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Weekend of July 13th, 2012 – Highlights from SINOCES in China

This week Dave and Rob bring you highlights from the 2012 SINOCES convention that recently took place in Qingdao, China. Find out how consumers are taking advantage of technology from that part of the world, where a lot of our electronics are made. Also, Mark and Chris are in-studio answering more of your tech questions.

 

ITTV Video Update

Dave and Rob bring you highlights from the 2012 SINOCES show floor in Qingdao, China. Find out how consumers and manufacturers are innovating technology in China.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

For Android:


• Mark recommends: Robin, FREE


 

"My app this week is Robin, a personal assistant from Magnifis. Robin is billed as "Siri for Android," and we've all heard THAT before. Thing is, this time they might have actually got it right. I've used Vlingo and said on this show that Vlingo was the closest thing Android had to Siri, but it was still a long way off. Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" has a Siri-like voice assistant in it, but for those of us running the ubiquitous Android 2.3 "Gingerbread," Robin appears to be growing into a rather nice program. It started out just doing navigation, and with every update they add another feature. Rather than trying to be all things to all people right out of the gate, Magnifis is building Robin one layer at a time. It's gone from being curious, to being really useful, and I think in time it will be the personal assistant you've always wished Android had. Robin is available now, for free, in the Google Play Store." -- Mark

 

For iOS:

 

• Chris recommends: Logos Quiz Games, FREE


 

"I've got a very simple app this week, called Logos Quiz Game. As the name suggests, it's a quiz game where you have to guess what company or brand a particular logo represents. I first heard of this app from my daughter. I remember thinking "What a waste of time! That can't possibly be any fun." But I was surprised how addicting it can be. Especially if you are a competitive person like me. You can spend hours sitting around seeing who can get the most correct answers. If you get stuck, there are hints available. In fact, the more correct answers you get, the more hints you unlock. If you still can't get it, you can post to twitter or Facebook to solicit help from your friends. The app is free in the iTunes App Store." -- Chris


 


Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.

 

Ralph in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM listens online asked: "I have a Kindle Fire and I have Internet in my house. I would like to take the Internet with me for the Kindle Fire. How do I go about doing that?"

 

There are rumors of a new Kindle Fire that may include 3G or 4G mobile access. The one available today, the one you have, is WiFi-only, so you won't have able to just take the Internet with you by only taking your Kindle with you.

Obviously, you're not limited to using your Kindle Fire on your own WiFi network only, so if another network is available wherever you want to use it, you can just connect to it but assuming you want to use it somewhere without WiFi, you can look at either a MiFi device or, if you have a smartphone, at a wireless tethering plan for your phone, that would give your Kindle Fire the 3G or 4G connection it's lacking.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use aircards designed for computers. WiFi tethering is pretty much your only option to add mobile broadband capabilities to your Kindle Fire.

Having your smartphone tethered to your tablet might be expensive or it might be included in what you already pay, so you should check with your wireless provider. For example, T-Mobile wasn't charging for tethering, nor does Verizon if you have one of their new Share Everything plans.

 

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

 

Jason in Wellington, Florida listening via our free Android app asked: "How do I make my smart phone battery last longer? I have a Samsung Captivate and I can only use it for about two hours before the battery goes dead. I've started carrying 3 extra batteries just to get me through school! It really gets on my nerves. Any tips? I don't watch videos or anything ... just check my email often or random Google searches. And when I'm done, I end all processes."

 

Battery life is a major concern among smartphone users. But, there are some features you can turn off to help save some juice. We've talked a lot about it in the past, but it's always to refresh our memory.

Some helpful tips we can give you include:

• Turning off Bluetooth. If you leave it on, it will keep searching for Bluetooth devices, which drains your battery.
• You can also turn GPS and Wi-Fi when you aren't using them.
• Other smartphone users also turn to 2G radio coverage vs 3G or 4G, but beware ... you won't have the best Internet access possible.

 

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

 

HOUR 1 GUESTS
At the "Into Tomorrow" booth	Gary Shapiro, President & CEO – CEA	Rob hard at work
Almost a Dyson fan...	Watching Dave and Rob at work	This year's innovation awards

 

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

James in Ypsilanti, Michigan listening on CKLW 800 AM asked: "I would like to know which smartphone is the best on the market."

 

Do you want the long answer or the short answer? The short answer is "the next one that comes out." But, seriously, it's really impossible to just pick one model for you. If you're an Apple user and you buy all your content from iTunes already because you have a Mac and an iPad, then for you, an iPhone would be the best smartphone.

On the other hand, if data speed is crucial, then you want a 4G LTE phone. And please make certain it's a 4G "LTE" model. Make sure you see those letters, because there are some wireless companies selling slower speed networks by calling them "4G" when they're really not. Among 4G LTE phones, there are a lot of excellent choices.

Motorola's RAZR Maxx and Droid 4 are good choices. With the RAZR Maxx having the longest battery life of any phone on the market and the Droid 4 offering a solid, comfortable slide out keyboard.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is extremely fast, supporting 4G LTE on networks that offer it, and offers a very bright, sharp screen. Samsung's Galaxy Note is a huge smartphone with a 5-inch display, sort of in between a smartphone and a tablet.

If you're a fan of Windows Mobile 7.5, then the Nokia Lumina 900 is a good choice. It's a 4G LTE phone available on the AT&T network, and eventually AT&T will actually have decent 4G LTE coverage. (The 4G coverage they advertise right now is a sort of 3 and ½ G, really. Remember, look for the LTE.)

About the only platform we wouldn't recommend to you right now is BlackBerry. In our opinion, the company is going through some struggles and it may not survive. You should stick with iOS, Android, or Windows Mobile, for now. Hope that helps! Tell us what you choose.

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

Ben in Lake Raystown, Pennsylvania listening on "the radio" - calling in via the App asked: "I have a Samsung LED TV with WiFi and I'd like to stream movies from my iPod or iPad to the TV. Thank you."

You may not be able to just send the movies from your iPod or iPad straight to your TV, even if it has WiFi. WiFi-enabled TVs are fairly limited. They use WiFi to access video and music streaming services, but they're not designed to interact with iPods or iPad. If you want to stream from them to your TV, your only real option may be getting an Apple TV.

An Apple TV will cost you $100 and will also give you access to Apple's iTunes library of movies and TV shows, YouTube, Netflix and a few other streaming sites, but it's likely that outside of iTunes you already have access to most of those sites via your smart TV.

You may get lucky though. There are iOS apps that will stream media to DLNA-enabled devices. So if your Samsung TV is DLNA-enabled, using one of those apps may do the trick. You can try "media:connect" or "iMediaPlayer" and see if they'll work with your TV.

You also have the option to just ignore the whole wireless aspect and just get a cable to connect your devices straight to your TV, both the iPod and iPad have cables for for that, they're not cheap, but you can find less expensive alternatives online, if you're interested, and even the expensive Apple-branded ones will cost you less than an Apple TV.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Facebook Message from Alex in Chicago, listening via TuneIn asked: "Hi Dave and crew, I was wondering if you could recommend a laptop around the $500 to $650 range for a recent graduate who landed a stock market job. I have been pretty happy with Toshiba models and I like purchasing electronics at Sam's Club because the extended warranties are fairly in-expensive in comparison to other retail stores. Will going with an i3 vs. an i5 processor really make a difference? I know more RAM really helps. I think the i7 processors will be much higher in cost. Thanks for making the effort in keeping your audience as Tech Savvy as possible ;)"

 

Whether an i5 will make a big difference over an i3 for you depends on what you will be using your computer for. Since you're looking at a fairly inexpensive laptop, you're likely looking at it as an email/social networking/basic word processing machine and not as a gaming or video editing powerhouse. If that's the case, then an i3 will more than suffice. Make sure you have enough RAM, but an i3 will be more than enough to run a browser or a word processor.

Now, as for laptops themselves, you can look at a Dell Inspiron 14z. It comes with a Core i5, 6GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive and they seem to believe it's gonna be powerful enough to run Photoshop and Premiere adequately because they include both of them in the $549 price.

An ASUS R500A will cost you $629, and it has similar features -- the same as the Acer -- it has a Core i5, 6GB RAM, but this one comes with a 750GB hard drive and Microsoft Office Starter Kit. The Starter Kit is not the full version of Office though, it has both ads and reduced functionality, but it should be useful anyway.

For a little less, $600, you can find the Dell 14R with a full version of Office Home and Student and a 640GB hard drive. All of these computers are from Sam's Club, and they all come with Windows 7, but the ASUS comes with a free upgrade to Windows 8 valid until January 2013, so that may be something else to consider. If you're interested in being able to upgrade to Windows 8 for free, that one will include it in the package, even if it doesn't come with Windows 8 built in.

We're not sure what's involved in stock market work, so if there's any particularly complex software you need you can obviously look at more expensive and powerful options, but we think these should work well for you.

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Ron from Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: "Why does it take so long for articles on Drudge and Diggs to download on my iPhone 3?"

 

Is your phone connected ti WiFi? We suspect that those articles are taking a while to load because you're on a weak 3G signal, or maybe even on Edge.

There's no reason for those websites to be any slower than others. Start by checking other sites. If everything is slow, then your connection is just not very fast. Using WiFi or switching to a carrier with a better signal in your area should help you download at better speeds. You could also test your data connection with SpeedTest.net. Or download their app for free.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

HOUR 2 GUESTS
Touring a factory	Lee Cheng, Chief Legal Officer & SVP of Human Resources – Newegg	Chinese assembly line
Assembling TVs	The finished product, ready to ship	Dinner with friends from Germany

 

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

Jamie in Tampa, Florida listens to the Podcast and asked: "I have a basic cell phone. Samsung flip phone. It dies as fast as I charge it up. Is it a problem with the battery? What do you think it is?"

 

It does sound like it's a problem with the battery. How old is this phone? If it's a few years old, then it's likely that the battery just aged and can't hold a charge anymore. Batteries don't last that long.

If you want to keep the phone, you can look for a replacement battery. They tend to be fairly inexpensive. You can probably find one for $15 or $20, but you could also look into replacing the phone altogether.

You can obviously get a smartphone. They're the dominant phones on the market these days. But, if you haven't so far because you haven't wanted to, phone companies will still sell you a flip phone and for very little money too, so you can just look into replacing the phone for very little or no money.

If you want to go really, really cheap, you can get an Acer Aspire with a dual core processor, 320GB of hard drive space and 4GB of RAM for as little as $350 on Newegg.com. That's 70% of the price of an iPad.

For about $400, you can get a laptop with similar specs from Lenovo, and models from ASUS are available for around the same price, too. If you're willing to spend more money you can get a much better computer, but if you're a first time time owner that won't be doing anything too complex those should work for you without costing you too much.

Now as for the cost to own ... there's really not a huge cost to own a computer. You'll spend money powering it, but it'll cost you less than powering your TV. It may even cost you less than powering a single light bulb.

Most modern laptops run on around 60 watts of power per hour, some on a little more, some on a little less, but it's hardly a huge expense. You could consider adding extra RAM or an external or larger internal hard drive as part of the cost of ownership, but most normal users don't ever really do either of those... really, the bulk of your cost will be the purchase and the use, not the maintenance, and with options starting at as little as $350, you might be better off getting a replacement in a few years rather than investing on this one anyway.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

John in Detroit, Michigan listening on WCAR 1090 asked: "I have two hard drives in my computer - a 'C' and a 'D' drive. My C drive is very full and I have already deleted any files that I don't need. I have a lot of available space on my other hard drive. Is there any way to move some of my programs that are installed on my C drive, to my D drive?"

 

Programs? No. But if you are running Windows 7, you can easily relocate your libraries. That's where Windows stores all your documents, videos, photos, and music. So moving them to the D drive will free up a lot of space.

Here's what you do. Click the Start button, then click your name at the top of the right column. That will open up your User folder. Look for My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos. You'll see each one of these folders in your User folder. Right click on each of them and choose Properties. Click the Location tab at the top. Edit the location to be a folder on the D drive. When Windows 7 offers to move the existing files, say yes.

Windows will move the files from C to D drive, and then it will automatically update that folder in each of your libraries. Now, if you have created additional folders outside of those four standard ones, you will need to move those folders manually and edit the library location manually as well. Just remove the old folder and add it back in its new location.

But programs install themselves into a folder when you first load them and that's the folder they need to remain in. If you plan ahead, you could make a Program Files folder on your D drive and load new programs there, but once you've installed them on the C drive you should leave them alone. It is technically possible to edit all the necessary registry settings to move a program installation, but it's a lot of work and you still run the risk of things not pointing to the correct locations.

By the way, this is one area where Apple has it all over Windows. In Mac OS X, you can move a program between drives simply by dragging its folder from one drive to another. None of this wonky registry editing to do. Hope that helps! Let us know how it goes.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

 

HOUR 3 GUESTS
Steve Koenig, Director, Industry & Analysis – CEA	Chinese reception	Angus Bryan – BrandsMart USA
The TV Tower	AOC's booth at SINOCES	Driving in 3D

 

 

Touring Shanghai
Dragon landscaping	Dave and Rob in front of the Oriental Pearl Tower	The foggy skyline
Karaoke night	A motorized rickshaw	The Shangai Apple Store
Chinese crowds	Touring the city	Chinese flags decorating the streets

 

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

This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

Boingo: Several 60-day Certificates -- With Boingo you can connect online at free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.

Kingston: 16GB SD memory cards and a MobileLite G3 (USB 3.0 Card Reader)

Idea Incubator: Several txtRng -- "the stylus with style". This is a unique stylus Rob recently featured it on our Product Spotlight.

Radio Shack: Auvio Element Earbuds with Microphone

 

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