A whole year has gone by, filled with smartwatches. Apple makes them. Google’s software powers them. Sony, Samsung, Asus, Motorola, Pebble. Fossil. Tag-Heuer. It’s starting to come from everywhere: Everyone wants to put a high-tech thing on your wrist. There’s a problem, though: none of them feel necessary, or even necessarily desirable. In fact, most …
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December, 2015
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19 December
Sounding good: Emotiva Big Ego USB desktop digital converter
Do you have a big ego? Sorry, I couldn’t resist, but I’m talking about Emotiva’s terrific new desktop digital converter, the Big Ego. One thing was clear from the get-go, Big Ego is a wee bit bigger than thumbdrive-sized USB digital converters like the AudioQuest DragonFly, Audioengine D3 or the Meridian Explorer 2, the Big Ego’s all-metal chassis measures 5.3 …
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19 December
Decode those weird symbols on the back of your phone
A tiny trash can with an X through it, an exclamation point and a bunch of acronyms. You’ve probably noticed these little marks lurking on the back of your phone, laptop or charger and maybe you’ve even wondered why they’re there. These tiny emblems are certification marks, used by government agencies and regulatory organizations to show that the product meets …
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19 December
How to watch the ABC News Democratic debate online
The three Democratic presidential candidates will be duking it out Saturday, December 19 at 5 p.m. PT, 8 p.m. ET in New Hampshire, during a debate to be broadcast by ABC News. For those without a cable subscription, the event will be slightly easier to watch than previous debates, since it will be streaming free over the Internet, as well …
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19 December
Traveling abroad with your smartphone: You can take it with you
For some of us, going anywhere without our smartphone is like walking out of the house without clothes. We feel naked. So it makes perfect sense that people traveling abroad expect to be able to take their smartphones with them and get all the same services. Do we still need to worry about which devices are compatible where? Will you …
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19 December
Do you enjoy your speakers, if not, why not?
This isn’t so much a question of “Do you have the best speakers,” it’s more do you have the right speakers? Do they make you happy, or are they just getting by? If your Sonos Play:1 speaker rocks your world with Adele, Beethoven or Sufjan Stevens, that’s great, but if music isn’t making you happy, you might need something better. …
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18 December
How to set up iCloud Drive
Apple iCloud Drive has arrived. It now operates as a standalone service on both OS X and iOS, catching it up to Dropbox and other cloud services that allow for quick and convenient uploads so you can access your files across your Apple devices while freeing up some local storage on your devices in the process. Let’s have a look …
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18 December
How to name a group conversation in Messages for iOS
Apple’s iOS 9 is chock-full of useful features, some of which you might easily overlook. A great example: conversation naming. OK, maybe “great” is overstating it, but it sure is handy. When you start a group chat in the Messages app, it’s not always easy to know at-a-glance just who’s in that group. And if you have a lot of …
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18 December
BlackBerry’s Android bet is still looking for its big payoff
A lot hinges upon the success of BlackBerry’s newest smartphone, the awkwardly named Priv. The company’s first phone to run Google’s Android mobile software, and not its own BlackBerry 10 operating system, represents a make-or-break moment. If the Priv fails to turn enough heads, that could spell the end of BlackBerry as a smartphone maker. It’s a grim thought for …
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18 December
Get a Microsoft Surface 3 tablet for $399
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. As my holiday gift to you, I’m going to skip my usual rant about Microsoft’s Surface tablets being kind of pointless without a …
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