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Is it worth seeing Star Wars in 3D?

Last night 20th Century Fox treated me to a screening of the new 3D version of "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace," which is in cinemas now here in England (Friday in the U.S.). As I got to see it for free, it only seems fair I should let you know if it's worth spending actual money to see it.

First off, it's worth mentioning the obvious. No amount of 3D can change the fact that there's waaay too much about trade taxation routes in this film. The whole "is Natalie Portman grooming a child?" sub-plot is still there. Jar Jar Binks hasn't been digitally erased. But if you're reading this, you probably already have your own views about the artistic merit of this movie, so I'll stick to the techy stuff.

Read more of "Is it worth seeing Star Wars in 3D" on Crave UK.

Morrison's Mailbag: Why does my TV have a noise reduction setting?

CNET reader "Nindevo" asks:

In regards to your articles about the HDMI cables, I was just wondering why TVs have "noise reduction" settings. I thought digital signals (HDMI) couldn't have noise.

Interesting question.

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Low Latency No. 9: Goin' public

You may have heard of the Facebook graffiti artist who took company shares as payment for his work. We're sure he's not the only unexpected overnight millionaire cashing in on the company going public. more

Apple will reportedly unveil iPad 3 in early March

Apple may unveil the next iPad at an event scheduled for the first week of March, AllThingsD reported today.

The company is expected to announce the newest iteration of its blockbuster tablet at its own event in San Francisco, the report says.

This isn't the first time a March unveiling date has been bandied about, but AllThingsD is one of the more reputable sites to say so.

With the next iPad, presumably called iPad 3, Apple will look to sustain the momentum of the first two generations of iPads. The iPad 2 launched last March and has sold well. more

DirecTV takes its TiVo HD box nationwide, but will its users care?

After a 10-city rollout in December of a new TiVo HD box to DirecTV customers, the satellite TV provider is making the box available nationwide.

The TiVo HD box mainly gives users access to TiVo's excellent interface and features such as WishList Searches so you can automatically record programming based on things like an actor's name, sports team, or personal interests, and TiVo's Swivel Search will find shows across TV and DirecTV Cinema.

The box itself is capable of recording up to 100 hours of HD or 400 hours of SD programming and has two tuners for

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Adobe offering new reasons to get DNG religion

Photography enthusiasts have seen the light when it comes to shooting raw images, but plenty of them have yet to convert to Adobe Systems' DNG format for storing those images.

But Adobe could bring some new sheep into the Digital Negative fold with abilities arriving in Adobe's Lightroom 4 software and its Photoshop CS6 cousin. Adobe isn't evangelizing heavily, but it is offering new features that could convince people that DNG is a better alternative to the profusion of proprietary raw formats that higher-end cameras produce.

Three significant improvements are coming to DNG, two for speed and one more

Sigma SD1: Wait, did we say $9,700? We meant $3,300

Sigma has radically repriced its SD1 camera, saying manufacturing improvements let it lower the unusual SLR's cost by two-thirds to $3,300.

Sigma introduced the SD1 in 2011 with a premium price of $9,700--chiefly for its Foveon sensor, given that other specifications were ordinary. Although the sensor is small, about the size of those on mainstream SLRs from Nikon and Canon, it has the unusual ability to capture red, green, and blue light values for each pixel, not just a single color as with conventional sensors.

The Foveon design therefore can produce better detail, at least theoretically, more

Motorola Droid 4 hands-on: Awesome keyboard, blistering 4G LTE

If you're aching to get your hands on Motorola's new Droid 4, at least vicariously, you're in luck.

My official review sample has arrived and here's what I think so far.

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Nvidia all but confirms quad-core phones for MWC

Nvidia is one company that isn't being meek about its wares. Instead, its press invitation to Mobile World Congress shouts "quad-core" from the rooftops.

The chip-maker is properly veiling the actual products powered by its Tegra 3 processor, instead proclaiming that "quad-core firsts continue at MWC." Since the first "first" was a quad-core tablet, it doesn't take much deductive power to reason out that this show will spotlight smartphones.

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