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Tech News & Commentary
Rick in State College, Pennsylvania listens and is calling via the iPhone App asked: “Are there any services for Mac that clean your Mac or tune it up so it runs fast. Thanks!”
There are several Mac maintenance programs you can try.
The most well known seems to be MacKeeper, they advertise like crazy on all kinds of popular websites, and they have a lot of satisfied users. MacKeeper does general maintenance, but it’s also an antivirus that detects both Mac and Windows viruses (useful for people who run Windows on their Mac either via some virtualization software or Bootcamp).
MainMenu has been a popular maintenance program with Macs for years, it’s less user-friendly than MacKeeper, but it’s tremendously useful for plenty of maintenance tasks, you may just need to know what tasks to perform with it first.
You can also use some of the built in tools Mac OS X provides, which is mainly Disk Utility, a lot of problems go away by repairing permissions.
To be honest, Rick, none of these tools are super popular because Apple users rarely find them necessary, so you probably won’t need to worry too much about it.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer
Reports Feature with Terry Sullivan
Sony continues to add to its popular NEX-series of interchangeable lens digital cameras, with the latest being the $1,200 NEX-7. But is it worth that kind of money? Consumer Reports Associate Editor Terry Sullivan gives us his first-look review.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they
have been playing with recently.
For Android:
• Mark: Streamy, FREE
“This app lets you watch live streaming video from Twitch.TV. Twitch.TV is the “games” side of Justin.TV, a live streaming video service where users can establish their own channels and stream video live from their personal computers. Twitch.TV lets gamers set up live streams as they play video games, so a million of their closest friends can watch over their shoulders. Streamy lets me watch my Twitch.TV streams on the go, so I’ll never miss another StarCraft II match again. It’s free in the Google Play Store.” — Mark
For iOS:
• Listener David in Nashville, TN recommends: MagicalPad, FREE
“I am using a great productivity app called MagicalPad. It’s a great mind mapping tool for iPad. Extremely easy to use with a lot of features found in expensive PC software.”
What are your favorite apps?Let us know!
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Scott Steinberg, Author, Gaming Guru & Tech Expert
How do you feel about kids playing video games? How can you best understand their fascination with games? Scott shares some pretty eye-opening info and helpful tips for parents.
Willy in Columbia, Missouri listening Online asked: “What can you tell us about security on smartphones like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, such as tracking information?”
If you’re asking about whether or not the phones keep information about your location, we’ve know for a few months that iPhones keep a file of your movements on the phone and on computers you sync them to.
Now, whether or not you should be too concerned about that is a different story, phone companies and the police already had access your movements since before that, just from checking what phone towers your phone has connected to, and when.
If you’re looking at just smartphones, you should probably know that Android does the same thing, in fact Android even sends the information to Google for analysis. If you’ve ever wondered how Google Maps knows how fast traffic is moving on a given road in real time, Android phones’ movements is one of the ways they know…
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Creative: Live! Cam Connect HD — Webcam that records 720p video
ScanMyPhotos.com: Several $200.00 eGift Certificates that can be used towards your purchase of any of their online products, such as: Prepaid Photo Scanning Box, Prepaid Slide Box, or Prepaid VHS Transfer Box
Scott Steinberg: Copies of his new book “The Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids and Video Games”