>> Coming up on the CNET Tech Review the DirecTV TiVo is coming,
Flip is doing the slide, and how to get Hulu outside the U.S. Stick around.
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>> Hey everyone I'm Molly Wood and welcome to the CNET Tech Review, the show where we round up all the cool news, gadgets and How To videos you do not want to miss and we even wrap it up nice and neat into the good, the bad and the bottom line so let's get started with some good news. Good news for fans of the DirecTV TiVo sort of. I sat down with TiVo's CEO last week and I asked him when in the heck the DirecTV box is coming; and I sort of got an answer.
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>> We asked our users what they wanted to talk about and what they wanted to hear from you and there was really I would say one resounding issue. About that DirecTV TiVo what can you tell me?
>> CEO: Are people going to stay with this or are you going to fast forward all the way through you think?
>> Molly: We might have to ask you again at the end because I'm not allowed to leave here without an answer.
>> CEO Tom Rogers: Well DirecTV is an important client for us who we're working in part with to come up with something by the latter part of this year and we are very excited to be back in business with DirecTV which has been a major part of TiVo's history in the past, and a player that we have had a major break with and then have patched things up and are back together in business so we're excited to get things going. They have a new CEO who we think is just terrific particularly because he's so consumer marketing oriented and we think we're all about being able to connect more with the consumer and make the television experience better and friendlier; so for a lot of reasons we're excited about that but the timeframe continues to look like the latter part of this year.
>> Molly: So can you give us any specifics about what it might look like? Until now it's been older versions of the software, the TiVo premier experience you said would not necessarily be available. Do you know if it will potentially be a new box for those consumers?
>> CEO Tom Rogers: Well it will certainly be a new box. I'm not going to discuss the specific features of the look and field now but the main thing it's intended to accomplish is to give people the look and feel of TiVo with all the functionality and channel capability of DirecTV and being able to marry those in an experience that today isn't available to the DirecTV subscribers. So everybody should stay tuned and more to come.
>> Molly: In other good gadget news Flip has a new version of its super popular compact camcorder and it has a slider--cute.
>> I'm David Carnoy and I'm here with the new Flip Video SlideHD pocket camcorder. If you look at this model form the front it actually looks a lot like some of Flip's other HD models, the Ultra HD and even the Meadow HD. It's got a white and silver two-tone design but the key difference here is that this has an integrated 3-inch LCD; it's actually a touch screen LCD that slides up. It allows you to set this thing down on a desk and watch your videos. From the side at least it looks actually a little bit thicker than the Ultra HD but it is the same size that two-tone coloring creates a little bit of an optical illusion. The Meadow HD however is more compact than this model so if you are looking for the most compact Flip HD model it's still the Meadow HD. The screen on the back as we said is a touch screen LCD. It isn't quite as responsive as something like the iPhone or the iPod Touch. We had no problem navigating the device and also playing back our videos. Previously on other Flip models you had that red button on the back for recording. Now it is a virtual button. As for connectivity you get the trademark flip out USB connector at the top of the device; there's also a headphone jack on the bottom and an HDMI cable you need to connect this to your TV. However Flip does not include the HDMI cable you need to connect this to your TV. One of the other key differences about this model is that it comes with more memory than previous models. This comes with 16 gigabytes of internal memory. There's no external slot for adding more memory. Some pocket camcorders out there do shoot 1080P but this only goes up to 720P. For pocket camcorder the SlideHD does shoot a sharp fairly impressive video. This is not a true HD camera with optical zoom but it does shoot a sharp video and is very convenient to use like other Flip models. Actually what Flip has also done for this model is integrate its Flip channels on to it so you can take video that other people share with you and store it on this device. That video is compressed; you can actually store more video on the device, up to 16 hours of that video. I'm David Carnoy and that's the Flip Video SlideHD.
>> Molly: Interesting little thing. All right it's time for a quick break everyone and when I come back some help for those of you stuck in a bad spot. And by a bad spot I mean not America.
>> Hey guys Brian Tong here and if you're looking to see the top dogs in Tech face off then you need to watch CNET's prize fight. We'll throw touch screen phones in the ring, reignite the console wars, battle web browsers and more so you can find it all at CNET.com slash prizefight and I'll see you there.
>> Welcome back everyone and here we go with the bad. It's bad that you can't watch Hulu anywhere but in America. I mean it's television on the Internet and the Internet is everywhere right? Well help is here. Our own Tom Merritt has a tip on how to use proxies to watch all that forbidden candy.
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>> Tom Merritt: Hulu is a great service unless you don't live in the United States in which case it's blocked. BBC's iPlayer also rocks unless you don't live in the UK in which case it's probably blocked too. Using something called a proxy can get you around these blocks and give you access to the video services you want. Proxies take all your Internet requests and relay them from their location so you appear to be in that location. For instance, a proxy address for a London server would make it look as if your computer here in the U.S. was actually in London and the BBC iPlayer wouldn't block you. Thanks to Lifehacker for posting hinge hog [ assumed spelling] steps for using proxies in Firefox. Here's how you do it. Go to Tools and select Add Ons; click get add ons, search for foxyproxy and choose Firefox basic. Then click to add to Firefox and press install, restart Firefox and you should see the add ons window again and if not, go select it again from tools; select foxyproxy and click preferences. Click add new proxy, under the general tab enter a name for your proxy, whatever you want, and in the proxy details tab select manual proxy configuration and then enter the IP address of the proxy you're using. Now how do you find one of those? You'll need to search online and find a reputable and reliable proxy. They change from country to country; they can even change over time. Once you've got that select automatic proxy configuration and enter the URL of the website you want to use the proxy for. Otherwise you will end up using the proxy for everything and that could cause other problems. Now press OK, go to the mode dropdown menu, select the proxy you just created and press Close. Now visit the website you were blocked from before and see if it works. Proxies come and go and some that start reliable may degrade over time as more people discover them. Be sure you trust the proxy you're using. Malicious proxies can spread malware. Also remember that the sites that are trying to block you may not view your actions kindly otherwise they wouldn't have been trying to block you in the first place. But if you're a citizen traveling abroad and you've paid your license fees or cable bill, here's one way to seek content you're missing while you're away. That's it for now. I'm Tom Merritt, CNET.com.
>> Molly: Moving on I would say that typing on the iPad is bad, it's actually really good but some of the things you use every day like caps lock are let's say not obvious. So here's Donald Bell to show us how to make the keyboard do all the stuff a regular keyboard would do.
>> Hey I'm Donald Bell for CNET.com and today I'm going to show you a few tricks for finding hidden features on the iPad's touch screen keyboard.
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>> Donald: The iPad's built in keyboard is one of the best we've used on a touch screen device but seemingly doesn't offer all the extra characters you'd have access to on a traditional computer. But with a few tips and tweaks, you can really push this keyboard to its limits. First up check out the general settings menu and select the keyboard option. Here's where you can find access to the iPad's international keyboards and selectively enable features such as auto correction, auto capitalization, caps lock and a shortcut that inserts a period anytime you press the spacebar twice. For the real hidden gems, press and hold any of the vowel letters on the keyboard you'll see options for all kinds of special characters. If you could go over to the numbers and single's keyboard, you'll find that many of the symbols also have press and hold options. In Safari, you'll also find that the dot com bottom can be used to enter dot net, dot org and dot edu at the end of the URL. So there you go--some tips on using the iPad's keyboard. For cnet.com I'm Donald Bell.
>> Molly: And look just like that a limited keyboard becomes actually really awesome. And speaking of awesome it's time for the bottom line.
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>> Today's question, what do you do with an $80,000 Nissan?
>> Brian Cooley: As flagships this is a flagship. Fully twice as expensive and at least twice as audacious as anything else Nissan makes. Let's light the fuse on the 2010 GTR and check the tech.
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>> It's almost as possible to see this car for all the hype that surrounds it. It's too expensive for most of the boys who left for it and too juvenile looking for the grownups who can afford it. But for this kind of performance it's a steal and they sell all they can make. Now the inside of a GTR is kind of a retro Japanese work of art. Taking cues from both modern technology, the heyday of 35mm SLR cameras and the days of quadraphonic stereo receivers, all those cues are in here in terms of shapes, finishes and the way things just have a certain vintage look but not too old. What is too old is this damn head unit. That's an insult to buy an $80,000 Nissan and get a head unit from a two year old Marano [assumed spelling]; horrible resolution, crappy looking thing, almost impossible to read some street names they're so poorly rendered. That said, the system is hard drive based so at least the underpinnings are more modern. It means things move along pretty quickly as you press the onscreen buttons. It is a touch screen as you can see what is that 7-inch LCD? You've also got voice command but for navigation functions only; not for the media, HVHC or anything else. But the real crowd pleaser going on in this head unit and there's no other car that has anything like this is under the function button right there. That brings you the wacky multifunction display. Here's what you've got if you turn this knob and again you're not going to find this really anywhere else. You've got four custom views of virtual gauges and the lettered ones are preset panels for acceleration, braking, steering, gear position, fuel economy--yeah right, stopwatch for your track day and driver's notes. Is it overkill? Absolutely. It is cool? Absolutely. This was developed by the way between the folks at Clarion who make this head unit, tsk, tsk, on your crappy graphics, and Sony's polyphonic digital games development unit so if it looks like a game that's where it came from. The last bit of irrelevance in the cabin I want to talk about is of course the entertainment system. You've got AM, FM--check; XM radio--check; A2DP streaming blue tooth--nope; USB--no; compact flash--check; iPod--sort of kind of; that's a dealer-installed option only with a car with a six disk changer but we have a single slot CD that also does MP3. And as I mentioned there's a hard drive in there for the NAV system. You also have access to that hard drive which they call a music box to put music on. On the output side it is a Bose-branded system; big old plate down here tells you that, 11 speakers around the cabin, two of those are subwoofers, yeah, like I didn't notice. They're both staring at me like a couple of short-barreled canons behind you. Beyond that it's not a surround system with any fancy GSP it's just a Bose stereo; and frankly if you tore out the NAV and the audio system out of this car with a crowbar and threw them on the side of the road, you wouldn't reduce its real meaning on this earth by one bit and that is to go fast. One of the things that starts to make you crazy about this car are things like this--the keyless entry deal. In a car like this really? So you've got this brawny track machine with keyless entry with dual zone HVAC with air conditioning of course, power racing seats. I mean the oxymoronic stuff just falls on you from every direction. Okay when you buy an $80,000 Nissan, a big part of what you're paying for lives up here--3.8 liter twin turbo V6, 485 horsepower, 434 foot pounds of torque--cuckoo stuff. Great stuff. And yet 16.21 mpg as if you care and even the emissions number's already egregious; well the greenhouse gases are kind of filthy but we'll leave that aside for this kind of car. Zero to 60 in the hands of most testers who access to a track is in the mid 3's. This car is a barn burner. Also under the hood you can see a lot of the other reasons that this car gets up out of the way so well. For example, this radiator cross support up here is carbon fiber; they remind you of that very loudly. Your shock towers are cast aluminum, not some stamp sheet metal that does this in a corner. Let's go prove that.
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>> Power is delivered through a six speed, dual clutch automated manual that lives in the back of the car with the differential and all-wheel drive transfer case integrated. Paddle shifters where they should be--on the steering column not lying around on the wheel. Engage all the R-mode buttons for the maximum thrill ride in terms of suspension aggression, power delivery and slip control or a lack thereof. Makes a punishing ride even more so but at this point you're already condemned. The handling of a GTR is remarkably light. No too light but it's not a heavy driving car by any stretch. The stiffness is absolutely present from all those components I showed you and also goes a little too far that direction because this thing rides like a truck. No, that's insulting to trucks. Okay let's price the most iconic of all these hogs. A GTR is 84 grand, out the door with destination charge. By the way no gas guzzler charge on this guy because of that 16.21 mpg, very few super cars can escape that tax. Options--very few. This super silver paint job which is 8 stages and hand rubbed at the factory that's $3,000, looks good but I'm not sure if it looks that good. And the tach option and there's really only one is that mythical iPod adapter. Whether it can be installed or not remains a question mark to me but only your dealer can tell you; they install it. Beyond that a GTR is what it is--that is, fast.
>> Molly: Ah yes the bottom line this week--what he said--fast. And that's our show for this week. Everyone as always you can find all of our great CNET videos at CNETTV.com. I will see you next time and thank you for watching.
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