As Always, an Unequal Pie

By DAN MITCHELL

Published: December 1, 2007

THE distribution of wealth lies at the heart of political economics. Nations and empires have risen and fallen, and millions have died, as a result of humanity’s struggle to decide how (or whether) to divide wealth.

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Alex Eben Meyer

Related

Pre-Industrial Inequality: An Early Conjectural Map (pdf, economics.harvard.edu)

Odd Numbers (portfolio.com)

Vive la Différence (slate.com)

AOL Money & Finance (money.aol.com)

Google Finance (finance.google.com)

Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)

AOL on the money with Finance site (blogs.ft.com)

King of the housing speculators (salon.com)

Weird Canadian Restaurants (canpages.ca)

But for all that, the level of wealth inequality has remained remarkably consistent over the last 2,000 years, according to a recent study by Branko Milanovic, a researcher with the World Bank, and two economics professors, Peter H. Lindert of the University of California, Davis, and Jeffrey G. Williamson of Harvard University (economics.harvard.edu).

While “human civilization has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past two millennia, income inequality has stayed relatively the same,” Zubin Jelveh of Portfolio.com wrote about the study.

The “inequality extraction ratio” is basically the share of the wealth difference taken by “elites.” Since the United States is the wealthiest nation in history, the potential for elites taking a bigger share of the wealth (without allowing mass starvation) is greater. But they have not done so. “Thus,” the researchers write, “the social consequences of increased inequality may not entail as much relative impoverishment, or as much perceived injustice, as might appear.”

Tim Harford of Slate.com, writing about the same report, called this “faint praise for the United States, perhaps.” But, he added: “It is interesting to observe that while modern societies are rich enough to be much more unequal than their predecessors, they show similar patterns of income inequality. Perhaps — I am speculating wildly — human societies have some hard-wired tolerance for inequality?”

Or perhaps, no matter how wealthy a society, there will always be income inequality, whether or not we are “hard wired” for it.

REWORKED FINANCE SITE AOL has added lots of new features to its Money & Finance site — news feeds, interactive charting abilities and more research data (money.aol.com). But users who just want to look up the price of a stock, and do not know the company’s ticker symbol, still have to take the extra step of looking up the symbol first. On Google Finance, which started in March, users can simply enter the company’s name (finance.google.com).

Despite that convenience, though, Google has been unable to catch the category leader, Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com).

“Google’s service is not even in the top 15 of financial sites and has yet to break 1 million unique visitors a month,” notes theTech Blog of The Financial Times (blogs.ft.com/techblog).

BUBBLE TOWN Myrtle Beach, S.C., tops the list of cities that will be hit hardest by the housing debacle, according to a study by the consulting firm Global Insight (globalinsight.com).

Why Myrtle Beach? One reason is higher insurance premiums in the hurricane-vulnerable resort town.

“But climate-driven insurance costs would appear to take a back seat to ‘get-rich-quick’ madness,” writes Andrew Leonard of Salon. Speculators own a big portion of the housing stock in Myrtle Beach.

ODD PLACES TO EAT The Canada-focused blog Canpages.com has a list, with pictures, of “weird Canadian restaurants” offering “unique options for a dinner you won’t soon forget.”

At O.NOIR in Montreal, the lights are kept off. “With not a ray gone astray, your visual sense essentially shuts down, heightening your other senses,” the blog states.

The vegan Le Spirite Lounge in Montreal has two rules: Diners must “finish their meal to get dessert” and must “finish dessert, or they can never go back.” DAN MITCHELL

Complete links are at nytimes.com/business. E-mail: whatsonline@nytimes.com.

Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking

By LOUISE STORY and BRAD STONE

Published: November 30, 2007

Faced with its second mass protest by members in its short life span, Facebook, the enormously popular social networking Web site, is reining in some aspects of a controversial new advertising program.

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Related

Bits: Facebook: What Would Google Do?

Bits: The Evolution of Facebook’s Beacon

Bits: Facebook Executive Discusses Beacon Brouhaha

Within the last 10 days, more than 50,000 Facebook members have signed a petition objecting to the new program, which sends messages to users’ friends about what they are buying on Web sites like Travelocity.com, TheKnot.com and Fandango. The members want to be able to opt out of the program completely with one click, but Facebook won’t let them.

Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.

MoveOn.org Civic Action, the political group that set up the online petition, said the move was a positive one.

“Before, if you ignored their warning, they assumed they had your permission” to share information, said Adam Green, a spokesman for the group. “If Facebook were to implement a policy whereby no private purchases on other Web sites were displayed publicly on Facebook without a user’s explicit permission, that would be a step in the right direction.”

Facebook, which is run by Mark Zuckerberg, 23, who created it while an undergraduate at Harvard, has built a highly successful service that is free to its more than 50 million active members. But now the company is trying to figure out how to translate this popularity into profit. Like so many Internet ventures, it is counting heavily on advertising revenue.

The system Facebook introduced this month, called Beacon, is viewed as an important test of online tracking, a popular advertising tactic that usually takes place behind the scenes, where consumers do not notice it. Companies like Google, AOL and Microsoft routinely track where people are going online and send them ads based on the sites they have visited and the searches they have conducted.

But Facebook is taking a far more transparent and personal approach, sending news alerts to users’ friends about the goods and services they buy and view online.

Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, said she was surprised to find that her purchase of a table on Overstock.com was added to her News Feed, a Facebook feature that broadcasts users’ activities to their friends on the site. She says she did not see an opt-out box.

“Beacon crosses the line to being Big Brother,” she said, “It’s a very, very thin line.”

Facebook executives say the people who are complaining are a marginal minority. With time, Facebook says, users will accept Beacon, which Facebook views as an extension of the type of book and movie recommendations that members routinely volunteer on their profile pages. The Beacon notices are “based on getting into the conversations that are already happening between people,” Mr. Zuckerberg said when he introduced Beacon in New York on Nov. 6.

“Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.”

Mr. Palihapitiya was referring to Facebook’s controversial introduction of the News Feed feature last year. More than 700,000 people protested that feature, and Mr. Zuckerberg publicly apologized for aspects of it. However, Facebook did not remove the feature, and eventually users came to like it, Mr. Palihapitiya said. He said Facebook would not add a universal opt-out to Beacon, as many members have requested.

MoveOn.org started the anti-Beacon petition on Nov. 20, and as of last night more than 50,000 Facebook users had signed it. Other groups fighting Beacon have about 10,000 members in total. Facebook, they say, should not be following them around the Web, especially without their permission.

The complaints may seem paradoxical, given that the so-called Facebook generation is known for its willingness to divulge personal details on the Internet. But even some high school and college-age users of the site, who freely write about their love lives and drunken escapades, are protesting.

“We know we don’t have a right to privacy, but there still should be a certain morality here, a certain level of what is private in our lives,” said Tricia Bushnell, a 25-year-old in Los Angeles, who has used Facebook since her college days at Bucknell. “Just because I belong to Facebook, do I now have to be careful about everything else I do on the Internet?”

Two privacy groups said this week that they were preparing to file privacy complaints about the system with the Federal Trade Commission. Among online merchants, Overstock.com has decided to stop running Facebook’s Beacon program on its site until it becomes an opt-in program. And as the MoveOn.org campaign has grown over the past week, some ad executives have poked fun at Facebook users.

“Isn’t this community getting a little hypocritical?” said Chad Stoller, director of emerging platforms at Organic, a digital advertising agency. “Now, all of a sudden, they don’t want to share something?”

Facebook users each get a home page where they can volunteer information like their age, hometown, college and religion. People can post photos and write messages on their pages and on their friends’ pages.

Under Beacon, when Facebook members purchase movie tickets on Fandango.com, for example, Facebook sends a notice about what movie they are seeing in the News Feed on all of their friends’ pages. If a user saves a recipe on Epicurious.com or rates travel venues on NYTimes.com, friends are also notified. There is an opt-out box that appears for a few seconds, but users complain that it is hard to find. Mr. Palihapitiya said Facebook is making the boxes larger and holding them on the Web pages longer.

Mr. Green of MoveOn.org said that his group would be tracking the effects of the latest changes before deciding if it would still push for a universal opt-out.

The whole purpose of Beacon is to allow advertisers to run ads next to these purchase messages. A message about someone’s purchase on Travelocity might run alongside an airline or hotel ad, for example. Mr. Zuckerberg has heralded the new ads as being like a “recommendation from a trusted friend.”

But Facebook users say they do not want to endorse products.

“Just because I use a Web site, doesn’t mean I want to tell my friends about it,” said Annie Kadala, a 23-year old student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Maybe I used that Web site because it was cheaper.”

Ms. Kadala found out about Beacon on Thanksgiving day when her News Feed told her that her sister had purchased the Harry Potter “Scene It?” game.

“I said, ‘Susan, did you buy me this game for Christmas?’” Ms. Kadala recalled. “I don’t want to know what people are getting me for Christmas.”

Google to Join Spectrum Auction

By BRAD STONE

Published: December 1, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 30 — Seeking to shake up the wireless industry, Google said Friday that it was preparing to take part in the federal government’s auction of radio frequencies that could be used to deliver the next generation of Internet and mobile phone services to consumers.

Google said it would file its application on Monday to bid on the valuable 700-megahertz spectrum, which is being vacated by television networks as they convert their signals to digital. The formal bidding process is scheduled to begin on Jan. 24.

Google has said it will bid for the so-called C Block of the auction, which it could use to offer nationwide wireless broadband service that competes with digital subscriber line service and cable Internet access. Other bidders are expected to file their intentions with the Federal Communications Commission on Monday. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have indicated that they will also bid on the spectrum. Industry analysts also expect major cable operators to bid for some of the smaller pieces of the spectrum.

Whoever wins, the auction is expected to usher in a new wave of flexible wireless computing. Bowing to consumers groups and Internet companies like Google, F.C.C. commissioners mandated that the companies that win the new spectrum must give consumers the right to use any compatible device on the network and to use any software applications they choose on that device.

The major mobile operators currently restrict consumers’ choices on the devices and software they can use on a wireless network. Earlier this week though, Verizon Wireless said it would move to make its network more open next year. That will allow consumers to buy compatible phones outside of Verizon stores and software developers to write programs for those phones without Verizon’s permission.

Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a Washington advocacy group, said that the F.C.C.’s rules would make the world of wireless more closely resemble traditional computing. “It’s the first time the commission has put a condition on a spectrum license that recognizes that increasingly the mobile platform isn’t telephone service anymore, it’s a mobile computer,” he said.

Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, said in a statement that Google thought that it was important “to put our money where our principles are.”

“Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today’s wireless world,” he said.

Google has made developing a wireless strategy a priority. Earlier this month, it announced Android, an open-source mobile phone platform that can be used by handset makers and wireless operators to develop new wireless services.

Rules for the auction are mind-numbingly complex. Put simply, bidders submit their bids electronically and anonymously. The F.C.C.’s anticollusion rules will prevent participants from discussing their strategy after bidding begins.

The auction ends when all five auction blocks have been sold, a process that could take months. The auction is expected to raise $15 billion or more for the government.

A Google spokesman said that if the company prevailed, it could lease the spectrum, offer wholesale Internet service through other companies or operate a nationwide wireless Internet network that would compete with DSL and cable Internet access.

Some analysts think that Google does not actually want to win the auction and become a wireless operator, but seeks only to stimulate the change needed to make mobile devices safe for its own services and ads. Earlier this week, analysts for Goldman Sachs reinforced this view and said that Google winning the auction and getting into the expensive and relatively unprofitable wireless business constitutes a risk for investors.

Blair Levin, managing director at Stifel Nicolaus and former chief of staff at the F.C.C., said he thought that there was an ongoing debate at Google on this issue, between advocates for openness and those who thought the company could build a better wireless service and out-innovate the rest of the industry.

“The side at Google that only wants to ensure open conditions will ultimately win out,” he said. “But that is very much like predicting the outcome of a football game before the game begins.”

For Toddlers, Toy of Choice Is Tech Device

The LeapFrog ClickStart My First Computer gives children ages 3 and up a keyboard to help them learn computer basics.

By MATT RICHTEL and BRAD STONE

Published: November 29, 2007

Correction Appended

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28 — Cellphones, laptops, digital cameras and MP3 music players are among the hottest gift items this year. For preschoolers.

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Toy makers and retailers are filling shelves with new tech devices for children ages 3 and up, and sometimes even down. They say they are catering to junior consumers who want to emulate their parents and are not satisfied with fake gadgets.

Consider the “hottest toys” list on Amazon.com, which includes the Easy Link Internet Launch Pad from Fisher-Price (to help children surf on “preschool-appropriate Web sites”) and the Smart Cycle, an exercise bike connected to a video game.

Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine and an industry analyst for 24 years, said there had been “a huge jump in the last 12 months” in toys that involve looking at a screen.

“The bigger toy companies don’t even call it the toy business anymore,” Mr. Silver said. “They’re in the family entertainment business and the leisure business. What they’re saying is, ‘We’re vying for kids’ leisure time.’ ”

Technology has been slowly permeating the toy business for a number of years, but the trend has been accelerating. On Wednesday, six of the nine best-selling toys for 5- to 7-year-olds on Amazon.com were tech gadgets. For all of 2006, three of the top nine toys for that age group were tech-related.

The trend concerns pediatricians and educators, who say excessive screen time stifles the imagination. But more traditional toys — ones without computer monitors, U.S.B. cables and memory cards — are seen by many children as obsolete.

“If you give kids an old toy camera, they look at you like you’re crazy,” said Reyne Rice, a toy trends specialist for the Toy Industry Association. Children “are role-playing what they see in society,” she added.

That seems to be the case even when youngsters are not old enough to have any clue how to use actual gadgets.

Yunice Kotake, of San Bruno, Calif., recently purchased a Fisher-Price Knows Your Name Dora Cell Phone for her twin year-old daughters. But a few days later, she returned the play phone to a local Toys “R” Us, after she found that the girls seemed to prefer their parents’ actual phones.

“They know what a real cellphone is, and they don’t want a fake one,” Ms. Kotake said.

Inside the Toys “R” Us, the shelves near the store’s front were brimming with toys with a high-tech twist. Among them were numerous starter laptops that play educational games (and in the shape, for instance, of Barbie’s purse and Darth Vader’s helmet) and traditional board games with DVD extras. Perched prominently on one shelf was one of the country’s hottest-selling toys, the EyeClops Bionic Eye, an electronic camera for children ages 6 and up.

Standing near the front of the store, a 6-year-old named Sabrina, with a gap-tooth smile, explained that her No. 1 choice for a Christmas gift is an adult laptop.

“ ’Cause it’s cool,” she explained.

“Maybe when she’s 8,” said her mother, Amina, who declined to give her last name. She might, she said, have to yield when her daughter turns 7.

“These kids are different from the way we were,” she added.

Toy companies are eager to meet demand with products like the LeapFrog ClickStart My First Computer, which gives children ages 3 and up a keyboard to help them learn computer basics, using a TV screen as a monitor.

“Children want to emulate their parents, whether they are on the phone, using a digital camera or on their computers and online,” said Mark Randall, vice president of the toy and baby store at Amazon.com. “The toy industry now has pretty much got a product for every one of those behaviors.”

Even toys with no typical connection to technology are newly wired. A new generation of popular stuffed animals and dolls, like Webkinz, are now tied to Internet sites so that toddlers can cuddle and dress them one minute and go online to social-network the next. Among the hottest toys listed in the holiday issue of Toy Wishes magazine are Barbie Girls MP3 players and the Rubik’s Revolution, a blinking, beeping update of the Rubik’s Cube that includes six electronic games.

Wiring toys for a young audience is worrying some children’s advocates and pediatricians. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against screen time for children ages 2 and younger, and it recommends no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming on televisions or computers for older children.

Donald L. Shifrin, a pediatrician based in Seattle and the spokesman for the academy, said tech toys cannot replace imaginative play, where children create rich narratives and interact with peers or parents.

“Are we creating media use as a default for play?” Dr. Shifrin asked. “When kids want to play, will they ask, ‘Where’s the screen?’ ”

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Correction: November 30, 2007

A picture caption with an article yesterday about high-technology toys misidentified one item shown. It was the ClickStart, My First Computer, by LeapFrog, not the Easy Link Internet Launch Pad by Fisher-Price.

For Toddlers, Toy of Choice Is Tech Device

Published: November 29, 2007

Correction Appended

(Page 2 of 2)

But to the toy industry, the so-called youth electronics category is a bright spot and now accounting for more than 5 percent of all toy sales. Overall toy sales have been flat at around $22 billion a year for the last five years, according to the market research firm NPD Group.

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“If you’re just selling traditional toys like board games or plastic toys, you can survive but you can’t grow,” said Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst with Needham & Company. “This industry has to redefine what a toy is.”

Toy makers are also worried that they might be losing their youngest, most devoted customers to the consumer electronics and video game companies. Mr. McGowan said the industry has even coined a term for the anxiety: KGOY, which stands for Kids Getting Older Younger.

Meanwhile, electronics makers, and entrepreneurs, see opportunity in capturing today’s bib-wearing consumers.

A cellphone company called Kajeet, based in Bethesda, Md., introduced a cellphone this year for children ages 8 and up. In October, Toys “R” Us started stocking the phones, which have software aimed at children but the same hardware as adult models.

“When we put devices in front of kids, if they smack of kid-ness, they’re much less interested,” said Daniel Neal, Kajeet’s chief executive. “They want your iPhone, they want your BlackBerry, and they’re smart enough to use it better than you do.”

Eric Jorgensen, a programmer at Microsoft, has invented PixelWhimsy, a computer program that allows toddlers to sit at a regular computer and bang away on the keys to create sounds and colors and shapes, but without damaging the computer.

Asmin Jalis, who also works at Microsoft and whose 2-year-old boy, Ibrahim, has been using PixelWhimsy, said his son liked it better than his toy computer. “We have a toy laptop for him, and he knows it’s a fake,” he said.

Grace, a 1-year-old in San Francisco, however, has been going through a decidedly nontechnology phase.

Recently, playtime has involved “putting little toys and dolls into bags and zipping them up,” said her mother, Tanya, who declined to give her last name. “Wouldn’t it be great if our lives were so simple?”

Still, Tanya has put the Fun Elmo Laptop on Grace’s Christmas list. Tanya says Grace is getting the gift because she loves to sit on her mom’s lap and hit the keys and move the mouse on the family’s real computer.

“I think she just likes mimicking people,” Tanya said.

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Correction: November 30, 2007

A picture caption with an article yesterday about high-technology toys misidentified one item shown. It was the ClickStart, My First Computer, by LeapFrog, not the Easy Link Internet Launch Pad by Fisher-Price.

Soup Up Your Cellphone

Some popular widgets include Flickr, Sudoku and Twitter.

By KEVIN C. TOFEL

Published: November 29, 2007

It is all too easy to get caught up in the hype that comes with the latest and greatest cellphones. And right now, the latest and greatest are the iPhone and the iPhone clones that, with a touch of the finger, open up maps, restaurant listings and the weather.

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A Wikipedia widget.

A widget from Newsvine.

If those phones are too pricey for your budget or you’ve got more months on your contract with your carrier, there might be another way to get some of those handy services on your phone: widgets. (For a touch screen, you’ll just have to wait.)

Widgets are small applications, most often free, that appear on your phone’s menu pages. They deliver news or information to most handsets. You can use them to track down a cab company or follow stock prices. Other widgets deliver maps or headlines from media sources like the BBC, Bloomberg and this newspaper. For anyone with a smartphone that has the ability to connect to the Internet, it might make sense to simply use the included Web browser to visit Google Maps, YouTube and such, but if you’re looking to extend the life of an older handset, widgets are a good option.

Widgets will not turn your vintage Motorola StarTAC into an iPhone, but they will add features and functions that you didn’t think your phone could ever possess. There are several Web sites that offer widgets like GetMobio.com, Plusmo.com, Openwave.com and WidSets.com.

WidSets is one of the most popular such places because it has a large library of more than 2,650 widgets that work on more than 300 devices from all the leading manufacturers, even though the site is affiliated with Nokia, the world’s largest maker of handsets. Most phones made in the last three years are supported by WidSets, including golden oldies like the Motorola RAZR V3.

GetMobio has fewer widgets and supports about 90 phones, but among its widgets are a cheap-gas finder, a store locator and something called the Panic Kit, which locates locksmiths, cab companies and pharmacies at the spur of the moment. Plusmo’s roster is not as extensive, but among its widgets are applications to bring in news from CNN and a daily Peanuts cartoon.

Why would you use widgets when your carrier might offer similar applications? To save money. Cellular providers do not make much money selling handsets to consumers; in fact, they typically subsidize your handset purchase. By paying for a portion of your device, they’re investing in you for the next two years. Over the contract’s life, the real money is made in monthly service plan fees, overage charges and the extra services they can offer you.

That’s where free widgets come in. You can avoid paying for extra services like news headlines and sports information that carriers typically bundle in packages for $5, $10, $20 or more. Often, you do not need the whole bundle, just one small feature like a stock price ticker or a weather update. Single-purpose widgets might serve your purpose (and your budget) better since you’re installing only what you need.

While widgets are usually free, you can still end up paying your carrier for data transfer or airtime. The widgets need to piggyback on your cellular connection for data. Verify with your carrier that you either have some data allowance included in your plan or that it will charge only a nominal fee for small amounts of data. (Afterward, you can use the Traffic Feature in WidSets widgets to track how much data airtime you use.) Occasional updates of text data may seem small, but they add up quickly, so prepare accordingly with your service provider and monthly plan.

It does not matter whether your phone is on the CDMA network that Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Alltel use or the GSM network that AT&T and T-Mobile use. The determining factor for widget compatibility is whether your phone supports Java software, or more specifically what is known as Java MIDP 2.0. With a few notable exceptions, like the Apple iPhone, Java is fairly commonplace in handsets because it gives the wireless carriers a flexible and easy way to add services. Smartphones that run on Windows Mobile, Palm and even BlackBerry operating systems also support Java, though on some phones you may have to download it first.

It is easy to install widgets. Go to WidSets.com to verify whether your phone can accept widgets. Widgets that you select are sent directly to your handset along with a WidSets application to run them. The process should take less than five minutes.

Here are some popular and most recommended widgets to get you started:

¶AccuWeather. One of the most useful widgets is also one of the most popular; at last check, more than 125,000 people were running this widget. And why not when you can get the weather forecast, including local current weather, extended forecasts and even radar maps?

¶Google Calendar. The Web-based calendar is with you everywhere with this widget. The best part? Update your calendar in one place on the Internet and the changes are viewable on other devices.

¶Wikipedia. There’s an option to turn off images in this encyclopedia and provide just text to speed up the information download as well as reduce the amount of data transferred.

¶YouTube. This widget might be a little more limited than the iPhone’s YouTube application, but you can still catch recently added videos and more.

¶Flickr. One of the most popular photo-sharing services on the Internet is right in the palm of your hand. You can view your photos and those that your friends and family have uploaded or search by a keyword to see what’s out there.

¶Private Chat. Those instant-message fees add up quickly. Get your closest friends to install this widget and pay for just the airtime in real-time chat sessions. With over 350,000 users, you’ll never be lonely again, but you might want to invest in an unlimited data plan for this one.

¶Twitter. If you want a wider audience than just one chat participant, Twitter is the answer. This short-messaging service allows you to “micro-blog” your life in 140 character bursts.

¶Sudoku. You’ve got a number pad on that phone, so why not use it to exercise your brain?

¶EBay. Searching for that special item? Now you can do it all the time and everywhere.

¶Newsvine. A combination of mainstream news and user-generated opinions that offers up wide viewpoints on current topics. Start with headlines in the widget and read any story with a single click. You can also choose to have news that focuses on a keyword of your choice.

Don’t Throw Out Your Broken iPod; Fix It via the Web

By PETER WAYNER

Published: November 8, 2007

A FEW months ago, Stephen Ironside, a student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, confronted a minor but modern tragedy: the iPod that filled his life with song stopped working.

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The device was out of warranty, and Apple would not fix it free. So he left it in a drawer until he happened to read a blog posting on CrunchGear.com that described how he might fix it — with a small, folded piece of paper. Mr. Ironside celebrated by posting thanks on the blog: “I’ve been on CDs for months. You saved my life (and my iPod).”

The author of the blog post, Matt Hickey of Seattle, says that using paper as a shim to put pressure on the hard drive has worked on about 70 percent of the failed iPods he has encountered — even though he is not sure why it works.

Gadget-fixing is adapting to the modern era. Neighborhood repair shops are all but gone, and along with them the repairmen who could offer casual advice, even when that advice was whether it was worth repairing the device. But Web sites can help users find and share solutions that can save a device from the landfill. If the job is too tricky, a number of Internet-based firms offer highly specialized repairs via overnight mail.

Some sites like macfixit.com, fixmyxp.com and macosxhints.com are devoted to a single product, while others like avsforum.com sponsor debates on a big product area, in this case home theaters, televisions and stereos. People with laptops that have suddenly gone blank can turn to www.notebookforums.com or notebookreview.com, and there are even a few sites like www.highdefforum.com for fixing TVs.

Yaniv Bensadon, the chief executive of fixya.com, started his site after he moved back to Israel from the United States and found that his electronics would often malfunction in the new environment. The manuals and the support offered by the manufacturers rarely helped.

His site groups questions and answers to problems and organizes them according to product type, brand name and model number. The page for the Microsoft Xbox 360, for instance, lists more than 100 questions with answers. Most provide a single solution, but one common problem, overheating, has 81 posts debating the best fix. All but about a dozen of the questions had answers, although some were a bit brief. (Microsoft has offered to fix those overheating Xbox 360s.)

“Like any other consumer out there, I had problems with my Xerox printer, Palm Treo 700, Belkin wireless router and even Sony portable DVD,” Mr. Bensadon said. “On each of the problems I posted, I received a great solution within 5 to 10 hours.”

Fixya rates the people who offer advice. Anyone can claim to be an expert on a topic, but their rating will rise or fall with the quality of their answers. The site also offers paid services from users who charge about $10 to $20 a problem.

Knowledge is only half of the battle. A number of sites specialize in providing spare parts but also provide the information on how to install them as the incentive to use the site. PDAparts.com, for instance, sells replacement screens, batteries, cases and other parts for Palm Treos, iPaqs and other P.D.A.’s. Videos describing the process of opening the cases — probably the trickiest part of repairing today’s electronics — can be downloaded from the site.

Most other gadgets come with batteries that are easy to replace without custom tools. Replacement batteries for cellphones are often marked up by the devices’ manufacturers, while third-party replacements are often available for 60 percent to 80 percent less. Companies offering replacement batteries for iPods often offer better batteries with higher capacities and longer lifetimes. Ipodjuice.com, for instance, sells a 1,200-milliamp-hour battery that will replace the 600-milliamp-hour battery that shipped with a fourth-generation iPod — an improvement that lets the Web site claim that the repaired iPod will “last 100 percent longer.”

Most replacement kits include small tools for popping open iPods and video instructions for swapping batteries.

For those who do not want to get their hands dirty or wait for an answer, dozens of businesses specialize in fixing some of the most common problems. Ryan Arter, the president of IResQ.com, said his company has been fixing Apple products since 1994. Today, hundreds of iPod, iPhone and iBook owners send their broken machines by overnight mail to his shop in Olathe, Kan., where technicians repair them.

Prices depend on the item and the damage. Replacing a screen on a fourth-generation iPod, for instance, costs $94 for parts, labor and overnight shipping in both directions. Replacing the battery on an iPhone costs $79.

You can take the device to an Apple store for a new battery, and it will cost only $65. But you may not get the same device back, a concern if the gadget is personalized.

“They’re definitely worth repairing,” Mr. Arter said. “Sometimes they’re engraved and they have some special meaning.

“Are they disposable?” he said. “No. They’re little computers. They’re a big investment.” But he says that it makes little sense to fix a device if there are two or three problems with it.

Shannon Jean, the founder of TechRestore.com, a competitor in Concord, Calif., says that the data on a device can be more valuable than the gadget itself. An iPod or a laptop may carry thousands of dollars worth of music and a immeasurable amount of documents, spreadsheets or other information.

“When there’s data involved, that defines what people will pay, especially when there’s downtime involved,” he said.

Among the sites offering help with repairs, it is hard to find one that tells you whether it makes economic sense to pay for the repairs. But some decisions are easy. Basic DVD players are usually cheaper to replace. So are PCs with outdated operating systems like Windows 95. For everything else, especially when a new device costs less the one you bought, the choice is harder. Is it wise to pay $80 to repair a $300 digital camera that now costs $100? Unlikely.

Deciding between repairing a gadget or replacing it with a newer, often better model is a bit of a gamble. Most sites caution that they cannot fix every problem. Some problems like a cracked screen can be easy to estimate and straightforward to repair. Random glitches and odd behavior, however, may be impossible to pinpoint, leaving the user with a bill for ineffective repairs.

Chris Adamson, an editor at O’Reilly Media in Sebastopol, Calif., offers a cautionary tale. He shipped a faulty iPod that was failing on planes to an online company, which he does not want to mention by name. It took a week for the service to diagnose the problem before suggesting replacing the hard disk for $120. The solution, however, did not address the basic problem, and he now finds himself asking for a refund, which the company does not want to give.

He recommends thinking of the devices as having a short life span, perhaps three or four years. “If it fails after that period, accept that you’ve gotten your value out of it and get something new,” he said.