Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review facebook faces the music a brand-new color ebook reader the sony dash brings twitter to the bedroom and yes this is the android you're looking for it's all coming up right now hey everyone I'm Hollywood and welcome to the cnet tech review the show where we bring you the good the bad and the bottom line in tech videos from the week let's get started with the good stuff now I love my droid which finally got the android 2.1 update but even so I'll be the first to admit that the android OS has plenty of room for improvement so I've been anxiously awaiting to point to and here's Jessica dole courts to tell you all about it google has announced some major changes coming up in version 2.2 of its android operating system I'm Jessica's all court from cnet let's take a look at some of the new features on an android phone running version 2.2 first you'll notice that the home screen has new dedicated shortcuts for the phone application launcher and the web plus new navigation soft keys and a tips widget that you can easily delete if you decide you don't want it android 2.2 is noticeably faster than version 2.1 and all that you do on the phone thanks to some new chip architecture the browser also got a kick in the pants on the speed front android 2.2 phones will also support adobe flash player 10.1 which means that you'll be able to stream videos and play flash games directly from your browser it works best on sites that are optimized for mobile phone access otherwise you may not be able to paint around tethering is another major addition which means that when you plug the phone into your laptop you can use the phone's data service to power the internet some android phones like the nexus one can be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot that can power up to eight different devices google has revised the cameras menu system with a layout that lets you select camera options with just one hand the LED flash has also now been enabled for video mode so that you can film in low light settings android 2.2 has multilingual keyboard options that let you switch among keyboard languages when you slide your finger along the space bar there are even more features coming to android 2.2 like a quick search box to search for apps and data within apps and an option to update all apps in your market at once better integration with microsoft exchange that includes a global address book support for the exchange calendar and remote wiping for company shoot phones there will also soon be a reworked online version of the android market that will let you automatically load things like apps music and maps from the web to your phone mobile carriers will upgrade the android 2.2 operating system over the air at different times so if you've got an android phone keep your eyes peeled I'm jessica's all court and you've been looking at the version 2.2 operating system for android phones I've started a personal countdown to when Verizon is going to give me the Froyo don't make me storm your offices verizon I need that one click app update thing now of course once you get the update you might as well stock up on some new games too here's Bryant on with some of his favorite free games for android phones oh oh welcome to tap that app i'm brian Tong and this is the show where we cover the hottest apps in the mobile space now this week we're showing games for android earlier we did a 99 cent games for the iPhone platform but there really aren't many 99 cent games in the android marketplace so we're going to find out the best free games that are more than just demos for paid games and honestly the free games are probably the ones that will work the best across all the different android phones out there so first up is bonsai blast the idea here is to shoot colored bubbles at a moving chain when you get three in a row it breaks the chain and you can move the shooter around there's other bonuses and it's a good one now we love doodle jump on the iPhone but it's 399 on Android so check out the free game called abduction you're a cow your herd has been abducted and using the accelerometer it's up to you to reach the top where a UFO has taken your friends now if you want a retro old-school feel check out radiant this game pays homage to space invaders you have power ups and you have asteroids and space aliens to destroy and it's a smooth-running time waster there's also bejeweled on Android but it has performance issues and it's 499 so check out Jules which is free you swipe to create chains of jewels that break and you'll also be able to post your score to a global leader board now if you want a tower defense game you want to take a look at a robo defense the free version goes up to 10 levels and you'll need to prevent enemies from crossing the screen place your different defense towers down and upgrade them as well and finally paper toss is one of our favorites and it made it to android flick paper balls into a garbage can wall fan blows at different speeds and it's probably one of the most addicting games of this group but if I had to choose my favorite out of the bunch I'm probably gonna have to pick radiant and robo defense but all these apps are free and that alone makes them tap worthy now if you have any apps you'd like us to check out or a theme for a show send us your suggestions to tap that app at cnet com I'm Brian Tom and we'll see you okay so maybe the iphone is still one in the games war but hey they're free moving on as sous the inventor of the netbook has a new EP c and this one actually has some cool tricks like HD video on a netbook check it out I'm Dan Akron and we are here with the asus eee pc 1005 PR i know what you're asking another EPC another 1005 model what is the PR me I don't know what the PR means but this guy is different from all the other EPCs we've looked at recently in two very important ways number one even though it's a tenant screen it's a higher resolution 1366 x 768 display and we haven't seen that on a 10-inch Asia before and it's got the broadcom HD video accelerator chip in it which helps you play video files and mixes much more of a multimedia machine it's not quite as good as having a version with the nvidia ion which does that and also play some games but there aren't a lot of nvidia ion netbooks out there right now are the broadcom chip it's pretty much the only game in town most of the time now if you're planning on using your netbook as a movie watching or video watching device obviously going to be very interested in how this broadcom chip works when you're playing video files WMV files MOV files whatever from your hard drive even 720p and 1080p ones I've seems to work pretty good here's an example right here so even a full screen plays pretty smooth definitely present for a netbook if you didn't know what it had this broadcom chip in it now fortunately you're trying to watch HD videos online whether it's through hulu or YouTube or anything like that that's where you run into some more trouble even though the latest flash update from Adobe is supposed to work better with this broadcom chip it's still not quite perfect yet here's a 720p video file played through youtube if I can see it place but it's a little bit stuttering not really great experience overall this is a 720p file regular standard resolution flash video files play fine so when it comes to the video playback with the broadcom chip you know some good news some not so good is there everyone's always promising smoother online video streaming with every adobe flash update and driver update for broadcom hasn't really happened yet other than that this is a very standard EPC intel atom n450 chip 1 gig ram windows seven starter now usually these systems coming around 299 for a very basic netbook to upgrade to the broadcom chip and the higher resolution tennis display it's only another hundred bucks 399 making this overall pretty good deal if you're looking for a 10 inch netbook that can do just a little bit more than your average everyday netbook i'm dan ackerman and that is the asus eee pc 1005 p wow seems pretty snazzy for four hundred dollars and yes i said snazzy now i don't know about you but i am not a huge fan of waking up in the morning it has a lot to do with the sound of my alarm although from the looks of the sony dash i bet i could find something a little more appealing and here's Donald Bell to tell us more hey i'm donna bell for cnet.com and today we're taking a first look at the sony dash this is a tabletop touchscreen device that connects to the internet over Wi-Fi and displays a customized mix of news games music and video it's a bit of a misfit a web device that doesn't have a web browser and a media streamer with only a handful of options at one hundred ninety nine dollars it does enough cool stuff that tech fans should take notice the dash is shaped like a wedge with a 7-inch resistive touchscreen on the front built-in stereo speakers and a menu button up top along with volume controls there's a port on the bottom for the included power adapter and a little door on the side here that includes a headphone output and the USB port at its most basic level the dash be set up as a bedside clock with multiple custom alarms a detailed description of the local weather and the ability to dim the screen completely there's no battery backup but there's also no power switch which means if there's a temporary power outage the dash will turn back on as soon as powers restored that said it's a bit of an overkill as an alarm clock personally I found this much more useful at the kitchen table after installing a dozen or so apps out of the hundreds that so many license from the folks at chumby I could use a dash of glance the headlines browse tweets and Facebook updates and see new photos on Flickr you can't engage with the services the same way you could with a home computer but the smaller footprint of the dash makes it a nice geeky distraction while you're eating breakfast also the extra screen size compared to something like a chumby makes it easier to glance info at a distance some other unique advantages of the dash include the ability to stream video from Netflix Amazon YouTube crackle CBS video podcasts and more you also get streaming audio options from slacker Pandora and New York Times podcasts as a touchscreen pandora radio tuner alone I think the dash is a decent value 199 dollars although I do wish you didn't have to run audio out from the side just to connect this to your home stereo because the built-in speakers really don't do the sound any justice so that's the sony dash an affordable adaptable internet media streamer with a relatively big screen and plenty of potential vecina com I'm Donald Bell I don't know maybe it's not that great but I guess if you can't get out of bed in the morning before you check your Twitter feed then this is the alarm clock for you this is the alarm clock for me okay on that embarrassing note it's time to take a break but don't go anywhere we've got tips on how to fix your facebook privacy settings when we come back fine coolly from cnet com now when we check the performance of a piece of tech we check the performance of a piece of tech if you love videos of cars and all their high tech and high performance glory check out the cnet car tech video podcast cnet com / car tech TV welcome back as i'm molly wood and this is the cnet tech review we've seen some pretty good stuff this week but our luck can't hold out forever it's time for the bad since so many smart phones have GPS built in these days I'm starting to wonder about the value of stand-alone navigation devices but if that's still your thing take a look at this first look video form antuan goodwin just don't look too closely right ways back this time with updated hardware updated software and significantly less NASCAR gimmickry but does the new right way 550 navigator have what it takes to go up against the heavyweights from garmin and tomtom I'm antuan goodwin let's take a first look and try to find out the right way 550 features much nicer hardware than the spotter Dale junior edition we tested last year now it's got the same 4.3 inch color touch screen and the dimensions are about the same but it's got a much more powerful surf atlas 4 processor and an updated surf star for gps receiver that should be more accurate than the older surf star 3 and should acquire satellite lock much faster the 550 is also running the newest version of co-pilots embedded navigation application copilot 8 this application features a 3d map view with cool pli icons are relayed the ability to add multiple destinations text to speech and multiple routing modes it features a customizable interface that displays a ton of information however the amount of information verges on information overload and crams the map data into a smallish 3.25 inch chunk of the whole 4.3 inch screen we think it'd be very easy for a novice navigator to get lost in the bevy of map screen options not to mention the confusing menu structure then there's the underlying window siiii operating system that further adds a level of complexity with competitors garmin and tomtom making huge strides to simplify their interfaces right way and co-pilot setup seems like a bit of a blast from the past then again sometimes a little bit of flexibility goes a long way and if you like the idea of a customizable interface then copilot powered 550 maybe the device for you to find out how well this GPS device got us from point A to point B and to learn about a few of the hidden features check out the full review at cnet com until then I'm antuan goodwin with your first look at the right way 550 gps navigator right way huh cuz it sounds like the wrong no I can't even I cannot make that joke you can just fill in the blank anywho ever since it came out many kindle fans have been asking when we're gonna see a color version and earlier this week Jeff Bezos of Amazon confirmed that they have no immediate plans to add a color screen so if you're desperate to do your meeting in color and you don't want to shell out for an iPad you might want to try out the new novel ereader from pandigital the key word here might hey I'm Donnell bell for cnet.com and today we're taking a first look at the can digital novel this is an e-book reader with a 7-inch color touch screen and a low price of one hundred ninety nine dollars the main menu offers a view of the integrated bookstore your own book library and a dashboard of apps out of the box you get options for music photos videos as well as a web browser calendar and email one of the most notable features here is the ability to browse and shop for ebooks from barnes & noble calm you can connect the novel over Wi-Fi unlike ereader such as the kindle or nook there's no cellular capabilities built in you also don't get the anti-glare benefits of reading an e-ink display since the novel uses of color LCD that said for 199 dollars the novel packs a surprising amount of features in a thin lightweight design on the top here you'll notice an SD card slot that accepts up to 32 gigabytes of external memory to complement the one gigabyte of memory that's built in you also get a headphone jack volume control and a USB port when you connect us to your computer you can transfer any ebooks or documents you have in an epub PDF or HTML format you can also look at any mp3 s photos or a handful of video formats as an e-book reader you can perform common tasks such as enlarging the font highlighting text and bookmarking you also get a built-in dictionary and a nighttime reading mode that inverts text color so that's the pandigital novel a full color 199 ebook reader running the Barnes & Noble bookstore cnet com I'm Donald um now admittedly Donald was using a pre-release version of the novel for his video so hopefully it gets better before it goes on sale in june until then now the moment you've been waiting for this week's bottom line this week Facebook finally came clean and admitted that their privacy settings left something to be desired they'll be rolling out some changes in the next couple weeks and seth rosenblatt is here now to show you how to set everything up just right once again facebook has changed its privacy settings unlike the last time this happened today's improvements are a mixed bag hi i'm seth rosenblatt for cnet and in this how to I'll be showing you how to navigate the rocky shoals of Facebook's new privacy settings first let's take a look at the old settings because when you compare them side-by-side it appears that the new ones are much easier to navigate the old is a text wall of options from which you need to click through to get to even more options then it was a clean easy-to-read chart but don't let that deceive you not all privacy settings access here get equal wait to get to the settings go to the account tab on the upper right of your Facebook page and then hit privacy your new settings are automatically based on your previous ones if you did any tweaking in the old system they'll be imported as custom settings on the left and other on the chart also on the left are several preset options everyone friends of friends friends only and recommended it's no accident that the recommended settings are in fact the second most permissive ones on the list now you can customize your privacy by hitting the small customized text link below the chart the customize page looks like the text heavy list of dropdowns from the older settings but it does unify all those previously disparate settings in one place some things are new here such as edit album privacy and toggling wall posting everyone means that all facebook users can't see your info while friends only is the most restrictive except that this being Facebook it's not the most restrictive if you choose customize you can further restrict your privacy settings to either specific friends or just yourself still most major privacy tweaks are now on this one page blocking apps is a big new feature but Facebook decided to be a little clever with it instead of making it as easy as possible to adjust facebook app settings for example they could have just made sliders to control everything you have to click on a text link below the main settings chart to adjust apps it shows you what you've approved and through another text link allows you to selectively remove or block all apps game activity gets Facebook's standard for options but the info option here is ridiculous refers to your information that your friends apps can access through their profiles it's a backdoor for apps that you have no control over getting at your data no really really i recommend marking all these off because if you don't the only other way to do it is to kill all app access which includes useful apps such as facebook on your smartphone instant personalization is a new feature that lets facebook's partner sites get at your data that you've allowed everyone to see thankfully this is set by default to off for now the public search option is slightly less customizable than it was under the old privacy settings the old settings split facebook search from public search engine queries but now you can only toggle the public search engines option the new privacy settings definitely take a step in the right direction organizing the settings under a more comprehensible scheme there are serious flaws though such as the information that's accessible through your friends and perhaps worst of all there's no way to block those damnable farmville and mafia wars updates so until somebody makes those games an offer they can't refuse these are your best bets for how to manage your new facebook privacy settings for cnet i'm suppr Rosenblatt now hopefully these changes will help put you in more control of your info on facebook but the bottom line this week you can't trust those people I'm sorry you just can't and that's our show for this week we'll be back again next week with a whole new batch of videos including this year's top five gifts for father's day until then you can find more great video at cnet TV com see you next time and thank you for watching