With Snow Leopard officially out in stores we share our opinions on Apple's latest OS. Convert that old PC into a something useful like a NAS, FTP, or SMB file server. Learn how to securely wipe your PC's hard drives before giving it away, and find out why Time Machine is a big fat lemon.

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

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Are Shure's SRH840 Headphones as good as their Earphones? Jason Cross has graphics card reccomendations from under $100 to price is no object. Free Backup Software, Discover music with CitySounds.fm, Stop World of Warcraft Obssessions At The Router.

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

Back up your systm RIGHT NOW, by imaging it. (Last week we talked about my epic hard drive fail... and I promised we'd start talking about strategies for backing up.) It's as simple as making a boot disk and tracking down an extra hard drive.

Free tools we prefer for making a bit for bit copy of your drive are Easeus Disk Copy for Windows and Carbon Copy Cloner for OS X. (SuperDuper! is another solid option for OS X.)

Open source options for the PC include FOG and Clonezilla. If you want the comfort of paid for tools, check out Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image Home 2009.

We spent a whole episode of Systm showing off the process of imaging your drive,Cheap and Easy Hard Drive Upgrade, it's a great way to move the contents of your current hard drive onto a bigger drive!

Free Software! This week's Freebie Download Pick is GFI Backup, Home Edition, a great tool that makes it easy to backup your data, photos, music and other critical bits with a 'wizard' based interface. Just select Backup, Restore, Sync or My Tasks and walk through the steps. You can backup folders or have GFI Backup search your drive for file types used by media, productivity and financial applications.. You can schedule regular backups, direct them to a local drive, CD or DVD disc, a network drive or, if you're skilled, an FTP server. Best of all, it's free!

Nvidia and ATI offer about a billion GPU options... if you're looking for a new video card, you'll love our interview with Jason Cross, where he picks the best cards from under $100 to money is no object, and answers your questions about what card to buy for a Home Theater PC and more. (Hint: most late model cards offer HDMI with audio passthru and full HDCP support!)

Follow Jason on Twitter!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of" is CitySounds.fm! It helps you see what people are listening to in cities all over the world. It's just in it's infancy, but CitySounds.fm is promising in a few different ways. For one, the design is really cool. The most popular cities are listed in order, and popularity is determined by how frequently a city's link is tweeted. (The music itself comes from SoundCloud, a music-file distribution site for artists, labels and other music professionals.) To listen, click on the name of the city you're interested in, and a dropdown of recent tracks appears. Clicking to a cities page, you can see the top genres, shuffle the top tracks, and see what Twitter users have posted about the city. Techno seems to be the predominant genre on the site so far, but I'm sure as more users start adding content the genres will broaden. Check it out!

Shure recently released a line of headphones, and Veronica's pretty excited for them since she's such a big fan of their in-ear buds, like the SE530's (which are her precious babies). The headphones are under their pro-audio line, and they're marketing them towards musicians, DJs, or anyone else in need of good monitoring headphones that aren't going to break the bank. How good do the $200 : Shure SRH840's Professinoal Monitoring Headphones sound? Watch the show to find out!

Somebody in your house spending too much time on WoW? James is looking to block World of Warcraft on his router so his (WoW obsessed) friend can't play when he comes over. (Who wants somebody sitting in a corner playing WoW for 18 hours straight?) Veronica's got the details on the critical port you need to close to block WoW, and we discuss how to do it... and whether or not it's time for an intervention.

What's the maximum tranfer rate for USB 2.0? Can you double your bandwidth? Carl has 12 USB devices connected to his laptop, and another six he wants to connect when he gets another hub or card for the desktop he's moving to. That's a lot of USB devices, Carl, no wonder you're looking to improve performance!

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Patrick's HD Hits The Freezer, Heroes star Greg Grunberg joins to talk iPhone Development, Veronica Reviews Nokia's Latest,

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

We've got a ton of great stuff on the show today!

Dying hard drive? Step one is to get your data off before it dies!

Then you can decide whether to salvage it with a tool like SpinRite, or replace it with a new drive.

Do yourself a favor: back up your data -before- your drive crashes!

Did the hardware fail? Then you've got a serious check to sign to a data recovery company, or a lot of work to do... one of the only folks talking about DIY recovery from HD hardware failure is Scott Moulton. It's not an easy thing to do even with his knowledge behind ya!

Heroes star Greg Grunberg joins us to talk about his iPhone app Yowza!! and his experience as an iPhone developer!

Free Software! This Week's Freebie download pick is FastStone Photo Resizer! Need to re-size, crop or trans-code all your photos, but don't want to spend any cash? Then step right up and try FastStone Photo Resizer. This spiffy utility re-sizes, crops, rotates, tweaks color depth, adds text, or watermarks almost any image in your photo library. Just pick a folder or select the images you want to process and click add, select your options, and finally an output folder and click convert. There's even a batch rename tool so you can re-label all those image files into something a bit more intelligible.

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of!" is RecipePuppy.com. Veronica gets all "domestic goddess" on your butts this week with Recipe Puppy, the perfect webpage when you have a fridge full of random ingredients, and no idea what to make for dinner!

Nokia's got a new phone, the Surge, on AT&T, and they're actually offering subsidies, which makes it price-competitive in the US. Can it take on the iPhone, Sidekick or Blackberry? Watch Veronica's review!

When does your processor start taking damage? When Veronica rolls 20s, of course! Just kidding Nate... we've got the word on why you don't need to worry as much about CPU temps these days, along with the temperatures you should still watch out for.

Green drives in a RAID? What about Black or Blue drives? Mike wants to know if green drives will wreck his RAID, and if he should be thinking Enterprise class RE drives... obviously he's thinking about Western Digital drives here... Seagate's still an option, too!

Revision3 is psyched to announce our newest show: AppJudgment - a mobile phone application review show for the iPhone, Android, blackberry and Palm Pre! AppJudgment has a team of passionate reviewers headed by David Prager and ME! We'll give you advice, tips, and more importantly we'll find some of the best apps for your mobile device. Catch new episodes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on revision3.com/appjudgment

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Veronica Interviews Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO, Make eSATA Play Nice With Windows, Jolicloud: the ultimate Netbook OS? Free Tool for School, Car Power for Notebooks!

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

We've got a ton of great stuff on the show today!

Pandora.com personalized radio... it's hugely popular. Wondering where it's headed? Veronica interviews the CTO, Tom Conrad and fires off lots of questions you sent in via Twitter!

eSATA, aka External SATA, aka the next best thing for external storage that's gonna finally kill off USB and FireWire... we help Tom with (some shockingly common) problems getting external eSATA drives to play nice with Windows.

Free Software! This week's Freebie download pick is AbiWord, an awesome free word processing tool that packs a ridiculous number of features, from real time collaboration, right down to talbles, styles, spell and grammar checkers... the perfect free tool for back to school!

This week's Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of is Spezify, a delightful new way to look a search results, even if it can be a little overwhelming at first. When you enter in your search term of choice, like cats, for example, you're then bombarded with various types of media relating to that search term: videos, photos, tweets, links... pretty much any site they can find with an open API, they'll pull it into the media cloud. Veronica says it looks like they want to give you a "flash of inspiration!" With so much media bombarding you at the same time, you're sure to get the creative juices flowing. But more to the point, it's really entertaining. Check it out!

Is there a better OS for your Netbook? Veronica saw a prime candidate last time Kevin Rose was on the show: Jolicloud. She's had a chance to run in on her HP Mini... and she's got a great hands on review of how it compares to Windows 7 , Hackintosh and other Netbook OS options!

Register for a chance at the beta... once you do, you just set up a bootable USB key for an easy install.

WiFi: it's easy to secure at home, but what about all those public WiFi networks in hotels and coffee shops... Mark's a bit worried about having to use public hotspots when he travels. He should be: they're pretty good places to do nasty things to your Internet traffic. We talk about setting up a free VPN using Hamachi.... that'll get you a secure connection to a safe network... you'll need to set up set up a proxy server for your browser to lock things down, tho!

SmallNetBuilder.com isn't just the best source of revies of home/small biz networking hardware... they also have great howtos like How To Securely Browse from Anywhere using Hamachi and Squid.

Notebook runs out of battery power while you're watching movies in the car? Sure, Ryan, you could by an expensive DC to DC voltage converter for your notebook... or spend $25 on a power inverter... Patrick owns three or four made by Cobra Electronics, but you can pick one up just about any electronics, auto parts, costco, big box, hardware, truck stop, 'shack...

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DIY Home Audio Streaming, Wireless Headphones, Is Mint.com Secure? Flexilis, PronounceNames.com, Free Video Game. It's our one hundredth episode!

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

Patrick's back from Defcon, the annual hacker convention, where folks presented vulnerabilities in the iPhone (update to 3.0.1 right now), SSL encryption, the FAA's need to update security and more! Yes, there was a fake ATM machine trying to capture ATM card and PIN numbers. (It's a fairly common scam!)

Patrick's favorite hack at the show: that Apple Keyboard Firmware's been Compromised. A researcher found a way to use flaws in apple keyboard to infect a machine or capture passwords.

It's Tekzilla's 100th Episode! Rather than throw a faux part on screen, we figured we'd fire up a list of our favorite gadgets under $100!

Veronica's list included:

Fastmac TruePower iV, $80)

Patrick's picks included System Memory, USB Thumdrives, Flash memory, Grado's SR60 headphones, 1TB WD Black Hard Drives, Magnovox's $98 Blu-ray player from Walmart, and Windows 7 upgrades... crud, those aren't under $100. (Yet!)

More picks include:

This week's Free Software Pick is Sam And Max Episode 104: Abe Lincoln Must Die!. If you grew up PC gaming in the early 90's you've probably played Steve Purcell's politically incorrect comic book turned adventure game, Sam and Max. If not, download a free sample of Telltale games awesome episodic revival!

Security tools for your cell phone sound silly until you realize that mobile devices are rapidly evolving into mobile PCs, or you were at BlackHat or Defcon and got a chance to see the attacks that the security researchers at Flexiliswere able to demonstrate. Flexilis founder John Herring joins us to talk mobile security research, demos an SMS hack and talksa about what you should be looking out for!

- This week's Website We Can't Get Enough Of is: Pronounce Names! Since we get emails from all around the world, we use pronouce names.com to figure out how to say all of your names. It works exactly the way you think it would, with one nice twist: anyone can enter in a name, and anyone can type in the best way to pronounce it! This way, the database is always growing and improving, and new entries are added everyday.

Last week we promised you a DIY multi-room music alternative for those who can't or won't spend the cash on a Sonos. We show off the basics of using iTunes along with Apple Airport Express and Apple's Remote application on the iPhone or iPod touch to roll your own any room in the house streaming audio setup!

Kyle wants to know if Mint.com< is safe... Veronica's use the site every day to keep an eye on her finances and walks Kyle through the site's safekeeping procedures.

Alex wants some cheap wireless headphones that sound good. First off, cheap and sound good don't go together too often when talking wireless headphones. That said, Sennheiser makes some decent wireless models, and their portable headphones, the MX W1 use Kleer's wireless audio technology instead of sucky Bluetooth to deliver respectable sound with no wires to your iPod or other audio gadget. A lot of folks speak highly of the Etymotic ety8, but they're a bit bulky for our taste.

DIY special effects for movies? Even if you never make a zombie's head explode, or want to build a green screen on the cheap, chances are you'll laugh your ass off while you're learning how movies get made on Film Riot! Check it out.

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Spycam Warning! MiFi = Easy Internet Anywhere! Veronica and Roger Go To Comicon, Sonos Gets Better, Would we buy a Psystar OS X PC? FUTZ.ME: Your command line for the web.

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own! Veronica Belmont and Patrick Norton are your hosts.

Here's what was in the show this week:

San Diego Comic-Con! Veronica and Producer Roger had mad fun at the annual gathering... amazing panels from the worlds of comics, scifi and movies. Crazy costumes, fun parties, Roger took like 600 plus photosincluding a really cool Doctor Girlfriend from the Venture Brothers and both of 'em got all Fanboy/Fangirl at the Battlestar Galactica signing!

You can catch more San Diego Comic Con madness on iFanboy and the Totally Rad Show.

Ben's wondering how it's possible to video tap thru a peephole... Ben, spycams are fairly cheap, simple to set up, and way too easy to buy. Everybody should take care to keep an eye peeled for 'em! (I'm always leary of a new alarm clock.)

If you want to get really paranoid, remember that a lot of people around you are carrying cell phones that can surprisingly good video and, of course, stills.

Even Logitech makes the "WiLife Digital Video Security Camera" systesm with cameras buried in big silver digital clocks.

Legitimate uses for spycams? Lots of folks use them to prevent theft at work, monitor the children/nanny/babysitter/pets, or figure out which neighbor lets their dog poo in the yard.

Just be aware that they're out there and being used for a lot of fairly evil things, too.

This Week's Free Software Pick is Tinker Tool, a pint sized application that lets OS X users disable and enable hidden functions in the OS X interface. You can tweak settings inside the Finder, dock, safari, the login... even OS X itself! Cool!

Sonos makes an amazing multi-room music streaming system for the home... Patrick gets hands on with the new Sonos Controller 200... a new touchscreen controller for this best of breed multi room music system. It's a big improvement over the Sonos Controller 100, but it's still $350. (And that's without the ZonePlayers that actually play the music!)

This Week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of is Futz.me, a "command line for the web!" That's what they call themselves, but to us, it's a really neat way to use your browser's address bar to do simple tasks. Type in futz.me/ "your usersname" with a link to a website, and it'll send the page to your email for reading or archiving. Add a /t to the end of your username, and suddenly you can Twitter directly from your address bar! It does tons more and only has one downside: it will not sudo make me a sandwich!

MiFi, the "Intelligent Mobile Hotspot" Think EVDO + WiFi and smaller than a pack of cards, using 3G data connections from Verizon or print.com/nownetwork/mifiProductPage.html?id9=SEM_Google_R_Sprint_Mobile_Broadband">Sprint to give you an instant WiFi hotspot anywhere you go. Veronica talks pros, cons and battery life on the show, along with how much the MiFi will cost you to carry!

Can you ugprade the RAM in your notebook or desktop? Most of the time, Greg. We walk you through how to find out how much -and what kind- of RAM your machine runs. RAM is a cheap way to boost performance... and Greg found that doubling the RAM in his machine should cost under $40!

Hackintosh vs. Psystar: Dhruv wants to know if we'd buy a machine running OS X from Psystar.... frankly, we'd hold off until they sort out the whole Chapter 11 and being sued by Apple thing.

Coming to San Francisco? Nathan is, and we couldn't resist giving him some pointers on "must see sights/sounds/tastes/smells of San Francisco?" At least everything but the smells part!

You didn't get to go to San Diego Comicon this week? The Totally Rad Show has you covered... comicon is the largest convergence of movie, video game, tv, and comic book excitement on the planet! Be sure to watch TRS, recorded live from San Diego Comic Con at www.revision3.com/trs!

Special shout out to Ayleen and George over at October toys for the free zombies! (And for putting up with Roger and Veronica... mostly Roger!)

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Using a Mac drive from a PC, Core i7 Overclocking Performance More Gaming Controller Help for Windows, myUS: Shop from Overseas. What do you do with that weird tape your wedding video came on?

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Veronica just had a birthday!

Overclocking makes a CPU run faster, but is Patrick really getting more work done with his overclocked Core i7? Using ripping and encoding CDs and a bencmark doesn't show much difference between his CPU running at 2.6Ghz vs. 3.4Ghz. Maybe 'cause the process uses less than 12% of his CPU!

We're gonna have to run some more serious benchmarks!

Free Software! This week's Freebie download pick is Ultimate Windows Tweaker. This free utility lets you adjust, cajole, and tweak many of the UI issues Vista users face on the consistent basis including the infamous User account control nag screen. Other hacks include the speed tools, the obligatory system restore feature in-case a tweak goes awry, security tweaks, IE hacks and a handy folder restore feature!

Veronica twitters. Patrick twitters. So do Roger, Serafina, Annie and Brett!

Chances are, so do you... looking for a better tool for Twitter? Check out Veronica's fave on the Mac, Tweetie. Patrick's fave, Tweetdeck runs on Mac and Windows. (You can check out Twhirl (now a part of Seesmic), too!)

Website we can't get enough of? This week's pick is MyUS! We sometimes make product recommendations for items that aren't available outside of the US! MyUS can help you get the gear you need, no matter where you're located. MyUS actually gives you a US street address that you can enter as your shipping informtion, and then they'll forward your package using FedEx or DHL to your international address. They even have a Personal Shopper that will help you pay for your items using their US credit card number or PayPal account. Cool!

That weird video cassette from the wedding? If we can help Seth figure out how to get the video off it and onto a DVD or Blu-ray, we'll make his wife super happy. We've got ideas for dubbing that tape, free editing software and tools to help author that disc!

"Is there a way to assign a core, or cores, to a specific task or program?" Yup, Brian, there is. We show you how on the show!

Mike thinks we "dodged the Drobo idea" ... frankly, we love 'em and explain why both Veronica and Patrick trust Drobo data storage boxes to protect their data at home!

That said, there are lots of other good storage ideas... traditional RAID 5 boxes, building a FreeNAS or UnRAID Box are all good, and if you're belt and suspenders, you should do some kind of offsite backup, too!

Yes, Rob, you can access Mac HFS and HFS+ formatted drives from your Windows box. If you just want to read the data on those OS X drives from your windows machine (or a Windows install on your Mac), check out MacDrive 8.

Don't need the data off those drives? Go into the Windows disk manager and re-partition them!

We got some great Responses to John's question last week about using console controllers with your PC gaming box. The two biggest suggestions were Xpadder, $16 and Pinnacle Game Profiler, $19.95. Both pieces of software will allow you to map controls to many different kind of console controllers, including the PS3 and Xbox 360. And, like we said, most newer PC games for Windows should have support already for the Xbox controller, so you might not even need keymapping software.

Love videogames? Then you need to see the latest edition of Co-Op! features all top-flight indie projects that you won't want to miss. For the iPhone it's the venerable Critter Crunch; for the 360 they'll be featuring the irreverent 'Splosion Man' with exclusive footage of a never-before-seen level. And to top it all off, Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb stops by to talk about the utterly fantastic, fantasy-RPG platformer for the PC: Trine. New episodes every Tuesday at revision3.com/Co-Op!

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Use PS3 and Xbox 360 Controllers For PC Games, EFi-X: Build an OS X desktop on the cheap! Fast access to old hard drives, Milo, Frew Software, Alkaline AA problems or dead camera?

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Veronica's back from Japan and Patrick's on a netbook tear!

The BBC productions Pride and Prejudice Patrick mentioned...

A SATA Hard Drive Dock will solve Christopher's problem: he's got loads of hard drives around his room he'd like to use. Veronica's big on Brando's docks especially the Dual SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock with One Touch Backup USB + eSATA

Newegg has tons of SATA docks from $32 to $90, too!

Free software! This week's Freebie download pick is LogonStudio! If you're tired of that same old login screen wallpaper staring back you every time you boot-up Windows XP or Vista rejoice: Stardock's Login Studio changes your login screen in XP or Vista for free. You can use pre-made skins or create your own. Sweet!

We've been receiving a lot questions from you out there on how to build a PC that runs OS X, aka, a Hackintosh. So we asked our friend Colleen aka Digital Kitty, aka TWiT's Technical Project Manager to give us the step by step how to install a legal copy of OS X on a PC.

The heart of this build is an EFi-X V1 Boot Processing Unit and a full retail install version of OS X. US residents can purchase an EFi-X BPU from eXpressHD.com for $240. Cheap? No. But it does wonders with bootloading -and- allows to update OS X!

What's the big attraction to a Hackintosh? More build options than Apple gives you, and spending lots less on hardware.

here are Colleen's three sample builds:

Cheap Complete System

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L Motherboard $80
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8ghz E7400 CPU $120
2gb 800mhz DDR2 RAM $20
Western Digital 320gb SATA Hard Drive $50
LG DVD Burner $30
Rosewill 450 watt PSU $40
NVIDIA Geforce 9800gt Graphics Card $90
Antec Three Hundred ATX case $55
EFIX Boot Processing Unit $200

Total $685

Mac Pro Killer

Intel BOXDX58S Mothboard $240
Intel Core i7 920 2.66 Quad Core CPU $280
3gb 1066 mhz DDR2 RAM $45
Western Digital 1tb gb SATA Hard Drive $50
LG DVD Burner $30
OCZ Stealth XStream 500 watt PSU $50
NVIDIA Geforce GTS 250 Graphics Card $120
Antec Nine Hundred Case $110
EFIX Boot Processing Unit $200

Total $1125 (Half the price of a Apple Mac Pro)

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of" is Milo! If you're a fan of buying things in person, as opposed to waiting for long shipping times from online retailers, then make Milo your new best friend. This helpful site is a real-time search engine for thousands of products, that shows you exactly where you can buy the object of your desire locally, and even if it's in stock!

Can you use a PS3 or Xbox 360 contoller with PC games? Josh from Hurst, Texas gets this question all the time at the GameStop where he works. Getting an Xbox 360 controller isn't too bad, check out Microsoft's How to connect your Xbox 360 Controller for Windows to your computer . If you want to get a wireless controller to work, you'll need the Xbox 360 wireless gaming reciever.

The PS3 controller is a little more complicated, and there aren't any official drivers from Sony. There is a great how-to on Instructibles Control your computer with a PS3 Controller, but there's no guarantee it'll work with your game!

Your digital camera kills a fresh set of AA batteries in 30 seconds? Yo-Q, that's not a problem with Alkaline batteries... we check the manual and your Canon Powershot A80 is designed to work just fine with the Duracells you dropped in there. It sounds like it's got a short or some other problem... for $100 you can get a new Canon that'll outperform your 2003 model in almost every way.

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Twitter Hashtag Guide, Tools for dual booting Windows 7, Lossless Transcoding, F.Lux makes a perfect monitor, no matter what time it is!

Welcome to Tekzilla: hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Our favorite HDTV expert, Robert Heron, joins us on the show today... Veronica is in Japan!

Did we mention Robert and Patrick are working on a new show for folks that want the best in high def for their home theater? It's called HD Nation, and it launches next week!

No, we're not big fans of stretching SD to fit an HD screen... it causes the dreaded Ooompa-Loompa effect by stretching everybody like a fun house mirror!

We can respect wanting to use your whole screen and avoiding the pillarbox. Kind of. Case in point, Todd's looking to stretch his standard def 4x3 video to fit a 16x9 screen, but not using a linear stretch mode. He wants the center of the screen to look normal, while the stretching is applied to the edges. Many TVs, along with video playback software like PowerDVD will do this... do we have a free tool that can do it?

This week's free software pick is F.Lux. This tool automatically adjusts the color temperature of your display to the match the time of day. You get warm indoor lighting matched color at night and a bright blue hue to compliment daylight. It runs on XP, Vista and OS X. If you're tired of hassling with your monitor to get the best picture no matter what time of day... then check out F.Lux

Mastering the Windows 7 Dual Boot: Harrison asks, "How do you properly uninstall/remove an OS in a dual or multi-boot configuration?" Removing it is often less problematic than getting the boat loader to operate the way you want afterwards. The tools we mentioned on the show are NeoSmart's EasyBCD for sorting out boot manager issues with multiple OS boots along with the Gparted Live CD and Easeus Partition Manager for, you guessed it, non-destructive partition managing.

Want some help booting Ubuntu and Windows 7? Install Ubuntu after Windows 7! If you want to get your command line on instead of using EasyBCD, check out APC mag's article How to dual-boot Vista with Linux.

Website We Can't Get Enough Of? This week's pick is TagDef. Have you ever been scanning your Twitter feed and come across one of those hashtag you were unfamiliar with? You know, a pound sign with some indecipherable alpha-numeric combination. TagDef, a simple website that relies on user submission to archive all the different hashtags found across the twitter-verse. Load the page and look it up... or define it if it isn't in there yet.

Renting EVDO? Khaklid will be traveling in NYC for a few weeks later this year. The hotel WiFi will cost a fortune. He's wondering if 3G EVDO is a good option, if WiMAX is available, along with other options he's got.

You could take a break from the Internet...

WiMAX is pretty limited, and not really a mobile option right now. RovAir has good deals for renting EVDO modems... the longer you rent, the cheaper it gets. For two weeks, you're talking almost $10 a day... how about getting out of the hotel room and checking out the local coffee shops? Tons of em offer free WiFi. Heck, you can get free free WiFi at McDonalds.

NYCWireless.com has a pretty nifty hotspot status map, at least if the site you're looking for is monitored!

Dave in Albany NY sent us this question, "I recently got a new work van without a cassette deck. with no deck or aux in, my only option left is an FM transmitter. I picked one up, but it's has to much static on any frequency. Not waiting to waste another 40 bucks, can you recommend me one with a headphone input that won't make it sound like I'm pumping audio of frying bacon through my speakers."

Patrick hates FM transmitters, but goes over some hacks you can try on the show... positioning can make a huge difference.

If you can get to where the antenna plugs into your head unit, install an FM Modulator. They do a much better job than the FM transmitters that plug into your headphone jack, and are cheaper online.

Or ask you boss really nicely if you can install a new head unit!

A CableCARD can let your PC record premium digital content. Ben wants one for his Windows Media Center PC. Getting the CableCARD should be easy, Ben, your local cable provider is required to provide you one. Robert walks you through the hard part on the show!

Converting FLAC to Apple Lossless or WMA Lossless? We head straight for dBpoweramp's most excellent Music Converter!

Got a thing for audio codecs? Check out dBpoweramp's Codec Central.

Into audio encoding? Then you'll find lots of info at Hydrogenaudio!

Last week Patrick recommended AppZapper along with a a dogpile of free apps for a new OS X user. We've got some reccos from the Tekzilla Crew for free alternatives to AppZapper. First, Erik in Sweden says to check out AppCleaner. Next, Mike and Chris both wrote in to suggest AppTrap.

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Smart Phone Battle; Windows 7 App caching, Awesome Free Password Manager, Switch Audio in OS X, Notebook USB Audio Upgrade, AT&T Promises Better Service

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Why, yes, Tekzilla does have a Facebook.com/Tekzilla page full of Facebooky goodness: Facebook.com/Tekzilla.

Standardized power connectors for phones? Yes. If you're in the EU.... Veronica is stoked that Nokia, Apple, RIM and others agree on micro-USB phone charger standard for Europe, and she's raring for it to make it to the US!

Bad audio adapter in your netbook, notebook or desktop? No worries... the cheap USB Audio Adapters work surprisingly well, and any of the USB audio adapters we recommend will deliver some delightful sound from your PC. For under $100, check out the M-Audio Transit Art Pro Audio's USB Dual Pre; for $160 you can pick up Headroom's most excellent Total BitHead.

Learn how to build a Chu Moy headphone amplifier at HeadWize... or watch the episode of Systm where they show you how to solder up your own Chu Moy amp!

Free Software! Too many passwords? KeePass is an excellent open source password manager. All you have to do is remember one master password, while it keeps your password collection encrypted on your PC or on a flash drive you carry with you. It includes tons of additional tools, check it out!

Smart Phone Fight! PCMag's Sascha Segan joins us to talk Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3GS vs. the latest Android Android phones... not to mention Blackberry and Windows Mobile. (The Forgotten Smartphone OS!) along withVerizon's hints at a wonder phone...

...who has the best deal on EVDO for mobile internet, and AT&T's promise of better coverage when they make major upgrades to their networks this Fall... as in service in NYC and SF should no longer suck! Thanks for all the info, Sascha!

Website We Just Can't Get Enough of? This week's pick is Closr.it! This site takes a unique approach to sharing your photos on a webite upload an image that you'd like to display on your site. Your readers will be able to pan and zoom within the widget, showing them the full detail of your hi-rez photos without needing to download them first!

Looking for free OS X applications? Jon out in Portland Oregon is new to OS X and wants to know our favorite apps... Patrick gave him a pile of free software to check out along w/ AppZapper so he can do some serious cleaning on apps he doesn't want! (Wanna bet Veronica's got lots more to add to this list???) Here's the list: HandBrake Growl iStumbler Sumo Paint Adium Transmission and Transmit 3!

Can you change the audio output in OS X without opening up system preferences and clicking stuff? Andrew's picked something near and dear to Veronica's heart... she's switching back and forth between audio outputs all the time, between listening to music, recording and editing podcasts and gaming! You'll want to use something like FastScripts to run this MacOSXHints An AppleScript to change sound output device off your keyboard shortcut o' choice!

What's with Windows 7 and adding tons of RAM? Amongst other things, it'll cache your most frequently used applications in standby... Patrick's buddy Riyad has some good graphics and discussion on how it impacted load times on his machine; you can read them in Windows 7 – 4GB vs 8GB Performance

And, yes, there's more!

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Free Software Finds Lost Drive Space. Tripit: Make An Instant Itinerary, High Dynamic Range Photos Look Gorgeous. Netbook Guide: from Hackintosh to Long Battery Life, Everything You Need To Know Before Buying.

Yes, much like LA's legendary Kogi BBQ Truck, Tekzilla's Veronica, Patrick Roger and Serafina can be found, if not tracked, on Twitter.

Catherine wants "a small (in size) external hard drive that will hold a TON of pics. What is the best one to get, for a good price?" We've got the best deals and info on the biggest hard drivs drives you can power off a USB connection.

This week's Freebie download pick is JDisk Report! This multi-platform (Windows, OS X, anything with Java!) app runs an analysis on your disk drives and shows you what's taking up space on your drives with easy to read graphs and lists, all color coded so you can see what exactly is chewed up all your storage space. Perfect for those of us who collect a lot of junk on our hard disks!

Netbook buyers guide? Kevin out in Bakersfield is "thinking of picking up a netbook this summer for the school semester in the fall. But with so many out there, I don't know what one is right for me. I don't need much, just one to surf the web, take notes in class and on my down time watch some videos off Hulu or Netflix. Being a student, cheaper is better. Any suggestions? Thanks."

Thank you, Kevin! That gave us an excuse to talk about everything you need to know if you're buying a netbook, and share our favorite picks, from keyboards to screen size, processors and Nvidia's Ion... along with what to do to get the most battery life, and which OS will probably run best

And, yes, we tell you which netbook to buy if you want to build a hackintosh... and have everything work!

This Week's Website We Just Can't Get Enough of is Tripit! Veronica's favorite trip planning site builds you an itinerary for your flights, hotels, rental cars and activities so you can see them all in a single place... you can edit, delete or add plans to them from here. The best part is how you tell TripIt what your plans are, but you'll have to watch the show to find out!

You know those amazing photos you see on flickr that seem to pop with color and contrast? It's HDR imagine, aka High Dynamic Range imaging. You can make your own amazing images, even if you have a pocket sized point and shoot... Our very own Roger Chang shows you how.

Max out your DVR capacity so you can keep dozens of HD movies instead of one or two? It's true, John, many DVRs will let you add an external hard drive. Patrick's DirecTV HR21 is much more useful with a 1TB external drive. There are some minor caveats, tho!

Sarah's building a new PC and wants to run three monitors... no problem. We've even got a couple says you can do it if you have only one PCI Express slot!

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Secret Shortcut Saves Thousands of Mouse Clicks, Does Blackle Really Save Energy Over Google? What's In Store for WordPress? Veronica Interviews Matt Mullenweg. WWDC: New OS X! New Macbooks! New iPhone! (Same old AT&T...) Convert File Formats Fast and Free, More!

Apple's WWDC 2009 was the launching pad for a number of product announcements including a revamped MacBook Pro line, the new iPhone3G S, iPhone OS 3 and of course OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Pat and Veronica engaged in vigorous debate on why AT&T has decided to charge an ungodly sum for those on contract to upgrade.

Mauro out in Florida was interested in upgrading to a 1.5TB hard drive but was wary to do so after reading numerous reports of failures due to faulty firmware or design. He was curious about what brands to consider and what criteria to judge them on.

This week's freebie file is WinCDEmu. A great free open source application, WinCDEmu. lets you double click on a disc ISO, IMG, CUE, BIN or RAW to mount them as a virtual drive in Windows. Great for those of us who've ripped our entire CD/DVD collection to our hard drive or just need a way to quickly test the functionality disc image.

Veronica interviewed WordPress co-founder

Matt Mullenweg about the history of WordPress and the questions you had about the popular open source blogging application.

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of" is ConvertFiles.com. A super useful site that enables you to convert any number of different file formats into a more convenient or accessible format. Need that *.doc file into a *.pdf? No problem. Want to that turn that *.zip into a *.rar? No problem. It's fast easy to use and, best of all, accessible anywhere you have a high speed internet connection. A great tool for anyone computing on the go or on the road.

Oliver urged us to inform our viewers about the ecological benefits of having everyone use Blackle in place of google.com, claiming hundreds of watt hours could be saved this way. Being the sceptic he is Patrick decided to put this hypothesis to the test and you'll be amazed at what he found.

Todd in Tampa, FL had a question about DisplayPort and how it will improve upon his current video card/monitor combo. Is it worth it to spend the $$ on a new video card that's DisplayPort capable or is it just another attempt to squeeze consumers for unnecessary upgrades?

Finally we received an email from Lance about which keyboard shortcut selects the "Don't Save" when you're closing an application in OS X. Short answer Lance, it's the CMD-D combo.

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Free Screen Capture Tool, Thermal Compound Lowers Temps! $1400 Headphones: Sennheiser's HD800 at CanJam! Microsoft Bing, Mikey: Best iPod Mic Ever? HD Camcorders for Bloggers Sanyo vs. Mino HD, Find the perfect movie bathroom break

What's news? Microsoft's Bing may be a 'decision engine,' not a search engine, but it sure feels like Live.com with pretty background imagines.

We're more excited about Google's Wave. First you create a 'wave' then you add people to it. It's a web tool for sharing and collaborating online. We've already signed up for the Wave beta.

$1400 headphones? There was a dogpile on Twitter asking Patrick for a review of Sennheiser's HD800 since he was attending CanJam 2009, Head-Fi.org's most excellent gathering of headphone vendors and enthusiasts.

Patrick talks 'em up on the show, but he'd like some more time for testing in a -quiet- room, and he -really- wants to fact them off against JHAudio's outstanding JH13 'in ear monitors.' (He'd like to get his mitts on a bunch of the DACs and amps at the show, too!)

Looking for something more affordable like @audioper? We've got our favorite headphone and earbud picks from $20 to $70!

Think we should get more into outboard DACS and amps for headphones on the show? Email Tekzilla@revision3.com and we'll go more in depth!

Free Software! This week's pick is BB FlashBack Express, a screen capture utility stuffed with features you usually have to pay for... if you can't afford Camtasia, this is the tool for you!

Is Blue's Mikey microphone the best iPod/iPhone microphone to grace the market, or just more overkill with an iPod dock connector? Watch the show to find out!

A Website We Can't Get Enough Of? This week's pick is RunPee.com, a quirky and extremely helpful website for movie-lovers everywhere. So, you know when you're at a movie, and suddenly that 20oz coke starts working its magic on your bladder? How do you know when is the best time to leave for your potty break? Had you checked RunPee before entering the theater, you'd know exactly when!

Patrick's Core i7 machine runs great at 3.5Ghz, overclocked up from the stock 2.6... but high temps caused the CPU to throttle back to 2GHz.

How do you get the performance back up, or just overclock your CPU higher? Better cooling can help! He swapped the stock Intel cooler for a Zalman 9700... then found out a minor upgrade on his thermal compound dropped temps even more.

The end result? A machine that runs at 3.4GHz even when all the cores are running at 100%. That's a big improvement over 2GHz with the cores at 100%.

BTW, Intel, not being all public about the max temps for Core i7 CPUS? Tres annoying... props to the Puget Systems crew for doing the homework and sharing the word on Core i7 max and recommended operating temperatures.

And, no, don't worry, you're not going to melt your CPU down.. it'll throttle back the speed and shut down long before that.

Would you recommend a Sanyo XACTI CG65 for a beginner video blog? Sure, Martin, but for a lot less money you can get a lot of milage out of one of Flip's Mino HD cameras!

One last thing before we go: your responses to last week's discussion of TrueCrypt!

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Is Antec's Skeleton PC case worth buying? Why gaming mice aren't all created equal. Free and easy data encryption with TrueCrypt, and what's the best connection for external hard drives; USB, FireWire or eSATA.

Veronica is out this week so we asked our dear friend Garnett Lee from 1up.com to join us this episode.

Our first vmail comes from Francois. Francois not only has an unusual accent but a question about the best mice for gaming. According to Garnett Lee gaming mice are decidely not all created equal. His picks include the Logitech G5 Laser Mouse, Razer DeathAdder, and the Microsoft SideWinder X8.

Freebie file this week is Dexpot. A super handy virutal desktop manager that empowers PC users to expand the range of the current desktops onto 20 more virutal ones. Great for thos with way to much on their screens and no desire to purchase a larger screen.

Crazy case mods aside most PC enclosures tend to look like giant rectangles with cables poking out of em. Antec's lastest creation the Skeleton case hopes to change all that with a decidedly unorthodox shape and layout. Find out what Pat thinks about this case as he shares his likes and gripes on this open air design.

Do you love videogames but tired of paying out big bucks for medicore titles? The try GameFly. With plans starting at $15.95 a month, GameFly members can rent one to four games at a time and keep them for as long as you like. Get a special two-week free trial at GameFly.com/Tekzilla.

TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption tool that enables users to create virtual drives with selectable encryption levels that can be stored on hard drive, flash drive or even as an attachment. We walk you through the steps on creating a secure and hidden encrypted TrueCrypt drive that you can use anywhere.

If you're considering purchasing an external hard drive you might be wondering... USB, FireWire, or eSATA. What should you go with and what's the fastest connection? Well after much testing with his Western Digital My Book Pat came to the conclusion that eSATA offered superior bandwidth and speed. FireWire comes in next in performance with USB 2.0 picking up the rear. That said if you're looking at a portable drive based around a notebook drive USB and FireWire both offer power over the connection eliminating the need for a powerbrick.

See ya next week!

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Wolfram Alpha: Are you smart enough? Instant Driver Backup. CPU Temperature Panic: Stop it! Our picks for high performance CPU coolers, streaming events online for free, and the ultimate in castle crushing technology!

Wolfram Alpha is the latest endeavor from famed Mathmatica creator Stephen Wolfram. Not a search but computational engine Wolfram Alpha has great potential as a calculation and analysis tool but some still wonder how practical of a tool it really is.

Matt sent us a video question asking about the best course of action in regards to upgrading his Rambus using PC. Should he go out a purchase the relatively rare and hard to find RDRAM modules or should he just upgrade his motherboard? And if so, what else should he upgrade?

Hazifan's quite worried about the 50 degree Celsius readings coming from his CPU... we talk about CPU temperature monitors, when you should worry, and offer up our favorite brands of CPU coolers.

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Windows 7 is Nagware? Surge Protect Your Whole House, Avoid Reruns, CanJam vs. Maker Faire, Joby Gorillapod, Consoles vs. Big Video Files. Save YouTube Videos

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Keep your gear safe during gnarly travel? Pelican Cases: You can beat on 'em, but your gear will ride softly in these super tough custom padded boxes. Otterboxes work great, too!

CanJam 2009, HeadFi's Head-Fi.org's annual gathering for headphone enthusiasts and the Makre Faire are both May 30th and 31st... Patrick's hitting CanJam in LA on Saturday and the Faire on Sunday, Veronica will be at Maker Faire in San Mateo, only.

And, yes, HeadWize is the most excellent headphone enthusiast site where Patrick first found the ChuMoy Pocket Headphone Amp!

Windows 7 RC 1 is Nagware??? Staring around May 31st, 2010, yes, it will be.

Dual Boot Windows 7 RC1 and XP. Not to worry, Charles, it's easy! There's just one thing we need you to download first: GParted. (Vista users don't even have to do that!)

It's a good idea to back up your data before upgrading or installnig any new OS... or, better yet, image your entire drive first so that if things go desperately wrong, you can re-start right where you left off.

Systm shows you the fast and free way to create a disk image in Cheap and Easy Hard Drive Upgrade, or go whole hog and create a custom rescue and recovery disk instead. Some of our fave tools for this include Easeus Disk-Copy, Macrium Reflect Free, FOG, Clonezilla!

This would also be a good time to download and run Microsoft's "Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser" to see how MS thinks your system stacks up to Windows 7. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

Tekzilla's Gadget of the Week is the Joby Gorillapod, a flexible, bendable, take anywhere tripod! Attach your camera, cellphone, mp3 player or gadget using the mounting plate or sucker and wrap it around signs, trees, or just about anything else. Yuor device will stay right there where you need it!

Been thinking about upgrading to a Intel Core i7 system? You might want to wait a week or two. Patrick just bought one, which means the prices on 'em should drop shortly! Patrick's loading 12 GB of DDR3 RAM into the beast... this isn't his usual $500 PC build!

Looking for a well equipped $500 PC? check out Extremetech.com's Build a $500 Gaming PC which just came out. Good stuff!

SanDisk makes kick ass memory. The Sansa MP3 players have been fine. But slotRadio and > slotMusic? Patrick and Veronica debate their (probably short) future, and Patrick passes on SanDisk's slotRadio Player.

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of" is ReRunCheck.com! It takes all the guesswork out of avoiding reruns. You can even tell RerunCheck to notify you via email when a new episode is coming.

Why can't Curtis play huge HD video files on the PS3 or Xbox 360 ? Because he's not streaming them... both have caps on file sizes you need to watch out for, especially if you've got big long HD Videos! (Hey, Sony, can you make the PS3's maximum videofile size supported info as clear as clear as the 360's on file sizes, please???

Surya wants to save the audio from a YouTube video, but doesn't need the video. Props to Aruturo and George S. who came up with KickYouTube.com. It's not just a great way to quickly download YouTube videos, you can also get MP3s as one of your download options! Viewer Newell says Vixy.net can also save YouTube videos as audio files.

Last week we talked about why you should protect your gear with surge protectors ... ... this week Ben wrote in to tell us, "You can surge protect your entire house. Basically an electrician can install a surge protection system to your electrical panel, which would protect anything in the house that runs from that panel." Thanks for the heads up, Ben, and thanks to Brendan who wrote in to say they can be installed for only $200 to $300.

See ya next week!

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Find Better Apps Fast, Build A DVD Drive For Your Netbook, HD And Stills For Mongol Rally, Windows 7 RC1: Free For a Year!

p>Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Windows 7 Release Candidate 1... you can use the RC for free for at least a year. Woot! Patrick is seriously excited to get his hands on it.

Here's the link to download Windows 7 RC 1 for free!

You're supposed to do a clean install, but if you really want to install the RC over the beta version you're already running, follow these instructions.

Got a Windows 7 question? We'll be talking about the install, dual booting and answering your Windows 7 questions next week, so email tekzilla@revision3.com

Steve sent in a video question from Great Britain... he's on the hunt for a new USB external sound card. Veronica's got her top picks!

Freebie Download: This week's pick is XnView, a great all in one tool to manage, edit, convert and print your digital photos.

Blue Microphones took a great USB microphone and stuffed a retractable netcam inside... we show off the Eyeball on the show.

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of" is AlternativeTo.net... an amazing new site designed to help you find the best 'alternative to' any piece of software out there! Don't settle for lame software ever again!

What kind of gadgets would you bring along if you were driving in the desert for 10,000 miles? Perry's looking for ideas on how to record lots of still pictures and HD video on the upcoming Mongol Rally 2009, and we've got lots of 'em on the show!

"I have a crap load of old computer parts and I was wondering how I could extract gold that I can get some money towards building a supercomputer, lol!!!" You're gonna need a lot of computer parts, Sean, and a high tolerance for cancerous fumes... but you can do it! (We also talk about how to do it the right way thanks to the info on PCRecycler.net!)

It's easy to build an external DVD drive to your Netbook, Steve. You just need to pick up a 5.25 inch external case. We reccomend you spring for a SATA optical drive (optical = CD, DVD or Blu-ray) too, 'cause you'll be able to recycling that external drive in the future. How much? Patrick bought a Vantec NexStar NST-530S2 for $45 from my local computer store

Oh boy... we got some email about the difference between Watts and BTUs... and how to correctly do the math on power consumption and heat.

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Nintendo DSi, Save Plants with the EasyBloom Plant Sensor, Send A Telegram, GetGlue "the network that sticks to you!" Heat Your Home with PCs: Your Answers.

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

Veronica's all excited about blackberry DigitalSoaps, herbs from her Kitchen Gardener and GetGlue.

Buying American? Etsy rocks for handmade crafts... that's where V. found the soaps.

"The network that sticks to you" GetGlue is all about finding and sharing stuff you're into, like books, movies, tv shows, whatever. Check it out!

Robbie wants to make a Photographic mosaic, aka, a Photomosaic, which is actually a term trademarked by an MIT educated artist, Robert Silvers. Whatever you call it, it's a photo recreated using lots of other tiny photos!

There are dozens of photographic mosaic tools... Veronica says there are two great free ones: AndreaMosaic, on Windows and MacOSaix for OS X!

The Gadget of the Week is Nintendo's DSi! Nintendo's managed to update and extend the capabilities of the Nintendo DS without screwing up what makes it the most popular handheld gaming device out there!

It's not his usual product review, but Patrick was impressed with the Lincoln MKS, even if he his testbed didn't have Adaptive Cruise Control. Voice controls using Ford's SYNC worked great for anything but dialing names on his cell, and the sound system was outstanding, and the Adaptive HID Headlights even helped save a local San Francisco cat.

This week's Website We Just Can't Get Enough of is Telegram Stop, a site that allows you to create and send, via snail mail, of course, your very own personalized telegram. Tres fun, it make your correspondence look like it's from a bygone era with artificial aging, it's something physical that you can hold onto and cherish, which makes them great for special occasions.

Trying to green your black thumb? Veronica gives the thumbs up to the EasyBloom Plant Sensor she's been testing at home. It can help you pick the right plants (or right place to plant!), monitor soil and sunlight conditions, even beep to tell you your plants need some H20!

Surge protectors: should you spend your cash on one? "Are they telling the truth, are my electronics really in danger from the normal everyday dips and spikes in power?" Paul, that's a great question... Patrick explains why we're pro surge protectors on this show. (Just buy a name brand!)

Last week we threw you, the audience, a question from Jeb about reusing his old PCs as space heaters for his back room... wow, did you have some ideas, and running Folding@home 24/7 was key in quite a few of 'em!

Like the MythBusters? Be sure to check out Episode 67 of The Digg Reel! Andrew paid a visit to the Mythbusters headquarters across the bay. It was awesome!

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Manage all your passwords painlessly. Sub-$200 GPS Pick! Stop yourself from visiting a website too often. Dump RAID 1 for RAID 0... or entirely?

Welcome to Tekzilla... hands on reviews of the latest tech, and how to make the most out of the gear you already own!

The Kindle 2: Reviewed. How does Amazon's latest e-reader hold up to a thousand miles of road trip and hotels with Patrick and his family?

Patrick listed the places he hit on vacation with his family last week here and here and here and here here ...major mileage mixed with lots of National Parks!

Hacking back into your iPod when you've forgotten the screen lock code: put your iPod into disk mode, delete a single file and you're back in your iPod!

Miriam's buying a sub-$200 GPS and wants some help picking one out. Patrick just picked up one of Garmin's discontinued nüvi 260W on the cheap at Costco when his iPhone's GPS stopped working early on in the trip... he also makes the call on models from Tom Tom and more.

Careful shopping is critical when you're buying a GPS... we give you the traps to watch out for on the show!

Looking for great deals on a GPS? Keep an eye on the Steals & Deals box in the upper left hand corner at GPSLodge.com.

The Free Progam Of The Week is Xvid for PSP, a one stop shop for transcoding videos to play on your hardware. Don't let the name confuse you, this program works for just about anything, the Xbox, PS3, PSP, cellphones, iPods, even the AppleTV. It does a great job, it's easy to set up, and it's free!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of" is KeepMeOut.com the perfect solution for people who want a gentle reminder that they should be getting their butt in gear instead of spending all your time on a particular website... if it can keep Veronica from overdosing on Facebook, imagine what it can do for you!

Sure, moving from RAID 1 to RAID 0 should give you a bump in performance... but isn't it time to just dump RAID entirely?

Except RAID 5 for storage... we love the ability to recover the lost data from a dead drive!

We just wish it was as easy to do on most RAID boxes as it is to do with a Drobo!

Password Management? Max wants something simple to manange the tons of passwords that everybody in his family needs to keep track of... He loves KeePass, running off a thumb drive, but fears it might be a tad too technical for some of his family.

Veronica's call on the Mac would be Keychain.

LastPass works great for Mac, PC and Linux, but some folks (like Max!) don't trust online password storage...

So she suggests he check out RoboForm. It comes in free and pro versions, but for all intents and purposes the free application will be fine for you, although the pro version does support multiple user accounts, which might be handy if your family doesn't want other members to be able to log into their sites!

Using gadgets overseas: Phil's going to Germany for almost 2 months: how many Watts will his 220V to 120V converter need to be? Veronica's got some hands on experience with powering US electronics when you travel internatinoally!

Jeb's looking to turn an old pile of PCs into a space heater for his home... he's obviously getting his geek on here. Any ideas on how many average desktop towers he'll need to replace an 1800W space heater? Email your ideas to tekzilla@revision3.com!

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Kevin Rose steps in as co-host while Patrick is out on vacation. We show off the upcoming Seesmic Desktop which puts other Twitter apps to shame, how to upscale SD to HD, how to get the highest quality from the videos uploaded to YouTube, the best way to partition a new 1.5TB hard drive and showcase a site that gives you commercial software free and legal!

Steve out in New Mexico picked up a new 1.5TB drive. Should he leave as one fat partition or should he slice up into multiple chunks, and if he should what should those partitions be? If it's gonna be for data storage you can leave it alone. If he plans on using it as an install drive best to have at least 2 partitions one for the OS and another for data. Never use, however, a second or third partition as a backup for your data. If the drive goes everything on it goes too.

This week's Website We Can't Get Enough Of Giveaway of the Day. A great site that helps publishers promote their software titles by offering free versions of software for a limited time. Free software keys and downloads just for the day or as long as the publisher wants!

Aaron and Ferooz had questions about getting the best possible quality on their YouTube video uploads. Although YouTube uses flash it's probably no the ideal format to upload to YouTube. Ideally you want to send the highest quality video. There's a nifty guideline to the whole process here.

Another Steve had a question about upscaling his SD TiVO to an HD resolution. The best method is to use an standalone video processor with upscaling capabilities. Unfortunately they're pretty pricey and your still massaging SD video. For something cheaper you can go with a plain upscaler like the ones Gefen offers.

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Tekzilla Live at @Web 2.0! Evan Williams, Twitter CEO, Are SSDs ready for prime time? Best 4x6 Photo Printer, Waterproof iPhone cases, TypeTester, Free Audio Editing Software.

We had a chance to do a rare live shoot from Web 2.0 Expo!

Twitter CEO Evan Williams, aka @Ev was kind enough to join Veronica for an interview using questions you sent in!

Patrick talks about the amazingly fast Intel X25-M, unlike some drives, and why it could slow down over time...

you might not see a slow down, tho, and, the slow downs are -only- on writes, not reads and only w/ heavy use...

... if you're seriously curious about Solid State Drive performance, check out Anand's epic write up: The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ

We challenged SquareSpace to show off their tools live, so a one of their guys in New York is editing a website of someone we picked in line who needed some major revamping of their website. Check it out at tekzillalive.squarespace.com!

The Website of the Week is: Typetester.org, which lets you choose from a list of fonts, from safe fonts that work on all OSes to Windows, Mac, and even Vista default fonts. You can then change how they appear in the column, by choosing which background color you want, the column width, whether or not the text is bold... the options are very customizable. Best of all, you can see three different fonts with various options selected at the same time!

Freebie Software Pick: You keep asking for a great audio editing program... it must be time to remind everybody about the amazing Audacity! It's free. It's open source. It runs on Windows, OS X and Linux. You can mix multiple tracks, edit audio w/ cut, copy and paste, apply digital effects, remove noise, convert your records or cassettes... and a whole lot more!

Are cheap HDMI cables safe? Interesting question, Jeremy. More often than not, you won't see a difference between the cheapest cable at MonoPrice.com (we own a lot of their low priced cables) and some platinum plated $400 thing from the audiophile shop... but if you want a great source of branded certified cables -they even have American made cables- check out BlueJeansCable.com. (Like MonoPrice, they've got just about every kind of AV cable under the sun!)

Mark's shopping for a new 4x6 photo printer. Epson's PictureMate is our favorite. It's still the printer to beat according to our fave printer reviewer, PCMag.com's M. David Stone. He gave us a heads up on Canon's Selphy CP760 and 780, a low cost (and very compact) series for 4x6 dye sublimation printers.

Looking for a printer? Check out more of David's printer reviews.

How do you waterproof your iPhone? You could try a gallon ZipLock bag, @Tartalk, but we've got some better ideas for you in the show... and many of the companies have cases for iPods, too.

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LeVar Burton Loves Twitter! GDC 2009: Garnett Lee wraps it up. USB Charger Help, Wireless N Speed Woes, and more!

LeVar Burton! Veronica talks to LeVar about social media, hollywood and his new play.

Garnett Lee gives us the deets from the 2009 GDC, include his take on OnLive.

USB chargers for your cell phone: should an USB power source work?

Free Software: MailStore Home

Website of the Week: OnwerIQ!

MacBook Pro: hard drive update vs. warranty...

More!

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SmartDefrag, Jeff Cannata from the Totally Rad Show joins us, MacBook vs. MacBook Pro vs. CS4, Never Say "Crap! I Missed It!" Again!

DigitalSoaps? Veronica Belmont gives Patrick Norton a heads up on soap in the shape of all different kinds of game controllers! NES, Xbox, Playstation, you name it. Veronica got the last blackberry one in stock! (And Patrick and Veronica both love Etsy!)

Tekzilla is doing a live audience show at Web 2.0 Expo here in San Francisco. We'll be shooting the show 3:30 PM April 2nd and hanging out afterward... If you want to catch a rare live Tekzilla... here's your chance to do so!

Our first question o' the day is all about upgrading your notebook: James is looking for better performance running CS4 and LightRoom2. Will a dedicated graphics card in a more expensive notebook make a difference? Sure, on Windows or Mac notebook, that NVIDIA GeForce 9400M will accelerate some functions in CS4, but we think you might go with a MacBook Pro over a MacBook just for the extra screen real estate ... CS4 is pretty cramped on a small screen!

That said, if you're the 'buy a notebook and run it for five years' type, you might want to hold out till later in 2009 when the Mobile Core i7, aka Clarksfield notebooks should hit the street.

WE LOVE VIDEO QUESTIONS! And they're so easy to make: record yourself in front a video camera asking a question. Make sure it's no longer than 15 seconds. Up load your question to YouTube, then email us the link to your fabulous video question with "Video Question" in the subject line. We can't wait to see your question on Tekzilla!

This week's Freebie Download is Smart Defrag, an excellent free defragging tool for your PC that includes "always-on" Auto Defrag, a scheduling tool, battery power setting for laptop users, the ability to skip files based on size, a range of startup options and the ability to auto shutdown when you have super lengthy defraggin sessions. Sweet!

Set top media players, such as Windows Media Extenders, Apple TV, Popcorn Hour, Roku... it's all about being networked, right? Not if you're Seagate or Western Digital, then it's all about selling hard drives! And hard drive players are pretty useful if you already have a large media collection, or just want to control what the kids can watch.

We mentioned the new round of Hard Drive Media Players back at CES and you've been asking for reviews, so we face off Western Digital's WD TV and Seagate's FreeAgent Theater on the show.

Can a $349 surround sound bar sound good? Yes, if it's Vizio's VSB210WS Sound Bar With Wireless Subwoofer, tho we still won't mistake a soundbar for a full 7.1 surround system.

This Week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of" is Crap! I Missed It! a website that allows you to keep track of your favorite musician's album releases, concerts, video games, movies, sporting events, YouTube videos, TV shows and even book releases by authors you love. Way cool, especially since no matter how many categories you subscribe to, you'll only get one email a day.

The Game Developers Conference or GDC is taking place this week... in San Francisco's Moscone Center. Totally Rad Show's Jeff Cannata is there covering the event and we asked him to give us the low down whats happening at this year.

Don't forget to catch more of Jeff on TRS... if you like movies, TV shows and video games you're gonna love The Totally Rad Show. New episodes every Tues @ 3pm eastern time!

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Get the best OTA reception for DTV or HDTV, update all your social networking sites at once! Avoid disaster: backup your iTunes music, copy the tunes off your iPod and build a custom recovery CD! Plus, does Windows 7 Need 8GB of Memory?

Getting quality over the air (OTA) HD reception is heavily dependent on the antenna that you have and your location. A good resource to checkout is AntennaWeb. Put together by the CEA and NAB it locates the right antenna you need for you particular geographic location.

Apple released yet another new iPod Shuffle. This third generation iPod Shuffle sports and even slimmer profile and uses a very unique set of earbuds/headphones which makes using non 3rd gen specific earphones incompatible with the device. The reason? The controls for the pint sized music player are now located on the headphone cord.

Tim had a question about which antenna pick that would best receive over the air (OTA) HD reception for his HDTV. Now getting quality over the air (OTA) HD reception is heavily dependent on the antenna that you have and your location. A good resource to checkout is AntennaWeb. Put together by the CEA and NAB it locates the right antenna you need for you particular geographic location.

This week's Freebie File is Macrium Reflect FREE Edition. This handy little tool makes creating disk images a snap and if you need to burn out a system restore CD Macrium Reflect FREE Edition gives you the option of creating either a Linux based one or through the use of a BartPE plug-in and BartPE boot CD.

Orad was worried about losing his iTunes collection and wanted to know ho to backup his iTunes library. Veronica suggested getting an external hard drive that can hold the contents of your entire library. Unless youlike burning CD or DVD after CD or DVD. You'll also want to copy the entire contents of the iTunes folder, including the Album Art folder and iTunes Music Library.xml file. This is of course assuming that you have the "Keep iTunes folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" check in the iTunes preferences.

Speaking of iTunes Nathan wanted to clear away the detritus that now fills his iPod Nano and start fresh. Thankfully the process is pretty painless. Literally plug your iPod into your computer, launch iTunes, then select your iPod under 'devices'. Now in the middle of the summary page you'll see a button labeled restore. Click that button and you'll have a iPod that's back to it's original factory settings. Be warned you will permanently delete all your music off the device!! Make sure you have a backup!

Movie Of The Week is  I Like Killing Flies... watch it for free if you take a no-risk two week free trial membership at www.netflix.com/tekzilla!

This week's Website We Can't Get Enough Of The Vintage Web. The Vintage Web is Veronica's latest web endeavor shamelessly promoted on today's show. This Tumblr blog points out those websites with outdated and garish designs that showcase why people should take a design class before the build a website. Subsisting on the submissions of readers, who can send in your picks to thevintageweb@gmail.com. And did I mention this is a shameless self-promotion effort by Veronica Belmont?

"Is there a single application or widget to be able to do one post and send it to Blogger, Facebook and Twitter ? That way you only have to post once, and it shows up on these multiple platforms ? Mac or Windows version." Great question, David! Veronica says Ping.FM is the natural choice, given that you need to work with Blogger. It will let you update about a million different ways, including IM, TXT and email, or just by visiting the ping.fm site and typing in your status update. Then you can choose which other social networks you want ping to relay the message to.

For the non-Blogger people, HelloTxt is another great microblogging syndication tool. It'll even let your schedule when you want your updates to go out!

Patrick's still wading thru the giant dogpile of responses to his question for the audience about organizing photo collections. A lot of folks love iPhoto and Picasa... but the strongest responses are from folks that want him to move to Aperture, or Lightroom.

In the words of viewer Paul, " Organizing by files is sooo old school and last century. It's time to move forward into the future by harnessing the power of the database! It's the difference between thinking about items individually vs. thinking about them as part of a collection. Let iPhoto worry about where files go and how they are organized on your hard drive. "

Thanks for all your responses!

4GB of CL4 DDR2-800 or 8GB of CL5 DDR2-800... Nick, you should go for the 8 GB of memory. It's almost the same price, and if you move to 64-bit Vista -or Windows 7- you should get a delightful boost in performance, especially if you use lots of memory hungry applications.

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Should you spin down Hard Drives? Descratching CDs and DVDs, New Cameras from PMA 2009, Lightbox Free Image Editor, View web pages in Email, Zardoz!

If you haven't backed up your most important files... do it. Right now. Seriously. While you're watching. Go!!!

Watchmen movie hype meter check: Veronica and Roger loved it. (AndiFanboy interviewed the cast!)

Is there an advantage to spinning down your hard drives, Will? You'll save a few watts of energy, for sure... we could argue about how much wear and tear you'll save! (Especially since one of your five drives, the WD VelociRaptor has a MTBF of 1.4 million hours, or almost 160 years!)

More importantly if your run a PC with a lot of components crammed inside you can cut down on HEAT.

This week's Freebie download pick is the LightBox Free Digital Image Editor! You can snap a dozen digital pictures in seconds, but correcting them can take forever, especially if you're intimidated by traditional photo editing tools like Photoshop, the GIMP, or Paint.NET., you should check out LightBox Free. The 'Quick Edit' mode in this imaged editor is amazingly easy to use, thanks to easy to use sliders and real time corrections... it even works with RAW files!

Digital camera maven Lori Grunin has the word on new camera tech coming out this year... she's back from PMA 2009, the biggest convention in digital imaging!

Get more PMA 2009 news, and Lori's Best 5 Digital Cameras.

Lori's pick for the best budget digital camera under $200? It costs $109 online, takes amazing pictures, and it's the Canon PowerShot A590 IS .

This week's Website We Can't Get Enough Of is Webinmail... it does one thing, and does it well: sends you web pages to your Outlook, Outlook Express or Blackberry device! What's so cool about that? How about browsing a website or running a search at work or school that you don't want people to know about!

Do CD/DVD Radial Cleaners really work? Are motorized cleaners ($200) worth the money or can I get away with a manual cleaner ($15)? Jason, if you're talking cleaning CDs, don't spend a dime. Just get a soft cloth and, well, watch the show for some ideas on what to use for cleaning fluid!

If you're removing scratches from the surface of a disk, we go with one of two basic tools: toothpaste and a soft cloth, or an inexpensive motorized tool like the SkipDr... tho we covet one of RTI's DiscCheck Repair Systems... they're only, what $6000 or so!

Speaking of getting batteries of your remotes (and other devices)... Elias and Super Stevo wrote in with a very handy tip: wrap some Scotch tape around the batteries to make little pull tabs!

Hey video game fans!! Revision 3 is excited to announce our latest show,Co-Op, a brand new show all about video games from the guys who brought you the 1UP video game show. Each week they will gather a group of top video game journalists and developers to talk everything games. Check it out every Tuesday at Revison3.com!

WE LOVE VIDEO QUESTIONS! Record yourself in front a video camera asking a question no longer than 15 seconds. Upload your question to YouTube, then email us the link to your fabulous video question with "Video Question" in the subject line!

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DVRs Without Subscriptions Fees, Dump That VCR! When To Retire Rechargeable Batteries, BuzzFeed.com, Consoles and Surround Sound Speakers!

How do you transfer Digital Video Recorder recordings to your PC? Chances are, you'll need to use the 'analog loophole" especially if it's a cable or satellite box, even tho it sounds like you'll be able to plug that eSATA drive right into your PC after you load it up!

Getting surround sound out of your xbox and into... PC speakers? Is such a thing possible? Sure... but you might have to buy more hardware if your speakers won't decode Dolby Digital or include a built power amps.

Watchmen (the movie): They showed the first 20 minutes at WonderCon 2009, where very own resident curmudgeon, Roger Chang, was a) thrilled by the preview and b) got busy photographing the cosplay.

You can find Roger's pictures on his Wondercon 2009 Flickr feed, and here's a link for more from the United Underworld crew from UC Berkeley!

What's your favorite way to organize photos? Patrick's been re-organizing a vast messy collection of 3 years of photos by date and subject, and he's curious how other folks do it. Email your ideas to tekzilla@revision3.com, with 'organizing photos' in the subject line! Thanks!

Freebie Download Pick: This week's pick is Super AntiSpyware, a simple no nonsense spyware cleaner will scrub your Windows drives from top to bottom filtering out registered offenders and removing them.

Did somebody mention using external drives with DVR boxes so you can record more movies? Attaching an external 750GB drive to Patrick's DirecTV HR21 made it useful for recording HD movies - he could record close to 3X as much!- but he's ready to go to a 1.5TB or 2.0TB hard drive as quick as he can!

Another Website We Can't Get Enough Of: BuzzFeed.com! If Veronica puts a link on Twitter these days, and it's not technology-related, chances are she found it on BuzzFeed. This site is a repository for memes on the internet, from videos about to go viral to adorable pictures of great danes licking kittens, to some of the breaking world news and gossip that's heating up the tubes.

Cahill's looking for something to replace the VCR he uses to record a few hours of TV every week. He doesn't want to pay a monthly fee, so TiVo is out, and VCR/DVD recorders seem clunky... he wants to get away from needing stacks of blank media. Veronica's vote is to turn a computer into Home Theater PC that can act as a Digital Video Recorder.

Elgato EyeTV is the way to go on OS X, Windows Media Center is available for XP and Vista and does a great job as a DVR. Other decent Windows options include Yahoo! Go for TV and SnapSteam's Beyond TV.

Thinking DVR for Linux? MythTV, the Open Source DVR is the way to go... Systm even did a whole episode on building a Free Media Center From A Junk PC.

Want more free DVR software ideas?

When is it time to retire rechargeable batteries? Lauren, we've got some ideas for you, and, frankly, we're annoyed with having to pry batteries of of remote controls and other devices, too! If you do have to pry, a spudger can be a lot less painful than using your nails!

Andrew mailed in with some info on how much bandwidth he's consuming after dumping satellite TV for getting all his TV over his Internet connection: 21GB a month, watching 4-5 hours of TV a day via Hulu, Netflix, Revision3 (on the Adobe Media Player), along with "several racing torrents that are not available in the US." Thanks, Andrew... we bet you're not watching a ton of HD!

Looking for a magical blend of taste and refreshment? Then check out Veronica's custom Tea Blend, Bearonica's Berry Zinger is just the thing.... check it out at Adagio.com/Tekzilla!

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New Cell Phones from Mobile World Congress, Pick Hubble's Next Mission, Recycle Anything With Earth911, Veronica vs. Cornify, Rechargable Battery Recco!

"What can I expect to happen now that I'm using my Internet for my sole means of television?" Great question from Daniel, especially given his ISP's miserly 40GB per month bandwidth cap. We run the number on Hulu, Revision3, Netflix and their ilk... barring a serious 8 hour a day HD video addiction, we think Daniel's probably going to do OK.

We're also feeling much better about our ISP's 250GB cap!

Want to turn the Kbps a video stream is measured into the GB your ISP caps you with? Patrick recommends the Forret.com Bandwidth Conversion Calculator!

The Dropkick Murphys rocked live, in case you were wondering. Patrick and Veronica have some good emergency earplug tricks for the next time you find yourself sans ear protection at a punk rock show.

Freebie Software: This week's pick is Duplicate Cleaner: just select the drive or folder you wish to rid of duplicated files, adjust (if you wish) search parameters based on file info, even preview images before you delete 'em. It's a super effective and super free way to ensure your make the most of your limited hard drive space!

Cell phones? GSMA Mobile World Congress is where big announcements in the cell phone industry get dropped! Our fave cell phone expert, Sascha Segan joins us with the big stories from the Barcelona conference!

We're talking 8 Megapixel Cell Phone Cameras, the return of Windows Mobile, and even some insider info on the difficulty of developing with Google Android!

This Week's Website We Can't Get Enough Of is Cornify, the Internet's #1 resource for unicorns and rainbows, and something that has to be seen to be believed... it will brighten up any website!

Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172... Star-Forming Region: NGC 6334... Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274.... are three of six potential missions listed at YouDecide.HubbleSite.org: NASA's letting you vote on the Hubble Telescope's next mission!

And NASA were kind enough to loan us an astronomer, Dr. Frank Summers, to answer the Hubble Space Telescope questions you sent in!

Last week Mark was on the hunt for a place to recycle alkaline batteries and electronics around Cheyenne WY... Andrew, wrote in "I stumbled upon a Earth911.comrecently when I was trying to find out where I could recycle some old computers and cds. They have all the local recycling places for electronics and just about anything else recyclable. Hope this helps..." It did! Earth911 is an amazing resource. Thanks Andrew!

Speaking of batteries... we got an email from Chad, a sailor that can't believe we're not using rechargable batteries in our studio, and is wondering just what in the heck we're running here! Don't worry, Chad, Patrick loves his Energizer e2 Rechargable batteries almost as much as you do... and we're looking into breaking TV tradition and checking out rechargables. Back in the NiCad days, tho, they just wouldn't cut it.

Looking for a magical blend of taste and refreshment? Then check out Veronica's custom Tea Blend, Bearonica's Berry Zinger is just the thing.... check it out at Adagio.com/Tekzilla!

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How good is a $200 HD Camcorder? We've got Creative's Vado, Flip's mino HD and Kodak's Zi6! Tip Of My Tongue .... find that word you just can't remember. Recycling Alkaline Batteries. Your WHS Questions!

Stuttering jerky HD content on YouTube? Bummer, Zach! His machine is more than capable, our big question is if he's got the bandwidth to maintain a constant bitrate to stream. It could also be Flash player issues, a bad video encode, or problems with your browser... try re-installing Flash and updating your browser first!

Then download the video you're having problems with using a service like KEEPVID.com or browser plugin to save the clips to your desktop. If they play fine there, chances are you have a problem with your Internet connection.

A DIY tripod for your pocket camera or camcorder for less than 2 bucks? It's the Soda Bottle Tripod!

Freebie Download? This week's pick is WinPatrol. Plenty of things need tweaking in Windows. All to often they require you to run one more app to tweak. Enter WinPatrol. This handy little program lets you perform a multitude of PC maintenance and modding tasks through a simple user interface. File Type Associations, Cookie Filters, Managing Startup Programs, Delaying the launch of apps to speed up startup... it does way to much to mention here... just download it and check it out!

Pocket HD Camcorders? The Creative Vado HD Flip mino HD and the Kodak Zi6 all street under or around $200, capture 720p video and fit in your pocket. Which one captures the best looking audio and video? Which one is the best for you? Watch the show to find out!

Website We Can't Get Enough Of: This week's pick is Tip Of My Tongue a web app you'll be praising when it helps you remember that word you've been trying to think of for hours!

Our Windows Home Server Challenge, brought to you by HP's MediaSmart Server powered by Microsoft Windows Home Server continues with raft of your questions... everything from setting up a common iTunes library, remote backup, if the WHS OS supports software RAID, and why you need to be careful when you add new hard drives to a WHS box!

Where are the benchmark numbers, Patrick??? Our top transfer has been 10.992 megabytes per second... aka 87.83 megabits per second... which seems kinda low is the top speed so far... so I'm re-doing a bunch of testing!

Last week Veronica thought the new multiple inboxes in Gmail were The Big Lame... she still does (multiple inboxes from multiple address's please!) but likes the kluge that Paul sent in to help Gmail "almost do what people want!"

"What is the proper way to recycle alkaline and other electronic items." Great question, Mark! Unfortunately, you'll have to search around your hometown of Cheyenne, Wy. While there are tons of places that recycling old electronics and -especially- rechargeable batteries, recycling Alkaline batteries and other electronic goodies can be a lot tougher, and it varies a lot from state to state and town to town.

The Battery Disposal Guide for Households and Call2Recycle's website can be a big help, as can calling your local recycle/refuse hauler and electronics shops.

In theory, most modern Alkaline batteries can go into the dump 'cause they no longer have mercury in them... we'd love to hear any and all suggestions of ways to recycle them properly instead! Email your ideas to tekzilla@revision3.com. Thanks!

We love your email questions, but we love video questions even more! Just keep it to 15 secs, upload to your YouTube account and send us the link in an email with "Video Question" in the subject line.

One last thing: Checkout Veronica's magical blend of taste and refreshment, "Bearonica's Berry Zinger" tea, at Adagio.com/Tekzilla. Adagio also has teapots, teaware and other unique loose leaf teas. Check 'em out!

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Can you cure a Broken Ethernet Port? New Notebook: should I wait for Core i7 Mobile? NanoVision MiMo 7 inch USB Monitor, Wubi, Unetbootin, PuppyLinux, Mint Linux

Amazon's announced the thinner lighter kindle2 ebook, $359, and Veronica's got her credit card ready to go ... she read Anathem on the original... find out why she loves the kindle2 on the show!

Use Google Calendar? Got a Windows Mobile handheld or iPhone? You'll be thrilled that Google Mobile Sync!

Ehternet port broken on your friend's notebook, Oliver? That's a tough fix, but we've got some ideas for you!

Our Freebie File o' The Week is Free File is AxCrypt, a free and easy way to drop 128-bit AES encryption onto any file on your Windows machine. It won't do folders or drives but if you need keep a few files secure without a hassle, then check outAxCrpyt!

Announcements for little 7 inch USB monitors have been getting posted all over the Internet... we got one in for testing. MiMo's UM-710 costs $130, gets both power and video from a pair of USB ports (it uses DisplayLink technology so it works with Windows and OS X) and works great for a few control panels or an app like TweetDeck. The killer app, tho, might be using the UM0740, which packs a touchscreen, to control a CarPC or Home Theater box!

Website We Can't Get Enough Of: Dingitsup.com! This is definitely one of those sites that doesn't do much, but it does it's one job incredibly well. Ding It's Up will tell you, either by text message, email or Twitter, that the website of your choosing has either gone down, or alternately, popped back up again!

The Windows Home Server is brought to you by the HP MediaSmart Server powered by Microsoft Windows Home Server... on this episode, Roger goes over the parts for his Windows Home Server along with setting up and installing the WHS, while Patrick talks about Windows Home Server Add-Ins.

TKTK Robert came calling for advice for the Linux Noob, and, true to form, you guys had the best responses! Your top picks included the Wubi installer for Windows, Unetbootin, which creates bootable Live USB drives for a variety of Linux distributions from Windows or Linux, without requiring you to burn a CD either. Puppy Linux boots live from a thumdrive or disk, and can run entirely in RAM, while Mint Linux has built-in media codecs, and is constantly updated.

Thanks for all the great info, Linux Peeps!

Should Riyad wait for Core i7 to buy his next notebook? Depends on how bad he needs a new notebook... Intel's mobile version of the Core i7, aka "Clarsfield" won't be going mobile till the second half of 2009 at the earliest!

Our beloved marketing folks are conducting a survey to get some additional information about our viewers. We would love your feedback. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do us a favor and take the survey at: revision3 com slash tekzilla survey. You'll score a sneak peak at a new show Revision3 is working on in thanks!

What woman doesn't like a gift with another woman's face on it! OK, maybe Veronica's new custom Tea Blend at Bearonica's Berry Zinger would be a better gift for the boys out there on Valentine's day. No?

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Dump your cable modem for WiMAX? iSquint, FeedFlix, Windows 7 Beta: better than Vista. HP MediaSmart Server vs. DIY = Windows Home Server Challenge.

Our buddy from Garnett Lee joins us... Veronica's traveling this week!

Garnett's in love with his G1 Android cell phone... and he's totally stoked about Cupcake!

A low power PC to put in a race car, say, for navigation and engine monitoring? Heat is less of an issue than vibration, Rusty, and power consumption on mini-itx/microATX motherboards varies a lot, 'cause they can mount anything from a Via processor to the latest core-2 duos... but it'll still be a lot less than a single 10 inch driving light!

Check out Mini-Box or MP3Car.com for more ideas for Car PCs!

This week's Freebie Download is iSquint, a fast OS X tool that will take almost any video format under the sun and convert into an iPod compatible format.

"Can you do a segment on Windows Home Server showing how it works, building your own or using an HP MediaSmart Server?" Sure, Scott!

Matter of fact, HP challenged us to build up something better from scratch, so welcome to the Windows Home Server Challenge, brought to you by the HP MediaSmart Server, powered by Microsoft Windows Home Server!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of!" is FeedFlix, the ultimate accessory for any Netflix account. FeedFlix tracks you stats, will email you if you've kept a movie for too long, will tell you how much you pay per movie (with and without your Instant Watch activity), let you access all your reviews in a single page, and more!

Windows 7 Beta? Patrick and Roger are digging it, even on slower machines! We walk you thru the new toolbar, libraries, the device stage and more on the show!

Garnett gives us the heads up on Windows 7 gaming, too!

Join Veronica, Patrick, Roger and Serafina in our GoToMeeting... just sign up for GoToMeeting using the code Tekzilla, and join us Friday, February 6th at 10AM PST!

Zach wants to ditch his current Internet connection for a wireless connection... should he hold out for WiMAX, or go with EVDO?

"Is there a legal way to play PC games without the CD or DVD in the drive?" Have you thought about an online game service like Steam or Stardock's Impulse? Generally, Eric, there's no legit way to of getting around games that require a CD/DVD in the drive... but it can be done.

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Wireless photo transfer, triple your iPhone battery life, your first Linux distro, what to watch out for when you build your first Core i7 machine!

"Would you do a review of the Eye-Fi memory cards?" SD/SDHC memory cards with built in WiFi to move JPG photos wirelessly off you camera? Geotagging built in to the Explore model? We tell you all about 'em, Scott!

Bob's looking to build a system around a Core i7 processor... what's the deal with picking DDR 3 memory to go with it? We've got deets, from triple bank to timing issues, to the joy of 6GB of RAM!

iPhone Battery packs: tired of the battery life on the iPhone 3G? You'll love our mini-roundup of batteries from Mophie, FastMac and the not-so-iPhone specific Solio solar chargers.

PC Laptop Recommendation: Richard is leaving the world o' Apple and wants some suggestions on his first laptop in 10 years. Veronica's got a few for him.

And more!

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Can you stream HD movies over a Powerline Network? GParted, Geotagging Photos: we've got several different ways to do it. Xbench, Will old movies and TV shows look good in Blu-ray?

Wow... CES is really over! We're back home, rarin' to go, and feeling bad for everybody getting laid off with Circuit City closing.

On the upside, we're impossibly stoked about the final half season of Battlestar Galactica... was Sometimes A Great Notion nuts, or what?

Daniel didn't get our excitement over wireless power at CES... we want anywhere thru the air charging, too, but the charging stations (and counters and walls!) are a start!

Free Partitioning Tools... that are non-destructive? Brian, you're going to love GParted, the Gnome Partition Editor. It does non-destructive partitioning, works on just about any drive format you can think off... and has a graphical interface that doesn't cause users to spontaneously burst into tears.

This week's Freebie Download Pick is Xbench, a spiffy free benchmarking tool for OS X. CPU, memory, disk, graphics... find out how much that new hard drive or RAM makes your Mac!

Kevin's wondering if Ethernet over power lines, aka powerline networking would work better than 802.11g for HD content streaming to a PS3. In theory, it should kick ass over 802.11g. Check out HD Streaming Smackdown: Draft 11n vs. Powerline to see where the real world differs from theory.

BTW, we'd use use 802.11n, not 802.11g.

Website We Can't Get Enough Of? Veronica's says save yourself some uncomfortable facetime, and use NiceCritic.com, to tell a co-worker or friend something embarrassing or uncomfortable. Things like "The aroma of alcohol on your breath is apparent, or to "Please refrain from picking at your skin when in the company of others."

Ryan saw the cool geotagging features in iPhoto '09, and he's looking for cameras that include GPS. Answer: there aren't many, tho Veronica found the Nikon Coolpix P6000 has GPS built in for $500, or GE's $200 E1050 (which has a fascinating implementation of GPS ).

For a little bit less money, you can attach a GPS unit to your camera or cable a GPS reciever to your camera to sync coordinates with your pictures.

If you have a GPS device, you can geotag your photos from your track using software like RoboGEO. Or you manually create the data by using Google Earth and Picasa or Geotagger.

Lot's of interesting discussion at the Flickr geotagging group!

"As more and more older Movies and TV Shows get released on Blu-Ray, are we getting upscaled versions that are better than original but not true HD?" Good question, Andrew, and it all depends on the source material, and the quality of the transfer. Must stuff shot on film, which is just about everything made back 'in the day,' has more than enough 'resolution' to make good use of 1080p on Blu-ray!

And, yes, Corey, you are correct. No matter what Patrick said at CES, AAAA batteries are not new!

Got a tech question, a product you want to see reviewed, something cool you think the Tekzilla audience needs to know about? Email us! Tekzilla@Revision3.com.

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We've got one last collection of products from CES, from defrag software to new cell phone tech, Josh Topolsky from Engadget and quite a bit more!

We couldn't drag everything we wanted over to the stage for the live shows from CES... so here are the rest of our picks from the show floor at CES 2009!

Thanks again to NBC Universal for sharing their stage and Internet access with us while were at CES 2009!

Sascha Segan, lead Cell Phone Analyst for PCMag.com gives us his take on the Palm Pre (it's really all about the WebOS!), new MobileTV standards, the fact that stereo Bluetooth is dead and his love for the Logic Wireless Bolt.

Creative's Vado HD, $299, records 720p HDTV on a camcorder the size of a deck of cards and can post directly to online video services like YouTube.

Handheld projectors like 3M's MPro 110, $359, were all over the place at CES. With 7 lumens, you'll need a resonably dim room to see the 640x480 video from this projector. In the future, expect the MM 220 module to be built into cell phones.

LG Watch Phone: we don't know if it will ever see production, but the two way video conferencing designed into this phone watch is super tempting! LG says it'll hit the streets in Europe in late 2009! We can haz?

Choose your city in the iFM iPhone app and you'll all the data for whatever is playing on the local FM station you pick. Way cool!

GiiNii's Movit is a mobile social networking device. Powered by the Android OS, it lets you check your favorite social networks anywhere you can tap into a WiFi connection.

Schwinn is back with a pedal assist electric bike. The Tailwind's motors stop working if you aren't pedaling, but when the electric boost kicks in, you'll notice! Schwinn claims it can even help you power up the hills here in San Francisco. The best part? The custom designed Toshiba battery can re-charge in 30 minutes, last 20-25 miles and the battery is warrantied for 2000 charge cycles! Brace yourself, tho, the price tag is $3200.

Diskeeper 2009, $29.95, brings new features to our favorite defragging tool for Windows from Diskeeper's Enterprise version, most notably support for 1TB and larger drives. The new HyperFast SSD Optimizer, $25, adds tools designed to keep solid state disks running at top speed no matter how long you run them.

The Asus Bamboo Series 11 and 12 inch notebooks feature bamboo inserts, LED backlit screen and Core 2 Duo processors, and were almost as slick as the Asus Folding Notebook Demos, where Asus has expertimented with, literally, folding a notebook out of plastic.

Premier Mounts WTFM3765 stood out as the lowest profile HDTV mount we've ever seen at .37 inches deep.

Gefen brought a trio of Wireless HDMI boxes to the show, the Wireless for HDMI Extender uses UltraWideBand, the GefenTV Wireless for HDMI sends 1080p 24 fps or 1080i 60fps over a 5GHz frequency, and the GefenTV Wireless HD Extender offers the ability to carry 8 channel 96Khz LPCM audio... along with a 24Hz 1080p video signal over a 60GHz radio channel

Robert Heron joins us with his HDTV picks from CES 2009. Decreasing cabinet depth has been a big push: Panasonic plans to offer a 1 inch deep plasma panel, moving to a third of an inch in the near future. Broadband Integration, picture resolution improvement... 240Hz Yahoo Widgets being built into TVs.

Schlage is connecting your home locks to the internet, and the new LiNK system uses encrypted ZWave to network their locks in your home, and for $12.99 a month, you'll be able to check on them or lock/unlock them from anywhere you have an Internet connection.

Josh Topolsky, the Editor in Chief over at Engadget joined Veronica to talk about what let him down at CES! Sandisk's SlotRadio was near the top of his list of dissapointements, and was joined by Sony's Walkman NWZ-X1000.

nVidia GeForce 3D Vision glasses sound old news.... we've been seeing shutter based '3D glasses' forever, but these glasses, which work only with 120Hz HDTVs, had Veronica enraptured, ready to order a pair for her gaming machine!

Access your files anywhere? Cloude Engines $79 Pogoplug plugs into any USB drive and connects it to the Internet so you can ... access your files anywhere via web interface! They even have a free iPhone app, Pogoplug will ship in March.

HP's Firebird Desktop PC promises smoking performance, good looks and, best of all, almost no noise whatsoever... and to save energy, it'll turn off the GPU and use the onboard graphics card.

Levar Burton? We LOVE Levar Burton, whether he's on the deck of the Enterprise, or hosting Reading Rainbow. His CES obsession? OLED TV screens. He's also in love with Twitter, you can follow him at www.twitter.com/levarburton

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Our final day at CES features an array of amazing power and portable products... and Jim Louderback has found the weirdest product at CES!

Thanks again to

NBC UniversalCES blog, or check their posts out on on twitter.

We've got a ton of products today: mobile, portable and eco power, Jim's weird products and more!

Mobile Tech:

Fuji EnviroMAX Digital Alkaline Battery

Fulton Innovation, eCoupled Products

Microvision, Pico projector

PowerMat wireless power

And more!

Green/Eco Tech

Lenmar, PowerPort Solar Charger for Cell phones

Medis Technologies, Medis 24-7 Xtreme Power Pack, personal portable fuel cell for handheld electronics, $49.

Horizon Fuel Cell, HydroPak and Mini-Pak fuel cells

Jim's Weird Products

Mattel, MindFlex - Fall 09, $79.99

Gizmine.com - FaceBank $44.99, Poking Box $49.99, and Sega Toys Dream Chick $34.99

Yubz, Talk Mobile - Now, $45

Excalibur, SoundMaster Volcano Lamp - Now, $129.99

And more!

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Veronica goes from HD sewing machines to speaker pigs, Patrick has digital cameras and home theater gear!

Thanks again to

NBC UniversalCES blog, or check their posts out on on twitter.

We've got quite the mix of products today!

The V Segment
Brother, Quattro 6000D sewing Machine with built-in camera and HD LCD Display

PlantSense Easy Bloom Plant Sensor, $60

Speakal, iBoo, $79.99, iPanda, $129.99, Big Daddy iPig $TBA

iRiver MPlayer Eyes, $60

Sony Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC, $900

Digital Cameras

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3 Digital Camera (Wi-Fi Cam)

EyeFi Tech Preview at CES

Pentax K2000 DSLR Limited Edition in White

Xiao digital camera with built in Zinc printer

Dynamism Products

Gigabyte m912x
Raon Everun Note
Scope 2 Watch

Home Theater

Seagate FreeAgent Theater

IOGear Wireless Audio/Video Kit, $349

Denon, DVD A1UDCI Universal Blue-Ray Audio Video Player, $4500

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Steve Jobs wasn't there, but Macworld 2009 brought tons of new tech toys

The new new 17 inch MacBook Pro features an extraordinary new battery that promises 8 hours of life, but -isn't- removable! Oh, yeah, it's also the thinnest and lightest 17 inch notebook ever, featuring the same sleek construction as the new MacBooks!

Kensington SlimBlade Trackball costs $130, but Patrick says it brings some amazing control over your Mac or PC without ever lifting your fingertips!

Veronica dropped by the Shure booth and found new earbuds, the $99 SE115, designed to match your iPod nano's color, along some new USB mics like the PG42, $199, and a nifty XLR to USB adapter, the X2u, $129.

There's a new version of the premiere burning software for the Mac, Toast 10 Titanium, $100, adds a host of new features in their new version; we've got some highlights, like its ability to burn HD video to DVDs and quickly build audio books.

Matias' Tune Blocker lets you charge your iPod with a dock connector off a USB jack without the hassle of having iTunes launch.

Anthrocart's eNook desk and gadget charging station, $429, will keep everything organized, while the Elevated Wrap workstation allows you to work seated or standing... the motorized ability to change levels was smooth.

iLife '09, $79, adds a laundry list of features, including Faces, face recognition software in iPhoto, and Places, for geotagging. iMovie looks usable again (Veronica wasn't a fan of the last version) and the image stabilization looks sweet!

Possibly Veronica's favorite houndstooth computer bag: Metro Express, Anthro, $129.

Axiotron now offers a Modbook Pro... a tablet version of the MacBook Pro!

Comply's $80 NR-10 Foam Earbuds are aiming to block out exterior noise while you're listening.

Did somebody say there's a Skype Beta for OS X that implements new features on the Mac, first???

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Ultimate $1500 Headphones, Cheap HD (and YouTube friendly) Camcorders, and a Dual Screen Notebook!

HD Camcorders? Veronica had a whole pile of 'em!

Canon, Vixia HSF10, $1400

JVC, GZ-MS130, $349 and GZ-HD300, $700

Panasonic, HDC-HS300 , $1400

Samsung HMX Rio, $TBA, HMX-106, $TBA

Sony Webbie Cam MHS-CM1, $200

Audio/Veronica

Denon, AHD 7000, Ultra Reference Headphones, $999.

Koss KC25, $30, CC01, $150, KDE250, $250.

Sennheiser, HD800, $1300.

Ultrasone, Edition 8 S-Logic Headphones, $1500

Audioengine, W2 Premium Wireless Adapter for iPod, $170

Samson, Zoom H4n, $349

Tonium, Pacemaker, $550

SOHO

Clickfree Transformer, $60

Honeywell, Weather@Net Forecasters, $80 - $399.99

Lenmar, PowerPort Hub Universal Charging Station, $60

Lenovo, ThinkPad W700 DS, $3663, Dual Screen Notebook

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Checklist for a new PC. Hard Drive Speed vs. Size, SmallNetBuilder, Roll your own backup, What does Gigahertz mean?

Andrew's looking to soup up the Atom processor in his new Netbook... we'd max out the memory, and update all your drives since you've already deleted the shovelware you don't want.

What exactly -does- Hertz or Gigahertz mean when you're talking about computer chips? Good question, Mark. It's the basic unit of frequency in the International System of Units, and it's the number of Cycles per Second as it applies to your processor's clock rate.

Free Download Pick: Camino, an open source, OS X optimized browser based on Mozilla's Gecko engine. This cousin to Firefox works on both Power-PC and Intel based Macs, and it's use of the Aqua interface helps it fit in seamlessly with your other Mac apps. Veronica's always been a huge supporter of Firefox, but finds Camino runs better on OS X... and Mac lovers will find the keychain access for passwords online, and the integration of enhanced AppleScript support especially useful!

Mark wants "the best external hard drive to get for backing everything on my computer. Software, documents, files, drivers,and OS (XP). Like ghosting my system." Veronica loves Western Digital's My Book, while Patrick usually drops the biggest Seagate drive he can afford in the cheapest external USB case his local computer shop has in stock.

Should Carlos go with a bigger hard drive, or a faster spindle speed? A 7200RPM drive might sound faster than a 5400RPM (it's spinning faster, right?) ... but if the 5400 RPM drive has a much higher areal density, it might move more bits under the head of the drive even tho it spins slower!

Send us a video question! All you need to do is record yourself in front a video camera asking a question no longer than 15 seconds. Then up load them to YouTube, and email us the link with "Video Question" in the subject line. Thanks!

This week's Website We Can't Get Enough Of is Small Net Builder, an absolute treasure trove of networking information, from troubleshooting guides for wireless networking, network security how-to's, news on the latest developments in networking, and, best of all, tons of reviews and benchmarks of the latest networking products! (Check out the performance charts, so so useful when you're shopping!)

HP's TouchSmart PC: You asked, so we've got a demo and review of this all in one PC with the giant touchscreen.

Kevin twittered... "I've been looking for an alternative to CyberLink PowerDVD 8 for Blu-ray playback... you should do a round up on Tekzilla!"

Patrick's left PowerDVD for Arcsoft's TotalMedia Theater, which brings Blu-ray and HD DVD playback to your PC, and, better yet, integrates it into the Windows Media Center!

Jim's looking for a good subwoofer in the $300 - $500 range; he's got Klipsch speakers and was going to buy a Klipsch sub but read some so so reviews for their mid to low end line. Jim also asked about the Hsu Research subwoofers... we'd go with one the Hsu designs in a heartbeat! Amazing sound, excellent build quality, and they're pretty easy on the wallet, too!

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Firefox, Windows, Google, iTunes, OS X... Tekzilla's Ten Most Popular Tips of 2008 is guaranteed to make your digital life easier, simpler and faster!

Where's Veronica? Visiting friends and family back East for the holidays.

What kind of tips are we talking about? Try:

• Speeding up file transfers in Windows.
• Moving music off your iPod.
• What's taking up space on your hard drive?
• Finding out what -exactly- is on your PC. (Inventory that Windows machine!)
• Speed Browsing in Windows.
• Vista Power Button: make it more useful.

More tips in the show!

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Tools for the iPod DJ, Killing Botnets Over The Network vs. Antispyware, Turn by Turn Nav (and Hulu!) on Smartphones, The Speech Accent Archive, HDTV and GPU Tech to watch for in 2009

And the big question: what's the best resource for comparing wireless networks like ATT, Sprint and Verizon and T-Mobile

Bill from Chicago fired out some great smart phone questions, so we tackle 'em one by one!

This week's Freebie Download Pick is Exact Audio Copy, the most precise CD ripping tool we know of... if you want to get all audiophile about digitizing your favorite tunes, take the time to use EAC! (And if you want the fastest and best results, check out these EAC Tips & Tricks.

Sponsor Deal: Get $10 bucks off an Intel Core i7 processor by using the coupon code TEKZILLA when you shop at MWAVE.com! (Like we say on the show, please support Tekzilla by supporting our sponsors!)

The best deals on HDTVs for every price range? That was so last week! We've got PCMag's Robert Heron back on to talk about the big HD trends to look out for in 2009! (Catch more of Robert every Thursday at Noon Pacific on DL.TV!

botnet problems: can you clean your housemates zombie PC over the network from your Mac? Dave in Boston has an interesting question.

We want to know why he doesn't just sneak in there with a copy of Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware 6.0 or Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 6 and get medieval on that thing!

Sponsor Message: If you're hankering for some fun on the go... check out the PSP-3000. Sporting an ultra crisp super-wide display this portable 3D entertainment system is now available in The Ratchet and Clank Entertainment Pack! Please... support Tekzilla by supporting our sponsors!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough" is The Speech Accent Archive, George Mason University's epic library of recordings of English accents submitted from arond the globe. Compare Staten Island to Brisbane, a native speaker in LA to a non-native speaker in China. You'll find endless delight and amusement in the differing speech patterns people use for the exact same words and sentences, and you can even submit your own!

ExtremeTech's Jason Cross has the scoop on what folks should expect to see in the graphics card and processor market next year!

Sponsor Message: The National Campaign Against Drunk Driving wants to remind you that alcohol impaired driving was involved in 32% of all the motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the US on 2006... and it's totally preventable! Don't drink and drive, and please, designate a sober driver before you go out!

Ever since Veronica and Patrick asked you if you wanted to see a DIY Photo Studio, we've been getting requests... so we've built a Macro Studio for this show based on the Strobist's most excellent How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio. What a little tissue paper can do will amaze you!

Patrick totall needs to dump his 125W incandescent lights for a trio of 300W Halogen lights!

George is looking for an iPod mixer so he can do some serious DJing in his dorm... Veronica's favorite is the Numark's iDJ "compact mixing console for Apple iPod... and she's got even more ideas for DJing with the iPod on the show!

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Robert Heron's fave HDTV picks, Jason Cross picks graphics cars from $50 to $500, Mini ITX motherboards, are there any 7.1 speaker systems for gaming?

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Best Budget Laptops, Upscaled DVD vs Blu-ray, Planet Earth Looks Amazing, What To Do with 40 Laptop Drives, Why Macbooks Can't Use Microphones, LetMeGoogleThatForYou.com

What's the best laptop for $800, Blake? We've got some great options -it's amazing how much notebook you get for $800 these days- at least as long as you don't want top play serious 3D PC games!

For $600 to $1000 it's tough to beat Dell's Studio 15.

Will there be a visible difference between an upscaled DVD of the (amazing) Planet Earth videos and the Blu-ray version?

James, as far as we're concerned, Planet Earth is the most amazing hi def disk we've ever seen... it's a great reason to go ahead and get a Blu-ray player.

This week's Freebie Download Pick is MetaX. If you run OS X, this is ultimate tool for tagging your collection of movie files MP4 and MOV files piles of info, right down to your pick of box covers or movie posters. Thanks to everyone that emailed in about this one!

What can you do with 40 hard drives you've got laying around, Bradd? We've got a laundry list of ideas, but we think you'll flip over RAIDZilla, even tho it 'only' uses 16 drives!

Thinking more like using 4 hard drives? Check out FreeNAS if you want to recycle an old PC, or our fave RAID 5-ish machine, the Drobo, which makes it easy to mix and match drives of different sizes.

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Veronica gets online at 15,000 feet courtesy of Virgin America. Is the Core i7 a better deal than the Core 2 Quad? Is buying refurbished technology inviting trouble? And how to run CD apps off a netbook PC. All that plus your questions on this episode of Tekzilla.

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Manage All Your Social Apps in One Place, Sock + Headphones = Comfy, DIY PBX, Don't Use A Thumbdrive for That!

She's almost leaving the house for charity... Go to Humanety.com by November 30th and bid on a chance to win a 30-minute long video chat with Veronica. You can talk about games, tech, gadgets, your favorite bacon related projects...whatever! The proceeds go to Penny Arcade's most excellent charity, Child's Play to bring toys and video games to sick kids in hospitals all over the country.

Chris wants to build his own PBX to run the phones in his home off a computer. Chris, you'll love Asterisk, a slick, open source 'telephony platform' for rolling your own PBX... It should do everything you need, voice mail, conference calling, interactive voice response (ie phone menus), and automatic call distribution, compatibility with VoIP and plain old telephone service... you can use it with analog or digital phones... except for the recycling old modems part!

Two line digital phones are pretty cheap... you can get good Polycom TKs for $85 for a single phone line... $100 for a two line Polcom TK.

You'll want to check out AsteriskNOW... or Trixbox CE, formerly known as Asterisk @ Home... way cool project to do!

This week's Freebie download pick is ACID Express, the free version of ACID Pro, Sony's solid loop based music sequencer. Making music has never been easier: all you need to do to create your musical concoction is drag sound or music samples onto a track. The only real limitation we've seen in Xpress is the 10 track limit and, of course, the user's imagination.

Matt's "looking for some way to help consolidate my web-life into one neat package. I've got some web statuses I like to keep up-to-date like Pownce and Twitter, but I find that I can't keep one updated without neglecting the other. Is there any way I can manage them all in one WITHOUT duplicate posting?

Sites like Ping.FM are great if you want to post the same message to multiple sites... and Firefox plugins like Minggl will will show you your consolidated friend list and a stream of your social network updates.

But if you want all your social networks and don't want to spam the same messages out on all of 'em, Veronica says to use FriendFeed... and explains how on the show.

Veronica, why are we not friends on Pownce!? It's a long story... Veronica has so many friends, she broke the her Pownce page about 6 months ago!

Are Multi-Gigabyte USB thumb drives a good way to store audio and video files? Sure, Cate, if you need the data handy... but for archival type storage of irreplaceable data? We're not ready to give USB drives the, ahem, Thumbs Up yet.

Consider using writable CDs and DVDs or hard drives, verify the data, and re-check it every few years... online storage is another great option, just have a plan in place in case your vendor goes out of business!!!

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1UP's Garnett Lee joins us! Buying PCs: $700 desktops and $4000 Gaming Rigs! Xbox 360 Update. Replace NetStumbler. Remote Access Windows from OS X. DirecTV Hacks. Faster GPU vs. Faster CPU, Better WiFi Tool, Vista Drive Encryption!

Tom needs help finding cover art that isn't on iTunes, especially for the DVDs he's ripped for use on his iPhone and Apple TV. We haven't found an automated program we love for OS X... though we have been playing around with TuneUp Media and MediaMonkey on Windows. You could try Album Cover Finder 6.5 on the Mac... or Album Art Thingy 1.9. Frankly, Patrick still thinks going manual is the way to go, even if it takes forever!

Angel in DC plans on spending $3000 to $4000 on a gaming PC and wants to know what offers the best bang for his buck. Frankly, we're not sure a $4000 gaming machine is worth the money!

Zachary's looking at a $700 Dell Inspiron 518, and he's got a choice between a Quad Core with integrated graphics and a Dual Core with a Radeon HD 3450 for the cash. We help him decide what to buy.

Advertisement: Veronica Loves Brain Toniq, "the world's first think drink!" Zero caffeine, no processed sugar or chemical preservatives, just "fuel for the cranium, making it highly effective for increasing mental clarity." Want to try it out? Do us a favor and order it online at www.braintoniq.com. If you use the coupon code R3 you'll get a discount, and you'll help support Tekzilla!

This week's Freebie download pick is inSSIDer, an open source WiFi network scanner that runs on XP and Vista. We've spent a lot of time with NetStumbler, but this one is our new favorite for troubleshooting WiFi installs and tracking down open WAPs when we're out and about.

The easiest way to capture gameplay from the Xbox 360 and the PS3? Kieran from Ireland wants to start a video gaming show. He's also looking for a how-to on homebrewing a PSP!

Garnett's favorite tool for capturing video into Final Cut and Premiere is BlackMagic's Intensity.

Alexander's Dad wants to play PC games on an old PowerMac G4 over a network! It's probably easier to move your gaming machine, but you can try out Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2... or something like Q emulator, which will let you run an older version of Windows on that Mac. You won't be playing any 3D games, but 'time waster' style games should work just fine!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of!" is a classic: Homestar Runner Dot Com, the world of Strong Badia, Population: Tire, where you'll meet HomeStar Runner, Strong Bad, Marzipan, The Cheat, and the rest of the gang. Just try to get past the legendary Strong Bad Emails!

DirecTV DVR help: What are the USB, Ethernet and eSATA ports for? Randy wants more storage on his DVR!

"Is there a way to password protect folders in Windows Vista without using a separate program." You're looking for BitLocker Drive Encryption, Shaun, but it only comes in Vista Ultimate, Vista Enterprise, or Windows Server 2008. If you don't have one of those versions of Vista, we'd use TruCrypt instead.

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Intel's Core i7 = The New Fast. Simplify Media streams audio better. Dump Cable for the Internet? Better Search for Windows. DVI-D vs. DVI-I.

If you're thinking about buying a new PC... and you're looking for the Fastest Processor Evah... hold off until Intel's Core i7 CPU is an option! Loyd Case has a great Core i7 writeup over at ExtremeTech.com

Yup, Circuit City is closing down 155 stores... one lesson from the CompUSA liquidation: bring somebody with a cell phone that can check prices before you buy!

Last week we told you about Orb.com, our fave tool for streaming audio and video from a computer at home to anywhere -and just about anything- you can get a net connection... and we got a zillion emails asking why we didn't suggest Simplify Media, which stream audio from Windows, OS X and Linux machines to another computer or iPhone.

With all the online availability of basically ANY TV content, is this the end of set-top DVR boxes like TiVo dead? No, Matt, they aren't dead yet... at least not for Veronica and Patrick... there's still a lot of great TV out there that's tough to find on the web.

Advertisement: Be like Veronica: drink Brain Toniq, "the world's first think drink! It contains exactly ZERO caffeine and zero processed sugar, and contains NO chemical preservatives, just fuel for the cranium, making it highly effective for increasing mental clarity."If you order it online, please use the coupon code R3 at BrainToniq.com... you'll get a discount, and it'll help support Tekzilla!

Freebie Download Pick! This week's pick is Everything, a "...fast folder and file name search engine for Windows." Searches that used to take minutes will take seconds, it's a tiny app that doesn't suck down resources, and best of all, it's easy to use!

InvisibleSHIELD? Sure, Joseph, Patrick loves 'em for screen protection on his iPhone and just about anything else with a scren, tho, like many Tekzilla viewers, he's not so happy with their full wraps.

Want to spend a bit less on your screen protection? Last time Patrick mentioned invisibleSHIELD on Twitter he got a flood of tweets about BestSkinsEver.com. They claim to use the same material, and while they don't offer a the same lifetime guarrantee they charge a -lot- less than Zagg does! Think $15 for the invisibleSHIELD face cover vs. $5.99 from BestSkinsEver.

If you only need mobile Internet access for a few weeks, you could rent an EVDO modem from Rovair, Dana, instead signing up for 2 years. Thanks for the tip on wireless Internet rentals, Greg!

Advertisement: we're planning another Tekzilla GoToMeeting meetup where you'll get a chance to chat with the production staff that makes Tekzilla happen. You can get ready by signing up for a FREE 30 day GoToMeeting trial account at GoToMeeting.com. Just click on the “TRY IT FREE” button and enter the promo code Tekzilla!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough of" is WorldPress.org, a site that gathers news stories from various national and international press outlets from around the globe, from grass roots state-run news agencies. Chances are you won't find these stories at your local news stand... or news channel!

Lewis wants some options for hosting his podcast, "and also if there are any free options to start with, before moving to a paid service." Veronica loved this question, Lewis... it's her experience running her Sword and Laser sci-fi book club podcast production showing!

For totally and completely free hosting, Veronica's top choice is OurMedia.org, which uses the InternetArchive to serve files.

SpinXpress is a free program that helps you to upload your media and give it all the right attributes, Lewis, like creative commons licensing, tags, and descriptions.

If you'd like a little more reliability than a free site (mostly it's waiting to upload your files, not the actual hosting that's a problem) but don't want to pay an arm and a leg, check out Libsyn, since they offer free badnwidth, you just pay based on the amount of space you need.

Advertisement: Looking to build an amazing website from scratch, without learning tons of code first? Then check out Squarespace, it's powerful enough to run a retail website, but incredibly easy to work with. Signup using the code Tekzilla and you'll get 10% off for the lifetime of your membership!

DVI-D and DVI-I... why are there two? Well, Nate, nobody but the Digital Display Working Group really knows why they came up with a digital only connection (DVI-D) along with a digital and analog connection (DVI-I), but we can say that getting VGA from DVI-D is a major pain.

Steve needs a cheap component video switch so he can connect his Xbox 360 and his PS3 to the TV...

Gefen's 4x4 Component w/Audio Matrix will run you over $600 on the street... so that's out. We'd go with the $23 ATLONA 4 Port Component Video Switch w/ IR Learning from our fave source of cheap HDMI cables: MonoPrice.com. Judging from the customer reviews, it should be perfect w/ 720p viddy, tho some folks claim it induces a bit o' fuzziness in 1080p video.

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Kindle discount! Watch podcasts on your TV, AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint for Mobile Internet. Print What You Like!

Want to get a Kindle on the cheap? According to PCMag.com, you'll get a $50 discount of use the code "OPRAHWINFREY" by November 1st!

Want to watch podcasts directly on your TV? We have lots of ideas for you, David!

Warren's looking for a way to stream his audio collection from home when he travels, whether it's to the office, or to an Internet connection much farther away. If you've got a PC, then you should check out Orb. You download it to your computer, and then select the kind of media that you want to share with yourself (or others) on the go. It's free, and you can stream to almost anything: a Mac, a phone, or even a gaming console.

But there are other options, such as Jinzora and Avvenu. Jinzora is a bit more complicated, because you're actually setting up a home web server. Avvenu enables you to stream your library to your Windows Mobile smartphone.

This week's Freebie Download Pick: VirtuaWin. Do you feel like you're running out of available desktop space in Windows? Do you envy OS X's Spaces or Linux's multi- console function? VirtuaWin is an open source tool that allows you create multiple virtual desktops that allow you to expand your desktop as much as you need.

"I am about to take a 10,000+ mile road trip around the U.S. I would like to have internet access wherever I go. Which service has the fastest connection and best coverage - AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint." Sounds, epic, Erik, we've got a reccos for you... and watch out: if you go over 5GB of downloads, it could get VERY expensive.

How much video RAM do you need when you're upgrading your video card? Honestly, Anthony your issues will resolve more around the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) you pick, since that will determine your VRAM size and type!

Website We Just Can't Get Enough of!" This week's pick is PrintWhatYouLike.com! This site helps you to take the web page you want to print, and modify it to just have what you want on paper. This is great, especially when there's no printer-ready version. No more being stuck with three pages of full-color ads and other crap that you don't need!

Yi emailed from Jakarta... he's giving a thumbs up for the Asus Eee Box as a do it all home server and says: I use it for BitTorrent, http downloads, hamachi, as an FTP server, and even run Folding@Home on it" and adds "I love it. It's cheap, very quiet, don't take much space, and it comes with 2 years warranty!" Thanks for the info, Yi!

We got a dogpile of responses on Ethan's search for a new router. They can pretty much be sorted into three piles. The biggest pile said get a router than can run DD-WRT or the Tomato firmware.

A much smaller pile said build a router out of an old PC... SmoothWall, M0n0Wall, Untangle and the Astaro Security Gateway each had their fans.

The smallest pile -two letters- suggested a pair of routers. Jamal says the Linksys WRT600N Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link if money is no object, while Clark wrote in to say the Apple Airport Extreme is worth the apple tax!

JD's having mysterious problems running 3D programs like 3DS Max and Maya in Vista! The good news it's not a refresh rate issue... the bad news is you might have to update both programs... here's a like from Autodesk on how to implement workarounds for some of your problems.

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Supercharge Task Manger, Replace MS Money and Quicken, Router Request, Analog TV for HDTVs and your PC, PS3 Universal Remote.

You are correct: no matter what the credits say, Veronica is not Robert.

Lots of folks in the audience use WiFi for their Home Theater PCs and media extenders... it's only Patrick's crazy friends that have gone back to Ethernet.

No, we don't want to get into the whole "Why... why do the new Macbooks not have firewire" discussion.

SDHC (and CF) memory card performance? Thanks for the tip on Rob Galbraith amazing test page, Peter! Head over to http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007

This week's Freebie download pick, MKN TaskExplorer 5, comes from our very own intern Daniel Fukuba... MKN TaskExplorer 5 turns the Windows Task Manger up a notch, providing detailed info about each process, including performance and memory graphs, DLLs loaded, threads, and access token... it provides intuitive graphs showing not only the CPU usage history, but it's Kernel time and DCP time as well. It's got widgets, and power users will love it!

Will an Eee Box have enough power to run a BitTorrent program, share files and play video? Yes, Donavan!

What's the best way to hook up a new computer to an Standard Def TV? Most newer products pretty much ignore SDTV...

Speaking of SDTV, getting NTSC TV, aka regular old analog cable into an HDTV with no S-video input is a pain!

You could spend $700 on something like an ATV-3900 video up-converter, which will take the input from your TV and output it to HDMI... if you don't mind leaving your PC on, you might want to try a TV tuner for the PC itself, like one of the Elgato devices, or a WinTV. And they'll run well under $200!

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of" is OC remix dot com ... a website dedicated to showcasing custom arrangements and remixed versions of your favorite video game music. This non profit site was created by David Lloyd, AKA DJ Pretzels, as a place to the appreciate, preserve, and interpret the different styles of video game music.

Matt in Bayonne emails, "I'm a little stumped on universal remote controls. I would love to find one that will power all of my units, including my HD projector, HD DVR cable box, surround sound and a PS3 for Blu-ray"

Patrick's a big fan of Logitech's Harmony remotes... the new Harmony One gets the most attention, but the 720 comes in around 60 bucks cheaper... $130 at Amazon, and has most o' the features, including the nifty color LCD screen.

Adding a PS3 to a universal remote is a pain... it uses a Bluetooth based remote control. Tekzilla viewers have nothing but love for the IR2BT and Nyko PS3 adapters... OK, nothing but love and one gripe. You won't be able to power the PS3 on and off, or couldn't last I heard.

Ethan's looking for a new wireless router to replace the one that cam with his FiOS install... he could build a Windsurfer parabolic booster and slip it over the nubby antennas on the back of the router. (Amazing what they did for WiFi in Patrick's old house.)

You could also build a IPCop box from an old PC. If Verizon gave you a router compatible w/ the Tomato firmware, we'd install that... yo ucan learn more about installing the Tomtato firmware on episode 71 of Systm.

We'd love to hear what everybody in the Tekzilla crew is using/wish they were upgrading to on the wireless router front... please email your faves to tekzilla@revision3.com... and put 'router recco' in the subject line!

Any suggestions for an open source replace for Microsoft Money or Quicken? Veronica sure does, Stephen!

Check out "GnuCash", "jGnash" and "KMyMoney". If you've already been working with Quicken or MS Money, and want to import files to one of these programs, you have to make sure that they support QIF and OFX formats.

Alternately, you can get "on the cloud" with online money managers, like Mint.com or the newly free Quicken Online.

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Tons of products this week: we get hands on with Tmobile G1, the new Macbook and Macbook Pro, Dell's Studio Hybrid. Plus bombproof Mp3 players for work, and SDHC memory!

What's up with Apple hating on Blu-ray? "A bag of hurt?" that's harsh, Steve

T-Mobile's G1? AKA the first phone with Google's Android? We've got a hands on review, thanks to Ryan Block... keep an eye out for the launch of his new site, GDGT.com

New MacBook and MacBook Pro? We've got them in studio, too, thanks to Engadget's fearless leader, Joshua Topolsky!

TV Calibration from BestBuy. We got a lot of letters from Geek Squad employees: the "Elite Service Specialists" do nothing but calibrate TVs, and they're all ISF certified... that's a good combo!

This week's Freebie download pick is for the OS X crowd: Carbon Copy Cloner. This simple OS X app clones, synchronizes or backups your hard drive, and can create a complete bootable backup of your existing hard disk onto another drive be it internal, external or even on a network!

Is the

Dell Studio HybridApple's Mac mini? Good question, Andrew! We show off the Studio Hybrid and go point to point between the two.

Would the Asus Eee Box make a good HTPC? Sure, Sam, if you don't want Blu-ray, or the simplicity of an Apple TV or Windows Media Center Extender.

Jason in Phoenix wants to know if those virtual surround sound bars that sit under your TV are any good... for under $300. Veronica's got the scoop, and a recco: Sony's HT-CT100 got great reviews from Cnet, and can be had for under $300. (You can also check out the Sony Bravia DAV-HDX500 Panasonic SC-PT660

Got a question? You can send it as a video. Just record yourself in front a video camera asking a question no longer than 15 seconds. Upload it to YouTube, then email us the link with "Video Question" in the subject line. No attachments, please!

DeletionPedia.com is this week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of!" It's your one stop shop for all the material that gets taken down for not meeting Wikipedia's standards.

"Nobody seems to have done a recent real-world speed comparison between the different brands SDHC brands..." Nope, Allister, roundups of Secure Digital High Capacity cards are pretty rare, but performance definately varies... sometimes a cheap 'no brand' vendor has cards that run faster than the name brands!

Know where there's a good performance roundup of SDHC cards? Please email the link to tekzilla@revision.com!

Alex want to know of the new iPod nano will hold up in his work environment... we think so! There are some solid non-Apple options, too.

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Robert Heron picks the Best HDTV Ever, Blu-ray players. Protect Your Data from Fire, Flooding and Old Age. DIY HDTV Calibration. Fix a Broken LCD Screen. Vista Start Menu Mods. HDFury HDCP Bypass.

Where's Veronica? She's in Japan at the Tokyo Game Show

Pioneer's KURO PDP-5020FD is Robert's pick for the finest HDTV you can buy, at least without spending more $$$ on a Pioneer Elite or Signature panel!)

Feeling the credit crunch? The Vizio SV420XVT is a low cost 120Hz LCD that looks good after calibration, but Robert says its 120Hz tech isn't quite as effective as the best he's seen. That would be in Samsung's latest HDTVs, including the LN52A750.

Someone at BestBuy said calibrating my HDTV will extend its life and save me money on my power bill? Is that true? Is it worth $300? We've got answers, Mike!

Yes, you can calibrate my HDTV for less. Sort of. For under $20 online, Joe Kane's Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics offer an excellent reference and setup disc.

Robert adds, "I forgot to mention video processing in the video calibration question - I find myself spending just as much time verifying proper video processing in a HDTV as I do adjusting the other picture characteristics. What's the point of having optimal color and contrast if the TV's video processor is dumping half the video information before it hits the screen! Every major TV manufacturer has shipped a model (or 2 or 3) that had buggy (or simply unfinished) firmware that resulted in up to a 50% loss of detail with high quality HD video material - sometimes there is a setting to compensate/fix the issue; othertimes you have to request and apply an updated firmware file. For anyone interested in learning more about why effective video processing is important, I suggest checking out HQV.com.

Frustrated with the Vista Start Menu? Then you'll love this week's Freebie download pick, Vista Start Menu! This simple program makes Vista's Start Menu more intuitive, convenient, and easy to understand.

Best Blu-ray player that's not the PS3? Good question, Winston!

Stan wants to know about GPS units with external antenna connections: his current rig is blocked by the overhang on his RV.

Website We Can't Get Enough Of? AVSForum.com is one of Robert's favorite places online to get great info, honest opinions and ideas to solve problems with home theater equipment, HDTVs, and just about anything else that falls under 'audio and video.'

Anger management issues + remote control + 42 inch LCD HDTV = a broken 42 inch LCD HDTV. Jonathan wants to know if he can replace that busted LCD panel.

What's the best storage medium for long term storage of data, tape, DVD or thumb drive? Which would stand up best to heat or water that may occur even inside a fire safe in case of a house fire? Maybe it's just that we live in Earthquake and Fire and Flood country (or have family that do) but we love this question, Chris!

Those 'my stuff survived the house burning down in a SentrySafe' stories.

Could u do a review of the HDFury and see if it'll work on my laptop? We'll do our best, Ryan.. we take it you want to use the VGA on your notebook for an HDTV with no analog inputs, maybe? Basically, the HDFury brings HDCP compliance to any RGB monitor.

Adam in Oklahoma has a new HDTV, an Xbox 360 and a pile of standard definition equipment. He asks: "Is there a component or composite to HDMI converter that actually works, or should I just use the component and composite ports for my DVR, DVD player and my Xbox 360?" Robert's got the info for Adam... and we've gotta add that a good upscaling DVD player with an HDMI output might be a good addition. Check out Oppo Digital, along with upscaling offerings at your local big box store!

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