homes

Toshiba SBX4250 review: A ho-hum sound bar with surprisingly good features

Choosing a sound bar largely comes down to sound quality and design, with features being far less important than when evaluating other products. That's what makes the Toshiba SBX4250 ($270 street) a bit of a hard sell: it sounds and looks just about average, but has a great feature set. There's built-in Bluetooth, for wireless audio streaming from most smartphones and tablets, plus it has a ton of inputs, with two HDMI, two optical, an analog, and a minijack. And although the sound bar itself is visually lackluster, the included remote is nicely designed.

The question is whether … Read more

Countdown begins for Galaxy S4 reveal

Monday's CNET Update does it with stylus:

The mother of all mobile trade shows, Mobile World Congress, kicked off in Barcelona. Today's video roundup highlights the buzz over Samsung, WebOS and a new way to talk to your phone:

- Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S4 on March 14

- Visa's mobile payment program will be built into the Galaxy S4

- More on MasterCard's mobile payment plan, MasterPass

- First impressions of the Galaxy Note 8 tablet

- Samsung HomeSync to rival Apple TV

- WebOS lives in future LG smart TVs

- HP tries tablets again with the Slate 7 … Read more

Ultra HD 4K and beyond: Rec. 2020 glimpses the future of TVs

The International Telecommunications Union is the regulatory body that establishes the parameters by which all TVs and their related paraphernalia (cameras, etc.) work. Without them, every TV show would look different on every TV.

To help with the adoption of Ultra HD, otherwise known as "4K," they've put out the sexy sounding Recommendation ITU-R BT.2020. What does it mean for you?… Read more

Plasma TV altitude: How high can they go?

David Katzmaier and I have gotten e-mails asking a seemingly odd question: how high can plasma TVs go? These e-mails, from videophiles living in high-altitude places such as Denver and Santa Fe, are concerned plasmas either won't work for them, or will have a loud buzzing.

Turns out, they're sort of right.… Read more

Yahoo launches new home page with 'endless' news feed

Yahoo has delivered a new home page design for news fanatics.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced the update on her company's blog today, saying the new design delivers a "more modern experience."

The focal point of the design is news. Users can head to the page and customize what's displayed based on their interests. If they prefer sports or entertainment information, for example, they can choose to see only news items related to those topics in the page's feed.

According to Mayer, the new home page's news feed has "infinite scroll, letting you … Read more

What are Quantum Dots, and how could they help your next TV?

At CES in January, Sony announced several LCD TVs with "Triluminos," a new backlighting method that they promise offered "rich, authentic color, and excellent red and green reproduction." Digging deeper, it turns out Triluminos includes an optical component produced by QD Vision, Inc. called "Color IQ" which uses quantum dots to help create light.

OK, so what are quantum dots?… Read more

Get a Logitech Harmony 700 universal remote for $59.99

This is an update of a deal I posted last summer.

Juggling is meant for circus folk, not home-theater owners. Yet that's exactly what you're doing if you have more than one device and, ergo, more than one remote.

Regular Cheapskate readers know I'm a fan of Logitech's Harmony series of universal remotes. One of the better models, the 700, has a list price of $119.99 (or used to -- it's been discontinued). Ouch.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, TigerDirect via eBay has the refurbished Harmony 700 universal remote for $59.99 shipped.… Read more

Monoprice 9774 review: A discount clone of our favorite speakers

Monoprice wants to disrupt the home theater industry. The company got its start selling cheap HDMI cables, and has recently expanded to full-fledged consumer electronics, with a bold mission of rolling out new products only when it can charge about half the price of traditional retailers.

The Monoprice 9774 ($249, plus shipping) 5.1 speaker set is the company's most audacious effort yet: a clone of the outstanding Energy Take Classic 5.1 ($394 street) speaker system for nearly $150 less. And "clone" is barely an exaggeration. The 9774 system performs and looks almost exactly like Energy'… Read more

How to set a TV up by eye

Let's say you're at your father-in-law's house and he just got a new TV. You're stuck in a corner, having recommended the TV, and you're the only person who knows contrast from composite. What to do?

In an ideal world you'd have a setup disc on hand to set it up for him. Better yet, you'd have the number of a local calibrator instantly available and pop-in-law is willing to spring for a full calibration.

But that's not always possible. Here are a few tips that will help you get the picture settings on his TV close to ideal -- or at least closer than it was.… Read more

How to display the Galaxy S3 desk home screen sans dock

The Samsung Galaxy S3 (and Note 2) has a neat feature when docked to a Samsung multimedia dock; it can automatically display the desk home screen. The desk home screen is a useful display with a clock, calendar, local weather and multimedia shortcuts. It's a nice companion display when you're charging your S3 at your desk. However, you don't necessarily need a dock to use the desk home screen.

If you're using a third-party smartphone stand with a separate charger, you can still make use of the desk home screen.

To use the desk home screen, … Read more