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Review: Phoenix Slides lets you image search and play full-screen slideshows

Phoenix Slides for Mac helps you easily navigate through directories and subdirectories containing images and then play slideshows in full screen. The program is easy to use, performs fast, and, above all, is free.

Phoenix Slides for Mac offers a clean and easy-to-navigate interface. There is a separate window for image info., which you can close or move anywhere you like on the screen. It's fairly easy to get started, but there is comprehensive documentation available on the developer's Web site to guide users through all available features and shortcuts. Browsing through directories containing images is a smooth … Read more

Play word games on your Android gadget with What's the Word

Puzzle games offer loads of fun for smartphone users. What's the Word is challenging and quite entertaining. It also requires very few resources such as memory or advanced graphics. This fun word game combines some Scrabble-type elements with charades.

A fast and easy download sends users right into the action. The application opens with a clean blue screen and a short tutorial on how the game works. Four pictures are presented in full color and decent resolution. These four images have something in common and it is up to the user to find the common word. Letters are located … Read more

Coveted Microsoft Surface Pro model surfaces again in stores

The 128GB model of the Surface Pro tablet is trickling into Microsoft stores again after quickly selling out earlier in the month.

Microsoft stores at Century City (Los Angeles, Calif.), Palo Alto, Calif., Boston (Prudential Center), and Huntington Station, N.Y., all had "limited stock" of the 128GB model, CNET confirmed today. Other stores, such as ones in New Jersey and Texas, didn't have the model this morning.

Representatives at two of the stores said that they couldn't guarantee availability at the end of the day due to the model's popularity.

The 128GB Surface Pro … Read more

Microsoft Surface Pro hoarders try to make a quick buck

The 128GB Surface Pro is a rare commodity at the moment. And stiff eBay asking prices reflect this.

In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that some eBay vendors are hoarding the device, trying to cash in on the scarcity.

Though pretty common with hard-to-get Apple products, it's unusual to see this with a Windows product -- and it's Microsoft's first PC, to boot.

One seller, with a stack of at least 10 Pros, is asking $1,300 for the 128GB model. Other sellers are asking $1,399 and even $1,499. The regular … Read more

Bible Heroes Noah and the Ark offers child-friendly fun

The Bible goes mobile with Bible Heroes Noah and the Ark. This colorful app does the storytelling for you: a voice reads aloud a child-friendly version of Noah and the Ark. It includes a few other fun features, but you'll have to pay for better selection.

Bible Heroes Noah and the Ark opens with a colorful homepage featuring Noah front and center. There, you have three options: Read, Color, and Sing. A Menu button takes you to other apps in iTunes from the same publisher that feature Bible-centered characters. We first selected Read, and a woman's voice read … Read more

Apple getting 'defensive' with 128GB iPad, says analyst

With its new pricey fourth-generation iPad 4, Apple has one eye on Windows 8 hybrids, a Citibank analyst said today.

"At $799, this latest iPad [model is] priced above the average selling price of a laptop ($703), bringing the two squarely into the same wallet discussion," Glen Yeung of Citibank said in a research note.

Yeung continued: "Given what we estimate to be a 3-quarter slide in 10" iPad unit sales, we can't help but detect a defensive element to Apple's latest iPad [model]."

That defensiveness is rooted in "trying to head … Read more

Microsoft pushes Office subscriptions

Tuesday's CNET Update doesn't need another yearly fee:

Microsoft Office 2013 comes in several flavors, so today's show breaks down what you need to know about upgrading. A single copy of Office 2013 with the basic programs costs $140. But Microsoft is pushing a new yearly subscription version called Office 365. The $100 yearly fee brings regular updates, as well as bonus cloud storage space and free calling time on Skype. The fee also gives customers the option to download Office on five computers.

Also in the news:

- Apple announced it will offer a 128GB iPad on February 5, … Read more

The 404 1,197: Where we are who we said we were (podcast)

Jeff hasn't finished complaining about last year's Retina Display iPad yet and Apple went ahead and announced a new 128-gigabyte model for $799. But wait, haven't we been getting beaten in the head with Apple's cloudcentric messaging for the last two years? Why the push for local storage all of a sudden?

In pop culture news, we'll spend some of the first half talking about mistaken identities through the Internet and the "Catfish" show on MTV that just wrapped up its first season.

Some critics accused the episodes of being staged (like the film it was based on), but a casting application for Season 2 at least proves that the stories are staged at most, not entirely made up.… Read more

Apple's 128GB iPad: Here's how much the bump really costs

Apple's long been at the top of the heap when it comes to making money on one key aspect of its portable devices: storage.

That trend continued with this morning's announcement of a 128GB model of the iPad, a device that costs just a steak dinner short of a full-blown Mac notebook.

The new models ring in at $799 for the Wi-Fi only, or $929 for the version with 4G LTE connectivity. That's $100 more than the 64GB model, which is $100 more than the 32GB model, which is -- you guessed it -- $100 more than … Read more

Microsoft Surface Pro software devours disk space

Microsoft's Surface RT tablet was knocked for the dearth of storage on the low-end version. Surface Pro isn't faring much better.

The 64GB version of the upcoming Surface Pro -- due for release February 9 -- will offer only 23GB of available storage space for user files, according to a statement CNET received from Microsoft.

"The 128GB version of Surface Pro has 83GB of free storage out of the box. The 64GB version of Surface Pro has 23GB of free storage out of the box," a Microsoft representative said in a statement.

(Note that a report … Read more