Amazon is in a pickle. It would probably like to raise the fee on its popular Prime membership to offset its skyrocketing shipping costs. That fee, though, already stands at $99 a year, meaning an increase of just a buck would push membership to the psychologically important $100 barrier. Here’s the rub: the inherent contradiction …
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USB
Looks like the rumors were true: Apple‘s new MacBooks have done away with old-school USB. From here on out, it’s all USB-C. That’s good news if you like fast throughput and easy insertion (no more upside-down aggravation!), but a bummer if you want to connect any of your current USB devices: flash drives, hard drives, cameras, printers and, oh yeah, …
Read More »Get discounted tech with Amazon’s ‘Certified Refurbished’ service in the UK
Struggling to save up for that new iPhone? Amazon might have the answer for you with the UK rollout of its Certified Refurbished service. The service, which is already available in the US and Germany, sees tech partners like Apple, Dell, Samsung and Microsoft refurbish pre-owned products to an ‘as new’ state, which will then be sold at a lower …
Read More »FCC adopts controversial online privacy rules
There’s a new cop on the internet privacy beat. In a 3-2 vote Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission passed new rules that for the first time give the agency the authority to police internet service providers, such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, that share customers’ sensitive personal information with third parties, like advertisers. The FCC’s new rules will require internet …
Read More »Google Cast is recast as Google Home companion app
Google is gearing up for the release of the Google Home smart speaker on November 2 with the release of the companion app. Originally called Google Cast, the new Google Home app, released this week, lets you cast content to compatible devices over your network as well as set up multiroom audio groups. While the app looks similar to Google …
Read More »Triple Tuesday: 3 deals you won’t want to miss
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. You know me: cheap everything all the time. But does that mean we have to sacrifice the good stuff? The premium products? Not …
Read More »HDR for photography vs. HDR for TVs: What’s the difference?
High dynamic range (HDR) is quite the buzzword. There’s been an explosion of “4K HDR” TV sets to choose from, along with HDR TV shows and movies from Netflix, Amazon and others. Meanwhile there’s “another” HDR with which most people are much more familiar. It’s a photography process that’s been around for years, in particular on phone cameras. And now …
Read More »Couch potato paradise from Logitech’s new Alexa skill
“Imagine a remote control capable of switching channels on your television right from its spot on the table, one that requires no clumsy fumbling about with the hands to operate. That bold, inactive future is here.” That’s a fake quote from a fake Sony executive in a fake news story published in The Onion almost 20 years ago. The headline? …
Read More »How to watch the World Series online
A drought will end at the conclusion of the 2016 World Series. The Chicago Cubs last won the World Series in 1908, and the Cleveland Indians haven’t won a title since 1948. These are the two longest championship droughts in baseball, if not professional sports. The 2016 World Series begins on Tuesday, October 25, in Cleveland. Fox will broadcast the …
Read More »How to prepare yourself for a DDoS attack
No Spotify. No Twitter. No Netflix. Last Friday, millions of US residents woke up to that reality, the result of a major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Although not being able to stream “Stranger Things” on a weekday is merely an inconvenience — a serious one, I grant you — the attack crippled any number of smaller sites and …
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