Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review Google finds it in an instant a whole slew of ipods are coming your way a sony vaio desktop that's a real stinker and the best free games for the palm pre yes the palm pre it's all coming up right now hi everyone in Mollywood 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 that in the world of tech and offer some life-changing tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line let's get started with the good on wednesday google announced a new search feature that they're calling Google Instant Tom crozet from cnet news was on hand to get a demo of the newer faster google in action so Google Instant actually gets queries and get your search results as you type and brings them to you and streams those results right to your computer so the search is entirely interactive the whole time you're typing so the great thing about Google Instant is that it as you are typing the query results start updating immediately so I want to kind of paint a situation where perhaps after this launch I want to go on a vacation I'm not quite sure where I want to go so I can type in a query like flights to and what you'll see here is that we have our top five predictions for what you might complete you for flights to hawaii Vegas Mexico or India and what i can do is i can just arrow down and see these results update immediately so I can kind of browse around I decided I want to go to London and one thing I've always wanted to check out in London is this neighborhood called notting hill so i type in something like Notting Hill and you'll see here that again results update immediately but it becomes very apparent to me that Notting Hill as i would type it actually the number one hit for that would be the reference to the movie Notting Hill with you grant so all I need to do to is do a space el to immediately get to the universal result for notting hill london well why wouldn't I have just typed in another query for long what advantage does is give me over that well so you don't actually like well one you don't have to type these extra letters um also what we notice is that sometimes people when it takes an extra time to go back up to the query box to complete another or type another search sometimes you know people get exhausted you're like well this is what I'm looking for and so we hope that by kind of reducing the barrier to perform another search by making it all up that dynamically that people will actually be more interactive with their queries and and the things that are looking for to get the result that they want do you think people will find this distracting at all um so we've run a lot of teaser tests and actually it turns out that very many users actually well when you first started didn't even notice they're just like all of us unlike wow those results that were there really fast and we really tried to optimize the design so it wasn't distracting google claims that their new instant search feature can save users to 25 seconds per query happy what am I gonna do with all that time I'm saving perhaps enjoy my new ipod all right I don't actually have a new ipod yet but there are certainly a lot of them to choose from luckily Donald Bell has reviewed them all we'll save the ipod touch for a little later but here's a look at the new nano the shuffle and brian tongs overview of the new iOS 4.1 update hey I'm Donald Bell and today we're taking a first look at the 6th generation apple ipod nano comes in seven colors and two capacities an eight gigabyte model for $149 and a 16 gig version for 179 compared to the previous model they've chopped off the click wheel shrunk the screen and oddly they've ditched the video camera that they made such a big deal about last year they've also put a clip on the back similar to the ipod shuffle and on the top iya buttons for volume and a screen lock now to make up for the missing click wheel Apple is using a tiny touch screen that measures about 1 inch square you get little icons similar to the iphone that control music playback photos radio a pedometer and even a clock the screen lets you browse your music collection by flicking up and down and you can also back out of menus by flicking back you can even reorient the screen by pinching two fingers together and twisting it around it's fun to play around with such a unique in small touchscreen but I gotta say for all its novelty the new interface isn't much better than the click wheel in any practical way if anything is more difficult to operate by feel which is kind of important if you're actually using this while driving or exercising I'll hand it to Apple though for finding a way to make the smallest nano yet but i also have a hard time believing that anyone really thought the last version of the nano was too big plus at half the size you're also getting half the features there's no video playback no camcorder games calendar notes contacts or alarm clock that said i have to admit the features you do get are fairly incredible for such a small size the main focus here is music and you should get around 24 hours of music playback from a single charge you get icons for your music library playlists genius mixes as well as shortcuts for artists album songs genres composers audiobooks and podcasts you can customize the arrangement by pressing and holding any icon and shifting it around there's also a shake to shuffle feature that you can turn on or off in the settings menu that can play a random selection of songs when you give the player a shake beyond that you also get a built-in radio which has the unique ability of pausing live broadcasts for up to 15 minutes you can also rewind anything you hear on the radio which is pretty cool photos on such a small screen are really just for fun and you can't set your own image as a wallpaper under settings though you can go back and swap out the wallpaper from one of apple's own designs there's a fitness app that includes a pedometer and there's also support for the nike+ fitness system but you'll need to plug in the nike receiver into the 30-pin dock connection or to make that work another hidden features voice memos which you'll only see if you plug in a compatible headset with a microphone the same goes for Apple's voiceover feature which will announce track information for you if you have a pair of headphones with a compatible remote control the headphones bundled with an a notice your plain old Apple earbuds which we strongly recommend upgrading from for the sake of sound quality but also for the sake of extra features a remote also gives you the ability to skip and songs without looking at the screen which is really useful if you're using this for exercising last but not least there's the clock it's an analog clock face and we have to believe that manufacturers are going to find some creative way to turn this thing into a watch by flicking on the screen you also get access to a stopwatch and a timer so that's the sixth generation apple ipod nano the smallest nano yet but definitely a step backwards in terms of ipod features if you're not sold on the small size the cool little touch screen or the unmistakable apple design you can stretch your dollar a lot further with an older model or going with an ipod alternative for CNN com on Donald bell hey there guys and gals brian song here with sina com an iOS 4.1 will be available shortly but we have it here so we wanted to show you the new goodies that you guys can look forward to now the most popular one that you'll probably be using is taking high dynamic range photos if you go into your camera app in iOS 4.1 you'll see a button that says HDR off to use the feature turn it on take a picture and we'll take a high dynamic range photo but it will also save a version of the picture without the effect HDR photography combines a series of photographs shot at different exposures one is underexposed where everything is darker and one is overexposed where everything is lighter so it takes the best parts of these photos they're put together into one that brings out the details in both the shadows and highlights now I took several shots to show you the feature in action but some photo purists don't like the effect because it can feel fake to them and it sometimes even appears grainier now if you only want to save the HDR version of the photo jump into your settings then go to photos and there's an option you can set to keep normal photo so you can turn that on or off you'll also get Game Center in iOS 4.1 which is a social gaming network it has game invites leaderboards and achievements so you guys can think of it like xbox live on your idevice for free you can tell this hasn't been released to the public yet because Apple is still using it Street lingo and there are no game center games available at the moment but this is another feature that I can't wait fo now in the itunes app Apple's music social network called ping is fully integrated into the experience so I can follow artists or friends at the moment I can't search for people to follow on the mobile app I can people already following me or I can follow the few artists that are featured but I'm not really desperate enough to add yo-yo ma just yet so it looks like you'll need to use itunes on your computer to really get the full experience another new feature in the itunes app is having the ability to now rent TV shows directly from your iOS devices with the update and one feature that I've been waiting for is getting the ability to now upload HD videos that you've taken to youtube and mobileme over Wi-Fi I'm Brian song for cnet com and there's your first look at iOS 4.1 before releases hey I'm Donald Bell and say we're taking a first look at the fourth generation apple ipod shuffle this is Apple smallest most basic ipod offered with two gigabytes of storage and priced at forty-nine dollars it comes in five colors and includes a pair of basic earbuds and the USB headphone jack adapter for syncing and charging with your computer this is a return to form for the shuffle made a detour last year with this buttonless design but now it looks very similar to the popular second-generation model aside from the obvious play pause skipping volume controls on the front all the other controls are located on the top of the player there's the power switch that also works to set the mode between shuffled and sequential song playback there's a headphone jack which is also used for charging and syncing music there's a tee tiny battery indicator light and finally there's a new button which triggered as a voiceover feature now voiceover is a very cool feature and it's a carryover from last year shuffle it gives you the ability to figure out what song is currently playing and more importantly it allows you to navigate between playlists genius mixes podcasts and audiobooks you just press the button wants to hear the artisan song info' neighborhood number 1 tunnels the arcade fire or hold it down to access the menu and use the buttons on the front to navigate through the playlist Paul songs all pop mix electronica mix hip hop rap mix this feature is a big advantage over the first and second generation shuffles which were basically only good for playing a random selection of songs you can now have separate mixes for your workouts or your morning commute or use this to play audio books without worrying that all the chapters are going to get mixed up the voice-over feature is also improved from the third generation model since the button is now right on the player instead of the special headphone cable so you can use any pair of headphones you want finally let's talk about the clip the clip on the back feels sturdy and is made out of the same anodized aluminum as the rest of the player one complaint we have is that the smaller square design no longer leaves room on the front for where the clip gets pinched as a result when you clip this on you're probably going to wind up squeezing the back button by accident overall it's a surprisingly decent little audio player with better sound quality than the second-generation model it resembles battery life is rated at 15 hours which for something the size of a coke button is pretty amazing so that's it that's the fourth generation Apple iPod shuffle an incredibly tiny affordable audio player perfect for anyone who goes to the gym we like to travel light for cnet com on Donald Bell oh the shuffle I'm so glad the buttons are back all right moving right along if you're a palm pre owner and you were kind enough to remind us about the lack of webos software featured on tap that app we hear you loud and clear take it away Brian oh the sprinkler oh hey guys welcome to tap that app i am brian Tong and this is the show recover the hottest apps in the mobile space then we've heard your cries to show some love for the webOS so we're giving it to you with a few of the best free games on the palm pre and palm pixi now remember these are free you won't find many 99-cent games on palms App Store and you probably aren't looking to pay over five dollars for any games so these are a few time wasters that we found for you now first up if you like zombies you'll like zombies fury run around to avoid zombies and tap tap tap on their heads to shoot them but whatever you do do not run out of ammo because if they catch you you're dead now topple ball mini is also free and includes 11 levels and has you directing a ball into a goal using the accelerometer the full version with 200 levels is 99 cents if you like classic games check out destroid it pays homage to asteroids and probably has some of the best replay value out of all the free webOS games now this game may not have the best graphics and it's the helicopter game it's pretty simple just hold your finger on the screen to go up and release it to drop down and see who can get the furthest and get the highest score and if you like flying check out air traffic light a full version will be released later but here you can direct planes and helicopters to the proper landing zones and be the best air traffic controller you can be so there are some free games for the palm pre and pixi that we'd love to tap because they're absolutely free and if you guys have any other show ideas apps or dance moves you'd like to see the other editors do then send us along an email to tap that app at cnet com I'm Brian song thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time sprinkler there you go palm folks don't say we never gave you anything although you know if those are the best free games available you can kind of see why poor palm isn't on the show much I'm just saying let's go ahead and take a quick break but stick around we'll be back with a whole lot more tech review right after this and it's about to get ugly welcome back to the cnet tech review our weekly digest of all things good and bad we've seen here at cnet TV and guess what you are just in time for the bad this week in the bad we've got not one but two new products that have earned a great big thumbs down first up there's the arrow Dells attempt to re-enter the smartphone market now it's rare for Bonnie cha to really tee off on a phone but this you've got to see hey everyone I'm Bonnie toss senior editor at cnet com and I'm here with your first look of the dell aero for AT&T this android phone was announced back at the spring ctia show and it's tells first smartphone in the US so far I've got to say I'm not too impressed um I was hopeful when I first saw the phone's design it's one of the slimmest and lightest Android phones I've seen the date and even though it has a mostly plastic construction they think it still feels pretty solid because of the smaller size of the screen measures just 3.5 inches diagonally but I found that it was fine for most task and it's also pretty sharp but navigation is where things start to go downhill as you can see the arrow doesn't have the standard and Android controls below the screen instead the back button is located here on the left side and it doubles as the HOME key when you do a long press on the right side you get a button that acts like the menu option on other Android devices with time I could maybe get used to it but overall I think it just makes using the phone harder than it needs to be I like having quick one touch access to these shortcuts and I really missed having a dedicated search key and Dells custom UI doesn't really add much either you can have up to ten home screen panels but there's a very limited number of widgets also that one screen portrait keyboard is pretty horrible unfortunately the news doesn't get any better when you move on to the phone's features first of all the arrows ships running Android 1.5 which is already bad enough but to make matters worse some of the basic functions are pretty limited for example the phone won't pull contact information from your various counts like facebook and dima I could only get my exchange content synchronized with the phone phone is also pretty sluggish with just a 624 megahertz processor there were slight delays when opening apps and it even gets slower when you're working with multiple programs open I really wanted to like the phone and see dill back in the mobile space but compared to other smartphones out there the arrow just doesn't compare even though it's pretty affordable a hundred dollars with contract I think it's worth spending thirty dollars more to get the HTC aria give you more features and better performance or if you want to stay within the hundred dollar price range you get more out of the palm pre plus or the older iphone 3gs I'm Bonnie chanting has been your first look at the dell aero for 18t the on-screen keyboard is pretty horrible ouch and that's not all for the bad next up an all-in-one desktop from Sony that I'm just gonna let rich tell you for himself hi my name is rich brown senior editor for cnet com today we're going to take a look at the sony vaio j11 for FX so this is a 699 all-in-one desktop it comes with a 21.5 inch screen blu ray player and it also has a touch interface that said while this might seem like a pretty decent home entertainment pc it's really a pretty poor value for the dollar there are a number of other systems in this price range that have 23 inch displays and in general the system is very slow it has a budget cpu and it's the slowest in its price class so it's definitely not meant for productivity we also found that in general it's really under featured it has a small hard drive poor connectivity and generally speaking this is not a very good PC we would definitely suggest you keep shopping so starting with the screen this is actually a 1080p display despite the fact that is 21.5 inches you can andle blu-ray disc with no problem the problem is when you get online we tested with the number of different video sources online we went to Netflix we've tried iTunes the problem though is with YouTube when we tried to play 1080p video content it wasn't able to handle it very smoothly we even updated the flash player make sure everything was nice and current and still the system couldn't quite hack it we mentioned that this is a touch screen and you can see there's a little drop-down menu here give you a nice big icon dock so you can open the various apps there's a browser a couple other sony made media players nothing to outstanding though and it's all just pretty easy to ignore or use as you want the system also comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard then the keyboard is pretty obviously based on Apple's Chiclets key design that's it that's an attractive design so you wouldn't really have a problem putting this system and if keyboard on display anywhere in your home now look in the side of this vaio it actually maybe looks like it has some interesting features you've got a couple SD card slots up here you've got analog audio down here a couple USB ports as well as a firewire 400 Jack unfortunate that's about as far as the connectivity options go you get two USB ports on the back as well as an Ethernet port but that is it the system has Wi-Fi built in of course but there's no TV tuner there's no e-sata no digital audio outputs and worse there's no HDMI in HDMI n is great for an all-in-one because it lets you connect all kinds of other devices like a game console or a cable box and it lets you create a sort of a self-contained home entertainment unit now we forgive the system slow performance if it had an HDMI in because that would really let you make the system a pretty powerful home entertainment setup without that the system is basically a small screen with a blu-ray player in a web browser there's really not a lot here to justify its high price so overall this is a definite do not buy recommendation from us I'm rich brown this is the sony vaio j11 for FX definites do not buy recommendation ouch again our guys are tough that's why they're good but maybe we should move along to this week's bottom line before somebody gets hurt last week Steve Jobs told us the ipod touch is the most popular iPod well here's da Nobel once again to show us why the latest model will probably continue that trend and onil Bell and today we're taking a first look at the fourth generation apple ipod touch a cnet editors choice for three years in a row this isn't a radical departure from the ipod touch we know and love but there are some noticeable improvements in terms of price you're looking at three different models and a gigabyte 32 gig and 64 gig version price at 229 299 and 399 all of the hardware features from the previous versions have been preserved you still have a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen only now it's using Apple's higher resolution retina display there's a home button on the bottom a screen lock at the top though now the button is shifted from the left to the right and you have controls for volume on the side here but there are now two different distinct buttons instead of one single rocker switch on the bottom of you have a headphone jack a dock connection and a teeny tiny speaker grille if you take a look at the back you'll notice two things first the chrome steel doesn't bulge out quite as much as the previous version giving a slightly thinner profile a lighter feel and the ability to lay flat on the table without wobbling but the really big change is the camera lens up here at the top along with this little omnidirectional microphone this is an HD video camera that can capture 720p footage at 30 frames per second just like the iphone you can use the built-in editor to trim your video clips or spend an extra 499 on iMovie app with more advanced features the camera takes still frames too but the camera quality isn't nearly as good as the iphone 4 now if that weren't enough Apple is also giving you another video camera on the front with a lower resolution you can use this same camera for snapping self-portraits but its main purpose is for making video calls using apple's facetime app by using email addresses instead of phone numbers you can make free video calls over Wi-Fi to other compatible iphones or ipod touches it's a cool feature it works well an apple puts the new app right here at the top of the menu under the hood you have a few significant improvements which have trickled over from the iphone 4 including an a4 processor and a gyroscope sensor for detailed three axis motion control in games and other apps you also have support for 802 11 and Wi-Fi and existing support for bluetooth 2.1 compare it against the iphone 4 you don't get the phone the five megapixel camera gps or a 3g data connection but you also don't have to deal with contracts the rest of the ipod touch is just as you'd expect the core apps for email web browsing music photos and video are all better than ever under iOS for you now the new ability to rent TV shows games look and perform better than ever with the internal mic you no longer need a microphone headset or an adapter to take advantage of audio recording or the voice memo app and some third-party camera and video apps now work as well so that's the 4th generation apple ipod touch if you've been waiting to make an upgrade i really feel that the two cameras the facetime calling and all the little performance tweaks really makes this year's model worthwhile for cnet com I'm Donal Bell the bottom line this week an iphone without a contract that's what Steve Jobs called the ipod touch so now you can do all the same cool stuff your friends do with iphones for a lot less money and that's our show join us again next week for a brand new cnet tech review until then there are tons of great videos available every day at Cena TV com see you next time and thank you for watching