review

Too busy planning for Geek Pride Day to keep up with Crave this week? Well, take your eyes off the circuit boards and computer code on your Geek Sneaks for a moment and catch up on what you missed.

• Can't make it to Dubai to snag a Galaxy S III? Get the S III experience on your S II right now.

• Put all the big iPhone 5 rumors together and here's what you get.

• New Android home screen is a real Chameleon.

• Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 together at last. … Read more

As Facebook's stock started its first week of trading, there were some startling allegations as to why the stock was tanking.

Facebook itself may be responsible for investors' tepid response to the social network's stock, which has been mostly falling since it went public on May 18. (As of Friday morning, Facebook shares were bouncing around the $32 level, down about 16 percent from the $38 IPO pricing.)

Initially, it looks like Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter on the massive offering, was to blame for allegedly telling major clients it had reduced its revenue forecast for the company, … Read more

Most 23-inch, LED-based monitors are very basic, general-purpose devices that likely won't impress you with their viewing angles. That's because most monitors feature Twisted Nematic (TN) panels, which are cheap (hence their ubiquity), but usually suffer in terms of viewing angle.

Simply put, when viewed from any angle other than directly in front, images on TN panels become more difficult to see.

The HP 2311xi, however, houses an in-plane switching (IPS) panel. IPS panels enjoy much wider viewing angles than TN panels, but are usually more expensive.

The catch here is that the 2311xi isn't expensive. In … Read more

I prefer to not play games in 3D. Aside from the stress it puts on my eyes, there's something about the stereo effect where it never becomes completely seamless. It never melts into the background and, for me at least, is constantly drawing my attention away from the actual game.

However, I understand that there are those who appreciate 3D much more than I do, and if I were going to invest in a 3D monitor, the following five are the ones I'd choose from. Just to be clear, these are the best monitors for 3D gaming, not the best overall monitors that happen to have a 3D component.… Read more

Too busy buying Facebook stock to keep up with Crave? Here's what you missed while you were tracking Facebook's IPO, which, it turns out, didn't quite live up to the hype.

• When the grid fails you, Sony's hand-crank charger will juice your devices.

• Relive the glorious 1980s with this delightfully chunky case for your iPhone.

• Excuse me, but is that a robot on your pants?

• Steve Jobs wanted to create an iCar.

• Now even the clothes hanger hangs out on Facebook. … Read more

What's a reviews editor to do when a week passes without a single major hardware announcement? With no frenzied launch events to stalk and no 24-hour-turnaround product reviews to write, your average tech journalist just pours a glass of bourbon, kicks back, and plays Max Payne 3 until his eyes bleed. But not us. We dug deeper. We found a really freaking cool laptop desk. Truly, we did -- it's downright chilly.

We're fans of this one, peeps The NZXT Cryo E40 is a laptop desk for the type of gamer (or author, or coder) who might … Read more

week in review The world's largest social-networking company finally went public -- but the event lacked the punch many had expected from the third-largest IPO in history.

After a 30-minute delay in the stock's anticipated opening, shares took observers on a bit of a rollercoaster ride, shooting up to $43.20 from their $38 opening and then dropping back down to a break-even price.

The company raised $16 billion on the sale of 421.2 million shares in the offering, putting it at a valuation of $104.1 billion.

When it debuted a few years ago, the Nvidia 3D Vision Kit required four components to work properly: 3D glasses, an Nvidia graphics card, a compatible display, and a separate, USB-connected 3D emitter.

In the time since that debut, not much has changed. But, while all four of those things are still required, some manufacturers have figured out how to make the process a bit more streamlined and instead of a separate USB-connected device, Asus builds the emitter into the monitor.

The VG278H also includes Nvidia's 3D Vision Kit 2 glasses; a much better-designed pair of 3D glasses compared … Read more

Arriving just in time to distract you from BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider being punted into 2013, Max Payne 3 marks the latest Rockstar Games release since last year's ambitious L.A. Noire.

Max Payne is a franchise deeply rooted in PC gaming territory, so we took it for a spin on an Xbox 360 to see if the old guy's still got it.… Read more