Firefox has a CPU usage issue and, consequently, can cause overheating problems in some laptops, particularly ultraportables. That's what I've found over the last couple of years.
But don't take my word for it. This is documented on a Mozilla support page entitled "Firefox consumes a lot of CPU resources." The page states: "At times, Firefox may require significant CPU [central processing unit] resources in order to download, process, and display Web content." And forum postings like this one about a Dell Netbook are not uncommon: "Mini9 would get way too hot."
The Mozilla support page goes on to say that "you can review and monitor CPU usage through specific tools" and describes ways to limit CPU usage, such as: "A Firefox add-on, called Flashblock, allows you to selectively enable and disable Flash content on Web sites."
Let me describe my experience. I find that tab for tab, Firefox uses decidedly more resources than other browsers--Safari, for example. And in the past (when I was actively using a Windows Vista-based machine) Firefox also compared unfavorably with Microsoft's Internet Explorer for CPU usage.
More specifically, here's the behavior as I see it. When I'm accessing sites with multimedia content such as the CNET front door, Firefox CPU usage will bounce around between 30 and 60 percent, and sometimes spike higher (80 percent and above), as indicated by the Mac OS 10.6.2 Activity Monitor.
On the other hand, the Safari CPU usage with the same pages open is much lower--typically between 2 percent and 10 percent.
My theory is that most users don't notice this because in mainstream laptops, this isn't an issue. But it can become an issue in ultraportables--typically under an inch thick--which are more sensitive to heat because of the design constraints. The ultrathin Apple MacBook Air, which I use as my main machine, is a good example.
The fan is usually an audible indicator of CPU usage issues. When I'm using Firefox and I have tabs open on multimedia-rich sites (which is par for the course these days), the Air's fan will almost invariably kick on and stay on until I close the tabs. As I write this, the fan has finally shut down after I closed the Firefox tabs (e.g, CNET front door). Those same tabs in Safari are still open and not causing any significant spike in CPU usage or fan activity.
When I contacted Mozilla, a technical support person guessed that Safari is possibly better at optimizing Flash-based sites compared to Firefox. And that may be true. However, I had similar issues before when I was using a Hewlett-Packard business ultraportable (also very thin like the Air) that were not necessarily tied to Flash usage. In short, Firefox was less efficient with CPU usage compared to Microsoft's IE 8. And the behavior was similar. The HP laptop would quickly heat up and the fan would kick on.
Finally, let me reemphasize that I'm guessing that most users don't notice this because heat dissipation is not a big issue for mainstream laptops that are not necessarily thermally-challenged when accessing multimedia-rich Web pages. That said, this has been a steady problem for me because I use ultraportables almost exclusively and has forced me to limit my use of Firefox.
Like audiobooks? Here's your chance to get two for free.
(Credit: Audible)I'm a longtime fan of Audible, an audiobook-download service that lets you burn your own CDs and/or transfer books to portable devices (iPods, BlackBerrys, etc.).
The company has offered various free trials and promotions over the years, but this is the best one I've seen: Sign up for a 30-day trial of AudibleListener Gold and get two free audiobooks.
So here's how it works: You sign up for a new account (which does require a credit card), then download the Audible software (available for Windows and Mac, or as an iTunes add-on if you're doing the iPod/iPhone thing). You'll automatically receive two credits in your account, which you can use to download the books of your choice.
After the 30-day trial expires, you'll start getting billed $14.95 per month for your Gold membership, which entitles you to one audio credit, 30 percent off any additional purchases, and a free subscription to The New York Times or Wall Street Journal (the audio versions, natch).
If you routinely buy one audiobook every month, the Gold plan is pretty solid. For example, Jonathan Tropper's "This Is Where I Leave You" (a terrific read, by the way) costs $23.95 on iTunes. If you used your Audible credit, it'd effectively cost you $14.95. Already burned through your credit? Your membership price is $19.59--still cheaper than iTunes.
Of course, you can always cancel your account before the end of the trial, end up paying nothing, and walk away with your two free books.
But if you spend a lot of time in the car, on the train, or even on the biking/hiking/jogging trail, nothing beats a good book. Like I said, I'm a longtime Audible fan. It's a great resource for scoring audiobooks for less than you'd pay elsewhere.
If you're a fan of comic books, you should also be a fan of the iPhone. Apple's smartphone is home to several neat comic-book apps designed specifically for those who want to enjoy harrowing stories of their favorite heroes in the Digital Age.
I've sifted through the many apps related to comic books and found a handful that you'll want to try out. Whether you're a DC Comics fan or you're partial to Marvel, I think you'll like what you find in these apps.
Get your comic on
Clickwheel Comic Reader if you plan to read comic books on your iPhone, the Clickwheel Comic Reader will be able to satisfy that desire.
When you start using Clickwheel Comic Reader, you'll be able to sift through comic books and find one you want to read. The app doesn't have many of the classics like those you would find from an app like Comics or iVerse Comics (see below), but it does have some comic books you might care about. Either way, the app displays all your favorite content in full color on your iPhone. And since it's free, it's probably worth trying out if you don't mind reading a relatively small collection of books.
If you want to read some comic books, Clickwheel might be your choice.
(Credit: Clickwheel)Comic Envi If you're more into comic strips than comic books, we have you covered too.
With the help of Comic Envi, you can check out some of your favorite comic strips. You can check out old, well-known comic strips, Web-only offerings, and more. You have the option of viewing them in a slideshow or by moving them with your fingers. You can also check out the daily updated strips or some of the titles in the archive. It's a neat utility, but beware that you will need to pay 99 cents to get it.
Check out Comic Strips with the help of Comic Envi.
(Credit: Comic Envi)Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
(Credit:
Asurion)
If the list of features added to the forthcoming Android 2.0 operating system (code-named Eclair) leaves you drooling, there is a way to get a taste of one of the goodies coming in Google's Eclair release.
No, we're not sending you a Motorola Droid (live review).
Rather, Asurion's free AddressBook beta, newly released in the Android Market, is a socially connected alternative to Android's native address book. It shares a similar focus with Android 2.0's Quick Contact concept, and with other social address books, namely, that of being able to quickly communicate with a person in multiple ways from your contact list.
While Android 2.0 will offer a pop-up ticker that lets you e-mail, text, or call, AddressBook, which was announced at Demo 2009 (story), can also get you socializing with friends via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and others. AddressBook doesn't include a widget at this point, but it does get you inside social networks.
You pair a friend with their social networking account by setting up plug-ins, or MixIns, as Asurion calls them. Setup takes some patience. You'll first select the social networks you want to incorporate through the Market screen. After downloading each separate MixIn as its own Android APK file, you'll need to install it, then log in. If you ask AddressBook to automatically match contacts with social-network accounts, it'll take a few minutes longer. In this case, the wait is worth it, especially if you have a sizable Gmail contact list to begin with.
The Facebook plug-in can also fill in your address book with Facebook profile pictures. Facebook integration was good, but not perfect, though you'll have the option to review matches. However, we missed a few incorrect associations, which we found difficult to fix after the fact.
In addition to following and contacting friends, the AddressBook application can also add a business listing, like your favorite coffee shop chain. Having added the listing, you can then plot it on a map.
As with the Android 1.6 default address book, the AddressBook application includes a dialer, history, contact list, and favorites. While it doesn't replace the Android's address book, Asurion's app does integrate with it, using the Android call screens and honoring edits between Android's native address book and the AddressBook application.
The AddressBook application has some fairly large holes. In addition to the unintuitive editing of mismatched contacts, the application doesn't support landscape mode and it force-closed after we integrated Facebook details. AddressBook's focus is decidedly on reaching people and not on managing personal profiles; we didn't see ways to update your own status in this app, for instance.
As for the future of the young application in the face of Android 2.0, Nancy Benovich Gilby, Asurion Mobile Applications' VP of Engineering remains positive. "What [Google is] doing with Contacts," Gilby wrote in an e-mail, "will give us more power and make it easier to provide deeper integration of content and services."
It will be interesting to see how AddressBook's social address book plays out once Android 2.0 becomes more widely available. In the meantime, if you've tried the app, share your thoughts in the comments.
If you've ever wondered why comic books don't have a digital distribution and management platform the way music, movies, or books do, you're not alone. The good news is that one software company and one man--perhaps clad in an identity-concealing spandex costume--are here to save the day with LongBox.
LongBox can show double-page spreads easily.
(Credit: LongBox)In production for more than three years by QuickSilver Software, LongBox is a free, cross-platform iTunes-style jukebox for comic books. Judging by the proposed feature set, it's the most apt comparison, and one that LongBox CEO and founder Rantz Hoseley is happy to make. "One of our guiding principles is not replacing print or subsuming print, but creating a business model that works hand in hand with print. We want a diverse clientele."
In the comic book business, that's no laughing matter. The industry long ago abandoned the spinner racks in your local convenience store as direct market retail stores became more profitable. Direct subscription sales have also dwindled. It's hard to image the modern comic book, from mainstream superheroes like Batman to hipster icons like Scott Pilgrim and film inspirations like "30 Days of Night," without the comic book shop.
Built on a set of proprietary APIs, LongBox will allow readers to purchase and download new comic books in a new, proprietary LBX format. The program contains a viewer that allows you to see pages one at a time or as a double-page spread, zoom in on individual panels, flip through pages, and skin the interface. It even contains an "anti-spoiler" feature so you won't see what's coming in a story unless you want to. Since the LBX files are made directly from the InDesign and Quark production files that the publishers send to their printers, the zoom feature won't result in pixelation.
Readers will be able to bookmark pages, and LongBox will support right-to-left reading for manga as well as Western-style left-to-right. It will also support what Hoseley called the "gray market" of CBZ and CBR file formats that have been created without the consent of the publishers. However, he cautions, "CBR and CBZ won't have the same metadata as your store-bought LBX files."
LongBox is designed to be both a comic book reader and a comic book manager.
(Credit: LongBox)In addition to broad metadata, Hoseley promised that there would be eventual social-networking features baked into the platform, but that there were hurdles unique to comics. "There are certain things we need to do right," he said. "There's the whole fair-use law of images. We want to make sure that the recommendation system has validity to it, and we want to minimize spamming and grade-inflation."
Not only will LongBox allow users to read and manage their comics from their desktops and mobile devices, it will also come with access to an online store so readers can purchase their books directly. Starting at 99 cents per issue, the LongBox store will have one major factor that differentiates it from the iTunes model, Hoseley says. "Along with buying an incentivized 12-issue subscription for $10, publishers can and will provide discount coupons for print versions if (the reader) subscribes to the LongBox version."
Hoseley was reluctant to go into further detail on how the coupons will work, although he did say that readers should be able to use them at comic book retail shops as well as online stores. If LongBox does wind up driving readers to purchase both digital and print copies, it would be the first time digital content has been used to directly support a physical copy.
In another similarity with iTunes, LongBox will support three methods for getting free comics out to readers. There will be a monthly sampler pack of eight comics, as well as promotional titles that a publisher pays for out-of-pocket. The platform is designed to support ad content as well, and Hoseley said it's possible certain titles will be made free to readers in exchange for watching an advertisement.
LongBox will launch in the fall, probably October, for Windows and Mac, and has plans to support handheld devices, smartphones, and game consoles by the summer of 2010. Users will be able to access their LongBox content on up to three systems. "You can have your core library, section it off, or burn it to externals," Hoseley sayd. "We will be keeping track of a user's entire library." Hoseley assured me that there would be privacy safeguards, but didn't specify how or what they would be.
At the San Diego Comic Con Thursday, Hoseley announced that several big-name comic book publishers had already signed on for the platform's launch. Image Comics, Top Cow, Boom Studios, Dabel Brothers, Archaia, Shadowline, and NBM have signed on. Several creator-owned titles have, too, and from multiple genres, including Mouse Guard, Phonogram, Suburban Glamour, Viking, and Hunter-Killer.
Get eight short stories and Mark Twain's most famous novel, all free from Barnes & Noble.
(Credit: Barnes & Noble)Good news, commuters: Barnes & Noble is offering nine audiobooks absolutely free. They're downloads, of course, but they're in MP3 format, meaning that you can burn them to CDs, copy them to your iPod/Zune/Sansa, and listen on your Netbook or whatever.
So, if they're free, they must be bargain bin books from no-name authors, right? Wrong. But eight of them are short stories, most ranging from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Thus, while you may not recognize the titles, you'll definitely recognize some of the authors.
Among the more notable names: Kurt Vonnegut, Louis L'Amour, Junot Diaz, Alice Munro, and Jonathan Lethem. Oh, there's also this guy Mark Twain, who provides the collection's only full-length novel: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."
To get the freebies, just add one or more of them to your shopping cart. (Although they're priced at a penny apiece, your cart will show a $0 balance.) Even though no money's changing hands, you'll need to create a Barnes & Noble account and supply a credit card. (If you'd rather not, choose PayPal as your payment method--even if you don't have an account.)
You'll also need to download and install B&N's OverDrive Media Console software, which manages your audiobooks and lets you play, burn, transfer, etc. It's available for Windows and Mac.
In the interim, you'll receive an e-mail with a link that takes you to the download page. So, yeah, you have to jump through some hoops to get your audiobooks--but such is the price of free, right?
(Credit:
CNET)
I write this post every week and while I try to bring you folks all my favorite iPhone app finds, inevitably I end up missing a few along the way. With the current count of apps at the iTunes store now at almost 35,000, it would be impossible to cover everything, but hopefully I can at least bring you a worthy download every week. With that said, this week I'm going to talk about a new game and then grab one app out of the past that's worthy of a look if you haven't checked it out.
This week's apps include an e-reader for classic works of literature and a tower defense game that's extremely difficult to put down.
Books you have already started reading show up with a red bookmark.
(Credit: CNET)Classics (99 cents for a limited time) came out some time ago, but this collection of famous works of literature is worthy of mentioning because the software is both extremely elegant and certain to get more content with updates. When you launch Classics, you're presented with a natural-wood bookshelf containing some of the greatest works of English literature, including Milton's "Paradise Lost," Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." There are 20 books in all, with more to come in future free updates. But famous authors aside, Classics offers an extremely elegant interface for paging through the great works.
Tapping on a book to open it up reveals the title page on a classy brown-on-white-paper interface. Swiping your finger to the left turns the page, complete with an animation and the soft sound of leafing through an old book. The font size is just right for reading on the iPhone or iPod Touch. When you're finished, Classics places a bookmark automatically and indicates you have started the book in the book shelf interface. You can even flip through chapters to find your favorite parts.
Notice the rainbow-colored vortex turrets that give extra power. Also notice I can't pass this @#$% level.
(Credit: CNET)GeoDefense follows a long line of already famous tower defense games for the iPhone, but is a must have for fans of the genre. Like other path-based tower defense games, the object is to place turrets along a path and prevent the baddies from getting to their goals. But GeoDefense injects a measure of style by using vector-based graphics, pixel bursts, and warp effects that culminate in a dazzling display of color when the game starts really getting going. You get 30 maps to play on across three different skill levels. You start with only three turrets to choose from, but later you have five, with one that actually interacts with the others (and makes them stronger).
One thing I should warn everyone about is that this GeoDefense is not easy. You will quickly come to understand that winning levels even half way through the easiest skill setting will be a challenge requiring a solid strategy. I can tell you that I've made it into the medium levels, but I am once again stuck on an extremely hard one. Your mileage may vary. To be honest, the game could use a way to lower the difficulty even further, but I think most serious tower defense fans will think this game is one of the best in the genre. Beginning tower defense players may want to try one of the other popular games before GeoDefense.
What's your favorite iPhone app? Is Classics the best way to read a good book on the iPhone so far, or do you have a better app? Have you passed the second map of the medium levels in GeoDefense? Let me know in the comments!
The Shortcovers e-book reader that's available now for BlackBerry, iPhones, and Google Android phones sounded like a good idea when we first heard about it back in February. It still is a good idea, but falls a little short in the execution.
Shortcovers is attractive and modern-looking with a nice, legible default font throughout and a menu system you can find your way around. What it trips on are the details. For instance, thumbnail images draw you in on the page of featured e-books, but are excluded from the actual content. Sometimes the only freebie you get is the acknowledgments, a big let-down when you're hoping to learn more about the book than whose husband or wife suffered through its making. Also, the reading experience leaves much to be desired, especially when compared to the paragon of the Kindle's reading delight, or even the gorgeous iPhone e-reader, Classics. Rather than simulate page turning, Shortcovers emulates the Web metaphor of scrolling long passages and clicking arrows to advance to the next page. Also unfortunately, some spaces between words have been noticeably lost in the digital translation.
The app does have potential--there's the usual bookmarking to remember your place when you leave a read, and the ability to share favorites via e-mail or Twitter. Plus, the model to pay 99 cents for a book excerpt before committing to a $7-10 cost of an e-book is a fine idea, though of course, you can browse a title with much more freedom in a brick and mortar store before deciding to buy. If Shortcovers can overcome its shortcomings, its good looks and ambitious mobile platform penetration schedule will lend it a competitive chance.
Calibre is a cross-platform, open-source library for your e-books that can also sync them to your e-book reader. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, it offers a massive range of individual book customizations, as well as format conversion and newspaper-style RSS feed grabbing, but lacks a slick interface that would go a long way toward convincing skeptics that it's a powerful tool.
Calibre's lackluster interface is nevertheless replete with features.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)The number of things that Calibre can do for your digital book collection is stunning. You can view books in a basic spreadsheet layout or with an adaptation of Apple's Cover Flow. Cover Flow here lacks a default image, and the sudden white rectangle where the book cover should be is jarring. It can be toggled with the big, white arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the main window--an equally awkward placement.
... Read moreIf you don't feel like spending more than $300 on the Kindle 2, Amazon's free Kindle ebook application for the iPhone and iPod Touch may be a much more affordable, if imperfect, solution.
We compared the Kindle 2 and the Kindle application for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and came to the conclusion that the Kindle iPhone application is great for reading short passages, but the Kindle 2 is better for longer reading.
Also, you can't get subscriptions on the iPhone version and you can't buy books from within the application. Still, $359 is a lot to pay for an e-book reader (though the addition of free cellular Web access and a basic Web browser does make the cost slightly more palatable), so the Kindle for iPhone app may still be the preferable e-book reader for people who already have iPhones or iPod Touches
.For more information about the Kindle for iPhone application, check out our video first look or read our extensive review.
