News Blogs

Top 20 tough iPhone 4 and 4S cases

I first posted this roundup not long after the iPhone 4 hit stores and it's been through several updates, and now only includes cases that fit both the iPhone 4 and 4S and carry the "universal fit" tag.

Update, May 15, 2012: Added Griffin Survivor and Gumdrop Drop Tech Series.

As I've said before, how you choose to protect -- or not protect -- your iPhone is a matter of personal preference. But if some heavy-duty shielding is what you're looking for, this is the list for you.

While I tried to pick tough, protective cases that look good and don't make your iPhone too bulky, a few of the cases have more extreme designs that aren't necessarily intended for everyday use. I should also note that some of the more rugged cases can be a bit of a chore to remove and aren't friendly toward iPod docks and certain charging accessories due to how recessed the ports become when the case is on.

Editors' note: This post was originally published June 9, 2010, and has been updated frequently.

First, an apology to those who've read this article before in its various iterations, you probably have a bad case of deja vu.

Truth be told, I originally published this column shortly after the iPhone 4 came out back in June 2010, which is why you see a lot of dated comments -- but they are fun to read.

Hopefully, this will be the last update, but you never know, considering how long this whole waiting-for-iPhone-5 saga has gone on.

As those of you who've read earlier versions of this column are aware, with the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple did include some features I was hoping would be in the iPhone 5, so the list is now shorter; it's been culled from 20 down to 15 features.

In this update, I haven't thrown in any new items, but I did shift their order a little (I moved "better battery life" up a notch) and added some new information.

As a reminder, the 15 items in the list are ordered from least important to most in a reverse countdown. I've also included what I think are the odds of Apple actually implementing each request.

As always, feel free to agree or disagree with me and make your own suggestions (and to post your own ordered wish list).

Editors' note: This post was originally published April 23, 2010, and was updated April 17, 2012, with five new games.

Wondering which games to buy for your iPad? Well, we've taken our best shot at putting together a list of top titles that we feel meet the criteria for a good iPad game.

And just what does make a good iPad game? We debated it for a while and narrowed it down to these five factors:

It's gotta be fun (obviously).
Ergonomics (are the gameplay and control scheme well-suited to the iPad?)
Uniqueness (though many iPad games play well as upconverted, higher-resolution versions of their iPhone predecessors, we respect new, iPad-exclusive games).
Value (some of the best iPad games currently carry high price tags, but we also tried to include titles we thought were simply a good value).
Showoff quotient (extra points if the game flat-out looks good).

A couple of years ago, we had 40 movies on this list. But as new releases have arrived, we've gradually pruned the list, and today we're down to a mere 15 top movies that aren't out yet on Blu-ray.

Yes, there are several other great movies that still haven't gotten the Blu-ray treatment. And some we probably would have included were it not for the fact that they're coming out soon on Blu-ray -- "Barton Fink" and "Yellow Submarine," to name a couple.

But like I say with my top 40 must-have Blu-rays list, feel free to express your opinions, and if you have a legitimate case, I'll update the list with new picks (those who nominated "Schindler's List," sorry, I didn't add it, but if I had 16th pick I would have -- and it is set to come out later this year).

For the latest round we've dropped 10 movies because they've already been released on Blu-ray.The latest deletions:

NASA's new Mars rover, Curiosity, kills time on Twitter

NASA's newest Mars rover, Curiosity, has a lot of time on its hands these days--so naturally it's spending a lot of time on Twitter.

The $2.5 billion science laboratory on wheels is in the middle of a 352-million mile trip to the Red Planet with an anticipated arrival date of August 5, 2012. If you're wondering exactly how fast that means Curiosity is traveling through space right now, well... you could just ask it, like @KristineKisky did, eliciting this response that's sure to confuse all non-space nerd-type people:

Curiosity has been actively tweeting and answering fan tweets since before its launch at the end of November. It's even developed a fairly sophisticated--if incredibly geeky--sense of humor and pop culture sensibility, with gems like Super Bowl weekend's "Think Brady & Manning throw long spirals? I'll go 352+ million miles to "touchdown" in Gale Crater." Or "30 Seconds to Mars? More like 241 days to go!"

Probably no data-mining legend has been more pervasive than the "beer and diapers" story, which apparently dates back to an early 1990s project that data-warehousing pioneer Teradata (then part of NCR) conducted for the Osco Drug retail chain.

As the story goes, they discovered that beer and diapers frequently appeared together in a shopping basket on certain days; the presumed explanation was that fathers picking up diapers bought a six-pack when they were out anyway. This correlation was then used to optimize displays and pricing in the stores.

That's the story anyway. The reality, as best anyone can determine, more

Litigation lunacy: Silicon Valley's lost its collective mind

From time to time the technology industry buys into convenient fibs that it tells itself even when anyone with two feet planted firmly on planet Earth knows that it's a lot of malarkey.

Remember when "counting eyeballs" was on everyone's lips? How about the revolutionary insight that "earnings no longer matter?" Those were a couple of beauts.

Now it's all about "protecting intellectual property rights" with corporate lawyers running wild filing patent lawsuits. Their PR teams are working around the clock firing off cheese-eating releases claiming how the angels are on their side of the docket. And more

Jeremy Lin crushing it as overnight Twitter star

"Can Jeremy Lin fix the Eurozone debt crisis?" "Who put sports in my Twitter again?" "Wow, just wow."

Wow, indeed.

Just some of the posts on Twitter as the twitterverse reacted to the most amazing--yes, the most amazing--rags-to-riches, feel-good sports story of the century. (One of the benefits of living in 2012 is that I can say that without starting too much of a bar fight).

The sudden emergence of the unheralded New York Knicks guard as the top sports story across the nation is predictably reflected on this Twitter stats page generated by Twitter Counter. Given that Lin punches more

Dispense with the pretense: Google's gunning for Apple

C'mon, Google, admit it: You're getting into hardware, and you're gunning for Apple.

With more signs pointing to a Google entertainment device of some sort somewhere over the horizon, the company's recent FCC filing offers the latest hint of what's become an inescapable conclusion. The document echoes what Google has hinted, announcing in black and white that the company iis developing a prototype "entertainment device" of some sort.

As to the details:

Testing will include functional testing of all subsystems, including WiFi and Bluetooth radio. Users will connect their device to home WiFi networks and

Match.com: iPhoners are office romantics, Androiders are loose

You will wish to draw your own loving conclusions. I will merely draw you a picture or two.

For the results of a survey by Match.com have stirred me into deep romantic thought. I am grateful to VentureBeat for having an initial relationship with this data, as it pokes a stiletto into my view of dating.

The data analyzed the behavior of various smartphone owners when it comes to love. Oddly, it declared that Android users are easy, loose, flaunt themselves so much on the first date that they end up having sex far more readily than those with