YouTube redesigns website to keep viewers captivated

Google-owned YouTube on Wednesday rolled out a major redesign aimed at clearing out visual noise and capturing the attention of viewers at the superstar video-sharing website.

“We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter,” Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman said as he provided an in-depth look at the revamped YouTube home page to be fully rolled out by late Wednesday.

“Changes are based on how people actually use YouTube.”

YouTube engineers said they studied the way people behave at the website and modified the home page accordingly. The number of links on the page have been cut by more than half.

Information about videos is grouped in one place and one side of the page is devoted to viewing recommendations personalized to what visitors are evidently seeking.

There is a cleaned up “actions bar” for sharing, flagging or embedding videos.

Modified playlist tools make it easier to queue up videos for viewing or skip from one to another.

YouTube eliminated a five-star ranking system and replaced it with a simple “likes/dislikes” choice for viewers.

It turned out that the vast bulk of ratings entered are five-stars while a meager percentage of one-star ratings get logged and almost nobody rates videos in between, according to YouTube interface designer Julian Fumar.

Makers of videos will get spotlights in YouTube comment forums and be able to add brand names to titles of their works.

YouTube has been testing the new page design with some users for about two months but the changes will spread across the entire video-sharing service by the end of Wednesday.

The basic objective is to get people spending more time at YouTube, according to Rajaraman. Americans typically spend 15 minutes a day on YouTube compared to about five hours watching television.

“We wanted to refocus on the playback experience and optimize sessions,” Rajaraman said while discussing the overhaul with bloggers at YouTube’s headquarters in the Northern California city of San Bruno.

“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we turn 15 minutes into an hour on YouTube?’”

While the changes don’t include direct revenue-generating features, the more time people spend at YouTube the more they will invariably see or click on ads that pull in money for Google.

YouTube boasts being the second most searched website on the Internet, so engineers streamlined and improved ways people can find videos at the website.

“We’d like to make it so we don’t force users to hunt for things all the time,” Rajaraman said. “We would just like to bring it to them.”

YouTube will set up a “war room” of sorts to field feedback from users and orchestrate warranted modifications in the coming weeks.

“Essentially we want to figure out how we get people to find their first video, search for their next video and never get to their last video,” said YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.

Earlier this month YouTube said that 24 hours worth of video are being uploaded to the site every minute.

Doors closing to Google in China mobile market

Google’s censorship battle with Beijing may cost the US giant more than its stake in the regular Internet in China — the door may also be slamming shut on its bid to conquer the mobile web market.

Mobile operators and handset manufacturers already seem to be turning their backs on the US firm, after it re-routed its Chinese search engine traffic to its Hong Kong site last week to evade Beijing’s vast army of censors.

China has the world’s largest mobile market of more than 750 million subscribers, many of whom access the web on their handsets.

And experts say China Mobile and China Unicom — the main players — will be hard-pressed to maintain ties with Google.

“For state-owned companies, it probably is a must (to abandon Google). For private companies, it’s a practical decision,” said Eric Wen, head of Internet and media research at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong.

“If Google.com.hk is unstable or could even be shut down, a logical choice is not to work with Google.”

Already, the writing on the wall is not good for the US Internet titan.

The company said Monday its mobile Internet services were “partially blocked” in mainland China, but it was not immediately clear whether the interruption was a retaliatory move by China, or a service glitch.

China Mobile, the country’s top cellphone operator with 533 million subscribers at the end of February, uses Google’s search engine on its mobile Internet home page. Officials refused to comment on future plans.

China Unicom, number two in the market with 151 million subscribers, has decided to remove Google’s search function from new handsets, the Financial Times reported, quoting company president Lu Yimin.

A Unicom spokeswoman told AFP that there is currently no “direct cooperation” with Google on search services, and that handset manufacturers decide themselves on a search engine provider.

The spokeswoman added that in choosing a partner for mobile search, Unicom would favour “cooperation in line with China’s laws” — hinting that an uncensored Google would not be welcome.

Patrice Nordey, an expert on high-tech issues in Asia for Atelier BNP Paribas, says even without formal announcements from the Chinese mobile heavyweights, their choice “seems inevitable”.

In a bid to placate nervous Chinese operators, handset makers are likely to strip the Google search function from mobiles powered by the US firm’s Android operating system.

Motorola, the biggest US mobile maker, has reportedly already made that choice for its phones sold in China. The company refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

Analysts said while Google no longer makes any money from Android — the technology was shared with other firms through the Open Handset Alliance — it loses a competitive advantage if its search engine is not part of the package.

“Android is the weapon in Google’s long-term strategy to break into and saturate the mobile Internet market” with its associated services, Nordey said.

“Google made it its Trojan horse, because it figured that if the world’s first billion Internet users were on PCs, the second billion would use their mobiles,” he said.

“In such a competitive market, Google needed China, the world’s top user of Android-powered phones.”

China today offers only a small fraction of Google’s global sales, and experts say the long-term loss in the world’s largest Internet market is difficult to calculate.

Shaun Rein, director of China Market Research, said the beneficiary could be Microsoft with its upstart Bing search engine, which has a Chinese version and the company’s global heft behind it.

“A lot of mobile phones are rumoured to be dropping Google and going to work with Bing,” Rein said.

Before you buy: 12 things to know about the iPad

(CNN) — You’ve seen the television commercials and the product reviews.

But maybe, like many gadget lovers, you’re still debating whether you really need this new touch-screen computer from Apple.

To help you make sense of the hype, here are answers to 12 common questions about the iPad, Apple’s much-anticipated “slate” computer, which goes on sale Saturday.

Buying an iPad? What will you do with it?

Is there anything else you’d like to know? If so, please post in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.

1. How is the iPad different from a laptop?

The word “laptop” is getting somewhat brushed aside for a truckload of new, confusing categories.

The Apple iPad falls into the slate (some people say tablet) category of portable personal computers, because, unlike a laptop, it doesn’t have a hardware keyboard.

Another key difference: To type and to navigate through files and photos on the iPad, you touch its screen in the same way you operate an iPhone or iPod Touch. That’s possible on some laptop models, but not many.

2. How is the iPad different from e-readers like the Kindle?

Reading digital books on “e-readers” like the Amazon Kindle is becoming increasingly popular. The iPad acts like an e-reader and like a personal computer, but there are some notable differences between the two.

For one, the iPad has a color display. The Kindle, by contrast, is only black-and-white. Some people think the iPad, partly for this reason, will be popular with students who read textbooks with colorful diagrams. Others say the Kindle’s screen, which isn’t backlit, will be easier on the eyes over long periods.

There’s an aesthetic difference, too: The iPad will display books horizontally, with two pages showing, or vertically, zooming in on a single page of text. The Kindle only works in vertical mode.

Perhaps more importantly, the devices access books from different online bookstores. iPad users buy books from Apple’s new digital bookstore, called the iBookstore, which supports an open e-book format called ePub. Kindle users must buy their books from Amazon.com.

3. How much does the iPad cost?

Prices range from $499 to $829. The more expensive versions have more storage space, which means you can put more music and videos on the device.

iPads that connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi only are less expensive than those that can connect through Wi-Fi and through AT&T’s mobile Internet network.

4. Do you have to sign-up for an AT&T contract when you buy the iPad?

You don’t have to buy an AT&T mobile Internet contract to purchase the iPad.

If you buy a Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad and have a Wi-Fi connection at home, or you want to use the iPad primarily at coffee shops or public places that have wireless Internet connections, then you probably won’t have to deal with AT&T at all.

Pricier versions of the iPad are able to connect to AT&T’s mobile 3G network, allowing them to browse the Web from many more locations.

Surprisingly, you don’t need a contract with AT&T to use this service, either.

Users can pay by the month and cancel at any time without penalty, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the iPad unveiling. The unlimited data plan with AT&T costs $29.99 per month.

The Wi-Fi-enabled iPads go on sale on Saturday. The AT&T-enabled iPads will ship in late April, according to the online Apple store.

5. If there’s no keyboard, how do you type on the iPad?

Instead of being a piece of plastic with physical keys, the iPad’s keyboard is a graphic that pops up on the device’s touch-sensitive screen — an interface that will be familiar to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

iPad users type by touching pictures of keys on the screen. The iPad keyboard is about the same size as the one on your desk, but you can’t feel the keys.

When he unveiled the device in January, Jobs said the iPad is “a dream to type on.” But some bloggers, including this writer, have complained that the iPad’s touch-screen keyboard is difficult to use.

6. What does the iPad do best?

The iPad is designed for consuming various types of media — reading books, browsing the Web and watching videos, in particular.

It’s also marketed as a portable gaming device, and there are hundreds of games for sale in the iPad App Store.

The device doesn’t have a DVD player, but you can download videos from Apple, or stream them from the Web.

The iPad is best suited for people who would, say, want to read their e-mail, but wouldn’t have to compose lengthy responses.

It’s better for a blog reader than a blog writer.

7. Can you create documents, spreadsheets and presentations with the iPad?

Apple created a new suite of “apps” specifically for the iPad. These iWork programs, which cost $9.99 each, let users create documents, edit spreadsheets and create business presentations from the iPad.

It’s unclear how easy these programs will be to use. Some reviewers say it’s easy enough to compose business documents on the iPad. Others say serious users will need another computer to be productive.

The iPad has a Wi-Fi connection, which, in theory, could be used for printing documents wirelessly through your printer. There is some debate online about what apps will perform this function.

8. Can you view any Web site on the iPad?

A certain format of online video, called Flash, does not play on the Apple iPad.

While there are some workarounds for this, many Web sites are redesigning themselves, using a type of code called HTML5, so they will work on the iPad.

That code allows video display on the device, but you may notice some sites will have holes because the iPad doesn’t support Flash video.

9. Will the iPad replace my current computer? Or do you need both?

Some technology writers and critics say the iPad is an all-in-one machine. Others argue that it’s more of a portable accessory, and that most computer users need a desktop or laptop computer in addition to an iPad.

What works for you really depends on what you use your computers for. If you spend a lot of time typing or creating things with your computer, it may be easier to use a laptop. If you just want to surf the Web, read books, play games, watch movies or send an occasional short e-mail, the iPad might work.

Apple and others sell keyboards that can be attached to the device in case you need to write a longer e-mail and don’t want to fiddle with the touch-screen keyboard.

10. Is the iPad lighter and smaller than other laptops or e-readers?

The iPad will be about a half-inch thick and weigh about 1½ pounds.

Its screen is 9.7 inches across, when measured diagonally.

That’s smaller and lighter than some laptops. A 10-inch netbook from Dell is similar in size but weighs about a pound more.

Amazon’s Kindle DX is slimmer than the iPad, at only a third of an inch thick, and it weighs slightly less: 1.2 pounds, according to Amazon.

Its screen is the same size as the iPad’s, but it doesn’t display color.

11. Can you subscribe to newspapers and magazines on the iPad?

Some magazines and newspapers have said they hope the iPad will help save their struggling industries. A number of them have reformatted their publications for the iPad’s screen and are offering new digital subscription plans.

The Wall Street Journal, for example, will charge $17.99 per month for an iPad subscription to its newspaper.

12. Are there iPad alternatives?

Apple is not the only computer maker offering a slate device. Some are on the market now and others will come out soon.

HP briefly showed off its slate computer before an audience at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Dell has announced plans to make a personal computer in the slate category.

Viliv and Asus have tablets on the market, too.

Apple iPad hands-on review

It’s here.
(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)
Note: The following blog post is a review in-progress, which we will be adding to throughout the day as we spend more time with the iPad.

The Apple iPad is an unprecedented device. It doesn’t shoot rainbows or make puppies, but this roughly 8×10-inch tablet computer melds your laptop, smartphone, gaming console, and iPod into single, affordable, unfortunately named thing.

Of course, we come to you with a standard list of complaints. The absence of an integrated video camera puts the kibosh on any hope of using the iPad for video chats, and without Flash video support, many Web pages look like Swiss cheese. But the biggest problem with the device is coming up with bullet-proof reasons to buy one.

Because the iPad is an entirely new class of device, you’ll probably need to lie to yourself a little to justify the purchase. But at this point, any CNET readers worth their salt have mastered the art of making excuses to buy new gadgets.

For the uninitiated, Apple has posted a cheat sheet of demo videos that provide a smorgasbord of reasonable answers to the question: “Why do I need an iPad?” To hear Apple tell it, the iPad is a Web browser for your living room, an e-book reader for the den, a movie player for the kids, a photo album, a jukebox, a gamer’s best friend, a word processor, an e-mail machine, and a YouTube junkie’s dream come true. No excuse good enough for you? Wait a few minutes and a developer will inevitably make an app for it.

Whatever you need to tell yourself to buy an iPad, we can safely say the device is a worthwhile addition to any wired home. We don’t give much weight to the pundits who say that the iPad is the future of the personal computer, but we think it’s the most entertaining gadget we’ll see all year.

What is it, exactly?

If you’re coming to this review already versed on the nitty gritty of what the iPad is and its roots in the iPhone and iPod Touch, feel free to skip ahead. Otherwise, here’s the scoop:

The iPad is a touch-screen tablet computer, roughly the size of a magazine, with three models that connect to the Internet strictly over Wi-Fi (16GB for $499, 32GB for $599, 64GB for $699) and three that use a combination of Wi-Fi and AT&T’s 3G wireless (16GB for $629, 32GB for $729, and 64GB for $829–pay-as-you go for the data subscription).

The iPad runs the same software found on Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple calls this software the iPhone OS, and it’s generally regarded as one of the most successful operating systems designed for use with touch-screen devices. Unlike conventional computer OS software, designed around the mouse and the keyboard, the iPhone OS only responds to touch input and is generally only capable of running applications one at a time.

If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch, the iPad will feel immediately familiar. Out of the box, you get many of the iPhone’s capabilities, including Apple-designed applications (apps) for Web browsing, e-mail, maps, photos, music, video, YouTube, and more. More apps can be installed using the built-in App Store software or by connecting the iPad to iTunes via your computer using the included cable. If you already own apps purchased for an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can transfer these apps to the iPad, as well.

 
(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET)

Design

Apple rarely skimps on design and the iPad is no exception. The screen is made of the same oleophobic-coated glass as the iPhone 3GS’, making it relatively easy to wipe away fingerprints. Behind the glass is an LED-backlit, 9.7-inch capacitive touch screen that uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology for above-average viewing angles.

Below the screen sits a home button that looks and behaves exactly like the one on the iPhone and iPod Touch, bouncing you out of any open app and placing you back in the main menu. Matte aluminum wraps around the backs and sides of the iPad, tapering a bit around the edges. If you’ve ever held one of Apple’s unibody MacBooks, you know exactly the kind of feel and finish of the iPad’s aluminum. Unlike the polished chrome of the iPod or glossy plastic of the iPhone, the back of the iPad seems less likely to show wear. Of course–as with any Apple product–there are already hundreds of cases for the iPad, should you feel the need to give it extra protection.

The iPad measures 7.47 inches wide by 9.56 inches tall by 0.5 inch thick, and weighs 1.5 pounds (or 1.6 pounds for the 3G model). Held in your hands, the dimensions and heft have a natural, magazine-like feel. Like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad sports a finger-friendly OS with an onscreen QWERTY keyboard, and an accelerometer that can detect whether the device is in portrait or landscape mode. The buttons, switches, and ports around the edges of the iPad also mimic those of the iPhone. A 30-pin dock connector sits on the bottom, along with a small integrated speaker. On the right edge you have a volume rocker and a switch that works to disable the iPad’s automatic screen rotation in case you need to look at something sideways without the iPad assuming you want it rotated.

The iPad’s refined feel and high-quality materials won’t surprise Apple devotees, but in the larger landscape of tablets, Netbook computers, and e-readers, the design feels distinctly upscale–especially given its price. Next to the Asus Eee PC, Amazon Kindle, or Fusion Garage JooJoo, the iPad looks like it was made on a different planet (where plastic doesn’t exist). We don’t make the point to be snobby, but looks matter considering that all these devices are marketed as living room accessories.

Size also matters. As one of the first tablet computers to go mainstream, you’ll need to assess the iPad’s size on a case-by-case basis. For the advertised purposes of Web browsing, reading books, and checking your e-mail, we found the magazine-size screen perfectly adequate. After years of watching videos on devices like the iPod Touch, or even dedicated video players like the Archos 5, video playback on the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen feels downright luxurious.

For all its charms, however, the iPad is not as portable as we’d like. Part of the problem is psychological. Logically, you know the iPad’s dimensions are no less portable than a book. But when a book costs between $500 and $800 and is made of glass, you treat it differently. Without being tucked away in a messenger bag or protective case, walking outside with an iPad in your hand feels like slapping the laws of gravity in the face.

We’d also be lying if we didn’t say we wish the iPad could be a little thinner and lighter. At 1.5 pounds and half an inch thick, it makes most Netbooks look bloated. The iPad is slightly heavier and thicker than most dedicated e-book readers, including the relatively large Kindle DX. If your dream is to relax in a hammock with an e-book in one hand and a tropical drink in the other, plan to avoid the iPad’s glass screen hurtling toward your face when you doze off.

iPhone OS

Unlike many of the tablet-style devices we’ve encountered, the iPad doesn’t run a conventional OS (operating system) such as Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. Instead, Apple decided to use the mobile version of OS X from what is arguably its most successful and fastest-growing product: the iPhone .

In our view, Apple’s use of the iPhone OS distinguishes the iPad from the competition. As dozens of iPad alternatives come out of the woodwork, touting all sorts of advantages and added features, the iPad will remain the only tablet computer on the market with access to Apple’s App Store.

For the most part, the iPhone OS feels like a natural fit for a device like this. You don’t need to worry about traditional computer headaches, such as scattered files on your desktop, installing drivers for third-party hardware, or trying to figure out where you put a downloaded image. Instead, all your apps are clearly laid out, organized in a grid of nickel-size icons that respond to a single touch. If you download an image from a Web page or e-mail, it appears in your photo library, without fail. If you need to search for anything–a song, an e-mail, a photo, or a Web page–double-clicking the home button brings up a Spotlight search feature that covers just about everything on the device. On the iPad, the organizational metaphor of the folder does not exist, and the effect feels liberating.

We think that most users will appreciate this simplicity and reliability compared with a traditional, budget-priced personal computer. Some of you, however, will probably feel suffocated by Apple’s totalitarian control over the iPad’s OS. If you get a kick out of running your computer using command lines and viewing device contents as a hierarchical file tree, the iPad will probably give you an aneurysm.

Purchasing software and media on the device makes Apple’s “walled garden” approach to the iPhone OS frustrating to a wider audience. The only way for users to purchase and download movies and music on the iPad is to use Apple’s integrated iTunes store. If you want to buy new software for the device, you’ll need to go through Apple’s integrated App Store, which displays only applications deemed acceptable by Apple. Compared with the more laissez-faire approach of a Windows Netbook, for example, the iPad user is giving away freedom of choice in exchange for convenience. (One upside: In theory, Apple’s top-down control over the iPhone OS and the commerce within it also serves to minimize the iPad’s vulnerability to computer viruses.)

Everything old is new again

You can’t place calls with the iPad (at least, not without a VoIP app) or easily text message your friends, but the other built-in capabilities are essentially the same as those on the iPhone 3GS.

That said, the iPad can be pushed much further than any non-laptop mobile device we’ve tested, including the iPhone. Because of the iPad’s extra screen size, default apps such as the Safari Web browser, e-mail, iPod, video, maps, photos, and YouTube all look and behave much more like full-blown applications. The iPad’s e-mail app, for example, is a doppelganger for the Mail application in Apple OS X, offering an overview of your in-box alongside the text of any currently selected message. The photos app could easily be mistaken for Apple’s iPhoto, with its opening view of photos arranged in event-specific stacks. The iPod app looks and behaves like an abbreviated version of iTunes, for better or worse. And the YouTube app plays out like a prettier version of the actual Web site.

Paradoxically, the two apps that have changed the least, Maps and the Safari browser, give the most radically different experience thanks to the iPad’s big screen. Granted, from a practical perspective, the device itself isn’t as portable or convenient as something that fits in your pocket, but it’s a trade-off.

Size is meaningless without grace. Luckily, the iPad has both qualities in equal measure, helped by a new 1GHz Apple A4 processor, capacitive multitouch display technology, and an integrated Wi-Fi antenna compatible with the latest 802.1n wireless spec. Apps launch within seconds, waking from sleep mode is nearly instantaneous, and even a cold boot-up takes just 10 seconds. Even if your local Wi-FI network isn’t up to 802.11n speeds, the Web-browsing experience often feels faster than on an iPhone or iPod Touch on the same network, simply because you’re doing a lot less scrolling and zooming to get to the information you need.

Other hardware features include Bluetooth 2.1, a stereo audio output (headphone jack), a built-in speaker, an integrated lithium ion rechargeable battery, NAND flash memory, and an integrated accelerometer (tilt sensor), and ambient light sensor. Apple’s third-generation iPod Touch can claim many of the same features, but lacks the iPad’s integrated digital compass, built-in microphone, and mute switch. It’s also worth noting that the iPad’s speaker is noticeably louder than the speaker included on the iPhone and iPod Touch, with a slightly beefier sound (though still ugly to listen to). Apple doesn’t include earbuds with the iPad, so do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a nice pair.

A 3G wireless-compatible version of the iPad is also available, which includes a SIM card tray, as well as assisted GPS capabilities.

Bluetooth

Just like the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch, the iPad includes wireless Bluetooth audio capabilities. We tested the iPad with an Altec Lansing BackBeat stereo Bluetooth headset, and the audio quality was on par with results from the third-generation iPod Touch. The pairing process was easy and incident-free. In the music player, a small Bluetooth icon appears next to the player controls and toggles audio back and forth between the speaker and the headset. The iPad’s Bluetooth capabilities also allow peer-to-peer networking for gaming and wireless keyboard support for compatible writing applications.

iTunes Store and App Store

In the same way the iPad’s apps all look and behave much more like Apple’s full-blown OS X applications, the iPad’s integrated iTunes Store could easily be mistaken for the desktop iTunes Store. Size aside, all the same capabilities are here, including movie rentals and purchases, TV show downloads, audiobooks, and access to iTunes U. You can pay for purchases by setting up an iTunes account with a credit card, or by redeeming iTunes gift cards.

The same can be said for the iPad version of the App Store; it looks and acts more like the store experience within Apple’s iTunes software. Because the App Store is running on the iPad, however, the default display will bring up apps that are optimized specifically for the iPad.

Apple is encouraging developers to create new apps specifically for the iPad, which are not necessarily backward-compatible with the iPhone or iPod Touch. Because this is potentially an expensive proposition for users, we would like it to be easier to distinguish between an app designed for the iPhone and the same app designed for the iPad. There are dual-compatibility apps on offer that include both iPad versions and iPhone versions embedded within the same file, which Apple specially designates with a “+” symbol within the iPad App Store. We wish more apps were bundled this way to ensure broad compatibility, but we understand there’s more money to be made in selling apps separately.

Fortunately, in the world of apps, the iPad is at the top of the food chain. Most apps designed for the iPhone or Touch can run on the iPad, either scaled-up to fit the screen, or presented at their original resolution framed at the center of the screen in black. This capability is good news for anyone bringing their existing apps over from an iPhone or iPod Touch, although users will likely want to purchase separate iPad-optimized versions of the apps they use regularly, which could get pricey.

Accessories

Beyond the deluge of third-party accessories already hitting store shelves, Apple is offering a handful of its own accessories for the iPad, including a physical keyboard with an integrated dock ($69), a charging dock without the keyboard ($29) that engages the iPad’s photo frame mode, a camera connection kit ($30) that includes both a USB and an SD card adapter for importing images from a digital camera, and a wrap-around leather case ($40) that doubles as a kickstand.

If you’re interested in using the iPad for presentations, Apple offers a $30 VGA adapter that can connect to a projector or computer monitor. Video output is only compatible with specific apps, such as Apple’s Keynote. The maximum output resolution is only 1,024×768 pixels, so keep your HD expectations in check.

We’ll be working on writing up individual reviews for several of these accessories, which we will link to as they become available. Off hand, though, we feel a protective case of some kind is a good investment. Also, given the alternative of charging the iPad using a basic wall adapter, $29 seems a fair price for a charging dock that transforms an otherwise techy device into an attractive digital photo frame.

Requirements

Though the iPad can be used without a computer most of the time, you will need to connect to a computer running Apple’s iTunes 9.1 or later to set up the device and sync any existing media, contacts, e-mail, photos, or browser bookmarks. Computer specification requirements for iTunes 9.1 can be found on Apple’s Web site.

If you plan to use the iPad at home for surfing the Web and you don’t have a 3G-capable model, you will need to make sure your home is set up for wireless Internet.

iPad 3G

One of the big questions facing potential buyers is whether to buy an iPad model that supports wireless 3G service. (The 3G models won’t be available till late April, according to Apple’s Web site.) The benefit of 3G support is that you can use it to access Web and e-mail through the iPad anywhere with AT&T 3G wireless coverage. For a device so heavily focused on the Internet, the extra freedom of 3G compatibility is a clear advantage. Aside from a negligible added heft of 0.1 pound and the fact that buyers are paying an extra $130 for the 3G capability (compared with Wi-Fi-only models), there’s no downside to owning a 3G-compatible model. Unlike the data plans for most smartphones, the iPad doesn’t come with any contractual obligations. If you don’t end up using the iPad’s 3G capability, you can cancel the data plan at any time.

In fact, Apple and AT&T are offering a pretty good deal on 3G service for the iPad. There are two options: $15 a month for 250MB of data, or unlimited data for $29.99 a month. Each option can be prepaid for a month in advance. The 3G service is only compatible with the iPad models that offer both Wi-Fi and 3G, which are priced at $629 (16GB), $729 (32GB), and $829 (64GB).

Another advantage to the 3G-compatible iPad is the extra capability of assisted-GPS, allowing users to accurately pinpoint their location on a map, making the device more useful for navigation and location-aware apps, such as restaurant finders and tour guides. The Wi-Fi-only models of the iPad can use rudimentary Wi-Fi hot-spot triangulation techniques to guess locations, but are much less accurate and consistent.

If you have no plans on regularly using the iPad outside of your home, you’d do just as well to save some money and stick with a Wi-Fi model. It’s also worth noting that AT&T’s 3G service might not be all it’s cracked up to be, considering the complaints many iPhone 3G users have made over the years.

The Apple iBooks app.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

More to come, so stay tuned!

The following products mentioned are available.

Sneak peek: Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 3′ a very big winner

Pixar Animation Studio’s ‘Toy Story 3′ comes out June 18. But CNET News attended an advance screening Thursday and the film is a big winner.
(Credit: Pixar)
EMERYVILLE, Calif.–Oh, Pixar, Pixar, Pixar. You’ve done it again.

Let me just say it now: “Toy Story 3″ is fantastic. I saw an advanced screening Thursday night, and going back over the notes I took in the dark theater at Pixar’s headquarters here, I find this that I wrote about a third of the way into the film: “I already know it’s a BIG hit.”

At Pixar’s request, those of us in the room for the screening are constrained about what we can say. Director Lee Unkrich, who spoke prior to the film along with producer Darla Anderson, pleaded with the audience not to reveal anything about the plot and to “preserve the specialness” for the rest of the world to discover for themselves when “Toy Story 3″ opens on June 18. “Toy Story 3″ will be among the rising tide of 3D movies now coming to the screen, though this preview version was in old-fashioned 2D.

Of course, through three trailers for the film that Pixar has already released, the world at large already knows the following: Andy, the child to whom the toys from the first two installments of the series belong, is going off to college, and he and his family face the oh-so-important question of what they’re going to do with the now-famous playthings ensemble.

It’s also known that the toys are subsequently donated and end up arriving at a day care center called Sunnyside, where they are enthusiastically welcomed by a giant, cheering roomful of other toys shouting, “new toys!” There’s a Ken and a Barbie, Mr. Potato Head re-imagined as a cucumber, and Flamenco Buzz Lightyear.

In one scene, a horde of small children at the day care center burst through a door and within seconds absolutely overtake our toy heroes. In my notes, I wrote, simply, “One of the best chaos scenes ever!”

‘New toys!’
(Credit: Pixar)
It’s hard to know how to review a movie when you can’t give anything away. The only way to do so, it seems, is to offer some impressions. So for example, for a bunch of toys that have lived years without being adequately played with by their now college-bound kid, the day care center seems like toy heaven. The chance to be played with all the time!

There’s escape scenes, homages to “Cool Hand Luke,” the clever use of a tortilla, and tons of little details that show that the Pixar team cares deeply that every shot be pitch perfect. After all, an age-old plush toy’s nose is going to be kind of worn down, isn’t it?

This is Pixar’s 11th feature and the first time it has returned to its “Toy Story” roots since 1999. Along the way, it has won five Oscars for best animated feature, including the last three for, respectively, “Ratatouille,” “Wall-E,” and “Up.” Along the way, the studio is batting 1.000 on producing box office hits, and has broken new technical ground in the way it has produced computer animated fur (in “Monsters, Inc.”) and the incredibly complex physics involved in animating hundreds of helium balloons (in “Up.”)

Yet despite its unbroken record for winners, I have somehow gone into the last few Pixar movies with lower expectations than it probably deserves. I suppose it’s a sense that, after all these hits, doesn’t the studio have to stumble eventually?

‘Toy Story 3′ features one of the best chaos scenes in a movie ever.
(Credit: Pixar)
“Toy Story 3″ seemed like it would be a natural stumbling moment. After all, as someone wrote me on Twitter this evening, “When was the last time (was there a last time) when any movie [with] a ‘3′ at the end was great?”

If you know your “Toy Story” history, you might even remember that back in 2004, before it bought Pixar, Disney–which owned the rights to the characters from and to make sequels of Pixar films–announced it was going to make a third installment. The film was to be made without Pixar’s involvement, and the buzz about it was that it would be a straight-to-DVD disaster.

But after the 2006 acquisition of Pixar–which made Steve Jobs Disney’s largest single stockholder–the film returned home, and before long, the main original actors–Tom Hanks and Tim Allen–signed on to reprise their roles as Woody and Buzz Lightyear, respectively.

Still, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It just seemed hard to imagine how a third “Toy Story” could be all that good. The trailers look fun, but don’t tell a full story. How could Pixar yet again make us care about these toys, whom we’ve known for as much as 15 years. Pixar, by the way, figured out a way to bridge the gap of the many children who wouldn’t otherwise have known the characters by re-releasing both “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2″ and putting them together recently in theaters in a double-feature. I had wanted to go, but never made it, alas.

A convert
Now, after having sat through “Toy Story 3,” albeit a version that’s not 100 percent complete–Unkrich, Anderson, and their team still have about five weeks to work on it, after all–I can say without reservation that I am a full-on convert. They hit it out of the park, and as a viewer, you know that’s true within minutes.

How? Well, through great storytelling, through finding the exact right way to send Andy off to college, and yet still leave room for a “Toy Story 4.” By keeping us on the edge of our seats with great drama and by really making us care what happens to these, well, toys. Again.

I can be emotional sometimes, and I’m not ashamed to say that the end of the movie made me cry. I know I’m not the only one because I heard someone in the row behind me say to their friend when it was over, “stop crying.” But how could I not? Pixar, yet again, has managed to turn animated silliness into top-tier filmmaking that tugs our heartstrings, that makes us laugh time and time again, that gives us white knuckles, that will appeal to kids and their parents–and even those without children–and yet, unlike most of its competitors, manages to do so without stooping to scene after scene with little more than tired scatological jokes.

In journalism, they tell us to “show, not tell.” It’s hard when you can’t talk plot points. So I hope my enthusiasm for “Toy Story 3″ can carry the day here. The film won’t hit theaters for two-and-a-half months, so you’ll have to wait that long to see if you agree with my assessment. But I’m willing to bet that you’ll leave the theater when you do go see it with a big smile on your face. And next March, I’m fairly certain Pixar will walk away with yet another Oscar.

National bans is poll boon for Italian local TV, Internet

The suspension of political programming by national broadcasters ahead of regional elections Sunday and Monday has boosted audiences for Internet and local TV shows, a novelty in Italian politics.

Rai television, which groups all public channels, suspended political programming ahead of the elections, saying it did not want to be seen favouring any one party but also to avoid fines for bias.

The move caused a general outcry and a void in the public debate ahead of the elections for regional governors for 13 of Italy’s 20, a vote that will also be a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

“It is incredible that in Italy there are so many political programmes, but they have to be interrupted precisely at the time when politics becomes important,” journalist Enrico Mentana said in an interview with AFP.

Rai’s controversial decision was, however, still not enough to prevent its main television news programme from being fined 100,000 euros (134,000 dollars) for “imbalance” in reporting and “weak” coverage of the smaller candidates.

The same punishment was doled out to its main competitor, Canale Cinque in Berlusconi’s Mediaset group.

“It is as if we have 10 football teams but just at the moment of the kickoff of the championship, we have only one,” said Mentana, who has created a programme on the Internet site of the Il Corriere della Sera daily.

On Thursday night a programme by Rai journalist Michele Santoro, who normally hosts the AnnoZero political talk show that Berlusconi is alleged to have tried to gag, escaped the ban by going out on local and satellite channels and the Internet.

About 200,000 people watched on the web and the show was also aired on giant screens erected in 200 Italian towns and cities, including Rome and Naples, Italian media reported.

The programme, which took aim at the 73-year-old Berlusconi, was called “Raiperunanotte” (Rai for a night) and dedicated to freedom of expression.

“Until now, the Internet was considered a separate territory, with different tribes, its own codes and systems of interaction,” said Mentana.

“But now we have brought to the web people who originally were not going there,” he said. “A new era has opened.”

It is an opinion shared by Marco Marturano, professor at the Milan school of journalism IULM, who said: “The Internet has won in this story an image and a role in information.”

He added however that “we honestly cannot say that there is a direct transfer of the public from television to the Internet.”

“The Internet public remains a public apart. But in a country where just until last year Internet communication was still far from being a means of mass communication, it is a sign of what may come,” he said.

At the same time, “an advantage has been given to the local televisions which are not under the same rules and could provide a public service that the nationals chains can no longer,” he said.

Entertainment channels were also able to contribute to the political debate.

“A programme like ours, half-way between entertainment and information, slips through the net,” Andrea Salerno, producer of “Parla con Me” on Rai Three, told AFP.

But what will be the impact of these changes on the results of the election?

Marturano said the fact that during the campaign there was “less political information will translate into more votes for the parties than for their platforms, as much on the right as on the left.”

“The vote will not consist of a choice for the best regional president but to give a signal against or for Berlusconi,” he said.

Google goes it alone in China censorship fight

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a major speech on Internet freedom two months ago, called on US technology firms not to support online censorship.

“I hope that refusal to support politically motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of American technology companies,” Clinton said. “It should be part of our national brand.”

Amid a host of trade disputes with China, however, Google’s decision last week to halt censorship there met with only a fairly muted response from the State Department — and virtual silence from other US technology giants.

Go Daddy, the world’s largest registrar of Web domain names, did announce that it was no longer registering names in China because of what it called “chilling” new identification requirements imposed by the Chinese authorities.

And another domain name registrar, Network Solutions, told AFP it had stopped offering the .cn domain names in December because of the “intrusive nature” of the new Chinese policies for those seeking Web addresses.

But no other US companies indicated they were prepared to follow Google’s lead and run the risk of being shut out of the world’s largest online market.

Microsoft, Yahoo!, Cisco and previously Google are among the US firms which have been accused by members of the US Congress and human rights groups of abetting the Web censorship machine dubbed the “Great Firewall of China.”

Yahoo! did not reply to a request for comment on Google’s move but chief executive Carol Bartz said last year: “It’s not our job to fix the Chinese government.

“We will respect human rights but not take on every government in the world — that’s not our mandate,” Bartz said.

Microsoft for its part last week reiterated the position the software giant expressed in January when Google revealed that it and other companies had been the target of cyberattacks originating in China.

“We appreciate that different companies may make different decisions about where and how they operate their business based on their own experiences and views,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

“We remain committed to advancing free expression, and we currently are engaged actively in doing business in over 100 countries, even as we comply with the laws in every country in which we operate.”

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, said he was “disappointed” with Microsoft and that its stance was “against freedom of speech and human rights.”

While praising Google, Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, said Microsoft “need to get with the program and join with the side of human rights rather than enabling tyranny.”

Google’s decision to stand up to the Chinese authorities also won plaudits from human rights groups but it was not universally lauded and Microsoft and Yahoo! also had their defenders.

Michael Arrington, founder of US technology blog TechCrunch, condemned what he called Google’s “certain level of hypocrisy” for abandoning a search market they were “failing in” while leaving behind “assets that have more promise.”

Deriding Go Daddy’s move a “publicity stunt,” Arrington said “whatever China is or isn’t, we are all very much in business with them.”

“What I can’t sit and watch is Microsoft being raked over the coals by a government that does nothing to fight the evil that they say exists in China,” he said.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! are all founding members of the Global Network Initiative, which brings together Internet and telecom companies, human rights groups, academics and investors to protect freedom of expression and privacy.

Rebecca MacKinnon, a member of GNI’s board of directors, noted to AFP that Yahoo! had largely disengaged from China and said Microsoft’s continued presence there is not at odds with its participation in the initiative.

“The point is to try and be practical with the idea that engagement is the ideal situation if they can figure out a way to do it responsibly,” MacKinnon said. “We try to get beyond the alternative of in or out.

“It would be unhelpful to say that the Chinese do a lot of bad things therefore the technology sector should disengage,” she said. “Because then they should disengage from half the countries in the world.”

Confused about phone camera quality? Help’s coming

(CNET) — Let’s say you’re trying to decide whether to buy a new mobile phone and you like taking photos. The Google Nexus One’s 5-megapixel camera has 56 percent more pixels than the iPhone 3GS’s 3.2 megapixels, but it’s clear the camera isn’t 56 percent better.

Now let’s say it’s 2012 and you’re trying to decide whether to buy an Apple iPhone 4GS or a Google Nexus Three. You might be able to make a better choice this time.

That’s because the International Imaging Industry Association, a consortium involving more than 30 companies, is working on a test that will use a five-star rating and a basic accompanying chart to judge image quality.

It may seem like a simple idea, but it’s pretty important. That’s because the nature of mobile-phone photography is changing dramatically.

Once upon a time, mobile-phone cameras didn’t see much use beyond teenagers mugging for the camera and maybe sending each other the photos for viewing on another mobile phone.

But now mobile-phone cameras are getting good enough to store precious memories, too. That means viewing them on bigger screens, printing them, and saving them for more than a fleeting moment.

“As [mobile-phone photography] gets to older people, it will get more important,” said Nicholas Touchard, vice president of marketing for image quality evaluation at the French company DxO Labs, after a speech at the Image Sensor Europe conference here. Touchard represents DxO in the consortium.

He said phone buyers could start seeing the quality score as early as a year from now, but realistically two years is more likely.

The score is based on measurements of a variety of factors. First came basics such as sharpness, color uniformity, and lens distortion. Now the group is tackling image noise, white balance, sensitivity, blur, and other attributes.

Of course, reducing image quality to a single five-star rating scale can oversimplify a complicated situation. There’s a bit more, though: a chart that shows how well the camera fares with increasingly demanding tasks — mobile-phone sharing to a print mounted on the wall, for example — and showing different uses such as portraits, sports, and landscape photography.

“This is a very controversial thing. Most people will tell you that summarizing the quality of a camera to just one number is quite risky or isn’t what you would like to do as a scientist,” he said in his speech. “However, as a consumer, it’s probably a good idea.”

Mobile-phone cameras suffer poor image quality compared even to inexpensive compact cameras, much less to increasingly popular SLRs. One thing that holds them back are the tiny image sensors, which simply have a harder time recording as much information as larger ones in dedicated cameras.

Another is the correspondingly small lenses that must be built to tight manufacturing tolerances but that also must be inexpensive enough for high-volume markets with very thin profit margins.

But as the saying has gone in photography circles since the days of film, the best camera is the one you have with you, and people always bring their mobile phones.

Adding to that is another fact: as Internet connectivity increasingly is built into phones, those photos are more likely to escape the phone via e-mail, Facebook, or other means.

It’s not a coincidence that the iPhone is the most popular camera on Yahoo’s Flickr photo-sharing site. And the new smartphones are powerful enough to run software such as Photoshop for those who want to polish before sharing.

There could be more quality improvements coming, too, that separate camera quality more widely.

In 2011, start-up InVisage hopes to transform the smartphone market with much higher-quality image sensors. The company believes its QuantumFilm technology — small precisely sized elements of light-sensitive semiconductor painted onto the surface of an image sensor chip — will be as much as four times as sensitive as prevailing image sensor technology.

InVisage has another potential edge, too, said digital design manager Michael Malone in a talk at the conference. That’s because InVisage’s design isn’t as sensitive to the direction light is arriving from, in contrast to traditional sensors that work best with light arriving perpendicular to the sensor. InVisage’s approach opens up options for lens designs that permit a smaller camera package. And as everybody knows with mobile phones, thin is in.

Key to making the camera phone image quality (CPIQ) score useful will be persuading those who sell mobile phones — handset makers and carriers, chiefly — to show the number.

Touchard believes they will — at least some of them some of the time.

“They’re all waiting for who makes the first move,” Touchard said. “Progress is not really coming from the carriers. They don’t know much about this, and they don’t want to do it if the others aren’t doing it.”

Of course, plenty of companies won’t want to if their phone’s camera gets a low score. But Touchard believes that those on the other end of the quality spectrum will be instrumental in its spread. It also will appeal to newcomers or those trying to show off a competitive edge.

This is where Google and Microsoft, which joined the phone quality effort in 2009, could come into play.

“Google and Microsoft are in a battle to get into the high-end market because of Apple and Nokia,” two incumbent powers, Touchard said. Google has a particular interest in image quality: its Google Goggles program lets people submit photos as search queries, and text recognition doesn’t do well with low-quality images.

And once consumers start seeing the camera ratings, they could become sophisticated enough to recognize that there might be a reason it’s missing from some products.

‘Flying’ boat hopes to circle globe in 40 days

London, England (CNN) — The captain of a huge “flying” boat that has smashed world records for speed on water now plans to sail round the world in under 40 days.

Frenchman Alain Thebault, skipper of “Hydroptere,” a revolutionary sailing boat that looks more like a plane, says his next project is to circumnavigate the globe in half the time of the Jules Verne novel “Around the World in 80 Days.”

“My dream is to cross the world in 40 days,” Thebault told CNN. “It is a project that is very close to my heart and that I believe in.”

“Hydroptere,” currently the world’s fastest sailing boat, gets its speed from foils, or underwater “wings” that lift the boat and enable it to “fly” several meters above the water.

This innovation, which uses principles similar to those of airplanes, avoids drag and allows the 18- by 24-meter boat to achieve previously unimaginable speeds.

Inventor Thebault started working on the design for “Hydroptere” nearly 25 years ago.

“Many years ago when I said I wanted to make a boat fly people said I was crazy,” he told CNN.

Thebault is aware of the dangers of his chosen sport.

In 2008, “Hydroptere” reached extreme speeds of over 60 knots per hour (about 111 km per hour, or almost 70 mph) before dramatically crashing.

“When you sail at very high speeds, around 100 km/hour, the water becomes like a rock,” he said. “So yes, it is dangerous.Sailing at very high speeds is similar to high altitude for alpinists — up there, you have to spend the least time possible.”

Thebault and his team rebuilt “Hydroptere” and in late 2009 it became the fastest boat on the planet, traveling at over 50 knots (over 100 km/h) over 500 meters and one nautical mile.

Thebault is currently building a larger version of the boat, “Hydroptere Maxi,” to make his attempt at crossing the world in under 40 days.

At 30 by 30 meters, Thebault hopes that “Maxi” will react better in heavy seas and be able to accommodate a group of 10 sailors. He expects “Maxi” to be sea-ready in 2013.

He likened his previous records and the round-the-world attempt to the difference between a 100-meter sprint and running a marathon: “They are completely different, but we want both.”

But before all that, the maverick sailor, who admits this project is both his profession and obsession, has another goal: He will attempt to cross the Pacific in three days in 2011.