Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech reviews Steve Jobs calls it quits as CEO of Apple and we take a look at his historic career Plus how to keep your keyboard squeaky clean and lighten your load with the help of a smartphone it's all coming up right now hi everyone I'm Hollywood and welcome to the cnet tech review where we collect our hottest videos of the week and tell you what's good and what's bad in the world of tech plus offer our own unique tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line actually we're going to switch things up a bit this week and start with the bad it's bad news for Apple fans and employees alike as Steve Jobs has announced that he's stepping down from his position as CEO although jobs is handing the reins over to Apple CEO Tim Cook he does intend to stay on as chairman of the board now many are left speculating what this means for the future of the company but let's take a look back at the impact Jobs has had during his career thus far we're going to make some history together today Steve Jobs has made history many times and he's changed the way we communicate and are entertained his vision will continue to define our digital lives for many years to come and the story of his life in technology has played out in three acts act one it's 1977 jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak introduced the Apple to the first successful personal computer but 1984 brought a much bigger milestone the first personal computer that was really personal today for the first time ever I'd like to let Macintosh speak for itself hello I'm Macintosh it sure is great to get out of that bag with a graphical interface mouse creative software and whimsical design it was a completely different animal from the sterile machines coming from Microsoft and Intel just as different was the TD commercial that announced the mac one they still talk about in the ad business today and which showed jobs new technology sells better with a little hike but none of that would be enough to hold back the juggernaut of Intel and Microsoft and the difficulties Apple faced in growing the mac business led to jobs being shown the door at his own company in 1985 I was basically fired from Apple when I was 30 that was difficult when it happened but maybe the best thing that ever happened to me act 2 shortly after jobs ouster he founds next to produce a new kind of advanced workstation computer that runs on an object-oriented software architecture which would become the basis of a dramatically new and better mac OS years later similarly telling was the design of the next machine stylish austere and breakin convention sound familiar in 1986 jobs also acquired the graphic arts division of Lucasfilm turning it in to picsart the studio that mainstreamed animated features and can boast that its films deliver the highest average gross revenue of any studio in the film industry but in classic form act 3 with jobs biggest he retook the helm of a nearly bankrupt Apple and introduced the imac the following year with what was the first of what we now call a Steve note imac comes from the marriage of the excitement of the internet with the simplicity of Macintosh it was the first personal computer designed around the internet what Bill Gates and Microsoft Word of the PC era Jobs was about to become to the internet and eventually mobile area we got a lot of incredible stuff to show you today his presentation skills at events such as Mac world would become legendary examples of showmanship and star power in industry it's really beautiful this is what it looks detractors would derive jobs hype as a reality distortion field but the imac worked an apple began to turn around but jobs single biggest course change for Apple was not a computer but the ipod what is ipod but i haven't had one right here my pocket in effect there it is right there introduced in october two thousand one it was small in size spacious and capacity and looked good but more importantly it diversified Apple away from head-on competition with the wind tail computer makers while luring away their customers when iTunes launched windows support in October of 0 3 i'm here to report to you today that this has happened apple began to rewrite the music business become a major media player and got its first taste of market dominance but in terms of financial success nothing tops the apple product that was built on the shoulders of the ipod today Apple is going to reinvent the phone and we are calling it iPhone but jobs and apples showed an uncanny ability to once again get the formula right appear the originator and make a piece of advanced technology seems simple magical and fashionable with that same DNA the iPad arrived in april 2010 we like to show it to you today for the first time and we call it the ipad and again legitimize the category that other companies had only nibbled at the edges of four years it's so much more intimate than a laptop and it's so much more capable than a smartphone Apple has had its share of flops but they mostly pale compared to its Hicks and there were always notes of hubris around the latter day company seen most in jobs almost dismissing documented problems with the iphone 4s antenna we think it's affecting with small percentage of users and we think some of that problem is inherent in most every smartphone but mostly Apple since jobs return has been a culture changer as much as a technology company one of the biggest success stories in American business and virtually indivisible from the identity of its CEO what more could I say the man's company personality and vision changed the world twice over this is the end of an era and we now resume our regular programming and take a look at the good if there's anything we learned since the iphone came out it's that there's very little a smartphone can't do it lets you leave many of your other gadgets at home in fact here's Brian Cooley with the top five items that for many people have been replaced by smartphones don't you pity that poor Luddite I'm sure you know who's still carrying around some dumb flip phone telling you I don't need a smartphone I just want to make calls dumbass okay that's a little harsh but smartphones aren't really even about being phones anymore I'm Brian Cooley with the top five things the smartphone replaces not even including your home phone line based on a survey done in june twenty eleven by prosper mobile insights see how many of these ring a bell with you number five is the mp3 player thirty-seven percent of us don't use one of those once we get a smartphone you see simple phones were generally crap or non-functional as ipods but smartphones are usually at least okay with their big color screens touch interfaces plenty of and often expandable storage oh and they are connected so they can stream stuff like Pandora and Spotify and last.fm now you may find a smartphone a little too bulky or delicate to sweat all over as your gym music device but aside from that you can see why the ipod is rapidly becoming quaint tank number four is the personal planner 41.6 percent of us oh thank you smartphone for jamming a stake in the heart of those horrible old franklin covey day planners with their bad pleather jackets that match your bad tassel loafers of course syncing calendars across various web services to various smartphones can give you a stress-related disease but at least you won't die clutching a daybook number three is the digital point and shoot camera about forty four percent of us said goodbye I don't recall the last time i use my point-and-shoot digital not even sure where it is to be honest for many people there just is no longer a gap between the smartphone on one end of photography and the DSLR on the high-end smartphones now take high-res photos off an HD video they share the stuff because they're connected they can gps stamp things all in one little stealthy device that doesn't say I'm a tourist oh by the way if you want a great camera phone check out my other recent top 5 best camera phones at top 5 cnet com okay the number two thing the smartphone kills is the GPS portable navigation device two percent of us don't use those once we get a smartphone now there's decent to excellent turn-by-turn nav in all the recent smartphones that have come out a lot of folks will object and they'll say yeah too many compromises the screen size is a little too small the power usage means I might not be able to make a call multitasking can be kind of clumsy but you know most of us don't use and have that often once in a while like I bet you know how to get to work and back so gps nav that is good enough is good enough before I take you to the number one thing the smartphone is putting out of business can you guess what it is here are some other things that has knocked off from a little further down the list including a disturbing 124 percent of us say we got rid of our computer because we got a smartphone let's not go overboard here okay the number one thing people say their smartphone put in the box to sell on eBay is their alarm clock right I don't even know how to set my alarm clock anymore your phone is your appointment travel to do and home alarm device why would you have a separate one on the nightstand that does nothing but just wake you up for more top 5s like this go to top 5 cnet com I'm Brian Cooley thanks for watching okay but if that is the case how come my purse hasn't gotten any lighter now Brian had some harsh words for folks who prefer a simpler phone just for making calls but for some people smart phones may do too much maybe grandma just needs a phone with big buttons it's easy to use maybe you don't want to shatter that glass touchscreen when you're at the gym well luckily Nicole and Donald have not forgotten about you I'm Nicole a senior associate editor for cnet.com and this is a first look at the pantech breeze 3 the breeze 3 is essentially a basic flip phone for AT&T Wireless on the front is a simple external display that displays the usual date time and caller ID information underneath the external display are three LED notifications for incoming messages and so forth on the side here is the volume rocker on the other side is the micro USB port and on the back is the 1.3 megapixel camera flip the phone open and you will find it very colorful display underneath the display you get three quick keys that can be used for speed dial or shortcut keys if you get the usual navigation array that includes shortcuts to the camera function as well as voice command the overall keep addicts you can see here is quite spacious each key is quite large and a little bit raised above the surface so it's easy to text and dial by feel the breeze 3 has two different phone menu modes one is the breeze or easy mode and the other is advanced mode for servier users the breeze mode as you can see here is pretty simple all of the menu options are displayed in a list style form factor the advanced mode opens up the phones full list of functions as well as displaying things in a more grit like fashion additions to the breeze three from the breeze too is that it also has a new pill reminder application the breeze 3 is perfect for senior citizens kids are just cellphone novices in general the pantech breeze 3 is quite affordable at only around forty dollars your two-year service agreement with AT&T I'm Nichola this has been the first look at the pantech breeze 3 hey I'm Donald Bell today we're taking a first look at the sansa clip zip this is a super compact super affordable mp3 player from sandisk that's available in seven different colors and two capacities there's a 4 gigabyte version that will set you back just forty nine dollars on a gigabyte model run $69 now the basic design of the sansa clip hasn't changed a whole lot since the clip plus we saw last year you navigate using the direction pad up front there's headphone jack at a micro SD card slot here on the side a power button up on the top and a volume control and USB port over here of course the main appeal here is the clip on the back which makes it perfect for working out the construction is all plastic but so is just about everything else in this price range as far as features go you get music playback FM radio audio book and podcast support voice recording and a basic stop watch the clip zip is both Mac and PC compatible works with mp3 AAC WMA flack and even subscription music services like rhapsody battery life is rated at about 15 hours all-in-all is an easy mp3 player to recommend it's one of the best values you'll find under fifty dollars and arguably one of the best under a hundred dollars it's not as Tiny as Apple's nano or shuffle but it's not as likely to get lost or run through the laundry either so that's the sansa clip zip the perfect practically disposable mp3 player for the gym well there's times where you just don't want to put your smartphone in harm's way for cnet.com i'm donald though see there's something to be said for simple products that do one job really well i mean i wouldn't buy them but if you like that sort of thing go crazy alarm clocks may be on their way out but one problem with using your smartphone to wake you up is that it's only on your nightstand when you're not using it what if you want to know what time it is without digging in your pocket or better yet the weather forecast well all you ipad owners have another clock replacement option as you'll see in this week's tap that up welcome to tap that app i'm jason parker and this is a show recovered the hottest apps in the mobile space those who own ipads know that apple's tablet is great for quick access to the internet and email and offers tons of apps and games to make it even more useful but what about the times when you're not actively using your ipad this week we're showing off a handy app that's perfect for when your ipad is charging and propped up in the stand either at home or at the office it's called night stand for ipad and its main function is to show you time date and weather information and you can set alarms to use it as your primary alarm clock but there is plenty more here to make nightstand worth your money the app displays the time date and weather info in an easy-to-read farm you can adjust the clock to display in either black or white and smaller large sizes and you can choose which side of the screen you want the clock to display on but what makes this app more interesting is that you can display calming videos as your desktop background and view info from popular social sites tabs across the bottom of the screen include Twitter Facebook RSS and weather touch the Twitter tab to sign into your account and from there you'll see all the latest tweets from people you follow in a window at the bottom you can swipe horizontally to see earlier tweets the same is true for facebook just sign in and authorize and you'll be able to view the latest statuses for your friends and family if you have something to say you can touch a button on the left to bring up a window to post a new tweet or facebook status with the RSS tab you can display the latest feeds from your google reader account if a particular headline catches your interest you can tap the headline and read the full story in a browser window perhaps the most useful feature as you wake up in the morning the daily weather is shown under the weather tab giving you a forecast for the next few days just like the other windows you can swipe to see more info in this case you'll see an extended forecast aside from all the info you can quickly get with only a few taps on your iPad screen night stand for ipad has some cool aesthetic options that make it more than just a bland looking clock you have the option to show slideshows of images using provided shots or images from your library and they have that slow zoom Ken Burns effect but you also can show animated movies as backgrounds you get a few demo movies to see what the animations are like but you can buy movie packs of 10 movies for 99 cents or spend a dollar ninety-nine for all four offered movie packs whether you are using images or movies as your background you can quickly change what you see by hitting the Settings button then adding and subtracting movies and images from your slideshow when you're satisfied with your choices just hit start slideshow a nice interface feature here is that you can adjust the brightness for both the clock and your slideshow by touching and dragging on screen great for we want to tone it down at bedtime over all night stand for ipad is a neat app to have when your ipad sits charging it's great for setting alarms but it's especially cool for getting quick updates from your favorite social sites with all these features for 199 at the iTunes App Store it's easy to recommend anyone to tap this app that's it for this week's show if you have any suggestion send them to tap that app at cnet com i'm jason parker and we'll see you next time might I suggest turning off pace time before you go to bed or don't that's totally up to you alright it's time to take a break but stick around we have a lot more tech review right after this welcome back to the cnet tech review our weekly video digest of all things good and bad we've seen here at cnet TV continuing on in the good our latest cnet editors choice product is a keyboard and it's a clickety clackety keyboard this is not the 80s people are still doing it check it out hi I'm Justin you associate editor for cnet.com this is your first look at the deck 82 mechanical keyboard but first a quick history lesson the mechanical keyboard trend is growing thanks to companies like deck and Das Keyboard producing their own unique takes on the original IBM model m keyboard so that one's the really old clicky keyboard that used to come with IBM desktop machines so anyways some people seem to prefer the click-clack nature of these peripherals so the new mechanical keyboards we've been seeing lately like the deck 82 are modified with mechanical key switches underneath that atom or tactile typing feeling then you would with normal scissors which style keys you get on current laptops so what makes this one so great that we awarded it an editor's choice well first the deck 82 is so named because it has only 82 keys they achieved this by removing the number pad that normally goes on the right hand side and that also means that a lot of the secondary functions like num lock page down home etc those all get relocated different places on the board that takes a little time getting used to it but the compact layout definitely saved space on your desk and lets you get your mouse a little closer to your typing hands second the deck 82 has ultra-bright backlit LEDs under each of the key caps that illuminate the keyboard in darkness in fact the bulbs are so bright that they also look pretty cool in broad daylight as well and deck tells us that each LED will last at least 200,000 hours or 22 years if you never turn it off actually the whole keyboard is very tough to match as well the bottom has a bolted in steel plate that makes sure it stays put while you're typing and the chairs black MX mechanical switches underneath are rated at 50 million key presses so what does it like to type on a mechanical keyboard well to answer that you need to know about the different kinds of mechanical switches available so most of them use switches by brand called cherry who in turn uses color coding to differentiate between different types of key switches the most commonly used and loudest are the cherry blue switches but this one actually has cherry black switches that are not quite as loud and they feel a little bit more pillowy rather than clack e because of the longer distance you need to push down on them to engage the letter 60 grams to be exact the keys themselves are indented at the top to make it feel like they're molded to your fingers and the whole experience with the lights and translucent chassis it makes it feel like you're typing on a keyboard from hackers so deck also keeps the door open to modifications on it's 82 series keyboard and encourages users to post their hacks on the deck message board online and you can buy replacement colored chassé ease if you don't like the blue one deck also covers mods on its one-year warranty which is perfect for users that like to tinker with their gear you can read all the details on our full review on cnet com but that's going to do it for me I'm Justin you and you just took a first look at the editors choice winning deck 82 mechanical illuminated keyboard thanks for watching okay if you're gonna spend money on a fancy keyboard like that you're going to want to take care of it you're sharing back in with some tips for keeping your keyboard tidy most of us spend hours a day to our desks eating sneezing and coughing over our keyboards and even if you're really good about washing your hands before typing away there's definitely bacteria on your keys I'm Sharon backing for cnet.com with a quick tip on cleaning and disinfecting your keyboard first unplug your keyboard or remove batteries if it's wireless then flip it upside down and give it a few good shakes over a garbage can to get any crumbs or dirt out from under the keys now grab a can of compressed air to really remove any other dust or crumbs from in between the keys and if you have a mini vacuum now is the time to use that too if there is still grime stuck in between the keys dip a q-tip in some rubbing alcohol and remove the dirt key by key which might take a while if it's really dirty now once all the dirt is free grab it ass infected wife and wring out all the excess liquid then wipe the keyboard down including the palm rest to disinfect the keyboard when you're done immediately wipe it down with a damp microfiber cloth and then dry it off with a dry microfiber cloth disinfect your keyboard every day and try to do this whole routine once a week and set an alarm to remind yourself if you need to for more tips visit how to Cena calm and send your questions on Twitter at cnet how to for a seen it I'm Sharon Vaknin and i'll see you on the interwebs just looking around our office here there are some really gross keyboards around like mine also don't forget your mouse sharon has another video explaining how to clean those two but I'll give you a little tip you basically do it the same way all right since we've already got the bat out of the way it's time to jump right in to the bottom line there's no getting around the fact that Steve Jobs stepping down was the biggest tech news in the world this week but rather than pontificating about his place in history any further let's let the man speak for himself courtesy of our friends at ZDNet it's really beautiful this is what it looks this is made incredibly durably this is polycarbonate plastic the stuff they make bulletproof vests out of but we'd gone one step further we've double shot it in rubber all the way around so what you see in orange is all rubber it feels wonderful and it makes the unit even safer to travel with again all on the back when you open it up it's really beautiful inside and the imax got a fantastic 15 inch display but today we are introducing a model with a 17 inch landscape display let's go ahead and take a look at it we are opening 25 Apple own retail stores across the u.s. this calendar year in 2001 25 and the first two stores will open this saturday here at tysons corner in McLean Virginia and at glendale mall in Glendale California across the other side of the country why these two because they were the first two that we're ready there's nothing magic about it you can trust that we know Mac os10 is not perfect we think it's a tremendous start and we think already in many instances we are way above anything else on the market in terms of certain aspects of performance in terms of certain features but we're not stopping there and we are continuously going to improve this so that is the best in the world in every respect and your criticisms and feedbacks helped us a lot so keep them coming we are listening today we are announcing that the second-generation itunes doesn't just run on the mac but it runs on windows to exactly the same thing on mac and on windows not this is not some baby version of itunes or the music store it's the whole thing itunes for windows is probably the best windows app everywhere there is one more thing it's one more small when we were inventing all of the technology to build this tremendous technology to be able to do this its way far ahead of what anyone in the industry is capable of doing we decided to apply that technology to something a little smaller which is this yeah let's see you again a new 12 inch powerbook it's the world's thinnest notebook it's so thin it even fits inside one of these envelopes that we've all seen floating around the office and so let me go ahead and show it to you now this is that let me take it out here this is the new macbook air and you can get a feel for how thin it is yeah there it is now stop me if you've already seen this believe me you ain't seen it you've got to see this thing in person it is one of the most beautiful designs you've ever seen this is beyond the doubt the most precise thing one of the most beautiful things we've ever made glass on the front and rear and stainless steel running around and the precision of which this is made is is beyond any consumer product we've ever seen it's closest kin is like a beautiful old leica camera and we'd like to show it to you today for the first time and we call it the iPad and again to see the whole webpage is phenomenal right there holding the internet in your hands it's an incredible experience keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy and we call it iCloud the bottom line this week thanks for everything Steve you may be stepping out of the spotlight for now but I look forward to more one more thing moments down the road and that's our show for this week come on back next time for an all-new cnet tech review until then there are tons of great videos available every day at cnet TV com see you next time and thank you for watching