review

For the past few years, we've kept a running list of top titles not out on Blu-ray. It started out with 40 titles and has been whittled down to 15 in more recent months.

"Chariots of Fire," which won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1981 and hit stores yesterday (just in time for the Olympics), is the latest flick to be removed from the list, which is a good thing.

Warner Bros. has done an impressive job bringing the movie to Blu-ray, with an excellent video transfer (the audio's also quite good, but when … Read more

Running around all week trying to find the perfect 50th-birthday gift for a weird ship that stays afloat vertically? Send it a simple e-card and sit down to catch up on the Crave stories you missed.

• Watch out Google. Olympus wants to augment everyone's reality too.

• Going on an asteroid hunt. Gonna catch a big one!

• Wondering what to wear to that party on another planet? Try a pair of Exoskeleton shoes.

• Han Solo and Princess Leia rings: One says "I love you," the other says "I know." … Read more

The bottom line: Bitdefender Total Security 2013 remains one of the best high-end security suites around. This update gives you a fully isolated Web browser for secure financial transactions.

Review: Bitdefender Total Security 2013 presents a convincing alternative to its better-known competitors. It's a strong program, with all the major tools that users expect, and some additional useful tricks in its arsenal. When it comes to efficacy, Bitdefender isn't the best in every area, but it's definitely competitive.

Editors' note: Portions of this review are based on CNET's review of Bitdefender Total Security 2012.

Installation Bitdefender … Read more

week in review Scientists believe they have found the "God particle," also known as the Higgs boson.

The leaders of the experiments running through the giant Large Hadron Collider (LHC) said that their two teams had independently observed a particle consistent with the Higgs, which has until now been theoretical rather than a sure thing. The Higgs boson is thought to be responsible for mass in the otherwise-already-proven standard model of physics.

The scientists say they have more than "five-sigma" certainty that the particle they saw was the Higgs boson, which means they are 99.99999 … Read more

So, how difficult is it to make a low-power-consumption monitor? Well, if this list is any indication, not very. However, among the lowest of low-power-consumption monitors, there's usually one common factor: Twisted Nematic (TN) panels.

Any company can make a low-power-consumption TN-based monitor, though, so a list consisting of only TN monitors would be pretty boring. What would be slightly less boring is a list consisting of In-Plane Switching (IPS) monitors that draw relatively small amounts of power to function. That is a list to get somewhat more excited about. So, I've decided to make that list.

To be clear, the difference you'd pay per year running these things -- using our formula -- is small in the grand scheme of things.

Still, I thought it would be interesting to see just how low IPS monitors can go.… Read more

Forgive me if I'm absolutely sick and tired of military shooters. It seems that no matter what time of year, there's always a war game that's ready to thrust you into some third-world country and have you shoot a bunch of bad guys for 8 to 10 hours.

The format is severely outplayed, so it's no surprise that going into Spec Ops: The Line I was expecting more of the same. Thankfully, Spec Ops deviates away from conventional shooters to the point that it can be enjoyed independently, all while maintaining a very mature and gritty storyline. It's one of the first games to really vilify war, rather than reward it.… Read more

Too busy airbrushing photos of your cat this week to keep up with Crave? Put down Fluffy's feline glamour shots for a moment and catch up on what you missed.

• Google's Nexus tablet arrived -- and promptly showed up on eBay.

• Lego and Google Maps: Need we say more?

• For traveling troubadours, the folding Voyage-Air Guitar.

• Shocking! Anklet lets you harness static electricity through your fingertips. … Read more

Google gave a demonstration on how to create buzz for a product -- even if it's one that consumers won't see for a couple of years.

The first Project Glass products -- Google's network-enabled, computerized glasses -- are set to ship to a select group of enthusiasts early next year, co-founder Sergey Brin said this week at the I/O developers conference. The glasses will be available only to Google I/O attendees who are in the United States. The geographic restriction is for regulatory reasons, Brin said. (Different countries have different requirements for radio-frequency emissions.)

Google … Read more

Spoiler alert: the new iPad is one tough device.

I'll leave a little mystery for you: I won't tell you exactly what we did to the iPad in our first-ever Always On torture test, but generally speaking, we tried to simulate some of the toughest tests that real life throws at our devices, like say, when we leave them in cars in inclement weather, or they fall, or ... well, darnit, now I'm verging on spoiling the tests.

What I'm trying to say, though, is that we weren't just stunt joyriding by shoving the iPad in … Read more