Services

Vudu's in-home Disc to Digital service: Promising yet lacking

It sounds ideal. Take all those DVDs and Blu-rays you own and, from the comfort of your own home, effortlessly gain digital copies for a low price. That's the promise of Vudu's new "In-Home Disc to Digital" service. Vudu delivers on that promise in some cases but disappoints in other ways.

Last year, Walmart-owned Vudu launched its Disc to Digital service that required people to go into Walmart stores for the conversion. Who wants to do that? This is where the "In-Home" version of Disc to Digital comes … Read more

Mobile World Congress: The year's best smartphone party

As I write this, CNET writers from three countries are traveling to Barcelona, Spain, to bring you the best of the annual Mobile World Congress trade show.

If you're a smartphone fan, you probably know that Mobile World Congress (MWC) is a big deal. And if you don't know about it but still love gadgets and technology, there are very good reasons why you should care. I'll explain.

Full Mobile World Congress coverage from CNET

To put it simply, MWC is the most important wireless trade show of the year. It's bigger than CES (where, no … Read more

How trapped are your digital movies and TV shows?

Have you decided to ditch DVDs and Blu-rays to instead buy movies and TV shows only in a pure digital format?

There are certainly advantages to that. But one of the biggest downsides of going all digital is that how you can view your content is largely dependent on the service you purchased it from.

Digital video providers In this column, I look at how "trapped" video content purchased from iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Xbox and Google Play may be. The first four video marketplaces were listed yesterday by NPD as among the top ways people purchase digital video. … Read more

Keep your Blu-rays and DVDs, Hollywood -- I've gone digital

It had been years since I actually bought a DVD or a Blu-ray copy of a movie. But over Christmas, I bought one. I really wanted those extra features that a physical disk provides. Why not get a Blu-ray with a digital copy, I thought, and have the best of both worlds?

Why not turned out to be because redeeming digital copies is a nightmare. Are you getting a copy for iTunes? Or for Amazon? Or whatever on earth UltraViolet is supposed to be, something that finally crashed into my awareness as a new Blu-ray owner?

The film in … Read more

How Netflix, HBO, ESPN punish international travelers

I am writing this post sitting in New Delhi, India, as I wind up a trip that included several social-media talks to mark the centennial of Columbia Journalism School.

Thanks to apps like Apple's FaceTime and the free texting-and-calling service Viber, I was able to connect in better ways with my wife and kids than on any international trip I've ever been on.

But I also was deeply disappointed by one aspect of technology on this trip. And it was the fact that some services that I use regularly in the U.S. don't work overseas.

Here'… Read more

Off-the-beaten-track at CES 2013

LAS VEGAS--Samsung. Panasonic. Sony. Intel. Qualcomm. All have big booths pitching smartphones, smart TVs, smart tablets, smart cameras -- you name it.

But my first day at CES 2013 was spent wandering around exploring things from companies you've likely never heard of. And there's some interesting stuff out there!

Most of my time yesterday at CES was spent wandering the South Hall. What I'll cover below are things that caught my eye. Not all of these are necessarily new products, and this will be far from a comprehensive roundup within product categories. But I hope you'll find it interesting. … Read more

'After launch' update for Verizon Galaxy S3 took six months

The good news is that owners of the Samsung Galaxy S3 through Verizon now have global roaming capabilities. The bad news is that Verizon apparently believes the "sometime after launch" promise it made equals a half-year wait.

Last June, when the Galaxy S3 was about to launch, I wrote about how Verizon promised it would allow for global roaming and using any SIM card, not just one locked to a Verizon calling plan. From my column back then, Verizon said:

The Verizon model of the Galaxy S III will be global ready for GSM roaming after a software … Read more

20 biggest tech innovations of my lifetime that I actually use

As the father of 9-year-old twins, I often find myself telling them about tech products and innovations that I didn't have growing up. All parents do it: trying to get their kids to understand how much tougher life was in the old days.

In my case, the old days were in the 1980s -- not that long ago. But the range of change in our lives continues to impress me and make my children roll their eyes.

Yesterday, I posted a photo on Instagram (see above and on my Sreenet account), saying the NYC subway's next-train arrival guides … Read more

TomTom's Lifetime Maps are useless if it takes a lifetime to update

I propose a new test for GPS reviews. Can you actually update your device easily with new maps? When it comes to TomTom, that's a test it has failed for me with three different units, making me want to navigate elsewhere for my GPS needs. Worse, the company seems not to care about known problems.

For all of you TomTom owners feeling lost out there, come along. I'll share some of my pain, and you can nod in agreement. Maybe, just maybe, TomTom might even fix things.

The disposable GPS? Back in 2010, I tried to update my … Read more

iPad is left behind as rival tablets get multiuser support

When I got my Microsoft Surface two months ago, my 11-year-old asked if he could try it. "Sure," I said, and I was able to hand it over without worry that he'd be getting into my work e-mail or accidentally tweeting on my behalf. The Surface has what the iPad lacks: multiuser support.

It's not just the Surface, either. Any Windows tablet allows different users to have their own accounts. The latest version of Android, such as on the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, also offers this. Even Amazon's Kindle Fire HD has a … Read more