cnet

Is this your Kindle?

On her way back from the airport the other day, our photo editor Sarah found a Kindle in the back seat of a New York City taxi cab. Being the honest person she is, she asked me if there was any way to get it back to the owner.

Well, it's actually not that easy to track down the owner of Kindle, especially if that person has a fairly common first and last name, as the owner of this Kindle does. We actually e-mailed him at the Kindle address that's registered to the device but it doesn't … Read more

The six best 16:9 LCD monitors for your viewing pleasure

I've talked a lot about 16:9 lately. Some people like it, others don't. For me, it depends on the monitor. For example, I love the idea of a 16:9, 23-inch monitor like the Dell SP2309W running at a super high native resolution of 2048x1152. Or even a 21.5-incher like the Lenovo L215p running at 1,920x1,080.

On the other hand, a 20-inch, 16:9-er like the HP 2009m running at 1,600x900, is a little disconcerting when a 16:10 20-incher would have a slightly larger 1,680x1,050 resolution.

Anyway, choosing which aspect … Read more

Inside CNET Labs 59: An authority figure

Due to technical difficulties, this week's show is shorter than usual. We still try to pack in the delicious, creamy, goodness though.

First up, Dong is in New York this week, so we get to hear all about his adventures befriending random strangers, how bullets holes in your car are now a trend, and his thoughts on ghost riding.

In technology, it's about how much Netbooks suck, multitasking, and how the GPS apps Dong's reviewing for the iPhone are plentiful and kind of crappy.

Finally, Dong quickly answers a dual-band router and streaming question, before we're … Read more

This Week's Apple Byte: Is Snow Leopard finger friendly?

CNET TV's Brian Tong takes a look at the latest news stories from the last week involving our favorite Cupertino computer maker, Apple. This week, Apple confirms that September 9th will be the date for the now annual music event which generally unveils the latest iPods and iTunes features. Brian also delves into the possibility that Snow Leopard is touchscreen compatible and how MobileMe's Find My iPhone feature has once again been used to fight crime. All this, and a look at the new Facebook 3.0 iPhone App in this week's Apple Byte.

Format a drive for Mac OS X and Windows

This CNET TV video gives you step-by-step instructions on how to set up your external hard drive so it can be used on a Windows machine and on your Mac. Keep in mind that the process described in the video is using Mac OS X 10.5.x Leopard, though the process is essentially the same in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.… Read more

The 404 418: Where it's Dong Ngo we're talking about here

After multiple cancellations and attempts to get him on the show, Mr. Ngo is finally in the 404 studio in New York! We're excited to pick his brain on all the new advancements in the CNET labs, but we get sidetracked by the most random conversations. Dong and I have a special relationship (don't go there): Dong was actually the first person I met when I first started working at CNET! In fact, you could consider him my printer mentor! Thanks, Dong.

Since we have Dong in the hot seat, we take this opportunity to pick his brain about his experiences coming to America from Vietnam. As you can imagine, it took the young Dong awhile to adjust to our idioms and figures of speech, which he illustrates beautifully in a cheeky story involving an attractive blond woman and a big, yellow Hummer.

In addition, Dong surprises us all and tell us that it was actually Michael Jackson who inspired him to learn English! I can just imagine little Dong saying "Who is the Man in the Mirror and why are we asking him to change his ways?"

Believe it or not, we finally arrive at an actual news story in the second half of the show. This one is about a Japanese teddy bear robot nurse named RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) meant to transport the elderly and handicapped in its creepy outstretched arms. Has anyone noticed that it looks a lot like a certain bear meme?

Either way, we all take issue with the fact that the bear can only hold up to 134 pounds in its foam-padded paws! Clearly this robot ain't picking any Americans up anytime soon. I think we actually have babies that weigh more than that.

Big thanks goes out to Paul Ramsay for inviting us to last night's hypnotism show at the Julliard Academy. It was tons of fun--who knew a group of kids could Riverdance so well!? Maybe you can help Jeff through his knife phobia! If you're not familiar with Paul's work, be sure to check out his appearance on our show. Also, head over to the Inside CNET Labs Podcast to catch more of Dong Ngo's crazy antics.

EPISODE 418 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Windows 7 to boost battery life

In today's podcast we talk about the sale of Skype, iRobot's U.S. Army contract, and the NFL's new rules that ban the use of Twitter, Facebook, and other social-networking tools before, during, and after games. We also get CNET senior editor Stephen Shankland in the studio to talk about Windows 7 and its newly flaunted battery-conserving prowess. Is it worth the upgrade just for this feature? Listen to find out.

Today's stories:

Sold! eBay jettisons Skype in $2 billion deal

NFL bans tweeting before, during, after games

iRobot gets single biggest order from Army

Western Digital ships high-speed 2TB drive… Read more

Inside CNET Labs 58: 3.5 bounces faster!

This week, we take a look at advertising and discuss what makes people identify with certain products. For example, some people consider themselves Macs and other PCs. The way I see it, people just want to feel that they are a part of something. I wish I would have thought to say that during the podcast...

Then we go in-depth with Snow Leopard(Mac OS X 10.6) and attempt to calculate how many bounces faster it is than 10.5.

Finally, in e-mails Dong gets some questions about Vietnamese restaurants he attempts to dodge, but I catch him in … Read more

Inside CNET Labs 57: This is what we do...in Finland

We get off and running this week about 32-bit programming versus 64-bit programming. Dong exposes the huge differences between the two and the level of talent it takes to program in both. /sarcasm...

Then, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. As you all know, Dong and I are WoW players, so bear with us as we go overlong, discussing the ins and outs of the new WoW expansion. We're both extremely excited about the prospects of this, but Dong is just better at hiding his enthusiasm.

We move on to iPhone GPS apps for the 3G and 3GS. Apparently, they all … Read more

PS3 Slim: The official CNET review

Back in 2004, four years after first launching the PlayStation 2, Sony brought out a new, much more compact PS2. Timed to come out just as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was hitting stores, the redesigned console helped breath new life into the PS2 franchise. It remains on store shelves today--you can pick one up for just $99.

Needless to say, Sony hopes that a trimmed-down--and less expensive--PS3 Slim will similarly invigorate sales of the PlayStation 3, which has lagged behind the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 and has taken some of the luster off the PlayStation brand (… Read more