The Tech Report

We're back in our classic panel format with this episode, and we've got a lot to cover. After answering the mailbag and a few quick TR community notes, the panel wants to know why Cyril loves his iPhone 4 so much, why Scott still hates his, and what iPhone games we're all skipping work to play. Later, Scott gives us an in-depth look at two very exciting processor platforms from AMD: Bulldozer and Bobcat.

Then, it's on to the reviews. Cyil isn't all that impressed with Samsung's newest 14" notebook, and Geoff has bestowed the Editor's Choice award upon Zotac's newest barebones nettop. Finally, Geoff takes a look at the sexy, bamboo-clad U33Jc 13" notebook from Asus.

In another special "on the road" edition of the TR Podcast, Jordan has a field report from Gigabyte's Open Overclocking 2010 North American Regional Final in Los Angeles, California. Featuring liquid nitrogen, flammable motherboards, and party DJs, this is an episode of the TR Podcast you won't soon forget.

We start this week's episode by answering a healthy helping of listener mail questions, covering everything from home file servers to e-books. Geoff and Scott follow with parallel smartphone stories Geoff pleased with his new Palm Pre, while Scott is somewhat disappointed with his iPhone 4.

Later, Geoff summarizes his roundup of an assortment of 7200-RPM terabyte hard drives. Then, after our panel covers three Nvidia-related news stories, Scott takes a look at Intel's newest Xeon processors, and Cyril has our latest GPU value article results.

This episode starts with details about our Nvidia-sponsored Just Cause 2giveaway. Scott and Jordan quickly go on to relate their experiences causing mayhem on the game's pacific island with a grappling hook, magical parachute, and plenty of explosives. Moving on, our panel discusses not only Scott's impression of the new iPhone 4 (which he's had for the past few days), but also Geoff and Cyril's search for good smart phones up in Canada.

Next, Scott lays out the details of the PhysX x87 problem, and he gives us the skinny on his review of the new GeForce GTX 460 graphics card. Geoff also talks about a cool new barebone nettop, after which Cyril appraises the unbelievably big yet intriguing Thermaltake Level 10 case.

The second half of the episode is all about PC hardware. Scott has done the writeup on AMD's latest server-class processors and graphics cards, while Geoff has tested two new solid-state drives, one of which turns out to be our current Editor's Choice.

We kick off this episode with news of the upcoming TR BBQ and a movie recommendation from Jordan (who really, really liked Toy Story 3). Our panel quickly moves on to the iPhone 4; not even a week after launch, a particularly annoying signal retention issue has come to light. Gaming is next on the agenda as we discuss Cyril's latest blog post, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the evolution of first-person shooters. Also on the gaming docket, we discuss the prospect of motion-controlled gaming on the PC via Microsoft's Kinect technology.

The second half of the episode is all about PC hardware. Scott has done the writeup on AMD's latest server-class processors and graphics cards, while Geoff has tested two new solid-state drives, one of which turns out to be his current Editor's Choice.

With Cyril fresh from Computex, Scott and Geoff primed with new reviews, and Jordan armed with lame jokes... there's plenty going on in this episode of the podcast. After a few listener mail shoutouts, we kick things off with a slice of Computex, relaying the experience of one of the world's largest tech tradeshows and looking at the highlights. Dovetailing with the discussion of Asus's Eee Pad, Geoff explains what he believes makes the perfect tablet.

Now that the iPhone 4 is finally here, our panelists all have something to say about Apple's newest smartphone. To wrap things up, Scott and Geoff detail their findings in their latest reviews. Scott has been overclocking Intel's new unlocked Core i5-655K and i7-875K processors, while Geoff has put a hybrid hard drive from Seagate to the test.

This week is all about quality over quantity as we tackle TR's latest three reviews. But before getting into Eyefinity, SSDs, and bring-your-own-OS laptops, our panel goes over the new TR site layout, puts out the call for TR interns, and answers a very technical listener question about Intel's new Moorestown handheld platform.

Moving on to the heavy stuff, Scott has finally finished his opus on AMD's Eyefinity system, and he runs through the various configurations, their pros and cons, and which setup he'd keep around to use on a regular basis. In the storage corner, Geoff has the scoop on new SandForce based solid-state drives from OCZ and Corsair, and he reveals how SandForce's hotshot storage controller fares against popular Intel offerings. Finally, Cyril took Asus's choose-your-own-adventure Eee PC for a spin, and he gives us the skinny on whether an OS-free system is worth the trouble.

We're back to our classic format with our full panel this week. After answering a question from a loyal listener and covering some miscellaneous topics, Scott, Geoff, Cyril, and Jordan jump right into the biggest story of the show: HP moves to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion. Our panelists give their thoughts on this major move, and we discuss the viability of Windows 7 versus Palm's webOS on future slate devices. Scott goes on to give us his take on the promising new low-power Intel Moorestown platform. Finally, in the mobile department, we cover Steve Jobs' rant about Adobe Flash, and Jordan speaks out of turn as the resident fanboy. Scott and Cyril also cover the exciting new Phenom II X6 processors, and Geoff rounds up the latest AMD based motherboards, giving us the low-down on why AMD's 890FX is such a great chipset.

While Scott is off on a secret mission, we welcome Will Smith of Tested.com onto our podcast panel. (Before starting Tested.com, Will was the Editor in Chief at Maximum PC.) We kick off the episode by talking about Will's new site and his latest piece of content: an in-depth review of the Apple iPad. Our guest covers the pros and cons of the device before answering questions from Jordan, Geoff, and Cyril. More Apple stories follow as we discuss new Gigabyte motherboards that charge running iPads, plus the biggest product leak in the history of Apple.Next up: our panel is both apprehensive and excited about Crytek's upcoming Crysis 2, and we all have something to say about the platform-free gaming future Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima predicts. Later, Geoff, Will, and Cyril discuss their experiences with the 5.1 surround-sound gaming headset from Psyko, we delve briefly into AMD's financials, and Cyril goes over his latest laptop review. Geoff then concludes our podcast by giving us the skinny about his recently published SSD roundup.

In another special episode of the TR Podcast, Jordan brings us coverage from the Asus 3x3 Overclocking Summit event in San Jose, California. With travel adventure and the reunion of old podcast friends, extreme hardware, and extreme overclocking, this is an episode you don't want to miss.