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Tech News & Commentary
Steven in Fairbanks, Alaska listens on KFBX and is calling via the App asked us: “I’m wondering what you guys would recommend for a cell phone signal booster. We live off the grid, so it would have to be something of lower wattage.”
Steven, In terms of signal boosters– going online to find one may be your best bet because they tend to be more affordable, and getting a high-quality one is probably really important in your case because you are living off the grid. Wilson Electronics offers a few signal boosters that run a bit high in price, but may be totally worth your time.
The Wilson Electronics DT 4G for a small home or office is actually listed as a best-selling item on Amazon. It will work with all major cell-phone carriers and comes with an instructional video for smooth and easy setup. Installation can be tricky, and requires users to be meticulous with placement of an inside and outside antenna– but with a 30-day money back guarantee plus with that instructional video … how can you go wrong? This signal booster runs about $330 on Amazon.
If you are looking for something a bit less pricey, zBoost also offers a few signal boosters– two of which are among the top five best-sellers on Amazon. The zBoost ZB545 SOHO signal booster is listed as the #1 best selling signal booster on the entire site and comes in at various prices depending on the square footage of your home.
For example, at 750 square feet, it will only cost $204 and at 10,000 square feet it will cost $330– the same price as the Wilson Electronics one specialized for small homes and offices.
We’re not sure exactly what carrier is providing your service, but you also might want to consider heading over to their nearest store OR website and checking out what signal boosters they have.
The last thing you’d want is to purchase a signal booster that doesn’t work for your phone, so be safe and check out specifics on all these products before jumping the gun.
And as for “living off the grid,” we’re not sure what that means regarding your power source. If you mean that you run on solar or wind power with batteries for storage, then you’ll be pleased to know that these kinds of devices don’t draw an enormous amount of power. Like any electronics, it’s modest. Running a toaster for a few minutes is probably the same as a full day of the signal booster.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Cal in Bowling Green, Kentucky listens to the Podcasts and calling in via the App asked us: “I’m interested in switching to over the air digital TV, but want to be able to record with digital quality. I was hoping for a good recommendation for a DVR that would work with my over the air antenna.”
Cord cutters, such as yourself, have been raving about the latest over the air HD DVR that has been released by one of the oldest players in the game — TiVo. The TiVo “Roamio” over the air DVR has a 500 GB storage capacity (not as much as the 2 Gig on my DISH HD DVR) and can hold up to 75 hours of your favorite HD programming.
The best part?… it will cost you only $49.99! With it, you can also access Netflix, YouTube and other streaming services. Access to TiVo’s channels and features will cost you extra, but $14.99 a month is quite feasible in comparison to much more expensive cable and satellite subscriptions.
If you don’t mind shelling out bigger bucks for your DVR, the Tablo over-the-air DVR is also popular with consumers and boasts a pretty nice, easy-to-use interface. Capabilities are pretty similar for both products, but the nice thing about the Tablo is that it offers users a 2-tuner option at $199 and a 4-tuner option for $270.
You can also have a look at the Channel Master DVR+, it’s not cheap, it costs $399 with a 1TB hard drive and $299 if you’re ok with using your own external hard drive, but it does not require a monthly service fee and it does include some streaming services such as Vudu and Pandora.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Shad Balch, Spokesman, Environment & Energy Communicaitons – Chevy Volt
Chris in Baton Rouge, Louisiana listening on 107.3 WBRP asked us: “I just got a new Nokia Lumia smart phone, I’m upgrading from a very old plain vanilla phone from AT&T. I would like to hook it up the car so that I can use my bluetooth capability so I can listen to my incoming call and then maybe have some kind of gadget that go on my dashboard so I can use the telephone as the microphone, that way I can have two way conversations. I’m wondering what would be the best way to do this? What are some good cases I could use for this phone?”
Chris, You may run into a little bit of trouble sending phone calls over Bluetooth to a car radio that doesn’t support phone calls. The Bluetooth standard is kind of smart about things like that and your phone may know that it’s talking to a radio and refuse to send it’s phone calls to it.
You may read somewhere that your phone has something called A2DP, that means Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, and it takes care of distributing audio in ways that “make sense.”
Your phone may talk to your car radio and say “do you have a microphone? No? OK, then you’re just a fancy set of speakers, you’re for music, not phone calls,” A2DP reduces every device to “a set of speakers” or “a headset with a microphone,” you’re one or you’re the other.
You can look for other solutions to use your phone in the car though, for $20 you can find several different kinds of hands free bluetooth solutions that plug into a 12V port. They will just work as standalone devices and not as part of your radio.
As for cases, your best bet is probably to look online if you want variety, but generally speaking you should have no trouble finding one that you like. There are leather cases, rubber cases, causes with belt clips, artsy cases, solid colored cases, cases with kickstands, rugged cases in case you drop the phone, there are plenty of options, but they’re mostly online.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Warren in Ridgeland, Mississippi listens on 106.5 asked us: “I was wondering if any phone companies out there, in the future or now, would ever consider being able to forward a voicemail to someone else.”
Warren, As a matter of fact, there are plenty of ways to forward voicemail! It all just varies, depending on what phone and/or carrier you’re using. The easiest way to tell how to do this would be to first check on forums that are designated to help users using your carrier, and if that doesn’t work– check forums for your specific phone.
For the iPhone, we were able to find solutions for forwarding voicemails on Apple’s forums and step-by-step guides that give different techniques designated for carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Plenty of YouTube videos are up that will also guide you through it.
Want to find a way to forward your voicemails without memorizing a technique? No problem! There are also plenty of apps that will allow you to forward a voicemail with just a few clicks. The most popular app to do this with is YouMail, a free visual voicemail app that has been available in most app stores for years.
Our intern, Fidel, highly recommends YouMail as he has actually been using it since the Stone-Age, also known as his Blackberry days. With YouMail, all he does is click on the voicemail he would like to forward, click on the ‘Share’ button, choose the method you’d like to use along with the contact you’re sending it to and, voila! Your voicemail will be sent, most likely in e-mail or text message form.
One other solution would be to switch from using the voicemail provided by your phone company or phone manufacturer to a third party service, such as Google Voice. Google Voice allows you to embed your voicemails in a website or blog, download them as MP3 files, or share them directly from the Google Voice page as an email attachment. Google Voice is free for personal use and works with almost any combination of phone or service that offers “call forwarding, no answer” support.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Sling Media: Slingbox M1 – Set top media box with smartphone integration
SMS Audio: Street by 50 – Over-The-Ear Headphones and earbuds
Parellels:Parallels Desktop 10 Software allows you to run Windows on your Mac
Kanex: GoPower Battery Pack – Mobile battery pack with built-in stand for smartphones
Tylt: Several Charging cases and cables – for smartphones and tablets