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Tech News & Commentary
Warren in Brooklyn, New York watches our ITTV Updates on YouTube – and hopefully SUBSCRIBES to our Channel! asked: “I want the Galaxy S4, but I want a 32 gig. Now T-Mobile doesn’t have the 32 gig. I want to know why certain companies are holding back? I want to go to T-Mobile but I want the 32 gig Galaxy S4. So when will that model phone be available at T-Mobile?”
We don’t know why T-Mobile doesn’t carry the 32GB S4, but here’s the thing, T-Mobile won’t subsidize a penny of the price of that phone, they’ll let you pay in installments over the course of two years, but they won’t make it a penny cheaper, so if you want the 32GB S4 you can find another source to sell you the unlocked version and see if they have a payment plan or pay for it fully on day one.
As long as the phone is GSM unlocked, it will work with T-Mobile regardless of whether you bought it from them, off of eBay, from Amazon or from any other source.
As for when T-Mobile will get the 32GB version… bad news there, they may not even want it. We don’t have official word from T-Mobile one way or the other, but Verizon has already passed on it, US Wireless said they haven’t ruled it out but are not committing to having it either, Sprint hasn’t said anything but is rumored to not be interested in the 32GB version… the truth is, the 16GB version will work for most people and worrying about moving the 32GB may not be appealing on a phone that isn’t that different from the rest of Android phones.
Yes, it’s the cool one right now, but in a month HTC will come out with the next cool one of the month (like they did with the EVO), after which Motorola will come out with the next cool one (like they did with the Droid X, or the Droid Bionic, or Droid Razr, or the Droid Razr Maxx), after which Samsung will come out with the next cool one (like they’re already planning to do with the “compare to leading Nexus brand”-S4).
So having a lot of more expensive S4s to sell when the S4 is coming in at #2, may be less appealing than having a lot of more expensive 32GB iPhones that people see as a different product from the latest cool Android model, or from having 32GB of today’s cool phone. The thing is, we already know the S4 won’t be the coolest phone for very long, and they know it too, as it is even today it’s only the cool Android phone to the people that don’t want the size of the Note 2, and to the people that won’t rather wait for the S4 mini.
By the way, even a 16GB Galaxy S4 can be expanded using a microSDXC card up to 64GB in size (be sure to get the faster Class 6 versions of that card if you choose to go that route). However, the speed of writing to internal memory will always be faster. So a GS4 that is 16GB of internal memory with a 16GB expansion card will always be a little bit slower than one with 32GB of internal memory.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into
Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Seth – listens to the podcasts – is calling in via the App asked: “I’m looking for a podcasting app for my Android phone so I can better enjoy your podcast and other podcasts. Thank you”
You have several options, but some of the most popular ones are not free.
Two of our favorites are Doggcatcher and BeyondPod. BeyondPod is the most expensive one of the two, it sells for $7 and it includes some options that might appeal to you if you download many different podcasts, for example, you get control over how much data the app is allowed to use and, when podcasts can be downloaded, you can set automatic downloads.
Doggcatcher is slightly cheaper, it costs $5, and it also has some premium features, like remembering where you left off on whatever file you were playing, and variable speed playback, so you can speed up spoken podcasts. It will also recommend other podcasts based on the ones you subscribe to.
You do have free alternatives, Podkicker is not totally free, but freemium, you can use an ad-supported version for free, but if you want to lose the ads or access automatic downloads via WiFi, you can pay $3 for the pro version.
ACast is also free, it will let you disable ads for $4, and it can also download episodes automatically.
So you have plenty of options, BeyondPod and Doggcatcher have many, many fans, so they may be worth considering, but you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding plenty of alternatives if you don’t think they’re worth the price.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Gabe Wiebenga, Marketing Manager – M
Do you want to create a cinema big-screen viewing experience anywhere at home? 3M recently announced an exciting new venture with Roku and a projector sleeve for the iPhone.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
In August of 1930 Albert Einstein was the keynote speaker at the opening of the 7th “Big German Radio Exhibition”, today known as IFA. The show was held at the Berlin fairgrounds which were now centered around the newly erected “Berlin Radio Tower” or “Funkturm”, the German name of this national landmark which is still one of the main attractions of Berlin, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris after which the “Funkturm” had been modeled. At the show, TV receivers with the mechanical Nipkow disc where shown, but the company Loewe demonstrated the first television set with a Braun tube.
Dave in Tyrone, Pennsylvania listening on 103.1 WRSC asked: “My children have a Kindle Fire and I was wondering if you could play movies from that on a television.”
It depends on what Kindle Fire you have. If you have the original version, you’re out of luck, the original Kindle Fire was not built with video-out capabilities. If you have a Kindle Fire HD though, not only can you do it, but you can do it very cheaply.
The Kindle Fire HD comes with a mini-HDMI connector, all you have to do is buy a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable, which you can find only for next to nothing, plug it into your TV and you’re ready to go.
You should be able to play movies from your Kindle Fire, whether they’re from Netflix, Amazon On-Demand, downloaded movies, YouTube videos or pretty much anything else.
Keep in mind that if you want to sit on the other side of the room with your Kindle Fire and have its display output on your HDTV, you will need a longer HDMI cable. You’ll see a lot of things said about HDMI cable lengths. In our experience, anything under 15 feet rarely, if ever, presents a problem. Beyond that point, you might have trouble, depending on your cable.
There are wireless HDMI extender kits selling for around $200, but we’ve heard mixed things about those. So just give some thought to the distance this cable needs to run and plan accordingly.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Dave in Sarasota, Florida listens online asked: “I’m having a problem with Windows 8, if you can imagine that. No matter what I do to change the user settings, I’m always required to enter my Windows password to login to Windows 8. I’ve tried looking up solution everywhere and can’t find it, so I don’t know if this is a known issue or of you guys might know a workaround for this.”
This is actually easy to do, though it’s not necessarily easy to discover. We’ve heard a lot of complaints of Windows 8 making users jump through hoops for what should be simple tasks.
Now, to achieve what you want, just hold down the Windows key and R, that should open the Run menu. Here’s the only hard part, you’re gonna have to remember “netplwiz”, just type that word into the run menu and hit ok.
That opens the User Accounts dialog, and right on top of the list of users you should see “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer”, just make sure that option is not selected.
When you unselect it, it may ask for your password, but after that you should be free of having to type it in every time you want to log on.
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
HDRadio: FM/HD Insignia Table Top Radios with 10 presets
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yo — Now with Dave’s face on them! — A clever solution to tangled earbuds.
iolo: Copies of: Drive Scrubber – Erase data so it can NEVER be recovered.
Magix: Music Maker 2013 Premium – Make Music Now! With More Sounds. More Possibilities.