HOUR 1:
Tech News & Commentary
Ernie in Smithville, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680AM asked: “We have a new home that is constructed with insulated exterior concrete walls. The vapor barrier they used inside has a metallic lining in it. As a result, we cannot get cell phone signal inside the house. Is there any kind of repeater that we can put an antenna in the attic and then use cell phones inside the house?”
There are things you can install in your home. The first that comes to mind is the zBoost SOHO from our sponsor, Wi-Ex. This unit has a base station that you place in whatever part of the home you have the most trouble with. Then you install the antenna in a location of your home (preferrably in the attic or outside if you can) where you get the strongest signal on your phone. It comes with a 50-foot cable, so you should have no trouble reaching that area.
They have extensions available, but recommend having no more than 75 feet of cable. Now, you do need 15 feet of vertical seperation between the antenna and base station. Otherwise, the signal can cancel itself out and you won’t notice any difference. If you can’t get that distance, they have other models available, like the Metro, which doesn’t require any seperation.
The SOHO model sells for about $400 and the Metro is about $300. Both of these models support multiple users, so it should help all the members of your family and anyone that comes to visit.
There are other manufacturers that make similar products. One that we’ve also talked about is Wilson Electronics. Theit products are very similar in price and function, but at least in our offices and studios where we’ve used both, the Wi-Ex products seemed to perform a little better. Your setup may be different and performance may vary for you, but the Wilson products are also an option for you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Consumer Reports” Feature with Carol Mangis
What do you get for the geek who has everything? Consumer Reports Web Associate Editor Carol Mangis has a list of items any techie would love to receive.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
- For Android: TuneIn Radio, a free app that lets you listen to your favorite radio stations, DJs and programs, or unearth new ones on local, global andInternet radio. The browse function makes it easy to find your faves with over 40,000 channels of news, music, sports, podcasts and national networks like BBC, NPR, SWR.
- For BlackBerry: Newly updated Facebook App 1.9, new with support for Facebook places.
- For iPhone/iPad: Listener John from Bridgewater, New Jersey, recommends Audio Galaxy, an app that will catalog your music library and let you stream any song you have in your collection over 3G.
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
Guest in this hour:
Paul Griff, CEO – RootMetrics
A lot of mobile subscribers aren’t too happy with their cell phone network. How can you choose the best service in your area? RootMetrics offers the first independent service measuring and mapping wireless network performance, so consumers can determine which service is best for them.
Randy in Faribanks, Alaska listening on KFBX called and asked: “I want to know when they’re coming out with a computer that operates on speech only. One that will do everything you do now, but it does it by voice.”
Anyone who has ever watched a science fiction movie or TV show is familiar with the concept of computers that operate entirely by speech. That’s the Holy Grail of speech recognition. Some would tell you that we’re there already. Windows and Mac OS can both accept commands like “open file” and “show desktop.” Voice dictation software has improved dramatically from its early days. That being said, we’re really not there yet. Not even close, in fact.
The ability to give your computer verbal commands works very well with a limited number of specific commands. For example, something like “open file load excel ‘November Expense Report’ ” would be easy for the computer to do. But try saying “computer, how much did I spend on that latté in Cabo?” and see what you get. The power of the human mind is interpretation, filling in the blanks. Something that the artificial intelligence geeks call “fuzzy logic.”
Voice dictation software, which was once tied to a single voice and only worked at all after hours of training it by reading preset phrases over and over, has improved tremendously. For the most part, it’s now speaker independent – although we’re still at the place where the more it listens to you and the more you correct its mistakes, the more accurate it becomes. You don’t have to spend a lot of time training it, but you will soon learn that it makes far fewer mistakes when you’re careful to use what they call “separated speech,” meaning a sort of staccato style of speaking where you have brief pauses between your words. Again, the ability to scan the words out of a fast moving slur of sounds is something the human mind can do easily, but it requires oceans of computing power.
Will we ever get there? Sure. It’s all just a matter of having enough storage and processing power, and we will eventually get over that threshold. But in the meantime, what we can learn from all this is just how incredibly powerful the human brain is at processing and managing data. The organic computer is still the best kind.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Barry in Cherry Hill, New Jersey listens to the stream on his Roku SoundBridge sent us an email and asked: “I have a Motorola Bluetooth headset that I typically pair with my cell phone. Could you recommend a LANDLINE cordless (or corded) phone that I can use my Bluetooth headset with? Ultimately, I would like to use my Bluetooth headset with a regular type (not cellular) telephone.”
One you can try is the Vtech DECT 6.0. It’s a cordless phone, compatible with Bluetooth headsets and Bluetooth-enabled Cell Phones and comes with 3 handset phones. It’s available online for about $80.
You can also try the Panasonic KX-TG6582T DECT 6.0 Plus. This comes with 2 handsets compatible with Bluetooth headsets. By registering the Bluetooth to the base unit, you can have a hands-free conversation wirelessly for landline call. The Bluetooth headset works with landline calls only and with the base only.
The Panasonic KX also allows you to connect two Bluetooth cellular phones to the base unit to make or answer cellular calls using your home phone. (handset or base unit) with better reception. You can buy the Panasonic KX-TG6582T online for less than $100.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Wireless Update” Weekly Feature with Verizon’s Chuck Hamby
Have you ever had cell phone sticker shock? When your monthly bill is much higher than expected? Chuck helps you block the shock.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
D-Link: Several MyDlink-enabled Wireless Network Cameras to keep an eye on your home.
Honestech: Copies of Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe with PC Camera included – stop motion video creation software
TrenMicro: Copies of Titanium 2011 — Maximum Internet Security including 10 gigs of online backup.
TuneUp: Copies of TuneUp Utilities – Optimization software for PCs.