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Memorial Day is considered the traditional start of summer here in the U.S., and we noticed the streets, subways, and elevators getting less and less populated as the week wore on. But it was another full week for the CNET Reviews team, who cranked out more than 20 tech product reviews -- including a few items that are beyond our usual purview.

Hot cameras We sampled only two cameras this week, but both were four-star winners.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX30V is camera royalty, of sorts: the compact megazoom model is the successor to 2011's DSC-HX9V, an Editors' Choice … Read more

It's time to share your searches, stream original content and earn good Karma:

With all the news focused around Facebook, Microsoft just quietly launched its own social network for students called So.cl (pronounced "social"). It's different from Facebook and Google Plus in that it is focused around search. What students search for on So.cl is shared with other So.cl users -- and it can be shared on other networks like Facebook. The idea is to give students a quick and easy way to share information found through searches.

Hulu has unveiled 10 original and exclusive shows … Read more

Hulu hopes summer reruns will have viewers tuning in to its Web site for original shows.

The online video site today unveiled a lineup of 10 shows -- three original and seven exclusive to the site -- that begin airing in June.

It's among most aggressive announcement of unique content yet for Hulu, which is hoping the new shows will give viewers extra reason to view online content through Hulu. The site has been focusing more on original content even as its slate of available television shows and movies either shrink or move behind its Hulu Plus pay wall. … Read more

Seeking to boost original content for its Amazon Instant Video service, Amazon Studios today put out the call for pilots for comedies and kids shows.

Since it launched in November 2010, Amazon Studios had focused on films, both full-length features and shorter films. This is its first foray into episodic programming.

"In the course of developing movies, we've heard a lot of interest from content creators who want to develop original series in the comedy and children's genres," Amazon Studios director Roy Price said in a statement.

Amazon Studios works differently than traditional Hollywood production companies. … Read more

The third generation of Core i-series CPUs has been benchmarked, written about, and discussed for months now, but PC makers could only sell them starting April 29.

Even then, only the very high-end models, the quad-core Core i7 chips, are currently available. The more mainstream dual-core Core i3 and Core i5 processors found in most laptops won't get updated until sometime in May or June (and then probably won't be physically available for some time after that).

A handful of hearty manufacturers have already put the high-end new Core i7 chips up on their sites, allowing you to … Read more

The 11-inch gaming laptop is the textbook definition of a niche product. In fact, up until now, there's really only been one serious entry in that category, Dell's Alienware M11x. Origin (coincidentally co-founded by some former Alienware employees) is now getting into the game, with the EON11-S, which the company calls a "compact high-performance laptop."

Interestingly, this new model won't actually double the number of 11-inch gaming laptops available, as the Alienware model is being quietly discontinued. That's a shame, as we liked the M11x, even if it wasn't the most practical for … Read more

Sometimes, CNET goes weeks without bestowing an Editors' Choice award. We give the badges only to tech that we love so much, we'd personally buy these devices. There must be some magic in the air (or our drinks) this week, because we doled out not one, but three CNET Editors' Choice awards.

But before I walk you through our award winners (a surprising and diverse group in their own right), I'd like to point out two non-winners that deserve your attention. These two four-star computers, the Origin Genesis and the Origin EON17-S are a desktop and a laptop … Read more

A truism of Intel chip announcements: Intel releases a new CPU, and with it a new graphics chip or, since Sandy Bridge, a new graphics core embedded in the CPU silicon. Intel then claims said chip/core will provide at least a baseline PC gaming experience. This claim is never true.

Only now it is.

With its new Ivy Bridge CPUs, Intel has introduced two new graphics cores, the Intel HD 4000 and a lower-end HD 2500 core. You will still have a better gaming experience with a budget graphics card, but for at least the HD 4000, Intel finally has an onboard graphics processor with some 3D processing muscle.… Read more

Intel's latest CPUs will be rolling out in various waves over the next few months, but the first wave of higher-end, quad-core processors is finally here.

So far, the biggest impact has been on gaming without a dedicated graphics GPU, with other differences remaining subtle at best.

Of course, this may not reflect future laptops and desktops in the coming months, but it clearly tells the story of Ivy Bridge at launch: this is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.

Check out our review roundup below. For more questions on Ivy Bridge, read our FAQ.… Read more