IBM's Watson: Now for 'Top Chef'?

Watson in his "Jeopardy" days.(Credit:IBM/YouTube; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Great chefs are crazy.There are many kinds of crazy. Some of these culinarians rant, rave, and spit fire and brimstone. Some pore over their ingredients like scientists: quiet, brooding, and deeply serious.All believe they can create their own particular gastronomic dreams, ones nobody else can copy. Especially...

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Scientists link rats to real-world 'Matrix' via the Internet

These guys are, like, totally on the same wavelength.(Credit:Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)There is officially a Wachowski Brothers-style "Matrix" for rodents. Scientists in North Carolina and Brazil have connected the brains of two rats using "brain-to-brain interfaces" that can connect directly or via the Internet. These allow the rodents to share sensory information, collaborate on tasks to earn...

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Former Groupon CEO leaks outgoing memo: 'I was fired today'

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason (Credit:Dan Farber/CNET)Not waiting for a leak, newly ousted Groupon CEO Andrew Mason made his departing memo public this afternoon.In it, Mason claims responsibility for missing expectations and the company's stock price, and says that a "fresh CEO" earns the company a chance at a second chance. Mason also shows a geeky, youthful spirit, making the comparison of running the...

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Apple gives more of Europe iTunes in the cloud features

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs announces iTunes in the Cloud at WWDC 2011.(Credit:Donald Bell/CNET)Nearly a dozen European countries now have access to a key iTunes feature that lets users re-download purchased video content.iTunes users in 11 countries, including France, Sweden and Belgium, can now view and re-download movies they bought from Apple. Previously, users in those countries would have...

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Sony needs help naming its pink balls

The Sony SRS-BTV5 portable speaker features Bluetooth, NFC, and 5-hour battery life.(Credit:Sony)It's not every day the president of Sony writes a blog post headlined "Help Sony's President Name His Pink Audio Balls." What balls are we talking about? Today, Sony U.S. President Phil Molyneux took to the company's official blog and asked the Internet to leave a comment with a new name for the anemic-sounding...

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Myo gesture-control armband uses muscle power

The Myo armband uses your muscles for gesture control.(Credit:Thalmic Labs)From "Minority Report" to the Kinect, we've been on a tech quest for touchless gesture control that frees us from the shackles of mice and old-style controllers. We want to get in on the action and use movement to command our digital devices. Myo from Thalmic Labs takes that gesture-control desire and builds it into an armband...

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YouTube code refers to paid channel subscriptions

Paid channel subscriptions on YouTube may be closer than previously thought.After reports last month that YouTube was considering offering channels that would require a fee to access, code has now appeared that suggests Google is already laying the software foundation for subscription channels.According to Android Police, the latest version of YouTube for Android includes two lines of code that refer...

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Google laptop shows Apple a thing or two

The 3.3-pound Google Chromebook Pixel sports a 12.85-inch, 2,560x1,700-pixel display and an Intel Core i5 processor. (Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)Thank you, Google. For obsoleting my MacBook. Question: What two killer hardware features are missing on MacBooks? My answer: a touch screen and 4G. What a coincidence. Just what Google is offering on the Chromebook Pixel. And in a package that comes close...

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Google to open registration for Google I/O March 13

Google co-founder showed off Google Glass at the 2012 Google I/O conference.(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)Google fans will be happy to know that registration for the 2013 Google I/O conference will open Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 7:00 AM PDT (GMT-7).In December, Google announced that it had moved up its annual developer conference a month. The confab that assemblies more than 5,000 developers...

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How to manage OS X boot options with wireless keyboards

Apple offers several alternative boot environments for OS X that can help you troubleshoot problems you might be experiencing, which can be invoked by holding various key combinations at startup. Of these, Safe Mode is perhaps the most common; it offers a limited boot environment and can be started by holding the Shift key. In addition there is Single User mode (Command-S) for a command-line interface,...

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FCC takes first step toward allocating more Wi-Fi spectrum

FCC Commissioners L to R: Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Robert M. McDowell, Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Ajit Pai.(Credit:FCC)The Federal Communications Commission took the first steps today toward freeing up more wireless spectrum to boost Wi-Fi data speeds and ease congestion on Wi-Fi networks in hotels, airports, and homes.During its...

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PlayStation 4 should go all-in on cloud-streaming games

Based on the steady stream of rumors about Sony's upcoming next-gen living room console, it's widely expected that gamers will be spending at least part of their time playing games streamed directly over the Internet. According to the Wall Street Journal and others, Sony's acquisition of streaming game provider Gaikai in 2012 set the stage for streaming game content, and the new Sony console, whatever...

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Asia chatter predicts increase in cost of Retina iPad Mini

Be careful what you wish for: a Retina iPad will add a lot of cost -- so a report claims.(Credit:Apple)Chatter in Asia has it that the total cost of the iPad Mini could increase by almost a third -- though no word on whether that would impact price. Commentary in Digitimes, which is close to the chain of component suppliers in Asia, said the jump to a Retina screen means adding costly display components....

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Why Google's stores shouldn't look so much like Apple stores

Is this really different enough?(Credit:Crave CNET UK)Some engineers have never dated a real person.They've tried to, but it's hard for them to appreciate that real people don't necessarily use data to make decisions -- especially when it comes to love.Perhaps their most embarrassing moments come when they try to mimic what non-engineers do in order to make themselves more attractive.This mirrors...

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PlayStation 4 to stream games in real time over Net, says report

At the end of January, Sony announced a PlayStation event but gave few details. We'll get the 411 this coming Wednesday in New York.Sony's acquisition last year of cloud-gaming company Gaikai may be reflected in a big way in the upcoming PlayStation 4.The Wall Street Journal is citing inside sources in reporting that Sony's new gaming console, expected to debut Wednesday at an event in Manhattan,...

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Report: Google to open U.S. retail stores later this year

Google Chrome Zone section of PC World on London's Tottenham Court Road.(Credit:CNET Crave U.K.)Google plans to open its own retail stores across the United States, according to a new report, giving the increasingly hardware-focused company a place to show off its growing number of physical products.Citing "an extremely reliable source," 9to5Google says the company "hopes to have the first flagship...

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FDA approves bionic eye for adults with rare genetic disease

The system includes an eyeglass-mounted camera and a tiny antenna and electrode array surgically implanted onto the retina.(Credit:Second Sight Medical)For most of us, light-sensitive cells that line our retinas convert light rays into electrical impulses that travel through the optic nerve to the brain to be assembled into images. But for an estimated 1 in 4,000 people in the U.S. with a genetic...

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Intel's TV service will be on mobile devices too, exec says

Intel wants to make a TV offering with more capabilities than even the Google TV pictured here.(Credit:Google) Intel wants to revolutionize the TV industry, and that change won't come just through the chip giant's planned set-top box. Erik Huggers, general manager of Intel Media, told CNET that Intel's new Internet-based TV service also will be available on mobile devices, but he cautioned that it...

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Charge your smartphone, become a cyberspy

Don't charge it where you keep your secrets, OK?(Credit:U.S. Army)There's just never enough battery life on your smartphone, is there?You need it for so many things, like informing yourself, informing others and informing some mythical creature that you're about to kill it.This might be especially true if, say, you happen to be in a U.S. Army garrison in South Korea.Everyone in South Korea is on smartphones...

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Did Google Earth error send murderer to wrong address?

Dennis and Merna Koula.(Credit:CBS News.com Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Sometimes, even after a murder conviction, some see reasonable doubt that the conviction was a righteous one.Such is the case in the murder of Dennis and Merna Koula in La Cross, Wisc, a quiet community.Their son Eric was found guilty and is currently serving two consecutive life-sentences for the murder of the wealthy...

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