boxes

Games that make you rage on iOS

Old-school gamers will remember an age when there were no continues, no checkpoints, and no respawns. If you died during a level, that was it--you went back to the beginning of the level to do it all again. The craziest thing about it? You liked it even though it drove you crazy.

These days, a gaming purist might say games have gotten too easy and gamers have gotten too soft. When dying in a game doesn't mean anything, how can you truly enjoy the game? I'm not sure it matters, but I can see both sides. Maybe after checking out this collection--if you don't throw your iPhone through your computer screen from frustration--you can tell me what you think in the comments.… Read more

Oracle squashes 78 software bugs in latest patch

Oracle yesterday deployed 78 different security fixes aimed at patching holes throughout its various database products.

As part of the company's January critical patch update, 16 of the 78 fixes were considered critical, meaning they could be exploited remotely. The fixes stretched across much of Oracle's product lineup, including Oracle Database Server, Fusion Middleware, E-Business Suite, Oracle Sun products, MySQL, VirtualBox, and PeopleSoft.

One of the patches addresses a major flaw that could compromise the security of Oracle database systems. Initially researched by InfoWorld, the flaw was shared with Oracle before the tech publication went live with the … Read more

Consumerization of IT is more than using an iPad at work

Like newspapers to the Web, many business software vendors are now reluctantly dragging themselves into the cloud-based enterprise. If they aren't nimble enough, a new generation of companies is ready to take their place.

While major enterprise IT vendors continue to deliver so-called features that keep users tied to their desks and legacy software, companies like Box and others have figured out that the industry is changing right before our eyes. The new enterprise takes the best aspects of consumer applications to make business-critical data available anywhere, anytime.

The majority of the fawning stories about startups that come out … Read more

Facebook updates Comment Box for mobile

Facebook updated its Comments Box social plug-in for mobile to improve user functionality on mobile sites, the social-networking giant announced today on its Facebook + Media page.

The Comments Box, already in use on many media sites, uses social signals to highlight the most relevant comments from friends, friends of friends, and those that are most liked and active in discussion threads. Users can then share the comments on their Facebook friends' News feeds, including links to the original site.

The updated plug-in will automatically appear on the mobile versions of sites that have Facebook's Comment Box enabled. The mobile … Read more

Asus rocks the tablet boat

Intel is making a big push into smartphones and tablets, Polaroid has the first Android phone, and Asus hands out four cores for the price of two with the game-changing Asus Memo 370T.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded, from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

Four cores for the price of two? Intel goes inside smartphones Polaroid's Android camera Box-less DVR with DirecTV and Samsung Buzzing about the Dell XPS 13 and the Inhon. Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS HD

Samsung Smart Interaction TVs get cable box control

LAS VEGAS--The highest-end plasma and LED TVs Samsung announced at CES yesterday offer a feature called Smart Interaction, which among other functions allows volume and channel changes at a word or gesture. Most TV watchers, however, use a cable box and not their TVs to change channels.

The solution is an IR blaster, a device designed to send infrared signals (just like a remote control) to operate the box. The little device pictured above handles that duty for Samsung's 2012 Smart Interaction models, namely the UNES7500, UNES8000, and PNE8000 series.

The TVs communicate with the blaster via Bluetooth, as … Read more

Microsoft Office document editor CloudOn is back for the iPad

iPad owners searching for software to create Microsoft Office documents now have a new and free app.

The iPad app CloudOn lets you create, edit, and view Microsoft documents using online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Your documents are stored in the cloud via your DropBox account, letting you access them whenever you're online.

Although it officially hit the App Store on January 3, CloudOn was subsequently taken down when the company bumped into technical difficulties as a result of huge demand. But CloudOn has since caught up with its service issues and is once again ripe for download … Read more

Juice app streams photos, music from Android phone to Roku box

You've snapped a bunch of cool vacation/party/family photos on your Android phone; now you want to show them off on your TV. If you have a Roku box and three extra bucks, you're good to go.

Juice for Roku turns your Android device into a media server for your Roku box, wirelessly beaming photos and music to your TV. It also doubles as a remote. It's a fairly limited app with a few quirks, but overall it works well.

The beauty of Juice is that it requires no desktop component, no server program that routes photos and music via your PC. That's the modus operandi for the majority of media-sharing solutions, but Juice spares you that extra hassle.… Read more

Now hear this: Beat box creates music using RFID tags

Some people march to the beat of a different drummer, and we'd say Danne Woo and Stefanie Kleinman are two such individuals.

The NYU students created an instrument that uses RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to make music, and the result is pretty entrancing if you ask us.

The RFID Beat Box works by reading the various RFID tags, which are cleverly designed to look like tiny vinyl records. Each tag/disc is programmed with a different sound that's triggered when placed in one of four wooden bowls, which are outfitted with RFID readers.

The discs and bowls are color-coded to indicate a certain instrument or musical style, and LED lights blink along to the beat for visual effect. … Read more

The 404 966: Where it's all the same in the end (podcast)

CNET's newest TV editor, Ty Pendlebury, joins us on today's episode for a short lesson in Australian holidays and colloquialisms!

Today we're talking about another billionaire bitten by the space travel bug, even though Jeff seems reluctant to travel in outer space.

We'll also bug Ty to tell us why the FCC doesn't care about eardrums, and he'll join us throughout the second half where we'll premiere a new geek speed-dating show on TLC.

Also, be sure to tune in tomorrow to hear us announce the winners of Target's video voice mail competition. Two winners will get their choice of an Xbox 360/Kinect Bundle or an iPad 2!… Read more