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Yes, it's a loaded question, but a necessary one with the PlayStation Vita finally making its U.S. release. There's no denying that platforms like iOS and Android have changed the face of portable gaming forever, but do they provide the best experience?

Just like choosing which home console to buy, this is a decision that needs to be made on a personal level, depending on what exactly your budget and preferences are.

In my opinion, the best "gamer's" games are the ones experienced with actual tactile buttons. While touch gaming might be more accessible and ultimately more affordable, I do believe if you limit yourself to that specific medium, you're missing out on a lot that the world of portable gaming has to offer.

With that said, let's look at the current portable gaming landscape.… Read more

Where's My Water? is a charming physics puzzler, in which you funnel clean water to the bathtub of a fastidious little alligator named Swampy.

Where's My Water? ranks among the better arcade puzzlers, sharing some similarities (fast-paced levels, an intuitive interface, and a winningly cartoony protagonist) but with a central schtick that's mostly all its own: you dig paths through dirt, creating channels for liquid to flow from one place to another. Ideally, you'll get enough clean water into a pipe to fill Swampy's tub, but along the way you have to contend with various … Read more

A popular TV show and movie discovery app just got a major update during CES that adds social components to its already full-featured cable listing arsenal.

Peel Personal TV Show Guide (free) is an app that changes the way you watch TV by gathering your personal preferences and giving you recommendations on your iPhone based on the data.

The polished interface of Peel asks you a few questions upon launch so it can deliver the type of shows you'll want to watch and tell you when they will show in your area. On first setup, the app has you choose your cable service, and then lists out several categories like Drama, Comedy, and Kids, and asks you to reorder the list by your personal preference with your favorites at the top. You'll then reorder a list of sports in the same fashion. When you're finished, you'll see the main interface of the app, with recommended shows that are currently playing in your area based on your preferences.

What we really like about Peel is how it lays out movies and shows by category so you can browse based on your mood at the moment.… Read more

Cosmetic Guide Lite cosmetically corrects portraits, especially full-face portraits, with graphics editing tools instead of makeup. The Lite version is a freeware release of a premium tool. Unfortunately, it contains few of the cosmetic-specific features of the paid version, making it of little use beyond demonstrating the paid tool's capabilities with video demonstrations.

Cosmetic Guide Lite is essentially an image editor, like Photoshop and many others, but with reduced and simplified features. The Lite version includes the standard Smudge, Brush, Crop, Resize, and Text tools, as well as the Smart Patch and Bleach Teeth tools from the premium version. … Read more

Budget tech is one of our favorite categories here at CNET, so that's why we're running not one, but two budget tech gift roundups this year.

My compadre John Falcone put together a list of the 10 best el-cheapo tech products out there with his Best tech gifts under $50 feature.

I get a little more wiggle room with a $99.99 budget, which is why this list should really be called "Best tech gifts between $50 and $100." But more people are looking on Google for "best tech gifts under $100," so we'… Read more

Even I roll my eyes at those ads where someone gets a new car with a big, red bow on a snowy holiday morning. But when you think about it, a car is actually a pretty awesome gift.

Cars are more than just basic transportation these days. Pick the right ride, such as our top Holiday Gift Pick and Editors' Choice 2012 Audi A7, and you'll also be giving the gift of entertainment, safety, utility, and style. And while a car really is too big to be gift wrapped or stuffed into a stocking, you may be able to squeeze the diminutive 2012 Fiat 500 C under a big enough tree.

We acknowledge that a new car isn't always the best gift idea--maybe the car lover in your life already has a perfectly good set of wheels. Never fear, we have plenty of smaller car tech gift ideas as well. From radar detectors for speed demons to Bluetooth hands-free kits for motor mouths, sports cameras for daredevils, and GPS navigators for the perpetually lost, there's something for every sort of automotive enthusiast in our Car Tech Holiday Gift Guide.

… Read more

Chances are, there's someone on your holiday gift list asking for a tablet. The simplest solution, of course, is to buy that person an Apple iPad 2. It's our highest-rated tablet, and anyone who's ungrateful to receive one should (in my humble opinion) have his or her head examined.

But if an iPad's out of the question financially or you're shopping for someone who thinks of gingerbread as an Android OS rather than a tasty holiday treat, then there are some other tablet options to consider.

No matter what, we've got you covered.… Read more

Though not the sexiest products out there, printers and peripherals are some of the most useful. These are the types of products that sit in the backdrop of your tech life, unnoticed; but as soon as they're gone, you'll be ready to give your right arm to have them back.

Unless we're talking turkeys, you hopefully won't have to resort to too much dismembering with the list of top holiday printers and peripherals picks we've compiled. And no matter your poison, we've got you covered with a list that includes monitors, storage, input devices, … Read more

CNET's Holiday Help Desk on CNET Live is back for seconds!

Hosts Molly Wood and Brian Tong will take live viewer calls, talk to the chat room, and answer e-mails. And dish out the best tech gift buying advice on the planet. This week's special guests include CNET 's TV Guru Senior Editor David Katzmaier, resident cheapskate Rick Broida keeps bringing us sweet deals, and Woot.com's VP of Retail Sales Darold Rydl joins us to talk about where to find some great deals and how Woot helped to start the craze.

We'll keep you posted … Read more