special

Editor's note: This is the final installment of a four-part series. Read part 1, "Plotting the next Silicon Valley -- you'll never guess where;" part 2, "New Silicon Valley in the Andes: Promise and paradox;" and part 3, "Riding shotgun with the man behind an Andean Silicon Valley."

In the previous installments of this series on Ecuador's plan to build its own hub of research and innovation on par with the likes of Silicon Valley and South Korea's Incheon, I've focused on the big dream and the big possibilities.

It's time for a reality check to round things out.

First, let's review the plan for Yachay, the name chosen for the Ecuadorian government's planned "City of Knowledge" already under construction at a rural location in the country's northern Andean highlands. It all starts with a university that Rene Ramirez, Ecuadorian minister of higher education, science, technology, and innovation, hopes will one day be on par with the likes of Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or the California Institute of Technology.

"We want Yachay to be part of that international network of knowledge development, putting Ecuador in a good position globally," Ramirez told me when I visited him in Quito. … Read more

Do you remember these famous last words? "Look, stick! Stick, stupid -- fetch the stick. You don't want the stick? No wonder you're extinct. I'm going to run you over when I come back down."

In the movie "Jurassic Park," shortly before his demise, computer technician Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) mutters those lines to a peculiar-looking dinosaur. A behind-the-scenes video by the legendary Stan Winston special-effects company reveals how a small team built the Dilophosaurus (known as the Spitter in pop culture) for the dinosaur thriller.… Read more

Today Foursquare announced you can now connect a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card to your account. With a card connected, you'll be eligible to receive a discount just for checking into a participating business. One business currently running a special based on the new credit card deals would be Burger King.

Users who connect a card to their account can check in to any participating Burger King, spend $10 or more, pay with the connected card, and receive $1 credit on their card. The process is identical to that of the American Express integration Foursquare has had … Read more

The OS X Character Viewer is a system-wide text entry service that allows for quick access to numerous special characters from fonts in your system. While the use of keyboard modifier keys (Shift, Control, and so forth) allow for quick access to some common alternative characters, there are numerous Greek, currency, math, and emoticon symbols that can be accessed through the Character Viewer panel in OS X.

This panel can be accessed from the Edit menu in most applications, but can also be opened using keyboard shortcuts or the input menu, as outlined in this previous article.

The basics of … Read more

It sounds like a dieter's dream. Drink soda and lose weight. It's junk food with a healthy sheen and it's a real Pepsi product coming out in Japan.

Pepsi Special is special because of an added ingredient: dextrin, the same stuff found in Benefiber. It's a water-soluble fiber supplement that may also have some extracurricular effects with feelings of fullness and a reduction in fat absorption.

According to a study published in Appetite in 2011, soluble fiber dextrin increased participants' sense of satiety and decreased the amount of energy absorbed from the next meal. How that finding translates to a dextrin-charged soda is up for discussion.… Read more

As all movie-makers know, if you want to put butts in the seats, you need splashy special effects.

Like, say, an explosive missile strike or an alien attack. And who doesn't love a massive car crash?

Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX 2.0 lets you add Hollywood-style effects sequences to the movies you shoot on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

It works like this: Choose a sequence, then start filming. When you're done, the app lets you choose where in the clip to insert the effect. After a few seconds of rendering, presto: you've … Read more

There was quite the hullabaloo last week regarding Amazon's new Kindles.

Turns out that the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD tablets were all "Special Offers" models, meaning they'd display ads on their lock screens and main home screens.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos neglected to mention this when announcing the prices for all these Kindles, causing a minor uproar in the hours that followed -- especially when Amazon reps said there would be no way to opt out. Then, barely a day later, Bezos and Co. reversed course and gave Kindle Fire customers the option of … Read more

Editors' note (September 12, 2012): It's official, folks. The iPhone 5 is for real. Our first impressions, plus additional full coverage.

Apple is holding its much-anticipated fall event on Wednesday, and you can get your full dose of the news right here.

The press conference, which is expected to bring Apple's next iPhone, takes place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco and kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific. CNET's Scott Stein and I will be bringing you the news live.

You can tune in to the live blog here: