commons

My life among the Kindles: Comparing the models

In less than a year, I've gone from mocking e-books to never wanting to buy a print book again. Blame the Amazon Kindle. I've found it a great way to read.

A new generation of Kindles came out at the end of last year, including the Kindle Fire tablet. Here's how I've found them to measure up against each other, over the past four months or so.

Kindle's cool, but e-book high prices and limitations aren't Before I dive into the Kindles, let me get two issues that I hate about the Kindle out … Read more

Get free images for your Web site

The Creative Commons license system has been a real boon for publishers on a budget. If you need images but can't pay for them or create then yourself, CCFinder is a Windows app that lets you find them easily.

Install CCFinder.Launch the program and register with Abelssoft. It wants your e-mail address and name only.There are a few different varieties of CC licensing, so you'll need to choose whether you want pics that are freely usable without limitation, those requiring attribution, or those that require permission. You can also decide to search for pictures that may … Read more

No one likes a fanboy. How about more perspective about tech?

Some people--often called "fanboys"--support their favorite tech companies and products in the way that rabid sports fans root for their favorite teams. This column is for the fanboys out there. It's time to realize that criticism can be helpful.

When non-fanboys criticize one of your favorites, it doesn't necessarily mean that we hate it. We might actually like it. We just might have more perspective that you could use. Understand that, and you might come across as less annoying. You might also help the products you love get better.

Last week was my first week … Read more

You've got bad mail: Android needs a better e-mail app

One of the most popular apps for smartphones and tablets won't show up on the "Most Popular" lists at iTunes or at Google Play. E-mail is the app, and it's built into our devices. Doing e-mail on the iPhone or the iPad is a pleasure. E-mail on Android phones and tablets is a disappointing crapshoot. That should change.

Pew Internet reported last year that e-mail was the fourth-most popular activity among smartphone owners in the U.S., done by 76 percent of them. E-mail was beat only by texting, taking pictures, … Read more

Welcome to 'Common Sense Tech'

I'm excited to be penning a new column for CNET--"Common Sense Tech." For my first piece, I wanted to introduce myself to readers and explain what you can expect here. In short, some practical tips, some "why doesn't this work better" pieces, and the occasional rant, when deemed necessary.

Most of my tech writing has revolved around search engines. I've been covering how they work, both for marketers and for consumers, for nearly 16 years now. When I started, we had no Google. Instead, we walked through the snow for six miles … Read more

Joi Ito dives into the MIT Media Lab (Q&A)

Consider this list of institutions and companies that are at the center of the Internet and technology worlds: Creative Commons, Mozilla, Technorati, ICANN, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Twitter, Six Apart, and Flickr. What do they all have in common?

If you answered Joi Ito, you're spot on. And now you can add the MIT Media Lab to that list. Ito is a Japanese venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has been running and investing in technology companies like those listed above and serving on the boards of important institutions for years. And on Monday, he was … Read more

Sprint's Common Cents plan to become Virgin Mobile PayLo

Sprint will discontinue its Common Cents prepaid plan, CNET learned today, and will instead transition existing customers into the PayLo plan run by Virgin Mobile, a different Sprint prepaid brand.

Sprint and Wal-Mart launched Common Cents as an in-store brand last May to compete against retail handsets like TracFone's StraightTalk brand, but the program wasn't rolled out nationally. Existing Common Cents customers will join Virgin Mobile this May, cutting off the plan's lifespan at one year.

"Current Common Cents customers need not … Read more

Amazon adds Wikipedia to book-shopping pages

Last month, e-commerce marketplace Amazon.com launched a relatively unnoticed new feature that brings content from Wikipedia pages to its own servers in a shadowy new project that appears to be called "Shopping Enabled Wikipedia Pages." Hosted on the Amazon.com domain, they replicate Wikipedia's content but have added links to where a book can be purchased on Amazon.

"Shopping-enabled Wikipedia pages are a new introduction on Amazon.com," Amazon spokeswoman Anya Waring told CNET when asked via e-mail. "As of November, we have rolled [the feature] out in the books category; however, [it] … Read more

Poll: 72 percent of adults back violent-game law

A whopping 72 percent of adults believe a law should remain in place to block the sale of "ultraviolent or sexually violent" video games, according to a poll commissioned by Common Sense Media.

The survey, which includes data from 2,100 adults interviewed last month, found that adults have a real problem with violent and sexually explicit titles. In fact, 65 percent of parents said that they're "concerned about the impact of ultraviolent video games on their kids." And 75 percent of parents said that they "would give the video game industry a negative … Read more

Sprint expands Common Cents service

Sprint is quickly taking reins of the prepaid market with the growing expansion of its Common Cents service to another 500 Wal-Mart Stores in Chicago, New Orleans, Cincinatti, Washington, D.C., and more. Common Cents was launched back in May and offers a cheap pay-as-you-go service promising 7 cents per minute or 7 cents per text. You pay via $20 refill cards that are good for 30 days, or $30 cards that are good for 60 days. As a promotion, Common Cents will also offer an additional 200 bonus minutes for domestic use when the phone is filled for the … Read more