guide

It's that time of year again, time for CNET's Holiday Help Desk.

Hosts Molly Wood and Brian Tong will take live viewer calls, talk to the chat room, and answer e-mails. And dish out the best tech gift-buying advice on the planet. Special guests will include CNET resident cheapskate Rick Broida, a parade of CNET editors, and guests from the retail world pitching their deals directly to you, such as representatives from Amazon, Woot, eBay, and Best Buy.

We'll keep you posted with the best deals, and also help you find the perfect gadget that's right … Read more

Where's My Water? is a charming physics puzzler, in which you funnel clean water to the bathtub of a fastidious little alligator named Swampy.

Where's My Water? ranks among the better arcade puzzlers, sharing some similarities (fast-paced levels, an intuitive interface, and a winningly cartoony protagonist) but with a central schtick that's mostly all its own: you dig paths through dirt, creating channels for liquid to flow from one place to another. Ideally, you'll get enough clean water into a pipe to fill Swampy's tub, but along the way you have to contend with various … Read more

The iPad is becoming an office worker's best friend. In terms of work time saved, your iPad will likely pay for itself in a matter of months if not weeks. But like any computer, you can't realize the iPad's full potential without tweaking the machine's default settings to suit your style.

Here are five ways to squeeze a little more productivity out of your iPad.

Lock the screen orientation. The iPad was made for sharing. Handing off a laptop is clumsy, but passing someone your iPad is as natural as shaking hands. The only problem is … Read more

When it comes to performing do-it-yourself fixes or upgrades on your Mac, one of the main resources to use is the online take-apart guides from iFixIt.

The company has detailed how to open and access internal components of many Mac models, and has gained a reputation for quickly tearing down newly released Apple hardware and outlining what's inside.

The manuals and high-quality detailed images offered by iFixIt can be invaluable, but if for some reason your Mac is not working and you need to use one of the manuals to replace a component, then you will need to access … Read more

To help you, prospective TV shopper, get a handle on 3D terminology and determine whether it's something you should care about, we've put together this handy guide. We think it's a worthwhile read for any TV shopper, even those who have already decided they don't care about 3D at all.

The guide comes in four easy-to-digest courses.

What is 3D TV and why should I care?: Whether you consider it a gimmick or a breakthrough on par with high-def itself, 3D TV is here to stay. Here's an overview of the technology and a few … Read more

When you can't make it home for every episode, or two shows you like are on at the same time, digital recorders can catch every moment for later viewing. However, if you're watching a lot of shows, it's hard to keep track of what's airing each night. So how about an easier way to see what shows are coming up and which ones are already in your queue for watching? Here's how to turn your Google Calendar or Reader into a personal TV guide:

Getting started

Step 1: Create an account at TVRage.com and … Read more

As Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt prepares for a hearing later today with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, the search company is offering up a guide for folks to peruse when they hear the charges leveled against it.

The guide, which includes seven items, tells readers what they will hear, and then explains to them what they should "remember" after hearing it. For example, Google says that when folks hear that it "is a gateway to the Web and controls what people see," the search firm wants them to … Read more

Say goodbye to the days of scouring through newspaper classifieds or even being tethered to your computer when seeking a new place to rent. Now you can use Android apps to help you look for apartments and other housing rentals, no matter where you are or where you'd like to look.

From prices to pictures, everything you need to know about a perspective rental is at your fingertips. You can view lists of the available properties for rent, or even interactive maps that show you their exact locations. One of these apps even generates an entire inquiry e-mail for … Read more

It's no secret that the summer months are markedly scarce in terms of worthy, must-play video game titles. But just because the weather is a bit nicer doesn't necessarily mean that gaming must take a back seat. Regardless of consoles owned, there's likely something for everyone this summer.

Xbox 360: Xbox 360 owners have been lucky enough to be rewarded with what Microsoft now calls its Summer of Arcade. It's a group of download-only titles (averaging around $15) that get heavy promotion on the Xbox 360's dashboard, but have also proved themselves worthy of MS Points in the past. For instance, last year's Limbo not only won the hearts of gamers and critics alike, but took the 9 spot in our annual top 10 games of the year list.

This year's Summer of Arcade has already hit the ground running, starting off with last week's addictive action-RPG, Bastion. We demoed the game live on CNET TV's preGame show.… Read more