350

Lexus injected its brand, which had taken the place of Cadillac among AARP members, with a little excitement when it introduced the LFA and the IS-F. While those models have legitimate sport cred, the F-Sport line of cars, exemplified here by the 2013 Lexus RX 350 F Sport, comes off as much less convincing.

In colloquial terms, F Sport is all hat and no cattle.

On its own, the Lexus RX 350 works as a solid luxury SUV. Seating for five, flexible cargo space, and an easy driving character have made it a strong seller for Lexus, and a success … Read more

Staying on top of appointments, to-do lists, and other items can be a chore, but Efficient Calendar offers a way to track your daily, weekly, or annual events in one easy-to-use package. While it doesn't offer email integration like Microsoft Outlook, it serves very nicely as a standalone calendar.

The interface is packed with information and options, but the main functions are neatly organized along the left side, allowing quick access to the calendar, events, and tasks. We found it very easy to add events and tasks with Efficient Calendar. A small window pops up for both with pull-down … Read more

With Boeing's 787 Dreamliner reeling from recent and well-publicized setbacks, the commercial airline industry is no doubt eagerly awaiting the first flight of Airbus' next new airplane, the A350 XWB.

Although Airbus isn't saying when it will unveil the all-new A350 XWB (the XWB stands for "extra-wide body"), there is plenty of speculation that those attending this summer's Paris Air Show will get to see the plane in flight.

This would be big news for a number of airlines, who no doubt are wondering if they can afford to tie themselves to the Dreamliner, given … Read more

The latest release of ES-Computing's EditPlus, version 3.5, adds improved support for high DPI displays as well as Windows 8 compatibility to a long-running and well-regarded text, HTML, Java, and PHP editor that also offers syntax highlighting, integrated Web browsing, code folding, auto-completion, and much more. EditPlus is shareware that is free to try for 30 days with a nag screen.

The EditPlus installer offers more options than most software, whatever the type, including three different installation directories and context menu association. When we first ran the program, we selected the Evaluate button to start our 30-day trial. … Read more

Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor is recalling a tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. Read past stories by Eric Mack, Jeff Sparkman, Jay Greene, and Dan Ackerman, and look for another installment tomorrow at midnight PT.

On a chilly autumn day in 1997, I came home from school to find that my mom had a brand-new IBM PC 350 in her office. It was an astonishing computer, especially considering our previous machine was a DOS/Windows 3.1 slowpoke that could barely run Wolfenstein 3D.

For its time, the PC 350 had it all -- a screaming Pentium 133MHz processor, a 1.6GB hard drive, 64MB of RAM, and 4MB of video memory. Though my mom bought it for the household and not for me exclusively, it was the best tech gift I ever got, as it truly turned me into a geek and gamer (and therefore the person I am today). … Read more

Zoom lenses sell cameras these days, so it's no surprise that manufacturers are doing everything they can to get longer lenses into increasingly smaller bodies.

A 3x or 5x zoom lens used to be the standard for ultracompact cameras -- those measuring 1 inch thick or slimmer -- but in 2012, you can easily find a skinny point-and-shoot with a 10x optical zoom.

The frontrunner here is the sub-$250 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150 thanks to its excellent features, fast autofocus, and the quality of its pictures and video (though its color accuracy could be better). Most of the category consists of sub-$200 cameras, though, so there are several options if you're just looking for a simple pocket camera with a long lens.… Read more

Long battling a reputation for luxury without performance, Lexus released the IS-F and LFA models, both cars of limited appeal. Now the company offers convincing performance on a more popular platform, the new GS 350.

The F Sport package for the GS 350 makes all the difference, adding aggressive tuning to both engine and transmission, along with an adaptive suspension. This is no mere cosmetic package. Thus equipped, the GS 350 shows impressive handling and gear-holding up to high revs.

Lexus also took a techie leap forward in the cabin, fitting the car with a huge, 12.3-inch LCD to … Read more

Every year at the Western Automotive Journalists' annual Media Days at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, there's at least one large sedan that surprises me with its on-track poise. Last year, that car was the Acura TL SH-AWD, but this year it was the 2013 Lexus GS 350 F-Sport that left me scratching my head.

The last time I found myself behind the wheel of a Lexus GS, it was back in 2008 when a GS 450h hybrid surprised me with its straight-line performance and understated, muscular stying. The newest 2013 Lexus GS is anything but … Read more

Airbus yesterday formally opened the assembly line of its next-generation A350 when it began final construction of the first test aircraft in Toulouse, France.

The center fuselage section, which arrived at the company's production facility in the belly of an A300-600T (aka the Beluga), can now be joined with the forward fuselage section already in place. Next to come will be the wings and aft fuselage, which are currently being built in plants in Germany and the United Kingdom

The first aircraft, MSN5000, will be used only for static testing on the ground. According to FlightBlogger's Jon Ostrower (… Read more