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Tech News & Commentary
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Khalid in Saudi Arabia listens Online asked us: “I’d like to buy a home theatre with a screen more than 70-inch. I’m confused whether to buy a HDTV with more than 70-inches that costs more, or a projection which can give me up to 100-inch screen. Please advise.”
Khalid, It mainly depends on how dark you can make the room.
If you can make the room very dark, a good projector can give you deeper contrast, better pixel density and an overall better picture quality than a large TV, and do it for less money.
However, if the room is not completely dark, you’re better off with a TV, it will cost you more, but it will give you a much better picture in a bright room.
So, are you going for a room with a TV and some nice speakers, or for a proper home theater-only room? that can be made dark every time you want to use it?
If you’re looking to be able to use the room while other people are using it for other things as well, you may want to go the TV route, but if it’s going to be a home theater only room, the projector is probably a better option, just make sure it can be made completely dark.
If you decide to go the projector route, be sure to invest in a top quality screen or other projection surface. You will be amazed at how much picture quality and brightness from projectors can be enhanced, or harmed, by what you project the image on.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Greg in Raleigh, North Carolina listens on 680 WPTF asked: “I like to use my tablet Samsung Galaxy tab 2 as an ereader. I also use my IPhone 4S for the same purpose. I hate having to constantly touch the screen to change pages. At one time the Nook app had a setting to scroll text. Do any current apps have that feature? On my laptop I can change pages using a presentation clicker. It tried this in my tablet using an USB adaptor. Would this method work with a windows tablet?”
Greg, For your iPhone you can try uBooks, readerLite and Quickreader, they will all help you with touchless reading in different ways.
uBooks and readerLite feature actual auto-scrolling, so they may be closer to what you’re looking for, you can set the speed, seat back and read. uBooks does feature a little popup that will ask you after a while if you’re still reading and whether it should continue scrolling. That may be a very helpful way to make sure your text doesn’t scroll to the end if you put the phone down and forget about it, or it may be a very annoying feature, depending on how often it happens.
Quickreader is different in that it doesn’t scroll, but it does turn the page for you after a set time so you don’t have to touch your screen.
For Android, you can try Cool Reader, it features both regular page turning, scrolling, auto-turn and auto-scroll, so you should be able to find the functionality you need, no matter what you prefer.
Moon+ Reader also offers autoscrolling, and it comes with a variety of autoscrolling modes and offers realtime speed control.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Robin Wilton, Technical Outreach Director for Identity and Privacy – Internet Society
Becky in Columbia, Tennessee listens on SuperTalk WTN 99.7 told us: “I heard you talking about the tablet that you can get $37, and my laptop which is Windows XP died a month ago, I’m on disability and I’ve been saving up for an iPad or mini iPad or something like that and I was interested what the $37 one was and if would be worth getting.”
Becky, Ubislate $38 tablets don’t really compare favorably to an iPad or an iPad Mini, don’t think you’d be getting the same kind of tablet.
They’re lower end in specs, they’re running an older OS, and generally speaking they’re pretty much worse in every respect… but they’re also less than $40…
So, are they worth getting? well… an iPad would be a better tablet, having said that, it would also be many, many times more expensive.
Here’s what we suggest, would you consider buying a $40 Ubislate while still saving up for an iPad? Best case you decide that you don’t need an iPad after all, worst case you have a temporary intermediate tablet while you continue to save for a better one. We just recommend that if you do that, you do it thinking of it as a temporary tablet, not as an iPad replacement, if it’s good enough to be your permanent one, then great! you lucked out and saved a ton of money, but keep in mind that that it likely won’t be.
The thing we like about the Ubislate tablets is that they’re actually USABLE at that under-$40 price point. As we said, no $40 tablet is going to be better, or even as good as, a $400 tablet. But so many of the really inexpensive “value priced” tablets have been complete junk that we’re pleased to say that the Ubislates actually DO work.
They are ideal as a second tablet, one that you might take to an environment that you’d never risk a $400 tablet in (such as poolside, or the beach, or to any kind of outdoor event in who knows what kind of weather). They are also excellent tablets to give to young children, because they’ll run the apps the kids want to run (for the most part), and when Junior drops it on the tile floor, you’re not out an iPad.
Even the manufacturer says “they’re almost like a disposable tablet.” There’s room for the Ubislate in the pantheon of tablets available. But for your primary computing device? We’d say no, probably not a good idea.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Bits Limited: Mini Squids — Travel-Sized surge protected power strips
Datawind: UBISLATE 7Ci, 7″ Android tablet with Wi-Fi, internal microphone and camera, and expandable MicroSD memory.
Dane-Elec: Mobile Junkie Media Streamer – Stream content from a flash drive or SD card to your Smartphone or tablet. (And, it also acts as a mobile charger!)
“Into Tomorrow”: Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths with Dave’s cartoon on them, for all your smartphones, tablets, TVs, camera lenses and computer screens!
Magellan’s: RFID-blocking Ridged Aluminum Wallets – in RED for Valentine’s Day – prevents identity theft with expandable pockets that can hold up to 12 credits cards as well as cash and receipts