gadget

Selling old gadgets: Buy back services compared

At the pace that new e-readers, tablets, and smartphones are released, it can be disappointing how the latest gadget can make that shiny new iPad or Kindle you bought last year seem obsolete.

If you don't have an endless budget for tech purchases and would rather not just dump the old one in the trash, or are looking to raise some funds, one way to recoup some of what you paid for old tech is through buyback services. They're popping up all over, on the Web, in-store recycling kiosks, and even at major electronics retailers.

The appeal is … Read more

Keep your Angry Birds, we'll take something a bit more classy

Birds and weapons? Sounds like a certain smartphone-game-turned-cultural-touchstone, right? Well, don't worry; we know you've heard enough about that particular phenomenon to last a few lifetimes.

No, this little blog item is about something far less widespread than a popular iPhone app. In fact, the "gadgets" in question here--if one dare call them that--are truly rare. So rare that they're expected to draw $2.5 million to $5 million at a Hong Kong auction later this month.

And though they were created in the early 19th century, and are anything but digital, they still manage to impress with the obvious technical mastery of their makers. … Read more

This Day in Tech: More rumors about the next iPhone

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Wednesday, May 18.

Neat trick: Wireless laptop dock Samsung's Central Station senses your computer is nearby and--without any silly, tangled cords--connects to it wirelessly. Ain't that cool? Seriously, it's the little things in life that bring CNET editors joy. Read the full review

WritePad 5 buddies up with Evernote for app marriage New WritePad 5 app for iPad, Android adds ability to sync with another popular app, Evernote. Marriage points to future where unrelated apps from diverse … Read more

Xobni Gadget Store offers add-ons for your add-on

Xobni, the popular and highly rated plugin for Microsoft Outlook has today announced the Xobni Gadget Platform and Store, which offers apps that add on to your add-on. With close to 20 big-name partners, including Dropbox, Evernote, Google Translate, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and so on, Xobni hopes to boost your productivity by souping up your Outlook inbox to yet another level.

To give you an idea of some of the platform's possibilities, the Evernote gadget puts the popular note-taking service's functionality into the Xobni sidebar. With it, you can view and take personal notes on a contact right from … Read more

How to kiss your Facebook friend online for real

While the rest of the world is rapt by news of international terrorists and stealth special ops missions, perhaps we should offer a little thought to kissing.

Our new Web-oriented world has brought people together in ways never before possible, but we're still missing some elements of human connection. You know, like the physical kind.

The Kajimoto Research Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications, however, believes it can bring us that nirvana.

It has create a device that looks like a straw, which doesn't seem entirely sensual. Still, you mimic your kissing motion (everyone's is different, naturally). … Read more

Twitter mourns for the undead typewriter

You thought you had killed another one, techies.

With your boundless need to show how clever you are and how you can force people to change their ways of life, you were sure you had put paid to another traditional industry. But you're not as smart as all that.

Yes, Godrej & Boyce--which a news story claimed was the last known producer of typewriters in the world--declared recently that it was giving up trying to market machines that weigh more than the Taj Mahal and write slower than Thomas Pynchon.

According to India's Business Standard, the company just … Read more

Let's get real about 'digital detoxing'

We should all be panicking, obviously: the omnipresence of glowing, wireless gadgets giving us constant access to an unlimited amount of news and social-media toys is bad for our brains.

To be more specific, earlier this month a team from the University of California at San Francisco published research that claimed digital information overload, from the onslaught of Twitter updates from the site of the latest natural disaster to your mom's FarmVille updates to that YouTube video of the baby raccoon freaking out in a bathtub, can impair mental performance. Appropriately, the results come right around a week designated … Read more

Streamlining your gadget collection (video)

I remember a time not too long ago when my pockets were stuffed with my cell phone, a digital camera, and my MP3 player. Oh, and the glove box of my car housed a GPS device. No longer. Thanks to the functionality of a smartphone, I've been able to carry just one gadget for all of my chit-chatting, photo-taking, music-playing, and navigational needs. Thank goodness, because those pockets were getting bulky and it was getting expensive to continually update each device.

The accompanying video below is all about those gadgets that you no longer need to invest in--for example, … Read more

iBoobs in Android. No, they're not real.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Google confirms that it had to remove malicious apps from the Android Market

iBoobs comes to the Android Market two years after being kicked out of Apple's App Store

"The Today Show" relaunches its Web site with more emphasis on video and original Webcasts

A new study shows that technology is having a negative effect on American's sleep habits and overall health

CBS acquires Clicker and brings in the CEO to run CBS Interactive

Charlie Sheen owned the Internet over the weekend with his new Ustream show