HOUR 1:
Tech News & Commentary
Doug in Stevensville, Michigan, listening via our TiVo Podcast asked: “I have a question about home automation. I see that X10 has a lot of home automation stuff – both light and video control – that can be remotely monitored. I was wondering how they stack up against some of the other options. If you can give me your opinion, I sure would appreciate it.”
X10 is cheap and easy to install. Those are the major pros. You typically don’t have to spend time and money rewiring your house. You just plug a receiver in, plug a lamp into it and plug the transmitter on a different outlet, and that’s it. You have home automation ready and working.The most common problem is that many high powered appliances (typically the kind of stuff the plugs into 240V) can interfere with the signal, but even that’s not a huge problem since you can buy filters for them.
Basically, the consensus seems to be that anything the requires rewiring costs more and is far more complicated to install, but it’s also far more reliable (as in, people don’t really report waking up to all of their lights turning on and off randomly in the middle of the night). Solutions like X10 cost less and are far simpler to install, but are more prone to problems from interference … even intentional interference. As it turns out, X10 is a very old standard and it works without any kind of encryption, so if you have a neighbor that enjoys pranks beware that they may be able to buy a remote and control your house remotely!
If you go with X10, go into it knowing that you may have to be patient at first, the interference can spur seemingly random problems. If you’re unlucky enough to suffer from them, just take your time and try to figure out where the interference may be coming from. After you figure that out, it can usually be fixed by plugging in a filter. Having said that, X10 is the most popular home automation standard available (not to mention one of the cheapest), and there are plenty of satisfied customers out there!
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Consumer
Reports” Feature with Carol Mangis
Have you heard of Ooma? It’s got a funny name, but according to Carol Mangis (Man-gess) from Consumer Reports, the alternative VoIP phone service provider is worth giving a try.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they
have been playing with recently...
For Android:
• Dave recommends: Advanced Task Killer
Also known as ATK – Advanced Task Killer is a FREE tool to kill applications running on your Android phone and to clear the memory. “I use it … a lot! And often watch as I re-gain some valuable RAM. It has an “Ignore List” so you won’t accidentally close things like your Alarm Clock or Advanced Task Killer. It also has “Auto kill” so if memory starts getting too full, it’ll kill some selected apps. But, I do suggest you use ATK manually to kill apps whenever your phone starts slowing down, instead of auto killing them. As a result, it also saves your battery! Now there is also a “regular” (not Advanced) lite version of Advanced Task Killer. Also known as Cleanoid, that closes all your applications running in background.
And … there is also a PRO version for $4.99 but I couldn’t see what was different. So save 5 bucks and try the free one!” – Dave Graveline• Mark recommends: Google Reader
“If you enjoying following a lot of different web sites, blogs, or podcasts, like I do, then you know what a pain it is to keep up with what’s new on each of them. Thankfully most web sites, blogs, and podcasts offer what’s called an RSS feed. This is an index of the content that’s updated whenever anything new is posted, and using an RSS reader you can tell at a glance which of your favorites has something new for you, whether that’s a new web page, a new blog post, or a new podcast episode. For some time now, I’ve been using Google’s Reader web version as my RSS reader, and now I’ve started running the Android app version. By accessing Google Reader and then selecting the feed I want, say the Into Tomorrow podcast for example, I can get an immediate list of what’s available and what’s new since my last visit, and with another tap of the screen be reading the new content or listening to the new MP3 file. Google Reader is free in the Android Market.” – Mark Lautenschlager
For iOS:
• Rob recommends: CameraBag
“A popular photography app for iPhones. CameraBag enhances your pictures using many classic camera and film simulations. Some popular filter effects are “Instant” (gives you that classic Polaroid look), “Helga” (a square-format toy camera with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting), and “Colorcross” (Gives your pictures a hazy, chemical color-swapping from the darkroom). There are many other effects and are easy to apply. Just swipe to the left or right and it will render a new sample for you. Then, you can email it or save on your phone.” – Rob Almanza
Effects:
Instant Helga Colorcross
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
What are your favorite apps?Let us know!
Guest in this hour:
Andy Zeinfeld, CEO – Wirefly.com
In honor of Earth Day this weekend, our next guest wants to remind consumers to recycle electronics responsibly.
Shelley in Jefferson City, Missouri listening on KLIV 1240 AM asked: “I was trying to download a couple of pictures that a family member emailed to me and when I couldn’t open them, I accidentally deleted my photo program (iPhoto) on my iMac. It had thousands of my pictures from my vacations, adventures and milestones that I’d love to try and recover. I have a Mac OS X version 10.1.5 with a Power PC G3 Processor and 256 MB of memory. Is there any way to get my iPhoto back? I may have the original installation discs if I need to reinstall the program, but I’m really hoping you smarty-pants guys can help save my pictures.”
You seem to have a very old iMac running OS X 10.1.5 and it won’t have “Time Machine Backup” on it. That was feature that was added with Leopard (OS X 10.5). If you did have it, it would make your photo recovery a lot easier. So, unless you had a separate backup of files on your computer, you may not be able to restore or find your old pictures. Once you restore iPhoto from the original installation discs, your iPhoto Library will be replaced.
We wonder if iPhoto was completely removed. Have you searched for it everywhere? We ask because you didn’t specify how it got deleted. It could’ve been the icon that was deleted, but not the entire application and library. You can search your computer for “iPhoto”.
Since you have a very old version of Mac OS 10, you don’t have “Spotlight”, a search utility that would make finding iPhoto a lot easier, but you should still have Sherlock. To search for iPhoto using Sherlock open a Finder window, click on “File” at the top of the screen, and then on “Find”, and that should open a search window, make sure to search both for “iPhoto” and for “jpg” since your pictures may still be there even if you did delete iPhoto.
If a similar problem happens to a Mac running OS X 10.3 or higher, there may be a software program you can try. It’s called “iPhoto Recovery”. It analyzes any affected media and will restore the lost, missing and deleted digital photos in a secure location. iPhoto Recovery is available online for less than $100.
Unfortunately, Shelley we can’t give you an exact answer. We’d have to in front of your computer to help you. If you have an Apple Store nearby, try seeing their Genius Bar Specialists.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Wireless Update with Chuck Hamby from Verizon Wireless
Can taking a tablet make you, zoom, feel better? Our own Dr. Wireless, Chuck Hamby, is here to give us his prognosis on the new category of wireless devices.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
iolo: Several copies of System Mechanic – Fix & speed-up your PC, Automatically
SmartShopper Electronics: Several SmartShoppers — Electronic Grocery List Organizer
ZAGG: A variety of goodies, including: ZAGGsparq battery packs, ZAGGMate iPad cases, dual USB 2.0 in-car chargers & XL gadget wipes.