Shuttle turned a lot of heads with the announcement of its $199 Linux PC at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. Now Linspire is looking to tempt retail customers with its own version of the sub-$200 PC.
(Credit:
Sears.com)
Starting Thursday, Linspire, maker of Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux configurations, and PC maker Mirus Innovations will sell its Mirus Linux PC on Sears.com for $199. But there is a catch: a $100 mail-in rebate is required. Otherwise the full price as of this writing is $284.99. (Sears is offering a $15 discount through Saturday.)
In comparing Linspire's version of the low-cost PC with Shuttle's, they're quite similar. Both come with an Intel Celeron processor, 1GB of memory, and an 80GB hard drive. But the Mirus PC also has some helpful bonuses Shuttle doesn't offer: an optical drive, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and a 15-in-1 memory card reader. And, of course, it comes with the Freespire 2.0 operating system, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution.
Formerly called Lindows, Linspire is based on the Debian distribution of Linux and accompanying software. It's never made much headway in the marketplace compared with rivals such as Red Hat, Novell's Suse, and more recently, Ubuntu.
StopBadware.org said Tuesday it has labeled the Sears and Kmart community software known as My SHC Community as "badware," or spyware.
The nonprofit organization run by Harvard Law School, Oxford University, and Consumer Reports WebWatch said it cited the Sears Holding Corporation community in particular "because of inadequate disclosure of extensive tracking and data collection and because the application does not identify itself while running."
In response to several accusations that it collects personal information without proper disclosure, My SHC Community has dramatically revised its Web site since last week. It has, among other changes, added a prominent link to its privacy policy.
At issue is the installation of tracking software from ComScore, an online data marketing firm. ComScore has maintained over the years that its data collection methods do not qualify as spyware. However, several leading antispyware researchers disagree.
In a statement (PDF), StopBadware.org said: "Sears Holding Corporation (SHC) has informed StopBadware that SHC is significantly improving the My SHC Community application disclosure and privacy policy language and adding a Start menu icon in an effort to comply with our guidelines and address privacy concerns. They expect these changes to be implemented within 48 hours."
However, late Tuesday, StopBadware.org said it has not changed its designation of SHC Community. "We have not evaluated these planned changes at this time. SHC has also informed us that they have suspended invitations to new users to install the application until these changes are implemented."
Online shoppers who signed up for the "Sears Holdings Community" ("My SHC Community" or "SHC") this holiday season got a gift that keeps on giving: spyware.
Sears defends its actions by saying it clearly notified customers before they accepted the software installation. However, several antispyware researchers found the Sears notification process fails to call out that users' online activities (including logging in to bank accounts) will be recorded and that it generally falls below industry standards.
The concern focuses on software installed by ComScore, an online data marketing firm. ComScore states on its Web site that it "maintains massive proprietary databases that provide a continuous, real-time measurement of the myriad ways in which the Internet is used and the wide variety of activities that are occurring online." The company has maintained over the years that its data collection methods do not qualify as spyware. However, several leading antispyware researchers disagree.
The controversy was first reported at the end of December by a senior researcher in the Anti-Spyware unit at Computer Associates, Benjamin Googins. In a blog, Googins related his own experience in joining the Sears Holdings Community, "a place where your voice is heard and your opinion matters." Although an initial sign up e-mail informed Googins of potential tracking opportunities, the online registration site itself does not. Nor does the Sears privacy policy clearly state what is and is not being tracked.
Rob Harles, a senior vice president of SHC, responded in a post to Googins blog . In his post, Harles said, "The vast majority of members of My SHC do not participate in any form of tracking, and those that have explicitly signed up do so after having been presented with simple, easy to understand language to which they have agreed." Googins says that a quick scan of older press releases shows that Harles was formerly a senior vice president at ComScore.
Veteran antispyware researcher Benjamin Edelman agrees with Googins. In a recent blog, Edelman stated "the limited SHC disclosure provided by email lacks the required specificity as to the nature, purpose, and effects of the ComScore software."
Specifically, Edelman cites that "the initial SHC email refers to the ComScore software as 'VoiceFive.' The license agreement refers to the ComScore software as 'our application' and 'this application.' The ActiveX prompt gives no product name, and it reports company name 'TMRG, Inc.' These conflicting names prevent users from figuring out what software they are asked to accept."
Although rumors have been swirling lately that Kmart has agreed to exclusively support the HD DVD format, they appear to be false.
Not supporting HD DVD exclusively after all.
(Credit: Kmart)When reached for comment, K-mart sent a rather defensive-sounding statement attributed to Jonathan Magasanik, vice president of home electronics for Sears Holdings, Kmart's parent company: "There have been numerous statements in the media (Wednesday), attributed to Toshiba, indicating exclusive support for the HD-DVD format in Kmart stores. These statements are false. Kmart intends to support both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray platforms, and has no plans to support either platform exclusively."
Kmart representatives didn't elaborate on what that means, but a quick perusal of the Kmart.com site shows that it offers standalone HD DVD players, but not standalone Blu-ray players. It does, however, sell the Sony PlayStation 3, which has an embedded Blu-ray player.
The same sort of confusion developed a few months back when Target stores began carrying Blu-ray endcaps, or stations at the end of each aisle promoting Blu-ray Disc titles. Media reports emerged then that Target was going Blu-ray-only, but it turned out Target.com still sells HD DVD players and the HD DVD attachable drive for the Microsoft Xbox 360.
Claims of exclusivity aside, the so-called HD DVD versus Blu-ray format war has quickly metamorphosed into a price war. In anticipation of the upcoming holiday shopping season, several retailers are now selling an HD DVD player for $200, and on Thursday Wal-Mart and Best Buy began offering a Toshiba HD DVD player for $99.
A riposte from Blu-ray is expected. Sony, the biggest muscle behind the Blu-ray format, has already announced it will drop the PS3 price from $499 to $399. And now it looks like Sony's own standalone Blu-ray players will be close behind. Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said Thursday evening that $399 Blu-ray players this holiday are not out of the question.
So, both formats will likely be available anywhere you want to shop this holiday. But questions remain whether $100 or $200 is still too high for a machine that only plays certain movies. After all, as long as studios are choosing sides of the format war, consumers are still likely to hold out until the titles they want to see are available regardless of the format.
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