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Sony has finally said when it'll launch its next-generation Google TV set-top box it unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year.

Dubbed the NSZ-GS7 Internet Player with Google TV, the device will launch nationwide on July 22 for $199. Sony has already opened up preorders on the device on its online marketplace. In addition, the company has unveiled the NSZ-GP9, which adds Blu-ray support to the Google TV integration. That device will hit store shelves "in time for the holiday season," and will go on sale for $299.

Google TV has been somewhat of a … Read more

Subscribe: RSS (SD) RSS (HD) iTunes (SD) iTunes (HD) Smartphones are practically essential in this day and age. I mean, how else are we expected to upload pictures of our lunch on Facebook?

Unfortunately, there's still a misconception that smartphones are an expensive luxury item. Not true. I mean, data and messaging plans may bankrupt you, but the phones themselves can be found for next-to-nothing so long as you're on contract.

In this episode of Top 5, I'll count down CNET Senior Editor Jessica Dolcourt's favorite smartphones under $50, for June 2012. Not only that, but … Read more

With Microsoft's unveiling of a laptop today carrying the "Surface" name, the company has bestowed a new name on the product that formerly carried the Surface moniker.

The table-top, multitouch computer that Microsoft unveiled in 2007, which was largely relegated to retail outlets, hotel lobbies, and museums, has been rebranded as PixelSense. The original Surface, which resembled a 1980s sit-down arcade machine, wasn't much of a gadget for consumers, thanks largely to its $12,500 price tag.

But the new name is a bit of return to the product's roots. The device's panel features … Read more

Sequoia, an IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, reached 16.32 petaflops, while previous leader K Computer trailed with 10.5 petaflops, according to the Top500 list. The list was published today at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg.

The latest edition of the list, which is published twice a year, shows that Intel is slipping and IBM is recapturing lost ground, while the U.S. is back on top after losing its lead three years ago. New technologies reign, from updated IBM chips to a build of Fujitsu's novel interconnect product.

Intel processors … Read more

First things first, I'm referring to soft-to-loud dynamic range compression, not MP3 or other types of lossy data compression. Dynamic range compression has been around for almost as long as recorded music has existed, but over the last decade or so the public has demanded ever higher levels of dynamic range compression. The so-called lowest common denominator approach to mixing and mastering music boosts all of the softer/quieter passages to be loud all the time. That process obliterates all of the original details, subtleties, and nuances of the instruments and vocalists. Once the mix has been compressed, it … Read more

Console game controllers get no respect. These days especially, with all the attention paid to mobile games, touch-screen control, and Microsoft Kinect, everyone has lost sight of the irreducible awesomeness of a sweaty gamepad.

With this thought in mind and the hype of E3 2012 fading in the distance, I offer you my best attempt to round up the Top 5 game controllers of all time. … Read more

Earlier today in London, ICANN released a list of thousands of applications for new generic top-level domains. The applications include plenty of brand protection moves like .google and .bentley, as well as some more generic speculation plays like .beer or the very popular .app, which received several applications.

There was also plenty of weirdness buried in the list of suffixes, applicants, and primary contacts.

For example, it looks as though Google might be interested in giving the Cheezburger network a run for its money with oddball applications for domains .lol, .wow, and .fun.… Read more

Among the thousands of applications for new generic top-level domains that ICANN released today are three to run new .army, .navy and .airforce domains. The applicant isn't the U.S. Department of Defense -- or any other government entity for that matter -- it's those masters of cheap, spammy content, Demand Media.

The military suffixes are three of 26 applications that list United TLD Holdco Ltd. as the applicant -- United TLD is a Cayman Islands-based subsidiary of Demand Media, which runs eHow.com and other sites. The company was part of the inspiration behind tweaks to Google's search algorithm last year that resulted in giving less weight to so-called "content farms" -- like Demand Media.… Read more

Like the e-ink Kindles and iPads before it, Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet has launched a cottage industry of cases and covers.

In trying to boil down the best of what's currently out there, I decided to take a stand -- so to speak -- and select mostly cases and covers that convert into a stand.… Read more