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PBS KIDS Video for iPad.

When the PBS for iPad app debuted last year, I bemoaned the lack of any PBS KIDS content (other than previews).

Well, I will bemoan no more: PBS Kids Video for iPad is a brand new app that streams–you guessed it–video for kids. Specifically, it serves up over 1,000 clips from shows like “Arthur,” “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That,” and my personal favorite, “Word Girl.”

Yes, unfortunately, I did say clips. The app doesn’t offer full-length episodes, but rather a whole mess of snippets–most of which run 1-2 minutes. There are a few lengthier segments mixed in, usually running 11-12 minutes, but the majority are shorts.

I’ll admit I find that disappointing, but I doubt kids will. Instead, they’ll likely go ape for the app, which is a breeze to use and admirably kid-friendly in its design.

Indeed, when you first start PBS Kids Video, it immediately begins playing a video. A scrolling picture-bar on the right lets kids choose a show just by tapping the image from, say, “Arthur” or “The Cat in the Hat.” And swiping the Browse tool pulls out a list of available clips for that show.

Parents can pull out an info bar that lists TV times, show info, and an option to buy the full episode in iTunes. I tested the app over a Wi-Fi network (it also supports 3G), and the videos consistently started quickly and played smoothly.

In short, PBS Kids Video rocks. No doubt it would be better with full episodes, but it’s still a must-have app for parents of younger kids.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

Windows 7 is four to five times less vulnerable to malware infections than is Windows XP.

Those are the findings of Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report (PDF), which detailed in depth the state of software vulnerabilities, exploits, security breaches, and malware in 2010.

Overall, the study found that infection rates for newer Microsoft operating systems with the latest service packs are consistently lower than those for older OSes, giving Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 the highest marks for security.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

Looking at the number of reported infections per 1,000 computers, Microsoft found that Windows 7 64-bit had the lowest number at 2.5, while the 32-bit version had 3.8.

Windows XP with SP3 came in with 15.9 infections per 1,000, while XP with SP2 had the highest number at 19.3. Breaking down the numbers, Microsoft’s stats mean that Windows 7 is around four to five times more secure than XP.

Windows Vista’s infection rate was considerably lower than that for XP but still turned out to be double that for Windows 7.

Drilling down further, the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista are less infection-prone than are their 32-bit counterparts, which Microsoft attributes to a couple of factors.

First, the 64-bit versions of both systems may appeal to more tech-savvy users, presumably ones that would better know how to secure their computers. But second, Windows 64-bit offers a feature called Kernel Patch Protection, which protects the Windows kernel from unauthorized changes.

Analyzing server-based operating systems, Windows Server 2003, which offers both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, had 5.8 infections per 1,000. Windows Server 2008 R2, which comes only in a 64-bit flavor, had 3.6 infections.

Security holes in applications versus those in operating systems or Web browsers accounted for most of the vulnerabilities last year, according to Microsoft. However, the total number of holes found in applications fell 22.2 percent from 2009. But exploits that take advantage of Java vulnerabilities rose dramatically in last year’s third quarter, surpassing every other category, the report noted.

Originally posted at News – Security

You may have heard that this past week was Google’s annual Google I/O developer event. Often a site for big, potentially game-changing announcements, the conference this year was no exception.

Day 1 gave us news on two major fronts. First, Google indeed launched its cloud music service in the form of both an Android app and a beta Web site. Second, the home-appliance-invading future of the Android platform, was revealed.

Day 2 brought us the first Chromebooks. These lean machines are based on Google’s Chrome OS and provide an always-on and always-connected computing experience. Look for them in June. And perhaps just as exciting, was the announcement of the popular Angry Birds game invading our desktops via the Chrome browser. Keep an eye on your companies’ productivity levels.

In other news, BitTorrent launched a next-generation torrent client to public beta, bringing a unified content discovery and sharing solution to its users. And for our mobile users, be sure to check out our take on the top photography apps for iPhone, as well as the long-awaited Netflix app for Android.

For the past couple of years, I have been writing the iPhone apps of the week in this space. But we’ve decided that instead of the same old app rundown, we’re going to do something a little different. Starting this week, we’re going to be putting together three apps that fulfill a specific theme. We’re going to try to introduce one or two new apps and put them alongside older classics in the category. This way, you will be able to compare new apps with older ones, and also, find out about apps in the category that you may not have seen before.

This week’s apps revolve around your iPhone’s camera capabilities. The first one is a popular app for snapping old-school photos, the second lets you take photos that make objects appear miniature, and the third is a newer app for chronicling gradual changes in your appearance.

Take arty outdoor shots or really anything with this full-featured retro photography app.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Hipstamatic ($1.99) is an extremely popular app that turns your iPhone’s digital camera into an old-school single-shot camera of the past to give your images that grainy, washed-out (in a good way) retro look. The interface is a bit confusing at first, but you’ll soon figure out how to switch among different types of retro film, different types of lenses, and even effects for different types of flashes. You can switch between each of the different variables with a swipe of your finger, with dramatically different results depending on the combination you choose before taking your snapshot.

We’ve reviewed image-enhancing apps here before, but Hipstamatic is the first that gives you control over which lens, film, and flash type you’re using for each shot. When you’re done taking the picture, the app lets you view your images side-by-side to see how each effect changes the result. Like many apps these days, Hipstamatic offers more lenses, film types, and flashes you can purchase from within the app, so if you like what you see in this download, there’s plenty more to play with. Overall, if you want that retro look or just like to play with your images, Hipstamatic is a great choice.

Even a regular photo will suddenly look like a miniature toy village.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

TiltShift Generator (99 cents) images combine blur and other depth-of-field effects to make objects in your photos seem miniature (here’s a quick Google image search to give you an idea what we’re talking about). To get the miniature effect, you’ll ideally take photos from some distance, but even close-up shots can be put through TiltShift Generator with good-looking results.

TiltShift Generator does a great job of taking you through the process of creating tilt-shift images. The app automatically adds the tilt-shift effect, but you can also go through the process yourself. You start either by taking a photo with your iPhone camera or choosing an existing image from your library. From there you can adjust the blurred effect; change color saturation, brightness, and contrast with sliders; and then adjust vignetting (corner shadowing). What results is a unique image that’s very impressive, even if you have little knowledge of photography.

Overall, TiltShift Generator is an easy-to-use app that produces great-looking images with little work. If you enjoy looking at tilt-shift images and want to try making some of your own, this app is a great option.

Once you get into the habit of taking a photo every day, you'll begin to see the gradual changes.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Everyday ($1.99) is an app designed to make it easy to snap a photo every day to chronicle how your look changes over time. Made popular by various bloggers and other photography types, the concept is you snap a picture of yourself everyday, then after a significant amount of time (6 months? One year?), you can show a movie of gradual changes to your appearance.

With the Everyday app, most of the work is done for you. You can set up reminders so that you get a push notification to take today’s picture. After you take your first picture the app helps you set up alignment indicators so you know you’ll always have your daily shot lined up perfectly. After taking a shot a day for a significant amount of time, small appearance changes (like facial hair or hair length) are cool to look at as each day goes by in the movie. You also have the ability to set the movie speed so, for example, you could show a longer stretch of time using a faster frame rate so the movie doesn’t go on too long.

Overall, Everyday is an app with just one purpose–taking a daily shot to make an interesting photo/movie project. But with the addition of reminders, onscreen alignment indicators, and other helpful tools, the app makes it really easy to take one shot a day to make a neat project that will pay off later.

Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO–Google expects Chrome OS to be a success. But it’s chosen its terms for success very carefully.

Google shares with many of its rivals a natural, reasonable ambition to measure success by market penetration. This week at the Google I/O conference here, the company was quick to tout that there have been 100 million activations of Android devices, that 310 different Android devices have gone on sale so far, and that Android users have downloaded 4.5 billion apps to date.

Though data-obsessed Google doubtless will count how many Chromebooks are sold, that isn’t the measurement at the top of the priority list, Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, said in an interview.

“Our goal, our main criterion, is [that] I want really high user satisfaction amongst consumers, businesses, and schools, independent of our quantity. I want people who pick up and buy one to be very happy with their purchase,” Pichai said.

Recognizing that a Chrome OS laptop isn’t for everybody, though, the company is restricting sales to online channels only, where the people most likely to buy a Chromebook are those who are actively looking for it.

“Part of the reason it’s not in physical retail is our goal is not to push a lot of these,” Pichai said. “We want people to know what they’re buying. Online gives a check. In the physical world you might accidentally walk out with a Chromebook. I don’t want that to happen.”

The strategy makes sense, given that Chrome OS is such a departure from existing computing technology. Apple is the company that likes to talk about the “post-PC era,” but iPads and iPhones are, architecturally speaking, very similar to PCs. A touch-screen interface brings a direct physical mode of interaction, but fundamentally it’s still an operating system running software on its processor and storing data on its storage system.

Chrome OS, on the other hand, is inextricably linked to the Internet. Although a traditional operating system–an embedded version of Linux–is under the covers, the applications on the system run within its Chrome browser. They’re Web applications, using Web languages like JavaScript and Web interfaces like AppCache to store data, and WebGL to show hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. Though properly written applications will be able to run while a Chrome OS laptop is disconnected from the network, cloud computing is mandatory.

That’s probably fine for a lot of people. You can look up a recipe, check in with your Facebook friends, answer your e-mail, enter customer information into a Web form, order something from Amazon, watch YouTube videos, and plan a budget in a Google Docs spreadsheet.

Related links

• Google announces Chromebooks (video)

• Google tries to remake the laptop

• Chromebook, Netbook, iPad: Which would you rather spend $500 on?

• First Take: Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, the future of Netbooks? (hands-on video)

• Google to rebuild Chrome on secure foundation

• Google’s choice: Chrome OS or Android?

One big problem, though, is what you can’t do: run Microsoft Office, play Portal 2, make a photo book in iPhoto. Or, perhaps more to the point for people considering a supplement to the PC they probably already have in their homes, play the wealth of games on an iPad.

But Google plans to start small and grow. Pichai thinks Chrome OS will appeal to a lot of people, but evidently recognizing that it will take a lot of time to win over most folks, the company is aiming initial products at the enthusiasts who are predisposed to like it. From that seed, Google expects a tree to grow.

“You build a great experience, and you continually improve it. A few people get on board. As long as you delight them, they serve as messengers. Then somebody else hears about it, it breaks out, you market it,” Pichai said. “You have to earn it step by step.”

It’s a strategy that worked well for Android and Chrome. Android launched with a single phone, on a single carrier, in a single market. Chrome launched in beta on Windows only, missing many features. Both grew, and Google improved them steadily.

“What’s important is the pace at which you make progress. This is why we decided to shorten the [Chrome] release cycle to six weeks,” he said.

It’s not clear, though, how universally the strategy works. Apple’s first iPhone began from modest beginnings–it had no support for 3G networks and no ability to run third-party applications, for starts–and grew into a tremendous success. Gmail, too, began with a small group of enthusiastic early adopters.

But sometimes an early kernel of fans isn’t enough, even with Google’s fast-iteration ethos. Google Buzz failed to catch on widely, and Google Wave was largely scrapped.

And, while Pichai asserts that the Cr-48, Google’s developer-oriented Chrome OS notebook prototype, was well received, it left reviewers underwhelmed when it initially arrived.

Pichai blamed expectations that were too high for a system Google said was not done, but that people judged as a finished product nonetheless. “We knew things were broken there. People got very upset about trackpads. Perhaps people weren’t ready for beta hardware,” Pichai said.

A large part of the Chrome OS sales pitch is that, unlike people’s PC experience, a Chromebook will get better with time as Google constantly upgrades the operating system–silently, in the background, with no user intervention. Even those initially weak trackpads in the Cr-48 got better with new software, he said.

“If tomorrow Brian makes WebGL great, suddenly Angry Birds works faster. Say you had a Cr-48 for six months. You just open your computer, and things just work faster,” Pichai said. “We keep updating Chrome. All the GPU benefits working their way though Chrome make Chrome OS faster. We’re going to offload more stuff to the GPU.”

Google has high hopes for another technology called Native Client that, if the company can convince programmers to adopt it, could endow Web applications with the speed of native ones while not compromising security. Importantly, Google plans to build Chrome itself on a Native Client foundation.

Linus Upson, vice president of engineering for the Chrome team, believes Google will start that rebuilding process later this year, beginning with one piece of Chrome, the built-in PDF reader. Pichai was more cautious.

“Linus forgets not everyone codes as fast as he does,” he said. “We have to make sure Native Client proves its way. After that we make sure we get Chrome running inside it.”

But it is on the list, in part because Google is powerfully interested in Chrome security. And Chrome OS comes with a verified boot process, an encrypted file system by default, and plug-ins that run in a restricted sandbox, Pichai points out.

“Down the line, when we talk about Chrome running inside Native Client–a double or triple sandbox–that’s what gets us excited. That’s the kind of project that gets the best engineers in the world,” Pichai said, positively glowing at the prospect.

Google’s fast-changing Chrome can cause heartburn for some Web developers who already must constantly test their sites with an expanding number of browsers. Brian Rakowski, director of product management, said Google tests new versions of the browser to keep incompatibilities from encroaching.

“We’re careful with compatibility issues,” Rakowski said. “The [Chrome] dev channel is good feedback for what’s broken, at least in bigger sites,” and Google adds new tests if it finds a site that stopped working so that incompatibility won’t go unnoticed again.

In any event, Pichai clearly won’t let up on the pace of Chrome change. The mission is to rebuild personal computing with the Internet deeply integrated, not patched on at a higher level.

“The benefits from a security standpoint, getting new APIs out, and just pushing the platform,” outweigh the problems of keeping up with Chrome. “If you don’t do this, I think the Web will fall behind the native platforms pretty quickly.”

Originally posted at Deep Tech

BitTorrent launched its next-generation torrent client in a public beta today, offering people a unique system for not just sharing content via torrents but also for socializing the experience and turning the tool into one with deep content discovery hooks. BitTorrent 8 beta (download) contains one enormous change from the alpha that launched in March: personal content channels, which streamline the torrent creation and sharing process to allow you to share high-quality versions of your homemade videos, audio, and photos with friends.

BitTorrent 8 beta provides new ways to discover legally shared files, including from popular sources like the TED lectures.

(Credit:
BitTorrent)

As announced at CES 2011, the implementation is unique to BitTorrent, and an integral part of its push to emphasize the use of the torrent protocol for legally shared files. BitTorrent currently has more than 100 million active users spread across BitTorrent, uTorrent, and uTorrent for Mac, BitTorrent Chief Strategist Shahi Ghanem said during an interview at BitTorrent’s San Francisco office. He also said the company holds 80 percent of the torrenting market.

The new channels feature benefits from leveraging current file-sharing link-distribution techniques as used in YouSendIt to share both the torrent program and the torrent itself. It also removes the requirement that videos be compressed before being posted to public Web sites, while providing a more controlled environment to share personal files privately. “We’re doing the inverse of cloud storage. It’s cloud storage, but it’s distributed cloud storage,” Ghanem said when explaining how BitTorrent channel users will share files in the channels they subscribe to.

To ensure that a channel retains its health, which is a way of saying that it always has a minimum number of people seeding the files, Ghanem said BitTorrent will guarantee the minimum number of active seeds. Said BitTorrent lead engineer Thomas Ramplelberg, “We expect the content to be fast-distributed and short-lived on our servers.” He also said that while the company had yet to figure out how many seeds would equal the minimum number, the current number was around seven.

How it works
Click the arrow link in the upper-right corner, just below the Options menu, to create a channel. You then customize the channel, including choosing a channel avatar that will appear in the channel bar above the main interface; add files to upload; invite others via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter to the channel; and publicly leave messages for and respond to channel subscribers.

BitTorrent 8 beta also includes a new personal channel feature for sharing personal files among a small network of friends or a large network of colleagues.

(Credit:
BitTorrent)

When you first invite somebody to the channel, the link that gets sent out detects if they have BitTorrent 8. If they don’t, the link downloads the beta and automatically subscribes them to the channel. If they do, it simply adds the channel. The channel acts as a grouping mechanism for the torrents contained within. Each file added gets its own torrent, so that subscribers don’t have to fiddle with choosing files within a torrent.

Files can be added to a channel over time, allowing channel owners to create content themes. The parent of a child on a baseball team, for example, can add new videos throughout the season, and the parents of other children on the team can be invited to download them at their convenience.

Artist-endorsed content

There are also public, legal channels for file distribution under the “Discover Content” button on the left of the interface. BitTorrent divides these two types of files into the aforementioned personal content channels, and artist-endorsed content. The artist endorsed content so far includes the TED conference videos, the Bill Gates-endorsed Khan Academy free education series, Make Magazine, ClearBits-featured media, and the music discovery tool Musicshake.

The punk-pop band Sick of Sarah also has a channel of its own, illustrating that musicians can share high-quality versions of their videos and music. The band’s latest album recently passed the 1 million torrent downloads mark, while recent legal access to the 2008 movie “The Yes Men” got it more torrent downloads on BitTorrent than it had HBO viewers.

Personal channels in BitTorrent 8 beta include commenting and social networking features.

(Credit:
BitTorrent, Inc.)

Ghanem also noted that the beta has basic monetization features built-in via a PayPal link.

Video playback is a major concern not just for browsers, which are a more generalized content delivery tool, but for BitTorrent as well. The cost of licensing codecs for streaming and playback can be steep financially and cause otherwise unnecessary bloat to a program. Ghanem said that BitTorrent has plans for a “global transcoding strategy,” and currently employs both H.264 wrapped in MKV, and MPEG4 ASP wrapped in AVI. However, he noted, “we’ll probably use our own propriety 4CC code,” eventually.

BitTorrent intends the channels to be shared among both private and public social groups, but if the channel link was accidentally posted in public the channel creator could delete the channel without affecting the locally stored files or the files already downloaded by channel subscribers.

The beta is available only in English and only for Windows computers. Also, at least during the beta phase of development, the channels feature in BitTorrent 8 will not impose file size restrictions and is free to use. Ghanem said he was unable to comment on whether the services would continue to be free of restrictions after BitTorrent 8 final was released.

(Credit:
Netflix)

(Credit:
Netflix)

Netflix, the popular movie- and TV-streaming service, has just landed on the Android platform. Already a staple for many iOS and mobile Windows 7 users, the Netflix mobile app now lets Android owners in on the instant-streaming party. It also comes with a full browsing experience, and it enables you to manage your Instant Queue.

The Netflix Android app is now available for free download in the Android market, but only for the following supported phones: HTC’s Incredible, Nexus One, Evo 4G, G2, and Samsung’s Nexus S. While the list does seem a bit thin, Netflix says it’s working hard to roll the app out en masse. Read about the release on the official Netflix blog.

For more details, check out Eric Mack’s post over on CNET’s gadget blog, Crave. Also, stay tuned for a more in-depth look.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Apple has updated its popular iPhoto program to version 9.1.3, which addresses a problem where merged photo events could split back up again after being synced to iOS devices. The update is approximately 106MB and requires OS X 10.6.6 or later to install. It should be available through Software Update for those who have iPhoto already installed, but it can also be downloaded and applied manually from the iPhoto 9.1.3 update Web page.

Be sure to back up your iPhoto libraries before applying this update. If you have Time Machine set up, you can select Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu to ensure that a backup is done, or if you do not then you can copy the iPhoto library to an external drive via the Finder. This update does not require you to restart your computer, so it can be applied without disrupting your workflow.

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Originally posted at MacFixIt