wonderful

Add effects to your mobile device's photos with PhotoWonder

Not every photo-editing app has to take itself seriously. This fun app has several powerful features to speak of, but the main goal is to have silly fun with your photos. Photo Wonder adds faces, props and all sorts of other bizarre goodies to your mobile gadget's photos. It's a nice novelty with enough variance to not get too dull too fast.

The app sends plenty of bad grammar and pop-over ads your way while you're trying to work. The editing canvas itself provides plenty of room and features for you to make edits. While Photo Wonder … Read more

The Audiophiliac's Top 13 music Blu-ray discs

I wrote a Top 10 music Blu-ray list late last year, so it's time for an update.

Patricia Barber, "Modern Cool"

Sultry jazz singer Patricia Barber's "Modern Cool" album was a hit with the audiophile crowd soon after its release in 1998, so I was surprised to see it come out on Blu-ray with a new 5.1-channel DTS Master Audio mix. Even more surprised that the surround mix totally works. You're in the middle of the band, which I usually don't care for, but it clicks here. Barber wrote a lot … Read more

Google Maps visits Antarctica's snowy landscape

Antarctica is long known to be an inhospitable place of constant cold and wind and completely void of plant life. It is also supposed to be beautiful -- filled with snowy vistas, blue-tinted glaciers, and penguins.

Google announced today that with the introduction of its new Google Maps feature people don't need to gear up, survive the elements, and make the long journey to explore this corner of the world. They can simply fire up their computers and take a tour with Antarctic Street View. … Read more

Google Street View takes you to 'World Wonders'

Traveling to the world's most famous attractions is far and away the best way to see them, but Google doesn't want those who are short of time or money to be left out of seeing icons like Stonehenge, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Starting today, Google's new World Wonders Project brings the company's famous Street View technology to 132 famous sites in 18 countries, sometimes using pedal power instead of its now familiar camera-topped cars.

Among the sites included in the project are Versailles in France, Jerusalem in Israel, Historic Route 66 in the United … Read more

The 404 1,058: Where CNET fans for the win (podcast)

Congratulations to all of our colleagues at CNET TV for winning a Webby Award in People's Voice Award in the Technology category at last night's ceremony.

Plenty of celebrities including Bono, George Lucas, Al Gore, Buzz Aldrin, and more were on hand to pay tribute to Steve Jobs and celebrate the best of the Web. None of CNET's programming would be useful without viewers to watch it, so thanks to you for tuning in!… Read more

A Wonder Woman costume we can all agree on

Who knew pants could be so controversial? The issue of whether or not Wonder Woman should wear pants has heated up the comic book community in the past. Photographer Adam Jay of SuperHero Photography is having it both ways.

Jay's recent photo shoot features a reimagined Wonder Woman costume that has managed not to offend anybody's comic book geek sensibilities. The costumes were built by Hermes Terceiro and modeled by Sarah Scott (warning: scantily clad pole-dancing photo ahead).

The updated take on the look includes Wonder Woman's classic red, blue, and gold ensemble, but punches it up with a tough, modern feel to the wardrobe.… Read more

The final frontier is yours to explore on your iPad

Wonders of the Universe -- based on the BBC series of the same name from HarperCollins -- is an elegant and visually gorgeous app that lets you explore our known universe on your iPad. The app comes with more than 2.5 hours of HD video, dazzling 3D graphics of everything from subatomic particles to galaxies, and tons of information to read as you explore, and it offers an excellent use of the iPad's touch-screen interface to browse all the content.

We got a sneak peak at the app, but Wonders of the Universe will not be available until tomorrow in the iTunes App Store. HarperCollins says the app will be at the discounted price of $6.99 initially, but will go up to $9.99 sometime after the launch.

The app starts you off by explaining the touch-screen interface and how to navigate through all of the content.… Read more

Stock up on one-hit wonders for 69 cents each

Continuing this week's unofficial deals-under-$10 theme, let's talk cheap tunes.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering 129 one-hit wonder MP3s for 69 cents each. (That's the promotion's landing page. If you want to see the choices in list form, click here.)

You've probably heard most, if not all, of these songs on the radio, which is still the place where one-hit wonders are born. And maybe you even bought an entire album just to get one song--only to be disappointed by the rest of the tunes.

Heck, maybe you've long harbored a … Read more

Top 10 music Blu-ray discs

I've received so many great-sounding Blu-rays over the past couple of months, I had to put together a Top 10 list.

A lot of them didn't make the cut; just because a Blu-ray has a high-resolution soundtrack doesn't automatically mean it sounds great; the variables of the original recordings and mixing can make or break the sound. For example, Tom Petty's "Mojo" Blu-ray doesn't sound much better than the CD version of the same music, but it does have an uninspired 5.1 surround mix. All of the following discs are distinctly better … Read more

Ads galore

We love puzzle games, and we frequently have trouble tearing ourselves away from them. We have to admit, though, that we were happy to stop playing 7 Wonders II. The game itself isn't so bad, but the obtrusive advertising it comes with annoyed us thoroughly.

To install 7 Wonders II, users must first download the Free Ride Player, which then allows users to download the actual game. Although the player is a mere 720K, 7 Wonders II is 25MB. We didn't love the fact that Free Ride Player downloaded three additional games without asking for our permission, either. … Read more