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Testing a storage device is more difficult than you may expect. They may not be particularly glamorous, but storage devices serve a vital function in your digital life. Making sure they perform efficiently is important, which is why I wrote this post detailing how CNET tests the devices that we review.

Before I begin, though, it's essential that you have a good understanding of digital storage basics. So click over to read that series if you want to learn more.

There are three types of mainstream consumer-grade storage devices: internal, external, and network. Generally, we test them by transferring … Read more

CNET and car reviews may appear to be an unlikely combination, but new cars have become technology platforms, using electronics to inform and entertain drivers, avoid collisions, and even save fuel.

Since we began reviewing cars in 2004, automakers have increasingly included navigation, Bluetooth phone systems, and advanced technologies for playing digital music files in dashboards. In fact, the latest trend is to give cars complete data connections, letting drivers use online search to find destinations or listen to streamed music from an Internet-based service.

Given our technology focus, CNET reviews cars differently than traditional publications such as Car and … Read more

It's easy to forget you've shared a folder from Google Drive with someone. There are visual indicators that show a folder is shared, but if you're busy working, or don't spend a lot of time logged into Google Drive, you may not notice them.

When you come across a situation where you want to limit the amount of time that your folder remains shared, there's a script that can help you add an expiration date to the sharing status. The way it works is by creating a duplicate of what you originally shared (minus the … Read more

Do you love reading articles online, but find yourself losing your spot often? The developer of MagicScroll Web Reader, Richard Wallis, proposes that the problem isn't social media and other computer distractions -- it's the way you scroll through large blocks of text online.

To combat the issue of scrolling and making your eyes search for where you left off, Wallis wrote a browser bookmarklet that changes normal scrolling to page-turning style. This means that instead of scrolling down a really long page, you can flip through it, just like you would do with a book.

Here's … Read more

The first question is, what do you want from your hi-fi? Do you want to play LPs, CDs, or an occasional movie? Next, where will you put the speakers, and how large or small do they need to be? I'm writing this blog post for folks trying to put together the best-sounding hi-fi they can on a fixed budget. That's why I won't be covering wireless systems, because dollar for dollar, the better wired speakers always sound better than wireless models.

Setting the budget is the next logical step. I've written about an amazing-for-the-money $70 hi-fi system, … Read more

It's one of the biggest film franchises of all time. It's also one of the biggest merchandising franchises of all time. It's spawned dozens of novels, countless comic books, spoofs, video games, and even was responsible for the name of a controversial military defense system.

We're talking about "Star Wars," of course, George Lucas' mammoth empire that started back in the early-1970s as a much, much smaller creation. But don't think that Lucas didn't have big ideas. From the earliest days of working on the script of his sci-fi space opera, the &… Read more

For some paid apps there are also trial or free counterparts. On a lot of these trial apps, you'll find that the only difference is that they are ad-supported. Upgrading may remove the ads and nothing else, so you may not even need the paid version. However, many paid versions of apps offer the best features -- you know, their selling point.

Let's say you bought an app that you can't gauge its usefulness in 15 minutes or less. Or maybe the app is freezing your device when you use it and figuring out what's going … Read more

Like most humans, you probably forget to ask certain questions or make certain plans when you're on a call with someone. It's that moment when you hang up, only to remember exactly what you were supposed to talk about. How annoying. Instead of trying to remember everything in your busy life, or having to call people back all the time, why not let your Android remind you of what you need to say?

Naturally, there's an app that does this -- though seeing it integrated into the stock Android system would be a nice future perk. bytNotes, … Read more

CNET How To has grown leaps and bounds in 2012, so we wanted to celebrate our first year with a surprise gift: Some of our very best advice about the Kindle Fire to read on a Kindle Fire.

The precocious Sharon Vaknin, CNET's How To expert, has compiled our very best Kindle advice, tips, and tricks into a comprehensive e-book, Mastering the Kindle Fire. From now through the day after Christmas, we're making the book available for free in the Kindle store. Starting on December 27, you can pick it up for just $4.99.

CNET's guide … Read more