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Astak's e-book reader beats rivals in price

Another day, another e-book reader. There must be something in the air, because in the last week alone we've seen new releases of Endless Ideas' "Bebook," the Irex "Book Edition," and now Astak's "Mentor."

The latest runs on Windows CE 5.0 and has a 6-inch screen that's similar to the displays on the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, as well as the Bebook. Unlike the competing readers seen in the last few days, however, Astak's offering includes Wi-Fi connectivity, uses e-ink technology, and has a lower price than all … Read more

Looking for love from U.S. Cellular

Recently, I contacted U.S. Cellular and asked to review their Kyocera E1000. Since late spring is always a slow period for new cell releases, I can take the extra time to review handsets from smaller carriers. In the four and a half years I've been at CNET, I've examined a U.S. Cellular phone only a couple of times.

So while browsing through U.S. Cellular's lineup, the E1000 caught my eye. I fooled with this intriguing model at its unveiling at CTIA 2007, but my playtime lasted only a few minutes. And since I haven'… Read more

'Wuthering Heights,' Wikipedia in 5-minute chunks

DailyLit, which offers entire books over e-mail and RSS in daily serialized chunks every day, is now offering information from Wikipedia on various topics.

The free service would be perfect for people who are short on time and don't mind digesting literature and information in 5 minutes at a time on their handheld.

The Wikipedia-based topics DailyLit is creating "tours" of major world religions (22 installments--compared with the 260 installments for Moby Dick), "Wine 101," presidents of the United States, "Best Picture" Oscar winners, famous poets, famous women in history, Greek mythology, famous … Read more

Craigslist files lawsuit against eBay, claims unfair competition

UPDATE (3:50 p.m.):To include eBay response.

Craigslist, the Web's No.1 online classified site, has filed a lawsuit against eBay, in a move that will surprise few.

According to a copy of the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, Craigslist accuses eBay of unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, false advertising, and breach of fiduciary duty. Craigslist has asked the court to force eBay to surrender its interest in the company.

The two companies have been circling each other ever since eBay, which is a minority shareholder in Craigslist, opened a U.S. version of Kijiji, … Read more

Olympus debuts E-520 dSLR

Today, Olympus announced the E-520 dSLR, the replacement for the E-510 and step-up model from its E-420. The feature set is very similar to the E-420, but for the extra dough you do get some significant capabilities, such as sensor-shift stabilization (including an updated system with a mode that accommodates panning while vertically oriented), a larger continuous-shooting buffer and a deeper grip.

Like the E-420, the E-520 incorporates the same sensor as in the higher-end E-3. It also seems to use the same viewfinder and LCD as its little brother, and also includes support for face detection (still unusual for … Read more

R.E.M. offers 45 rpm vinyl

I have a theory about indie rock hipsters: you can tell how old they are by which R.E.M. album they say was "the last good one." Specifically, it was the last R.E.M. album that came out before they turned 22, the age at which most four-year college students graduate.

That puts me squarely in the Green camp. And in fact, while their next two albums made R.E.M. a household name, with songs like "Losing My Religion" (from Out of Time) and "Man on the Moon" (from Automatic for … Read more

Re-create the thrill of in-box spam with FwdItOn

Got a friend or family member who just loves to send you chain e-mails? The kind that have been forwarded a hundred times over and have so many indents and signatures on them that the original sender probably sent it off years ago? If you secretly enjoy these, but want to find a place where others have compiled their own in-box gems, check out FwdItOn, a simple service that lets you share images, videos, and text e-mails with others in one huge pool.

The service shares a lot of its core functionality with Digg. There's an upcoming section, a … Read more

Another e-book reader hits the shelves

Companies that make e-book readers must be gearing up for lazy summer novels. At the same time Irex is shipping its new "Book Edition," Netherlands-based Endless Ideas is releasing a version of its own.

The "Bebook" appears to have many of the features included in its competing models, including an MP3 player, USB port, battery life for an estimated 7,000 page turns, and 512MB of storage that can be expanded with an SD card, according to SlashGear, though it lacks a wireless receiver. Its 6-inch, 600 x 800 screen is smaller than Irex's, but … Read more

Killer Download: Switching apps with class

As you may know, I use both Mac and Windows PCs at work and write software reviews for both. In my experience, each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, but both can be extremely powerful if you have the right software. To me, it's not about picking which platform is the best, it's about finding the software you need to get the job done.

One of the great additions to the Mac OS in recent iterations is the visual program and document management system called Expose. On a Windows machine, you probably switch apps by using the trusty … Read more