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Hooked Up: Check out the set of NCIS with Pauley Perrette and her tech toys

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out on the set of "NCIS" with actress Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby Sciuto, the show's fan-favorite quirky forensic scientist. She talks about her role as the social media ambassador for CBS during "Tweet Week" and how she used Twitter to help keep the Hope Gardens shelter for families open.

Pauley bring hers own tech on set, including the dirtiest Macbook you've probably ever seen, and she shows us some of the fun set pieces in Abby's lab. She also talks about … Read more

Thanks to Beats by Dr. Dre $300+ headphones are 'cool'

Remember when expensive headphones, let's say anything over $100, were never big sellers, and only audiophiles bought them?

That's no longer true--judging by the number of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones I see on the streets and subways in New York--pricey headphones have reached the mainstream. That's radical. Bose did pretty well with its QuietComfort noise-canceling headphones long before Dre jumped into the headphone business, but the Beats stand out in a crowd.

The reasons for Dre's success aren't purely based on sound quality, it's more that the other manufacturers' headphones sorely lacked any sense of street style. … Read more

Noise-canceling vs. noise-isolating headphones: What's the difference?

I have to admit I never really bought into noise-canceling headphones.

The name was a turnoff, they don't really cancel or eliminate noise, they reduce noise--and that's great--but so do most in-ear headphones. Better yet, those headphones don't need batteries and don't run the music signals through the noise-canceling electronics. My favorite isolating headphones sound better than noise-canceling headphones, but I haven't tested a noise-canceling headphone for a long time.

So I borrowed a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones ($299) from CNET editor David Carnoy. I headed down into the New … Read more

BlueAnt's Embrace headphone will coddle your ears

The BlueAnt Embrace on-ear headphones ($200) look luxurious and, if you don't mind, adult. I sometimes think a lot of today's headphones are designed to look cool to 15-year-olds, with boosted bass and highs designed to dazzle young ears. The Embrace's demeanor is more, shall we say, reserved?

Maybe it's the all-black color scheme and lack of flash that first appealed to me, but then I fell in love with the thickly padded headband and pillowlike ear cushions. My ears and head appreciate being coddled like this. The sound mimics the Embrace's look and feel: … Read more

Microsoft keyboard throws curve at ergonomic design

The latest addition to Microsoft's family of ergonomic input devices, the Comfort Curve 3000, shows that Microsoft still sees value in iterating in this product niche. While Logitech's ergo keyboard ambitions have seemingly been satisfied by its 2-year-old Wireless Keyboard K350, the Comfort Curve 3000 offers a fairly substantial departure from the Comfort Curve 5000 and 2000 designs.

The new model is curved along a more severe arc than Microsoft's previous keyboard. Its uniformly sized keys should help minimize the initial awkwardness we felt with the older Comfort Curve designs. It also incorporates a slightly elevated portion in the middle of the keyboard, which can help minimize joint pressure. We can't confirm whether those features will offer tangible physiological benefits to everyone who uses the new keyboard, but you can also find out with relatively little risk when the Comfort Curve 3000 goes on sale in August for $19.99.… Read more

Lexus-Crave Retweet sweepstakes: Win Bose headphones!

OK, we're on to week two of our special weekly giveaway running here at Crave. It's the Lexus-Crave Retweet sweepstakes, which is sponsored by--you guessed it--Lexus. And this week we're giving away a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones to one lucky winner. In our full review, we write that the QC 15's "currently offer the best sound and silencing capabilities in a pair of noise-canceling headphones." Need we say more?

Important: Unlike like our typical Crave giveaways, which you enter by posting a comment, the rules here are different. So please follow the … Read more

Six comfy headphones (one you need a loan to buy)

Sound quality is an important factor when picking out headphones, but it's not the only thing you should consider when you're investing in a top quality pair. If you are the type of person who likes to listen to music for long stretches of time--and if you're plunking down a decent chunk of change on a quality set of headphoes, you probably are--it's important to make sure that they're not going to snag on your hair or rest uncomfortably on the cartilage of your ears.

As such, I set out on a mission to find … Read more

Best earbuds for small ears

Anyone who has listened to me on the MP3 Insider podcast, followed me on Twitter (WeirdEaredJas), or even taken the time to peruse the bio below knows I am cursed with absurdly tiny ears. Heck, you can even see for yourself in the multitude of in-ear photos plastered across the headphone reviews on CNET. Happily for me, I am not alone in my deformity (yes, misery does indeed love company).

In fact, many purveyors of portable audio find standard earbuds uncomfortable and can't get many in-ear headphones to fit properly into the ear. It is for my fellow small-eared … Read more