Not that losing 1.25 million personal records is all that big of a deal, right? After all, the United Kingdom recently lost two computer discs containing the personal details - including bank records - of 25 million people.

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While we spend countless hours trying to determine whether Windows is more secure than Linux, the “offline” world is proving itself to be the biggest security risk of all. In two separate instances, GE Money said it was missing a computer tape with 650,000 personal records, including 150,000 Social Security numbers, and the UK’s Ministry of Defense managed to lose a laptop with the personal details of 600,000 new and prospective military recruits.

What’s missing? Quite a few things are missing, actually. Though a 3G iPhone remains the grand prize, I was still hoping for a few other improvements. In particular I’d like to see Adobe Flash playback, more memory, cut and paste, multimedia messaging, stereo Bluetooth and video recording. And one more thing…how about some SDK news? But on the whole it was decent show but I can’t wait more.

Shake up the home screen The iPhone’s home screen is slick but up until now it hasn’t offered customization options. But with today’s update, you’ll be able to add your personal touch. By pressing and holding any icon, all the the icons on the display will start to wiggle. You then can move icons around and rearrange them at will. By moving icons to the right you also can access a second menu page and you can add or remove on the “dock” at the bottom of the display. It’s clear that with this new feature Apple is readying the iPhone for more applications, particularly as the company prepares for next month’s SDK. To stop the icons from wiggling, just press the Home button.

Movies and music Going forward the iPhone will support Apple’s iTunes movie rentals, which jobs also announced at the show. And when watching films, you’ll be able to through the movies by chapter and select alternate language tracks and view subtitles. Also, when playing music in the
iPod player, you’ll be able to see lyric overlays. All in all, these fixes sound pretty neat.

The next mapping feature is pretty cool. By pressing the new icon on the lower right corner of the touchscreen you can drop a pin wherever you like on the map. You can move the pin around and you can use it as a location for determining directions.

By the numbers Jobs said that in the 200 days that the iPhone has been selling, Apple has sold four million units for an average of about 20,000 a day.

It’s now been a year since Apple first unveiled its iPhone and today the company announced a series of updates to the super-hyped device. Though 3G-capability remains on the horizon (it will come this year, however) now has the capability to do a couple things its should have done form the outset. Speaking at the Macworld 2008 keynote in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a handful of features in update 1.1.3 including Google Maps location triangulation and the ability to send a text message to multiple recipients. The result is a more useful device, but we were hoping for a bit more. The update is available today–you need only to download the latest version of iTunes–and unlike the similar updates for the iPod Touch that were also announced today, it is free.

Safari bookmarks Though you’ve always been able to bookmark Web sites in the
Safari browser today’s update lets you add those bookmarks to the home screen in the form of icons. When viewing your favorite site, just tap the bookmark icon and you’ll find a new “Add to home screen” option. After clicking that and naming the bookmark whatever you’d like an icon with a miniature version of the Web page will appear on the home screen. You can add multiple icons (thanks to the new second menu page) and you can move them around using the aforementioned home screen customization feature. Also, you can delete “web clips” (as Jobs called them) at will. I think this is a also a useful feature as it saves you a few clicks inside the browser.

Better SMS This may be the most basic part of the update but it’s the one that I’m most excited about. While previously the
iPhone would let you send a text message to just one person at a time, today’s update will allow you to send a message to several people simultaneously. No, it’s not new and no, it’s not sexy, but it is without a doubt useful. I think the iPhone should have had such capability from the very beginning, but that’s another story.

Location, location, location The Google Maps functionality gained a new degree of functionality with a location service. It doesn’t magically become a GPS device GPS (you can’t add a GPS chip via a software update) but it will let you pinpoint your approximate location on the Goggle Maps feature. As Jobs demonstrated in his keynote, when you tap the new icon in the lower left corner of the touchscreen, a circle will show where you should be on the map. But rather than connecting to a satellite, it finds you by connecting to nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular towers and pinpointing their location (sort of a back door locater). You then can find directions using your pinpointed location.

When I gave it a go the location service was off by several blocks on my first attempt. Though even standard GPS systems aren’t perfect, the margin of error was still too big. Fortunately, the second time I tried the location service it was much more accurate and I liked that I could zoom in quite close. Yet it’s worth noting that the functionality won’t work when you’re away from wireless civilization, which typically is a time when GPS services come in really handy. I’m glad to see this feature added, though.

iPhone with the new Google Maps feature

Closet Couture previewed today at the TechCrunch50 conference and will be in private beta for the next few months.

The virtual closet in Closet Couture lets you put together something to wear with a virtual you.

This is not an easy task if you’ve got a big closet. Where it comes into play is for the stylists, who can take a look at what you’ve worn and get a look at your tastes. Or if you’re bored at work and want to start putting together something to wear.

Closet Couture is a new shopping site meets virtual closet aimed at women. Its killer feature is that it’s got a network of stylists that can improve your look for a fee. They take a look at your picture and virtual wardrobe and tell you what to buy.

Related:

FashMatch: One click away from fashion 2.0

Shopcasting can flaunt your style, but the wardrobes need help
ShopStyle, the search engine for fashionistas

Shop by shape, not size

The virtual wardrobe actually looks like quite a bit of fun. You upload pictures of your clothes and the site lets you remove the background. You can then stretch the clothes out on a virtual model. This works with clothes you own and clothes you might want to purchase, so you can mix, match, then buy what you don’t have with the site getting a small cut.

The idea of virtual closets is far from new. Several other sites have tried to socialize fashion and the results have been mixed. One of my favorites out of the bunch was Closet Assistant, (coverage) which does kind of the same thing (minus the mannequin) but puts the responsibility of telling you what to wear on other users instead of paid professionals.

Vizio's VP322 plasma measures just 32 inches diagonal.

(Credit:
CNET)

Before the Vizio VP322 came along, we always said that plasma-screen HDTVs basically started at 42 inches and went up from there. One exception was Panasonic’s 37-inch size, which is still available in the form of models like the TH37PH10UK professional model, but now that Panasonic is into LCD at that size, it no longer markets a 37-inch plasma to consumers.

Vizio, one of the few budget companies that bothers with both plasma and LCD, has taken another tack in introducing the smallest plasma yet. The 32-inch VP322 is the same size as the company’s popular VO32L, an LCD model, and it has the same list price. But a few items on the spec sheet are different, including native resolution, contrast ratio, or course, response time. So do those specs translate to visible differences between the Vizio and other budget LCDs?

As usual, the full review tells a different story from the specs. The plasma’s higher contrast ratio didn’t translate into better black levels, and the difference in resolution was negligible. This plasma’s main weakness is color accuracy, which is only partly balanced by the advantage of superior picture uniformity. In the end we prefer some budget LCDs, but the Vizio plasma still might appeal to bargain hunters who want to go glass.

For the complete story check out the CNET review of the Vizio VP322.

The ever watchful eye of Crave spied Acer’s Aspire One Netbook on a few online resellers last week (while our British brethren got their hands on one last month), and today Acer makes it official by announcing the U.S. availability of its 8.9-inch Netbook. The company outlines three models, which range in price from a very low $379 to $449. By comparison, the latest Asus Eee PC 901 comes in at $599, while the MSI Wind is priced at $479.

All three Aspire One models use the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor (which is what we saw in both the Eee PC 901 and the MSI Wind) and an 8.9-inch, LED-backlit display with a 1,024×600 resolution and a Webcam above it. You also get three USB 2.0 ports, two media card slots, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and 10/100 Ethernet.

Acer states the Aspire One weighs 2.17 pounds, which is a few ounces lighter than either the 8.9-inch Eee PC or the 10-inch MSI Wind. It’s available in blue or white currently, with golden brown and black options coming later in the year.

The $379 unit includes 512MB of RAM, an 8GB solid-state hard drive, a 3-cell battery, and Linpus Linux Lite OS. A $399 model bumps you up to 1GB of RAM, turns the SSD drive into a 120GB spinning hard drive, and switches the OS to Windows XP Home. Lastly, the $449 Aspire One supplies a 6-cell battery, 1GB of memory, the 8GB SSD, and Linux.

A quick scan of the reseller mentioned Acer’s release this morning–Best Buy, Circuit City, and CDW–reveals only the $379 and $399 models at CDW. It would seem that 6-cell batteries are still in tight supply. Given that a mobile Internet and communications device like the Aspire One is likely to spend much of its time away from a wall outlet, we’d hold out for a model with a six-cell battery.

(Credit:
Acer)

Three of my team vs. one Paladin and she still managed to slice through us like a hot knife through butter. Bring on the nerf bat.

(Credit:
Eric Franklin/CNET Networks)

If you’re excited about the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, then you’ve probably already downloaded the latest WoW patch–3.0.2, released Tuesday. If for some reason you haven’t done so, then I implore you to, as the game sees many positive changes with this latest update.

The World of Warcraft patch 3.0.2: Echoes of Doom brings a number of changes and new features. Among them are:

New talents and spells for existing classes (all talent points have been refunded!)
The implementation of barber shops for players
Two new arenas featuring more dynamic terrain than previous arenas
Guild calendar
The Hunter pet skill revamp
A new profession: inscription
The new achievement system
Spellpower consolidation

In addition to these major changes are many, many small ones. Some of my favorites are:

New animations for all three Warlock drain spells (in addition to many other other new animations)
Noncombat pets and mounts no longer taking up space in bags
Battleground tokens and Badges of Justice no longer taking up space in bags
The new currency tab

OK, this next paragraph will get fairly hard-core and nerdy. if you’re interested, have your WoW friends translate for you. You’ve been warned.

So after speccing my Warlock as close to SL/SL as I could, I headed into Battlegrounds for some PVP action. I was not prepared for the bloodbath that ensued. Every class seems to be doing more damage and as a result, clothies like Warlocks, Priests, and Mages have never been easier to kill.

Retribution-specced Paladins are the ones to blame here for the most part. My newly 70 Warlock has about 180 resilience and is constantly getting two-shotted by these pricks. They (and to a lesser extent Arms Warriors) are like walking Cuisinarts. Luckily, they’ll be hit with the nerf bat soon enough. (end nerdtalk)

Of course, about an hour into playing last night (after waiting more than two hours for the patch to download), my server came down for a not-too-surprising emergency maintenance, ending my night prematurely.

Basically, with this patch you get most of the new features expected with Wrath except for the new zones, quests, dungeons, battlegrounds, the new Death Knight class, and the ability to level to 80. We’ll still have to wait another month for that, but with all the new talents and achievements, at least the wait will be an interesting one.

First up is DeviceVM’s Splashtop, a virtual operating system that hopes to break the cycle of long computer boot-up times by producing the Splashtop desktop a few seconds after the BIOS screen blinks on. You can access the Web, photos, videos, chat, and Skype while Windows finishes loading. You can switch back to the main OS to access Adobe Photoshop,
Microsoft Office, and other powerhouse apps.

The full-media Web launcher is based on
Firefox with Adobe plug-ins. The interface has large, cartoonish, but pleasant-looking, icons for accessing the apps.

Splashtop, which is aimed squarely at consumers, will be integrated into Asus laptops and will be known as ExpressGate on those machines. For some OEMs partnered with DeviceVM, which weren’t mentioned by name, Splashtop will add value as a premium service. For others, it will be integrated into every laptop model.

Is Kirill Sheynkman’s third Silicon Valley start-up a flexible stab at managing virtual machines in the cloud? His answer: Virtualize a scalable database and sell it as a server to business clients, mostly other start-ups. Elastra Cloud Server stores client data on Amazon’s Web Services, taking care of speed and security (though doubt has been cast on the latter issue.)

JumpBox is an open-source app-installer that runs on any major virtualization platforms for Windows,
Mac, and Linux. The idea is that each “JumpBox” removes the pain point for users, start-ups, and departments tackling the often thorny and time-consuming installation of open-source products, for techies and non-techies alike. JumpBox sees itself as an enabler and time-saver. A $200 yearly subscription gets the user the 20 open-source apps like MediaWiki and Cacti Network Graphing System in addition to future releases. That’s just the introductory price for the company, launched in July 2007. Expect it to rise within the next six months.

The judges pointed out that JumpBox has a lot of commercial competitors, and that users might be reluctant to download and install the open-source apps themselves, which are free already. CEO Kimbro Staken responded that their value-add is trust in a flawless installation and saving two days or more of a workers’ time trying to install apps like Trac. Additionally, JumpBox lets companies store sensitive data within their own firewall instead of on the Web.

Universant is a next-generation application modeling environment that helps companies build complex business apps in-house. Universant gathered the most common components for software used to manage corporations into one place. Companies can use Universant’s runtime environment in the cloud to build and test apps for free. When it comes time to deploy and distribute that software, Universant opens its pockets.

The bombastic radio host has been a Mac user for years, but on Tuesday he complained on his show about issues with six Macs that he runs on a network, without providing any details. The story made its way around the Mac community to a mixture of curious and hostile responses, and now Limbaugh has outlined his two main beefs.

Rush doesn't like the fact he can't back up his e-mail with Time Machine.

(Credit:
Rushlimbaugh.com)

The first one is the Back to my Mac feature introduced with Leopard isn’t working on a regular basis. This is supposed to allow you to access files and applications that reside on a Mac running Leopard from any other Leopard Mac. He wouldn’t be the first to report problems with Back to my Mac, and Apple has been looking into compatibility issues with third-party routers.

Limbaugh’s more puzzling complaint, however, involves Time Machine. Time Machine was considered one of the more compelling reasons to upgrade to Leopard, as it’s designed to make backup and restoring files–which few people actually do–a much easier process. Most of the early complaints around Time Machine have involved the inability to use it wirelessly with MacBooks or MacBook Pros unless you buy Apple’s Time Capsule product, but that’s not what has El Rushbo up in arms.

He’s peeved that Time Machine doesn’t appear to work with e-mail. “E-mail is everything, and Time Machine will not restore e-mail mailboxes. Restores everything else but that, and ought to restore either a single message or a whole mailbox, and it won’t,” he wrote on his Web site Wednesday.

However, Limbaugh doesn’t get into how he accesses e-mail on his Mac; for example, whether he’s reading it off the server or downloading the messages to his Mac. Most people in corporate-style setups read their e-mail off a server, and it’s sort of hard to expect a desktop backup system to back up files that aren’t actually stored on the desktop.

But if he’s downloading e-mail to his desktop, that’s another thing. Can he not find the folder where those files are stored? Is there actually some problem with Time Machine’s ability to recognize e-mails as data? Who knows.

Apple declined to comment on Limbaugh’s issues, and Limbaugh never replied to Wednesday’s e-mail for comment on the issue.

HealthCentral, which boasts 7.7 million viewers, is a collection of more than 30 sites on healthy living and specific conditions where patients and experts share information.

Diller and Peter Horan, chief executive of IAC’s media and advertising sector, will serve on HealthCentral’s Board.

IAC invested in Medem, a suite of Web-based physician-patient communication services last year, and its Ask search engine has partnered with Healthline Networks.

IAC isn’t the only big Internet company jumping into the health space. AOL launched AOL Body last year in partnership with Healthline. And Microsoft and Google are also working on health-related initiatives.

ORLANDO, Fla.–Search giant Google launched Google Health and announced major industry partners on Thursday, aiming to be the Intuit for personal health care, where people can access all their health information in one spot.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt answers reporters' questions after announcing Google Health.

(Credit:
Elinor Mills/CNET News.com)

“Why would Google be here?” Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said during a keynote speech at the Health Information Management Systems Society trade show, which he said was not one the company has normally attended. “What’s the most important search I could do?”

The answer: health. Nearly one out of two Americans has a chronic health condition, he said. Meanwhile, people are already using the Web to get information, including one man, who told Google a search for heart attack symptoms on Google led him to call an ambulance and saved his life, Schmidt said.

“We’re going to partner with leaders in health care to cross-connect…and apply the principles of the Internet” to improve the industry, he said. “The first principle is, it’s the user’s data. The data follows the consumer wherever they go” when they change doctors or insurers.

Currently, there are more than 200 personal health record systems that are closed or tethered to a particular health system, he said.

Google Health aims to untether the 2 billion X-rays taken in the U.S. each year, 62 million CAT scans, and other health data, and put them all online for the patients to access.

Future partners include major hospitals, pharmacies, and insurers, including Walgreen, Aetna, Wal-Mart Stores, the University of California at San Francisco, the American Heart Association, Quest Diagnostics, Long’s Drugs, the American Medical Association, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University.

Google turned to experts in the field in creating Google Health and formed a health advisory council that included Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Molly Coye of HealthTech, Paul Tan of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and
Sharon Terry of the Genetic Alliance.

A Google employee who is also an emergency room doctor demonstrated Google Health, which was previewed at Google’s booth at the HIMSS show.

The system stores all the health records of a patient and enables users to import records from different health provider systems, as well as search for doctors and get information on conditions from Google Scholar, discussion groups, and other sources.

Google Health lets consumers get information about medical conditions, including illustrations to help identify symptoms, as this screenshot from CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote shows.

(Credit:
Elinor Mills/CNET News.com)

Third-party developers have created gadgets that can be embedded in iGoogle home pages for things like alerts to remind patients to take their medicine, and other developers have created interfaces for displaying a weekly view of all the medicines a patient takes.

During a question-and-answer session, a physician told Schmidt that he has “a pang about ‘Big Brother Google’ knowing so much about me.” Schmidt assured him that the system would be safe and secure, and that no information could be shared with anyone without permission from the user.

During a news conference after the keynote speech, Schmidt said that if the government tries to subpoena Google for the consumer records, the company would have to comply, but he hinted in answering a follow-up question that patients could circumvent that by deleting their records.

“We are subject to U.S. law. In the case where we are forced by court to turn over information, we would do it,” he said. “If the information were not there, it would be (hard) to subpoena it,” he added.

Asked if insurance companies would have access to the data, Schmidt said that barring a law, the only way Google would share with insurers is “if someone were to force us with a gun to do it.”

“We have taken a pretty aggressive position with regard to protecting (consumer) privacy in the U.S., but we are subject to U.S. law,” he said.

Earlier, an attendee asked whether Google has a “monetization path” for Google Health.

“Not in the short term,” Schmidt said, adding that the hope is that people using the site will also use other Google sites and ultimately click on ads there. Google News similarly drives people to search on Google.