connectivity

Dots is a very attractive and ultimately fun twist on the classic Match 3 genre of mobile games. Using familiar tropes such as the 60-second time limit, high score tracking, and multicolor game board, it's immediately accessible, but just different enough to be engaging beyond the initial playthrough.

As expected, Dots places dots onscreen in a number of colors. You have to drag your finger across them in order to take them off the screen. The five-second tutorial covers this nicely and prepares you for the 60-second high score run. Try to match as many adjacent dots as you … Read more

If you really need to watch your Internet bandwidth, you need ShaPlus Bandwidth Meter. Unlike online bandwidth meters, ShaPlus monitors your Internet bandwidth instead of testing your connection speed. ShaPlus is designed to stay open in the Windows system tray, with a more detailed (but still compact) display for the notification area or anywhere on the desktop you care to drag and pin it. This free tool keeps track of your bandwidth use for the current session, the day, and the month. You can set it to track your billing period and even to stop tracking between specified times. Recent … Read more

Editors' note: This review has been updated with information about moves in the game.

Dots by Betaworks is a simple, yet very well-designed color-matching game that doesn't dazzle you with tons of features or game types, but is still incredibly addictive.

The object of the game is simple: connect same-colored dots to clear them from an ever-refilling board to get the highest score possible in 1 minute. You do this by connecting as many dots as possible horizontally or vertically, and by making squares with your finger to make them disappear. Your score is counted by how many dots … Read more

Many portable drives come with a limited amount of free online storage included. The Canvio Connect, which Toshiba introduced today, offers that and more.

The new USB 3.0 portable drive comes with 10GB of free online storage space. When you plug it into a computer, you can access its contents, as well as those stored on another computer, be it a Windows or a Mac, via the Internet.

This is because the Canvio Connect comes with a lifetime subscription to the Pogoplug PC cloud engine, a software product that works similarly to the Pogoplug Series 4 adapter, which makes … Read more

If you're the sort who likes (or needs) to be connected to the goings-on at your desk all day, this week's prize will help ensure you never miss a message from your important contacts.

The Sonic-connect 2, a portable USB device from Sonic Alert, functions like caller ID for your computer, alerting you to select Skype, e-mail, instant messaging, and MS Outlook calendar and task notifications via any combination of customizable alert options, such as flashing lights, rings, or vibrations.

Chances are your mobile devices already keep you plenty connected to e-mails, IMs, tweets, Facebook messages, Instagram photos, and interstellar transmissions from exoplanets. Using Sonic Alert software, this device lets you cut through all the random pings and pongs, and rank contacts so you can be alerted to only those from certain VIPs, like your boss. The gadget is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. … Read more

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Few cars have inspired as much hope as the Subaru BRZ: Hope that cars can still be unvarnished, affordable, and directly connected to the road and the driver. The BRZ isn't overwhelmingly powerful, it doesn't raise the bar on tech -- hell, it barely meets it in many areas -- but it's a lot of fun to drive in a classic fashion that harkens to the 240Z, 2000GT, and S2000.

We did a video on … Read more

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted that the world's entire population will be on the Internet by 2020.

"For every person online, there are two who are not," Schmidt said on Google+ last night. "By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected."

Certainly the number of people online is expanding dramatically, in particular with the spread of mobile phones. But the entire world?

That's a bold claim, given persistent poverty in many parts of the world and the difficulty of bringing even wireless networking to large swaths of thinly populated … Read more