New TV technologies — 3D, 4K, curved screens — have mostly failed to excite consumers, but a new concept called HDR has a chance to offer something noticeably better than the ubiquitous high-definition TV. In this latest installment of The 3:59, we focus solely on the subject of HDR, with TV reviewer David Katzmaier offering …

If you’re a Star Wars fan, music simply sounds better when channeled through a Death Star speaker. Sure, there are already some pretty fancy speakers out there that employ the design of the Empire’s most potent weapon and take advantage of Bluetooth technology. DIY audiophiles can even print out their own Death Star speakers. But none of these speakers spins …

Autonomous underwater vehicles are opening up the aquatic domains in more detail than ever before. However, current drone technology is still limited in a few ways, one of which is size, shape and flexibility. With a swimming snake robot, Norwegian engineering company Kongsberg Maritime believes, we could access, survey and monitor hard-to-reach areas. Together with Norwegian University of Science and …

Teradek makes wireless video devices for capture, control, monitoring and webcasting, and now it’s bringing that knowledge to the burgeoning 360-degree content market with Sphere, a system for real-time monitoring and live-streaming of panoramic HD video. No, it’s not the sexiest of subjects, but soon Sphere will be what helps bring immersive live events to your eyeballs. The small black …

The tech world is obsessed with two things right now: virtual reality and live video. So why not combine them? That’s what YouTube is doing. The Google-owned video behemoth said Monday that it’s launching live streaming for so-called 360 videos, which let you look up, down and all round a scene. To kick things off, the site will live-stream a …

Humans take and upload endless photos of their felines to the Internet. Fish need love, too; it’s just harder to capture a really great fish picture. Unless you have a Submariner Camera, a small remote-controlled submersible with a camera on board. The remote control lets you take videos or just snapshots. It also lets you move the device up, down …

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. Quick housekeeping note: If you had trouble getting the headphone/mobile-charger bonus deal I shared on Friday, well, blame Amazon. Short version: Different resellers …

The US Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from a group of authors who claim Google Books violates their copyright. The New York-based trade group The Authors’ Guild and several individual authors have been fighting Google Books since 2005, when it first brought the matter to the Supreme Court. In 2013, a US Circuit Judge dismissed the case, arguing …

A fan who thinks Kanye West dissed him is fighting back with a lawsuit. Justin Baker-Rhett is suing the hip hop star on claims West lied when he said his album, “The Life of Pablo,” would be available only on streaming service Tidal, according to the proposed class-action suit filed Monday in US District Court in San Francisco. The lawsuit …

You can stroll into an Apple Store and select an iPad Pro in your choice of three colors: silver, space gray or gold. Or you can help out London’s Design Museum during a charity auction and select an iPad Pro in an almost indescribable shade of yellow/green. Apple’s Design Team donated the inscribed “Edition 1 of 1” tablet to raise …

Runners and spectators from around the world will take to the streets in just a few hours for the Boston Marathon. The 26.2-mile course will take runners from Hopkinton, Massachusetts all the way to Boylston St. in Boston. The 120th running of the historic race is scheduled to begin at 8:50 a.m. (5:50 a.m. PT), with the mobility impaired runners. …

Now playing: Watch this: Meet the 16-year-old world drone-racing champion 1:43 Drone racers hope their sport could go mainstream. Hit play on the video above to get an inside look at how first-person view (FPV) drone racing works, and what its star pilots hope the future has in store. “I really think the sport’s just going to keep growing and …

The success of Facebook is beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, including those of Mark Zuckerberg apparently. In a video interview done in 2005, when asked whether he planed to expand Facebook beyond colleges, he didn’t seem to show any ambition in that direction. “Facebook is an online directory for colleges.” said Zuckerberg then “A lot of people are focused on taking …

Not so sure about your privacy and security online? You’re not alone. A recent survey commissioned by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) reveals that 83 percent of people around the world believe that there is a need for new rules about how companies and governments use personal data. And 85 percent believe that their governments should work closely …

There goes the streaming neighborhood. After years of Amazon Prime Video being hidden within the broader Prime service for $99 a year, the e-commerce company finally made the streaming-video service a standalone option. That could spell trouble for streaming-video leader Netflix. We also talk about Apple apparently stopping support of its Quicktime video player on Windows and the science of …