smart

Parker smartphone app enables realtime parking search

Have you ever wanted to be able to just look at your phone and know where all of the open parking spaces are in your area? That, in a nutshell, is smart parking and it's coming to the San Francisco Bay Area thanks to a partnership between Streetline and Cisco. Interestingly, San Francisco itself isn't the first city in the San Francisco Bay Area to get these smart parking spaces. That honor belongs to Sausalito, which will be joined today by San Mateo and San Carlos.

Take a walk around downtown San Mateo or San Carlos today and … Read more

Lots of little 'lectrics at the LA Auto Show (roundup)

Take a look around the 2012 LA Auto Show and you'll see quite a few compact, fully-electric vehicles. Having spent much time creeping along at 20 mph on Los Angeles' gridlocked highways and stopping-and-going on its crowded streets this week, I can think of no better city to get excited about EVs.

We've rounded up the biggest players in this year's small EV class, many of which are currently available to consumers or will be sometime in 2013.

Chevrolet Spark EV

Chevrolet follows up its Volt with the smaller, simpler Spark EV. Based on the smallest model … Read more

Xbox SmartGlass Android app now supports 7-inch tablets

Owners of the Google Nexus 7 and other 7-inch Android tablets can now remotely control their Xbox 360 consoles via a free app.

Updated yesterday, the Xbox SmartGlass for Android app acts as a second screen for your Xbox console. You can use the app on your phone or tablet to navigate your Xbox dashboard, control videos and music playing on your console, search Microsoft's Xbox catalog, and surf the Internet.

Until yesterday, the app worked only on certain Android devices. The release notes for the update don't list which 7-inch tablets the app now supports. But logging … Read more

Access your Photo Stream without iPhoto on OS X

Regardless of your feelings for iPhoto on OS X, having to launch and wait for it to load your photo library only to access a screenshot or a single photo in your Photo Stream can be annoying. The good news is, after following the steps laid out below, you'll be able to access your Photo Stream at any time, without even having iPhoto running. The process comes courtesy of a post by Ben Ward (which originated from a Mac OSX Hints thread) earlier this year. It looks more complicated than it really is, but as always, proceed at your … Read more

HP offers Black Friday deals on high-end laptops

Hewlett-Packard is offering decent Black Friday deals on some of its premier Windows 8 laptops. And the company has announced shipment dates for a couple of its newest touch-screen entries.

HP's Spectre and Spectre XT models are its top-of-the-line lappies. While just-announced Spectres got tiny discounts, a couple of not-so-recent entries are selling for $100 off today. … Read more

NYC payphones get revived as touch-screen tablets

Payphones are a dying breed, which will probably make some people yearn for our simple past and others celebrate our tech-filled future.

New York City and two companies, Cisco Systems and City 24/7, announced today that they're officially commencing their plan to transform those endangered species into 32-inch touch-screen information kiosks, a.k.a. "Smart Screens," around the city, according to GigaOM.

The idea was originally introduced in April and the companies have been testing the pilot project over the last few months. Now, the Smart Screens are officially live and a handful of kiosks are … Read more

To glimpse Windows' future, get thee to a Microsoft store

Getting to a Microsoft store isn't easy. That's a problem.

It's a problem because in the wake of the Windows 8 release late last month, the best selection of the coolest devices is at a Microsoft store. Throw in solid ambiance too.

Best Buy? I don't think so. Though my local Best Buy in Los Angeles has a few interesting Windows 8 PCs, like the Lenovo Yoga convertible, it's mostly business as usual.

Same old big box chaos with clam shells that look pretty much like the clam shells that were there last year.

And … Read more

Xbox SmartGlass for iOS adds more console interactivity

Much like the former Xbox Live app, Xbox SmartGlass (free) gives you the Xbox 360 Dashboard experience, letting you do things like view your avatar and info, see your friends' bio and game lists, and track and compare achievements.

With this latest version of the app, you get a lot more ways to interact with your console. You now have the ability to type using your iPhone keypad rather than the old hunt-and-peck Xbox controller method; you can browse the Internet on your Xbox using your full iOS keyboard; you can play, rewind, and fast-forward videos; search the Xbox game … Read more

Microsoft kills Messenger to push Skype

Wednesday's CNET Update is app happy:

Today's tech news roundup bids farewell to Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft is pushing users to use Skype instead for instant messaging. The latest Skype update lets users transfer contacts from Messenger.

The new Xbox SmartGlass app is now available for Apple devices. The app turns an iOS device into a second screen for navigating through Xbox menus and media, and it's easier to type with an iOS keyboard. Some games have extra features for SmartGlass, like Halo 4, Dance Central 3 and Forza Horizon.

If you're wondering about an app for Microsoft Office, … Read more

Microsoft's Xbox-Surface tablet: What could it be?

Microsoft apparently has a gaming tablet complete with Xbox branding on the way in the near future, perhaps to coincide with the release of the next-generation Xbox. In a year full of tablets of all shapes, prices, and functions, what does this mean? What can we hope for? What are the pitfalls? Here's what immediately comes to mind.… Read more