Fully Equipped

Top 20 tough iPhone 4 and 4S cases

I first posted this roundup not long after the iPhone 4 hit stores and it's been through several updates, and now only includes cases that fit both the iPhone 4 and 4S and carry the "universal fit" tag.

Update, May 15, 2012: Added Griffin Survivor and Gumdrop Drop Tech Series.

As I've said before, how you choose to protect -- or not protect -- your iPhone is a matter of personal preference. But if some heavy-duty shielding is what you're looking for, this is the list for you.

While I tried to pick tough, protective cases that look good and don't make your iPhone too bulky, a few of the cases have more extreme designs that aren't necessarily intended for everyday use. I should also note that some of the more rugged cases can be a bit of a chore to remove and aren't friendly toward iPod docks and certain charging accessories due to how recessed the ports become when the case is on.

Editors' note: This post was originally published June 9, 2010, and has been updated frequently.

First, an apology to those who've read this article before in its various iterations, you probably have a bad case of deja vu.

Truth be told, I originally published this column shortly after the iPhone 4 came out back in June 2010, which is why you see a lot of dated comments -- but they are fun to read.

Hopefully, this will be the last update, but you never know, considering how long this whole waiting-for-iPhone-5 saga has gone on.

As those of you who've read earlier versions of this column are aware, with the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple did include some features I was hoping would be in the iPhone 5, so the list is now shorter; it's been culled from 20 down to 15 features.

In this update, I haven't thrown in any new items, but I did shift their order a little (I moved "better battery life" up a notch) and added some new information.

As a reminder, the 15 items in the list are ordered from least important to most in a reverse countdown. I've also included what I think are the odds of Apple actually implementing each request.

As always, feel free to agree or disagree with me and make your own suggestions (and to post your own ordered wish list).

Microsoft deal allows B&N to go toe-to-toe with Amazon and Apple

In the last couple of years Barnes & Noble has made some big inroads into the e-book market, cutting into Amazon's huge lead. As it stands, Amazon still has about 60 percent of the e-book pie, Barnes & Noble has around 25 percent, and Apple sits at around 15 percent, with smaller players like Sony, Google, and Kobo left to fight over the crumbs. Of course, those numbers are just estimates, and depending on who you talk to, Amazon's share might actually be closer to 65 percent.

While a strong second place is not a bad position to be in, the problem for Barnes & Noble has been how much it cost to get there and how much it's going to cost to pick up more market share from Amazon and Apple, which has steadily ramped up its iBooks digital reading platform and recently launched a major digital textbook initiative. more

What's the future of e-book pricing?

In case you missed it, the U.S. government recently filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of this country's largest publishers, alleging they conspired to limit competition for the pricing of e-books. Three of the five -- HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster -- opted to settle the case, while Penguin, Macmillan, and Apple didn't.

So where does that leave us?

Well, if you've spent any time reading through the terms of the settlement, you quickly realize not everything's all that black and white and is in fact quite muddled. For starters, a judge has more

Top 15 movies not out on Blu-ray

A couple of years ago, we had 40 movies on this list. But as new releases have arrived, we've gradually pruned the list, and today we're down to a mere 15 top movies that aren't out yet on Blu-ray.

Yes, there are several other great movies that still haven't gotten the Blu-ray treatment. And some we probably would have included were it not for the fact that they're coming out soon on Blu-ray -- "Barton Fink" and "Yellow Submarine," to name a couple.

But like I say with my top 40 must-have Blu-rays list, feel free to express your opinions, and if you have a legitimate case, I'll update the list with new picks (those who nominated "Schindler's List," sorry, I didn't add it, but if I had 16th pick I would have -- and it is set to come out later this year).

For the latest round we've dropped 10 movies because they've already been released on Blu-ray.The latest deletions:

Yesterday, we got some new numbers on the number of Vita hardware and software units sold, so I thought it would be a good time for a Vita launch recap, with a quick look at what's gone right and what's gone wrong.

First, the numbers
Sony says it has sold more than 1.2 million Vita units worldwide since the portable launched in Japan on December 17. As CNET blogger Don Reisinger noted in his post, Sony didn't break down the sales figures by country, but acknowledged that this month's launch across the U.S. and more

Top 40 must-have Blu-ray discs

Another month, another set of new Blu-ray releases--and another update to our long-running list of must-have Blu-ray movies. This month's entries: "The Apartment," "Shakespeare In Love," and "Hugo."

Though my face is at the top of the column, the list was compiled with input from editors John Falcone, Matthew Moskovciak, and David Katzmaier, who look at a lot of video content in their day-to-day testing of products. We also keep an eye on AVS Forum's Blu-ray picture-quality and audio-quality threads and have always appreciated the site's tier rating system.

This list is not set in stone, and we'll be adding and removing discs as new ones come out. As always, feel free to make comments and suggest your own personal favorites. They may get added to the list in the future.

iPhone vs. Vita gaming: Comparing FIFA iOS (99 cents) with FIFA Vita ($39.99)

Recently, I wrote an article titled "What if the Vita had an Apple logo instead of Sony's?" Some readers didn't appreciate that I'd talked about the Vita in the context of Apple or as one reader put it, "Damn, CNET has to talk about Apple all the time???"

Worse yet, another reader chillingly removed us from his Google home page, stating that our articles don't have enough "variety and range" for him anymore.

Ironically, a couple days ago I ran into an Apple employee at an event who complained that all we talk about on CNET more

How much better will the iPad 3 be?

I was talking to a friend and tech enthusiast the other day--let's call him "Chuck"--and he sheepishly admitted that he'd taken the iPad plunge.

I was shocked. Not so much because Chuck had never bought an Apple product before (take note, Android fanboys), but because he'd bought an iPad 2 with the iPad 3 just around the corner (if the rumors are to be believed).

I told him he was crazy. In buying his first Apple product, he'd not only broken the cardinal rule of buying Apple products (don't buy within six months of more

Author Solutions dances into the DIY e-book market with Booktango

With the boom in e-readers, self-publishing has become big business, and Author Solutions, one of the largest self-publishers in the U.S., has entered the DIY e-book market in a big way with Booktango.

Whether Booktango should be called an "e-book generating app" or "self-publishing platform" is hard to say, but it basically provides a free and simple way to upload your manuscript, edit it for proper formatting, then automatically serve it up to various e-bookstores, including Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks.

On the surface, Booktango, which bears the "beta" tag, looks fairly slick and should improve as the company more