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Here’s the Google Maps picture that Dave mentioned on the show as being responsible for user edits being suspended for the time being:
Tech News & Commentary
Matthew in Hendersonville, Tennessee listens on WTN 99.7 FM told us: “Wondering what the best body cam would be for a security officer and which one would have the best audio.”
Mattehw, The first thing we should mention is that your local laws may affect what you or your employees can or cannot wear, check before you find yourself liable for invasion of privacy or anything like that.
You may be able to record video but not audio, you may be able to record video in a public place, but need someone’s signature before you can legally record in a private place, just make sure you’re sticking to your local laws and you won’t get yourself in trouble.
As far as the cameras themselves go, most of them seem to be roughly shaped like a pager and can record without any extra gear, unfortunately, having a pager over your heart means that your own hands often cover the camera, and there are many accessories to deal with that, from glass frame attachments, to over the ear and over the shoulder attachments, but they will all cost you extra.
Since you’re interested in audio, you should know that you won’t find extremely high fidelity microphones in a small package that’s expected to be far away from whatever it’s recording. You should be able to make out what’s being said in relatively quiet environments, but don’t expect great quality on any camera.
It’s still pretty hard to find cameras geared towards consumers, most companies are trying to get police department business, but you can find a few market to the general public.
For around $300 you can buy a PatrolEyes HD Police Body Camera with 16GB of storage. At full 1080p HD you will need about 5GB/hour, but you can lower the resolution to SD and that will only require 2.1GB/hour, so you should get around 8 hours on 16GB. If that’s not enough, you do have the option to go for the 32GB version for an extra $50, but the battery will still last you 8 hours.
For about $350 you can also buy a Titan T3-BWC, it records in 720p, it can connect to radios and it has it’s own push-to-talk button, and it will record for about 9 hours onto 16GB of built-in storage.
Both of those cameras offer administrator access, and allow the regular user to playback the videos, but only the administrator to actually delete them.
You could also look at much cheaper options, some cameras go for as little as $100 to $150, but have a good look at them before settling for one of those, they tend to have 2 hour batteries or less, if you want the cameras to monitor full shifts, those will not work for you, they also tend not to have any kind of administrator access, so an employee could delete the videos if they’re likely to get them in trouble.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports Segment:
Many of us prefer shooting photos and videos on smartphones because they’re so convenient. But a smartphone isn’t the best choice in all circumstances, so says Consumer Reports. Sometimes you need a camera that can get closer to the action. CR’s electronics spokesman James McQueen is here with some top superzoom digital camera recommendations.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
• Chris is frustrated with: Apple’s useless apps, FREE
- “I want to do things a little different. Instead of talking about my favorite app of the week, I want to vent my frustration about Apple’s useless little apps that they force upon all iPhone users, whether they want them or not. I’m talking about all those apps included in the OS that you are unable to delete. I recently updated my phone to the latest iOS, and with that, came an App for the Apple Watch. Which would be great – if I had an Apple Watch. Which I don’t, nor do I have any plans to buy one. Nothing against the Apple Watch itself, I just don’t wear a watch that often and can’t see spending that kind of money on something that has apps that I can use much more easily on my phone – which I already paid too much for. But back to my venting. Since I couldn’t delete the app, I ended up adding it to a folder of apps on my home screen that I have simply titled “Useless Crap”. Among the other apps in there, are Apple’s Weather App (because it sucks), Their Stocks App (because I could care less) The Tips app (because I already know how to use my phone, thank you) Their Health App, because I have an iPhone 5 and that app is basically useless on the 5) and of course the Compass app (because I don’t need my phone to tell me which direction I’m facing. I was a Boy Scout, I can tell direction by looking at that big bright ball of fire in the sky.) And of course, these are all apps that cannot be deleted, which is why they have been relegated to the “Useless Crap” folder on my phone.” — Chris
What are your favorite Apps? Let us know at 800-899-INTO and we’ll feature them in this segment!
- Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details
Guest Segment:
Gregg Prendergast, VP of Commercial Sales and acting GM – Acer Pan America
PCs, displays, projectors, servers, tablets, smartphones, and wearables
John in Texas asked: “Do you know of some great website that anyone can go to and be able to work online. My wife is interested in working at home and would like to work online. If you know of anything please let me know.”
John, Depending on what your wife wants to do, or can do, there are many different sites for telecommuters.
The first thing we should point out is that any ad that reads something like: “I quit my job and now make $4000/hour working from home!!!!” is a scam and you should not click on it.
Having said that, there are both fully normal and legitimate jobs, and a little more questionable, but still profitable and legal jobs that you can do online.
If you don’t mind your wife contributing to the decay of the web, she can almost certainly find copywriting jobs for blogs on everything from Craigslist to sites like Upwork (which you may know by it’s old name “oDesk”).
Upwork has a lot of other freelance jobs she can do, but they may require specific skills, for example, web development, IT work, design work, and translation jobs, amongst others. Guru and eLance are other very popular freelance sites that may help her find temporary work.
If she’d prefer a regular job with a regular company, but telecommuting rather than having to drive to an office, FlexJobs posts both freelance jobs and permanent telecommuting positions for companies such as Apple, CVS, Amazon, American Express, and other well known employers.
Those are often regular jobs without the commute though, so she will likely have to go through the same interviews and meet the same requirements that she would for a similar job with a set location. She should be able to find seasonal and temporary jobs as well there. The downside of FlexJobs is that it is not free, it starts at $15/month and also offers 3-month and 12-month reduced pricing.
If you don’t mind expanding your search to more general purpose sites, Craigslist also lists telecommuting sites, as do some job sites such as Monster that don’t solely specialize on telecommuting.
As you may have noticed already, some people use social media sites like Facebook to sell their own creations, so if you’re wife happens to be good some craft, whether it is creating jewelry or knitting, she may find a market amongst her friends, and friends of friends.
If she has teaching skills, she can also try a like WyzAnt.com and become a private online tutor, the site would let her pick her own students, her own schedule, and she’d be able to do it fully online.
If your wife has 1 to 2 years of experience in her field of expertise, she can also try HireMyMom.com, the website charges $29 per quarter, but screens candidates beforehand, which is supposed to make it more appealing to potential employers. Some jobs there are temporary, some are permanent.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Calvin in Durham, North Carolina listens via the App asked: “My wife has a 1520 Windows phone. The problem is that when she uses it it gets very very hot. Is there anyway we could fix that or should we get another type of phone. She has had the phone for a little while and it’s a good phone, I guess. She could stay on the phone for 15-20 minutes and then its gets hot and turns off. Is Windows phone a good phone to use or should we invest in another phone?”
Calvin, The 1520 is known to overheat sometimes. Whatever the flaw with the phone is, some owners have had it replaced several times and have ended up with the same problem. Some users also report that their phones didn’t just turn off, but that they stayed off and had to be replaced under warranty.
Frankly, if you want a large screen phone, you’d likely do better with any large screen Android or iPhone. The Windows Phone OS itself is far, far behind the other two (especially internally), and an overheating phone is not something you want to deal with if you need to make a call or get some work done.
Just to give an idea about how this phone compares to others, TechRadar published an article entitled “The Lumia 1520 is nothing more than a glorified hand warmer” when the phone originally came out… that’s probably not the greatest endorsement a phone has ever received.
It’s also a fairly old phone by now, it’s by no means ancient, you can still use it without feeling like it’s from a different era, but it is a previous generation phone, if it hasn’t been fixed yet, it probably will never be.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
OWC: Dual USB Flash Drives – The amazingly small flash drive with both a Micro USB and a regular USB interface all-in-one.
Jabra: SoleMate Portable Bluetooth speaker for your laptop, tablet, smartphone or music player
PhoneSoap: Several Antibacterial – All Natural Touch Screen Polish
Livio Radio: Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit – FM transmitter that allows you to bring Internet Radio and hands-free calling to your car.
iLuv: A pair of ReFashionOlogy Canvas Exterior, Collapsible Headphones with a Titanium Diaphragm
Westinghouse: Unplug Wireless Bluetooth Sound System