It's been a big week in the tech world, and PCWorld's editors have been dying to sit down at the mic and talk it out.
First up, Intel's Developer Forum brought the announcement of the company's next-generation 'Sandy Bridge' processor design, promising better power management and faster performance for desktop and laptop PCs in the coming year.
Microsoft launched the official beta of Internet Explorer 9, featuring hardware acceleration for faster browsing and a host of interface improvements.
Want to stream HD movies, TV shows, and music from your PC and the Internet to your living-room HDTV? Us too! This week, PCWorld editors Robert Strohmeyer, Ed Albro, Jason Cross, and Patrick Miller take a look at the latest crop of media streaming devices to see which reigns supreme and which could rule the future. From the Roku XR to the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, and the upcoming Apple TV, we get down to the nitty gritty about the best in streaming home theater.
This week on the PCWorld Podcast, editors Jason Cross, Nate Ralph, Ginny Mies, and Anne McDonald dig into the new Motorola Droid 2, take a closer look at Google and Verizon's new net Neutrality deal, and explain the 21 signs that you might be spoiled by technology.
Amid a spate of media hubbub, RIM unveiled the BlackBerry Torch 9800 this week, featuring the company's latest mobile operating system, featuring the BlackBerry 6 OS. Phones editor Ginny Mies has the details and dishes them up for our listeners.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has released another technical preview of the forthcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser, which is packed with standards improvements. PCW senior editor Jason Cross has been playing with the code, and explains why this time things might just be different for Microsoft. Of course, we won't know until the September beta release whether the actual browser interface is any good.
Been holding out for a big price drop on the Amazon Kindle? It looks like your ship has come in. On this week's PCWorld Podcast, editors Robert Strohmeyer, Melissa Perenson, Jason Cross, and Ginny Mies take a closer look at the latest Kindle, which adds some badly needed improvements to the e-reader while ringing in at a fairly affordable $139.
Among the new Kindle's highlights: an improved display, better performance, smarter ergonomics, and lighter overall weight. Melissa Perenson is impressed with the device. Listen in for her full report.
Robert Strohmeyer and Ginny Mies have been busy driving all over San Francisco with a bag full of phones to put Apple's iPhone 4 antenna claims to the test. Jobs and company have been making some pretty big assertions around the notion that all smartphones suffer from antenna attenuation akin to that of the iPhone 4. To see how accurate those statements are, Ginny and Robert visited sites around the city to test the iPhone and several of its top competitors in both high-signal and low-signal environments. The results are intriguing.
The PCWorld Podcast is back to tickle your tympanic membranes with talk of the latest Facebook customer satisfaction survey, the new Dell Streak and Fall camera announcements.
Dell has brought the unholy union of a smartphone and an iPad to the American market in the Streak, a 5-inch palm-sized phone/tablet that's too big to fit in your phone pocket and too small to use comfortably as a tablet PC. Listen in as Robert Strohmeyer slams Dell for shipping the Streak with an outdated Android 1.6 OS, leading into a quick look at the future of Android tablets and what Dell needs to build a viable iPad competitor.
Stay tuned to hear our thoughts on the results of the most recent American Consumer Satisfaction Index survey, which reveals Facebook scored an average of 64 on the ACSI 100-point satisfaction scale. That places Zuckerberg's baby squarely amidst the bottom 5 percent of private companies surveyed, below internet tax-filing services and cigarette manufacturers.
Welcome back to another week of smartphone news as we stay late to discuss the Apple iPhone 4 press conference, the Droid X launch and fresh competitors like the Samsung Vibrant. Also, robots!
Tired of talking about the iPhone 4? So is Apple, and this week we delay the podcast to bring you the latest updates from our coverage of the Apple iPhone 4 press conference and the Droid X launch event. Both phones have issues, so listen in as PCWorld editors Robert Strohmeyer, Ginny Mies, Mark Sullivan and Melissa Perenson provide their perspectives on the future of smartphone UI and why consumers deserve better from device manufacturers.
