The always-on, always-listening “smart speakers” made by Amazon and Google, the Echo and Google Home, sound great when asked to read news headlines or the weather. But if you care about audio quality when playing back music, both kind of suck. Solutions exist today for music-centric Alexa and Google Home users who want better sound. …
Read More »
Verizon and AT&T are clamping down on their legacy unlimited-data customers. AT&T said its jacking up its unlimited plan by $5 a month, and Verizon is booting folks who use more than 200 gigabytes a month on a similar plan. We discuss why the two biggest US carriers would make these changes, even as competitors Sprint and T-Mobile keep pushing …
Read More »
Some of the biggest names in e-commerce are grappling with fake goods problems. Amazon in November filed its first-ever lawsuits against alleged counterfeit sellers, and Alibaba’s Taobao a month later got placed on a US list of notorious markets for fakes. This month, Alibaba, too, filed its first-ever suits against alleged fake sellers. Looking to avoid similar woes, eBay on …
Read More »
Amazon is getting in the mix of US companies promoting their efforts to create more US jobs. The e-commerce giant said Thursday it plans to create 100,000 new full-time, full-benefit jobs in the country over the next 18 months, expanding its US workforce to 280,000 — up 56 percent from 2016. While that’s a huge number, many of these new …
Read More »
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. A 99-cent rental? Any movie? Yes, please! Amazon Let’s keep it simple today, shall we? A movie rental for a buck. Bam. Specifically, …
Read More »
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. Best Buy’s Insignia brand gives you 55 inches of TV goodness for $279.99. Best Buy When life gets me down, I have two …
Read More »
Hulu is jumping into the battle for live TV viewers with its own cord-cutter service. It’ll face competition from streaming services like Playstation Vue, SlingTV and DirecTV Now, but Hulu has its advantages. We talk about how Hulu’s reputation and massive catalog will help it find success. CNET’s Ry Crist ordered his lunch through Amazon Echo. The feature marks the …
Read More »
Amazon is rolling out yet another new benefit for its Prime members, but this one’s a mouthful: It’s called the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature card. If you’re as overstocked with Amazon trivia as I’ve become, you may know that Amazon already has three other branded credit cards. So what’s the difference with this one? Well, two of the existing …
Read More »
Ahead of a planned sale of its core business to Verizon, Yahoo this week made a few adjustments to what will be left of its company after the deal. First off, the Yahoo name will be changed to Altaba, in reference to a huge stake in Alibaba the remaining company will still hold. Also, CEO Marissa Mayer will step down …
Read More »
How popular was Amazon‘s Echo during the 2016 holiday season? So popular that the company actually sold out before Christmas, and won’t have more inventory until January 26! (Incidentally, the Echo Dot is sold out as well, though it’s due to start shipping again on January 18.) Don’t want to wait? You don’t have to. There are other ways to …
Read More »
