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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

2012 was a year when many of the big names in tech took big gambles...and lost.

CNET recently ran a collection highlighting 2012's biggest Tech Turkeys, and it seemed ripe for a remix over here on Top 5. I swiped four from their list, added one of my own, and ranked the whole thing by how long I imagine it took the respective CEOs to remove their palms from their face.

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It's easy to get jaded working at CNET. We see every phone, every tablet, every laptop, every piece of tech you can imagine. And of course they're each accompanied by a PR pitch that paints it as an unprecedented, game-changing, life-affirming, must-have gizmo. Some of them are truly great, but mostly it's just more of the same.

So to keep my heart from blackening over with cynicism, I thought I'd take a minute to remind myself about all of the great things modern technology has given us. There's no single product here, no brand name, … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Anthropologist says Apple is definitely a religion.

- Google brings Street View to the Grand Canyon.

- Apple now owns the trademark to The Beatles' Apple Corps Logo.

- What I learned while live-tweeting a friend's funeral.

Video voice mail: Mossimo has a positive update on a previous video voice mail.… Read more

Bombshells: Hell's Belles is an aerial combat game for Mac OS X, iPad and iPhone that puts you in charge of one of over 200 planes with cannons, missiles and guns to shoot opposing planes. The free version of Bombshells: Hell's Belles is limited in terms of leveling options, but you can of course buy upgrades and special features from the publisher. Bombshells: Hell's Belles installed easily on both our MacBook Pro and our iPad.

Bombshells: Hell's Belles is going to take a little practice to get the hang of the controls (if you're using … Read more

Subscribe: RSS (SD) RSS (HD) iTunes (SD) iTunes (HD) The Nexus 7 is my favorite tablet right now. Google nailed the price, the interface, and the features, and avoided the mistake of selling it exclusively through a mobile carrier. It's enough to make the Motorola Xoom feel like a distant memory.

But no gadget is perfect, and the Nexus 7 is no exception. If you honestly think a $200 tablet can be made without cutting any corners, let me know. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Android fans, I recommend following this one up with … Read more

This is the week that the torture test really comes into its own, I think. We decided to toughen up and test the brand-new 11-inch Apple MacBook Air. Yeah, I know. Yikes. But I really want to test portable devices, and the Air is the epitome of portable, is it not?

We're down to a good rhythm with heat, cold, dropping, and water, and we're really trying to figure out how to make the wild card tests true to life. So, when three or four viewers tweeted me and told me they had put their MacBook Airs on … Read more

Consumers still interested in Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook may get a chance at the long-awaited 4G model.

The new model tablet is expected to launch in Canada through Bell and possibly other Canadian carriers on July 31. Citing an internal document from Bell, blogging site MobileSyrup says the tablet will be priced at $549.95.

The specs revealed by the document point to a 7-inch 1,024x600-pixel display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.

Running BlackBerry OS 2.0, the tablet will offer a 5-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p videos and … Read more

When you're watching the London Olympics later this month on your big-screen TV, you probably won't give a second thought to how those images got to you from across the ocean. Hit the Power button on your remote, and presto -- the 4x100 relay, live, and in the moment.

It wasn't always so.

Once upon a time, and not so long ago, watching faraway events as they unfolded was an exotic thing, a rarity marked by the phrase "Live, via satellite." Look back just 50 years, and you'll find the satellite that got it … Read more