blue label

CNET Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg joins us for another Friday episode of The 404, and there's a lot to discuss, including a new trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future" video game, Steve's encounters with John Lennon, Andy Warhol, and Warren Beatty in the 1970s, how to convert stereo into 3D sound, and more earbud advice for Wilson's freakishly small canals.

Steve tables his usual list of audio-related speaking points to tell us about his celebrity encounters while working at an East Village movie theater in the 1970s. He begins with a story about an awkward encounter with John Lennon and Yoko Ono just two years after the Beatles split, then tells us why he cussed out pop art star Andy Warhol, and finishes with a brutal rebuff from Warren Beatty! When's the book coming out, Steve?

We're going to record a special yuletide episode of The 404 entirely dedicated to the "Back to the Future" trilogy, but we can't wait any longer to show you the debut trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future" video game!

It's a five-part game that picks up on the adventures of Marty and the Doc as voiced by Emmett Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd! The first part entitled It's About Time comes out this month, part two called Get Tannen! comes out in February 2011, and parts three and four--Citizen Brown and Double Visions, will drop in March and April, and the finale Outatime doesn't have a release date just yet. It's only available for download on PC/Mac, iPad, and PSN--sorry XBox fans!

I swear that today is the last you'll hear about Wilson's tiny ear canals, because I think we found a solution. I reviewed the Monster Jamz headphones for CNET last month and ran into similar fit issues, so the company sent me its SuperTips Sample Pack of gel and foam tips that comes with a variety of alternate shapes and sizes. With Steve Guttenberg's help, we'll finally solve this mystery!

Just after the break, Steve tells us about a professor at Princeton University who converts stereo into 3D sound! Edgar Choueiri is the director of the Engineering Physics Program and a rocket scientist, but he also happens to be an audiophiliac and set up a special 3D sound room using two closely spaced speakers and his revolutionary 3D Pure Stereo system. Check out the Audiophiliac blog for more details.

One last thing before we take off: Gknee is one of the valiant chatroom moderators for CNET TV and keeps the #CNETFans channel SFW (with the help of DAKlives).

She's celebrating a birthday on Monday, so happy birthday in advance Gknee, and a personal thanks from Jeff, Wilson, and me to all the CNETTV moderators who volunteer their work for the love of the game--we couldn't do it without you guys!

To ring the closing bell on our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops, we're taking a look some high-end laptops you'll find on store shelves. These are a relative rarity, as brick-and-mortar outlets such as Best Buy tend to focus on Netbooks and budget systems, leaving little room for more expensive products.

But if you're ready to drop $1,000 or more on a laptop, and want that hands-on instant gratification you get from buying retail, there are a few options to consider. Not surprisingly, we were generally pleased with all the laptops in this price category. They offered appropriate high-end components and features for their high-end prices, with Blu-ray drives and gamer-friendly graphics cards (but not in every system).

Our overall favorite was the The Sony Vaio VPCF115FM/B, which packs in Blu-ray, decent graphics, a 1080p screen, and a superpowerful Intel Core i7 processor, all for $1,349.

The Dell Adamo XPSis a notable outlier, as its one of only a handful of $2,000 laptops we can even think of anymore. It deserves serious credit for taking some major design risks, and it is certainly a cool conversation piece, but poor battery life keeps it from being a great on-the-go laptop.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

To bring you our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops, we've been testing and reviewing boxed versions of popular PCs--from entry-level systems starting at $329 to massive $2,000 gaming monsters. These are very much like the laptops you'd configure and buy online from Dell or HP, but these models are fixed configurations, have slightly different names, and are often a better deal compared to building the same system online.

In the "Mainstream" category, covering laptops from $600-$999, we found a lot of variety. While there were a couple of clunkers in this group, mostly because they charged mainstream prices for budget components, we were please to find a couple of real winners as well.

In the end, we couldn't pick a single favorite, so instead we have dual recommendations. The Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904is a sequel to one of our favorite laptops from last year, the Toshiba E105. As part of Best Buy's Blue Label program, it's a custom model that is one of the first notebook computers to include Intel's Wireless Display technology.

We also quite liked the Samsung R580, which packed in a high-end CPU, discrete graphics, and a Blu-ray drive, all for under $900.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

When Best Buy unveiled its Blue Label program last month, we were skeptical. The program seemed good enough in concept: Best Buy asked its customers for their most desired laptop features, then worked with Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba to develop laptops that delivered those features. But being jaded product reviewers, we couldn't help wondering whether these laptops would live up to their promise, or whether it was all just marketing hype.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding (or something to that effect). This week we reviewed both Blue Label laptops--the Toshiba Satellite E105 and the HP Pavilion … Read more

If you visited Best Buy's Web site today, you might have noticed the promo for "Blue Label Laptops" at the bottom of the home page. Click on it and you'll be shown two new laptops, the Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 and the HP Pavilion dv3510nr.

The two products are the first developed under Best Buy's new Blue Label program, in which the retailer polls customers to develop a feature wishlist and then partners with manufacturers to develop products that deliver those features. Of course, the resulting products are then available exclusively at Best Buy.

It's … Read more