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Tech News & Commentary
Consumer Reports Feature With Donna Tapellini
Asus has a new monitor that’s among the first to boast 4K or Ultra HD technology. Consumer Reports just finished evaluating one in their labs. Senior Editor Donna Tapellini is here to tell us what they found.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.
• Mark recommends: Plain Wallpapers, $0.99
- “So, how do you like those iOS7 wallpapers? Are you a fan of all the busy colors and patterns? No? Well, NEITHER AM I. Only creating a simple plain color wallpaper requires a bunch of fiddly steps involving a computer and a photo editor. Or…my app of the week, Plain Wallpapers. This app does exactly what its name implies. It lets you create a wallpaper in any color, shade, or hue that you like, it saves that to your Camera roll, and you can quickly have any color background that you want. Plain Wallpapers isn’t free, it costs 99 cents, but if you compare how quickly that works with how much time it’ll take you to make something in Photoshop and send it to your phone, that 99 cents is money well spent. Plain Wallpapers, in the iTunes App Store.” — Mark
• Samantha recommends: Wanelo, FREE
- “Wanelo (from Want, Need, Love) gives you an endless stream of the most unique products online, all posted by people like you. Buy everything (!!) right away, or save your favorite products to your profile for later.”
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:
Dr. Eric Klopfer, Professor & Director of the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program & The Education Arcade – Vtech
Jon in Rocklin, California calling in via the App asked: “I thought the days of CompactFlash were gone and that SD cards had taken over. But I’m starting to see a resurgence of CompactFlash. What gives?”
We wouldn’t say there’s a resurgence of CF cards, they’ve just never gone away from the high end camera segment, and that’s probably what you’re looking at.
For the average user, an SD card will work just fine, CF cards distinguish themselves by being considerably faster, you can buy reasonably priced CF cards that are 5 times faster than a class 10 SD card, that’s a big deal when shooting in bursts, and arguably an even bigger deal when transferring several cards worth of pictures to a computer.
Another advantage comes from CF cards having their contacts shielded from the elements (a bigger deal for photographers that work outside), and already being known as the card of choice of serious photographers. People are creatures of habit and photographers complain about SD cards being too small, uncomfortable to handle, or simply about not trusting them, so the transition has been slow.
In time, though, they will probably go away and SD cards will be come standard for even high end users, especially as speeds increase and prices drop, allowing them to compete with CF better.
CompactFlash is anything but compact these days, and camera manufacturers have to sacrifice space they could be using for electronics to fit them, and those better shielded contacts mean that the contact pins on cameras have to go through little holes in the plastic to connect to the card, which sometimes leads to bent pins which are very expensive to fix, all of those things play against CF.
The future is with SD, and outside of very high end gear, the present is with SD too, CF will eventually go away, but expect to see CF slots in high end cameras for a few more years.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Paul in Raleigh, North Carolina asked: “I need help. I am Paul, Raleigh NC. age 72, and listen to you as much as I can. Auto racing interferes sometimes. Not my choice. My mother wrote a 20 page book on her life via manual typewriter with correction tape. I would love to do a 50- 100 page book with pictures of the the way things were. I would like to ‘ voice type’ vs manual type and add plenty of pictures. I certainly hope this is available-at a reasonable rate. I have a laptop with Windows 7 and OpenOffice.org3. Thanks for your help.”
Dragon Naturally Speaking is probably your best bet for any kind of serious dictation. It will cost you $74 right now, and you will need to train it before you use it, so it will respond to YOUR tone and accent well, but once it’s properly trained, it will be very, very good at figuring out what you’re saying.
Naturally Speaking should work just fine with OpenOffice, but you may also want to invest in a quality microphone, the software will only type what it hears and how it hears it, so giving it a quality ear may save you a lot of editing when you’re using it.
As far as the pictures go, OpenOffice writer will let you embed images without the need for any extra software or hardware. Just click on Insert -> Picture -> From file. That’s all there is to it.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“Wireless Update” with Michelle Sutton
For another “snowbirds head south installment,” we have Verizon’s Michelle Sutton on the line.
Mike in Colona, Illinois listens via the TuneIn app and us the following comment: “I was listening to my first episode of your show. It was the show recorded for 10-11-13 and you were talking about quality headphones, your guest mentioned aftershokz bone conduction headphones. I have been using these for about a year now. I do enjoy using these. Especially since I work a heavy industrial factory. These headphones work greatly with ear plugs. In my line of work radios are allowed, but not practical. The environment is so noisy that high quality ear plugs are required. With this type of headphone I don’t miss a single word of your show. Just wanted to share my experience. Thanks”
Thank you , Mike
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yos “A clever solution to tangled earbuds”.
C.Crane: Senta Ally Portable Bluetooth Stereo Speaker with built-in FM radio and SD & USB reader.
Yamaha: Pro 300 Hi Fidelity, over-the-ear Headphones.
Nite Ize Innovation: Connect Case and Connect Cradle for iPhone – Hard case with belt clip, vehicle mount and desk stand.