productivity

It's actually somewhat difficult to track down CNET's lowest-rated reviews of 2012. Our whole site is designed to surface the best, most-worthy products to the top and help you make a smart shopping decision. The losers all tend to sink into obscurity. But with some careful sorting I was able to cobble together all of the reviews of the past year rated under three stars.

But we're a pretty ruthless bunch here at CNET, so narrowing the list down to just five selections wasn't easy. For this list, I went with my personal picks. That meant leaving out the abysmal ZTE Score M, since I already roasted that thing in my "Top 5 phones to avoid." I also left out products like the HP Pavilion HPE Phoenix h9z and Kodak ESP 3.2 All-in-One Printer, because they were more chronically disappointing than truly awful. … Read more

You can now upload a photo to a specific Facebook album using the iOS and Android apps. There have been various methods in the past to get a photo into a preferred album, but the process is now streamlined.

iOS users will have the ability to add a photo, or photos, to an existing album or create a new album during the upload process. Android users will only be able to upload photos to an existing album. Before uploading a photo, however, Android users can create an album by visiting the Photos tab from the menu and tapping on the … Read more

A lot of companies have an automated service that answers their incoming phone calls. However, it's a bit of a pain when you're trying to dial a company and have to wait to enter the extension number each time for the department or person you're trying to reach. This is especially true when you don't remember the extension and you have to check out the contact information to find it.

Luckily Android dialer apps allow you to program the extension into the contact information. There are two different styles you can use: pause or wait. Read … Read more

In 2012, technology design went square, and I don't mean boring. Rather, the past year signaled a shift to sharp 90-degree angles as a design element. By itself, that change may not seem significant, but when you consider that so much in tech -- from hardware to software to Web design -- was built on the concept of rounded corners, you see that it is a notable design shift. Apple didn't follow the pack (Steve Jobs wasn't a fan of square corners), but plenty of its rivals did.

Microsoft was the biggest promoter of square corners, not … Read more

Imagine seven of CNET's most senior editors locked in a room, arguing over the course of three days to determine the 100 biggest tech stories of the year for our annual CNET 100 package. We bickered, we pounded coffee, we reminisced, and we wrestled over some big questions -- including which products we considered the hands-down best of 2012.

The question of gadget supremacy intrigued us, so we decided to pull from our list of biggest newsmakers the five best devices of the year as well as the five most influential tech products of 2012. The ongoing battle between … Read more

Evidence suggests that Apple could be assembling some of the new iMacs in Fremont, Calif.

Two U.S. models that 9to5Mac traced originated in the San Jose area.

"One tipster's origination pickup point was briefly visible as Fremont CA so it would appear that iMac assembly is happening in that general vicinity," the Mac enthusiast site said.

Another possible location for an assembly operation would be Elk Grove, Calif., where Apple still has operations. But, so far, there's no hard evidence that units are being assembled there.

This follows images posted last week by iFixit showing &… Read more

Could Apple be assembling some new iMacs in the U.S.? A teardown of a new model introduced on Thursday shows an iMac with this marking.

A teardown by iFixit revealed markings on the back of an iMac that say, "Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in USA."

What isn't clear at this point is whether this is a new Apple policy to assemble new products in the U.S. or imprecise Apple labeling.

Refurbished products and some custom-ordered Apple products are modified in the U.S. -- but that's different than assembling a standard product … Read more

Adobe decided to kill off support for its Flash Player on Android a while back. Unfortunately, that didn't mean all Web sites you visit would start using HTML5 instead of Flash (though it would have been nice). So what can you do if some of the Web sites you want to look at are using Flash and your new Android device doesn't have support for it?

Fortunately, the last version of Adobe Flash Player that landed on the Google Play Store will work with your Jelly Bean device. However, since it's no longer available through the Play … Read more

Windows 8 PCs now embed their product keys in the BIOS, a move that offers both pros and cons.

In the past, a new Windows PC would display its product key on a sticker, usually on the side of a desktop and on the base or the bottom of the battery compartment on a laptop. But with Windows 8, Microsoft has switched gears and now stores and encrypts the key in the BIOS instead.

A response to a question on Microsoft's Answers Web site confirmed the details earlier this month: