Sponsored by TheJewelStore.com, your online source for unbeatable diamond, gemstone and wedding jewelry with expert personal service.

Show notes
Our tour of vocal tech reporting stops at all the major attractions this week. We start in the mailroom as Cyril gets his own question about how Intel's Core 2 Duos stack up against AMD's Phenom X3 and X4 processors. Then, Geoff covers our new netbook buying guide and stops by the poll to see which best-in-show netbook candidate has won the election.

This episode also comes chock-full of gaming news and reviews, as our editors talk about Mirror's Edge news, relate their experiences with Crysis Warhead, and bask in the geeky Star Wars glory of The Force Unleashed. And it doesn't stop there! We discuss the next version of Photoshop, HP's plans for Voodoo PC, Scott's next TV purchase... and more.

Send in listener mail, and we'll answer on the podcast. - jdrake@techreport.com

Listener mail:

A question for Cyril (0:02:10) - from Brad:

"'The E7400's arrival could turn the heat up on AMD in the low end, as well. If the E7400 waltzed into e-tail listings right now, it would be sandwiched between AMD's 2.4GHz, triple-core Phenom X3 8750 and the 2.2GHz, quad-core Phenom X4 9550—both comparatively handicapped in everyday tasks because of their lower clock speeds.'

"Isn't comparing Intel's Cheaper Dual Core to AMD's 3-4 core processors like comparing apples and oranges. Wouldn't it make more sense to compare the new intel 2.8 core 2 duo to AMD's X2 5400 Black edition 2.8 dual core? Thats $133 vs $77(and will probably be less by the time the intel chip is released) not to mention the motherboard cost would probably be much less for the AMD chip as well. I know the intel chips are outperforming AMD's at the moment, but is it that significant. ?"

Tech discussion:

TR's back-to-school netbook guide (0:08:27)- Read more

TR's netbook poll (0:16:56)- Read more

Can a sub-$100 graphics card get the job done? (0:23:02)- Read more

GeForce GTX 260s with 216 SPs start arriving (0:32:02)- First ad

Mirror's Edge comes November 11—but not for PCs (0:38:45)- Read more

Our editors talk about Crysis Warhead and The Force Unleashed (0:46:07)

Say hi to the TR navbar v3.0, now with a menu (0:56:59)- Read more

Nvidia details Adobe CS4 GPU acceleration (1:00:31)- Read more

HP to kill off Voodoo PC? (1:07:33)- Read more