RIM BlackBerry Curve 8320

Voice-over-Wi-Fi feature makes an excellent phone even better.

First came the trim, consumer-friendly BlackBerry Curve 8300. Then came the Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry 8820. Now there's the BlackBerry Curve 8320, an impressive PDA phone that combines the best of the previous two models and has an added bonus: While the 8820 supports Wi-Fi for data only, the 8320 lets you make voice calls over wireless 802.11b/g networks too.

Physically, the 8320 is the same as the original BlackBerry Curve, though it comes in two different colors, titanium gray or gold. (Unlike the original Curve, which is available from AT&T, the 8320 is available from T-Mobile for $300 with a two-year contract.) It features the same thin and light design, a small but very usable QWERTY keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera, and a gorgeous 320-by-240 display.

The biggest news is under the hood: In addition to support for GSM voice and EDGE data networks, the 8320 adds Wi-Fi with UMA--a technology that allows you to make voice calls over Wi-Fi. The phone works with T-Mobile's $20-per-month (on top of your voice and data plan) HotSpot@Home service, which permits unlimited calls over Wi-Fi networks. While the service is a bit pricey, it could potentially lower your costs by saving your cellular voice minutes.

I tested the phone and the service using one of T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home wireless routers, manufactured by Linksys. Using the 8320's on-screen wizard to connect to a wireless network is a breeze; within just a few minutes, I was surfing the Web and downloading files with ease. The 8320 will connect to any 802.11b/g wireless network, so you can use your existing router--or even a public hotspot--to make calls and surf the Web.

T-Mobile says its router (priced at $50, but free after a rebate) is designed to conserve your phone's battery life and to prioritize voice traffic, which should--in theory--result in better call quality. However, I noticed no significant improvement when using the T-Mobile router instead of my own Linksys wireless router. Call quality over both wireless networks was the same: decent. Voices were garbled sometimes, and I noticed an echo, just as I often did when using the phone over a regular cellular connection. Being able to make calls over Wi-Fi is a great option in areas (like my house) where cellular service is spotty, though. (We could not lab-test the phone's talk-time battery life in time for this article's initial posting, but we will update this review when we have the results--and the PCW Rating for this phone.)

For both voice calls and data usage, the 8320 will default to your Wi-Fi network when it is available. Should you leave the network's range, the phone is supposed to switch your call seamlessly to the GSM network (and vice versa)--but in my tests, the experience wasn't as smooth. When I went out of range of my Wi-Fi network, my calls occasionally dropped, even though cellular service was available.

Those glitches aside, the 8320 is an excellent phone. Like all BlackBerry units, it is a stellar e-mail device, with support for ten accounts. The included camera (which sports a flash and a 3X digital zoom) took adequate but--like many camera phones--occasionally blurry snapshots. Among other multimedia features is an audio and video player that supports most formats (including MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV, and MP4). The player's interface is basic, but audio quality is good and video looks great. The device also has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card slot (which is inconveniently located under the phone's battery, unfortunately).

While voice quality over Wi-Fi was only passable, the capability itself is still impressive. And combined with the 8320's sleek design and awesome e-mail handling, it makes for a winning package.

It's Windows Vista! Only Cheaper!

Okay, now this is unexpected: Microsoft is slashing the price of some retail versions of Windows Vista, effective when the SP1 version rolls out later this year. Vista Ultimate's full version will go to $319 fro $399 (an upgrade is now $$219, down from $259); Home Premium's upgrade is now $129, down from $159. The Microsoft site has an interview with an exec who talks about the news.

Who will benefit from this development? Basically, folks with Windows XP machines who have chosen not to upgrade to Vista until now because they found it pricey. But it's not as easy as that: Most of those people probably have PCs they bought in 2006 or before, and while some of those aging machines will run Vista well, many won't. (If you bought a Windows XP computer in 2007, I have a hunch you did so specifically to avoid Windows Vista, and therefore today's news means little or nothing to you.)

I certainly hear some grumbling about the cost of Vista--especially Ultimate, which, even at its new price, is pretty expensive compared to Apple's $129 Max OS X 10.5 "Leopard." But I'm curious whether there are really that many people out there who have been itching to buy a Vista upgrade--and have a PC potent enough to run it well--but haven't done so yet.

One also wonders what's motivating Microsoft to cut prices. The company says that research showed that a cheaper Vista would appeal to more computer users beyond early adopters and geeks. Logical enough. But did it misjudge the public's willingness to fork over $300 for a piece of software when it initially priced Vista? And is the price drop a sign of panic, or a confident statement that it thinks Vista has mass appeal?

Today's news doesn't affect the price of new Windows Vista computers. And I have a sneaking suspicion that for every Microsoft customer who's psyched by the prospect of a lower-cost Vista, there are several who'd be far more thrilled if the company undid its announced plans to discontinue Windows XP on June 30th. (I've rarely if ever run into anyone who's told me that he or she thinks Windows Vista is a major argument for buying a new computer--but a lot of folks have worriedly asked me if it's still possible to buy an XP box.)

Thanks to PS3, Sony enjoys spoils of HD fracas

Tuesday's announcement from Toshiba that it is pulling its support of the HD DVD format and ceasing production of the video players effectively stamps Sony as the new standard bearer of high-definition video.

Sony has long been associated with the Blu-ray Disc format, but HD DVD's demise brings new opportunity for the Japanese electronics maker to effectively take control of the future of high-definition in consumers' living rooms.

The fall of HD DVD gives Sony a chance to really extend its high-definition strategy with the pieces it already has in place: It's the only major consumer electronics player with a real presence in every high-profile consumer market: HDTVs, cameras, notebook PCs, gaming, and even a film studio that creates high-definition content. It has positioned itself so well that it would have to really screw up to not seamlessly ascend the throne as king of HD.

It's a change in fortune for the company whose gaming and electronics divisions were struggling throughout the past year. Suddenly the company's PlayStation 3 strategy appears smarter than previously thought.

One of the key's to Sony's success is undoubtedly the royalty structure--Sony, Philips, Panasonic, and Warner Bros. all own patents on Blu-ray technology and they get paid when anyone manufactures a Blu-ray player or disc. But it's not the only thing. The company's brand legacy and the most important weapon in its HD arsenal, the PlayStation 3, mean Sony has a leg up on all other participants in the world of high definition.

Sony already owns the largest chunk of market share of Blu-ray devices, but it's not because millions of people are buying Blu-ray Disc players as replacements for standard DVD players.

"The majority of Sony's success in the Blu-ray Disc market hasn't been because of their standalone player business--it's been the PlayStation 3," noted Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD market research for DisplaySearch.

Sony's strategy of seeding the market with PlayStation 3 game consoles that came with Blu-ray Discs playback ability looks fairly prescient now, though it didn't at the time.

After a boffo market entrance--fans queuing up for days to buy the next-generation consoles--in late 2006, Sony had to deal with a lot of bad press for product shortages and the success of the Xbox 360, and the sudden popularity of the Wii from Nintendo. Blu-ray's inclusion in the PS3 was a major reason for product shortages and was responsible for the high price of the console.

Sony was able to claim in January 2007 that it had 1 million Blu-ray players sold. But those were largely PS3 sales. At the time, since the battle with HD DVD was still in full swing, it wasn't clear that Sony's strategy on Blu-ray had worked.

HD DVD's demise gives new perspective. Sony doesn't break out how many standalone players it has sold from the number of PS3s, but according to DisplaySearch shipment estimates, in the third quarter of 2007, Sony accounted for nearly 96 percent of Blu-ray devices worldwide. In conjunction with point-of-sale data collected by the NPD Group that shows Sony and Samsung collectively accounted for 87 percent of Blu-ray Disc standalone player sales in December alone, Sony is already the dominant player. Samsung is its closest competitor, but the royalties earned on manufacture of the discs and players give Sony much more room to be competitive.

Sony won't comment on any future business plans for the company, but it can now move full-speed ahead on its HD strategy in the living room, which it's been laying out over the last year or so.

It said as much in this statement it issued Tuesday: "We believe that a single format will benefit both consumers and the industry, and will accelerate the expansion of the market.

"Blu-ray has been and will continue to be a core part of Sony's HD strategy. We will continue to promote the benefits of HD throughout the value chain including Blu-ray products, Bravia LCD TVs, PlayStation 3, Vaio PCs, camcorders, entertainment content, and broadcast and professional."

Pricing of Blu-ray players is what is most up in the air. So far, it's the biggest reason that most consumers have not purchased high-definition video players.

Toshiba had a lot of success last fall lowering its prices dramatically on HD DVD players, but Sony faces different challenges. Unlike Toshiba, which was the sole producer of standalone players in its format, Sony is not the only producer of standalone Blu-ray Disc players. Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, and others will now begin to compete with Sony, and each other, over features and pricing of Blu-ray players.

But just because HD DVD is dead does not mean Sony will automatically make its standalone player prices more competitive, said DisplaySearch's Erickson.

"I'm not sure Sony is going to be as aggressive on player prices because they're attacking the market on two fronts (PS3 and standalone players)," he said. "PS3 pricing is not going to be governed by Blu-ray Disc (player) prices; it's judged by competitiveness with Xbox 360...There's not as much impetus for them to be hyper-competitive on standalone player prices."

Whether they will do that or not remains to be seen. Now with HD DVD out of the way and Sony's game console strategy vindicated, what will be interesting in the months to come is where it goes with standalone players.

Ross Rubin, an analyst with the NPD Group, doesn't anticipate any major moves by Sony quite yet. "I don't suspect we'll see any imminent price drops, but there could be this holiday season."

Gates on Yahoo: It's the people

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Bill Gates is willing to pay a lot for engineering talent.

Asked what makes Yahoo worth more than $40 billion, Gates pointed not to the company's products, its huge base of advertisers, or its market share, but rather to the company's engineers. Those people, he said, are what Microsoft needs to go after Google.

In an interview after his speech at Stanford University, Gates said that it turns out it takes a lot of manpower to build tools for advertisers, mobile, and video products as well as improving its core search algorithm and building an infrastructure for cloud computing. "The amount of computer science it is taking to do that is phenomenal," he said. "As you get more scale of engineering you can just pursue that agenda more rapidly. Yes, the advertisers and the number of end users is good, but we'd put the people and the engineering as the key thing."

Of course, that's also what makes the Yahoo deal so risky. A nightmare scenario for the company would be if it succeeds in its bid to acquire Yahoo, only to see its top talent move to new ventures. Gates played down the notion of cultural differences between the two companies.

"Yahoo wants to do breakthrough software," Gates told CNET News.com. "The engineers there want to compete very effectively against Google or any other thing that comes along, so I don't think there is really a different culture."

But, he hinted that the company might have made itself less attractive had it continued down the path championed by former CEO Terry Semel.

"If Yahoo had gone the direction of just being a media company and not said that software innovation was important to them then no, there wouldn't be that intersection because we're about breakthrough software," Gates said. "Jerry Yang to his credit has kept a lot of very top engineers that have been just doing their work and improving those things. That's why we see the combination as so powerful."

Gates was quoted in the last 24 hours as saying Microsoft wasn't looking to hike its bid for Yahoo, but he sounded very much like a man committed to the deal in his comments Tuesday. He didn't say whether Microsoft would move ahead with a plan to wage a proxy battle, but that appears to be a real possibility if Yahoo does not come to the table.

The Microsoft chairman also indicated that Microsoft has a plan for taking on Google with or without Yahoo, but acknowledged Microsoft's plans can move faster if it succeeds in the acquisition than if it has to go it alone.

"It involves breakthrough engineering," he said. "We think the combination with Yahoo would accelerate things in a very exciting way because they do have great engineers and they have done a lot of great work."

Gates had plenty more to say about other things besides Yahoo. In a little bit, I'll post another blog on some interesting things Gates said about Windows 7 and a more complete transcript of my interview should be ready tomorrow.

CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4

The 14th version of this established graphics suite has significant and practical new features.


As the centerpiece of Corel's Graphics Suite X4, CorelDraw X4 ships with significant new features that, while not flashy, are practical, and substantial enough for professionals to find the upgrade worthwhile. Even the interface has been redesigned to present a clean, intuitive workspace.

CorelDraw is the well-established "other" vector drawing program, covering the same ground as Adobe Illustrator does. You can use it to create illustrations for signs, logos, and technical and industrial designs, and for specialized printing like engraving. Draw also works for designing multipage publications. The growing ranks of people who double as the designated designer in multitasking work environments will appreciate the extensive set of easy-to-modify templates and the intuitive help screens. Draw X4 ships with a substantial library of royalty-free artwork, including 1000 high-resolution photos suitable for commercial projects. And Draw X4 meshes smoothly with Windows Vista Instant Search to sort quickly through images on your computer or network from within Draw's Open Drawing dialog box.

More Improvements

Among the more substantial enhancements is a connection to the WhatTheFont Web site: Within the app, you can paste in bitmap captures of type to identify fonts-helpful, for example, for a designer who is asked to duplicate a print brochure's unidentified fonts. Also, you can now preview type flow around images instantly. Publishers who generate data-driven output can use the print/merge features to generate customized publications--so a product press kit, say, could have customized fields that generate a personalized kit for each reviewer.

Draw has always had an advantage over products in Adobe's design suite in that it is both a full-fledged vector drawing program (like Illustrator) and a solid desktop publishing package (like InDesign). Desktop publishing features in X4 now let you create and edit independent layers on each page of multipage documents, as well as implement master layers throughout a publication for repeating elements (such as page numbers or headers). Illustrators who convert bitmap files to Draw's vector format will spot changes in the bitmap trace feature that allow, for example, combining of colors to simplify trace results. Users who found the trace feature in CorelDraw X3 unpredictable will notice improvements here.

The other significant application in Corel's Graphics Suite X4 is Photo-Paint. Almost abandoned in version X3 of the suite, this bitmap-editing application has some new features, including support for the RAW camera format and interactive histograms for previewing image adjustments. But while CorelDraw is a professional alternative to Adobe Illustrator, Photo-Paint is not a professional photo editing app.

Illustrators and designers who don't use Adobe products (a niche community) will find the improvements in CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4 worth the upgrade.

--David Karlins