As the last hours of 2008 slowly tick over, the editors at CNET Australia take a nostalgic look back at some of the top gadgets, toys and bits of technology from the year. 2008: The best televisionsRapid change in the technology world often has the biggest ramification on televisions, and 2008 saw some seismic shifts …

Toshiba has broken the mould and gone for a TV bundling promotion of their own — no more consoles, it’s netbooks for everybody! (Credit: Toshiba) Customers who buy a Toshiba XV500 series 37-inch, 42-inch or 46-inch LCD will receive an 8.9-inch Toshiba NB100 netbook between now and January 15 2009. It may not be the first thing you think about …

Australia’s largest DVD retailer EzyDVD has been placed into receivership after a downturn in sales in recent months. The Adelaide-based company has 58 outlets across Australia including 26 company-owned stores and 32 franchised outlets, but only the company-owned stores, which employ more than 200 staff, have been placed in receivership. Ferrier Hodgson partner David Kidman was appointed receiver and manager …

Since presidential hopeful John Kerry announced that his running mate will be John Edwards, traffic has surged to www.kerryedwards.com–and so have offers to buy the domain. According to bail bondsman Kerry Edwards, who acquired the domain a couple of years ago and uses it to display pictures of his son, he has been offered $150,000. That would be substantially more …

Crave never passes up the opportunity to shape young minds (ahem), so we were excited to get involved with Panasonic’s competition to find the next generation of creative talent. Along with Young Creatives Network, Panasonic challenged students to create a film, storyboard or print ad for the new Viera PZ81 high-definition television. The competition is a fully 2.0 affair: Crave …

So Disney is releasing the old classics on Blu-ray. Hurray! Now it’s time to watch such timeless children’s films as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and The Lion King in peerlessly detailed high definition. A new generation can be enchanted by these wonderful tales… Not in my house they won’t. My future kids can ride the Catbus, and enjoy such gems as …

It doesn’t seem to matter how many HDMI sockets manufacturers put on a TV: it’s never enough. If your TV is a couple of years old, you might only have one or two HDMI sockets, and that’s nowhere near enough. Like many manufacturers, Profigold has HDMI switchers that enable you to plug two devices into just one socket. Useful if …

This Friday is iPlayer day, according to the excellent BBC Internet blog. This anniversary marks iPlayer’s soft launch this time last year, with a harder launch that began on Christmas day with a TV advertising campaign. Since then, the BBC has been accused of wrecking the Internet, as well as upsetting granddads. Today, the Guardian has reported that the BBC …

We think it’s fair to say the Batman franchise hit an all-time low with the so-bad-it’s-funny Batman and Robin — a movie so horrendous that even the collective nipples of George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell and Alicia Silverstone couldn’t save it. We’d argue that the series peaked with Batman Begins, a much-needed reboot for Gotham’s finest. Now its sequel, The Dark …

We’ve seen energy consumption ratings on white goods since the mid-1980s, but now we’ll start seeing the familiar stars on new TVs as well as refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers and air conditioners. Announced earlier this year by the Minister for Environment, Heritage and The Arts, Peter Garrett, this joint government and industry TV labelling program is currently voluntary, but will …

We’ve never been slow to criticise stand-alone Blu-ray players, and particularly Sony hardware. We’ve always had good reason, mind — the previous generation of players were massively overpriced and very poorly specified. But by George, we think they’ve got it: the Sony BDP-S350 costs just £160 and is fully profile 2.0 compliant. The S350 is appreciably smaller than previous players from …

Blu-ray is great for home viewing on a large screen, but when you’re on the move with a laptop it’s neither practical or necessary to watch a 1080p copy of a movie. With that in mind, on the Hancock Blu-ray Sony provides a digital copy of the movie which you can transfer to your computer. Of course, it’s not as …

Not wanting to be left out of the game, so to speak, Panasonic is bundling free Wiis with its plasma televisions in a promotion it’s calling a Full High Definition Christmas. Insert urination joke here. We’re not going to point out the obvious fact that the Wii isn’t even proper standard definition as we recognise it in this country (it’s …

Back in the day, Avanti was the name of a superb map on the original Half Life mod, Team Fortress Classic. It is also the name of a Durex condom. But now the name has been recycled for the latest and greatest Internet and DAB radio from PURE Digital. Its full name is the Avanti Flow, and it’s the second …

The bragging rights to having the “biggest big screen” TV have passed from Panasonic to Sharp, with the local arrival of the latter’s 108-inch (274 cm) LCD model LB-1085. Measuring a whopping 2382mm x 1340mm, which equates to a viewing area of roughly 3.2 square meters, the Sharp LCD pips Panasonic’s flagship 103-inch plasma, which has been on the Australian …