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Tech News & Commentary
Richard in Atlanta, listens via the TuneIn App and is calling via the Into Tomorrow App called and asks us: “I have an Acer Aspire 5560 that will not recognize the Wi-Fi card that came with the device. I have checked the device manager and it doesn’t show up there. I suspect that the wireless card might be bad. If you give me your input, I’d greatly appreciate it.”
Your card may indeed be bad, but it may just be that the driver for the wireless card hasn’t been installed or is having issues.
If you have any kind of recovery disk, odds are the drivers are there. If that’s not the case, you may have to use a hardwired connection (or another device) to download the drivers fromAcer’s website.
If after installing those, your WiFi card is still missing from the device manager, then you may have a defective card and you may need to have it replaced, maybe with an external one, but try the drivers first, odds are that’s where your issue is coming from.
In the spirit of “have you plugged it in,” we should also mention that most laptop computers have some kind of hardware switch to shut off the Wi-Fi radio. Have you made certain you didn’t simply turn that switch off? On your specific make and model, the wireless is turned on and off by holding down the Fn (Function) key and pressing F3.
If it’s not the driver and it’s not simply switched off, then you should consider a USB Wi-Fi adapter until you’re ready to replace the machine. They are inexpensive, easy to setup, and work great with Windows Vista or Windows 7. Hopefully you have one of those two versions.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports Feature With Matt Ferretti
Priced at $130, the new Nintendo 2DS might seem like a great bargain if you’re in the market for a portable gaming console. But it may not be a great choice for adult gamers, so says Consumer Reports. Their resident gaming expert Matt Ferretti is here to explain why.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
• Mark recommends: Mag Light, $0.99
- “At the risk of being mocked by my co-hosts in the studio, I must admit to having a problem as I grow older. Everywhere I look, print is getting smaller and smaller. Yeah, yeah, I know…it’s my eyes. My app this week is called Magnifying Glass with Light, or “Mag. Light” for short. It does one simple thing. It uses the camera on my iPhone to create a lighted magnifying glass. Now the more astute among you might point out that I could simply load the camera and zoom in, but there are reasons to prefer this app. First, it turns the light on automatically but then gives me a simple slider to dim it, in case it’s too bright for what I’m looking at. Second, the light only turns on with the camera in VIDEO mode. This app gives me live video but when I’ve zoomed in so I can read what I want, I can tap to freeze the image, making it simple to then sit back and type in the stupid serial number that I couldn’t read any other way. There are at least half a dozen such apps, some free show you small ads, while others cost a buck or two to go ad-free. But having a lighted magnifying glass in my pocket at all times has proven to be a real convenience.” — Mark
• Chris recommends: How Stuff Works, FREE
- “This is an app I have on both my iPhone and my Windows 8 computer. If you’ve ever wondered why people laugh when they are tickled, or what would happen if the Hoover Dam broke or how Murphy’s Law works, the answer is just a few taps away in the How Stuff Works app. I have killed a lot of time reading articles and watching videos in this app. There is also a Quotes section with famous quotes and my favorite, a very interesting facts section. For instance, did you know that if you were to take a car trip to the sun, it would take you about 176 years if you drove 60 miles per hour all day, every day. You can find out stuff like that in the free How Stuff Works App. Available on iOS, Android and Windows.” — Chris
• Samantha recommends: BBM, FREE
- “My app this week is going back to the crackberry days. BBM. Blackberry Messenger is now available for your iPhone and Android. You download it and can stay connected to all your friends with instant messages. I warn you, it is addicting. This week alone over 20 million people have downloaded it. And… it’s free.” — Samantha
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:
Ryan Alovis, CEO & Founder – ArkNet Media
Doug from Carthage, Texas listening via 710AM KEEL asked: “I just got a hopper; it says in order for me to watch tv on my iPad and iPhone that I need a slingbox. Now I have my slingbox, but my router is in my house and 20 feet away in my office is where my slingbox is. I don’t have any probelms with the router with my iphone, ipad , and printer, but the hopper doesn’t seem to want to accept the connection. Can you help me out?”
This is a tough one, Hoppers had a known issue with WiFi adapters where some just couldn’t seem to connect to some networks that were easily accessible by other devices, there was a software update to address that, so if you haven’t updated yours, you might want to see if you can, since you may be having that problem.
If that doesn’t take care of the problem, if possible, you could run an ethernet cable to the hopper from the router and plug it in and that should take care of the problem for good.
If that’s not doable and you need to use WiFi, it may be a good idea to call tech support, older Hoppers didn’t come with WiFi built in, they used a USB adapter, for all we know that adapter may just be faulty, in which case replacing it with a new one would be an instant fix.
Unfortunately, since that software update was released a while back, we haven’t heard complaints about the Hopper’s connectivity, so we can’t really say if anything else is likely to be wrong, but the update might do the trick for you if you’re running an older version.
In a few instances, it appears that wireless router configurations needed to be reset. Even though the wireless network was operating correctly with all the other devices, the Hopper would not connect reliably until the wireless router was reset to its factory settings and set up making as few changes as possible to the default config. In other words, don’t change the network numbering scheme, don’t add any filters or fixed addresses.
There is no doubt that the Hopper should work without having to go through such extremes, but we’re reporting what other users have found to fix their similar problems to yours.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Alonzo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida calling in asked us: “Until about 6 months ago, I have only used Windows Phones, but now have a Galaxy S3. One of the reasons for switching Operating Systems is the App availability on a Android Phone vs. a Windows Phone. How does the App availability on Windows Phone compare to that on a Android or iOS Operating Systems now that Microsoft also uses Apps on Windows 8? If I were to upgrade my phone (with Verizon) which phone would you recommend and why? Thanks for your help!”
There is no comparing the availability of apps between the Windows Store, Google Play, and the iOS App Store. Apple is still the leader here — in terms of the amount of Apps — a good deal of them are crap, with Android in second place, and everyone else is way, way, way behind.
Don’t be confused by the fact that Microsoft has adopted the term “apps” for things being run by Windows 8 and Windows RT. Those two operating systems are incompatible with Windows Phone. Just remember that anything that will run on the Windows Phone OS must be designed for that operating system.
It’s rumored that Microsoft is working on an integrated API that will allow an app to be run on all three platforms: Windows Phone 8, Windows RT 8.1, and Windows 8.1. But this is all based on speculation from statements made by Microsoft execs, we have no confirmation of it…yet.
Windows Phone OS is actually a very nice system and some of their phones, such as the Nokia Lumia models, have some very nice hardware. But if it’s apps you’re interested in, you have two choices: iOS and Android.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Ken in Miami, Florida calling and sent us that following comment: “I listen to you show from your pod cast. Over and Over again you mention Newegg. Well I wanted a new laptop for my new remodeled kitchen and went shopping and saw one I wanted but it was a little pricey, Then I was listening to one of my pod cast and heard you mention Newegg again. I was at the big box store. I them went home and got on line and bought a 23″ Acer all in one to replace my laptop. If fits perfectly in it new home on my counter. It’s all wireless, keyboard and mouse, so no wires. Thanks for helping me make my purchase easy. Thanks again for all you do for us.”
Thank you, Ken!
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Scottevest: Lola Puff Jackets for Women & Puffer Jackets for Men – Complete with pockets for all your gadgets.
iolo: Copies of System Mechanic- Fix and speed up your PC Automatically.
TYLT: An assortment of Smartphone charging accessories and bluetooth speakers.
Nite Ize Innovation: Connect Case and Connect Cradle for iPhone – Hard case with belt clip, vehicle mount and desk stand.