The Tech Report

We're officially a three-digit podcast—and happy to be back to vocal tech reporting after a nice Thanksgiving break. We kick off this episode with listener mail and quickly move onto a Christmas list discussion, which is severely lacking in Christmas cheer. Then, Geoff and Cyril explain why we're excited about Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime, right before Scott gives a scathing review of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Seriously, he hates this thing.

Moving into the gaming world, we're excited about Infinity Blade II but not amused by the many hoops required to play Batman: Arkham City on the PC. Despite the frustrating gameplay detours, Scott thinks Arkham City is one of the best games of the year and explains why.

In keeping with our new frame-time benchmarking methodology, Cyril discusses some of his findings after running some mid-range GPUs throughout The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. To wrap things up, Scott gives us a quick overview of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448, and Geoff talks about his two latest storage reviews.

Three years, nine months and five days from the release of episode one of the TR Podcast, we have arrived at episode 100! We kick off this momentous show with a look back at our first episode published in February of 2008. We also read commentary and thoughts contributed by our loyal listeners. As we round out the rest of 2011, you can expect a few other milestone celebration extras, but for now, we're very happy to be at the big 1-0-0. We're also excited to include a giveaway with this episode: five copies of Skyrim will go to randomly selected commenters courtesy of our sponsor, Nvidia.

Moving into the rest of the show, we start with an updated discussion of Battlefield 3, prompted by our latest reader poll. Then, it's a sobering report from the recent layoffs at AMD that have hugely impacted the company's PR staff. AMD isn't the only firm cutting back; Adobe is also getting rid of Flash for mobile, and we can't say that we're entirely upset by this decision. In a break of agenda, Jordan brings up the new Steve Jobs biography, and we spend a few minutes commenting on the detailed vision author Walter Issacson gives us of the brilliant yet troubled former Apple CEO.

In other news, the PC hardware world has been hugely affected by the flooding in Thailand, and Geoff breaks down what the supply chain problems mean for HDD prices. We then look at Cyril's analysis of mid-range GPUs in Battlefield 3, which utilizes our new frame-time measurement technique, after which Scott and Geoff dissectSandy Bridge-E and its accompanying X79 chipset. Finally, Cyril gives us the scoop on Asus' first ultrabook.

We kick off this episode of the TR Podcast with a slew of listener questions. Those inquiries prompt us to discuss DDR4 memory, new hardware coming next March, and how the next generation of consoles will affect PC gaming. Then, our panel talks at length about Battlefield 3, on which we've finally gotten our hands after months of anticipation. Finally, Cyril, Geoff and Scott break down our latest TR system guide, and Scott explains the Bulldozer thread scheduling story.

We've got a monster episode of the TR Podcast this week, starting with three listener mail questions that cover everything from Ubisoft game releases to GPU shopping on a budget. Scott and Cyril cover the pros and cons of id Software's newest game, Rage, and we briefly discuss the legacy of Steve Jobs. Then, Geoff interviews Raja Gill and Juan J. Guerrero of Asus, discussing the latest developments in EFI, digital power management, and more. Finally, Scott gives us the complete scoop on AMD's new Bulldozer processors.

In TR Podcast tradition, we kick off this episode with a lengthy round-table gaming discussion. Cyril relates his experiences with the Battlefield 3 beta and TrackMania 2, after which our panel goes over some of the more notable titles on the horizon, including Rage, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Modern Warfare 3.

Next, the panelists change gears and share their thoughts on Amazon's new Kindles—especially the Kindle Fire, which Scott believes will be a commercial success. We round out the episode with a look at Asus' big honkin' Llano notebook and a slew of new 120-128GB solid-state drives.

We're a slightly beleaguered crew of tech reporters this week; Scott and Geoff have just returned on the red-eye from IDF, Cyril has been cranking away at his Windows 8 blog post, and Jordan is recording from home with tonsillitis (we apologize in advance for the lack of pop-filter and over-abundant room noise). Nevertheless, we kick things off on this episode with three listener tweets, ranging from API overhead to the best sound card for classical music. Then, it's straight into IDF as Scott and Geoff dissect the keynote speeches, the product demos, and the sneak peeks at everything from Ivy Bridge to the sexy new ultrabooks. After that, it's a deep dive into Scott's mammoth look at why frames-per-second isn't necessarily really the measure of graphical performance, from his article, "Inside the Second: A new look at game benchmarking." Finally, Cyril has spent some quality time with Windows 8 and gives us the scoop.

After answering a trio of listener mail questions, we kick off this episode of the TR Podcast with talk of Razer's new Blade laptop, an unusual, intriguing, and pricy gaming laptop that will most likely be either amazing or very gimmicky. Then, we move on to gameplay footage from the next Counter-Strike title from Valve, which we follow up with Cyril's review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

After the gaming discussion, our own David Morgan gives us the scoop on a stylish case from Fractal Design, and Jordan has a podcast exclusive review of Jawbone's Jambox bluetooth speaker and speakerphone. In a sober turn of agenda, we then discuss Steve Jobs' resignation as Apple CEO, as well as our latest TR comic. Finally, Geoff cracks open the Zotac Zbox AD10 Plus nettop—a tiny yet powerful system that quite literally fits in your palm.

Despite civil unrest percolating in the Kansas City area, our own Scott Wasson is safe, sound, and back from a great time hanging with the TR readership at the Tech Report BBQ 2011. After we get the scoop on Scott's trip to the shores of Lake Michigan, we cover two major news items: HP sending shockwaves through the tech industry by signaling its intent to spin off its PC business and nix its WebOS devices, and Google acquiring Motorola Mobility. Then, it's an in-depth look at our latest TR system guide, which includes a back-to-school Dorm PC and a selection of laptops and tablets for students.

The second half of the show is all gaming news and discussion. We examine how tessellation is used (for better or worse) in Crysis 2, new footage from Battlefield 3 that has us even more excited, Valve's announcement of a Counter-Strike sequel, Borderlands 2, and in-game footage from Guild Wars 2.

With exception of a quick listener mail question, some CPU rumors to round off the episode, and a look at two clicky keyboards from Razor, this episode is mostly about three tablets we've been testing in our labs. Geoff kicks off the party with a look at the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, a budget-friendly tablet that has some nifty tricks up its sleeve. Then, Scott relates his impressions of the king tablet itself, the iPad 2, which has snared hours of gameplay and media consumption time from his whole family. Finally, our panel takes a quick sneak peek at Samsung's 10.1" Galaxy Tab.

We kick off this episode by answering some listener questions, delving into the latest cloud computing solutions from Microsoft, the possibilities of reviewing the new Samsung Chromebook, and the many AMD Fusion options that have befuddled one of our readers. Then, after a little RSS housekeeping, we dive into two stories from Apple. Our panel analyzes the record numbers from the Mac maker's latest earnings report, discusses the latest updates to the MacBook Air lineup, and gets the scoop from Cyril as to whether or not Lion is worth the $29.99 asking price.

We then move into a series of recent posts and stories from TR, including our newest comic from Fred Silver, Geoff's review of the Asus Xonar U3 USB audio device, and Cyril's take on the Diamond VStream wireless HDMI adapter. We also revisit (albeit for a third time now) AMD's Llano APU, exploring two new variables of faster RAM and IGP-only power consumption. We wrap things up with Cryil's Gladwellian (I think we just made up a word) look at the science of fanboys, plus a quick peek at a very powerful little Z68 Mini-ITX motherboard from Zotac.