Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review join us in austin texas for our tour of South by Southwest tap out a catchy tune with GarageBand for iPad all count down our top five laptops and something about google chrome in a trailer hitch it's all coming up right now hi everyone i'm molly wood 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 some unique tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line let's get started with the good for the uninitiated South by Southwest is a collection of conferences and festivals held each year in Austin Texas to celebrate the convergent worlds of music film + interactive content last weekend brian Tong and i made the trip out to austin to check out the show tape an episode of our buzz out loud podcast in front of a live audience and hit a few of the parties here's a little taste of our visit to South by Southwest hey guys Bryant's on here I'm Hollywood and we are here in Austin Texas at South by Southwest 2011 there's a lot of action going on outside behind us inside in the common center but how do you explain this thing yeah sounds like oh this is totally weird it's this interactive music film festival most people say it's really about the parties go it's impossible to explain so we're just gonna try to show i'm gonna show you the best way that we can to check it out are you really here for the panels are are you here for the party panels definitely you can't ignore the music effects and the parties that are going on but one hundred percent came for the panels are set for most what did you come here to check out I really came to kind of just get a vibe of what's going on get a little inspiration I thought I planned really well I had it all scheduled out of my iPad on my phone everything and then I get here and it all goes to help we're in the screen burn arcade right now yeah you guys can check out all of the latest game some of the ones you haven't seen it really it's all about getting liquid schwag I'm ready to do anything for tee shirt even get paddled are you ready for this I guess I am oh but I want another shirt off another one oh that's good okay all right things are starting to wind down the Sun is going down in Austin the Sun is setting Holly but surely you know all the work is actually about to start because when the sun goes down in Austin it's party time all right this is more like it yeah this is six street where all of its happening here I mean if you check out on the right side over here we've got like a movie screen they've got this pimped out car well you have to Rio key and live music in almost every place you imagine and almost every one of these bars is hosting some kind of party party over here party over there really long light over here I think most people's to go around looking for the lights yeah and we're gonna go find one to get in our our own yeah I actually decided the hell with the parties this is the line I'm getting it all right now we're partying all right now we know it often you've got to do the bull rides though oh my gosh what an amazing night here in austin on sixth Street south by southwest oh my goodness I'm exhausted we party hopped we met web celebs and now we gotta go early it's been great here so what better way to go home to then you know with my lovely girl miss molly wood oh you stop that I know you know how we do plus we had to go in one of Austin's famous pedicabs because these dogs are barking Oh we'll see you guys hey man I could have stayed in that country bar all night although as it turns out I am NOT an awesome dancer oh and trust me between the paddling and the bull riding Ryan was walking a little funny the whole rest of the weekend you can find buzz out loud in all of our podcasts at cnet com / live I have to say it's been a busy week before I left town for Austin I had a few minutes to fill in for a vacationing Brian Cooley for the latest edition of the scene at top five this week we're counting down the best laptops see if you can guess which one comes in at number one say what you will about tablets being the future this is the present and laptops ain't going anywhere I'm Mollywood in for Brian Cooley with a cnet top five the best five laptops you can buy right now so why buy a laptop when tablets are the future of media consumption well maybe because laptops are still the future of getting some damn work done already if you still like typing you don't like grease smudges on your touchscreen and you could use a little more horsepower than an oversized smartphone chip here are the five laptops that are cnet editors say are the best you can get coming in at number five is the HP pavilion dm1 the main thing we love about this guy great battery life and the AMD fusion platform it combines that power efficient performance with better graphics than you would normally see in a budget netbook because it also costs less than 500 bucks they've been word for that HP bloatware it would be love at number 4 we're going the opposite direction price-wise and size-wise but we're sticking with HP it's the high-end HP Envy 17 the envy line is HP's premium laptop brand in the envy 17 is a sleek aluminum macbook pro clone with a beautiful display high-end audio plenty of power and performance and even USB 3.0 for around 1,500 bucks plus trust me I actually own the HP envy 14 and believe me when I tell you it's real Purdy in at number 3 the 11-inch MacBook Air the first macbook air came off like an overpriced toy for annoying wanna be CEO types the second macbook air came off like i got a habit by some reports air sales topped 1.1 million in the first three months after launch the 11 inch model is the stunner to unbelievably light and thin instant on performance and very impressive battery life although with a thousand dollar price tag no SD card slot no backlit keyboard and a pretty outdated processor the macbook air is still a little more flash than value but i dare you to use one and not have to have it in at number two you'll want to check out that cnet editors choice toshiba portege r700 5 but maybe don't buy just yet this laptop is described by our editors as being as close to a perfect balance of design price and performance as you'll find in a windows laptop so what can make it better sandy bridge the are 800 series is coming hopefully very soon so considering how much we love the are 705 the more powerful and efficient sandy bridge processors will make the Newport OJ's a total must have and before we get to number 1 i'd like to hear your opinion on whether reports of the laptops death are greatly exaggerated Gartner research reported this week that tablet sales will grow from 15 million in 2010 to 54 million in 2011 and that laptop sales will tank as a result but I want to know what you think what are you more likely to buy in 2011 a laptop or a tablet tell us in our poll at the cnet TV blog over at blog sina TV com ok now it's time for the number one best laptop as rated by our cnet editors no surprise here it's the macbook pro in any size you want the 15-inch MacBook Pro is a cnet editors choice thanks to its new high-end processor options great graphics and the new Thunderbolt i/o port and the 13-inch model may not have the graphics horsepower but the 2.7 gigahertz core i7 processor it's serious business and the battery life is amazing I know some of you were hoping for a redesign with the new models but come on it's not like the macbook pro is ugly and there you have it the five best laptops available right now or coming soon happy shopping everyone i'm molly wood and you can find all the scene at top 5 videos at Cena TV com I actually own two of the laptops on that list the HP envy and the air can I pick them or what no matter which laptop you pick odds are you're gonna need a web browser to get any real use out of it and when it comes to browser experts look no farther than our own seth rosenblatt don't believe me here's his first look at google chrome ten google exploded onto the browser scene with the open-source chrome in September 2008 and interest in the browser has continued to skyrocket Chrome's hook has always been its speed but there's far more to the browser than just fast rendering hi i'm seth rosenblatt for cnet and in this first look video i'll be taking you on a quick tour of what's what in chrome 10 there's a lot going on under that minimalist interface so i'm going to talk about just the key features check out cnet's how-to videos for more in-depth look at how Chrome's features work google has been touting chrome 10 as sixty-six percent faster than chrome 9 even with its limited hardware acceleration implementation there's no doubt that chrome benchmarks at incredibly fast speeds full benchmarks are available at my download com review of google chrome what's almost as important though is that it feels fast page load times especially when only a few tabs are open feel like there's less than a split second delay from hitting enter to when the site is usable i have noticed though that chrome does tend to slow down noticeably with more than two dozen tabs open your browsing habits may vary but if you're a tab junkie like me that can be a really big problem can often lead to crashes too although that's actually one of chromes better features plugins like adobe flash are sandboxed so when they crash they only take down the tab and not the entire browser chrome also comes with its own task manager so you can see the impact of each tab on your system when you fire up chrome for the first time it will take you to your preferred search engine you can change this in the options menu to your new tab page which is where a lot of chromes action happens the new tab page has links to Chrome Web Store for chrome based apps thumbnails of your most visited sites and a list of recently closed tabs you can tear off tabs to make them their own windows and drag them back into the browser right click on a tab to duplicate the tab pin it permanently to the left of the tab bar get multiple close tab options reopen a closed tab or bookmark all your tabs at once the interface is simple and extremely effective navigation controls live on the left Google's unified location bar and search box which the company calls the Omni bar quietly displays search results from your preferred search engine your history and instant URL lookups extensions get added to the right as icons you can toggle always displaying the bookmarks bar or having it show only when you open a blank tab in options Chrome's extension gallery has grown dramatically since its introduction and now has more than 10,000 extensions and themes both are restart 'less which means that when you install them you won't have to restart the browser sync is a big part of Chrome and if your life is heavily tied to your gmail account you're going to find chrome extremely convenient you can sync apps autofill bookmarks extensions themes passwords and preferences and you can set it for a lower level of security using your google password or set up your own higher security sync passphrase on the safety front chrome allows you to disable JavaScript cookies images and will auto block websites that are known for promulgating phishing attacks and malware threats or are otherwise unsafe the usefulness of this depends on Google's ability to flag websites as risky so it's recommended to use an add-on like the web of trust there's also the incognito mode for private trackless browsing although there's no options menu choice for always opening into incognito chrome now comes with a nascent Google Cloud Print which will allow you to print from the browser to any printer over-the-air a useful tool when it works for those few times when you have to print and you're not near a printer you think Google would be greener than enabling you tree killers but what do I know the Downloads menu isn't particularly robust but it does expose the download source link opens in its own tab keeping the browser tidy over all chrome speed remains the kingpin feature along with growing support for future web tech like html5 hardware acceleration and advanced standards support people like the browser because it's fast well supported and automatically updates frequently with new features potential concerns about Google privacy and data mining can't withstand the juggernaut of convenience and for a deeper look at some of chromes new features be sure to check out the how-to videos at seen at tv.com with your first look at chrome 10 i'm seth rosenblatt frisina you can also check out sets review of the latest incarnation of microsoft internet explorer IE 9 over at cnet TV com alright we've covered a lot of ground already so let's take a quick break but we'll be right back with 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 so do you have your ipad 2 yet if so you might be trying to figure out what to do with your iPad 1 well before you turn it into a coaster Eric Franklin has some tips for transferring all your data over to the new one hey guys eric franklin here and for those of you looking to transfer data from your current ipad to your brand new and hot ipad 2 you're in luck for two reasons one you get to look at this mug here for the next few minutes and 2 this is a very simple process which is probably why they chose me to do this one huh alright anyway first step connect your old iPad to your PC or Mac itunes should open automatically but if it doesn't simply open iTunes your iPad may begin to sync with itunes however if it doesn't simply locate your iPad under devices in the left menu window right-click or control-click it then choose back up after a few moments of running through a number of steps the syncing process will end you'll know for sure it's ended when your iPad no longer states sync in progress unplug your old and busted iPad and plug in your new hotness iTunes will then ask you to register your new iPad if you haven't already then iTunes will prompt you to either set up as a new iPad or restore from a backup choose restore from a backup and select me back up you just created which should have your iPad's name as well as the time and day in which it was last synced click continue once the restore process is complete your iPad 2 will reboot iTunes should Rida tect it and will then begin to transfer settings and data to your new iPad now to be absolutely sure you have all your apps movies and music select the iPad in the menu just like before now in the upper nav check the type of data you want transfer to your new iPad like apps music movies and so on then click apply your iPad will sink again this may take a while depending on how many apps you have just be patient and once it's done your new iPad should have all the same data as your old one you can then throw the old one away and a way to repeat this process when the ipad 3 launches once again this is eric franklin and i hope you enjoy your new hotness as for your old ipad might I recommend selling it at gazelle com or you can donate it at the apple store for Teach for America but it's a good use in the classroom and on that good deed note let's turn our attention to the bat this week I mean bad as in badass among all the nifty things the ipad 2 can do one of the coolest has to be the ability to create music with the new version of garageband jason parker is here to tell us why it really is one bad app welcome to tap that app i'm jason parker and this is the show where we cover the hottest absent on mobile space along with the release of the ipad 2 on march 11th Alper released an ipad version for popular mac app GarageBand GarageBand already has a long history on the Mac letting people use intuitive controls and a huge library of instruments and pre-recorded loops to create songs but with the iPad version Apple needed to come up with creative ways to record music using only a touchscreen interface and we think they did an amazing job just as a general overview GarageBand offers several touch instruments guitar amps and effects 8-track recording and mixing more than 250 loops to play with and you can export AAC files of your projects through email or add them to itunes you start by creating a new song then choose your first instrument GarageBand offers instruments you can play in real time like their real-world counterparts but you also have the option to play smart instruments that do most of the heavy lifting for you one neat feature is that every instrument has its own specific theme giving all of them their own feel as you play using the smart keyboard for example lays out all your chords in the chosen key this means that just about whatever you press will probably go together in a song you also can change the key by touching the wrench in the upper right corner using a combination of bass notes on the bottom and chords at the top it's easy to create a nice sounding song even if you have very little musical experience similarly the smart guitar offers a different layout that lets you play chords with a swipe of your finger you have the ability to play individual notes and actually Bend guitar strings for your big rock solos all the smart instruments also come with a few pre-recorded segments so you can just tap the key and let the app play for you drums can be played manually and you can choose from both standard drum kits and drum machine type layouts or like the other instruments you can choose smart drums to make things easier simply place drum set items on the grid to experiment or hit the dice icon for a random layout once you've been inspired by some of the instruments you can record a couple of tracks then look at the track layout section to add or remove tracks manage track volume and play with effects like reverb track panning and echo as you become more advanced you can also use quantization tools to match up complex tracks to cover up you're less than perfect human rhythm but maybe I'm just speaking for myself the track screen is also where you'll find garage bands pre-recorded loops once you find something you like by instrument genre and other descriptors just drag and drop the loop onto your track screen to add it to your song i created this song on the way to work this morning in carpool frankly with tons of uniquely designed instruments a smart touch interface and tools that make song creation easy it's a miracle to me that this app is only 499 and there's plenty more we haven't shown in this video so far I can't get enough of GarageBand so I definitely recommend you tap this app and tap it and tap it again but try to tap and rhythm guys how are we ever going to make it as a band if you sorry I got a little caught up in the moment like I said GarageBand is only 499 in the iTunes App Store and definitely worth your money even if you only have a passing interest in creating music that's it for today's show but if you have any suggestions send them to tap that app at cnet com i'm jason parker thanks for watching that is a pretty catchy tune the jason composed not too shabby mr. Parker alright let's go ahead and check out this week's bottom line when the ipad2 went on sale on Friday Donald Bell immediately awarded it the honor of an editor's choice recommendation but I'm not going to talk about that right now instead I want you to focus your attention on an editor's choice award winning mouse yes I said mouse hi I'm rich brown senior editor for cnet com today we're going to take a look at the editors choice winning mad catz cyborg rat 9 so this right here is one of the most expensive gaming mice we've ever seen it comes in at a hundred and fifty dollars so it's definitely for the more committed PC gamers out there that said this is also on the most customizable my soup ever seen and it's also a great performer we recommend it to anybody looking to spend a lot of money on an input device for gaming so the rat 9 comes with a lot of features we expect and high-end gaming mice these days as a 50 600 DPI laser sensor that means it's very fast and very accurate now this is a wireless mouse but mad catz does sell wired version for a little bit less now this button right here lets you move through various DPI settings so you can make the mouse more or less sensitive as you're playing you can also use the included driver software to customize those settings so you can really tweak the feel the mouse to exactly how you'd like it let me flip it over you can see down the middle here there's a series of weights that come up on this post you can actually unscrew this cap here take the weights off and set the weight of the mouse how you want it that's actually a nice little feature and it really helps sort of improve the overall feel the mouse the cap of the post actually doubles as an Allen wrench which lets you adjust various points in the mouse to really make it feel good in your hand down the thumb side of the mouth so you can use the allen wrench to move this piece here either up and down or you can loosen it so that it comes out at an angle that gives you a better position for your thumb potentially on the two side buttons as well as a red button here now this red button is actually something we haven't seen before the idea is that when you're playing a shooting game you have a sniper rifle so you want to run around really quick to get a position you want to have a nice fast cursor control so you can see where you're going but then when you zoom in on somebody you might want a little bit better control so you push that button you lowers the DPI the laser sensor a little bit you get better beat employer you're trying to track now when you get to the pinky side of the mouse you'll see that there's another screw here you can use the allen wrench to take this piece off and mad catz includes two other pinky pieces you can put in they have different textures and different sizes so lets you customize that side of the mouse as well madcatz also includes a carrying box so that you put all the various pieces that you're not using a side now for the last point of hardware customization you can see the wrist rest here there's a little tab on the bottom push it in and you can slide the wrist piece right off you get two other wrist piece options two of them sit up a little higher on this track once it's closer to flush what's cool about this track is that you can not only slide in new risk pieces depending on the kind of feel you want there you can also set them to be longer or shorter so if you've got a bigger hand or smaller hand you can adjust the wrist piece so it fits perfectly now rounding out the mouse you've got a lateral scroll button here that's actually serve an awkward design it's not the most natural feel kind of like logitech subversion where there's a lateral scroll wheel built into the main scroll to reveal a tilting function but one thing we love about this mouse is it actually comes the two batteries so you can charge the second one while you're using the other now it comes with a charging station that also acts as a USB receiver pop the battery in there and this hole up here holds a cylinder that holds extra weights when you're not using them so there's a lot going on with the rat 9 it's one of the most customizable mice we've ever seen it's got some features we've never seen before and it also has great performance it really sort of justifies $150 price tag which is why we give it an others Choice Award so I merge Brown this is the Mad Catz cyborg rat 9 wireless gaming mouse the bottom line this week that is awesome I don't even know what else to say except I have to have one mouse all right folks that's our show will be back next week with a brand new edition of seen at 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