las vegas

Hooked Up: A backstage pass at the tech behind Cee Lo Green's stage show

Welcome to the start of a new franchise here at CNET -- the first episode of Hooked Up! It's the only show where the world of celebrity and technology collide.

This week, Kevin Frazier checks out Cee Lo Green's Las Vegas show "Loberace" and the technology that's involved in creating a massive production that only Las Vegas can do. Cee Lo also talks about his personal health goals, Goodie Mob's comeback, and their search for the next big music artist.

I'll also break down some of the best ways to bring the biggest … Read more

Revitalizing downtown Las Vegas with 100 Tesla Model S cars

Tony Hsieh made shopping for shoes easy. It also made him a fortune when he sold Zappos to Amazon for around $850 million. Lately, he has been focusing on revitalizing downtown Las Vegas, and 100 of Tesla's all-electric Model S cars are part of the plan.

With a base price of $52,400 (after a $7,500 federal tax credit), the Teslas are part of a collaborative transportation system designed to free people from owning cars and at less than the monthly cost of traditional car ownership. Called Project 100, the transportation system will also include more than 100 … Read more

The 404 1,207: Where we learned it by watching you (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Heart Attack Grill spokesman dies of heart attack.

- Two Atlanta women left with third-degree burns after Instagram feud fuels hot oil attack.

- Apple reportedly testing curved glass for 'iWatch.'

- CBS stations stop Tweeting about Dorner.

Bathroom break video: Beatboxing and studying the SATs… Read more

Locals complain at CES: Techies aren't social

LAS VEGAS--I tend to live with the words of Mark Zuckerberg implanted in my brain and scrawled upon both my palms.

If he tells me that the future is social, then I immediately go online and attempt to befriend thousands of people I don't know.

Sometimes, I even leave my house and try to engage strangers in conversation.

This I did several times last night, while trying to discover the meaning of life -- which several people have told me is buried deep in the heart of Las Vegas.

The locals are an extremely friendly people. All you have … Read more

The 404 1,187: Where we bully the bullies (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- One way or another, Danny DeVito will join us on the CNET stage at CES 2013.

- Here's hoping this doesn't happen to us on tomorrow's CES flight.

- How blind people use Instagram.

- Lego is officially producing the "Back to the Future" DeLorean time machine.

- Streetlight Manifesto trombonist thwarts phone theft with OKCupid trolling.… Read more

At the Vegas Goretorium, an all-out fright-fest

LAS VEGAS--Halloween is descending in an orange and black fog of fun-size candy bars and store-bought costumes of everything from The Avengers to Skylanders.

To keep folks in chills before their epic trick or treating, every community across the U.S. has a haunted house or two. Usually, it's an old empty house or warehouse transformed into a realm of nightmarish evil -- or at least a joint full of plastic skeletons and employees in rubber masks.

That quaint, amateur-hour stuff won't fly in The Entertainment Capital of the World, however. The Las Vegas Strip demands a big-budget denizen of the damned, like the new, $10 million Eli Roth Goretorium. … Read more

Vegas baby! Cricket 4G LTE rolls into Sin City

Leap Wireless is taking the really slow and steady approach to its 4G LTE roll-out.

The prepaid wireless carrier said today that it was bringing 4G to Las Vegas, marking only the second city to get the faster network. The company rolled out its first market, Tucson, Ariz., last December.

At a time when its larger rivals and even fellow prepaid providers have quickly rolled out 4G services, Leap has taken a more deliberate pace. The company, which markets its service under the Cricket brand, expects to launch LTE in additional markets this year, and expects it will be able … Read more

For Shelby, 50 years of blowing other cars' doors off

LAS VEGAS, Nev.--It may be the most valuable American car ever made. Sitting inside what looks from the outside mostly like a non-descript suburban warehouse, the vehicle fills a lot of people with lust.

Still a striking and shiny blue, the 1962 Shelby Cobra 427 is the very first of its kind. And it is such an important entry in the pantheon of American muscle cars that someone recently offered $25 million for it.

Welcome to Shelby American, a company whose rare cars are built to blow by just about any competition, yet are designed to be everyday drivable … Read more

How Nevada became America's Nuclear Age ground zero

MERCURY, Nev. -- From the side that faced away from the blast, you might never even have bothered to look at this concrete dome. But walk around the other side, and there's no question something extraordinary happened here.

Welcome to the Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site. As part of Road Trip 2012, I've come to visit this 1,375-square-mile expanse of harsh desert and even harsher mountains that begins about 75 miles north of Las Vegas. Here, from 1951 through 1992, a total of 928 nuclear weapons exploded, many of them sending … Read more

Romo the smartphone robot raises $1.5M, seeks world domination

Here's a novel way to pitch potential investors: "Do you realize how young we are? Do you realize that we're going to f**k up big time?!"

And yet, that's exactly how Keller Rinaudo, the 24-year-old co-founder and CEO of robot maker Romotive, began his meetings with investors last fall. The upshot: Success way beyond what he had ever imagined.

Rinaudo recently closed a $1.5 million first round of funding, three times what the company set out to raise when it began looking for backers. Among the investors are Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, the … Read more