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Tech News & Commentary
Richard in Hosston, Louisiana listening on 710 KEEL asked: “I’m 76 years old and I’ve had windows 7 professional for as long as I can remember. If I upgrade to Windows 10, is there any advantage to this?”
Long term eventually 7 support will be dropped before 10 support is, short term, not really, not if you’re happy with what you have now and you don’t feel the need to change.
Windows 10 will have improvements over Windows 7, but “better” doesn’t really matter, “better for you” matters.
If you don’t want to learn how to work a new operating system that will essentially be a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 8, then you can keep the one you have.
Windows 10 does have several advantages, for example, it should boot up faster since it improves over the upgrades that led to the performance boost users experienced on Windows 8, it will give users access to a notifications pane (think like that drop down list people have on their smartphones), the search feature will be better and better integrated with the internet, and you’ll be better integrated with other online services like online storage too.
Having said that, the user interface will look different, they way you do certain things will not be the same, Microsoft will keep pushing you to create a Microsoft account online, since it’s more integrated with the web than Windows versions before it.
Windows 10 does look like a good upgrade, and after how Windows 8, was received Microsoft is probably motivated to put out a good product, but keep in mind that an upgrade is only an upgrade if it improves your personal user experience, your personal user safety, or if it in any other way helps you.
You don’t upgrade for the sake, you upgrade for yours, if you’re happy with things as they are, don’t upgrade on day 1.
You have a year to find someone with Windows 10 and ask to try it out in person, if you like it, upgrade then, if not… well.. Windows 7 has many fans for a reason…
One thing we should mention while we’re on the upgrade topic, however, is price. Microsoft is offering people who upgrade right now free copies of Windows 10. That will expire at some point. If you are at all on the fence and think you might want to upgrade, then now is the time to make the move.
For most people using Windows 7, however, we suspect they’ll just get Windows 10 whenever they buy their next computer. They’ve stayed with the older version for a reason, and Windows 10 is more like a fixed Windows 8 than it is a better Windows 7.
If anyone’s heard from Windows 9, please ask it to call home. We’re worried that no one’s seen it.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports Segment:
Back at CES this past January, all the major TV companies rolled out their all-new 2015 Ultra-HD TV lineups, which are now starting to become available at retail. Consumer Reports has been hard at work testing these latest models in their lab to see which ones stand out. Their electronics spokesman James McQueen is here with the results.
Dave discussed the latest apps that he has been playing with recently.
Dave recommends: OfferUp, FREE
“Looking to sell something but don’t want to deal with Craigslist? OfferUp is an app I came across recently that allows you to snap a picture of something you want to sell, and instantly circulate it to people nearby. ON the flipside, if you’re looking for an item, you can browse pictures of items nearby that people are selling. One of the things I like about this app is a service they call TruYou where you can take a picture of your ID, send it to them and they will quickly validate it which gives buyers a better sense of security. So that when you’re buying something, you can tell if a seller has been “validated” which they say increases security. OfferUp is free for iOS and Android.” — Dave
What are your favorite Apps? Let us know at 800-899-INTO and we’ll feature them in this segment!
Guest Segment:
Zain Naboulsi, CEO – Drone Labs
Drone Detector and privacy protection
Kevin in Garner, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: “I was calling to find out which anti-virus you use or would recommend for a laptop running Windows 7?”
We use a paid antivirus here, so if you’d rather not pay, there are a lot of reputable free antivirus programs that would probably serve you well, for example Malware Bytes and Panda Free have been rated as the editors choices by PCMag and you can have either of them for free. Avast, Avira, and AVG are all well regarded and also have free versions. So you have a plethora of choices.
If you think your computer is getting a little old and would like to have something lightweight, Microsoft Security Essentials is known for being very good about not slowing down the operating system, although it hasn’t been scoring as well on the “reliably detecting threats test” as it once did. Now, if you’re willing to pay, our antivirus of choice for a few years has been Vipre, it’s currently on sale for $50, but it will normally cost you $80.
Webroot and BitDefender have been scoring high on antivirus tests lately too and they will cost you $20 and $40 respectively.
And while we don’t want to discourage you from running a resident program to protect against viruses and malware, we do want to make everyone aware of an interesting alternative. It’s called Virus Total and it’s a website at virustotal.com.
What makes it unique is that it allows users to upload a file they want tested and it runs it against ALL of the popular antivirus engines. In most cases, when you’ve downloaded some plugin that some website says you have to have, you’re probably inviting something bad into your computer.
A few minutes spent uploading that file back to Virus Total might save you hours of disinfecting and repairing. In our testing, with so many engines checking the file, nothing has been able to slip past. If they ALL say it’s good…then it’s good.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Alex in Boynton Beach, FL listening online asked: “I have an iMac with Lion. I would like to know how I can print a partial page.”
Mac OS X allows something called “Services” to be added to automate tasks users may need to perform often. The preferred method to print a selection seems to be one of these services. It’s called Print Selection Service 2.0, and you can download it from here.
After you’ve installed it, select whatever you want to print, right click, go to Services and Print Selection. We’ve never had to use it ourselves, but it seems to satisfy the people who use it, hopefully it will work for you too.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
TYLT: Car Charger RIBBN Cables – These cables rapidly charge 2 Smartphones or 2 Tablets simultaneously.
Jabra: SoleMate Portable Bluetooth speaker for your laptop, tablet, smartphone or music player
Monster: DNA Pro 2.0 High powered Over-ear headphones
Livio Radio: Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit – FM transmitter that allows you to bring Internet Radio and hands-free calling to your car.
Verykool: S5015 Spark II Smartphone – Unlocked GSM phone with Android OS and front facing flash – perfect for selfies!
Westinghouse: Unplug Wireless Bluetooth Sound System