Digital Trends - Most Recent Featured Articles

How to Cancel Cable and Get TV on Your PC

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

At the beginning of September, I walked outside the house with a hatchet in hand and chopped the single line of coax that kept my household wired into the universe. I severed the cable TV. Not literally, of course. That would have been pretty stupid – especially considering that our house kept the cable Internet connection as part of Plan B: Watch only what we could retrieve from the Internet. One connection, one bill. More literally, all three members of our household gathered up...

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Smartphone App Stores Compared

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

If a building is only as good as its foundation, then a smartphone is only as good as its app store. Even as manufacturers continue to stack their handsets with YouTube support, instant messaging, and other essentials right out of the box, the features just don’t add up to the amount of capability a phone can take on in the hands of the right developers: You name it, a good smartphone can do it. The app store you buy into will have a longstanding effect on the way you use your phone – perhaps more than any other feature. But it’s tough to get a feel for every smartphone app store when you don’t get to push a cart down the aisles until you have a carrier contract in your filing cabinet and there&rsqu...

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Best Voice Recorders Reviewed

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

With all the portable audio-video devices floating around today, it seems surprising – nay, downright annoying – that so few of them offer support for voice recording. Sure, they'll load and play a kazillion songs in any format you want, display photos, play movies, and probably pour you a frosty beer, but should you want to do something as seemingly simple and as natural as recording the human voice, you'll have to look far and wide. And even fewer of them feature line-in jacks for direct feeds from hardwired outside sources or external mics. But have no fear – we've found a few that'll do the trick. Moreover, we've also dug deep into the world of standalone voice recorders – a far better...

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Best New Smartphones Compared

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

With a new crop of ever-faster, ever-smaller, ever-better smartphones launching seemingly every month, there has never been a more enticing time to buy a smartphone. Or a more confusing time for the prospective buyer. The same plethora of options that make today's smartphones the most best ever made also make the marketplace a minefield to navigate. We've all been there: Your best friend claims the iPhone is the only way to go, but your boss insists you need a BlackBerry, the engineer who lives next door claims you need to go with Google Android, your ge...

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In the Year 2020, Part I: Cloud Computing

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

It's Friday afternoon. Andy's had a long, tiring week, and he's thinking this would be a great time to shed the shackles of his job and kick back with a good friend over a couple of beers and a juicy steak. One problem: Andy's best buddy is off in Europe and he's stuck in downtown Cleveland. Somewhere in New England, meanwhile, Jody and her young daughter take a leisurely drive through the countryside. It's a gorgeous fall afternoon. The weather is crisp but sunny, and the trees are ablaze with colors. Jody's daughter looks up at her from the passenger seat and says...

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