Microsoft Loses Again, But It's Almost Irrelevant

Microsoft just lost it's appeal against the patent infringement verdict handed to Toronto-based i4i. It's all about the Custom XML function integrated in Microsoft Word, in both the standalone Word 2007 and the bundled version in Office 2007. Copies of Word 2007 and Office 2007 with the feature removed will be available for U.S. sale by Jan. 11, and "beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, don’t contain the technology covered by the injunction," said Microsoft's Kevin Kutz, after the judgement. i4i developed a custom XML editor and patented parts of its software product. The courts have ruled that Microsoft knowingly infringed on the i4i patent when it included a similar custom XML editor in Word 2007. The whole idea here is that a great, big, multinational corporation such as Microsoft can't willfully eradicate a market being developed by small companies. Competition is one of the things that helped make Microsoft what it is today: highly successful. Now that it's a vast multinational, proceeding ethically (and legally) through the competitive business world is much harder work. Microsoft must be more careful. I'm still using Office 2007 though, and if you're using it too, there's no need to switch. In fact, the alternatives are basically inadequate anyway. So what's the effect of the ruling against Microsoft? Aside from the fact that it now owes i4i about $290 million, not much else. Big enterprise users of Office 2007 and (late next year) Office 2010, can use i4i's excellent custom XML editor (just like they were doing before), or one of any of the dozen or more custom XML editors on the market. Existing boxed versions of Word 2007 and Office 2007 are unaffected by the patent ruling. OEM versions of Office 2007 have already been patched. In the meantime, at this time of year Office 2007 and Word 2007 are selling at comparatively bargain basement prices at Amazon. Get Word 2007 here. Get Office 2007 here.

Happy Holidays

Best of the season to all of you. Thank you for looking and reading and giving us lots of reasons to keep digging up new products to review and new information to report. We're not quite at the new year just yet, but we're certainly looking forward to it. 2010 has lots in store for SOHO, small business, and digital imaging. We've got dozens of products in the review pipeline, we're looking forward to a much healthier business year for everyone, and some great opportunities in the bargain. Stay healthy, stay happy, and be prosperous. From all of us at Kickstartnews.com — David, Mario, Elise, Mark, Lianne, Jim, all the research associates and me . . . Peace.

Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 8 - All You Need?

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Adobe Premiere Elements 8 represent the next significant step for the photo and video editing one-two punch that the company has been flogging for the past eight years or so. Mind you, only three years ago did Adobe decide to combine the two Elements products into a discount bundle. Is this bundle the best deal for the money on the market today? We think so. In fact, as far as photo editing and organizing goes, Photoshop Elements 8 is close enough to the grossly expensive Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 4 that only serious pros should choose CS4 over Elements 8. It's also true that Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 8 provide even seasoned pros with an easier-to-use set of powerful tools to do almost everything. That means you and me should be able to fly with Elements 8. Look for our full review soon. In the meantime, you absolutely can't go wrong for $149. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 bundled, will get your creative juices flowing. More important, both products in the bundle are genuinely easy to use, come with a huge set of tutorials, and with just a bit of practice will help you produce superb results. Get Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 at Amazon.

Tablet Computers . . . dumb or dumber?

My good friend (Kickstartnews Contributing Editor) Mario Georgiou and I disagree on the usefulness of tablet computers. He likes them - I don't. While the iPod Touch/iPhone are probably the best currently examples of how a highly responsive touch screen should work, the option of a hardware keyboard option within the same form factor seems to escape the priority list at Apple. So we're left with the heavy, awkward and rather powerful notebook-sized laptop tablets. What I want (hmmm, make that, what many tablet computing fans want) is a tablet which combines the best of all worlds in a form factor that is not much larger than the best netbooks. They're coming. They're here. The HP EliteBook works extremely well and it almost qualifies as an ultralight. With a 12.1" screen, it's very portable - bigger than a netbook; smaller than a typical laptop. This should be considered by business travelers as a great all around workhorse. The Lenovo ThinkPad X200 clocks in slightly heavier than the HP, but noticeably tougher for business use, travel, college/university use and so on. It's our best buy. Lenovo had a few quality control problems which began a couple of years after it took over the ThinkPad line from IBM. Time, focus and attention to detail have put the ThinkPad line back near the top of the heap. The HP Pavillion tx2500z is the least expensive of the good quality 12.1" tablets PCs. It's tough to beat for home use. The Asus Eee PC T91MT netbook tablet has the typical 8.9" netbook screen, but rather than a hard drive for storage features 16GB of SSD/Flash memory. Useful for certain - at home, traveling, and for casual use just about anywhere. Limited storage capacity and the slightly underpowered Intel Atom processor will limit its popularity. A good little machine nonetheless with almost 5 hours of battery life and very light weight.

Microsoft to Release Office 2010 in June

The problem with all the alternatives to Microsoft Office is mainly that they aren't reliable enough for serious business use. OpenOffice is good and apparently getting better. Our aging review was quite enthusiastic, and we even pointed out that OpenOffice was most likely all that most home users would ever want or need. Business use is another matter. Complex text, spreadsheet and presentation documents containing unique formatting created with Microsoft Office often break the import filters in OpenOffice. In a business environment - especially considering the time constraints which severely restrict the number of cycles most small business owners have available to fiddle around fixing messed up documents - Microsoft Office is the absolute standard. Google's online office software applications are interesting, limited in features and scope, and work only as well as the speed and stability of your Internet connection allows. The same is true for ThinkFree. Both lack the complex filters needed to import (or create) complex formatting (no indexes, tables of contents, footnotes, etc.). The Microsoft Live products online fare somewhat better, and they perform clean imports of complex documents. Use the others if they suit your needs. For me, Microsoft Office is still the king of the hill now and for the foreseeable future. Get Microsoft Office from Amazon.

Service Costs Are Getting Out of Control . . . but what phone should you buy?

It looks to me as though wireless carrier markets (read: your cell phone carrier) are being fought over and gradually divided into territorial grids. It's not intrinsically a bad thing, but it will end certain levels of competition. The specific down side? The more data you use/download/upload, the more you're going to be charged. Once again, you get what you pay for? Not necessarily. The problem is mainly that you won't get to choose exactly what you want in the way of data access. While there certainly are a variety of plans from which to choose, true customization is not possible, and there don't seem to be any plans in the pipeline for any sort of granular plan customization. What does it all mean for business users? Most likely, increasing wireless usage costs. From my perspective, a phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) which helps you get the most done (online and offline) is very soon going to be the deciding factor, as opposed to the competitive cost of the access plan which is usually the deciding factor now. The RIM Blackberry Curve remains for me the most effective wireless business tool. Screen, hardware QWERTY keyboard, storage capacity, slick and seamless email connectivity, and the myriad apps satisfy the vast majority of my business needs. Everything else (including the iPhone in my opinion) is second best. I have tried the iPhone and I just don't buy into the hype or the cachet or the cool factor (and the onscreen touch keyboard really sucks for me). The effusive praise heaped on the Apple App Store is not enough to move me off the Blackberry - not by a long shot. Get the Blackberry Curve 8900 here.

Amazon Kindle vs. Sony eReader - Business, Home and Travel

I use a Sony PRS-300 and I love the thing. It's small, fast, has an excellent e-ink screen, page turns are jerky, memory/storage capacity is good and it's definitely portable. The new Touch Edition (which is larger, has a touch screen and 3G connectivity) beckons however, so my small PRS-300 may be replaced. The Amazon Kindle, model for model, is slightly larger than the Sony eReader. It's available in two editions vs. the three editions of the Sony eReader. Amazon concentrates on expanding coverage (books, newspapers, magazines, multimedia) while Sony concentrates mostly on books. But the top-of-the-line models from both companies let you organize access to daily newspapers and other timely information sources. I've used both devices. The differences between the two don't amount to anything, except for one little thing - the data format. Sony (which used to be a major proponent of its own propritetary ATRAC music format) has embraced the standard ePub book format, which makes the Sony eReader quite format and recession proof. The Kindle, on the other hand, recognizes only its own proprietary format. I just finished a two week trip carrying the Sony eReader. My carry-on bag was several pounds lighter than normal because I was carrying a lot less heavy paper (my usual 5 books and magazines were replaced by the diminutive eReader). This is a good thing. Get your eReader here. Get the Kindle here (in the U.S.) (and in Canada now as well). Happy Reading!

Copyright is Supposed to Spur Creativity, not Stifle Competition

In this corner, artist and metal sculptor of artisanal Firebowls, Mr. John T. Unger. In the other corner, Mr. Rick Wittrig, competitive purveyor of remarkably similar Firebowls. The dispute? Mr. Unger avers apparently unreservedly that Mr. Wittrig has copied his Firebowl designs. This is a big deal to Mr. Unger considering that he holds a copyright for the designs. Mr. Wittrig has responded, essentially stating that the copyright held by Mr. Unger is inappropriately applied and that He (Mr. Wittrig) is entitled to a copyright of his own. Really. For those who think Wittrig is attempting to generate profitable sales of Firebowls based on Unger's designs, without in any way compensating Unger, the situation is outrageous. For those who believe that Unger has copyrighted something which is (or rather should be) essentially uncopyrightable, Wittrig is a knock-off type of competitor of the same kind that has helped make the schmatta business, the electronics business and many other businesses thrive. Some people point out quite accurately too that such thriving business segments are so insanely competitive now that the only place you can make a garment (or a stereo) is in a Chinese factory at which skilled workers are paid a ridiculously tiny fraction of the wages formerly paid to identical workers (albeit Jewish, Italian, Afro-America, Puerto Rican and Mexican, not Chinese) in the U.S. back in the day. The law suits are flying, but because neither Unger nor Wittrig are anything close to financially Trump-ian, the matter will likely be settled quickly. After all, both of these guys probably realized that the attention from all the foofaraw between the two of them has attracted more attention to their Firebowls than they've ever had before. Good on ya guys! Copyright was originally devised to foster creativity, not stifle competition. Too often over the past 25 years or more however, copyright has been used as a cudgel - something which has to stop. Imitation really is a form of flattery, but it's also a sign that your blissful little world is being invaded by competitors who think they can do a better job than you. Take the hint - all you creative types - and make sure you're not just sitting around admiring your handiwork, basking in the glow of your immense marvelousness. The moment you relax, some putz will steal/knock-off/copy/imitate your heretofore unique design. And, um, yes - plenty of mass produced Firebowls are made in China these days. Some of them are quite nice, but they're not the high quality artisanal designs originated and made in the U.S. by John T. Unger. So there. Anyway, Firebowls are really cool - just the thing to light up while you're contemplating a lawsuit. Amazon has dozens of them in a wide variety of designs.

I've Had It With Google (the new 'Evil Empire' perhaps?)

In a rather chatty and gleefully positive and 'helpful' December 2009 blog post, Google announced that all the world's news gathering and publishing companies (read: all of the major papers, major broadcasting networks and wire services now publishing on their own web sites) needn't fret about their original articles and information being re-published on Google search result pages and iGoogle-based home pages because the 'ol Goog had figured out a way to make nice. Basically it boils down to this (at least in the Goog's thinking): give Google some stuff for free and charge visitors to the original news and information publishers' sites for access to other stuff. Here's the problem. Rupert Murdoch and several other media poo-bahs have only recently figured out that Google cheerfully re-publishes headlines and article excerpts (accompanied on each search result page by ads from which Google earns big money), and which collectively cost the aforementioned media magnates hundreds of millions of dollars (for paid reporters, agencies and sources, bureaus, etc.) to gather and publish in the first place in their own newspapers, web sites, magazines and television broadcasts. While the Goog helps you find all this stuff online, its search result pages loaded with ads at the same time help the Goog make money. To many people, this all makes perfectly good sense. The media magnates who spend big dough gathering news and information in the first place would much prefer to be collecting all (or at least a significant portion) of the revenue Google is squeezing out of the magnates' investments. Consumer groups (including the Electronic Frontier Foundation - the EFF) haven't quite figured this one out. Here's the rub. If it costs lots of money to gather and publish original information, and if the major news publishers who fork over big money to gather the news from around the world can't make a buck doing so, how long will it be before most of the information we see is nothing more than reprints of corporate and government press releases absent any challenge, any analysis and any opinion. After all, if there's no money to pay people to do that sort of work, why would anyone bother to do it? Google's logic has large holes in it. So I say let Google contribute to its own information storehouse by jumping into the same pond as the real media companies. It's all well and good for Google to avoid such a commitment by stating that it has never intended to engage in such work, but the reality is that Google profits directly from the investment of others in news gathering and media companies. It's a bit of a free ride which Murdoch and his compadres are getting ready to halt. We all used to pay for newspaper subscriptions which supported little more than the cost of delivering the paper. All other revenue came from advertisers. Now that Google has scooped large buckets of money out of advertising budgets formerly devoted to the news gathering and media companies, those companies are asking Google to either contribute news gathering of its own or get out of the water. Google can't have it both ways.

Protect Screens . . . On Everything

ZAGG makes these optically clear, kind of sticky (but no adhesive) rub-on, thin film screen protectors for every electronic device with an LCD screen of some sort including Blackberry smartphones, iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch, and every worthwhile digital camera LCD screen on the market today. The list of LCD screens for which you can purchase custom-fitted ZAGG protectors is amazing and constantly growing. A friend showed me a ZAGG invisible Shield protector on his Blackberry Curve last year and I've been hooked on the products every since. My own Curve, as well as my Nikon D3, D700, Nikon D300s, Canon 1Ds MKIII, Canon G11, iPod and several other devices are all protected by ZAGG Shields. Great (albeit simple) product that you can get through Amazon. The Zagg invisible Shield consists of a carefully custom cut, exceedingly tough but optically transparent thin film. The package includes a small tube of spray cleaner/static liquid. After cleaning your LCD screen, you basically soak the ZAGG Shield and slide it into position using the supplied mini-squeegee to work out any trapped bubbles. It all works quite well and the ZAGG Shield does not move once its dry (which only takes a couple minutes). The material resists scratches and abrasions like nothing we've seen before in this kind of flexible material application. The ZAGG invisible Shield also stay put once applied. No edge curling or adhesion problems. Very good, useful product. Highly recommended.

RED Gets Ready

RED has announced more details, and for the first time provided an actual photo of the imminent RED Scarlet modular still and video camera. This thing has been coming for quite a while now, and with the convergence of high resolution stills with high definition video appearing across the model line ups in digital SLR bodies from Nikon, Canon and Panasonic, it's about time. RED has established a pre-eminent position in the movie business, and with an announced price point below $5,000 (complete with lenses) the Scarlet is probably keeping Nikon and Canon execs up at night even before it hits the streets.