Hardware

Where should CNET Road Trip go in the Midwest?

Summer is still three months away, but here in Northern California, with bright sunshine outside (and windows to keep the chilly wind out), it already feels like it's just around the corner.

That's also because I've already started the planning for Road Trip 2013, my eighth-annual journey to highlight some of the best destinations around for technology, military, architecture, science, nature, and so on.

For six of the past seven years, CNET Road Trip has taken me all around the roads of the United States, giving me the opportunity to visit the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, the … Read more

MakerBot to sell limited-edition Adafruit Replicator 2 kit

MakerBot and open-source hardware pioneers Adafruit Industries have partnered to produce a limited edition Adafruit Replicator 2 3D Printer bundle.

For $2,295, buyers get a Replicator 2 -- one of the hottest consumer-grade 3D printers on the market today -- and three of Adafruit's most-popular kits. A Replicator 2 normally sells for $2,200.

The three kits included in the package are Adafruit's MintyBoost V3.0, an open-source hardware charger; a 512MB RAM Raspberry Pi Model B; and a Timesquare do-it-yourself watch kit with a red display matrix. … Read more

The killer iOS 7 feature the iPad needs: Touch-pad support

It took using the Microsoft Surface Pro to make me remember an article I wrote a year ago, about productivity on an iPad.

I love using the iPad. I also love some of its keyboard accessories. As a product, it's superior to a Surface Pro. But that doesn't mean it's the perfect laptop replacement. And that's still, in my opinion, largely because of one little touch pad. Or, a lack of it.

The iPad never claimed it was a laptop replacement. It stands in its own, hard-to-define "post-PC" territory. Yet, accessories have sprung up … Read more

Razer Edge Pro tablet pre-orders shut down due to high demand

Demand for the Razer Edge Pro has already managed to exceed supply, forcing its manufacturer to curtail its pre-order program.

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan broke the news this week via the company's Facebook page:

We've had to stop taking pre-orders for the Razer Edge Pro as the pre-orders have gone beyond our forseeable manufacturing capacity (i.e. all stock is sold out for the months to come). We're doing all we can to get manufacturing lines up and running so please bear with us.

We're doing everything we can to get more units out in the … Read more

Think PCs are dead? Check out these crazy mods

AUSTIN, Texas--The PC is so not dead.

That's what AMD, one of the world's largest makers of processors, wants the world to know. And at SXSW, the chipmaker is putting its money where its mouth is and showing off a collection of modded PCs masquerading as art.

During its Technograffiti event here tonight, AMD will let the world get a glimpse of a series of PC mods that it hopes will convince people who think mobile devices have fully supplanted PCs that there's still some life remaining in the full-size computer.

"We want people to reimagine … Read more

Backblaze shares third-gen storage server design

Backblaze, a startup offering online backup service, has released the designs for its newest Storage Pod, a low-budget storage server with 180TB of capacity.

It was something of a PR stunt when the company shared its first-gen Storage Pod design back in 2009, but the 67-terabyte system proved useful to organizations including the Vanderbilt University Institute of Image Science, which stores medical imaging data, ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and and the Geographic Information Network of Alaska. Netflix was inspired to share its Open Connect Appliance Hardware design, and Backblaze also showed its Storage Pod 2.0 design, which could … Read more

PS4 prototype controller revealed?

Sony will reveal the future of the PlayStation brand at a New York City event next Wednesday, but one of the company's surprises may have just leaked. Destructoid has obtained an image of what is rumored to be the PlayStation 4's new touch screen-equipped controller.

A "trusted source" has confirmed to IGN that the leaked PlayStation 4 controller image is indeed real, but is only a prototype. The final design could change. An industry source confirmed the same to gaming blog Kotaku.

The image matches up with previous reports, which suggested the PS4 controller would be … Read more

Behind the scenes with the world's largest LED art project

SAN FRANCISCO--I'm standing behind Leo Villareal, watching the well-known artist calibrate settings in the software running on his screen. Each time he moves a slider, one of the world's largest art installations -- mounted on one of the world's most-famous landmarks -- changes in an instant.

It's a gorgeous evening on the Embarcadero, San Francisco's eastern waterfront, with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge dominating the landscape in front of us, and a near-full moon doing its best to overcome the typical evening fog cover. Lights from the city, and from Oakland on the other side of the bay reflect brilliantly in the water. And with just the most subtle adjustments in his custom-designed software, Villareal makes thousands of LEDs strung out over the 1.8 mile-long western span of the bridge almost instantaneously change what they're doing, and how they're interacting with each other. … Read more

Walkie Talkies: Recycled phones embedded in fancy footwear

The shoe phone is not a new idea. Just ask Agent Maxwell Smart. Still, nothing Smart wore was ever quite so fashionable as what designer Sean Miles has come up with for a campaign to encourage phone recycling.

The "Walkie Talkies" project presents recycled cell phones built into classic footwear. Miles' creations came about at the behest of O2 Recycle, a U.K. company that buys used handsets and other gadgets. Recycled phones from O2 Recycle have been embedded into a Christian Louboutin heel, a men's brogue, a Nike Air training shoe, and a Hunter Welly.… Read more