Mophie makes some nice external batteries for charging devices, with sleek aluminum housings, but the knock against them has been that they’re expensive. Well, the company got the message and has priced its new models more competitively. It’s also adding even more charging options, including an updated Powerstation Plus line with an integrated switch-tip Lightning …

What’s scarier than movie tough guy Danny Trejo sharpening a huge machete? Your monthly cable bill. That’s what the new marketing campaign from streaming video service Sling TV wants you to think. Its new ads starring Trejo launch today nationwide on TV, radio, internet and social media, in both English and Spanish. “Danny amplifies the frustration that many consumers have …

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. Need proof that Apple will unveil the its second-generation smartwatch at next week’s product-launch event? Here it is: For a limited time, and …

Sonos is adding compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa voice control next year as well as Spotify Connect compatibility. The company announced the news at an event today in New York City. Right now, no new Sonos hardware has been announced. Instead, the initial addition of Alexa support will require Sonos wireless speakers and an Alexa-compatible Amazon device, such as the Echo …

Twitter may not have much in the way of spoils, but it’s going to start sharing them with more people who tweet video on its social network. Twitter said Tuesday it is widening its Amplify ad program to let approved creators in the US make money off their videos. The company said the process is as simple as “checking a …

Strap in for a roller-coaster ride in tablet sales. In a surprise to no one, the tablet market will shrink for the rest of 2016, market researcher IDC forecasts. The predicted 11.5 percent year-over-year decline is a bit of a shocker, though. Worldwide, 183.4 million tablets will have shipped by the end of 2016. What is a surprise is IDC’s …

Luke Skywalker was a clean-shaven Jedi in the original Star Wars movies. When it came time to film “The Force Awakens” in 2015, his contract required him to sport a beard. “I’m not really a beard person,” Skywalker actor Mark Hamill told Entertainment Weekly. That’s probably why Hamill looks so happy about getting his beard trimmed off in a video …

Your Canon dSLR has a useful tool on its strap that has likely gone unnoticed. PetaPixel points out that the small rubber thingy, (for lack of a better term) on the strap that came with your Canon camera is an eyepiece cover that prevents light from leaking into the viewfinder. Whenever you don’t use the viewfinder to shoot a photo …

Now playing: Watch this: Are cloud services good enough to store our digital life?… 6:56 Dropbox, Amazon Cloud, Google Drive — these services all promise to make everything from baby pictures to work documents available on any device. But at what pain points? Jeff Bakalar, Roger Cheng and Ben Fox Rubin talk about the services they use in this Open_Tab …

Fitbit, the number one fitness tracker brand, just unveiled a couple of new fitness trackers — and some big updates to an older one. The company, which already released the watch-like Fitbit Blaze and style-targeted Fitbit Alta earlier this year, is adding the Fitbit Charge 2 and Flex 2 trackers to its lineup. Now playing: Watch this: See Fitbit’s new …

Fitbit has become synonymous with “fitness tracker,” and for good reason. The health and fitness company currently offers eight devices for tracking steps and calories, and it continues to dominate sales (the Apple Watch is a strong No. 2). There’s also the Fitbit Aria, a smart scale that integrates with other Fitbit trackers. Editors’ note (August 29, 2016): Fitbit has …

Now playing: Watch this: Apple likely to unveil new iPhones on September 7 1:48 Official invites are out for Apple’s next event, and it’s soon: next Wednesday, September 7, Apple will take the stage at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, and they’ll be bringing new iPhones with them to show to the world. We haven’t gotten our hands …

AmazonFresh apparently squashed some of its bugs. A handful of problems with the online retailer’s grocery service, available in some US cities and London, could have unnecessarily cost customers a lot more money, CNET reported on Friday. Through its website’s “Buy It Again” feature, Amazon had been encouraging customers to repurchase items they bought using Fresh — but at inflated …

Kim Dotcom, founder of file-sharing service Megaupload, is a wanted man in the US on charges of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering. In December of last year, a New Zealand court ruled that Dotcom could be extradited to his home in New Zealand to the US to face those charges. This week, a New Zealand court began hearing Dotcom’s …

Apple’s next MacBook Pro will help move us all into the future of personal computing. But it could also bring some big headaches along the way. I’m confident it’ll remain a powerful machine while getting lighter and smaller. But I’m worried that one new technology that enables that slimming down, the versatile USB Type-C port, will also mean the MacBook …