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Top 5

Top 5 $1 smartphones

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in the pace of smartphone innovation recently. I have a hard time believing that the recent push toward bigger HD screens and quad-core processors really adds up to a dramatically better experience for most people. Maybe it's just a momentary lull in the industry, or maybe the smartphone is now a fully matured technology that's starting to plateau.

Either way, we're at a moment now where the distinction between last year's phones and this year's is pretty tough to notice. If you're shopping for … Read more

Most anticipated games of 2013

Gamers have a lot to be excited about this year. The Sony PlayStation 4 just became official, and the announcement for the next-generation Microsoft Xbox can't be far behind.

But consoles alone aren't that interesting. What 2013 really needs are some great games.

A few weeks back, CNET's Senior Associate Games Editor Jeff Bakalar presented 25 of the most anticipated games of the year. To up the ante, I asked him to pick his favorite five from the list and rank them by degrees of anticipation.

So here you go. In this week's Top 5 I'… Read more

Free iPad apps (February 2013)

There are a ton of great iPad apps out there, priced 99 cents and up, that are worth every penny.

But you know how it is. Sometime you catch yourself browsing the App Store for some free app that can offer some momentary entertainment.

Apple keeps a running tally of its most popular free iPad apps over on iTunes, which is updated constantly to reflect current trends. At our request, we asked Apple to provide us with a list of the Top 5 most popular apps based on their most recent weekly totals.

The following CNET Top 5 video recounts … Read more

Top 5 sci-fi robot girlfriends

Valentine's Day is a horrible tradition. It's a romantic "musical chairs" where you either stand alone in a metaphorical puddle of rejection, or turn to your partner and price out the worth of their love in flowers and chocolates.

To hell with it.

To level the playing field, I say we need to put science fiction's premise of the humanoid robot companion on the fast track to becoming a reality. … Read more

Our favorite Android Jelly Bean smartphones

The latest in Android smartphone software is Android version 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. But getting your hands on it isn't as easy as hitting the update button on your current smartphone.

Only a handful of current Android smartphones support Jelly Bean, and there are only a few new smartphones shipping with the software preinstalled.

But don't let that discourage you. As CNET's Brian Bennett pointed out in a recent blog post, there are some great Jelly Bean options out there that you can buy right now. Here are CNET's five best options.

Subscribe:… Read more

Predictions for MWC 2013

We are just one month away from the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, where the biggest names in the mobile industry will unveil new products.

We're having a difficult time containing our anticipation, especially since CES offered relatively few smartphone announcements. Year by year as the mobile industry grows, so to does the scope and importance of Mobile World Congress.

So what are our CNET editors expecting to see when they touch down in Barcelona next month? Well, I quizzed Senior editors Jessica Dolcourt and Brian Bennett on their predictions and used them as the basis of … Read more

Most anticipated gadgets of 2013

I'm excited for 2013. There's a perfect storm of gadget rumors brewing right now, and even if only half of them pan out, it will be a great year for tech.

To get you as excited as I am, here's my list of my five favorite products that will hopefully make their debut this year. You won't find any flying cars or $20,000 Ultra HD TVs here. Consider this a sneak peek at the biggest announcements expected this year from the biggest names in tech.

If I missed something worthy of this list, feel free to nominate your own anticipated products in the comments section. … Read more

CNET TV blooper reels 2012

Sadly, we are not perfect here at CNET TV. We are not all well-oiled machines that can perfectly reel off product names like the Insignia NS-55E480A13A LED TV without tripping up.

Through the magic of editing, the videos you see every day here at CNET paint an illusion of effortless expertise -- but it's a lie. These videos are a constant struggle. The best we can hope for is that one of our flubs, stutters, and hissy fits might be funny enough to make it into our year-end blooper reel.

So here you have it, our annual collection of … Read more

Worst products of the year

It's actually somewhat difficult to track down CNET's lowest-rated reviews of 2012. Our whole site is designed to surface the best, most-worthy products to the top and help you make a smart shopping decision. The losers all tend to sink into obscurity. But with some careful sorting I was able to cobble together all of the reviews of the past year rated under three stars.

But we're a pretty ruthless bunch here at CNET, so narrowing the list down to just five selections wasn't easy. For this list, I went with my personal picks. That meant leaving out the abysmal ZTE Score M, since I already roasted that thing in my "Top 5 phones to avoid." I also left out products like the HP Pavilion HPE Phoenix h9z and Kodak ESP 3.2 All-in-One Printer, because they were more chronically disappointing than truly awful. … Read more

Tech flops of 2012

2012 was a year when many of the big names in tech took big gambles...and lost.

CNET recently ran a collection highlighting 2012's biggest Tech Turkeys, and it seemed ripe for a remix over here on Top 5. I swiped four from their list, added one of my own, and ranked the whole thing by how long I imagine it took the respective CEOs to remove their palms from their face.

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