A headphone amp and USB digital-to-analog converter for just $99 each

The Schiit Magni and Modi (left) and Schiit Asgard (right).(Credit:Steve Guttenberg/CNET)Schiit Audio's very first product, the Asgard headphone amplifier, left me shaken and stirred back in 2010. It sold for $249, looked and sounded amazing, and to top things off, it was made in the U.S. -- not just assembled here. Most of the Asgard's parts are sourced from U.S. companies. The Asgard is still in...

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Source: Armstrong will admit doping to Oprah

AUSTIN, Texas Lance Armstrong will make a limited confession to doping during his televised interview with Oprah Winfrey next week, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.Play VideoAnti-doping chief: Armstrong bullied witnesses 38 PhotosLance ArmstrongArmstrong, who has long denied doping, will also offer an apology during the interview scheduled to be taped Monday at his home in Austin,...

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right."He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan said. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business...

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Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

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100 youth leaders engage in national conversation dialogue

SINGAPORE: Some 100 youth leaders and members from nine youth uniformed organisations engaged in an Our Singapore Conversation dialogue on Saturday morning. The event is part of the Inaugural Young Leaders' Forum organised by the Singapore Scout Association.Education Minister Heng Swee Keat was also present to listen in and have an open dialogue with the participants.Some of the topics...

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Math wins the Mobile App Showdown at CES 2013

The team at Vision Objects were proud of the victory for MyScript Calculator.(Credit:Photo by Jason Parker/CNET)LAS VEGAS--Every year at CES, the Mobile Apps Showdown pits dozens of downloads against one another to see which mobile app emerges as the best. This year's event was the biggest yet, and based on the excitement we saw at the event, we think it will only continue to grow.Here's how it works:...

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Judge delays James Holmes arraignment to March

Last Updated 12:11 p.m. ET CENTENNIAL, Colo. A judge on Friday delayed the arraignment of the man charged with the Colorado theater shooting until March.District Judge William Sylvester ruled Thursday night that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to proceed with charges alleging that James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a suburban Denver movie theater on July 20.Play...

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Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School."I...

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Syria rebels seize base as envoy holds talks

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Rebels seized control of one of Syria's largest helicopter bases on Friday, opposition sources said, in their first capture of a military airfield used by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Fighting raged across the country as international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi sought a political solution to Syria's civil war, meeting senior U.S. and Russian officials in...

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US trade deficit widens sharply in November

WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit widened sharply in November, posting its highest level in seven months amid a jump in consumer-goods imports, according to Department of Commerce data released on Friday.The US trade deficit expanded to $48.7 billion, up from a revised $42.1 billion in October. November US exports were $1.7 billion more than October exports, while November imports were...

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Cook says iPad Mini with cellular to hit China by end of month

Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised Chinese customers an iPad Mini with cellular by the end of the month.Speaking to news outlet Tencent (translation), Cook said the iPad Mini with cellular functionality will be coming to China "in late January." He declined to provide an exact release day.The iPad Mini with Wi-Fi launched in China on December 7. Since then, the device has proven extremely successful,...

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Locals: Trapped whales freed with sea ice shift

Updated at 11:01 a.m. ET MONTREAL About a dozen killer whales that were trapped under sea ice appeared to be free after the ice shifted, a leader of a northern Canada village said Thursday. The animals' predicament in the frigid waters of Hudson Bay made international headlines, and locals had been planning a rescue operation with chainsaws and drills. 5 PhotosKiller whales trapped in Quebec ice...

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Whales Trapped Under Sea Ice Free Themselves

The killer whales trapped under ice in a remote Quebec village reached safety after the floes shifted on Hudson Bay, according to the mayor's office in Inukjuak.Water opened up around the area where the orcas had been coming up for air and the winds seemed to have shifted overnight, creating a passageway to the open water six miles away."This is great news," Johnny Williams,...

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NATO official says more missiles launched in Syria

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A short-range ballistic missile was fired inside Syria on Wednesday, following similar launches last week, a NATO official said on Thursday. The official condemned as "reckless" the missile launches, which U.S. officials called an escalation of the 21-month-old Syrian civil war when their use was first spotted last month. "The use of such indiscriminate...

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US jobless claims rise by 4,000

  WASHINGTON: US jobless claims increased by 4,000 last week, according to government data released on Thursday.Seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending January 5 rose to 371,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 367,000.The current number of jobless claims is above the 364,000 estimated by analysts.Claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs,...

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Google removes Maps redirect for Windows Phone

As it said it would, Google has removed a redirect that prevented Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps via the mobile version of Internet Explorer and that instead sent them to Google.com.The redirect generated headlines last week, with various news outlets suggesting that it was not about poor functionality on the part of mobile IE (as Google maintained) but was more about competitive...

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Super Bowls ads selling for more than $4 million

NEW YORK Super Bowl ads have sold for more than $4 million for some 30-second spots for this year's game. All the commercials for the NFL championship Feb. 3 in New Orleans are sold out, CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday. Companies paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot last year, the previous record for a number that keeps going up. TV's biggest event averaged more than...

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Hospitals Flooded With Flu Patients

U.S. emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with flu patients, turning away some of them and others with non-life-threatening conditions for lack of space.Forty-one states are battling widespread influenza outbreaks, including Illinois, where six people -- all older than 50 -- have died, according to the state's Department of Public Health.At least 18 children in the country...

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Historic old Jeddah awaits life-saving restoration

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - In the heart of Saudi Arabia's sprawling Red Sea port city of Jeddah, centuries-old buildings tilt and buckle above the historic district's narrow alleys, withering away in the absence of decisive action to protect them. The seventh-century historic district, with its mud and coral town houses adorned with ornate wooden balconies, holds the only remnants...

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Questions raised over Japan PM's economic reforms

SINGAPORE: Signs of aggressive economic reforms in Japan under newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have given the Nikkei a lift.Some are even calling it the most exciting piece of news to come out of Japan since the Walkman.But economists warn against being overly bullish. Mr Abe came into power on a campaign promising among other things to make Japanese people proud of themselves...

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Target online price match unlikely to curb 'showrooming'

Target said today that it would match online pricing in all of its stores year-round -- a move deployed by many retailers this holiday season -- in a bid to stop Amazon's "showrooming" effect.In a statement, Target said it will match pricing from Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com (including Babiesrus.com). In a nutshell, Target will match prices on items found cheaper elsewhere...

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Concordia capt. "painted worse than bin Laden"

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Costa Concordia disaster, in which 32 people were killed when the cruise ship ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio, the captain of the ship told an Italian newspaper that he "was painted worse than bin Laden." 82 PhotosLuxury cruise ship runs agroundFrancesco Schettino said in an interview with the Turin newspaper La Stampa that he is tormented by...

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Jodi Arias: Who Is the Admitted Killer?

Jodi Arias is a woman that many can't keep their eyes off of--a soft-spoken, small-framed 32-year-old who last year won a jailhouse Christmas caroling contest. But she is also an admitted killer who is now on trial in Arizona for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander.Sitting in a Maricopa County court, Arias, whose trial resumes today, cries every time prosecutors...

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Tunisia frees man held over attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an Islamist militant attack in Libya last year in which the U.S. ambassador was killed, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens,...

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Spain fast rail line speeds up Europe links

BARCELONA: Spain launched a new high-speed rail line from Barcelona on Tuesday that officials said will speed up passenger connections to France and boost the economy.Spain's Crown Prince Felipe, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the president of the Catalonia region Artur Mas rode in the inaugural trip on the new line linking Barcelona with Girona and Figueres near the French border.The...

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Lowe's corrals home management under Iris

Lowe's Iris Smart Kit(Credit:Lowe's)LAS VEGAS--Lowe's might not be the first name that comes to mind when you're thinking about cutting-edge home tech, but the company has quietly moved into the field with a series of simple, do-it-yourself kits called Iris.Pulling together technology from an huge range of vendors, including Verizon, Sylvania, Schlage, First Alert, GE Jasco, and Radio Thermostat of...

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Schools across U.S. bolstering police presence

LOS ANGELES Students returning to school in Los Angeles following winter break will find an increased police presence, following last month's mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut in which 26 people, including 20 young children, were killed. CBS Station KCBS reports that The LAPD, the sheriff's department and other law enforcement agencies will add random daily patrols to more than...

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Hagel Nomination Stirs Bipartisan Opposition

Two weeks before his inauguration, and with more "fiscal cliffs" on the horizon, President Obama is embracing a showdown with Congress over his pick to lead the Pentagon in his second term.Obama will nominate former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense at a formal White House announcement later today, administration officials said.The president will...

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Five accused of rape in India appear in court for charges

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of the rape and murder of an Indian student appeared in court on Monday to hear charges against them after two of them offered evidence possibly in return for a lighter sentence in the case that has provoked widespread anger. The five men, along with a teenager, are accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student after she boarded their bus...

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Asia's biggest toy fair sees high-tech gadgets

SINGAPORE: Hong Kong is starting the year with a bit of fun as it hosts Asia's biggest toy fair. The four-day exhibition also signals new trends in the industry as traditional toys seemed to have taken on a high-tech edge. All the latest toys on display are from more than 1,900 exhibitors from around the world at the Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair.And, the annual event attracts tens of...

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