Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review gaming comes to the new roku to get the skinny on the acer revo 100 make your own lion recovery disk for free and the fastest hard drive we've ever tested comes with a hefty price tag it's all coming up right now hi everyone I'm Hollywood and welcome to the scene that tech review where we collect our hottest videos of the week and tell you what's good and what's bad in the world of tech plus offer our own unique tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line let's start with the good if you love Angry Birds and you love Roku frankly I don't know very many people who don't love those two things then imagine them together with an all new gaming remote and even more streaming content options me talk about the good hi I'm David Carr know I and I'm here with the roku 2 XS which makes a strong case for being the best media streamer out there for less than a hundred dollars first thing you should know about this little guy is that while it's got the number 2 in its name this is actually the fourth iteration of the device we started its life out as the netflix player like Apple TV this still is a netflix video streamer at its core and a very good one but along the way Roku is shrunk the box down added a lot more content options and bulked up feature wise upping the ante this go-around with a new Bluetooth motion remote that allows you to play games that's right games you heard right however don't think you're getting a mini we even if the remote is a little like of the wiimote Roku is included angry birds for free at launch and later this year will offer up more casual games that you can purchase through the system don't care about gaming well fear not you don't have to pay for the fancy remote if you don't want it only the top and excess model you see here comes with the remote the to step down models in the line the $80 XD and the $60 HD offer nearly all the same features but come with a standard ir remote it's worth noting that all the models do offer the gaming feature but you need the remote to play and you can buy one later if you want for thirty dollars well the entry-level model maxes out at 720p HD video instead of 1080p all three models look almost identical and have fast 802 11 and Wi-Fi as well as a microSD expansion slot which will have to use for wearing additional game purchases on an optional memory card it's also worth mentioning that the excess here is the only model that offers a built-in ethernet connection for those who want to go the wire drought and yes there is a USB port which means you can connect a thumb drive full of images and select video files but the truth is this just doesn't support a lot of file types so don't buy it for that if you have an HDTV you'll be connecting this via HDMI however an included breakout composite AV cable does allow you to hook this up to nearly any TV of course you'll only be getting standard definition video but at least there's an option for people who own older sets over the years Roku has done a good job of finding the interface on its media streaming boxes and while the Roku tues interface may not be quite as slick as the one you'll find on Apple TV it is elegant and user friendly ultimately however the real strength of Roku 2 and the thing that differentiates it from apple TV is the range of content offerings that are included Roku calls those offerings channels and there are dozens to choose from including netflix amazon instant video and pandora and Rdio on the audio side as well as subscription services like hulu plus and MLB TV to get a more complete list check out our written review as you can see from this quick scroll through the offerings it's pretty extensive the one potential big downside for owners of Apple devices is this doesn't offer the iTunes integration and wireless airplay features of the Apple TV however on the plus side it has the widest array of streaming content to date and one of the best Netflix experiences out there combine that with a smaller design the new remote and gaming feature and for the moment anyway we can comfortably recommend the Roku 2 XS as the go-to choice for buyers looking for a sub hundred dollar solution for accessing the increasingly attractive panoply of online streaming media services i'm david carr knowing that's the roku to excess media streamer thanks for watching I feel like I'm drooling all over Roku all the time but seriously if you've been wanting to cut the cord that time is now well mostly I mean while you're waiting for all the studios to make all their content available for streaming at least you'll be able to play Angry Birds of course the roku box isn't your only option if you do cut the cord last week we featured one of acer's aspire desktop models in the bad section of the show but it appears they have redeemed themselves with a quirky little home theater PC that holds a few surprises hi I'm rich brown senior editor for cnet.com today we're going to take a look at the acer revo 100 this is a 499 home theater PC it's got a really unique slim design and actually have some pretty good features for its price it's a low-powered AMD cpu inside so it's not really meant for productivity but it has a blu-ray drive a 750 gigabyte hard drive and pretty much all the features we expect to find in a pc meant for the living room you'll notice of course its size it's a pretty slim system and it's actually kind of reminiscent of the old ps2 slim game console like that console you can actually set the system on its end or you can lay down flat this stand here at the bottom slides out from the bottom of the unit and it's simple enough just to lay it down one of the most unique features about this PC is the included input device you can pop out this little tab on the top of the system and you get this little touchpad device now the touchpad has two modes it works like a standard touchpad like you might find on the laptop and we found that it tracks your finger pretty well but it actually is not as responsive as we'd like in terms of clicking sometimes it takes a couple presses but it does have a pretty good range so it's useful for say one click applications but we wouldn't use it for multi-step processes it can be a little bit annoying probably more effective feature is its keypad that's built in pushes button at the top and you get a full qwerty keyboard a couple extra function buttons up at the top here and we found the keyboard actually performs a little bit better than the touchpad you don't have to worry about double tapping letters system recognizes your press is well enough and it's useful for say searching for content or entering in a web page or a login this dial on the side here also acts as a volume control so let's touch that actually there's a fairly good job of solving a problem that has plagued living room pcs and that's how do you actually control that system from your couch this is a pretty good solution and it's certainly a lot neater than a dedicated mouse and keyboard so for the rest of the system that's actually fairly basic you've got a blu-ray drive up here is a USB port here and an SD card reader down on the front on the back of the case you get a couple USB ports analog audio outs an optical audio output hdmi ethernet and down here you get the power input so there's no TV tuner on the system which we don't think is that big a deal it also has a budget graphics card so this really isn't meant for gaming that said it can play pretty high bitrate blu-ray discs so in terms of the things it tries to do playing stream content playing blu-rays it actually works fairly well now of course there are other devices that can do a lot of what this system does for Less playstation 3 for example has a blu-ray drive built-in supports all kinds of media streaming software and only coughs about 299 but the benefit of a windows-based system of course is that it gives you access to the full internet multiple formats any content you can find so it actually has a certain amount of versatility even though it costs a little bit more so if you are looking for a low cost window system to provide that flexibility in the living room we would definitely recommend checking out the acer revo 100 so i'm rich brown this is the acer revo 100 I can totally see that computer in my media center set up right where my DVD player used to be and I have to say that is the coolest touchpad / keyboard / coaster that I have ever seen it's hardly a sleek or stylish as that acer but this new laptop for masseuse is a solid performer and a sensible back-to-school purchase Scott Stein has all the details hi I'm Scott Stein senior editor at cnet com and this is the asus you 30 1 sda1 now if you're doing any back-to-school shopping you're probably looking for some budget laptop that's portable that is a good solid all-around set of features and performance well this will slot into that area it's maybe not that exciting but it is a laptop that fits the bill it's 13 inches it's 4.2 pounds now it's nowhere near as thin and light as a macbook air but at seven ninety-nine it's more affordable than one and it comes with a core i3 processor that second gen and also has some decent graphics in video geforce 520m it's not going to blow the doors off anything but it is capable playing some basic games plus s laptops got really good battery life we got it at almost six hours running our video playback battery drain test so that's really an all-day battery life which is great in this little form but it's not that exciting looking i mean it's it's kind of an old fashioned almost for a couple years ago but you're not necessarily buying a laptop to draw attention if your budget shopping this has got a 640 gigabyte hard drive for gigs of ram and enough oomph to get you through a day which qualifies for us is a really good bye but just be aware that eight-hundred dollars you can get a lot of laptops now with a lot of different features some of which are better than this and some of which are a little more lacking so it's not quite the bargain that you think it is just before worn this does not have an optical drive no there is no DVD drive in here whatsoever now that you expect on a 13-inch macbook air but I'm saying this thick you could have sought an optical drive in there but you're not going to get one but if you're looking for a 13 incher back to school that's not too thick but not that thin take a look at the asus you 30 1 SD a one obviously if you have a teenager heading off to college they will probably assume you don't love them if you buy them one of these instead of a mac but if you want to teach them a lesson about having your dreams crushed as they approach adulthood by all means go with the ax sous I know moving on to this week's installment of tap that up brian Tong is here with an iOS app that will help you improve the appearance of your device's display all right it's time to pimp your screen hey guys welcome to tap that app i'm brian Tong and this is the show we cover the hottest apt in the mobile space now everyone talks about how customization is king on android phones with their widgets and skins but iOS users you don't have to be left out and you don't have to jailbreak your phone either thanks to a 99-cent app called pimp your screen now it's compatible with every single iOS device that has existed that's right I'm talking to you first gen iphone guy so pay attention now pimp your screen includes a variety of home screens with something for everyone lots of colors and lots of fun there's themed app shelves that can be used in portrait or landscape mode and some really trippy neon combos for the raver in you plus they're constantly adding new styles a killer feature allows you to preview what the theme looks like with the app icons on top of it to get a real good idea for how you want to pimp yo pad but the best feature is the lockscreen maker and the homescreen maker the LOX cream maker allows you to pick a background but also customize the frame that will wow your friends wow the homescreen maker let you go to town by picking a background and then mixing and matching a shelf type or a skin to go on top I prefer skin now once you're done with everything press save and it will add your creation to your camera roll go into your photo app and find the picture select the sharing options and you'll be able to set your masterpiece as a wallpaper and make it your lock screen or home screen and just like that you'll be pimping in no time now if you have any other apps you like to show us send the tap that app at cnet com i'm brian Tong thanks for watching keep pippin for the record my producer and i would prefer to see the word pimp banned from any of our videos at least when used as verb but since my producer actually downloaded and started using the app after watching this video he decided he allow it for this week anyway so pimp away people just this once okay the time has come to take a break but stick around we still have a lot more tech review right after this welcome back to the cnet tech review our weekly video digest of all things good and bad we've seen here at cnet TV let's go ahead and see what has landed in the bed this week we saw a handful of new mini camcorders come through the labs and though you might not guess it from Josh Goldman's review this is actually the best one of the bunch which isn't saying much hey I'm Josh Goldman senior editor we've seen it and this is a look at the toshiba camileo BW 10 it's a waterproof mini camcorder that can shoot at resolutions up to 1080p full HD and can survive being underwater down to six and a half feet for up to 60 minutes it's easy to use too all you do is turn it on wait several seconds and then press record or you can also take 5 megapixel photos that's really where the excitement ends though with the BW 10 it's not a bad mini camcorder it's video and photo quality is decent for sharing online at small sizes if nothing else but it's missing a lot of the stuff I've come to expect from these devices such as embedded editing sharing software and a flip-out USB connector instead you get a basic youtube uploader and some trial software on a disk and a micro USB cable there's no shooting options beyond changing resolutions and capturing photos while shooting video there is face detection to the upside to self few features though is that there's nothing to get in the way of capturing video so if all you're really after is a basic inexpensive mini camcorder for poolside or other damp environments it's an option I'm Josh Goldman and toshiba me w 10 it's an option not quite the ringing endorsement toshiba was looking for I'm sure here's an example of how something good came out of a bad situation hey guys Brian song here with cnet.com and Mac OS 10 line users might be happy with how easy it is to download the lion through the app store but there's no need to purchase an installer disk from Apple for sixty nine bucks and there's been no way to create a physical recovery disk until now Apple's made their own line recovery disk assistant that's available to download for free at the link you see here you'll be able to create your own physical recovery disk it's just over a meg and it requires you have lion running with a recovery hard drive partition which is set up by default now first up insert a USB thumb stick or external disk drive with at least one gig of storage to your computer running lion run the line recovery assistant and it will create the recovery disk for you in a few minutes on that drive so from now on you'll have a line recovery disk and if you need to restore your computer in the future first plug in your disk drive then power up your Mac on startup hold the option key and a screen will appear that allows you to select which Drive you want to boot up from so there you have it i'm brian Tong for cnet com with your recovery disk out to that will save you from potential headaches and more importantly save you some money use it wisely that is so generous of Apple to let you create a recovery disk for the operating system you bought just like every operating system has let you do since the beginning of operating systems but yes at least you don't have to pay the 69 bucks like we all thought at first all right with that let's finish things up with this week's bottom line Apple is definitely known for taking a new standard and making it the hot new thing like when they co-opted it Intel's light peak data transfer interface called it thunderbolt and put it in all their newest machines you will be amazed by the speed the price and the romantic possibilities of this Thunderbolt accessory hey guys don't know is here and I'm really cool have you here the macbook pro 2011 and here the very first thunderball hard drive that offer up to 12 terabyte of storage space now that's going to impress a lady big deal my boyfriend had a 15 terabyte nast server alright in that case I have two of these what now you're going to see my second my quick bro I had that one too anyway move on these are the Pegasus are sick drive from progress the first storage device on the market that used the new Thunderbolt connection and has sick drive base as a matter of fact the only other Thunder bone device on the market is the Pegasus are for that has only four base but why settle for four when it can have a six right on the back here the drive has two Thunderbolt ports one of them is to connect to a computer while the other can be used with a min DisplayPort device such as the apple display LCD or another Thunderball storage device after sick devices can be daisy-chained together like that without affecting performance of one another meaning each of them enjoy up to 10 gb per second bandwidth on the front you defy the drive bay each can be pulled out easily to reveal the hard drive inside the device here has sick to attend by SATA 3 drives that can be combined in red configuration to offer up to 12 by up storage the device come with a promise utility that helps managing is read and Mario to the internal hard drives condition the hard drives can be changed from one red to another very fast in our testing the Pegasus offer the fastest ever among all storage devices for consumers as a matter of fact is even faster than the internal dry of this macbook pro which is a SATA 3 solid-state drive with great performance come great cost the Pegasus are sick is not cheap costing around $1,500 for the sick to drive version and this 12 to buy version here cost around two thousand dollars this means only super cool people able to afford one never my to once again my name is domo and this has been the first look at the Pegasus are sick thunderball drive from promised the bottom line this week no hurry on the old Thunderbolt thing they're super expensive super tiny market you don't need to be that cool right now oh and don't comment on the skit but i blame brian Tong for that all right folks that's our show come back next week for an all-new cnet tech review until then there are tons of great videos available every day at cnet TV com see you next time and thank you for watching you