The conventional wisdom during this election campaign was that bloggers were its stars. But sometimes the Internet makes things look bigger than they are, as pundits declared after Howard Dean flamed out.
The Web sites that got the most hits Tuesday belonged to the mainstream media many bloggers deride, according to ComScore Networks Inc., which measures Web traffic. (One caveat: Traffic counts might or might not be more reliable than exit polls, but they're good for a rough measure.)
CNN.com got more than 5-million visitors Tuesday. Sites for the Washington Post and Fox News got more than 1-million, according to ComScore.
Compare that to numbers for Blogspot.com, a site that hosts thousands of blogs, and whose hits Tuesday didn't crack 400,000, according to ComScore. Dailykos.com, a Democratic favorite, ran an emotional open thread where posters wrote about their experience voting, but it attracted fewer than 100,000 readers, according to ComScore.
Guilty pleasure Wonkette didn't break 50,000 readers, according to ComScore.
Intel, Microsoft team up in digital-home ads
Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., which have dominated the personal computer industry since the early 1980s, are for the first time running a joint advertising campaign to push their notion of the digital home.
The TV, online, newspaper and movie campaign will show off how entertainment PCs can be used to view photos, listen to music and watch video throughout the home, not just the den or bedroom where computers traditionally are found.
Intel said the campaign will cost in the "low tens of millions" of dollars, and the cost will be split evenly with Microsoft.
"We're going directly to the consumers on this," said Bill Calder of Intel. "It's definitely an acknowledgment we both view the digital home as critical to our success, and it requires some level of consumer education."
In the early 1980s, Microsoft's operating system and Intel's microprocessors were established as the leading components in IBM Corp.'s first personal computer. Both dominate today, despite complaints of anticompetitive behavior and increasing rivalry.
Even with their combined success, the so-called WinTel duopoly has never produced a joint ad campaign.
The companies will set up "experience zones" at shopping malls in 38 cities so potential customers can check out the systems.
Kids break convention in designing PCs
If teenagers are such whiz kids with computers, why are computers designed by adults? Kent Savage, chief executive of Digital Lifestyles Group in Austin, Texas, pondered the question. Then he did something.
The result is the hip-e, a desktop personal computer that has been reimagined by teenagers for teenagers - a market 33-million strong in the United States. Little about this PC is conventional, and with accessories like a special cell phone and a digital audio player, one can cost $1,900.
Yes, the hip-e has a wireless keyboard, a mouse and a 17-inch flat-screen monitor that holds the computer's brains. Practically everything else about it looks like something out of a Spy Kids movie.
It can be customized to look funky or fabulous using digital skins. A built-in television tuner card makes recording and viewing television as easy as pressing one button. Other preset buttons promise movie rentals, music downloads and pizza deliveries.
The cell phone and the music player with FM radio can be docked directly into the keyboard for synching with the hip-e. The PC's speaker system is detachable and can be coupled with the music player to form a boom box on a shoulder strap. The hip-e, which comes with software for games, instant messaging and online shopping - as well as homework help - can be ordered online at www.hip-e.com It is scheduled for a Thanksgiving Day release, so save some room after the pumpkin pie.
Antivirus software protects cell phones, mobile computers
Downloading games, ring tones and screen savers to a mobile device can be fun. But like any Internet-connected gadget, a cell phone or a handheld computer can quickly become a target for viruses, worms and other bugs that wreak havoc.
We don't think twice about updating antivirus software on our computers to keep out the bad guys. But mobile devices have been another matter.
Now InnoPath Software in San Jose, Calif., has developed an over-the-air technology that allows people to protect their phones and handheld devices in a similar fashion.
The trick to the technology is installing only what's necessary by comparing the update file to the original software file stored and installed on the device.
The company's software determines the differences between the two files and compresses that data to allow it to travel over a phone's relatively slow Internet connection.
"We can get that file as small as 3 percent" of the original, said David Sym-Smith, InnoPath's senior vice president of marketing and business development.
With everything that's being installed and downloaded on mobile devices today - from games for a smart phone to e-mail attachments on a handheld device - the ability to get a quick patch or antivirus software update is critical.
In some cases, the updates can occur without you ever knowing it. In other cases, you might be asked to download the update. That's a decision left to the wireless service provider, Sym-Smith said.
The software is installed on about 30-million phones, mostly in Asia. InnoPath recently completed a trial with Orange, the mobile arm of the France Telecom Group. And the company expects to announce a deal with a major wireless carrier in the United States in the coming months.
Music downloads would rise if prices dropped
Online music stores would sell more downloads if the prices were lower, according to InsightExpress, a market research firm. Only 12 percent of adult consumers have bought music from an online store. "The most common reasons cited for not buying music online include a preference for traditional music store shopping, not owning a digital player and the lack of appeal of downloading," the survey said.
