led

Prepare to witness one of the most expensive board games ever made.

When the Prague Mind Sports Festival kicks off December 1, gamers can play on a high-tech Scrabble setup unlike any other. The festival -- which hosts tournaments for the popular word game plus bridge, backgammon, poker, League of Legends, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive -- introduced to the world this week a carbon fiber Scrabble system with LED lighting that cost more than 20,000 pounds ($31,732) to create. … Read more

If you read my "What is refresh rate?" post, you'll know that plasma TV manufacturers (Panasonic, Samsung, and LG) make a point in claiming a "600Hz" refresh rate on their TVs. As we discussed in that article, it's not exactly comparable to LCD's 120 and 240Hz refresh.

So what is 600Hz, and how does it work?… Read more

Imagine yourself as a little fish swimming far below the surface of the sea, just trying to make it in a big blue world. Suddenly, a horizon-encompassing net grabs you and takes you away from everything you once knew. Things go from bad to worse as the commercial fishing net rises and the pressure change kills you.

This fate, which often befalls millions of smaller non-target fish around the world every year, could change with the invention of the sustainable SafetyNet, which today was named winner of the prestigious 2012 James Dyson Award for design. … Read more

The top of the Empire State Building isn't just for King Kong anymore. CNN is getting together with New York's iconic tower to display today's election results from way up high.

A vertical LED meter on the spire will visually count up electoral votes for each candidate from more than a quarter mile above the street. Obama and Romney will each get two sides of the tower. Obama's tally will light up in blue while Romney's will light up in red.… Read more

I recently posted a list of the best TVs at every screen size. By "best" I also considered value, so some expensive models didn't make the cut.

The list below only considers picture quality and ignores value. It represents the best TVs regardless of cost, and incidentally, regardless of design and features, that we've reviewed this year. I already listed the best TV series for picture quality, but the list below goes through the field at key size points, too.

TV makers are reluctant to put the best quality into their smallest, cheapest TVs, but the field really opens up once you hit 46 inches or so. I also threw in a runner-up -- the second-best-performing TV available in each size range -- for people who don't like door No. 1.

I omitted TVs larger than 65 inches this time because the 70-inch-plus 2012 models we have reviewed aren't quite worthy. If you're unsatisfied with 65 inches, however, the 70-inch Sharp Elite is my price-no-object, mammoth-screen pick.

… Read more

Most Android flashlight apps are extremely simple: on and off. Some add battery meters. Then there's Nikolay Ananiev's Tiny Flashlight + LED. Like most of the others, it's free, though it does have ad banners. No big deal, because it's way more than just an LED flashlight for your smartphone. Like what? For starters, it includes a prominent battery meter. The illuminated, color-coded Power button glows green for on and blue for off. But tap the Options button, and Tiny Flashlight's awesome extras come to light.

We installed Tiny Flashlight in a new smartphone running Android … Read more

You know how big a TV you want, but you just can't decide which one. Here are a few suggestions.

The list below collects the highest-rated TVs we've reviewed so far this year, starting at 32 inches and going up to 70. CNET's TV ratings incorporate Value, so these aren't necessarily the hands-down best in picture quality--click here if you want those. I intentionally kept Sharp's 80-inch behemoth off the list since we didn't really like it much. The smallest TV we've rated this year, the 26-inch Samsung UN26EH4000, doesn't deserve a spot either since our hands-on review was of its 32-inch series mate, and we never compared other 26-inchers.

The rest of these sets fall between that range, and appear in ascending order of screen size. We also threw in a runner-up--the second-highest rated TV available for sale in each size range--for people who don't like door number one. Speaking of door number one, it's the Panasonic ST50 for anyone who wants a TV from 50 to 65 inches.

We also updated this list since initial publication, subbing in the still-available HX850 for the discontinued Vizio M3D470KD.

… Read more

People have been using their cell phones as impromptu flashlights for years, but anything cell phones do, smartphones can do better, and there's no better example than flashlight apps that replace the dim glowing screen of an active cell phone by boosting the output of your smartphone's ultrabright LEDs to create an actual functioning flashlight. And there's no better example of this ultra-simple, ultra-useful app than Motorola's Droidlight LED Flashlight. It's widely compatible with previous versions of Android. We installed it on a smartphone running the latest Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Droidlight installed so … Read more

Take a walk through the labs of Bridgelux (PDF) in Livermore, Calif., and you see a lot of LED lighting modules being made on a more affordable platform: disused factories that used to make silicon chips. But while you'll see lots of lights, you'll hear mostly about connectivity. Bridgelux CEO Bill Watkins envisions a new array of smart, connected sensors, cameras, and other devices integrated with LED lighting over our heads.

The challenge is formidable: Most lighting consumers, large and small, think of lighting as a cost to be contained, not an opportunity to be maximized. So job … Read more