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Tech News & Commentary
Al in Bangor, Maine listening to WOSH Online asked: “I just bought a tablet and I’m not sure if you need to have virus protection on a tablet. I assume you do. Wondering if you could give me an idea of what’s available. It’s an Android tablet.”
Don’t bother with virus protection, tablets and smartphones are not built the way computers are, apps are sandboxed and cannot interact with other apps, so you won’t get a virus that will spread and infect your system, what you can get is a malicious app that will try to steal some of your information.
Even that has gotten harder these days, since all new mobile operating systems will ask you to confirm that you’re ok with the app accessing your contacts, or emails, or pictures, or whatever it wants to access, but it’s still the biggest threat.
Just make sure that whatever app you download is reputable, read reviews if you’re not sure, and try not download anything that looks too spammy, but a full virus scanner is pretty pointless on a system where threats are going to be app by app, and not system wide. If an app got through your app store’s filters and you tries to do any harm, that sole app will be the culprit, it won’t be able to modify system files or infect others.
There is one big exception, if your tablet is rooted, that’s a different ballgame, each apps may be able to request root access and change anything and everything they want. If that’s the case be a lot more careful, but unless you’ve rooted your tablet, each app will be living in it’s tiny little world, unaware of anything else around it, and that makes antiviruses much less necessary or useful.
One good barometer of how important tablet antivirus apps are is whether or not you hear anyone who is NOT part of a security software company talking about them. When no one except for those wanting to sell you something say that you need it? That’s always a good sign that you can pass.
Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Terry in Joplin, Missouri listens to the Podcast and is calling in via the App listens to the stream on the iPhone App and Podcasts asked: “I purchased a Nexus 7 and I purchased a case with it. It got to where after a few minutes the screen would go blank like it was going to sleep. You tap the power button and it would come back on for a second and flash off. It would do it repeatedly. You take it our of the case and it would work just fine. Little confused. Need a case for it but I don’t know what is causing the problem. Also, looking for a good set of earbuds. Not real expensive but something that is comfortable to wear. I can’t wear an over the head headset and some earbuds just aren’t comfortable. Can you suggest something that gives good audio quality?”
It sound like your case is blocking the ambient light sensor. Most tablets and smartphones have an ambient light sensor for the purpose of keeping the light as it needs to be for you to read it comfortably in the room you’re in, while at the same time keeping it as dim as it can go as not to waste battery life (or hurt your eyes).
If your case is blocking that sensor, there’s a decent chance your tablet won’t know any better, it will just assume that you’re in a very dark room and lower the brightness to conserve both battery life and your retinas.
You’re best bet is to buy a new case that has a hole over the sensor to let light in.
As for the earbuds, that really depends on what you want to spend. The Sennheiser MM 70i is a great pair of earphones from experience. They provide a great amount of low and high levels. They are very comfortable with a variety of changeable earbuds to adapt to your ear. And retail for less than $70.
Also a few of us here, use the Yurbuds. They are designed to stay in your ear no matter what you are doing, especially during exercise, and they sound pretty good, considering the price. You can pick up a pair of the yurbuds from 30 to around 100 bucks depending on which pair you choose.
Tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast for more details.
Mobile World Congress Reports…
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| Gabriel Wilensky – Go Pro | Ian Renwick – Novotel Wireless | |
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Mark from Harlan, Indiana listens via the Android App asked: “My question is about my internet DSL connection. I would love to cut my cable line and use internet tv. But my problem is the very inconsistent speed I receive. I pay for 7 meg. But rarely hit 3 meg. They replaced my modem with no real difference. I also get times with no service. Is DSL a fancy name for dial up. Thank You….”
No, DSL is actual broadband, but what kind of speeds you get depend on a lot of things that you don’t really have much control over.
The current fastest DSL demoed is something around 300mbps, but that’s being fairly close to a node, when you move a little farther away from the node your speeds start dropping, and even using the same connection, at double the distance the speeds dropped to 100mbps. Most residential DSL is considerably slower than that.
Now, the reason you’re getting 3 mbps instead of 7 mbps, may be that you’re far away from a node, but it may also just be that the phone wires around you or even in your home are very old, the quality of the wires affects your speed.
If your problem wasn’t the modem, and your ISP hasn’t offered up any other alternative, you may be out of options. You talk about wanting to cut the cable and use Internet TV, have you considered using the cable company to do that? they might be able to give you faster internet access, and you may be able to get rid of their TV service using the internet service. Remember, however, that getting rid of actual TV service and trying to use the Internet as your television does come with its own set of problems. You won’t have any live sports, or at least very LITTLE live sports, unless you pay for an ESPN subscription. And you won’t be able to watch some of the most popular network shows until a day or two after they’re aired. SOME networks archive shows the same day, but if the show is hot they like to leverage that. When you break it all down, while you can easily replace PREMIUM service like movie channels and such, it is usually not worth it to replace basic TV service with streaming content only.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Jack in Los Alamos, New Mexico listening Online asked: “The motherboard in my desktop computer has been fried. I’m wondering about buying another board and replacing it. How do I keep my OS? I’ve been using Windows 7. Can I just put in my old Hard Drive and use it that way?”
Depending on whether your PC is made by a popular manufacturer such as Dell or HP or if it’s a custom built one it is possible to change to the exact same motherboard and keep the hard drive, however, it’s not recommended because there might be some driver and compatibility issues. We recommend that you do a clean install of your operating system and restore your files from a backup, or if you don’t have one, get a new drive, install Windows and restore from your old drive.
Also if your motherboard had fried, we would like to advise you to make sure that your CPU and components haven’t suffered from damage because if you put faulty components in your new motherboard, it may damage it.
So please be carefull.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Steve in New Jersey listens to the Podcast sent us a comment about his experience with the iPhone 4 and iTunes.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yo — A simple solution to tangled earbuds.
Iolo: System Mechanic – Fix and speed up your PC… Automatically.
Magellan: eXplorist 610 – Premium, rugged, handheld GPS with camera, microphone and speaker to record all your actions in the outdoors.
Yamaha: PDX-11 Portable Speaker — Free your iPod and iPhone music for your active Lifestyle.