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HOUR 2:
Tech News & Commentary
Barry in Las Vegas, Nevada listening online asked: “I was wondering what you have to say about the apps for the iPhone that will give me Flash video. I do see a few of them advertised. What is your take on it? Do they work? Is it worth it? Your advice is appreciated.”
Flash apps for iPhone are typically very limited in what they can do. They generally support a limited set of websites, won’t work with every video site, and won’t work with Flash games or animations. We know, it’s frustrating.
Of course, there’s no real Flash support of iPhone, and now that Adobe even discontinued support for Android phones, you won’t see any real Flash support any time soon.
For now, if you’re looking for an app that will let you watch videos on your favorite sites, you can check out their website. Apps like Skyfire have a list of all the websites they support, if the ones you use are on it, then you’ll have the Flash support you need.
Keep in mind that when they say stuff like “we support more than 200,000 sites,” a lot of those sites are tiny, foreign or lacking in content, make sure they stuff you’re interested in is supported, before spending any money.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline.
Leeann in Fairbanks, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM asked: “My daughter is on a swim team and my husband has been taking pictures and video of the swim meets. We were wondering if there was anything we could use to take underwater pictures for the kids. A new cable? A new kind of device? We’re not “up” on any of that and I thought of your program.”
Thanks for thinking of “Into Tomorrow”. Among other things — like perhaps an underwater housing for a camera that you might already have — if your budget allows, we can recommend a couple of underwater cameras for taking pix underwater of your daughter on her swim team.
You can try the Vivitar Vivicam 8400 underwater camera. It’s great for family vacations and snapshot photography. The camera has 8.1 megapixel resolution, SD card support and works up to ten meters underwater.
The camera has some great features, including a movie mode. One drawback of the camera is that it has a 2.4-inch view screen, which is much smaller than some similarly priced digital cameras. The Vivitar 8400 has a waterproof case, making it suitable for diving, surfing, rafting. The case also keeps the camera safe from sand and rain. It features internal memory, and is powered by standard AA batteries. You can buy the Vivicam online for $70.
The Olympus 8010 has 14 MP lens, a 5x broad-angle optical zoom and 2.7? LCD. There is also High definition movie recording. As nicely as being waterproof, the Olympus 8010 is also freeze proof, shock proof and crush proof. You can buy this camera online for $190.
You can also try the Canon PowerShot D10, this camera is also freeze-proof and shock-proof sturdy. There is a 2.5 inch LCD, a 3x optical zoom.Its waterproof function extends to a depth of some 33 feet (10m) doing it one particular of the deepest digital waterproof camera models. The Canon D10 is available online for $290.
A camera we’ve used while cruising in the Bahamas is the Sanyo Xacti. There’s a few models to look at, depending on your preference and budget. They’re very slim and take good pictures and videos underwater. You can find one online for about $150.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Saroj in Durham, North Carolina asked: “I have a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista Time Warner internet. I bought a refurbished Netgear wireless router from CompUSA a few months ago. It was working fine, but since yesterday, I am not able to connect to internet through the Netgear. I called Time Warner, but they don’t support third party devices. Then, I called Netgear, but there is no free tech support, since it is a refurbished router. How can I make this netgear router work?”
Our intern Andrew, had a similar problem when he was running his home wireless network from a “Netgear WGR610 wireless router”. He was able to correct the problem simply by resetting the router. On the back of the device, there should be a “tiny” grey button that can be pressed with a paper clip or a safety pin. Press and hold the button for 3 seconds (no longer) and the router should hard reset. On Netgear’s support page they suggest that you might need to download the latest firmware, which is basically an update for the router, in order to correct the problem.
Also, Netgear has a troubleshooting page that will take you through ten steps (based on the model of the device) that will help you correct the issue if it still persist. They even have a little video on the page that will walk you through the necessary steps listed on the page.
Also, it would be a good Idea to check if the item is covered under any type of warranty by CompUSA. Not likely, but if they really want to help you, they might be able to replace a defective unit for you at no cost, or at the very least help you further or better troubleshoot the problem.
Remember that if you do reset your router, it will return to its factory settings. Any settings you have entered will need to be entered again. You say you have Time Warner, so usually a router will just work when you plug it in to the cable modem. But if you’ve changed anything about the IP addressing scheme, or some other internal setting, the router will revert to the default numbering scheme.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Ladd in Miami Lakes, Florida listens Online and asked: “I hope you know someone you can recommend to sit at my wife’s new Dell computer running Windows 7 and take out everything that Dell put in there except MS Office, a photo program for her digital photos, a printer program for her HP printer, and iTunes. She only uses it for emails, writing letters, scanning, importing, storing, and printing pictures, and syncing with her iPhone 4.
She is fed up with the little blue rotating circle that can be on display for 1-2 minutes before a program opens or the next operation is finished! Can you help?”
You can actually do this yourself without TOO much trouble. Virtually everything in Windows 7 can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. Look for the Programs & Features category and click anything you want to Uninstall. Single-mouse click it and then select “Uninstall” from the bar above. When you’ve removed everything you care to, you’ll probably want to run registry cleaner to remove all the bits the uninstaller left behind.
For this we recommend CCleaner from Pirisoft. It’s free for personal use, although do consider sending them a donation of a few bucks because it IS quality software. CCleaner removes junk files, cleans the system registry, and even gives you total control over which programs start automatically on your PC. You might want to stop some things from loading when you boot, but NOT actually uninstall them. CCleaner handles that. You can download it from ccleaner.com.
If you don’t like using Control Panel to remove things, you might also consider springing for a copy of PCDecrapifier. Yes, that’s the name. Only $5 for personal use, this utility does exactly what you were asking about. It will show you in a wizard mode what’s installed on your PC and allow you to remove things just by checking the list and clicking a button. It will then uninstall more than one program at the same time, which is something Control Panel won’t do — you’ll need to stay at the computer if you want to use Control Panel.
You can download PCDecrapifier from their website.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Rod Beckstrom, President & CEO – ICANN
Are you ready for to enter “ray.pizza”? Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are going truly international and customized!
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: “Tech Gifts for your Valentine” As you sweethearts make plans for your sweeties this Valentine’s Day, you would be wise to think about buying electronics instead of traditional gifts – especially for the women in your lives. |
1) SmartphonesNational US holidays always bring great offers, when it comes to electronics — especially, smartphones. Are you due for an upgrade? Will your current contract expire in time for Valentine’s? Or, if money is no object … be sure to snag a new smartphone that fits your lifestyle.Some of the latest Android phones are something to consider. We love the Motorola Droid RAZR here at Into Tomorrow, which is now available in white or purple, in addition to black. And, if you’re looking for more battery life, the NEW Droid RAZR MAXX may be your top choice.
2) Digital Cameras
One of the most popular trends these days are smaller digital SLR cameras. It gives us the freedom to experiment with more features and filters than we get in simple point-and-shoot cameras … but, in a more compact body. We’re big fans of the Olympus PEN series. An alternative would be the Nikon 1. And, yes, they both have a red camera, among other colors. The price range is about $500-$900, depending on what model fits you best. ) Headphones/Earbuds We love custom! One of our latest additions to our collection is a custom over-the-ear pair by Fanny Wang. There are 3 different models to choose from. Once you choose the pair that you like best — that fits your budget — you can then customize pretty much every color detail of the headphones. We have their 2000 series model noise-canceling headphones. We decided to go with our show logo colors – red, white and blue. It was fun to play with different color varieties. The sound quality is really good. You can activate a “Bass Boost” feature and really immerse yourself in your music. The only downside is the wait. It takes about 3 weeks to get your own custom pair. 4) Capacitive Touchscreen Gloves (Agloves) Last year, we featured a company that makes gloves you can use with devices that have touchscreens, like your smartphone. These are Agloves. They’re a really good gadget accessory to have. This would be a nice gift for those who live in cold weather where gloves are needed. Agloves range from $17.99 to $23.99. They work really well and won’t break your bank. 5) Geeky Gag Gifts
And here are some funky gag gifts from one of our favorite “geek” stores online … An I Love My Geek – The t-shirt speaks for itself and is available for guys and girls for $20. Or how about a Giant Bleeding Heart Gummy Candy? This will show you’re really committed … if you’re willing to consume all these calories for love! |
John in Rockland, California listens to the podcast, calling in via the App asked: “With your recent CEA experience behind you, I was wondering if there was any discussion on the competing goals with regards to internet content delivery. On the one hand we have the cloud as being strongly promoted, and on the other hand we have internet providers restricting internet bandwidth, which of course either limits data access or costs you more for access to that data. Is the revival of portable storage in our future? What do you see… into tomorrow?”
The revival of portable storage is probably not in our future… the cloud is just too convenient and popular.
And you’re right about ISPs — Internet Service Providers — they will probably keep adjusting prices until they figure out how much money they can get out of their customers without causing them to leave in droves, and customers will probably learn to accept caps like users in Canada and Europe have, and like smartphone users over here have as well.
Portable storage is still great for plenty of uses, but having access to your information from anywhere is very convenient and it seems to be the trend, so odds are that we won’t see that change in the near future.
On the other hand, very large flash drives are getting less expensive all the time, and you can buy a USB powered 1TB hard drive for less than $100. I don’t know what sort of “revival” you were looking for, but these seem like “righteous” prices to us!
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Honestech: VHS to DVD 5.0 Deluxe – Capture old VHS, Beta, 8mm or camcorder tapes and convert them to DVD, Blu-ray or other digital formats.
McAfee: Download keys for “McAfee All Access” — Secure your PC, laptop, and netbook against hackers and identity theft; Protect your smart phones and tablets.
Moola Street: $25 Gift Cards. Of course, Moola is slang for money and this is a unique way to give Gift Cards that cost you only 10% until the recipient redeems it!