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Weekend of August 26th, 2011

Translating Tech-to-English ... "Into Tomorrow"

Dave and the team answer more of your tech questions via the Ask Dave Hotline: 1-800-899-INTO (4686). Remember you can also participate via our free "Into Tomorrow" App available in the iTunes App Store, Android Market or Intel AppUp Center.

 

Our Latest ITTV Video Update (Watch in HD)

With games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, a lot of people are motivated to learn how to play the guitar. Why not let technology teach you? Rob shows you a guitar and software program that can help you master the guitar. Chris reminds us of some of the most popular inventions by Thomas Edison 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

 

On the show this week we talked about a NASA humanoid robot that was recently woken up in space and immediately started tweeting, here's a picture of it:

 

Robonaut 2 at the Space Station

 

 

 

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

For Android:

 

• Mark recommends: Buildings, FREE

 

"My app this week is 'Buildings,' an app that is powered by 'OpenBuildings.com.' When you open it, you will shown a list of buildings near your current location that have either an interesting architectural history, or are historical in general. As someone who enjoys local history, and doesn't mind driving around to look at stuff, I find this app to be quite fun. Sometimes the information is out of date, but the history of various buildings and places is FASCINATING to read. The information is uneven, however, with some buildings packed with info while others barely have any. But the app is free, and when it's good - it's QUITE good. You can download Buildings from the Android Market, and did I mention it was free?" -- Mark


For iOS:

 

• Rob recommends: BuzzMob, FREE




"The latest in the social networking world. It's dubbed 'Social Media for Real Life.' It integrates social media with live, localized experiences. It connects users within the same physical vicinity to talk, share tips, pictures, and receive exclusive content from within a GPS-defined digital network. The developers say: 'At concerts, sporting events, college campuses, shopping centers and more, BuzzMobbers can join or create the Buzz in a GPS-enabled 'Ring', where those on site can share messages, tips reviews, photos and other content in a contained community'" -- Rob

 

 

• Chris recommends: Toaster Pop, $0.99




"Toaster Pop for iPhone and iPod Touch is a fun and addictive game of speed and skill! Created by Connor, a First Grader!

Toaster Pop is fun and easy to play! Swipe toppings onto each slice of toast as you race against the clock. Top as many slices of toast as you can before time runs out! Toaster Pop features six fun levels"

 

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

 

What are your favorite apps? Let us know!

 

 

Ray in Niagara Falls, New York listening online asked: "I'd like to know what you could tell me about the 'Chrome Notebook' I think it's called. It's on the Google OS."

 

There isn't just one Chromebook, there are two. Samsung makes one with a 12.1" screen and Acer makes a smaller model with an 11.6" screen. They run the same processor, the same SSD drive, and the same amount of RAM. In fact, the only difference between them is that the Samsung offers a mini-VGA port for an external display (both offer HDMI output), the Samsung has a bigger, brighter screen, and it also has longer battery life. For that, you'll pay $80 more than the Acer, which is smaller and lighter. Both machines come in a Wi-Fi only version (the Acer is only $349 in this style) and more expensive Wi-Fi plus 3G models.

Both come with an Intel Atom processor, 16GB solid state drive, and 2 GB of RAM. It's got an antiglare display, which allows a reflection free surfing in brighter light. The design is sort of a hybrid between a consumer laptop and a low cost business model. It comes with a webcam, but unfortunately some people say it produces a dark, generally murky picture unless you have plenty of light.

Applications from the Google Web store aren't installed locally, but rather on the Google server (of course you need a google account for that). Security is a main theme on Chromebook. As long as you trust the secure data in the cloud (Google's Server) you could even lose your Chromebook and not have to worry about someone accessing your data. When the Chromebook is fully shut down (not in standby mode) all the locally stored data is deleted.

Chromebooks are available online at stores like Amazon and Best Buy.

 

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

 

 

 

Ken in North Miami, Florida listens to the Podcast¸ and sent us the following comment: "Finally traded in my flip phone for an HTC Inspire. Listening to your show made me go out and get a new phone. Thanks for doing a good job."

 

Our pleasure Ken. Glad you're happy and thanks for letting us know!

 

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

 

HOUR 2:

 

Tech News & Commentary

 

Mitch in Tyler, Texas listening on KTBB 92.1 FM and asked: "I've been using Outlook a lot. I'd like to know if there's something out there that will let me to transfer an e-mail straight into my calendar as an appointment. People e-mail me things they need me to do and if I could hit a button to add it to me calendar, it would make it a lot easier."

 

There is an easy way to turn an email into a calendar event on Outlook, just make sure that your "To-Do Bar" is open. It looks like a small calendar on top with a list of To-Do items below and it will probably be on the right side of your screen. If it's not, just go to the View menu and open it from there.

Once you can see it, all you have to do to add an email to the calendar is drag the email from your inbox to the calendar date when it will be taking place, that will open an "Appointment pane" that will let use the email's subject as the appointment subject. It will let you add a location and it will let you choose the start and end times for the appointment. All of the information contained on the email will automatically be copied onto the new calendar appointment.

 

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

 

 

 

Rita in Miami, Florida asked: "Hey Dave and the guys. I teach at a high school in Miami and have a question for you techies!! Cell phone use has gotten out of control in high school. Although I have a 'no phone' policy in my class, students still try to sneak and use them for texting during class. I have just heard about a gadget that 'kills' cell phone coverage when a switch is flipped. Can you tell me anything about this? Can you tell me what the cost is and if it's available for a poor teacher? Thanks for your time."

 

Sorry, but it's against the law to block cell phone signals in the U.S. If that was not the case, many would jam the signals, including theaters and hospitals, probably even neighbors. However, in spite of being illegal, there are devices on the market like you're asking about, just so we can actually answer your question :-)

With a cell phone jammer in a purse or a pocket, blabbermouths can be turned off with the flip of a switch - and they won't be able to reconnect as long as the jammer is activated, unless they move far enough away from the source.

 

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

 

I.J. in California listening on KLIV 1590 AM & our Podcast asked: "Hi Dave, I recently heard on your show about a WiFi antenna that plugs into USB. I forgot the name of it. Can you please point me to details on the product?"

 

The antenna you heard about is the "Super USB WiFi Antenna 3" by C.Crane. For those who don't know or missed the interview with Bob Crane a couple of weeks ago, the "Super USB WiFi Antenna 3" is a very sensitive WiFi antenna for people who have trouble picking up WiFi networks with their regular built-in antennas. It can pick up networks from up to a mile away, and it retails for about $110.

You can read more about the Super USB WiFi Antenna 3 at C.Crane's website.

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

 

 

 

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: "Fretlight Guitar" With games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, a lot of people are motivated to learn how to play the guitar. We all know guitar lessons can be costly, so how about saving some money and let technology help you master a guitar?

• A real guitar with LED lights on the fret board that light up to show you what chords to play. • Connects to a computer (Mac or PC) via USB, after installing the software required • Has a built-in tuner • The idea with Fretlight is that you follow the LED lights to your favorite songs at your own pace. You can adjust the tempo, slow it down a bit to get comfortable with it, until you memorize it. • We were a little frustrated initially with the software you have to install, having gone thru 4 reboots before everything was finally installed and ready for us to play. Software to install: • Fretlight Lesson Player: Think of it as a digital textbook that teaches you everything you need to know about the guitar. • Fretlight M-player (or music player): Where you can select songs to play and follow along. • Fretlight Guitar Pro 6 software: It's designed to create, edit and play tablature for guitar, bass, and other fretted instruments. You can download tablatures to use with the Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready software. • Fretlight has different guitar models. Prices range from around $300 to about $1200. We played with the FG-421 Traditional Electric Guitar, which costs about $500.

 

Jason in Memphis, Tennessee listening on WKIM 98.9 asked: "Hi Dave, I have a Droid Incredible and I love the phone, but the battery life is killing me. I would like to root my phone, but haven't had any luck with doing so. I feel that I can get rid of some programs like Skype which I never will use. Any advice on this?"

 

You can take a look at a program called "unrEVOked", it's considered one of the easiest solutions to root supported Android phones. Basically, the process will consist of downloading unrEVOked for your operating system, plugging-in your phone, turning on USB debugging and following the software's prompts on the screen.

If you're running Linux or Mac OS X, the process is a little easier than if you're doing it under Windows. On computers running Windows, you will have to uninstall any HTC software and install a custom made unrEVOked-compatible USB driver, but it shouldn't slow you down too much. You can read the step-by-step instructions at the XDA-Developers website.

One last thing we should mention, rooting is not supported by the manufacturer, so rooting a phone will void your warranty. There are ways of unrooting the phone, but if the root is somehow detected, the manufacturer could still claim that you voided the warranty when you rooted the phone. We haven't heard of many people having issues, but it's still something you should consider before doing anything.

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

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Ed in Springfield, Tennessee listening on WDBL asked: "I have a Sony camcorder that's a few years old. It records on MiniDVD. It gives me an error when trying to finalize the DVDs. When I put them into a computer drive, there are no files showing. I'd like to have the movies that I made. Is there any software to rebuild the data on these DVDs, or a trick to get the movies to display? I have both a Mac and a PC."

 

This one's gonna be down to luck. A couple of different things may happen depending on how lucky you get.

1) You could see the files on a computer. That would've been the best case, but you already know that's unfortunately not the case for you.

2) You may be able to recover the files with specialized software even if Windows or Mac OS X can't see them on their own.

3) You may either need to give up or send the disk to a professional recovery service.

Since you already know that case 1 won't work for you, let's focus on number 2. There are a few programs you can use to try to recover the files. We suggest you start with either Handbreak for the Mac (completely free), or with ISOBurn for Windows (free to try, but you have to pay a $30 license to recover files). If you see the files with either one of those programs, you should be able to rip them to your computer and either watch them from there or use a regular DVD burning software to copy them to a another DVD.

Another program that may help you is CDRoller for Windows. It's $34, but some people have reported success with it. We suggest you try the other ones first, since you can see whether or not they can read the files before paying for any license, but if all else fails it might be worth a try.

We have run into one case where ISOBurn could not recover the files and the company told the user they were disappointed their software couldn't help him and offered him to refund the license fee. And, if he wanted to send them the DVD, to try to recover the video themselves. We don't have any personal experience dealing with them, but we think that speaks well about them and they may be worth trying. If you want to try professional recovery services, keep in mind they will be pricey, we have run into flat fees of $100 per disk and above.

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

 

 

Ron in Eerie, Pennsylvania listening on WPSE 1450 and asked: "I'm interested in converting an old satellite receiver to an over-the-air TV antenna."

 

It will take some work. The satellite dish itself cannot be used to receive over-the-air TV signals. They're different technologies that work with different frequencies and are used for different purposes. Even many of the satellite receivers that have a connection for an antenna won't work for over-the-air, unless you also have a satellite dish connected to it. What you can do is use an antenna that clips on to your satellite dish and uses the cables that already run into your house to carry the signal.

Basically, the setup works like this: You clip the antenna onto your dish, connect the cable from the dish to the new antenna, and then at the other end of the wire (inside your home) use a "diplexer" to split the satellite and TV signals. A diplexer is just a cable splitter that has one input and two outputs, one for VHF/UHF signals for regular over-the-air TV, and one for satellite signals.

The catch here is that this may or may not work, because you may actually have more than one cable running from the satellite dish to your TVs. For example, you may have one cable that runs to your living room and from there splits off into your kitchen, and a second individual cable that runs into your bedroom. If you connect the antenna to your bedroom's cable, then you won't see an improvement on the living room's TV. Unless you know how the house is wired, get ready to face a little disappointment if you decide to attempt this.

The costs you're looking at (if you decide to go for it) are around $60 to as much as $100 for a clip on antenna. You could make one for a lot less, but if you buy an already made one, it'll cost you around that. A signal splitter (the "diplexer") per room isn't very expensive. You can find them for as little as a few dollars -- for less than $10. A lot of clip-on antennas are sold as a kit that already includes several splitters.

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

 

Tom in Southwest Virginia listens to the Podcast and asked: "I was listening to the podcast and heard the caller ask about tablets. I am writing this on my Archos 101. Even though it is only Android 2.2, I have been very pleased with it. Archos now has announced their new Gen 9. This runs Android Honeycomb. Please be sure to check it out at IFA. The specs look awesome! 1.5 dual core processor, 3G capability, and still a very thin body with a 10.1-inch screen. One more thing is the available 250 GB hard drive. Of course it is 3mm thicker than the standard. I think it is supposed to be under $400. I look forward to hearing what you think."

 

The Archos 101 G9 looks really interesting! Not only does it have the powerful 1.5GHz processor you mentioned, along with Honeycomb and the option to add the huge 250GB hard drive, but it can also connect to a TV via an HDMI cable, mirror the display on the TV and can be controlled by an Android phone. It can also receive content from a networked computer via WiFi.

An interesting feature of the Archos G9 tablets is that their 3G capabilities come from a USB drive that is compatible with computer and doesn't plug-in as much as "dock" inside the tablet.

 

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

 

 

 

 

Josiah in Wichita, Kansas listens via the iPhone App and asked: "I've been looking at the iOS 5 details that Apple put out and I was wondering what you think of it? Also, what's your opinion on the newest Android OS?"

 

For starters, for the patent-infringement-sue-crazy Apple, there are a lot of similarities between the new iOS 5 features and stuff I've been doing on Android for a long time! For instance, the Notification Bar. Just like Android, you can see all of your notifications aggregated in a drop down menu at the top of the screen. And, if you're playing a game or browsing the web, instead of having a blue window pop-up in the middle of the screen, you'll see a message pop-up at the top of the screen. Now, why do they have to copy Android? Running out of ideas? A lot of the stuff they are releasing with iOS 5 is already done with Android and other mobile platforms.

Rob is excited about the notification bar. He really hates when he unlocks his iPad and a bunch of reminders and other notifications take a long time to clear. With this notification bar, all calendar reminders, messages, email and app notifications will be hidden together. He is also excited about other features like:

1) iMessage: You'll be able to text, send pictures or videos, locations and contacts to any iOS 5 user over WiFi or 3G. Basically, you'll be texting for free!

2) To-Do List Reminders: I love making lists on the notepad on my iPhone. I use it whenever I go shopping for groceries or household items. With reminders, you'll be able to check-off completed tasks on your list and setup reminders before or when you arrive at a store. You can do this with third party apps, but now it will be integrated in your phone.

3) Twitter Integration: You'll be able to tweet photos directly from your library without using a third party app.

4) Camera/Photos: You'll be able to access the camera from the lock screen with a camera icon to the right of the "lock" bar. You'll also have simple photo-editing features like cropping, enhance and red-eye reduction.

5) Rob's most favorite is the Split Keyboard ... especially on the iPad. He loves thumb-typing on his iDevices. But, the iPad's big screen makes it a little difficult. The split keyboard is going to make thumb-typing convenient.

A cool feature a lot of iPhone users have been waiting for is wireless sync. With iOS 5, you'll be able to sync your iOS device to your Mac or PC over a shared Wi-Fi connection. Every time you connect your iOS device to a power source (say, overnight for charging), it automatically syncs and backs up any new content to iTunes.

 

iOS 5's Notification Bar

 

iOS 5's Lists

 

iOS 5 adds a camera button even while the phone is locked

 

iOS 5's split keyboard on the iPad

 

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

 

Listener Steph asked: "Is there a virtual WiFi program for Vista?"

 

If by Virtual WiFi you mean the ability to use one WiFi adapter to connect to multiple WiFi networks at the same time using virtual adapters (that's the Virtual WiFi we're aware of), yes, but it's still pretty obscure technology that hasn't entered mainstream use.

You might want to to try the software that came out of Microsoft's original research project. You should know that that software is the product of a research project and it's meant more as a proof of concept than as production software, so it may not work perfectly well at all times.

We've also found out that Microsoft has silently added Virtual WiFi technology to Windows 7, though it's a more scaled down version of what the research version offered. Under the research project you could have as many virtual adapters as you wanted interacting with just as many networks, Windows 7's version can only handle 1 extra virtual network.

Microsoft hasn't really advertised this capability yet, but if they've already added it to Windows 7, odds are you're gonna be hearing more about it and it's potential uses on future versions of Windows.

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

 

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

 

 

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This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

C.Crane: Several Super USB WiFi Antenna 3

Endangerbles: Several music CDs to help children learn about endangered species

Logitech: Several items, including ... Tablet Keyboard for Android 3.0+ and an m315 Wireless Mouse

 

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