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 note about yesterday: Shortly after my free-game post went live, Bundle Stars appeared to run out of …

Hoverboards are facing another ban, but this time it’s not because they’re known to burst into flames. The US International Trade Commission has issued a ban on the import of “certain personal transporters” that infringe on Segway patents related to self-balancing technology, the federal agency said Wednesday. This means any hoverboard or similar smart-balancing device using tech covered in Segway’s …

Wearable manufacturers talk a big game about “health” and “fitness”, but a new accessory for the Apple Watch is looking to up the stakes significantly with a medical grade electrocardiogram (ECG). AliveCor already makes an FDA-approved ECG accessory for your phone, and the company is now bringing its technology to the Apple Watch. Kardia Band is pretty much what it …

Until we all have a Google self-driving car to get us home at the end of a long night, we must rely on friends, public transportation, a taxi or a ride-sharing service like Uber. Uber and its ilk are an increasingly popular option for getting around town, and yesterday Google Maps announced it will soon add a new tab to …

Google is already reading your email, so why not let it help reply too? Users of Google’s Inbox email Web service can now save time and effort responding to messages, courtesy of a feature called Smart Reply. Already available for Google’s Inbox mobile app, Smart Reply scans your email and then suggests up to three automated responses based on the …

Instagram is taking a page from its parent Facebook with plans to display posts by relevance rather than in chronological order. The service, which lets you share your own photos and videos and view those of other users, currently puts the newest posts up top in your feed. But in a blog posted on Tuesday, Instagram said “your feed will …

Microsoft has broken Skype up into three different apps in Windows 10: Skype video, Messaging, and Phone (Skype video is the only app that bears the Skype name). Skype video is, as you’ve probably figured out, for video-chatting with your Skype contacts. The Skype video interface is extremely simple — much simpler than Skype’s traditional desktop program, which combines all …

Football fans (fans of the one true football code we should say), it’s time to rejoice: Australia is getting its first ever 24-hour soccer channel. But there’s a hefty catch — you’ll need to be an Optus customer to get the goods. After nabbing the rights for the English Premier League in November last year, Optus today confirmed how it …

Microsoft wants you to use Skype Messaging — simply titled “Messaging” in Windows 10 — as your main over-the-top messaging app. (Over-the-top messaging is a data-based alternative to texting — think Whatsapp, Line, and iOS’s iMessage.) With the new Messaging app, you can “text” anyone from your Windows 10 device, providing they also have Skype installed. Because Microsoft really wants …

Now playing: Watch this: Playstation VR isn’t just for gaming 0:59 Sony’s Playstation VR headset is so close we can taste it. At a event in San Francisco Tuesday, Sony showed off the final consumer version of the VR headset. The design is the same we’ve seen before and we already knew about the tech inside, but Sony unveiled a …

Nike is creating a personalized retail experience to appeal to athletes and fitness enthusiasts. The nation’s largest sportswear maker on Wednesday unveiled a revamped Nike+ app at its annual Nike Innovation Summit event in New York. Nike has watched as competitors snap up popular fitness apps. Rival sportswear brand Under Armour has acquired MapMyFitness and popular nutrition tracker MyFitnessPal. Meanwhile, …

Rogue Audio makes great high-end components and sells them for very reasonable prices through its dealer network here in the USA, and its worldwide distributors. Rogue’s owner, designer and all-around nice guy Mark O’Brien came to audio after he was with Bell Labs working on electronics development, laser and transformer design. Don’t let his Sphinx v2 stereo-integrated amplifier’s plain looks …

This is the story of an Indiegogo campaign that barely raised $8,000 of its $25,000 goal, but went on to become a real product anyway. That product is the super cool-sounding Siam 7x, a mash-up of Android phone and e-reader. To look at it is to see a fairly normal 5-inch phone, but to flip it over is to find …

If you spend $800 on an HTC Vive virtual reality headset, you’re going to want something to play. And so far, we’ve seen fewer games for the Vive than for the rival headsets from Oculus and Sony. But Valve has a couple new pieces of Vive content that will be totally free — and they’re some of the best, most …

I’m glad I took a little extra time to get to know Adobe Experience Design CC (XD), the productized version of the Project Comet that Adobe unveiled in October 2015. If I had written this as planned on the day it launched my thoughts would have been far less charitable. That’s partly because Adobe’s Previews — what we used to …