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Tech News & Commentary
Donald in Erie, Pennsylvania listening on WPSE 1450 asked: “I’m an old Windows computer user and I was wondering what is your idea of the best way to avoid viruses and things of that nature?”
Your best bet to stay safe from viruses is to have an up-to-date antivirus on your system. There are plenty of free ones that will give you good protection, and to make sure that what you’re doing online is relatively safe in the first place.
For example, don’t go to dubious websites to get questionable software. Stick to more mainstream sites, and don’t click on any links on emails unless you know them to be safe. Anything coming from your friends, a bank or anything else, may actually be coming from someone who hijacked the computers or copied the design of their emails.
Pirated software and even movies a lot of the time contain viruses, so if you can steer clear of those, you’d be more likely to be safe.
A lot of malware today makes it onto your system by simply lying and tricking you into thinking that there’s something wrong with your computer and they can fix it for you. Be suspicious of any company offering that advice without you asking, and double check with a reputable source.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Jenny in Jackson, Mississippi listening on WFMN 97.3 FM asked: “Is there a way to disable the camera feature on the lock screen of the iPhone? (using the iOS 5)?”
One of the features included in iOS 5 was a shortcut to the camera from the lock screen. On iOS 5.0 & 5.0.1 it only shows with a double tap of the Home button. However, on the latest software update, it’s there permanently and cannot be disabled. There are still many features and apps on the iPhone several users would like to get rid of, and there are some features we’re still waiting for.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Robert in Fairbanks, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM asked: “What about the new AT&T Note? That kind of hybrid between a notebook and a tablet. Is that good and is it going to last? What would be the benefit to owning one of those? And what about the Apple – will it ever play the Flash player?”
As with all phones and tablets whether or not you’ll like the Galaxy Note is up to you, but it’s a tough sell. People complain about 7-inch tablets being too small to be more useful than smartphones as it is. This thing has a 5-inch screen, but then again, it’s too big to comfortably carry around.
The difference in screen sizes doesn’t really make it much more useful than any other phone with a big screen. And while the little stylus pen and the ability to add notes to documents and pictures with it is cool, it may not be cool enough to choose it over other phones or tablets that have other features, many of which you might get more use out of. It’s a 4G LTE phone, it has a good camera that can record 1080p video and a crisp and obviously big screen.
Ultimately, if you like the big screen, the phone’s for you. If you don’t, it’s not. The Note will probably stay as a niche phone, more than a mass appeal one like the Galaxy S line.
About Apple and Flash, no, you won’t see Apple using Flash… but you won’t see anyone else using Flash either soon. Adobe discontinued Flash support for mobile platforms and they seem to be starting to focus on HTML5 products. The truth is that Steve Jobs was right about flash, it’s a very inefficient battery hog and it doesn’t play all that nice with mobile devices, so the transition to HTML5 should be good for end users, but the time in between will have Apple users deprived from using “the full web”.
Remember also that the Samsung Galaxy Note isn’t the first 5-inch phone-tablet hybrid. The Dell Streak 5 struggled to find customers, eventually being replaced by the Dell Streak 7 with its larger screen size. Samsung also has a history of building products without any clearly established market for them, and sometimes that’s turned out okay. The original Samsung Galaxy Tab stood out from the iPad because it had a smaller screen, and today we accept that there are 7-inch tablets and there are 10-inch tablets (or sizes close enough to those for government work).
Because the Galaxy Note runs Android and is built by Samsung, there isn’t really a danger in buying one. You’ll be able to get apps for it, and its warranty service will be honored. Will it spawn apps aimed at its pen interface or in-between screen size? Hard to say. But if it appeals to you, then buy one! And then let us know how you like it!
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Kent Lawson, CEO – PRIVATE WiFi
Want to become invisible to hackers? Private WiFi can help with your own Virtual Private Network.
 PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: Square vs. PayAnywere (Taking Credit Card Payments with your Smart Phone or Tablet) |
Listener Bob asked: “We all have smart phones. I just turned my dumb camera into a smart one. Instant uploads from your camera wherever you are – that’s the power of the Eye-Fi Mobile X2 wireless memory card. Since I very often need to upload pictures from my camera, to post here and on other parts of the forum. This will be a real time saver. And who ever said that “Old Folks” are afraid of new technology.”
We love the Eye-Fi and have talked about it for years. We first had the CEO of their company on back in 2007 to talk about this cool little gadget. It is such an easy way to upload and share pictures right from your camera.
The challenge faced by Eye-Fi is the ever increasing quality of smartphone cameras. Nokia just introduced one with 41-megapixel resolution! Even the eight megapixel cameras on the iPhone 4S and most current Droid models have removed all desire to lug a separate point and shoot camera. Smartphones have built in photo sharing and online backup, with systems like Apple’s iCloud or Google’s Picasa Web.
The Eye-Fi is a very cool product, and the company behind it isn’t missing the smart phone boat. There is an Eye-Fi app for both iPhone and Android that will let you use your digital camera and smartphones interchangeably. The only problem we see is that the Eye-Fi is an SDHC format card, which parks it squarely in the consumer “point and shoot” arena, which is ALSO where the smartphones compete.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Boingo: Several 60-day Certificates — With Boingo you can connect online at free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.
Kingston: 16GB SD memory cards and a MobileLite G3 (USB 3.0 Card Reader)
Idea Incubator: Several txtRng — “the stylus with syle”. This is a unique stylus Rob recently featured it on our Product Spotlight.
Radio Shack: Auvio Element Earbuds with Microphone