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Tech News & Commentary
Bryan in Erie, Pennsylvania and listening via 107.1FM WPSE Your Money Station asked: “I have a Samsung S4, and through work we use Lotus Notes Traveler. I used to have an iPhone, and down at the bottom when you got an email there was a little bubble letting you know how many emails you got. Now, with Lotus Notes, I can’t get the phone to do this. I can see how many Phone Messages and Texts I have but I can’t see how many Emails I have. Also, I would like to have a visual queue on my S4 for Voicemails.”
Bryan, First of all, our sincerest and deepest condolences for having to still use Lotus Notes, that software was annoying even back when it was new…
As for Notes Traveler not displaying the number of emails on the icon, there’s really not much you can do about that if you’re forced to use that app (keep in mind that Notes can be configured to work with other email clients as well, IF your IT department allows it). Apps on iOS are more likely to show counts like that because that little bubble with the number is part of the notification system built into the OS, so developers can just follow the guidelines and use it.
Android is different, there’s no little number bubble pre-baked into Android, so IBM would’ve had to develop and maintain that on their own, and they probably didn’t see it as worth the trouble if the user can get notifications via the bar on top anyway.
As for the visual voicemail feature, that’s largely dependent on your carrier, but you may have a few options. Google Voice will give you visual voicemail and transcripts and it offers number integration with Sprint, so if you have Sprint you can use it with your current number, otherwise you’ll have to get a new number from them.
If you’re on AT&T or T-Mobile, they make Visual Voicemail apps available on the Google Play store, so if for some reason your phone doesn’t have it, you can try to get it from there.
Some services like YouMail and Visual Voicemail Plus will also give you the service, but you may have forwarding charges and extra features come at a cost.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
There were several approaches to record movies on a disc. After the TED system by Telefunken, presented at IFA 1971, VHD, the Video High Density Disc by JVC was introduced, then LaserVision by Philips and CED by RCA. All were analog; all failed, and all were discontinued by the mid 80ies. CD Video with 74 minutes of video also didn’t succeed; another medium with higher capacity was needed, combined with data reduction which was available in the early 90ies. In the mid 90ies the industry started to develop the DVD technology, which had five times the storage capacity of a CD.
Cliff in Chattanooga, Tennessee listens via the App asked: “What contacts program/app do you recommend that works with most emails, outlook and social media. Thanks for the advice. Right now I’m using “contacts+” it seems to work well except I don’t see how to get it on my laptop as well.”
Cliff, This is actually a pretty tough question, there aren’t many products that meet your requirements.
The best mix we have been able to find would be to continue using Contacts+ on your phone, and to use Apowersoft’s Android Manager on your computer.
Android Manager, allows you to sync contacts with Outlook and manage your phone’s contacts from your computer.
Between both of those, you should be able to get what you want, but unfortunately, unless you can do it through an email provider (and all of the major free ones will let you sync contacts), you won’t find a much easier way to keep everything synced.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest Segments:
- Alexander Berard, Chief Elf Officer – Portable North Pole
Make a free, customizable message from Santa to your kids for Christmas! - Omar Abhari, Senior VP of Operations – GIV Mobile
a no contract cell phone service
Harry in Lexington, Kentucky and listens to the Podcast and is calling via the App asked: “I watch all your shows and I love you guys and appreciate all you do. My question is about the Mac Air. I’m interested in buying a Macbook Air, but I can’t decide between a 128gb solid state drive or 256. So my question is when you buy the Air Book with the 128 gig, how much of the drive is already taken up by the OS and apps that come with the Air Book?”
Harry, A 128GB Macbook Air, after formatting will have about 120GB available, and after the OS and built-in apps take up some more of that, you’re looking at about 100GBs for your own personal use.
If that’s not enough for you, you have the option of attaching an external hard drive and keeping files there, but while you’re on the move, keeping a roomy SD card in the SD card reader may be a more comfortable choice, you’d be able to easily double if not triple your storage, and it wouldn’t really take up any room, and can easily be used on the go.
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.