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Tech News & Commentary
Steve in Green Bay, Wisconsin listens to the Podcasts asked us: “I do a lot of presentations for my job and I need to use a Windows based computer. I’d like to have your expertise on a large-screen tablet that would be best suited for doing PowerPoint presentations.”
Steve, The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 may be right up your alley since you have mentioned using a Windows based computer. This is the latest device in the Microsoft lineup and has an available keyboard and a surface pen– so you can easily write or draw on the screen during your presentations. In terms of a tablet, however, the price is a bit steep. It currently costs $899 on Microsoft’s website.
For those of you using an Android device, there’s one that we would HIGHLY recommend. We have been toying around with one of the 
newest tablets in the game– and it is well suited for presentations. The Lenovo YOGA Tablet 2 Pro is very impressive and has a ton of useful capabilities.
This device has a built-in projector that completely takes away the ancient concept of plugging it into an external projector. It is an extremely innovative concept and will give your presentations seem a lot sleeker. This tablet comes in at about $470 on Lenovo’s website.
And stay tuned, because soon we will be introducing the YOGA Tablet 2 Pro in an upcoming product spotlight along with it’s counterpart– the Yoga 3 Pro, tablet-laptop hybrid that is currently competing well in the market with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Kelly in Oxford, Mississippi listens on SuperTalk 105.5 asked us: “I heard there was a way to change the layout of windows 8 to look like windows 7. Could you give some insight on how this is done? It would be greatly appreciated.”
Kelly, In order to change the appearance of Windows 8 and 8.1 to look like Windows 7, you will need to download a software called ”Classic Shell”. Classic Shell is a free software that changes certain features on Windows 8 to appear as Windows 7, such as changing from Windows 8 Start Menu back to the Windows 7 Start Button.
To find the link, simply go to Classicshell.net and just download the software. The whole process should take about 5 minutes. Of course, there are other programs that you can use as an alternative to this one, but you would have to take out your wallet for those because they can go up to 5 bucks in price.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Jack in San Jose, California listens on KLIV asked: “I have a Samsung 55-inch LED TV that constantly shuts itself off and reboots. I have looked online and there’s apparently a lot of problems. I have not been successful in getting answers from Samsung.”
Jack, That’s outrageous, we are very sorry to hear you have to experience something like this– and yes! We have also seen that this is a big problem for some consumers like yourself with Samsung television sets. You definitely don’t expect a problem like this to occur, especially after spending as much as $2,500 on a 55-inch TV, of course – depending on model.
According to Samsung customer support, this is an issue related to the power supply of the TV. Have you reached out to Samsung’s support line or the source you purchased the TV from? It’s important to know if the TV is still under warranty, so you can turn it over and handle it as you see fit– although Samsung claims that they can send a technician over to oversee the issue and repair it. You should immediately contact Samsung or look over your warranties in order to compare options.
Some owners have reported that the problem went away after at technician replaced a discolored connector that they think may have been damaged by excess heat, whether that’s the case with yours or not, you can be sure that it’s some kind of fault with your set and it needs to be looked at by someone who knows how to repair it. You will not be able to change a setting and make the problem disappear.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Ricardo Lazzari, VP of Engineering – Bay Audio
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
The size of picture tubes was limited because of costs and weight, but flat panels were just a dream for many years. At IFA in 1977 the first miniature LCD screen was shown, 3 by 4 inch, with about 9,000 pixels. No wonder that Eduard Rhein, inventor, author and millionaire offered the incredible award of one million Deutschmark (over $1.7 million today) for the first real TV display for the wall. It took nearly two more decades until the first prototypes were shown at IFA in 1995, a 22 inch LCD and a 42 inch plasma. The first real product premiered at IFA in 1997. It was a 42 inch Plasma, only standard definition, costing about $15,000.
John in Anderson, Indiana listens on WHBU 1240 and is calling via the App asked: “Everytime I plug my iPod in and it connects to iTunes, the podcasts that I subscribe to show up and most of them download.There’s always a few that won’t download. They’re listed in the directory. I can see them there but I can’t download them. Instead of having the blue dot, it has an exclaimation point in a circle. I can’t figure out how to get those episodes to download.”
John, The exclamation point in iTunes is a telltale sign that something has certainly gone wrong with your download– that is pretty self-explanatory. There are two possible solutions we could suggest to help get those podcasts back up and running for you, and both are directly related to storage issues.
First and foremost, you must make sure you have enough space on your device to download these podcasts. I’d suggest getting rid of podcasts you do not plan on listening to again immediately, along with any other materials on the device that you do not need anymore. Freeing up space can sound a lot simpler than it actually is because you sorta have to decide whether you NEED certain apps, photos, songs, etc. and deciding whether you will get rid of Instagram or Twitter can sometimes make you feel like you’re making a Sophie’s Choice!
Now, if this doesn’t seem to be your issue because you have plenty of free space– some iTunes users have found that the problem could be where these podcasts are being stored on the device. Finding where exactly these podcasts are being stored is important, so you should go through your preferences and choose a folder for these podcasts to be stored on. This solution has helped several members on the Apple forums solve their download issues.
Have you been listening to those podcasts that won’t download? You should be able to download them manually either way, but Apple responded to criticism that podcast subscriptions were eating up too much memory by halting the download of abandoned podcasts. If you haven’t listened to the last 5 episodes of a podcast, you iPod may stop downloading them automatically and give you the option to restart the automatic downloads when you next open the podcast.
Even if this is the case though, resuming the downloads requires one single tap on the screen where it says “start downloading this podcast again,” so you shouldn’t be too puzzled when you see it.
And is it an exclamation point in a blue circle, or is it the lower case letter “i” in a blue circle? We suspect it might be the latter. That’s Apple’s symbol for “information here.” If you tap that blue circle, you should get another screen that explains what the issue is with the podcast. It might be, as we said, that you haven’t listened to any episodes of that podcast recently and it’s gone dormant. Or, it might be that something is glitched in the podcast’s feed and the actual files can’t be found.
When a podcast is listed in iTunes, that’s done through a slightly altered version of a standard RSS file. That file contains a lot of information, such as the date of an episode, the speaker’s name, a description, and so forth. It also has the size of the actual audio file and a path to where it can be found online. If that path is incorrect, you will get the little blue i inside the blue circle.
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
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