Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson announced officially at the beginning of this month that it would soon deliver to the market a handset powered by Google's Android operating system, the Xperia X10, a device previously known as Xperia X3. Just as other phones in the Xperia series, the upcoming X10 seems poised to make our hearts beat faster, both due to the handsets's looks and courtesy of the raw power it is said to come around with.

The company hasn't unveiled an official release date for the phone, yet rumor has it that we will have to wait until February next yer to be able to snag one of these beauties. However, until that happens, we can still enjoy a wide range of live photos and hands-on videos the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has seen, a new series of which has just emerged into the wild. A gallery of new photos with the device, taken at an official X10 press event, has surfaced on SE-blog, while the guys over at TechBlog.gr have published two videos with the phone.

The one thing that is certain when it comes to the high-end Android phone is that it has all that it takes for a handset to become a very popular device on the market. A large touchscreen display has been included in the package, along with a powerful processor (1GHz Snapdragon), and a very appealing user interface, the Nexus UX, which has been encountered before as the Rachael UI.

However, Sony Ericsson seems to be a little late to the Android party with its Xperia X10. There already is a wide range of such devices available on the market, perhaps not as appealing as Sony Ericsson's Android phone seems to be, but which can deliver the enhanced user experience one would wish for. Not to mention that the recently reported problems with the company's Aino and Satio phones might make users think twice before making a Sony Ericsson acquisition. Hopefully, Xperia X10 will be able to live to the expectations, for it seems to promise a lot to anyone who waits for it.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Early Preview

Much to everyone’s surprise, Microsoft shared details about Internet Explorer 9 very early on in the browser’s development process. Dean Hachamovitch, general manager, Internet Explorer, explained that the first IE9-related information offered via official channels was simply the Redmond company joining the discussion of browsers. The software giant choose its Professional Developers Conference 2009, in Los Angeles, to showcase a preview of IE9, but no bits were released as the browser is merely just weeks old.

“The topics that we’re going to talk about pretty much choose themselves, when you look at the conversations that happened throughout IE8,” Hachamovitch noted. More specifically, Microsoft touched three topics, in particular, standards support, performance progress, and the introduction of graphics hardware acceleration.

You will be able to watch the first public demonstration of Internet Explorer 9 via the video embedded at the bottom of this article, courtesy of Microsoft. Obviously the company did not single out the content focused only on IE9, so the video covers the entire PDC 2009 Day 2 Keynote, featuring such Microsoft executives as Steven Sinofsky, president, Windows and Windows Live Division, and Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Platform. It will be Sinofsky demoing IE9, as along with the Windows project, the Microsoft president is also responsible for the development of the next iteration of the Internet Explorer browser.

As far as I’m concerned, the entire PDC 2009 Day 2 keynote is well-worth watching, but I do realize that you have to dedicate a consistent portion of your time in doing so, as the video goes on for about two and a half hours. So, for those that just want to skip directly to the IE9 demo, just go ahead and jump to minute 40 in the presentation and take it from there (spoiler alert – IE9 has no GUI as of yet).

Standards

“The primary focus for our team is providing rich capabilities, the kind that developers really want and use in an interoperable way,” said John Hrvatin, program manager for the IE team.

Acid3 is one of the tests designed to assess the browser performance when it comes down to standards support. At the time of this article, Internet Explorer is lagging rival browsers in relation to the Acid3 test score, being inferior in the level of modern standards adoption. With the advent of Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft choose to simply ignore Acid3, and focused exclusively on acing the Acid2 test, arguing that it would not provide support for standards that were incomplete at the time such as HTML5 and CSS3.

The IE9 demo indicates that Microsoft has now had a change of heart and that it considers passing the Acid3 test one of the priorities in developing the next version of Internet Explorer. Already, IE9 is faring better than IE8 in the Acid3 test, obtaining a superior score. “Developers need not just a strong platform that’s got great performance and great capabilities, but they also have expectations around how the code will work,” Hachamovitch noted.


But in all fairness, embracing HTML5 and CSS3 is a move that Microsoft is doing largely to close the gap separating IE from Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, while also attempting to tone down the level of criticism from web developers which can’t leverage modern web standards simply because of lack of IE support for them. As far as end users are concerned, the benefits they will be able to enjoy won’t be extremely evident to them. Fact is that the vast majority of users won’t be able to tell which websites use CSS2.1 for styling and formatting and which leverage CSS3. But inherently, advantages will be offered through the simple evolution of the user experience.

“We want to focus on those capabilities that developers are really most interested in, but doing it in an interoperable way, and standards are really one of the ways in which we achieve that. But it’s still people building the standards, and there could be places where parts of the specification aren’t clear, and different browser vendors interpret them in different ways,” Hrvatin added.

Performance

“So there’s performance, and we’re going to talk about the progress that we made. Everybody cares about performance, everybody benefits from performance improvements. And performance is a super complex problem. I mean, there are so many subsystems in the browser,” Hachamovitch said.

With Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft lost the race on performance, simply because it failed to play the same game as its rivals. While Mozilla and Google were running to benchmarks such as the SunSpider test, the Redmond company attempted to convince the world that benchmarking results are in no way representative of actual browser performance. Instead, the software giant argued that its approach, to target IE8 performance to real world scenarios, and to increase IE8 speed in situations most common for its end users, had delivered superior results to Firefox and Chrome. Needless to say the world failed to agree with Microsoft.

Consequently, the Redmond company will, with IE9, play the same game as competitors, namely pour additional horsepower into the next version of IE’s script engine, and ensure that script performance for IE9 is at least on par with rivals, if not even better. Nothing short of an excellent move from Microsoft, the IE9 performance boost needs to be not only consistent, but also continually updatable. The Redmond company has to understand that performance, much like standards support and interoperability is an ongoing effort, but one that requires fast pace upgrades.

“We’ve been working on performance optimizations around the JavaScript engine for the next version of Internet Explorer. One of the things we’ve heard pretty clearly from customers is we need to get better there, so we.ve done a bunch of work in the core JScript engine,” revealed John Montgomery, general product manager.

A change is needed either in the frequency at which Microsoft delivers major versions of Internet Explorer, or in the introduction of minor updates, after the model v9.1, v9.2, v9.3, and so on and so forth, in order to keep Internet Explorer 9 at least on par with rivals in terms of the performance level. In short, IE needs to evolve faster, and appear less out of breath when playing catch up with the likes of Firefox and Chrome.

“Performance is just one dimension. Ultimately it’s about the users that are running the browser to do more of their work on the web and developers who are building those experiences. Performance is one element of that, to make the experience better for users and developers,” said Shanku Niyogi, Microsoft GM.

Hardware Acceleration

“The power of modern hardware with Windows and all the energy that goes into the ecosystem to make PCs great, and how all of that can make the PC better. All the improvement around modern PCs and Windows shows up in the browser available for web developers. Developers who write the web can get all the goodness of DirectX [DirectX 11], all the goodness of the GPU, and all this amazing acceleration using the patterns that they already have and that they already use,” Hachamovitch said.

Hardware Acceleration is about Windows, DirectX 11 Windows APIs and the GPU (the computer’s graphics processing unit), and IE9 will take advantage of all these resources in concert. Microsoft’s PDC 2009 IE9 demonstration involves technologies such as Direct2D and DirectWrite for text rendering, and as the video shows, the improvements are amazing. Essentially, in the evolution from Internet Explorer 8 to IE9, Microsoft has swapped the rendering engine from leveraging GDI to DirectX.

The graphics cards on computers running IE9 will no longer simply sit unused, as the browser will turn to the GPU for webpage rendering. By embracing the GPU, IE9’s performance will get a boost, but as the demo unveiled, the fidelity of the rendering is unmatched. Ultimately, IE9 will deliver a superior users experience to IE8, and to all current competitive browsers available on the market. However, in all fairness, Mozilla has also been flirting with hardware acceleration for a future version of Firefox that is planned for availability following the release of v3.6.

video link

softpedia

Advanced Antivirus

Hackers have shown that they can plant their malware even on mainstream sites--proving that you need antivirus protection now more than ever. We lab-tested eleven top security programs to find the best guardians for your PC.

threatscape of duplicitous Trojan horses, invisible exploits, and slithering worms make antivirus protection a must. But that doesn't mean you have to pay top dollar for a security suite that may have features you don't want or need.

Stand-alone antivirus apps focus on blocking malicious software, without loading up on the extras that come with a suite. You typically won't find--or have to pay for--parental controls, system tuners, firewalls, or other options. That frees you to mix and match your own suite of apps, or even just stick with an on-its-own antivirus program and the built-in Windows firewall. See "Picking the Right Security Software" for more on this topic.

First, though, you need to know which programs will protect you and which could fall down on the job. To find out, we poked and prodded a large batch of applications--eleven in all, from not only the United States but also Europe and Japan. In partnership with AV-Test.org, we determined the products' detection rates for malware both known and brand-new. We also measured scan speed and disinfection performance, along with the rate of false alarms. For re­­sults on all products we tested, see our chart.

While any antivirus program is defined by its ability to keep a PC safe, we also dug through each app's user interface and simulated a variety of scanning scenarios to make sure a program wouldn't drive you crazy as it did its job.

G Data AntiVirus 2010 took top billing in our ranked software chart, doing the best job at malware detection, both in traditional, signature-based tests and in proactive protection tests that gauge how well an app can detect new malware without a full signature. However, while the program has a straightforward interface, it also asks more questions of the user than many of the other antivirus applications we tested, and it therefore may be best suited to a more technically oriented person.

Our close second-place finisher, Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus 2010, on the other hand, is smooth and simple to use. It does a generally good job of blocking and removing malware, though it trailed G Data in one type of proactive protection. And it has some appealing extras, such as a tool that can help you decide whether you think that a new download is from a reputable source and likely safe to install. Though it just barely lost out to our top recommendation, Norton would be a good choice for computer owners who want a minimum of fuss from the software they use.

Our scoring emphasized performance--or effectiveness--over all other considerations. After all, it doesn't matter how nice an antivirus program looks if it can't block malware. Based on our test results, we found that almost all of the programs were fully capable of de­­tecting malware with known signatures. When confronted with more than 650,000 Trojan horses, spyware samples, and other baddies, seven of the ten apps detected more than 99 percent of the samples. And no program had a detection rate of less than 94 percent.

But these days, online crooks are good at staying ahead of signatures. Month-old malware may as well be a dinosaur, and Panda, maker of one of the apps we tested, says that a whopping 52 percent of the malware it sees has a digital life expectancy of less than 24 hours. So we gave weight to tests that measure how well programs can detect newer malware for which a signature doesn't yet exist. Some of those tests gauge an app's ability to identify malicious software based solely on how it acts. Absent that crucial ability, a program had no real shot at a top ranking.

pc world

Google Chrome OS vs. Windows, and So It Begins

Inevitable, the advent of a new operating system has to be branded with certain coordinates that position the platform in relation to the ubiquitous Windows OS from Microsoft. Google Chrome OS has in this manner joined the club of non-Windows operating systems, and don’t think for a minute that this does not apply to Microsoft’s itself. The Redmond company is also cooking non-Windows platforms (Singularity and Midori), and time will come when the software giant will have to go against itself on the OS market. However, which such a scenario is most probably reserved for the next decade, the Google Chrome OS has become tangible.

Almost tangible, because the actual bits for the Google Chrome OS aren’t yet available for download. Instead, what the Mountain View-based search giant did was release the source code associated with the Chromium OS project. Users and developers, familiar with the way that the Google Chrome browser is built, already know that it too has a Chromium underlining project. And in fact, the similarities between the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS doesn’t stop at this.

“We released Chromium OS, the open source project behind Google Chrome OS. Google Chrome OS is an operating system that is intended for people who spend most of their time on the web. It aims to provide a computing experience that is fast, simple and secure. The Chromium OS project as you'll see it today is comprised of the code that has been developed thus far, our early experiments with the user interface, and detailed design docs for many parts that are under active development,” said Kan Liu, product manager.

Don’t expect to start running Google Chrome OS on your computer anytime soon. According to Caesar Sengupta, group product manager and Matt Papakipos, engineering director, the actual bits for the operating system won’t be delivered for approximately a year. It will be only ahead of the 2010 holiday season that the first machines equipped with Google Chrome OS will hit store shelves.

Moreover, there will be additional impediments preventing end users from embracing Google Chrome OS. In this regard, the Mountain View-based search giant explained that its own breed of open source OS would be intimately connected with a specific hardware reference. What this means is that the platform will not run on legacy hardware. Computers capable of playing nice with Chrome OS will have to be powered by x86 or ARM CPUs while sporting SSDs. In addition, don’t think for a moment that you’ll be able to install your favorite Windows-based game and start playing, because this will not be the case.

“First, it's all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs,” Papakipos added. “Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.”

softpedia

iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Droid vs. Pre: Smackdown!

The latest Android 2.0-based "iPhone killer" won't kill the iPhone or the -- and the cheaper HTC Droid Eris is the new smartphone that I think Apple should be concerned about. But there are now six smartphones on the market that will appeal to business and professional users, each with different strengths and weaknesses. This article gives InfoWorld's ratings for all six -- the Apple iPhone, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid, Palm Pre, Research in Motion BlackBerry Bold, and RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 -- plus an interactive ratings form in which you can enter your own weighting for each category in our exclusive Mobile Deathmatch Calculator and get a customized score for each smartphone.

Our buying advice is simple:

• If you want a mobile device that takes full advantage of Web connectivity, applications, and personal media that you can also use for business connectivity such as e-mail and calendaring, get the iPhone, even with the inferiority of AT&T's 3G network.

• If you're subject to high security requirements, such as for regulatory compliance, need to manage lots of devices, or just can't handle using a touch-based screen keyboard, you want the BlackBerry Bold, which is available from several U.S. carriers.

• If you can't stand the thought of using the AT&T 3G network and don't need to access corporate e-mail (outside of POP and IMAP mail servers), you want the HTC Droid Eris, which, like the Motorola Droid, is available only from Verizon Wireless.

[ Read InfoWorld's in-depth mobile deathmatch series: BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone | Palm Pre vs. iPhone | Motorola Droid vs. iPhone. And see our deathmatch slideshows' head-to-head comparisons: BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone | Palm Pre vs. iPhone | Motorola Droid vs. iPhone | Read our review of the HTC Droid Eris. ]

The WebOS-based Palm Pre was innovative last spring but has been bested by the new generation of Android devices. (Its sole U.S. carrier, Sprint, appears to have moved on from the Pre, now focusing on Android devices.) The Motorola Droid's keyboard is unusable, and the lack of multitouch support in its included apps makes its few technical advantages over the HTC Droid Eris -- basically, a few extra security features -- a lousy bargain. The BlackBerry Storm 2 was supposed to fix an unusable clickable touchscreen in the original version, but the solution doesn't address the core issue: Tapping is very slow on the screen, to the point that sustained text entry is out of the question. It's not surprising that within weeks of its release, carriers are selling it as part of two-for-one specials.

Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian devices are also out of the picture. Microsoft's long-delayed Windows 7 Mobile remains vaporware, and making purchase decisions on Microsoft's promise is foolhardy. Nokia's Symbian OS has evolved slowly in the last decade and simply isn't in the same league as modern mobile OSes; Nokia knows that and has a plan to move -- over several years -- to a new OS called Maemo. Someday we'll see what Maemo has to offer; in the meantime, Nokia has been unable to get U.S. carriers to sell its smartphones.

Web and Internet Support

One of the iPhone's revolutionary advances was in bringing the Web to mobile devices in a capable, effective way. All of a sudden, the mobile Web was real. The WebKit browser that underlies the iPhone's Web experience is now used by the Palm Pre and Android devices, and it seems destined for BlackBerry. For now, however, the BlackBerry series are the only holdouts for the old, hard-to-use mobile Web. The BlackBerry OS's ability to reformat Web pages into a stack helps overcome some of its inability to deal with real Web pages, but it's no substitute for the real thing. The Motorola Droid's lack of multitouch support makes navigating Web pages awkward; furthermore, the Droid's multistep process to copy text and the inability to copy graphics fall short of the iPhone's standards.

Likewise, the ability to access Internet services like Facebook, search, YouTube, and so on (another area iPhone pioneered) is pretty much standard across all modern mobile devices today. The same is true for JavaScript support, though this capability is turned off on many BlackBerry models by default and must be activated by the user. Some carriers disable JavaScript support completely.

The one common Web technology in which the iPhone OS is at a disadvantage is Flash Player support -- it doesn't have it. Neither do the Droids. The other devices can display Flash video. All but the BlackBerrys can display QuickTime Video, though there's a third-party app that lets the BlackBerry view QuickTime videos.

Business Connectivity

Where stark differences between the current mobile contenders show is in support for corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts. The BlackBerry, if you use the extra-cost BlackBerry Enterprise Server, lets you access these services whether your business uses Microsoft Exchange, IBM's Lotus Notes, or Novell Groupwise. It's the most enterprise-capable mobile platform for business connectivity.

The iPhone is second-best for business connectivity. It supports Exchange ActiveSync for e-mail, calendars, and contacts, though there are no clients as yet for Notes or Groupwise. The iPhone OS 3.1 fixes a bug that falsely reported support for ActiveSync on-device encryption policies; the 3G S supports such encryption, but older iPhones do not and thus can't access Exchange if encryption is set as an ActiveSync policy requirement.

The Palm Pre claims to support Exchange, but it supports only a few ActiveSync policies and thus can access only low-security Exchange servers. The two Droids also claim Exchange support, but I could not get the HTC Droid Eris to connect at all, while the Motorola Droid could only send messages, not receive them, a common complaint on the Droid user forums as well. The likely culprit is lack of support for ActiveSync policies. (My colleague Paul Venezia was able to establish a connection between a Droid Eris and an Exchange server that had no ActiveSync policies enabled.)

Note that Verizon enforces an extra $15-per-month fee to access corporate e-mail; if you don't tell Verizon you're using Exchange and don't call tech support for help on using Exchange, you can probably avoid the fee. But given the poor Exchange compatibility, it's pretty much a moot issue. The Motorola Droid does work with Exchange calendars through ActiveSync, but it won't let you respond to invitations.

All six devices support POP and IMAP e-mail accounts, so they're fine for personal and small-business e-mail access. They all support Google's Gmail as well, though BlackBerry owners will want to download RIM's "enhanced" Gmail client. To sync the iPhone to your PC's e-mail and calendar (as opposed to an Exchange server), you have to use either iTunes or the $99-per-year MobileMe service. The two Droids will directly sync to Outlook calendars and e-mails over a USB connection, as well as via Google Apps. BlackBerrys also can sync to Outlook on your PC, and to iCal and Address Book on your Mac, via a USB cable, using the BlackBerry Desktop software.

Application Support

Two billion downloads and counting -- that pretty much says it all about the wealth of available iPhone apps. No device comes anywhere close to the iPhone regarding the variety of third-party apps, and Apple keeps enhancing what apps can do, such as by enabling in-app purchases and subscriptions this summer.

The Google Android Market is looking good in its early days, with several high-quality programs available that match the better iPhone apps' quality, though often with fewer capabilities than their iPhone equivalents. HTC loads the Droid Eris with more than a dozen cool widgets that work only with its Sense UI enhancements to the Android OS; these bring real sophistication to the Droid Eris. Examples include a weather-and-time widget for the home screen, an integrated console for accessing all your messages, a favorites quick-access widget for contacting people with one click, and a mail-preview widget that means you don't have to keep opening the Email app.

Apps for the Pre have largely stalled, though the early ones showed promise. The BlackBerry has the weakest selection of apps, many of which are ungainly and hard to use, reflecting the platform's lack of respect for usability.

The BlackBerry does support unzipping of zipped file attachments in e-mail, unlike the other devices. The iPhone supports viewing of more document types than any of the devices, by dint of supporting its iWork productivity apps in addition to Microsoft Office and PDF documents. The two Droids and the BlackBerrys require that you use a third-party app to view such documents, but they come with this software pre-installed (Quickoffice for Android and Documents to Go for BlackBerry, respectively). The Pre, like the iPhone, comes with its own app for file viewing.

[ When you're on the go, read InfoWorld at our beta mobile site: iphone.infoworld.com. It's compatible with the iPhone, Palm Pre (WebOS), Android-based smartphones such as the Droid and Droid Eris, and other WebKit-based devices. ]

In some -- but not all -- cases, these viewers can also edit documents. Further, editing capabilities can be quite limited. For editing documents, DataViz Documents to Go for BlackBerry is the easiest to use, as it works with e-mail attachments and zip files. The Quickoffice app for the iPhone is a better editor, but it work only with files stored on the iPhone, not directly with e-mail attachments, due to an Apple-imposed limitation. However, Quickoffice for Android is more limited still -- it only supports document viewing. The sole editing app for the Android platform, Documents to Go, can merely edit e-mail attachments in Gmail messages.

The iPhone's copy and paste is the best of the bunch; it's intuitive and works on all sorts of content in almost every app. The BlackBerry's copy-and-paste capabilities are comparable to the iPhone's, but the menu-based interface is harder to use. The Palm Pre and the two Droids have limited copy-and-paste capabilities.

The Motorola Droid boasts an included turn-by-turn navigation app that doesn't require a monthly subscription, unlike the other devices. You can buy such apps for the iPhone and BlackBerry, for between $80 and $130.

All six devices offer the basics when it comes to apps: e-mail, calendar, address book, social networking, test messaging, maps, media player, and photo gallery.

The Palm Pre and HTC Droid Eris go a bit further than the others in their communications-oriented apps in letting you easily manage your contacts across communciations channels. You can even have a conversation that moves from one channel to another with the Pre. Only the Pre makes it easy to move among apps when you have several running, thanks to its "cards" interface.

Security and Management
Although security and management concerns can be used as an excuse not to deal with something new, the truth is that companies subject to regulatory requirements -- such as hospitals, defense contractors, and financial officers -- have to follow those requirements. If those needs apply to you, no other device capabilities can trump security, and that means you're all but certain to choose a BlackBerry. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) can track and enforce security policies, such as requiring that data stored on the device be encrypted, and it can initiate a remote wipe of a device after a specified number of failed password attempts, for example. Plus, BES can push security, policy, and app updates, as well as monitor device usage.

The iPhone comes in second place for security and manageability, despite its poor reputation. It supports Exchange ActiveSync policies, such as requiring a complex password or on-device encryption. The iPhone 3G S and the late-2009 iPod Touch support on-device encryption, a common security requirement. The iPhone offers more security capabilities than are initially apparent, because many policies can only be set through Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility, a free download. The utility creates policies that iPhone users can install via e-mail, URLs, and USB syncing -- but there's no way to force, confirm, or track installation, so many enterprises can't prove security compliance without physically checking each device.

The Pre, Droid, and Droid Eris have limited security capabilities (the Pre has the most and the Droid Eris the least) and no management tools. Companies that offer mobile management tools are increasingly adding iPhone and Android support, but the scope of these tools remains less than regulation-concerned enterprises require.

The BlackBerrys, iPhone, Pre, and Motorola Droid all support VPN connections; only the HTC Droid Eris doesn't. The BlackBerry's support is superior, as its VPN settings can be remotedly managed by IT. Using the free iPhone Configuration Utility, IT can also send iPhone users VPN profiles to install, but can't remotely manage them.

Voice Capabilities
Although what distinguishes smartphones from cell phones is data access, smartphones still must function as phones and handle voice calls. Except for the iPhone, all have good voice and speaker quality. The iPhone stands apart: Even rabid fans complain about its poor voice quality and frequent dropped calls. It's tempting to blame AT&T for that, except that the BlackBerrys don't suffer these issues on AT&T's network.

All the devices integrate the phone with their address books and search functions. But the Droids' search capabilities are more primitive than those of the other devices, You can't search just your contacts, for example.

Usability
The iPhone set the bar for mobile usability upon its debut and has continued to raise it with the two major OS releases since. The gestures make sense, and the OS and apps are full of little enhancements that bolster ease-of-use, such as the quick-delete swipe and ability to bulk-delete and bulk-move messages, as well as the ability to add Web pages to the home screen's apps grid for easy access. More recently, the iPhone added very intuitive, "smart" copy and paste that works for text and graphics. Where the iPhone falls short is its lack of support for running multiple apps simultaneously, which means switching apps can essentially close an app rather than freeze its current state for later resumption; this one-app-a-time limitation prevents the iPhone from being able to open file attachments and edit them from e-mail, for example. As previously noted, the Pre is the only device that makes it easy to move among multiple apps simultaneously -- as if you're using Mac OS X or Windows. The Droids' ability to pop up a menu of active apps (by holding the Home button) is not as good as the Pre's approach but still better than the iPhone's.

The HTC Droid Eris is surprisingly easy to use and full of well-designed applications that come in very handy. HTC has created its own Sense UI that extends the Google Android UI. While there are a lot of naked rip-offs from the iPhone, the UI is no mere collection of robotically stolen features. As mentioned earlier, the many widgets bring capabilities together intelligently, with many pleasant surprises in terms of options and display. The Motorola Droid has none of these, using the raw Android UI instead. It's a decent OS, but rougher by comparison to what HTC has done. But do note that the HTC Drid Eris has a slower processor than the Motorola Droid, so it's not as snappy switching among or running complex apps.

The Palm Pre's UI is clunkier than either the iPhone's or the Droids'. It shares many of the same principles, but is less consistent in, for example, its use of scrolling and menu access. Also, the separate swipe area for some gestures is confusing, as it's hard to remember which swipes work where on the split screen.

The BlackBerry UI is vintage, and not in a good way. Very reminiscent of Windows 3.0, it uses clunky menus, keyboard shortcuts, and primitive imagery. The trackball is jumpy and inaccurate, so scrolling, selecting, and zooming are imprecise activities. Keyboard aficionados like its extensive use of shortcuts, but there's no reason the BlackBerry OS couldn't retain those while introducing a modern graphical UI.

Beyond UI, the iPhone has also introduced some cool capabilities that let it and its apps do more. For example, an accelerometer allows player-style games and even tools such as carpenter's levels. Also, the built-in compass lets map-based applications become direction assistants. The Palm Pre and the two Droids have copied both capabilities, and the BlackBerry Storm has an accelerometer.

For some users, one major usability issue on the iPhone is the lack of a removable battery and memory card. I haven't had a need for more memory or to replace the battery on my two-year old device, but the proliferation of SD cards for storing and sharing photos -- even the newest Apple MacBook Pros have SD card slots -- makes the memory card omission a legitimate demerit for the iPhone's usability.

But the most divisive issue for usability is the keyboard. Many people hate touch keyboards, such as that pioneered in the iPhone. The BlackBerry Bold's QWERTY keyboard is much easier to use off the bat, though I became as proficient on the iPhone's touch keyboard as I am on the Bold's physical keyboard after several weeks.

The Motorola Droid's touch keyboard is similar to the iPhone's, lacking only the latter's multilingual capabilities. The HTC Droid Eris's QWERTY keyboard is easier to use than either the Motorola Droid's or the iPhone's, thanks to a cool hold-and-press feature to get fast access to common special characters such as numerals, $, and !. The Motorola Droid's physical keyboard is very hard to use, with low-travel keys and flat surfaces that make touch-typing difficult due to lack of tactile feedback. Using it slowed me down immensely, and I quickly abandoned it in favor of the much faster touch keyboard. The difference between the Motorola Droid's physical keyboard and the BlackBerry Bold's is night and day.

The Palm Pre's keyboard is similar to the BlackBerry Bold's, but the glossy keys and red-on-black print make it harder to use, especially when you're hunting for a symbol. The BlackBerry Bold's matte finish and clearer text avoid that problem. But the Storm 2's traditional multiple-characters-per-key BlackBerry keyboard is difficult to work with, as the device has to predict which letter you want on each key. There's no reason RIM couldn't use the Bold's keyboard on the Storm 2, and it should have, especially because its touch keyboard is unusable, due to how the screen must flex and rebound as you tap each character. That creates a delay for each and every character, so it's slow as molasses. (The original Storm's screen actually had to click for each character, and the flex action was meant to be less intrusive -- it isn't.)

The other major input advance from the iPhone was the use of a multitouch screen, which lets you do gestures involving more than one finger. The use of gestures opens up almost unlimited possibilities for what you can control via touch. Most of the other touchscreen competitors (the HTC Droid Eris, BlackBerry Storm 2, and Pre) have adopted the same approach -- with the glaring exception of the Motorola Droid, whose bundled apps don't support gestures. That ill-advised decision puts the Motorola Droid at a major usability disadvantage.

Finally, the physical devices vary in size, shape, and button arrangement, but by and large, they all have good designs. The Palm Pre feels the cheapest of the bunch in terms of finish and materials quality, and its fuzzy screen is an issue. The Motorola Droid auto-adjusts for brightness, using a light sensor to determine the screen intensity, but I found that it often flickered as it continually adjusted brightness in naturally lit rooms. Its on/off buttton is also hard to access.

Personal Technologies
Although these devices are attractive for potential business or professional use, they're also meant to be fun personal devices. The iPhone leans heavily on iTunes for access to music and videos -- after all, the iPhone is also an iPod. There's a reason the folks at Palm keep trying to hack iTunes to allow syncing to the Pre.

The other devices can all play music and videos, using Internet and carrier services for over-the-air access and USB syncing and SD cards for access to PC-based files. (Android users should get the DoubleTwist app for Macs and PCs that syncs Android devices with iTunes libraries.)

The Motorola Droid boasts a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, giving it the most capable built-in camera based on the specs. But as my Chicago Sun-Times colleague Andy Ihnatko has shown, the iPhone 3G S's 3-megapixel camera takes better pictures most of the time, likely due to its software's correction capabilities. The Pre, BlackBerry Storm 2, and HTC Droid Eris have midquality 3-megapixel cameras, while the BlackBerry Bold has a low-quality 2-megapixel camera. All but the Bold's are capable of video capture as well.

The iPhone stands out for its gaming and entertainment capabilities. There are hundreds of cool games and playtime apps that can amuse you for hours. The other devices have a much more limited selection of playthings.

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Free Tools for Fine-Tuning Your Windows 7 Setup

Last week I told you how to migrate to Windows 7 at your own pace--there's no need to jump into the deep end right away. Now that you've got Windows 7 up and running on your newly partitioned, dual-boot PC, it's time for the next big step in any OS migration: reinstalling your software.

I've always hated this part, as it involves digging out CDs, downloading apps from lots of different sites, and then manually installing everything. Takes forever.

Thankfully, I've found salvation in the form of Ninite, a new service that automatically downloads and installs popular software.

All you do is scroll through Ninite's list of 70-odd apps, check-marking the ones you want. The service offers the most current versions of nearly every popular mainstream program, including Firefox, Skype, OpenOffice, iTunes, Picasa, Steam, and Revo Uninstaller.

Once you've made your picks, click Get Installer to download a small executable file. When you're ready, run that file and sit back while Ninite goes to work.

How long does it take? That depends on how many programs you've selected. I chose a baker's dozen (including the trial version of Office 2007 Standard, which I already own--now I just have to type in the security key), and I'd swear Ninite was done in all of 10 minutes.

I'll bet the service saved me a couple hours of manual labor. It worked flawlessly, and it installed 90 percent of the programs I use regularly. Awesome. Just awesome. And did I mention Ninite is free?

Migrating Your Bookmarks

I'd argue that the first thing a user wants upon migrating to a new PC--or, in this case, a new operating system on the same PC--is his or her bookmarks.

Fortunately, that's perhaps the single easiest chunk of data to move as part of our "slow" migration to Windows 7. All you need is Xmarks.

Available for both Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer, Xmarks automatically and effortlessly synchronizes your bookmarks between PCs and the Web.

If you were already using it, just install the program in your new Windows 7 partition, sign into your account, and presto: All your bookmarks will magically appear in your browser. (All your Web-site passwords, too, assuming you configured the tool to sync passwords.)

If you weren't using Xmarks before, start by booting back into your previous version of Windows, installing Xmarks, and setting up an account. (Don't worry, it's free.) Then you can jump back into Windows 7 and install Xmarks there.

There are other ways to copy bookmarks, but this is by far the fastest and easiest--and you get the added benefit of having a password-protected copy of your bookmarks on the Web, accessible from any PC.

Bonus Tip: Make Windows 7's Taskbar More Like Vista's

I like most of what Windows 7 brings to the table, but there's one thing I definitely don't like: the new taskbar. Specifically, I miss the text labels that accompany each running program. Without them, it takes me an extra second or two to figure out what's what. Fortunately, there's an easy way to make the Windows 7 toolbar look a lot more like the one in Vista (and, for that matter, XP). Here's how.

1. Right-click on any open area of the toolbar and choose Properties.
2. Click the "Taskbar buttons" pull-down and choose Never combine.
3. If you really want a more Vista/XP-like taskbar, check the "Use small icons" check box. Me, I like the bigger icons.
   
4. Click OK.

Now, this won't give you exactly the same taskbar you remember (Windows 7's pinned icons tend to interrupt the "flow" a bit), but at least you'll have the text labels and bigger buttons back.

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The Best of Today's E-Book Readers

If you think the universe of e-book readers begins with the Kindle 2 and ends with the Kindle DX, think again. That universe is expanding rapidly. We recently completed thorough hands-on testing of seven of the top e-readers available today and came to a surprising conclusion: Our number one choice isn't from Amazon at all; it's the Sony Reader Touch Edition.

Sony's $300 reader matches the Kindle 2's screen size and quality but adds a touchscreen and support for free e-books and Adobe ePub, an e-book file format that book publishers and resellers have widely embraced. Whereas Adobe's PDF reproduces a fixed image of a page, ePub permits text to reflow in order to accommodate different fonts and font sizes.Certainly the wireless connectivity in Amazon's Kindle models makes buying new books a breeze, but to this point Amazon's readers support only Amazon's format, locking you into buying exclusively from the online giant.

Of course, no company's lead in the rapidly evolving e-reader market is safe. Barnes & Noble looks to be one of Amazon's chief competitors. The giant bookseller announced its Nook e-reader last month, and most people who got a peek at the device seemed to love it. The Nook isn't yet available for thorough testing, however.

E-books have numerous benefits. Eliminating paper saves resources. E-book readers take up little room in travelers' backpacks and purses, and yet can store the equivalent of a whole bookshelf. You don't have to go anywhere to buy or borrow an e-book title. For the vision-impaired, the ability to adjust font size can mean the difference between being able to read a book and having to hope that the publisher will eventually release an audio version. Some e-book readers double as music players, and some even have a speech capability for reading books aloud.

Unfortunately, the world of e-books is Balkanized, with multiple incompatible file formats and digital rights management (DRM) technologies, and devices with varying support for both. Books in the public domain are widely available in PDF and other standard formats. But copyrighted material is another story. Amazon's current Kindles can obtain commercial e-books in Amazon's AZW file format via wireless download only in the United States (in early October, however, the company announced a Kindle capable of downloading content in most countries).

Adobe offers a DRM technology called Adobe Content Server 4. Sony and a number of other online bookstores--most notably Borders--sell commercial titles in ePub/ACS4 format, and some libraries let patrons check out ePub books. As of early October, 17 e-book readers supported ePub and ACS4, making that combination the closest thing the industry has to a standard for DRM-protected books. Aside from the Amazon Kindles and Foxit's eSlick, all of the e-book readers in this collection of reviews support ePub/ACS4.

We compiled a comparison chart of the five highest-ranking e-readers at the conclusion of our evaluations. For the details, see our Top 5 E-Book Readers chart. And for individual reviews of the seven e-readers we put through their paces, click the links in the list of products in the floating contents bar on this page (above right).

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