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Dave and his team of tech experts answer more of your questions via the Ask Dave Hotline. In case you haven’t yet, 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!
Tech News & Commentary
Jason in Niles, Michigan listening on 94.9 WSJM asked: “I was thinking of upgrading to a rugged smartphone. Wondering what was out there. I currently have AT&T but am willing to switch.”
On AT&T you can look at the Rugby Smart. It’s an Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) smart phone with a super AMOLED screen, and AT&T’s “4G” speeds (NOT LTE), and a 5 megapixel camera. And, it’s built to military specifications to make it resistant to shocks, dust,vibration and water up to 1m for 30 minutes.
T-Mobile has the Motorola Defy. The Defy is very similar to the Rugby Smart in general — waterproof, shockproof, 5MP camera, Android OS. We haven’t tried it ourselves, but we have read that it’s a little sluggish.
You might also want to look into rugged cases for your current smart phone. For instance, LIFEPROOF makes a case for the iPhone, which is water, snow, dirt, and shock proof. These types of cases might also be a good option if the phone you like isn’t rugged.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports
with Jim Willcox
The next wave of TV tech could be coming to your living room by the end of the year. Consumer Reports Senior Editor Jim Willcox is here to give us the scoop on Ultra-High-Definition TV or UHDTV.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they
have been playing with recently.
For Android:
• Mark recommends: Stupid Zombies, FREE
” My app this week, in honor of Chris Graveline, is a complete and total time-waster, er…I mean productivity app. It’s called Stupid Zombies and I downloaded it to my Kindle Fire tablet. It’s like Angry Birds, except with zombies and bullets instead of pigs and birds. You’re presented with a series of levels, which has zombies hiding behind various obstacles, and you have 5 bullets. The difference between Stupid Zombies and Angry Birds is the control system. With the birds, you pull back the slingshot and “aim” where you want the bird to go. With these zombies, you touch the screen to set a target and move your finger to where you want the bullet to HIT (and they bounce around, playing the ricochet is part of the game). I found it to be a much more precise and fun way to control the game than the slingshot, which is for the birds, really. I confess that I’ve spent hours blowing up zombies with this game, it’s addicting, challenging, and lots of fun. I found Stupid Zombies in the Amazon Appstore for free. It does display ads at the bottom of the screen in between levels..”
• Chris recommends: Choot’Em Angry Swamp, $1.99
“Anyone who, like me, is a fan of the show Swamp People on the History Channel is familiar with Troy Landry, one of the alligator fishermen and his catch phrase “Choot ’em.” This is a game based on that. The one thing I do have to say about it though, is that it’s pretty much a carbon copy of Angry Birds. I’m not quite sure how they got away with that, but they did. Although instead of killing pigs, you kill alligators. And instead of shooting birds from a slingshot, you start of shooting crawfish. If you’re a fan of the show, you will also enjoy over 150 sound clips from Troy that come up in different parts of the game. Choot’Em Angry Swamp is available in the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPad for $1.99. They also have a version for Android.”
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
Guest in this hour:
Jeff Fluhr, Founder & CEO – Spreecast
Spreecast is a social video platform that lets people broadcast together.
Tom in Albuquerque, New Mexico listens to the Podcast and 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. 1. How is the Wi-Fi signal and battery life? 2. 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 1 of our podcast.
Irene in Madison, Wisconsin listening on WTDY 1670 asked: “What kind of wireless printers do you recommend for general use?”
If you’re strictly referring to the “kind” of wireless, we’d pick WiFi over Bluetooth for general use, especially because the range for Bluetooth is only 35 feet. Now if what you mean is what model, we can recommend a few.
Here in our studios we use an Epson WorkForce 635. It’s a WiFi printer, scanner and also a fax machine. That may be overkill for you, but we have found it to be a very good all-in-one printer. The downside is that it is fairly advanced and it will cost you around $150 to $200. There’s an Epson app for iOS that lets you print wirelessly from your iPhone or iPad. It’s called “Epson iPrint” and is available for free. And yes, it works with the WorkForce 635, we’re recommending for you based on our experience.
You can get all of that except for the fax for much lower prices. For example, an HP DeskJet 3050 is a WiFi printer and scanner (no fax) with a suggested retail price of $80. But even that’s a little high. Newegg.com has it listed for $69.99. If you don’t care about the scanner and want to save a little money, you can get the HP DeskJet 3000 instead of the 3050 for about $55 online.
Mark just recently set up a Canon Pixma MX420 wireless color all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, and fax on his home network, and he has to say that I like it very much. It’s a little bit more expensive than the HP models, running about $99 for the model he has, but it has some really advanced features. It can scan across the network, it can print from or scan to a USB thumb drive plugged in to the front, it has an Automatic Document Feeder for scanning stacks of documents up to 30 pages, and its print quality and speed are excellent.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Wireless Update” Weekly Feature with Chuck Hamby
from Verizon Wireless
Want the latest in best new iPhone apps? Chuck Hamby of Verizon Wireless is here to give us the scoop on what’s hot.
Gloria in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM called in a thanked us for her prize for calling the show recently.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Boingo: Several 60-day Certificates — With Boingo you can connect online at free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.
Kingston: 16GB SD memory cards and a MobileLite G3 (USB 3.0 Card Reader)
Idea Incubator: Several txtRng — “the stylus with syle”. This is a unique stylus Rob recently featured it on our Product Spotlight.
Radio Shack: Auvio Element Earbuds with Microphone