Want to be one of the first people to walk around and grab things in virtual reality? Hope your wallet is ready. You can now preorder the HTC Vive. The price: $799 or £689. The first batch of headsets will ship on April 5, and you can order one right here. Update, 7:18 p.m. PT: …

Welcome to The 3:59, CNET’s new daily podcast. We’ll be breaking down the top tech news of the day, with a liberal sprinkling of attitude, analysis and awkwardness. The 3:59 will deliver four-minute bites of news and context on Monday through Thursday every week. I’ll be one of your co-hosts, and while I generally focus on the mobile area, we’ll …

For a select few lucky developers, it’s time to pay up: Microsoft’s HoloLens Development Edition is now available for preorder. Developers who applied to be among the first to build holographic apps for the HoloLens will be receiving invitations to preorder the device, provided they qualify. The HoloLens will start shipping on March 30 in Canada and the US, and …

Sharing links with friends on Android leaves you at the mercy of the app you’re using to shorten the ridiculously long ones. Plus, you won’t be able to easily see how many times your link has been clicked. Unless, of course, you use an app like URL Shortener. Instead of generating a random mix of letters, you can control the …

The hunt for the next US president will take a big step toward becoming a two-person race after Super Tuesday, online-search results say. At least one caucus or primary will be held in each of 12 states, and the team at Microsoft’s Bing is among those predicting that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be the big winners of the …

The third serving of Raspberry Pi is here, with added ingredients. For $35 — the same price as its predecessor — the Raspberry Pi 3 has added Wi-Fi in the form of 802.11n, as well as Bluetooth 4.1, according to a blog post Monday. The addition of Wi-Fi means you don’t need to rely on an Ethernet connection for Internet …

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. Enlarge Image All these delicious Raspberry Pi 2 goodies could be yours for under $60. Vilros Between Arduino and Raspberry Pi, there’s never …

The Virtual Reality Wars have begun, and it’s time to pick a side. To our left, we have the Oculus Rift. Born of a Kickstarter project that raised $2.4 million, it’s one of the most recognizable virtual reality headsets around. We’ve watched its evolution from underdog to Facebook-backed juggernaut, and seen the promise of a platform for virtual reality evolve …

Square updated its Cash app on Monday, adding the ability to store money within a Cash Drawer. The digital savings account, of sorts, will keep money from being directly deposited in your checking account. Why would you want to do that? Well, you can use the funds in your Square Cash Drawer as means to pay future bills, or easily …

For Apple, this is a fight for the soul of every single iPhone. Apple’s top lawyer Bruce Sewell heads to Congress on Tuesday to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. That will mark the next phase of the tech giant’s battle with federal authorities over whether it needs to create a “back door” — an intentional security weak spot — …

It’s an exciting time for putting high-tech gear on your face. The next wave of headsets for virtual and augmented reality are almost here. Watch Update to learn about the first model of the Microsoft Hololens, now accepting preorders for $3,000 — that is, if you are a developer with an invitation. But you don’t need an invite to order …

If Donald Trump had his way, he’d happily light all those Kindle Fires and Fire TVs on fire. The front-running Republican candidate for the US presidency promises to take aim at Amazon, its founder Jeff Bezos and the entire media, if elected. “I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought The Washington Post to have political influence, and I …

I love live music. Hearing music played by talented musicians is…wow, I wish that guy in front of me would stop talking. Anyway, to catch the nuances of your favourite…blimey, the acoustics on this side of the room are awful. Right, as I was saying…what? I said, AS I WAS SAYING…forget it, it’s too loud in here. Yes, there’s a …

Near twenty years ago, Christina Cyr and Linda Inagawa started working at Microsoft on the same day. All week they kept finding their new colleagues mixing them up, until on the Friday they finally met. They’ve been friends ever since — and now, they’ve teamed up to change the way mobile phones are designed. Cyr and Inagawa’s company is called …

Cables seem simple. Just plug them into the matching ports, and let the electrons flow. If you think of them as dumb copper wires, they seem completely interchangeable. Maybe not. As two people found out in recent months, the wrong cable could potentially fry your laptop. Benson Leung, a Google engineer, and Dieter Bohn, executive editor at The Verge, wound …