reviews

By now, many prospective college students have received responses from all the colleges to which they've applied. But now comes the hard part: deciding where to go.

Luckily, there are some sites that help them in that endeavor and provide them with valid insight before they make their final decisions. Even better, these sites can also help those who haven't applied yet and are starting their initial research.

For the high school junior who is considering applying to different colleges or the high school senior who needs to make a decision, these sites are outstanding resources.

BeRecruited: BeRecruited is designed specifically for the high school athlete. Instead of waiting for a team to find the student, BeRecruited gives them an opportunity to find colleges across the United States that have the kind of athletic program for which they're looking. They can then upload information about themselves and their high school athletic performance to attract the attention of team recruiters.

CampusExplorer: CampusExplorer allows students to search more than 6,000 colleges in the United States to find which campus is right for them. They can search by area, curriculum, or type of school. The site provides information on the size of the school, what it offers to students, and the attendance cost. It even has advice on getting into the school from students who have asked questions about the college on Yahoo Answers.

Cappex: Cappex requires students to sign up and create a personal profile that includes grades, extracurricular activities, and SAT/ACT scores. Once that profile is completed, they can search for colleges, learn about the schools in which they're interested, and use a handy tool called "What are my chances?" to help them determine if they really have a chance at being admitted to a particular school.

CollegeAnswer: Owned by college financial-aid company SallieMae, CollegeAnswer provides students with information about all facets of college admittance. From basic research on schools to information on paying for a college education, the site has it all. It provides in-depth information about colleges, including their demographics and attendance costs. But where it really shines is in its information about college life in general. It's an outstanding resource for prospective and current students.… Read more

Take a break from contemplating whether you're "cool enough" to own a Mac and check out some of the more newsworthy gadget stories that graced Crave this week.

• Samsung's e-book reader nears its launch. Rumor has it for less than $300.

• If an Xbox controller and a Wii-mote mated, the offspring would probably look like this.

• The ultimate DIY arcade goes horribly, horribly wrong.

• David Carnoy makes a valid argument about why the PS3 needs Netflix streaming pronto.

• Your contract is finally up. Do you get an iPhone or wait until Palm finally releases the Pre? … Read more

These days, everyone's a gamer. If not a traditionalist firing away at bad guys through a high-end video game console and large TV, he or she might just be in an ongoing Scrabble duel with a Facebook friend or hooked on an addictive iPhone game like ReMovem.

Nowhere was this notion of the mainstreaming of gaming more pronounced than at this week's Game Developers Conference, the massive gathering of which some consider all the more critical to the industry this year, given market forces. Sure, the video game industry is growing and some say it's even recession-resistant, … Read more

At CES this year, Vizio caused a stir by announcing the VF551XVT, a 55-inch HDTV with local dimming LED backlighting and 240Hz processing for the rock-bottom price of $1,999. The company's CES announcement makes the current VF550XVT a lot less desirable. One digit in a model number means a lot--the current model has neither of those features, although it still costs about $1,999 in stores.

The VF550XVT is among the least expensive 55-inch LCDs on the market, but it has a tough row to hoe at this point in its life span. First off, attentive readers will … Read more

There was a lot packed into the news this past week: two high-profile gadget news events, the beginning of the NCAA basketball tournament, another newspaper getting axed, and the dawning of spring. Here are some other noteworthy stuff that happened on Crave.

• "Star Trek"-themed cologne. How has no one thought of this before?

• It looks like Logitech is going to make a whole lot of PS3 owners verrrry happy by adding Bluetooth support directly into upcoming Harmony remotes.

• Accusations flew regarding Best Buy's price-matching policy.

• Cisco laid out some serious cash for the maker of Flip … Read more

Apple's new Time Capsule is basically the new true dual-band Airport Extreme Base Station with a hard drive permanently attached to it.

Coming in a great design, the new Time Capsule's good looks can't make up for its lackluster set of features, unfortunately.

A lot of networking functions, such as Web filtering, DDNS, and Wi-Fi-protected setup, commonly found on many other routers, are missing. With the Time Capsule, you won't have very good control of which band--2.4GHz or 5GHz--you want the router to work in, either.

Its wireless performance was also a mixed bag. In … Read more

All eyes were on Apple at the beginning of the week, due to the company's much-anticipated launch of iPhone 3.0, its third-generation operating software for the popular smartphone. And the company delivered, with improvements like a cut-and-paste feature and improved search capabilities.

Microsoft, meanwhile, mixed things up midweek at its so-named Mix confab for Web designers by launching Internet Explorer 8 and talking up the next version of its Flash rival, Silverlight. Talk of IBM possibly acquiring Sun Microsystems also made for some big headlines.

Improving iPhone Apple on Tuesday unveiled the next version of its iPhone operating … Read more

We've called the 2.0 megapixel camera in the iPhone mediocre and it still is. However, the software applications supporting photography on the iPhone continue to amaze.

ColorSplash by Hendrick Kueck (iTunes Link) is an app that allows you to make some very dramatic changes to your photos for its $1.99 price tag. The software uses a process called desaturation to convert your photos to black and white while letting you leave behind color in select details. The results are stunning.

ColorSplash includes a nice, built-in tutorial to get you going quickly--spend a few moments with it and … Read more

As you may have noticed, I've recently changed the way I do reviews of HDTVs at CNET. I call the change "series reviews," and I'm curious to know what you think. But first I'll tell you why I did it.

Individual HDTVs are typically members of a series, where the only difference on the specification sheet between various models in a manufacturer's lineup is screen size. A great example is the Panasonic TC-PS1 series, which includes six screen sizes at various price points, from 42 to 65 inches. In my review of the TC-PS1 series, I only performed a hands-on evaluation of the 42-inch model. But I also posted the review to the 46-inch and the 50-inch model, making sure to explain that I didn't actually perform hands-on evaluations of them.

Previously, we would review one screen size in a series and post a simple note (example), not a review, on the other screen sizes, basically saying that you could expect similar picture quality from all screen sizes in the series.

Why the change?… Read more