The world is better off with Best Buy alive than dead

A Lenovo Yoga convertible ultrabook on display at a Los Angeles Best Buy. It's still the best place to comparison shop for gadgets in a physical store.(Credit:Brooke Crothers)Despite all the flak Best Buy gets from consumers and financial analysts, the world is probably a better place with it than without it. For those who don't follow Best Buy as a business, existential questions have been dogging...

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Is than an Oreo in the sky or are you just using Nokia's Lumia?

With the Oreo Skies app, Nokia Lumia owners can leave messages for their friends in the stars.(Credit:Oreo)Fresh off winning the Super Bowl, or at least the social media advertising wars during the NFL's championship, Oreo is now setting out to conquer the stars in the skies.The cookie giant has teamed up with Nokia to release a stargazing app for Lumia Windows phones that could result in the heavens...

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Audrey Hepburn shines again in new CGI ad

A computer-generated Audrey Hepburn swoons over an Italian gentleman in this cute commercial.(Credit:Sean Hepburn Ferrer, AMV BBDO, Luca Dotti)No one can play Audrey Hepburn as well as Audrey Hepburn.Through the magic of computer-generated imagery, the Galaxy chocolate company -- known as Dove outside the U.K. and Ireland -- has brought the deceased movie star back to life for a lovely one-minute...

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Man-and-woman Mars trip by 2018? Can you say 'couples counseling'?

An artist's concept of a proposed Mars flyby spacecraft equipped with an inflatable habitat module.(Credit:Inspiration Mars)A wealthy space tourist announced plans today to launch a high-risk manned flight to Mars in 2018, sending a man and a woman on a bare-bones 501-day round-trip flyby, passing just 100 miles above the Red Planet before heading back to Earth.Dennis Tito, the first private citizen...

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Yelp: We compete with print -- not Google or Facebook

Google, who? Facebook, huh? Yea, that's right. The Internet behemoths don't pose any threat to business reviews site Yelp and its still-blossoming local advertising business. Well, that's Yelp's attitude anyhow. "Today, we're really competing with print, radio, and television," Geoff Donaker, Yelp's chief operating officer, said Tuesday when speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom...

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OMG! Google's Andy Rubin worries Samsung may become a threat

Visitors look at new Samsung devices during the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.(Credit:Getty Images) Andy Rubin, who heads up Google's enormously successful Android business, can read a company's business strategy as well as anyone out there. So it's hardly a thunderbolt when we hear that Rubin frets about the day when Samung becomes so dominant that it becomes a...

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YouTube code refers to paid channel subscriptions

Paid channel subscriptions on YouTube may be closer than previously thought.After reports last month that YouTube was considering offering channels that would require a fee to access, code has now appeared that suggests Google is already laying the software foundation for subscription channels.According to Android Police, the latest version of YouTube for Android includes two lines of code that refer...

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The Facebook mistakes people make after a date

February can make people excitable.A new year is barely old. Hope springs eternal. And then there's Valentine's Day to add a little piquancy to their emotional state.Sometimes, though, lovers suffer from a certain lack of self-control. This can manifest itself on society's everyday manifest: Facebook.I was moved, therefore, that someone had taken the time to list the major faux pas that occur when...

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NYPD creates special team to recover stolen Apple devices

Smartphones are so common now that it's easy to forget criminals will steal them, if you give them the opportunity.Apple device thefts in New York got so bad that the NYPD created a dedicated team to recovering stolen iDevices, the New York Post reported today. The team works with Apple to obtain ID numbers -- known as an International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number -- for devices and track...

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U.S. attorney: Criticism of Aaron Swartz prosecution is 'unfair'

Carmen Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts(Credit:U.S. Department of Justice)Carmen Ortiz, the embattled U.S. attorney who charged the late activist Aaron Swartz with multiple felonies, has responded to critics by saying complaints about any prosecutorial overzealousness are "inaccurate" and "unfair."Ortiz, 57, said in a radio interview that a wave of criticism -- which includes a congressional...

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Curiosity's drill delivers first sample in major milestone

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the first sample of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. The image was taken after the sample was transferred from the drill to the rover's scoop. In planned subsequent steps, the sample will be sieved, and portions of it delivered to the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument and the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument.(Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS...

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This sheet turns your windows into mirrors

One feature on the beleaguered Boeing 787 Dreamliner is its electrochromic dimming system that lets passengers make windows on the aircraft more or less opaque at the touch of a button. Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) says that while these smart windows can take about 30 seconds to change, it has a new stick-on window film that can go from reflective...

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New HTC One hasn't debuted and already has a clone

The GooPhone One is a clone that beat the original to the punch.(Credit:GizChina)HTC's anticipated flagship phone, reportedly dubbed the HTC One, won't be officially revealed until tomorrow, but it's already been cloned.GizChina reports that the GooPhone One is based on the HTC One (also known by the code name M7) and was being shown off in renderings a few days before the HTC media event.GooPhone...

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Why Google's stores shouldn't look so much like Apple stores

Is this really different enough?(Credit:Crave CNET UK)Some engineers have never dated a real person.They've tried to, but it's hard for them to appreciate that real people don't necessarily use data to make decisions -- especially when it comes to love.Perhaps their most embarrassing moments come when they try to mimic what non-engineers do in order to make themselves more attractive.This mirrors...

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Russian meteorite: The conspiracy theories

A strange time for a military attack?(Credit:CNN; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)A good hearty conspiracy theory can shine a sharp light on two of humanity's most enduring traits.One, of course, is humanity's boundless imagination. The other is humanity's essential suspicion of humanity.So while you might be deeply immersed in Bill Nye's explanation of the Russian meteorite, those with darker...

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Reverse the default iCloud storage location in OS X

Unlike other cloud storage services like Dropbox, Apple's iCloud synchronizes documents in use by a specific application so, for instance, in Apple's Pages program you can save a document to iCloud and have it be immediately available for editing in Pages on your iPad or on another Mac. While convenient, this setup does have a restriction in that the documents for one program will only be made available...

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How we test antivirus and security software

The best antivirus software available does more than just stop computer viruses, it also addresses the myriad and complex modern threats that you'll encounter. Indeed, from the merged antivirus and anti-malware detection engines to enhancing online privacy controls, security suites are an essential part of Windows and Mac desktop life. And just like driving a car without wearing a seatbelt, you shouldn't...

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Apple claims Einhorn lawsuit tries to hold investors 'hostage'

Apple accused an activist hedge fund manager of attempting to hold investors "hostage" in his effort to get the electronics giant to share more of its massive cash reserves with investors.The charge came today in Apple's response to a lawsuit filed last week by Greenlight Capital, which asserts that the company needed to distribute preferred stock to current shareholders and that Apple had balked...

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Shatner: J.J. Abrams a 'pig' for taking on 'Star Wars'

William Shatner speaks to Movie Fanatic.(Credit:Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)J.J. Abrams is a busy man. The director who breathed new life into the "Star Trek" film franchise recently agreed to helm the new "Star Wars" movie. This may have fueled geeky fever dreams of crossover "Star Trek"/"Star Wars" projects, but it also led to some head-scratching. Does Abrams really have time to head...

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How we test: Monitors

CNET's monitor testing encompasses both the taking scientific measurements as well as making subjective judgements on quality.(Credit:Eric Franklin/CNET)To evaluate a display's performance, CNET uses a variety of DisplayMate test screens in conjunction with diagnostic equipment, and our most important tool, the human eye. Each test screen we use is specifically designed to emphasize a particular area...

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