Crave

When in doubt, change colors. Samsung has perfected that tactic, and it's applied the concept to its NV3 line of combo MP3-playing, 7-megapixel cameras.

The original model in basic black got a decent rating from fellow Craver Will Greenwald last year, but it appears that Samsung thought it was time for a makeover. But rather than slap on some cheap lipstick, the NV3 is now finished in stainless steel or, more exotically, "Oriental Plant Lacquer" that Gadget Candy says is environmentally friendly.

Oh, by the way, the price of these newly outfitted cameras is considerably higher--about $450 … Read more

The U.S. government wants to build and deploy a huge stratospheric airship, three times the size of the Goodyear blimp, that is capable of spying on an entire city.

The idea is that the blimp, dubbed the "Integrated Sensor is Structure" (ISIS), would hover above the jet stream at 70,000 feet and use its giant, flexible radar antennae to acquire a "dynamic, detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield: friendly, neutral or enemy." And we thought surveillance satellites were sitting ducks.

One of the challenges has been to come up … Read more

The foundation of every good relationship is the ability to listen and understand one other. How fitting then, that our Valentine's Day delivery to the CNET Car Tech garage should be the Acura TL-S, one of the most understanding cars in the world. We climbed into the cabin of this souped-up version of Acura's midsized technosedan, and in no time we already were making ourselves understood with perfect clarity.

"Driver temperature, 65 degrees," we ventured after a press of the Voice button on the steering wheel. "Driver temperature, 65 degrees," responded TL's empathetic … Read more

Herald the dawn of Loki, Norse god of mischief and now high-speed chip-to-chip signaling.

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, Rambus, the company everyone seems to love to hate, showed off for the first time a technology code-named Loki that it says could significantly cut down the energy consumed by input/output devices.

The experimental device can operate at 6.25 gigabits per second and pass information at 2.2 milliwatts per gigabit. Similar products on the market now can transfer more gigabits per second, but they operate at around 15 to 30 milliwatts per gigabit. … Read more

Nathan Ball, a graduate student at MIT, has invented a motorized pulley that will let paramedics and firefighters zip up the side of buildings like Spider-Man.

Ball's Atlas Powered Rope Ascender can pull a firefighter loaded down with 80 to 100 pounds of equipment up a 30-story building in 30 seconds. Trudging up the stairs weighed down with equipment can take six to eight minutes.

Ball is this year's recipient of the Lemelson-MIT award, a $30,000 prize for invention annually awarded to a student at the school. The Atlas works as follows. A rope is fixed to … Read more

TiVo is slowly rolling out a software update to its Series3 high-def DVR. Among the improvements in the 8.1 version (as reported at tivocommunity.com): TiVoCast (video downloads); Extend Live (autoprompt for live-event recording extensions); KidZone (family-friendly content control); wireless networking improvement (WPA support added to WEP); Product Watch (download preferred advertising videos that caters to your interest); and Recently Deleted Folder (resurrect accidentally deleted content). As Dave Zatz points out, that brings the Series3 functionality in line with that of the non-HD Series2 boxes except for two big missing features: TiVo To Go and multiroom viewing, both of … Read more

We heard tell that the Samsung Stripe would be going to T-Mobile earlier this month, and it turned out to be true. The GSM carrier launched the Stripe today, so named because of the vertical gray stripe down its middle. As we mentioned previously, the Stripe is on the lower end of T-Mobile's offerings: it features a simple VGA camera with 4x zoom, Bluetooth, instant messaging, a speakerphone, T-Mobile's MyFaves support, and not much else. Also dubbed the Samsung SGH-T329, the phone is now available for a very affordable $49.99 after a rebate and a new contract.… Read more

Here are 5 reasons why I know you want to watch this week's video blog:

1. I get chased by some weird cartoon monsters. Yes, I know there's a name for those guys, but I can't remember what it is.

2. The dreaded cat makes a cameo.

3. You can make fun of how I can't seem to get used to my new haircut.

4. There's no Aqua Teen Hunger Force involved, because I know you're all sick of that.

5. And, um, the real purpose: You can see how those Diet Coke & Mentos … Read more

Last night, we got a sneak peek at one of the most disturbing video games we've ever seen, at a press event hosted in New York by game publisher D3. The company is best known for games based on kid-friendly Japanese licenses (Naruto, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi), but Earth Defense Force 2017, for the Xbox 360, is decidedly less cheerful.

This shooter's basic concept--a lone hero has to fend off alien invaders amid sprawling urban environments--isn't new, but swarming armies of gigantic bugs that you have to fight took us by surprise. There is nothing more unsettling … Read more