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Tech News & Commentary
Scott in State College, Pennsylvania asked: “My daughter is graduating high school. I was thinking of getting her a laptop, but as you know, funds aren’t just rolling off the trees, so if you could help me with an inexpensive laptop for her to use. .I’m not sure if Chromebooks or something else would be better. Something in the $500 range.”
Scott, You probably don’t want to go with a Chromebook in this case Scott. While they do a great job, a Chromebook is basically just a web browser, plain and simple, that’s all she’d be able to do with one of those.
They certainly have advantages, they’re almost completely maintenance free, for example, and you can expect them to run well indefinitely, but they’ll limit what she can do tremendously.
For your price range, you can find some Lenovo Z50 models, with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive they’re very re respectable machines, and while they don’t have an ultra powerful processor, it should suffice for simple tasks.
For a little bit less, the Acer Aspire E5 series will come with the same RAM and same storage, and a comfortable 15.6” screen.
Both of those computers come with Windows 8.1.
If you can stretch out to about $560, one of the Acer Aspire E5s comes with a Core i7 processor, which should be noticeably better than the entry level AMDs on the previous two models, this one is the E5-571-7776, it also has a respectable graphics card, and overall the whole computer is an improvement over the other 2 models.
Whatever you get, keep in mind that $500 is a cheap price for any computer, so don’t expect miracles, it will likely run well, but it won’t last forever, and it won’t be able to perform super taxing tasks, but it should do well with everyday things.
Of particular concern is how useful the device will be for her in any ongoing school. Chromebooks are fantastic, we don’t want to say anything bad about them at all. However, the vast majority of schools will support Windows or Mac and just look at you funny for everything else.
On the other hand, the zero configuration, completely bulletproof operation of a Chromebook is addicting. In the end, however, a Chromebook is an excellent second device for someone who wants fast access to email or the web, as well as an inexpensive device to carry around to potentially dangerous locations (like coffee shops, for example, not that one of us ever killed a computer by spilling a beverage on it).
You would still lose the Chromebook, but replacing it would be much less expensive. Hopefully some of this helped you!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Sean from Redmond, Oregon listening to the podcast and calling via the App asked: “I was listening to my local station via the TuneIn app, as I’m a truck driver on the road in the middle of nowhere. I heard an ad come on the radio about an app called NextRadio that uses FM chips in Smartphones and supposedly, iPhone is one of the phones that has an FM chip in it that is not activated by Apple or by the carriers. My carrier happens to be AT&T. Are there really FM chips in these iPhones? I have an iPhone 5S and I’ve never heard of them before. I’d like to see how to get this service.”
Sean, There is an FM capable chip in the phones, but it won’t do you any good. The chip is there, but it’s not plugged into anything, it’s not wired to the headphones to let them act as an antenna. That means that this phone could play FM radio in the same way your lawnmower work as a power generator, both can technically perform those functions, but you’re going to have to alter the hardware first.
Apple is probably staying away from FM for a few reasons.
For starters, WiFi, bluetooth and cell signals are all microwaves, FM is not. That means that FM reception requires a far larger antenna that will not fit inside the phone. In cellphones that antenna is the headphone cable. That means that FM won’t work without the headphones plugged in, which is a problem considering that a lot of people use their iPhones via WiFi speakers, AirPlay Speakers, Bluetooth Speakers or even it’s own internal speakers.
Apple likes to sell idiot-proof products and it probably doesn’t want complaints about how FM only works if you plug in your headphones even when you’re listening on speakers, and how that’s stupid since you’re not using your headphones anyway.
Besides that, from a business perspective, Apple is now invested in iTunes Radio and Beats Music, both are money makers for the company via either subscriptions or commercials. Without any kind of massive consumer push, why would they make them less appealing by adding another built-in option for music?
And while we don’t believe the prophets of doom who say that broadcast radio is dead (obviously, since we produce a show here for broadcast radio), we do agree that the landscape for radio is changing. Streaming radio is becoming more viable all the time, especially as more and more people do just as you have and listen on their smartphones.
We understand that you might find FM broadcast signals in areas of the country where you can’t get cell service or other Wi-Fi, but we can’t imagine that this is an everyday occurrence. You can always look into one of the portable satellite radio receivers for auto and truck use, if that’s the case.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Karen in Fresno, California listens online – Sent via App asked: “I have an old Pioneer PL 12D turntable from the 1970s and I want to connect it to my 10 year old Pioneer VSX D711 Amplifier Receiver, which does not include Phono inputs. Do I need something called a PreAmp, and if so, what is a PreAmp, and do you have any recommendations for a good one?”
Karen, Your amplifier receiver powers your speakers and passes on the audio to them but it takes as input something called a line signal, the preamp you’ll need for your turntable basically takes audio from your turntable in the form of a weak phono signal, turns it into a strong line signal and sends it to the amplifier so it can pass it on to the speakers.
To avoid a hum, you will have to ground your turntable to your preamp too, so get one for old turntables specifically with an easy grounding port.
You should also look for a preamp with RIAA equalization, that’s specific to turntable preamps and it’s used to reverse an equalization curve that gets put into vinyl when the content is cut into it. It serves to reduce background noise, but having a preamp that take that effect into account can greatly improve the quality of the music you’ll hear.
As far as recommendations go, you need a turntable preamp, they’re not the only kind, so don’t be shocked when you find $800 preamps, you can skip those. For example, the Pyle Pro Ultra Compact Phono Turntable Preamplifier is just $15 and will do what you need it to do. If you want a better one, you can jump to something like the ART DeeJayPRE, that will run you about $50.
For around $200, you can find the Radial Engineering J33, but you’re getting into audiophile/professional territory already, you probably don’t need an extra high quality device to listen to a regular turntable.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Jerry in Detroit, Michigan listening on AM800 CKLW asked: “How can I play some of the app that are available for phones on my regular computer. I’ve used sendbackies, and other apps. I know I have to change my operation from Windows 8.1 to an android base system. But has someone finally come out with an android base operation that will work with Windows 8.1?”
Jerry, There are a couple of ways to run Android apps on Windows right now, but they’re all pretty terrible, the only one we can really recommend is BlueStacks.
BlueStacks will open Android apps in a window for you to use, but remember that these apps are not built for computers, and even if you have a touch screen the buttons may not be in the most comfortable places, even if you have an accelerometer a computer may not be that easy or safe to tilt. BlueStacks has been out for about 4 years, it hasn’t caught on more because computers can usually run much better software than mobile apps, you may be better off looking for programs that use the power your computer offers.
Although it only supports older versions of Android, YouWave is another Android emulator for Windows. The one advantage that YouWave has over BlueStacks is that it tries to faithfully recreate the Android home screen so things might look more normal.
But as we said, BlueStacks is the #1 choice because of its popularity. Whichever way you go, you will need to create a Google Account, just as you would with an Android phone, in order to use Android apps from the Google Play store.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
John Cariola, AuD, Doctor of Audiology – Beltone
Hearing aid manufacturer with first iphone device
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
In 1935, At the 12th “Big German Radio Show” or IFA as it is named today, the public for the first time had the chance to compare TV sets: in a dedicated “television street” six companies presented no less than 20 different models. Two stations made live broadcasts in UHF from the showfloor. But the hall caught fire and transmitters as well as the TV sets, many of them still prototypes, were burned to ashes.
Ted in St. Louis, Missouri listens to the Podcast asked: “I had my son call me today and asked me what’s the best camcorder to buy. I told him his phone was a good camcorder, but then I thought I’d just ask you because I don’t really know about camcorders. If you could advise me on what is a good camcorder, I’d appreciate that.”
Ted, Most people would agree with you about his phone being a good enough camcorder, but if he needs the extra quality or extra settings, there are still dedicated camcorders out there to consider.
Canon’s VIXIA HF R500 is a 1080p camera, which may or may not be worse resolution than your son’s smartphone, it includes stylistic filters, a touch screen, and a baby mode to keep all your baby videos together. It costs around $200 and it’s reviewed highly by both pros and consumers.
The Samsung F90 will save him a little money at $130, but he will be dropping down to 720p, in a world that is moving towards 4K, so he may want to think twice about this one, and we’re only mentioning it because it is the best selling camcorder on Amazon, so there’s a good chance you’ll run across it on your research.
If he wants to jump to 4K, it is going to cost him. 4K camcorders are going for close to $1000, the Canon VIXIA HF G20, for example, costs around $840, Panasonic has similarly priced Ultra HD models, and those are the cheap ones, he can easily end up paying several times more.
If he does get a 4K camera though he’s futureproofing as much as possible, both 1080p and especially 720p are on their way to being replaced by 4K, and as content increases people will move to 4K more and more, and he may not be happy with a “mediocre” 1080p picture when he’s used to 4K programming.
But your advice isn’t wrong at all. If anything, the issue with using your smartphone as a camcorder isn’t the video quality, it’s the sound. A dedicated camcorder will have a larger and better microphone than your smartphone. As people who talk into microphones for a living, we’re well acquainted with the quality of diaphragms and the other variables that make an excellent microphone. There’s a reason why the mics that are considered broadcast quality are expensive.
You didn’t say what brand of smartphone you were talking about, but if it happens to be Apple and you would like to use your iPhone or iPad as a camcorder but also have world class audio with it, the solution is the Mikey from Blue Microphones. It costs around $90 depending on where you find it, and it plugs into the data port on the bottom of the device. That’s all there is to it. It records simply stunning quality, when we tested it with an iPad we really thought we were using a regular studio microphone.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Steve in Green Bay, Wisconsin listens to the Podcasts asked: “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 $799 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.
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
TYLT: Car Charger RIBBN Cables – These cables rapidly charge 2 Smartphones or 2 Tablets simultaneously.
Jabra: SoleMate Portable Bluetooth speaker for your laptop, tablet, smartphone or music player
PhoneSoap: Several Antibacterial – All Natural Touch Screen Polish
Livio Radio: Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit – FM transmitter that allows you to bring Internet Radio and hands-free calling to your car.
iLuv: A pair of ReFashionOlogy Canvas Exterior, Collapsible Headphones with a Titanium Diaphragm
Westinghouse: Unplug Wireless Bluetooth Sound System