Tekzilla

Hosted by Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and Veronica Belmont. New episodes Tuesdays & Thursdays

Tekzilla feeds your tech hunger! Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and Veronica Belmont bring you hands on reviews of the latest gear, tips and tricks that improve the tech you already own and conversations with the most informative experts around. Read More

2010 Predictions: Best Games and Best PC Hardware, Future Proofed SSDs, Pitfalls of 32-bit to 64-bit Windows Upgrades.

Thursday, December 31st, 2009 – running time 40:35

Our predictions for best PC Games and PC hardware in 2010. Future Proofing SSDs. Plus the pitfalls you need to be aware of when upgrading a 32-bit Windows installation to a 64-bit one.

Veronica is NOT Preggers

Veronica dispels the rumors in the Revision3 forums. For the last time Veronica is, I repeat, NOT pregnant.

00:41 | Play

Tech Resolutions

Patrick voices his tech/computer resolution for 2010: implementing a cable management scheme for the whole house and automate all the local backups for all his personal machines. Something Veronica has already setup at her place using Mozy. The automated backups not the cable management

02:16 | Play

Boxee Box

Veronica professes her excitement for D-Link's upcoming Boxee Box, and predicts the increase in digital magazines read on e-reader like appliance.

03:48 | Play

Cable Management Help

Murray down under in Sydney, Australia asks for input on how to best tie up the mess of cords and wires as he builds his new house. Patrick likes the Velcro brand tape strips you can find at your hardware store. Other options include using zip times with zip tie mounts. Finally checkout Cable Organizer.com for folks who can't get enough cable organization into their lives, and of course Lifehacker who seem to run a cable organization story every 6 months.

05:41 | Play

Freebie Download Of the Week: SketchBox

If you loves OS X's Stickies then you'll go bonkers over Sketchbox. Building upon the idea of digital post it notes Sketchbox allows you to not only leave text notes but sketches as well. But wait... can't draw? No worries Sketchbox can also take snaps of what ever is on your desktop. If a picture is too big you can resize Sketchbox for a better fix. And you can still add text messages on top! Throw in a timer and you've got yourself the ultimate digital post it note.

09:24 | Play

Games To Lookout For In 2010

Editorial Director For Gamefly media Garnett Lee joined us over the phone to share his picks for the games you need to be on the look out for in 2010.
1. Starcraft 2 -- PC/Blizzard
2. God of War 3 -- PS3/Sony
3.Heavy Rain -- PS3/Sony
4.
Alan Wake -- 360/Microsoft Games
5.Mass Effect 2 -- 360 and PC/Electronic Arts
6.Natal -- 360/Microsoft. Yeah it's not a game per se, but Garnett believes it does offer an intriguing platform for non traditional interaction between players and games.

Website Pick: Tink O Matic

Tink O Matic is all in one search site if you looking to do some deal and job hunting. It searches a bunch of sites, including eBay, Craigslist, Kijiji and Oodle all at once. And if you don't find what you're looking for, you can save your searches for later, and see updates when the searches start pulling results.Plus you can use the tabs at the top of the search box to specify what kinds of items you're looking for, to tighten up the search.

22:11 | Play

PC Hardware in 2010

Loyd Case is back to give us a heads up on what to expect in the world of PC hardware in 2010. Expect a slew of 32nm die shrinked processors from Intel both in desktop and laptop machines. For enthusiasts the watch word is Gulftown, Intel's 6 core hyperthreaded for up to 12 threads in parallel processor. Not be left behind AMD is planning on releasing 32nm parts sometime mid-2010 as well push their new Fusion CPU where the GPU will be located on the CPU are located on a single package. Intel's graphics processor effort Larrabee has been shelved for consumer release limiting it's release only for developmental purposes. 2010 will be the make or break year for General Purpose GPU functionality. With the release of OpenCL and DirectCompute in DirectX 11 developers will now have two standardized frameworks for developing apps for executing on a GPU.

23:06 | Play

Future Proofed SSDs

Tim out in Washington state wanted to know the best drive choice for his PCs OS. SSD or a 10,000 or 15,000 RPM hard drive. First off future proofing in the PC world is a bit fools game. Technology changes so fast that you'll be upgrading in 3 -5 years regardless of what you have installed. Now in terms of longevity SSDs are relatively new devices with little long term experience compared to traditional hard drives. However, SSDs offer incredible performance with low heat, low noise, and no moving parts. Our recommendation is to grab a SSD like Intel's X25-M 80GB which sells for around $250 as your OS drive and pair it with a fat 1 or 2 TB from Segate or Western Digital for data. Be sure to image or backup the SSD just in case.

32:05 | Play

Windows 7 Upgrade Blues

Samuel was being a good heated significant other and started the process of updating his girlfriends laptop from a 32-bit install of Windows to a 64-bit version of Windows 7 she got free. Unfortunately the process did not go smoothly with the installation failing and Samuel is wonder what the cause and solution might be.

In Samuel's case there are two probable culprits in his situations.

1) The laptop he is installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on is not in fact a 64-bit OS capable. Machine. Ideally you'd want to check for that initially. Either with a 3rd party program like CPU Z or using the inbuilt Windows Experience view and print tool.

2) Assuming her machine is in fact 64-bit OS capable you cannot run an upgrade install of 64-bit Windows 7 while running a 32-bit version of Windows. You need to boot from the Windows 7 DVD and do a custom (aka clean) install. The flip side is you'll need to back up all important data before the process... something you should do with any OS reinstall.

35:05 | Play

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About the Show

Details
Show Title:
Tekzilla
Description:
Tekzilla feeds your tech hunger! Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and Veronica Belmont bring you hands on reviews of the latest gear, tips and tricks that improve the tech you already own and conversations with the most informative experts around.
Categories:
How-To & DIY, Technology & Gadgets
Launch Date:
Sep 1, 2007
Episodes:
Credits