The 50 best tech products of 2013

 

Tested and approved

PCWorld - What a year 2013 turned out to be. We saw all-new PC form factors, interesting innovations in mobile hardware, and an explosion of gadgets in the home tech and entertainment spaces. And after testing, beating on, and writing about hundreds of products, the editors at PCWorld and TechHive have carefully compiled a list of our 50 favorites.

Notebooks, tablets, and other mobile devices feature prominently in this year’s list, along with a fair number of peripherals and gadgets designed to make you more productive.

But since all work and no play would render us all dull, we’ve also included a handful of tech toys, entertainment devices, and games as well. Read through the list and see which of your favorites made the cut.

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The 11 Best Astronomy Apps For Amateur Star Gazers

Business Insider - It can be very difficult to identify planets, stars, and clusters at home from your backyard, especially if you are a beginner.

But hey, there's an app for that, of course. Astronomy apps are making it possible for anyone to be astronomer — you don't even need a telescope.

The apps use the GPS and compass in your phone to pinpoint your location and show you where all the surrounding celestial bodies are, even if your view is blocked. Most of the apps don't even need an Internet connection to function so you can take them on camping trips.
Just open the app, point your smartphone at the sky, and the app will identify the planets and stars around you.

We've browsed through some of the top-rated astronomy apps and put together a list of the ones that look the most awesome. Whether you are an aspiring astronomer or just a casual backyard stargazer, these 11 apps can help you locate planets, stars, and galaxies — no telescope required.

SkySafari shows you a map of the sky one million years into the past or future.

 

Mac App Store

App: SkySafari (Buy it for iOS here or Android here)
Price: $4.99

SkySafari can display a map of the sky from any location and shows how positions of celestial bodies change up to one million years into the past or future. It uses images collected from NASA spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope to show you the major planets and moons in the solar system. The app also gets you a subscription to SkyWeek: a magazine that tells you about upcoming eclipses and meteor showers.
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Starmap provides a list of suggested celestial bodies to observe each night.

 

App Store

App: Starmap (Buy it for iOS here)
Price: $4.99

Starmap has about 350,000 stars, 150 galaxies and clusters, and 50 asteroids and dwarf planets. The app gives you the "night's best selection" so you know what you should be looking for on any given night and it identifies shooting star zones. This app is also a point and locate that uses the iPhone's compass to identify the planets and stars right in front of you. You can zoom in on a particular object and the app has a night vision mode — the backlight on your phone dims and the images on the screen glow red so your night vision isn't ruined.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-best-astronomy-apps-for-amateurs-2013-10?op=1#ixzz2iD36UrZw

Biggest, brightest, and best HDTVs at CES 2013

PCWorld -

HDTVs take center stage at CES 2013

The stars this year at CES 2013 are big, beautiful HDTVs. All the big names have gotten into the mix, displaying updates to their current lines as well as showing drool-worthy prototypes featuring hot technology not yet released to consumers.

The sets range from B&O Play’s sexy looking—and sounding—BeoVision 11 HDTV, to numerous 4K Ultra-HD offerings that feature four times the pixels of standard HD sets. Here are some of our favorites from the show.

New Sony 4K Bravia HDTVs

Sony has been all about 4K at this year’s CES, promoting a number of new ultra-high resolution HDTVs. While Sony’s current OLED 4K offering, a massive 84-inch beast, will run you around $25,000, the newly announced 65-inch 4K Bravia XBR-65X900A and 55-inch Bravia XBR-55X900A should offer (slightly) lower price tags.

But what good is a 4K TV if you can’t get 4K content for it? Sony seems to have caught on to this sentiment, teasing a 4K World UltraHD video-distribution service that promises to give viewers access to 4K content from Sony Pictures and other studios.

B&O Play - BeoVision 11

Products from B&O Play are known for being attractive and great sounding—as well as expensive—and the new BeoVision 11 HDTV does not stray from that mold.

The BeoVision 11’s 240Hz LED-based LCD screen can handle both 2D and 3D content. A nifty 360-degree Automatic Picture Control feature detects ambient light in the room to adjust the TV’s brightness and contrast.

Media streamers can delight too, as the BeoVision 11 supports DLNA media streaming and the new Send to TV feature from YouTube. There’s even a dedicated cupboard behind the set for storing an Apple TV box. To top it all off, you’ll be able to enjoy all that content on dual 3-way speakers, powered by six amplifiers.

The BeoVision 11 is available now in 40, 46, and 55-inch sizes.

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The Best Inexpensive Point-and-Shoot Camera with Wi-Fi

Smartphone cameras have gotten so good—and sharing photos from them has gotten so easy—that in most situations, a simple point-and-shoot camera seems like an unnecessary inconvenience.

Gizmodo - But point-and-shoot manufacturers, eager to keep their products relevant, have begun equipping the cameras with built-in Wi-Fi transmitters. These combine a legitimate camera’s lens and sensor with a phone-like ability to quickly share photos without a cumbersome cord. Even with the new feature, a solid camera can come in under $300. Wi-Fi point-and-shoots to the rescue! Right?

For this test, we chose the Canon Elph 320 HS ($280) and the Samsung WB150f ($230). We wanted to know how these cameras stacked up against each other, and also how the features measured up in common tasks—like posting a photo to Facebook—when compared against most folks’ default tool for the job, the iPhone 4.               More