Surprise! It's Friday again, and you know what that means. Time once again for this intrepid intern to poke his head into the PC Magazine Labs to give you readers the lowdown on what's going down with the PC Mag analysts.

Lead Desktops Analyst Joel Santo Domingo has been testing a host of portable hard drives of late, including a SimpleTech drive styled by Pininfarina, better known as as the design group that makes Ferraris look so good. Joel says that the Simpletech drives "go well with Acer's Ferrari Notebook." No word yet though on how fast these drives do going from zero to sixty. But they certainly look fast. Check out Joel's full review next week at PCMag.com

Lead Audio and Video Analyst Tim Gideon has been looking at the Mondo Mint Digital Music Station, which he says is a "sleek-looking wireless two-speaker iPod dock." And he's also had his hands on Creative's latest, the Zen Stone Plus music player that we told you about a while back.

And on the hush-hush front, Tim also says that he's at work on "an article about advances in Bluetooth audio," but he can't say anything more. Yet. Be sure to keep pointing your peripheral of choice to PCMag.com over the next week for details about that, and Tim's thoughts on on the Zen Stone Plus as well.

Labs Analyst Brian Neal is still printing his life away with the PC Mag Yield test I've been telling you about for the past few weeks. It's almost down to the results phase, but out of the toils of drudgery comes revelation: "I'm going to buy this printer." said Brian about the HP Officejet Pro K5400. "I just started this printer yesterday, and [the other printers] started almost a week ago, and this printer has caught up with those guys. This printer is really fast." It's little wonder then why our own M. David Stone gave it an Editors Choice award when he reviewed it last month. Last but never least, Lead Mobile Phone Analyst Sascha Segan will be off next week on vacation in Nova Scotia, but don't think he'll be leaving his mobile tech behind. "I'm taking a bunch of Sprint and Verizon phones to see if they work," says Sascha, "including the Sprint Muziq, the LG Chocolate 8550, and the new Sprint Blackberry 8830. Which ones will function in the woods of Maritime Canada?" To discover the answer to that question, you'll have to tune in next time. I know Sacha can hear me now. The question is, will he be able to hear me next week? Time, as they say, will tell. In the meantime, keep an eye on PCMag.com next week for details on all this tech, and remember to turn off your phone before The Simpsons Movie starts, or I might have to throw something at you. The last thing I want to hear mid-"Doh!" is "Shawty Snap." You've been warned.

Post by Matt Safford