reports

India is world leader in spam output

India has surpassed the U.S. and taken the lead as the greatest spam-sending country in the world. One out of every six junk messages that litter users' e-mail inboxes are coming from India, according to a new report from SophosLabs.

The security vendor's third-quarter "Dirty Dozen" report of spam-relaying countries found that India upped its percentage of global spam for the third quarter in a row and now accounts for more than 16 percent of all junk e-mails.

What is important to note, however, is that this spam doesn't necessarily come directly from India's … Read more

iPhone 5 is a 'winner,' says Consumer Reports

The iPhone 5 is among the best smartphones on the market, at least in the eyes of Consumer Reports.

Putting the new phone through the paces, CR was impressed with the larger 4-inch display, the thinner and lighter body, 4G LTE access, and "a host of innovative features." Those factors all pushed the iPhone 5 high in the ratings, beating the iPhone 4S as well as a host of Android phones.

Consumer Reports found improvements in Siri, as well as the camera. With the exception of the 41-megapixel camera on the Nokia 808, the iPhone 5's camera … Read more

Myspace gets a new face

Tuesday's CNET Update is bringing sexy back to Myspace:

Myspace is getting an extreme makeover. The former king of social media has a video teaser of what the site's relaunch will look like. It's focused around displaying your photos, videos and music in a horizontal-scrolling profile. It looks like a mash-up between Pinterest and Microsoft's Windows 8 interface.

Music is still a major part of Myspace. There's an area to create playlist mixes, and those mixes can also have photos. (You could post a party playlist along with the party photos, for example.) There's … Read more

Consumer Reports checks out Apple Maps, and isn't happy

Apple may think a lot of its new Maps app in iOS 6, but for Consumer Reports, the software remains a work in progress.

"Maps feels like a fresh, new product that has much maturing to do before it can rival paid ($20-$40) apps from leading navigation companies, such as Garmin, Navigon, and TomTom," the organization noted in a post published on its Web site.

Maps has a simple interface that will likely appeal to Apple users, especially those in a car, ready to travel. However, we consider it to be short on options, including many that … Read more

Total Android shipments since 2008 to hit 1 billion mark

Android device shipments are poised to pass the 1 billion unit mark in 2013, according to projections by IHS.

IHS said that global unit shipments of Android phones will be 451 million in 2013, up from 357 million in 2012. Cumulative shipments by the end of 2013 will be 1.1 billion since the first Android device shipped in 2008.

For comparison, Apple's cumulative iPhone shipments will be 527 million in 2013 and hit the 1 billion mark in 2015.

Android's growth is largely attributed to its partner network, which consists of Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, ZTE and … Read more

Sony readying super-sized 84-inch 4K TV

Sony plans to introduce a super-sized 84-inch LCD television during IFA 2012, Europe's major consumer electronics show, a source told CNET.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed to CNET that the upcoming 84-inch TV can display a massive 3,840x2,160 resolution (four times the number of pixels in a conventional 1080p set), also known in the industry as 4K. We learned that the 84-inch Sony TV features a side-lit LCD panel (think thin) and removable speakers. In terms of design, our source describes the aesthetics as a reimagined retro-style appearance with a modern twist. … Read more

Turner Sports reels in Bleacher Report

Bleacher Report, one of the largest sports news sites on the Web, was acquired today by Turner Broadcasting System.

The San Francisco-based startup focuses on delivering targeted sports news to about 10 million unique users a month. But unlike many sites whose content is written by a limited in-house staff, Bleacher Report relies on a wide network of mainly volunteer contributing writers around the country and the world who are passionate about the teams they love and who pen opinion and reaction pieces at a heavy pace in exchange for a prestigious slot on the site.

Terms of the deal … Read more

Netflix shares down again, set new 52-week low

Shares of video-rental service Netflix fell 5 percent in early trading this morning to $56.81.

The company is now trading well below its previous 52-week low, following a collapse in the stock price yesterday when shares fell 25 percent. The company warned in its second-quarter earnings report this week that it might report a loss in the fourth quarter and also might not add as many subscribers as it had expected.

A host of analysts downgraded the stock yesterday and Consumer Reports reported that Netflix's service didn't fare particularly well in a consumer-satisfaction survey.

Though Consumer Reports, … Read more

ComScore: Smartphones now more desirable, attainable in U.S.

The number of U.S. mobile phone subscribers switching from feature phones to smartphones is almost at the halfway mark, according to a new report from ComScore.

Roughly 110 million Americans owned a smartphone device as of April 2012, an increase of 44 percent from the previous year. Specifically, 47.5 percent of feature phone owners switched to a smartphone when buying a new device in April -- up from 38 percent at the same time in 2011.

At the same time, the number of American consumers who upgraded from an old feature phone to a feature phone decreased from … Read more

Viacom escalates DirecTV fight, pulls popular shows from Web

The programming dispute between DirecTV and Viacom is starting to affect the general population, with Viacom escalating the issue by pulling some of its popular shows from the Internet.

"The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," and "Jersey Shore" are among the popular shows no longer available online as of yesterday. Other shows, such as "South Park," remain online, and back episodes of some pulled shows can still be found on Hulu.

DirecTV and Viacom have been arguing over how much a distributor should pay an entertainment company for content. Amid that fight, … Read more