Reviews

The Burson Soloist looks and feels like a scaled down high-end stereo power amplifier, but the Soloist is a headphone amp. The chassis is constructed from thick slabs of machined aluminum that dissipate the heat from the amp's Class-A electronics. The amp would appeal to Ferrari and Leica camera owners who appreciate no-holds-barred industrial design. The Soloist is the real deal.… Read more

There are several games on both of my iOS devices at any given time from just about every genre. But there are only a few games I go back to on an almost daily basis and that's because they are fun, addictive, and a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

These "casual" games are turn-based and require you to connect with a friend to start playing -- there is no single-player option with this collection. They have also been around for a while, but that's kind of the point: these are the games I continue to play because it only requires a couple of minutes to take my turn and send it to a friend. While it is sometimes a pain to go in and complete my turns (especially when life gets busy), the overall experience of competing with your friends and family is a good one and acts as a way to stay connected, even in our busy everyday lives.… Read more

When it comes to jaw-droppingly beautiful role-playing games steeped in medieval hack-and-slash action, Infinity Blade II is pretty much the gold standard.

Gameloft's Wild Blood may not set a new standard, but it definitely deserves a place in the same pantheon of groundbreaking iOS games.

The story goes like this: in King Arthur's Camelot, things have gone cray-cray. Sir Lancelot got busy with Queen Guinevere, who's now being held captive by Arthur's sister, sorceress Morgana Le Fey. To rescue the imprisoned queen, Lancelot will have to fight his way past hordes of Hellgate demons -- you … Read more

Both Parallels Desktop 8 and VMWare Fusion 5 have just been released, with each offering similar approaches to running Windows and other operating systems within OS X.

Since their release, I have used both of these virtualization packages, and in my personal experiences they work quite well to run Windows and integrate its services and programs into OS X. Both support some of the latest features of Mountain Lion such as full-screen modes, seamless presentation of Windows applications within OS X, and easy access to your OS X files from within Windows. In my experiences with running Windows XP and … Read more

The CD player's days may be numbered, but we're seeing more and more turntables. They all share the common design features of a base, platter, and tonearm, but the Townshend Audio Rock 7 turntable is decidedly less common.

In addition to those three components I just mentioned, the Rock 7 employs proprietary features, mounted on the front of the tonearm, ahead of the phono cartridge. The cartridge and its needle are designed to convert the record groove's tiniest wiggles into electrical signals, but on other turntables the tonearm is unsupported and free to vibrate at the cartridge … Read more

The Zeki 10-inch tablet runs Android 4.0, houses a 1GHz single-core processor, and comes with 8GB of internal storage with microSD expansion.

It has a Mini-USB port and a Mini-HDMI port, as well as built-in 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. The screen has a resolution of 1,024x600 pixels, and there's a front-facing VGA camera.

The tablet is currently difficult to find in stores and you may have better luck with the Sony Tablet S.

Looks like the rumors were true.

Verizon's version of the unlocked LG Optimus Vu, renamed the LG Intuition, will be available online to U.S. customers starting September 6. It will be offered in Verizon retail stores starting September 10 for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

The Intuition sports a gigantic 5-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and 650 nits of brightness.

When I reviewed the Vu a few months back, the phone/tablet hybrid impressed me with its bright screen and slim build. CNET's own Brian Bennett got a chance to get his hands … Read more

Photo taking apps are a dime a dozen in the App Store, but if you look a little deeper, you can make some really cool projects as long as you use some creativity.

Instead of simply giving your photos a retro look like many of the popular camera apps, there are a number of options that turn your images into a creative project in which you can use your imagination to come up with something unique.

This week's collection of apps are all about doing something different with your images on your iPhone. The first quickly turns your photos … Read more

Apple offers versions of its iWork suite (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) for both the Mac OS and iOS platforms, and given that the new school year is right around the corner, students might be weighing the options for creating and managing projects using either iPads or Macs.

While having been a fan of Apple's iWork suite in OS X since its debut and enjoy having the apps available for other platforms, I have been somewhat skeptical of using the iPad or iPhone to write a full report, a formatted resume, or managing calculations in a spreadsheet. Being a touch-only device, I've considered the iPad in large part as a viewing tool where you can look up information and browse through it, rather than buckling down and creating intricate and detailed content, especially with regard to office-related tasks. While Apple's touch-based input panels in iOS have made entering strings of text relatively easy, and along with gestures it provides a unique approach to drawing and arranging objects in applications, the question does arise as to whether this approach is adequate for more-detailed work such as word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets.… Read more