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Ceatec is a treasure trove of mobile phone design, thanks to the sophisticated cell phone culture here in Japan. Tuesday is the first day of the show, so be sure to check back throughout the week for more. And for the rest of the finalists, click on the gallery above.

Photos: Concept cell phones on display

CHIBA, Japan–Out of 2,000 design concepts for mobile phones of the future, the winning entry in Fujitsu’s Mobile Phone Design competition was not the flashiest or most forward-thinking. Instead, the grand prize was awarded to one that featured the most intuitive interface for users. What a concept.

Jin-Gwon Go, a South Korean college student studying design won the equivalent of about $20,000 for his mobile phone concept titled “Gesture.” Of all the finalists, Go’s design was probably the one that took the form of what most people would expect of a mobile phone. Fujitsu said his design stood out because of the gesture-based commands and touchable icons used to operate the phone using only one hand.

Back in May, Fujitsu asked for some input on phone design from anyone who was interested. Roughly 2,000 submissions and four months later, the company unveiled nine finalists on Tuesday here at Ceatec 2009, including Go’s Gesture.

The winning design, titled 'Gesture.'

(Credit:
Scott Ard/CNET)

In its papers, Microsoft makes a number of arguments for overturning the infringement finding, saying that the judge made several procedural errors and failed to live up to his role as “gatekeeper.”

In addition to pursuing its appeal, Microsoft has other options including creating a technical workaround, removing the XML function, or reaching a settlement with I4i.

For its part, I4i has praised the ruling and said that it is not seeking to torpedo Word, but does want the infringing custom XML code removed.

Microsoft has already gotten the appeals court to set a September 23 hearing to weigh an appeal of the case and potentially hold off the injunction, which is slated to go into effect in October.

In a statement on Wednesday, Owen called Microsoft’s document “extraordinary.”

“In patent cases, even more than most, the trial judge’s role as a gatekeeper is
crucial,” Microsoft argued in its appeal. “As gatekeeper, the judge must define the metes and bounds of a patent through claim construction and then ensure that the evidence presented by the parties’ numerous experts is both reliable and rooted in the facts of the case at hand. And after the jury has rendered its verdict, it is the judge who, before allowing that verdict to become an enforceable judgment, must ensure that the verdict is adequately supported by the evidence and supportable under the law…This case stands as a stark example of what can happen in a patent case when a judge abdicates those gatekeeping functions.”

“We’re not seeking to stop Microsoft’s business and we’re not seeking to interfere with all the users of Word out there,” I4i Chairman Loudon Owen told CNET News earlier this month.

In May, a jury ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million for infringing on a patent held by Canada’s I4i. Earlier this month, a federal judge increased that monetary award and also issued an injunction barring sales of Word that include the custom XML code found to infringe on I4i’s patents.

Microsoft late Tuesday filed its formal appeal of a patent infringement ruling that threatens to halt sales of Word in its current form.

“It captures the hostile attitude of Microsoft toward inventors who dare to enforce patents against them,” Owen said. “It is also blatantly derogatory about the court system.”

Owen said that I4i’s response brief is due to be filed by Sep. 7. “We firmly believe the decision of the jury and judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas was correct on the facts and we shall prevail on appeal,” Owen said.

“We believe the court erred in its interpretation and application of the law in this case and look forward to the September 23 hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals,” Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a statement.

Owen said that the company is counting on the court system to help it prevail even in the face of Microsoft’s massive legal firepower.

“We do not have the gargantuan financial resources of Microsoft, but i4i has the protection of fairness under the U.S. justice system. Microsoft is not above the law. It cannot privately expropriate I4i’s patented invention.”

The service debuts as tech companies are increasingly directing their attention to the field of electronic health records, amid a growing national discussion of the need for doctors and hospitals to go digital. In April, for instance, computer maker Dell joined forces with IT services company Perot Systems to target medical enterprises. (Earlier this week, Dell said it would acquire Perot Systems for $3.9 billion.)

Intuit said the Quicken Health Bill Pay service will work for anyone regardless of insurance provider. But it does require that the doctor’s office enroll in Intuit Patient Payments to process the bills. This service charges the doctor a monthly fee based on the number of people in the practice. The doctor’s staff can see the same bill that the patient does, so they can more easily answer specific questions, said Intuit.

Quicken Health Bill Pay, a free online service from Intuit, is meant to help consumers better understand and pay their medical bills online. The service presents the bills in an easy-to-read language, said Intuit, so patients can view the services they received and see the exact balance due after insurance. From there, they can pay the bill directly online.

In May, Intuit and other companies including Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, and Intel formed the EHR Stimulus Alliance to foster a better understanding among doctors of electronic health records.

Making sense of medical bills can be a challenge for both the patient and doctor. A new service from Intuit is trying to ease that pain.

Another plus, according to Intuit, is that Intuit Patient Payments can notify the patient as soon as the insurance company has paid its portion of the bill. That lowers the time it takes for the bill to be paid off and keeps the office from having to send out constant billing reminders.

People can pay off the bills using credit or debit cards or through Flexible Spending Accounts or Health Savings Accounts. Intuit claims that through Quicken Health Bill Pay, patients can pay off their bills on average 18 days faster than through traditional methods.

Intuit is counting on its new service to help both patients and doctors. The company quoted industry research showing that 40 percent of patients don’t pay their medical bills because they can’t figure them out or didn’t think they were responsible for the amount due.

Fuel efficiency
In the literature I’d read about the Q7 TDI, I found that its 225 horsepower, 406 lbs. ft of torque, 3.0 liter V6 TDI clean diesel engine with a six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission, and all-wheel drive, was capable of more than 25 miles per gallon, at least in highway driving. One reviewer even wrote about achieving 30.2 miles per gallon over 1,000 miles.

In the end, he said, “the ultra low emission system allows emissions to be minimized by combining modifications inside the engine with an innovative exhaust gas after-treatment system. The result is reduced fuel consumption and the world’s cleanest diesel engine.”

“Merging with northbound traffic on Interstate 75 just outside Auburn Hills, Mich., I punch the accelerator, quickly swing left into the passing lane and pull forcefully ahead of the cars around me,” Hewitt wrote. “In any other ride, on any other gray morning, it’d be just another Interstate moment. But this rush hour, I’m behind the wheel of a preproduction 2009 Volkswagen Jetta, which is powered by a 2.0-liter turbo-charged, direct-injected diesel engine that, even as I leave the speed limit in tatters, is averaging nearly 50 mpg. Equally important, what’s coming out of the tailpipe is no dirtier than the emissions from the 35-mpg econoboxes I can now see in my rearview mirror. Speed, fuel efficiency and minimal emissions? These aren’t characteristics usually associated with diesel-powered vehicles. But they will be.”

In fact, I wasn’t driving for speed, but when I needed it, it was there. Passing slow drivers was where I’d say the Q7 really shined: time and again, I would fly by folks with no apparent effort. I’d simply step on the accelerator, and off we’d go.

Further, he said, the TDI engine significantly reduces nitric oxide emissions through the use of a DeNOx converter, “which dramatically eliminated nitrous oxide, a leading factor in smog.”

Still, I was a little surprised at first about getting just 21 mpg on the open road. But I think the reason is that I generally had the air conditioning on, and truth be told, was probably driving a little faster than I should have been. On the other hand, 21 miles per gallon for a vehicle the size of the Q7 is actually rather impressive. My Subaru, a much smaller car, gets 24 on the highway.

I’m by no means a professional car reviewer, so I’m well aware that my assessment of the Q7 lacks many of the touchstones of the standard review. Regardless, I can say without reservation that my time in the Q7 TDI was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s not a cheap car–the model I tested runs about $50,000–so it’s far out of my personal range. But for those who have the means to swing such a transaction and who are interested in getting a vehicle that provides luxury, spaciousness, and impressive performance without sacrificing fuel efficiency, I have no qualms recommending the Q7 TDI.

“Clean diesel.” It sounded a lot like another new term of art, “clean coal,” and I think we know pretty well that there really isn’t much that’s clean about coal. Plus, I think many of us have negative associations with diesel, a technology long known for sooty fumes, loud engines, and a whole lot of pollution.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Since this would be a vehicle I knew I would be driving for more than 5,000 miles, I began to do a little research. Before I signed on, I wanted to have a sense that I wouldn’t be one of those drivers leaving dark clouds of exhaust all over America’s highways, and that the Q7 wouldn’t eat up my budget at the fuel pump.

Luxury driving
As a luxury vehicle, the Q7 certainly stacks up. From the nice job Audi did of seamlessly integrating iPods and Bluetooth phones like an iPhone for safe, handsfree driving while talking on the phone or listening to music, to comfortable seating with plenty of control over seat configuration to a powerful Bang & Olufsen audio system, I pretty much always knew, getting into the Q7, that the next few hours were going to be comfortable and cushy.

Of course, I wanted to hear from Audi itself why they thought clean diesel was a technology to be reckoned with. So I asked the company a number of questions about it, including what, in fact, makes it “clean?”

My performance, over the nearly 5,800 miles I drove the Q7, was not quite as impressive. I got about 21 miles a gallon on the highway, and somewhat less than that, probably in the 17-to-18 mpg range in urban conditions. Fortunately, I was mostly on highways.

The article’s opening paragraph certainly seemed to say that it was:

Click here for the entire Road Trip 2009 package.

For the first few days, I didn’t try much of anything requiring me to change any settings or do much beyond accelerating and braking. I was too caught up in trying to get the trip going and adapting to its pace. Not to mention the high-altitude I instantly encountered in Colorado. In fact, within a day of my arrival, I had already gone from a mile high–Denver–to more than 14,000 feet high on Colorado’s Mt. Evans.

Although it only reads 1,765 miles, this is actually the final odometer reading for Road Trip 2009, a full 5,765.4 miles of driving in Audi’s Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV.

Driving it later on more traditional highways, my first impression was that the Q7 was quite powerful, and indeed, with its quiet engine, I often found myself traveling more than 90 miles an hour without any obvious sign that I was going so fast. I suppose I should have used cruise control to prevent such moments, but I never did. I preferred to control the vehicle with my foot.

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman drove this Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV for 5,765 miles on Road Trip 2009. Along the way, the vehicle averaged about 21 miles a gallon on the highway, not bad for a car of its size.

It’s not that I have a lot of experience with luxury cars to compare the Q7 to. Indeed, I’m certain that other high-end SUVs from manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Infiniti, and others, stack up quite nicely against the Q7.

When I first began talking with Audi about road-testing the company’s new Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV on Road Trip 2009, I have to admit that I was more than a little bit suspicious of that term.

The Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdman drove during Road Trip 2009, as seen through one of the concrete tubes that make up artist Nancy Holt’s great Earthwork, the Sun Tunnels.

I didn’t quite realize how much room there was until I arrived home and got in my Subaru, which, suddenly, seemed tiny. I’m sure I’ll re-adapt to the smaller interior space of the Outback, but for the moment, I’m quite aware of how big the Q7 was inside.

One area where I was a little surprised was in the Q7’s initial pickup. At low speeds, it seemed like the car would usually take a second or so to boost acceleration when I put the pedal to the metal. But only at low speeds since, as I wrote above, accelerating past people on the open road couldn’t have been more effortless.

According to Brad Stertz, Audi of America’s corporate communications manager, there are two main reasons, the first being the adoption across the United States of a new, ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel.

Nice and spacious
When packing to head out on Road Trip 2009, I had tried very hard not to bring too much stuff. One benefit of that was that the Q7 usually felt like, no matter how much I had, there was still plenty of room inside.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Still, Audi was talking about high fuel efficiency, low emissions, and an engine that rivaled–or even surpassed–the power of its traditional gasoline counterparts. Indeed, there was even the discussion about outdoing hybrids for overall performance in certain driving conditions.

Among the very first items I found online was a 2008 Popular Mechanics article by Ben Hewitt exploring clean diesel and whether it truly is clean in any real sense of the word.

On the other hand, if I wanted to be able to see a map of where I was driving, the Q7 easily showed that and a list of songs in the small display to the left. It was nice to have that choice.

Picking up the Q7
On June 20, I picked up the Q7 TDI in Denver. It was an exciting moment since, as you can probably gather, there’s no Road Trip without a vehicle. And I knew I’d be in this car for several thousand miles.

I tend to trust Popular Mechanics as merchants of sober journalism, so after reading Hewitt’s piece lauding the coming of clean diesel, I decided it was worth trying the Q7 TDI out. After all, I thought, it looked like a pretty spiffy car, and one that might well even get better gas mileage than my own Subaru Outback.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

And, with a nice, big, gas tank, the Q7 would tend to get about 280 miles or so on just half a tank. That meant that while diesel turned out to be readily available everywhere I went, I never had to worry about running out of fuel.

“Cleaner fuel has allowed further advancements in the Audi TDI engine,” Stertz said in a written response to my questions. “The injection system, with its maximum injection pressure of 2000 bar, an all-round advanced exhaust gas recirculation system and an optimized turbocharging system are at the heart of this evolution. A new feature is the integrated cylinder pressure control. All of these things have combined to ensure each drop of diesel fuel burns more efficiently during combustion, thereby reducing emissions and improving fuel economy. (Each drop of diesel gets 12% more power than a drop of gasoline and that translates into 25-30% better fuel efficiency.) All of these modifications constituted the first step in radically reducing the engine’s raw emissions.”

I was certainly feeling the effects of the altitude, but the Q7, not so much. It prowled its way smoothly to the top of what is North America’s highest paved road without so much as a sputter. I guess it’s that Alpine heritage.

I did end up using the Q7’s navigation system quite a bit, but I have to say that from time to time, I found it wanting. That was especially true when trying to find specific addresses or destinations in smaller towns; sometimes, the navigation system simply wouldn’t acknowledge that an address even existed, and that could be quite frustrating.

Regardless, it was a pleasure to drive, a pleasure to sit in and just listen to music, escape the rain, or nap in, all of which I did during the trip.

The Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman drove during Road Trip 2009, as seen along Utah’s scenic byway, Route 128.

But most of the time, it worked just fine, and I enjoyed having the system give me just the information I need (direction, time to arrival, and distance both to the destination and to the next turn) in a little micro-display to the left of the speedometer. Having that information available made it possible to devote the main multimedia interface to music.

In fact, I wonder if it’s too late for me to go back to Denver, pick it back up, and hit the road again.

3. Blu-ray Collection: There’s no better way to track Blu-ray films.

Blu-ray Collection keeps all your movies in one place.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

After you add the app to your profile, you’re immediately presented with several films. You can choose the film you like and request them to rent it at the movie store. It might sound rather simplistic, but the app can be an effective movie-recommendation engine, since friends’ opinions matter so much. A larger listing of films would have been nice, but the app is still worth checking out.

If you’re a film buff, you might be happy to know that Facebook apps are available that will help you stay up-to-date on the industry, while giving you the option to tell all your friends what movies you love. Some of the apps are better than others, but one thing is certain: if you’re a real movie fan, you need to add at least some of them to your profile.

LivingSocial: Movies has a great recommendation engine.

Blu-ray Collection Blu-ray Collection provides an extremely useful way to track and share your Blu-ray collection.

Movie Expert MovieExpert is a neat game that lets you watch clips from different movies to find their “goofs.”

LivingSocial: Movies LivingSocial: Movies is my favorite movie app on Facebook. It’s useful, unique, and effective at tracking film interests.

Movie Expert asks you to find the problems with each film scene.

1. LivingSocial: Movies: With so many great features, LivingSocial: Movies is simply the best app in this roundup.

If you go to the Video Store buy something for me It might have a long name, but If you go to the Video Store buy something for me is a neat app that lets you share your movie interests with all your friends.

My Movie Reviews My Movie Reviews is one of the least-useful apps in this roundup, but if you’re a frequent moviegoer, you might like it.

Flixster Movies is like having the full Flixster experience in Facebook. You can review films, take quizzes to test your knowledge, connect with other app users, and research films you’re interested in. It’s a full-featured product that works quite well.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Flixster Movies Flixster Movies connects you with other movie fans to talk about your favorite films. The app also lets you update your Facebook status with the movies you want to see in theaters.

Social film going

Flixster Movies provides a full social movie experience.

My Movie Reviews is a bit of a misnomer. You can’t review any movie you like. Instead, the app limits your reviews to the films that are currently in theaters. When you see those movies, you can use the app to write a review, choose a star rating, and post that to your Facebook wall. Creating the review is simple, but not having the ability to write a review on any movie detracts from the experience. My Movie Reviews is a great premise, but limiting reviews to only those films in theaters is a major problem.

MatchFlick quizzes you on your movie knowledge.

Overall, the quiz is quite difficult. Unless you’ve seen several movies and you can remember obscure scenes, you’ll probably have trouble answering questions. If the quiz isn’t for you, MatchFlick also provides information on the latest DVD releases, what’s playing in theaters, and reviews. It’s a full-featured app, but its design and menu system make it difficult to sift through all the extras it offers.

After you add the app to your profile, you’ll need to watch a full movie clip. When you find the problem with the scene, you can click on it on the area where the mistake is. You’ll start out with 3,000 MoviePoints. If you guess wrong, you’ll lose 100 points. When you accurately identify the problems, you’ll receive 100 MoviePoints back. It’s an addicting game, but it’s extremely difficult.

MatchFlick MatchFlick’s chief function is to provide you with a quiz that, so far, has over 7,000 questions. The more questions you answer correctly, the higher your global rank on Facebook.

My top 3

2. Flixster Movies: It’s a close second. Flixster Movies is a fantastic app for film buffs.

Once you find what you’re looking for through the app’s search field, you can add it to your listing. Those movies can then be viewed by other app users. The app lists over 1,000 films. And since you can rate your listings, you can see how much you liked a movie, compared to your friends.

A long name, but it's worth checking out.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

LivingSocial: Movies starts by requiring you to add movies to your listing, saying what you have watched, what you’re currently watching, or what you will soon watch. You can also rate each film out of five stars. From there, LivingSocial: Movies provides you with recommendations of films you might like based on the movies you rated highly. The app even lets you create a top 10 list to let all your Facebook friends know which movies you love. LivingSocial: Movies is a must-have.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

My Movie Reviews needs more movies to review.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Comments? Is the 8GB iPhone 3GS at $99 a big deal?

Ever since Apple launched the new iPhone 3GS, the older iPhone 3G has been going for $99 with a new two-year contract. Well, according to Boy Genius Report, there seem to be some indications that Apple may be about to bring out a new 8GB version of the iPhone 3GS that will take the place of the iPhone 3G and also cost $99.

(Via The Boy Genius Report)

(Credit:
The Boy Genius Report)

Interestingly, BGR’s source isn’t AT&T but Rogers, a Canadian carrier, and a tipster sent the site some screenshots that seem to provide proof of the transition between models. None of this is confirmed, of course, but if AT&T (and other carriers like Rogers) offered an 8GB iPhone 3GS for $99, it would be another aggressive move by Apple in its quest to dominate the smartphone space. I’m not sure it spells doom for the $199 8GB Palm Pre, which is selling well, but it can’t help its cause.

Last we heard, about 15,000 sites had implemented Facebook Connect, a product that statistics firm Hitwise says gave the social network enough momentum to propel it past once-bigger rival MySpace in terms of U.S. traffic. Launching international translations of the main Facebook site–which the company ended up “crowdsourcing” to users starting early last year–is largely credited with kickstarting the social network’s growth overseas.

Facebook now has over 300 million active users around the world, a sizable majority of which are outside the U.S.

Facebook first announced that Connect would be available in a multilingual format this summer. Now, the tool can be used to translate any site into the language of a given user who’s logged in with Connect.

Facebook made a dual set of announcements this week pertaining to Facebook Connect, the universal-log-in product that it offers to third-party developers and Web sites. Both are aimed at making Connect more ubiquitous: first, a tool called “Translations for Facebook Connect” that simplifies the process of translating the product into international languages, and second, the “Facebook Connect Wizard” for incorporating the product into a site with little developer expertise required.

The new Connect Wizard takes only three steps, Himel’s post said.

“Establishing a presence on the social Web requires fundamental building blocks,” a post by Facebook employee Alex Himel explained as it announced the Facebook Connect Wizard. “Facebook provides these essential tools, including identity for a great registration system, and immediate access to 300 million active global users. Facebook Connect gives entrepreneurs of all sizes–and with varying developer resources–the ability to build traffic efficiently through reaching a relevant audience, while offering an engaging user experience.”

Plugging in Facebook Connect information with the three-step 'wizard.'

(Credit:
Facebook)

In the meantime, Microsoft is encouraging users to download any photos or documents they have stored in their events, either to their hard drives or to Windows Live SkyDrive. The service has also long had a way to export events to other services including Outlook, Google, and Yahoo calendar, as well as Apple’s iCal.

Windows Live Events was launched as part of the Windows Live rebranding back in late 2007. Designed as an Evite competitor of sorts, it let users create events that could be shared publicly. It also made use of other Microsoft services like Live Spaces and Live Messenger to let party goers and planners alike communicate.

Microsoft has decided to close down Windows Live Events and will be focusing its development efforts on building event planning and management tools for Windows Live Calendar instead. Beginning next month, users of Windows Live Events will be unable to create new events. And sometime next year, the site will simply redirect to Live Calendar instead.

(Credit:
Bret Taylor)

Tornado is available now as a free download. Facebook said it hopes that developers will try it out and start developing Web services that take advantage of FriendFeed’s real-time technology. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, but if you want to a see a demo of Tornado in action to see if it matches your goals as a developer, click here.

Taylor said his team ran some baseline throughput calculations to determine how well Tornado matched up against other Python frameworks. According to his figures, Tornado’s throughput was more than “four times higher than the other frameworks.”

Tornado features several key components that Facebook hopes will make it easy for developers to create real-time environments. It offers design templates, signed cookies, user authentication, forgery protection, and third-party authentication for services like Facebook Connect, Twitter, and FriendFeed. The framework also supports “large numbers of concurrent connections” to keep data fresh.

“Tornado is…designed to handle thousands of simultaneous connections, making it ideal for real-time Web services,” Facebook’s David Recordon wrote in a blog post. “While Tornado is similar to existing Web frameworks in Python (Django, Google’s Webapp, Webpy), it focuses on speed and handling large amounts of simultaneous traffic.”

According to Taylor, “Tornado looks a bit like Webpy or Google’s Webapp, but with additional tools and optimizations to take advantage of the nonblocking Web server and tools.”

Since Facebook’s acquisition of FriendFeed, the social network has stayed silent on its plans for FriendFeed. If his statement is to be believed, FriendFeed will be maintained and improved upon, going forward. When the acquisition was announced, FriendFeed’s founders said the long-term plans for FriendFeed were still being worked out with Facebook, but at the very least, it wouldn’t be shut down.

Tornado's Web server requests compared to the competition.

Facebook announced on Thursday that it has open-sourced recently acquired FriendFeed’s real-time technology. Dubbed Tornado, the company’s real-time, nonblocking framework is written in Python.

Taylor went on to explain the story behind Tornado. He said that before FriendFeed developed the framework, it analyzed other Python frameworks to see if they matched FriendFeed’s needs. According to Taylor, “our performance and feature requirements consistently diverged from these mainstream frameworks.” FriendFeed needed “support for a large number of standing connections afforded by the nonblocking (input-output) programming style and epoll” that it couldn’t find in existing Python frameworks.

Buried in the Facebook announcement, David Recordon wrote that “Tornado is a core piece of infrastructure that powers FriendFeed’s real-time functionality, which we plan to actively maintain.”

Taylor’s team decided to write its “own Web server and framework after looking at existing servers and tools” that couldn’t quite match the company’s requirements.

FriendFeed co-founder and new Facebook Director of Products Bret Taylor said in a blog post of his own that Facebook’s decision to open-source Friendfeed’s real-time feature was rooted in its desire to see “others building real-time Web services.” It’s a part of Facebook’s open-source initiative.

FriendFeed will live on
Before you think this is the end of FriendFeed as we know it, think again.

“Anything that we would do would be more of a transition, not shutting down,” Taylor told CNET News. “I think our users have invested in our product by putting their data in it, sharing it with their friends…We absolutely wouldn’t shut (FriendFeed) down.”

(Credit:
Erica Ogg/CNET)

One of the largest manufacturers of motherboards for two decades, albeit it a largely unsung one, the Taiwanese company finds itself smack in the middle of a transition from components maker to serious contender in PCs and accessories. Asus (pronounced “ah-soos”) is attempting to establish itself as a brand name worldwide while making new forays into software and design.

(Credit:
Acer)

Acer was able to ride the huge growth in notebook PCs in the middle part of this decade. Eventually, it was able to buy its way into brand recognition in the U.S. with Gateway and in Europe with Packard Bell. Acer also timed the Netbook craze perfectly with its Aspire One, and was one of the first Netbook makers to strike deals with mobile carriers to offer 3G service on subsidized Netbooks.

It made a splash with the Eee PC. Now Asus, once known chiefly as a components maker, is looking to make the leap to consumer gadget maker.

It showed that with the Eee PC and graphics cards that are designed to resemble a Formula One race car. And now it’s thinking beyond the personal computer with plans for a line of e-readers, televisions, and a streaming video device. Sound familiar? Acer also ventured outside of laptops when it bought smartphone maker E-Ten last year, in an admittedly less ambitious plan to diversify.

Acer's best-selling Netbook, the Acer Aspire One.

(Credit:
Asus)

The upcoming Eee Keyboard.

Acer, of course, is one of the PC industry’s most recent success stories, quietly blossoming from computer parts maker to established player in the PC world. It put the rest of the industry on notice when it scooped up Gateway in a $710 million deal, which included the E-Machines brand, and later acquired Packard Bell. It’s a collection of lower-tier brands, but one that’s been able to sell a lot of machines.

“We’re moving from our original culture of fundamentals and results, and we’re now focused on innovation and aesthetics,” said Shih.

Asus, in building its Eee family of computers and gadgets and Asus-branded laptops, is relying on its team of Chairman Jonney Shih and CEO Jerry Shen to transform the perception of the company into a recognizable brand. Shih, who came over from Acer (along with Asus’ original founders in 1989) is the ideas guy, and Shen puts them into action. It was Shih’s idea for the Eee PC and the upcoming Eee Keyboard, and Shen is responsible for making sure the company’s vast design and engineering teams make it happen.

In addition to creating a new line of consumer products like TVs, VoIP phones, e-readers, and streaming Web video gadgets, the company’s leadership has its sights squarely set on being the third-largest notebook manufacturer in the world by 2012, while remaining the world’s largest supplier of motherboards. While it sounds somewhat ambitious for a company known more for nuts and bolts, there’s precedent: Fellow Taiwanese company Acer was in a very similar position a few years back and was able to transition from microchip maker to one of the largest laptop producers in the world.

Instead, it continues to churn out new versions of its Eee PC Netbook, with larger screens, better design touches, and slightly different form factors, like the convertible touch-screen version that debuted at CES this year.

Netbooks now make up one fifth of the PC market and are still chugging along–unit sales are expected to double from 16 million last year to 33 million by the end of 2009–but there’s less room for dominating the market now because there are so many brands in the space, including much more recognizable names. Asus, for its part, is not intimidated. “We’re used to it,” Shih said recently in an interview. “Starting from the motherboard industry, competition is very normal.”

Could Asus could be another Acer in the making?

Repeating Acer’s success is, no doubt, difficult. But the two companies have a lot in common: Both started as components makers in Taiwan, and made the leap into making PCs and smartphones (Acer acquiring E-Ten, Asus partnering with Garmin). Asus’ very existence was also made possible by its rival–it was founded by former Acer engineers.

It’s a computer masquerading as a home appliance, an area we’ll see Asus operate in even more. Since the initial success of the Eee PC, Asus has introduced a number of Eee-branded products, including the Eee Monitor, the Eee Box, Eee VoIP phone, and soon the Eee Keyboard and even the Eee Reader.

The original Eee PC, launched in 2007.

In terms of market share, Asus is about where Acer was in 2004. Back then, Acer had a tiny, 3.6 percent share of the worldwide PC market, according to data from IDC. Today, Asus is in a remarkably similar place, with just 3.63 percent share. Meanwhile, the surging Acer has tripled its hold on PC buyers from where it was five years ago to more than 10 percent, right behind perennial leader Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.

But while Asus has some things going for it at that same point in their history that Acer did not–a recognizable product in the Eee PC–it’s also facing very different challenges.

More focus on aesthetics
But what Asus really has going for it are the leeway to be creative and the ability to come up with genuinely interesting ideas. Apple, they are not, but the company culture is now focused on making better-looking products.

The Eee Keyboard also shows something which Taiwanese component companies aren’t normally known for–ingenuity. The Eee Keyboard looks like a standard desktop keyboard but it has a computer inside, as well as a small 5-inch touch screen where the number pad should be. Using a wireless high-definition signal, it allows anything on the computer, like a Web page, or a video site like Hulu or YouTube to be viewed on a larger TV or monitor via a small adapter. You can also multitask while watching video and check Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail in the smaller touch screen in the keyboard.

“We had to grow and diversify. But we didn’t want to do things that are too far apart. We have to do technology that is related: communications, video, audio,” Shih said. “The whole world is changing because of the Internet. Everything digital is converged. We have to take our vision for the whole Eee family there.”