hardware

Circuit Playground plushies a perfect post-Xmas toy for hacker kids

It's a little late for Christmas presents, but if you throw a little time-machine action into the mix, this might be the perfect gift for the hacker kid in your life: Circuit Playground plushies.

The plushies are the newest product from Adafruit Industries, a leader in the open-source hardware world and the maker of a wide range of products for hackers young and old. Led by Entrepreneur magazine's entrepreneur of the year Limor Fried, Adafruit has a long history of promoting the do-it-yourself movement, and giving those who play and work in it the tools they need. … Read more

Get ready to program! Lego's Mindstorms EV3 robots are here

LAS VEGAS--Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, start your programming engines: Lego Mindstorms EV3 is here.

The third full generation of Lego's programmable robotics platform, EV3 is aimed at both enthusiasts -- young and old -- and educators, and blows past the previous generation with a long list of new features that add speed and power, intelligent programmability, and more ways to communicate with the robots. Lego expects to begin selling the product, which includes 594 Technic pieces that can be used to make five different robots, this summer at a retail cost of $350. It will also release … Read more

Xbox 360 outshines Wii U in November, NPD says

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has once again topped the U.S. game hardware market.

During November, Xbox 360 was the top-selling hardware platform, research firm NPD said yesterday. That was somewhat surprising, considering the Wii U, which is sold out nationwide, made its debut on store shelves last month. However, it's worth noting that the Wii U was launched about halfway through the month, giving it fewer days to rack up sales.

According to Microsoft, it sold 1.26 million Xbox 360 units in November, giving it the top console spot for the 23rd-consecutive month. According to NPD, the … Read more

Nintendo's Fils-Aime: Microsoft, Sony need to react to us

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has some sharp words for Microsoft and Sony: you react to us, not the other way around.

Speaking to CNET in a telephone interview today, Fils-Aime brushed off an assertion that the Wii U could be faced with irrelevancy issues if Microsoft and Sony launch their new consoles in the coming year, as expected.

"In the end, our competitors need to react to what we're doing in the marketplace and need to figure out what their innovation will be," Fils-Aime told CNET. "It's likely that faster processors and pretty … Read more

Apple's hardware-boss shuffle ruffled feathers, report says

Why exactly is Apple's former hardware chief Bob Mansfield sticking around, despite announcing plans to retire?

When this occurred in late August, Apple didn't provide an explanation. A new story claims some of the company's top employees did not believe Mansfield's replacement was ready for the job, something that led to infighting within the company's top ranks.

In a piece looking back at Apple's past year without former CEO Steve Jobs, who died one year ago on Friday, Bloomberg Businessweek throws in a tidbit about the situation, saying that some of Apple's senior … Read more

Pulling back from open source hardware, MakerBot angers some adherents

You likely know MakerBot Industries as the poster child for the new era of 3D-printing. You might not know that, until last week, the company and its CEO, Bre Pettis, were considered shining lights in the open-source hardware movement.

Think of open-source hardware, OSHW, as the physical equivalent of open source software. The Open Source Hardware Association, founded just this past March, offers an extended definition for OSHW. Its Statement of Principles sums things up thusly:

Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or … Read more

DIY shark intrusion system works in aquariums

The New York Port Authority had egg on its face recently when a stranded jet skier managed to breach JFK International Airport's security perimeter and walk across several runways.

Raytheon, maker of the $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, has some explaining to do.

But it's not all bad. Inspired by the breach (and Shark Week), Justin Huynh and friends at engineering firm Liquidware have concocted their own intruder alert system for far fewer bucks.

Essentially, it's a simple laser tripwire that sends alerts to Twitter when activated. So far, it works with toy sharks and not hapless jet skiers. … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions about a Mac system issuing a beep tone and not turning on when the power is pressed, Active Directory accounts not properly accessing e-mail through Apple's Mail program, and the best way to install OS X on a new hard drive. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, post them in the comments!

Question: Mac beeps and does not turn on MacFixIt reader Navid asks:

I have … Read more

Cisco's fourth quarter better than expected

Cisco reported a better-than-expected fourth quarter as the company weathered a tricky fiscal year.

Cisco reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.9 billion, or 36 cents a share, on revenue of $11.7 billion, up 4 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 47 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting non-GAAP earnings of 45 cents a share on revenue of $11.6 billion.

For fiscal 2012, Cisco reported earnings of $8 billion, or $1.49 a share, on revenue of $46.1 billion, up 7 percent from a year ago.

In a statement, Cisco CEO John Chambers said the … Read more