February, 2016

• 15 February

  New 8

  

  You’re in luck if you’ve held onto a Nintendo Entertainment System, as 2016 is once again time for the classic console to shine. On January 30, artist and developer Riki Iwasaki released 8-Bit Music Power, a chiptune album that plays off a NES cartridge instead of a CD, meaning you’ll need Nintendo’s original home console, …

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• 15 February

  Enter for your chance to win* an Olio smartwatch!

  

  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. Greetings, cheeps! I’m off-duty this week, but that won’t stop me from keeping the cool stuff coming — starting with this killer contest. …

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• 15 February

  Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge bite into Android Marshmallow

  

  If you’re a Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge owner disgruntled that your expensive phone’s software is a generation behind rivals, you’ll be glad to hear the latest version of Google’s Android is arriving. Samsung said Monday it will update the two top-end phones to Android 6.0 Marshmallow software starting immediately and update some other Galaxy devices gradually as well. …

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• 13 February

  Photographers and audiophiles, two of a kind?

  

  I first became aware of the photographer/audiophile connection when I was a high-end audio salesman in the 1980s. I couldn’t help but notice a significant percentage of my customers were professional photographers. At first I had no idea why, but both groups share a fascination with capturing reality — images for photographers, and sound for audiophiles — as accurately as …

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• 13 February

  Amazon shows its artsy side with ‘The New Yorker Presents’ series (Q&A)

  

  In a documentary segment of “The New Yorker Presents,” gay Mexican wrestler Saúl Armendáriz flashes through an arena crowd while wearing a mile-long sequined coat. Then he struts around the ring to the beat of disco anthem “I Will Survive.” A skit in another episode of the TV show tackles the rumor that novelist Honoré de Balzac drank 50 cups …

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• 13 February

  How a BlackBerry could be the phone of my dreams

  

  The phone you see in the picture below doesn’t actually exist. It probably never will. But it could. Here’s how BlackBerry and Verizon Wireless could team up to build the phone of my dreams — and bring BlackBerry’s brand back from the brink of irrelevance. Enlarge Image We asked concept artist Pierre Cerveau to bring the BlackBerry Droid to life. …

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• 13 February

  Scalia’s death lights up Twitter

  

  Twitter served as the nation’s town square Saturday as politicians, personalities and everyday folk flocked to the social network to offer thoughts on the death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Within hours of his death, Twitter users had sent more than 650,000 tweets about Scalia. A jurist on the court for three decades, 79-year-old Scalia was one of …

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• 13 February

  Still listening with earbuds? Maybe it’s time for an upgrade.

  

  If you’re still listening to music with the free earbuds that came with your smartphone, I have news for you: just about any decent headphone will sound a whole lot better. Face it, with those ‘buds dangling from your ears you’ve never heard solid bass, natural midrange or clear highs. Your music is “funneled” through the aural equivalent of pinholes, …

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• 12 February

  Apple Music gains subscribers at a fast clip

  

  Apple Music may be the new kid on the block, but it appears to have the right stuff. Apple’s new streaming-music service has more than 11 million subscribers, according to Apple executives Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi. The two revealed the milestone, along with several other Apple tidbits, on an episode of John Gruber’s podcast “The Talk Show” published Friday. …

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• 12 February

  There’s another emoticon keyboard hiding in your iPhone

  

  At some point, you’ve probably seen the infamous shrug emoticon: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Emoticons (not to be confused with emoji) are a series of characters put together to make a face, animal or some other funny character. Think of emoticons as the traditional smiley face — with a lot more personality. Crafting an emoticon like the shrug-face takes a lot more work …

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