New product pushes company’s stock to record level on TSE

David George-Cosh
Sun

TORONTO — Research In Motion Ltd. continued to show its strength as the dominant player in the smart-phone market with the latest upgrade to its iconic BlackBerry line that impressed both analysts and investors.

The release of the BlackBerry Bold, a faster and more enhanced upgrade of its BlackBerry Curve model, pushed RIM’s stock to record close on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday, up almost seven per cent to $142.25.

As previously indicated by information leaked from the company, the BlackBerry Bold features the same

e-mail and multimedia capabilities found on previous devices, but is now equipped with support for 3G wireless networks, integrated Wi-Fi and GPS, a smoother physical design, and a more vivid screen resolution.

A Rogers Communications Inc. spokesperson said the company would soon offer the new BlackBerry model but declined to provide an official Canadian release date. RIM said the Bold model is scheduled to be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this summer. Once globally deployed, the Bold could be responsible for at least an extra 1.75 million BlackBerrys sold per quarter for RIM, said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney.

“It’s a very compelling device,” Dulaney said. “Europe really wants a 3G device and that’s why the iPhone hasn’t done very well over there.”

The timing of the device’s release is no accident, said Chris Hazelton, a senior mobile-communications analyst with IDC, noting Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM beat Apple Inc.’s imminent announcement of its new 3G iPhone.

“With the Bold, RIM has re-energized the uniqueness of the BlackBerry brand,” said Hazelton. “With new competitors targeting RIM’s hold on the enterprise market, RIM is launching this device to maintain the interest of C-level executives with a 3G device that has GPS and Wi-Fi.”

Apple made its own pitch to push RIM off its pedestal as the No. 1 smart phone on the market last March when it announced it had partnered with Microsoft Corp. to support e-mail messaging for businesses. But with each company holding only about one per cent of the global mobile handset market, there still remains plenty of opportunity for both companies to gain market share, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky.

“Small shipments and share gains with Motorola in North America and Nokia in Europe are hugely meaningful to both RIM and Apple,” said Abramsky.

Co-chief executive Mike Lazardis confirmed, during the company’s annual Capital Markets Day on Monday, that the company is looking to multiply its new BlackBerry model offerings during the coming year. The comments fueled speculation the company is developing a touchscreen “iPhone killer” BlackBerry, among other models.

However, as competition swirls, the challenge for RIM now is getting the devices into subscribers hands, said AR Communications Inc. senior vice-president Carmi Levy.

“Anytime you can beat Apple to the punch is a good thing, but it’s a small victory for RIM,” he said. “It doesn’t change the direction the market is going.”

The release of the new BlackBerry model comes on the heels of an earlier announcement that RIM will co-manage a $150-million fund to spur the development of new applications for the smart-phone devices.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Greg Farrell
USA Today

When Jim DeBello launched his technology career two decades ago, a mentor told him that on top of getting an education, he’d also get bloodied and bruised.

“He was right on all counts,” says DeBello, CEO of Mitek Systems. “It’s been a school of ups and downs and sideways.”

Not that DeBello, a defensive end for his college football team, minded getting knocked around. Just the opposite: The lessons from his failures have improved his game immeasurably. “It’s a lot of fun to be challenged by the unknown and untried,” he says.

Into the unknown is where DeBello has brought Mitek, an image-recognition software company based in San Diego. After being installed as CEO five years ago, DeBello has pushed Mitek’s image-recognition tools onto wireless platforms. In January, the company introduced an application that enables consumers to scan and deposit checks with their cellphone cameras.

 

Whether it works — and returns the company to profitability — remains to be seen. But for DeBello, who dabbles in oil painting in his spare time, technological innovation is inspiring. “Innovation is the heart of technology start-ups,” he says. “I’m not an artist, but it’s the closest thing to art I can think of.”

DeBello’s first tech start-up, Solectek, married wireless technology to laptop computers. Great idea, right? Sure, but not in the early 1990s. Today, nearly every computer is configured for wireless operation, but back then, at a time when Internet connectivity was painfully slow and before the widespread adoption of cellphones, DeBello’s wireless local area network concept was an idea ahead of its time.

Getting ahead of yourself can be costly

“If you’re way too early, you’re thinking too far ahead,” says the 49-year-old San Diego native. “Sometimes it takes anywhere from eight to 10 years for technology to get adopted. We need to digest it.”

The experience of being sacrificial pioneers was a painful one to DeBello and his colleagues.

After selling the company in 1996, DeBello moved to Qualcomm, where he continued to work in the wireless area, and eventually ran a joint venture. But he grew tired of corporate hierarchy. “I didn’t want to spend all my time working on internal alignment, the political nature of the organization and such,” he says. “It was just not inspiring or enjoyable.”

By 1999, DeBello had accumulated enough experience to qualify as a “grown-up CEO” candidate in the world of dot-coms. He became chief executive of CollegeClub.com, an early social-networking site. But in 2000, just as the company was about to go public, the dot-com bubble burst and the game was over.

Through his mentor, technology investor John Thornton, DeBello had held a seat since 1994 on the board of Mitek Systems. During the Cold War, Mitek had been a major supplier to the U.S. government of security hardware products that helped prevent the Soviet Union from eavesdropping on electronic data transmissions through computers, faxes and printers.

When the Cold War ended, demand for its product disappeared, and the Mitek workforce dropped from 300 to 16. In the 1990s, Mitek used its recognition technology capabilities to help banks with their check-processing operations. But the financial results were disappointing.

Giving Mitek a new direction

In 2003, dissatisfied with the direction the company was taking, Thornton installed DeBello as Mitek’s new CEO. Since then, DeBello has divested two products and redirected the company toward mobile imaging.

The result: In January, Mitek announced a new software application, Mobile Deposit, designed to allow consumers to scan and deposit checks into their bank accounts using the cameras on their mobile phones.

Although some banking experts believe consumers will embrace mobile banking in the near future, DeBello wants to market the product to small businesses that accept and deliver goods or services. Of the 32 billion checks written in the USA each year, DeBello says 20 billion are for business transactions.

For truck drivers who collect cash on delivery, Mitek’s application would allow them to cash a customer’s check instantly, instead of leaving the premises and hoping that the check doesn’t bounce. It would also come in handy for anyone from the plumber to the Amway salesperson who accepts checks for payment.

“Mobile banking 1.0 was bill pay and balance transfers on the cellphone,” DeBello says. “Mobile banking 2.0 is about payments. We have a real big piece of that in terms of the ability to deposit checks.”

For Mitek, which lost $384,000 in fiscal 2007 on revenue of $5.6 million, the new product could transform red ink into black. DeBello’s now working with several companies to test drive the product.

How Mitek’s technology can be put to work

“This is a technology that will change the game,” says Chris Cramer, CEO of Karl Strauss Brewing, a San Diego craft beer. California state law restricts how much credit a beer distributor can extend to restaurants and bars, and Cramer says he’s considering putting Mitek’s new application into the field.

“There’s tremendous turnover in the restaurant business,” Cramer says. “You need to keep people 30-days current. Here’s an opportunity to know instantly if there are sufficient funds in an account, and to have that information routed through the accounting system and go to the (chief financial officer’s) desk so he can make a decision.”

Danny Jett, executive vice president at Georgian Bank in Atlanta, says Mitek’s product could add greater efficiency to the banking process. “All banks are suffering from margin compression,” Jett says. “You look for ways to do things more effectively. That’s what I see with Mitek’s product. Is it going to be accepted now? Who knows? But within 12 to 18 months, acceptance will increase. That’s the way Internet banking was.”

 

Gillian Shaw
Sun

1 Nokia N95, Rogers, $400 with three-year wireless contract

The Nokia N series smartphone offers so much more fun than mere chatting, and the eight-gigabyte N95 launched this week by Rogers is no exception. Flip it sideways and it shoots five-megapixel photos like a regular hand-held digital camera, with Carl Zeiss optics and a 20-times zoom. The 2.8-inch (7-cm) screen can flip between landscape and portrait or upright modes, and lets you watch videos, TV or surf the Web, or just listen to music. It slides two ways, with one way giving access to the multimedia controls, and the other sliding open to reveal the keyboard. www.rogers.com

2 3.5-inch Pocket Size Digital Frame, HP, $70

If you want to up mom’s brag ability around the water cooler, give her one of these pocket-sized digital photo frames for Mother’s Day. With a 3.5-inch (8.9-cm) screen, it’s a portable photo and video holder that can also add music for slide shows, and comes with its own carrying case. It has features of its larger counterparts, like a remote control. It is compatible with most memory card formats, plus it has a USB 2.0 port and 128-MB internal memory that will hold up to 149 two-megapixel images.

3 Mobile DJ MP3, Hercules, $100

Billed as the first wireless digital mixing mini-controller, this is for amateur DJs who want to wow friends at parties. A MP3 mini-controller that is powered by two C batteries, it has a dual LCD display to let DJ wannabes pick tracks and mix them while they’re not at the computer. If the DJ stumbles and doesn’t have a pick, an automix feature will automatically choose the next song, so there are no gaps. Plug the USB radio receiver key for the wireless connection into a computer, install the software CD, and mix your music wirelessly. It needs a computer with a sound card, amplified speakers and music: CD audio, MP3, WAV or WMA files. www.hercules.com

4 Cord Wrap, Agent 18, $5

A simple way to eliminate that cord jungle that wraps around your earbuds when you jam them in a pocket or purse. The Cord Wrap keeps the cords in place when your headphones are stored, and keeps them neat at the length you need when you’re using them. Clip it onto your pocket with the metal clip that comes with it. www.agent18.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Ethan Baron
Province

Your social-networking site could be an open invitation to identity thieves, an online expert warned Tuesday in Vancouver.

Identity thieves and other cyber-criminals can pluck valuable nuggets of information from Facebook pages, tricking people into providing profile access, fraud investigator Jean-Francoise Legault told the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners conference.

Another social-networking site, MySpace, and the business-networking site LinkedIn, offer up similar bounties to fraudsters.

“We’re getting more and more people on-line,” Legault said. “Most people don’t realize the risks.”

Getting access to social-networking profiles – which often contain information such as birthdate, workplace, hometown, phone number and e-mail address – can be as easy as posing as the friend of a friend who’s listed on a personal page, Legault said.

People accepted as friends can see the profiles that contain personal information.

“Take a beautiful blond’s picture in a bathing suit and send it to a guy,” Legault said. “What do you think is going to happen? Accept! Accept! Accept!”

Even limited Facebook profiles available to anyone online often contain information about where a person lives, where they go to school, when they graduated, and where family members live.

In a two-minute check of one interview subject’s limited Facebook profile yesterday, The Province found out where they went to school, names, locations and pictures of family members, and names, locations, pictures and schools of hundreds of friends.

Vancouver police have not received reports about identity theft related to social-networking sites, but “it could become a problem,” said spokesman Const. Tim Fanning.

Criminals can take bits of personal information and build up enough to obtain documentation that can be used to obtain credit cards, Fanning said.

Charlotte Bell-Irving, a 20-year-old from Victoria, said she has about 700 Facebook friends and doesn’t worry too much that her personal information could fall into the wrong hands. “I should probably fix some of my security settings,” she said.

At Waves Coffee in downtown Vancouver, laptop user Dave Shortt, 33, admitted he probably does “not take enough” precautions to protect personal information.

“I pretty much set privacy settings, so that only people I know can access my information,” said Eli Puterman, 34, a University of B.C. PhD student. “I usually check to see who they are, if I’ve ever seen them before, how many friends they have. And if they only have one friend it means that they’re a fake.

“I think I got that beautiful blond picture last week. It was a blond woman who wanted me to be her friend. She had one other friend, so I sent my friend a message, saying, ‘Do you know this person?’ He said no so I deleted her because I think it was a spam or something.”

Can TV gambit help Microsoft bite into Apple?

Province

Microsoft’s Zune digital music players will be available in Canadian stores beginning June 13, the tech giant said yesterday.

Canadians can already visit www.zune.ca to download free Zune software.

“Zune is more than just a music player for Canadians, it’s a shared, social experience,” said Craig Tullett, group manager at Zune Canada, in a statement. “We’re excited to offer people an innovative way to discover, share and enjoy their music wherever they go.”

Zune players will be available in 80-gigabyte, eight-gigabyte and four-gigabyte models in black, red or pink.

Prices range from $249.99 to $139.99.

In a further push in its battle against Apple Inc.’s iPod, Microsoft announced that it would offer NBC Universal Inc. TV shows on its devices, winning the programming contract lost by Apple’s iTunes last year.

Zune users can download shows such as The Office, Heroes and 30 Rock for about $1.99 US an episode, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said yesterday in a statement. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, also will offer shows from Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and VH1.

The programming is a victory for Microsoft’s music player, whose sales are one-20th of the Apple iPod’s. The company plans to use television shows to boost revenue in its entertainment unit, which includes the Xbox video-game console. Yesterday’s agreement will make 800 episodes available.

“The exchange will definitely help to stimulate more sales,” said Jason Reindorp, Zune’s director of product marketing. “On the tech side, we’re making it really easy to have the content flow across all the parts of our ecosystem.”

The NBC network, a unit of General Electric Co., cut ties with Apple in August, saying it wanted more pricing flexibility, piracy safeguards and the option of packaging more than one show in a single offering.

Apple’s iPod dominated the music player market in 2007, accounting for more than two-thirds of units, according to the NPD Group in Port Washington, N.Y.

Microsoft’s Zune tied for third, with about three per cent of the market. Creative Technology Ltd., which sells players under the Zen and MuVo brand names, also took three per cent. SanDisk Corp.’s Sansa ranked second, with 12 per cent of the market.

Microsoft also announced changes to Zune that make it easier to find friends and sample their music collections. Other new features let users sync music on multiple music players at once and provide gapless playback for dance and live albums.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Music player launched a year and a half ago in U.S.

Gillian Shaw
Sun

Canadians will be able to tune into Zune with Microsoft’s announcement Tuesday that its digital music player is hitting store shelves in Canada on June 13.

The announcement coincides with Tuesday’s launch of www.zune.ca, a music networking site where Canadians can download free Zune software and join an online music community.

The Zune’s arrival comes more than 18 months after it was launched in the United States. Canadians will be able to buy the player in three versions — starting at four gigabytes of memory for $140, eight gigs for $190, and 80 for $250. The suggested retail prices are close to the Zune’s sticker price in the U.S.

“Zune is more than just a music player for Canadians. It’s a shared, social experience,” Craig Tullett, group manager for Zune Canada said in a release. “We’re excited to offer people an innovative way to discover, share and enjoy their music wherever they go.”

Microsoft’s rival to the immensely popular Apple iPod supports video, audio and photos. Unlike the iPod, it comes with an FM tuner. Users can also synchronize and share songs and playlists wirelessly.

When it debuted in the U.S., the Zune quickly outstripped sales of other MP3 players. But with just three per cent of the overall MP3 market, it still lags far behind the ubiquitous iPod.

Elana Zur, Zune product manager for Microsoft Canada, said there is pent-up demand for the device in Canada.

“It’s amazing, there are a lot of [online] forums about Zune — and they are asking when it is coming to Canada; it is quite entertaining to see how excited people really are,” she said. “People want choice, and right now there is just one ubiquitous solution, and we are coming to the market with an alternative to that.”

Zur said Microsoft has no immediate plans to open its online music store for Canadians to buy music on the Web, but users will be able to play music downloaded from other sites such as iTunes or Puretracks or from their own CDs that they have copied onto their computers.

She said “Zune social”, a networking site launched last fall, has two million users signed up.

“Zune social is an online networking site specifically around music and around Zune,” she said. “You don’t need a Zune to join.

“The key reasons you would use it are to share and to discover music.”

The site lets users see what their friends are listening to, check artists’ pages and preview music.

Zur said some 87 per cent of people say they would trust a family member or a friend’s musical recommendation ahead of a recommendation from a music critic.

“People are intimidated at discovering new music on their own, so that’s what Zune social is all about,” she said.

The 80-GB Zune will be available in black or red, and the four- and eight-GB models will be available in black, red or pink.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Michael Geist
Sun

Last week’s announcement that Apple’s iPhone will make its long-awaited Canadian debut later this year generated considerable excitement. While analysts focused on the bottom-line impact for Rogers Wireless, it may be that the most important effects have already been felt in Canada since, more than any industry statistics or speeches, the iPhone’s slow entry into Canada has crystallized the view that the Canadian wireless market is hopelessly behind the rest of the world, with limited competition, higher prices, and less choice.

The year-long delay of the iPhone — Apple first launched the device last June in the U.S., followed by France, the U.K., Germany, Ireland, and Austria — provided tangible evidence that the Canadian market desperately needs an injection of competition (as the sole GSM provider, Rogers was the only carrier capable of supporting the iPhone) and more competitive pricing (Canadian data prices are far above the U.S. offer of unlimited data for $20 per month).

In many ways, the iPhone saga merely confirmed what many Canadian consumers and businesses have known for some time: Mobile data pricing in Canada is among the highest in the world, creating a significant barrier to the introduction of new mobile services and causing many consumers to carefully ration their mobile use for fear of being hit with a hefty bill at the end of the month.

The impact of uncompetitive pricing is felt beyond the consumer market. Last month, the World Economic Forum pointed to problems in the wireless market as a key reason for Canada’s slipping global ranking for “network readiness” (Canada has moved from 6th worldwide in 2005 to 13th today). Canada ranked 75th in the number of mobile subscribers — trailing countries such as El Salvador, Kazahkstan, and Libya. It also lagged behind countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Sweden, and Norway on mobile pricing.

As the country falls further behind the competition, it is time to acknowledge that market forces alone will not solve the issue. It therefore falls to policymakers to focus on developing a marketplace framework that encourages greater competition and innovation.

The first step in that direction came last fall when federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice announced a set-aside for new entrants in the forthcoming spectrum auction. The auction, which runs over the next few weeks, is expected to pave the way for several new wireless competitors, who could join forces to create a fourth national carrier.

While the spectrum set-aside was a good first step, more is needed. Prentice’s goal should be to create the world’s most flexible regulatory environment that encourages openness and interoperability. The next round of spectrum auctions, which involves the coveted 700 MHz band, could include mandatory open-access requirements that allow carriers, device manufacturers, and service providers to use Canada as the sandbox for mobile innovation.

Many companies are also beginning to focus on the potential of “white spaces,” small bits of spectrum that exist between television frequencies. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is currently considering a proposal to make the white space home to unlicensed uses, thereby encouraging further experimentation. Assuming that potential frequency conflicts can be resolved, Canada should follow suit.

The emphasis on openness could also extend to telecommunications ownership, where the current foreign ownership restrictions may artificially limit Canadian competition. There remains concern about completely opening up the Canadian market to foreign ownership; however, that may be a price worth paying to address the current malaise.

Prentice could also encourage competition by removing the barriers that consumers face in moving between providers. The introduction last year of wireless number portability (which allows consumers to retain their phone number when they change carriers) helps in this regard. However, restrictive long-term contracts and government plans to introduce legislation that could prohibit consumers from unlocking their cellphones would represent a case of one step forward, two steps back.

Finally, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission may want to take a closer look at the mobile marketplace. The CRTC is committed to a de-regulatory approach, and has for years largely left the mobile marketplace alone (with the exception of undue preferences and unjust discrimination). Yet the regulatory hole has not served Canadians well. Canadian iPhone fans may finally get their coveted device, but it is going to take more than a great phone to fix what ails the Canadian mobile marketplace.

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and

E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.

He can be reached at [email protected], or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Jim Jamieson
Province

What it is: Digifi Opera wireless headphones

Price: $98

Why you need it: You’re tired of being strangled by your MP3 player while working out at the gym or on a run.

Why you don’t: You’re happy to listen to the music on at the workout room and you don’t jog because you always seem to spill your drink.

Our rating:

T here is nothing new about wireless earphones for iPods and the other assorted ultra-portable digital music players commonly seen on the bus or at the gym.

The major change since these cool devices started appearing a few years ago is that the price points have come down to the $130-range — about half of what they used to be. They use the increasingly common Bluetooth wireless technology to get the job done.

But Korean company DigiFi is looking to add some momentum to a new technology called Kleer. It has similar capabilities to Bluetooth but claims superior sound and 10 times the battery life.

Called The Opera, the device is a pair of wraparound headphones with an ear bud on either side. All that’s needed is to plug the tiny Kleer wireless dongle into your iPod or other music player’s headphone jack and the earphones automatically link up and synchronize with the player.

The Opera is priced lower than much of the competition.

Digifi just launched the Opera headphones in Korea, but expects to have them available elsewhere in June. DigiFi is not first to come to market with this new Bluetooth competitor. Last fall, RCA offered its Jet Stream one-GB player that includes wireless earphones powered by Kleer technologies at an attractive price of about $130.

The Jet Stream got mixed reviews, however.

Opera, depending on how it’s received next month, could be the next step in market acceptance for Kleer.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Sun

PINNACLE VIDEO TRANSFER, $130

Transfer analog video to your iPod or USB flash drive or USB hard drive with this USB 2.0 device. It records straight from your television, DVD player, personal video recorder, camcorder or set-top box with three different recording levels to choose from for video quality. Works for iPod Video, the third generation iPod nano and iPod classic as well as other USB mass storage devices. As a bonus it recharges your iPod battery while it’s transferring video. At www.pinnaclesys.com.

VOYAGER ROCK SPEAKERS, BOSTON ACOUSTICS, $225 TO $450

Boston Acoustics has brought new meaning to the term rock music with its new solution for ‘outdoor soundscaping.’ Disappearing into the garden in versions ranging from river rock to sandstone to New England granite, these weatherproof speakers come in three configurations, the Voyager RK5 with a 5 1/4-inch bass unit; the Voyager RK6T2 with a 6 1/2-inch bass unit; and the Voyager RK8T2 with an eight-inch bass unit. Part of a lineup of outdoor speakers, find them at www.bostonacoustics.com

U.B. FUNKEYS, MATTEL, $25 FOR A STARTER KIT, $7 FOR ADDITIONAL FUNKEYS

Arriving in Canada in mid-May, Funkeys inhabit a virtual world called Terrapina and let kids play games, collect coins and not surprisingly expand their online world with the more Funkeys they get. There are 42 of them, so we’re guessing this could be the next birthday gift of choice for the harried parents of social butterfly kids. Geared for ages eight to 12, this junior networking site lets players (or their parents) stipulate different viewing levels so they can limit their contact to other users they know. www.UBfunkeys.com

CANON PIXMA IP100 MOBILE PRINTER, $280

Canon’s latest portable printer brings new features to mobile printing including increased colour resolution to a maximum of 9600 x 2400 dpi and increased print speeds up to 20 pages-per-minute for black and 14 for colour. It also adds auto image fix technology to the mobile printer category and can print photo-quality prints in sizes up to eight-by-10-inch as well as letter size. It can print wirelessly from a built-in irDA port3 or from select Bluetooth-enabled cellphones and computers with an optional Bluetooth Unit BU-304, at $80. It also has an optional lithium ion battery that will churn out 290 pages per three-hour charge — an extra $100. Also available is the automobile power unit adding another $90 for charging through a car socket.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Edward C. Baig
USA Today

It is billed as the “one and only Tablet Mac.” But the cleverly designed Modbook I’ve been testing is not from Apple. The portable, slate-style computer is engineered by an El Segundo, Calif., start-up called Axiotron.

Apple, at least for now, seems to be looking the other way.

Is Apple going soft? One of the reasons often given for Apple’s success is that the company closely guards its own hardware and software. Apple CEO Steve Jobs pulled the plug on the Macintosh “clone” business several years ago.

Third-party computer makers are not permitted to load Mac OS X software on their machines, though not always for lack of trying. South Florida upstart Psystar recently started peddling a $400 desktop it says can run OS X Leopard.

It turns out Modbook is actually an Apple computer after all. Axiotron took an off-the-shelf MacBook notebook, deep-sixed the keyboard and display and slapped on its own converter kit. The result is a modified machine that, in lieu of a mouse and keyboard, lets you draw or write with a special pen.

This isn’t exactly a mainstream computer, especially without that keyboard. Modbooks are expensive, too — systems start at $2,279, nearly a $1,200 premium compared with a basic MacBook. And they are available only in the USA through an online Mac dealer called Other World Computing.

For much of this decade, Microsoft has been the one — via its Windows-based Tablet PCs — trying to convince the public that the pen is sometimes mightier than the keyboard.

But Tablet PCs (generally not cheap and manufactured by most of the usual hardware suspects) haven’t exactly made a smash. Research firm IDC says only about 3.2 million tablet computers shipped worldwide in 2007, representing less than 3% of all portable computers shipped. IDC expects just over 7% by 2011.

So Axiotron’s German-born co-founder and CEO, Andreas Haas, a former Apple employee, figures Apple has been reluctant to pour its own resources into a Mac tablet.

In building Modbook — because he wanted a Mac tablet — Haas insists he’s playing “within the rules.” Axiotron has said Modbook was “authorized” by Apple through the obscure Proprietary Solution Provider program, a point hammered home in Axiotron’s promotional materials.

Although Apple won’t comment directly, Axiotron does not appear to have its complete blessing. There’s no Apple warranty for Modbook. You must get it serviced (under its own one-year warranty) through an Axiotron authorized dealer, not in Apple Stores.

A closer look at Modbook

The dramatic makeover that turns a MacBook into a Modbook eliminates the keyboard and MacBook screen. Post-surgery, the screen is replaced by an LCD digitizer display and pen from a company called Wacom, which also makes external devices that add tablet capabilities to regular Apple machines.

It’s nicely designed, and the scratch-resistant machine has the look and feel of an Apple pedigree. My test unit actually arrived in a regular MacBook box.

Here’s how a MacBook becomes a Modbook:

•Design. Axiotron makes it almost sound simple. You take a MacBook, jettison the display panel, track-pad and keyboard, and swap in Axiotron’s conversion kit, featuring a digitized LCD screen that lets you draw and write with the special Wacom pen.

It all looks seamless. Axiotron says it didn’t solder, hack or tamper with the MacBook’s innards. Components plug into existing connectors and screw holes.

The result: You have access to regular MacBook ports on the left side — including two USBs, FireWire, ethernet and so-called MagSafe power connector. And you can still use the integrated CD/DVD burner on the right, though without a keyboard, you’ll have to tap a screen icon with the Wacom pen to eject a disk. Wi-Fi behaved normally.

Modbook’s top shell is crafted from a magnesium alloy and protected by metal plating. All this adds some heft. It weighs about 5.5 pounds; MacBooks weigh 5.

Some Windows Tablets are convertible models. They twist and/or fold (sometimes awkwardly) to turn a conventional notebook into a pen-based slate, and vice versa.

Modbook is all slab, all the time — a major disadvantage to anyone who needs to pound away at a traditional keyboard. And you can’t alter the screen orientation from portrait to landscape, as you can with Tablet PCs; Modbook is always in landscape.

There is an onscreen virtual keyboard that is a barely adequate replacement for the physical keyboard. Using the Wacom pen, I tapped out my home network password and various Web addresses. Anything more is a hassle.

Of course, you can connect a keyboard and mouse, via USB or wirelessly with Bluetooth. But conventional computing isn’t what Modbook is all about.

Basic system configurations remain the same as whichever MacBook has been modified — mine had a 2.2-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM and a 120-GB hard drive. The 13.3-inch widescreen display is the same size as well; it wasn’t the brightest outdoors. One minor adjustment: The integrated iSight video camera on Modbook has been mounted so it tilts slightly downward, to better frame your mug.

The underlying software, including OS X Leopard, is essentially unchanged. Axiotron does add a driver for the pen interface.

•Putting it to work. My initial instinct was to press my fingers against the display as if it were a touch-screen. It’s not. Modbook works only with the supplied pen. But that means you can rest your hands on the screen while drawing. The pressure-sensitive pen has two programmable side buttons and a digital eraser. It doesn’t require a battery.

I’m no artist, but I had fun scribbling away in Corel Painter X. The system is compatible with Apple’s Inkwell handwriting-recognition technology, a remnant from its long-ago ill-fated Newton PDA. Handwriting recognition is built into Leopard, but you’d need a third-party device (from the likes of Wacom) to convert your jottings into text.

I had so-so results testing handwriting recognition on Modbook inside a program called InkBook. “Mary had a little lamb” became “Mary had a liHK lans” It might have had more to do with my lousy penmanship.

The machine has GPS, which I used with Google Earth to locate nearby pizza joints. But there aren’t a lot of practical uses for the technology. You can easily turn GPS off to spare the battery, which seems to deliver three hours or so.

Modbook is a fine, if pricey, tool for artsy types who need to draw on screen without adding excess hardware. It’s just not a mainstream computer.