower price. You can then call the airline to claim the credit.
Similarly, Travelocity.com promises to refund the difference in price for prepaid hotel reservations if you find the same room for a cheaper rate online before check-in.
6. Take the Bus
Cheap express buses with names like BoltBus, Megabus and Washington Deluxe have become increasingly popular along the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere, with seats for $25 or less, depending on when you reserve. With amenities like more legroom, power plugs at every seat and free Wi-Fi, the bus ride, though longer, can often be more tolerable than a flight that costs 10 times as much. Search for seats at GotoBus.com or BusJunction.com.
7. Roll the Dice
Sites like Priceline.com, Hotwire.com and Lastminutetravel.com offer deep discounts to travelers willing to pay before learning the names of the hotels, airlines or car rental agencies they're committing to. To help you find the best rate, Biddingfortravel.com and Betterbidding.com provide strategic advice and offer tips from other travelers on how to navigate the system.
Getaroom.com offers a new twist to this gamble that may be more agreeable for risk-averse travelers. Unlike these other discounters, Getaroom tells customers the name of the hotel and price before booking. But it offers an even lower rate through its call center — typically 10 to 25 percent off — to travelers willing to pay for the room before finding out just how much of a discount they're getting.
8. Go Rental
Tourists in most European cities can easily pay $200 a night for basic hotel rooms. By contrast, an apartment or villa can be rented for as little as $1,100 a week in Paris or Rome. Homeaway.com, Zonder.com and Rentalo.com are just a few of the many rental Web sites available. Some specialize in specific regions like Rentvillas.com for Europe or Wimco.com for the Caribbean.
9. Make Yourself at Home
For a 6 to 12 percent booking fee, AirBnB.com connects budget travelers with locals who are offering a place to bed down. The Times's Frugal Traveler, Matt Gross, described it as "a cross between CouchSurfing.com and the vacation rentals section of Craigslist." There were more than 2,000 listings in a recent search for New York including a futon in a one-bedroom near Gramercy Park ($65) and a bedroom with private bath and separate entrance in Hell's Kitchen ($150).
10. Study the Fine Print
Play close attention to which airline you are actually flying, particularly on international flights. With code sharing, you may book a flight to Paris on Delta, for instance, and end up traveling with Air France, a code share partner with Delta.
But while the flight may be the same, the price often is not. Sometimes the difference can be negligible — say, $609 on SAS on a January nonstop flight from Newark Airport to Stockholm versus $627 for that same flight when booked through United. Or $817 for an American flight from New York to Lima versus the $693 that same flight would cost when booked through American's code share partner, LAN.
There are times though when the difference can be substantial, particularly when the code share partner may be a foreign carrier not well known to American travelers.
Here are some examples, based on a search on Kayak.com for flights in late January, where the round-trip fares vary greatly depending on which code share partner you book through. (Click on "details" for a breakdown of the flight's particulars.) New York to Singapore: $1,319 on Cathay Pacific; $1,817 on American. New York to Marrakesh: $1,098 on Royal Air Maroc; $3,257 on Delta. New York to Cairo: $908 on Egypt Air; a stunning $4,650 on United.
Executive’s New Studio Teams Up With Yahoo
The former NBC entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman has lined up his first distributor, Yahoo, for his new studio, which he says will specialize in creating shows in concert with advertisers.
The studio, Electus, is expected to announce the deal on Friday.
Electus was founded last year by Mr. Silverman in partnership with Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. At the new company, Mr. Silverman is putting into practice what he so often talked about at NBC: exceptionally close connections between content creators and corporate sponsors.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Silverman was not specific about the types of programs he would create for Yahoo, but said he saw "opportunities for episodic storytelling" that included "more direct relationships" with advertisers. The move by Electus and Yahoo, which has dabbled in original programming for years with varying degrees of success, is in part a response to advertiser demands for more online video inventory.
"We are always getting requests from advertisers for exclusive opportunities" for integrations into Web programs, said Joanne Bradford, the senior vice president for North America revenue and market development at Yahoo. "We really feel like Ben has proven that he can come up with great content."
Before coming to NBC in 2007, Mr. Silverman was the founder of Reveille, the producer of programs like "The Biggest Loser" and "The Office." He left NBC last July and announced the deal with Mr. Diller the same day.
Asked whether he thought his brand had been tarnished by his time at NBC, where the network's ratings slipped during his tenure, Mr. Silverman said, "I quit NBC because they were obviously building themselves to sell." General Electric is selling a majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast.
In addition to the Yahoo partnership, Mr. Silverman said that he had also signed a contract with Ryan Seacrest, the TV and radio host and budding entrepreneur, and that Electus was doing "multiple projects" with him.
Mr. Silverman is also working with the actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, America Ferrera and others. "We're tapping into the A-list storytelling engine," he said.
Yahoo said that the programs would begin to make their debuts in several months.
The studio, Electus, is expected to announce the deal on Friday.
Electus was founded last year by Mr. Silverman in partnership with Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. At the new company, Mr. Silverman is putting into practice what he so often talked about at NBC: exceptionally close connections between content creators and corporate sponsors.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Silverman was not specific about the types of programs he would create for Yahoo, but said he saw "opportunities for episodic storytelling" that included "more direct relationships" with advertisers. The move by Electus and Yahoo, which has dabbled in original programming for years with varying degrees of success, is in part a response to advertiser demands for more online video inventory.
"We are always getting requests from advertisers for exclusive opportunities" for integrations into Web programs, said Joanne Bradford, the senior vice president for North America revenue and market development at Yahoo. "We really feel like Ben has proven that he can come up with great content."
Before coming to NBC in 2007, Mr. Silverman was the founder of Reveille, the producer of programs like "The Biggest Loser" and "The Office." He left NBC last July and announced the deal with Mr. Diller the same day.
Asked whether he thought his brand had been tarnished by his time at NBC, where the network's ratings slipped during his tenure, Mr. Silverman said, "I quit NBC because they were obviously building themselves to sell." General Electric is selling a majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast.
In addition to the Yahoo partnership, Mr. Silverman said that he had also signed a contract with Ryan Seacrest, the TV and radio host and budding entrepreneur, and that Electus was doing "multiple projects" with him.
Mr. Silverman is also working with the actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, America Ferrera and others. "We're tapping into the A-list storytelling engine," he said.
Yahoo said that the programs would begin to make their debuts in several months.
3-D’s Quest to Move Beyond Gimmicks
THE first Academy Awards banquet, held on May 16, 1929, and honoring films released between Aug. 1, 1927, and July 31, 1928, included a special award to Warner Brothers "for producing 'The Jazz Singer,' the pioneering outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry."
Does James Cameron's "Avatar" deserve a similar prize? Some industry observers might think so, including Kenneth Turan, a film critic for The Los Angeles Times, who called Mr. Cameron's epic "the 'Jazz Singer' of 3-D movies."
" 'Avatar' is not the first of the new generation of 3-D films," Mr. Turan wrote in his review, "just as 'Jazz Singer' was not the first time people had spoken on screen. But like the Al Jolson vehicle, it's the one that's going to energize audiences about the full potential of this medium."
It's a tempting analogy. But thanks to recent scholarship, notably by Donald Crafton of the University of Notre Dame, we now know that even "The Jazz Singer" was not "The Jazz Singer" of the talkie revolution. The transition from silent films to sound was not something that happened overnight, but a gradual process that began with the talking shorts of the mid-'20s and continued until 1930, when the last silent films were produced in Hollywood. The special award to "The Jazz Singer" seems to have been part of a clever publicity campaign by Warner Brothers to burnish the film's reputation after the fact. The real runaway hit of the 1927-28 season was William Wellman's World War I aviation epic, "Wings," which featured recorded sound effects and a musical score — and won that first year's award for Outstanding Picture.
If 3-D takes hold, it won't be the exclusive doing of "Avatar," but the result of a long series of small technological steps and tiny adjustments in audience expectations. The process is far from over, and its outcome is by no means clear.
The dream of producing 3-D movies goes back to the very beginnings of the cinema. Pioneers like Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers aspired from the first to make movies with sound, color and depth, and the basic technology (the separation of a scene into left-eye and right-eye images, brought back together when the spectator looks through filtered glasses) had been around since the magic-lantern days. Experimentation with 3-D films continued through the '20s, and at least one feature-length film — the now lost "Power of Love" (1922) — was produced but not released.
The 3-D boom of the '50s was driven in part by a technological advance — Edwin H. Land's polarized lenses replaced the crude red and green filters of the early processes — and partly by economic demands. Hollywood needed to come up with something to compete with television, which by 1952 was firmly established in American homes.
We're in a similar situation today. The 3-D of the '50s required two 35-millimeter projectors running in perfect synchronization — tense, sweaty work even for an experienced projectionist. But new technology, notably that developed by the California corporation RealD, makes it possible for a single digital projector to handle both left- and right-eye images, and requires little more than the push of a button to operate. And once again, as Hollywood faces a widening range of competition from cable and satellite television, home video and the Internet, the industry needs a fresh gimmick (and this one has the advantage, at least for the moment, of being pirate-proof).
This latest wave of 3-D filmmaking began with the spectacular Imax 3-D films of the 1990s. Films like "Across the Sea of Time" (1995) and "Wings of Courage" (1995) used a complex and expensive technology, based on liquid crystal "shutter" lenses, to produce strikingly sharp and bright stereoscopic images. (Imax now seems to have phased out its shutter system installations, though XpanD uses a related technology, and RealD and Sony have been developing a shutter system for home video.)
James Cameron used the Imax system to project his 2003 "Ghosts of the Abyss," a 59-minute documentary on the undersea exploration of the Titanic wreck. Its influence can be profoundly felt in "Avatar," with its tentacled sea creatures — spiritually aware jellyfish — floating through the thickened atmosphere of the distant moon Pandora. In 2004 Robert Zemeckis used the Imax system to project the 3-D version of his digitally animated performance-capture film "The Polar Express," at 90 minutes the first feature-length film to do so.
Following Mr. Zemeckis's lead, the overwhelming majority of the new 3-D features are animated films of one stripe or another, from the art-house austerity of Henry Selick's lovely "Coraline" to the bright excess of DreamWorks' "Monsters Vs. Aliens." Animation helps to hide the lingering artificiality of 3-D while cloaking the new films in an aura of family friendliness — an effective way of warding off the unwholesome associations that 3-D acquired in its last major go-around, in the 1970s, with titles like "The Playmates" and "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein."
Apart from exploitation-era throwbacks like "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and "The Final Destination," filmmakers have been holding back from using the process for live-action movies, perhaps because it remains so distracting. It's difficult to get involved in the nuances of storytelling and character construction when objects are leaping from the screen into your lap.
As an animated film with a few human figures composted in, "Avatar" is well positioned to bridge the gap. The ooh-and-ahh effects remain front and center but become part of the story line, reflecting the experience of the hero, Jake, a disabled soldier played by Sam Worthington, as he explores the wonders of Pandora in his new Na'vi body.
As Jake learns to make his way around as a 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned alien (created with the performance-capture techniques pioneered by Mr. Zemeckis), the film provides a model for the audience's experience. We enter the film identifying with the human figures; by the end we have shifted our allegiance to the animated characters and have accepted the stereoscopic effects as part of their world, rather than intrusions on ours.
A similar process of normalization — the acceptance of 3-D as just another component of the filmgoing experience, rather than a novelty effect applied to it — will have to occur before stereoscopy takes its place alongside color, sound and wide-screen processes in the filmmaker's toolbox. The rich spectacle of "Avatar" does not represent the endpoint in a technological transition, but rather its launching pad.
The next three or four years will tell the real story, as filmmakers try to expand the use of 3-D beyond the standard 3-D genres (horror, adventure, pornography) and into more naturalistic terrain. It won't be easy. Hollywood's failure to do exactly that is what put an end to the 3-D boom of the 1950s, which petered out just as more normative 3-D films, like Curtis Bernhardt's "Miss Sadie Thompson" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder," entered the marketplace.
It is a time for baby steps, as Hollywood learned during the transition to sound. Audiences must be acculturated, film by film, until they're ready to accept not just cartoons and horror movies in 3-D, but also mainstream comedies, historical dramas and earnest independent films, too.
The 3-D film that will truly merit a special Oscar is not the one with the most mind-blowing effects, but the first to do without them.
Does James Cameron's "Avatar" deserve a similar prize? Some industry observers might think so, including Kenneth Turan, a film critic for The Los Angeles Times, who called Mr. Cameron's epic "the 'Jazz Singer' of 3-D movies."
" 'Avatar' is not the first of the new generation of 3-D films," Mr. Turan wrote in his review, "just as 'Jazz Singer' was not the first time people had spoken on screen. But like the Al Jolson vehicle, it's the one that's going to energize audiences about the full potential of this medium."
It's a tempting analogy. But thanks to recent scholarship, notably by Donald Crafton of the University of Notre Dame, we now know that even "The Jazz Singer" was not "The Jazz Singer" of the talkie revolution. The transition from silent films to sound was not something that happened overnight, but a gradual process that began with the talking shorts of the mid-'20s and continued until 1930, when the last silent films were produced in Hollywood. The special award to "The Jazz Singer" seems to have been part of a clever publicity campaign by Warner Brothers to burnish the film's reputation after the fact. The real runaway hit of the 1927-28 season was William Wellman's World War I aviation epic, "Wings," which featured recorded sound effects and a musical score — and won that first year's award for Outstanding Picture.
If 3-D takes hold, it won't be the exclusive doing of "Avatar," but the result of a long series of small technological steps and tiny adjustments in audience expectations. The process is far from over, and its outcome is by no means clear.
The dream of producing 3-D movies goes back to the very beginnings of the cinema. Pioneers like Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers aspired from the first to make movies with sound, color and depth, and the basic technology (the separation of a scene into left-eye and right-eye images, brought back together when the spectator looks through filtered glasses) had been around since the magic-lantern days. Experimentation with 3-D films continued through the '20s, and at least one feature-length film — the now lost "Power of Love" (1922) — was produced but not released.
The 3-D boom of the '50s was driven in part by a technological advance — Edwin H. Land's polarized lenses replaced the crude red and green filters of the early processes — and partly by economic demands. Hollywood needed to come up with something to compete with television, which by 1952 was firmly established in American homes.
We're in a similar situation today. The 3-D of the '50s required two 35-millimeter projectors running in perfect synchronization — tense, sweaty work even for an experienced projectionist. But new technology, notably that developed by the California corporation RealD, makes it possible for a single digital projector to handle both left- and right-eye images, and requires little more than the push of a button to operate. And once again, as Hollywood faces a widening range of competition from cable and satellite television, home video and the Internet, the industry needs a fresh gimmick (and this one has the advantage, at least for the moment, of being pirate-proof).
This latest wave of 3-D filmmaking began with the spectacular Imax 3-D films of the 1990s. Films like "Across the Sea of Time" (1995) and "Wings of Courage" (1995) used a complex and expensive technology, based on liquid crystal "shutter" lenses, to produce strikingly sharp and bright stereoscopic images. (Imax now seems to have phased out its shutter system installations, though XpanD uses a related technology, and RealD and Sony have been developing a shutter system for home video.)
James Cameron used the Imax system to project his 2003 "Ghosts of the Abyss," a 59-minute documentary on the undersea exploration of the Titanic wreck. Its influence can be profoundly felt in "Avatar," with its tentacled sea creatures — spiritually aware jellyfish — floating through the thickened atmosphere of the distant moon Pandora. In 2004 Robert Zemeckis used the Imax system to project the 3-D version of his digitally animated performance-capture film "The Polar Express," at 90 minutes the first feature-length film to do so.
Following Mr. Zemeckis's lead, the overwhelming majority of the new 3-D features are animated films of one stripe or another, from the art-house austerity of Henry Selick's lovely "Coraline" to the bright excess of DreamWorks' "Monsters Vs. Aliens." Animation helps to hide the lingering artificiality of 3-D while cloaking the new films in an aura of family friendliness — an effective way of warding off the unwholesome associations that 3-D acquired in its last major go-around, in the 1970s, with titles like "The Playmates" and "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein."
Apart from exploitation-era throwbacks like "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and "The Final Destination," filmmakers have been holding back from using the process for live-action movies, perhaps because it remains so distracting. It's difficult to get involved in the nuances of storytelling and character construction when objects are leaping from the screen into your lap.
As an animated film with a few human figures composted in, "Avatar" is well positioned to bridge the gap. The ooh-and-ahh effects remain front and center but become part of the story line, reflecting the experience of the hero, Jake, a disabled soldier played by Sam Worthington, as he explores the wonders of Pandora in his new Na'vi body.
As Jake learns to make his way around as a 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned alien (created with the performance-capture techniques pioneered by Mr. Zemeckis), the film provides a model for the audience's experience. We enter the film identifying with the human figures; by the end we have shifted our allegiance to the animated characters and have accepted the stereoscopic effects as part of their world, rather than intrusions on ours.
A similar process of normalization — the acceptance of 3-D as just another component of the filmgoing experience, rather than a novelty effect applied to it — will have to occur before stereoscopy takes its place alongside color, sound and wide-screen processes in the filmmaker's toolbox. The rich spectacle of "Avatar" does not represent the endpoint in a technological transition, but rather its launching pad.
The next three or four years will tell the real story, as filmmakers try to expand the use of 3-D beyond the standard 3-D genres (horror, adventure, pornography) and into more naturalistic terrain. It won't be easy. Hollywood's failure to do exactly that is what put an end to the 3-D boom of the 1950s, which petered out just as more normative 3-D films, like Curtis Bernhardt's "Miss Sadie Thompson" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder," entered the marketplace.
It is a time for baby steps, as Hollywood learned during the transition to sound. Audiences must be acculturated, film by film, until they're ready to accept not just cartoons and horror movies in 3-D, but also mainstream comedies, historical dramas and earnest independent films, too.
The 3-D film that will truly merit a special Oscar is not the one with the most mind-blowing effects, but the first to do without them.
Apple Patent Application Could Presage Thinner Devices
By NICK BILTON
The application, which was unearthed by Patently Apple, describes a way of integrating a touch-sensitive panel into a display, rather than layering it on top, potentially allowing for thinner and less expensive touch screens.
The application comes from a group run by Steve Hotelling, senior manager for touch hardware at Apple.
In an interview, a former Apple engineer who worked in Mr. Hotelling's group explained why this approach was different from the current Apple technology that is built into the iPhone. "Traditionally when you make a touch-screen display you place the touch-screen elements on top of an LCD screen," he said. "This patent tries to integrate the two."
By eliminating the sandwiching of a display and a touch screen, Apple would be able to build a much thinner device with a slimmer screen, the former Apple engineer said. "You would not have to buy an LCD and a touch panel for a new touch-screen device. Instead you just create one unit."
This could also reduce costs significantly, but the engineer cautioned: "This is not something Apple could do alone. They would have work with a major LCD partner to make this successful and cost-effective, or it becomes extremely expensive."
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hotelling leads a team of 25 engineers at Apple. His group is responsible for developing the multitouch technology in the current iPhone. As Mr. Hotelling's résumé states, his team also developed the famous circular click-wheel for iPods, and the world's first multitouch mouse trackpad with a two-finger scroll.
United States Patent and Trademark Office via Patently Apple An Apple patent application illustrating a new form of multitouch screen.
An Apple patent application surfaced on Thursday that points to a new type of multitouch screen technology.The application, which was unearthed by Patently Apple, describes a way of integrating a touch-sensitive panel into a display, rather than layering it on top, potentially allowing for thinner and less expensive touch screens.
The application comes from a group run by Steve Hotelling, senior manager for touch hardware at Apple.
In an interview, a former Apple engineer who worked in Mr. Hotelling's group explained why this approach was different from the current Apple technology that is built into the iPhone. "Traditionally when you make a touch-screen display you place the touch-screen elements on top of an LCD screen," he said. "This patent tries to integrate the two."
By eliminating the sandwiching of a display and a touch screen, Apple would be able to build a much thinner device with a slimmer screen, the former Apple engineer said. "You would not have to buy an LCD and a touch panel for a new touch-screen device. Instead you just create one unit."
This could also reduce costs significantly, but the engineer cautioned: "This is not something Apple could do alone. They would have work with a major LCD partner to make this successful and cost-effective, or it becomes extremely expensive."
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hotelling leads a team of 25 engineers at Apple. His group is responsible for developing the multitouch technology in the current iPhone. As Mr. Hotelling's résumé states, his team also developed the famous circular click-wheel for iPods, and the world's first multitouch mouse trackpad with a two-finger scroll.
United States Patent and Trademark Office via Patently Apple The touch screen technology in the application involves a technique called in-plane switching.
Behind the Warner Bros. and Netflix Accord
By BRAD STONE
Earlier this week, Netflix cut a deal with Warner Bros. that will delay the availability of new Warner movies to Netflix subscribers by almost a month but expand the number of older Warner films available for digital streaming.
Whether or not this is good for Netflix subscribers depends entirely on how they use the service.
The deal was a compromise by both sides, according to interviews with Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, and Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive. Warner, according to Mr. Tsujihara, didn't want the availability of its films on Netflix to prevent people from paying full price to buy DVDs at retail.
"We wanted to create as much headway as we could for that higher-margin business," he said.
Warner was willing to give Netflix a lower per-unit price on its discs if the company agreed to delay giving out new releases to subscribers.
Mr. Hastings said that Hollywood studios looked fondly on their businesses in Europe, which has no first-sale doctrine, a provision of American copyright law that allows a disc purchaser (like Netflix) to sell or give away a lawfully purchased copy without permission. As a result, in Europe, the studios can sell DVDs first while they make rental and subscription services wait a few weeks.
He said that Netflix was willing to compromise on the issue because "our number one objective now is expanding the digital catalog." Netflix's streaming service won't receive any newer movies from Warner – "it's not that much of a breakthrough," Mr. Hastings said – but it will get a larger piece of the Warner back catalog.
And because Netflix is getting a better price on discs and can therefore buy more, subscribers will soon encounter no wait times when they want to receive the most popular Warner new releases, particularly for high-definition Blu-ray discs.
As for whether or not other major Hollywood studios will follow suit, Mr. Hastings said they were likely to be watching the result of the deal closely.
Whether or not this is good for Netflix subscribers depends entirely on how they use the service.
The deal was a compromise by both sides, according to interviews with Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, and Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive. Warner, according to Mr. Tsujihara, didn't want the availability of its films on Netflix to prevent people from paying full price to buy DVDs at retail.
"We wanted to create as much headway as we could for that higher-margin business," he said.
Warner was willing to give Netflix a lower per-unit price on its discs if the company agreed to delay giving out new releases to subscribers.
Mr. Hastings said that Hollywood studios looked fondly on their businesses in Europe, which has no first-sale doctrine, a provision of American copyright law that allows a disc purchaser (like Netflix) to sell or give away a lawfully purchased copy without permission. As a result, in Europe, the studios can sell DVDs first while they make rental and subscription services wait a few weeks.
He said that Netflix was willing to compromise on the issue because "our number one objective now is expanding the digital catalog." Netflix's streaming service won't receive any newer movies from Warner – "it's not that much of a breakthrough," Mr. Hastings said – but it will get a larger piece of the Warner back catalog.
And because Netflix is getting a better price on discs and can therefore buy more, subscribers will soon encounter no wait times when they want to receive the most popular Warner new releases, particularly for high-definition Blu-ray discs.
As for whether or not other major Hollywood studios will follow suit, Mr. Hastings said they were likely to be watching the result of the deal closely.
H.P. Working on ‘Half-Pint’ Android Tablet
By NICK BILTON
Update | 7:33 p.m. Includes Hewlett-Packard's response.
Hewlett Packard is working on numerous tablet devices that will come in a variety of sizes, shapes and operating systems, including Windows 7, Google's Android, and possibly the open-source operating system Linux.
The company has so many different tablet-related projects in the works that a variety of coming publishing partners were surprised to see a Windows 7 version of the Hewlett-Packard slate announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.
A senior editor of a major magazine publishing empire working on an internal corporate project, and speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a nondisclosure agreement, told me of an array of H.P. tablets. He said, "I've seen a much smaller version of H.P.'s tablet that works exclusively with Android. It's smaller than the Windows 7 version, almost like a half-pint size, or about twice as large as the iPhone." But this may be one of many projects in development. He added, "I've also heard mention of a Linux version in the works, but I haven't seen the hardware for this device."
Erick Schonfeld, a TechCrunch writer, also reported on Thursday about H.P'.s involvement in an Android slate.
The magazine company employee added that H.P. was working diligently to create unique content for these devices, but he cautioned that partners worry about H.P.'s understanding of the media landscape. He said, "H.P. is a great hardware company, they make excellent hardware experiences, but I worry about their ability to introduce and work with media."
H.P. is also working with software developers including Microsoft and Adobe to create magazine content for these devices.
Marlene Somsak, an H.P. media relations Director, responded to questions about a possible smaller Android tablet. Mrs. Somsak said, "I'm certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us. There are also tons of HP Labs activities looking at a numerous different areas. As of now we are not announcing a new Android-based slate."
According to numerous sources at Adobe and Wired, H.P. is also talking with countless publishers including Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, Wired, and a number of other Condé Nast publications.
Collectively, they are testing a new form of magazine on these slate-like devices that will include color images, a variety of typography and full-motion video.
Hewlett Packard is working on numerous tablet devices that will come in a variety of sizes, shapes and operating systems, including Windows 7, Google's Android, and possibly the open-source operating system Linux.
The company has so many different tablet-related projects in the works that a variety of coming publishing partners were surprised to see a Windows 7 version of the Hewlett-Packard slate announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.
A senior editor of a major magazine publishing empire working on an internal corporate project, and speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a nondisclosure agreement, told me of an array of H.P. tablets. He said, "I've seen a much smaller version of H.P.'s tablet that works exclusively with Android. It's smaller than the Windows 7 version, almost like a half-pint size, or about twice as large as the iPhone." But this may be one of many projects in development. He added, "I've also heard mention of a Linux version in the works, but I haven't seen the hardware for this device."
Erick Schonfeld, a TechCrunch writer, also reported on Thursday about H.P'.s involvement in an Android slate.
The magazine company employee added that H.P. was working diligently to create unique content for these devices, but he cautioned that partners worry about H.P.'s understanding of the media landscape. He said, "H.P. is a great hardware company, they make excellent hardware experiences, but I worry about their ability to introduce and work with media."
H.P. is also working with software developers including Microsoft and Adobe to create magazine content for these devices.
Marlene Somsak, an H.P. media relations Director, responded to questions about a possible smaller Android tablet. Mrs. Somsak said, "I'm certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us. There are also tons of HP Labs activities looking at a numerous different areas. As of now we are not announcing a new Android-based slate."
According to numerous sources at Adobe and Wired, H.P. is also talking with countless publishers including Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, Wired, and a number of other Condé Nast publications.
Collectively, they are testing a new form of magazine on these slate-like devices that will include color images, a variety of typography and full-motion video.
A Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing
LAS VEGAS — You've heard of Amazon.com's Kindle. And you probably know that Apple is likely to introduce a tablet computer this year. Soon you may also be hearing about the Alex, the Que proReader and the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid.
Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
Some of these gadgets allow people to read for long periods of time without eye strain and without killing the batteries. Others focus on allowing their owners to surf the Web, watch video and play casual games without being tethered to a bulky laptop and its traditional keyboard.
"There are a billion and a half Internet users on the planet today, and a lot of them are primarily using it for entertainment and social networking," said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, a chip company hoping to power the new tablets. "The PC does a good job on a lot of things, but it's just not the ideal device for surfing the Internet or reading."
Tablets, of course, have been around for years. In 2001, Bill Gates erroneously predicted at an industry trade show that they would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.
Now advances in technology and manufacturing are belatedly making good on the early promise of this idea. So-called ARM processors — the low-power, low-cost chips found in many cellphones — are finally robust enough to take on some of the tasks, like Web surfing, that were previously the domain of full-fledged computers. As a result, companies have been able to build a wider range of devices, including thinner products with longer battery life.
At the same time, the big Asian manufacturers like Foxconn of Taiwan have been adding capacity and are now capable of churning out these devices at an ever-decreasing cost.
Recently, anticipation for new tablet computers has been almost absurdly focused on the magical product that people expect to emanate from the mind of Apple's chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.
Analysts who have spoken to Asian component suppliers now think that an Apple tablet will ship by the end of March, and that Apple will hold an event to introduce a new product by the end of this month.
But Apple's tablet may not end up dominating the emerging market for tablets, as some seem to expect. One reason is price. Analysts think the Apple tablet could cost anywhere from $700 to $1,000. In contrast, the tablet design unveiled by Freescale this week will cost around $130 to manufacture and could sell for as little as $200.
Conversations with several former Apple engineers who worked on the long-gestating tablet also suggest that Apple may be asking users to learn a somewhat complex new vocabulary of finger gestures to control it, making use of technology it acquired in the 2007 purchase of a company called FingerWorks.
"The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean 'open an application,' " said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.
Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had "spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork," Apple's answer to Microsoft's Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies. That could help justify a higher price. Apple has declined to discuss any plans for a tablet.
Many high-tech giants are not necessarily waiting around for Apple to make a splash. At his keynote address at the electronics show on Wednesday, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, showed off a new Hewlett-Packard tablet running Windows 7 with a full-color touch screen displaying videos and books.
H.P. is working on an array of tablets, including one about twice the size of the iPhone that will run Google's Android operating system, according to a senior editor at a major magazine publisher who said he had seen the device. The company is working with publishers to provide content for the tablets. An H.P. spokeswoman, Marlene Somsak, said the company would introduce more tablets but would not discuss them now.
In the private demonstration room of Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer, executives showed a flashy product called the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It appears to be a regular laptop, until the screen pops out of its shell like a snake shedding its skin and it becomes a slender, glossy touch-screen tablet running a Linux-based operating system.
"We don't know exactly what Apple is coming out with, if indeed it is doing anything substantial in this area," said Michael Littler, an Lenovo spokesman. "We are just focused like a lot of companies on delivering products that are easy to use and offer good performance, and sometimes a little sprinkle of innovation and coolness."
Other companies are aiming their products at the more focused market for reading devices, where Amazon commands a 60 percent share. They believe dedicated e-readers, with their black-and-white screens that mimic paper, will survive an onslaught of versatile color tablets from Apple and others. Many analysts agree, citing the benefits of long battery life and reduced strain on the eyes.
"I think the black-and-white readers still survive in the niche market as reading devices," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "I'm not expecting the Apple device to be as good as the Kindle or Sony Reader for reading."
E-readers at the electronics show came in many shapes and sizes. Plastic Logic, a 10-year-old British company, unveiled its Que proReader, an impossibly thin 10.7-inch display with a rather high starting price of $649.
But the device is aimed at deep-pocketed professionals and is meant to be a replacement for a bulky briefcase full of paper. "In a crowded field and emerging market, the key is really to understand your target customer and stay laser-focused on them," said Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic.
Other players in this field are trying to distinguish themselves with devices that have more than one screen. EnTourage Systems, based in McLean, Va., demonstrated a 9.7-inch touch-screen color display, married with a rotating hinge to a similarly sized black-and-white screen. The device, called the eDGe, will cost $490.
Spring Design, a Taiwanese start-up, showed off a dual-screen e-book device, the Alex, that has a 3.5-inch iPhone-like color display and a 6-inch Kindle-like black-and-white display. The device, which is expected to be out in February and cost $349, could display book-video hybrids and "open up a whole new sector for publishing," said Priscilla Lu, the company's chief executive.
Many of these companies and their products may sink when exposed to a competitive marketplace that could be dominated by efforts from the tech giants.
At the very least, the smaller companies will have to stay nimble and keep on top of rapidly evolving technology.
Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
Some of these gadgets allow people to read for long periods of time without eye strain and without killing the batteries. Others focus on allowing their owners to surf the Web, watch video and play casual games without being tethered to a bulky laptop and its traditional keyboard.
"There are a billion and a half Internet users on the planet today, and a lot of them are primarily using it for entertainment and social networking," said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, a chip company hoping to power the new tablets. "The PC does a good job on a lot of things, but it's just not the ideal device for surfing the Internet or reading."
Tablets, of course, have been around for years. In 2001, Bill Gates erroneously predicted at an industry trade show that they would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.
Now advances in technology and manufacturing are belatedly making good on the early promise of this idea. So-called ARM processors — the low-power, low-cost chips found in many cellphones — are finally robust enough to take on some of the tasks, like Web surfing, that were previously the domain of full-fledged computers. As a result, companies have been able to build a wider range of devices, including thinner products with longer battery life.
At the same time, the big Asian manufacturers like Foxconn of Taiwan have been adding capacity and are now capable of churning out these devices at an ever-decreasing cost.
Recently, anticipation for new tablet computers has been almost absurdly focused on the magical product that people expect to emanate from the mind of Apple's chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.
Analysts who have spoken to Asian component suppliers now think that an Apple tablet will ship by the end of March, and that Apple will hold an event to introduce a new product by the end of this month.
But Apple's tablet may not end up dominating the emerging market for tablets, as some seem to expect. One reason is price. Analysts think the Apple tablet could cost anywhere from $700 to $1,000. In contrast, the tablet design unveiled by Freescale this week will cost around $130 to manufacture and could sell for as little as $200.
Conversations with several former Apple engineers who worked on the long-gestating tablet also suggest that Apple may be asking users to learn a somewhat complex new vocabulary of finger gestures to control it, making use of technology it acquired in the 2007 purchase of a company called FingerWorks.
"The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean 'open an application,' " said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.
Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had "spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork," Apple's answer to Microsoft's Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies. That could help justify a higher price. Apple has declined to discuss any plans for a tablet.
Many high-tech giants are not necessarily waiting around for Apple to make a splash. At his keynote address at the electronics show on Wednesday, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, showed off a new Hewlett-Packard tablet running Windows 7 with a full-color touch screen displaying videos and books.
H.P. is working on an array of tablets, including one about twice the size of the iPhone that will run Google's Android operating system, according to a senior editor at a major magazine publisher who said he had seen the device. The company is working with publishers to provide content for the tablets. An H.P. spokeswoman, Marlene Somsak, said the company would introduce more tablets but would not discuss them now.
In the private demonstration room of Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer, executives showed a flashy product called the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It appears to be a regular laptop, until the screen pops out of its shell like a snake shedding its skin and it becomes a slender, glossy touch-screen tablet running a Linux-based operating system.
"We don't know exactly what Apple is coming out with, if indeed it is doing anything substantial in this area," said Michael Littler, an Lenovo spokesman. "We are just focused like a lot of companies on delivering products that are easy to use and offer good performance, and sometimes a little sprinkle of innovation and coolness."
Other companies are aiming their products at the more focused market for reading devices, where Amazon commands a 60 percent share. They believe dedicated e-readers, with their black-and-white screens that mimic paper, will survive an onslaught of versatile color tablets from Apple and others. Many analysts agree, citing the benefits of long battery life and reduced strain on the eyes.
"I think the black-and-white readers still survive in the niche market as reading devices," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "I'm not expecting the Apple device to be as good as the Kindle or Sony Reader for reading."
E-readers at the electronics show came in many shapes and sizes. Plastic Logic, a 10-year-old British company, unveiled its Que proReader, an impossibly thin 10.7-inch display with a rather high starting price of $649.
But the device is aimed at deep-pocketed professionals and is meant to be a replacement for a bulky briefcase full of paper. "In a crowded field and emerging market, the key is really to understand your target customer and stay laser-focused on them," said Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic.
Other players in this field are trying to distinguish themselves with devices that have more than one screen. EnTourage Systems, based in McLean, Va., demonstrated a 9.7-inch touch-screen color display, married with a rotating hinge to a similarly sized black-and-white screen. The device, called the eDGe, will cost $490.
Spring Design, a Taiwanese start-up, showed off a dual-screen e-book device, the Alex, that has a 3.5-inch iPhone-like color display and a 6-inch Kindle-like black-and-white display. The device, which is expected to be out in February and cost $349, could display book-video hybrids and "open up a whole new sector for publishing," said Priscilla Lu, the company's chief executive.
Many of these companies and their products may sink when exposed to a competitive marketplace that could be dominated by efforts from the tech giants.
At the very least, the smaller companies will have to stay nimble and keep on top of rapidly evolving technology.
Nigerian Arraigned in Bomb Attempt
DETROIT — The Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb a Northwest flight to Detroit on Christmas Day was arraigned Friday here in a quiet hearing that lasted barely four minutes yet attracted a throng of reporters, protesters and curious observers.
Wearing a white shirt and metal shackles on his feet, with his head shaved, the defendant, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was silent when his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Abdulmutallab on six charges, including attempted murder on an airplane, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and related offenses. He is accused of concealing explosives in his underwear and of trying to detonate them with a syringe of chemicals as Northwest Flight 253, which carried 289 passengers and crew members from Amsterdam, was descending for landing in Detroit. He managed to start a small fire but was overpowered by other passengers and flight attendants, and the plane landed safely.
At Friday's arraignment, Magistrate Judge Mark A. Randon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan asked Mr. Abdulmutallab a series of perfunctory questions about his background and whether he understood the charges. He said, softly, "Yes, sir."
Asked whether he was taking medication, Mr. Abdulmutallab responded: "In the last 24 hours? Some painkillers."
Mr. Abdulmutallab occasionally conferred with his lawyers, led by Miriam L. Siefer. He appeared subdued and did not show any visible signs of the third-degree burns he sustained on the plane.
His lawyers waived a detention hearing and consented to having Mr. Abdulmutallab continue to be held in the federal prison in Milan, near Ann Arbor.
Hebba Aref, 27, who said her seat was six rows in front of Mr. Abdulmutallab's on the flight, watched the hearing from the front row in the courtroom, with members of her family. Ms. Aref, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a Detroit suburb, works as a lawyer in Kuwait and said she would be flying there on Friday night.
"This person has changed my life, and the way things are done in the United States," she said. "I just wanted to see who this person was again."
When Ms. Aref saw Mr. Abdulmutallab, she said, "I felt something in the pit of my stomach." Asked what resolution she wanted in the case, she hesitated before responding, "Whatever the maximum penalty is."
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that Mr. Abdulmutallab could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Mr. Holder has also said that the government has obtained significant information from Mr. Abdulmutallab about the Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda that is suspected of planning the attack.
Mr. Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a respected Nigerian banker, alerted both Nigerian and American authorities in the fall that his son, a Muslim, had become radicalized and had moved to Yemen. Two Nigerian lawyers — Maryam Uwais and Mahmud Kazaure — attended Friday's hearing to observe for the family.
Dozens of Muslims from nearby Dearborn gathered outside the courthouse carrying large American flags and colorful signs that read "NOT in the name of Islam" and "Islam is against terrorism."
"Abdulmutallab is not Muslim," said Mohssen Sadeq, 40, who said he came to the United States from Yemen in 2000. "I need peace and freedom everywhere. I don't want terrorists anywhere. This is my country. I love America."
Nearby, Rasaq Ibrahim, 39, a Nigerian immigrant who said he came to the United States 12 years ago, held a sign that read, "The action of one Nigerian does not reflect all Nigerians."
"His actions are totally against our morals and our ideals," Mr. Ibrahim said. "We feel disgraced and betrayed."
Wearing a white shirt and metal shackles on his feet, with his head shaved, the defendant, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was silent when his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Abdulmutallab on six charges, including attempted murder on an airplane, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and related offenses. He is accused of concealing explosives in his underwear and of trying to detonate them with a syringe of chemicals as Northwest Flight 253, which carried 289 passengers and crew members from Amsterdam, was descending for landing in Detroit. He managed to start a small fire but was overpowered by other passengers and flight attendants, and the plane landed safely.
At Friday's arraignment, Magistrate Judge Mark A. Randon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan asked Mr. Abdulmutallab a series of perfunctory questions about his background and whether he understood the charges. He said, softly, "Yes, sir."
Asked whether he was taking medication, Mr. Abdulmutallab responded: "In the last 24 hours? Some painkillers."
Mr. Abdulmutallab occasionally conferred with his lawyers, led by Miriam L. Siefer. He appeared subdued and did not show any visible signs of the third-degree burns he sustained on the plane.
His lawyers waived a detention hearing and consented to having Mr. Abdulmutallab continue to be held in the federal prison in Milan, near Ann Arbor.
Hebba Aref, 27, who said her seat was six rows in front of Mr. Abdulmutallab's on the flight, watched the hearing from the front row in the courtroom, with members of her family. Ms. Aref, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a Detroit suburb, works as a lawyer in Kuwait and said she would be flying there on Friday night.
"This person has changed my life, and the way things are done in the United States," she said. "I just wanted to see who this person was again."
When Ms. Aref saw Mr. Abdulmutallab, she said, "I felt something in the pit of my stomach." Asked what resolution she wanted in the case, she hesitated before responding, "Whatever the maximum penalty is."
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that Mr. Abdulmutallab could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Mr. Holder has also said that the government has obtained significant information from Mr. Abdulmutallab about the Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda that is suspected of planning the attack.
Mr. Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a respected Nigerian banker, alerted both Nigerian and American authorities in the fall that his son, a Muslim, had become radicalized and had moved to Yemen. Two Nigerian lawyers — Maryam Uwais and Mahmud Kazaure — attended Friday's hearing to observe for the family.
Dozens of Muslims from nearby Dearborn gathered outside the courthouse carrying large American flags and colorful signs that read "NOT in the name of Islam" and "Islam is against terrorism."
"Abdulmutallab is not Muslim," said Mohssen Sadeq, 40, who said he came to the United States from Yemen in 2000. "I need peace and freedom everywhere. I don't want terrorists anywhere. This is my country. I love America."
Nearby, Rasaq Ibrahim, 39, a Nigerian immigrant who said he came to the United States 12 years ago, held a sign that read, "The action of one Nigerian does not reflect all Nigerians."
"His actions are totally against our morals and our ideals," Mr. Ibrahim said. "We feel disgraced and betrayed."
Plan to Close California’s Budget Deficit
LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took his first shot at closing California's impending $20 billion budget gap on Friday, proposing large-scale pay cuts for state workers, the elimination of several social service programs and a plan to press the federal government for more money.
The suggested cuts — which were met with resistance from lawmakers, with whom he must negotiate a final budget — come on the heels of tens of billions of dollars in cuts and tax increases over the last budget cycle.
"I know many of these cuts are painful," Mr. Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in Sacramento. "Believe me, these are the hardest decisions a governor has to make. Yet there is simply no conceivable way to avoid more cuts and more pain."
Much of the state's money must be spent on mandates required by Washington and state ballot initiatives, and the economy continues to be sluggish. As a result, the governor, short on solutions, took aim at entire programs and wholesale spending areas, rather than seizing on across-the-board trims, the usual method of cutting.
For instance, Mr. Schwarzenegger chose not to cut financing for public universities, but has proposed eliminating the state's $1 billion welfare program for families with children, ending a $126 million health insurance program for children, reducing the state's Medicaid eligibility to the minimum to save over $500 million, and ending the state's network of subsidized home health care providers for the poor.
The state might avert the worst of such a scenario, the governor suggested, if the federal government comes up with $6.9 billion that he claims it is owed, either through fixing accounting errors and shortchanging, or through the rejiggering of federal formulas to benefit the state.
"We are not looking for a bailout," Mr. Schwarzenegger said. "Just federal fairness."
Leaders in states that generate large amounts for the federal coffers, like California and New York, often complain bitterly about what they get back, generally to little avail.
Mr. Schwarzenegger also proposed ending the furloughs for state workers, which were begun last year by the administration and were overturned in part in court battles waged by some unions. In their place, the governor said that he would like to see 5 percent pay reductions across the board, and that he wanted state employees to contribute an additional 5 percent toward their retirement costs.
Driver alert: speeders who are caught by red-light cameras using new software would face fines of $225 to $325; most of that money would pay for trial courts.
The plan did not call for tax increases on residents, but did call for a 4.8 percent surcharge on residential and commercial property insurance to pay for fire protection. And a proposal to pay for state parks, which narrowly avoid sweeping closings this year, would reintroduce a plan for oil drilling off Santa Barbara.
Lawmakers reacted skeptically to some of the ideas.
"Essentially threatening the federal government — I don't think that is the appropriate way to go about things," Karen Bass, the Assembly speaker, said in an interview. "We certainly concur with the depth of the problem. What we would rather do instead is tell an agency to figure out how to achieve the savings."
The governor on Friday declared a fiscal emergency and called the Legislature into a special session to deal with the roughly $6.6 billion in shortfalls in the current fiscal year.
The suggested cuts — which were met with resistance from lawmakers, with whom he must negotiate a final budget — come on the heels of tens of billions of dollars in cuts and tax increases over the last budget cycle.
"I know many of these cuts are painful," Mr. Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in Sacramento. "Believe me, these are the hardest decisions a governor has to make. Yet there is simply no conceivable way to avoid more cuts and more pain."
Much of the state's money must be spent on mandates required by Washington and state ballot initiatives, and the economy continues to be sluggish. As a result, the governor, short on solutions, took aim at entire programs and wholesale spending areas, rather than seizing on across-the-board trims, the usual method of cutting.
For instance, Mr. Schwarzenegger chose not to cut financing for public universities, but has proposed eliminating the state's $1 billion welfare program for families with children, ending a $126 million health insurance program for children, reducing the state's Medicaid eligibility to the minimum to save over $500 million, and ending the state's network of subsidized home health care providers for the poor.
The state might avert the worst of such a scenario, the governor suggested, if the federal government comes up with $6.9 billion that he claims it is owed, either through fixing accounting errors and shortchanging, or through the rejiggering of federal formulas to benefit the state.
"We are not looking for a bailout," Mr. Schwarzenegger said. "Just federal fairness."
Leaders in states that generate large amounts for the federal coffers, like California and New York, often complain bitterly about what they get back, generally to little avail.
Mr. Schwarzenegger also proposed ending the furloughs for state workers, which were begun last year by the administration and were overturned in part in court battles waged by some unions. In their place, the governor said that he would like to see 5 percent pay reductions across the board, and that he wanted state employees to contribute an additional 5 percent toward their retirement costs.
Driver alert: speeders who are caught by red-light cameras using new software would face fines of $225 to $325; most of that money would pay for trial courts.
The plan did not call for tax increases on residents, but did call for a 4.8 percent surcharge on residential and commercial property insurance to pay for fire protection. And a proposal to pay for state parks, which narrowly avoid sweeping closings this year, would reintroduce a plan for oil drilling off Santa Barbara.
Lawmakers reacted skeptically to some of the ideas.
"Essentially threatening the federal government — I don't think that is the appropriate way to go about things," Karen Bass, the Assembly speaker, said in an interview. "We certainly concur with the depth of the problem. What we would rather do instead is tell an agency to figure out how to achieve the savings."
The governor on Friday declared a fiscal emergency and called the Legislature into a special session to deal with the roughly $6.6 billion in shortfalls in the current fiscal year.
A Muckraking Blogger Focuses on Jews
ST. PAUL
Decades ago on a characteristically arctic day here, a boy named Scott Rosenberg waited with his neighborhood pals as a certain Chevy Impala glided into view. It contained the city's archbishop, and the boys, all of them Roman Catholic except for Scott, pelted the car with snowballs.
The archbishop braked and emerged to chastise his assailants. To Scott, whom he correctly identified as Jewish, the prelate said simply, "You call your rabbi."
Consider this a parable or a metaphor or just a piquant coincidence. Consider it revealing that Shmarya Rosenberg, as Scott is now known, recalled the incident in a recent interview as one of his most enduring memories. Because, lo, these years later, Mr. Rosenberg has made his name and earned equal measures of admiration and opprobrium for lobbing the digital version of snowballs at a great many rabbis.
Blogging on the site FailedMessiah.com, Mr. Rosenberg, 51, has transmuted a combination of muckraking reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.
Operating thousands of miles from the centers of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, waking at 3:30 a.m. and working a dozen hours at a stretch in an apartment cluttered with books, Mr. Rosenberg has had his scoops cited by The Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, PR Week and Gawker. The national Jewish newspaper The Forward listed him among the 50 most influential American Jews, and the hip, cheeky magazine Heeb put him in its top 100.
And somewhat regularly, Mr. Rosenberg's in-box brims with missives like this recent one: "what happened to you when you were young that you are so anti 'haredi' were you abused or molested, you are as false and krum as they come, you are not helping anybody with your negative bent. You wanna bring out sad occurrences in the community, im not sure that its your business to do that, there is such a thing called tznius. And to belittle gedolim whole sale just proves that you are insane."
If you need a Hebrew and Yiddish glossary to fully fathom the diss — "krum" means "crooked," "haredi" means "fervently Orthodox," "tznius" is "modesty" and the "gedolim" are the great rabbis — then you have some sense of the almost claustrophobically inward community that Mr. Rosenberg chronicles.
It is also, not coincidentally to his fervor, the one he used to inhabit. The son of Conservative Jewish parents who ran a beauty supply company, Mr. Rosenberg grew attracted in his late teens to the Chabad movement of the Lubavitch Hasidim for what he described as "the perfect combination of social service and religious mystery."
Mr. Rosenberg found his compelling cause in the plight of Ethiopian Jews seeking to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. His failure to enlist Chabad's support for those efforts in the mid-1980s began a sustained process of estrangement. Still, he continued to worship with a Chabad congregation, study under Chabad rabbis and work in the kosher-meat industry in the Twin Cities.
Only in 2004 did Mr. Rosenberg take the decisive step of learning how to set up a blog. He titled it FailedMessiah — a swipe at what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who had died in 1994, and what he perceived as a messianic strain within the Hasidic sect. The first item Mr. Rosenberg posted was a 1984 letter from the rebbe saying there were more pressing needs in the Jewish community than the Ethiopians.
Thus provoked, the Lubavitchers excommunicated Mr. Rosenberg. (The group denies that it has such a formal procedure.)
"I thought I didn't have any future," Mr. Rosenberg recalled. "I was in shock for a long time. I didn't have any friends now. I had no business. I had no synagogue. I was going to be a rabbi. Now that was all gone, too."
Yet, journalistically speaking, Mr. Rosenberg was also liberated. And his indignation with Chabad coincided with a big story later in 2004, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released video of the slaughtering practices inside Agriprocessors, a vast kosher-meat plant in Iowa owned and operated by a Lubavitcher family, the Rubashkins.
Mr. Rosenberg posted a link to the video and went on both to report his own investigative pieces and to spread those of other journalists, particularly Nathaniel Popper of The Forward. When a public-relations company, 5WPR, fabricated online postings by a rabbi who was pushing for ethical reform in kosher foods, it was Mr. Rosenberg who uncovered the "sock puppet" scam.
A recent post, replete with supporting photographs and documents, showed how even after Agriprocessors had been disgraced and its chief executive convicted of financial crimes, members of the Rubashkin family continued to sell meat through a Web site.
In his righteous wrath, though, Mr. Rosenberg has also overstepped. He disparaged the journalistic integrity of Sue Fishkoff, the author of an acclaimed book about the Chabad movement, by referring to her as a "kadesha" — a term from Genesis that means a temple prostitute. After she objected, he posted an apology.
Chabad leaders declined to speak on the record about Mr. Rosenberg, but in general, they say that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. But they acknowledge that he has gotten some embarrassing things right.
"Shmarya often reminds me of journalism in the old days — when editors would sometimes go at one another physically in the street," Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian of American Jewry at Brandeis University with expertise in Jewish journalism, wrote in an e-mail message. "I know that he is fiercely hated in some Orthodox circles, but he has had many a scoop, and is certainly THE destination for those who want dirt about Orthodoxy exposed to the world."
Decades ago on a characteristically arctic day here, a boy named Scott Rosenberg waited with his neighborhood pals as a certain Chevy Impala glided into view. It contained the city's archbishop, and the boys, all of them Roman Catholic except for Scott, pelted the car with snowballs.
The archbishop braked and emerged to chastise his assailants. To Scott, whom he correctly identified as Jewish, the prelate said simply, "You call your rabbi."
Consider this a parable or a metaphor or just a piquant coincidence. Consider it revealing that Shmarya Rosenberg, as Scott is now known, recalled the incident in a recent interview as one of his most enduring memories. Because, lo, these years later, Mr. Rosenberg has made his name and earned equal measures of admiration and opprobrium for lobbing the digital version of snowballs at a great many rabbis.
Blogging on the site FailedMessiah.com, Mr. Rosenberg, 51, has transmuted a combination of muckraking reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.
Operating thousands of miles from the centers of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, waking at 3:30 a.m. and working a dozen hours at a stretch in an apartment cluttered with books, Mr. Rosenberg has had his scoops cited by The Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, PR Week and Gawker. The national Jewish newspaper The Forward listed him among the 50 most influential American Jews, and the hip, cheeky magazine Heeb put him in its top 100.
And somewhat regularly, Mr. Rosenberg's in-box brims with missives like this recent one: "what happened to you when you were young that you are so anti 'haredi' were you abused or molested, you are as false and krum as they come, you are not helping anybody with your negative bent. You wanna bring out sad occurrences in the community, im not sure that its your business to do that, there is such a thing called tznius. And to belittle gedolim whole sale just proves that you are insane."
If you need a Hebrew and Yiddish glossary to fully fathom the diss — "krum" means "crooked," "haredi" means "fervently Orthodox," "tznius" is "modesty" and the "gedolim" are the great rabbis — then you have some sense of the almost claustrophobically inward community that Mr. Rosenberg chronicles.
It is also, not coincidentally to his fervor, the one he used to inhabit. The son of Conservative Jewish parents who ran a beauty supply company, Mr. Rosenberg grew attracted in his late teens to the Chabad movement of the Lubavitch Hasidim for what he described as "the perfect combination of social service and religious mystery."
Mr. Rosenberg found his compelling cause in the plight of Ethiopian Jews seeking to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. His failure to enlist Chabad's support for those efforts in the mid-1980s began a sustained process of estrangement. Still, he continued to worship with a Chabad congregation, study under Chabad rabbis and work in the kosher-meat industry in the Twin Cities.
Only in 2004 did Mr. Rosenberg take the decisive step of learning how to set up a blog. He titled it FailedMessiah — a swipe at what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who had died in 1994, and what he perceived as a messianic strain within the Hasidic sect. The first item Mr. Rosenberg posted was a 1984 letter from the rebbe saying there were more pressing needs in the Jewish community than the Ethiopians.
Thus provoked, the Lubavitchers excommunicated Mr. Rosenberg. (The group denies that it has such a formal procedure.)
"I thought I didn't have any future," Mr. Rosenberg recalled. "I was in shock for a long time. I didn't have any friends now. I had no business. I had no synagogue. I was going to be a rabbi. Now that was all gone, too."
Yet, journalistically speaking, Mr. Rosenberg was also liberated. And his indignation with Chabad coincided with a big story later in 2004, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released video of the slaughtering practices inside Agriprocessors, a vast kosher-meat plant in Iowa owned and operated by a Lubavitcher family, the Rubashkins.
Mr. Rosenberg posted a link to the video and went on both to report his own investigative pieces and to spread those of other journalists, particularly Nathaniel Popper of The Forward. When a public-relations company, 5WPR, fabricated online postings by a rabbi who was pushing for ethical reform in kosher foods, it was Mr. Rosenberg who uncovered the "sock puppet" scam.
A recent post, replete with supporting photographs and documents, showed how even after Agriprocessors had been disgraced and its chief executive convicted of financial crimes, members of the Rubashkin family continued to sell meat through a Web site.
In his righteous wrath, though, Mr. Rosenberg has also overstepped. He disparaged the journalistic integrity of Sue Fishkoff, the author of an acclaimed book about the Chabad movement, by referring to her as a "kadesha" — a term from Genesis that means a temple prostitute. After she objected, he posted an apology.
Chabad leaders declined to speak on the record about Mr. Rosenberg, but in general, they say that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. But they acknowledge that he has gotten some embarrassing things right.
"Shmarya often reminds me of journalism in the old days — when editors would sometimes go at one another physically in the street," Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian of American Jewry at Brandeis University with expertise in Jewish journalism, wrote in an e-mail message. "I know that he is fiercely hated in some Orthodox circles, but he has had many a scoop, and is certainly THE destination for those who want dirt about Orthodoxy exposed to the world."
By Landing Fleet, Small Port Sets Off a Storm of Envy
NEWPORT, Ore. — Fishing and timber are not what they once were, and the recession has slowed the rush for second homes. So it seemed the fate of this small port was clear: more struggle.
Then Newport, with fewer than 10,000 people, pulled off a stunning economic upset. Last summer, it outbid and outmaneuvered three ports in Washington to become the home, beginning in 2011, of the Pacific Fleet of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As many as 175 well-paying federal jobs are on the way. Huge research vessels will dock across from rusty old salmon boats beneath the New Deal-era bridge that spans Yaquina Bay.
"We're going to be the Woods Hole of the West," said Michael Wilkinson, who runs a bed and breakfast on a floating riverboat in the bay, referring to the oceanographic institution on Cape Cod.
Yet while Newport celebrates, Washington, where the oceanic administration has maintained its Pacific Fleet on Lake Union in Seattle for nearly half a century, is not happy.
The state's Congressional delegation has fired off letters raising questions about the move. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, has threatened to hold hearings and asked about things like the stormy weather off the Oregon coast and how the agency will function in Newport while other branches remain in Seattle.
And Bellingham, Wash., which was also competing for the contract, has claimed that the move violates government construction policies by requiring building in a floodplain. Last month, the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, agreed; the oceanic administration has not said how it will address that finding, even as the government has signed a 20-year lease in Newport and preliminary work is under way.
Here in Newport, officials cast the flooding issue as a technicality, and suggest a little gleefully that people in Washington may have taken them too lightly.
"They probably thought, 'Newport's so small, they'll never even get the paperwork together,' " said Terry Thompson, a Lincoln County commissioner. "They didn't realize they were running into a buzz saw."
Yet among those immersed in the regional rivalry between Oregon and Washington, the events have prompted conspiracy theories involving prominent political players: Could the move to Newport be connected to the fact that the new administrator of the oceanic agency is Dr. Jane Lubchenco, a former professor at Oregon State University, which has a major marine research center in Newport?
Surely not, others insist, noting that the oceanic administration is under the Commerce Department, whose secretary, Gary Locke, is a former governor of Washington.
Another theory is that the move to Newport is a consolation prize to Oregon for an Obama administration proposal to protect endangered salmon on the Columbia River, which runs, in part, between Washington and Oregon. Washington has been more supportive of the plan than Oregon. But Justin Kenney, the oceanic administration spokesman, said the Newport decision was made in the Bush administration, and without participation by Dr. Lubchenco, Mr. Locke or elected officials.
"It is important to note that the request for proposal and criteria were developed during the previous administration," Mr. Kenney said in an e-mail message.
Three Washington ports were final candidates for the administration's fleet, but Newport was the only Oregon port in the running at the end. That made it easier for the state's political leaders, including Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski, a Democrat, to get involved.
Oregon eventually agreed to spend $19.5 million to help Newport build the $38 million facility, a move that meant Newport could promise the agency a substantially lower lease than Washington was offering.
"The State of Washington didn't provide any subsidy to any applicants," said Rob Fix, the chief financial officer for the Port of Bellingham. "No one expected the State of Oregon to do that. The money came out of the sky."
Also working in its favor, Newport already has a small NOAA office as well as the Hatfield Marine Science Center of Oregon State University. Its port is deep and just minutes from the ocean, while ships docked in Puget Sound in Washington State take several hours to reach the sea.
Then again, Washington bidders have noted that Newport does not have a major shipyard for repairs, and they have questioned whether Newport can build the necessary piers and other structures for the agency by 2011.
Don Mann, the general manager of the Port of Newport, said the port had heard nothing to suggest that the move was at risk. This month workers are to begin removing old structures and leveling ground for the new facility.
"As far as we're concerned," Mr. Mann said, "it's a done deal unless the sky falls. We don't anticipate that it will."
Mr. Wilkinson, of the Newport Belle Bed and Breakfast, which is docked about 1,200 feet from where the oceanic administration will be stationed, said he was pleased to be getting a new neighbor and not worried about the flooding issues in the Government Accountability Office report.
"A rising tide," he said, "lifts all boats."
Then Newport, with fewer than 10,000 people, pulled off a stunning economic upset. Last summer, it outbid and outmaneuvered three ports in Washington to become the home, beginning in 2011, of the Pacific Fleet of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As many as 175 well-paying federal jobs are on the way. Huge research vessels will dock across from rusty old salmon boats beneath the New Deal-era bridge that spans Yaquina Bay.
"We're going to be the Woods Hole of the West," said Michael Wilkinson, who runs a bed and breakfast on a floating riverboat in the bay, referring to the oceanographic institution on Cape Cod.
Yet while Newport celebrates, Washington, where the oceanic administration has maintained its Pacific Fleet on Lake Union in Seattle for nearly half a century, is not happy.
The state's Congressional delegation has fired off letters raising questions about the move. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, has threatened to hold hearings and asked about things like the stormy weather off the Oregon coast and how the agency will function in Newport while other branches remain in Seattle.
And Bellingham, Wash., which was also competing for the contract, has claimed that the move violates government construction policies by requiring building in a floodplain. Last month, the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, agreed; the oceanic administration has not said how it will address that finding, even as the government has signed a 20-year lease in Newport and preliminary work is under way.
Here in Newport, officials cast the flooding issue as a technicality, and suggest a little gleefully that people in Washington may have taken them too lightly.
"They probably thought, 'Newport's so small, they'll never even get the paperwork together,' " said Terry Thompson, a Lincoln County commissioner. "They didn't realize they were running into a buzz saw."
Yet among those immersed in the regional rivalry between Oregon and Washington, the events have prompted conspiracy theories involving prominent political players: Could the move to Newport be connected to the fact that the new administrator of the oceanic agency is Dr. Jane Lubchenco, a former professor at Oregon State University, which has a major marine research center in Newport?
Surely not, others insist, noting that the oceanic administration is under the Commerce Department, whose secretary, Gary Locke, is a former governor of Washington.
Another theory is that the move to Newport is a consolation prize to Oregon for an Obama administration proposal to protect endangered salmon on the Columbia River, which runs, in part, between Washington and Oregon. Washington has been more supportive of the plan than Oregon. But Justin Kenney, the oceanic administration spokesman, said the Newport decision was made in the Bush administration, and without participation by Dr. Lubchenco, Mr. Locke or elected officials.
"It is important to note that the request for proposal and criteria were developed during the previous administration," Mr. Kenney said in an e-mail message.
Three Washington ports were final candidates for the administration's fleet, but Newport was the only Oregon port in the running at the end. That made it easier for the state's political leaders, including Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski, a Democrat, to get involved.
Oregon eventually agreed to spend $19.5 million to help Newport build the $38 million facility, a move that meant Newport could promise the agency a substantially lower lease than Washington was offering.
"The State of Washington didn't provide any subsidy to any applicants," said Rob Fix, the chief financial officer for the Port of Bellingham. "No one expected the State of Oregon to do that. The money came out of the sky."
Also working in its favor, Newport already has a small NOAA office as well as the Hatfield Marine Science Center of Oregon State University. Its port is deep and just minutes from the ocean, while ships docked in Puget Sound in Washington State take several hours to reach the sea.
Then again, Washington bidders have noted that Newport does not have a major shipyard for repairs, and they have questioned whether Newport can build the necessary piers and other structures for the agency by 2011.
Don Mann, the general manager of the Port of Newport, said the port had heard nothing to suggest that the move was at risk. This month workers are to begin removing old structures and leveling ground for the new facility.
"As far as we're concerned," Mr. Mann said, "it's a done deal unless the sky falls. We don't anticipate that it will."
Mr. Wilkinson, of the Newport Belle Bed and Breakfast, which is docked about 1,200 feet from where the oceanic administration will be stationed, said he was pleased to be getting a new neighbor and not worried about the flooding issues in the Government Accountability Office report.
"A rising tide," he said, "lifts all boats."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
