This is me being stoked for the holidays.
(Credit: Matt Hickey)As is the tendency at year's end, this week Crave has seen several "best of" lists, including the 10 best cell phones of the year. Not to be single-minded, we also put out the 10 worst cell phones of the year. But it's not just phones, we listed the 20 most notable tech products of the year, period.
We also shared a collection of last-minute gifts you can print. If you have a printer, you now have stocking stuffers. Getting a new HDTV for Christmas? We're here to help.
Did you hear about the wicked giant new airplane that flew for the first time here in my city? It was pretty awesome.
But it's not all gifts and end-of-year fun. We learned that Apple is trying to patent reality. No, really.
Speaking of ballsy moves, we sort of have to mention Google's Nexus One phone here, don't we?
And feel free to gift us, your humble bloggers, with something from our wish lists. I'll take the MacBook Pro repair service, thanks.
We Crave contributors see (and touch) hundreds of products over the course of a given year. Picking just one tech-related item to top our holiday wish lists, therefore, can be a bit daunting.
Will it be a new phone, laptop, e-reader, television, digicam? What about a house-cleaning robot, biometric bracelet, secret-knock door lock, or Boba Fett USB drive? And what of our more amorphous desires, like finally getting our moms off of AOL or collecting 100 feathers in Assassin's Creed 2? How, oh how, to decide?
Well, in the spirit of the holidays (and consumerism), we managed to narrow our wishes to one apiece. Some of our picks are practical, others less so (I'm talking to you, Eric Franklin). In any case, we at Crave made a list and checked it way more than twice (hey, we're a bunch of compulsive writer-editor types; what do you want?).
Scroll through the gallery to see what we're hoping for as 2009 winds down. Then come back to this page and tell us in TalkBack what tops your own tech-related holiday list.
This year may have been a disaster economy-wise, but app-wise it was awesome.
I mean, consider just a sampling of what 2009 brought us: a wealth of GPS apps (most of them quite good), some way-cool barcode-scanning apps, voice-morphing, auto-tuning (still not sure what that is), and, lest we forget, bobble-head politicians--(OK, maybe that wasn't so much awesome as weird).
The Kindle app brings nearly all the e-book goodness of the real thing to your iPhone--and in color.
With that in mind, I've rounded up the 10 apps that made my year more fun, more productive, and just plain better. I'm not calling these the "best" apps of 2009; they're merely my favorites. (And I'm not including games, as I think that category deserves a list of its own--stay tuned for that.)
1. Dragon Dictation Barely a week old, this app does a shockingly good job turning dictated words into clipboard-ready text. Even more amazing: it's free.
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas Another newcomer, "Grinch" brings Dr. Seuss to the iPhone in high style. Parents will love it as much as kids.
3. Kindle Anyone who knows me knows I love reading e-books on my iPhone, and the free Kindle app ties to Amazon's currently unmatched e-book store. A few taps and I'm reading free sample chapters or complete novels. (Note to Amazon: It's time to add bookstore browsing to the app.)
4. Public Radio App Though you can get most of the same functionality from the free NPR News, Public Radio App raises the bar with streaming-audio features like pause/rewind and a wake-up-to-public-radio alarm clock. Well worth $2.99.
... Read moreSure, you know what cameras you like reading about, but if you've been wondering what ones other CNET readers have spent the past year obsessing over, well, then, here you go.
Based on your clicks since January 1, 2009, the list is full of older models (shocking, I know), which have been reviewed and reside on one of our top products lists and holiday gift guide.
There were no real surprises, though I may have personally underestimated how much CNET readers love themselves some megazooms. Sub-$1,000 dSLRs fill the majority of the list, but one of my favorite sub-$200 compacts is on there, too.
See the slideshow below for a breakdown of the top 10 most popular--and still available--cameras as well as three 2008 models that would have made the list if they weren't deceased.
Update: A reader tipped me off that two of the deceased cameras--the SD880 IS and A590 IS--are currently available as refurbs through Canon's direct-sale store.
(Credit:
ESRB)
Straight from the No-Brainer Department comes a list of games that parents should not buy their children this holiday season. The New York Times has republished a collection of 10 titles deemed totally uncool for kids to play by the media watchdog group Common Sense Media.
While we're all for educating parents about the naughty video games their children want to play, we can't help but slap our foreheads at how obvious some of them are. Besides, all a responsible parent needs to do is stray away from the big fat "Rated M for Mature" logo on the box art of such titles.
We wouldn't disagree with any title on the list, but some of the suggested alternatives for these titles are a bit suspect. For example, replacing Modern Warfare 2 with Battlefield: Bad Company only brings the blood level down a bit--the war combat and violence are still present in Bad Company. We absolutely loved Uncharted 2, but there's plenty of gunplay and headshots in the T-rated blockbuster as well.
Ideally, we'd love to see parents become more involved in their child's gaming habits. The only way to make sure a game is right for the younger ones is to have Mom or Dad sit in on a few sessions.
Click over for the full Common Sense Media list of unfriendly titles along with their alternatives.... Read more
If you're a fan of comic books, you should also be a fan of the iPhone. Apple's smartphone is home to several neat comic-book apps designed specifically for those who want to enjoy harrowing stories of their favorite heroes in the Digital Age.
I've sifted through the many apps related to comic books and found a handful that you'll want to try out. Whether you're a DC Comics fan or you're partial to Marvel, I think you'll like what you find in these apps.
Get your comic on
Clickwheel Comic Reader if you plan to read comic books on your iPhone, the Clickwheel Comic Reader will be able to satisfy that desire.
When you start using Clickwheel Comic Reader, you'll be able to sift through comic books and find one you want to read. The app doesn't have many of the classics like those you would find from an app like Comics or iVerse Comics (see below), but it does have some comic books you might care about. Either way, the app displays all your favorite content in full color on your iPhone. And since it's free, it's probably worth trying out if you don't mind reading a relatively small collection of books.
If you want to read some comic books, Clickwheel might be your choice.
(Credit: Clickwheel)Comic Envi If you're more into comic strips than comic books, we have you covered too.
With the help of Comic Envi, you can check out some of your favorite comic strips. You can check out old, well-known comic strips, Web-only offerings, and more. You have the option of viewing them in a slideshow or by moving them with your fingers. You can also check out the daily updated strips or some of the titles in the archive. It's a neat utility, but beware that you will need to pay 99 cents to get it.
Check out Comic Strips with the help of Comic Envi.
(Credit: Comic Envi)Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Cell phones are the hottest tech items of the year, and one of the most frequent questions we get at CNET is: what's the best phone?
We conferred with Mr. Kent German, who sees every phone created, and worked up a list to count down. And don't forget you can post an answer to the lame prize question in the comments for a chance to win the signed iPhone cases! So watch the show and come back.
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AT&T)
AT&T has introduced a new calling plan feature called A-List with Rollover. With this feature, you can add up to five most frequently called numbers to an "A-List", that you can then make and receive calls from at no additional cost. Those with FamilyTalk plans can add up to 10 numbers. And of course, since you won't be using any of your minutes with these calls, any unused minutes will rollover to the next month.
Individual customers with plans of $59.99 or higher are eligible for A-List, while FamilyTalk customers must have plans of $89.99 or more. To add numbers to the A-List, you need to enroll in AT&T's online account management. The feature will launch September 20, 2009. Other carriers also have similar features, like T-Mobile's MyFaves for example, but AT&T is the only one to offer rollover minutes.
This is Part 2 of a list of my favorite sounding CDs of late, in no particular order. My preference is for realistic-sounding recordings, recordings that allow the band to sound "live." And sure, I still like a lot of recordings that are heavily processed, but I wouldn't by any stretch use them to "test" the naturalness of a speaker.
The first half of the top 10 CD list appeared in the previous Audiophiliac.
A different kind of heavy metal music.
Savage Aural Hotbed, "Wreckquiem"
Talk about heavy metal, Savage Aural Hotbed is a (mostly) industrial percussion group. They rhythmically hit, scrape, or smash pipes, barrels, tenor and baritone snorkelhorns, electric power tools, and drums. I love SAH records for their dense textures and searing dynamics and this new one will give your system an aerobic workout while dazzling your ears with its mesmerizing charms.
Ms. Cash at her best
Rosanne Cash, "10 Song Demo"
OK, this one's from 1996, but it's withstood the test of time. True to the title, it's just Cash accompanied by a small group of players, Production is minimal, so if your system is good enough the music can sound very, very real. The music's a perfect 10.
Jazz that'll rock your world
Gerald Clayton, "Two-Shade"
Clayton's nimble piano trio delivers hard-driving pieces and explosive improvisations that'll push your hi-fi to the limit. The piano, bass, and drums balance is, musically and sonically, as good as it gets. It may be Clayton's trio, but it's a band of equals. The stereo image is set back, behind the plane of my speakers, so it doesn't have the claustrophobic, up close perspective of most contemporary jazz recordings.
... Read moreAs a reviewer I get to hear lots of speakers, and I immediately forget most of them.
It's not that they're bad, just unexceptional. Here's a Top 10 list and photo gallery of the very best-sounding speakers I've heard for less than $3,500 per pair. The brands may be unfamiliar, but each speaker is a stand-out winner. I will at some point do a Top 10 without price constraints. For now I want to highlight more affordable speakers that you can buy new.
