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Tech News & Commentary
John in Rocklin, California calling in via the App asked: “I have 3 variables that I need help with, a TV, a satellite service and 2 little children that like to play with remotes. What I’ve got is 42″ Vizio and the picture has somehow formatted itself to something larger than the 42″ screen. For example, when I watched the superbowl recently, we couldn’t see any of the stats, so we only knew the score when somebody mentioned it. Did my kids mess with the remote, is this something that has to do with my satellite service, or is it the TV itself that got changed, or am I stuck and just need to buy a bigger TV?”
John, it sounds like it could either be something as simple as a setting issue or it could be a little more complicated and involve calibration.
We can do a little troubleshooting here John. There are three major display modes on a 42 inch Vizio: Wide, Zoom and Panoramic. Check to see which display mode you are currently on and then try the other two to see if it will make the picture fit the screen. There should be a “Wide” button on the top of your remote that will allow you to cycle through the different modes.
If that doesn’t work, you could have a calibration issue and may need to call your satellite service company to send someone out and address that for you. Absolute worst case scenario though John, yes, buy a new TV and hide the remotes.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
Lloyd in Durham, North Carolina listens on “News Radio” WPTF 680 AM and is calling in via the App asked: “I was cleaning out my garage and I found a bunch of old cassette tapes, I’m trying to find a way to transfer those cassettes to my MP3 player. I have a Sandisk Fuze MP3 player, any help you can give me, I’d appreciate it.”
Lloyd, you have a couple of options. You can do it the manual way and connect a cassette player to an audio input on your computer, start recording using any audio capture software like Windows’ own Sound Recorder, or one of the many free alternatives like Audacity and just save the file as an MP3.
If you use this method, sound quality will depend on how good your card is, and most of them will be geared more towards capturing a microphone’s input adequately than recording music in the best quality possible.
You can also use cassette to mp3 dedicated adapters, to give you an idea, these look like old walkmans but have a USB port and connect to your computer and take care of transferring the audio, but you will still have to run their software on your computer.
These adapters are not super expensive, you can find them online from between $20 and $30 and most do work as walkmans too, when you’re not using them to transfer your audio.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
Guests in this hour:
Shawn Rogers, Managing Director of Business Operations – NASCAR
Terry in Montgomery, Alabama listening on “News Radio” 1440 WLWI calls in and asks: “What are some good streaming devices that you can hook to your television in regards to maybe streaming movies to your TV?”
Terry, these days there are plenty of those, assuming you don’t want to buy a new smart TV, you still have plenty of choices. For example, you can look at one of the Roku models, they start as low as $45 for a 720p box but go up to $100 for boxes with full high definition and extras, they will stream movies and TV shows onto your TV, and their most expensive version comes with Angry Birds, if you’re not sick of that game yet.
Boxee is still selling it’s Boxee box, which no longer a sideways cube and is not called Boxee TV, it will cost you $99 and let you access roughly the same content as the Roku boxes, including TV shows and movies from both Netflix and Vudu. Boxee is also featuring a cloud based DVR service, so if that appeals to you at all, it may be an option to consider.
AppleTVs are popular too, they also cost $99 and offer 1080p content from Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and a few other sources, and can easily access any media you have on iTunes, so if you’re an iPhone or iPod user, AppleTV may be a good choice for you.
And let’s not forget the game consoles. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, in particular, is being positioned as an entertainment console more than a game console. The Xbox dashboard was remodeled recently and it’s far more focused on letting you consume streaming content than it is getting you into your video games. Xbox Music is also making a real push to be the next iTunes.
So, you have a wide variety of services built into the Xbox, with more being added all the time, and it’s still a powerful game console and a DVD player (albeit not Blu-ray), all at the same time. If Blu-ray is important to you, then you should look at a PS3.
Sony’s PlayStation 3 is a very good game console, it has many of the same streaming services as Xbox, and it includes a Blu-ray DVD drive as part of its spec. We might still prefer the Xbox, because it’s a more complete and polished package, but if Blu-ray is your thing, the PS3 has it.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
Joe sends us the following email :”Dave , I dropped my phone in a puddle of water and I retrieved it in about 5 to 10 seconds , from the puddle . I used it right after I dropped it and it worked , but the sound on the other end was not strong . I used my phone again in the evening and now the phone is not working , what I mean is I can call someone and I can hear them but they can not hear me . What can I do to get this phone working again or is it damage forever.
Thank you , Joe”
Unfortunately it doesn’t look very good for your phone, Joe. The most effective remedy for a phone dropped in water is to immediately remove the back of the phone, the battery and the SIM card, dry them with a towel or dry cloth without moving the phone too much to avoid movement of moisture within the device, and then submerging it in uncooked rice overnight. If it’s done quickly and correctly enough, this can be a lifesaver for your cell.
However in your situation Joe, it seems that too much time has passed and water has already penetrated deep enough to damage and short circuit key components I’m afraid. If I were you I would remove the SIM and memory cards to salvage as much data as possible so that it can be transferred to your replacement phone, which we foresee you purchasing in the very near future.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
Pauline in Durham, North Carolina calles in and asks :”I’m trying to find out which is the most efficient and hopefully least expensive Internet service provider that is easy to obtain.”
When it comes to Internet Service Providers Pauline, here’s what we know: Good, Fast, and Cheap. Pick two.
MARK: If speed is what you want, then cable Internet is the choice for you, and the Durham, NC area is served by both Time Warner Cable and Comcast Cable. But they are both pricey. In fact, the difference between cable Internet and TV bundled and just cable Internet alone is so small that you might as well get the TV, too. Packages start around $60 per month for the bundles.
AT&T also serves your area with both DSL and, in some areas, U-verse. Prices vary depending on speed, starting around $30 per month and going up as high as $66 per month for the faster plans.
You can also have wireless 4G in home Internet. Outfits like Clear Internet serve the Durham, NC area. Their plans for unlimited 4G data are $35 or $50 per month, depending on speed. The faster plan supports 6 megabit per second download speeds, so you can assume that the less expensive plan is likely to be DSL speeds, or about 1.5 megabits per second.
We’re not sure how YOU would define “most efficient” but in terms of expense, they’re all about the same. You won’t be able to pay less that about $35 a month, and they all top out at around double that for the fastest plans.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
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