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When the smartphone craze first started, the thought of being able to stream a movie or TV show while commuting into work or waiting at the airport was simply a dream. Screens were small, coverage was spotty, and it was hard to find shows you actually wanted to see. Fast forward to today, and streaming content on the go is genuinely good.

We rounded up seven apps that provide a great streaming experience on your Android device, whether you're sitting on the couch with solid Wi-Fi or out and about with a 3G or 4G connection. Here they are. … Read more

It's easy to dismiss Google's big play for a slice of the expanding Internet domain universe as just another side project from the Googleplex. Perhaps too easy.

Google, we learned last week, has applied for 101 domains -- or, more precisely, 101 generic top-level domains, or gTLDs -- and the number itself (surely the 101 Dalmatians reference was intentional) doesn't exactly suggest a new strategy on par with, say, Google+ or Android. The $18.7 million in application fees alone would hardly raise a single Larry Page eyebrow.

And yet this is Google, controller of so much … Read more

When it comes to storage, you definitely don't want to risk getting stuck with a lemon. That's because, unlike other commodities like a car or a TV, when a storage device breaks down, chances are you lose a lot more than just the drive itself. It's a painful experience to see your invaluable data vanish. Take my word for it on this.

But you likely don't want to spend too much, either, and want your storage device to be easily accessible, especially on the go since there's not much use for your data if it always has to stay at home.

Bearing that in mind, compact and portable external hard drives are arguably the most popular form of storage. They have room to hold lots of data, often more than your laptop or ultrabook can, without being big or heavy. Following is the list of the top five portable USB 3.0-based drives that are the best among their peers, offering great performance, large storage space, compact design, and sometimes even the kind of toughness that will withstand drops and submersion in water. Most importantly, you can easily find them for less than $100. Have more to spend? You can get larger capacities that cost more.

Note that these drives also work with USB 2.0 (MacBook Air owners, you're included here) and they are all bus-powered, so you don't need a separate power adapter to use them.… Read more

Ever since I was a kid I've had a fascination with racing. My father took me to motorcycle GP races at the age of 4 and we went every year for most of my young life. The big-name racers of the day, the roar of the engines, and the smell of formula fuel as they sped around the track all added to the fun and excitement for the young version of me.

These days I'm not much of a spectator racing fan, but if a new racing game comes out (really on any platform), I somehow automatically become interested. A big racing game release today on iOS got me looking for more fun driving games -- and while I know they're not for everybody -- if you like to "go fast," these games are for you.

This week's collection of iOS apps is all about racing. The first lets you upgrade cars and compete on numerous tracks with a 3D top-down view. The second challenges you to compete, driving old-school go-carts around tracks and has a great overall feel. The third is a well-polished sequel that many racing game fans will probably automatically download.… Read more

Frank Schilling made his fortune in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, buying up thousands of domain names others didn't want. He kept at it, aggressively building a portfolio of more than 320,000 domains that, through a combination of ads and outright sales, have made Schilling a decamillionaire many times over.

Now the 43-year-old domainer is going after what he sees as a far bigger opportunity. He's put up $60 million of his own money to stake his claim on a giant, emerging piece of the Internet -- the opening up of so-called generic top-level domains, or … Read more

In today's show we're changing our passwords, talking to strangers and pretending we can fly:

Google Maps are going 3D. Google announced new features it's building into maps, and it gives the perspective of what you might see if you could fly between buildings. Multiple photos are taken by airplanes, and then it's automatically stitched together to look like a 3D model. The demo was of San Francisco, but no word on which other cities will be the first to get this feature. It is expected to cover 300 million people by the end of the … Read more

With "Game of Thrones" now the most pirated show on the Internet, a site has sprung up calling for HBO Go to become available without a cable membership, but unfortunately it's unlikely to work.

The site, started by Web programmer Jake Caputo and called Take My Money, HBO!, is designed to convince HBO to sell individual memberships to HBO Go to reduce piracy.

In response, several sites have pointed out why this strategy is doomed to fail. Even the company itself seems happy with its current domestic situation: in response to my request for comment, a HBO spokesperson instead pointed me to this tweet, which links to a TechCrunch article detailing why "HBO doesn't want your money."… Read more

If you're an HBO subscriber and Kindle owner, good news: HBO Go is now available as free download from Amazon's Appstore for Android.

While many don't consider the Kindle Fire a true Android tablet because it runs a heavily skinned version of the OS, it nevertheless marks the first time HBO Go is available for an Android tablet (it's been available for Android smartphones). Amazon says the app gives you access to more than 1,400 titles, including every episode of every season of the best HBO shows.… Read more

In a bid to further integrate cloud-based platforms with its more conventional offerings, Intuit said yesterday that it plans to combine QuickBooks Point of Sale, its offering for retailers, with its 3-year-old mobile-only GoPayment platform.

If you're unfamiliar with GoPayment, it's a service that allows small and medium-sized vendors to process debit or credit cards using an Apple iPhone -- no proprietary point-of-sale hardware necessary. The app and hardware are free, and Intuit makes its money from transactions (2.7 percent per swipe) or a monthly membership fee ($12.95/mo.) of sorts.

It's the kind of … Read more