In our new monthly podcast, we look back at January — and it was a busy one. While we were all still in recovery mode from the holidays, the tech world was as hectic as ever.

The big news came out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas — and what better way to kick off the new year than being surrounded by geeks on the Strip? — with the announcement of the general release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 Beta. It’s still up for download until 10 February, so make sure you get a move on if trialling betas is your kind of thing.

The beta garnered a positive review from IT PRO, and our tech ed Benny explains why in this month’s podcast.

We also discuss the Conficker worm and the havoc it’s wreaking across networks in the UK, before debating a very serious issue: is Twitter stupid or awesome? We’re split — what do you think? If you need help deciding, check out our twitter account at twitter.com/itpro.

To finish off, we pick our Gadget of the Month — but January is so exciting, we couldn’t pick just one. Listen below to find out why we love the Sony P-Series and Palm’s Pre so much that we couldn’t choose between them…

Internet Explorer has a serious flaw… and this is news, how? Seriously though, browser security is an important issue, and we wonder if any of them will ever be safe.

We also discuss superfast broadband, free Nokia phones, and fiddling with knobs… on the mixer.

And, this being our last podcast of 2008, we pick our Gadget of the Year — can you guess what it is? You really probably can.

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

Did the Internet Watch Foundation make the right move blocking a Wikipedia page over child porn concerns? According to our debaters in this week’s podcast… no. But when they flipped on the issue and removed the ban, that was indeed the right move.

We also discuss how tech-related slang is slipping into our modern language — and Benny does his Dizzee Rascal impression. That’s book, man. (Apparently, that means ‘cool’.) 404, dude. LOL. (Did that make sense to you? Didn’t to us.)

We also name the BlackBerry Bold our gadget of the week — which “is just a really nice looking phone.” And has some hot features, too. And interferes with our podcast (sorry about that.)

And we lay out our gadget wishlist for the end of the year…

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

In a particularly heated podcast discussion this week, we examine Apple’s apparent u-turn over whether Mac users need anti-virus software.

We also look at our gadget of the week the Nokia N97, whether underground rail systems should have mobile phone signal and the merits of fitting a GPS tracker to your pet.

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

This week, we debate the upcoming ID cards — or more importantly, the massive database backing them up. Good thing, bad thing — we disagree, surely you do too.

We also discuss Facebook’s failed bid to buy microblogging site Twitter and Fujitsu Siemens’ laptop for life programme — we’re confused by both Twitter and free laptops.

And we finish with the Gadget of the Week. The BlackBerry Storm — aka, the Burberry Whirlwind — has won many fans, but is it on our Christmas list…?

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

In this week’s podcast, we look at the always important issue of online gaming — would you be a dwarf or an orc in World of Warcraft, and is having sex in Second Life weird?

Back in so-called “real life,” we also discuss the Oyster travelcard. Transport for London has signed a new contract to keep the popular ticketing card going, and we’re happy to hear it.

In less positive London news, a virus has hit three hospitals in the capital — and we’re not talking MRSI. The Mytob worm has taken out systems at St Barts and the London NHS trust, and they’re still down. Was it a deliberate attack, or just a worm in the wild that managed to slip through?

And is the BBC’s move to stream its programmes online going to be the end of the license fee? We hope so…

We also discuss our gadget of the week, the Sony Ericsson Xperia. It sure is pretty looking, but Windows Mobile fails to win over our expert reviewers…

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

This week we look at the issue of women in IT and the cultural and career barriers that continue to depress the numbers of women working in the industry.

We also discusshow Nigerian email scammers are using hacked Facebook accounts in an attempt to extract hard-earned money from users duped into thinking they are helping a Facebook buddy get out of a fix. We also discuss Nokia’s new keyboard-based smartphone, 3’s INQ 1, and talk about how the US president-elect used the internet to win the election.

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

This week we look at the upcoming launch of the BlackBerry Bold, RIM’s first touch screen smartphone. We also discuss the end of Google’s advertising relationship with Yahoo and debate whether Microsoft will make a fresh bid for the embattled internet company. The UK ID card scheme takes another step closer with trials taking place at two British airports.

Also - Bletchley park needs your help!

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

This week, we’re joined by PC Pro-er Stu Turton to discuss the launch of Windows 7 at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in LA this week. Will the new OS be better than XP and Vista, and has Vista been given a tough ride? And when did Microsoft become the underdog?

As usual, there’s a story about data breaches. According to Information Commissioner Richard “Richie” Thomas, there’ve been some 277 such breaches this year. When’s it going to stop? Probably never, if all Thomas can do is send angry glares as punishment…

Awkwardly moving on, we discuss the T-Mobile G1 Android phone — what’s all the fuss about? Is it worth lining up for?

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.

This week’s podcast takes on an unexpected theme of ‘Free Stuff’ as we discuss so-called ‘Free’ laptops with mobile broadband contracts, ‘Free’ computers for low-income families with children, ‘Free’ broadband for small business telephony customers.

We also look at the potential scrapping of Transport for London’s Oyster card system, following the termination of its contract with service provider TranSys. This came about after several technical and securoty problems, including the publishing of details on how to clone Oyster cards, allowing ‘Free’ travel.

To wrap up, we discuss the hacking of French president Sarkozy’s bank account - that will be ‘Free’ money then.

You can download the IT PRO Podcast here, or click here to find The IT PRO Podcast on iTunes, or just listen below.