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Weekend of October 12th, 2012

Dave and his tech panel answer more of your questions via the Ask Dave Hotline. Call us ... toll-free 1-800-899-INTO (4686) ... with any consumer electronics question, opinion, help another listener or tell us what your favorite app is and why. You can also participate via our FREE "Into Tomorrow" App (iOS/Android/Intel AppUp). Thank you for your participation!

 

ITTV Video Update

If you're an Adobe Creative Suite user, how often do you upgrade to the latest version? Rob has been testing the latest version of Creative Suite 6 and shares some of the new highlights. Also, Chris Graveline takes us back to Apollo 7 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

 

Mark in Harlin, Indiana listening via the Android App asked: "Is it better to root or not root my EVO 3D phone. If so, am I able to bring it back? I have insurance on it."

 

Do you have a reason for wanting to root the phone? If the OS is not working too well, if it’s buggy, or if you want apps or features you can’t access otherwise access, then you can consider rooting.

Now, if your phone is fine the way it is, don’t bother.

The big downside of rooting the phone is that you will lose your warranty while that phone is rooted, and depending on how you root it, you can’t always put it back in a way that’s not detectable, with some roots you can with others not so much, it depends on the phone.

Your insurance will likely not cover any damage you do to the phone while doing something that the manufacturer does not recommend or support, so that won’t help you. In fact, in your case it may be a reason not to root, since you’re paying for something that might become useless if you root.

As for putting it back, you can... Sometimes it’s very easy, sometimes not so much, it all depends on the phone and the way you choose to root it.

 

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

 

 

Daniel in Milbrook, Alabama asked: "I'm thinking about getting a tablet and I was wondering which is one of the better tablet that are reasonably priced? And I stress "reasonably." What OS do you prefer on the tablets? Or do you think it would be better to get a small laptop. I'm kinda pulling between both. I like the tablets because they're touchscreen and as I understand it, the inexpensive laptops are not."

 

Well, if you’re looking for "reasonably" priced, you’re pretty much priced out of any tablet hovering around the 10" mark, you’re looking at smaller 7" tablets, like the Kindle Fire of the Nexus 7.

Of the 7" tablets, the Nexus 7 would probably be the first one we’d recommend, you can get it for $199, it comes with a quad core processor and a 12-core graphics processor and it runs Jelly Bean, the otherwise still unreleased version of Android.

The Kindle Fire is the other big contender, it’s OS is a little more limited, you don’t get access to the Google Play Store, you don’t get a dual core processor and you’re still paying $199 for it, but Amazon’s media and app library is good, and you do get access to that.

As for laptop or tablet, what are you going to be doing with your device? if you’re just gonna be consuming media and not doing an awful lot of typing, then a tablet would work for you, if you’re going to e working on documents or doing anything more involved than watching a movie, looking at pictures, reading a book or playing basic games then a laptop may be better for you, it all depends on your intended use of the device.

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

For iOS:




• Mark recommends: Shazam, FREE


 

"This isn’t a new app to some people, but I haven’t used it before and I’ve never talked about it on the show. Last Saturday evening, a friend was describing a song they’d heard on the radio and trying to get me to tell them what the song was. I said “you should get Shazam on your phone.” And then I thought, you know, *I* don’t have Shazam on my phone. And so now I do. Shazam is an app that listens to the music playing when its activated and it identifies the artist and the song with nearly 100% accuracy. It’s pretty amazing, and it works FAST. It conveniently tags the song for you, lets you share those tags with friends, and links to iTunes for you to purchase the song. Shazam is pretty close to magic, and it’s free in the iTunes App Store." -- Mark



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

 

 

 

 

Judah in Fairbanks, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM asked: "I was looking for a good satellite phone option. Something that would work where a regular cell phone wouldn't work. Something cheap would be right up my alley."

 

There a several options out there for satellite phones. Phone prices usually start around $500 and go upwards from there to about $2,000. Then, you have to add in the monthly cost for your minutes which vary from $39.95/month to $79.99/month, depending on what you may need.

If you only need the phone temporarily, you can rent a satellite phone. For example, you can take a look at SatellitePhoneStore.com. Depending on which phone you want, prices can range from $35-$105/month + usage.

A phone that is on the lower end of the price scale is the Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro. It offers a wide range of features, including good battery life and a good coverage area. We haven’t tested this one ourselves, but reliable sources have given it good reviews. According to the reviews, some people have complained about latency during voice calls. But, you have to consider it’s a satellite phone.

We found the Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro online for around $600-$650.

 

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

 

Jenny in Jackson, Mississippi listening on WFMN 97.3 FM asked: "Is there a way to disable the camera feature on the lock screen of the iPhone? (using the iOS 5)?"

 

One of the features included in iOS 5 was a shortcut to the camera from the lock screen. On iOS 5.0 & 5.0.1 it only shows with a double tap of the Home button. However, on the more recent software updates, it's there permanently and cannot be disabled. There are still many features and apps on the iPhone several users would like to get rid of, and there are some features we're still waiting for. Unfortunately, it seems like Apple keeps forcing some unwanted features on us.

 

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

 

Willy in Columbia, Missouri listening Online asked: 'I'm looking for the best products to make my surround sound system completely wireless."

 

It’s going to be tough to do a completely wireless system. There aren’t that many of them on the market. True audiophiles and even people that really enjoy their home theater systems will tell you that the wireless technology is just not "there" yet. Yes, we see a lot of wireless speakers. Most are in the form of bluetooth speakers for MP3 players.

You don’t see a lot of wireless audio devices for home theater because they typically use RF signals which are very prone to interference from things like Wi-Fi, walls and even a microwave oven.

However, you will find some products that allow you to wirelessly connect your speakers. And these typically work with most speakers. One that we came across is the Rocketfish Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit. As the name implies this is a kit that will allow you to hook your existing speakers up wirelessly. There is a base station that you hook up to your amplifier or tuner. Then there is a receiver module that you can place up to 100 feet away and connect your speakers to. This device has gotten some good reviews. You can find it starting at around $110.

 

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

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

Willy in Bristol, Virginia listens via Zeno Radio asked: "What is the best bluetooth headset for the iPhone that works with Siri?"

 

Siri will work with any bluetooth headset, the problem really is what headsets actually make it useful.

You’re going to want to look for something that had decent background noise cancellation, so Siri can actually understand what you’re telling it.. no so much for commands, if it hears something similar to “launch Pandora” it will probably be able to figure it out,  but mostly for text dictation.

The Plantronics M1100, for example, offers noise cancellation, and it has generally good reviews, but it will cost you around $80.

The Motorola H17 also has good reviews and it will knock about $10 off the Plantronic’s price.

You can keep going cheaper, some noise cancelling Samsung headsets cost as little as $25 or $30, but you might want to make sure you buy a quality product if you want it to be useable outdoors or in loud rooms.

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

 

 

Cathy in Columbia, Missouri asked: "I am wondering how to transfer files from Facebook or e-mail to Google Docs to be applied to a mobile app."

To move files from Facebook or your email to Google Drive, you’re going to have to copy them to your computer first, but once you’ve done that, the rest is very, very easy.

Just go to drive.google.com, sign in, and you’re going to be greeted by a list of your files and documents (if you have any there already), and on the left there’s going to be a side bar with a big red button that says “Create” and a smaller red button that has an image of a hard drive and an arrow pointing straight up... that’s your upload button.

Just click on that button, then click on “Files...” and select what you want to upload from your hard drive. That’s it, your files should be accessible on the website and via the Google Drive apps.

If you have the Google Drive desktop app loaded on your PC or Mac, it’s even easier. Simply save the files in the Google Drive folder and they will be automatically synchronized with your Google Drive on the web. Any other computers you have linked to that Google Drive will automatically receive the files, next time you log in. Very similar to Drop Box or Sugar Sync. Be careful, however, to check the synchronization. In our experience, quite a number of times when we’ve saved a file in the folder and not found it on the web later, we check the desktop app only to find it has declared the file not synchronizable (if that’s a word). Exiting and restarting the desktop app has always corrected the problem. So Google Drive works great, the Google Drive desktop app...not so much. It’s still extremely convenient though, when it works.

 

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

 

Eddie asked: "I recently purchased a Vizio 32” 3D LCD, HDTV, Model # E320VX with internet apps (i.e., “Internet Ready”, according to the marketing hoopla on the box). My hopes were to be able to use it in conjunction with my Verizon “Closed Loop” wireless modem, to enjoy streamed movies off the internet via Netflix, etc. Unfortunately, I am either too dumb to set it up properly (a strong possibility) or it cannot be used in this manner. Can you shed any light into my dilemma? Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated."

 

We’re not sure if we understand your problem exactly. If your problem is that you can’t connect a USB modem to your TV, then unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to change that.

To get your TV online, you will have to connect it using the Ethernet plug in the back of it. Your specific model may also have WiFi. If that’s the case, you can also use a WiFi router to get your TV online. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to connect it directly using a USB modem. You may be able to find an access point that will take your 3G signal and share it over WiFi, but we haven’t tried any so far.

Also, keep in mind that if this modem is cellular. Unless it’s LTE, your speeds won’t be fantastic, and you may not be able to get the performance you want on those streaming services.

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

 

Jon in Rocklin, California listens to the Podcast, calling in via the App asked: "I have a second hand laptop, it's never been on my home network. About two weeks ago it did a standard windows update. It’s never been on my home network and hasn't left the house in 4 1/2 months. I'm wondering how it could've done those updates without downloading them from the Internet. I'm wondering about those Windows updates... hmmmm... can you help me understand?"

 

From what we can see there’s no way for your computer to autoupdate without internet access. Assuming what you saw really looked like a Windows update and that it wasn’t anything else updating itself, then it may actually have been a virus that had been going around at least last year and could’ve infected your laptop four and a half months ago.

The virus looks like a Windows update window, but it can be detected by updated antiviruses. So if you download one on your networked computer and install it on that one using a flash drive, you should be able to run a scan and detect whether or not that virus is on your system.

The name to look out for is dnetc.exe. If your antivirus detects that name, then you were infected with the virus that impersonates Windows Update.

If you’re not infected, then we’re stumped. You have seen something similar to a Windows update screen, or your computer may have connected to a nearby open WiFi network, but without a connection it should not be able to update itself.

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

 

 

 

Danny in Kennett, Missouri asked: "Is there any kind of security system for your vehicle that will not only start your vehicle, but move your seats and mirrors as well as turning on your air conditioning or heat?"

 

Judging by the information we managed to find, retrofitting a vehicle with memory seats and mirrors is not at all trivial, even if it comes with power seats and power mirrors. Apparently, it can cost you thousands and it can take an awful lot of work, so we don’t think you’re going to find a third party system that will include those features.

As for remote starters, we’ve tested several Viper remote starters, some of which can be used from miles away and even via smartphone apps. You can find some Viper models for under $40, the more options you choose, the higher the price gets. Some units will offer GPS tracking, or 2-way communication so you know when your car turns on or when the alarm goes off, the ability to use the smartphone apps to start the car.

Bulldog offers remote start systems that can start a car from half a mile away and can cost you as little as $85. If you want to go very, very cheap, you can buy the DEI Ready Remote 24921 system for as little as $15, supposedly you can install it yourself and it comes with a one button remote that will only start the car. However, keep in mind none of these systems will move your seats or mirrors.

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

 

Don from Tullahoma, Tennessee asked: "My wife has a Dell Inspiron 1525. When the computer goes to sleep and you open it back up, the keyboard will not work (90 out of 100 times). Can you help me with this problem?"

 

This is a fairly common problem and there doesn't seem to be a clear solution to it. You should probably check that Windows and your BIOS are updated. This may stem from an issue that was resolved at some point, so if Microsoft or Dell spotted the problem and found the solution, updating your computer might make the problem go away.

You can also go try going to Device Manager and click on your keyboard and make sure that under Power Management "Allow this device to wake the computer" is checked, this seems to solve the problem for some people, but not for everyone.

Since there's no official solution, and no agreement by users on how to fix the problem either, we can't give you a definite solution, but we hope those tips help.

In some Inspiron 1525 models, there can be an issue with the cable that connects the keyboard and trackpad to the main board. There is a procedure that one user documented on the Dell support forums for taking the computer apart and inserting a piece of tape behind the connector to shield it.

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

 

Andrew in State College, Pennsylvania listening on 103.1 WRSC asked: "I have an IP camera and I'm trying to access it outside of the IP Address that it's hooked to. I did the port forwarding but I can't seem to get into it."

 

Unless you have a static IP address, you're going to need to set up a Dynamic DNS service. When you use one of those services, your computer or router lets the service know that it's address has changed, and the website updates it's records, so you'll get a regular URL (think: AndrewsCamera.dyndns.org, or something similar), and that URL will always point to your IP address, even if it isn't static.

Once you have that set up, you should also consider making your cameras IP address in the network static, that way the port forwarding will always work, if it's dynamic, today you might be forwarding to the camera, but tomorrow IP assignments might change and suddenly your network will find itself asking your phone or a computer for access instead of the camera. You can assign the camera a set address by accessing it's settings.

The other big thing is, make sure your camera has a built-in web server. Some cameras require other software to view its video stream, while others will have a built-in web server that you can access from any browser. If your setup doesn't work, don't assume your camera necessarily comes with a built-in web server.

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

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

Ray in Niagara Falls, New York listens Online asked: "I have a Motorola Q, one of the first ones. I took pictures with it, but I cant figure out how to get pictures over to my SD card or onver to my computer. i plugged it into my computer but it doesn't recognize that it's there."

 

To copy photos from your Q to the memory card, press your home key and go to applications. Under applications you should be able to find “My Files”.

My files will let you view everything that is on your phone's memory, to find your pictures, you need to go to a folder called DCIM, and inside that folder open the one that's called Camera.

From there all you have to do is select the pictures you want to move to your SD card by tapping the menu button and selecting more and then copy. Then just open the SD directory and press paste and all of your pictures should be moved there.

Once you have them on your SD card your computer should be able to see them and copy them.

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

 

 

Channing in Pocatello, Idaho listening on 690 KBLY asked: "TV Size … What size do you need to go from 720p to 1080p? And the refresh rate, when 120hz is necessary, and when 240hz is necessary. Everyone I talk to at TV stores like Costco never have a good answer."

 

If you’ve been trying to get an answer out of employees at stores like Costco, that’s your problem right there. We always say, if you want reliable information, go to a store that specializes in TVs and other electronics. You want a specialist. You can’t always trust an answer from someone on an HDTV that was just selling somebody else a 20 pound bag of frozen chicken wings.

As far as the resolution, it’s really a matter of preference. Most people say they can’t tell a difference between 720 and 1080 on TVs smaller than about 42 inches. If you’re going with a set bigger than that, you may want to look into the higher resolutions. But, keep in mind that a lot of TV networks still only broadcast in 720p, as opposed to 1080i, although more and more a moving to the higher resolution. None that we know of are broadcasting in 1080p because it takes twice the bandwidth that 1080i does. Really, the only place you’re gonna get 1080p resolution from right now is a Blu-ray player.

As far as the refresh rate, it all depends on the content you are watching. Normal everyday TV-watching should be fine at 120hz. But when you start getting into the faster motions of action movies and sporting events on larger screens, the 240hz refresh rate can really make a difference. The “hertz” is the number of times the picture refreshes itself every second. What that means is a 240hz set will refresh 240 times per second, twice the speed of a 120hz, making the motion on screen smoother.

You should also keep in mind that a faster refresh rate, in and of itself, is not a guarantee that the rest of the TV has good enough performance characteristics to take advantage of it. If the pixel response time is not quick enough, the resulting HDTV blur can be aggravated by a higher refresh rate. As always, the best judge is your own eyes. Don’t buy an HDTV that you haven’t either seen personally or one where you’ve read a review source you respect and trust.

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

 

Gloria in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: "How can I connect my husband's iPhone 3G to our wireless? It shows up on WiFi, but never asks for a password. Thanks!"

 

Your husband’s iPhone should only need to ask for a password the first time it connects to a new network. If it’s not asking for a password and showing up as connected to WiFi, it seems to be doing what it’s supposed to do.

If you mean that your home network shows up on the phone and it still won’t connect to it or ask for the password it needs, the phone may be remembering the wrong password for that network and not asking for the correct one for some reason.

You can tap on the network that’s not working from the list of WiFi networks and then hit "Forget Network". That will make the phone forget the password for that particular network, but it will retain the rest of the network configuration.

If that doesn’t work, you can go to Settings, and then "Reset Network Settings," but keep in mind that doing that will clear all of your network settings, not just the settings for this one particular network.

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

 

Donald in Erie, Pennsylvania listening on WPSE 1450 asked: "I'm an old Windows computer user and I was wondering what is your idea of the best way to avoid viruses and things of that nature?"

 

Your best bet to stay safe from viruses is to have an up-to-date antivirus on your system. There are plenty of free ones that will give you good protection, and to make sure that what you’re doing online is relatively safe in the first place.

For example, don’t go to dubious websites to get questionable software. Stick to more mainstream sites, and don’t click on any links on emails unless you know them to be safe. Anything coming from your friends, a bank or anything else, may actually be coming from someone who hijacked the computers or copied the design of their emails.

Pirated software and even movies a lot of the time contain viruses, so if you can steer clear of those, you’d be more likely to be safe.

A lot of malware today makes it onto your system by simply lying and tricking you into thinking that there’s something wrong with your computer and they can fix it for you. Be suspicious of any company offering that advice without you asking, and double check with a reputable source.

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

 

 

 

Kathy in Nicholasville, Kentucky listening on 1250 WVKY asked: "I have a wireless printer, brand new. I've paid for tech support and gotten the printer people on the phone. Sometimes it prints from my laptop and sometimes it doesn't. Nobody seems to know what the problem is. Do you have any answers?"

 

Without knowing what printer you’re using, and what operating system, there’s not a lot we can tell you, at least not a lot that can help you solve the problem. It could be a driver issue, for example if your printer came with drivers for XP that are not compatible with your computer that’s running Windows 7.

It could be a network issue that is totally unrelated to the printer itself, for example, you may have a router with a bad DHCP server that occasionally refuses to renew the printer’s IP address, so the computer and the printer can’t talk to each other. It can even be network interference, for example, if your neighbors are on the same WiFi channel, or if you have other electronics around that use the same frequency as your WiFi the signals may be interfering with each other and the information might be getting lost before it reaches the printer.

It could be that you actually have a bad printer that need to be replaced, wireless cards on printers can break just like they can with computers, or you may need to update your printer’s firmware if this is a known software issue that was fixed at point by the manufacturer.

But again, without knowing more, we can’t really address other problems that affect your particular model and give you a more complete answer.

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

 

Tom in Albuquerque, New Mexico listens to the Podcast asked: "I just watched the tech video on the Kingston Wi-drive device and wanted to find out the results of your testing. I am thinking about purchasing one and had a couple of questions. How is the Wi-Fi signal and battery life? Is this device only broadcasting one way? Would I be able to say take a photo on my iPhone and then save it to this drive or is it just from the Wi-drive to the device I am watching video or music on?"

 

Kingston claims the battery will last about 4 hours, and that seems to be fairly accurate, so it won’t last you through a lot of hours of continued use, but considering you can watch a couple of movies straight from the device, that’s not too bad either. Keep in mind that being on WiFi for 4 hours straight will also take a toll on your iPhone’s battery, so odds are you won’t want to use it that way very often.

The WiFi signal is excellent. Remember this is not on your WiFi network at home. The Wi-drive creates its own wireless network so that your smart phone or tablet can communicate with it.

The Wi-Drive does not only work one way, you are able to both sends and receive files both from a computer or from a mobile device as long as you’re using the apps. A slight downside is that you won’t be able to copy files to your iPhone and access them from, for example, the regular media player. You will always have to go to the app to access the files you downloaded.

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

 

Julie in Hartsville, Tennessee listens on WTN, calling in via the App asked: "I have a question about uploading video to YouTube, I have a Panasonic camcorder that's not the newest, but when I upload my videos onto YouTube they become squished, I'm recording them at the 16:9 aspect ratio and I don't think YouTube asks me any questions about how I wanted uploaded, but if you could help me I'd appreciate it."

 

YouTube supports 16:9 aspect ratio for their videos, what your camera is calling 16:9 though, may actually be anamorphic video (especially if it’s old), which will look fine if you play it directly, but it won’t when you upload it to something like YouTube or most of the other video-sharing sites. YouTube considers pixels to be perfectly square, so sometimes sources that claim to be 16:9 don’t show up as 16:9 in YouTube.

An easy fix for that is to add “yt:stretch=16:9” to your video’s tags, that will force the video to show in it’s intended aspect ratio.

In the future, if you import a video from your camera make sure that you use something like 640x360 or 853x480 as your resolution, and if you see an option for setting the “pixel aspect ratio” make sure it’s either 1.0, 1:1 or “square,” all of those will give you square pixels and they should work well with YouTube.

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.

This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

Corrosion Technologies: Several bottles of CorrosionX -- A few squirts of CorrosionX clean contacts & connections & keep them protected for months (in salt spray environments) to years.

Dane-Elec: Several 8GB USB Flash Drives from Marvel’s The Avengers Collection

Ergotron: A Universal Tablet Cradle -- This accessory converts a monitor mount to hold a tablet or eReader. Works with most popular tablets and eReaders, including Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle.

iolo Technologies: Copies of System Mechanic 11 - PC Tune-up Software

SMS Audio: "Street By 50" Wired headphones in black or white. We brought 'em back from 50 Cent and our interview in Berlin.

 

 

 

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