I hate cleaning. But I’ve done a lot of moving things around and tidying up, just to get things just right for kart racing. Cones under tables, gates behind chairs. I’ve blocked off my dining room. We’re almost ready. And suddenly, we have a racing circuit. I’m looking at my Nintendo Switch screen as I …
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You have another chance at PS5 or Xbox Series X/S preorders today
Update, Nov. 6: Read our reviews of the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5. If you were bitterly disappointed by the near-instantaneous sellout of all the next-gen consoles last month, you’re not alone. Sony took a lot of flak for a botched rollout of the PS5, and though Microsoft had a few extra days to avoid making the same mistakes, the Xbox Series …
Read More »iPhone 12 launch day: Apple’s big event was quite a whirlwind
Apple set Oct. 13 as the date for its latest iPhone’s debut, and the day finally arrived. Here’s everything Apple announced on Tuesday, including four versions of the iPhone 12 and the $99 HomePod Mini. And here’s how to preorder the entire iPhone 12 lineup. Like Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and the Apple Watch and iPad launch event earlier this year, the iPhone event took …
Read More »Surface Laptop Go review: The best
When Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Go, a cheaper, smaller version of its excellent Surface Laptop, I wondered how the company would pull it off. After all, I’ve said that a truly great budget laptop is something of a PC holy grail — very valuable but also about as hard to find. Laptops around the $500 mark have to make …
Read More »Microsoft takes jab at Apple, Google with new app store principles
Microsoft announced 10 new app store principles in a blog post Thursday, needling Apple‘s and Google‘s policies in the process. The new guidelines from Microsoft are intended to promote choice, fairness and innovation for software developers on Windows 10. “Developers will have the freedom to choose whether to distribute their apps for Windows through our app store. We will not block competing …
Read More »Microsoft reportedly planning app for Xbox Game Pass to get around Apple rules
Microsoft is developing an iOS app to bring Game Pass to the iPad and iPhone, circumventing Apple App Store rules, Business Insider reported Thursday. “We absolutely will end up on iOS,” Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer told employees at an all-hands meeting Wednesday, according to Business Insider. Microsoft announced in August that its Project xCloud video game service would be …
Read More »xCloud, now Xbox cloud gaming: Games, pricing and more you need to know
Microsoft has been testing its xCloud cloud-gaming platform, the technology that lets you play Xbox games on your phone, streamed from remote servers, for more than a year. Now we’ve come to the part where the free ride for testers ends and it’s time to pony up for the privilege via a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. And as frequently …
Read More »Requiem for a Daydream: RIP, phone VR
In late 2014, I pulled CNET TV editor David Katzmaier into a conference room to show him a black plastic pair of goggles fitted over a Samsung phone. I seated him in a comfy swivel chair. I wanted to see what he thought of what I was about to show him, from a display perspective. A few 3D 360-degree videos …
Read More »Google rebrands its G Suite productivity apps to Google Workspace
Google on Tuesday said it’s giving a new name to G Suite, its line of productivity apps aimed at business customers. The set of services will now be called Google Workspace. The rebranding comes as Google makes a bigger effort to court companies for its cloud services, pushing enterprise versions of apps including Docs, Sheets and Drive. The company has been …
Read More »Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming already seems much different to Google Stadia
A year after Google launched Stadia, Amazon seems like it’s doing the same thing for cloud gaming. The just-announced Amazon Luna service is entering a streaming games market that’s suddenly quite crowded, alongside Stadia, Microsoft’s Game Pass Ultimate and Sony’s PlayStation Now. Luna has a controller, like Stadia. It has Alexa on it, like Stadia has Google Assistant. Luna has big …
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