$500

We all want to stream video on our devices but the big companies are saying "NO"! Bring on the parade of lawyers! and the Department of Justice approves Googles dream to help us plan our vacations so that we can travel freely about the world connected to our clouds & Google social media of course, while Facebook is engineering green open sourced servers that will require no air conditioning. What does this all mean?

When I last saw the Acer Iconia A500 Tab back in January at CES 2011, there was very little information available about the tablet. Then, Acer only showed the tablet with a blank screen. Even the screenshots didn't include screenshots.

What a difference three months makes.

On Friday Acer announced that its Iconia Tab A500 is now available for preorder exclusively at BestBuy.com. And as you'll see from the slideshow below, there are now plenty of screenshots in the screenshots.

Acer also confirms that the A500 may be preordered in brick and mortar Best Buy stores beginning … Read more

Many people are turned off the home theater experience by big, expensive speaker systems, but that's not the only way to do surround sound. JBL announced two compact 5.1 speaker systems this morning--the Cinema 300 (for $500) and Cinema 500 (for $700)--each featuring a 150-watt subwoofer. The Cinema 300 system is particularly small, with each front/surround speaker measuring just 9.25 inches high. Both speaker systems are available now and you can check our their full specs at their respective product pages (Cinema 300 and Cinema 500).

We can't say we're crazy about the "dynamic JBL Weave" styling from the press photos--especially with plenty of other stylish options in this price range--but we'll be willing to overlook some aesthetic shortcomings if they deliver better-than-expected sound quality.… Read more

It seems we're in the midst of a full-on zoom lens war. The last couple years have seen manufacturers cram longer and longer lenses into compact camera bodies. While I wouldn't say this is a good thing, it's certainly something consumers want.

The two that currently rank as the longest are Canon's PowerShot SX30 IS and Nikon's Coolpix P500. Going just by their magnification numbers, the Nikon comes out on top with its 36x f3.4-5.7 21.5-800mm lens (35mm equivalent). However, the Canon doesn't start out as wide, so its 35x zoom … Read more

Three years ago, when the price of gasoline shot past $4 a gallon, Detroit's automakers were trapped.

They couldn't give away the boatload of trucks that had long been the bread and butter--and profit generators--of the Detroit 3. With gasoline prices rising and with scant offerings in the small-vehicle segment, Detroit's sales plunged even before the financial crisis invaded in September 2008.

Last week, oil passed $100 a barrel, and gasoline prices rose to $3.50 a gallon in some markets. This time the Detroit 3 are in a better position to make money and not give … Read more

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix just released a graph that looks at how the company's stock has treated shareholders over the past five years.

The No. 1 video rental service compared its total cumulative stockholder return for the past five years with those from the Nasdaq Composite Index, the S&P 500 Index, and the S&P North American Technology Internet Index.

Simply said, Netflix tore it up. The company's shares jumped beyond $247 this week, setting an all-time high for the stock. After stomping brick-and-mortar rivals Blockbuster and Movie Gallery into … Read more

It's a frequent question from readers and co-workers, as well as friends and relatives: "What's the best laptop I can get for around $500?" A crisp William McKinley seems to be a psychological line in the sand for many: it will buy a reasonable set of components, but is still easy enough on the wallet to not be a life-changing decision.

In previous years, we haven't been particularly happy with the choices available around $500. Most were either dumbed-down midsize systems that were going to feel out-of-date before the box was even opened, and others … Read more

Canon today disclosed prices for previously announced overhauls of its 500mm and 600mm supertelephoto lenses, but more unusually, announced a new 200-400mm model that will join the company's already large lens family.

Nikon and Canon, locked in fierce competition for professional photographers, often have similar lens models, but Nikon for years has offered a highly regarded and newly refurbished 200-400mm supertele zoom while Canon stuck with its increasingly elderly 100-400mm design. Now Canon is countering with the EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender l.4x.

Some of the nomenclature should look familiar: f/4L means a continuous maximum … Read more

Americans love power. We buy 320-horsepower Chevy Tahoes to haul the kids to soccer practice. For home theater, the magic power number for receivers is 100 watts, and it has to be a seven-channel model, even though 80 or 90 percent of home theater buyers are perfectly happy with five-channel sound.

Americans equate power with quality, but I'm here to tell you there's another way. Sure, power is cheap, and a the-more-the-merrier strategy works well enough most of the time. Let's just be clear on what amplifier power provides: it defines the upper limit of how loud … Read more