home

Power line networking -- the technology that enables electrical wiring to transfer data -- is about to get a lot faster.

Broadcom announced on Monday what it claims to be the industry's first HomePlug AV2 power line system-on-a-chips (SoCs) that deliver up to 1.5Gbps data speed. That's about three times the speed of the top existing power line devices.

HomePlug AV2 is the next-generation power line standard that uses an extended frequency band of up to 86MHz, while HomePlug AV was limited to 30MHz. In addition, HomePlug AV2 supports Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) -- a technology … Read more

U.S. Cellular is the latest wireless service provider to make the jump into your home.

On Friday, the carrier unveiled its U.S. Cellular Home Phone service, which goes on sale in retail stores on June 7 and online a couple of weeks later on June 20.

Similar to its wireless plan for cell phones, this new $19.99 monthly home phone service gives customers unlimited nationwide calling over your landline phone, as well as the standard calling features of voice mail, caller ID, and call waiting.

The carrier also throws in call forwarding and three-way calling.

If you'… Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg isn't overly concerned that teenagers will abandon the giant social network, as a Pew study reported. "We're the leaders in a growing market," she said during an onstage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference here. She acknowledged, though, that teens are using sites such as Tumblr and Twitter more. "We are watching that very carefully," she said.

Sandberg also noted that social networking and other Internet activities still trail TV in terms of time spent. Users on average watch 34 hours … Read more

Sweet Home 3D Portable is a free interior design tool from eTeks that lets you make as many changes as you want to your home before so much as moving a chair--and not just furniture placement but the stuff you really, truly don't want to do over, like painting the kitchen. Sweet Home 3D Portable is just like the regular version of Sweet Home 3D, only it's fully portable so it runs without having to be installed in Windows. Recent updates include custom furniture materials, new wall textures, and improved photo angles.

The program's main display is … Read more

Facebook Home is officially in remodel mode.

The social network said Thursday that it has decided to halt the U.K. release of the HTC First, the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home, as well as limit support for additional Android devices until it can fix things up a bit.

"We've listened to feedback from users on their experience using Home. While many people love it, we've heard a lot of great feedback about how to make Home substantially better," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET. "As a result, we're focusing the next few … Read more

A picture depicting a girl's reunion with her father returning from war has won the top award in a Google Doodle contest.

On display Thursday at Google's home page, "Coming Home" is a simple but powerful piece of art that portrays a young girl holding an American flag and running to reunite with her father. The returning soldier appears. They exchange a glance. And finally they fall into a deep embrace as they treasure their moment together again.

Created by 12th grader Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisc., "Coming Home" faced great competition in being crowned the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google national winner. Google received more than 130,000 submissions for the contest, which garnered millions of votes. But in the end, Sabrina's drawing clearly moved the voters.… Read more

The original "Spears and Munsil HD Benchmark", released in 2009, offered some excellent patterns to help setting up TVs, and ingenious test patterns to judge the performance of deinterlacers and scalers. Though anyone could buy it, it wasn't as entry-level or as user-friendly as "Disney's World of Wonder" setup discs.

The updated second edition adds myriad new setup patterns, and a host of new tests for 3D, refresh rates, motion interpolation, additional patterns for TV setup newbies, and more.

So is it worth your $30?… Read more

The Anthony Gallo Acoustics Micro SE speaker ($239) is a tiny steel sphere, just 4 inches in diameter -- that's the size of an orange. It's an audiophile quality performer, capable of delivering high-resolution sound and a big, downright spacious stereo image. In fact, the imaging of the Micro SE and the slightly larger A'Diva SE reminds me of the wide-open, boxless sound I get with large, flat-panel speakers. Since these Gallos have just one full-range driver, they don't need a crossover network to direct high frequencies to the tweeter and bass to the woofer, and … Read more

While the TV industry figures out what to do with itself as the enthusiasm for 4K, OLED, and 3D trickles out, many of you are making a very basic request. You just want a big ol' honkin' screen.

For an elegant solution that will fit through the door and won't break the bank, you need to ditch the TV and go with a home theater projector.

CNET's running list of the best home theater projectors is the first place to check for the best options available. But since it's a subject we haven't touched on Top … Read more