Wired Pioneer SP-BS22-LR speakers Pioneer Electronics You can’t beat them for convenience and ease of use, but does anyone really listen to their multiroom music system? Streaming music around your apartment or home may be pleasant, but can a multiroom system really draw you into the music? Does the sound of your Sonos speakers reach …

Swatch the throne: Swatch is the world’s biggest watch manufacturer. Swatch You’ll soon be able to pay for stuff with your Swatch watch, but the company is talking down the possibility of an Apple Watch-style all-singing, all-dancing smartwatch. Swatch is the world’s best-selling watchmaker with 18 per cent of the market, which includes the Omega, Longines and Calvin Klein brands. …

A look at the timeline for the Google Apps bug resolution. The glitch in Google’s business software exposed some users’ personal information for nearly two years. Cisco Talos A set of Google software and tools for businesses exposed some users’ personal information for nearly two years, despite those users opting to keep the data private, security researchers said Thursday. Google …

Matt Elliott/CNET Spending idle time on your iPhone just got easier. After an aborted effort two years ago, Imgur has again released an iPhone app, letting you browse its assorted collection of GIFs and viral images while you are away from your computer. Because no one should go without lolcats for too long. The Imgur app is free and designed …

Focus Camera I’ll never buy another PC that doesn’t have a solid-state drive, because SSDs are awesome. Of course, unless I’m willing to pony up seriously big bucks, I’ll have to live with a modest amount of storage — probably no more than 256GB. That’s a problem if I want to do any serious photo or video work, as those …

The Sphero 2.0 pairs with more than 30 apps for robot play. Sphero Editor’s note: The rules for entering this week’s giveaway are different than usual. Please read carefully. Last time we gave away a Sphero app-controlled robot, we had a lot of excited readers. We took note of said excitement, and we’re back with another free Sphero funbot, a …

Switching over to Sprint could land you a smartphone like the new LG G Flex 2. Josh Miller/CNET Sprint today announced a limited-time promotion where it dangles an even bigger carrot in front of anyone willing to switch carriers. Related Links 4G networks in US doing better, but still lag, study finds Sprint’s customer growth returns, but Q3 loss doubles …

Microsoft’s Cortana could be making her way to Android and iOS. James Martin/CNET Apple personal virtual assistant, Siri, might soon be competing for your time with Cortana, its counterpart from Microsoft. Cortana will be coming to iOS and Android at some point after Windows 10 rolls out with an updated version of Microsoft’s virtual assistant software, Reuters reported Friday, citing …

Apple invited OS X beta testers to try a new iOS beta version, too. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Apple has broadened a public beta program to iOS, letting people help stamp out bugs in upcoming versions of the mobile operating system before the software ships to everyone. The company began a public beta program for its OS X personal computer …

James Martin/CNET It’s unclear when Jony Ive-inspired Apple product language started to resemble quasi-erotic offerings at the altar of technology. But we can be sure where it’s ended up — with these Apple Watch band animations, found on Apple’s online store. Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of design, is known both for his conscious shaping of the look …

Joshua Goldman/CNET Eyefi’s Mobi Wi-Fi enabled SD cards wirelessly send photos and videos taken with just about any camera (as long as it uses SD cards for storage, of course) straight to a smartphone, tablet or computer. The Mobi card’s set up and use is nearly effortless too, something camera manufacturers have yet to master, which is consequently why there’s …

Now playing: Watch this: Key features of USB type-C you should know 1:10 Whether you’re excited about today’s news from the Apple event, or you are looking toward the future of USB technology, there’s a handful of exciting new features packed in this tiny cable. The MacBook is the first notebook to use the connection, but it’s likely we’ll see …

The Motorola Droid Turbo gets a fresh coat of “Sapphire Blue Ballistic Nylon” paint. Verizon Verizon on Thursday announced the immediate availability of its latest smartphone, a refreshed take on the Motorola Droid Turbo. Related Links Motorola Droid Turbo review HD voice and video updates bring two more reasons to love the Motorola Droid Turbo Why the Verizon-exclusive Droid Turbo …

Regular words are so boring. Isn’t everything a heck of a lot better when it’s written in emoji? An art and technology studio in Oakland, Calif., called Disk Cactus has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Emoji Keyboard, a product that combines hardware and software to turn your Mac’s keyboard into an emoji typing machine. The keyboard itself is a …

Peeq conversations screen. Jason Cipriani/CNET Each summer, I live on the back patio more than I do inside my home. Between grilling dinner (and sometimes lunch), working at a picnic table and playing with the kids — my time is well-spent outdoors. Sitting just above the doorway leading back into the house is one of those lights, meant to attract …