Faster Forward - Technology News, Observations and Occasional Rants by The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro - October 5, 2008

Don't Buy A Mac Laptop*

* Before the 14th. Yesterday afternoon, Apple managed to surprise and not surprise observers at the same time. It shocked just about nobody by announcing that, yes, it would have the new product announcement that the rumor mill had expected in the middle of this month. But in the e-mail...

What's The Cost of a Cheap Camera?

Every story has to have its elemental conflict -- Democrats versus Republicans, Redskins versus Cowboys, Starbucks versus, um, every other coffee shop. And in the consumer-electronics business that conflict resides in the tension between commodity and creativity. Gadgets start out as rare, novel, expensive expressions of technological creativity, then become...

DVR Dilemma: Where Are Your TiVo Alternatives?

Today's Business section contains a story that may upset a lot of Dish Network subscribers -- the satellite broadcaster lost an appeal of TiVo's patent-infringement lawsuit, will pay that digital-video-recorder company $104 million, and may yet be forced to shut down its DVR operation entirely. (Disclaimer: I am a Dish...

Bonus Review: magicJack Internet Calling

After last week's column on ways to trim the costs of a technological life, a reader e-mailed to ask about a gizmo called the magicJack that provides unmetered Internet phone calls to the U.S. and Canada. The reader wanted to know if it worked or not: "Sounds too good to...

Faster Forward: October 5, 2008 - October 11, 2008

Don't Buy A Mac Laptop*

What's The Cost of a Cheap Camera?

DVR Dilemma: Where Are Your TiVo Alternatives?

Bonus Review: magicJack Internet Calling