California is not known as a carmaking state, but every carmaker is here. And few have been in Silicon Valley longer than Volkswagen Group with its Electronics Research Lab. There they try to crack the code on loading
cars up with social media, connected navigation, portable integration, and more without distracting you to death.

I spent a day with wide-ranging access to the VW lab, in conversation with its director, Peter Oel. I came away with the impression that VW, like the rest of the industry, feels the tech cat is out of the bag and we aren't going back to a day when our cars are digital ghettos. That's also because carmakers know that high-touch technology is a key way they'll clobber their competitors, but they also keep their eye on the rear view as the government makes more and more noises that sound like distraction regulation.

It's important to note that the VW parent company doesn't keep its brands on equal tech footing. Our most recent review of a VW was the 2012 Volkswagen CC, which could use a swift kick in the pants when it comes to tech. The company's pricey Porsche models do much better but it's the Audi products that steal the show like this 2012 A6 we gave an Editor's Choice to.

By almost any standard, Mark Zuckerberg has had a week to remember. Yesterday, he started his day off by ringing the Nasdaq bell and taking his social-networking company public, raising $16 billion in the process. Earlier in the week, his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan graduated from medical school. And today, just for good measure, the two shocked a bunch of friends and family with a surprise wedding in the Facebook CEO's backyard.

A look at Zuckerberg's Facebook page reveals that he is now "Married to Priscilla Chan." That was not the case yesterday, the day that the company went public in a spectacularly hyped IPO that may have ended up a bit of a dud.

"Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home, capping a busy week for the couple," a guest authorized to speak for the couple told the Associated Press. "The person spoke only on the condition of anonymity."

The AP reported that the guests had been under the impression they had been called together to celebrate Chan's graduation. After they arrived, they found out that the event was, in fact, a wedding ceremony.

"Everybody was shocked," the guest told the Associated Press.

I've written about the Audeze LCD-2 headphones in this blog before, but now I'm going to cover the LCD-3 model, Audeze's best headphones. At first glance the two don't look all that different, but the LCD-3s sport real zebrawood earcups and have thicker and softer real lambskin leather cushions to coddle your ears. This is a fairly heavy (550-gram) set of headphones, but they're comfortable to wear for hours at a time. Details of why the LCD-2s and LCD-3s sound different aren't forthcoming from Audeze, other than the drivers, which use similar technology, are different. I can't say the two sound hugely different, but the LCD-3s are definitely more transparent and clear. Are they worth double the price? No, the LCD-2 model remains in the line and gets you 80 percent of the LCD-3's sound, but if you want the very best, get the LCD-3s.

Rather than use standard headphone drivers that operate like miniature woofers or tweeters, the LCD-3s, like the LCD-2s, use a large, 6.17-square-inch thin-film planar magnetic driver to make sound. The Audeze circular flat diaphragm is sandwiched between rows of neodymium bar magnets. When audio signals pass through the diaphragm it moves in and out to produce sound, but thanks to its large size and superlow mass the planar magnetic drivers generate significantly lower distortion than conventional headphone designs. The LCD-3's headphone cable is detachable, via locking connectors, and is therefore user-replaceable.

During the course of the review I brought the LCD-3s to a recording session to use as monitors, and they blew my mind. As impressive as they were at home -- and they are exceptional -- it was great to have the opportunity to hear the sound of a blues band playing live in the studio, and then hear their music over the LCD-3s. I have never heard a set of headphones that got even remotely close to the sound of live music the way this one does. To put the LCD-3's sound in perspective, I borrowed the engineer's Sennheiser HD 650 headphones ($650), and it was really shocking how much better the LCD-3s were. The HD 650 is a great set of headphones, but it sounded small, thin, dynamically compressed, and its stereo imaging was relatively flat next to that of the LCD-3. Both headphones were played with the same Grace Design m901 headphone amplifier.

The engineers and musicians at the session all took turns checking out the LCD-3s, and they were all knocked out by the sound. They weren't audiophiles, but they all heard the difference great headphones can make.

Back at home I used Schiit Lyr and Hifiman EF6 (review in the works) headphone amps for the bulk of my listening tests. The LCD-3's dynamic punch is simply the best I've heard, bass definition and power are phenomenal, stereo imaging is remarkably open and spacious. No dynamic headphone at any price comes close to the LCD-3's sound. Some audiophiles think the Stax SR-009 ($5,250) is the best sounding headphone on the market; I don't agree. Yes, it's even more transparent and clear, but the SR-009 lacks the LCD-3's power, dynamics, natural midrange, and potent bass.

What's the ultimate headphone amplifier for the LCD-3? That honor goes to Ray Samuels' Dark Star balanced amp. I briefly had it at home, and its brute-force dynamic impact, out-of-head imaging, and transparency all improved the sound of the LCD-3s. I also love the design; the Dark Star is a drop-dead gorgeous, handmade amplifier.

The LCD 3 headphones are available directly from Audeze for $1,945, or from its worldwide dealers.

Howard Schmidt, who was named cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to President Obama in late 2009, is retiring from public service, The White House said today.

"It has been a tremendous honor for me to have served in this role and to have worked with such dedicated and professional colleagues both in the government and private sector," Schmidt said in a statement. "We have made real progress in our efforts to better deal with the risks in cyberspace so, around the world, we can all realize the full benefits that cyberspace brings us."

Schmidt filled a spot that has been tricky during presidential administrations, partly because of a turf war between the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency for control over the nation's cybersecurity efforts. He has served in security positions at eBay and Microsoft, and has also worked for the FBI's National Drug Intelligence Center and as a special agent for the Air Force, where he set up the government's first dedicated computer forensics lab.

This wasn't his first job working on cybersecurity for the U.S. government. He was appointed in December 2001 to President Bush's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and was a deputy to former White House cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke. Schmidt left his post in February 2003 to return to the private sector.

He will be succeeded by Michael Daniel, who worked for 17 years in the Office of Management and Budget's National Security Division and worked the past 10 years on cybersecurity as chief of the Intelligence Branch.

Schmidt plans to ride his Harley-Davidson motorcycle west at the end of May, spend more time with family, and look into teaching, according to The Washington Post.

"Howard brought his unmatched experience in business, defense, law enforcement, and privacy to his role as cybersecurity coordinator, and over the past three years his leadership has brought the interagency together to implement effectively the president's direction," said John Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counterterrorism. "The president and I are extremely grateful for Howard's tireless work in addressing one of the most serious national security challenges we face as a nation."

Schmidt's departure comes as lawmakers debate the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which opponents worry would allow government agencies to access American's personal information for cybersecurity and law enforcement purposes, as long as Internet and telecommunications companies agreed.

Verizon Wireless subscribers who have held onto their $30 a month unlimited data plans will soon be forced to upgrade to a new tiered offering the company plans to launch this summer, according to the website Fierce Wireless.

Speaking at the J.P Morgan Technology Media and Telecom conference, Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo told investors that the company's 3G unlimited data plans that customers were allowed to hang onto last year when Verizon switched to a tiered offering will soon go away entirely. Instead, the company will migrate its existing and new 4G LTE customers to a new "data-share plan."

The company has yet to announce the details of this new plan, but it has said previously that the data-share plan will be introduced in midsummer. The plan will allow people on the same family plan to share buckets of data each month, much like they share voice minutes and text messaging. It will also allow individuals to share data across different 4G LTE devices.

Verizon eliminated its unlimited data plan for smartphone users last July, about a year after AT&T had done the same thing. Like AT&T had done previously, Verizon told its existing unlimited data plan customers that they could keep their unlimited data plans even after their contracts expired. And Verizon has allowed its 3G wireless subscribers to upgrade to 4G LTE devices, while keeping their unlimited data plans.

But the company was always careful to say that it could change this policy in the future. And now it looks like that day has finally come. The way it will likely work is that as 3G unlimited contracts expire, Verizon will push subscribers to upgrade their devices to smartphones on company's 4G LTE network. These customers will then have to sign up for the data share plans.

"Everyone will be on data share," Shammo said, according to Fierce Wireless. "When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us."

Verizon hasn't yet announced pricing details of the new share plans. Shammo said that he believes this new plan will make it easier for families and small businesses to connect multiple devices, Fierce reported. This new plan is meant to encourage people to buy multiple connected devices and to use them on the 4G LTE network, without signing up for an additional data plan.

As this change happens and people connect additional devices to their accounts, Shammo said that the industry will have to change how they account for the revenue. Instead of looking at average revenue per user, he said that the industry should look at average revenue per account.

News of the end of the unlimited data plan is sure to upset some consumers who have held onto their existing accounts specifically for the unlimited benefit.

AT&T also offers this benefit to long-time smartphone customers. But the company has struggled to keep up with the demands of some of these users. In an effort to ensure that "grandfathered" unlimited users don't hog the network, the company began slowing down a proportion of these heavy users. The move outraged many customers. One man sued AT&T in small claims court and won. AT&T has since changed its policy and now only slows down or throttles users if they exceed 3GB of data per month.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel still offer unlimited data plans. T-Mobile also slows down users if they consume too much data each month. But Sprint claims that is the only major wireless carrier in the U.S. to still offer unfettered unlimited data. Some people question how long the carrier will be able to offer such a plan given the steep rise in usage.

A Verizon spokeswoman declined to comment on the news.