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Dave and his team bring you highlights from the recent ShowStoppers Digital Holidays Event that took place in New York City. Find out what gadgets and services you can look forward to this holidays season! Also, back in our studios in Miami, we’ll be answering more of your questions via the Ask Dave Hotline.
In case you haven’t yet, call us … 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!
Tech News & Commentary
Amber in Charleston, West Virginia calling in via the App asked: “We were thinking about buying an iPod Touch for my son, but he loves my daughter’s Kindle Touch because of it’s larger, but I’m not sure the Kindle Fire is right for him. I was wondering if there’s a good Android tablet for about the same price as the Kindle that would be good for a kid.”
The obvious choice for an Android tablet the size and price of a Kindle Fire is the Google Nexus 7 Tablet. It’s the same size as a Kindle Fire, but it runs standard Android Jelly Bean, as opposed to the more limited, customized version of Android Gingerbread that Kindle Fires run. The Nexus 7 tablet also has access to the Google Play store, not just Amazon’s own store.
Now, you asked for a tablet that’s good for a kid, if that means you want to restrict what they can access, Android doesn’t provide that as a built-in option in the operating system the way the iPad does with iOS, so you’re stuck with either not restricting their access to content at all, using 3rd party apps that don’t generally do a great job simply because the operating system doesn’t support parental controls, and there’s only so much they can do without requiring a rooted device, or you can go app by app and enable restrictions on every app that supports it (which will definitely not be all of them).
The Google Play store does allow restricting access to apps with mature content, and Google’s Chrome browser allowed setting SafeSearch restrictions to Google searches, but those will only work for Google, if your son decides “Bing lets me see everything” he can use Bing, or he can just access a website by typing the URL instead of searching for it.
If you’re interested anyway, the Nexus 7 tablet costs $200. And be sure to keep an open mind if you decide to buy either the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports
with Carol Mangis
The new Amazon Kindle Fire HD was billed as the best tablet at any price by CEO Jeff Bezos. Our friends at Consumer Reports have been putting the 7-inch model to test and Associate Web Editor Carol Mangis tells us if it lives up to that claim.
The “Into Tomorrow” team discussed the latest apps that they
have been playing with recently.
For Android:
• Mark recommends: Fast Reboot, FREE
“My app this week is Fast Reboot for Android. One of the things that annoys me about Android is how apps continue to run in the background. So I’m always looking for the best “task killer” utilities that I can find. I used the ubiquitous ATK (Advanced Task Killer) for what seemed like an eternity, but now that I’ve found Fast Reboot, I’ve switched over completely. Fast Reboot closes not only apps but many system processes as well. It really is the closest you can come to rebooting an Android phone…without rebooting the phone. Fast Reboot is free and available in the Google Play store.”
— Mark
For iOS:
• Listener Mitch in Washington, DC listening on WWRC 1260AM recommends: Gojee
“Gojee — Free download for iOS users. Gojee is a cool app which allows you to input food items in your pantry to create dinner recipes. And if you’re planning ahead, it has tons of other recipes for whatever it is you’re craving!.”
Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.
Dustin in Elizabeth City, North Carolina listens on 560 WGAI “News Radio 560” and asked: “I was wondering about jailbreaking a phone – the ups and downs of it.”
The upside of jailbreaking phones like the iPhone or rooting an Android for that matter, is that you get low level access to functions that would normally be beyond what an app can access. What this means is that you get apps that can do things that apps on stock phones can’t do.
Since you get unrestricted access, you can also modify some things that the operating system typically takes care of. For example, under iOS you can set up a different image on the slider you use to unlock the phone, or add a button that will turn Bluetooth on or off. On Android, you could overclock a slower phone or change the way your battery use is managed to extend your battery life.
The downside is that you’re doing things the manufacturer does not support and you’re accessing low level areas of the OS that are usually kept off limits because you can cause serious damage to your phone, in some cases physical damage.
Overclocking your phone, for example, can make your processor overheat to the point of damage, a modern processor should shut down before it can face damage, but even then, if it’s not the way it’s supposed to be used, it can be damaged.
Sometimes components won’t get damaged, but the phone may not perform as well. Manufacturers will typically try to protect their reputations by putting out phones that perform at least decently. When you change settings you were never supposed to be accessing, you can modify things that the manufacturer didn’t expect you to, and affect the phone’s performance for the worse.
The biggest downside of jailbreaking or rooting a phone, though, is that things can go wrong. They typically don’t, but if they do, you’re on your own. Your warranty is void the second you jailbreak and no one will help you fix a bricked phone for free.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
| HOUR 1 GUESTS | ||
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| Steven Isaac, CEO – TouchFire | Hong Bui, CEO & Founder – Polkast | Ken Shaw, National Account Manager – BlueAnt |
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This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Corrosion Technologies: Several bottles of CorrosionX — A few squirts of CorrosionX clean contacts & connections & keep them protected for months (in salt spray environments) to years.
Ergotron: A Universal Tablet Cradle — This accessory converts a monitor mount to hold a tablet or eReader. Works with most popular tablets and eReaders, including Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle.
iolo Technologies: Copies of System Mechanic 11 – PC Tune-up Software
SMS Audio: “Street By 50” Wired headphones in black or white. We brought ’em back from 50 Cent and our interview in Berlin.