So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, your PC Magazine lab analysts:

Davis Janowski, Lead Analyst for Web Applications and Software:

Davis says he's about to take a look at the IPEVO Free.2 tethered Skype phone, which lets you record Skype conversations directly to your hard drive. "It's got a snazzy look and feel to it," said Davis "and a different design than most Skype phones."

Davis is also checking out a suite of mobile GPS software from Trimble, the AfterVote search engine, and the ooVoo videoconferencing software Appscout checked out a few days ago. Davis likes the interface, but isn't happy with the frame rate, which he says is "stuck at the 15-fps level."

Last, he's looking at the recently announced Safari for Windows, and should have a full writeup on PCMag.com by Monday. For now, he says "It's pretty, and it works well, but it's somewhat underwhelming overall." Check back next week at PCMag for Davis' more detailed opinions of the browser. In the meantime, check out this week's Gearlog Radio for a bit more of what Davis has to say about Safari for Windows.

Joel Santo Domingo, Lead Analyst for the Desktops Team:

Joel's just finished looking at the $499 Drobo external hard drive chassis, which lets you swap desktop hard drives in and out without the need for an external enclosure. The review is already up at PCMag.com, and Joel says the Drobo is "very cool."

Aside from the Drobo, the Desktop team is looking at the Falcon Northwest Mark V, the first system with 1GB graphics cards. Joel says a review will be up on PCMag "real soon, hopefully by this weekend." So keep a lookout for that, even though you probably can't afford it.

Sascha Segan, Lead Analyst for mobile phones and PDAs:

Sascha seemed a bit stressed about the plethora of upcoming but still hush-hush phone announcements. Because of the imminent release of the Apple iPhone, "Every carrier and almost every manufacturer is doing some sort of big secret product release before June 29, to try to ride on the iPhone hype," said Sascha. "It's gotten to the point where I've had to triage, and not review some [phones] at all."

Two phones he wished he could review are the Motorola RAZR2 V8, (he's got a pre-production model), and the Verizon Motorola RAZR MAXX VE. Sascha says he might get to them, but he's pretty swamped at the moment.

Cisco Cheng, Lead Analyst for laptops and tablet PCs:

Cisco's focused for the moment on the New MacBook Pro, with the Intel Santa Rosa chipset. He says they're about to run benchmarks in Windows with Boot Camp, and take a close look at the new LED-backlit screen. Be sure to check PC Mag soon to hear what the word is.

Tim Gideon, Lead Audio and Video Analyst:

Tim's playing around with the Griffin Journi iPod speaker dock, and poking fun at Griffin's questionable spelling decision. He's also working on a Gearlog post about Wired and David Pogue's recent opinions about noise-canceling headphones. Tim doesn't necessarily agree with them.

And he knows a thing or two about noise-canceling cans; he's working on a review of the Sennheiser PXC-450 for PCMag. Keep a lookout for it soon.

Well, that's it for this week. Be sure to stop by next Friday for another look inside the lab. And don't forget to check out PCMag.com in the coming week to see the full details about all the things we just teased you about here.

If there's anything you want to see or know that we didn't cover, leave your suggestions in the comments. The Lab Report thing is very much a work in progress. The more feedback we get from you, the more fun and informative this can be.

Post by Matt Safford