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Tech News & Commentary
James in Ypsilanti, Michigan listening on CKLW 800 AM asked: “I would like to know which smartphone is the best on the market.”
Do you want the long answer or the short answer? The short answer is “the next one that comes out.” But, seriously, it’s really impossible to just pick one model for you. If you’re an Apple user and you buy all your content from iTunes already because you have a Mac and an iPad, then for you, an iPhone would be the best smartphone.
On the other hand, if data speed is crucial, then you want a 4G LTE phone. And please make certain it’s a 4G “LTE” model. Make sure you see those letters, because there are some wireless companies selling slower speed networks by calling them “4G” when they’re really not. Among 4G LTE phones, there are a lot of excellent choices.
Motorola’s RAZR Maxx and Droid 4 are good choices. With the RAZR Maxx having the longest battery life of any phone on the market and the Droid 4 offering a solid, comfortable slide out keyboard.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is extremely fast, supporting 4G LTE on networks that offer it, and offers a very bright, sharp screen. Samsung’s Galaxy Note is a huge smartphone with a 5-inch display, sort of in between a smartphone and a tablet.
If you’re a fan of Windows Mobile 7.5, then the Nokia Lumina 900 is a good choice. It’s a 4G LTE phone available on the AT&T network, and eventually AT&T will actually have decent 4G LTE coverage. (The 4G coverage they advertise right now is a sort of 3 and ½ G, really. Remember, look for the LTE.)
About the only platform we wouldn’t recommend to you right now is BlackBerry. In our opinion, the company is going through some struggles and it may not survive. You should stick with iOS, Android, or Windows Mobile, for now. Hope that helps! Tell us what you choose.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Ben in Lake Raystown, Pennsylvania listening on “the radio” – calling in via the App asked: “I have a Samsung LED TV with WiFi and I’d like to stream movies from my iPod or iPad to the TV. Thank you.”
You may not be able to just send the movies from your iPod or iPad straight to your TV, even if it has WiFi. WiFi-enabled TVs are fairly limited. They use WiFi to access video and music streaming services, but they’re not designed to interact with iPods or iPad. If you want to stream from them to your TV, your only real option may be getting an Apple TV.
An Apple TV will cost you $100 and will also give you access to Apple’s iTunes library of movies and TV shows, YouTube, Netflix and a few other streaming sites, but it’s likely that outside of iTunes you already have access to most of those sites via your smart TV.
You may get lucky though. There are iOS apps that will stream media to DLNA-enabled devices. So if your Samsung TV is DLNA-enabled, using one of those apps may do the trick. You can try “media:connect” or “iMediaPlayer” and see if they’ll work with your TV.
You also have the option to just ignore the whole wireless aspect and just get a cable to connect your devices straight to your TV, both the iPod and iPad have cables for for that, they’re not cheap, but you can find less expensive alternatives online, if you’re interested, and even the expensive Apple-branded ones will cost you less than an Apple TV.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Facebook Message from Alex in Chicago, listening via TuneIn asked: “Hi Dave and crew, I was wondering if you could recommend a laptop around the $500 to $650 range for a recent graduate who landed a stock market job. I have been pretty happy with Toshiba models and I like purchasing electronics at Sam’s Club because the extended warranties are fairly in-expensive in comparison to other retail stores. Will going with an i3 vs. an i5 processor really make a difference? I know more RAM really helps. I think the i7 processors will be much higher in cost. Thanks for making the effort in keeping your audience as Tech Savvy as possible ;)”
Whether an i5 will make a big difference over an i3 for you depends on what you will be using your computer for. Since you’re looking at a fairly inexpensive laptop, you’re likely looking at it as an email/social networking/basic word processing machine and not as a gaming or video editing powerhouse. If that’s the case, then an i3 will more than suffice. Make sure you have enough RAM, but an i3 will be more than enough to run a browser or a word processor.
Now, as for laptops themselves, you can look at a Dell Inspiron 14z. It comes with a Core i5, 6GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive and they seem to believe it’s gonna be powerful enough to run Photoshop and Premiere adequately because they include both of them in the $549 price.
An ASUS R500A will cost you $629, and it has similar features — the same as the Acer — it has a Core i5, 6GB RAM, but this one comes with a 750GB hard drive and Microsoft Office Starter Kit. The Starter Kit is not the full version of Office though, it has both ads and reduced functionality, but it should be useful anyway.
For a little less, $600, you can find the Dell 14R with a full version of Office Home and Student and a 640GB hard drive. All of these computers are from Sam’s Club, and they all come with Windows 7, but the ASUS comes with a free upgrade to Windows 8 valid until January 2013, so that may be something else to consider. If you’re interested in being able to upgrade to Windows 8 for free, that one will include it in the package, even if it doesn’t come with Windows 8 built in.
We’re not sure what’s involved in stock market work, so if there’s any particularly complex software you need you can obviously look at more expensive and powerful options, but we think these should work well for you.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Ron from Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: “Why does it take so long for articles on Drudge and Diggs to download on my iPhone 3?”
Is your phone connected ti WiFi? We suspect that those articles are taking a while to load because you’re on a weak 3G signal, or maybe even on Edge.
There’s no reason for those websites to be any slower than others. Start by checking other sites. If everything is slow, then your connection is just not very fast. Using WiFi or switching to a carrier with a better signal in your area should help you download at better speeds. You could also test your data connection with SpeedTest.net. Or download their app for free.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
| HOUR 2 GUESTS | ||
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| Touring a factory | Lee Cheng, Chief Legal Officer & SVP of Human Resources – Newegg | Chinese assembly line |
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| Assembling TVs | The finished product, ready to ship | Dinner with friends from Germany |
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Boingo: Several 60-day Certificates — With Boingo you can connect online at free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.
Kingston: 16GB SD memory cards and a MobileLite G3 (USB 3.0 Card Reader)
Idea Incubator: Several txtRng — “the stylus with style”. This is a unique stylus Rob recently featured it on our Product Spotlight.
Radio Shack: Auvio Element Earbuds with Microphone