TECHNOLOGY TOOLS TRADE of the · complete websites.The first time you use the Clickfree it will take much longer than subsequent backups. It will keep data from different computers

Sony VAIO JSThe Sony VAIO JS all-in-one

gives back much of the tradi-

tional footprint for desktops,

and there’s even space for the

keyboard. The 20.1" diagonal

LCD display features Sony’s

XBRITE-ECO™ LCD technology.

The surrounding bezel is avail-

able in silver, black, bronze, or

pink. The computer has a Blu-

Ray Disc™ (R/W) optical drive

and NVIDIA® graphics with

256MB VRAM. The on-board

memory for the computer is

500GB on the hard-disk drive

and 4GB of RAM. The sound

system is Intel’s High Definition

Audio with Dolby Digital Live

delivered over two built-in

three-watt speakers. The proces-

sor is an Intel Core 2 Duo run-

ning Windows Vista Home

Premium. The expansion slots

include a multimedia card read-

er for Memory Stick Pro (Stan-

dard/Duo) and Secure Digital

memory card. There’s a built-in

microphone and MOTION EYE

camera with face-tracking tech-

nology. Integrated stereo A2DP

Bluetooth lets you stream

CD-quality audio to

compatible external

devices. The JS is a premium

home computer and home the-

ater center for around $1,000.

www.sony.com

Clickfree™TravelerClickfree™ Traveler is billed as

the world’s smallest totally

automatic backup device. It’s

about the size of a credit card

(approximately 2.1" ✕ 3.3") in

its surface dimensions, but it’s

thicker than a card at about

0.2" thick. The connecting rib-

bon cable is built-in and slides

out for use, connecting to a USB

port. There’s no internal

drive; it’s solid-state, and

that accounts for the

pocket-size dimensions.

It’s automatic because

when you plug it in, the

auto-launch searches,

copies, and organizes

more than 400 file types,

including documents (Word,

Excel, PowerPoint), Outlook e-

mail and contacts, tax returns,

photos, videos, music, and even

complete websites. The first time

you use the Clickfree it will take

much longer than subsequent

backups. It will keep data from

different computers separate,

and, at the end of the down-

load, it will provide a summary

that includes the number of

files, total size of the backup,

and details of the the files

saved. You can review the files

on the disk by using its applica-

tion or Windows Explorer. You

can transfer files between com-

puters, even from PC to Mac,

and when you plug into a new

computer, all files will be

restored to the original loca-

tions. Because the application

isn’t based on an image for its

backup, the files can be loaded

onto any new computer, not just

an identical computer as with

image backups. The Traveler is

available in three configura-

tions—16GB, 32GB, 64GB—

and three colors. The protective

case is metal. Demos are avail-

able at www.goclickfree.com.

FileMaker ProFileMaker Pro was first released

in 1990, making it one of the

most durable software tools. A

cross-platform relational data-

base program, it can be used in

mixed environments of both

Windows and Mac OS comput-

ers. FileMaker has also devel-

oped a reputation as the most

accessible relational database,

with a drag-and-drop interface

on top of a database engine.

The improvements in Pro 10

include a new Status Toolbar

that’s customizable by the user

to set the most used features at

the top of the interface. New

Script Triggers create and run

scripts that are triggered by user

actions. You can change

grouped data on the fly with

Dynamic Reports and save

favorite find requests to simplify

later searches. There are 30

updated Starter Solutions and

10 new themes for building new

databases. Among the 30 are

Asset Management, E-mail

TECHNOLOGY

66 S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E I J u n e 2 0 0 9

TOOLSof theTRADE

Campaign, Expense Report,

Inventory, Issue Tracking, Per-

sonnel Records, Product Cata-

log, Time Billing, Time Cards,

To-do List, and more. There’s a

Send Mail via SMTP that’s new.

It connects directly to SMTP

servers so you can send an e-

mail blast to your contact list

without having to stop and go

out to an e-mail program. A

Quick Start Screen provides

access to videos and technical

resources to simplify learning.

The basic Pro version will

support nine network users

on Mac or PCs or five Web

users. There are server ver-

sions that allow up to either

250 or 999 simultaneous

networked users.

www.filemaker.com

Kindle DXOn February 9, Amazon

debuted its Kindle 2 at

New York’s Morgan Library.

Then, just three months later, on

May 6 at Pace University, a third

reader, the Kindle DX, was

offered to the public. This latest,

oversized Kindle was hailed in

the press report as having a

“large display and new features

for reading a wide range of pro-

fessional and personal docu-

ments.” Specifically, the 9.7"

display was increased to more

comfortably accommodate text-

books and newspapers. The DX

display has the same e-ink tech-

nology, but it’s 2.5 times the

surface of the Kindle’s 6"

screen. For more on the special

arrangements with several high-

profile newspapers and textbook

publishers, see this month’s Tech

Forum. Amazon is accepting

pre-orders at a pricey $489.

www.amazon.com/kindleDX

ARTHUR SULZBERGER, JR., publisher and owner of

The New York Times, first hit the big red panic button two

years ago at a World Economic Summit in Davos. He

said, “I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing The

Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care

either. The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we’re

leading there.”

Well, as a lot of heads lifted up from their desks back

in New York, Sulzberger offered the following bit of

ambivalence in a kind of backpedal a few days later. “So

let me clear the air on this issue. It is my heartfelt view

that newspapers will be around—in print—for a long

time. But I also believe we must be prepared for that

judgment to be wrong.”

Two-and-a-half years later, there are a number of

storied mastheads sinking in the dust heap of history

(Rocky Mountain News, Detroit Free Press, Seattle Post-

Intelligencer), and even a paper like The Boston Globe is

teetering on its broken axis. The Internet’s cash cow has

turned out to live in a veal box online. Advertising on Web

pages isn’t carrying its weight, and “pay walls” that put

some content behind barriers that can only be accessed by

(paying) premium subscribers or one-time micropayments

also aren’t the solution. Most newspapers online are free,

and it turns out that isn’t a sustainable plan.

LET’S INNOVATE OUR WAY OUT

Slate’s Editor at Large Jack Shafer posted an interesting

story about newspapers and technology on the website’s

“Press Box” column this past January. Shafer explained

that the editors and publishers of newspapers weren’t

blindsided by the Internet. “The industry has understood

from the advent of AM radio in the 1920s that technolo-

gy would eventually be its undoing and has always

behaved accordingly.”

There have been a number of experiments by news-

Plastic Newsprint,Digital Ink

By Michael Castelluccio, Editor

continued on next page

TECH FORUM

J u n e 2 0 0 9 I S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E 67

papers over the years, chasing after developing

technologies both as a hedge and possible line

of new revenues. Publishers acquired radio

licenses and then TV licenses. In the late

1940s, major newspapers were experi-

menting with fax editions of their

papers. In the 1970s, more than a

dozen dailies were playing around

with something called videotex. It

was a method for delivering con-

stantly updated text to remote

terminals. It was your newspaper

on a television screen.

But scrolling lousy graphics delivered over very slow con-

nections doomed efforts like Knight Ridder’s Viewtron, so

the next grand experiment was audiotext. That also faded

away quickly as the really significant threat was just coming

up on the horizon. Shafer writes, “By the mid-1980s, the

industry’s biggest worry was that the PC, which had eased

its way into homes and workplaces like an algae bloom,

would somehow supplant them.”

Newspapers first experimented with the proprietary

Internet delivery systems like AOL and CompuServe, but it

wasn’t until the World Wide Web opened the whole territory

to all homesteaders that the thundering charge would begin.

The San Jose Mercury left AOL in February 1995 for the

Web, USA Today in August. In the same year, The Boston

Globe launched Boston.com, and the Los Angeles Times sev-

ered its ties to Prodigy to head west—and east. The dust

cloud was spreading. In his book, Digitizing the News, Pablo

Boczkowski writes “that more than 750 North American

dailies were publishing on the Web in April 1998, and by

July 1999 only two of the 100 largest dailies were not.”

YAHOO!—NOW WHAT?

Although they got there early, far ahead of other companies

and the government, newspapers failed to do what was nec-

essary for long-term survival. They didn’t adapt to evolve in

the new environment. Jack Shafer describes the failure this

way: “From the beginning, newspapers sought to invent the

Web in their own image by repurposing the copy, values,

and temperament found in their ink-and-paper editions.

Despite all the animations, links, videos, databases, and oth-

er software tricks found on their sites, every newspaper Web

site is instantly identifiable as a newspaper Web site. By suc-

ceeding, they failed to invent the Web.”

The problem had been how to move the fourth estate to

the place where all print seemed to

be heading—online. But they picked

up and hauled over the entire building

and expected it to stabilize in the middle

of a digital river with conventional

advertising strapped on like pontoons.

Well, it’s sinking, and something has to

be done.

Enter a new invention. It isn’t radio,

and it’s not a fax or teletype on tele-

vision. It’s a portable piece of the Inter-

net that looks like a book.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2009, at Pace Uni-

versity, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s president and

CEO, and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., unveiled the Kindle DX—a

Kindle electronic reader with a 9.7-inch screen designed

especially for newspapers and textbooks. The headline on

The New York Observer online edition that afternoon read,

“Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and Jeff Bezos To Save Journalism

with $489 Kindle DX.”

Sulzberger told the audience, “At The New York Times we

are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to

have full and continuing access to our high-quality news

and information. The wireless delivery and new value-added

features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audi-

ence, no matter where they live, with an exciting new way to

interact with The New York Times…”

Actually, three newspapers, The New York Times, The

Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will offer a price

break on the expensive reader for those signing on for a

long-term subscription. Sulzberger’s paper reported on the

Amazon deal, explaining that The Times wasn’t entirely hap-

py with the original agreement that gives Amazon 70% of

the revenues. The deal will likely be renegotiated. There’s

also some internal competition because Amazon already

offers subscriptions to 37 other newspapers on the Kindle 2

for about $10 a month.

Has the grail been grasped? Well, probably not at $489 a

copy. Maybe with a much cheaper reader, and maybe with

an offer of a group subscription to four or five of your

favorite papers silently delivered each morning to your

reader. But for that, we might have to wait for the other

readers promised this year from Plastic Logic, Hearst’s own

FirstPaper, or the even the widely rumored Apple Reader.

The first step to turning ink to gold will likely require

$100–$150 devices that read multiple, nonproprietary

formats. SF

TECH FORUMTECHNOLOGY

68 S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E I J u n e 2 0 0 9