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Weekend of August 31st, 2012

 

Dave and his team of tech experts answer more of your questions via the Ask Dave Hotline. In case you haven't yet, call us ... toll-free 1-800-899-INTO (4686) ... with any consumer electronics question, opinion, help another listener or tell us what your favorite app is and why. You can also participate via our FREE "Into Tomorrow" App (iOS/Android/Intel AppUp). Thank you for your participation!

ITTV Video Update

It's Back-to-School time! Are you ready? Rob and our KidsTech Reporter Caitlyn share some fun and productive devices and other ideas for students. Also, Chris Graveline takes us back into yesterday's most outstanding tech events on "This Week In Tech History".

Listeners & Guests on the show this week:

For ALL the details ... be sure to listen to the show by downloading the MP3 or clicking the RED & WHITE "Play" button on the media player, both on the right-hand side of this page.

HOUR 1:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Daniel in Millbrook, Alabama listening on 1440 WLWI asked: "I have a Verizon account and am out of contract. I'm thinking of getting a smartphone touchscreen. Should I get a regular phone? an Android? What kind of OS would be best for everyday use. I also like to explore a lot of free apps. I hate to have to go to Verizon and pay $160 to $180 a month for a decent amount of time, when I can go to Straight Talk and get everything unlimited for about $45 a month. Wondering your opinion. Where's a good place to get used or refurbished phones?"

 

You don't have to go with Verizon if your contract is ending soon, Straight Talk does offer different smartphones, if you're going to go with one of them, you might want to consider an Android smartphone.

You say you want to explore a lot of apps, the most interesting ones won't be found in proprietary platforms, you'll have more apps for their Android phones than their more generic smartphones.

Keep in mind that you will be paying a premium for these phones, or having no contract means that the phones are not subsidized, so you'll be paying between $130 and $330 for phones that are a little inferior from the ones you could get for much less on contract with a bigger carrier, the other side of that, obviously is that if you plan on hanging on to your phone for a few years anyway, you'll probably save a lot of money.

As for used phones, you can try the usual outlets for used goods, a lot of websites like eBay.com and Craigslist.com offer tons of used smartphones, sometimes for reasonable prices, sometimes, not so much, but make sure that the phone will work with the company you choose for your plan, that means that if you go with Straight Talk, you should probably look for a Straight Talk phone. Sometimes you can find refurbished phones on sell by the carriers, visit their sites and try your luck.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

Dani in San Francisco, California listening online asked: "If Apple won't put Siri on the new iPad because it needs an Internet connection, why would they put the voice dictation? Couldn't they have put Siri on it, too?"

 

We could spend all day trying to figure out why Apple does things the way they do. And to be honest, While Siri is very helpful to have on the phone, especially while you're driving... how often are you going to pull out your iPad while you're behind the wheel to try and look something up? So, I'm sure they thought about those things when they were developing these products.

More people tend to use their phones to quickly look up where the closest restaurant is, or to get directions. You can see where Siri would come in handy for that. iPad users tend to sometimes use them as laptop replacements (to an extent) and being able to dictate an e-mail or search the web using voice commands can save a lot of time (and aggravation of trying to type on the touchscreen.)

In the end, no one outside of Apple knows why the iPad has Voice Dictation, but not Siri. We don't know the terms under which Apple acquired Siri (remember, they bought the company that made Siri -- they didn't invent it themselves). What we do know is that Siri connects to network servers specific to itself, to understand and process user interactions. Perhaps those servers would be overloaded by millions more iPad users? We already hear stories of Siri struggling to keep up at times. Perhaps Apple just wants to have some feature unique to their phones, not also shared by their tablets or computers? If we ever find out definitively what the reason is, we'll be sure and report it!

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

 

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.

 

For Android:

 

• Listener Kristin in Anchorage, Alaska -- listening on KBYR recommends: Draw Something, FREE

 


"Hi Dave! "Draw Something" is what my friends and I are all into now. Fun. A bit slow on updates, but it is good for a laugh."






Examples:


Elton, by Rob's Sister



Javeline, by Rob



• Jack in Blackfoot, Idaho listens on 690AM KBLY and recommends: VOXER, FREE


"Voxer lets you send instant audio, text, photo and location messages to one or a group of your friends. Your friends can listen to your message while you talk or check it out later. this works really well if your driving and you don't want to take your hands off the wheel to send a text message out. (push to talk) was very popular a few years back, maybe Voxer will be bringing that feature back to all mobile devices. It's also available for iPhones"




For iOS:

 

• Rob recommends: Tongue Twister Pro, $1.99
"I was able to download it for free, during a promotional period. The app contains a ton of tongue twisters that will have you laughing (when you mess up the words). I started to use them as a way to avoid getting my tongue twisted while we record our ITTV videos. Chris taught me to say 'Unique. New York.' Now, I've moved on to tongue twisters to exercise my tongue and help my speech. Sometimes I ramble my words or stutter. I think it's a fun and productive app." -- Rob


• Chris recommends: Smithsonian Channel for iPad, FREE
"Most people are familiar with the Smithsonian Institution - mostly for their collection of museums. A lot of people don't know that they also have their own TV network - the Smithsonian Channel. They have a lot of shows that go deep into the history, not only of our great nation, but of the world. Being a history buff, I love this app. This app offers a lot of full episodes and tons of clips from their programs. There is a place in the app where you choose keywords from subjects you are interested in, and it will build a custom playlist for you. Then you can sit back and watch hours of video. If you like a show, you can search for it on their channel guide to you can catch more episodes on TV - if you get the channel. Again, it's for the iPad, and it's free.'"

What are your favorite apps? Let us know!

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

Rodney, Ellenville, NY and listening on WELV 1370 AM asked: "How do you use EchoRoamer to sync your iPhone with TV?"

 

For those of you that don’t know, Echo Roamer is a wireless AV transmitter. It allows you to wirelessly display what is on your iPhone to your TV. It’s a device that looks like a case for your iPhone. It has a very “user friendly” plug-and-play feature. All you have to do is connect the transmitter to your phone, and the receiver to your TV and you’ll be up and running.

Just make sure to switch your Echo Roamer to the correct mode after fully charged. At present, the Battery Capacity of Echo Roamer is 1000mAh. In order to save the life of the battery, we recommend users to turn off the media mode when you don't use the media functions.

Because Echo Roamer uses the wireless technology during the transmission, it can be affected by the electromagnetic interference. If you want to get the best game experience, please try to avoid wireless interference around the receiver, such as the WiFi router.

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

Larry in Ocala, Florida listens on WOCA 1370 AM asked: "I have a computer that came with a monitor. The shorter, not the one that's more common now. If I get a bigger monitor and I hook it up, will it start working right away, or will I have to do something to adjust it?"

 

In theory ... Yes. The only area you may run into a problem is if your computer is very old. In some cases, older computers have video cards that don't support the higher resolution or the aspect ratio of the newer widescreen monitors. But this is rare.

You will get the best quality picture in whatever the native resolution of the monitor is. If you go into your display settings, you will be able to see what resolutions are available for your particular video card. If one of those settings will allow for a widescreen image, it will work. If one of the available resolutions matches the native resolution of your

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

Shawn in Shenandoah, Iowa, calling in via the App asked: "I'm looking for devices to stream video to HDTV, my little laptop works really well, but I've looked over a few items, the Roku and other devices like that, but I don't know if there are any specific items that you might like that stream video to the TV. Otherwise I've been looking at a few things that only works with certain laptops which I think is really silly. Second question: What is DLNA? does my TV need it or my laptop need it? I'm not sure what it is, so if you could tell me what DLNA stands for and what it means I'd appreciate it."

 

Well first, if you want a dedicated box to play internet videos from, there are several. We've tried the Roku and Boxee boxes. Both can play web content without the need for a computer, both will give you access to popular sources of online video, like Netflix, Amazon on Demand, Vudu, Hulu Plus, YouTube, etc.

The least-expensive Roku box will cost you just $49, and you can run Boxee for free from your laptop or iPad, if you don't want to spend any money.

You can also look at Google TV and Apple TV. Apple TV will offer you fewer choices, in terms of full length content you'll be restricted to Netflix and iTunes. You'll have access to YouTube, Vimeo, MLB and other sources, but not for movies and TV shows.

Now, as for your follow-up question:  DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance, and is a wireless standard to connect different devices at home, for example, you could transfer your pictures wirelessly from your DLNA camera to your DLNA TV or printer, or wirelessly transfer music from your DLNA laptop to your DLNA music player.DLNA is probably not something you need for your TV or laptop right now. It's probably something that's nice to use if you happen to have it, but not many people or devices are using it yet.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

Kim in Charlotte, NC. Listens on WXNC and asked: "Hey Dave, I just bought a Nikon 1, and I LOVE IT. However, spending this much for a camera, I want to make sure it will last. What are some good ideas to keep my camera in good shape? Thanks!"

 

We would be delighted to help! The most common and easiest thing to do would be to get a case or camera bag. They make them with soft lining that won't scratch your camera or your screen, padding helps as well. The case should have a small pocket for a spare memory card and a spare battery.

Keeping the camera clean is your #1 priority. Dirt and DSLR cameras simply do not mix. We found some really excellent web sites with tips and techniques for cleaning your camera, and we will link those for you in this week's show notes. As we already said, get a quality case for your camera. And if your camera comes with a lens hood -- use it! Those help keep your lens safe from bumps and scratches.

Never touch the lens with your fingers. The oils on your fingertips will muck up the lens. Before wiping off the lens, hold the camera upside down and gently blow off any grit and lose dust particles. Then, lightly wipe the lens and other camera parts with a soft, dry cloth or lens cleaning paper.

If needed, wipe the lens with a few drops of lens cleaning fluid. Place the fluid on the lens cleaning paper, not directly onto the lens. The best camera cleaning cloth is made of microfiber, which should be stored in a plastic baggie when not in use. Lens tissue, a swatch from a cotton t-shirt or a soft handkerchief can also be used. Paper towels, napkins and facial tissue should NOT be used to clean the lens.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

 

Charles in Shreveport, Louisiana listens on 710 KEEL asked: "I bought a house from my mother and she left owing a huge cable bill. We can't get cable Internet because they think we're trying to get around paying her bill. We live just outside of the range for DSL. I'm wondering if we have any options at all of getting high speed Internet outside of the regular AT&T network or through the cable, because those options are out for us. We really need our high-speed Internet."

 

You can look into satellite internet. WildBlue has plans starting at $49.99 in Shreveport that could get you up to 5 mbps, it is capped to 7GB a month though.

If you get strong cellphone service at home you could also get a MiFi, it will also be capped and it will likely by slower than those 5 mbps that WildBlue claims you'll get, but you may get faster service if you're in an LTE area for either AT&T or Verizon.

Also, you could try talking to the cable company, you could see if they'll agree to a payment plan or you could even tell them "I'm not the woman that owes you, can I please have some service?"

One downside to satellite Internet service is latency. Although it's plenty fast once the transfer of data starts, the handshaking that leads up to that point will work more slowly over satellite. As long as you're prepared for this, you won't be surprised by it.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

Tom in Albuquerque, New Mexico listens tot he podcast - calling in via the App asked: "What is Apple's beef with widgets, the one thing I miss about my old Android phone is the ability to have the little power widget thing that lets you have the ability to to turn off your Bluetooth and wifi and so on. On iOS 5.0 I had the widgets and when 5.1 when came around they're gone. Is there gonna be an Apple update that'll let me have my widgets back I don't have to plow through hundreds and hundreds of menus to get to to my Bluetooth and my WiFi. Maybe the iDork will have something on this one so I can have something like you and the rest of the Android have."

 

if you had widgets on iOS 5.0 (other than the weather and stocks widget), your phone must have been jailbroken. Apple has only released pretty lightweight widgets so far for iOS, there are rumors that a music control widget might be coming, which would make sense, and the reason for that is probably battery life.

Android phones tend to have pretty lousy battery life, the iPhone ... also has lousy battery life, but not as lousy. One of the reasons for that is probably that running services are kept to a minimum. If you ask someone complaining about their Android's battery life to shut off every widget and use a static wallpaper, odds are, their battery life will noticeably improve. That's probably the only reason Apple hasn't supported widgets and live wallpapers until now.

We suspect that, in time, they will add more widgets to the notification bar and slowly let people get used to the idea that if they want to ruin their own battery life, it's not Apple's fault, but that may take a while.

If you don't mind jailbreaking your iPhone, you can install widgets to the notification bar, including power control widgets but, as we suspect you found out already, if you update the phone the jailbreak will likely go away and you'll have to start over with all the widget installations again.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

Dan in Las Vegas, Nevada listening on KDWN 720 AM asked: "What is the best and most affordable online backup service? I've seen a lot of ads for Carbonite, but it seems kind of pricey and the ads look a little spammy. I have files backed up on an external hard drive but I could still lose everything in case of a fire or robbery. It seems much safer to have my data stored in an off- site location."

 

You're absolutely right. It is much safer to have your backup data stored off-site. Whether it's on an external drive that you take from home and store at your office, or vice versa.

As far as the online services, Carbonite is good. We've used it on a few of our machines here, at our studios. Dave has had Carbonite on his main computer for years. Another service we currently use and love is MiMedia. They are pretty much a direct competitor to Carbonite and you will find a lot of the same features with both companies. What gives MiMedia an edge in our book is the fact that they they will give you up to 7gigabytes of backup storage for free. If you need more, that's when you start getting into their paid plans. With Carbonite, all of their plans are unlimited, but they start at about $60 a year. (Which actually works out cheaper than the $9.95 a month for the unlimited MiMedia plan)

One of the helpful things that MiMedia does is for you with their paid plan, is offer an optional "Shuttle Drive." They will send you an external drive. You do your first complete backup directly to it, then send it back to them. That will get all of your data backed up to their server without clogging up your network connection. After that, when a file is added or changed on your computer, it is uploaded automatically to their server, so there's nothing to worry about.

Both services also offer free Smartphone apps so you can access any of your backed up data from anywhere.

Don't overlook Dropbox, either. While it's not technically a backup system, anything that you store in the Dropbox folder will be synchronized with the cloud, and then any other computers where you link up the same Dropbox will receive those files, and any updates, automatically. A 50GB Dropbox costs just $10 per month, or $100 per year, and it's not JUST backup, it's also file synchronization between Mac, PC, Android, and all things iDevice-ish. Phones, tablets, computers -- Dropbox supports them all.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

 

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: "Dish Hopper Whole-Home DVR System"   "Into Tomorrow" has been a long-time supporter and fan of digital video recorders (DVRs). We were thrilled to try out the latest whole-home system from Dish. Rob shares some of the unique features we're loving.

Features: - Records 6 live HD channels at once during primetime (that's 4 local HD networks and 2 channels of your choosing) … and streams four HD programs to different TVs … simultaneously. - 2 TERABYTES of storage -- Dish says it can record and store up to 2,000 hours of video content. - It has a unique recording feature called "PrimeTime Anytime" – it gives you instant On Demand access to your favorite shows on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC in HD. Once you set this option, EVERY show airing on those networks from 8 to 11pm Eastern is recorded and stored for up to 8 days from the original air-date on your DVR. If you don't have time to watch everything within 8 days, you can manually SAVE them until you delete it. PrimeTime Anytime is only available with local broadcasts in HD, which are not available in all markets. - The Hopper DVR is part of a whole-home system. It's the central hub of your TV entertainment. It communicates with the smaller units called "Joey" which can be placed in any room around the house or office … and watch anything on the Hopper. The system supports up to 3 of these. Basically, you're sharing your TV content from the Hopper across your entire home with the Joeys. The Hopper can support up to 4 HDTVs at the SAME time. - The user interface on Dish DVRs has always been very simple to use. Our only complaint is the organization of folders. We've tried to keep our favorite sitcoms in one folder, but haven't been very successful with it. - Apps: Dish recently added Pandora streaming music service. So, if you love Pandora on your computer or smartphone, you can now enjoy it on your TV. Just enter your account login credentials and you're set. Keep in mind that this service also requires an Internet connection. You can even login to Facebook with Hopper. There's also the Weather Channel for local info … news feeds for Sports and Entertainment … and even time-wasting games … in case you're bored. - Hopper offers Blockbuster @Home Service. This gives you access to thousands of movies when connected to broadband Internet. With the Hopper's DISH Unplugged feature, you get hundreds of titles instantly, even without an Internet connection. Blockbuster @Home is available for an additional monthly charge. - Dish's TV Everywhere is also offered on the Hopper. Just connect the Sling Adapter to your DVR. In case you're not familiar with Sling, it allows you to watch your home TV, including DVR recordings and live TV, from anywhere … on your computer, smartphone or tablet. - The Hopper has a helpful feature called "Remote Control Locator" which at the press of the button … it "rings" & flashes your remote so that you can find it easily. Now you won't have to flip your house to find that darn remote. - The Hopper whole-home system has been out since March of this year. The price depends on the programming package you buy. You can currently get it for free with their "America's Top 200" package and above.

 

Mark in Ocala, Florida asked: "Is there a cheap, inexpensive VGA to RCA cable (not a converter box, just a cable) that allows you to export the video from your laptop to your TV?"

 

You can find these online for like $2, they're very common. Keep in mind that VGA doesn't carry audio, so you'll need a separate cable to go from your headphone jack into the TV's audio input.

There are cables that come with both the VGA and the stereo jack in one package, so you may be able to buy an inexpensive cable that comes with what you need for both an audio and a video connection, but even if you don't, you can just buy a cheap 3.5mm stereo to RCA cable online too.

You can probably get the whole setup for less than $10 online and you won't need any converted box, as long as you have the VGA out on your laptop and an RCA input on your TV.

For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

Jamie in Tampa, Florida asked: "I have an LG flip phone. I'm wondering how come every time I take it off the charger, it's fully charged, I noticed a reduction in power when it's turned off? What causes a phone to use its battery power when it's turned off?"

 

Batteries store energy by ionizing chemicals, and will stay charged for a reasonable amount of time if they're not used, but sooner or later they start to lose their charge little by little.

Think of it as sweeping a dusty floor, if you sweep dust off to the side, even if the day doesn't seem that windy, sooner or later it will wind up all over the floor again.

If your flip phone isn't that new, you're gonna notice this problem with the battery much more,  batteries don't age well and over time rearranging those chemicals to hold a charge becomes more and more difficult, so as your phone and it's battery get a little older you'll notice that the charge lasts less and less not just when the phone is in use, but also when it's turned off and just sitting.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

Daniel in Millbrook, Alabama listening on 1440 WLWI asked: "I have a Verizon account and am out of contract. I'm thinking of getting a smartphone touchscreen. Should I get a regular phone? an Android? What kind of OS would be best for everyday use. I also like to explore a lot of free apps. I hate to have to go to Verizon and pay $160 to $180 a month for a decent amount of time, when I can go to Straight Talk and get everything unlimited for about $45 a month. Wondering your opinion. Where's a good place to get used or refurbished phones?"

 

You don't have to go with Verizon if your contract is ending soon, Straight Talk does offer different smartphones, if you're going to go with one of them, you might want to consider an Android smartphone.

You say you want to explore a lot of apps, the most interesting ones won't be found in proprietary platforms, you'll have more apps for their Android phones than their more generic smartphones.

Keep in mind that you will be paying a premium for these phones, or having no contract means that the phones are not subsidized, so you'll be paying between $130 and $330 for phones that are a little inferior from the ones you could get for much less on contract with a bigger carrier, the other side of that, obviously is that if you plan on hanging on to your phone for a few years anyway, you'll probably save a lot of money.

As for used phones, you can try the usual outlets for used goods, a lot of websites like eBay.com and Craigslist.com offer tons of used smartphones, sometimes for reasonable prices, sometimes, not so much, but make sure that the phone will work with the company you choose for your plan, that means that if you go with Straight Talk, you should probably look for a Straight Talk phone. Sometimes you can find refurbished phones on sell by the carriers, visit their sites and try your luck.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

John in Erie, Pennsylvania listening on WPSE 1450 asked: "We are connected with Time Warner Cable and also have Time Warner digital phone service. My download speed is only around 125 to 180 Kbps. Very slow. I have a gigabyte router. When I've had technicians here, they say that the tests"

 

The slowest speed that Time Warner Cable is advertising for your region is 10 mbps download and 1 mbps upload, that should get you speeds of far more than 125 to 180 kbps.

It's true that you're speeds will vary depending on where you're downloading from and what sort of service they have, but have you tried downloading a large file from someone with obviously fast service? For example, what happens when you download a software update from Microsoft? do you still get very slow speeds?

You should also test using a few services like speedtest.net and testmy.net, and see what they tell you, it's normal to download from a few sources with less than lightning fast connections, but you should get fast service from someone sometime.
If you're still getting slow speeds, there's not a lot of stuff that you can do on your end, if techs claim that they're getting good speeds from your home, then your wiring should be ok, and even a DOCSIS 2.0 modem, which is the least you would have, can do speeds of 10mbps.

It may be a good idea to ask a friend with a laptop to bring it by so you can rule out any problems coming from your machine, but if their laptop is slow too, maybe you should talk to the cable company again, those speeds are well below what you should expect for your connection.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

 

 

Charlie in Santa Barbara, California listens on KTIP 1440 AM asked: "How do you stop the unsolicited videos of funny animals and things like that, that pop-up on my screen?"

 

What you're seeing are flash ads on websites, you can stop them by disabling flash altogether, but that will obviously stop more than just that, or you can use some sort of ad blocker.

If you use Firefox, Chrome or Safari you can use AdBlock as a browser extension, that will get rid of most if not all of the flash ads you see.

For Firefox, you can also look at Flashblock to specifically stop flash ads, which are probably the ones you're seeing. You can also head to better quality websites… who's showing you funny animals these days?

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.

 

 

If you have any questions about any of this week's show info, please email us here.

This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

Corrosion Technologies: Several bottles of CorrosionX -- A few squirts of CorrosionX clean contacts & connections & keep them protected for months (in salt spray environments) to years.

Ergotron: A Universal Tablet Cradle -- This accessory converts a monitor mount to hold a tablet or eReader. Works with most popular tablets and eReaders, including Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle.

Microsoft: Copies of Microsoft Streets & Trips 2013 Software

 

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