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Tech News & Commentary
We promised a link to Mark’s Blog, you can find it here.
Consumer Reports Feature With James McQueen
Sonos not only helped to invent the wireless speaker category, the company also set the bar for performance, ease of use, and flexibility. But its speakers tended to be pricey. The company finally has a speaker for the masses. But does it sacrifice quality? Consumer Reports Electronics spokesman James McQueen is here with a review.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
• Listener Terry in Carthage Missouri recommends: TruckerPath, FREE
- “My favorite App is called TruckerPath. It helps truck drivers find truck stops, fuel, rest areas, weigh stations, restaurants, etc.”
• Mark recommends: CloudBeats, FREE
- “Would you like to have all your music available to you in the cloud, so you can listen to it whenever you want, without taking up space on your devices? Well, you could use something like iTunes Match, but that costs $25 a year and requires that you use an iDevice and iTunes. Well, I’ve been trying an app called CloudBeats and I’m here to tell you that it is the solution to this problem. CloudBeats can connect to virtually ANY of the cloud storage providers. Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Mediafire, and OneDrive are all supported. So you could sign up for the limited space free accounts on each of the services that offer one, connect CloudBeats to all of them, and spread your music around in the cloud without paying for the storage. Two things you should know, however. First, playing your music streaming online will use your data plan, although music doesn’t take the bandwidth that video does. And second, if you want the unlimited version of the app with no ads, it is $4.99. But five bucks is a small price to pay for being able to turn the cloud storage I already pay for into my own streaming music service. CloudBeats can be found, including the free Lite version if you’re so inclined, in the iTunes App Store.” — Mark
• Chris recommends: The Weather Channel, FREE
- “I’m highlighting an app that I talked about quite a while back. But they have released an entirely new version, so it’s almost like a new app. The Weather Channel app is one I use almost every day. When you first launch the app, it shows you your current weather. But it also has a background image that matches your location and weather conditions. For instance, we’re in the metropolitan Miami area. When I launched this app before we started the show, it showed me a background picture of the buildings on South Beach with a bright blue sky and a smattering of clouds. On top of the picture it told me it was Partly cloudy and 85 degrees. Swipe up from that screen to access the hourly forecast, your 10-day forecast, radar maps, and other things like Weather Channel Vidoes, Airport conditions, pollen indexes and what they call Social weather, where you can report on what the weather is like in your area and even snap a photo. They say they use that to identify hard-to-predict spots to improve the forecast for those areas. The app will also alert you to severe weather around you. The Weather Channel app is free and is available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and as a Windows 8 app.” — Chris
• Michael recommends: MeetUp, FREE
- “New to an area and want to make friends or just tired of sitting at home and want to network and expand your friends list? Want an app that could get you in with your thrill seeking friends with weekly skydiving activities or simply diving into a good book with a book club or maybe getting with the techies in your area? Take a stab and download the MeetUp app. You join or ask to join groups. These groups are filtered based of your interest, and current hobbies that you select. The amount of groups are based on where you live so the more populated the area, the groups and activities you’ll have. So join a group or simply create your own! This app is available for iOS and Android devices. ” — Michael
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:
Clay Rawlings, Trial Lawyer/ Author of “Pardon the Disruption”
engagement service for high-tech companies and early-stage investors that rapidly connects innovation needs with solutions available
Karl in Rapid City, South Dakota listens on KOTA and is calling via the App asked us: “Are you familiar with the talking book program with the National Library Service for the blind? an app is available for the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to listen to talking books. can these audio books be transferred from the computer to the iPad or is the only way to download them again from the internet using the precious internet usage gb’s a person has these days? thank you for your time. i look forward to your response. ps i know I’m likely testing the limits of your knowledge with this type of question.”
Karl, The library service for the blind looks good, they have plenty of books and it seems like a cool service.
Unfortunately the user has to be certified by a doctor to qualify and has to then use a special listening device that uses an easy-to-handle cartridge. It is possible to download books from the internet and place them in a cartridge, but there’s no getting around using the device, you really won’t be able to use an app.
However, Overdrive and OneClick do work with a lot of public libraries and they let you check out audiobooks for free using an app. The downside is that they act as if they were a real library so they have a set number of copies per book to loan, even if they’re digital copies, so that people will actually still have to go out and buy books if they don’t want to wait. Their audiobook selection will likely be smaller too, since they just act as a general purpose digital public library, and not as a service specifically geared towards the visually impaired of any kind.
Users who just need large print are in luck cause they can make the font as big as they need to on the app, but fully blind people may not be so lucky. It’s still worth a shot if being able to use iOS would be an advantage, and books may be able to be downloaded on a computer and transferred to the iOS device using WiFi or a cable, but none of us here are really into audiobooks, so we’ve never tried it ourselves.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Tom in Columbus, Ohio and listening via the Podcast sent us the following comment: “I teach at a middle school. In the morning kids come in and would like to play music as they enter homeroom. What I’m looking for is an iApp that could start a playlist at a specified time. Now here’s the trick, it needs to start to the nearest second. I know its easy to find one to the nearest minute, but i gotta have it to the nearest second because at the time the last song finishes and the tardy bell rings. Please Help me”
Tom, We actually haven’t found any apps that can start a playlist with that level of accuracy… We’re sorry to have to tell you this, but you might have to either do it manually, or get some kind of dedicated device other than your smartphone to do it.
This would be a great time for our listeners to chime in… do you know something we don’t? Are there any apps out there that do what Tom needs? Let us know at 1-800-899-4686.
If what you’re looking for is something that can start playing a song at a specific time, and the “to the second” can be the start of any given minute, why not look at some of the alarm apps that can play songs from your iTunes library. Two that come to mind are Playlist Alarm Clock and AlarmTunes. Both cost around a buck, and both will let you set an alarm that begins playing music rather than an alarm sound.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Other World Computing (OWC): Nuguard KX phone cases for Samsung Galaxy S4, iPhone 4/4S and 5
Phone Halo: StickR TrackR — Find any object you attach it to with your smartphone
PURE: Jongo Wireless Adapters — Allows you to stream all your music wirelessly to your home audio system.
Tylt: A plethora of USB charging cables for iPhone and Android phones and iPhone battery cases.
“Into Tomorrow”: Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths with Dave’s cartoon on them, for all your smartphones, tablets, TVs, camera lenses and computer screens!