After Launch, These Products Evolved

Aside from the need to buy and install a current copy of Windows XP, BootCamp has proved to be painless and reliable on all three Intel-based Macs that I've tested. Boot Camp (still a beta release) is expected to be built into Apple's next Mac operating system update, due out next year. On the other hand, Apple doesn't seem to be paying the same attention to Front Row , the software that allowed users to play music, view photos, cue up a DVD or watch video files stored on your hard drive or online -- all with the click of a small remote control. The obvious, easily-fixable interface flaws I noted in a review back in October are still around.

On the Windows side, Intel's Viiv initiative to network digital media throughout the house -- beaming movies and music from one TV to another, for example -- has been a vague, largely unfulfilled promise since its over-hyped launch in January. Finally, Viiv-certified set-top boxes and wireless routers are finally starting to show up in the market -- and the success of other online video sources has shown that people are happy to make their computer a source of TV programming.

In fact, far more people than I would have guessed were willing to pay for copies of TV shows on iTunes. And I was delighted to see that ABC will resume its free, ad-supported streaming of TV shows this month. Every other network should study how well ABC's system works -- on most computers, you don't need to touch a single setting or install any new software to start catching up on Lost or Desperate Housewives.

When I reviewed the most recent set of smartphones -- Palm's Treo 700p and 700w and Motorola's Q -- I wrote back in June that Palm's older Treo 650 was a better buy. But if you're a Sprint or Verizon Wireless customer, you can disregard that advice: Both carriers have stopped selling the 650.

I am happy to report, though, that the entry fee for digital television has plunged since my January review of a $360 RCA standard-definition digital set -- which, at the time, was alone in its price bracket and scarce in stores.

An entry-level standard-def digital model -- now easy to find for $200 -- lacks HDTV's near-photographic clarity, but the crisp, static-free TV reception with the right antenna is still good enough to redefine the value of over-the-air broadcast TV.

That is how progress -- in the electronic world and beyond it -- ought to work.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com.