Gadgetory

this week on the Cena tech review the motorola xoom hits the streets and gives ipad fans something to think about find out how to surf safely on public Wi-Fi did you get unfriended on facebook odds are it's not me it's you and hot iphone on iphone action this week's prize fight it's all coming up right now hi everyone I'm Hollywood 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 our unique tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line let's start with the good today we've got a couple of new products that could make your mobile computing life a little bit easier first up the motorola xoom our CES best in show award winner for 2011 that hit shelves this week and we got one in our hot little hands can it live up to the hype and after that a new sony vaio with the AMD fusion platform built in cpu and GPU all on one chip processor porn at a price hey I'm Donald Bell and today we're taking a first look an official first look at the motorola xoom this is an android-based tablet with a 10.1 inch screen 32 gigabytes of storage and a price tag of eight hundred dollars off contract or six hundred dollars with the two-year commitment from verizon sir on the same size as the original ipad although it has more of a widescreen dimension and the bezel around the screen isn't as wide it's definitely heavier than the ipad which sounds like a small complaint the tablets are something you spend a lot of time holding on the bottom you have connections for micro USB and micro HDMI though you'll need a doc if you want to get video out from this thing on the top you have a headphone out and the door that covers up the micro SD memory card slot for additional storage and a 4g SIM card slot for the 4g support that's coming later this year there's volume control on the left side and on the back you get a 5 megapixel camera and flash and a pair of stereo speakers you also see the power buttons over here on the back now it's a little weird to have the speakers blasting out away from you but it's nice that you don't actually run the risk of covering them up with your hands you also get a 2 megapixel camera on the front that works with video chat apps like Google Talk one of the biggest differences between the zoom and all the Android tablets we reviewed in 2010 is the lack of tactile navigation buttons on the home screen this is a good thing controls for back search and many have all moved on to the touch screen thanks to the latest version of Android made specifically for tablets verizon and motorola are the first to have android 3.0 and it's a big part of why this tablet is so special you get all the stuff that makes android great there's full support for android market official google apps for gmail maps gps navigation and calendar a lot has change though the browser has this tabbed interface that works more like a desktop browser than a smartphone you get this nice big keyboard notifications and settings are down here on the bottom and generally all the included apps have been overhaul for the larger screen of the tablet so now the big question is this thing a real competitor to the ipad from my perspective there's no doubt it's fast it's pretty and you can see that a lot of thought went into the execution it's not cheap though and with so many tablet options coming out this year I stay away from contracts like the plague rising to Motorola how the lock on Android 3.4 now but there are many eager contenders on the horizon so that's the motorola xoom from verizon for cnet.com I'm Donald hey there i'm dan ackerman and we are taking a look at the new sony vaio yv why is this a worthwhile Sony product ake a look at because it's one of the first laptops that we've seen with amd's new fusion platform that's a combination of a cpu and a GPU or graphics chip together built into the laptop so you don't have to get a CPU and then a separate dedicated video card to get decent HD video playback or a basic gaming we've seen a few other AMD fusion laptops usually in this 11 in size HP pavilion dm1 is very noble one this is the sony version so it looks a little nicer also costs a little more you get essentially the same performance out of this guy as you would add of that HP DM one which we also liked a lot but the HP is 450 bucks this guy is 599 now for that you get a little bit more RAM there's four gigs in this model larger hard drive 500 gig hard drive in there but you're really paying for the build quality which is excellent and of course the design sony always has great designs i like their island style keyboards a lot a couple of the keys do get short changed however if you take a look the shift button over here on the right side is very tiny the tab he's also a little bit small made touch typing a little bit difficult I like the large touchpad but the separate buttons but you know that two finger scrolling gesture that every laptop has now so you really want me on this I had a really hard time going up and down long web pages and documents the screen 11.6 inches 1366 x 768 resolution that's what you're going to find it pretty much every laptop between 11 even all with the 15 inches these days that's fairly standard and of course you get some of the extras you'd expect to find on a slightly pricier ultraportable like this like bluetooth and you get an hdmi output of course being a sony laptop besides the SD card slot you also get a memory sticks lot just in case you one of those guys using a memory stick if you want to save a little bit of money you could definitely get an AMD fusion system for about a hundred hundred fifty dollars less like that HPD and one we've mentioned a couple of times this guy is a little bit pricier but certainly look so nicer you get some more hard drive space i am dan ackerman that is the sony vaio YB well sure you could spend less but then would you still get the pink I do like the pink now whether it's a laptop or a tablet if you plan on taking your portable computer out of your house anytime soon you would do well to listen to these tips from Sharon Vaknin she's helping you protect yourself when you're using public Wi-Fi if you're using Wi-Fi at places like starbucks or your local bookstore and go about your normal computer activity it's time for a serious wake-up call hackers even amateur ones are sitting around waiting for Wi-Fi happy people like you to connect to these unsecured networks and reveal their personal lives I'm Sharon Vaknin with a how-to on safely using public Wi-Fi hotspot the first thing you should be aware of is that if a hotspot doesn't require a password it's not secured don't be fooled if a hotspot does ask for a password or guides you through a login screen you're still not secured here are a few things you should always do when connecting to a public network check to see that your firewall is enabled it's like locking your own house windows and mac both have built-in firewalls that are enabled by default but here's one thing to modify make it block all incoming connections you can do this by going to your computer security settings now you should also disable file-sharing which allows people on your network to access shared files and folders when you connect to a network for the first time in Windows your computer will ask you what type of network it is or where you're connecting be sure to select public this will automatically turn off file-sharing for that network if you're on a Mac go to your sharing preferences and uncheck those services with these settings in place you're already much safer but there's always room for more security i'd suggest installing a browser add-on called LastPass it will secure your passwords by storing them in the cloud instead of on your computer where there in plain sight for hackers LastPass will also defend you from keyloggers which record everything you type HTTPS Everywhere is another great browser add-on that will force websites to give you a secured connection so any activity will be confidential to you and the website and if you're really paranoid you can surf the hotspot through a VPN or virtual private network which will make you completely invisible security kiss and hotspot shield are a couple free VPNs if you take those precautions you're in good shape but you still need to get into the habit of doing things like checking the network name hackers will often set up fake networks like free starbucks Wi-Fi or free public Wi-Fi to lure you in check with an employee to confirm the name and here's my last piece of advice treat all open networks as a security risk don't do any banking online shopping or any activity that could potentially expose your personal information if you wouldn't do it with the stranger looking over your shoulder it can wait until you get home for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin and i'll see you on the interwebs of course none of these tips are going to stop you from getting crumbs from your scone inside your left hubs keyboard if that's a problem for you maybe a tablet like the zoom is a better way to go okay folks I know we brought it up last week but it is still tax time if you haven't done them yet it's time to get organized luckily our own Jasmine France is here to get you organized and ready to go with the best tax prep software and web sites out there we hate to be the bearer of bad news but it's that time of year again tax season and it literally makes me sick as unpleasant as it might be filing your taxes is unavoidable the good news is that with the plethora of online and desktop tax prep solutions most of you can avoid hiring an accountant even better every web-based program offers a free federal efile if your tax needs are simple I'm Justin France senior associate or for cnet.com and i'm here to give you an overview of the variety of software options available for the 2010 tax season more specifically we're going to go over the four best known solutions TurboTax H&R Block Tax Act and complete tax and figure out which one is right for you so let's start with the option that seems the most budget-friendly on the surface complete tax this service offers three ways for you to file completely for free one if you lost your job over the past year two if you end up owing money and three if you successfully import your 2009 return from one of the competitors however if you don't meet one of these criteria tax act is actually the cheapest offering plus complete tax has the most dated interface of the bunch and it doesn't provide much in the way of tax term description or general help most users on a budget will be best served by tax act which has the lowest overall pricing especially in terms of state filing whereas the competition charges about 30 bucks for State Tax Act only charges between eight to fifteen dollars Tax Act provides a clear interview process and now provides audit support for the 2010 tax season it also offers a handy tool called answer Center where you can find help for specific questions access various calculators and view tax related documents Tax Act doesn't offer as much hand-holding as turbo tax or as much personalized care as H&R Block but it should be the top consideration if you have a solid understanding your tax needs and don't anticipate any major issues with their filing of the four options H&R Block provided the most enjoyable interview process with plenty of visual cues and clear explanation of tax terms H&R Block also offers the most generous customer support including one free tax topic discussion with an expert if you want professional help without the expense of a full-on accountant H&R Block is the choice for you finally we come to turbo tax which can be the priciest appending on your needs TurboTax offers a slick interface with lots of links and descriptions for various tax terms in fact the interview process is overly detailed in places so TurboTax may be in annoyance if you want to fly through your filing however TurboTax lets you import practically everything from last year's return to w-2s to investment information to quicken data plus the service paired up with mint com this year so if you use mint TurboTax can automatically import interest income and if you only need to file a 1040 EZ there's snap tax a mobile app that lets you simply take a photo of your w-2 in other words if you hate data entry turbo tax is the solution for you so there you have it tax prep for 2010 it's a lot of information to take in I know so here's the breakdown consider complete tax only if you fulfill one of the free filing requirements and would otherwise become drool filing by hand log on to tax act for an inexpensive experience that lets you fly through the tax filing process check out H&R Block if you're after personal attention and a user-friendly interface and get on board with TurboTax if you're a mint com user who hates data entry if you want more detailed information on any of these options head to download com to check out our full reviews I'm jasmine France for cnet speaking of jasmine France for cnet I'm sorry to report the jasmine is moving on to greener pastures we're thrilled for her but I am sorry she had to go out in a tax prep video love you babe and with that let's take a quick break to work on our good luck jasmine greeting cards 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 it's time to check in and see what's going on in the bad now it's not often you hear a 27 inch monitor compared to ross perot but i'll let the incomparable eric franklin explain just make sure you cover your eyes and after that Brian Cooley is here with a very helpful top 5 that will hopefully help you remain popular on Facebook it's the top 5 reasons that people unfriend people let's say you in the market for an affordable new car within a range of prices you're looking at there is the most expensive model that also offers the most bells and whistles there's a cheaper option that skimps on a few features and then maybe there's this weird third option that hits in the middle of those two in price but offers the lease and features you know the option no wonder the right mind would actually choose hi I'm Eric Franklin from cnet and the samsung syncmaster p 2 770 fh is that we're third option for monitors not cars now saying that no one in their right mind would actually choose the fh maybe a bit hyperbolic but compared it to both the lower price a sous ve 276 q and Samsung's own more expensive p 2 770 HD the fh just doesn't offer enough for its price but I'm getting ahead of myself to be fair let's see what the fh does offer the fh is a 27 inch monitors so right off the bat that's more screen real estate than some smaller monitors for the same price a definite win for the fh also it includes both swivel and tilt hdmi and DVI connections not to mention both optical audio and analog audio outputs also the OSD offers a lot in terms of options including individual color controls and seven different presets lastly it's swell pretty i mean it's a design we've seen several times before from samsung but it still holds up now all of this probably sounds great that's just me leading you to the twist lackluster performance specifically the FH is proclivity to fire green gamma rays directly into my eyes making me more and more angry even though I've told the monitor over and over again you wouldn't like me when I'm angry yes the fh has a green push which means there's an overabundance of green on the screen for most of the time this would all be forgivable if there weren't clearly better options like the aforementioned a sous and the P 2 770 HD available not that their performance is much better but from a total package standpoint they do offer more we were able to diminish that green effect by adjusting the color controls but at the end of the day the fh couldn't measure up to our reference monitor the samsung PX 2370 meaning that among three hundred dollar to $350 27 inch monitors the FH is a third choice it's like the ross perot of monitors which you know all things considered isn't the worst thing in the world once again i'm eric franklin and this has been a first look at the samsung syncmaster p 2 770 fh used to be you unloaded a friend by gradually not hanging with them they got the message after a while now BAM you unfriend them on Facebook and an instance they can't access your wall see your embarrassing pictures or read your name posts you showed them I'm Brian Cooley with top 5 reasons people unfriend people on Facebook this list is drawn largely from research done by university of colorado denver doctoral student chris simona who surveyed 1,500 facebook users in 2010 to find out why they do the dirt of the 21st century saying goodbye on facebook number five it's actually nothing you do on facebook at all savona found that fifty-seven percent of unfriending happen because of something which happened in the real world how quaint number 4 i'm going to toss out my own jump ball here i think it's because of facebook pull back as we use facebook more and more I hear from a lot of people who are using it less and less it's because they come to the intersection of the novelty wearing a bit thin and they realize how much about themselves they're exposing and in the process of taking that back they whittle down their friends list too well actual friends number three racist or vulgar posts this is kind of a no-brainer right we've all got those morons in our crowd who go there and then there you are with their mortifying utterances on your wall where all your enlightened friends can see you also hang out with losers number two posts about politics and religion social networks do not change one of the great truths of human relations that is layoffs politics God and gun control if you want the party to stay polite before I get to our number one reason people unfriend people on facebook note that unfriend is not hillbilly English it's a real word in fact it was word of the year in 2009 as named by the New Oxford American Dictionary which said it has both currency and potential longevity and it's just a handy phrase okay the number one reason the people unfriend people on Facebook is persistent in nain posts no kidding farmville updates alone are enough to inspire genocide please people post something you think the rest of us at least might care about not another damn golden egg for more top 5s like this head over to top 5 cnet com I'm Brian Cooley thanks for watching in anat is such a subjective thing though really I mean you guys care about my split ends don't you I have a beholder No well at least it's not farmville all right let's go ahead and check out this week's bottom line coke versus Pepsi PlayStation vs xbox Jacob vs. Edward some debates will just never have a clear winner but when it comes to which iphone is better verizon or AT&T there can be only one true Victor let's finally put this debate to bed in an iphone prize fight for the ages what's up prized by fans i'm brian Tong and this is a prize fight that you the people have been asking for it's a prize 5 butch out with verizon iphone 4 and the AT&T iphone for our judges for this fight our senior associate editor nicole ice cold lead senior associate editor Jessica Duke it out dole court and my self regulating Tom now we'll take all three judges scores and average them out to the nearest tenth each round the final prize fight score be an average of all round using the same decimal system we aren't going to go over every single feature because the phones are so similar but instead will focus on the differences it's a five round throw down showdown round 1 and design the iphone 4 is still the sexiest looking phone on the planet with its clean design and sharper than sharp retina display the AT&T phone was notorious for its antenna design so the verizon iphone changed the location of the seams but if you squeeze hard enough you'll still have similar problems even if it's been way overblown we're talking to sit down even at 4.7 next round is controls and user interface we can't say it any more than we already have the iphone is the easiest mobile OS to use swiping double tapping pinch and zooming it's all here and it just makes sense now when my one and a half year old nephew can navigate the apps and YouTube you know it's a good thing round two ends up in another tied with a perfect five from all of our judges dr. abs in two rounds we're even at 4.9 next round is features finally around where there's differences to compare the verizon iphone gives you the personal hotspot feature which lets the phone act as a wireless modem for up to five devices for twenty dollars a month and early adopters will get access to the unlimited data plan the AT&T iphone 4 is expected to get the hot spot in the future but its main differentiator is the ability to use voice and data simultaneously something the current verizon iphone can't do then there's the calling limitations on the verizon iphone you can only conference call with up to two other people while 80s goes up to five of your best friends in the whole wide world and the other verizon bugaboo is that you aren't able to place a call on hold between two people plus ATT is a gsm phone which is more friendly internationally compared to cdma phones that have limited use overseas aemc takes this round with a 4.7 and verizon gets up for next round is web browsing and multimedia whether it's verizon or AT&T the iphone 4 is still hands down the best multimedia experience on a phone with its top-notch media player in interface movies look amazing on its screen and the itunes store gives you access to boatloads of content you won't find anywhere else then the safari browser is still one of the best mobile browsers even without flash support it's another tie and a perfect 5 for both bones so after averaging four rounds the AT&T iphone 4 leaves by two tenths of a point but the final round that the sides vault is called quality and performance we've tested both bones in a variety of locations in San Francisco and outside of the city and one thing is clear the verizon iphone is better at making phone calls and experiences less dropped calls call quality is pretty solid and very clear for both phones when you have a solid signal but one area where AT&T has an advantage is with data speeds now in San Francisco verizon had bested a TMZ in some cases but in many other areas around the country it's clear that ATT data speeds are faster and in some cases even twice as fast but you know what's the most important part about a phone the fact that it makes phone calls in the final round the verizon iphone gets a perfect five and the AT&T iphone gets a 3.3 so it's average out all five rounds and in an epic battle where we were tied three times AT&T when it's around five with the lead but verizon came back strong with a perfect score taking this battle 4.7 to 4.5 and is your prize fight winner you could almost call this a win-win since the iphone is now both carriers but the decision isn't really clear if you have salt AT&T coverage you're a heavy data user that cares about speed and you travel internationally there's no need to switch but if you want better call reliability unlimited data and a wireless hotspot then the verizon iphone is for you i'm brian Tong thanks for watching it will catch you guys next time on another prize the bottom line this week and the winner is Apple they're still selling a ton of iPhones no matter what carrier they're on and with that I promise we'll never mention the iphone 4 again Oh Who am I kidding you guys keep watching the videos we're going to keep on making them and that is our show for this week but never fear we'll be back next week with a brand new cnet tech review until then there are tons of great videos available every day at cnet TV com see you next time everyone and thank you for watching