HOUR 1:
Tech News & Commentary
Peggy in Jefferson City, MO listening on KLIK 1240AM asked: “This is the first time I’ve heard the station. I’m driving and heard you talking about home security. I have a Mac Laptop and older hard drive. I have a mom staying with me that has dementia. I’m interested in seeing what the cost is to install something. For instance, where I can monitor from work.”
Your decision comes down to a couple points. How tech savvy are you, and how much coverage do you need? If you don’t want to “roll your own” home monitoring system, then you can contact a company like ADT, which offers a full home video monitoring system. Multiple cameras that you can view remotely with any computer and even a smartphone. There are a bunch of simple cameras that you can monitor — even record with motion sensing and Pan/Tilt/Zoom — from companies like TRENDnet, LogiTech, D-Link, Lorex and others that we have been testing here at our studios & my home. Stay tuned for an extensive report by Rob on several of them in a Product Spotlight on one of our upcoming ITTV Updates at IntoTomorrow.com!
But you will pay for this level of service. How much you pay will depend on how many cameras you want installed, etc. If that’s not feasible for monetary reasons, then you can install your own remotely monitored video camera that attaches to your wireless Internet. Each camera is, in effect, its own video server. You would connect directly to it if you want to see what’s going on now, and some are smart enough to email you pictures of what they see whenever motion is detected in the room.
We’ve been using NextAlarm since 2007 at both of our studios (Radio & TV). However, we installed the cameras ourselves. Thankfully, Chris Graveline is tech savvy and was able to hook them up — though they were not very difficult. After cameras are setup, you can monitor them via NextView an iPhone/iPad/iTouch App. That’s what we use to keep an eye from anywhere in the world! Ask the folks at NextAlarm.com for more info and see if they can help you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Consumer Reports” Feature with Jeff Fox
Android has already given the Apple iPad a run for its money and now Microsoft has joined the race with the HP Slate 500, the newest tablet to hit the market. Jeff shares his first impressions.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently…
- For Android:Finger Dance Lite – You’ve heard of Dance Dance Revolution to see how fast your feet can move … well this lets you see how fast your finger can move on the dance floor! Now you can Rock out your DDR passion wherever you are. For more songs and options install the full version that costs $2.99 — but the Lite version is … FREE!MortPlayer – an audio book player. I have a large collection of spoken word audio files that I don’t want mixed in with my usual music files. They’re all small and there are THOUSANDS of them. It would be an incredible mess. By the way, the Android media scanner will look at all the folders on your SD card, trying to find playable media files. For the folders containing these audio files, I included the “.nomedia” file. That’s just an empty file of that name, and it tells the Android media scanner to move along…nothing to see here. Anyway, AFTER all that, I open MortPlayer, tell it to look at the folder where the files are stored, and it ignores the .nomedia file. I have the best of both worlds. Thousands of music files uncluttered by my spoken word audio files, and thousands of those spoken word audio files available at the touch of a button through MortPlayer. That’s m-o-r-t player, available for free in the Android Market.
- For iPhone/iPad:Rob had an “app complaint of the week”:” Remember the app BUMP? The other night I was at a nightclub in Miami and was ‘bumping’ my contact info with a friend and it didn’t work. This was after I had recently updated the app. I had to fill-in my info from scratch and then bump. But, it never worked! It didn’t work for my friend either. It really upset me because I’ve raved a lot about this app when it first came out. I hope they get their act together and hopefully the next update fixes it.”
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
Guests in this hour:
• Dave Marcus, Director of Security Research – McAfee Labs
How can you stay safe while using social networking sites? Has your account been hacked? McAfee has some important safety tips for you.
Kevin in Santa Fe, NM listens to the podcast asked: “Is there an Android App that syncs Excel Files from the computer to the Android phone automatically, so I don’t have to keep going back and forth (on the hard drive)?”
if you want to sync any type of file to an Android phone you should have a look at SK Sync, you can download the client app for free from the Android Market and for the computer half, you can download a server program that will work on Windows, Linux or Mac.
You can set SK Sync to work one way only and copy, for example, new or modified files from the computer to the phone only, or you can set it to sync the files both ways.
In case you’re interested in sycing files, for example, at home and at work you can do that, SK Sync does not tie the phone to just one computer.
One of the great things about SK Sync is that it works over a wireless network, so not only will you not have to keep going back and forth on the hard drive, but you also won’t even have to have your phone by your computer, it could be charging on the other end of your home and still be able to sync the files.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Marty in Arizona listen from the iPhone app and asked: “Hi Dave! Any news on the White iPhone 4?”
The latest rumors are that it will be available at some point in the Spring, with some sources claiming that it may be available as early as February 27th!
There is no official information, but the rumors span the world. In the UK, rumor is they’ll have them in stores this March.
We’d say to expect it either this spring or whenever the black iPhone’s sales begin to slow down and Apple needs a new shiny white one to sell to fans.
Engadget recently interviewed Steve Wozniak and he said the white iPhone 4 is shipping … soon! He said the manufacturing issue with the white iPhone had been fixed and that the handset should be released in the near future. Last month, Wozniak revealed that he had a white iPhone 4, which he had modified from a black iPhone 4 using a kit ordered online. He admitted that the kit had a few defects. It is rumored that inventory listings from Best Buy and AT&T suggest that the white iPhone 4 could debut on Feb. 27.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Radio Shack: Several Weather Alert Clock Radios with SkyWarn
RCA: Several travel chargers with surge protection
Honestech: Copies of Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe – Software to convert your analog music into digital formats including MP3s and audio CDs. Save those great musical memories.