The Googlised HTC M8

The Good The HTC One M8 Google Play Edition pairs HTC's excellent 2014 aluminum superphone -- including its brilliant 5-inch screen and top-notch sound -- with a pure, Nexus-style Android KitKat interface that's free of carrier bloatware.

The Bad No carrier subsidy means you'll be paying full price for this beauty. The M8 lags behind the Galaxy S5 on a few points: it’s got a non-removable battery, no water resistance, and photos that aren’t quite as sharp as you’d like.

The Bottom Line The HTC One M8 Google Play Edition will fulfill the dreams of Android fanatics seeking to pair top-notch hardware with a Nexus-style KitKat experience, so long as they’re willing to pay a premium.

It's an all-too-common refrain: "I love the hardware, but I wish the phone wasn't bogged down with all that carrier bloatware, or redundant apps from the manufacturer." And the new HTC One M8 is a good case in point: While the phone has received mostly enthusiastic reviews -- including Techno Trust's -- there are plenty of users who aren't in love with HTC's "Sense" interface, which customizes and tweaksAndroid with some notable changes.

Well, we have good news: that same excellent hardware is back, now with a "stock"Android KitKat experience. In fact, the HTC One M8 Google Play Edition (which will only be available in the US at launch) actually takes it up a notch: it's the only phone besides the Nexus 5 to ship with Google's fancy Google Now launcher interface. And it's unlocked, too, ready to connect to AT&T and T-Mobile's flavor of 4G LTE in the US.

Of course, you'll pay through the nose for all that goodness, at least up front: $699 off-contract, with no carrier subsidy or payment plan to salve the sting. Pricey, to be sure, but not unreasonable for hardcore Android fans who are willing to pay a premium for one of the best Google-powered phones you can buy today. Anyone who's less of a stickler can safely opt for the default One M8 (or any of the otherexcellent flagship phones on the market).

Editors' note: Because the HTC One M8 Google Play Edition is physically identical to the carrier-branded versions of the handset, much of the this review is based on my prior assessment of that product.

Design

I can't deny that I've been a big fan of HTC phone designs for a while now. I was simply blown away by last year's HTC One (codenamed M7) and its sophisticated all-metal unibody chassis. Not only was it sturdy and comfortable to grip, but thanks to a smoothly curved back and matte finish, its polished edges elevated the handset to an unprecedented level of luxury.

You'll be glad to learn that HTC's latest creation, the One M8 is no outlier. Indeed both the One M8 and One M8 Google Play Edition (which shares an identical external design) match its predecessor's physical charm in practically every way. That means a stunning unibody aluminum chassis, super-thin profile, and gently curved edges. The One M8 GPE also has a rounded back which feels comfortable to hold.

The One M8 Google Play Edition is ludicrously lovely in aluminium.

That said, while the M8 GPE is handsomely crafted and a worthy successor to the One line's classy aluminum looks, it's not flawless. As I pointed out with the standard One M8 handset, HTC's latest Google Play Edition device is more conservatively-styled than the previous One.

For instance the M8 GPE's bezel (where the screen and phone edge meet) is alluringly reflective and convincingly conveys the look of a luxury handset. That said, the bezel is not polished to the same eye-catching sheen as the first One. Keep in mind the One M8 GPE comes in only one color, what HTC calls glacial silver. I have to say I prefer this finish since its matte texture is less slippery than the brushed-metal skin of the standard gunmetal gray M8.

The M8 GPE fits the hand well.

Additionally the M8 GPE sports the same pair of powerful stereo speakers you'll find on the regular One M8. Branded by HTC as BoomSound, these front-firing grilles flank the screen and belt out a ton of sound, at least for a mobile phone. Even better, the M8 is definitely louder and produces sound with way more presence than last year's model. In fact HTC says it enhanced the M8's BoomSound audio system by cranking up the volume by 25 percent and improved its frequency range. Don't just take my word for it. Be sure to check out our deep dive into the HTC One M8's upgraded audio prowess.

Despite the phone's larger display, the device remains roughly the same size, thickness, and weight. Tipping the scales at 5.6 ounces (160 grams) the One GPE weighs slightly heavier than the standard gunmetal grey One M8 (5.4 ounces, 142.9 grams) I got my hands on. This lines up, however, with HTC's and Google's claimed weight for the phone (160 grams). I can only imagine the discrepancy is due to the different materials and treatments of the glacial silver (and perhaps amber gold) version.

The One M8 GPE is just as sleek as the standard One M8.

The M8 understandably stands a little taller yet is just slightly heavier than the 2013 HTC One (5.04 ounces, 142.9 grams). It's heavier than the Galaxy S5 too (5.1 ounces, 145 grams), even though the M8 lacks extra hardware such as a heart rate monitor and fingerprint scanner.

Display

The One M8 GPE uses the same big 5-inch screen as the One M8, and that's mostly a huge positive. While it can't produce the same deep blacks and vibrant colors conjured by the OLED displays you'll find in Samsung Galaxy handsets such as the Note 3 and GS4, the M8's IPS LCD is certainly high-quality. I was treated to admirably wide viewing angles, a pleasing amount of brightness, plus rich colors.

With a full HD resolution (1,920x1,080 pixels), photos, video, and text were also crisp on the phone's screen even if it has a marginally lower pixel density than the original One (4.7 inch, 1,920x1,080 pixels). All this adds up to a display that does justice to any visual content you choose to enjoy on the M8 GPE.

As I noticed on HTC's stock One M8, I ran into trouble viewing the One M8's screen outside with polarized sunglasses. Specifically when using my pair of dark-tinted Ray-Bans, the phone's screen in portrait orientation was dim to the point of being unreadable. Flipping the One M8 GPE into landscape position wasn't a problem and the display was just as bright as usual under these conditions.

The One M8 GPE enjoys tight integration with Google Now.

Software and interface

Instead of HTC's Sense user interface which the company usually layers over its Android devices, the One M8 GPE is special: it's Google all the way. So not only does it run pristine Android 4.4 KitKat, the handset also uses an almost identical software layout as the Nexus 5. Yes, that means you get the Google Now launcher complete with tight ties to the company's advanced search.

Swiping left to right on the home screen activates the Google Now card-style interface, just like how it does on the Nexus 5. Likewise, the phone can also respond to your verbal commands to perform fancy voice recognition tricks such as launching searches, setting reminders and calendar appointments.

The 4K Laptop : Toshiba's 15-inch P55t

Other PC-makers have announced laptops with 4K screens, most notably Lenovo and the IdeaPad Y50 from CES 2014, but Toshiba may be the first to actually hit stores with the new Satellite P55T. This 15.6-inch clamshell features a 3,840x2,160 native resolution, the same found on the current generation of big screen 4K televisions.

That trumps even the highest better-than-HD screens we've seen in laptops over the past year. Those models, from the Retina MacBook Pro to the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro to Toshiba's own Kirabook, have resolutions that range from 2,560x1,440 to 3,200x1,800.

In our brief hands-on time with the new P55T, the screen looked amazing, especially when playing back 4K video content. Toshiba says the panel is certified by Technicolor, the digital product and services company, and a Technicolor app included with the system allows you to switch between warm, cool, Technicolor, and other screen color profiles.

The 15-inch P55t has Toshiba's signature rounded corner touch pad.Sarah Tew/CNET

With an Intel Core i7 CPU and discrete Nvidia graphics, you should be able to edit and play a 4K video stream without a problem; although running really high-end video, such as multiple 4K streams simultaneously, may need some very specialized hardware, like the new Mac Pro desktop.

The laptop body itself was perfectly fine, but failed to stand out, with a generic-looking silver-grey aluminum body and black island-style keyboard. Some design touches feel ported over from the premium Kirabook line, such as the rounded corners of the chassis, and the similar rounded top corners on the large clickpad-style touch pad.

If the Satellite P55T cost a lot, we'd say the design felt especially pedestrian, but it's hard to knock, considering that even with the high-end components and full 4K screen, this system runs a very reasonable $1,499, putting it within reach for serious amateur photo and video enthusiasts.

The Satellite P55T should be available by the end of April 2014. Also new from Toshiba, but coming later on June 22, is a full refresh of the company's consumer laptop lines. Aimed at back-to-school audiences, you'll soon see new versions of the Satellite C series, L series, E series, and S series.

The new Toshiba Satellite C series.Sarah Tew/CNET

The entry-level C series includes the 15-inch and 17-inch C55 and C75, and starts at $329. The budget L series includes the 15-inch L55 and 17-inch L75, and starts at $329. The E series is a Best Buy retail exclusive, and the 14-inch E45 starts at $649. The mainstream S series includes the 15-inch S55 and 17-inch S75, and starts at $698.

The Cool Windows 8.1

The Good Windows Phone 8.1 puts more tiles on your Start screen and finally gives us a notification center. Voice assistant Cortana is fast, helpful, and just a bit witty.

The Bad Cortana is in beta, so you'll encounter a few bugs. The Windows Phone app store has fewer titles than Google Play and the Apple App Store, and what's available isn't as full-featured at the iOS and Android versions.

The Bottom Line Windows Phone 8.1 is the best update yet, thanks to its revamped design and modern features, but it lags behind iOS and Android.

The latest version of Windows Phone, version number 8.1, brings a slew of new features to Microsoft's smartphone operating system. We get home screen wallpapers, an extra column of live tiles, a notification center, and, the star of the show, voice assistant Cortana, which is just like Siri and Google Now.

More than just a handful of upgrades, Windows Phone 8.1 elevates the entire operating system to a higher level, where it can better [aggressively?] compete against iOS and Android. If you're a first-time smartphone buyer, Windows Phone is looking better as one of your choices because it's very user-friendly. That said, it still has a ways to go before it will lure anyone away from iOS and Android, because it still cannot deliver as robust as an app store as its rivals nor can it bring as many features, like customization or file management.

Windows Phone 8.1 will roll out to devices over the next few months. Any Windows Phone currently running version 8 of the operating system will get the update. Brand new devices will launch with it in late April and early May.

From 8 to 8.1

Version 8.1 is the fourth generation of the Windows Phone OS, and it replaces Windows Phone 8. That version was updated in October 2013 with Windows Phone 8 Update 3, which set the stage for many of the features in 8.1 by adding a new row of live tiles to the home screen on larger phones, task-switching, and a hands-free driving mode.

Meet Cortana

The most interesting addition to 8.1 is Cortana. Like Siri, Cortana is a female voice assistant who can help you search the Web using Bing, set reminders, get directions, create new calendar events, call or text your contacts, verbally jot down notes, and play music on your phone, to name a few. You do all of this by by tapping the search key on your phone to open Cortana, and then either type in what you need or tap the microphone to speak it.

Cortana is a personal voice assistant with a personality. You can use her to search the Web, set reminders, call your contacts, and so much more.Josh Miller/CNET

Like Siri and Google Now, you can ask Cortana questions and get answers. For general questions, such as "Who's the CEO of Microsoft?" or "What's the capital of Australia?" Cortana will speak the answer back to you, if she has it. Otherwise, like Google Now and Siri, you'll just get a list of search results. For questions with more detailed answers, including "What's the weather in Honolulu?" and "How did the San Francisco Giants do last night?," Cortana will not only speak the answer, but also show you a page with helpful information, such as a weekly forecast or stats from your favorite sports team's most recent game.

Instead of asking a question, you can just run a basic Bing search by typing in or speaking a few keywords (think "chocolate chip cookie recipes"), and you'll only get a list of search results -- Cortana won't talk to you.

You can also talk back and forth with Cortana to complete a more complex task, such as setting a reminder or creating a new calendar event. You can start by saying "new event" and Cortana will ask you questions to get all the details it needs on time, location, and description.

Beyond voice commands and search, Cortana also shows you a dashboard of information, called Notebook, it thinks you want to see, such as weather conditions and news stories. Open the app, and swipe down to see your personalized Notebook, which is broken into sections for weather, traffic, news, sports, and more. You can manually program each section in the settings menu.

The differences between Cortana, Google Now, and Siri is in the details. While all three services can set reminders, create new calendar events, and take notes, Cortana has a few extra tricks. One of them is setting a reminder for the next time you call one of your contacts. That reminder will show up on the call screen below the person's name. Cortana can also control your phone's quiet hours, when notifications and your ringer are turned off.

Microsoft (and voice actress Jen Taylor) gave Cortana a strong dose of personality, and she's far more fun to talk to than Google Now's nameless assistant. She's also more witty than Siri. By that I mean, when I asked Siri "Do you love me?" my response was "I don't know." Asking Cortana the same question and I got "There's certainly a spark," and another time she said "Y'Know, I'm not really ready for love. I'm still working through serenity and apprehension." If I ask Google Now same question, it will just search Google.

Cortana gives you a dashboard of information it thinks you want, including weather reports and top headlines.Josh Miller/CNET

So far, my biggest gripes about Cortana is the design. When you open it, there's a large circle in the middle of the screen that looks like where you would tap to start talking. Instead, you tap the tiny microphone in the corner, which is hard to press without looking at your phone. You also cannot start voice search with a verbal command, like you can with Google Now, which means Cortana is not completely hands-free.

Cortana is still in beta, that means some features don't yet work as advertised and there are a few bugs. For instance, there are some issues with setting reminders, as Cortana sent me into a loop of asking what I wanted to be reminded and where over and over. Microsoft says Cortana will continue to learn how humans talk and interact with her, so that the natural language processing gets smarter and you have an easier time using the feature. Keeping in mind that Cortana is still being developed, I think the feature works remarkably well.

Aesthetic enhancements

Just glancing at the Start screen, you'll see a difference in 8.1. There's now an extra column of Live Tiles, so you can fit more of them on the screen, not matter your screen size. In previous versions of the OS, you only got that extra column if you had a large phone with a 6-inch and bigger screen.

To accomplish this, the live tiles have shrunk down to fit, but the size will vary slightly based on your phone's screen size. You can now have three large size tiles side by side, one wide tile and one large tile side by side, or six small tiles in one row. Compared to Windows Phone 8, the Start screen now looks more modern, with less wasted space.

Taking some inspiration from Android and iOS, you can also now set a wallpaper on your Start screen to add some personality your phone. Just like before, there's still a white or black space between the tiles (depending on the theme you choose), but instead of a solid color background on each tile, you'll see a piece of the larger wallpaper image. You can pick from several stock images from Microsoft or choose your own photos.

The Start screen now has an extra row of live tiles for every-sized phone, and you can set a custom wallpaper (right).Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

The wallpaper shows up in the background of your live tiles and scrolls as you swipe up and down on the start screen. However, you'll only see the image you pick in certain live tiles, mostly the pre-installed system apps such as the phone dialer, messaging app, Outlook, and Internet Explorer. Any apps where the developer creates a specific live tile design, such as Office or Pandora, won't show the wallpaper.

The Awsome : Samsung FIT

The Good The Gear Fit has a forward-looking design, many more extras than the average fitness band, and the ability to measure heart rate. Its curved AMOLED display looks fantastic, too.

The Bad The long sideways display means text reads awkwardly on your wrist. The Fit only works with certain Samsung phones. Can’t load apps, so you’re stuck with the features included. And the price is high, so much so that you might consider a cheaper alternative or the same-priced, more full-featured Gear Neo.

The Bottom Line The Samsung Gear Fit is a great-looking wearable that doesn't quite successfully reconcile its dual roles as activity tracker and smartwatch.

Somewhere in my first few days of using the Gear Fit, I stared at the band on my wrist. Curved display, eye-popping colors. A notification was on my wrist: someone liked my last tweet. My sister posted new photos on Facebook. I pressed the heart rate monitor button, and noticed my heart was beating a little faster than it should.

I pressed the button again. Suddenly a message popped up: I had three new Twitter notifications. I opened one up to read, but the Fit's perpendicular band-design made it hard to turn and look at. I sideways-scrolled, then tried checking an email. Maybe I should flip it around, or take off the band completely?

Was the Gear Fit doing everything I'd dreamed of? And was it even doing a great job as a watch?

The future of wearable tech has come to this: a pile of fitness bands, and a growing pile of smartwatches. But none of them all that useful, despite their attempts to be. Can something in the middle offer the best of both worlds, and be a fitness band plus a smart watch all in one?

The Gear Fit is close. And yet it's also farther than I'd thought. It does a lot of things, but it's not particularly great at any one of them.

Editors' note, April 8, 2014: Samsung has updated the Gear Fit firmware and S Health software at the time of this review. I'll be looking at both, and updating the Gear Fit review accordingly once they've been tested.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Fit: Everyday wearable, or Gear Lite?

The Galaxy Gear, Samsung's vision of wearables in 2013, has been shelved in favor of a brand-new line of Gear wearables. The Galaxy name is gone completely -- as is its underlying Android OS, now replaced with upstart Tizen -- and there are three products to choose from: Gear Fit, Gear 2, and Gear 2 Neo. The Gear 2 is the true smartwatch successor to the Galaxy Gear, and the Neo is its entry-level sibling. But the Gear Fit is a new type of device, a hybrid of fitness band and smartwatch.

In theory, it sounds like the perfect "chocolate and peanut butter" mixture I've always wanted in wrist tech: Get a fitness tracker and a real smartwatch onto one band, and suddenly all my needs were met. In practice, perfection remains elusive: Consider the Gear Fit a pared-down smartwatch that also tracks steps and heart rate, or consider it a fitness band with extras.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The fit of Fit: forward-looking but quirky

The functional ambivalence spills over into the Gear Fit's design -- it's trying to have it both ways. It has a curved AMOLED main body that screams future, with gleaming chrome touches and a crisp touch interface. In fact, the Fit is a little oblong puck -- the unit snaps into an included plastic band that wraps around the edges.

Across that curved glass display, you can swipe and touch to your heart's content. It feels as crisp and responsive as a phone, and looks as brilliant as the display on last year's Gear. This is the first curved display on a device seen since the Samsung Galaxy Round and LG Flex, and the first on a wearable. It's the sort of eye-opening design touch that wearables need.

The colors pop on the bright OLED display, but sometimes too much. The wild colors sometimes contrasted with the text I was trying to read. I came to prefer basic black and crisp white text. The OLED screen looks OK in daylight, but the curved display ended up throwing a fair amount of glare.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Under that curved glass and a chromed border, the rest of the Fit's base unit is plain black plastic. It lies flat against your wrist, snugly when the Fit's wristband is adjusted snugly. I'd advise a tighter fit, because the heart rate monitor, located on the unit's backside, needs to make contact with the skin in order to work.

The rubberized plastic band holds the Fit's body in place, but it feels kind of cheap. And while the Fit felt snug and comfy on my wrist, I did end up having mine pop off in the first day of use; I'd be worried about it happening again.

You can choose among three band colors when purchasing: black, orange, and grey. I tried the black and orange bands; Samsung says the bands will be available separately as well, but it hasn't specified pricing. My wife thought the whole band looked weirdly over-colorful, especially compared to the much more austere Fitbit Force (now discontinued) or Pebble Steel.

The Gear Fit is dust and water resistant, but it's not intended for showering or swimming. I wore it when I washed my hands, but took it off when giving my son a bath.

Scott Stein/CNET

Gear Fit as fitness band

The existing crop of fitness bands work well as step-counters, but they lack a "next step" level of encouragement. I know I walk 10,000 steps a day, but what about active exercise? My own doctor reminds me to do exercise that keeps my heart rate up. Last year's fitness bands like the Nike+ Fuelband and Fitbit Force only track steps. The Gear Fit can track steps, but it also has a heart-rate monitor, too, like some recent wearables such as the Basis Band or even the Withings Pulse.

The Fit does it at the press of a button when on the Heart Rate screen, but it takes a few seconds to complete. The green LED technology is on the back of the band. I needed to stand relatively still to get the reading, and the monitor seemed to work better with the Fit flipped around so its display was on the underside of my wrist -- maybe it was my hairy arms, but I didn't always get a smooth reading.

Sarah Tew

That's a better way to wear the Fit, by the way, because it's easier to check your step/heart rate status while exercising, and to read messages on the go. Was the Fit intended to be worn this way? It's hard to tell.

Heart rate data is checked continuously in exercise mode. The Fit has four different modes you can trigger: walking, running, cycling, and hiking. All of them allow you to set goals of time, distance, or estimated calories burned, and you can show your heart rate right alongside the timer readout. Running also has a coaching mode that bases its suggestions on your heart rate, telling you to speed up or slow down.

I tried working out with a Fit, and it was a mixed-bag experience. For cycling, forget about stationary bikes: oddly, cycling mode requires a GPS ping and aims to track actual travel as a measure of activity, so I couldn't even start it up in my GPS-signal-free gym. Running mode is the most interesting: The Gear Fit indeed told me to speed up, slow down or keep my pace based on my heart rate, with little vibrating pings.

Scott Stein/CNET

But, the coaching mode didn't seem to care about how much I was actually running: it's all about my heart rate. I was sitting down, my heart rate was high, and the Fit told me to "keep my current pace." Also, heart rate accuracy seemed mixed. Early on, the measurement I was getting on my wrist was vastly different than what my treadmill's monitor was telling me (70 bpm vs. 140). After 20 minutes, the two matched each other pretty evenly: the Fit would say 140 bpm, while the treadmill would say maybe 137.

Being able to quickly scan my heart rate while running is a plus, but the Fit's display turns off after a few seconds, and I had to keep hunting for and pressing the small button on the side. The Fit's supposed to automatically turn on with the flick of a wrist, but I was never able to get it to work more than half the time.

Then, there are all the distracting notifications. I'd get incoming call buzzes, Facebook updates, Twitter pings and more, all buzzing my wrist and getting in the way of my workout display. I couldn't tell whether a buzz meant I needed to speed up or slow down, or whether someone liked my earlier tweet about "Game of Thrones." For all the features the Fit has, it lacks any on-device way to turn notifications on or off, or even to enter a "workout mode" where I'd remain unbothered if I wanted to. Seems like a big oversight.

The Awesome Streamer : AMAZON FIRE TV

The Good The Amazon Fire TV is best way to watch Amazon Instant movies and TV yet, and Prime subscribers can stream thousands of titles for no additional charge. Voice-search feature is cool and works well. The interface is zippy, and Amazon content streams lightning-fast. Supported third-party apps include Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, Watch ESPN, and Pandora, as well as hundreds of games. Amazon also offers flexible parental controls, and the kid-friendly Free Time platform is coming to the Fire TV soon. And setup is incredibly simple.

The Bad The user interface strongly favors Amazon Instant content over other services, and the voice-search feature doesn't comb through Netflix or most other non-Amazon apps. Some major apps are missing, including HBO Go and Spotify. The $99 price feels relatively expensive, especially since you really need the $40 Fire Game Controller and a Prime subscription to get the most out of the box.

The Bottom Line The Fire TV streaming-media box is an impressive living room debut for Amazon, with standout features like voice search, gaming, and superfast video streaming, but it falls short of being an elite streamer -- at least for now.

Like the Kindle and the Kindle Fire, the newly announced Amazon Fire TV ($99) streaming media box is primarily designed to get you consuming Amazon's digital media.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, as Amazon boasts one of the best streaming movie and TV services, and Prime subscribers can stream thousands of movies and TV shows for free. The Fire TV's impressive ASAP feature loads Amazon Instant content, well, instantly, and the much-touted voice-search feature actually works pretty well, using a mic built into the remote. Amazon's kid-friendly Free Time subscription service is on its way, too -- albeit for an extra $3 per month. Amazon has even managed to leapfrop Apple and Roku by offering the most extensive gaming experience on a streaming box yet, with quality Android games like Minecraft: Pocket Edition (though you'll want to purchase the optional $40 Fire Game Controller to play most of them).

But the primacy of Amazon's content on the Fire TV works less well for avid streamers that mix and match content from a variety of sources. The initial apps selection is good, but not great; Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Watch ESPN, and Showtime are included, but HBO Go, Spotify, Vudu, PBS, and Rdio are not. The cool voice-search feature mostly shows only results from Amazon Instant, which limits its usefulness. And the onscreen interface is constantly pushing you toward Amazon's content, which can get in the way if you're typically more interested in Netflix streaming. It all adds up to the Fire TV feeling even more like a "walled garden" than Apple TV, and certainly moreso than the mostly platform-agnostic Roku boxes.

The biggest surprise from the Fire TV is the price, especially from the usually value-conscious Amazon. Ninety-nine dollars puts it in the same league as more polished boxes, like the Roku 3, and the cost only rises when you consider that you really need a $99-per-year Prime subscription and the $40 Fire Game Controller to fully take advantage of the Fire TV's best characteristics. That's a lot to ask, especially when budget streamers like the $35 Chromecast and $50 Roku Streaming Stickoffer much of the functionality people want for far less.

Still, the Fire TV is a daring entry into a crowded market of products and the best showcase yet of Amazon's movie and TV content. The Fire TV has lots of room to improve, but it's an impressive first attempt.

Design: A slim, flat black box

While many thought Amazon would release a Chromecast-like stick, it turns out that the Fire TV has a traditional, albeit thinner, streaming box form factor. It looks an awful lot like a slimmer Apple TV with sharp corners; the Fire TV even mimics the finish on Apple's box, with a matte finish on top and glossy black around the side. It's a sleek-looking device that will easily go unnoticed in a typical TV cabinet. Unlike the Apple TV, the Fire TV does have sizable "wall wart"-style power adapter that takes up quite a bit of space on a power strip.

Around back is an above-average collection of ports, including HDMI, optical audio output, Ethernet, and USB. Amazon's online FAQ says only that the USB port "currently does not support any accessories," so it seems like Amazon has future plans for the port. Inside, the Fire TV supports dual-band Wi-Fi and an impressive processing hardware: a quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300 processor and 2GB of RAM.

Just a quick word on the initial setup: Amazon nailed it. As with its Kindles andKindle Fire tablets, the box comes preconfigured with your Amazon account, and the remote is automatically paired with the box (unless you choose the "I'm buying this as a gift option," that is). When you fire it up for the first time, there's a helpful animation that goes step-by-step through how to use the box and new features like voice search. It may be the easiest product I've ever set up, the only slight hitch being that the Fire TV required a lengthy firmware update right away.

The remote and voice search: Accurate, but Amazon-centric

If you were to cross the remotes from the Apple TV and Roku's boxes, you'd end up with the Fire TV remote. It's a great clicker, with a simple layout of buttons and an excellent shape that fits nicely in your hand. The remote works via Bluetooth, so you don't need to point it at the box for it to work. (The downside is that Fire TV probably won't work with an IR-based universal remote.) The buttons are all straightforward, including the prominently placed microphone icon at the top, which is used for the Fire TV's voice search.

Voice search is one of the marquee features on the Fire TV, letting you simply speak your search term into the mic on the remote, instead of tediously typing letters via an onscreen keyboard. Amazon gets a lot right with its implementation; having the mic in the remote allows you to say your search term relatively quietly, rather than the half-yell that works best with Microsoft's Kinect on the Xbox One andXbox 360. Even better, voice search worked for me the vast majority of the time, although no amount of enunciating would bring up the movie "Coraline." The fact that it works and it's so prominent on the remote means it's a feature you may actually use, rather than just a cool tech demo.

On the other hand, the Fire TV's voice search largely only works with Amazon Instant content, and that limits its usefulness by quite a bit. If you search for "House of Cards" on the Fire TV, it shows you only the option to purchase episodes from Amazon, even though Netflix subscribers can watch the series for free. Occasionally search would show results from Hulu Plus, even though I'm not a subscriber, but even then I had search out alternatives -- Amazon really pushes its own content front-and-center.

The emphasis on Amazon content made the Fire TV's search feel less useful to me than the cross-platform search offered on Roku's boxes, even though you need to manually type in your search terms with Roku.

User interface: Responsive, pretty, but uncustomizable

The Fire TV's interface takes a lot of design cues from Roku, with a menu running down the left side, and cover art and icons filling the screen to the right. Zipping around the menus feels incredibly responsive, with cover art populating very quickly as you jump from section to section. There's even some limited multitasking ability. You can exit Netflix, browse around the home menu, then jump right back into Netflix without having to reboot the app. It feels more like a smartphone ortablet experience than a traditional set-top box.

Once you start poking around the various menu options, you'll notice a trend: the Fire TV puts Amazon Instant content front and center all the time. In fact, many of the menu options (movies, TV, watchlist, video library) show only Amazon content, and even the home screen is primarily Amazon-centric, with a large section promoting shows recently added to Amazon Prime Instant.

The emphasis on Amazon content would be more tolerable if you could customize your home screen, but it doesn't appear that you can. That means you can't pin your favorite apps, such as Netflix, to the home screen, and sometimes you'll have to hunt them down in the apps menu instead. The home screen does have a "recent" section showing the last apps you've used, but if you've played a few games recently, you might not see your streaming video and music favorites.

Microsoft Office for iPad (iOS)

The Good The new Office for iPad apps give you a rich set of tools for managing and creating documents. Sharing features let you work with others. The tools work great on the touch screen.

The Bad The iPad versions don't give access to user-created templates online.

The Bottom Line The Office for iPad apps are a great middle ground between desktop and smartphone versions, and are a must-have for frequent Office users.

Finally, we have the Office for iOS that we've always wanted. Released today, Office for iPad is a much more robust app than what we got with Office Mobile for iPhone. Packed with tools and elegantly optimized for the touch screen, it belongs on the iPads of Office users.

Instead of having Word, PowerPoint, and Excel accessible in one app like it did on the iPhone, Microsoft made them separate apps with far more features in each. With the bigger screen of the iPad, there is simply more room to work with, and Microsoft took advantage with better tools, more templates, and touch-focused controls that are intuitive, familiar, and work great on-the-go.

Before you rush off to download the apps, however, it's important to note that you get limited features with the free versions. All three apps let you connect to OneDrive to browse your files and read Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents for free. But to get the full power of the Office apps that let you create and edit documents, you'll need a subscription with Office 365, Microsoft's service that lets you work on your documents from anywhere.

It's also important to note that this review will cover all three apps, with sections dedicated to each.

Creating documents with Word

Microsoft's word processing software is now iPad-friendly, and has many of the tools you're used to from the desktop versions.

When creating a new document, you get 15 common templates to help you get started, with everything from brochures and business correspondence, to invoices and personal letters. You also can start from scratch with a blank document, but it's nice to have pre-made options for the more common word-processing tasks. One thing you don't get with the iPad is access to online templates created by other users. It's not a big problem, but it would be nice if Microsoft let iPad users get access to all the available templates.

Once in a document, you can immediately see how much more robust the iPad version is over Office Mobile for iPhone. Across the top of the iPad screen is a sort of abbreviated Ribbon (known to desktop Office users), with tabs for Home, Insert, Layout, Review, and View. Just like on the desktop, your Home view is where you can choose fonts, change text styles, adjust text alignment, and other common actions as you create your document.

The Insert tab lets you add images, tables, shapes, footnotes, and provide links to online sources in your document. Layout lets you set margins, adjust page size, format your document with columns, add headers and footers, and more. Already, the features listed so far are much more than what you get with Office Mobile for iPhone.

The Review tab is especially useful for editing types like myself, letting you track changes while editing and view comments from other contributors (more on this later).

When you save your work, you can store it on OneDrive or directly onto your iPad for offline use.

Touch-screen PowerPoint presentations

With PowerPoint for iPad, you can browse and edit presentations already saved to your OneDrive, start fresh with a blank slate, or pick from 19 available templates.

The Chrome Cast Killer : ROKU STREAMING STICK

The Good The Roku Streaming Stick packs the entire Roku experience into a compact device that lives behind your TV and costs just $50. Over 1,200 apps are available, including Netflix, Amazon Instant, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Pandora, MLB.TV, Amazon Cloud Player, Vudu, and Showtime Anytime. There's also a cross-platform search function that combs through several major TV and movie services to find content. And unlike the Chromecast, it has a real remote and an onscreen interface, which tends to work better in the living room.

The Bad Some crucial apps, like Netflix and YouTube, take too long to boot up. And the included remote doesn't have the neat headphone jack feature that's available on the Roku 3 and Roku 2.

The Bottom Line Roku's Streaming Stick offers tons of apps, a real remote, and a compact design for just $50, but the slow bootup times of some key apps keep it from being the ultimate streamer.

t's tough to beat $35. That's the challenge facing Roku's new Streaming Stick ($50), as it goes head-to-head with Google's Chromecast, jockeying to be the best low-cost media streaming stick for the living room. And Roku has a good case, as the $15 premium for the Streaming Stick buys you a lot: a remote control, a polished onscreen interface that includes cross-platform search, and a rich ecosystem of over 1,200 apps. Chromecast has made significant strides since its initial launch, especially on the content side, but Roku remains a much more mature platform.

It's all enough to make the Streaming Stick look like a slam dunk from its spec sheet, but one major issue cropped up during testing that I didn't expect: speed. While the Streaming Stick feels swift when navigating menus, it's surprising slow to boot up a handful of crucial apps: Netflix and YouTube take over 30 seconds to initially load. It's not a problem with every app, but some apps are more important than others, which is what raises the pokey Netflix boot times from a nitpick to a notable frustration.

The speed doesn't totally sink the Stick. Once you load one of the sluggish apps, performance is as quick as you'd expect, so it's more of momentary frustration than one you keep dealing with. But the sometimes sluggish performance does keep it from being the best overall media streamer, which remains the Roku 3, even at twice the price.

In the $50-or-less category, though, the new Roku Streaming Stick is a better buy than the Chromecast for those who want to take advantage of the expanded content offerings or prefer a regular remote (like I do). You may, however, want to wait to see what Amazon has in store on April 2 before making a purchase.

Design: Roku box in a stick

Roku's boxes have continued to shrink over the years, and the Streaming Stick is the culmination of that process. It's essentially all the hardware of a full-size Roku box packed into a device not much bigger than a USB flash drive. The plastic casing sports Roku's signature purple color, which won't be on display since it's designed to live behind your TV in a spare HDMI port. (And it works with any HDMI port, unlike Roku's original Streaming Stick, which required a newer TV with an MHL port.)

Matthew Moskovciak/CNET

The back-of-the-TV placement would leave the Stick almost entirely concealed, except it needs power, which it can get from a USB port on your TV or via the included power adapter. That means you'll have a bit of cable clutter behind your set, and the once-coiled USB cable can be a little unruly.

There's not much else to the device, save for a Micro-USB port, a small indicator light, and a tiny button that you can use to reset the stick if it freezes up. At just a little over 3 inches long, it's easy to throw in a bag for traveling, although be forewarned that hotel Wi-Fi doesn't always play nice with media streamers, regardless of the brand.

In terms of internal hardware, the Streaming Stick has 1080p output and dual-band Wi-Fi support, and Roku says the internal chip is similar to the one in the Roku 1 -- more on that later.

If you're familiar with the Chromecast, everything should sound familiar so far, as it's very similar to Google's streamer. But while the hardware is largely the same, the two streamers have different approaches when it comes to navigation and finding content.

A real remote and user interface

Unlike the Chromecast, Roku's Streaming Stick includes a remote in the box. It's essentially the same remote you'd get with Roku's other budget streaming boxes, although it works via Wi-Fi Direct, so it can communicate with the Stick when it's hidden behind your TV. If you were hoping the remote would include Roku's neat headphone-jack feature, you're out of luck, as that functionality is still available only on the Roku 2 and Roku 3.

Note that the remote doesn't have the neat headphone jack for private listening; you'll still need to get a Roku 2 or Roku 3 if you want that feature.The Streaming Stick also includes Roku's standard user interface, which is best-in-class at this point. While an onscreen display and a remote may seem old-fashioned compared with the Chromecast's "your smartphone is your remote" approach, I personally find it to provide a better experience in the living room, as it means I can keep my eyes on the TV, instead of shuttling my attention between two screens. Especially when one of those screens may be reminding me about notifications and emails that I'm typically trying to unplug from when watching TV.

In addition to the remote and onscreen interface experience, you can also control the Streaming Stick with Roku's mobile app, which is available on Android and iOS. And for Netflix and YouTube, you can also "cast" content straight to the Roku box from those respective Android and iOS apps, just as you can with a Chromecast. (And Roku says it's working on adding casting functionality for more apps.) In other words, if you're a "smartphone-as-remote" fan, you can throw the Roku remote into a drawer and never touch it again.

Ultimately, the Streaming Stick gives the best of both worlds, letting you control via smartphone -- including "casting" from major apps -- but also providing the traditional remote experience.