Gadgetory

this week on the CNET tech review the Verizon iPhone is coming we've got it now but is this the right time to buy it plus google launches the Android Market News Corp launches the daily and tap that out brings lunches to your doorstep it's all coming up right now hi everyone I'm Hollywood and welcome to the Sina 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 some unique tech wisdom in the form of a bottom line let's start with the good the wait is finally over for so long it was just a pipe dream but now the iPhone 4 is really coming to Verizon and Kent German was among the lucky few to get his hands on one before they went on sale is it the answer to all of your iPhone prayers here's Kent with his first look hi I'm Kent Sherman senior editor for cnet.com today were to take a first look at the Verizon iPhone 4 indeed I was very happy when Verizon and Apple announced this phone in early January sure it's great that ATT is no longer than exclusive carrier but I'm more excited that long discussed rumors finally been put to rest so what is the Verizon iPhone well the answer is the Verizon iPhone is almost the same device as AT&T counterpart there are a couple of differences and one that's pretty important but it's still the same phone in most regards I'll start with the one difference in the design to accommodate the CDMA antenna the ringer switch has been moved slightly closer to the volume rocker also the gap that's currently on top of the AT&T handset has been moved to the top left side Apple would have discussed the specifics of the redesign but implement retesting we didn't encounter the death grip that we found on the AT&T iPhone unfortunately though the antenna change means that many current iPhone cases like these here won't fit so they need to buy new ones also because it runs on CDMA the Verizon iPhone doesn't have a SIM card slot otherwise the Verizon handset is exactly the same you'll find the same controls camera features headset in charger Jack's speaker and microphone and Retina display Verizon says it will carry the white iPhone but we still have no idea when that will be last time we heard was just signed in the spring now inside the Verizon iPhone is one major difference unlike the AT&T handset the Verizon iPhone can function as a personal hotspot for up to five devices you will need to activate the hotspot functionality with Verizon first but once you do it will appear in the settings menu so after you set a password and you turn on the feature you can get started you can connect devices through Wi-Fi Bluetooth and also a USB cable it's really nice as you can use all three connection types at once another difference is the Verizon iPhone currently runs iOS 4.2 6 while in comparison the AT&T iPhone runs iOS 4.2.1 Apple said 42.6 is a version unique to the Verizon handset and the only change that brings our CDMA support and hotspot feature the other features of the device are exactly the same so expect to see no changes from the AT&T phone of course there are a few things that Verizon iPhone can't do unlike a tMT's handset it can't perform simultaneous voice in data if you're on Wi-Fi it does do that but if you're on a 7 at work no and it doesn't offer global roaming for GSM networks also the Verizon is growing its LTE 4G network it's currently Verizon iPhone tops out at 3G we're still in the midst of testing the device you'll have to read the review for our full performance analysis voice quality however we noticed few differences but this preliminary testing so I want to emphasize that whatever our results though I have to stress that you shouldn't expect a Verizon iPhone to be a miracle device you'll see differences no doubt but don't expect it to completely cure your reception woes you're still using a cellular network that will vary according to your location interference and how many people are using it at one time the expectations for Verizon iPhone are immensely and ridiculously high and this handset I have to say runs a big risk of not living up to him that's why it's important to keep those hopes in check just recognize it as a phone it's still gonna have problems once in a while more importantly though the less smartphone landscape is very very different than it was in 2007 when the first iPhone went on sale not only are there are many other hand fantastic smartphones on the market but also there are a lot of people that are perfectly happy with their non apple device and don't want to buy one the iPhone is on a new care that's great there's more customer choice and it remains a very good phone but it remains just one player in a very competitive field I'm Ken Sherman here were the first look at the Verizon iPhone 4 way to manage expectations Kent personally if I was looking to buy an iPhone right now I would wait to see what the next generation of hardware has to offer but that's just me for more reasons why you might not want to rush into a new relationship with Verizon stick around for this week's top five coming up later in the show so maybe you don't like AT&T or Verizon or phone contracts in general but you still want to jump on the smart phone bandwagon well if you're willing to go the Android route and you should be you'll want to check out LG's optimus v that's B as in virgin imma Kohli senior associate editor for cnet.com and this is a first look at the lg optimus V for a virgin mobile the lg optimus V is almost identical to the lg optimus s in fact he has the same design and everything however the only difference is that the bottom placement is slightly different for example at the bottom here you do get the hot sensor keys for the Menu key the HOME key the back key and the search key otherwise the overall interface is pretty similar to the other lg optimus phones you get up to five customizable home screens and the lg optimus v comes of his own virgin mobile skin it's nice and slim as you can see here and is coated a nice comfortable soft touch finish on the back is a 3.2 megapixel camera the lg optimus v is built as an entry-level smartphone but that doesn't mean it's lacking any features in fact it has Wi-Fi GPS as well as EVDO Rev a it also ships with Android 2.2 however it doesn't have flash video in the browser and it does not allow mobile hotspot tethering aside from the usual Google Maps that include Gmail Google Voice Search and more it also has Virgin Mobile Maps like Virgin Mobile live that lets you view and stream music videos from Virgin Mobile festival artists a few other apps included in here are of course Google Maps so as YouTube and we're a location-based app the lg optimus me is affordably priced at only a hundred and fifty dollars without a contract I'm Nichola this has been a first look at the lg optimus V and of course once you've taken the Android leap there's nothing stopping you from loading up your new phone with a bunch of apps up till now that process has been a little bit tedious but luckily this week Google unveiled its new App Store I mean Android Market Web Store Google finally they view their long missing and long demanded way to get your apps on your Android phones and tablets a web-based marketplace hi I'm Seth Rosenblatt frisina and in this first look I'll be taking you on a tour of the new Android Market at Android Market comm one of the best things about the market that's sure to make iPhone users jealous is that you can search for apps directly from your browser and without logging in once logged in you can push apps directly to your phone or tablet the majority of Google's development work here is clearly focused on app presentation featured apps takes center stage on a large rotating carousel of highlights but the key thing here is the new search option that persistently lives at the top enter a query and a slick black bar appears between the bottom of the search box and your results click it to reveal search filters you can install an app directly from the results or a click through to learn more about each app when you do hit the install link the market will let you choose which device to install the app to as well as show you a list of permissions that the app uses and its cost you can also push an app to multiple devices as long as they're associated under the same account currently pushing an app is kind of a slow and tedious process and definitely a bit buggy it's not clear whether that's from the crush of users from app syncing problems or some other nefarious Google bug at one point jumping into the market app on my phone actually got the app to finally install properly so it does work eventually when you're logged in you can also jump to your account up at the top right of the page it takes you to a my orders tab that lists all your installed apps these are organized by date last updated the name of the app category price and status currently these headings can only be sorted by date although it looks like the kind of layout that will receive an update with more sort parameters in the future a second tab labeled settings currently shows only a list of the devices associated with your account chose nickname visibility make model carrier last used and registered on date clicking the edit button on the right lets you give the device a nickname and choose whether to hide the device from Android menus users who have routed their devices and are running custom roms will not see data for make and model it appears that multiple simultaneous account logins a feature recently pushed to Gmail users are not supported at this time either hardcore Android fans will notice that the market currently offers less than third party markets like app brain you can't create customized lists of apps for one thing and you can't uninstall from the marketplace either that all being said it's a good sign that Google is finally entering the market for markets because at the very least it will force third party markets to up their game or become irrelevant for the first look at Google's Android Market - s Rosenblatt for senior now if you end up going a little crazy and downloading too many apps be sure to check out Antoine Goodwin's video on how to free up space for apps on Android 2.2 you can find that like all of today's videos and more at Sina TV com turning to today's news News publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch was in New York Wednesday to debut a new publication for the iPad called the daily we'll call it a newspaper for lack of a better word but as Caroline McCarthy shows us it's definitely a paper custom-made for the digital age I'm Caroline McCarthy for CNET news and we are at the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York where today News Corporation unveiled the daily what it says is the first daily news publication optimized and designed specifically for Apple's iPad I'm pleased to welcome you to the launch of the daily a national news publication for the iPad that we have created from scratch right now the contact from the daily is available only on the iPad app and on the web behind a paywall currently there are no plans to release it on any other tablet devices though Rupert Murdoch has said that when the tablet market beyond the iPod is a little bit more mature that he wants to be on every major tablet device as for subscription fees the daily costs $0.99 per week or $39.99 if you want to pay for an entire year upfront News Corp executives made certain at the launch of the daily that they want this product to be a completely new brand and a completely new experience it's heavy on audio and video hello I'm Erin Eaton welcome to the inaugural issue of the daily as well as touchscreen friendly features like scrolling between different stories and clicking on interactive 360-degree photos the content in the inaugural issue at the daily is anchored by a cover story about the ongoing political upheaval in Egypt but among some of the other headlines you can see are the snow storms that are all over the country right now Natalie Portman's pregnancy and a New York disco for dogs but what excites me the most is there is a crossword puzzle I'm Caroline McCarthy for CNET news now before you get too excited you should know that I have already submitted my virtual silly putty out to the App Store for making transfers so back off all right speaking of apps I guess yeah a lame transition I know anyway this week's installment of tap that up is serving up some hot and tasty treats that bring the joy of ordering takeout to your phone app style okay now that's more like it hey everyone here's a good trick for the supremely lazy meal hunter who's always on the go instead of calling in an order for delivery you can just create one with an app before you even get home I'm Jessica's all-court and this is tap that app the show where we show you the latest and greatest mobile apps this time we're taking a look at grub hub and seamless web on iPhone and Android you may be familiar with both these services online and indeed the mobile apps mostly recreate the menu viewing and meal ordering services I think it's easier to create your account online first but you can also register from the apps now the grub hub app may be more makeshift than the full online version but it is still usable you can search your current location and look for restaurants ordering online pulls up a menu you just tap an entry to add it to your order add in your address and finalize the order then there's the bizarrely named seamless web it sounds like a web standards consortium but really it's a grub hub rival that does a better job on the mobile app seamless web has a few more options for placing an order for delivery or pickup and it also gives you a map and filters apart from that it works pretty much the same way after viewing the menu tap your selection and any additional lunch or dinner items to add them to your bag you can also type in special instructions keep in mind that both these delivery services will require a minimum dollar order they also have limited databases and don't service every US city so if you've got your heart set on a little neighborhood Thai restaurant down the street you better forget these apps and just pick up the phone otherwise these apps are a great option for quickly ordering food from anywhere you've got a Wi-Fi or data connection so what's your favorite app set your suggestions to tap that app at cnn.com I'm Jessica Belcourt and keep on tapping I guess these apps are pretty handy if you don't know what kind of food you're in the mood for or you don't know what's nearby but if you're just ordering from the Chinese place around the corner is it really that much easier to use an app than to just call them on the phone with your phone actually yeah I guess you're right sometimes it is easier anyway while you go pay the delivery guy don't forget the tip let's take a quick break and we'll be right back with more tech review right after this welcome back to the sina tech review our weekly video digest of all things good and bad we've seen here at Sina TV moving right along let's see what we've got this week in the bad once again it's time to open up the how to vault and offer some good solutions to bad problems first up how to make sure that creep in the coffee shop doesn't steal your facebook login and then I'm gonna show you how to help your friends and family members stop paying to use AOL because you stopped a long time ago right our little secret take a look hi I'm Sharon Vaknin for cnet.com and today I'm showing you how to safely browse Facebook and fend off hackers with an EZ security setting recently Facebook learned that even its own founder can get hacked Mark Zuckerberg fan page was hijacked and now the company has finally decided to do something about its users security until now the only way to encrypt your facebook sessions was to download a browser add-on or manually enter HTTPS in the address bar what HTTPS does is ensure that the communication between you and your webserver is private so that no one can eavesdrop on your activity so let me show you how to officially enable HTTPS browsing from any page had to account and select account settings from here had to account security here check off browse Facebook on a secure connection if you don't see the option yet be patient Facebook is slowly rolling out the feature to all of its users until then you can continue to add the s yourself if you like you'll also see a privacy feature that allows you to be notified when a new device logs into your account consider enabling this one too you never know if an X or front of me is logging into your account with your credentials save your settings and you're ready to go but be warned Facebook's features always come with side effects some pages will load slower and certain third-party apps don't support the feature but that's a small price to pay for the added security for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin and I'll see you on the encrypted interwebs hi I'm Molly Wood from cnet.com and I'm here to show you how to stop paying for a o L a recent New Yorker article suggested that as much as 80% of AOL's revenue could come from people who don't need to be paying for the service C in the old days an AOL account cost anywhere from 10 bucks a month to $25 a month those accounts still exist but if you already pay for a separate internet connection to your home and you only use AOL for email or browsing you do not need to be paying anything in fact you shouldn't be so here's how to set your account free literally you can make this change from the web or from your AOL software here's how to do it from the web on your AOL comm home page sign in to your account and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click the blue help link on the bottom of that page you'll see an orange link on the right labeled go to account and settings now click the big box labeled manage my account you'll be asked to log in again and either answer or create a security question now way down on the bottom right under price plans there's an option to change my plan or cancel my billing if your account says anything but free click the cancel my billing link now the next page will offer you a buffet of paid options you want the pink one for free a o L here you'll see a page that tries to sell you the $4.99 a month support plus option which includes virus scanning and tech support now if you're watching this video you don't need tech support or you can probably Google whatever your parents might need and there are plenty of free security options out there so click $0 finally AOL will let you know that you will suddenly see pop-ups in your AOL if you had blocked them before and that if you use your phone bill or your checking account to auto pay for any AOL premium services they're still gonna try to charge you $7 a month so you probably want to cancel that too now click Save and you're all set you're living the free AOL life and I think you're gonna like it now if you'd like to do the same thing through your AOL desktop software sign-on and then go to the keyword menu or press ctrl K type in change plan on the screen that pops up you should see your security question again along with the same options that you see on the web follow the same steps as above and you'll be all set all right so what are you missing well if you're on dial-up the $25 a month plan gives you a dial-up number McAfee Security and some vague insurance protection that's almost certainly part of your homeowners or renters insurance and like I said you can get free security Suites everywhere check download com but that's also the plan they try to sign you up for when you first install AOL 25 bucks a month even if you're on broadband no the cheaper plans for dial-up offer the basic access and some tech support and the broadband plans just try to charge you for McAfee security backup dial-up numbers and tech support once again trust me for most of you these are services that you just don't need I'm sorry a o L everyone else you're welcome pristine in how to I'm Molly wood so now you're ready to be a good kid and help get your grandparents to stop paying for AOL and if you're lucky maybe there will be a little something extra on your birthday check this year all right with that it's time to check out this week's bottom line now the Verizon iPhone doesn't go on sale until next week but existing Verizon customers can start pre-ordering it right now but if you're thinking of buying one as soon as you can this week's top five might make you reconsider it wasn't long after the iPhone arrived on AT&T that the pining began when do we get it on Verizon I'm Brian Cooley with a top five that won't even rehash the reasons folks wanted it on any network other than AT&T I mean that bitching is part of the American technology fabric at this point no this is top five reasons that you should not buy the Verizon iPhone 4 number five it doesn't do voice and data at the same time sad but true AT&T GSM technology has it all over Verizon CDMA network in this respect AT&T iPhones can do data and voice at once well that's if you can get a damn signal at all said I wouldn't do that anyway bear in mind the folks behind CDMA technology promise a network upgrade for Verizon and others to allow dual mode operation sometime later this year maybe it's still kind of iffy got to be concerned about that number four good luck overseas Verizon's CDMA technology is a mixed bag for global use you can roam mostly in Canada Mexico the Caribbean Asia but not Europe Russia and by the way that's roaming with all those lovely fees that make your eyes water there's no chip in a CDMA phone so you can't just buy an el cheapo SIM when you land in country and be up and running not a great travel phone number three it's kind of a retool the iPhone 4 on Verizon was a midseason refresh with CDMA innards yes but not designed from the ground up as far as we know to be a CDMA phone I've just got this nagging feeling there have to be some shortcomings around there number two it's not 4G and that is the biggest thing going on in cell phone networks in the next couple of years that you'll be locked into a contract 4G networks and there you'll be sitting on your 3G iPhone 4 deciding between taking and checking email watching all your fellow Verizon customers with their hot seat dual-core 8 megapixel HDMI in and out Android 4G phones thinking damn it Apple got me again before we get to number one another reason you've got to rethink the iPhone on Verizon is that you just have to plain rethink the iPhone check out the list of non Apple smartphones we love on Verizon now and pending you can find them all on CNET cell phone section okay the number one reason yet gotta think twice about getting the Verizon iPhone 4 is will verizon be the next AT&T this is the big question will Verizon's network dragged to a crawl as a flood of AT&T defectors and waiting for Verizon side liners jump on board and hammer their network AT&T 3G network is technically faster maybe it just needs to lose a few million customers to show it and Verizon is going to offer tube clogging unlimited data plans for their new iPhone customers till further notice something AT&T put the brakes on some time ago so there you might be on a Verizon for what two years with your single tasking not really global sure as hell not 4g iphone with a potentially bonking network the smart money says give it about six months before you make the jump our complete comparisons and coverage of both flavors of iPhone are always up to date over on CNET cell phone section i'm brian coulis thanks for watching the bottom line this week it's your call I think we can all agree that the move to Verizon hardly makes this the second coming of the Jesus phone but if you're still trying to make up your mind be sure to check out our battle of the networks video on CNET TV Jessica Dole Court and Ken Sherman put both phones through their paces in a variety of tests some of the results may surprise you alright that's it for this week everyone join us next time for a brand new scene at tech review see you then and thank you for watching