You know what Twitter is good for? Tweets from bears. Making you laugh. Telling it like it is. Twitter, Reddit, Instagram — these social networks are overlooked goldmines of our collective social psyche. I, Jason Parker, have made it my mission to bring you the best and the worst of social networks, simply and purely …

Hollywood is placing its bets that virtual reality could be as popular as popcorn at the movies. This week, Fox is wagering $20. Tuesday, movie studio 20th Century Fox is releasing “The Martian VR Experience,” a virtual-reality simulation that puts viewers inside the spacesuit of Mark Watney, Matt Damon‘s character in the 2015 movie. In the fledgling universe of VR, …

Amazon Music Unlimited has launched in the UK — and if you team it with Amazon Echo, it’s one of the cheapest streaming services around. Amazon Music Unlimited launched in the US in October and crosses the pond to launch in the UK, Germany and Austria today. Separate from the limited music service that comes with Amazon Prime, Music Unlimited …

Samsung Pay is rolling out a rewards system this week for folks who use the electronics giant’s mobile payment service, the company announced today. In the Samsung Rewards program, you’ll receive points for every purchase you make using Samsung Pay. You can redeem your points for rewards such as gift cards and Samsung products. Samsung Pay will also place users …

Apparently, not everyone is happy with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s assurance that fake news on Facebook didn’t sway the election. Even the social network’s own employees. An unofficial task force of Facebook employees is examining the company’s role in promoting fake news during the 2016 presidential race, reported BuzzFeed News on Monday. The task force is currently meeting in secret, according …

Last night and this morning we witnessed a phenomenon known as a supermoon. It’s when the moon passes closest to Earth in its orbit. This particular supermoon is the closest full moon we’ve seen in 70 years and as such, it has given rise to some great photos from around the world on Instagram with the hashtag #supermoon2016. In keeping …

Snapchat Spectacles — you know, the sunglasses that have have built-in cameras that allow you to post directly to Snapchat — are here. So far, the videos captured with them that have been shared online are pretty boring (they mostly revolve around people’s first impressions of the Snap-branded sunnies). But the new circular video format they use is excitingly promising. …

Smartwatches and fitness trackers — heck, all consumer electronics — have one major downside: battery life. They need to be charged. What if they didn’t, though? Conquering the challenges of batteries and the limits of power-efficient processing are things the electronics industry as a whole continues to struggle with. One company thinks it has found a small solution that could …

Now playing: Watch this: Learn all-new tricks with Sphero’s BB-8 and Star Wars… 1:20 Star Wars fans know that life on sandy Jakku can be pretty bleak; luckily one reader will receive a special companion to make their adventures more exciting. This week’s Jedi-in-training will win a BB-8 App-Enabled Droid by Sphero with the Force Band included. The BB-8 Droid …

From serious news to running jokes, Twitter has made people express themselves in just 140 characters in the most creative ways possible to get their point across. But another cool thing that happens on Twitter is when people start a hashtag game that revolves around a person, TV show or movie. Hashtag games can generate thousands of Tweets as people …

Did Facebook help get Donald Trump elected? CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that it’s a “pretty crazy idea” to think his social network might have swayed the vote by letting fake news proliferate on its site. That came after numerous allegations that the fake news shared on the social network helped Trump win. Now there’s a report that Facebook …

CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. And find more great buys on the CNET Deals page. Now playing: Watch this: The Moto 360 Sport isn’t the running smartwatch you are… 1:53 Important housekeeping note: If you’re looking for the …

Microsoft has a problem: Many developers use Macs, and Mac developers aren’t as likely to code for Microsoft platforms if they don’t have tools built for their operating system. That may be why Microsoft announced Monday that a full, native version of its Visual Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment; a place to code, debug and test) is coming to the …

Facebook wants to give the bots a jolt. Earlier this year at F8, the social network’s most important conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed a big investment in chatbots, which use artificial intelligence to allow people to text with the software to help them do things like schedule calendar meetings or buy a pair of shoes. Now Facebook wants to help …

Jay Z’s Roc Nation entertainment company and Prince’s estate are showing a lack of harmony over the streaming rights to the late singer’s music catalog. Both sides have laid claim to the catalog in court documents filed in the past couple of months in Minnesota, Rolling Stone reports. On Friday, Roc Nation filed a petition asking the court to enforce …