Wormy Cell Phones
Illustration: Gordon Studer
When a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone in Santa Monica, California, was infected with the Cabir worm last February, headlines proclaimed the coming mobile Armageddon. Not so fast, advises McAfee's Victor Kouznetsov. "We're doing a disservice" by even calling Cabir an infection. Cabir is "a proof of concept--an application, not a worm"--that sends itself from a single phone to another phone. Once there, it does no harm, since it has no malicious payload. Symantec's Oliver Friedrichs cautions that as higher-end operating systems proliferate on smart phones, we'll see more viruses and Trojan horse programs masquerading as ring tones. But it "takes a lot of interaction for this kind of thing to spread." A user must be in range of the infected phone and must specifically accept a download via Bluetooth. To protect yourself, don't accept a download without validating its origin.
Bottom Line: To quote the noted hitchhiker Douglas Adams: "Don't panic."
ExpressCard Debuts
Illustration: Gordon Studer
The notebook PC Card is being shown the door. Replacing it: the ExpressCard, a hot-swappable, 3-inch-long sliver that's quite a bit smaller and many times faster. ExpressCards come in two sizes: EC34 is 1.34 inches wide, while EC54 is a bit over 2 inches wide. At press time, a slate of vendors was shipping two-slot notebooks (one slot for a PC Card and the other for either an EC54 or EC34). Expect soon to see ExpressCards for memory and Bluetooth (where the juiced-up speed won't matter), and for faster FireWire 800 ports, gigabit ethernet, and TV tuners (where it will).
Bottom Line: Smaller is always better. And much smaller is much better.
Year of the Tablet?
The Buzz: Long confined to niche markets, tablet PCs--full notebooks that are configured for pen input--may finally be ready for the mainstream, thanks to recent and upcoming price drops. "The focus is to drive the cost of tablets down to the notebook price point," explains Sumit Agnihotry of Acer. Indeed, convertibles like the Toshiba Satellite R15-S822, the Acer TravelMate C300, and the HP Compaq TC4200 are currently just $100 to $300 more than similarly equipped notebook PCs.
Bottom Line: Ever tried to open a 15-inch notebook on an airplane? Then you'll know what's so great about having a tablet to scribble on.
Slick Tech: Superpowered LEDs
Illustration: Gordon Studer
Conventional LEDs (light-emitting diodes), used primarily as on/off indicators, are dull. And then there are Luxeons--next-generation LEDs from San Jose-based Lumileds that take the "light-emitting" part of their name seriously. These low-heat, extremely bright components are already replacing old-school lighting in traffic lights, car signals, and even flashlights, but the real payoff will come with consumer electronics. Sony is readying the very pricey Qualia 005 LCD TV with LED backlighting, which provides a wider range of color than LCDs with standard fluorescent backlights. Mitsubishi's Luxeon-powered Pocket Projector ($699), which can fit in the palm of your hand, is due in July. And cell-phone cameras with Luxeon flashes are reportedly on the way.
Here\Now
1.
Wordcount 86,800 English words, ranked according to how often they're used. "The" is first; "conquistador," last.
2. Bubbler.com Free, superfast blog-as-you-type tool and hosting site.
3. Browster.com IE plug-in inserts an icon in front of search results; hover over an icon for a page preview. The cost: Nada, but you'll see an added frame of "relevant" sponsored links.
4. Yahoo Maps 'Send to Phone' Delivers driving direction links via SMS to any Web-enabled cell phone.
5. Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch, $1199 LCD. Now that's cheap.
Contact PC World Contributing Editor Steve Fox at steve_fox@pcworld.com. Click here to read additional Plugged In columns.
