Some of you might have the luxury of being able to buy speakers so good they’d be worth passing down to your grandson. Others among you make do with what came packed with your stereo. Either way, there’s one method of improving the sound of any speaker: it’s all about placement. Musicians and producers pour …

Boxee co-founder Avner Ronen took to the official Boxee blog this morning to announce the Boxee Live TV tuner. It’s a $50 TV tuner dongle coming in January that connects to one of the Boxee Box‘s USB ports and works with either free over-the-air TV signals (which typically include the major networks, plus PBS) or unencrypted Clear QAM cable channels. …

A nifty bit of detective work suggests that a new Apple TV could be about to touch down. In the US, Amazon has dropped the price of the current model by $10, but not only that, it’s started referring to it as the 2010 version, hinting that a new model is on the way,  reports 9to5mac. Amazon lists the most …

Now playing: Watch this: Kogan Ez-press coffee taste test 5:19 We don’t usually review coffee machines here at CNET Australia, but we sure do drink a lot of coffee. So when Kogan announced the availability of its new Nespresso-compatible Ez-press coffee machine, we jumped at the chance to put it to the test, and see whether this cheaper machine’s coffee …

If Porsche Design made a BlackBerry… oh wait, that’s already happened. This leaked phone is said to be a forthcoming BlackBerry, and just happens to share design cues with the Porsche P’9981 that emerged a couple of weeks ago. It’s also said to be the first phone running the QNX operating system, reports The Verge. Whether it’s anything to do …

roundup The 7-inch $199 tablet is here to entertain us. It could also help redefine a market that’s long been the playground of Apple’s iPad. Help! Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? In this edition of Ask Maggie, one reader needs advice on choosing between the new Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. (Posted in Signal Strength …

Apple is still investigating the iPhone 4S‘ battery issues, despite the iOS 5.0.1 update that was designed to cure the popular smart phone’s power woes. “The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a statement sent to AllThingsD. But it looks as though the battle …

The Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet will be in customers’ hands a few days earlier than expected. Like the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch–both of which shipped ahead of schedule earlier this week–the Nook Tablet is actually running ahead of schedule. According to a Barnes & Noble spokesperson, customers who preordered the Nook Tablet for in-store pickup can do so …

The cheap-as-chips Orange San Francisco is getting a second coming, according to a now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t support page on the Orange UK website. The accidental leak, as reported by So Mobile, revealed the Orange San Francisco 2 will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and sport an 800MHz ARMII processor. It’ll feature the same 3.5-inch, 480×800-pixel resolution touchscreen as its predecessor, but the inclusion …

If you’ve been looking for the toughest case for your iPad, G-Form is making one that may just be at the top of the pile. After being dropped from more than 1,300 feet, the iPad protected by a G-Form case lives to be tapped another day. The G-Form sleeve and folio cases for iPad are made from a composite blend …

Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire? That’s the question that’s already bedeviling consumers and gadget aficionados alike. In a matter of weeks, it seems, the tablet market has been compressed to just a handful of choices. The iPad 2 still rules the high end ($500 and above), but the “e-reader as tablet” option now looms large in the sub-$250 range, with …

Nokia plans to add a little rhythm to its Lumia line of Windows Phone handsets. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop shows off the new flagship Lumia 800 Windows Phone model. Stephen Shankland/CNET Nokia’s partner Echo Nest today unveiled the Nokia Music app. It includes the Nokia MixRadio service, which acts like Pandora, as well as additional features such as an MP3 …

BlackBerry Music is live and amplified today. The unique twist is that you can also listen to your friends’ tracks, so more chums means more choons. The cloud-based music service, powered by Omnifone, has a catalogue of over 45 million tracks. You create your own profile of 50 songs, which you can stream online or save on your phone and …

If Qualcomm Atheros President Craig Barratt had his way, the whole world would work like his house in Silicon Valley. Craig Barratt has a strong vision for where connected devices are going. Qualcomm Barratt lives in the ideal vision of the connected home. He has precise control over things like temperature, energy consumption, the TV, stereo, and security system–all accessed …

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple has not given in to pressure from Japan’s largest cellular network, NTT DoCoMo, to include carrier-specific apps on the iPhone. Apple’s stance has caused negotiations to get the iPhone on NTT DoCoMo to stall. NTT DoCoMo CEO Ryuji Yamada says that his company’s apps, specifically an e-wallet app and an …