poll

The release of the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone will be remembered as either a breath of new life for the company or a last gasp as it fell into irrelevance. By all accounts, the Z10 is a tremendous step forward in design and hardware over previous BlackBerrys, but it's coming at a time when the smartphone market is crowded with established contenders with massive app stores already in place.

CNET contributor Ben Parr says that the Z10 and its keyboard-wielding buddy Q10 face a major deficit on the app front. He argues that iOS and Android have an insurmountable lead in the app race, meaning the Z10 will never attract the new customers BlackBerry needs to grow and survive.… Read more

The National Rifle Association's recent release of an App Store game called NRA: Practice Range has stirred up an impressive amount of controversy lately. Supporters and detractors alike are chiming in on the app and an online petition has been started demanding its removal from the App Store.

The reviews in the App Store range from complaints about the bad controls to users praising the gun safety tips.

I checked out the app for myself. As far as first-person shooters go, it's pretty innocuous. There's no blood spurting out from the vaguely humanoid indoor range targets. For … Read more

If you've never been to CES, it's a little like wading through a tsunami of shiny plastic and thousands of people.

The annual tide of techno-froth rises and falls, and what's hot this year is not next year. Sometimes the experience can come across rather like the proverbial sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Especially considering that tech giants are staying away en masse. Of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Samsung, only Samsung has an official presence at the show.

Apple hasn't participated since 1992, though hundreds of companies at CES show off Apple accessories, and Microsoft recently dropped out. … Read more

Asking your friends on Twitter or Facebook a question is a great way to start a conversation, but not everyone takes the time to give a detailed answer. The next time you have an important question to ask, try asking it by creating a poll using GoPollGo's iPhone app. Hopefully more friends will be able to quickly select an answer, giving you more input on the topic than you'd normally see.

Creating a poll via the app is simple. Enter your question, an optional description and any possible answers for the question you have posed. Don't worry … Read more

I have a bone to pick with predictions. I was supposed to have my own personal jetpack by the year 2000. I'm still waiting. That's why I'm just a little skeptical about this BBC Future infographic that looks ahead a century and a half.

As we reported earlier this week, the infographic is packed with predictions ranging from "most likely" to "least likely" from 2013 until 150 years into the future.

For this year, the BBC is giving us pretty good chances that the Great Firewall of China will fall and that doctors … Read more

Instagram and its owner Facebook really stepped into it this week. A new terms of service update set to go into effect on January 16 would have given Instagram the right to sell users' photos or use them in ads.

As you might expect, the prospect of Instagram running rampant with photos didn't sit well with its 100 million users. The interest in escaping Instagram grew, with nearly 6,000 readers sharing over Facebook CNET's instructions for backing up and deleting their Instagram accounts.

It took a little while, but Instagram finally coughed out an apology and backtracked … Read more

There can be only one. The Samsung Galaxy S3 lopped the heads off of all comers to claim the top spot in CNET's roundup of the best tech products of 2012.

CNET editors placed the contenders in an imaginary fight cage and let them battle it out like so many boxing robots. Only five devices were still standing at the end. The iPhone 5 was left holding the tossed-off bridal bouquet while the Samsung Galaxy S3 hopped into a limo for its honeymoon with the "best tech product of 2012" designation.… Read more

A lot of things have jumped the shark. The Fonz did it first, literally donning water skis for the stunt and marking the beginning of the end for "Happy Days."

MySpace did it. Even the phrase "jumped the shark" has done it.

And what about the most popular social-networking site? In some people's eyes, Facebook is pulling on its swim trunks and eyeing the big beastie.

Bradley Horowitz, chief of rival Google+, argues that Facebook has already landed on the other side of the shark. Horowitz recently called Facebook out for the way it implements … Read more

Mobile Thursday. Black Friday. Small Business Saturday. Cyber Monday. What, there's no love for shopping on Sunday? The Thanksgiving holiday has turned from a single Friday of frenzy into a whole extended shopping weekend of weirdness.

Retailers have already been running Black Friday specials all week long, diluting the concept of a single day dedicated to shopping bargain madness. Digital ad agency Digitas crunched survey numbers and decided the holiday shopping season actually starts at 5:23 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving Day, thanks to a growing number of people making purchases with their mobile devices.

The rise of Mobile Thursday … Read more