That’s work that conceivably could be useful for those of us with vast archives of raw images, but Garg said the difficulties of working with raw files makes it tough.

For its part, Google said Thursday that E-3 raw support is coming. “We’re in the process of testing it and plan to support it soon,” the company said in a statement. Picasa uses Dave Coffin’s freely available dcraw software, which supports the E-3, but Google said it makes its own modifications “to make it run faster.”

That’s when I received an Olympus E-3 that I’ll be testing on an upcoming vacation.
The camera has been out since November, but Picasa still doesn’t support its raw images.

Raw-support challenges
Picasa showed the low-resolution JPEG preview fine, but as soon as I clicked on the thumbnail, the photo became a speckly mess of pixel gibberish.

One possible alternative to the raw plight could be HD Photo, which Microsoft is trying to standardize as JPEG XR, a higher-end alternative to conventional JPEG. My guess is that this file format stands a reasonable chance of catching on–especially given the warm response from Adobe and more recently Canon–but even then it’s more likely only to intercept photographers just moving beyond JPEG rather than replacing raw.

DNG to the rescue?
A more likely alternative is Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) format, a raw format whose specifications are openly shared if not a neutral industry standard. Adobe explicitly created DNG to deal with the raw format “tower of Babel.”

For example, software that can embed location data known as geotags in raw files is much rarer than software that supports JPEGs. Adding metadata such as titles, captions, ratings, and tags is another risky operation;
Microsoft Vista can do this, but relies on camera makers to supply software to support their various raw formats.

Then I remembered that Picasa supports some raw formats. Sure enough, it did the trick–after I made my usual end run around Canon, which annoyingly doesn’t include a mass storage driver on its cameras, requiring me to retrieve raw files using a separate flash card reader.

Maybe Adobe just needs to do a little more marketing, standardize DNG, or come up with an improved version 2.0. But for now, the raw format mess shows no signs of being tidied up.

But larger camera makers have been reluctant to embrace DNG. It’s hard to get firm answers on exactly why not; I’d imagine a variety of factors are involved, ranging from not wanting to be reliant on Adobe or a fixed format to inadequacies of DNG to fully represent raw images. And Pentax, whose SLRs support both DNG and its own PEF raw format, told me that most customers shooting raw use PEF, so users apparently need more convincing, too.

I was in a pinch a few weeks ago, and Google’s Picasa software saved my skin. But now my warm glow of gratitude has begun wearing off, replaced by a simmering annoyance with camera makers for their profusion of proprietary raw formats.

Picasa lacked some editing tools I like in Lightroom (and now Apple’s Aperture 2.0, too), but I wasn’t about to complain.

A programmer’s plight
Sachin Garg, a programmer in India, is another example. He’s been working on software that can compress raw files more efficiently–about 20 percent to 60 percent more than those already compressed by the camera.

That’s because HD Photo/JPEG XR requires the camera to process the image for de-mosaicking, noise reduction, sharpening, and white balance, all of which are “baked” into the image. For the folks who want total flexibility, they’ll stick with raw.

“It’s a much different ball game to write an algorithm (than just) trying to put it in a practically usable application,” Garg said. He understands the camera makers’ situation, though. “Looking at each format, one can see the technical reasons why different camera makers are doing things differently and that adopting a common standard can possibly limit the innovations they introduce in newer cameras.”

This screenshot shows a raw image from an Olympus E-3 SLR in Google's Picasa software. At right is the low-resolution JPEG preview, at left the garbled view after an incorrect decoding Google’s support for the E-3 is on the way.

For photographers, there are unpleasant consequences of camera makers’ opacity and non-standardization. Programmers from Adobe Systems, Apple, and other companies must toil constantly to support new cameras, and camera makers must develop and support their own software. And the obstreperous nature of raw can curtail the innovation of other programmers, too.

And that’s just one popular format. There are also cameras from Canon, Olympus, Fujifilm, Pentax, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Hasselblad, and others to contend with.

Until Wednesday.

(Credit:
Sachin Garg)

But I had a brief moment of panic when I discovered, on a tight deadline, that I’d photographed a Sony full-frame SLR press conference and accompanying photo gallery in raw only. I wasn’t happy, because I hadn’t installed any software for processing raw images on my laptop. I briefly considered downloading a trial version of Adobe Systems’ Photoshop Lightroom, which I use at home, but dreaded the time it would take to get myself to a network connection and install the software.

“I have started with Nikon’s NEF (raw format), and it’s a mess. What makes it worse is that even for this single format, there are variations based on each camera, and camera’s firmware version,” Garg said. “I have managed to read and compress the file, but re-creating the original file again is giving me nightmares.”

Programmer Sachin Garg

It’s no surprise Google employs outside software for the complicated task. Olympus told me it leaves programmers on their own to reverse-engineer raw formats: “When asked, we will provide sample raw files to companies, but it is up to them to figure out what to do with them. Our raw format is not difficult, and anyone with any experience with graphic file formats will figure it out in a matter of seconds.”

Let me explain. I was covering the Photo Marketing Association trade show in Las Vegas, toting my Canon EOS Rebel XT camera to photograph products and people. For my personal photography I usually shoot in raw format to maximize the detail and flexibility, but for work purposes I use JPEG because it’s faster to process and CNET News.com graphics are too small to require top resolution.

The company announced Wednesday that Brin will be the founding member of its Orbital Mission Explorers Circle, a group of six individuals who will each make a $5 million down payment to book a seat on a future orbital space flight.

The company plans to launch one mission to the International Space Station per year after 2011. Eventually it hopes to allow its wealthy clients to take space walks while in orbit or even go to the moon.

Garriott’s father Owen Garriott was a NASA astronaut, who spent 60 days aboard Skylab in 1973 and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 in 1983. And Richard Garriott will be the first second generation astronaut to make it into space. Garriott has been training for his trip at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia since earlier this year and he has been keeping a blog of efforts here.

Space Adventures’ new club was formed to help kick-start a new effort by the company to fund its own rockets and missions to the International Space Station. Previously, Space Adventures, which has been around for 10 years, has bought seats aboard already scheduled Russian missions to the International Space Station for its clients. Now it will build its own rocket for its own missions. The inaugural flight with its own Russian-built Soyuz rocket is scheduled for 2011, Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, said at a press conference here Wednesday.

Google and its co-founder Brin have long support space exploration. The company has sponsored the Google Lunar X Prize, a $25 million competition to land an unmanned craft on the moon.

Google’s Brin, who has not announced when he plans to take his trip into space, could wait to schedule his trip when those options are available.

Space Adventures has already sent five individuals into space with trips costing between $20 million and $40 million. Anderson said future trips aboard its own Soyuz rocket are expected to cost more.

(Credit:
Marguerite Reardon/CNET Networks)

“I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space,” Brin said in a statement.

The $5 million deposit made by the group’s members will be credited to the cost of a future space flight and help fund the program. The exact cost of each trip will vary depending on when the flight is taken and the duration of the mission, Anderson said.

“It’s entirely up to him,” said Anderson. “When he chooses a date is when he will go. It could be in three years or it could be in five.”

Richard Garriott talks about his scheduled flight into space at the Space Adventures press conference.

Space Adventures has seats reserved for flights to the space station this October and April 2009. Richard Garriott, a well known computer game developer, will be on the October trip. Garriott paid $35 million for his seat.

NEW YORK–Google co-founder Sergey Brin has put down a $5 million deposit to book a flight into space with the space tourism company Space Adventures.

Sergey Brin, Google co-founder

(Credit:
Google)

The LG BD300 is different in this regard, as it’s the first Blu-ray player that is Netflix-Internet-streaming-ready. It allows you to stream content available on Netflix’s “Watch Now” service directly from the player to the TV, which is much more convenient than watching it on your computer.

Read the full review of the LG BD300.

Netflix aside, the BD300 is also a pretty solid Blu-ray player, although it lacks some extras like onboard DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and multichannel analog audio outputs. The short story is that the BD300 packs both Blu-ray and Netflix into a single compelling package, but you can find a better standalone Blu-ray player if you don’t care about Netflix.

O’Reilly, one of the most well-known publishers of technology primers for professionals, has released a book on developing applications for a jailbroken iPhone. iPhone Open Application Development, written by Jonathan Zdziarski, was spotted by dozens of iPhone aficionados Tuesday. Chapter 1? “Breaking Into and Setting Up the iPhone.”

That's not a Tiger or a Leopard, but it will show the way to unofficial iPhone applications.

(Credit:
O'Reilly)

Zdziarski was among the first hackers to take aim at the iPhone last year in light of Apple’s Web-only application policy, and his book is essentially a how-to guide for using the “unofficial” iPhone SDK to create applications. Apple, of course, has started to outline its own vision of how applications should be created for the iPhone, giving developers two options for their projects.

There’s a group of developers, of an uncertain size, who feel that Apple’s SDK restricts their freedom to develop creative applications for the iPhone. Those folks will likely be all over this book. The book itself appears to be a summation of a lot of the iPhone jailbreaking and development techniques that are easy to find online, but condensed into one handy reference guide.

Once the official SDK is released in June, it will be interesting to watch how unofficial iPhone development progresses. Apple’s restrictions have some carrots attached, such as a powerful distribution vehicle in iTunes and the App Store, which will definitely attract those trying to make a living off the iPhone.

But those who are trying to circumvent Apple’s restrictions by developing unlocking software, music players, or applications unlikely to sit well with Apple, will need a handbook.

The company, launched by three former Apple executives, was what’s known as a blank-check company. Rather than have a business plan, such firms instead ask investors to bet on their management’s track record, in this case that of former Apple CEO Gil Amelio, company co-founder Steve Wozniak, and former CTO Ellen Hancock.

Still, that was enough to land the company more than $160 million in a stock offering. The prospectus for Acquicor noted that at the time Wozniak was the head of a start-up known as Wheels of Zeus. It made no mention, however, of any financial woes, though Wheels of Zeus closed its doors the same week Acquicor went public. I asked Acquicor at the time to comment on the omission, but never heard back.

Acquicor eventually did find its target–a chip foundry known as Jazz Semiconductor, a spinoff of Conexant Systems, itself the former Rockwell Semiconductor.

The bet, however, has so far produced a dismal return, notes Fortune’s Adam Lashinksy. He notes that the company gets most of its money selling chips to wireless firms that have been having tough times.

Investors in Acquicor have also been having tough times. Its stock, which was went public at $6 a share, closed on Tuesday at 70 cents.

Last month, the company, now known by the name Jazz Technologies, said it was seeking “strategic alternatives” and had hired UBS to figure out what those might be.

So what of the three founders? Lashinsky notes that Hancock stepped down as president (and from the Jazz board) in June 2007 while Wozniak has also abdicated his unpaid role as “chief visionary officer.”

In announcing her departure, Hancock said in a statement, “I am pleased to have achieved the goal we set when we formed Acquicor as a blank check company, which was to find a viable business to acquire that showed great promise and potential for success.”

Amelio remains the CEO of Jazz, earning a salary of $600,000 per year, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Q: I enjoy MP3 Monday Mailbox and thought I’d send along a question. I’ve got a 3-year-old iPod that has bit the bullet and is heading off into retirement. I have been looking at players comparable with the 8GB Nano, namely the list of CNET’s top flash-based MP3 players. My biggest hesitation for going off the iPod reservation is having to figure out new software. I’ve heard horror stories of Sony’s SonicStage software, and then I read in reviews how its interaction with windows media player isn’t that much better. I’m just sort of hesitant to move into the deep unknown of non-iTunes software. Is this even an issue I should be worried about? I listen mainly through a pair of Shure e2cs and a pair of Shure e4cs, so all of the comments about “better sound than the iPod” make me take notice. Is the sound that much better?–Dan, via e-mail

Sony NWZ-S718 Walkman

A: Well, the good news is that Sony SonicStage is dead, dead, dead! (Ding, dong, the glitch is dead!) Sony Walkmans now work with any Windows syncing software, or just drag-and-drop via Windows Explorer. Basically, all MP3 players except the iPod and the Zune work seamlessly with Windows Media jukeboxes such as Windows Media Player, Rhapsody, or MediaMonkey. If you want to see even more options, check Download.com under Music Management, Jukeboxes, and Digital Media Players. Any new software will take a bit of getting used to, but you should have no problem finding a program that works for you. Personally, I use Rhapsody and it works just fine for me (though it’s not perfect. Sadly, technology never is. Sigh.)

As for the sound quality issue, I would say that the iPod Nano’s sound quality is good. It’s certainly satisfactory for the average listener. However, it doesn’t match the audio of a Sony Walkman, Creative Zen, or a Cowon, which are the three brands that most consistently produce excellent sounding MP3 players. The Zune is also becoming known as a top-sounding player, although it doesn’t have as much of a history. Also, it’s technically limited to the Zune Software, but that may appeal to you. I suggest checking it out before committing to a Zune. Last time I used it, it was still working through some kinks.

Flash Zune

Q: I am considering getting a Zune. I have done my research (on CNET), and Zune is one of the best players that fit the features that I want: FM radio, uses Windows Media Player, video playback, long battery life, Bluetooth is a plus. I have heard that Zune will work with Windows Media Player from my friend, who works in the BestBuy MP3 and iPod section. Is that true? If Zune doesn’t work with Windows Media Player, is the require software good? Are there any other players you would suggest other then Zune?–Leeder, via e-mail

Samsung T10

A: The Zune is a great player, though it does not have Bluetooth. It has Wi-Fi, which is used for sharing songs with other users and wireless syncing with your computer. (Unlike Bluetooth, it doesn’t make the player compatible with wireless headphones.) I’ve heard of the Zune working with various software program, but it technically only supports the Zune Software, which is essentially a heavily-skinned and feature-packed version of Windows Media Player (it’s all Microsoft, after all). The Zune Software was still kind of buggy last time I used it, though it’s certainly nice to look at and the integration of the Zune Marketplace (for song purchasing and podcast management) is a definite plus for Zune users.

A couple of decent alternatives that fit your requirements are the Samsung T10 and the Insignia MP3 Player & Image Viewer.

Creative Zen

Q: I have a second-generation iPod Shuffle, but the only MP3s that go on the Shuffle are podcasts. Now I would like to view video podcasts as well. After listening to Episode 91 of MP3 Insider, I reviewed the alternate MP3 players and seem to like the Creative Zen player because of good quality and SD card expansion. Do you agree? Also, could you recommend a good podcasting client other than iTunes that would work well for video and audio? –Paul, via e-mail

A: Yes! I do agree, and there’s an excellent Zen-friendly application called ZenCast for acquiring and managing both audio and video podcasts.

(Credit:
CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

MP3 Mailbox Monday is a recurring feature where I answer a selection of questions about MP3 players and accessories, such as headphones, speakers, and music services and software. Check back often to see if the advice presented here might be of some use to you, or send your questions directly to me. (Note: We never include last names, but if you prefer to remain completely anonymous, please state as much in your e-mail.)

While the upgrade from SD to HD would be nice for any service, it may seem like an even larger upgrade for Unbox on TiVo users, since our initial hands-on testing with the service revealed that movies were letterboxed, instead of true anamorphic widescreen. We’d also like to see HD movies get a bump from the standard stereo soundtrack to at least a 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS–although Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio would be even better. And while Denney’s comment only referred to HD content coming to the Unbox on TiVo service, we see no reason why HD movies shouldn’t be available to PC users as well.

Via Zatz Not Funny

The defacement and subsequent takedown occurred Thursday morning on the company’s Ballot Blog page. Sequoia is one of a handful of electronic voting companies used in the United States. It has in recent days come under fire for apparent discrepancies in voter tallies in last month’s New Jersey primary election.

Dear Professors Felten and Appel:

Very truly yours,
Edwin Smith
VP, Compliance/Quality/Certification
Sequoia Voting Systems

As you have likely read in the news media, certain New Jersey election officials have stated that they plan to send to you one or more Sequoia Advantage voting machines for analysis. I want to make you aware that if the County does so, it violates their established Sequoia licensing Agreement for use of the voting system. Sequoia has also retained counsel to stop any infringement of our intellectual properties, including any non-compliant analysis. We will also take appropriate steps to protect against any publication of Sequoia software, its behavior, reports regarding same or any other infringement of our intellectual property.

On the resurrected Ballot Blog site on Thursday, Sequoia Voting Systems announced that it had initiated its own external review of the New Jersey voting systems. The external review, the company said, would be conducted by independent parties including Kwaidan Consulting of Houston, Texas; an Election Assistance Commission (EAC)-accredited Voting System Test Lab (VSTL)–Wyle Laboratories of Huntsville, Ala., and possibly another VSTL; and an academic institution.

Last week an independent group representing New Jersey county clerks asked Princeton University computer science professor Ed Felten to investigate the discrepancies in the New Jersey vote tallies. Felten and his team have examined Sequoia and other voting systems in the past. Most recently, Felten’s team of graduate students helped the California Secretary of State Debra Bowen conduct a survey of her state’s electronic voting systems. One of those graduate students, J. Alex Halderman, recently gave a talk at Shmoocon 4 suggesting that with improvements, electronic voting systems could work well in a future election.

The Ballot Blog page on SequoiaVote.com had contained information from Sequoia regarding the Super Tuesday New Jersey election, but as of Thursday afternoon the blog site was available only on and off.

Part of the Sequoia Voting Systems Web site was defaced and subsequently taken down on Thursday, according to a report in InfoWorld. As CNET prepared this blog, the entire Sequoia Voting System site was frequently inaccessible.

If ever there was an event with an identity crisis, it’s the video game industry’s signature confab, E3.

The idea seems to be that the press would be invited in starting Tuesday, June 2, while the public would only get in starting on June 5.

For years, E3 was known as one of the largest, loudest, and most exhausting industry events in the world. Held each May at the Los Angeles Convention Center, it attracted more than 60,000 people–who had to be at least vaguely associated with the industry–most of whom departed at the end of the week with sore feet from walking long distances between halls and ringing in the ears from the over-the-top displays.

Not content with that format, the ESA moved E3 back to the L.A. Convention Center for the July 2008 version, but kept it press-only. Of course, the video game press is a rather large, hard-to-define beast, and there were still several thousand people on hand.

Now, after finding that the 2008 edition of E3 didn’t really meet its needs, the ESA is once again changing course, and according to Dean Takahashi over at Venture Beat (via N’Gai Croal at Newsweek), has decided to open the event up to the public for the first time, to move E3 to early June and to cap the attendance at 40,000.

But to me, E3 seems doomed. It’s hard to fathom how an event can survive when it changes every single year, both in the dates it’s held on and in its size and format.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

The ESA is run by the video game industry’s major companies, so I suppose they know what they want. But with a slew of major game events around the country and the world each year–such as the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the Tokyo Game Show, the Leipzig Games Convention, the Penny Arcade Expo and so on, it’s hard to see why E3 is so indispensable. And by confusing everyone year in and year out by changing what E3 is, I feel like the ESA is simply killing the E3 brand.

For its part, the ESA said it had no comment and said it would make an announcement about any changes to E3 “when it is appropriate.

The line to get into the Microsoft press conference at E3 in Los Angeles in July, 2008. In 2009, E3 will stay in Los Angeles, but will for the first time be open to the public.

Update (11:31 a.m. PST): This story now reflects the ESA’s response to a request for comment on this story.

But after the 2006 event, the industry’s overlords at the Entertainment Software Association decided to radically alter E3’s format, and in 2007, it was held in July in nearby Santa Monica, Calif., with an invite-only crowd of press and analysts. It was far smaller–with well under 10,000 attendees–and by all accounts was an entirely different show.

But, come June 2, 2009, I suppose I know where I’ll be: At the L.A. Convention Center, hopefully sporting good footwear and maybe some earplugs.

Of course, it will still be at the L.A. Convention Center, just to keep some sort of continuity.

The case was slated to go to trial on March 10.

Still unresolved is a patent suit brought by Visto against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. Visto alleges that RIM violated four of its patents. That case is scheduled to go to trial in July.

In 2006, Visto prevailed in a patent infringement suit brought against Seven Networks. The company ultimately was awarded about $7.7 million in damages.

Microsoft and Visto, which provides mobile e-mail services, said Monday that they have settled a long-running patent dispute.