HOUR 1:
Tech News & Commentary
Dale in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: “I just recently had flood damage to my home. My computer tower was under 3 feet of water. Is it possible to save pictures and other stuff from my hard drive?”
Recovering data from a hard drive after a flood is possible, but it’s not really something you should do yourself. There are many companies out there that specialize in recovering data from damaged hard drives. Two of the most widely known companies are Ontrack Data Recovery and Total Recall. There are numerous other companies, but make sure you do your research and only send your hard drive to a company that has a good reputation, especially if there is sensitive data on your drive. Look for customer reviews online to see what other people’s experiences were.
There are some things to keep in mind after your drive gets caught in a flood:
– If your computer was turned off, don’t turn the power on. If there’s still water inside the machine, you can short it out, possibly starting a fire and permanently destroying everything on the drive.
– Don’t try to shake the water out of the drive. This can cause major physical damage to the drive platters and heads.
– Some companies say to keep the drive submerged in water when you send it in, if possible. This may sound odd, but it does make some sense. It will keep the drive from drying out and leaving contaminants on the platters and heads. It will also keep the metal parts of the drive from rusting while it awaits repair.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Wireless Update” Weekly Feature with Chuck Hamby
from Verizon Wireless
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
- For Android, Dave recommends: Switches
- For iPhone/iPad: Rob recommends: Field Agent
- For BlackBerry, Mark recommends: Stitcher
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details
Tom in Albuquerque, New Mexico listening to the podcast has a listener tip: “I came up with an imperfect solution for anyone who wants to stream audio from their MP3 player that is not an iPod to a Bluetooth headset.
I paired a Jabra BT8040 Bluetooth headset that supported A2DP streaming audio to a BluBridge 3.5 mm Minijack transmitter. It works well enough indoors, if you want to transmit audio from your laptop or any audio source with a headphone jack.
It took a few tries to get it to pair, but once paired, it works as well as any Bluetooth connection. I found it did not pump out a lot of volume. I guess that was a safety factor. I think it will work better inside than outside.”
Guest in this hour:
Jim Willcox, Sr. Editor – Consumer Reports
You bought a 3D TV, but are you watching anything in 3D? Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves.
Nigel in Canada listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: “We have a 42-inch plasma TV. Generally happy with it, but what drives me nuts is, on dialogue, the sound drags. It’s like half a second behind. It reminds me of the old Japanese movies with English dubbed on. Last week, you were talking about the quality of HDMI cables. Is that a factor? I even noticed it on live TV.”
The cables, themselves, shouldn’t be a factor with the audio lag. It sounds like an audio processing issue. There are tons of forum posts on the web from people experiencing the same issue. Some are saying that a firmware update was required for the TV. Some of those people said that it still didn’t fix the problem. Some others said that there was a known bug between certain TVs and certain manufacturer’s cable and satellite boxes.
One thing you can try, before calling the manufacturer of your TV, is make sure that, if you have a tuner that you’re using for audio, your sources are connected directly to it, instead of passing audio through the TV. This will give the audio a “straight line” to your ears, rather than having to snake through multiple devices. It may or may not solve your problem, but it’s worth a shot before you have to start trying the more difficult things, like upgrading the firmware on your TV.
If you do have to upgrade your TV’s firmware, they will tell you how to do it. Usually, you can download a file from the net and save it on a flash drive. Most newer TVs have a USB port on them that may be marked “service.” This is where you’d put the flash drive to update the software on the TV.
Elizabeth in Naples, Florida listening to the stream via the app on her iPod Touch sent us the following email and asked: “I have a Samsung model number HL-84266W, and it keeps turning itself off, of course, whenever I sit down to take over the TV. Anyway, I have checked all cables, power etc. and they are fine, so I am not sure now what to do except pout.”
Our Director of Research, Jason, did a lot of digging to try and find out if this is a common problem, or something else. The answer from several different websites, including Samsung’s, say that this is not a common problem with that model TV and is something that may require your TV to be serviced.
The last thing you are going to want to check is to make sure that the rear ventilation hole is blocked. This will cause the internal temperature to get to high and the TV will power itself down to avoid causing damage to the TV.
Everyone should take the time every-so-often to carefully vaccuum the air vents behind your TV and other electronics.
Bob in Springfield, Illinois found us while clicking through the radio asked: “On eBay, they sell a mini notebook with the Windows CE OS. I’d like to know what the CE program is like when compared to XP, Vista, and Windows 7.”
Windows CE is a completely different kind of operating system.
Windows CE is designed to run on small devices with extremely little memory. It can even run on a system with less than 1 MB of memory (these days, a memory card the size of your fingernail can easily hold 2000 times that, if not, more!). Depending on the purpose of the device it’s running on, it can even run on a static version that lets the user make no changes at all to it or it’s files.
This kind of configuration is fairly common on Windows CE devices, which doesn’t even always have a separate hard drive (for example, an ATM running CE might not need any storage for it’s users). Windows CE is popular with PDAs, some smartphones, and similar ultraportable devices, even ultraportable computers like the one you saw, but it doesn’t have the same look, feel, or capabilities that XP, Vista, or 7 have.
For more information, click here or tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Concord Keystone: Several Easy Shot Clip, Ultra Mini Digital Video Cameras
iosafe: Several ioSafe Solo USB External Drive – Protects against Fire, Water and Theft SIZE? VALUE?
Klipsch: Image X10i In-Ear Headset w/ Mic & 3-Button Remote Headphones