Dave and Chris discuss Meta firing some of the leakers, E-taste technology in virtual environments, Microsoft’s end of support for Remote Desktop, Lyft Silver, and more.
“News Pick of the Week” with Ralph Bond
Imagine this – the paint on your car operating as a huge solar energy collector feeding your EV’s battery. For more on this remarkable research here’s Ralph Bond, our Science and Technology reporter.
And now let’s turn our ears towards the satisfying sounds of video games. Bryan Young is here to bring us an X-Box rated “Into Gaming” session! Do it to it, Bryan!
Nancy in Gilmer, Texas asked: “Whenever I’m streaming a radio program or podcast, I’ve recently been bombarded with ads in Spanish, a language which I don’t speak nor understand. My settings are all English. I’ve searched online and found no help, only many others that are experiencing the same thing. I’m totally confounded and would love for this to go away. Can you help?”
Nancy, theres not much you can really do. Youve been categorized as a part of the market for those ads in some way.
That can be for any number of reasons ranging from where you live, to the places you go to when youre carrying your devices or driving most relatively new cars, to the sites you visit or apps you use on your devices, to just about anything else.
The only thing that may help if they are targeting you in particular, is to reset your advertising identifier. Depending on the app you may be able to find it in the settings, but not all apps will have it and not all networks will rely on it to deliver their ads.
Theres a decent chance that at least some of the ads youre hearing defined their targets based on location, in which case theres not an awful lot you can do short of using a VPN to try to fool them into thinking youre listening from somewhere else.
Steve in Kenosha, Wisconsin asked: “I’m about to start a project with my company that involves a lot of travel. I was wondering what your thoughts were on those MiFi boxes and if they work any better than pairing to your phone.”
Steve, MiFis have some advantages but theyre not super different from phone hotspots.
You may be able to find better plans with more data for a standalone MiFi since they are sometimes used as home connections, and they can handle many devices at one well since theyre built specifically for that and dont have to juggle a lot of apps doing other things the way phones would have to.
MiFis will also always continue to work when they get a call, most modern phones will also do that but sometimes they dont or the connection may be dropped to a lower speed.
MiFis will also use their own battery so they wont drain your phone and prevent it from being used for more important things later.
Having said all that, in terms of performance for a handful of connected devices, you probably wont notice any difference and if you just use your phone you will only have to carry one device, manage one plan, etc.
Unless you think youre going to spend long hours using the connection and want to treat it somewhat like a home connection that is independent from your phone (for example, if youd like to leave something downloading or uploading while you go out to eat), then your phone will probably perform well enough and youll save yourself the hassle of carrying multiple devices.
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Brondell: Pro Sanitizing Air Purifier – Removes dust, dander, pollen, smoke, and airborne viruses ($800 Value)
Dave Graveline is the founder, Host & Executive Producer of "Into Tomorrow" in addition to being President of the Advanced Media Network".
Dave is also a trusted and familiar voice on many national commercials & narrations in addition to being an authority in consumer tech since 1994. He is also a former Police Officer and an FBI Certified Instructor.
When you participate on the show – anytime 24/7 – and we HEAR you with any consumer tech question, comment, help for another listener, tech rage or just share your favorite App these days … you could win prizes.