testing

We tested the cellular speed of Apple's new iPad in four different cities: San Francisco, London, Singapore, and Sydney.

The first test used the Speedtest.net app to test theoretical download speeds measured in megabits per second. The country whose iPad achieves the highest number wins the test. OK, I guess you can't really "win" a test, unless it's a con-test!! Yeah, so this wasn't just a test, but also became a friendly competition between countries.… Read more

We're still waiting for AT&T to announce a release date and price for its HTC One X, but already some lucky users have put the device to the test.

Early benchmarks for the handset have arrived online and all indications are that this one is a winner. Indeed, if you're worried that the dual-core Snapdragon S4 wouldn't stand up to the Nvidia Tegra 3, these numbers might ease your mind a bit.

According to benchmarks posted online, AT&T's version of the One X outperforms the Galaxy Nexus in Quadrant and bests the … Read more

At this point in the performance narrative of i...Things, I've gotten accustomed to each new iteration of the iPad or iPhone being demonstrably faster than the last. I'm not talking strictly about frame rates in games either. App load times, movie encoding, and app download speeds are all things that seem to noticeably improve with each new iOS device.

However, with the announcement that the new iPad's A5X processor would only see an upgrade in its graphical capabilities over the A5, I have to admit to being more than a bit disappointed.… Read more

Updated at 8:05 p.m. PDT: The first round of CNET Labs iPad heat testing is complete. Results are available in this blog by Senior Editor Eric Franklin. Though further tests will be conducted, the initial results find the new iPad to be only slightly warmer than the iPad 2, and in no way a danger to users.

Our CNET Labs team is currently investigating claims that the third-generation Apple iPad may overheat under normal operating conditions, such as video playback or gameplay.

Anecdotal reports have pointed out that the new iPad can get a little toasty. A statement from Apple … Read more

Your mind goes on a roller-coaster ride of shock and hope when you drop a tablet on a hard surface. Trust me. Hey, I even feel mental pain when I watch this video showing some spine-tingling (and senseless) iPad sacrifice.

In the vid, the new iPad and iPad 2 face off in a series of waist- and shoulder-high drop tests captured on video in a PR stunt by consumer electronics warranty company SquareTrade. The unscientific experiment features a group of curiously smiling people dropping iPads face down and face up on hard concrete. … Read more

Big week, or at least big gadgets and gear, on the CNET Labscast. Forget about tiny 13-inch ultrabooks, now these slim laptops are moving into 14- and 15-inch territory, and we've got a couple of examples to pass around the room. Then Ty talks up his latest acquisition, a massive 80-inch Sharp LCD TV. It's awesome for sports (or "sport" as Ty puts it), but you can't make an 80-inch LCD for $5,000 without cutting a few corners.

But before all that, we've got the new iPad 3 (yes, that's what we're calling it), and a very eye-opening comparison of text blown up on both that and the iPad 2--be warned, it's the kind of thing you can't un-see.

… Read more

This week, we kill time before New iPad Day by checking out a late straggler to the now-dead Netbook market (no, they haven't gotten any better). Josh Goldman gives us a live demo of the new Lytro camera and its magical refocusing capability, then Scott tries running some PC games on the cool-looking, but potentially underpowered Razer Blade laptop. … Read more

A redo of an AV-Test.org report that originally found fewer than 50 percent of Android antivirus apps effective at stopping mobile threats now grades six apps higher than before. Unfortunately, that's not much of an improvement.

In an update published earlier this week, AV-Test.org CEO Andreas Marx explained that "certain parts in our initial report and the testing methodology [were] considered imprecise and/or flawed by third parties." The revised rankings now list 23 effective apps in 41 tested, or 56 percent. That's up from 17 of 41 in the previous rankings.

Because of … Read more

It seems unlikely that the maker of hundred-million-dollar Hollywood blockbusters such as "Armageddon" and "The Transformers" could inspire scientists to develop an ultra low-cost tool for quickly sensing airborne chemical weapons. Yet one former University of Michigan at Ann Arbor researcher says his idea to use a nerve-gas antidote to create an inexpensive litmus paper-like nerve-gas sensor emerged shortly after watching "The Rock" on DVD a few years ago.

During the climax of that 1996 Michael Bay movie, chemical weapons specialist Stanley Goodspeed (played by Nicolas Cage) injects himself in the heart with atropine … Read more