ratings

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

If you've ever wondered where to find the best iskender kebab in Istanbul or a good accountant in Ankara, Yelp might be able to help.

The local business reviews site announced today it has expanded into Turkey, the 20th country in which Yelp has launched its service. Yelp plans to focus its efforts on Istanbul, the country's largest city, Miriam Warren, Yelp VP of New Markets, said in a blog post today written in both Turkish and English.

"Our initial community building efforts in Turkey will concentrate on Istanbul, the only city in the world to span … Read more

More bad news for AT&T.

Consumer Reports has released its annual carrier ratings. And just as it had in the last two years, AT&T landed in last place, far behind the top major carrier in the roundup, Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless fared somewhat well in the study, earning relatively strong marks on voice and data. The only bright spot in AT&T's review was its 4G LTE network, which actually beat out its chief competitor in this year's study.

Sprint and T-Mobile USA landed between Verizon and AT&T.

For its part, … Read more

Moody's cut Hewlett-Packard's rating today, topping a day marked by a rash of critical articles about the Silicon Valley giant.

Moody's Investor Services cut HP's long-term credit rating to Baa1, three levels above junk, from A3, according to Bloomberg. The rating agency said that HP's "credit profile will remain weaker than previously expected over the intermediate term," among other reasons.

This comes in the wake of an $8.8 billion writedown related to alleged fraudulent accounting at Autonomy, the software company HP acquired last year.

And HP's core businesses aren't faring … Read more

AT&T today announced new international roaming plans that will go into effect tomorrow. The Europe and Rest of World options will join the Canada and Mexico plans that the carrier announced last June.

For each region, customers can choose one of three packages that delivers a set amount of minutes for a flat monthly rate. Of course, going over your allotment will result in hefty overage fees and exact coverage will vary by country. Also, keep in mind you'll need a quad-band handset that supports the 900 and 1800 GSM networks that are used outside the United … Read more

If you read my "What is refresh rate?" post, you'll know that plasma TV manufacturers (Panasonic, Samsung, and LG) make a point in claiming a "600Hz" refresh rate on their TVs. As we discussed in that article, it's not exactly comparable to LCD's 120 and 240Hz refresh.

So what is 600Hz, and how does it work?… Read more

Foursquare is edging even deeper into Yelp territory. Today the check-in social network announced that it is launching a 10-point rating system for local businesses with its iOS app update.

Sound familiar? That's because it's basically Yelp's business model. However, Foursquare said that what it's introducing is "a lot different from the other types of ratings you see today."

"Instead of other sites where every place gets 3.5 stars, we come up with our scores using the same Foursquare magic that powers Explore," the company wrote in a blog post today. &… Read more

After a U.S. vs. European ratings snafu, "mature" games will now be allowed in Microsoft's European Windows 8 Store.

According to Gizmodo, the software giant announced today that it would reverse an earlier decision that banned all PEGI 18 games that also received a Mature rating from its European store.

The ban was instated when Microsoft outlined its Windows Store guidelines, which said that ESRB ratings of Adults Only would not be allowed in the U.S. and PEGI 18 ratings would be barred in Europe. The discrepancy between the two regions was based on different … Read more