Tech News & Commentary
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Jack in San Jose, California listens on Silicon Valley News AM1590 KLIV asked: “I have a Samsung 55-inch LED TV that constantly shuts itself off and reboots. I have looked online and there’s apparently a lot of problems. I have not been successful in getting answers from Samsung.”
That’s outrageous Jack! We are very sorry to hear you have to experience something like this– and yes! We have also seen that this is a big problem for some consumers like yourself with Samsung television sets. You definitely don’t expect a problem like this to occur, especially 
after spending as much as $2,500 on a 55-inch TV, of course – depending on model.
According to Samsung customer support, this is an issue related to the power supply of the TV. Have you reached out to Samsung’s support line or the source you purchased the TV from? It’s important to know if the TV is still under warranty, so you can turn it over and handle it as you see fit– although Samsung claims that they can send a technician over to oversee the issue and repair it. You should immediately contact Samsung or look over your warranties in order to compare options.
Some owners have reported that the problem went away after a technician replaced a discolored connector that they think may have been damaged by excess heat, whether that’s the case with yours or not, you can be sure that it’s some kind of fault with your set and it needs to be looked at by someone who knows how to repair it. You will not be able to change a setting and make the problem disappear.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Dr. Frieda Birnbaum, Psychologist
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
In August of 1930 Albert Einstein was the keynote speaker at the opening of the 7th “Big German Radio Exhibition”, today known as IFA. The show was held at the Berlin fairgrounds which were now centered around the newly erected “Berlin Radio Tower” or “Funkturm”, the German name of this national landmark which is still one of the main attractions of Berlin, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris after which the “Funkturm” had been modeled. At the show, TV receivers with the mechanical Nipkow disc where shown, but the company Loewe demonstrated the first television set with a Braun tube.
Warren in Ridgeland, Mississippi listens on 106.5 asked: “I was wondering if any phone companies out there, in the future or now, would ever consider being able to forward a voicemail to someone else.”
Warren, As a matter of fact, there are plenty of ways to forward voicemails! It all just varies, depending on what phone and/or carrier you’re using. The easiest way to tell how to do this would be to first check on forums that are designated to help users using your carrier, and if that doesn’t work– check forums for your specific phone.
For the iPhone, we were able to find solutions for forwarding voicemails on Apple’s forums and step-by-step guides that give different techniques designated for carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Plenty of YouTube videos are up that will also guide you through it.
There are also plenty of apps that will allow you to forward a voicemail with just a few clicks. The most popular app to do this with is YouMail, a free visual voicemail app that has been available in most app stores for years.
One other solution would be to switch from using the voicemail provided by your phone company or phone manufacturer to a third party service, such as Google Voice. Google Voice allows you to embed your voicemails in a website or blog, download them as MP3 files, or share them directly from the Google Voice page as an email attachment. Google Voice is free for personal use and works with almost any combination of phone or service that offers “call forwarding, no answer” support.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Andy in Murfreesboro, Tennessee listens on SuperTalk WTN 99.7 – Calling in via the App asked: “I have two hard drives from old PCs and I have music on there that I would like to get off of there. How would I go about accessing these hard drives that I pulled out of my old PCs?”
Andy, The easiest way is probably to buy a USB hard drive enclosure, you can find them online for around $5, sometimes they’re even sold in pairs.
You’d have to put your hard drive inside the enclosure, which involves little more than plugging in a connector, and connect the enclosure’s USB plug to your current computer. Windows should load that drive as it would any other USB external hard drive and you should have access to all your files again.
From there you can copy the files to the new computer or just decide to keep using the external drive as extra storage.
Do bear in mind that not all enclosures are created equal. Depending on exactly HOW old that PC was, you might have SATA drives, which are the more modern standard, or you might have IDE drives (also called PATA). If you buy the wrong enclosure, your drives will not work in them, so verify the type of drive interface you have, first.
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
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
PhoneSoap: Several Antibacterial – All Natural Touch Screen Polish
Livio Radio: Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit – FM transmitter that allows you to bring Internet Radio and hands-free calling to your car.
iLuv: A pair of ReFashionOlogy Canvas Exterior, Collapsible Headphones with a Titanium Diaphragm
Westinghouse: Unplug Wireless Bluetooth Sound System