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Tech News & Commentary
Consumer Reports Feature With Mike Gikas
The LG G Flex is billed as the first flexible, curved smartphone. But how practical is it? And what else can it do? Consumer Reports Senior Electronics Editor Mike Gikas is here to give us his first-look review.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
• Samantha recommends: Zombies, Run $3.99 and The Walk $2.99
- “Do you ever have good intentions to complete a daily walk or run and just don’t find the motivation? Well, my app this week will help with that. It is an audio storytelling app that you can use walking or running to add adventure to your workout. It will guide you through missions as you complete the desired time of your work out. With this before you know it, your work out is done! It is Zombies, Run for running and The Walk for walking. Both available for IOS and Android. It is 2.99 for the walk and 3.99 for the run. So the next time you see someone all into their workout, who knows… They might think a Zombie is chasing them!” — Samantha
• Mark does not recommend: Speedtest, FREE
- “There are some apps that become so much a part of our landscape that we almost forget they are separate from the phone. Speedtest from Ookla is one of those. Now the nerds and geeks out there will be saying “Pfft! SPEEDTEST? Everyone knows about that app!” Congrats, you passed the nerd exam. But in fact, just this week, someone saw me using it and asked what it was. Speedtest is, simply, a speed test. It measures how fast your current wireless network, or more importantly Wi-Fi network, is operating. What I use it for, other than simply determining whether the network is working at all, is to determine when the Wi-Fi signal has dropped low enough that we need to install a range extender. You know 5 bars is fast, but how fast is 3 bars? How about 2 bars that flickers down to 1 sometimes? Don’t guess, get Speedtest and know. It’s free for both iOS and Android.” — Mark
• Dave recommends:Full Brightness When Plugged In, FREE
- “It’s called “Full Brightness When Plugged In”, but that’s not why I like it. Version 2 added the option to keep the screen ON (it won’t time out) when it’s plugged in! I hate having to constantly unlock the phone while it’s sitting right in front of me, just to check for messages & so forth. Also, when you’re playing music you may want to look at your phone to see what’s playing — or when using your GPS. This App solved that problem. You can adjust the Brightness so it’s not FULL Brightness, which can also be helpful. It’s FREE for Android. I was all EXCITED … but … it wouldn’t work on my Galaxy Note 3 🙁 Sooo … I;m asking our listeners for advice for a change! Do you know of an App or any way to leave my Note 3 ON when it’s plugged-in?” — Dave
What are your favorite Apps? Let us know at 800-899-INTO and we’ll feature them in this segment!
- Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details
Guest Segment:
Manish Patel, Co-Founder – NOIZY Brands
new companies for wireless bluetooth sport headphones, earbuds and speakers and over the ear headphones.
Patrick in Wilmington, Delaware listening on NewsTalk Radio WDEL 1150 calling in from the app asks us: “I have a new Windows Surface Tablet, and it takes pictures both ways. It does not have a flash. How can I enhance taking pictures without a flash?”
Patrick, Unfortunately there is no way you can enhance the picture that way while you are taking it but after taking the picture you can download a photo editing app that will let you adjust the brightness, contrast, sharpness and many more options that will enhance the picture. Photo Editor by Aviary is a great editing application that does the job and is free!
You can also check out the Windows RT version of Adobe Photoshop Express. It’s not as good as the Photoshop Touch for iOS and Android, but it does have an interface that’s familiar to Photoshop users.
Fotor is another free photo editing app for Windows RT. It offers the same editing features as the other, but also lets you create photo collages and use a tilt/shift tool to change perspective in the image.
We can’t do anything about your lack of a flash, but hopefully some good photo editing tools will brighten your day!
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Ray in Niagara Falls, New York listens online calling in asked us: “I want to hook up a second hard drive to my computer and have it copy the OS and everything that’s on the current hard drive, then leave them both hooked up and everything I do on the computer would write to both of the hard drives so that if the drive were to fail, I would have a backup. Is that possible?”
Ray, You can do what you need, but before you overthink it too much or look for strange solutions, look at RAID arrays, in particular what you want is a RAID 1 array.
RAID can be used for different purposes, for example a RAID 0 array is all about speed and quick data access, RAID 1 won’t give you that, but it will automatically mirror everything you do on your main drive onto a second drive, which is all you really want.
Here’s the big downside of using a RAID array as opposed to say an external hard drive and a program that backs up your data regularly: let’s say your computer has a nice 1 Terabyte hard drive, and you get a second 1 Terabyte hard drive, you set them up in RAID 1 configuration and put them to work. You’ll have 2 Terabytes worth of hard drive and 1 Terabyte of usable data storage, because the second TB will be 100% mirror and 0% extra storage.
If that’s ok with you, then RAID 1 is easy, and pretty much stress free, if you want to have a little bit of that storage for your own use, you may be better served by using automatic backups to the second drive.
Your computer’s hardware will have to support creating a RAID volume across the two hard drives, or else you will need to purchase a RAID controller that you plug in to an expansion slot. Most motherboards built with Intel chipsets after the X58, which is several years old, have an integrated RAID controller. If your computer is less than a couple years old, you will probably have what you need.
A plug in RAID controller typically isn’t cheap, because they aren’t designed for the general consumer market. That’s because, as we just said, most current consumer model computers include the RAID support. Plug in controllers are designed for use with high performance servers.
If your concern is simply backing up your data continuously, you could always attach an external USB 2 or 3 hard drive and use backup software that does a constant background backup, sometimes called a “shadow volume.” If you’re worried about the lag this might put on your computer’s operation, then use a backup program that runs overnight. You won’t have up to the minute protection, but it won’t be more than one day old. An advantage there is that you can use a program like Acronis TrueImage and your nightly backup can be a “bare metal” disaster backup that lets you get your computer up and running again, operating system and applications included, following a hard drive crash.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Bits Limited: Mini Squids — Travel-Sized surge protected power strips
Datawind: UBISLATE 7Ci, 7″ Android tablet with Wi-Fi, internal microphone and camera, and expandable MicroSD memory.
PURE: Jongo Wireless Adapters — Allows you to stream all your music wirelessly to your home audio system.
“Into Tomorrow”: Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths with Dave’s cartoon on them, for all your smartphones, tablets, TVs, camera lenses and computer screens!
Magellan’s: RFID-blocking Ridged Aluminum Wallets – in RED for Valentine’s Day – prevents identity theft with expandable pockets that can hold up to 12 credits cards as well as cash and receipts