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The 404 1,048: Where we can't believe how much it made (podcast)

$200 million. That's how much money "The Avengers" brought in this weekend. And who says the movie industry is in trouble? On today's show we welcome CNET editor Scott Stein to the show and discuss the disgusting amount of money Joss Whedon's Marvel mash-up accumulated. We'll compare it to the other top weekend grossing film of the past 30 years and then decide on whether or not "The Dark Knight Rises" will join the list.

Next we'll get into a discussion about the possibility of an $800 MacBook Air and whether or not Apple settled on the design of the iPad 3. Finally, it's an E3 2012 preview. Scott and I will be at the big show in Los Angeles next month and have some pretty bleak outlooks on what the world's biggest video game expo will bring.… Read more

Cloud-based storage options for Mac OS X

With more and more computing devices becoming mobile or located in different areas besides the desktop, the need for online storage and syncing options to manage files created or edited on these devices is increasingly important. To tackle this need, Apple has explored various approaches to online document management and sharing with its MobileMe and .Mac services, but these options have been phased out in favor of newer and more integrated approaches to online storage and syncing options.

Apple has its online storage offerings that so far have culminated into its iCloud service, but there are others as well, which … Read more

Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox? Heck, use 'em all!

It's true that the newly launched Google Drive competes with plenty of other services for sharing files across all your devices. But there's something very different in this particular situation than in a lot of online services.

Namely this: why not use them all?

With social networking, few people have the patience to keep a lively feed of activity at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and any number of other sites. We gravitate toward the one where our contacts are active.

And with e-mail, it's inconvenient to have multiple addresses on multiple services, generally speaking.

But with … Read more

Google Drive: It's slick, integrated...and not exactly free

Google is set today to open Google Drive, a service to store files online and share them among various computing devices that turns out to be a lot more important than you might think.

Why? Two reasons:

First, Google's service goes well beyond rivals because of integration with Google Docs, Google+, Gmail, and other services. Second, beyond a basic free level, ordinary consumers will pay to use Google Drive -- not much, but enough to make them into customers, not just users of an advertising-subsidized service. That's a pretty big philosophical shift for Google.

What is Google Drive? … Read more

The 404 1,036: Where they should make a movie out of that (podcast)

Nike is introducing a new RSVP system on Twitter to handle the release of its limited edition sneakers, and we think Microsoft and Sony should adopt a similar model for their new consoles so fools like Jeff won't have to camp out in the cold.… Read more

CloudOn MS Office iPad app adds PDF viewer and e-mail option

With its latest update, CloudOn's free MS Office app for the iPad just keeps getting better.

Designed as a tablet-friendly version of Microsoft Office, CloudOn includes full-featured mobile editions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You can create new documents, edit existing ones, and store your files online for easy access. I use the app quite often to open and edit several documents stored through my DropBox account.

Version 2 adds the ability to open Adobe PDFs, a nice addition for me as I house a lot of PDFs online to use as reference material. A toolbar at the top … Read more

D-Link ships streaming-only MovieNite media player

D-Link announced today its latest streaming device, which is a stripped-down version of its Boxee Box, called the MovieNite.

Unlike the Boxee, that in addition to streaming can play back content stored on a plugged-in external hard drive, the MovieNite is a stream-only device. It supports popular steaming services, including Vudu, Netflix, Pandora and YouTube.

To make up for this, the new device costs just about one third the price of the Boxee Box, at around $60.

The MovieNite comes with just one HDMI port and supports up to 1080p high-def streaming content. It supports wireless N standard and a … Read more

Best Buy's silver lining: Its mobile business

At least Best Buys still has its cell phone business.

On the heels of a disappointing quarterly report and today's resignation of CEO Brian Dunn, it's easy to think the entire company is doomed to follow in the steps of fallen electronic chains Circuit City and CompUSA. Yet its mobile devices business -- cell phones in particular-- has been impressively resilient during its recent troubles.

The cell phone business, which Best Buy has spent time and money building up, represents one of the rare bright spots in the company. Over time, Best Buy will likely be more heavily … Read more

Google TV to jump across the pond to Europe

Despite being plagued with high prices, low sales, and difficulty with program distribution in the U.S., Google TV is expanding to Europe. Come September, Sony will sell Google TV-based products in Europe, according to GigaOM via a translation of a Les Echos article.

Slated to go on sale in France, Spain, Germany, and the U.K. are two devices: a set-top box costing 200 Euros ($266) and an integrated Blu-ray player for 300 euros ($399), according to GigaOM.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt announced Google TV's rollout to Europe last August and Sony confirmed that two Google TV-compatible set-top … Read more