specials

No option to remove ads on Kindle Fires

Friday's tech news roundup is bracing for the mini-tablet price war:

UPDATE: Amazon has had a change of heart over the weekend and reversed its stance on lock-screen ads. Find the follow-up report on Monday's Update.

Amazon's new generation of Kindle Fire tablets will have Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers on the home lock-screen, and you won't be able to pay extra to take it off. For the e-ink readers, Amazon has offered ways to pay a small fee, about $20, to take the ads off. But these ads are not coming off the new tablets. … Read more

Amazon confirms: All new Kindle Fires stuck with ads

Editors' note (September 8, 2012, 6:21 p.m. PT): One day after this story was published, Amazon has reversed course. The company now says it will offer a $15 opt-out option to go ad-free.

Amazon introduced a bevy of new tablets and e-readers at its Santa Monica, Calif., press conference yesterday. And once the dust cleared, it became clear that there was a tiny asterisk that the company wasn't highlighting: all of the new Kindle Fire tablets include ad-supported "Special Offers." That means that the lock-screen will have have an ad, along with a link on … Read more

2012 Mazda MX-5 Miata: Wonderfully simple... to a fault

It's no secret the Mazda MX-5 Miata has always been one of my favorite cars. It's light and nimble, it's simple, and it's one of the purest driving experiences I've ever had. But the thing that I love the most about the Mazda Miata is that it's sort of an anti-poseur car. You're not going to impress many people from behind the wheel of the unassuming roadster. So, if you see someone driving a Miata of any generation, you can know that they doing it because they truly love this car. Not many … Read more

Search for special text characters quickly with Inunico.de

If you need to use a special character when writing, you've got a lot to choose from -- so many that you may not easily be able to find the right one! Fortunately, there's a great webapp called Inunico.de (the name refers to the Unicode system of text characters) that lets you search for the characters you need.

Just point your browser to Inunico.de and enter any search term you like. Characters matching your term are shown beneath the text box. You will likely see many that don't look like empty boxes; these are characters … Read more

Yahoo's 'resumegate' heats up

In today's show, Google takes the wheel, Microsoft listens to your movements, and 'resumegate' fires up:

Yahoo's "resumegate" has claimed it's first victim -- but it's not the CEO. Yahoo board member Patti Hart said she plans to not seek re-election to Yahoo's board. She's tied up in the drama because she was in charge of the search to hire the chief executive and vet his resume. The scandal, which has been developing for nearly a week now, surrounds Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson and his bios that claimed he had a computer … Read more

Limited time offer: Save 30% on Bitdefender Total Security

Bitdefender Total Security 2012 provides a complete protection for all of your antivirus and internet security needs. Combined with its high virus detection ratings, Total Security protects your PC without impacting your computer's performance.

Unique to Total Security is it's "Silent Security" feature. Turn it on and you will never have to deal with a pop-up from your antivirus software ever again. Why should you have to tell your antivirus how to handle malware or whether to use a port? Silent Security manages it all for you, automatically.

Awarded CNET Editors' Choice Award in March, 2012, … Read more

'Socially assistive' bots to help kids read, exercise, and more

What if kids with special needs had their own robot to work with them every day in school, guiding them toward long-term educational goals that develop not only their cognitive and social skills but also healthy habits such as exercise?

A team of 17 principal investigators from Yale, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Southern California think that with their expertise in computer science, robotics, educational theory, and development psychology, they can do just that.

So does the National Science Foundation, which just handed the team a $10 million Expeditions in Computing award -- one of the agency's largest … Read more

Apple iPad live blog (Wednesday, March 7)

Editor's note: This live blog has concluded, but you can read an edited transcript below or click here to replay the event with all the color commentary. To recap, Apple announced a new 1080p Apple TV box, followed by a new iPad with 4G, a faster A5X chip, and a higher-resolution Retina Display similar to that of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Here's CNET's first take on the new iPad and a roundup of all iPad news.

An edited transcription of the live blog starts here:

9:44 a.m. PT: Josh Lowensohn: Hey everyone, we … Read more

iPad 3 to get February intro, March release?

We could be a few weeks away from getting a peek at Apple's next iPad, if a new report is to be believed.

Citing an Asian supplier and "a source in United States," Japanese Apple blog Macotakara says that Apple is cooking up a special event in "early February" to take the wraps off its next iPad, with a formal launch of the product taking place sometime the following month.

Why the delay? Macotakara says that the Chinese factories involved with the production if iPad 3 units will be celebrating the Chinese New Year, which … Read more