Podcast: Larry talks about the Mac with co-anchors Patti Reising and Jeff Bell on CBS station KCBS in San Francisco

The value of a standard user interface can’t be overstated. I run dozens of programs on my computer, and each software company has its own idea of how to move the cursor, erase data and save files. Even an experienced user must take frequent peaks at the programs’ help menus and reference cards. If Apple gets its way, every program you buy will use the same basic set of commands.
Microsoft Corp, in Bellvue, Washington, has announced Mac versions of its popular Multiplan spreadsheet program, BASIC language, and Microsoft Word–an innovative new word processing package. Lotus Development Corporation (Cambridge, MA) has has a forthcoming Mac version of its best selling 1-2-3 integrated spreadsheet, and Software Publishing Company (Mountain View, Calif) will release its PFS series of data base management tools. Apple provided pre-release versions of the Mac to these and more than 100 other software companies so that their products could be available soon after the release of the new machine.

So, without any editing, here is what I said at the time. And, yes, along the way, I changed my byline from Lawrence J. Magid to Larry Magid.

Until 1981, Apple, with some competition from Radio Shack, dominated the personal computer industry with its Apple II. The current version of that machine is still very popular. Apple started to loose market in 1981 when IBM introduced the first popular 16 bit computer. The IBM PC soon became an industry standard. Meanwhile the Apple Apple III was an unqualified dud and sales for its 32 bit Lisa were disappointing. Some analysists thought that Apple was a dying company.
Apple’s young Chairman, Steve Jobs blames his company’s relatively poor performance on trying to compete with IBM on its own terms rather than “getting back to our roots.” With former Pepsi president John Sculley at the helm, Apple is now focusing its marketing efforts on small businesses, home users, and colleges rather than Fortune 500 companies.

Macintosh Shapes Up a Winner
by Lawrence J. Magid
The Los Angeles Times
January 29, 1984

The Macintosh is as innovative today as the Apple II was in 1977. It’s one of the few computers introduced in the last 18 months that makes no attempt to imitate the IBM PC.

Photos: Mac through the years

The system is driven by a 32 bit Motorola 68000 central processing unit. It comes with 128K of Random Access Memory (RAM), 64K of Read Only Memory (ROM) and one 400K disk drive. The 32 bit CPU and the extensive ROM are largely responsibile for its impressive graphics capability. The machine will eventually be upgradable to 512K once the new breed of 256K RAM chips become commercially available. An optional second (external) disk drive is $495.

Write and Illustrate Reports
MacPaint is to graphic images what MacWrite is to words. I’m no Picasso, but I found myself drawing some rather pleasing images, using the mouse as a paint brush to draw pictures on the screen. You can paint with different size strokes (”brushes”), in patterns or using pre-designed shapes. It’s easy to custom design a letterhead, a map to your house, or even a self-portrait. The images you create in MacPaint can be integrated into documents produced on MacWrite, so you can create your own illustrated reports.

Available software is critical to the success of any new computer system and Apple is counting on broad support since the machine can’t run software written for MS-DOS or any other standard operating system. The machine’s inability to run MS-DOS could be its salvation or its downfall.

It does, however, draw on Apple’s experience with the larger and more expensive Lisa. Like the Lisa, it uses a hand-held “mouse”–a small pointing device which enables the user to select programs, and move data from one part of the screen to another. Also like the Lisa, Macintosh uses a black and white display screen whose resolution is so high that it can quickly draw detailed pictures while at the same time display crisp and readable text. Apple did more than scale down the Lisa. To the contrary, the Macintosh team came up with so many innovations that Apple decided to re-design the Lisa so it too can run Macintosh software. Apple has also introduced three new higher performance Lisa computers with prices starting at $3,495. The Lisa sold for about $10,000 when it was made available last spring.

All the commands are presented and issued in the same manner. Apple has gone to great length to insure that all of its software uses the same interface. What’s more, they are using their extensive influence to assure that independent software vendors follow the lead. The intelligence that operates the mouse and creates the graphic icons is built into the machine’s ROM — making it relatively easy for software manufacturers to adhere to Apple’s standards.

See the rest of our Mac anniversary coverage here.

Once you’ve set up your machine, you insert the main system disk, turn on the power, and in a minute you are presented with the introductory screen. Apple calls it your “desk top”. What you see on your screen looks a lot like what you might find on a desk. Instead of just a blinking cursor you see pictures, called icons, that graphically represent the things you can do with the computer. One of them is a picture of a hand, writing on a piece of paper. That represents the MacWrite word processing program. Another shows a hand drawing on paper to represent the MacPaint graphics program. Other options are represented by equally clever icons. Any files that you have created are also graphically depicted on your electronic “desk top.”

Machine specific magazines help spread the excitement of a new computer. PC World Communications, Inc. (San Francisco) has already released the first issue of Macworld, an attractive and well written user magazine. The 145 page premier issue includes a photo essay on the Mac’s hardware, several software reviews, tips for using the new machine, and a behind the scenes series of profiles on the people responsible for “Making the Macintosh.” Within a few months there will be other magazines and scores of books about the new computer.
Whether Apple can take a byte of out IBM’s sales remains to be seen. But the new Macintosh has gotten off to a delicious start.

Click image for our special
anniversary coverage.

(Credit:
Larry Magid/Los Angeles Times)

I rarely get excited over a new computer. But Apple’s Macintosh, officially introduced last Tuesday, has started a fever in Silicon Valley that’s hard not to catch. My symptoms started when I talked with some devotees from Apple and the various companies that produce software, hardware and literature to enhance the new computer. By the time I got my hands on the little computer and its omni-present mouse, I was hooked. Apple has a winner.

The
Mac, which retails for $2,495 is about 14 inches tall and takes up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It is smaller and lighter than most of the so called “portable” machines. The entire system can be slipped into an optional ($99) padded carrying case to be hoisted over your shoulder or placed under an airline seat. The case and computer together weigh 22 pounds.

It’s Easy to Learn
The main advantage of the Macintosh is that it’s very easy to learn and use. Apple claims that novices can learn to use the Mac in as little as 30 minutes. The company is banking on the machine’s simplicity and modest price to attract “millions” of users over the next few years.

Of course any computer’s real value is based on what you can do with it. For the first 100 days, Apple is including two valuable programs, MacPaint and MacWrite free with the machine. MacWrite has most basic word processing features with one outstanding addition. It can vary the size and style of your type on the screen and on paper, when used with Apple’s new $495 Image Writer printer. This computer/printer/software combination produces the first truly “what you see is what you get” word processing system on a moderately priced microcomputer. You can vary the type size from 9 point (about the size used in most newspapers) to 72 point headlines. You can also change your type style, selecting an Old English font or one of the more common type styles. Your type can be in bold, italic, underline or even shadow print. All this magic is controlled by the computer itself–the software merely takes advantage of it.

Instead of using the 5 1/4 inch floppy disks that the Apple II helped standardize, the Mac uses 3 1/2 inch mini-floppies. These disks come with a built-in protective cover, can fit in a shirt pocket, and are far less vulnerable to damage than standard floppies. Apple will also be using the 3 1/2 inch disks on its new Lisa series.

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In January 1984, Steve Jobs–whom I described in my Macintosh review as “Apple’s young chairman”–gave me a preview of the original 128K Macintosh. I was very impressed. Thousands of reviews later, I’m still impressed not only by what Apple accomplished back then but by what the company has been able to do since–especially after Jobs returned to Apple.

Listen now:

To select a program, you move the mouse to the icon and press the button on the top of the little rodent. If there are any additional options, they are displayed at the top of the screen, so you can move the mouse to make the appropriate selection. When this process was described to me, it sounded cumbersome, especially since I’m already comfortable with using a keyboard. But the mouse is so much more intuitive. As infants we learned to move objects around our play pens. Using a mouse is an extension of that skill.

The system comes in three pieces. The main unit houses the 9-inch screen, a built-in disk drive and all the machine’s circuits and connectors. The separate keyboard is attached to the unit via what looks like a modular telephone cord. The mouse, too, has its own cord and connector.

The original review from the LA Times. Click through for a larger version.

Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol and an example of an open source-savvy European living in the United States, counters that while the European model of open-source adoption is good for the soul, the crass capitalism of American open source is better for business.

Personally, as an American working for a United Kingdom-based open-source company, I think they’re both right. However, when it comes to cash, I much prefer the United States, with its emphasis on paid adoption of open source, to Europe, with its emphasis on (mostly) unpaid adoption of open source.

If, for no other reason than to hedge economic risk, it’s important to build a strong European base of commercial open-source adoption, something that Hyperic, JasperSoft, and other open-source vendors have been demonstrating lately.

It’s the one thing that makes paid adoption of open source a bit of a drag in the States, at least for me, since I negotiate Alfresco’s contracts stateside.

Tech investor Larry Augustin does a good job of parsing the differences between building an open-source business in Europe and building one in the United States, suggesting that Europe is the better place to be to build an open-source business.

commentary

As I’ve noted in the past, however, this does not mean that companies should neglect Europe in promoting their open-source products. At Alfresco, up to 50 percent of our sales come from Europe in some quarters (though not most, as I don’t like to lose or tie :-).

Consumer groups were incensed by the tactic, and the blogosphere filled with criticism. And as a result the FCC has been examining whether Comcast violated any of the agency’s Net neutrality principles. A hearing was held earlier this year, and the FCC is expected to make a ruling on the matter sometime this summer.

Cicconi agreed, saying that the FCC has the opportunity to prove to Net neutrality supporters and Congress that it can enforce its own policies and keep the Internet open.

“It’s in the best interest of the industry for the FCC to make a judgment on the Comcast/BitTorrent case,” Tauke said. “None of us want to be in a world where there is a sense that nobody is watching what is going on. We have the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission, which have authority to enforce some policies in this area. And if they do their jobs properly, they can make positive contributions on how the Internet develops.”

“The Comcast case has brought the debate over Net neutrality into specifics,” Cicconi said. He added that this is important because up until now the discussion has centered on hypothetical problems. And creating new laws to deal with problems that haven’t yet occurred could be disastrous for the industry.

(Credit:
Marguerite Reardon/CNET Networks)

Jim Cicconi, senior executive and vice president for legislative affairs for AT&T, and Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs and policy for Verizon, told an audience at the NxtComm trade show here that it’s important for the FCC to make a decision in this case to show that the agency’s Net neutrality principles are enough to keep service providers honest.

LAS VEGAS–Executives from AT&T and Verizon Communications said Tuesday that it’s important for the Federal Communications Commission to take action in the Comcast debate over slowing down certain forms of peer-to-peer traffic in order to prove that legislation is not necessary when it comes to Net neutrality.

Jim Cicconi of AT&T (left) and Tom Tauke of Verizon (right) appeared on a panel together at the NxtComm trade show Tuesday.

Correction: This story misstated a quote from Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs and policy for Verizon. Tauke said that it was in the best interest for the FCC to make a decision on the Comcast/BitTorrent case. He did not say that it was in the best interest for the FCC to make a decision against Comcast.

The problem with one of the most visible failures in social-media marketing–the number of brands that rushed headlong into virtual world Second Life two years ago–was that nobody was asking or answering those questions, Sarner said. Companies simply built “virtual headquarters” in the hope that Second Life would gain mass appeal, and then it failed to budge from its status as a niche forum for subculture and futurism.

Sarner’s research deduced that by 2012, fully half of all purchases, whether online or offline, will have some Web-based component to them. That could mean searching for product reviews, reading about a new product on a blog, or comparing prices even if the purchase is ultimately made in a store.

Sarner plans to present his results at the annual Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, which takes place October 12-16 in Orlando, Fla.

When asked whether the faltering economy will mean that businesses are cutting back on this largely unproven field of social media for marketing or customer relations, Sarner said he didn’t think so, and that many businesses will turn to the Web to stay in touch with consumers during a difficult financial climate. “This is going to be a lifeline,” he said. “You don’t ruin your customers, and your spirit of customers is probably the only thing you have.”

For some companies, a Second Life campaign would be a good idea if you were distinctly trying to target that segment of the population, Sarner explained, and could use the 3D technology to actually come up with something innovative. He cited the example of electric
cars. “If Honda has a new car and it’s going to be purely electric, you could’ve set a Second Life campaign up that’s promotional in nature,” he said. “The futurism angle of an electric car, it kind of fits the people in that segment.”

There’s obviously no universal solution to social-media advertising and marketing, because every company is different. But Sarner offered a preliminary tip: to make sure that there’s a clear reason why such a campaign is instituted, and “get people talking” isn’t enough. “Are you discovering what’s going to be the new black next season?” he suggested as an example of a trendspotting-focused strategy.

He cited the Facebook craze as an example. The social network is “more for the community than it is for the bottom line,” and it’s tough for marketers to get their message in on a site that’s focused on communicating with your friends rather than finding stuff to buy. One of its more business-savvy advertising options, Beacon, on the other hand, was “more about the business trying to get value than it is actually about the customer.” Some Facebook users didn’t like it, and a public backlash ensued.

Adam Sarner, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, has projected that over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will have undertaken some kind of online social-networking initiative for marketing or customer relations purposes. But, he added in an interview with CNET News, 50 percent of those campaigns will be classified as failures.

Once you’ve answered that question, it’s time to pick and choose: whether to use existing technologies or build them in-house, whether the focus should be video or discussion or Digg-like yes-no voting, ad nauseam.

And a Yahoo spokeswoman said: “We have been and will continue to work cooperatively with the Department of Justice and we look forward to moving ahead with the implementation.”

Under the agreement, Yahoo will serve up Google’s advertisements alongside its own search results. Yahoo has previously said it does not believe its open-ended deal is anticompetitive, citing it is under no obligation to run a certain number of Google’s ads, or give its competitor’s ads favorable placement on its search results pages.

Google’s Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, meanwhile, said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that the search giant plans to move forward with the partnership in October.

Yahoo and Google, in announcing their advertising partnership in June, had said they would delay implementing their nonexclusive deal for 100 days, to give the U.S. Department of Justice an opportunity to review the transaction. The companies also signed an agreement with the Justice Department, in which a timeline was set out to move the regulatory review process along.

The companies are also concerned about antitrust regulators in Europe, especially in light of the recent fines and actions that the European Commission has taken against Google’s arch rival Microsoft on antitrust matters, said one source familiar with the companies.

Antitrust regulators at both the state and federal level are rushing to gather information and complete their respective investigations as a number of tight deadlines approach, according to people familiar with the regulatory reviews.

The multistate task force expects to make a decision by the fall whether to challenge the partnership, Blumenthal said. And he noted if the companies move forward on the deal without the blessing of the states, they do so at “their own peril.”

Wall Street, meanwhile, is largely expecting the advertising partnership to be approved, say analysts.

Antitrust regulators, for one, are concerned there will be less choice for advertisers and pricing could be affected, which in turn could result in consumers ultimately being affected.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the timing of a decision.

“We feel pretty confident the Google deal will get approved. That would be a positive for Yahoo,” said Steve Weinstein, a Pacific Crest Securities analyst. “There are those who are concerned the deal won’t get through, so there is some risk that’s already factored into the stock, but I think the majority of investors think the deal will be fine.”

Meanwhile, Canada’s Competition Bureau confirmed last week that it was also conducting a review on the partnership.

A spokesman for the European Commission was not available for comment.

While Wall Street and Google are betting that the search giant’s controversial search advertising partnership with Yahoo will get the green light from antitrust regulators, caution may be in order as regulatory scrutiny intensifies in the coming weeks.

“The states have the benefit of (Yahoo-Google’s) arrangement with the DOJ, but they also have the burden of it,” the source noted.

Updated at 11:39 a.m. PDT with comment from Yahoo.

“The parties made it known they had a certain time frame and we are sensitive to those time frames,” said a spokeswoman for the Canadian antitrust bureau. She declined to comment on whether it would operate under the same deadlines as the Justice Department.

By the third or fourth week of September, the companies will likely receive greater clarity on where antitrust regulators stand on their proposal. If the Justice Department staff is fine with the deal, the companies could get a green light in the second half of the month. But if there is opposition, it would not be surprising to see it take longer to work its way through, noted the source.

“Assignments have been given out and a lot of work is getting done. It’s a challenge to meet the tight deadlines that have been given,” said one antitrust regulator with one of the dozen states involved in the investigation.

The Justice Department, for example, is expected to reach a decision at the end of this month as to whether to challenge the transaction. And while there are several trigger dates that regulators are aiming to hit as part of that agreement, it’s not a hard and fast deadline and it would not be surprising to see a decision spill over slightly beyond September, said the source familiar with the investigations.

“We’re concerned about the anticompetitive effect of certain linkages between advertisers and other issues,” Richard Blumenthal, attorney general for the state of Connecticut, said in an interview early Thursday. He noted a number of advertisers have received subpoenas.

No such agreement was signed between the companies and the states, but one source familiar with the investigations said that the states and the Justice Department often coordinate and that the states will frequently follow the same schedule as the federal regulators.

Later, I put the same question to Om Malik, the impresario behind GigaOm. He said there are no rules at his shop limiting outside links.

“It’s clear the link economy is broken,” he wrote, pointing to a write-up CNET News published on Friendster’s support for Facebook applications. The piece contained nine links, six of which pointed to previous CNET posts.

“I don’t even think about it like that. Every time we see something good, we link to it. If someone has the better scoop or better story, we constantly link to that,” Malik

Amen to all that. Earlier today, I spoke with Stern to get a better handle on his complaint. What I heard was less a general critique of CNET than a larger worry about the direction of the link economy. He is particularly troubled that as blog sites grow larger, they are pulling back from linking to outsiders.

A nuanced commentary on all this comes courtesy of TechDirt’s Mike Masnick. In his response to Ingram’s post, Masnick explained his own site’s link policy in a broader context:

No doubt, a lot of sites–ours included–devote a lot of attention to search engine optimization. But Stern is right to wonder whether that ambition to improve SEO scores may get extended in ways that hurt the wider blog ecosystem. Can you imagine what would ensue if the blogosphere descended into a beggar-thy-neighbor free-for-all? What’s more, it would take place at the worst juncture, considering the existing financial strains caused by the credit crisis.

Just as many of you settled into your seats to watch Thursday evening’s debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, Allen Stern of CenterNetworks was attracting his own crowd on Twitter after raising a question that strikes at heart of the blogosphere.

“To me, when you’re linking to other sources or viewpoints, I think that’s where linking really matters. And you’re not seeing it that much,” he said. “From my perspective, it’s very disappointing…People need to see diversity of opinions on a topic.”

Would she have improved her story by including even more outside links? Perhaps. Then again, we don’t operate in a laboratory environment. It’s a 24-7 competition where we all work under often severe time constraints. One approach is not necessarily better, but each tries to engage the community in the best way it knows how.

(Credit:
CNET News)

In a response posted in the talkback area on Ingram’s page, CNET’s Dan Farber set the record straight:

Not long after, Matthew Ingram piled on with a post dinging us for attempting “to prove how authoritative” we are “by making it look as though the only stories worth linking to are their own.

As the economy skids into a (add your preferred noun here), there’s mounting worry about Silicon Valley’s ability to weather the credit crunch. If past is prologue, I suppose that most of the biggest companies will find a way to slog through. As always, the folks on the bottom of the food chain have the most to worry about–especially the legions of bloggers who make a full-time or part-time living through their writing.

Actually, not so obvious.

Almost every one of my posts has external links, but I also do plenty of internal linking. But there’s an important reason for my internal links: I know the internal links will survive. External links I can’t guarantee. And I get tons of complaints from people who came on an old story where the link no longer works. So I can trust my old links because I know they’ll be there. But I have no problem linking out when it’s appropriate. And, in fact, the main point of the story is almost always a link out (and, of course, if I find a story from someone else, I always try to give credit). But internal links aren’t always done for nefarious purposes…

Still, link etiquette is basic to the integrity of the ongoing conversation in the blogosphere. One can honestly ask why not feature more outside sources? But let’s consider the question from another perspective. Under deadline, we make informed choices based on our best judgment at the time. In this instance, my colleague, Caroline McCarthy, who authored the post, trusted her previous reporting and went with what she knew to be accurate.

“To say that their internal links are better than anything else they could possibly link to is just ridiculous. It’s obvious that they either didn’t even bother to look for other information to link to, or there’s an internal policy to promote their own material.”

A meritocracy of links. However imperfect, it’s a recipe that’s worked until now. It’s about giving sunlight to the best content.

At CNET we link to our stories and to others. Generally if it is a standard news item that everyone has, we link to our version. If someone has the seed of a story or a take that helps to carry a story forward or deeper, we link to whatever. A challenge for all of us is finding and linking to content that we should point our readers at…often we don’t have the time to go figure who has the best take or where a story came from before it got refactored by the blogosphere…so we continue to improve on it every day.

No disagreement here. But Stern suspects that larger blogs (or Web sites) believe that linking out would make them appear less credible and are reining in the practice.

If you’re interested in live updates from tomorrow’s Macworld keynote, we’ve got you covered.

Later in the day we’ll have tons of photos, lots of video, and the initial reactions of CNET Reviews staff–before they jet off to the desert for CES–to whatever new products Apple has on tap. So stick around all day; it’s not like anybody’s getting much work done the first week back from the holiday break anyway, right?

We’ll report live from San Francisco’s Moscone Center as Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller gives the show’s keynote address. That should kick off at 9 a.m. PST. You can get to the live blog here (link will be live as soon as the blog is live). Bowing to popular demand, we’ll post those in order as they come in, rather than the reverse chronological order we’ve used on past live blogs.

(Credit:
Greg Sandoval/CNET News)

One can hardly find a better symbol of the music industry’s crossover from physical CDs to digital downloads than the intersection of San Francisco’s Stockton and Market streets.

Truth be told, Virgin ceased being a player in the music category a long time ago, said my music industry sources. The company had begun concentrating on DVD and other merchandise sales awhile ago, said one source.

(Credit:
Greg Sandoval/CNET)

How bad have things gotten at Virgin? On Sunday, while the San Francisco location was attracting shoppers, many of them were leaving empty-handed. Apparently 40 percent off isn’t enough to get some shoppers to buy.

Just across Stockton is a stainless-steel storefront uncluttered by text. Only a single Apple logo glows from the metal and the overall feeling created is of permanence and futuristic technology. Arguably, Apple has done more than any other company to advance digital music, which has driven the CD into obsolescence and retailers like Sam Goody, Tower Records, and Virgin Megastores out of business.

Cameron Conway, 21, and his fiancee, Nici Rodich, 43, didn’t buy and neither of them felt much remorse at the loss of record stores, they said.

“We were in the area and came in to see if there was anything we wanted,” Conway, an unemployed student said. “There wasn’t.”

Even Adrian Gomez, 23, a Virgin Megastore employee, says he buys much of his music online and understands why consumers are going digital. Still he says, the crossover will mean he will lose his job, along with hundreds of other store employees.

Rodich, of Novato, Calif., said she remembers how important to our culture albums were years ago but said, “You can’t stand in the way of progress. I’m a court reporter and I’ve learned that when it comes to technology you’ve got to move forward or fall by the wayside.”

“I understand why people buy online,” Gomez said. “It’s easier and we’re a lazy culture. But I’m an artist and I’m going to miss album artwork. It’s sad.”

On one corner sits a Virgin Megastore, once an icon of hipness and high-end music tastes. Now it looks more like a schlock discounter. Signs blare from the facade: “Store Closing” and “Up to 40 percent off.”

Bad sign: Adrian Gomez, a Virgin Megastore employee tries to sell iPods across the street from the Apple store.

Virgin will close the last six U.S. retail locations over the next several months. There were once more than 20 stores based in this country.

(Credit:
Adobe)

Shows can be encoded in the Flash video format, called FLV, or in H.264. The Adobe Media Player uses Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a programming foundation that lets software run on Windows,
Mac OS X, and Linux computers. Adobe Media Player, though, works only on Windows and Mac OS X, Adobe said.

Adobe takes an undisclosed fraction of the advertising revenue.

Content providers get free access to the player, and can control whether the content is available only in streaming format or can be saved onto a person’s hard drive, as in the case of Epicurious shows, Still said. Content providers show what ads show and whether they’re in the frame around the content or in the content itself, and the technology lets them embed ads that can’t be skipped over, Still said.

Update 10:40 p.m. PDT: I can confirm that Ghostbusters, from Sony Pictures, is in fact available. It’s broken into eight chunks, each from 7 to 15 minutes long, and the end of the first chunk has an advertisement. The screen resolution isn’t fabulous, but you can at least click a full-screen button that cuts away the clutter, and you can scrub back and forth.

Also new are full-length episodes of Beverly Hills 90210, 48 Hours, The Love Boat from CBS, which expanded the content already available through its existing partnership with Adobe. CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.

The interface update in the new version 1.1, due to ship Tuesday afternoon, presents users with a larger number of video shows. “There’s more content that we surface earlier,” said Ashley Still, senior product manager for Adobe Media Player.

The new Sony partnership means people will be able to watch full-length movies, including Jerry Maguire and Men in Black, on Adobe Media Player, she said. A total of about 600 shows and 25,000 individual episodes are available. Users can browse various content categories, selecting some as favorites, or subscribe to their own video feeds via RSS, Still said.

Adobe Systems is revamping its Media Player with a new interface and a deal that will let users of the software watch movies from Sony Pictures.

These drives are especially valuable for database and data mining, virtual machine deployments, and financial transactions, according to Flynn.

HP offers solid-state drive arrays as part of HP’s BladeSystem. The HP StorageWorks IO Accelerator is a flash-based storage adapter based on Fusion’s ioMemory technology. Each IO Accelerator card achieves more than 100,000 IOPS. A single HP BladeSystem server can accommodate two or three IO Accelerator cards.

This configuration allowed the engineers to achieve about 1 million IOPS, or input/output operations per second. By comparison, hard disk drives typically don’t excel at IOPS, achieving only a fraction of this level of data transfer speed, which makes solid-state drives appealing to large customers such as CitiBank and Bank of America. These kinds of companies need lots of IOPS for their financial transactions.

(Credit:
Fusion-io)

Solid-state drives are generally faster than hard-disk drives, particularly at reading data, and have no moving parts, unlike hard disk drives.

Fusion-io ioDrive Duo

“The ioDrive and ioDrive Duo are able to supply the extreme storage performance (for data centers) at a fraction of the power, cooling, and per unit-of-processing-power price compared to traditional solutions,” said David Flynn, chief technology officer of Fusion-io, in a statement.

Working together in HP’s ProLiant engineering labs in Houston, HP and Fusion-io built a system using five 320GB ioDrive Duos (see photo) and six 160GB ioDrives in a single HP ProLiant DL785 G5 server, running with four Quad-Core Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices, Fusion-io said.