AT&T announced that in May it will begin selling a replacement phone charger it claims will be more efficient than other cell-phone chargers sold today. Called the Zero, the charger automatically detects when a phone is not plugged into it, and cuts off the power supply from the wall socket to save energy—something few electronics chargers do.

Besides saving on energy consumption, the Zero charger features a "block and cable" connector that will fit many future phones from the carrier, which AT&T says will eventually lower landfill waste. Also green will be its packaging, which will be smaller and made entirely from recycled paper. No price has been announced, though AT&T says it will cost the same as existing replacement chargers.

—Mike Gikas

CBS Sports NCAA March Madness
on Demand app

Just in time for the first round of the NCAA March Madness tournament, here's a list of iPhone apps—some free, some paid—to help you keep track of scores, stats, your bracket, and your teams' standings while on the go. All are available, with detailed descriptions, at the iTunes store.

1. The official CBS app—CBS Sports NCAA March Madness on Demand—is the priciest of the bunch at $9.99, but shelling out will buy you live, streaming video of each game on your phone, tournament news coverage, scores, team stats, and the ability to access to your bracket manager at CBSSports.com. CBS also offers a free "lite" app that has many of the same features as the for-pay version, excluding the streaming game coverage.

2. Bracket Madness 2010
($0.99) provides you with team stats to help you fill in your bracket,
then lets you email a copy of it to friends in a handy JPEG form.  The
app doesn't have real-time scores, but it updates several time per day.

3. PocketBracket ($0.99), an "Apple Staff Favorite" in 2009, lets you create brackets and share them with friends over Facebook or Twitter. It also lets you create and join pools, and automatically scores and ranks your bracket on its network as teams win and lose. A version is also available for Android phones.

4. If you're still creating your bracket and are good with numbers, Hooplytics ($1.99) is the statistical-guru friend everyone wishes they had this time of year.  Using statistics from 5000 player profiles, the app runs simulation games between teams to help determine winners and losers.

5. Keeping things simple, College Basketball Bracket Challenge
($0.99) is a no-frills app that lets you create a bracket, track its
progress, and invite friends to compete. Fans might also find simple
apps for their favorite team by entering the school's name into the iTunes
search bar.

6. For those participating in ESPN's Tournament Challenge (First prize: $10,000), it's accompanying free app lets you track your bracket's performance and watch live game updates with ESPN Mobile Gamecast.

7. Last, college hoops know-it-alls can test their mettle with the free Unofficial March Madness Trivia app. (Try this on for size: In 1985, Villanova became the worst seed ever to win the NCAA Championship. What was their seeding—6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th?)

Sorry, Android users. March Madness apps for your phones have proved disappointingly elusive, even as the number of such phones sold continues to grow. If you have an Android phone, have you found a good NCAA application that you like?

—Nick K. Mandle

Today's electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist:

• Lenovo: Lenovo S10-3t (Touchscreen) Intel Atom N450 PineTrail 10.1in Netbook (1GB/160GB/Win7) $466.65
• Buy.com: Plantronics Voyager 520 Bluetooth Wireless Headset (REFURB) $28.99 Free Shipping
• Lenovo:  Lenovo B500 23-inch All-in-one + TV Tuner + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse $679 + free shipping
• Lenovo: Lenovo IdeaPad S12 12-inch Netbook (White) $329 + free shipping
• JR.com : Brother Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One for $99 w/ Free Shipping
• Newegg : Samsung 1.5TB SATA Hard Drive for $89.99 w/ Coupon EMCYPZT35 w/ Free Shipping
• Dell : Dell 20" LCD HD Monitor for $109 w/ Free Shipping

• Newegg: SiliconDust HDHomerun Networked Dual Digital HDTV Tuner $124.99 Free Shipping
• Amazon: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Collector's Set on DVD (40 discs) $105.49 + free shipping
• Amazon: Rob Zombie's Halloween (2-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition, Blu-ray) $8.99

Related: TV
Ratings and buying
tips; Computer
Ratings and buying
tips; DVD
& Blu-ray player Ratings and buying
tips Video
game console buying tips
video: "Choosing a video game system"; Printer Ratings and buying tips; Wireless headset Ratings and buying tips.

Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive anything in
exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely
informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or
products becoming unavailable as the day progresses.

These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or
the Web sites that sell them—though some of the sites may be included,
and recommended, in our Ratings of retailers for computers and other major electronics (both available to subscribers). Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies for restocking fees and other gotchas.

For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides.

Our TV experts are continuing to test the 3D TVs we’ve been telling you about for the past week. Though we haven’t completed our in-depth tests yet, we’re seeing some performance differences between the models. All three sets—Samsung’s 46-inch 7000- and 8000-series LCD TVs, and Panasonic’s 50-inch VT-20 series plasma—produced compelling, realistic three-dimensional images, but they didn’t look identical.

Step into our video lab to learn more. See for yourself how the TVs differed, and which looked best. We’ll keep you posted as we complete our tests and have even more detail to share.

Combing through hundreds of blog posts and news articles daily, Dirk Klingner, our technology-trend watcher, sifts through the noise to bring you the tech news most important to consumers. If you have a tip on a story you want to share, leave a comment below.

Facebook Kicks Off Implementation Of QR Codes (TechCrunch)

… Facebook appears to have started enabling users to generate custom two-dimensional QR codes. From the looks of the screenshot embedded above, there are two types of QR codes: a personal barcode or a “status QR barcode”. This also seems to appear on Facebook Fan Pages.

Intel Intros 40-GB SSD For $125 (ChannelWeb)

Intel signaled its intent to lead the entry-level SSD market with the introduction of a 40-GB SSD with a price of only $125. Intel on Monday unveiled its X25-V Value SATA solid state drive (SSD), a new line aimed at the netbook, notebook, and desktop PC market.

The cappuccino car that runs on coffee… so will you have to use the filter lane? (MailOnline)

A car that runs on coffee is unveiled today - but it certainly won't take the grind out of commuting. And at between 25 and 50 times the cost of running a car on petrol, the invention won't please any motor industry bean-counters either.

PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers (TechCrunch)

PayPal has just launched an upgraded iPhone application that adds new features and includes a facelift that’s meant to help instill a greater sense of security. And it also brings with it big news for Bump Technologies, the startup that lets you exchange information simply by tapping smartphones together: Bump is now prominently featured in the PayPal iPhone application as a quick way to initiate transactions.

Lighter side: Pomplamoose cover Lady Gaga's "Telephone" in a VideoSong (PomplamooseMusic)