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HOUR 3:
Tech News & Commentary
Jack in Los Alamos, New Mexico listening on KTRC 1260 AM asked: “I had an episode about a week ago when I couldn’t find my keys. It turns out that with modern cars, it’ll cost about $150 to get them replaced. Wondering if there’s a little electronic thing that will fit on my keyfob that would help me find them if I misplace them. Also – is there a similar thing for my wallet?”
There are devices out there you can attach to your keys that will help you find them when they get lost. In fact, there have been products to help with that for years. These things would be little keyfob-like things that you’d attach to your keychain. You would either whistle or clap your hands, and it would start beeping. All you had to do is follow the beep.
There are still products like that on the market, but like with most other things, these have also gotten a high-tech makeover. Now we have products like the “Find One Find All”, or, Fofa. They are little keyfobs with buttons. You press the button on one, to find the others. These sell for about $25 for a pair online at places like Amazon.
As far as the wallet, that’s a whole other thing. We came across a couple online, but not much. Including one of the Fofa devices for your wallet, but their site said they were out of stock. It seems like nobody makes them for a wallet. I guess they can’t make them thin enough yet to be able to go into a wallet without breaking. The ones I’ve seen that say they’re for a wallet look as though they would make sitting down very uncomfortable.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Sony is going “all-in” with the new PlayStation Vita. Is it really a PS3 in the palm of your hand?
Harold in Lynn Creek, Missouri listening online and asked: “Wondering if the GoPano would work with an HTC Evo phone?”
The GoPano Micro only works with the iPhones 4 and 4S right now. The adapter has to fit right over the camera, so it will likely not work well with any other phones.
You also won’t find an app for Android, so you’d probably just get a weird image on your camera, with no way to rotate it or zoom in to what you want to see.
For now we can’t really offer you any alternatives either, we haven’t found anything else that does the same job for Android, but if they decide to expand to cover the EVO we’ll let you know.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Jon shared the following comment about a recent show: “I listened to the tech-love boat show last weekend, and had to comment on your interview with the gentleman who used to be on the Windows95 team. I believe that he was the one who commented on social networking and stated that Facebook’s defaults are just fine. Fine for who?! Not for me! I just checked, and the default was sharing all kinds of personal info (and pictures!) with applications I have NO desire to allow.
I’ve now locked down my settings, but of course that will only last as long as Facebook allows me to do so.
It’s funny, but I’ve been on Facebook for a couple of years now, and always “on the verge” of shutting off my account. Facebook does a great job of taking ju-ust enough liberty with my personal info to irk me, but not anger me enough to leave. Reminds me of the old “camel in the tent” story.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll close my account…”
Jon, thanks for listening! Yes, you are absolutely correct. You should always check the privacy settings on Facebook. We’ve talked about this in the past on our show. Facebook makes money because it’s popular. It’s popular because people can find pictures and information about others on it. So the default for nearly all Facebook privacy settings is “share this with the entire world.”
It is especially important to know that even with your very best efforts, if one of your Facebook friends chooses to share one of your photos or posts with their friends, you can’t do anything to prevent it.
Our advice is, check your Facebook privacy settings (just as you have done) and set them so that only your friends can see what you put on Facebook. Even then, however, you should still regard Facebook as a public bulletin board. Don’t post anything on it that you wouldn’t want the rest of the world to see. Use due caution, but ultimately don’t put yourself at any risk. We’re glad you enjoyed our “Cruise Into Tomorrow.” Next time we do it, you’ll have to book a cabin!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Sean Torsney, Sr. Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing – VisualOn
VisualOn creates software that brings high quality mobile video to smartphones, tablets, laptops, set-top boxes, and TVs connected to the Web; every type of viewing device.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
The first navigation system was a girl: “Carin,” was the name of the system developed by Philips which was demonstrated at IFA, the International Funkausstellung in 1993 and tested the same year. The name Carin was short for “Car Information and Navigation System”. Data was stored on a CD and a built-in computer used sensors and optional GPS to select the best route. The result was displayed on a screen and verbalized with a speech synthesizer.
That’s this week’s IFA Update brought to you by Messe-Berlin. Be sure to visit IFA-Berlin.com.
Jim in Berkely, Michigan listening on CKLW 800 asked: “Would like to ask your opinion on what is gonna happen to the RIM corporation.”
We don’t think they’re going anywhere soon. Even if nobody is buying their products lately, there are still a lot of people using them. They need to be around to at least offer some kind of supprt for the millions that are already in use. Now their long-term outlook, I’m not so sure about. They have had a lot of bad press lately with security issues and such. A lot of companies, are dropping them.
They are also extremely strong in some foreign markets, they’re the go-to phone for young people in some countries in Latin America because of BBM, and while they lost almost every big corporate client in England they are very popular with some segments of the population there that also use BBM as their main instant messenger.
But RIM is becoming less relevant all the time. Corporate email was their strong suit, but the pull of superior devices with tens of thousands more apps have lured too many people away to iPhone or Android devices. As we said, they are popular in foreign markets still, and the chances are good that it will take a long while for the company to fail completely. However, Nokia’s Symbian OS was once the world’s most popular smartphone OS by a wide margin. That’s changed in an amazingly short period of time. Too big and well known to fail? Tell that to Kodak, who invented the digital camera and has been forced out of the camera market entirely. RIM may not die today, or even soon, but they are moving in a steady downward pattern. It’s possible, of course, that they might release some stellar products that returns them to dominance, but I would have to rate that as very unlikely if I were giving you odds.
Tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast for more details.
Mark in Seminole, Florida listens online asked: “What is the difference between flatscreen TVs that are 3D capable and those that are not. Is there any way to upgrade a non-3D TV to 3D?”
It’s a very simple difference. If a TV is 3D capable, it will allow you to put on those 3D glasses and watch some TV programs and movies and nature shows and sports in 3D. If it’s not, well … then you can’t.
There is also no way to “upgrade” a non-3D TV to 3D, short of replacing it. There is an entirely different set of “guts” on the inside of a 3D TV to be able to process the 3D signals. It’s no longer as simple as it used to be to just watch a 3D movie on a regular TV and just put on those cardboard glasses wih one blue lens and one red lens. The technology has evolved far beyond that.
Tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast for more details.
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This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
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