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Tech News & Commentary
Jaime in Tampa, Florida listening via Zeno Radio asked: “I have an HD radio, my question is there any way to improve my reception so that i can get more stations?”
Jaime, your first option is to get a bigger, better antenna. If you’re listeni from your home, you may be able to find an attic or rooftop antenna that would help boost your reception, like you would do with regular radio, or over the air TV.
If that doesn’t work or isn’t possible, you may also be able to fin antenna preamps, that basically boost whatever the antenna is faintly picking up before it ever gets to the tuner, that may get you a few extra stations if you’re lucky, but depending on how weak the signals it amplifi are, you may not get much out of it.
HD radio is really the same old signals as before, just used in a better way, it’s not a new type of radio wave, so anything that would’ve amplified your radio reception before has the potential of amplifying your HD radio reception now.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into
Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Victor sends the following email: “I was trying to find a good surround sound system.”
That’s a hard question to answer. We’re gonna go back to our favorite analogy of a girlfriend. Just like everyone looks for something different in a girlfriend, the same holds true for a home audio system. Some people tend to be happy with less, while many others consider themselves true audiophiles and can tell the difference between an “off t shelf” system and one pieced together with components they chose.
We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with those “off the shelf all in one surround systems. For the price, many of them are a great buy But if you’re looking for a “good” surround system, then you need to hear in action. Would you buy a car without a test drive? Probably not. The best advice we can offer is to go down to your local electronics retailer. Not Walmart or Target, but places like Best Buy or even smaller independent stores that specialize in electronics where they have som of these systems setup and listen for yourself. Usually they will have a “home theater room” in the back of the store where you can test drive some systems and see what sounds good to you.
Now if you’re looking for brands, some that we can recommend i general are Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, and Harman Kardon. There are a lot more but these are a few of our favorites that have been specializing in audio for many years. They are usually among the top brands as far as quality goes.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
The breakthrough for magnetic recording came in 1933 with the invention of the first recorder named “Magnetophon” by the German Eduard Schueller. One year later the chemical company BASF finished the development of the necessary magnetic tape, coating an acrylic tape with iron. In 1935 Schueller’s lab model together with the tape by BASF became reality at the Big German Funkausstellung with the “Magnetophon K1” by AEG. The first tape recorder in the world was a sensation at this show which today, is named IFA.
John sends us the following email: “Hi Dave, I listen to your program on Saturday nights and it is fantastic. I recently bought a ne 13-inch MacBook Pro from Best Buy with the extended warranty and a disk to keep viruses off my computer. How good is this disk and Best Buy’s warranty compared to an Apple warranty through Apple? I take classes at the Apple store on Final Cut, Aperture, and Pixelmator.”
The Best Buy warranty is kind of an insurance policy. The good thing
about that is that it covers accidental damage, but it doesn’t come cheap. If you’re very prone to accidents, maybe it will be worth it for you, but yo be paying for coverage for the first year after purchase for that year you will already be covered by AppleCare for defects (not accidental damage though). If you spill something on your laptop, or drop or do anything els to it, then Apple won’t cover you, so it’s not the same as the Best Buy warranty you bought.
Since you already bought it, just know that if anything happens t the computer, you’ll have to go through Best Buy and wait for them to de with the repair. So it might be a little slower than if you had just gotten AppleCare, but you’ll be covered for your own mistakes, which can be a good thing if you’re clumsy.
As for the disk, we assume they sold you an antivirus. They see to be pushing Norton for Macs. It should give you adequate protection. Considering how rare Mac threats are, you may have been well served using a free antivirus instead of a $50 one.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Josiah in Wichita, Kansas listens via the Android App sends us the following email: “Hi Dave, I am looking into buying one of the Adobe program suites. I plan to use it for photo and video editing. I was wondering if the Production Premium would be best, or if the Master Collection would be better. Thanks and I love the show!”
If all you’re looking to do is photo and video editing, then the Production Premium bundle would cover your needs. That bundle includes 11 different programs, including Premiere for your video editing and Photoshop for your photo editing. It also includes many other programs for video like AfterEffects, Flash, Audition, Encore and so on.
The Master collection would probably be a bit much for you. It has everything that the Production Premium bundle has – plus programs like Acrobat, InDesign and Dreamweaver – for website creation. Of course since the Master collection has more stuff, you can expect to spend a bit more for it. It costs about $2,600 while the Production Premium bundle runs about $1,900.
With Adobe’s latest Creative Suite, you can now rent their programs in the cloud. They call it “Creative Cloud.” With a monthly subscription, you can get access to all of their programs from Creative Suite 6. Prices will vary based on the subscription plan you choose.
For a single program or app, it’s 20 bucks a month and that gives you 20GB of cloud storage. Or, for 50 bucks a month you get the entire collection and 20GB of cloud storage. However, you have to commit to a year for that price (which adds up to $600 a year). Or you get the same package without the annual commitment for 75 bucks a month.
What we like about Adobe is that they let you try before you buy. They have a free 30-day trial and 2GB of storage. We’ll have a link for you on this weekend’s show notes if you want to learn more about their Creative Cloud.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Eton: FRX3 – Hand Turbine AM/FM/Weather Alert Radio
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yo — Now with Dave’s face on them! — A clever solution to tangled earbuds.
Magix: Music Maker 2013 Premium — Easy to use software for getting started in the world of music production.
Improv Electronics: Boogie Board rip — Paperless, LCD writing tablet that will let you save your notes and transfer them to your PC.