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Election, iPhone 5 top Yahoo's list of 2012's popular searches

The iPhone 5 couldn't quite edge out the election to be No. 1 on Yahoo's list of most-searched terms for 2012. But it came pretty close.

Yahoo today released its data for the most-searched terms in 2012. The lists include information on "obsessions" (viral sensations), memes, gadgets, Olympians, sports teams, songs/music lyrics, TV comedies, "what is" searches, how-to searches, recipes, and several others.

At the top of the list of terms most searched overall, unsurprisingly, was "election," followed by iPhone 5. Rounding out the top five were Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, … Read more

Copyright scare spreads on Facebook

Tuesday's CNET Update has a cyber-shopping hangover:

Today's tech news roundup looks at the Cyber Monday shopping surge and how Amazon's Kindle Fire was a hot seller.

Also, don't be fooled by the status updates spreading on Facebook about copyright. It's a hoax. Nothing that you put in your status message will change the policies you agree to when you sign up for an online service.

In Apple news, iPhone owners can use Siri in some Chevy cars next year, with Chevy MyLink. And the new iMac all-in-one desktops will be on sale Friday.

And … Read more

Apple tells maps manager to get lost, report says

Apple has fired the manager in charge of its controversial mapping software, according to a new report.

Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue recently fired Richard Williamson, who was in charge of the company's maps software for iOS. Cue took over the maps product last month.

Williamson had been with Apple since 2001 and at Steve Jobs' NeXT Computer before that. His most recent role, according to his LinkedIn profile, was the senior director of Apple's iOS services team. He's also listed on numerous Apple patents, including one the company was granted … Read more

Bing's top searches reveal iPhone 5 as No. 1 news story

Believe it or not but the No. 1 most searched for news story on Bing this year has been the launch of Apple's iPhone 5. In fact, the debut of this device beat out the 2012 presidential election, the Olympics, and Superstorm Sandy, which followed respectively for the next top searches. The Honey Boo Boo reality TV show came in at No. 5.

Microsoft released its data on the top searched terms for 2012 today. The lists include information on travel destinations, fashion labels, celebrities, consumer electronics, fast food chains, and more. The tallies of the data are based … Read more

Kindle Fire on sale for $129 today

More people are interested in the Kindle Fire HD, which starts at $199. But for those who don't want to spend that much, Amazon is running a Cyber Monday deal on the entry-level Kindle Fire (8GB), which was updated a couple months ago with a faster processor.

Enter the promotional code "FIREDEAL" at checkout and you can pick up the "new" Kindle Fire for $129, or $30 off its list price. That's a pretty nice deal, though I'd personally opt for the Fire HD.

This is the second time in the last few … Read more

Tablet display shipments jump, top laptops in October

Only days after a report anticipating a surge in tablet shipments, it's official: Tablet display shipments topped laptops in October, said NPD DisplaySearch today.

"In a milestone for the global industry, in October tablet PC panel shipments exceeded those of notebook PC panels," NPD DisplaySearch said today in a research note.

Because display panel shipments are always the leading indicator for device shipments, "it can be seen that tablet PCs are threatening to overtake notebooks," DisplaySearch said.

So, is this a snapshot of the laptop in decline or just a fluke?

Here's how DisplaySearch … Read more

iPad Mini vs. Kindle Fire HD 8.9 vs. Nook HD+

Life in the tablet category used to be simple. There were 7-inchers and 10-inchers and comparisons only occurred within each tablet's size category. This year however, Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble have successfully muddied the once-clear waters by respectfully releasing 7.9-inch, 8.9-inch, and 9-inch tablets.

So how do they compare? Let's find out.

Screen The iPad Mini's 7.9-inch, 1,024x768-pixel screen has wide viewing angles and good color reproduction, but when it comes to resolution, it can't hold a candle to either the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 nor the Barnes & Noble Nook HD+. … Read more

Tablet shipments to top laptops: Thank Nexus 7, iPad Mini

Tablet shipments will eclipse laptops for the first time in North America, driven by price and variety, says NPD DisplaySearch.

Popular $199 models and a wider variety of sizes will propel fourth-quarter tablet shipments to 21.5 million units, "far exceeding" the 14.6 million laptops that are expected to ship in the same period, according to a forecast today by DisplaySearch's Richard Shim.

And starting in 2013 in North America, tablet shipments are expected to exceed notebook shipments on an annual basis for the first time; 80 million tablets versus 63.8 million notebooks, he said. … Read more

Digital storage basics, Part 2: External drive vs. NAS server

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Now that you have some ideas about internal storage vs. memory after reading Part 1, here in Part 2 I'll talk about the two main types of external storage devices: direct-attached storage (DAS) and network-attached storage (NAS).

DAS and NAS share a few things in common. They both use one or more internal drives (hard drives or SSDs) on the inside, and they utilize the same methods to combine drives' storage space (when multiple drives are used). But before we … Read more