This might not be what Bill Gates originally envisioned with his "information at your fingertips" concept.
On Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Rio hotel will unveil a new Surface computer application called Flirt, that will let bar patrons "interact" with each other through video cameras and text messages. Another, called ...
The Federal Communications Commission will discuss a proposal at an open meeting Thursday that could reduce the cost of getting out of your cell phone contract.
The industry-sponsored proposal would give new cell phone customers a 30-day grace period to cancel their contracts without penalty. After those 30 days, early ...
Being what some would call a phone fanatic--I have multiple lines with multiple carriers--I never thought cell phone companies cared much about old customers. Most ads and gimmicks are geared toward drawing in new business, such as free phones and special plans for new lines of service. Since I'm ...
(Credit: Mobiado)There are two things that have distinguished Mobiado among the many luxury phone makers of the world: First, it's from Canada; second, its handsets have avoided the type of excessive bling that others have so readily succumbed to in the desperate quest to draw attention to themselves....
When Toyota launched the Matrix in 2002, the advertising emphasized its technology features, including navigation and an AC power outlet, rare features for a car in this price bracket at that time. Since then, other inexpensive cars, such as the Mitsubishi Lancer and Honda Civic ...
(Credit: Toshiba)Today, Toshiba announced a 1.8-inch hard drive that combines high capacity with high performance. The drive (model MK617GSG) gives you 160GB of storage spinning at 5400rpm. Other 160GB 1.8-inch drives have been chugging along at 4200rpm, until now. Expect to see this drive--and the single platter ...
When Apple announced the apps store several months ago it appeared to signal the end for the popular homebrew Installer.app by Nullsoft. While the application has a few developer creations that cost money to use, most of the library is completely free, letting people load up on useful applications ...
Video games reportedly can help cancer patients or awaken survival genes. Now, according to a new survey, people with acute depression and Attention Deficit Disorder are benefitting from games as well.
The survey--conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of game creator PopCap--found that disabled gamers make up 20 ...
(Credit: Belkin)
We doubt that it was done intentionally, but there's probably no shortage of conspiracy freaks out there who will claim that something sinister was behind the design of Belkin's new "Micro Grip" cases for the 3G iPhone. Either way, we do find it curious that it ...
A couple months back I attempted to test two 30-inch displays--the Samsung SyncMaster 305T and the Gateway XHD3000 Extreme HD-- at the same time using CNET Labs' current distribution amplifier (DA), the Extron Electronics D2 DA4 DVI D2 DA4 DVI. This device allows up to four displays to simultaneously view the same video signal from one system. For years we've used this device to not only speed up testing, but to do accurate direct comparisons as well. Unfortunately the native resolution for the aforementioned 30-inchers is 2,560x1,600, and the maximum resolution the Extron supports is only 1,920x1,200. So, without a means to test them simultaneously at their native resolutions I was stuck in a bind. I could have tested them one at a time, but since our testing--which includes DisplayMate--has a high level of subjectivity to it, it's always best to do direct simultaneous comparisons, instead of testing one display today and then waiting a couple days to test the next. Testing them simultaneously allows you to see the exact differences between the displays.
So I delayed the testing and the review for a few weeks. In the meantime I got in touch with a colleague at DisplayMate, Ray Soneira. He put me in contact with a company called Kramer. Kramer manufactures a number of distribution amplifiers including the Kramer VM-2DVI. This particular DA is Dual Link compatible and supports each 30-inch display's 2560x1600 resolution. So now I could test both 30-inch displays simultaneously at their native resolutions in DisplayMate and in our current games test, World of Warcraft. However whenever I attempted to run either our Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD or our Swordfish BD on both displays at the same time, the DRM gods reared their ugly heads and denied me salvation. So when testing how each display handles disc-based movies, I was forced to evaluate each display one at a time. The Kramer VM-2DVI is not advanced enough to circumvent DRM tomfoolery, unfortunately. That said, we're still very pleased that the VM-2DVI allowed us to do the bulk of our testing as fairly and accurately as possible.
The issue of not being able to view certain disc-based movies simultaneously on two or more displays may not be an issue for long, as CNET Labs is considering moving away from using movies--and even games-- to evaluate the quality of a display. The reason being that video images generally move too quickly to do a picture quality comparison, whereas static images such as high-quality photos can be studied as long as necessary in order to examine their quality. No decision has been made as yet, though, but look for more on this in a future Inside CNET Labs post. ...
The year was 1983--the last De Loreans were produced, the final episode of M.A.S.H. aired with more than 125 million viewers tuning in to watch, the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign debuted, Jaws went 3D (don't know why), and the A-Team released so much ammunition without ...
CrunchGear has a spread on what appears to be the new 3G iPhone. Matt Hickey wrote in CrunchGear:
It's thinner than the current model, for sure, with a more MacBook Air-like bezeling. It's got stereo speakers on the back and what appears to be the same screen as...
If Northern California is Quannum territory, Tres Records is quickly taking over the L.A. underground hip-hop scene, and this trio has to count as its top act. Unlike many instrumental rap crews, Panda packs light; thin, nimble beats play counterpoint to unpredictable, often hilarious vocal conceits, and no track ...
The HP Photosmart C8180 isn't cheap, so we wouldn't recommend you throwing down $400 for this multifunction unless you're an amateur photographer who needs a top-notch printer and won't mind waiting more than a minute for each photo.
We just finished testing the C8180 (full review), ...
Q: I have a collection of live concert performances on DVD that I would like to be able to listen to on my iPod. Is there an easy way to rip just the audio, but not the video, and export the soundtrack to my iPod? -Tom (via e-mail)
A: There are many roads to take on a project like this, but I'm going to show you two that are free and both Mac and PC compatible. ...
UPDATE: AMD and Nvidia aim to wrest control of a crucial PC specification from Intel, arguing that the chip giant is trying to box them out as they move to a new era of faster peripherals.
Intel showed off a prototype USB 3.0 connector and an add-in card last ...
(Credit: MobileWhack)MTV is continuing its march across Europe to get its logo on various continental-based gadgets. Its latest effort is a co-branded "MTV Edition" of Sony Ericsson's W760i Walkman phone.
It's the second MTV handset released on the European market, following one designed by Paris-based ModeLabs for ...
iMainGo 2 fits in the palm of your hand.
(Credit: CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)Anyone who has ever shopped for an iPod speaker knows that there is no shortage of models from which to choose; options range from extra-deluxe party speakers to the gadgets smaller than a pack of gum. ...
Sigh. We were growing weary of all this little-laptop news as early as March. Little did we know that the Eee PC, Classmate PC, and HTC Shift were only the tip of the iceberg. This week's headlines were dominated by news from the show floor at Computex 2008 in ...
Samsung Instinct
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)The Samsung Instinct, Sprint's answer to the iPhone, finally has arrived. It's been two months since we first saw the slim touch screen cell phone with the boatload of features, but now we've had the opportunity to kick its tires ...
