Hardware

The shoe phone is not a new idea. Just ask Agent Maxwell Smart. Still, nothing Smart wore was ever quite so fashionable as what designer Sean Miles has come up with for a campaign to encourage phone recycling.

The "Walkie Talkies" project presents recycled cell phones built into classic footwear. Miles' creations came about at the behest of O2 Recycle, a U.K. company that buys used handsets and other gadgets. Recycled phones from O2 Recycle have been embedded into a Christian Louboutin heel, a men's brogue, a Nike Air training shoe, and a Hunter Welly.… Read more

A new, cheaper model of the Raspberry Pi Linux computer on a stick is now on sale in Europe, delivering a tiny computer for an even more affordable $25.

The "Model A" micro PC is now out in Europe, available to buy from RS components for $10 less than the "Model B" Raspberry Pi. The new model ditches the Ethernet port, but has a single USB socket and 256MB of RAM.

On its official blog, the creators of the U.K.-built device explain that the stripped-down computer would come in handy for tinkerers looking to … Read more

Could a wristwatch help deter sexual violence?

That's what Indian officials hope. The government has proposed a watch that can alert family members and authorities, and also start filming, when the wearer feels threatened.

Kapil Sibal, India's information technology minister, unveiled early plans for the device at a briefing last week. He said the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, a unit of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, is already working on a prototype.

The watch would send a text message to the nearest police station and preselected family members at the press of a button, as well as relay GPS coordinates. Built-in video capabilities could produce 30 minutes of footage. … Read more

Sometimes, even if it's vaporware, it doesn't mean its maker isn't on to something.

Three years ago, the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid caught my eye -- and many others -- at CES in Las Vegas. The idea -- a laptop that had its own detachable tablet -- seemed revolutionary, and at the time it was an idea ahead of even the iPad, which debuted just months later.

The IdeaPad U1 Hybrid was a great idea, with one problem: it never arrived. After surfacing again in 2011 as a Windows/Android detachable hybrid, it again disappeared from view.… Read more

Microsoft has finally put a launch date on the Surface Pro.

The full Windows 8 tablet, which made its behind-the-scenes debut in Las Vegas during CES, has been awaited since last year's Los Angeles Surface event. Originally expected in late January and 90 days after the launch of the Surface RT on October 26, the launch window has shifted a little. Still, it's on its way in two weeks. Panos Panay, Microsoft Surface general manager, made the announcement this morning.

The Surface Pro has a Core i5 or Core i7 Intel processor and either 64GB or 128GB of … Read more

We come at you live from CES 2013, where we saw so many TVs our eyes started bleeding. Kind of.

The week was a blur, but through the rubble we recall images of giant televisions, curved screens, a fork that vibrates, an awesome gaming tablet that Karyne wishes she owned 100 of, and blackjack tables. So many blackjack tables.

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Heard a tech rumor you think we should cover? Leave a comment below; ; send us a tweet (@EmilyDreyfuss, @karynelevy, and @CNETRumorShow); or call and leave us a voice mail at 1-800-750-CNET. … Read more

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

LAS VEGAS--When you come to CES here, you expect to see computers and TVs galore. Mobile phones, sure. Printer and speakers? Check. But a 50-foot-long mechanical snake?

Though we're in an arid, desert-like Nevada environment (never mind all the cement and golf courses), this isn't Burning Man. But sure enough, just behind the CNET trailer here, Titanoboa is strutting its stuff. And indeed, Titanoboa is a 50-foot mechanical snake.

Created by EatArt, the Vancouver arts collective, Titanoboa seeks to invoke the promise -- or the threat -- of global climate change, and the kinds of things we might start to see happen on this wonderful planet of ours. According to the Titanoboa project page: … Read more

LAS VEGAS--PCs on your coffee table, playing Monopoly. Super-thin ultrabooks. Voice and gestural computing. Intel showed these and more at their CES 2013 press conference. But does it add up to a firm control on the future of computing?

Fourth-gen Intel Core processors aren't on their way immediately, but at this year's CES Intel was ready to demonstrate how its "Haswell" code-named chips will make Windows 8 devices of tomorrow even thinner and smaller than now ... if you're in need of that. Fourth-gen Intel processors will require touch and have mandatory Intel Wireless Display, a … Read more