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LOS ANGELES--When Apple first released the iPad tablet, there was an instant burst of debate over whether it could or would replace Netbooks as the portable computing platform of choice. After all, both classes of devices have similar smalls screens and use low-power parts to provide long battery life, far beyond the average 15-inch laptop.

My initial view was that the iPad was not a Netbook killer. Despite its strengths, it lacked the software flexibility, and the traditional keyboard/touch pad input scheme, that most productivity tasks require. At the same time, figuring out how to substitute a small, lightweight iPad in situations where one would normally carry a laptop seemed like appealing challenge. … Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET editors Daniel Terdiman and Josh Lowensohn. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here.

Ready to get your E3 news fix? CNET is there, live in Los Angeles, to cover the biggest show in videogaming. We'll be using Cover it Live to bring you photos and news as it happens at each of the big three's press conferences.

First up is Microsoft. The company teased its newly named Kinect peripheral (formerly known as Project Natal) at a Sunday night launch party, and we expect it to remain a focal point at today's press conference (10:30 a.m. PDT/1:30 p.m. EDT).

10:09 a.m. PDT: Good morning, everyone. We're here at the Microsoft Xbox 360 E3 press conference. Everyone's still filing in, so it will be a little while before this thing gets going. So please stay tuned.

10:10 a.m. (from reader TyFrank): How many people are at this press conference?

10:11 a.m.: It's hard to say how many people are here, but I'd say right now there are probably about 2,000...And I can't see the upstairs seating. So probably half again that many. … Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET editors Kent German and Josh Lowensohn. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. You can find a brief summary of what was announced in our followup article "WWDC 2010: What you need to know." For all the latest iPhone coverage from CNET, click here.

SAN FRANCISCO--On Monday morning Steve Jobs will take the stage at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference at Moscone West here. In all likelihood, he will be introducing the next version of the iPhone. And we will be there to bring you live coverage of the event.

Jobs' keynote will start at 10 a.m. PDT Monday. I'll be live blogging all the news from his speech, along with CNET's iPhone reviewer Kent German and CNET News' Josh Lowensohn. For a reminder of when the event will start, sign up below. You can also bookmark this page and come back here Monday morning.

Though the iPhone is widely expected to be the star of the show, expect more details about iPhone OS 4, the iPad, and lots about apps. The theme of this year's conference is, after all, "The Center of the App Universe."

Jason Howell, Rafe Needleman, Donald Bell, and Brian Cooley will be doing a special edition of Buzz Out Loud while the event is running. There's an embed of that video podcast at the bottom of this page, in case you want to listen to their commentary while following along with the Cover It Live live blog. Also, check out the official WWDC 2010 Bingo card and photos of workers setting up for the event on Friday.

9:51 a.m. PDT: Welcome to our WWDC 2010 live blog. I'm here with CNET's Kent German inside Moscone West where we're listening to Louis Armstrong while waiting for the event to begin. Josh Lowensohn will also be on hand to help out answering your questions once the event gets going. It'll probably kick off in about 10 minutes. … Read more

Technology has made it possible for more of us to not only read the news but also write it via blogs and social-media sites. But do stories on the blogosphere differ from those in traditional media, and if so, how?

To peek behind the world of new media versus old media, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) spent about a year looking at the top news stories covered on blogs and social-media pages. It also kept tabs on seven months' worth of tweets on Twitter and a year's worth of news-related videos courtesy of … Read more

Now that you know the highlights of iPhone OS 4, we offer you the chance to see the new features for yourself. We've loaded the developer release on Brian Tong's iPhone 3GS and took it for a spin. As we mentioned, it's not quite the update that OS 3.0 was, but it brings some sorely needed features like multitasking, home screen folders, and a unified e-mail in-box.

Keep in mind that this is a developer release, so Apple is very likely to make changes between now and the official release this summer. Game Center comes later … Read more

The continued evolution of the iPhone operating system has been rather like completing a puzzle. In its original form, the puzzle lacked important pieces like multimedia messaging and a landscape keyboard, but with each subsequent update, Apple filled those gaps.

For screenshots of OS 4 in action, see our slideshow.

Thursday, the company added more missing pieces when it introduced the fourth generation of the iPhone operating system at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. After a wait of almost three years, we finally get multitasking--though not for everyone--and other sorely needed features like home screen folders and a unified e-mail in-box. The update is available for developers now with the general release for the iPhone and iPod Touch coming this summer and the iPad in the fall.

It doesn't deliver quite the changes that we got from the iPhone 3.0 release last year (at least for now), but rest assured that OS 4 is a major update that checks off more boxes from our standing iPhone wish list. Though OS 4 is set to bring 100 new features, CEO Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, focused on the seven biggest changes, or "tent poles," during the course of Thursday's event.

Multitasking In our review of the iPhone 3GS, multitasking led our list of common cell phone features that were lacking. Granted, that list was shorter than it had been with previous iPhone versions, but multitasking remained a major omission in light of Android and the Palm Web OS.

Apple, however, has a special talent for making us forget such things by packaging an existing feature in a flashy new way. As Jobs said, Apple isn't about being first, but rather about "being the best." We'll have to get our hands on the update before we fully agree, but Apple appears to have hit the mark. During the demo, Jobs showed how you'll be able to tap the Home button twice to get a pop-up menu of running apps at the bottom of the display. As you switch back and forth, you'll return to the exact point you left, even if you're in the middle of a game. There's no task manager of any kind and Jobs dismissed competitor devices that have one. As he put it, "If you see a task manager, they blew it."

Though the pop-up menu only shows four apps at a time (you can swipe sideways through the full list), you'll be able to run at least 12 apps simultaneously. Jobs did not say if that number is a hard limit, but we'll confirm that one exists when we get to play with the OS ourselves. Forstall insisted that multitasking would not affect performance because Apple distilled background processes into seven API services. They include audio from apps like Pandora Radio (yay!), VoIP (for Skype calls), push notifications, and task completion. Multitasking also will support local notifications and related security setting enhancements.

There is bad news with multitasking, though. The feature is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS and the third generation of the iPod Touch. Owners of other iPhone and iPod Touch models still get other OS 4 benefits, but you'll need to upgrade if you want the full package. Before you run to the store, however, keep in mind that OS 4 probably won't appear until after the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. At that event--we're still waiting for firm dates--we should get new hardware, so make your upgrade decision then.

… Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and a few CNET editors. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. To get the key points from today's announcement, you can check out our summary of what got announced, in our story here.

We're coming to you live Thursday from Apple's campus with news about the iPhone OS 4 as it happens.

Maybe the biggest news is this: Apple is bringing multitasking to the iPhone. CEO Steve Jobs and his crew showed 12 apps running at the same time. But not all models of the iPhone will get multitasking or other upgrades. Third-generation models of the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch will be out this summer.

In addition, Apple is touting services including background audio, background location, and voice over IP. And there's more: a new folders feature, flicking between pages of apps on the phone, and the new iAd mobile advertising platform.

The newly released iPad, meanwhile, will get OS 4 in the fall.

Transcript of live blog starts here:… Read more

The reviews are in on Apple's iPad. And starting Saturday, you can actually get your hands on one.

In the days preceding the April 3 launch of the Wi-Fi version of the iPad in the U.S., there hasn't been the same kind of line-waiting frenzy as with past releases of the the iPhone: few are camping out ahead of time.

That's likely because those who wanted to snag an iPad the first day had the option to have it shipped to them--for free. But those who didn't plan ahead, or only recently got the must-buy-it bug, will have to go into an Apple Store or a Best Buy to make their purchase.

CNET's got a team covering the launch: Greg Sandoval in New York City, Erica Ogg and James Martin in San Francisco, and Josh Lowensohn in Palo Alto, Calif. Follow along with our live blog below.

Sandoval, 8:15 a.m. EDT at New York's Fifth Avenue Apple Store: In the final hours before the iPad went on sale, the line out in front of the store saw a little controversy.

Greg Packer, the retired highway worker who says he began waiting in line since Tuesday to ensure he would be first to walk out with the device, learned on Friday that those who had preordered an iPad would be first to enter.

The person who is in position to be allowed into the store first, with less than an hour to go before Apple starts letting people in, is Richard Gutjahr, a blogger from Germany.

Packer says he represents the fans who were willing to wait in line, but that's going to ring hollow to some because Packer, 46, may not be the best representative of Apple's truest fans. He's a well-known "line sitter," who spends much of his time appearing first at public events in hopes he will be interviewed.

… Read more

Taking the cue from Tim O'Reilly's classic "architecture of participation" argument, the blogs across the Web have been set up to encourage conversations through comments sections.

Is it working?

Not very well. Much of what happens in the comment section of any blog is hardly worthy of the word "discussion." The only thing more depressing than getting no comments on a post is getting many, because a big percentage of them will include personal invectives and meaningless screeds. (As a blogger, I'm personally familiar with delivering and receiving both. :-)

Some of these … Read more