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Weekend of July 9th, 2010

Dave and Rob were in China reporting from SINOCES in Qingdao, but Mark & Chris were holding down the fort answering your calls.

ITTV Video Update

Looking for some pajamas for your ears? Learn about the SleepPhones in our Product Spotlight with Rob Almanza. Also featuring: Chris Graveline with his tech throwback on This Week in Tech History and KidsTech with Caitlyn Gatrell.

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

 

Jerry in Fort Irwin, California asked: "I would like to know why you have to upgrade your personal laptop system every couple of years? Is it something that the companies are conspiring so that consumers have to purchase new laptops and spend their hard earned cash, or is it that the systems are outdated?"

The technology that goes into these systems changes constantly. In order to keep up with all these changes, manufacturers update their systems all the time. We joke around that as soon as you walk out of the store with your new computer, it becomes obsolete. The funny thing is, by the time a new system makes it to the store shelves, they're already working on the next model that will probably be faster, have a bigger hard drive, higher screen resolution and a lot more features.

And it's not just with computers. That's just the nature of the consumer electronics industry. The same goes with digital cameras, GPS Units, cell phones, and everything else that we talk about on this show. If these companies waited until "the best" came out, they'd never be able to release a product, because something better would be available as soon as it hits store shelves.

 

 

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

• For iPhone/iPad:
  
  Rob recommends: iConvert
  Chris recommends: Home Depot
  
  
• For BlackBerry, Mark recommends: Player for YouVersion Bible
  
  

Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details

 

Paul in Puerto Rico listening on 1030 AM WOSO said: "I have a brand new Canon camcorder. I'm a minister, and would like to stream my services on Sunday, on the Internet. Somebody told me there was a way to do that for free."

Yes, you can stream your Sunday service on the Internet for free. However, with a camcorder you'll have to install software that will make your computer recognize the camcorder as a webcam. Now, there are programs that offer trials for free, but you can expect to pay about $20 for the full version.

Also, you'll need to connect it to you computer via Firewire. So the hardware may not be that easy to use to stream, but it is do able, assuming your computer has a Firewire connection. Our research team ran across a video with instructions to turn your camcorder into a webcam. Watch video

In addition to the camera, you'll need a good Internet connection and a streaming service. For example, check out Stickam, which we've used in the past. Stickam is a free live video service and social network that allows you to stream live video. They make it simple to stream content on the Internet.

Another service you can use is Ustream. It has been made famous by a lot of celebrities, like Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore, that use this service. They offer a limited free service with ads, but if you like their service and can afford it, they have a paying plan.

 

Phil in Enid, Oklahoma listening on Sirius Ch.108 sent us the following email and asked: "I'm a truck driver and I've seen some GPS items, but I've only seen them at truck stops. I'm sure they're available online, but I was wondering if they were available at a Best Buy or another place where I might be able to get a better price."

If you're looking for a GPS unit specifically for truck routes, you'll probably not find them at stores like Best Buy. Because those are specialized for truckers, you're really only going to find them at truck stops, trucking supply companies, and online. Stores like Best Buy don't generally carry products that the "average Joe" who walks in with his wife and kids will buy.

Now, since you brought up GPS units for trucks, we can remind all of our trucker friends listening how important it is, when shopping for a GPS unit, that you look for one specifically for truck routes. Most, if not all of the bigger companies have navigation tied in with their fleet management software. But there are a lot of smaller companies or independent drivers who just don't have those resources. There are many reasons why you should look into a GPS unit specific for truck routes. If you drive a truck, you know that there are certain roads and bridges that you can't drive on if your load is over a certain weight or size. A standard GPS device, like a Tom Tom or Garmin, won't take those into account and may send you down roads you shouldn't be on. You also run the risk of low overpasses or bridges that aren't made to handle larger trucks.

 

 

Jake in Lake Head, California listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: "I have a laptop, and I'm off the grid in the mountains. My laptop won't play Netflix. It takes 4 or 5 hours to play one movie. I'm, wondering why this is happening."

If you say you're "off the grid," and it takes that long to load a streaming movie, then we're assuming you don't have a broadband connection. If that's the case, you should look into getting one. Now, being "off the grid" can sometimes make this difficult. Not everyone can get DSL or cable modem service. You may have to look to an alternative such as satellite Internet.

There are a few companies that offer this service. Probably, the most widely known is HughesNet. They have plans that start at about $60 a month. Another company we've mentioned in the past is WildBlue. They have plans starting at around $50. Both companies, as well as others that are out there, have several different tiers of service. The more you pay per month, the faster speeds you can get. Satellite Internet is generally more expensive than DSL or Cable Internet, but in many cases, unfortunately, it may be your only option.

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

 

Mike in Hollywood, Florida listening online sent us the following email and asked: "Wifey's B-day is coming up soon and she has her heart set on an iPad (Marketing really does work, but she won't know what to do with it). Any opinions on which version is bug free? Any input on the best place to buy?"

Rob has had his iPad since Day 1 and loves it. He has the 32 GB Wi-Fi only version that costs him $600. There's also a 3G version, which requires a data plan from AT&T, and also works on Wi-Fi.

He hasn't experienced any bugs with his and he uses it on a daily basis. He also uses it on airplanes to entertain himself. It works great with email, web browsing, music & video playing, apps, and several other goodies. Please note the iPad is not a laptop replacement, but you can do a lot with it. You can stream movies using the Netflix app. And, our “Into Tomorrow” app works great on it.

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

 

 

Richard in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania listening on WWCR Shortwave asked: "What do you guys think will be the next big advancement in the photographic industry? What will eventually replace digital photography, the way digital replaced film? Myself, I prefer my old Polaroid camera that I paid $29 for. Problem is, I can't find Polaroid 600 film for it any more. Do you know where I can find Polaroid 600 film?"

In consumer electronics, you need more than a great product in order to succeed. You need a great product at the right time, sold for the right price, and you still need a healthy dose of luck to have it widely accepted. That being said, we don't think anything will replace digital photography, at least not until the Matrix plugs directly into our brains. However, digital photography will continue to improve, with better cameras costing less.

As for your film, we did a quick search on the Internet and found dozens of outlets still offering it for sale. Prices ranged from $30 to $50 a pack. You might not be able to find it for sale locally any longer, but it is by no means difficult to find online. Try Amazon - click here

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Catherine in Raleigh, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: "I got an iPod touch and have heard that there are various applications where you can rig it with a microphone to turn it into a phone that uses Skype or something like that, so it'll have a phone function. Wondering if you knew how to do that."

You can in fact use your iPod Touch as a phone, so to speak, with apps like Skype. But the catch is, you have to be connected to a Wi-Fi network to do so, so you are still somewhat limited. You can't be using it while driving down the street, unless you have a mobile hotspot, such as the Mi-Fi. But if you're going to pay the monthly service for the mobile hotspot so you can use Skype, you might as well just get a phone. It'll cost less.

You're not just limited to the Skype App, though. There are tons of Apps available from the iPhone and iPod touch that you could look into. Vonage has one, too, but you'll have to be a Vonage subscriber to use it. The same goes with Skype. It's sort of a "Pay as you go" service. Unless you're calling someone else who has Skype, that's free. As are most of the VOiP apps that are available. Look into Fring as well. That's another VOiP app you can use.

 

 

Carson sent us the following Facebook message: "Looking for a smart phone without a camera. We are with AT&T at this time."

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

 

Evelyn sent us the following email and asked: "Please let me know if there is a digital photo frame which will scan 4 by 6 pictures. I need to get rid of albums and albums of pictures."

 

Basically, you slide your picture into the slot on the front and it will show up on the digital frame. You can then create a digital album with the pictures you scan. The frame automatically senses ambient light conditions and adjusts its backlight accordingly for optimal display of photos, and a Smart Touch Pad allows you to edit and enhance your digital pictures on the frame itself.

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

 

William in Ohio listening on Sirius XM Satellite Radio sent us the following email and asked: "Can you give me a good suggestion for an HD radio for a car?"

There are so many options for HD Radio in your car. It all depends on how much you're willing to spend, and what kind of radio you're looking for. You could go with a whole new head unit in your car that had HD Radio built-in. You could also go with an aftermarket add-on HD Radio that you connect to an existing factory radio, or you could buy a new radio that is HD ready. That usually means the manufacturer has an HD Radio tuner available that will interface directly with that head unit.

The speakers make a big difference. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a great stereo and HD Radio tuner, but if you have cheap speakers in your vehicle, it's still going to sound like garbage. One thing we recommend a lot is to go by a local electronics retailer, or auto sound shop, because they will usually have several units setup for you to check out. A lot of times, these stores will have an area with many radios and many speakers. You can select which radio you want to hear, then select a certain set of speakers to hear it on.

 

 

Henry in Porterville, California listening on KTIP 1450 AM asked: "I installed a DVD writer internal drive into a Dell 3000 built in 2005 and the Bios will not recognize. What are things that I can do?"

With a machine that old, you're going to be dealing with IDE drives connected to a standard ATA port on the computer. Today's computers use the newer SATA (that's serial as opposed to parallel, with smaller cables and less bulk). But one of the key things about the original ATA, which some started calling PATA after SATA came out was that the drives needed to be configured for Master and Slave. On any given cable, only one drive could be the Master. And sometimes, if you have say a hard drive and a CD ROM drive on a cable, it would work with one of those being the Master, but not the other, so you had to fiddle things around a bit. Usually, the hard drive would be your Master drive and the optical drive would be the Slave.

So, when you're installing the new drive, check that one of them is set to "Master" and any other on the cable as "Slave." This will be done using some small jumper pins on the drive itself, and the owner's manual for the drive will tell you how to set them, or it's often printed on the drive itself.

If that doesn't work, check your IDE cable. If the cable is defective in any way, the computer won't see the drive and swapping it for a new one will solve the problem. An easy way to check is taking another cable (for example, one connected to the hard drive or another component) and seeing if the BIOS reacts to the new drive.

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

 

Mike in Pleasant View, Tennessee listening on 1590 AM and the podcasts sent us the following email and asked: "My question for you is concerning barbecue. Has there been a way to wirelessly monitor your barbecue while cooking your favorite summertime foods? Say you want to know how that T-bone is cooking using a wireless temperature probe from your laptop or desktop inside the house. It could come in handy for those who like to barbecue no matter what the weather is."

 

Ryan in Indiana listening on WJOB 1230 AM asked: "How far does Wi-Fi travel from its location? From like a city into the country and how far can you pickup a useable Wi-Fi signal?"

Not very far, under ideal conditions, with an unobstructed line of sight between the Wi-Fi Router, and the device using the connection. The theoretical maximum distance the connection should hold for is around 300 feet. In the real world, it's usually much less than that.

 

A simpler option, if you're only interested in having an Internet connection, might be to talk to your cell phone company about their mobile broadband offerings, if you are able to get a decent signal where you want to connect to the Internet. You may be able to get good connection speeds by connecting your phone, or a USB dongle to your computer.

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

 

David in Indianapolis, Indiana asked: "I'm interested in upgrading a computer to Windows 7. I have a RAID in place with about 1.2 TB of storage. I'm trying to buy a RAID controller that will be less than $100, still be scalable in the future, and still a maximum of 4 or 5 drives and will be fast with Windows 7. Can you do that?"

A four or five channel RAID adapter that has Windows 7 support, is fast, and costs under $100? That's going to be quite a find. Our first question, though, is does your motherboard have an integrated RAID controller? Because that is going to be your most inexpensive route to go. Most motherboard RAID controllers use either the Intel or NVIDIA NForce chips, and Windows 7 will usually support either of those.

If you don't have a RAID controller in your motherboard, then you're going to have to install a card. You can get four port RAID adapters for around $100. Most of them require an available PCI Express "X4" slot (the X rating refers to performance, typically, you'll see X4, X8, and X16). But depending on the age of your motherboard, we're just cautioning you to make sure it has PCI-e slots with at least that rating.

Also, know that for $100 and under, you're not likely to find RAID controllers that operate at the hardware level, meaning that the actual work is done by the RAID driver software, and the card is just a host adapter for talking to the drives. You'll need to spend a bit more than $100 to find a controller with 4 ports and hardware RAID. Generally, hardware RAID is considered to be faster because it's not worried about how much other stuff Windows is doing, and whether it's bogged down writing to the paging file, and so forth.

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

 

 

Norman sent us the following email and asked: "I would like to find a program that will email or text me at certain time, like to change Sirius stations to head "Into Tomorrow" on Saturday night, or to call my doctor on Wednesday at 3pm. I am actually looking for a secretary to text me so I don’t forget to do things. My alarm on my phone only has room for 5 alarms. Any ideas?"

We found a website called "LetterMeLater.com" that will let you sign up for free and set up both email and text alerts to be sent to you (or anyone else) at a given date and time.

Another service called "EmailFuture.com" is also free and even easier. You don't even have to sign up. You just go to their website and the form for the email is right in front of you.

Depending on what email program you use, you can have other options as well, for example, on the popular Outlook, you can write an email as you normally would, but when you're done, instead of clicking send, you can go to View/Options and schedule a date and time for delivery by ticking "Do Not Deliver Before..."

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

 

James in Cosby, Tennessee listening on XM Ch.139 asked: "Question about Satellite Internet service for my little town that doesn't believe in high speed Internet access. Are they good and which one should I use?"

When it comes to satellite Internet, the two best choices are either Wild Blue or HughesNet. But, satellite Internet is, generally, only good for general web surfing; forget trying to upload pictures or videos because it will simply take too long, and if you're a gamer, not a chance.

Satellite Internet is a great alternative when compared to dial up, but be careful before you sign anything. Both Wild Blue and HughesNet require two-year contracts and come with hefty start up costs. Also depending on what plan you select with them, they can even limit the amount of data you can view in one day.

James also had a follow-up: "You talk about all these new OS' like Windows 7, but what about Linux? Is Linux a good thing "coming into the future" and is it pretty easy to work with?"

Linux is a great system and is most commonly used as an embedded system within super computers, or as a part of servers. As far as an operating system, the Mac OS or some form of Windows are still the most common operating systems. Linux currently occupies somewhere between 1-2% of the desktop market and doesn’t seem to be focused on that area of development. Although, there has been a recent surge in the use of the Linux Operating System, as Net-books and E-books popularity has grown, and many of these utilize Linux.

 

 

 

Norman in Chattanooga, Tennessee listening on XM Ch.139 asked: "I need a mobile antenna that will go through the wind and be safe whenever we're traveling down the highway at 60 or 70 miles an hour and that will pick up a good area."

It's important to note that DTV signals and an element of Digital Television, HDTV, received through an antenna provide a higher quality picture than cable or satellite with no compression. HDTV antenna broadcasts also offer room filling, ultra realistic 5.1 channel digital surround sound, and over-the-air TV is free. And, there are a bunch of good antennas available on the market these days.

Now, as for picking up in a good area, remember that if you are outside a major city, in a fringe area, getting DTV reception could be a problem, even with the most expensive antenna.

You can get something like the MicroVision Flat Panel car TV antenna that lies flat on your roof, and you run the cable into the TV or tuner. That sells for around $20, or an amplified version for $40.

Click here for more info about car antennas

Click here for more info about HDTV antennas.

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

 

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 3 of our podcast.

 

Robert in Fairbanks, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM asked: "We bought a Samsung Plasma TV and have DirecTV satellite service. They show a movie in HD on one channel, and regular on another. We switch back and forth, and can't notice a difference. What's going on?"

If you are able to tune to the HD channels, then we're assuming that you do, in fact, have an HD tuner from DirecTV. If that's the case and you're not seeing a difference in the picture quality, then you may want to look at your cables and connections. Make sure you are using one of the high definition connections to ge the signal to your TV.

Every tuner, even the High Def tuners, will have a set of standard definition connections. The ones you'll want to use to ensure you get a high definition picture is the component (that's the cable with the red, green and blue connectors), DVI (which is less common), or HDMI, which will not only give you the best quality, but will transmit both the High Def picture and audio over a single cable. In fact, if you have a full HD, or 1080p set, and want to take advantage of that highest resolution, HDMI is really the only way to go.

If you're using an old-style coax cable, S-video, or a composite cable (that's the yellow one), then you're only getting a standard definition signal to your TV.

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

This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

Honestech: Fotobox – Easy to use photo slideshow software

OrigAudio: "Rock-It" Portable Vibration Speakers

RadioShack: Weather Clock Radios – with SkyWarn

SmartSwipe: Secure personal credit card readers for shopping online

YoGen: The Universal mobile-device charger

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