After Launch, These Products Evolved
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, September 3, 2006; F06
If you think you don't like the program you just downloaded or the new computer you just booted up, wait. A bug-fix patch, a driver update or a new third-party program might arrive to smooth out the problems. Or maybe some lurking glitch or mechanical fault will surface and give you a reason to hate the thing outright.
Such is the way of computing and consumer electronics, where products continue to evolve after they leave the store shelf or the download site. So once a year, I set aside a week to see how old review subjects have fared since I first looked at them.
Over the past 12 months, many of these products have been add-ons to fill in the gaps of Windows XP, now nearly five years old. I tried out one of the best last September, Google Desktop 3.0 .
Since that review, this add-on -- a combination of file-search tool and system dashboard -- has advanced to version 4.0 and added quick access to a calculator, the weather forecast, language-translation sites and other useful tools. Google Desktop 4 also offers more integration with Google's Web services; its calendar module, for instance, shows appointments on your Google Calendar.
As it continues to develop the successor to Windows XP -- Windows Vista, scheduled for release next year -- Microsoft introduced a worthwhile addition called Windows Defender , an anti-spyware utility that I reviewed in March. Although a beta-test release, it's been drama-free in operation, free of crashes or toxic interactions with other programs. My one major gripe: Its daily spyware-definitions downloads shouldn't be tied to Microsoft's Windows Update system.
While the automatic update delivers useful bug fixes for Windows, it has also brought the unwanted Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications anti-piracy program. That pushy behavior has led me to require Windows Update to ask permission before installing any new download, holding up Windows Defender updates in the process.
A second Microsoft beta-test release, Internet Explorer 7 , which I reviewed in July, recently graduated to the "release candidate" stage. It still suffers the interface glitches I noted in my earlier review but has exhibited more stability and slightly improved accuracy in its rendering of complex Web-page designs. With recent delays to Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Microsoft may actually wrap up development of IE7 before the next version of its chief competitor.
Last fall's version 2 release of OpenOffice , the open-source rival to Microsoft Office, passed an intense, months-long trial on my work laptop when a bizarre printer-driver glitch hobbled Microsoft Word. And as of last week, Mac users can try a usable, up-to-date Mac OS X version of this suite, available in test form at http://neooffice.org/ .
But OpenOffice faces new competition of its own from an unexpected source: Web-based applications that provide the basic functions of word processors and spreadsheets inside a browser window without requiring the installation of any funky extras. Google's Calendar ( http://calendar.google.com/ ) and its just-reopened Writely ( http://writely.com/ ) word processing program make for a far simpler Microsoft alternative than the sprawling OpenOffice.
And speaking of alternatives to Windows, the most interesting computers I've tried this year have been Apple's Intel-based Macs .
My early worries about first-time hardware and software issues have proven largely unfounded (outside of glitches in the first round of Mac laptops). And the promise of Windows compatibility has become a reality faster than I would have guessed, thanks in large part to the Boot Camp program Apple released in April.
That software lets you split a Mac's hard drive into two -- one side for the Mac and one for Windows -- then choose which system to run at start-up.
Aside from the need to buy and install a current copy of Windows XP, BootCamp has proved to be painless and reliable on all three Intel-based Macs that I've tested. Boot Camp (still a beta release) is expected to be built into Apple's next Mac operating system update, due out next year. On the other hand, Apple doesn't seem to be paying the same attention to Front Row , the software that allowed users to play music, view photos, cue up a DVD or watch video files stored on your hard drive or online -- all with the click of a small remote control. The obvious, easily-fixable interface flaws I noted in a review back in October are still around.
On the Windows side, Intel's Viiv initiative to network digital media throughout the house -- beaming movies and music from one TV to another, for example -- has been a vague, largely unfulfilled promise since its over-hyped launch in January. Finally, Viiv-certified set-top boxes and wireless routers are finally starting to show up in the market -- and the success of other online video sources has shown that people are happy to make their computer a source of TV programming.
In fact, far more people than I would have guessed were willing to pay for copies of TV shows on iTunes. And I was delighted to see that ABC will resume its free, ad-supported streaming of TV shows this month. Every other network should study how well ABC's system works -- on most computers, you don't need to touch a single setting or install any new software to start catching up on Lost or Desperate Housewives.
When I reviewed the most recent set of smartphones -- Palm's Treo 700p and 700w and Motorola's Q -- I wrote back in June that Palm's older Treo 650 was a better buy. But if you're a Sprint or Verizon Wireless customer, you can disregard that advice: Both carriers have stopped selling the 650.
I am happy to report, though, that the entry fee for digital television has plunged since my January review of a $360 RCA standard-definition digital set -- which, at the time, was alone in its price bracket and scarce in stores.
An entry-level standard-def digital model -- now easy to find for $200 -- lacks HDTV's near-photographic clarity, but the crisp, static-free TV reception with the right antenna is still good enough to redefine the value of over-the-air broadcast TV.
That is how progress -- in the electronic world and beyond it -- ought to work.
