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B&W C5s review: Great sound for $180

First it was iPod docks. Then it was computer speakers and over-the-ear headphones. Now, Bowers & Wilkins, a brand once known for expensive high-end speakers, expands its product offering into the mainstream with the $179.95 C5 in-ear headphones.

Along with touting the C5s' "pristine, natural audio," B&W is highlighting its signature Secure Loop, "an ingenious innovation where a cushioned loop fixes quickly and comfortably in the inner ridge of the user's ear." The company adds that the Loop is "infinitely adjustable, so it works perfectly with anyone's ears."

That … Read more

X-47B robo-stealth plane attains 1st cruise flight

Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned stealth plane achieved cruise mode flight for the first time recently, a major step toward using the bomber aboard aircraft carriers.

During a flight at Edwards Air Force Base on September 30, the robo-plane retracted its landing gear and flew in cruise configuration for the first time. The test helped prove its navigation hardware and software.

The flight was part of the X-47B's "envelope expansion" under the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. Northrop has produced two X-47Bs for the Navy and the aircraft is slated to begin carrier trials in 2013. … Read more

Getaround adding Facebook controls

The so-called AirBnB of car sharing seems to be taking a lesson from the recent apartment rental debacle and will add new security controls. To make people feel more comfortable handing over the keys to what's probably their second most prized possession, Getaround plans to add a feature that will let car owners restrict vehicle rentals to Facebook friends and friends of friends.

On information Q&A site Quora, a user asked if Getaround members could set up their account to rent only to Facebook friends. Avery Lewis, head of Product at Getaround, responded on the site that … Read more

A sure bet: Shure's new flagship SRH940 headphones

Closed-back, over-the-ear (circumaural) headphones were the original noise-isolating headphones. Closed-back headphones seal your ears off from external sound, but the isolation is purely acoustic; noise-canceling headphones use electronics and do a slightly better job of blocking noise.

But there are a few downsides to that approach; noise-canceling headphones always use batteries, and on some models when the batteries run out of juice, the party's over. No more music. The noise-canceling signal puts a small amount of pressure on your eardrums, which some people find uncomfortable.

The other, bigger downside to noise-canceling headphones are their electronics, which can degrade the music's sound quality. Dollar for dollar, closed-back models block almost as much noise, and always sound better.

The closed-back Shure SRH940 is fairly light (11 ounces), and the thickly padded headband and plush velvet earpads make for headphones that are extremely comfortable to wear over long periods of time. The earcups' decorative covers appear to be metal, but there's lots of gray plastic in the design, which is why it feels so light and comfy.

Despite all the plastic, the SRH940's durability seems first-rate. It's a collapsible design with 90-degree swivel earcups for convenient storage and portability in the supplied semihard storage case.

The 42-ohm SRH940 headphones come with two detachable cables--a coiled 9.84-foot cable and a straight 8.2-foot one--and thanks to the bayonet clip mount, you never accidentally yank the cable out. The cables are terminated with 3.5mm plugs at each end, and there's a screw-on 6.3mm adapter for home use. … Read more

The 404 885: Where we weeze the juice (podcast)

"Woot" joins "jeggings," "mankini," "noob," and 400 other new definitions in the 12th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary published today, but what happened to "glamazon," "hangry," and "retrosexual"?

Along with our suggestions for new slang to be added, we're also warning everyone about a privacy breach called juice-hacking and a virtual hit-man service that charges $10 an hour for DDoS attacks. And we talk about whether it's necessary to reboot or shut down your computer at night.

This, plus a handful of Calls From the Public on today's episode--enjoy!

The 404 Digest for Episode 885

'Woot' is officially a thing, according to Oxford English Dictionary. Beware of juice-hacking. Russians outsource DDoS attacks for $10 per hour. Is it necessary to restart or shutdown your laptop every night? Congratulations to Sir Ron for completing the maze we featured on yesterday's show!

Episode 885 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

'Woot' is officially a thing, according to Oxford English Dictionary

August marks the 100th anniversary of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED), the smaller but most widely recognized derivative of the official Oxford English Dictionary, or OED. To celebrate, the lexicon published its 12th edition today that adds more than 400 new entries--many of which reflect the technological pervasiveness of modern society, like "woot," "mankini," and "jeggings."

COED Editor Angus Stevenson heads up a small team at the Oxford University Press's academic cabinet tasked with choosing the next words for inclusion, and the process involves keying popular words into a database that shows frequency of use in print and online.

Since publishing its first edition back in 1911, the COED's evolution shows the tremendous effects of social media and instant-access technology on language, creating new words but also modifying existing definitions of words like "follower."

What once meant "a person who imitates or copies" now earns a second and more widely used meaning: "someone who is tracking a particular person, group, etc., on a social networking site." Another example that's a little unsettling is the general term "friend" that loses gravity in its new form: "a contact on a social networking Web site."… Read more

Hands on with the 12.5-inch Samsung Series 3: Thin Series 9 alternative on a budget

More than a month after we got our first surprise peek at the Samsung Series 3, a new mainstream line of Samsung laptops that included some very attractive and affordable 12- and 11-inch ultraportables, the 12.5-inch version of the Series 3 has arrived at CNET's offices. We've taken it out of its box and will be running it through benchmarks and testing it, but for now here are our initial impressions.

Ultrabook, schmultrabook: why pay a lot of money for a thin laptop if you can get one for cheaper? While the Series 3 isn't technically an "Ultrabook" by Intel's definitions--it's thicker and uses a regular non-solid-state hard drive--this little laptop reminds us a lot of the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s. It's nearly the same size and weight and has the same-size screen and keyboard, but features an even faster processor. … Read more

Travel marketplace Airbnb raises $112 million

Airbnb, an online marketplace where travelers can find and book places to stay around the world, has picked up $112 million in financing, a move designed to help it grow in the U.S. and abroad.

The company will use the $112 million in Series B financing from investors Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and General Catalyst to enhance its U.S. online community and expand and hire more people internationally. This latest round of capital adds to the $7.2 million raised on behalf of Sequoia Capital and Greylock in November, bringing the total investment to $119.8 million.

Airbnb … Read more

Intel Sandy Bridge chips land in sub-$400 HP, Toshiba laptops

Intel's Sandy Bridge processors aren't just for Apple MacBooks and elite Windows laptops anymore. The latest and greatest Intel chip technology is now landing in sub-$400 lappies from Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba.

To wit, behold HP's $349 Pavilion g4-1104dx. In addition to goodies like a 14-inch LED display, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard disk drive, a multiformat optical drive, a Webcam, and integrated Ethernet, you get a Pentium processor B940 with integrated Intel graphics silicon.

No, that's not the Pentium processor of yore. The new Pentium is a bona fide Sandy Bridge processor, which … Read more