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One week after its release, Diablo III remains the only PC game anyone is talking about. Some of that talk is about how the game, a decade in the making, is a huge hit, with millions of copies presold before the May 15 launch. But much of the talk is also about the big bet developer and publisher Blizzard is making by forcing even solitary players to log in online to play.

Dan: I've spent years attempting to divine the line between mainstream and enthusiast gaming, trying to figure out which games could cross over into popular culture, and which ones were going to stay locked into a small, but dedicated, core audience.… Read more

It's official, Samsung's next superphone is destined for T-Mobile and AT&T. At least, that's what industry interest group the Bluetooth SIG seems to think. Apparently the body has approved T-Mobile and AT&T flavors of the mighty Galaxy S III. … Read more

We have lift-off! It's a new era for social media, space exploration and... shoes?

Update: The SpaceX rocket launch was aborted at the last minute and rescheduled for Tuesday, May 22 at 3:44 a.m. Eastern.

Facebook ended its first publicly traded day right where it began: at $38 a share. CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang in the Nasdaq opening bell virtually from the Silicon Valley campus, and later, shares began trading at around $42 each. Facebook's bankers saved the IPO, keeping shares barely above $38. From this IPO, Facebook raised $16 billion. That's almost 10 times … Read more

Samsung's Galaxy S III has scooped up 9 million pre-orders, Reuters said today, based on information from the Korean Economic Daily.

Already finding a home among more than 100 global carriers, the Galaxy S III will debut in Germany on May 29 and then expand around the world. Citing an "unidentified Samsung official," the Korean news outlet said that Samung's South Korean factory was operating at full capacity to produce 5 million units of the new phone per month.

Samsung declined to comment on the report to Reuters. CNET also contacted Samsung for comment and will … Read more

The epic Diablo III role-playing game experienced several hiccups on launch day today as players reported numerous errors preventing gameplay. Not long after the midnight launch, some concerned players hit parent company Blizzard's Battle.net support forums with concerns about "Error 3006," perhaps the worst error seen so far.

The bug, which only affects the Demon Hunter class, supposedly occurs when one equips a Templar follower with a shield early in the game. Performing this action reportedly causes the game to disconnect the player immediately, and then follows up with a disastrous repetitive "Error 75" that continuously prevents the user from further log-in. … Read more

Methinks the folks at Samsung's ad agency have been watching too much "Mad Men." When the company unveiled the Galaxy S III in London recently, the Korean phonemaker told us time and again its new flagship Android phone is "designed for humans." Today it revealed a new ad that somehow manages to take this little bit of slogan stupidity to a new level.

The 60-second advertisement inexplicably starts out with a shot of a woman pretty clearly being felt up before melting into a montage of stock milestones from a stock lifetime -- wedding, childbirth, recital, etc. Presumably, I suppose, we should believe that the Galaxy S III is along for the ride all the way and although there's no way to tell it from the ad, Samsung's note for the video on YouTube inform us that it also "recognizes your voice (and) understands your intention."

Well that's very helpful. Now I'll have some help understanding what the guy with his hands all over the woman's chest in the first five seconds was intending.… Read more

In today's show, we're buying status updates, finding a new route and building a new game addiction:

Would you pay $2 to get your Facebook status message seen by more people? It's something Facebook is testing in New Zealand. (And tell me your two-cents on the issue via Tout!)

The Foxconn factory for Apple products is preparing to build the much anticipated Apple television set. The chief at the Foxconn spilled the beans in a news conference.

According to 9to5Mac, the next version of iOS will not include Google Maps. Rather, it will have Apple's own mapping software. … Read more

Diablo III isn't just Blizzard's most preordered effort ever; it's also Amazon's most preordered PC game of all time.

A representative of the online retailer told GameSpot this morning that the action role-playing game today became the site's most preordered PC game ever, beating out previous Blizzard efforts like Starcraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Read more of "Diablo III Amazon's most preordered PC game ever" at GameSpot.… Read more

NEW ORLEANS--After three furious days, CTIA 2012 has come to a close. Though a visit to the Crescent City always is enjoyable, this year's event was a little quieter than in past years. But that doesn't mean we didn't see some very cool stuff. Here's what the CNET team picked as the Best of CTIA 2012.

Best phone: Samsung Galaxy S III Samsung may have unveiled its Samsung Galaxy S III flagship phone days before CTIA 2012 kicked off, but CTIA was our first chance to handle it. And at the end of the day, the … Read more