Thanks to the simple addition of thumbs up and thumbs down buttons on many websites, advertisers are finally getting a sense of how enjoyable (or annoying) their ads are.

The Internet has long provided a measurement of how effective an ad is -- that is how many times it was clicked versus how often it was shown, a metric called click-through rate. But that's based simply on how loud and flashy a banner can be in order to attract a reader's attention.

A click doesn't necessarily convert to a purchase, or "conversion" as they call it, nor are visitors guaranteed to associate the product positively. If an ad mimics a virus alert, it might get clicked out of fear or urgency but won't elicit a pleasant reaction once users realize they were duped.

Many social networking sites, including Facebook, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon, are beginning to shift toward a subjective ad model. Initial results from allowing users to rate ads have been mostly positive. The success may be inspiring a trend, as advertisers throughout the Web seem to be toning down on annoying ads.

One of the boldest implementations is Digg Ads, which publicly launched in August and has tested exceptionally well, according to Mike Maser, Digg's chief strategy officer.

The new sponsored posts appear in the main content space and look almost identical (save for a thin gray line and small "sponsored by" text) to user-submitted news stories. Whereas an isolated graphic ad on Digg gets about eight clicks out of every 10,000 impressions, Digg Ads are pulling click-through rates of 2% to 3%.

"The results were astounding to us," Maser said. The advertisers are "writing copy and headlines in a way that's almost as if you'd want to share it with someone."

Digg's philosophy of allowing users to curate good content by voting on what's worthwhile and "burying" what stinks has converted well to paid spots. Advertisers are encouraged to make good, funny, compelling ads rather than loud ones because users can knock out the lame ads just as easily as they can "digg" them.

Digg's bold twist is that the company charges advertisers more if the users dislike their content and less if it's well-received. This usually results in bad ads getting shown less frequently.

"We actually consult with brands and marketers on how to write those [good] headlines," Maser said. "We have a full-time copywriter."

Intel was one of the first adopters of Digg's new platform. One of the products of that partnership was a rather edgy ad titled "Watch Hot Girl Vlogger Take WiMAX For A Spin" (pictured below). The borderline sexist plug for Rocketboom's Ellie Rountree's video perhaps played to Digg's perceived overwhelmingly male audience.

Maser points out that the gender divide isn't as significant as it once was despite the continued site comments like, "Gasp, a girl on Digg!" Of the site's 40 million unique monthly visitors, 40% are female.

Regardless, Intel spokesman David Dickstein wrote that the company was "satisfied with the results." He added, "We chose compelling content from our consumer blog on Intel.com rather than copy-written ads to facilitate the connection with Intel experts at a more personal level."

Mason Wiley, vice president of marketing for online ad network Hydra, isn't surprised by the bold attempts these programs have spurred.

"People tune out ads," Wiley said. "Nowadays, to get attention, you have to be kind of crazy. ... Smart advertisers are trying to make ads that are entertaining."

Social news competitor Reddit has begun slowly rolling out a similar ad platform. In partnership with Adpinions, some of Reddit's 7 million monthly unique visitors are seeing banners with two thumb icons underneath.

While some ad groups are seeing massively increased click-through rates, the major value is all of the feedback they're receiving, said Luke Iannini, chief executive of Adpinions' three-person team.

It lets them cater ads to location, sections and time of day. "That's part of the secret sauce of our algorithm," Iannani said, taking into account "relationships between products."

The system automatically figures out that the video game section likes Nintendo ads and the political session likes Thomas Jefferson statues. A baffling trend is the recurring similarities between people in Boston and Miami.

Adpinions had demonstrated its product to Facebook, Iannini reminisced. A week later, thumb graphics began appearing underneath ads throughout the social networking site. Facebook is often mum on the inner-workings of its platform and the company didn't respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Facebook seems to demonstrate that the concept can indeed scale. It has probably the world's largest ad opinion pool. Leveraging these massive amounts of data could very well have contributed to its projected $500 million in revenue this year.

As the Internet's emerging sites turn on these interactive ad features, we can't help but wonder why Google hasn't integrated them into its dominant AdSense platform. How long until Google gives the thumbs up?

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

Top image: Reddit. Bottom image: Digg

Consumer retail sales of Microsoft's newest computer operating system topped those of Vista by 234% on a unit basis within the first few days of launching on Oct. 22, according to a report released this morning by the NPD Group. (The report did not include sales to businesses and large organizations.)

That Windows 7 would do better than Vista is not too surprising. Critical buzz for Windows 7 was relatively positive and largely void of the savage language that reviewers heaped on Vista when it launched in January 2007.

This time around, Microsoft also attempted to woo reluctant buyers with discounts and specials, such as a 50% discount on a copy of the software when buyers spring for a new PC, or a free upgrade from Vista for those who bought a PC after June 26.

"We definitely saw the results of aggressive pricing," said Stephen Baker, NPD's computer software analyst. 

Though helpful for pushing volume, the discounts may have crimped Microsoft's overall revenue from the product. (The NPD report is mum on the sales impact on Microsoft's topline.)

The fly in everyone's ointment, of course, has been the economy. With consumers making do with their old computers or opting for ultra-cheap netbooks, average PC prices have dropped around 20% since last year, Baker said.

While unit sales of Windows 7 software were up in the first days of launch over Vista, sales of computers with Windows 7 were actually down 4% compared with sales of Vista-based computers when Vista launched. The comparison is not a fair one, Baker cautioned, because Vista launched in a January, when PC sales tend to do better, and Windows 7 launched in October, one of the slowest months for PC sales.

Still, the gruesome economy may have helped Windows 7 sales in one respect, according to Richard Shim, a PC analyst with IDC.

"Usually upgrades are not very popular. People have tended to buy new PCs when new operating systems come out," Shim said. "Windows 7 seems to be an exception. One reason is that it can work well with older computers because it's designed to be streamlined."

In other words, instead of spending $500 for a new computer, some consumers are springing for the $120 to $220 Windows 7 upgrade and souping up their old machines.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

We're getting this out of the way now: Motorola's Droid is the best Google phone on the market.

Maybe that's not saying a whole lot. The Droid's only competitors in the U.S. are T-Mobile's 1-year-old G1, its chubby younger brother the MyTouch 3G and HTC's Droid Eris, a $99 Verizon Wireless phone that comes out Friday -- the same day as the Motorola Droid -- with an already-outdated Android operating system.

Here's another one: Droid is the best phone on Verizon.

As we wrote last week, the Droid marks a notable shift for the nation's largest carrier. Verizon -- often renowned for its service, not its selection of phones -- seems to be wisely minimizing its interference with handset makers.

What we get is an attractive and fast smart phone packed to the brim with features for $199 (with a two-year contract).

The Droid hardware is a technical feat. It has a 5-megapixel camera with a flash that doesn't perform exceptionally well but still pretty great for a phone. The speaker is pleasantly loud. The touch-screen screen is gorgeous -- larger than the iPhone's with way more pixels per inch.

Oh, and it has a keyboard.

After spending plenty of time with the iPhone and MyTouch, we realized just how much we don't miss physical keyboards. Granted, the Droid's isn't as nice as most Blackberry keyboards. We spewed just as many typos on the Droid's black-and-white-and-brown keyboard as we did on software keyboards. Only problem is that we're not offered automatic corrections like we get on the touch-screen keyboard.

Impressively, the slide-out keyboard doesn't add much thickness compared with the iPhone -- the Droid is only slightly bigger and noticeably heavier. The keyboard is a nice option (geeks will enjoy the pro shortcuts), but if you're not digging it, you never have to pull it out.

Motorola takes a step back with its navigation buttons. Competing Android phones use a scroll ball -- you know, that little nub that makes the Blackberry so good for e-mail. Instead, the Droid opts for a four-way rocker navigation with a center button, which sits next to the keyboard and provides little utility.

Under the hood, the Droid runs a version of Android 2.0, becoming the first device that has it. That means it packs features and polish you won't see on the other guys -- most notably the free Google Maps Navigation software.

Android has really come a long way in a year. The software keyboard is smarter, the included apps more sophisticated and the subtleties of switching between programs more natural.

But for as far as Google's operating system has come, it remains several steps behind Apple's iPhone in many respects. Even though we ripped on Apple for leaving out the copy-and-paste feature for so long, there's something to be said about how it was finally implemented. It's simple and works incredibly well.

On the flip side, selecting text on the Droid drives us nuts. The option is hidden behind a menu screen; there's no clever magnifying glass to help you grab the right section; and to copy, you have to again find the option somewhere in the menus.

This design choice underlines a prevalent problem that still plagues Android. Some fairly common actions are hidden, including the basic ability to delete apps.

(Here's a tip so you don't look like a stooge at the Verizon store: Press the lock icon and turn to the right to open the phone. The majority of people who played with our review unit couldn't figure out how to get into the phone.)

Button layouts can vary widely from app to app. Transitioning between the many programs that can run simultaneously works well enough, but some can't be closed while others gobble up battery power with no warning.

Android's Marketplace offers more than 10,000 apps -- that's certainly not on par with Apple's library of 100,000, but Android's selection covers most of the main utilities.

As a game system, it's severely lacking. As a media player, it's even worse.

The iPhone can sufficiently replace a standalone iPod. The Droid won't. Getting songs onto the thing is a hassle. No media sync, no smart playlists, no TV shows or movies.

Sure, we love some of the features Motorola built exclusively for this handset -- things that could never be done on the iPhone without Apple engineers building it themselves. For example, the Droid phone book integrates with your Facebook contacts.

But these little perks don't make up for the intuitiveness and maturity of the iPhone's operating system that Android has yet to match.

Yet, as a phone, the Droid is top-notch. It integrates seamlessly with Google Voice and runs on Verizon, a telecom with a superior reputation for reliable call coverage -- unlike AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone.

For at least the next couple of months, Droid will wear the crowns of best Android device and best Verizon phone.

But Google is constantly making improvements behind the scenes to its mobile system, so who knows how long that will last? With more phone makers on the Google bandwagon, next year could very well mark the Droid renaissance.

-- Mark Milian

Twitter: @markmilian

Video credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

You can play music on the iPhone with the Leaf Trombone app. Researchers believe they can come up with a similar app for smokers to help them quit smoking. Credit: Peter DaSilva/Los Angeles Times .

Columbia University's Teachers College announced today that it received a  $150,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, through the foundation's Health Games Research national program to develop a smart phone app that emulates the physiological responses smokers get from smoking.

The first apps are likely to be for Apple Inc.'s iPhone or iPod Touch. The user would control the game by blowing into the device's microphone in response to different color and sound stimuli coming from the handset. Researchers hope that it will be able to elicit the same brain patterns, heart rate levels and relaxation responses that smokers get from smoking. The game, Lit: A Game Intervention for Nicotine Smokers, is expected to be released in about two years.

Breath therapy has been used to help smokers quit smoking for a while, but it's hoped that the game will  disseminate this technique to the masses. "You don't have to learn anything; the game will cause you to breathe the right way," said Charles Kinzer, professor of education in the Communication, Computing and Technology Program and the Game Research Lab at Teachers College.

Technology is being used in another way to help smokers quit smoking. Researchers at the GRAP Occupational Psychology Clinic and the University of Quebec in Gatineau recently found that smokers who crushed virtual cigarettes experienced a significant reduction in nicotine addiction.

Tobacco use is still the leading cause of death in the United States, according to a statement from Kinzer and the Lit project team. It added that 70% of adult smokers say they want to quit, and more than 40% try to quit each year.

Kinzer said, "If we can capitalize on the motivational aspect of games and the availability of mobile devices, there is tremendous potential to positively affect heath and wellness for smokers who want to quit, and this would have implications for healthcare costs as well."

--Melissa Rohlin

Video game sales this holiday aren't likely to top last year's, said Robert Kotick, chief executive of Activision Blizzard Inc., the world's largest video game software company.

"If the consumer materializes and spends money, we'll do well," Kotick said in an interview today. "If not, things will be a challenge. And today, you really have no way of knowing what will happen. Shopping season hasn't kicked off. Consumers saw significant discounts last year after Black Friday, and they're waiting for it to happen again this year."

Kotick's sober remarks came just before the company released its third-quarter earnings report. Although sales were down 1% to $703 million, Activision swung into a $15-million profit, up from a $108-million loss in the same quarter last year. It earned a penny a share in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with an 8-cent loss a year earlier. The numbers beat Wall Street expectations on a non-GAAP basis.

Activision -- anchored by a trio of blockbuster franchises including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft -- has been better prepared to weather the economic storm that has eroded software sales and dampened consumer's appetite for game consoles and other consumer electronics.

This quarter, the Santa Monica-based game publisher released DJ Hero last week, followed by Band Hero on Tuesday. Upcoming titles include Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, due out next week, and Tony Hawk Ride on Nov. 17.

More after the company's earnings conference call with senior executives.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Google has unveiled its 'Google Dashboard' service, a page where users can get a sense of the data the company stores about them in any of 23 different Google-run services. 

"We think of this as a great step towards giving people transparency and control over their data, and we hope this helps shape the way the industry thinks about these issues," Alma Whitten, a Google  engineer who works on Privacy and Security, said in a statement.

The Dashboard is essentially a page listing each service that stores data, along with which types of data it stores. Rather than allowing users to control and edit their data directly from the page, however, Dashboard refers users to other pre-existing settings pages. In that sense, the Dashboard is a consolidation of existing functions, not a new set of tools by which users can control their data.

And though much of the concern about Google's data storage revolves around precisely how and what the company does to analyze and profit from user information, the Dashboard offers little insight into those domains. It does not specify which services keep user data, or for how long. Neither does it alert users that, for instance, their Web search histories and e-mails are constantly scanned for the purposes of selling products to them and others.

But users should expect that most or all of their data could be used for advertising, Google said. "To most folks, I think that there is a general expectation that even when we launch a product that doesn't have a clear business model associated with it, there's a possibility that advertising could be associated in some way," said Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for Trust & Safety.

Google said it would continue to add features to the Dashboard, and that services that were not included in the first iteration -- Analytics, AdWords, AdSense, and Book Search among others -- would be added in later versions.

-- David Sarno

Google offered this example of how an online store using Google Commerce Search could look, with searchable products sortable by category, color, size or price. Credit: Google.

With Google Commerce Search -- a service that will cost retailers $50,000 or more for an annual subscription -- the Internet giant will set up a search function on an online retailer's website, which Google says will dramatically improve user experience and drive sales. The product represents a challenge to Google's archrival Microsoft Corp., as well as to Oracle Corp., Endeca Technologies Inc. and other firms that run retailers' websites.

The main selling points are that everything that has made Google a dominant company -- vast computing resources, algorithms that provide right results, and even the ability to fix your typos and find what you're looking for -- will help people navigate clunky retail websites that cause a major stumbling block to sales.

"Search was the most important aspect of an e-commerce experience," said Nitin Mangtani, a lead product manager at Google. People go to a website looking to buy, say, a laptop, and they search the site for the item they want. "If the users are able to find that laptop easily, they are more likely to buy the product," Mangtani said. "If it takes them eight to 10 seconds, and they can't find it easily, they leave the website."

Whereas people have high expectations, websites weren't delivering, so Google saw an opportunity, the company said.

Search engine analyst Greg Sterling said...

... that when Google rolls out new ventures, they typically work for the company on several levels, and this sounds like it's no exception.

It gives the company a toehold into software for big business, which it has been trying to do for awhile. The new service helps Google diversify its revenue base. Despite Google's many sidelines, such as YouTube and desktop applications, its main source of income remains search advertising. And it could give the company more data about consumer behavior, something Google always craves. "Google has always got multiple angles that they’re working," Sterling said.

But Google has to be careful, Sterling warned, because of some companies' growing fear that Google is becoming too powerful. "With every product Google rolls out now, they have this other burden: the shadow that they cast, the big footprint, their dominance in the market," Sterling said. "I don't know how merchants will react. Some may be cautious because they don’t want to be dependent on Google because of this concern."

Google has already dipped its toe in the online retail world with something called Google Product Search. That's free to companies who give Google the data about what they're selling so that Google can serve it up in a neat package on its own search page. If you've ever searched for a product and seen a box that says "shopping results" for the item you sought, that's Google Product Search. Google Commerce Search basically takes that formula to the next level, putting it on a company's site -- without the Google name or Google ads.

-- Dan Fost

Apple announced today that the iPhone's App Store broke the 100,000-software mark, and app fever rages on. Heck, there's now an app for driving a car.

But maybe apps aren't enough anymore.

We were taken aback when readers flooded a post about AT&T improving cellphone service in Southern California with comments spitting venom at the telecom and threatening to jump ship to Verizon -- iPhone or not. Funnier still, complaints about AT&T kept rolling in even as T-Mobile was experiencing a full-on outage that affected an estimated 5% of customers.

Could it just be lust for Verizon's Droid, the telecom's first smartphone based on Google's Android operating system?

Either way, it's comforting to know that we here in the States are not alone. CNet UK called the iPhone "the worst phone in the world" on Tuesday, adding that it was a great mobile device but terrible for making calls. CNet lays much of the blame on O2, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 3G S; other carriers offer the older models.

On top of that, a survey released Tuesday makes iPhone owners look like shallow jerks.

Among the damning statistics, Apple phone users are more attracted to other gadget owners rather than those with a college education, according to the Retrevo survey of 247 iPhone owners nationwide. Oh, and they also end relationships via text messages and e-mails, according to the survey, which is caused by their significant others spending too much time on their phones a quarter of the time.

Of course, there haven't actually been any signs showing that iPhone users are tossing away their beloved devices -- not even of slowed growth. AT&T reportedly added 4.3 million 3G-enabled devices in the third quarter and 3.2 million of those were iPhones.

But the iPhone's public perception is no longer pristine. And Verizon, with its iDon't marketing campaign, wants to keep it that way.

-- Mark Milian

Twitter: @markmilian

Photo: Apple's Steve Jobs with an iPhone. Credit: Peer Grimm / European Pressphoto Agency

A recent study by the GRAP Occupational Psychology Clinic and the University of Quebec in Gatineau found that smokers who destroyed cigarettes in a virtual reality experienced a significant reduction in nicotine addiction.

A group of 91 smokers who were enrolled in a 12-week anti-smoking support group were split into two treatment groups. One group grasped computer-simulated balls and the other crushed computer-simulated cigarettes.

After 12 weeks, 15% of the participants who crushed virtual cigarettes stopped smoking, while only 2% of those who grasped virtual balls reported abstinence.

The participants were between 18 and 65 years old, with an average age of 44. They were in good general health, smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day and had been smoking for an average of 27 years. They came to the clinic once a week for the first four weeks, then once every two weeks for the last eight weeks of the study.

After six months, the researchers called the participants, and 39% of the people who had crushed virtual cigarettes said they had not smoked in the last week, but only 20% of the people who had grasped virtual balls exercised the same restraint.  

The researchers believe further studies must be conducted to explain their results, but they have hypothesized various explanations about self-efficacy, motivation and learning.

If destroying cigarettes in a virtual world could galvanize smokers to quit smoking, could throwing food and smashing alcohol bottles in virtual reality reduce obesity and alcoholism? It may not be so far fetched, at least according to this study.

-- Melissa Rohlin

An Indian model holds an Intel Xeon processor 7400 series product in 2008. Credit: NV Jagadeesh/EPA.

New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo today filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, alleging that the company engaged in "a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct" to further its business and stifle competitors.

Cuomo's office maintained that Intel paid or threatened some of the world's leading computer makers -- Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM among them -- to prevent the companies from doing business with Intel's main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.  The payments, the complaint alleges, came in the form of high-dollar "rebates" to the computer makers, though Cuomo's office dismissed the rebates as "payoffs" that Intel made to hide their true nature.

The case is assembled in part from internal e-mails collected from Intel's business partners and from within the company itself, according to the filing.

“'I understand the point about the accounts wanting a full AMD portfolio,'" wrote an IBM executive in 2005, according to a statement from Cuomo's office. "'The question is, can we afford to accept the wrath of Intel …?'”

Intel could not immediately be reached for comment.

The lawsuit is a result of a nearly two-year investigation by Cuomo's office, in which investigators say they evaluated millions of pages of documents and e-mails and interviewed dozens of witnesses.

The suit was filed in federal court in Delaware and aimed to bar Intel from what it called "further anti-competitive acts," and recover damages to New York consumers and government entities.

In May, the European Commission fined Intel nearly $1.5 billion over similar charges of anti-competitive practices, saying the results harmed millions of European consumers.  Intel disagreed with those charges and vowed to appeal the decision.

-- David Sarno

With that in mind, Google is rolling out the first upgrade to music search today: semi-exclusive content. I say "semi" because the content is actually being made available by Lala and MySpace and can be found by going to those sites directly. Anyway, the booty includes new material and free MP3s available for a limited time only. Among the artists contributing MP3s are Phoenix, Tim McGraw and Mos Def; exclusive tracks will be available from Snoop Dogg, Kings of Leon, Lady Gaga and Linkin Park. It's not clear whether this will be a regular feature or just a gimmick to get people to try out the new search feature. But if artists and labels really want to draw people into the experiences provided by services such as Lala and MySpace Music, they'll need to keep the freebies and/or extra features coming. Otherwise, what's to keep Google users from clicking on the links from YouTube in lieu of the ones at the top of the page?

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, laid out the case against filters ...

... at a commission workshop in September. Among other things, Sohn said:

Late last week the Motion Picture Assn. of America responded (get the .pdf here) by calling on the FCC to "encourage" ISPs to adopt technological barriers against illegal copying. It also urged the FCC to push Congress to do the same. Blocking the unauthorized bits won't slow down the Net, the MPAA claimed -- on the contrary, it will free up bandwidth for legal uses:

I concede the MPAA's point about the volume of unauthorized content flowing through the Net, but I wonder how ISPs could effectively police encrypted transmissions. I also am troubled by the entertainment industry's enthusiasm for "graduated response" (also known as "three strikes") policies. That's not because it's a bad idea to tell people they've been detected downloading "Astro Boy" and that they need to stop violating the law -- no, that's a great idea. The problem is, it's not possible to know who's sitting at the computer downloading "Bruno." In fact, it may not be possible to know which computer is doing the downloading. The only thing that ISPs may be able to detect with reasonable certainty is whose account is being used for that purpose. Before ISPs impose a penalty, they should have to prove that the customer whose account is targeted really was at fault.

Then there's the question of how the filters would be triggered. How much copyrighted material would be enough to block a transmission? How would fair uses be accommodated? What about uses that copyright holders don't like, but have yet to be found illegal by any court (the Slingbox comes to mind)?

Verizon, AT&T and the major cable operators all have to negotiate with the studios for the programming that powers their pay TV services so that they're motivated to work with Hollywood on the piracy issue. Yet their own engineers have noted how hard it would be to examine all the traffic flowing over their networks, as the studios seem to desire. That may explain why ISPs haven't jumped on the filtering bandwagon despite years of supplication from the entertainment industry. Well, that plus the fear that their customers would rebel if they knew their broadband provider was examining all the bits they were uploading and downloading.

Clearly, these are tough issues. And the better way to resolve them, I think, is to let ISPs and content providers negotiate an approach that's consistent with the FCC's forthcoming Net neutrality rules, rather than shoehorning them into the plan for making broadband services available to more people. Those rules wouldn't stop ISPs from interfering with copyright infringements or other illegal acts, but they would discourage broad-brush approaches that impede legal transmissions alongside unauthorized ones.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Shaun White used to battle with his older brother Jesse for control over the family's PlayStation game console while the two grew up near San Diego. Now, at 23, the Olympic snowboarder gets to star in his own video game, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, set to hit shelves on Sunday.

Developed by Ubisoft Entertainment, the game is a sequel to White's first title, which sold more than 3 million copies since its release last November.

White may not be a household name, but neither was Tony Hawk when he came out with his first video game 10 years ago, Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Now some fans know Hawk more through his virtual stunts than his actual work on the ramps. Could the same be true for White someday?

White spoke to us about how he got his start in snowboarding, what he wants people to get out of playing his video game and who he aspires to become. Here's a video of part of our interview with White, taken by Times videographer, Myung Chun:

And, for old school reader types, here's an edited transcript of the conversation:

How did a kid from Carlsbad, Calif., grow up to be a snowboarder?

I ended up going to Big Bear skiing with my family. When my brother started snowboarding, I did too. I was 6 then, and I started to compete when I was 7. I actually grew up in Del Mar and Carmel Valley. The schools were really good, but they didn’t recognize my sport. At the time I had money saved up [from winning snowboarding competitions and sponsorships], so I bought a house in Carlsbad as an investment when I was 13, and that let me go to school in Carlsbad. The schools there really supported me when I competed.

Didn’t you want to surf instead?

My dad got me a huge board when I was little. He loves to surf. He suited me up and sent me out on this huge wave. I went under, and when I came out and the board hit me in the face. So I said, I never wanted to do this again. I stayed away until I was 13.

One of your sponsors, Red Bull, last February built you a private half-pipe in Silverton, Colo., called Project X. Is that going to appear in the game?

It actually is. There’s a special...

... Red Bull level where that half-pipe turns up. It’s a fun way to bring in something I’ve actually done in real life into the game. It’s cool to actually have people see footage of that, and now players can ride it. What’s special about it was that it was so high up on the mountain.

How involved were you in developing the game with Ubisoft?

Ubisoft sent me updates of the game for my comments. It’s hard because I can’t actually tell the programmers how to program. But I was able to help out when they were designing the game in the beginning. We talked about whether we wanted it to be an adventure game, whether you get to be yourself or someone else. The other thing I do is I read through the scripts. There’s a lot of stereotype snowboard lingo that we don’t actually say.

What do you want players to get out of the game?

The goal of the game is to get someone who never goes snowboarding to get the feel for what it’s actually like to ride. If you play the game, you get the same point of view I get when I ride. When you add the balance board, it definitely enhances that. Feeling because you’re able to lean and turn. I also think it’s rad to be able to go in the game and do things I can’t do in real life.

How does the new game, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, top the previous one?

The first game was based on a road trip with your friends. This one is bigger. You get to go all over the world.

Do you play any video games in your free time?

I play Mario Kart. When I was 12 years old, I was hanging out with 23-year-olds. I was into cartoons and Pokemon, and they’re all talking about girls. It was a strange way to grow up. Games have always a big part of my life. I was that kid freaking out over his new Nintendo. Now I have the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3. You have to imagine being stuck in a mountain -- you’re snowed in and you can’t even leave the hotel. So I spent a lot of time playing games.

You’re also an accomplished professional skateboarder. Are the skills in those two sports similar?

They’re similar in a way. It’s similar in the way you can do airs and the way you balance. But it’s also so different. I personally think skateboarding is harder because it has so many moving parts. With snowboarding, your feet are strapped to your board. A lot of the guys who snowboard also skateboard for fun. That’s just part of the culture. But I’m really competitive in everything I do. In the summer, I’d skate as hard as I boarded. So I decided to go pro when I was 16.

What do you think of Tony Hawk’s new game, Ride?

I haven’t played it, but I’m excited to see what it’s like. He’s sort of my neighbor because he lives one freeway exit away. He’s got his own skate park at his house. I sometimes go there and mess around.

Who’s your hero?

I’m not sure. But I know who I want to be.

Who?

My dog. He just lies around and gets petted all day. He’s been in two Target commercials. His name is Rambo. He’s a French bulldog. We have a T-shirts at Target with Rambo on it, and it’s the third-best-selling shirt. I see kids wear my dog on their shirts now. It’s amazing.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

This Pomeranian lives the posh life but the doggie door is so yesterday. Utilizing a smart chip on the dog's collar, the Plexidor Electronic Door would automatically open the door for the pooch. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times.

Sophisticated pets, with deep-pocketed owners, can now use garage-like doggie doors that open and close electronically when a pet wearing a collar with a radio-frequency-identification chip approaches. The doors only open for the pet with the RFID chip, keeping out unwanted visitors.

The chips are widely used at automated toll booths and for tracking airline baggage.

Plexidor Electronic Pet Doors cost $129 to $800 depending on the size and model.  To see a picture, check out our L.A. Unleashed blog.

"It allows the pets to go outside when they have to, not when you're able to let them out," said Plexidor President Joe Ambrose. He added: "For the pet owner, it is very helpful in preventing pet messes in the house from the pet having to hold it too long."

-- Melissa Rohlin

Under the deal, OpenX will offer some of Microsoft's online advertising products to its own customer base of more than 150,000 websites, which collectively serve 300 billion ads per month.  Microsoft will also refer individual business customers to OpenX, which designs custom advertising products for paying clients.

Most of the software offered by 3-year-old OpenX is based on open source technology and has become an attractive option to smaller websites, which can install the OpenX advertising platform for free and begin to make revenue from selling ad space.

Microsoft touted the partnership as an early step into a more diverse and flexible online advertising market.

"Partnering with OpenX for us is emblematic of a desire to accelerate an open ecosystem," said Maggie Finch, manager of Microsoft's business publishing group.  "We want to provide multiple choices and options for publishers of all sizes."

OpenX's technologies allow website owners to efficiently find advertising targeted to their readers. The company's competitors include Google's DoubleClick and Microsoft's aQuantive division, now called Microsoft Advertising.

The companies did not disclose the specific financial terms of the multi-year deal, stressing that it was primarily a way to cross-promote advertising products. Microsoft, however, said there would be no revenue shared as part of the agreement.

"It's the beginning of a partnership," said OpenX chief executive Tim Cadogan, a former advertising executive at Yahoo Inc., with which Microsoft signed a major search advertising deal earlier this year.  "I think it's a good legitimization of what we're doing and hopefully kicks us up to another level in terms of industry awareness."

Corrected, 3:00 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said the OpenX plaftorm served 3 billion ads per month.  The actual number is 300 billion.

-- David Sarno

As shoppers around the world cut back on buying televisions, cameras and computers, Sony's revenue plunged 19.8% to $18.5 billion from the same quarter a year ago. Bargain pricing also eroded profit margins, leading Sony to swing from a $200-million profit last year to a $292-million loss.

Sales slipped in all of Sony's divisions except for its financial services business in Japan. Sony's consumer products and devices division, which includes its Bravia TV and Cybershot camera businesses, plunged 36.5% to $8.9 billion as consumers bought fewer electronics and at lower prices. Still, the unit eked out a $99-million operating profit.

Its networked products division, which includes Sony's PlayStation video game and Vaio computer businesses, also saw a steep 24% drop in sales to $3.9 billion. Losses for the unit widened substantially to $654 million, accounting for the bulk of Sony's operating loss in the quarter.

Sales of its PlayStation 3 game console jumped 33% to 3.2 million units, thanks to a $100 price cut that brought the price down to as low as $299. But that was not enough to make up for a 24% slide in sales of the PlayStation 2 and a 6% decline in sales of its handheld PSP console.

Consumers appeared to also have cut back on other types of entertainment. Sales for Sony's music labels, the second largest in the world after Universal Music Group, fell 3%. But the decline was cushioned by a surge in the popularity of Sony's catalog recordings of Michael Jackson, leading the unit to post a $96-million operating profit on $1.4 billion in revenue.

Sony's movie business also took a hit. Sales declined 30% to $1.5 billion as consumers bought fewer DVDs and curtailed trips to the movie theater. Sony Pictures posted a $71-million loss for the quarter.

On a brighter note, the company said it now anticipated lower losses than it had initially projected for its current fiscal year ending March 2010. Sony credits the improved outlook to the ability for its consumer products business to turn a profit, thanks in part to aggressive cost-cutting, and the health of its Japanese financial services business. File under: It's not as bad as we thought.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

AT&T announced today that it's rolling out six new cell sites in Los Angeles County as well as five new sites in Orange County and one in Ventura County.

The new sites should improve cellphone coverage and 3G Internet connectivity in those areas. AT&T is set to add 200 sites in California before the end of the year and upgrade 320 existing ones to 3G.

AT&T still has Apple Inc.'s iPhone, one of the most desirable wireless devices, exclusively in its arsenal.

But with Verizon releasing the Droid, a worthy iPhone competitor, on Nov. 6, AT&T will have to strike back by making sure its phones can actually make calls and keep them connected.

IPhone owners often complain of dropped calls and unreliable 3G connectivity. Verizon has been capitalizing on the stigma with an ad campaign for its network, saying, "There's a map for that" -- that being reliable national wireless coverage.

Updated, Oct. 30, 9:52 p.m.: Verizon wrote in to tell us that it has added nine local cell sites to its network in October.

-- Mark Milian

Photo credit: Sean Masterson / European Pressphoto Agency

The product? A colon cleanser.

As you can imagine, those attacked by the colon-clearing trick aren't so happy to offer up the free promo. We received messages from former colleagues and business associates discussing their supposed weight loss secret.

Tweets contain links, some through Bit.ly and others through a secondhand redirect that starts with a "q" and ends in ".Info." Once clicked, they redirect to a site promoting a product called Cleanse Pro X, which appears to be a fruity pill that washes your body of human waste.

The Bit.ly link has been clicked more than 4,000 times, but we don't have data on how many people have actually found their way to the site. It's unclear how users were affected.

Meanwhile, Facebook warned of two new viruses today that target its social network. The tricksters send e-mails purporting to contain password information from Facebook, but instead unleash a virus on the user's computer.

-- Mark Milian

Verizon Communications Inc. and Motorola Inc. proudly and excitedly showed off their new Droid smart phone in a meeting Wednesday afternoon.

First impression: The device is fast, powerful, fully featured and well-designed -- a combination of adjectives we've never used for a Verizon cellphone.

When was the last time a Verizon phone got this much hype? The BlackBerry Storm? Ouch.

Yet, one is coming on Nov. 6, and it has a good chance of living up to the hype. A phone with Google's fast-improving Android operating system, a 5-megapixel camera with a flash and digital zoom, a well-implemented touch screen and a slide-out keyboard.

Despite the Verizon check-mark logo branded on the device, the $200 Droid is all Google inside -- and a little Motorola. The handset manufacturer added some features on top of the Android 2.0 open-source system.

"That's really what open source is all about," said Paul Nicholson, Motorola's global marketing director. "You can layer on top of it."

For years, Verizon had this habit of stripping out good features and software from phones it carried in exchange for a clunky proprietary system. Motorola knows what we're talking about.

We won't miss the hideous red menus, the crippled Bluetooth functionality, or the Get It Now download service or Verizon App Store or whatever they're calling it now. This was a company that just months ago head-butted its way onto Verizon's BlackBerry devices with a separate app store to compete with the one that the phones already had.

Verizon spokesman Ken Muche said the company has no plans to make its own app store for Android -- another platform that already has one, called Market. Good idea.

The Droid's App Store does have a Verizon tab, which contains a Visual Voicemail app.

But all of those little Verizon injections added up to potential revenue in the past.

A lack of Bluetooth transfers on some phones meant you might have to pay a fee to move contacts between devices. Controlling apps meant Verizon could potentially profit from selling software as an intermediary. Keeping GPS software off phones meant a monthly fee could be charged for navigation service.

So much for that.

"If you want total customization, you can go this route," Muche said. Of course, if you'd rather have big red buttons, there's a phone for that.

Granted, Verizon had been loosening up recently with its lineup of dull (but no red menus) smart phones. With this phone, Verizon seems to be sincerely facing facts and stepping back from the software game. And there's another Verizon Droid phone on the way? Has Verizon been taken over by robots?

Wait a minute. Is Google taking over the world?

Muche and Nicholson laughed uncomfortably at the question. After a brief awkward silence, Nicholson chimed in, "You either join or you don't."

We'll have a full review in the coming weeks and a verdict on whether we're joining the rise of the machines.

-- Mark Milian

Photo credit: Associated Press

High school dropout Sergey Brin has a few ideas on how the educational system should be improved. Not surprisingly  from a guy who co-founded Google, where he still serves as president of technology and one of the company's three key decision-makers, a lot of those ideas center on computers.

"It's important for students to be put in touch with real-world problems," Brin said. "The curriculum should include computer science. Mathematics should include statistics. The curriculums should really adjust."

He advocated putting all textbooks on computers, to make for easier access, and for putting high school students to work -- writing Wikipedia articles, and teaching technology to senior citizens and middle school students. In teaching, they will learn.

Brin spoke today at a conference on Google's campus, Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age, which the tech company is co-hosting with Common Sense Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. By and large, speakers passionately spoke of the advantages of equipping schools with the latest in digital technology, and of engaging students on their home turf -- computers.

Google has been relatively quiet in the field of education, but the company is starting to make a splash. For the last three years, it has given schools the premium version of its Google Apps, enabling schools to run their business and provide teachers with e-mail and other tools that it typically charges corporations for. In part, the giveaway helps advance Google's plan of...

...providing universal access to all the world's information; in part it helps prepare the workforce of tomorrow; and it also is indoctrinating that workforce with the Google brand.

"The kids who are in school are our future business leaders," said Cristin Frodella, product marketing manager for the Google Apps, Education Edition. "If they like Google Apps now, they'll ask for it by name. There is a value there."

The presence of Brin at the conference, as well as Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and company vice president Marissa Mayer, speaks volumes to the company's commitment to education, said Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, an advocacy group. "It's a very positive symbolic role," Steyer said. "Google is serious about helping kids, particularly disadvantaged kids."

Brin, wearing some funky new Vibram FiveFingers shoes that fit the feet like a glove, told how his family enrolled him in a Montessori school from age 6 to 11, where he was able to explore his own interests in learning. "The school had an Apple II," said Brin, now 36. "When I was 9, my parents gave me a Commodore 64, which was fun. At the time, the opportunity to program your own computer was easier than it is today. Today there are significantly larger barriers because of the complexity built into computing."

After he left the Montessori school, Brin felt he was stuck in a 19th-century curriculum, and he ultimately quit high school after his junior year. He remains on leave from Stanford, where he was working on his doctorate when he and Larry Page hit upon the algorithm that led to Google, and turned them both into billionaires.

Brin had some other ideas for improving schools, most notably treating teachers better. His mother-in-law, Esther Wojcicki, who spoke at the conference, teaches English and journalism at Palo Alto High School, and many of his friends are teachers. "It's really a miserable job," he said. "They're not really paid a living wage."

Brin foresees computers getting cheaper and cheaper, and broadband access becoming more ubiquitous, which will make computers more a part of education than ever. A relatively new parent, Brin was asked by moderator James Bennet, editor of Atlantic magazine, what kind of technological world he envisions 15 or 20 years from now.

Brin said he hoped that the increasingly powerful access to information would free people up to become more capable individuals. But he did see a downside.

"When I was growing up, I always knew I'd be in the top of my class in math, and that gave me a lot of self-confidence," he said. But now that studens can see beyond their own school or hometown, they see that "there are always going to be a million people better than you at times, or someone will always be far better than you. I feel there's an existential angst among young people. I didn't have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb."

-- Dan Fost