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Tech News & Commentary
Gary in Jefferson City, New Jersey listens to the podcasts asked us: “I have a 2006 Saturn Vue which had the radio replaced by the dealer before I bought the car, so it’s not an aftermarket radio. It was installed by the dealership. I signed up for SiriusXM radio and though they have sent three refresh signals, the radio still won’t work. The radio display shows “Theft Locked”. Tech support had no answer and I should take it to the dealer. When I took it to the dealer, they said they didn’t really know what to do but would try. They said they would charge me $49 but they couldn’t guarantee that they could fix the problem. What do I do? Do I accept the issue and buy a portable SiriusXM radio and give up on the radio in the car. I want to know what you all think about the problem and what a solution might be.”
Gary, There’s actually a GM service bulletin out for Saturn Vues and Ions about the problem you’re facing.
The fix seems to involve first installing a software update to 25.002, then after that going through the process of teaching the radio the VIN number it belongs to.
There’s a good chance you will need the dealership to do it, one way or another, but let them know to look for a service bulletin regarding the issue, it may be affecting your car, and if that’s the case, the instructions to make the radio work should be spelled out there.
If your car is not affected, normally the process of unlocking the radio would involve going through it’s menus and typing in the VIN number it’s tied to, if it’s a legitimately purchased radio tied to your car, that VIN number should be your car’s VIN number, but both SiriusXM and your dealership should know that, so it’s likely that your car is facing the problem addressed by the service bulletin.
We should mention that some SiriusXM radios are tied to one VIN number for life, so if this radio used to be in another car, you may not be able to change the VIN number it needs to be unlocked.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports Feature:
Apple this week of course finally took the wraps off its hotly anticipated new smart watches. Consumer Reports was right there in California at the launch event. Their electronics spokesman James McQueen is here to share their initial feedback on the Apple Watches.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
• Mark recommends: HGTV Watch, FREE
“There’s a dirty little secret hiding on my iPhone and it’s this: I watch HGTV shows about renovating homes. Mind you, I am completely hopeless with tools, but I love to imagine what it would be like if I COULD improve my home. It’s like fantasy island, except with kitchen islands. I downloaded the HGTV Watch app to my iPhone and iPad, and I have to say that this is really a cut above other media apps that I’ve tried. It’s developed by a company named Bottle Rocket and that name is worth remembering. I suspect they do a lot of apps like this one and you can assume when you see it they will work well. The only downside to the app is that you can’t use it to cut the cord. You have to sign in with a supported provider like Xfinity or DirecTV, so they can see you’re already paying for HGTV and THEN they give you access to this huge on demand library of every kind of show they offer. HGTV Watch is free, although the content is technically NOT, but if you’re an HGTV secret junkie like me, you’ll love it.” — Mark
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:
Michael Winer, Student student and first place winner in the Innovation category of the Intel Science Talent Search
OWC Segment with Larry O’Connor:
Our friend, Larry O’Connor, has been sharing some ways to inexpensively upgrade an old PC. He’s back this week to share another tip.
Chris in Baton Rouge, Louisiana listening on Talk 107.3 WBRP asked us: “I just got a new Nokia Lumia smart phone, I’m upgrading from a very old plain vanilla phone from AT&T. I would like to hook it up the car so that I can use my bluetooth capability so I can listen to my incoming call and then maybe have some kind of gadget that go on my dashboard so I can use the telephone as the microphone, that way I can have two way conversations. I’m wondering what would be the best way to do this? What are some good cases I could use for this phone?”
Chris, You may run into a little bit of trouble sending phone calls over Bluetooth to a car radio that doesn’t support phone calls. The Bluetooth standard is kind of smart about things like that and your phone may know that it’s talking to a radio and refuse to send it’s phone calls to it.
You may read somewhere that your phone has something called A2DP, that means Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, and it takes care of distributing audio in ways that “make sense.”
Your phone may talk to your car radio and say “do you have a microphone? No? OK, then you’re just a fancy set of speakers that just happen to be on wheels, you’re for music, not phone calls,” A2DP reduces every device to “a set of speakers” or “a headset with a microphone,” you’re one or you’re the other.
You can look for other solutions to use your phone in the car though, for $20 you can find several different kinds of hands free bluetooth solutions that plug into a 12V port. The will just work as stand-alone devices and not as part of your radio.
As for cases, your best bet is probably to look online if you want variety, but generally speaking you should have no trouble finding one that you like. There are leather cases, rubber cases, causes with belt clips, artsy cases, solid colored cases, cases with kickstands, rugged cases in case you drop the phone, there are plenty of options, but they’re mostly online.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Steve in Green Bay, Wisconsin listens to the Podcasts asked us: “I do a lot of presentations for my job and I need to use a Windows based computer. I’d like to have your expertise on a large-screen tablet that would be best suited for doing PowerPoint presentations.”
Steve, The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 may be right up your alley since you have mentioned using a Windows based computer. This is the latest device in the Microsoft lineup and has an available keyboard and a surface pen– so you can easily write or draw on the screen during your presentations. In terms of a tablet, however, the price is a bit steep. It currently costs $799 on Microsoft’s website.
For those of you using an Android device, there’s one that we would highly recommend. We have been toying around with one of the newest tablets in the game– and it is well suited for presentations. The Lenovo YOGA Tablet 2 Pro is very impressive and has a ton of useful capabilities.
This device has a built-in projector that completely takes away the ancient concept of plugging it into an external projector. It is an extremely innovative concept and will give your presentations seem a lot sleeker. This tablet comes in at about $470 on Lenovo’s website.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
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G-Technology: Several 500GB 7200 RPM Touro S High performance portable Hard drives with easy & local Cloud Backup and in a variety of colors!
NanoTech: Several UltraFlix Gift Cards for 4K Content, like movies and a ton of other cool stuff. Let us know if you have a 4K Ultra HD TV!