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Weekend of March 12th, 2010

Last week, Dave became very ill -- on his birthday no less -- while in Jacksonville, FL for a remote broadcast from an Audio Expo that we've promoted for several weeks. The rest of the "Into Tomorrow" Team was prepared to still do the broadcast while Dave rested in the hotel room and took his meds. However, the AXPONA show directors cancelled our broadcast. So much for the old adage: "THE SHOW MUST GO ON"! That was a shame as we were there and ready with all the show highlights. Too bad. In spite of the absurd turn of events, we're happy to report that Dave is doing a lot better. While Dave and the team travel to San Francisco, we've compiled some of our favorite listener questions and guests for you to enjoy.

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

 

Dan in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: "I hear a lot about VOIP, but I only hear about it from two companies, 5LINX and Vonage. Is it the wave of the future or is it just a fad? Will it put AT&T and all these phone companies out of business?"

VOIP is most certainly the wave of the future, especially as Internet connection speeds are constantly increasing. Standard landline phone service isn't going anywhere any time soon, but a lot of people, nowadays, are dropping their home phone service and either using a cell phone, or getting VOIP service at a fraction of the cost. The main drawback to VOIP, however, is that the quality is dependent on the quality of your Internet connection. Of course, it has to be a high-speed connection.

The phone companies have tried to ensure that VOIP providers, many by selling the VOIP Service themselves, won’t drive them out of business. Pretty much all the top landline providers also sell VOIP service, many bundling packages together with Internet access.

 

 

George in Union Mills, Indiana asked: "I'm legally blind and enjoy radio. I want to pick out a WI-Fi radio that can connect to my stereo system with RCA jacks. Looking for something for the blind and can't use an LCD screen real well. Found a product called Myine Livio. Wondering if that's a good product or if there's others I should consider."

We think that feature may help you pick a station without using the LCD. It also does Pandora, like the Myine, and it costs around the same.

Jim in Ann Arbor, Michigan listening online sent us the following email and asked: "Greetings, I'm a happy amateur digital photographer with much to learn. Years ago, I used to shoot 35mm film and often used different color filters to enhance colors or black and white contrast. I took up digital photography about 18 months ago, when I purchased a Digital SLR, and use Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for processing. Is it necessary to use color lens filters anymore or can those adjustments be done entirely with software? I'm very poor with the software at the moment. I'm older, decent with a camera, but not a 14-year-old computer wiz that adapts to new software quickly. It would be great not to have to spend money unnecessarily to find the answer. I bought a book on filters, but it referred almost exclusively to film rather than digital.

PS: Please keep up the great infomercials! Couldn't resist! I listen to your shows weekly and am referring to a pretty wild call you had recently. It was entertaining."

There are a few filters you might want to keep around even if you are going to use Photoshop to edit your pictures:

Without this filter, the picture you'll get will be pretty much all white and even though Photoshop can try to help you make it look right, it will most likely come out overexposed.

If you're not interested in taking pictures at slow shutter speeds, in brightly lit areas though, you can probably skip this one, otherwise you'll need it.

For more, tune in to Hour 1 of our Podcast.

 

Timothy in Dunedin, Florida listening on WWNN 1470 AM asked: "I have a XV6800 smartphone and I'd like to know if there are any free third party apps out there that will allow me to watch movies on my cell phone?"

Since your phone runs Windows Mobile, the easiest (and cheapest) way to watch videos is with Windows Media Player, which is part of the Windows Mobile OS, and it's free. Now, there are other apps for the Windows Mobile OS, including some that will play video and music. However, there's not nearly the amount of applications for Windows Mobile as there are for the iPhone, or Android or BlackBerry. Click here to go to the Windows Phone Marketplace.

 

 

Matt in Las Vegas, Nevada listening on KNUU 970 AM asked: "I purchased an external hard drive, but I need to find a cheap or free backup service that will automatically backup my computer. The trial software it came with expired, so I'm looking for something that's reliable and easy to use to replace it."

You can try programs like Comodo Online Backup or, one of our favorites, Carbonite. All your files will be stored on secure servers, and you can access your data anytime over the Internet from anywhere in the world. All the files will be encrypted before they leave your PC, and then transferred to the server over an encrypted connection. You can use Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. These programs are not free, but for about $50 a year, you can have 10 GB, or about $1 a month for 1 GB.

 

Raul in Porterville, California listening on KTIP 1450 AM sent us the following email and asked: "Hi Dave, I was wondering if there is a device I can use to watch TV on my TV using my Wi-Fi. For example, the Netflix ROKU device. Something I can just plug in and play without having to pay a subscription."

There may be a few alternatives for you, but we would recommend the ROKU Netflix Player. Other than Netflix, it also plays movies and shows available on the Amazon store. Also, you can now stream music from Pandora. The only subscription fees involved are for Netflix, and you will pay for some movies and shows from Amazon. It's available for about $80.

Another option would be to plug your laptop to your TV and watch content on sites like Hulu.com or Boxee. And coming soon from Boxee is the Boxee Box by D-link.

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

 

 

Derek in Jefferson City, Missouri listening on KLIK 1240 AM asked: "I want to buy a camcorder for my wife and was wondering which camcorder I should buy, and what the big differences are in them."

1080p, 5-megapixel stills, it's good for low light performance, has HDMI output for watching directly from the camera to your HDTV, works with Mac and PC, has up to 32GB of memory (that's about 10 hours of HD Video), and it's waterproof (up to 10ft or down to 10ft). The Kodak Playsport Zx3 will be available in April for about $150.

 

Richard in Michigan listening on WSJV 94.9 FM asked: "I want to add memory to my older Gateway desktop machine running XP. It's 512, currently. I want to know how far I can go, how to go about it, what it would cost, or would I be better off to upgrade to a newer system?"

The fact that your computer only has 512MB of memory tells us that it's quite old, and that could present a problem in upgrading the memory. Like antiques, memory chips get more expensive as they become out of date and harder to find. So be prepared for some sticker shock.

The best way to find out how much memory your computer can accept and what chips are needed, is to use a tool like the Memory Finder at Newegg.com. You can find it on the left side of your screen when you select "Computer Hardware", then "Memory", or click here to go to the direct link. Tell it the make and model of your computer, and it will tell you how much memory it can hold, and what chips you need to buy.

Richard also had a follow-up: "I have a TV on a brick wall in my family room. The wall has no antenna jack, and right now, I have a cable running across the floor. I'd like to eliminate that cable and send the signal across the room wirelessly. Is that possible?"

There's a service called PlayOn, that lets you watch Internet videos on your TV, wirelessly. PlayOn works with your Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 to watch your favorite movies, shows and videos from Hulu, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, and more, streamed right to your TV. Other compatible devices include: Moxi HD DVR, HP MediaSmart TV, Western Digital TV Live, and others. You can try PlayOn for free for 14 days. Then if you like it, you can buy it for a one-time fee of $40. You'll also need a networked computer to run the software.

 

Bob in Nenana, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM sent us the following email and asked: "Hi Dave, our old VHS machine has taken to 'eating' our tapes. We need to get a VHS/DVD recorder, but aren't sure what will best serve us. We understand JVC has good products and are trying to compare the JVC DR-MV150B DVD Video Recorder/Video Cassette recorder, and the HDMI (HD media interface) up conversion DV80B. Hard to do when we don't know what all that means.

Are there other models that will copy VHS to DVDs, and are programmable to record programs (burn a DVD) from our HDTV? (sounds like another language!)"

VHS in 2010? (Or as Rob would say: "That's so last millennium!") Honestly, VHS went out the door with the 90’s.There's more to just your machine "eating" your tapes. The oxide will eventually crumble and the content on your tapes won't even be accessible. So, moving that content to a digital format is really important.

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

 

Mitch in Greenwich, Connecticut listening on WGCH 1490 AM asked: "I've got an AM/FM radio in both cars. Is there any way of tweaking the FM or AM side of the car radios? In one car, I cannot pickup an AM radio station, but in the other car it comes in fine."

Reception issues plague many people, especially for people with an older car. There are many things that come into play when dealing with radio reception in cars. Most of the issues are with AM stations, since they transmit on a much lower frequency than FM stations. Many of the issues have to do with electrical interference. This is evident when you're driving down the street, and as you pass underneath power lines, the radio gets very "staticky".

Another source of electrical interference comes from the car itself. Your car radio typically uses a combination of the antenna and your car's body to act like a much larger antenna. Because of this, when you have electrical problems in your car. Sometimes, it can affect your radio reception. Our friends at C. Crane say that if you hear a high-pitched whining noise that changes when you step on the gas, the noise is most likely coming from the alternator, distributor, or sparkplug wires.

If the car is a few years old or has a lot of miles on it, the cheapest and most common solution is to change the sparkplug wires on your car to original equipment, or resistor-type spark plug wires. Solid wires will cause more noise problems than you had in the first place. If this does not cure the problem, check your distributor cap for excessive wear or arcing. They say that many people have eliminated reception problems by having a complete tune-up to their vehicles.

C. Crane goes into a lot more detail on their site and have many other great articles on radio reception issues for both the car and home.

 

 

Neil in Durham, North Carolina listening via radio asked: "Converter box, I have an RCA television, and my converter box stopped working, and now we have no TV. What could cause it? Have only had the converter box for a year."

We were able to find some common problems with converter boxes and ways to troubleshoot those problems.

The first, and obvious, thing to do is to make sure that all of your wires are connected properly. You’ll also want to make sure that the distance from your converter box to your TV is as minimal as possible. The longer the wire has to run, the more clarity you lose. And if you have any spliters connected to your box, you may want to remove those and see if that helps at all.

Another thing you can do is contact your local TV stations to see if they have recently switched broadcasting formats. Many local channels are still broadcasting in VHF, as opposed to the higher quality UHF. But if they recently switched formats and your converter box only picks up VHF stations, you would no longer receive a signal.

The FCC has a very helpful trouble shooting page, and even a page with a map that tells you what channels you should receive based on where you live.

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.

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