Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review our editors hit the streets to test the iphone 4s antenna problems and rate cellphone carrier data speeds plus we'll show you how to edit YouTube videos on YouTube we've got a smiley cell phone that has kent german frowning and the mother of all smartphones showdowns the iphone 4 versus the evo 4g it's all coming up right now hey everyone I'm Mollywood and welcome to the cnet tech review the show where we round up the hottest videos of the week tell you which stuff is good which stuff is bad and offer some tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line let's get started with the good from the first day it hit the streets the iphone 4 has been plagued with problems most notably reception issues resulting from that external antenna design well this week kent german came to the studio to put the phone through some real-world tests hi I'm Kent chairman senior editor at cnet com ever since the iphone 4 first went on sale we've heard a lot about problems with the end of iphone 4s antenna now it is the first iphone to have an antenna that goes all the way around the side now we've noticed particularly this part right here is on the left side it's a small gap between different parts does have a problem when you touch that area I've heard a lot from our users just well now what we're going to do is we're going to look at two tests we're going to look at the number of bars displayed on the screen and we're going to look a call quality and see if touching that area does affect either one first I'm going to look at the number of bars so right now without touching that area I see that we have five bars on the display so that's the full number you can get if I move my hand and I touch that gap I don't see a change now on other iphones we have noticed that we do see a change it seems to depend on the phone the user the location a bunch of different things but right now i'm not saying anything but we are going to do is after apple issues at software update in the coming weeks we are going to see if the number of bars changes and now we're going to look at call quality i'm going to head outside i'm going to call this phone touch that area and see what happens hello Kelly how are ya do good what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk and then count to 10 and in the middle of that 10 I'm going to move my hand into that top spot and then move it away before i get to 10 and we'll see what happens i will start now one two three aight aight yeah such a difference up there yeah I sure did you cut out after three I think we ought to try it again ok I'll try once more 123456789 em how was that what's better still a little garbled around six and seven okay okay Emily thanks for upping us out so that was two tests and each time we saw that when I move my hand of that trouble area did hear a cutout upstairs sometimes it couldn't hear me at all sometimes I was just a little garbled now we will run this test again after Apple issues of software update but for now definitely see a difference I'm Kent charming we're at the iphone 4 now of course by the time you see this show Apple may have already announced what they plan to do about some of these problems we tape on thursdays but whatever happens Kent will be back with more tests to see if Apple's fixes really worked now Kent wasn't the only one dropping some science this week Bonnie cha and Jeff Bakalar braved a serious East Coast heatwave to find out which of the big four carriers have the best cell phone data speeds in New York City hey everyone I'm Jeff Bakalar for cnet com we're here today with Bonnie cha our cell phone expert senior editor and today we're talking about AT&T and the announcement they made that they fully upgraded their 3g service here in New York City and while it's tough to judge and measure that claim we decided to put all the cell phone carriers up against one another starting right here at our cnet labs here in New York so Bonnie how exactly are we conducting these experiments here today so we've downloaded the speedtest.net app to four devices the nexus one for tmobile the apple iphone 4 for 18 t got it on the evo 4g for sprint as well as the droid x for verizon and we're going to conduct three tests at each location and take an average obviously there are a lot of variables that go into these pitas so just going to give it a shot and see what we get so Joe start let's do it Bonnie what were the results again I'd like to reiterate this isn't formal scientific testing but looks like from the test here that 18g had the fastest upload and download speeds interestingly a Verizon and t-mobile around the same but t-mobile is running on edge so it's pretty interesting result yeah cool all right we're going to brave the heat and venture outside our next stop columbus circle so Bonnie there's a lot of people here what do you thinks gonna happen in our speed test well it should be interesting to watch but you know with more people i'm sure a lot of people are on their cell phones so data speeds might be slower but we'll have to check it out all right let's see what we get here at Columbus Circle ok so we averaged the three tests and t-mobile had the fastest download speeds which actually doesn't surprise me because I've gotten grade 3G speeds with tmobile here in New York sprint and came in last that is a bummer for me cuz I have an EVO but alright I'm sorry but you know just in formal testing here to her and verizon and 18t were similar as far as download speeds but the upload speeds for 18t were little on the slower side you know we've had that issue this week we've heard about it so it's apparently a software issue so hopefully we'll see it fixed soon alright our latest trip brings us to Times Square in New York City Bonnie chow what do you think's going on here so many people so much traffic what can we expect well yeah a lot more people than columbus circle i think that's gonna put more of a strain on the network so I'm expecting some slower data speeds here but let's see who can handle the heat we're done spinning here in Times Square in New York City Bonnie shall we have our results what do they say we got some mixed results this time t-mobile still in first place was the fastest download and upload speeds sprint actually came in second so they're coming on up verizon came in last in 83rd all right we're here at our final location for testing Union Square what did the result say well actually this is the location I was most interested in because when we posted that 18t story got a few complaints from readers saying the Union Square area was the worst in reception so 18t came in third wasn't the worst sprint was the worst you know i'm really upset about everywhere we go except for Times Square sprint performed terribly sorry about that it's okay it's not your fault it's not your network you know again these are informal test a lot of variables happening um as far as first t-mobile still comes in first and Verizon came in second I think I think you know we learned a lot and I think surprisingly t-mobile having by far the best performance scores is there anything else that contributes to them again it could like we said it could be the number of subscribers but you know t-mobile just hasn't really advertised their 3g network as much as the others people might not be aware about how fast this network is um what else did we learn today really I feel like regardless where you go in Manhattan your results are gonna vary you know we got ups we got downs different locations changed is there anything else we could sort of conclude after all this i mean the mixed results you know there's so many variables it could be your location the time of day you know so you know just if you're looking for a carrier talk with other people to see what their experiences and choose from there for the second there well thank you bonnie cha our cell phone expert senior editor here at CNN com we've braved the heat we've jumped all over manhattan testing the various cell phone providers and their data speeds i'm jeff bakalar for CNN com as well thank you so much for watching we'll see you guys soon you know in this day and age of smartphones iPads and what have you sometimes you just can't beat a pad of paper for your complicated computations that is my kind of tablet now last week we showed you a couple of options for editing video on your iPhone for this week we've got a solution for editing video from any phone as long as you can post it on youtube first hi i'm josh lowensohn with cnet com and i'm going to show you how to use YouTube's Video Editor to make a video out of several clips well a little basic when compared to software based video editing tools YouTube's Video Editor works right in your browser and does all the hard work on Google servers meaning you can edit HD video on just about any computer as long as it as an internet connection the first thing you're going to want to do is head over to youtube.com slash editor here you'll see a list of all your uploaded YouTube videos on the left hand side a storyboard on the bottom and a preview of the finished product on the right one thing to note right up front is that you cannot actually upload videos to the editor itself your videos need to be on YouTube first if you're just dumping a few clips from your digital camera our advice is to upload them as unlisted this sends them to youtube but they won't show up two people have subscribed to your YouTube channel or in the services search engine in case you don't recognize one of your uploaded videos you can play it just by hitting the little arrow that shows up when you mouse over the clip this opens up in a pop-up window when you found something you like you can simply grab it and drop it down to the storyboard or hit the little plus icon in the top right hand corner of each clip once the videos are on the storyboard you can rearrange them freely the storyboard is also where you do all the editing to start an edit just mouse over any clip in your storyboard and click the scissors icon this will open up a video in a pop-up window where you can drag and change at the beginning and end point to get a finer level of control over these in and out points you can click the small arrows on the top and bottom of the clips timeline YouTube is calling these nudges since they can only change the length of the clip one way or the other by a 15th of a second to see your changes after making a nudge or to just hit the play button it's worth noting YouTube currently does not let you split a clip so if you want to use a different part of the same clip or just repeat something again you drag the video into the timeline multiple times and trim it down to just the parts you want if you want to add some audio to your projects you can just pick a track from YouTube's audio swap library in the Audio tab on the top left just like videos you can preview these before adding them to your work then drag them down into the storyboard keep in mind that adding an audio track to your movie will wipe out all the sound that was there before and after you've done this there's no way to go back without starting a new project when you've got your clips in the right place and added the music you want you just give it one last look by hitting the play button in the preview module on the right if everything looks good you just give it a name hit the publish button and YouTube does the rest once the server is finished processing your new movie it will show up in your my videos list for everyone to enjoy I'm Josh Lowensohn and this has been a how-to on using YouTube's Video Editor happy editing of course you can use the YouTube video editor for any of your videos not just the ones you've shot on your phone so here's your chance to spice up your cute kitten videos by adding a sexy salsa beat it salsa kittens kitten salsa while you ponder that I'm gonna take a break but we'll be back with an old timey internet history lesson right after this welcome back to the cnet tech review your weekly digest of all things good and bad from cnet TV continuing on with the good back in 1985 the first woman won the Iditarod New Coke was introduced and both Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs left Apple and also the first six dot-com domain names ever were registered here's Brian Cooley with um five of them the very first dot com address was created 25 years ago but I bet you don't know what it was I'm Brian Cooley with a scene at top five the original 5.com domain names number five Dec com September 30th 1985 only us og tech types remember Digital Equipment Corporation today but it was a heavy hitter from the 60s into the 80s I learned programming on one of their vac systems but this isn't an ancient history course deck was sold to compaq in 98 compact to HP in 02 and that's why deck calm there today number 4 mcc calm july eleventh of 85 mcc stood for micro electrics and computer technology corporation not really it was a high-tech rd consortium that went poof around the year two thousand or so today it's a sad parked domain the only one of our originals that sit there in that forlorn state number three think calm May twenty-fourth of 85 by the way notice how like a month used to pass between each calm registration Backlund things weren't quite so busy think calm was the home of Thinking Machines an early maker of supercomputers based in Cambridge Mass the last iteration of the company was bought by oracle in 1999 that's where think calm points today to their thinkquest teacher student learning something number two BBN calm April 24th of 85 BBN was a legend in the early internet days doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the packet data switching that still powers the net today transmitting the first email and they came up with the @ symbol in email addresses today bn.com points to a raytheon page because yes they acquired the firm in 2009 before we get to our number one oldest calm domain a little trivia dot-com was originally going to be dot core for corporation but you can imagine that might have been misunderstood because it sounds like core or core or core we have the top 5 first domain here but only six were registered in all of 1985 Northrop calm would be in our list if this show is called top six microsoft com not one of the original 100.com registrations but apple was at number 64 and sexcom was also not one of the first 100 we had more pure aspirations for the net back then okay now it's time to reveal number one the very first dot-com domain ever registered symbolic scom March fifteenth nineteen eighty-five you may not know the company but it was a high-end computer maker that among other things lays claim to making the first computer workstation that supported real-time video digital video and HDTV 1985 think about that the next time you fire up final cut today symbolics is owned by a domain brokerage that maintains some kind of a blog there but it's mostly tumbleweeds well that's it for this edition of top 5 i'm brian cooley from cnet.com registered March fifth 1994 we'll see you next time so our domain was registered in March of 94 but cnet com didn't officially launch until June of 95 13 months to make one website man the internet was hard back then all right let's move on to the bad speaking of Technology history you heard Brian mentioned that the good people at BBN technologies give us the @ sign back in 1971 but according to wikipedia the smiley emoticon didn't show up until nineteen eighty-two now 28 years later Samsung has gone and ruined it forever hi I'm Kent chairman senior editor at cnet com today we have first look at the samsung smiley apparently there's one employee of Samsung that actually sits around and comes up with these phone names so this is the smiley and I'm not too happy about this name at all mainly because Samsung didn't call it SMI Ellie why they actually used the emoticon I think they could come up with something just a little more creative and not something that doesn't require us to use a colon in a parenthesis so it actually is a decent phone just not a fan of that name it's got the same overall slider design with the keypad that's exposed by this sliding face display is pretty decent for this type of phone you actually see that emoticon right there we're really really glad that they didn't actually print it on the side or the back of the phone it's fine on the display because you can take that off below us that navigation toggle the talk was actually raised about the service of the phone so that's pretty good you have a couple of buttons here this feels a tiny bit scrunch just a little but we got to we got used to it after a while keypad is fine it does feel a little cramped of course I've sort of larger hands so I find a lot of things like this cramped but other users may not find it that way you do find most of what you need there's a space bar down in the middle and I get you guessed it there's a dedicated emoticon key so Samsung's really taking that thing to all the extremes you'll see the camera lens and a self-portrait mirror behind on the back of the front slider so you will have to have the phone open to use it inside you'll find largely messaging options you'll have instant messaging you can get some outlook email you can get regular pop3 yahoo hotmail whatever might be as i said it is a decent messaging phone it's not it's only about $19 with contract and the call quality is quite good but I'm just not a fan of that name at all I'm Ken chairman here at the samsung smiley for tmobile boy if Kent is this upset about the smiley I can't wait to see how he reacts to the HTC hugs and kisses XOXO he's not gonna like it and now it's time for this week's bottom line to 4G or not to 4G that is the question and brian Tong is here to answer it in this week's prize fight what's up fries five fans i'm brian Tong and this is the number one most requested prize fight that you the people have been asking for it's an epic prize by battle royale between the iphone 4 and the HTC evo 4g now we've given enough time for these phones to show us what they're working with in the real world so we're bringing the best judging this prize fight our senior editor Bonnie boom boom cha senior editor Kent kg German and Brian boomshakalaka Tom now we'll take all three judges blind scores and average them out to the nearest tenth each round the final price wise score will be an average of all round using the same decimal system this prize fight is as big as it can get to let get it all round one is sexiness and durability the iphone 4 brings a whole new design with a curved bezel but a flat back and sharper edges its retina display is clearer than crystal clear but we're all questioning how durable it's all glass body really is the evo 4g smooth things out with a gorgeous 4.3 inch screen and a slim figure to match its soft touch back side is nice but this is still a bigger phone and it might be a little too big for some people the evo 4g might be more durable but the iphone four still has the sex appeal apple takes this round with the 4.7 and the evo 4g gets a for next round is controls and user interface the iphone 4 brings new features like multitasking and dropping multiple apps into folders with iOS for android has always had these but the new additions don't subtract from the fact that pinching and zooming swiping and double tapping make this the easiest and most accessible mobile interface on the planet the evo 4g featuring HTC Sense UI is our favorite Android interface you have seven home screens with a pinch custom layouts depending on how you want to use the phone and widget customization that can't be matched but there's a learning curve with Android even if you get more control the iphone 4 gets a perfect five and 4G gets a 4.3 so after averaging two rounds Apple takes a commanding lead sprinting seven tenths of a point ahead of HTC the evo 4g will have to make it up round three is features both phones are packed with 3g Wi-Fi gps and bluetooth but heavy hitters like these guys have to bring more to the table than that the iphone has finally caught up with multitasking folders and email enhancements even if android users think they were so last year the App Store makes this device more than a phone and it also makes this the best gaming phone we've ever seen we haven't even talked about FaceTime it's one of the iphone 4s killer features its integration is seamless but the evo 4g can do that too without forcing you to be on Wi-Fi only now if you're talking features the evo 4g is the most feature-packed phone on the market with its 4g connectivity you can use a phone as a mobile hotspot let's just throw in some kickstand action and it's android marketplace is respectable as well Plus don't forget it's Android staples like the notifications pulldown turn by turn GPS directions ask my son street its unmatched voice search Thai restaurant and text messages by voice let's crack in homie the evo 4g is just a piece and it tastes round three with the perfect five and the iphone 4 gets of for next round is web browsing and multimedia safari on the iphone is still considered to be the best mobile web experience even without flash the iphone four still has the best media player on a mobile device and it's iTunes integration get you access to loads of music and video content that still looks even better on its retina display it's 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video takes excellent pictures and if you want to dabble with editing movies directly on the device Apple's I movie will satisfy the iphone 4 is the definition of a multimedia phone now the HTC EVO 4 g's web browser is on par with safari with its smooth running multi-touch flashlight support is here with full flash coming soon amazon's mp3 store and double twist will take care of your media sinking but the lack of a video store hurts a little the HTC Sense UI also gives us the best Android media player plus it's 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video also takes great looking pics the larger screen really allows media to shine and then you add in the kickstand and an HDMI out port ACC is stepped up its multimedia game both bones have made media of focus and we're calling this round a tie at 4.7 points apiece so after averaging out four rounds the iphone 4 leads by just one-tenth of a point HTC has closed the gap and the final round that decides it all is call for the amp performance the iphone 4 features it's a floor processor and the phone is snappy call quality has improved and it's the best sounding iphone we've heard but it's just a hair behind the evo 4g but then you get to the antenna issue in our test audio quality completely disappeared or became garbled when we covered the magic spot and we know it doesn't affect everyone but this is a big deal and a thirty dollar bumper or a software update isn't a real fix to any of us the saving grace is that Apple's improved battery life makes up for it and we squeeze out almost eight hours of talk time over 3g and that's impressive now HTC is evo 4g 1 gigahertz snapdragon processor makes this a smooth-running phone as long as running too many apps it also has some of the best call quality I've ever heard it was Chris clean and clear for all three judges with no drop calls running on 4G just kills this battery and you're lucky to get it through a day but running it on 3g still drains a good amount because of the screen but like bonnie says at least you can replace the battery we were able to get five and a half hours of talk time over 3g which is respectable but one drawback is paying the additional ten dollar premium even if you don't have 4g coverage in your area in the final round the evo 4g gets a 4.3 and the iphone 4 gets a 3.3 so let's average out all five rounds and in a battle where the iphone 4 led from the start the evo 4g cloud back to close the gap and finish with a final round blow to take this epic battle 4.5 to 4.3 and is your prize fight winner both of these phones are the cream of the crop but it was the evil 4 g's features and some of the iphone 4s flaws that made all the difference i'm brian Tong thanks for watching we'll catch you guys next time we're another prize fight the bottom line this week I demand a recount or a recall out too soon either way it seems like Apple just cannot catch a break and that's our show for this week everyone tune in next week for an all-new look at the tech week that was until then you can always find more great cnet video at seen at tv.com see you next time and thank you for watching