HOUR 1:
Tech News & Commentary
John in Rocklin, California listens to the podcast asked: “I work from home and my home office is on the other side of the house. Based on the design of the home, we don’t have a landline telephone setup, so I’ve been using cordless phones (both the DECT 6 and 5.8 megahertz phones) to make phone calls. I get a lot of complaints that the calls are staticky. Short of running a wire from my phone connection in the house around to where the office is, are there any wireless options out there that would give me a good strong signal that wouldn’t get interference from outside sources?”
Theoretically a 5.8 GHz cordless phone should give you the longest range and the least interference, up to 2000 feet in ideal conditions. Unfortunately, homes are not what manufacturers consider ideal conditions. A 5.8 GHz phone will free you from some interference problems 2.4 GHz phones are prone to, such as interference from WiFi and microwave ovens, but building materials will still degrade the signal.
If the call quality is bad enough for people to complain about the static, it’s unlikely that a different type of phone will help. You can always try phones with bigger, better antennas or different frequencies, but you may be better off trying to either move the base station closer to the office where you use the handset, if that’s at all possible, or even look for alternatives to traditional phones.
If you have a good broadband connection at the office, you could try an internet service. You don’t even have to use a headset, you can buy a actual handset that plugs into your computer or a WiFi phone. If you go this route, you might even save some money. If you use Google Voice you can make and receive domestic calls for free (at least for now). Skype charges a few dollars a month for a unlimited nationwide long distance and a few dollars more for a “Skype In” number, an actual phone number that calls your Skype user.
You can also try services that bypass your computer altogether. Ooma provides unlimited nationwide calls for about 3 dollars a month and you can use a regular phone to make and receive calls.
If you get cell phone signal at the office, you could even try to move your landline number to a cell phone company and use a cell phone for business calls (there’s no law that says you have to carry the cell phone with you at all times, you can just leave it at the office and pretend it’s a cordless phone).
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Consumer
Reports” Feature with Terry Sullivan
Digital cameras with features such as flash, digital zoom and on-camera graphics are aimed at users as young as 3 years old. Consumer Reports has evaluated cameras from big-name toy makers and their Associate Editor Terry Sullivan reveals which were standouts in their tests.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they
have been playing with recently.
For Android:
• Mark recommends: Spotify, FREE
“The international music service makes its splash in the U.S. The big selling point for Spotify is their claim to have the world’s largest music library. One of the first things I did after signing up was to look for some very old and hard to find bands that I knew iTunes did not have. Spotify had them, and had a large collection of songs by them. Very impressive! Spotify comes in two flavors, desktop and mobile, and has three account types, free, unlimited, and premium. Free accounts mix ads in with the songs and limit you to 10 hours per month of streaming (you can play your own MP3s through the Spotify player with no limits, of course). The unlimited account for $4.99/mo. gets rid of the ads and the 10 hour time limit. The Premium account at $9.99/mo. adds a pile of bells and whistles including high quality streaming and, this is the big one, mobile access to the streaming library. The mobile app lets you wirelessly sync your own music library to your phone and play it, but if you want access to stream songs from the Spotify library, you must have a Premium account. I like Spotify a great deal, but I’m willing to pay the $9.99 per month. The app itself is free in the Android Market (also for iPhone).” — Mark
For iOS:
• Rob recommends: Foreca.st, FREE
“It’s a fun app you can use to tell your friends where you’re going to hang out … so you’re forecasting your whereabouts. It works with foursquare, so you can use Forecast to prepare your check-in before you get to that place. For instance, let’s say I want to go out for lunch, but don’t want to eat alone. Using Forecast, I locate a local restaurant like “Ruby Tuesday” … I then estimate or “forecast” my arrival time … type in a message where I solicit my friends to join me for lunch and post to Twitter. At the moment, Forecast is in Beta mode and only links to Twitter – No Facebook. From the app, you’ll be able to Tweet your Forecast in advance. Then, when you arrive to your forecasted location, just hit “Check-in”. Done! Currently, I only have one friend on Forecast, so hopefully my fellow iPhoners give it a try and add me :)” — Rob
• Chris recommends: Ugly Meter , $0.99
“Do you ever wonder if you’re ugly and your friends just don’t tell you? Do you have an ugly friend, and you just don’t know how to tell them?
The Ugly Meter takes your photo and scans the details of your face to give you a rating of 1-10 on the Ugly Scale.
If you rate a 10, you probably have a face that only a mother could love. Depending on how bad your rating is, the Ugly Meter will comment on your looks!
Who’s the hottest? Now you can find out. Post your scores to Facebook and Twitter!”
• Listener Shelly in Jefferson City, MO listens on KLIK 1240AM and recommends: RunPee (Android | iPhone), FREE
“I wanted to let the iDork and the ‘Droid Dorks’ know about a cool new FREE app that can come in handy.
It goes along with the ‘Sit and Squat’ app that Chris mentioned on the 1st hour of the show for the weekend of 7/22. This one is called ‘RunPee’. It tells you the best times to use the restroom when you’re watching a movie at the theater so that you don’t miss any good parts of the movie. Of course, if you can’t hold it and have to run to the restroom, the app doesn’t help! Hope you guys get a chance to use this VITAL app!”
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
What are your favorite apps?Let us know!
Guest in this hour:
Louis Ramirez, Senior Features Writer – DealNews.com
How much money can you save if you wait just few days to buy that expensive Apple product? Louis may be able to tell us!
Jerry in Dearborn, Michigan after having problems with a Samsung MP3 player he had bought for his son, and with it’s warranty, asked us: “I would like to get one of the new iPods. But I again, am leery to spend money on my credit card for something that is not going to last. What are your thoughts on the iPod with the touchscreen, and do you have to have a MAC computer to load it with music? Do you know where the best place to get one price wise?”
iPods tend to last. In terms of the warranty, you’d be pretty much in the same boat you’re in with Samsung, up to one year, no problem, they’ll fix anything. At one year and one day you’re on your own and repairs are expensive, but we’ve hardly ever heard of iPods having problems before they reach old age.
Rob still has the original iPod Mini and it works! He bought it in 2001! They do last, if you take good care of them. By the way, loading songs onto an iPod does not require a Mac. In fact, most iPod users probably have PCs. You just load the music onto iTunes on your computer and when you plug in your iPod it will sync them on it’s own.
Pricing is more complicated, typically you won’t find heavily discounted Apple products anywhere, for the most part when Apple says “it costs $200” it means it costs $200 everywhere. Although, sometimes Walmart can be different and sell it for a dollar or a penny less.
One option that may work for you is looking at refurbished iPods on Apple’s website, they come with a full warranty (the same one new products get), new cables, new boxes, even a new exterior shell, so it will definitely look and feel new, and it might save you a few dollars.
We have also reviewed several models of the SanDisk Sansa line of MP3 players and find them to be very reliable, low cost alternatives to iPods. They don’t pretend to be iPods, they have far fewer features, but as music players they are excellent choices especially for children because of their low cost. Models we have personally tested and approved include the Fuze and the Clip+. While we don’t want to discourage you from purchasing an iPod if that’s what you want, there are some reliable, low cost alternatives to consider. You can click here to view the entire model line of Sansa MP3 players, so you can comparison shop.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Wireless Update” Weekly Feature with Chuck Hamby
Are you a photography buff with a new iPhone? Chuck Hamby of Verizon Wireless is here to tell us about some great iPhone apps to sharpen up those pics.
Longtime listener Dick asked: “Love your show. Been a listener since the ’90’s! But now a problem with your app. I put it on my iPad 2, but it comes on the screen in iPhone size. How can I get it to fill my iPad 2 screen so I can work with it better?”
Unfortunately, our iOS version of the app is designed — so far — for iPhone and iPod Touch. However, you can still use it on the iPad. On the lower right side of the screen, you will see a little circle that says “1x” inside of it. If you want the app to take up your whole screen, press that button and it will zoom in and the text on the button will change to “2x”. All of the features work on the iPad. You can still call or email us and participate!
We should have a native iPad version soon and it will look much better on your iPad 2, but in the meantime that will work for our app and any other native iPhone app.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Endangerbles: Several music CDs to help children learn about endangered species
VSO Software: Copies of Convert-X-to-DVD 4 – Lets you convert videos to DVD and watch on any DVD player.
wEASEL: Several wEASEL Easel Smartphone Stand with Hanging Loop in Black or White