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Tech News & Commentary
Amber in Charleston, West Virginia calling in via the App asked: “We were thinking about buying an iPod Touch for my son, but he loves my daughter’s Kindle Touch because of it’s larger, but I’m not sure the Kindle Fire is right for him. I was wondering if there’s a good Android tablet for about the same price as the Kindle that would be good for a kid.”
The obvious choice for an Android tablet the size and price of a Kindle Fire is … the Google Nexus 7 Tablet. It’s the same size as a Kindle Fire, but it runs standard Android Jelly Bean, as opposed to the more limited, customized version of Android Gingerbread that Kindle Fires run. The Nexus 7 tablet also has access to the Google Play store, not just Amazon’s own store.
Now, you asked for a tablet that’s good for a kid, if that means you want to restrict what they can access, Android doesn’t provide that as a built-in option in the operating system the way the iPad does with iOS, so you’re stuck with either not restricting their access to content at all, using 3rd party apps that don’t generally do a great job simply because the operating system doesn’t support parental controls, and there’s only so much they can do without requiring a rooted device, or you can go app by app and enable restrictions on every app that supports it (which will definitely not be all of them).
The Google Play store does allow restricting access to apps with mature content, and Google’s Chrome browser allowed setting SafeSearch restrictions to Google searches, but those will only work for Google, if your son decides “Bing lets me see everything” he can use Bing, or he can just access a website by typing the URL instead of searching for it.
If you’re interested anyway, the Nexus 7 tablet costs $200. And be sure to keep an open mind if you decide to buy either the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire. A lot of consumers expect an iPad at the $200 price tag Android tablet manufacturers are offering.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into
Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Facebook Participation: We asked: “What device do you want the most for Christmas and why?”
Some of the answers we shared on the show:
Simon: A Microsoft Surface Pro- it does everything the iPad does, with more integration, a proper file system, and won’t be deliberately slowed down via updates.
Bill in Tennessee: a 3D TV.
Kris in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida: I’ve been semi-“good” this year. I want Santa to bring me an iPad 3/New iPad (I can’t keep up with Apple’s names anymore) for Christmas. Why? Because I could upgrade my iPad 1 and give that to my younger brother or mom…spread the Christmas cheer!
Norman in Jacksonville, Florida: I’ve been good this week, I want Santa to bring me a laptop, so I can finish college, for Christmas. This desktop with XP is about wore out. I am not opposed to Apple products Santa.
Geoffrey in Mexico: I’ve been good this year, I want Santa to bring me a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS Digital Camera for Christmas. Just need a good camera with a great zoom for taking pictures of air shows etc.
Jason in Michigan: A new iPad.
Steven: HP touchscreen desktop.
Daniel in Tampa, Florida: WiiU so that the battle for the TV will end.
Victor: Kingston portable wifi drive 32GB or 64GB
Johnin New Jersey: I’ve been good this year. I want Santa to bring me a Microsoft Surface Pro for Christmas. But he won’t. I really want this tablet for its productivity capabilities combined with it’s leisure abilities. I want this tablet because it integrates with my windows 8/7 network seamlessly and it has no Dell/HP crapware!
Tom in New Mexico: I’ve been behaved somewhat less evil this year. I want Santa to beam down a 4th gen 64GB iPod touch. It’s amazing how fast you can never have enough room for it all. If not the iPod, Santa please slide a 11-inch MacBook under the tree if you have one just gathering dust on a shelf.
Trevorin Alaska: I have been such a good boy … um today. (come on, baby steps). I would love a new Canon 5Dmark 3 DSLR. It is a sweet full frame sensor and has lots of awesomeness features.
Michelle in Michigan listens on 800 CKLW – The Information Station asked: “I live on an island and my Wi-Fi goes in and out. I hear you talk about the antennas and I don’t know if that’s something I want or if that’s just something you travel with. I want to know more about boosting my Internet because it goes in and out.”
You can indeed get a booster antenna that you can travel with. We’ve used the C.Crane Super USB WiFi Antenna 3 and it has helped us get better reception. C.Crane claims that it can get a signal from up to a mile away from the source if there are no obstructions.
The Super USB WiFi Antenna 3 plugs into your USB port and is basically set up as a new network card.
There are other options, but to be honest, they’re mostly just generic antennas that plug into a USB port and don’t even come with a name. We haven’t tried any of them, but quite a few are so inexpensive that you can try them without putting too much money on the line, think $10-$15.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guests in this hour:
George Otte, CEO – Geeks On Site
Every holiday season computers are among the big-ticket items of the year. So what’s worth buying this holiday season? George shares some helpful computer shopping tips.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
Since the introduction of the color TV standards, insiders in the broadcast industry and manufacturers saw a need to enhance the picture quality drastically. In 1982, Japan made the first approach with a high resolution technology, and in 1989 competing groups in the US were developing enhancements to the existing analog technologies towards high resolution. In Europe, a project named “EUREKA 95” was started to develop a European concept, discussed at IFA.
Mike in San Antonio, Texas listens to the podcast asked: “She just bought a new computer and we just put Office 2010 Student version on her new computer. We didn’t know at the time that it didn’t include Outlook. She has Outlook 2007 on her old computer. Can you take Outlook only out of Office and transfer it to the new computer?”
If you’re asking, can Outlook be moved from the old computer to the new computer? Then no, you can’t just copy it like any other file and expect it to work. Now, if you have the old Office installation CD, you might be able to install it from there onto the new computer and have it run.
Depending on how many installations that license allows it may or may not activate in the end, but you can give it a try. I had this issue a few years ago, when I replaced my old laptop. It wouldn’t activate, but I called Microsoft tech support and explained that i was replacing the computer that I had installed it on. Once I told them that I was still only using the software on one machine, they gave me a new activation code over the phone and the software worked. But you do need the original installation CDs for this to work.
Outlook also sells as standalone software, but we’d probably advice you to skip that option, since it would involve you paying an extra $140 or so for it. You probably paid less for Office Student and Home edition.
You can have a look at the free options that are out there to replace Outlook, there are many free options, from popular ones like Mozilla’s Thunderbird, to ones that have been around forever like Pegasus, to just plain old webmail. So you might want to explore those and find out if you even want Outlook anymore.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
John asked: “Hi Dave, I listen to your program on Saturday nights and it is fantastic. I recently bought a new 13-inch MacBook Pro from Best Buy with the extended warranty and a disk to keep viruses off my computer. How good is this disk and Best Buy’s warranty compared to an Apple warranty through Apple? I take classes at the Apple store on Final Cut, Aperture, and Pixelmator.”
The Best Buy warranty is kind of an insurance policy. The good thing about that is that it covers accidental damage, but it doesn’t come cheap. If you’re very prone to accidents, maybe it will be worth it for you, but you’ll be paying for coverage for the first year after purchase for that year you will already be covered by AppleCare for defects (not accidental damage though). If you spill something on your laptop, or drop or do anything else to it, then Apple won’t cover you, so it’s not the same as the Best Buy warranty you bought.
Since you already bought it, just know that if anything happens to the computer, you’ll have to go through Best Buy and wait for them to deal with the repair. So it might be a little slower than if you had just gotten AppleCare, but you’ll be covered for your own mistakes, which can be a good thing if you’re clumsy.
As for the disk, we assume they sold you an antivirus. They seem to be pushing Norton for Macs. It should give you adequate protection. Considering how rare Mac threats are, you may have been well served using a free antivirus instead of a $50 one.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Scott in Gonzales, Louisiana listening on WBRP 107.3 FM asked: “I’m switching from iPhone 4S to a Samsung Epic 4G Touch Android. Wondering what would be a good website to learn all of the widgets and everything that go along with Android vs. the iPhone.”
You’re gonna have a hard time finding a website that will tell you how to use every feature of your phone.
Modern smartphones are designed to be simple enough to use that you don’t need a manual, but if you really don’t want to learn by trial and error, what you can do is search YouTube for what you want to learn, if you want to know how to put widgets on your screen search “adding widget to home screen”, you can do that with pretty much any question about using Android you could have.
Or you could just see which widgets come with your phone’s version of Android right out of the box. Just long press on any empty spot on your phone’s desktop, then choose widgets from the pop up menu. Scroll around and pick something. New widgets are available sometimes as just a widget, or sometimes the widgets come with an app. A calendar app, for example, might come with a widget to show you today’s agenda. Or a text messaging app might come with a widget that lets you pre-define text messages to be sent with a single tap.
You can search for widgets in the Google Play Store and you will find hundreds, if not thousands of choices.
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:
Audiofly: Several AF33M in-ear headphones with microphone
Bedol: Several Bedol Water Clocks – A water powered alternative energy alarm clock. Does not require batteries or electricity. Just fill with normal everyday tap water.
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yo – A simple solution to tangled earbuds.
Magellan: RoadMate 5265T-LMB GPS – With FREE lifetime map updates and traffic alerts.
Magix: Copies of Music Maker 2013 Premium – Create your own cool tracks with more advanced tools, additional instruments, high-quality studio effects and more sounds & loops.