Crave

CNET tested the performance of traditional alkaline batteries.

(Credit: Eric Franklin/CNET)

This week was all about looking back--at the most popular TVs, home theater products, cell phones, desktops, digital cameras (and more) of 2009.

We also looked ahead to CES 2010 in January, where we expect to see a number of computing trends, including smartbooks, new Atom processors, greater integration of 3D technology, and growth in SSDs.

Other stories we had our eyes on this week:

• Is "Zelda: Spirit Tracks" worth the ticket to ride?

• Battle of the alkaline batteries.

• Not a bad R2-D2 impression--for a robot.

• Sony's future gaming controller: What won't it have?

• The Yeti microphone is huge--like, disturbingly huge.

• This Canon EOS 7D laughs in the face of cold and snow.

See anything we missed? Got a great gadget tip we should know about. Give us a shout at crave at cnet dot com.

Before you comment, keep in mind that this Panasonic plasma is NOT part of a Crave giveaway. This blog post simply highlights the publication of its review.

Plasma has been ceding ground to LCD for years, and the latest patches of territory at risk are screen sizes above 50 inches. Panasonic, both sheriff and principal resident of plasma town, has traditionally ruled the vast-size flat-panel frontier with an iron fist, but with LCDs available in new 55-inch and, lately, 65-inch versions for competitive prices, the company has had to continually make its own big screens more affordable.

The happy result, at least for HDTV shoppers with room to spare, is that larger models can be had for chunks of change that seem small by historical standards. And while the bigger sets in Panasonic's TC-PS1 series plasma might surprise you with their affordability, they also deliver better picture quality than most of their large LCD competition.

Read the full review of the Panasonic TC-PS1 series.

Panasonic TC-PS1 series (photos)

(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)

Price can be a huge determining factor when purchasing an electronics product. Nearly every week, I get blasted with e-mails asking, "What's the best sub-$100 monitor?" I rarely answer this question because, well, frankly, most monitors at that price are ones I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say when purchasing a new monitor, the majority of consumers are more concerned with the price than the performance. As I see it, most consumers just want their monitor to fulfill very basic functions. Does it turn on? Yes. Does it show a picture? Yes. Does the picture look like what I'd reasonably expect? Yes. Sold!

Obviously, there are those who require something more high end. For those people I point you in the direction of the Dell UltraSharp U2410.

For all of you "I just want it to work and not break the bank" people, check out the full review of the Samsung SyncMaster 2233SW.

Also, be sure to keep your eye on CNET for the latest monitor reviews.

I'm not a big fan of small speakers or subwoofers.

They tend to sound, well, small, and most of them squash the life out of films and music.

Thing is, people like tiny speakers and subs, so lots of speaker companies make, and sell tons of iffy-sounding 5.1 systems.

The Definitive Technology ProCinema 600 system.

(Credit: Definitive Technology)

But they're not all bad, I've cherry-picked three truly exceptional alternatives from Definitive Technology, Energy Speakers, and Mirage. My complete reviews are all on CNET, but I'll run down the highlights here.

The Definitive Technology ProCinema 600 System is a six-piece package with four 7-inch tall satellite speakers, one 10.5-inch wide center speaker, and a minisubwoofer. The injection-molded mineral-filled polymer cabinets have more of a high-end feel than your typical plastic or fiberboard cabinets. Can you say "rock solid?"

The subwoofer is a conventional, matte-finished medium-density-fiberboard box. It measures 13 by 10.3 by 13 inches. Its side-mounted volume control is a convenient design touch.

The satellites are two-way designs with a 1-inch aluminum-ceramic dome tweeter and a 3.25-inch midrange driver. Ah, but the midrange driver is acoustically coupled to a 3.25-inch pressure-driven planar low-frequency radiator on the top panel (so when the midrange driver moves in, the passive radiator moves out, and vice-versa).

The passive radiator effectively doubles the bass radiating area of the tiny midrange driver. The same technique is employed on the center channel speaker; it has a pair of 3.25-inch midrange drivers flanking a 1-inch tweeter--and there's a 3.25-inch radiator on each side of the speaker.

The subwoofer's 8-inch polymer cone woofer is acoustically coupled to a bottom-mounted 8-inch passive radiator. The combined radiating area of the driver and radiator is almost equivalent to a single 12-inch woofer. This little sub kicks butt!

This mysterious black rectangle is the most popular TV on CNET during 2009.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Among the three most-popular technology product categories covered by CNET Reviews--cell phones, laptops, and TVs--just one doesn't feature anything made by Apple. At least not yet.

Without having to fear roundish, white-logo-clad products whose names begin with a lower-case vowel, the scads of nearly identical-looking glossy black rectangles (notwithstanding a touch or two of color) can safely saturate the HDTV battlefield with their "Hz"-infused blood, assured of relatively equal footing.

Or is it? Judging from our list of most popular HDTVs of 2009, accessible below in suspense-building reverse order, said field is dominated by two titans that pummel the rest. Of the ten HDTVs listed, only one--the remarkable Pioneer Kuro PRO-111FD, still the highest-rated television I've ever reviewed--comes from a brand other than Panasonic or Samsung.

CNET's most popular TVs of 2009

The disparity between brands is no coincidence. Products that made the list, which is arranged by total pageviews over the span of 2009 (and so includes a good number of TVs from 2008), invariably spent a lot of time atop or near the top of the Best Products lists. ... Read more

(Credit: Barnes & Noble)

When Barnes & Noble unveiled the Nook, the first Android-powered e-book reader, a lot of people were excited, because it appeared to offer some key competitive advantages over Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

First and foremost, while the Nook features the same 6-inch E-ink screen (600x800 pixels; 16 shades of gray) as the Kindle, it includes a separate, capacitive, color touch screen (144 x 480 pixels) that allows you to navigate content and use a virtual keyboard for typing searches and annotations. Furthermore, on top of its free AT&T 3G wireless connection, the Nook packs in Wi-Fi connectivity and a memory expansion slot; you get 2GB of internal memory, but can add up to an additional 16GB via the microSD card slot. And finally, Barnes & Noble offers an e-book-lending option (for participating titles) and the capability to browse the full text of e-books on your Nook if you're in a Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store (the latter feature is due to launch in early 2010). Unfortunately, both the lending and in-store browsing features come with some significant restrictions.

Caveats notwithstanding, those features are nice extras, but the big questions are: how much of a difference do they really make in the overall user experience, and are they enough to push the Nook to the top of the e-book reader heap? Alas, the answer, you'll soon find out, isn't as clear cut as it might seem.

Read the full review.

Barnes & Noble Nook e-book reader--photos

Too busy rejoicing in your Cyber Monday purchases to stay on top of Crave this week? Our weekly roundup is here to save the day. A few of the stories you may have missed:

• CrunchPad: Hello, goodbye, hello again?

Star Trek Online is one of our 30 most-anticipated games of 2010.

(Credit: Cryptic Studios)

• Gmail got its own keyboard.

• Flip videos made it to the big(ger) screen.

• Games we can hardly wait for.

• An iPhone orchestra: What would Beethoven say?

• These iPhone cases really mean business.

• Why Zune HD is a no-brainer for gaming.

• Samsung Blu-ray players: Point, counterpoint.

• A digicam gun so won't go over well with airport security.

Got a great gadget tip? Write to us at crave at cnet dot com.

Sharp's LC-32D47UT has solid energy saving features and a third HDMI input.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

None of the cheaper 32-inch LCDs we've compared recently will satisfy viewers seeking the best home theater picture quality. The main strength of the Sharp LC-32D47UT, for example, lies not in the fidelity of its image, but in areas that might be more important to shoppers at the entry-level price point: features and energy efficiency.

The former is comprised mainly of a third HDMI input, conveniently mounted on the side panel and quite rare for the breed. The latter will only save you a few bucks a year, at most, but over the lifetime of your typical bedroom TV, that can add up.

The sacrifice compared with other entry-level sets, despite the Sharp's relatively deep black levels, comes in other areas of picture quality, namely color and video processing. But if you want that third HDMI input and prize eco-consciousness, this little Sharp belongs on your own comparison list.

Read the full review of the Sharp LC-32D47UT

Sharp LC-32D47UT (photos)

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Much like Vizio, budget TV brand Westinghouse has decided to capitalize on the usual energy efficiency of small-screened LCDs. Its "greenvue" line, which includes the SK-H640G series, is said to surpass Energy Star by 20 percent.

That's not a very high standard yet, however, and according to our tests, the 32-incher, while among the most efficient of its kind, will save you at most a few bucks a year over similar TVs. Compared with those TVs it also came up a bit short in the picture quality and features departments, but its simple design and control scheme could appeal to bargain hunters fed up with a typical HDTVs' complexity.

Read the full review of the Westinghouse SK-H640G series.

Westinghouse SK-H640G series (photos)