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Due to Dave’s surgery and unexpected complications this week, we’re going to air some of our favorite calls and emails from a previous show. Hang in there … we’ll be back to normal next week! Meantime, this is your chance to call the Ask Dave Hotline … toll-free 1-800-899-INTO (4686) … with any consumer electronics question, opinion, help another listener or tell us what your favorite app is and why. You can also participate via our FREE “Into Tomorrow” App (iOS/Android/Intel AppUp). Thank you for your participation!
Dave Graveline’s Complications After Shoulder Surgery
Dave was scheduled for surgery early morning on Wednesday to fix a torn rotator cuff and bone spur on his right shoulder. He’s pictured on the left before going in for the outpatient procedure. The surgery went very well. However, in post-op recovery … not so much! He had heavy chest pains, difficulty breathing and extreme nausea. The surgical center called Fire Rescue and they transported him to a nearby hospital. (He hadn’t had that many sirens since he was a cop.) Dave went through extensive tests, as the doctors were trying to rule-out a heart attack. We’re happy to report he’s been cleared from any cardiac risk. So, no heart attack. He’s currently suffering from a partially collapsed lung from the anesthesia administered for the surgery. They’re now treating for that and the continued nausea and pain. We’re happy to report Dave’s been released from the hospital and has begun physical therapy for his shoulder.Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers!
Tech News & Commentary
Barry in Las Vegas, Nevada listening online asked: “I was wondering what you have to say about the apps for the iPhone that will give me Flash video. I do see a few of them advertised. What is your take on it? Do they work? Is it worth it? Your advice is appreciated.”
Flash apps for iPhone are typically very limited in what they can do. They generally support a limited set of websites, won’t work with every video site, and won’t work with Flash games or animations. We know, it’s frustrating.
Of course, there’s no real Flash support of iPhone, and now that Adobe even discontinued support for Android phones, you won’t see any real Flash support any time soon.
For now, if you’re looking for an app that will let you watch videos on your favorite sites, you can check out their website. Apps like Skyfire have a list of all the websites they support, if the ones you use are on it, then you’ll have the Flash support you need.
Keep in mind that when they say stuff like “we support more than 200,000 sites,” a lot of those sites are tiny, foreign or lacking in content, make sure they stuff you’re interested in is supported, before spending any money.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Mustang Mary in North Miami, Florida listens to the podcast and asked: “Since I now have an AT&T Android Inspire 4G phone and still learning all the features, hence my email to you all … I am not “into” texting and did not get texting on my plan cause they want to charge me for it. I have heard there is an app for that (free texting). Do you know anything about it? Is it any good?! How do I find it, download it and is it really free?”
There are actually several you can use, Mary. You can try HeyWire. It will give a number and let you text for free in the US and another 45+ countries. The texts and the app are both free, and you can also use it to access Facebook Chat and Twitter.
Google has its own offering with Google Voice, the texts are free and have been free for a few years. But, that may change one day. We’ll see.
ChompSMS will also offer free texts, and it completely rips off the iPhone’s text messaging interface. So, if you like Apple’s user interface designs, you may enjoy using ChompSMS.
Pinger will also let you send free text messages and it will give you the option to send a paid text through AT&T from within the app as well, so even if you don’t have internet access you can still use it as your only text messaging app. So basically, you have a ton of options. As long as you have 4G or WiFi they’ll all be free, just have a look at them and see which on you like better.
One note of warning about Google Voice. It uses its own phone number, so your friends who want to send you texts will need to send them to a telephone number different from your cell phone’s. You can actually use Google Voice as a VoIP service connected to your cell phone, if you wish, and just have everyone call or text that one number. Google Voice will answer the voice calls also, prompt the caller for their name, and then call you, connecting the call if you accept it. It’s like having a personal assistant in your phone. If you want to port your cell phone number to Google Voice, you can, but getting control of the number again might be difficult.
But, Google Voice will give you unlimited free texting, it will let you make phone calls without using your plan minutes (it uses data instead, though, so watch those caps!), it will give you conference calling, call screening and call forwarding, one number “follow me” service that will ring you at multiple locations, and lots more, all for free!
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline.
Leeann in Fairbanks, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM asked: “My daughter is on a swim team and my husband has been taking pictures and video of the swim meets. We were wondering if there was anything we could use to take underwater pictures for the kids. A new cable? A new kind of device? We’re not “up” on any of that and I thought of your program.”
Thanks for thinking of “Into Tomorrow”. Among other things — like perhaps an underwater housing for a camera that you might already have — if your budget allows, we can recommend a couple of underwater cameras for taking pix underwater of your daughter on her swim team.
You can try the Vivitar Vivicam 8400 underwater camera. It’s great for family vacations and snapshot photography. The camera has 8.1 megapixel resolution, SD card support and works up to ten meters underwater.
The camera has some great features, including a movie mode. One drawback of the camera is that it has a 2.4-inch view screen, which is much smaller than some similarly priced digital cameras. The Vivitar 8400 has a waterproof case, making it suitable for diving, surfing, rafting. The case also keeps the camera safe from sand and rain. It features internal memory, and is powered by standard AA batteries. You can buy the Vivicam online for $70.
The Olympus 8010 has 14 MP lens, a 5x broad-angle optical zoom and 2.7? LCD. There is also High definition movie recording. As nicely as being waterproof, the Olympus 8010 is also freeze proof, shock proof and crush proof. You can buy this camera online for $190.
You can also try the Canon PowerShot D10, this camera is also freeze-proof and shock-proof sturdy. There is a 2.5 inch LCD, a 3x optical zoom.Its waterproof function extends to a depth of some 33 feet (10m) doing it one particular of the deepest digital waterproof camera models. The Canon D10 is available online for $290.
A camera we’ve used while cruising in the Bahamas is the Sanyo Xacti. There’s a few models to look at, depending on your preference and budget. They’re very slim and take good pictures and videos underwater. You can find one online for about $150.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Saroj in Durham, North Carolina asked: “I have a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista Time Warner internet. I bought a refurbished Netgear wireless router from CompUSA a few months ago. It was working fine, but since yesterday, I am not able to connect to internet through the Netgear. I called Time Warner, but they don’t support third party devices. Then, I called Netgear, but there is no free tech support, since it is a refurbished router. How can I make this netgear router work?”
Our intern Andrew, had a similar problem when he was running his home wireless network from a “Netgear WGR610 wireless router”. He was able to correct the problem simply by resetting the router. On the back of the device, there should be a “tiny” grey button that can be pressed with a paper clip or a safety pin. Press and hold the button for 3 seconds (no longer) and the router should hard reset. On Netgear’s support page they suggest that you might need to download the latest firmware, which is basically an update for the router, in order to correct the problem.
Also, Netgear has a troubleshooting page that will take you through ten steps (based on the model of the device) that will help you correct the issue if it still persist. They even have a little video on the page that will walk you through the necessary steps listed on the page.
Also, it would be a good Idea to check if the item is covered under any type of warranty by CompUSA. Not likely, but if they really want to help you, they might be able to replace a defective unit for you at no cost, or at the very least help you further or better troubleshoot the problem.
Remember that if you do reset your router, it will return to its factory settings. Any settings you have entered will need to be entered again. You say you have Time Warner, so usually a router will just work when you plug it in to the cable modem. But if you’ve changed anything about the IP addressing scheme, or some other internal setting, the router will revert to the default numbering scheme.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Rod Beckstrom, President & CEO – ICANN
Are you ready for to enter “ray.pizza”? Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are going truly international and customized!
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: “Logitech Cube”
Something we love about electronics is how most of them – not only keep adding features and shrinking in price – but they also keep shrinking in size, yet they still work. Rob’s been playing with a tiny device that resembles the appearance of a pencil eraser, yet it functions as a computer mouse.
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 – Computer Mouse & Presenter – Works just like a computer mouse — click and scroll – Very portable. Fits in your pocket. – To save battery, there’s an OFF/ON switch. – When you lift the Cube in the air, it goes to presenter mode. You can advance your PowerPoint Presentation. Turn it upside down and click, and it will go to previous slides. – Connects to your computer wirelessly via the Logitech Unifying Receiver, which supports up to 6 compatible devices. Wireless range up to about 82 ft (25 meters) – Available in Black or White – $69.99 |
John in Rockland, California listens to the podcast, calling in via the App asked: “With your recent CEA experience behind you, I was wondering if there was any discussion on the competing goals with regards to internet content delivery. On the one hand we have the cloud as being strongly promoted, and on the other hand we have internet providers restricting internet bandwidth, which of course either limits data access or costs you more for access to that data. Is the revival of portable storage in our future? What do you see… into tomorrow?”
The revival of portable storage is probably not in our future… the cloud is just too convenient and popular.
And you’re right about ISPs — Internet Service Providers — they will probably keep adjusting prices until they figure out how much money they can get out of their customers without causing them to leave in droves, and customers will probably learn to accept caps like users in Canada and Europe have, and like smartphone users over here have as well.
Portable storage is still great for plenty of uses, but having access to your information from anywhere is very convenient and it seems to be the trend, so odds are that we won’t see that change in the near future.
On the other hand, very large flash drives are getting less expensive all the time, and you can buy a USB powered 1TB hard drive for less than $100. I don’t know what sort of “revival” you were looking for, but these seem like “righteous” prices to us!
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Creative: Live! Cam Connect HD — Webcam that records 720p video
Planon System Solutions: A couple of SlimScan SS100 Credit Card Sized Scanners
Scott Steinberg: Copies of his new book “The Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids and Video Games”