round-up

The 404 968: Where we're totally idiot-proof (podcast)

We asked CNN technology writer Mark Milian to come into the studio today to wrap up the last show of the year, and he surprises us with Peter Ha from The Daily in tow!

Our two favorite guests join us for a discussion about the tech trends of 2011 ("hacking," privacy, mobile OS wars, Tumblr, and Reddit), and we'll also take a look at Mark's new book, Letters to Steve: Inside the E-Mail Inbox of Apple's Steve Jobs.

It's a collection of e-mails sent from the legend himself that shows his dedication to customer service and Apple fans. Some of them aren't so nice, though, as Mark tells us a few stories about his lesser-known messages.

I know you're probably super upset that this is the last episode of the year, but we'll be publishing exclusive Yuletide and Throwback episodes throughout the break, all the way up until we start our block of CES shows, live from the CNET stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center!

Thanks to everyone who helped us out this year--too many names to list, but we wouldn't be here without all our awesome guests, fans, moderators, producers, callers, and co-workers!… Read more

Must-have MacBook Air accessories

The MacBook Air is Apple's new mainstream MacBook, and though the latest version is undoubtedly the best, there are still aspects of this slim laptop that could do with accessories. The Air achieves an excellent balance of design, performance, and battery life, but it still leaves out some features that many people consider essential to their laptop experience.

Consider these accessories a way of mending the missing pieces and providing true MacBook Air road warriors with all the tools needed for a worry-free Air-based lifestyle.

Click through for our picks. Did we miss any? Are there even better examples … Read more

CNET's top 10-inch tablets

When we first created CNET's Best 5 Tablets feature, it was a stretch just to find 5 worthwhile products. Today, there are dozens of solid tablet choices out there in all shapes and sizes, with more arriving every month.

Still, the iPad and its 10-inch screen remains the tablet drawing the most attention. It's in good company, though, with an increasing number of tablets coming on the market with the same 10-inch screen size.

Though early competitors were quick to differentiate themselves from Apple with 5- or 7-inch tablets, most are coming around to the larger screen size. … Read more

Fall 2010 security suite roundup

The fall months may be the season for colder weather and dying leaves, but in the software world it means major updates for security suites. We've reviewed and benchmarked 11 suites, organized them along the traditional line of cost, and picked one in each category that we highly recommend.

We looked at four updated free security options: AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011, Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.3, Microsoft Security Essentials 2, and Ad-Aware Free Internet Security 9. Other well-known free security programs, such as Avast and Avira, generally update in late winter or spring, so they were not included.

AVG … Read more

12 big things we didn't see at WWDC 2010

Like the lead-up to any big, annual Apple event, the weeks and months ahead of this year's WWDC brought the usual wash of rumors about new hardware, software, and online services.

The biggest unknown was not so much on the hardware side--as we all knew there was a new iPhone on the way (even what it looked like and whose fault that was), but the software and online services portion remained a mystery. This is typically the chunk of the WWDC keynote where Steve Jobs and company go into detail about the latest operating system tweaks and new software offerings.

There were rumors on both sides of the spectrum ranging from paid services like MobileMe going free and iTunes getting a streaming component to a fancy new wireless trackpad. Read on to get the details.

1. OS X 10.7

Apple's preview of OS X 10.6, nicknamed Snow Leopard, happened at 2008's WWDC. 10.5 was unveiled during 2006's keynote, and 10.4 in 2004's. Following that logic, 2010's show would bring a preview, or at least an acknowledgment that Apple had 10.7 in the oven. Though given the focus on Apple's iOS, and the shiny new device that will run on it, it's not all that surprising we didn't hear a peep.

An OS update, especially for the desktop, would have likely filled an hour or two on its own. Yet, the downside of this omission is that the eventual preview of that update will likely be shelved until next year's show, since WWDC is Apple's only big developer event of the year.

2. A developer preview for the iPad's iOS 4

When introducing OS 4 at a preview event back in April, Jobs said we'd be seeing a public release of it for the iPad sometime this fall. Again, logic would dictate that developers would get their hands on a build of the iPad 4.0 SDK at Apple's big developer event, alongside the first beta of the firmware for testing on real devices.

So why the no-show? Apple has likely had its hands full getting the iPhone and iPod Touch version of OS 4 ready to go in time for the iPhone 4 launch in two weeks. And developers only got their hands on the gold master candidate version of that late Monday. Maybe the delay was to include some new OS features being baked into the next batch of iPods this fall.

3. A Steve Ballmer appearance

In a note to investors, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry claimed that Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer would be giving a seven-minute presentation of Visual Studio 2010 during the WWDC keynote. This was vehemently denied by Microsoft reps, then later retracted by Chowdhry, though many large news outlets (including us) picked up the story and ran with it.

There was some semblance of truth to the rumor of Microsoft having a presence at the keynote, in the form of Jobs announcing that Microsoft's Bing was now a search option in Safari, both on portable devices and on the desktop software.

4. iTunes streaming service

Like Apple's annual "buy a Mac, get a free iPod" promotion, which always manages to end just a few days before the company announces a new model, it seemed just a little too convenient music-streaming service Lala, which Apple bought back in December of last year, was being shut down just a week before WWDC.

Prior to Apple picking up the company, sources had told CNET that Apple was planning to purchase the company primarily for its music streaming technology and engineering talents. It seemed fair then (given the timing), that Apple would fill in the gap Lala.com's closure had left with something similar built right into iTunes, though that never came to fruition during Monday's keynote. Then again, given Apple's propensity for having its "music" events in September, we might just have to wait three months. … Read more

Must-have utilities for your Windows toolkit

How often do you think about the background systems that make your computer run smoothly and surely? As with most foundations, generally only when they're broken or faulty. And that's a shame. We've rounded up seven freeware utilities that can help you get (and keep) your Windows system in top shape.

We include some top picks in the disk defragger, file compressor, and all-around optimizer categories. There's a tool to recover lost data, and another to cleanly remove programs, including Registry leftovers. Check it out in our must-have utilities roundup.

Have other favorites that didn't … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week WiiWare gets two new additions, while the Virtual Console gets a classic scrolling shooter. Virtual Console

SkyKid (1985, NES, 500 Wii points): SkyKid is a horizontal scrolling shooter that has you battling in the skies in order to save Bird Land--yes that's what it's called. Grab the bombs on each level and drop them on various targets to advance.

WiiWare

Critter Round-Up (Konami, 1,000 Wii points): All the animals have escaped and it's up to you to get them back. The puzzle game includes more than 50 levels with various environments. Star Soldier R (… Read more