Crave

After a ton of hype and much deliberation, we finally get the official Palm Pre review from CNET Editor Bonnie Cha. She lays out all the pros and cons of the device, including the keyboard, app switching, battery life, and much, much more. Also, Jeff finally decides whether or not to buy one; tune in to hear the verdict!

We've been talking about the Palm Pre smartphone for a few weeks now, building up hype and getting excited about the release like everyone else, so we're especially excited to have Bonnie Cha come on today's show to give us her final review. If you have the time, be sure to check out her written review as well. So it turns out that she really likes the software. The multitouch is responsive (albeit with a slight lag), app-switching and push e-mail worked flawlessly, and the contact integration with Facebook, Outlook, etc. all impressed Bonnie, but don't rush out to buy it without hearing the negatives.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

She also has a few complaints: as expected, the keyboard is pretty tiny and requires a rather long learning curve depending on the size of your fingers. In fact, Bonnie's got pretty small hands and even she had problems typing on it, so be sure to check one out before you buy. Next, the battery life pooped out after only one day of usage, which can be attributed partly to a faulty AIM client, but it's still something to keep in mind.

Overall, Bonnie fully recommends the phone to Sprint customers, including Jeff, who's been calling her at home to get insider's secrets since the phone was first announced. In the end, Jeff finally decides to at least go check it out on opening day, Saturday, but with no guarantees that he'll buy. No matter what phone he gets, we'll still have a great time with a live smashing of his old HTC Mogul on next week's show, so make sure to look out for that as well. Leave a comment below, though, and let us know what you think about the Palm Pre. Are you going to buy it? Is it worth the money to upgrade? Do you hate the phrase "iPhone killer" as much as the Bonch? Let's hear it.

... Read more

Robots that can self-replicate aren't new. But a new DARPA initiative is a little more frightening as it looks to create robots that can take part in their own construction, according to The Register. That means they're "alive" before they're finished and can help their forebearers put them together.

I built myself!

(Credit: IMDB)

As if I'm not scared to death enough of robots, it means the robot armies of the future might be able to build themselves faster.

Now, I'm all for science, but DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is a military entity. That means these robots will probably have military uses. That means they'll probably be born to kill. And they'll come for me after Sarah Conner.

The initiative is known as the Self-Explanation Learning Framework, or SELF for short. It's currently in request-for-proposals mode, so don't go stocking up on the canned food yet. But if someone somehow figures out a realistic way for future AIs to function like this, then it might be time.

The science isn't quite there yet, so DARPA is holding an orientation day (PDF) for would-be mad scientists on June 10 at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Va. When future freedom fighters get asked where the end of the world started, now they've got an answer.

(Credit: Bigfoot)

Not to brag, but I have a great gaming rig--a super fast CPU and GPU, and a big 30-inch LCD. I even have a customized mouse and keyboard. I often buy the collector's editions of games. I'm serious, and yet, more often that not, I get my behind handed to me in WoW PvP and any games that require me to kill my opponent.

Finally, I found out the reason: my computer doesn't have a Killer Xeno network card.

On Monday, Bigfoot Networks, a company that I recently heard of that makes special network cards for gamers, launched its upgraded voice-chat-enabled network interface card for online gamers, called Killer Xeno Ultra.

Basically, this is a gigabit network card that comes with many added functions designed especially for online game playing, including a feature called Killer Xeno voice-chat acceleration technology.

The technology addresses the feature most requested by gamers, a "hiccup-free" voice experience for online games. The Killer Xeno network card provides this.

(Credit: Gamespot)

Mark Licea AKA MTI fills in for Justin Yu's diminutive shoes on this beautiful snow day, who's out with a genital warps outbreak. (Mwuahaha... Wilson would like to thank Justin for giving him the power to write the blog post/show description.) Mark gives us his one word review of Street Fighter IV for the PlayStation 3: "Yeah". Also, Jeff can't wait to catch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li, which seriously got a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The only reason why Wilson wants to see it is because Kristin Kreuk is in it. (Volume off, of course).

We find out today that Judd Apatow will be taking over the production of Ghostbusters 3, the long awaited sequel. We're just worried that Seth Rogen will be in it smoking a doobie the whole time, while the original Ghostbusters try to break out of a nursing home instead of a mental hospital. Plus, we don't think that New York City can take any more monsters, even if it is Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Some one please let J.J. Abrams know that because apparently he has an idea for the next Cloverfield movie. This time with more vomit-inducing camera shake. Finally, Nokia phones can take a beating but don't survive the fryer.

Tonight might also be the end of the world. A small asteroid will swing by our planet tonight, barely scrapping by at 40,000 miles from the earth's center. To keep that in perspective, the diameter of the planet is only 7926.28 miles. Who knows you might be able to catch the streak of light tonight? But we know one person who won't be sad today: James Mincey. He's a California DJ, who won "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for the Xbox 360. We'll be sending that his way soon. We've got more giveaways coming up, so please send in your calls and e-mails and keep on listening to the most irrelevant podcast on the Internet. Tomorrow, we've got Dr. Michael Breus on the show to explain to us how to stop our wet dreams.

Hey, Kindle 2! Apparently you have some legitimate competition calling itself the "kindle killer."

OK, enough with the cuteness. So far I've yet to be personally interested in the Kindle 2. That most likely has to do with the price of the unit. I just don't have the time to read enough books to make $360 for an e-reader worth it.

(Credit: CBC News)

Indigo's Shortcovers caught my eye, though. PCWorld is reporting that the service is set to launch later in February as an app for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android OS.

Shortcovers lets you read the first chapter of any book free of charge. It then gives you the option to either buy a chapter at a time, or purchase the whole book. Single chapters are expected to cost around 99 cents each, with full books averaging between $10 and $20. You'll also have the option to have the book shipped to you physically if you prefer.

Shortcovers is owned and operated by Indigo Books & Music, supposedly the largest book retailer in Canada.

While there are e-readers for the iPhone like Stanza and services like Bookworm already available, Shortcovers will be leveraging its close ties to the publishing industry to differentiate this service.

At launch, Shortcovers expects to have about 50,000 full books available, with another 200,000 individual chapters and excerpts in its library. According to PCWorld only a third of the titles will be public domain or copyright-expired works. The rest will be current commercial offerings.

Shortcovers plans to offer news and magazine articles, short stories, and blog posts in addition to the book content.

Check back soon for an update as we should have a beta version of the software in our hands before long.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I get my music from several places. Over time I've ripped most of the CDs in my collection and have also bought songs on iTunes. Though file sharing is tempting--and fairly popular judging by our Most Popular list--I've only used those applications a couple of times over the years for long lost remixes. I guess I try to stay legal out of respect for the musicians, but this article isn't about the legality of file sharing.

The problem is, when you get your music from a lot of different sources, you end up with strangely tagged tracks and artist information which completely messes up your library. Particularly if you have a large music collection, you'll find duplicates of songs you forgot you had, partial downloads of songs, and songs you had forgotten you even added to your library because they were tagged in such a way they show up at the bottom of your list.

One way to remedy this problem is to go through and switch each of the tags yourself. iTunes lets you switch each tag manually, but you have to go through each song one by one to change the information. Fortunately there's a group of programs which let you batch tag and convert multiple songs so your audio files stay organized. Though it takes some work, when you're finished you'll be able to find everything easily and sort by genre, name, artist, and year, knowing all your songs will show up that fit the criteria selected.

There are free and paid versions of this type of music tagging software, and in this Killer Download I've included a little of both. As always, if you have a better alternative, let us know in the comments.

A tabbed interface makes it easy to get the tagging functions you want.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

My Mp3's has a misused apostrophe in its title, but as a free MP3 tagging editor is pretty useful. You'll be able to grab huge chunks of your library and switch all the tag types at once to lighten your load. It offers handy tools to standardize your tagging method and it lets you copy your chosen tagging method to other groups of songs to save time. The included track player was a little buggy during my testing, but most of the features are well designed and work fine.

Exhaustive tagging options in this application make it perfect for the detail-oriented audiophile.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Mp3Tag is a shareware tagging editor ($24.95) which offers a few more features than My Mp3's. Mp3Tag lets you batch tag several audio file formats by filling in the appropriate fields, and offers a few other cool features in its multiwindow interface. Those who like to sing along will appreciate the capability to search the Web for song lyrics to attach to the file. You can also use Mp3Tag to download album art from the Web so all your music will have that nifty picture when it loads up. The included player on this application worked fine in my testing and I liked the amount of info you can edit for each song with My Mp3's.

A skinnable interface and extensive tagging options make this full-featured jukebox a hit.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

MediaMonkey Standard is probably our most popular application in this category and for good reason. MediaMonkey can be used as your main jukebox application, complete with custom playlists, album art, an excellent included player, and CD ripping and burning. The tagging system is excellent as well, with the ability to ping Amazon for album art and tagging conventions with the click of a button. A left navigation window lets you sort by any tags you've assigned which makes playlists from a specific era or genre a snap. After your songs are properly tagged, you can drag and drop conventions to other artists to get your preferred layout. It even supports syncing with your iPod. A gold version of MediaMonkey ($19.95) adds options to automatically tag new music as you add it, autofile conversion, autoplaylists, and more.

If you have a big library of music which is getting out of control, try standardizing your tags with one of these programs. Once your music is fully organized you'll be happy with how easy it is to find your favorite songs. For more on MP3 tagging, check out this post by our very own Seth Rosenblatt.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Just about every computer available these days comes with a CD/DVD burner as part of the package. Whether your primary use for this drive is to make mix CDs for the car, backup data, or burn DVD backups for your movies, you need a good program with the right type of features for the job. Though Windows offers some burning features, you're not going to get the options you'll find in a stand alone app.

There are many paid CD and DVD burning apps to choose from and some of the most popular in this category--like Nero and Alcohol 120%--are probably recognizable by most Download.com users. The only prohibitive trait about these apps (besides cost) is usually they take up too many system resources and offer superfluous features that you may not need for simple burning. I happen to like these apps and some of the extra features are quite useful, but what if you just want something quick and dirty for burning on the cheap?

I did a little research and picked out some top free CD/DVD burning apps that you can download and use for free if you need to get started right away.

The four-paned interface makes moving your media around a snap.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

CDBurnerXP is a quick and easy solution for burning audio CDs, creating data disks, and has extra features for ripping your audio CDs and finding track info on the Web. A four-paned interface makes it easy to find and then drag-and-drop files to your chosen media and an included audio player helps you make sure you get the tracks you want. A handy dropbox window lets you browse your files using Windows Explorer and quickly drag-and-drop files to your burn list on the fly. Judging from the user reviews, some users had trouble with CDBurnerXP when burning data DVDs, but I was able to use this function without problems. The developer site offers a list of compatible drives if you have any issues.

Sometimes an easy way to burn media is all the feature set you need.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

JetBee is another free app for burning CDs, DVDs, BlueRay, and HD-DVDs and offers the option to include these burning commands to your right-click contextual menus in Windows. The two-paned interface is simpler than CDBurnerXP, but good enough for most simple burning projects. This is probably the most bare-bones of the bunch as far as extra features, but if you want a quick-burning program to make backups or audio CDs for free, JetBee does the job nicely. As someone who burns primarily audio CDs, I was a little annoyed I had to drill all the way down from the top level for music files, but this might not be a problem for other users.

The launch page takes all the guess work out of your burning project.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

BurnAware Free Edition is probably the prettiest in the interface department for this collection and offers a step-by-step procedure for your burning projects. A launch window lets you choose the type of project you want and leads you through the process to completion. Navigating your directories is easy with BurnAware's file management system and adding files is as simple as highlighting them and hitting a button. Though you don't have the option of a floating window like CDBurnerXP, BurnAware offers enough features for most burning projects.

Sometimes you just need a simple program for your burning needs and don't need all the extra features of a paid app. For a quick and easy free solution, try one of the apps above. As always, if you have a favorite that is not listed here, let me know in the comments!

(Credit: Nimble Critters)

It's a curse of life in the 'burbs: Every year you swear your holiday lights will outshine the rest of the neighborhood, and every year the Joneses humiliate you with something new. No more.

We guarantee that they won't find anything like the "ETree" at Wal-Mart, K-mart, or any other mart in the United States. This bizarre floor lamp, created by designers of U.K.-based Nimble Critters, features 10 branches that can be contorted into whatever shape you wish, according to Technabob.

You'll pay a hefty price for originality, however, as a lamp like the one shown here costs more than $2,000, while a smaller version goes for around $745. But it's a two-fer: Not only will you ace the competition, but you may scare them off for good because they'll think your house has been commandeered by alien cephalopods.

Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy said he was misquoted in a South Korean newspaper earlier this week as saying Sun and cell phone maker Samsung Electronics are working on an iPhone-killer.

McNealy, who stopped in New York Thursday on his way back from South Korea to deliver a speech at the World Business Forum, said that the newspaper must have misunderstood a translation of what he had said.

Scott McNealy

"I never said that," he said. "I'm not really sure where they got that. I think it was a translation problem."

When pressed further during an interview with CNET News.com, McNealy remained tight-lipped on any news.

"We haven't announced anything," he said.

Indeed, the company has not announced any official partnership with Samsung, but a representative for the phone maker told the Associated Press after the misinterpreted quote circulated yesterday that the companies are working together.

It makes sense that Sun would be working with Samsung. And it wouldn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to figure out what they could be working on.

Sun, which already provides a stripped-down version of Java for billions of cell phones sold around the world, announced in May a more robust version of its Java software called JavaFX Mobile. It's geared toward small devices like smartphones that have more processing power than the average cell phone. Unlike the Java Micro Edition, which today runs on billions of cell phones around the globe, the JavaFX Mobile software is most similar to the Java Standard Edition (SE) software that runs on standard PCs.

With this more powerful software, Samsung and its partners could develop applications for cell phones that more closely resemble those running on PCs. This means Web surfing and interactive cell phone games would look more like what people are used to on their PCs.

Apple has already attempted to do this with its iPhone, which allows people to shrink and magnify Web pages so that the pages render on the screen just as they do on a regular computer.

Even though McNealy denies he said Sun and Samsung are working on an iPhone-killer, there is still a very good chance that something is cooking between the two companies. Any plans are likely still in the initial stages of development, so stay tuned.