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Tech News & Commentary
Milt in Blackfoot, Idaho and listening via East Idaho News 1260AM KBLI asked: “I want to hear your opinion on archiving photos? What’s the best way to have them so my great great grand kids can see photos.”
Milt, You probably want to back them up in as many different ways as possible, redundancy is key.
Whether you go with a hard drive, an online service, optical media, flash drives… whatever you choose, if you choose only one, odds are that medium will eventually stop existing, so give yourself a couple of options so when your first one disappears, you can grab the second set of copies and make a third set or a fourth set or however many you need to make sure that you’ve bought your photos a little more time.
Of course, if you’re happy with the way your old pictures were aging, you can just go old school and print as many as you want to keep and store them in albums, but much like your other data storage methods, your printed photos will age, and they will not age well.
This is a tough call, but I still have photos of my great grandparents, and even though I am as techie as they come, putting prints in a shoebox in the back of a closet where it isn’t too humid is your best bet. If you want to go the digital route, be sure to use a major cloud provider…Google is great for things like this. And with Google + integration, it is a snap to share the photos.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
At IFA in 1995 Schneider, a German company which disappeared soon after, showed a sensational new technology: displaying TV images with laser beams. The technology never made it to the market, despite continuous developments by several companies and heavy investments. We still see prototypes of Laser Display Technology (LDT) with amazing picture quality at trade shows but it seems that this Berlin world premiere would have to be filed in the failure bin.
Lynnette from Santa Rosa, California listening via the Podcast asked: “I drive a 2008 Subaru Tribeca and I’m looking for the best, economical way to play my mobile phone content through its 9 speaker audio system? I’ve been using an Aux Cable and I’ve tried a bluetooth dongle that needs to be paired every time I use it, and its not great. I know there must be some device that’s reasonably priced to provide bluetooth connectivity automatically without needing it to be professionally installed. Do you have any suggestions?”
Lynnette, There are bluetooth to aux adapters that will work just the way you would expect them to, and remember your phone.
Belkin’s CarAudio Connect Aux with Bluetooth will connect wirelessly to your phone, allow you to make phone calls and listen to music, and it comes with a USB port for you to charge your phone, if you need to.
The Scosche MotorMouth II will also give you the functionality you need, though in a smaller package. Both products cost $79.99 which is not exactly cheap.
Another option is the Belkin TuneCast Auto Live. This is a device for iPhone, iPod Nano & iPod Touch. The TuneCast Auto Live uses an app called ClearScan Live, which delivers the best FM scanning technology. The TuneCast charges through your car’s 12-volt lighter outlet and has an LCD display for easy viewing.
That one retails at $69.95 on apple.com or Amazon for a much cheaper $53.99, but remember if you buy it through Amazon you are buying from other vendors, so make sure thier relaibale.
You can also check out the Plantronics K100 Bluetooth Car Kit. This little device clips to your visor and becomes a bluetooth speaker when paired to your phone. It is also an FM transmitter, giving you the ability to listen to your device through your existing car stereo. We’ve heard the call quality is great, battery life is extremely long, and the sleek design shouldn’t bulk up the cabin of your car. It retails for $39.99 and is a great inexpensive option without having to install it. It also works great clipped to your chair at the beach!
But, what you really must ask yourself in this decision making process is what you are willing to give up in order to cut the cord. Bluetooth streaming doesn’t always sound as good as what you get when you plug in a pair of headphones (which is essentially what you’re doing with the cable into the AUX jack on the stereo). We aren’t tell you NOT to go Bluetooth, but what we are saying is that Bluetooth doesn’t always do the best job of carrying music.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Jack in New York listening via Stitcher asked: “I usually call these questions in but this one is easier to write. I have a Nexus 7 32gb and I have the tablet running 4.4.2. Have the email connected to my exchange server. The email works. The notification works too with text and ring tones. Once the tablet goes to sleep after 10 minutes or so the email and notifications stop. When I wake the tablet up… after a few minutes all my email comes in. I have the incoming set to push-auto. I tried all sorts of other settings but nothing works. Can you help me?”
Jack, As far as we can tell, there’s nothing wrong with your settings. We’ve heard about this and other email related problems on Android 4.4, and there is not much that can be done about them yet, unfortunately.
Some people have said that the problem only manifests itself on certain WiFi networks but not others so, for example, it may work fine at work, and not work at home. If that’s the case for you AND you’re really desperate, you can get a new router and hope for the best.
At this point the best advice we can give you is this: it’s not your fault, it’s Google’s and you can’t fix it, you have to wait for them to release a fix. Sorry!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest Segments:
Amy Lupold Bair, author of Raising Digital Families For Dummies
Mike in Montgomery, Alabama listens via iHeartRadio asked: “How can I use my android phone to give Internet to my laptop?”
Mike, What you’re looking to do depends a little on the capabilities of your particular phone. On many Android smartphones you’ll find an app or settings option to turn on a personal hotspot. That should do what you need, if you have a plan that will allow it.
If your phone doesn’t allow it, it can usually be done by rooting it, though that has it’s own downsides. And try to make sure your carrier is allowing you to do it, otherwise you might face some unexpected charges at the end of the month, or even a full cancellation of your contract.
There are some apps that may let you tether even without rooting, they’re a little hit and miss, but you can give them a try, the most popular ones are PDAnet, BarnacleWiFi and EasyTether. PDAnet has started to set data limits on their app, so that if you want to use more than a certain amount, you have to upgrade to a paid version, if you choose them, you may want to find out how much they want, and how much your carrier wants for legitimate hotspot service.
Most of the new “shared data” wireless plans, such as the Family Share plans from Verizon and AT&T, include wireless tethering at no additional charge. So for those users, a smartphone hotspot makes perfect sense.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yos “A clever solution to tangled earbuds”.
Bits Limited: Mini Squids — Travel-Sized surge protected power strips
Dane-Elec: Mobile Junkie Media Streamer – Stream content from a flash drive or SD card to your Smartphone or tablet.
“Into Tomorrow”: Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths with Dave’s cartoon on them, for all your smartphones, tablets, TVs, camera lenses and computer screens!
Tylt: A plethora of USB charging cables for iPhone and Android phones and iPhone battery cases.