activity

Vizio announced its 2010 3D TVs at CES in January, and on Tuesday provided a few more details on the upcoming sets. It also showed the first 3D model for the U.S. market to offer passive glasses technology.

Although the January announcement included pricing, Vizio now says all three 3D TV models, which range from 42 to 55 inches, are "price $TBD."

As is common with the company, other details have changed as well: there's no 72-inch screen size anymore; the release date has been pushed back from "August" to "Q4" of … Read more

If you're buying a $103,000 hybrid, you're probably not too worried about tax incentives, but hey, in this economy every little bit of savings helps, right? 

And a little bit is exactly what you'll get--the IRS announced that the 455 hp 2011 BMW ActiveHybrid 7 qualifies for a $900 tax credit. Which is almost like getting a one percent discount on the car, except that a one percent would be an improvement--$900 is more like a 0.0087 percent discount on the super luxe car.  But hey, at least it covers the … Read more

What can a game company facing outdated hardware, aggressive and innovating competitors, and game-changing newcomers do to stay afloat in the video game business?

Well, how about getting official American Heart Association branding?

While it may come as a surprise to no one, Nintendo on Monday announced that it has formally partnered with the American Heart Association to promote active play through its Wii and Wii Fit gaming hardware.

What does that mean, exactly? In the long run, Nintendo is promising an upcoming summit with medical, self-help, and other industry professionals to help tackle issues of physical activity in children … Read more

An aggressive, meant-to-shock Facebook and YouTube campaign on behalf of Greenpeace has led food conglomerate Nestle to modify its policies regarding the use of palm oil.

Nestle announced early Monday that it has partnered with The Forest Trust, a nonprofit group that helps businesses develop practices to harvest forests sustainably. The partnership is designed to reduce the social and environmental impacts of Nestle's corporate supply chain by severing ties to companies that contribute to deforestation. The first issue addressed will be its use of palm oil--the harvesting of which has been connected to the loss of rainforests and the … Read more

Virtual meat hooks, flame throwers, and propane bombs are OK, but attack dogs are not: social-gaming behemoth Zynga has removed pit bulls from its roster of virtual weaponry in the Mafia Wars game after a complaint last month on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA's reasoning is that promoting a domestic animal as a weapon will only encourage misunderstanding and abuse of pit bulls, which have been routinely used in illegal dog-fighting activities and are often subject to horrific conditions as their owners attempt to toughen them up. The breed of dog has gotten bad … Read more

If you've ever tried tracking down a process in Windows Task Manager, you know it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Process Explorer makes the job a lot easier. This freeware utility displays running processes in an intuitive tree format that includes not only process names, but also program icons and other data, such as description, image, and processor time.

It also can identify the process for a given application window or look up a process name in Google--a handy way to spot spyware. The latest version, more than three years in the making, introduces several … Read more

You may one day in the not-extremely-distant future control your computer and other devices just by thinking.

At Intel's Tech Heaven event in Manhattan on Wednesday, the company demonstrated software under development that can tell--under very controlled circumstances--what a person is thinking by reading brain waves. The chipmaker has been working with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh to develop software and an interface to convert brain waves scanned from MRIs into something recognizable by computers.

Though still in the early research stages, the technology looks promising to researchers. In a preliminary test conducted by Intel Labs … Read more

It's been almost a year since the first of the "new" 3D TVs hit the market, enabling their owners to watch 3D Blu-ray movies and 3D television programming as well as play 3D games. The technology behind these televisions is still relatively new, however, and still inspires plenty of questions.

In this newly updated FAQ I'll attempt to answer those questions as well as possible, incorporating my first-hand knowledge in reviewing numerous 2010 3D TVs, conversations I've had with industry experts, and reactions from readers.

This article is targeted toward people looking for an introduction to modern 3D TV technology. If you're an advanced reader just looking for the latest news your best bet is going straight to CNET's 3D TV resource guide.

… Read more

Foursquare is fast approaching its first anniversary. The free social service, which lets people share their location with others from their mobile phones, launched at last year's South by Southwest festival. It has since gone on to become a Web 2.0 darling in a way that its predecessor Dodgeball (also from one of Foursquare's co-founders) never did, due mostly to the growth of users with GPS-enabled smartphones.

But short of its badge system, which awards heavy use with virtual trophies, the service has always been lacking a sense of reflection--a way for users to look back on … Read more