Samsung Rugby 3 (AT&T)

Built for durability and outdoor work, the Samsung Rugby 3 is a sturdy clamshell cell phone. It features AT&T's enhanced push-to-talk and noise suppression, and it comes with large, responsive, and widely-spaced buttons that make it possible to hit while wearing thicker gloves. Pair all that with U.S. Military Standard 810G for water,...

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TiVo Mini

With "TiVo" being synonymous with "DVR," it would not be unreasonable to think the TiVo Mini is a small DVR. It isn't one. Instead, the Mini is another part of the company's whole-home viewing experience, joining the TiVo Stream, which streams your recorded content on iOS devices. Similar to the Stream, the Mini feeds off of a TiVo Premiere 4 or XL4 DVR. Connect the Mini to a secondary TV and to your home network, and you'll...

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Kyocera Event (Virgin Mobile)

Though the Kyocera Event has only 3G data and is nearly identical to the Kyocera Hydro, save for not being waterproof like the Hydro, it still has enough tricks up its sleeve to be considered a reliable and decent handset. True, the biggest incentive to buy it is that bargain price tag. At $79.99, it's one of the two best Android smartphones...

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Alcatel Authority (Cricket Wireless)

On the surface, the $249.99 Alcatel Authority looks like nice option on Cricket Wireless. The smartphone runs Android and connects to Google's vast ecosystem of software and services. The phone also is compatible with Cricket's Muve Music song-rental service, putting unlimited and portable tunes within the handset's reach. That said,...

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Tips from a Social Media One-night Stand

A glimpse of the stage and the screen at Social Media One-night Stand in Seattle on March 18, 2013 When you write about something called Social Media One-night Stand, the temptation, so to speak, is to fill it with bad puns and jokes about its name (like I just did). But this is a post where that's the last double entendre. Instead,...

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Wireless charging still has strings attached

The Powermat-Duracell booth at Mobile World Congress representing the Power Matters Alliance. (Credit: Powermat) As obviously useful as wireless charging is, it suffers from a Tower of Babel problem with incompatible standards and competing interests keeping it from truly going mainstream. But the industry may yet be inching...

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Seagate Business Storage 4-Bay NAS (8TB)

Seagate's four-bay Business Storage 4-Bay NAS server is the replacement for the company's previous BlackArmor 440. Despite the name, it's a simple network storage device that both consumers and business users can benefit from. In fact it has fewer business-related features than other advanced yet consumer-friendly servers I've reviewed,...

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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11

The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11's keyboard is permanently attached to the tablet section and when in tablet mode, it’s bulky, heavy, and awkward to hold. Thankfully, if you’d rather lay your tablet down flat or simply watch movies on it, the Yoga 11’s flexible, dual-hinge, $649 body gives you a few useful positions to choose from. Also,...

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2013 Audi S7

The Audi A7 came out in 2011 as a stupendous tech car, featuring an always-on data connection feeding maps from Google Earth into the navigation system. Now the A7 gets the "S" treatment, which in Audi terms means a higher output engine and sport modifications. In 2013 Audi S7 form, the body style remains the same as the less-ferocious...

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LG Optimus Regard (Cricket Wireless)

Don't be swayed by the use of "Optimus" in its name, as the LG Optimus Regard for Cricket Wireless isn't out to impress. Its compact design is unassuming, its feature set is mostly entry-level, and it runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. So, in other words, it's about as far from the Optimus G Pro as you can get. Yet, those aren't...

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 95412VU Dusk Black 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor(2.40GHz 1600MHz 6MB)

The current version of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 is a laptop that's hard not to like. A chunky, 15-inch Windows 8 machine with some real gaming muscle, sharp design, and a funky red-on-black backlit keyboard, it perfectly embodies the aesthetic Lenovo seems to be reaching for in the consumer-targeted IdeaPad line. It's not as staid as the much more traditional ThinkPad line, but instead takes basic black plastic and brushed...

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Is Samsung scared of being too cool?

This was theater. Or something. (Credit: Samsung Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) The little blond boy from the latest, oddly bland commercials tap-danced. There was a mother-in-law joke. There were actors being forced to spout lines of the same quality as reality show producers foist on overly-lipsticked, neophyte administrative...

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Sprint Force

Manufactured by ZTE, the Sprint Force is a mid- to entry-level device that comes with a very affordable $49.99 sticker price, after users sign a two-year contract. But even with that price and the phone's positive features (4G LTE, NFC, and a nearly unsullied version of Android 4.0 to name a few), the handset is plagued by the poor performances...

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Beyerdynamic T90

Beyerdynamic offers a broad line of headphones, but it's the company's midprice and higher-end headphones that are sought after by audiophiles and record industry pros. Needless to say, some of these models, including the flagship $1,399 Tesla T1, will set you back some serious dough. Introduced in 2010, the T1 has a closed-back design...

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