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Sony's latest Walkman lineup sizzles

Editor's note: For CNET's initial impressions of the F800 and E470 please see our First Take.

Sony, as is typical for this time of year, has refreshed its Walkman lineup for the fall. Take a look at our breakdown of the new devices:

Sony F800 series Android Walkman At first glance, Sony's F800 Walkman, due in the U.S. this August, looks uninspiring, but it actually packs a feature never before seen in a Walkman. We'll discuss that later.

First, the basics. The Walkman F series features a 3.5-inch multitouch-capable LCD screen and a Tegra 2 (dual-core) processor running Android 4.0. In its press release, the company wastes no time mentioning Google Play and Music Unlimited support. Unfortunately, it appears Sony decided to play capacities conservatively with 16GB ($269) and 32GB ($299) options (Europe gets an additional 8GB model). CNET queried Sony as to why it didn't go with a 64GB option F series for music aficionados, and a representative said that "if there was expressed demand for it, we could consider it, but it was not offered at this time due to current demand statistics."

The F's aesthetics look typical for Sony's current design mantra: minimalism across the board, thin profile (2.23 inches wide by 4.5 inches high by 0.3 inches deep), and a thoughtful throwback Walkman logo to please the reminiscent. … Read more

Episode 5: We get physical!

Hello Internet. Eileen here, Supervising Producer for Always On. Molly is on vacation, so I'm filling in to give you a little background on this week's episode!

This week we get physical! Molly is in the best shape of her life and was inspired by her road test of both the Nike+ FuelBand and Fit Bit Ultra to enter her first half-marathon! She said to me, "I think we need to stay true to the extreme nature of the show. How about I sign up for a half-marathon?!?"

At first I thought she was crazy to … Read more

Keep crap out of your Google searches with Personal Assistant

Google remains the top Internet search engine, though it sometimes seems like an afterthought next to Google's more ambitious efforts, such as driving your car for you. But if you Google "Google," the top hits still refer to the online giant's bread and butter, searching for information. And Google hasn't exactly been ignoring the search side of the business while it's branched out into, well, pretty much everything else. Google's Personal Blocklist addresses one of the biggest shortcomings of Google's search engine, or any search engine, for that matter; the tendency to … Read more

Writefit Software Suite

Writefit Software Suite offers you four programs combined in one package, but we weren't all that impressed with the individual programs or the overall design. And users should be prepared for quite a bit of data entry to get the suite set up.

The application's initial interface is very plain but easily understood. You're presented with four large buttons, one for each of the programs: Web Address Book, Data Confidential, ChequeWealth, and TimeWatch. There's also a smaller button to help you get started that guides you through each program. Understanding how to use the program shouldn'… Read more

U.K. to reopen probe of Google Street View data collection

Google is facing renewed privacy scrutiny in Britain, as a U.K. regulator reopens its investigation into how the Web giant's Street View program gathered personal data.

The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office announced today that it was motivated to reopen its probe, after information provided in an earlier U.K. investigation appears to have been contradicted by the Federal Communications Commission, which found in April that Google's data collection had not broken the law.

"During the course of our investigation, we were specifically told by Google that it was a simple mistake, and if the … Read more

Manage your budget with Personal Budget VP

There are plenty of tools available for managing your budget, from the old-fashioned envelope method to Web sites that automatically import and categorize your bank transactions. Personal Budget VP falls somewhere in the middle between these two options; it lets you keep track of your budget electronically, but it requires lots of manual data entry.

Personal Budget VP's interface isn't particularly impressive, but it's easy enough to navigate. You first specify the currency you want to use and then identify income sources. Setting up the actual budget is simply a process of creating a new expense plan … Read more

RIAA CEO Cary Sherman walks into tech 'lion's den'

NEW YORK -- No one hooted or jeered when Cary Sherman took the stage today at the Personal Democracy Forum 2012.

That's worth noting, because Sherman is CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group of the top four recording companies, and because the forum crowd was full of politically minded techies that -- it's safe to say -- feel some antipathy for the RIAA. OK, some of these people downright hate the RIAA.

All you have to do to measure the degree of animosity for the RIAA is read the user comments of any … Read more

Anti-SOPA, PIPA lawmakers want Internet Bill of Rights

The two lawmakers who spearheaded a protest in January against controversial antipiracy legislation said today that they want the country to adopt an Internet Bill of Rights.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said today at the Personal Democracy Forum 2012 in New York that the country needs a way to guarantee citizens their Internet freedoms.

"What we need is a way to measure how we're going to ensure the voice of [Internet] networks is protected," Wyden said during an interview the two lawmakers gave to Andrew Rasiej, an entrepreneur and founder of the … Read more

Personalized superhero action figures: You are Iron Man!

Advances in 3D printing hold great promise for the creation of drugs, medical implants, prosthetics, and now superhero action figure versions of ourselves.

The $125 Personalized Superhero Action Figure available from Firebox is several big steps up from doodling a superhero version of yourself on the inside of your Trapper pocket folder.

It's pretty simple to turn yourself into a mini-me full of rippling muscles and superhuman strength. Take two pictures of yourself, one from the front and one from the side. Send them in to Firebox. Wait for the 3D-printed version of your head and your choice of action figure to arrive.… Read more

Twitter's strange Discovery engine

I am an admitted Twitter addict. I spend at least a few, intermittent hours a day scanning the river of tweets in my feed and lists to see what is happening in the world, especially the tech world that I cover for CNET. The challenge is keeping up with the flow of tweets.

I would guess that I miss 90 percent of my main Twitter feed of over 1,000 sources across several topics. If I am busy in a meeting or writing a story, I come back to 1,000 to 2,500 unread tweets, and I am not … Read more