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Weekend of February 12th, 2010

We had lots of tech goodies for you. Some of the topics we discussed: Facebook's latest makeover, Apple's iPad: Will it tank? and Tech gifts for your Valentine.

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

 

Matt in Nashville, Tennessee listening on XM Ch.139 asked: "I have a Samsung HDTV, and when I watch DVD movies on it, there's an occasional shift in the picture quality. It gets blurry for one to two seconds, and then goes back to a crystal clear picture. Is this related to how my TV is setup, or is it related to the DVD?"

We would tend to think the first place you want to check is your cables. It may be as simple as a loose connection, or just a "crappy" cable. If you're using one of those "courtesy cables" that comes with just about every piece of home theater equipment, throw it out . Those are usually the cheapest, lowest quality cables you can get. Companies put them in the box as a courtesy (as the name suggests), just so that you'll be able to connect the components as soon as you unpack them.

There has been a lot of discussion about whether more expensive cables get you better quality than cheaper ones. It's our belief that all cables are not created equally. The more expensive cables tend to use higher quality metals, better soldering (which is what joins the wires to the connector), and many of them are hand-made, as opposed to the cheaper cables, which tend to be mass-produced by machines. The two may get you very similar quality in the beginning, but as time goes on, the slightly higher priced cables tend to last longer.

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team and "Into Tomorrow" listeners talked about the new Facebook makeover. Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.

 

Eileen in Eerie, Pennsylvania listening on WPSE 1450 asked: "We got a new webcam, and we're having trouble seeing the other people on the other side. They can see us, but we can't see them. What are we doing wrong?"

Webcams can be a real problem to get working, and very often, the problem relates to firewalls.

Firewalls are meant to keep you safe by closing ports on your computer that could potentially let harmful things in. This works because you normally don't need those ports to be open, but unfortunately, sometimes you do.

In your case, you clearly have no problems broadcasting since the other people are getting your video. The problem might be that either a software firewall (ZoneAlarm, Norton, Windows Firewall, etc), or a hardware firewall (i.e: one built into your router) is blocking the incoming ports that the video needs to use to get to you.

To tell you which ports you'd need to open we would have to know what software you're using for the video call as they don't all use the same ports.

Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.

 

 

 

A listener who recently signed up for our TechNewsLetter asked: "I just had a question regarding something that was on a past show. I heard something about a guy who was wondering how to partition a 4GB compact flash card into a 2GB. I don't have any idea when the show was aired or anything. Any information would be appreciated."

Our research team believes you might be a referring to a question we received from Ray in Raleigh, North Carolina back in August of last year. He asked: "I bought a boat load of 4GB SD cards, and then discovered that the cameras I have only take up to 2GB SD cards. I'm trying to find a way to partition these. You can partition a hard dive and USB, but how do I partition an SD Card?"

We answered with: This isn't an easy task. However, it's not impossible to partition SD cards. We ran across a quick solution you can try with your camera. According to several discussion forums, you can have a simple dummy file on the card, so you always have less than 2GB free. This works for a camera application, but any other device or application taking a look at the actual size of the disk will still screw up.

We ran across a forum discussion that may help you partition a memory card. The info is on our August 21st, 2009 show page, but to make it easier for you, click here.

Keep in mind, though, that if your device won't read anything larger than a 2GB drive, partitioning it isn't likely to fix that. The microSD standard stopped at 2GB and everything over that requires a device that understands the current microSDHC standard. Partitioning won't correct that.

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Linda in Shelbyville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: "DirecTV is supposed to be coming out with a TiVo DVR. Do you know anything about it and when it's going to be ready for market?"

TiVo has pushed back their DirecTV TiVo DVR to early this year, rather than the original plan of late 2009. TiVo made a net loss of over $4 million for the three months in the last quarter of 2009. TiVo executives did confirm that DirecTV also had lower revenues throughout the quarter, and that the company had to cut back in the market. There's no official reason was given for the delay.

TiVo is finalizing a relationship with partners like Comcast, and is also developing the Tru2Way platform of interactive digital cable service.

The features that the DirecTV TiVo DVR will have are:

1) More than 30 High-def channels

2) on-demand

3) Universal Swivel Search

4) KidZone

The target release for this one is now sometime this spring.

 

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team discussed if Apple's iPad will tank.

Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.

Terry in Ardmore, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM sent us the following email and asked: "I am totally blind, and use a screen reader and run a program called Goldwave (goldwave.com), that is accessible with the screen reader. I want to buy a new desktop with 2007. I have always used AMD processor and had real good luck with it, I never had one to crash, and I am wondering about the new Intel chip that is coming out. My question is I need a processor that will speed up processing the music as I clean it up. Which processor and what type do you recommend and would it help to speed up with the cleaning of old LP albums.

I have thought about a Mac. A lot of the blind community is switching over to Mac. Goldwave is not compatible for the Mac, and Rob may know if Mac is accesible with any programs that runs with their screen reader.

Thank you for any help you can give me."

If you choose a Mac, there is an option called "Voiceover". It's a full featured access technology that makes it possible for those who are blind, or have low-vision, to control their computer. Voiceover is built-in to the operating system, and is a lot more than just a simple text-to-speech tool. It uses speech to describe what is happening on your computer without seeing the screen.

Voiceover not only includes new ways to browse the web, but it can read a page as soon it is loaded. Open one or more pages and use the new "Read All" command to begin reading the page from the top or from the Voiceover cursor position.

When you visit a new page that you are not familiar with, Voiceover can provides an overview of its contents automatically. For example, Voiceover can read: "Page has 12 headers, 92 links, 2 tables, 11 auto web spots, 4 visited links". You can also tailor the summary, so you hear only the statistic you're most interested in.

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

 

Rick in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: "I have a Toshiba laptop model Sat A215-4767. The problem is that after it has been running for a few minutes, the screen will go black, and the only way that I have found to get it back on is turn the power off and restart it. Is there something that might be wrong with it that I might be able to do myself to fix it."

Which version of Windows do you have? Does this problem happen every single time you turn the machine on? What about if you turn it on but don't log in? Troubleshooting computer problems, like yours, requires a lot of Q&A in "real time."

But if you're not getting an error message when you restart the computer, then it sounds like it's just putting itself to sleep. In order to find out what's doing that, you're going to need to run the "Event Viewer" (that's an Administrative Tool, in Windows Vista and 7 you can find it by opening the "Control Panel" and choosing "System and Security". Administrative Tools are at the bottom of that screen). You will need to open the System Log and browse for events that happened just as the computer shut down. You will see times listed, and it will start with the last time it shut down and work backwards. You can also try booting up the computer in safe mode by pressing F8 repeatedly as the system is starting. Choose the safe mode option, which avoids loading device drivers or applications at startup, and you can thus make certain it's not a hardware problem.

As you can tell from all this, figuring out what's wrong when you have symptoms like yours isn't going to be easy. Sometimes a problem points us to the answer, but sometimes, like with your question, the problem could be caused by any number of things and finding it takes some patience. Don't forget to try the "System Restore" feature in Windows, before you make any decisions that might involve wiping the hard drive. It's worth an attempt, rolling back the system files fixes a lot of glitches.

 

Dave & Rob will be reporting from Barcelona next week, and the "Into Tomorrow" team discussed what they expect to be announced at Mobile World Congress.

Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.

 

 

Dave Stuart has a message from Dave's Facebook page: "Love your show! A few years back, I was in a car accident, which in turn, left me permanently disabled and with a lot of time on my hands. I started putzing with an old computer that my mom gave me. Then, I started to fix family and friends computers. Now 3 years in, I thought I would move my services online. I can't tell you the great feeling I get when helping others with their computer issues. Funny thing about that is, I have been using that 7 year old PC that my mom gave me while helping clients with new computers, so they usually had to wait for my old girl. I finally bought myself a new Dell Studio XPS 9000. So now I can keep up and not have to have my clients wait around.

What computer TV card would you recommend for watching TV on my computer?"

We recommend using GoToAssist Express and sign up for the free 30-day trial.

 

Andrew in Jerusalem, Israel sent us the following email and asked: "What computer TV card would you recommend for watching TV on my computer?"

You have a number of different choices, depending upon whether you want an external USB device, or an internal card in your computer, and whether you want HD TV compatibility or not.

 

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

Mary in Columbia, Missouri listening on KFRU 1400 AM asked: "Having a problem getting Quicken installed on a Ubuntu system. It says it has to go through Windows. Is there a way I can get Quicken in Ubuntu, or is there something in the Ubuntu system that I might be able to use?"

It turns out you have a lot of alternatives to Quicken that will run on Ubuntu.

From our research we found:

1) GnuCash

2) KMyMoney

3) Skrooge

4) MoneyDance

5) HomeBank CPA

6) JGnash

7) ERP

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

 

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team discussed if Apple will break up with AT&T.

Tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast for more details.

 

Jake in Lake Head, California sent us the following email and asked: "I have bought 3 radios: Pioneer, Grundig & Cariole. I'm off the grid in a canyon in the Shasta Mountatins. Is there any radio that is really any better than another? I also have tried Sirius with little luck."

If you managed to get your Internet working at an acceptable speed, Internet radio might be a good option.

It doesn't require a very high speed connection, there is a good amount of options in terms of content, and it doesn't have to rely on waves that can be blocked by the mountains. Otherwise, we don't think you'll pick up anything short of maybe some AM station or shortwave, since satellite didn't work.

That should be enough for internet radio, and as a plus he can try it for free on his laptop before deciding if he wants to invest on a C.Crane standalone internet radio.

 

 

 

Cam in Brooklyn, New York listening on WVNJ 1160 AM & online sent us the following email and asked: "Great show, and I especially enjoyed the coverage of the CES. I am a bicyclist in New York City, and I love to listen to my Olympus Digital Voice Recorder while riding. Often, I listen to lectures in addition to music, since I am a nursing student. My question is do you know of any bicycle or runner's glove manufacturer who has designed a glove that can accommodate assorted MP3 player? I have modified my own winter glove, so that I can operate the controls while keeping one hand on the handlebars. I find that this arrangement is much more practical than having my MP3 player on an armband or in my jersey. But somebody must have figured this out, and designed a good winter and summer bicycle glove that can accommodate an iPod or MP3 player."

We haven't seen any gloves that will hold an MP3 player, and we did some looking around. Seems like that's an idea that hasn't occurred to anyone but you, at this point.

For cyclists who want MP3 players, one of the coolest gadgets we've seen is the Podio, a nifty portable audio player designed to deal with the elements and mount to your bicycle's handlebars, including a light on the forward facing end. It's a great idea, but unfortunately it hasn't yet come to market.

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

Into Tomorrow Product Spotlight with Rob Almanza

This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

Flipper: A Flipper Remote Control -- A user-friendly big button universal remote control that works TVs, Cable, Satellite & DTV boxes.

PlayOn: Download keys for their PlayOn Software -- Watch Internet videos on your TV, wirelessly on your game consoles. No devices to setup.

SmartSwipe: Several SmartSwipe personal credit card readers for online shopping

Zinstall: Zinstall XP7 product licenses - Hassle-free move from XP (or Vista) to Windows 7, on same computer or from an old one to a new one

ITTV Video

Did you know that the iPhone could help save lives? Rob Almanza takes a look at a free app to do just that on the Into Tomorrow Product Spotlight. Also featuring: This Week in Tech History with Chris Graveline.

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