Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review Nintendo's 3ds unveiled and launch games announced new car tech from the 2011 Detroit Auto Show hot cop car is coming to a rear view mirror near you and a whole new fleet of priuses or pre I hybrid cars are headed your way 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 in our wrap-up of CES 2011 last week we showed you Jeff Bakalar first look at the Nintendo 3ds now there was only one thing wrong with that demo the scream didn't turn on well this week Nintendo held an event in New York to officially debut the working version of the three DS plus show off some of the games that will be coming soon to the platform hey everyone I'm Jeff Bakalar prasina calm we've got a first look at the Nintendo 3ds it's right here March 27 is a release date is going to retail for two hundred and fifty dollars three cameras on this thing there's one facing the user qu around back for 3d photos very cool innovation right there you've got an SD card slot Wireless compatibility allows you to play on the go with people around the world which is really impressive over here is the notification LED really going to give you a lot of information about what's going on with the 3ds really is going to deal with a lot of the connectivity Wi-Fi base and also local sort of stuff this will really give you an idea of what's happening with it yes there's a lot of connectivity that's automated with the 3ds so there's really not a lot of manual configuration that's going to have to happen the 3ds can detect other systems and hook those up automatically which is really cool up front you've got the four buttons that we're all used to on D s systems but on the left side of the unit is the analog stick which is new for Nintendo portables really excited to see how developers use that along the bottom are three new buttons as well the Select home and start buttons the home button will allow you to pause mid game look into other apps without losing the action that's going on in the original game we're excited to see stuff like that they've also streamlined franco's it's a lot easier now to play with friends we're happy about that improvement as well up top is the 3d screen we actually have it turned off so it's better for the camera we're also looking at the knee maker software right here you can take a photo of yourself in the meme acre software will configure the character to look like you which is pretty cool we've never seen anything like that before the 3ds is also backwards compatible with the Nintendo DS and all the downloadable dsi gamers so we're happy to see that implemented in the design as well at launch the 3gs is going to be available in black or there's also a lot of pre-loaded software including a game called face raiders that takes a photo of you and inserts that into a shooting gallery pretty cool there's a game tracker it's an app that tracks all of your progress through games and rewards you there is a physical mobility monitor a sort of like a pedometer that tracks movement your physical movement with the device that's something we've never seen also included is the ability to take 3d photos that you view them on the 3d screen can also watch 3d videos on the top screen really impressive stuff that's going to do it for us to first look at the Nintendo 3ds I'm Jeff Bakalar for CNN com thanks for watching hey I'm Jeff Bakalar for cnet.com we're here at the 3d as press event in New York City we have everything we need to know about the hardware but what about the software why don't you come with me and let's check out some of these games our first game demo is steel diver you might remember the game as a tech demo but Nintendo gave it its own game for the 3ds it's going to be one of the launch games and basically you're controlling the submarine the height and acceleration of the of the vehicle and you get to shoot missiles there's also a periscope mode we actually have to move your entire body to shoot missiles at oncoming shift so that's our first game demo there's a lot more stuff this year let's go check them out right now I guess you can't release a new game console without an atom so here it is Madden football for 3ds please sort of like how we used to on the iPad that sort of experience but it's going to be coming out very soon in the 3ds game launch window we're really psyched to get our final hands on it and that's it for Madden football alright the next game we've got is legend of zelda ocarina of time it's a game you might recall widely regarded as one of the best zelda games ever makeover for the 3gs the 3d really adds something special to it the effect is spectacular and it's going to make you want to play the entire game over all over again all right this is pilotwings resort takes place in the scene member from wii sports resort pilotwings is a you fly around and hit goals and use jet packs the top balloons and stuff like that really fun and the 3d effect on this is so far the most impressive that we've seen out of all the games here it's a lot of fun gives you that really realistic 3d flying effects there's a lot more games I have to play Resident Evil some point let's go check it out alright this is super street fighter 4 like a 3ds completely rendered in 3d this is a very interesting experience because you're playing in one dimension the backgrounds in another and you're sort of you know its almost tough to keep your eye on the action because you're sort of looking around all over the but this is going to be one of window title 3d s is coming soon can't wait to play the final version let's see what else we got alright we finally made it this is resident evil mercenaries 3d it's sort of like an all-star game it features a lot of scenes from pests Resident Evil games and combines them into one sort of are you experienced by far the best looking game we've seen here at the event today and the 3d effect is just awesome once you lock in it really a spectacular alright there's a lot of other games here that we didn't get to like Nintendogs plus tax read racer there's going to be a lot of stuff available at launch but one thing we want to sort of disclose to everyone is you know all these games we've been showing has had the 3d slider off now you have to have it all so that the camera is able to shoot the image and it doesn't look all screwy but when you do pick it up and you turn that 3d effect on it works really well and once you're locked into that sweet spot the game actually is pretty spectacular that's going to do it for us here in New York at the three BS press event I'm Jeff Bakalar for cnet com thanks so much for watching that thing does look pretty amazing and 250 bucks it's a bit less than we thought it might be huh maybe if I buy one for my son I can finally have my iPad back now while most of us were packing up our company issued long sleeve t-shirts to return home from Las Vegas and CES Brian Pooley was bundling up for his trip to Detroit for the 2011 north american international auto show why they scheduled them so close together I will never know but Brian and his crew were serious troopers and here are some of their highlights how do you say six just got a lot more interesting it was always kind of the feather hearing or their car in their line great car sells well but either the luxury of the eight or the nimbleness of a four or a three or the sporting pretentions of an r8 it was kind of you know sober Audi but it's gotten really well equipped now this is an all new version although it doesn't look dramatically different notice it's got a shorter rump a little longer front so it gives it a more rakish sporting look underneath it's based on the seven one of the very new Audi's that is a really hot looking car a little more space and volume all around we're also seeing three familiar engines here a 3.2 v6 a 4.2 v8 or a 3 liter supercharged v6 inside quite a bit of revising of the dash notice this kind of horizon band across the top of the instrument panel we've got a little different sculpting hear of this centre stuff quite a bit of LCD it's been pushed out right up against the speedo in the tack and of course we've got a really nice push and swivel screen right here that is controlled by Audi's familiar mm I interface notice this I'm seeing now borrowed from the a8 you've got the touch pad here which we've shown you before that can be used to draw letters on the screen or in this case point2 radio presets what-have-you very cool Audi only stuff even bigger news is this audi a6 hybrid first time out he's had a hybrid in a sedan or a passenger car there's a q5 hybrid this will use the same powertrain 2 liter little tiny little turbo gas engine hooked up to a 45 horsepower electric motor now one of the things they did come on back here was to put a big old kludgy battery in the trunk this is called a retrofit folks not a completely re-engineered platform now if you can put up with that sacrifice you're going to get some interesting numbers this thing is supposed to be doing about 38 combined MPG for a biggish car with a whole lot of luxury goods rammed in it that's a nice number and we'll be looking for this guy hopefully sometime in 2012 the distribution plans aren't firm that base a6 with any of its conventional engines happening late 2011 a long day shopping or covering the detroit auto show you come back to your ford c-max and what do you know your hands are full tennis keys in your pocket you can put one of these down in the snow or the slush of the mud or the wedding you know you pick it up and it's also true it's a grocery bag and the bottom rips out but they've got something here called a hands-free liftgate deal you take your leg and you wave it underneath the middle to bumper right about there and because I have the RF key in my pocket the vehicle knows and i'm authorized to get in here and list the door for me off we go another interesting thing forward showing here at detroit this year is a way to keep these guys from spending much time at your front door regarding your kid it's a new level of services on my key from fortis have been around for a while but now they've got two new functions one you can set this up the key you give to your teenager or anybody for that matter to set the top speed at 65 70 75 or 80 for new tears for how fast they can go top end it also can be set to block any of the nasty channels on satellite radio I'm talking to you Howard and previously it's already had the ability to do things like mute the radio until the seatbelt is clicked also to maintain radio volume at no more than forty four percent you can almost rename it my surly teen but if that's the only way they're going to get the keys they'll play ball and they might even smile last bit of tech i want to show you they have to do with you know consumer satisfaction with this whole electrified era Ford's got a couple things happening in the future dashboard we've seen myford touch before but a couple of those screens are new one is called my view it's going to show you the effect of various vehicle systems on your range not just how you drive but if the radio is on if the heaters on if the lights are on we don't need to be they all take some juice out of the battery and we're learning that that's a part of the factors that will drive people nuts when it comes to range anxiety and there's another one in here called break coach it tells you as you're driving and of course that's using regenerative braking an electric car if you've got all the energy back you could have in that breaking scenario so it'll say well you just came to a stop you got about eighty percent of the juice out of the Yokota if you break a little differently as I'll show you then I can get a hundred percent of the available energy me Patrick of the battery well here's a fun proposition a BMW 1-series the little guy in an M configuration yes now what's unusual here is this is the first M car I've ever done that doesn't have a special purpose built handmade an engine they just borrowed up a three liter twin scroll turbo like you might find in the Z 435 is that motor is good for 335 horsepower and 332 foot-pounds of torque in this little guy that means zero to 60 in 4.7 or so Plus this retains the overboost function of that motor in some other cars which means for short blasts at wide open throttle you get the torque up to three hundred and sixty nine foot pounds i think so that makes for some interesting dynamics speaking of dynamics they've worked over the rear end the suspension all the various tunings to make sure you can have a decent chance of keeping it right side up one gearbox thank you god it's a 6-speed manual and that's it no fancy computerized blah blah not no one it doesn't make sense lots of work done to the body into my eye that's a good thing one's the vols with a little bit pitiful to me especially this big saggy sad sill line down here I hate that but now my eyes taken away from that but these good looking fender bulges front and rear and some really great looking really kind of retro style BMW BBS looking wheels this guy's going to run about forty seven thousand dollars base they're only going to make 2,700 of them so get ready get in line electric cars and connected cars were the big buzz at the Detroit show and everyone from Hyundai to Porsche had something we loved check out all of coolies Detroit videos at cnet TV com and now let's take a quick break but never fear we'll be right back with more tech review right after this you 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 even as Android phones continue to gain market share and challenge the iphone there's no question that iOS still has the best games so what's an android owner to do well here's brian Tong with some answers you welcome to tap that app guys i'm brian Tong and this is the show where we cover the hottest mobile apps in the mobile space iOS games get a lot of the attention and for good reason but this episode is all about finding android equivalents for those games and one-up them by finding free versions first up Cut the Rope is one of the hottest puzzle games on iOS devices right now it's 99 cents on an iPhone and 199 on an iPad to slice the rope with your finger to collect stars and get the candy to the green guy but there's a version or basically a blatant ripoff of it for free call the Rope cut on Android it isn't as smooth the physics aren't as tight but it does a decent job plus is free now we all know about fruit ninja that's 99 cents or 299 on Apple devices and it's 99 cents on Android but I bet you haven't heard of fruit ninja kaka on Android slice as many fruit as you can avoid the bombs in the graphics may not look as good but who cares it's free too now have you seen ninjump where you scale two sides of a building and jump back and forth slicing birds and avoiding obstacles at the same time well backflip Studios has also released an android version so why pay when it's free and how can we talk about mobile games without talking about Angry Birds it's 99 cents on an iPhone but you can fling those birds at those pigs for the low price of free free free on android now many of these apps will have ads running on them but free is free and if your friend brags about his iphone games forget about it you'll have something to shut them up with now if you guys have any other apps or dance moves you'd like to see send us an email to tap that app at cnet com i'm brian Tong thanks for watching and I'll see you on fruit ninja kaka do ninja kaka yeah maybe my four-year-old would rather have an android phone instead of a 3ds either way I get my iPad back all right let's see what's happening in the bed this week it's bad news for the bad guys as we revisit the Detroit Auto Show and Brian Cooley shows us the next generation of police cars yeah we don't review cop cars at cnet car tech more's the pity because they're kind of cool with all kinds of interesting tech that other cars don't have the crown vic the most popular police car going out of production here's what Ford is proposing that fleets used to replace it it's a Taurus based police interceptor and although if you took off the gear and painted it one color it might look pretty ordinary there are a lot of different things going on here let me tell you about a few of them first of all a car like this is emphasizing durability has two idle all damn day long has to be able to get a 75 mile per hour rear-end collision and maintaining safety and integrity for the officers they have a lot of common parts on these so whether you have this or that utility version over there just about all the maintenance items are the exact same part even though there are different cars and actually have somewhat different engines oh and all v6 now no more police interceptors with v8's because today's v6 does what yesterday's v8 did and probably quite a bit more now beefier usually means heavier you don't want that in a car where you're trying to get better fuel efficiency to save government's money as well as drive this thing on a v6 so hoods are now aluminum lots of the pillars or boron steel a stronger yet lighter steel little pricier but there's a reason for that Ford even pre drills this hole because these cars have to deal with very exacting roof crush different types of tests for and even drills this hole for the light itself in a perfect precise spot because these vehicles have to handle some very stringent roll over in collision collapse tests and if they don't get that just right it'll break and fold away too easily let's go inside now the inside of a police interceptor is probably the part you don't want to see in your lifetime so let me show it for you here on the show floor first of all notice the seat bolsters here they're actually kind of flat because when you got a SAM Browne on and a couple clips and some pepper spray and your weapon you'd be dragging this thing all day long cops hate that so they've shaved these down even though you might think it holds them in place less but you got this grippy kind of utility fabric that will help with that up here on the wheel either on this version or one that has the myford touch controllers on each side you'll find specialty buttons for things like lights and siren and PA you wouldn't have that on your taurus oh here's a great spotters tip if you ever want to know if a taurus or one of those utilities was actually originally built as a police interceptor here's the dead giveaway column shifter they don't offer column shifters anymore on regular retail cars that's a police thing only and they do that because they want to leave this area here clear for a police department installed console full of their gear brian Tong pull over to the side with your hands up and the product in your hair well that's easy and up here where there's normally what a little sunglass binnacle type thing they've taken that out and put in a flat place to mount things like forward-looking sensors for speed guns now you think a Taurus is a significantly smaller car than a Crown Vic at least it prints that way but I gotta say when you pull out the console you get a lot of space in here in fact there's plenty of room back here for the weapon rack I imagine those are replicas now the changes continue in the back seat is well this door opens like 70-something degrees wider than the standard Taurus which this car is based on so when they're ramming your uncle in the back seat here you won't bump his head so readily also a very simple very clean one piece plastic door panel so when he wants to be generous and share his bodily fluids we can take care of that later with not too much mustn't fuss now sport utility police cars have been fairly rare in the past Ford's gonna try pushing this really hard alongside the sedan as well and then of course you got cars like this which don't look like police cars until that happens yeah that's how bt and I would roll we do you know CSI seen it this is a concept of a detective or federal car that I love standard motor in the sedan's a three and a half liter v6 the utility gets a 3.7 it's also available with a 3.5 EcoBoost that's the twin turbo with 365 horsepower they reshape all the shift points in the transmission the suspensions heavy-duty so is the braking so is the cooling and by the way all the new police interceptors sedan or utility are all all wheel drive now makes it a lot easier for the police to the focus on the perp and not on keeping their car from fishtailing I think episodes of cops may look different in the future airbags are mounted differently so they don't deploy into mounted gear and cause problems and ballistic door panels keep the bullets out to some degree these cars will be coming in to police fleets mid to late 2011 because the bids begin right around july most governments are on that mid-year start of their fiscal year when they start to go out and buy new cars for their fleets it's going to take many years for all the crown vics to wash out but in the meantime you might start wanting to get used to a different profile in your rear-view mirror watch out for good call Brian that is definitely the only time I want to see the inside of one of those rides alright let's wrap up our auto show coverage as we move along to the bottom line when it comes to hybrid cars everybody's trying to get in the game but there's really only the one you think of well soon there could be three of that one when you have a property as hottest Toyota's Prius brand what do you do you do what's called a line extension in the brand and marketing world you build more models and variants off of it that's what's happening with the Prius here's the first additional model to where the Prius badge it's called the prius v and this is kind of a a little bit of a people mover it's not dramatically larger than a Prius sedan but it's got a little higher roofline a little more flatly art roofline and a little more mass all around that gives you kind of a mini mini van powertrain is the same as a standard prius sedan as a result when you add more mass with the same powertrain you can end up with a little bit lower MPG so where the current prius sedan does 49 highway 51 city this guy will do 38 highway 42 cities so you get on average about a 10 MPG haircut but a lot more room let's look inside okay different layout in the front here the cabin little different sculpturing in the center stack we're going to see the same technology again the same kind of controls that it's the same powertrain you've got your electric eco and power mode these we've also seen on the current Prius now look at arrears here you see some real usable space very flexible flatten the bull second row seats and beyond that second row with pretty good seating flexibility you got a cargo box back here that's just a very different thing in a Prius and you know overall from the outside I think the way this works out in here makes for better lines out there this is just simply a handsomer car than a Prius sedan don't you think now Prius high-mileage nuts have been adding batteries homebrews style to their cars for quite a while making plugins here's the factory version finally announced for real the prius plug-in it's the standard prius sedan but of course we've got a charging port up here that leads to a bigger stock of batteries in the car what's the point it can do more electric driving than the standard prius that means your overall lynden MPG is going to be even higher the numbers aren't out just yet but they say you'll get 13 miles of pure electric running and then after that it goes into traditional regenerative hybrid mode when you do plug it in if it's dead empty you're going to only take about three hours to get a full charge on that battery now again it's not a battery electric car that runs all of its range on electric power that's why the charge is relatively quick three hours on a 110 hour and a half on a level 2 or a 240 volt charger this guy is going to be creeping out sometime in the early time frame of 2012 and last of our trio of pre I is this new one very concept as you can see they're calling it the prius c concept this is possible production 2012 this is not slated for production yet but this would be the leanest smallest most compact of this new triad of prius vehicle so the opposite direction of the v is to something very city oriented you can imagine having the same powertrain with less bulk mass and weight would then raise the MPG numbers even higher than they already quite astounding ones that the prius sedan gets the form factor here has been penned by the european design studio for toyota it's got a little bit of a CR z DNA going to it but definitely has the urban statement all over it so we've got three levels of prius now as promised about a year ago whether taking prius from a model to almost a sub brand within the Toyota brand the bottom line this week a Prius for the rest of us now yes the prius has to offer more options to really take off outside of San Francisco that is where it's already king but man a Prius mini mini van is there anything less sexy than that if we can watch that Audi video again all right that's going to do it for this week everyone but come back next time for a brand-new cnet tech review and until then there are tons of great videos available every day at Cena TV com I'll see you next time and thank you for watching