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Comcast Xfinity app now lets you download movies for offline viewing

There are plenty of apps that can stream movies and TV shows to your tablet or smartphone -- Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Netflix... shall I go on? -- but very few that let you download content for offline viewing.

That's kind of a bummer, because it means if you want to watch something on, say, an airplane, you have little choice but to buy from iTunes or rip from DVDs.

If you're a Comcast subscriber, now you have another option. The newly updated Comcast Xfinity TV Player app (Android|iOS) now offers the enviable … Read more

Episode 21: Unboxing Google's Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 10 tablet

We're back, and just in time for the holiday shopping season! Welcome to the pre-Black Friday episode of Always On: the unboxing extravaganza.

This episode alone features Google's two new pure-Android Nexus devices -- the LG Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10 tablet. I so wanted to love the Nexus 4, since I'm definitely in the market for a pure-Android device, but I'm skeptical (as is our CNET reviewer, Lynn La) about the lack of 4G LTE in the unlocked model. Then again, I don't have to sit around worrying about it since the phone … Read more

Take control of your car's tech with these six apps

OK, so you you can't remotely drive a BMW with a phone like James Bond does in "Tomorrow Never Dies," but there are plenty of real apps that will let you take control of your car and its tech with little more than your smartphone and a data connection. From beaming destinations to your Toyota's navigation system with Entune to remotely unlocking your doors with GM's OnStar RemoteLink, we've rounded up a few of the best car-controlling apps. … Read more

Access a virtual workspace that has Microsoft Office and other apps with CloudOn

CloudOn lets you add Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, and several other apps to your iPad through the use of cloud computing. CloudOn also lets you use your cloud storage accounts to handle your files. It installs easily.

CloudOn provides access to a clouded workspace with applications such as Microsoft Office. You can use CloudOn to edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files on your iPad. You can also access your cloud storage accounts, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and others for file storage from the workspace. With Adobe Reader and File Viewer also installed on the workspace, you can see almost … Read more

Play with Firefox OS in your desktop Firefox

You can now get a taste of Firefox OS straight from your desktop browser, thanks to a new Firefox add-on called r2d2b2g that bakes a Firefox OS simulator right into your desktop browser.

Mozilla wrote in its blog post announcing the simulator add-on that the tool has two complementary goals for helping developers. Currently at version 0.7, the company hopes that by version 1.0 the add-on will be stable enough to let developers easily create apps for the new OS.

The second goal for the add-on is that it frees developers from having a device to install a … Read more

Papa John's pizza up against $250M lawsuit for text spam

What looked like an easy shortcut to earn some extra cash could now ending up costing Papa John's millions. The pizza chain is being targeted in a $250 million class-action lawsuit in which customers allege that Papa John's sent out hundreds of thousands of illegal text messages.

"After I ordered from Papa John's, my telephone started beeping with text messages advertising pizza specials," one of the plaintiffs in the case Erin Chutich said in a statement. "Papa John's never asked permission to send me text message advertisements."

Apparently, in 2010, Papa John'… Read more

How to add tags to Chrome bookmarks

The Internet is full of interesting things. Because of this, it's likely that you bookmark Web sites so you can easily find them later. Unfortunately, if you bookmark too many, it can be easy to lose track of each one.

If you're a Chrome user, Bookmarks Tagger has your bookmark organization needs covered. With this extension you can add tags to each bookmark making it easier to find. Using tags is a more efficient way to locate what you're looking for, especially in the case of Web sites having names that are long or unrelated to their … Read more

Episode 20: Unboxing the Microsoft Surface tablet

This week, we got a new production assistant, Nic Henry (welcome, Nic!). And Nic got a pretty fun assignment: go down to San Francisco's Westfield mall at 8 a.m. and find a way to get in line at Microsoft's Surface pop-up store on the second floor. Then, Molly will roll in at 9:30 all cheerful to take your place in line and buy some tablets! It's good to be the talent.

Nic did a great job, though, and interestingly, ended up second in a line that grew to probably about 50 people while we waited … Read more

ItsOn gets its funding on, targets mobile data 'bill shock'

A mobile company that wants to change how you access data just raised a boatload of cash.

ItsOn announced today that it has closed a $15.5 million Series B round of financing. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the round. The firm was joined by investment company SV Angel.

ItsOn takes a unique stance on data usage by allowing customers to choose how much data they need and for what purpose. The company's Web site is shy about details on its service, but in a statement, ItsOn founder and CEO Greg Raleigh says that his firm's focus … Read more