speed

Clean free and easy with Magix PC Check & Tuning Free

As freeware system cleaners go, Magix PC Check & Tuning Free offers a good balance. Some such tools are designed to be as easy to use as possible and give you few options and not enough information about what they're doing to your system. Others overwhelm beginners with options and detailed scan reports, and they often make it too easy to delete the wrong things. The freeware version of PC Check is designed to be easy to use yet useful to people with widely varying skills, yet it also lets you perform cleaning and tune-up operations separately as well … Read more

Forza Motorsport 4: Complexity meets accessibility

It's one of the last mutually exclusive genres left in gaming. PlayStation owners have Gran Turismo and Xbox 360 loyalists have Forza Motorsport. Both franchises are proven winners, and the latest incarnation on Xbox 360 allows Kinect users the chance to race controller free. But does that ambition steer Forza away from what it does best?

Jeff:Forza Motorsport 4 packs in such a shocking amount of content and detail, most racing buffs will salivate just at the introduction movie. Sure, it can be a bit overwhelming for people who don't have transmission fluid running through their veins, … Read more

Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel bridges gap between casual, hard-core

Along with my review copy of Forza Motorsport 4, I was sent an example of Microsoft's Wireless Speed Wheel to test with the game. As a car guy and a bit of a racing sim snob, I initially viewed this wireless, motion sensitive plastic bauble down the bridge of my upturned nose. By the end of the weekend, the Speed Wheel had won me over.

Normally, I do my racing simulation from behind a proper racing wheel with 900 degrees of rotation; belt-driven force feedback; the choice between paddle, H-pattern, or sequential shifters; a trio of pedals; and an aluminum adjustable stand to hold it all together. The whole kit weighs about 30 pounds and takes me about 10 minutes to drag from its place in the bottom of my closet and set up, but once it is, the driving experience is spectacular. Surely the wireless wheel can't do better?… Read more

The idol is yours IF you can get away

Temple Run is a survival/escape game from the makers of Harbor Master in which you play as a character who's a lot like Indiana Jones from the popular action movies. The simple storyline is that you've stolen a cursed golden idol, and now you need to run for your life from demon guardians through all kinds of obstacles. A little different from the other games in this genre, Temple Run gives you a 3D perspective as you run, jump, turn, and slide down pathways while grabbing coins. You'll definitely want to grab as many coins as … Read more

Physics shocker! Neutrinos clocked faster than light

European physicists have measured tiny particles called neutrinos moving just faster than the speed of light--only a smidgen faster, but enough to raise a serious possibility that Einstein's physics need a major overhaul.

The scientists sent a beam of neutrinos from CERN, on the Swiss-French border near Geneva, to the INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) Gran Sasso Laboratory in central Italy, 730 kilometers (454 miles) away, in a research project called OPERA. The physicists had planned to study a rare event, the transformation of the muon variety of neutrinos into the tau variety. Instead, they found the extraordinary … Read more

The 404 907: Where we 'stiL be making bank' (podcast)

The existence of the @Qwikster Twitter account proves that even the biggest dummy with Internet access can accidentally stumble into a squatting payout. Jeff dons his reading glasses today to give a dramatic reading of some of our favorite tweets from Mr. Jason Castillo.

We're also looking forward to Facebook's F8 developers conference on Thursday, during which the company is rumored to announce its hyped-up media streaming platform as part of a "major" profile redesign.

Like it or not, Facebook is pushing more for e-commerce and TechCrunch's Leena Rao thinks we'll see more buttons popping up to give users more specific sentiments like "Listened," "Watched," "Read," and maybe even "Want."

Along with a story about girls not using BitTorrent, we'll also report on a story update from three years ago about Heinz's new "Dip and Squeeze" ketchup packet.

Since everyone consumes ketchup differently, Heinz developed a packet that lets the consumer decide whether to squeeze out all the ketchup, or peel back the lid for dipping. And with three times more ketchup per packet than the old design, it might be a sign that Heinz could care less about this country's fight with obesity.

But at least this country earns the top spot in something. We finish the show with a group groan about our country's dismal Internet speeds. According to an article in "The New York Times" last week, the U.S. dropped to 25th in the global ranking of Internet speeds, just behind Romania and the Czech Republic. It could be worse for New Yorkers, however--the report also blasts Idaho for its 318 Kbps "speeds."

Enjoy today's show, and leave us a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET--we're running low!

The 404 Digest for Episode 907

Twitter's Qwikster wants money from Netflix. Talk of 'major' redesign of Facebook profiles as F8 nears. Facebook to launch Read, Listened, Watched, and Want buttons. Button fatigue settling in at Facebook. Welcome to your Hungarian Internet. For Idaho and the Internet, life in the slow lane. Old Ketchup packet heads for trash. Girls are not into The Pirate Bay, or BitTorrent. Bathroom break video of the day: Flying lawnmower.

Episode 907 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Shave seconds off your boot time with RapidStart

RapidStart is a convenient system utility that analyzes and helps you optimize your Windows startup. By recommending which startup items to remove or delay, the program could help you achieve significantly shorter boot times.

RapidStart's main dashboard has three components: Recommendations, Apply Changes, and Startup History.

The first component, Recommendations, shows you all of the removable and nonremovable items that run on startup, arranged from High to Low, according to their impact on your startup time. Tapping on any item gives you a quick description and a recommended action. For some items, there's also a small chart showing … Read more

Track your family with a new app

If you're a parent with some overly active children, you may want to consider the SecuraFone application.

SecuraTrac, a company more used to creating small personal emergency alarms for senior citizens and patients, is trying its hand at a mobile application called SecuraFone. It plans to launch the app--which will be available for the iPhone, as well as on Android, and eventually on BlackBerry and Windows Phone smartphones--later this month. The service will cost $8.95 a month.

SecuraFone doesn't break new ground with its features, but it does bundle them together in a tidy package. The application … Read more

Dolphin Browser splashes onto the iPad

First popularized as an Android app, the Dolphin Browser has just swam its way onto the iPad.

Initially hitting the iOS market for the iPhone in late August, the new app, dubbed Dolphin Browser HD, takes full advantage of the real estate of Apple's 9.7-inch tablet and offers a few tricks not found in the mobile Safari app.

In Dolphin, you can hide the tab and address toolbars to see a Web page full-screen. … Read more

Dexim releases iPhone-controlled Monster Truck

You know the saying, there's an app for that. Well, now there's an app to wirelessly control a mini Monster Truck.

Yes, Dexim has developed a new line of AppSpeed iOS-controlled vehicles, with the $69.99 Monster Truck now available as the first vehicle. The AppSpeed Monster Truck comes with an RF adapter for your iOS devices (it's compatible with all recent iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch models) and then you download the free AppSpeed app and you're good to go.

As with some iOS games, you actually have two control options. You can go with … Read more