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Tech News & Commentary
Jamie in Tampa, Florida listens via Zeno Radio asked: “What can I do to preserve my cell phone battery? What can I do to make it last longer?”
There are a plethora of things you can do to extend your battery life. The 1st thing we recommend is to turn off features you are not using. Things like WiFi or your backlight can really drain the battery when you are not using them. Another trick is don’t wait to your battery is dead to charge it, charging your battery at 40% is healthier then waiting till your battery is at 10%.
Another thing you consider is vibrate, it takes about 5x more energy for your phone to vibrate then it does to ring. so when you can turn off that function. Also probably one of the biggest drains on your battery is location services. If you are not using them turn them off, the constant communication between your phone and the GPS satellite is a big strain on you battery.
Another thing to keep in mind is the temperature of your battery. Overheating can damage your phone’s battery cells and make it die faster after a charge. Keep your phone out of the sun and other hot places. A phone that gets too hot while in use could be experiencing some kind of charge malfunction and should be checked out.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Dennis in Columbia, Missouri listening on KFRU asked: “I have a Compaq that’s about 14 years old. Just wondering what’s the best way to keep it up and going.”
14 years-old is almost pre-historic in the world of computers … your computer is 4 years older than the first iPod ever, Australia didn’t get a movie on DVD until your computer was 2 years old!
Now as how to keep it running… on a computer that old you probably want to stick to software that was around at that time, you won’t be able to install Windows 7, or any other relatively modern incarnation of Windows, you shouldn’t even try to install a modern version of Office or most other programs.
As for general maintenance, since you’ll be running an old version of Windows defragging your hard drive is probably a good idea, as well as running some maintenance software that can clean up the clutter left behind in your registry after 14 years of installs and uninstalls, your problem might be finding that maintenance software for a computer running such an old version of Windows.
Honestly, if you’ve managed to make your computer last you 14 years, you probably want to keep doing whatever you’re doing now, but keep in mind that your computer is old and it won’t run forever, sooner or later the hard drive or motherboard or some other essential part of it will die and when that happens you really should replace the whole system… and believe us, even if you buy the cheapest computer around you will notice a huge difference!
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Jon asked: “I was wondering if you could address the risks of virus infection to smart phones surfing the internet. Do you see a lower risk for, say, Android phones than PCs? Are iPhones virtually immune, or at risk due to their popularity”
Yes, there probably is a lower risk for Android smartphones than for computers at this stage, but smartphone viruses are on the rise. Last year, Google actually had to send out thousand of emails warning customers that certain apps they had downloaded had been discovered to contain malware, and that they had been removed from the, then, Android Market and from their phones too.
Android phones are more at risks than iPhone because Apple checks every app that gets uploaded to their App Store, and because non-jailbroken iPhones can’t download apps from any other sources, Android smartphones can download apps from anywhere as long as they check an option on their settings menu.
There have been a few vulnerabilities in mobile operating systems that bad guys have tried to exploit, but those are usually patched up quickly, the majority of threats have come from malicious apps, even from apps that have been cloned, renamed and modified to include malicious code in them.
Basically, Android, iPhone, and the rest of smartphones are all vulnerable (Symbian, Blackberry and Windows smartphones have had malware infections before), but there really haven’t been any major widespread threats so far, so be careful when you download apps, download them from trusted sources, but don’t be overly paranoid.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
CTIA Wireless Reports…
| HOUR 2 GUESTS | ||
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| Adam Thomas, Vice-President of Marketing – Clarion | Laine Matthews, Director of Business Development – Wilson Electronics | Tom Moss, CEO – LM |
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| Cell Phone ChargingStation at a CTIA Exhibit |
Samsung Galaxy S3 at CTIA | Rob chatting with 3LM’sCEO Tom Moss at CTIA |
Phil in North Ferrisburg, Vermont listening online asked: “I’m wondering if there is any way to root an older 2.2 firmware Android Incredible, to be able to use it as a Wi-Fi router.”
Short answer? Yes.
There are multiple options available for rooting an HTC Incredible with Android 2.2. We’re not too keen on rooting our phones around here, so you should probably spend some time asking the rooting experts on the Droid Forums. There is an HTC Incredible forum with a sub-forum devoted to rooting and hacking the Incredible.
You will need to get a Wi-Fi hotspot app. You won’t be able to use anything that ties back to your cellular provider. Those don’t work any more once the phone is rooted. Again, since we don’t root our phones, you will need to get advice on specific apps from people who do.
A word about rooting. Rooting your phone means burning new system ROMs to it, replacing the version of Android that came from your wireless provider with a version you download where you have root, or superuser access to the phone. This lets you install all kinds of apps that the wireless providers consider forbidden. Rooting is entirely legal and will not harm your phone, although if it doesn’t go well it may leave it in an unworkable state and you’ll have to get assistance from your provider. Note that once the phone is rooted, they will not support it, so expect to pay a fee if you need help fixing a root-gone-bad.
So do it at your own risk. We’ve said several times that we don’t do it. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong, or bad, but it just means that there is nothing we do with our phones that requires rooting and we prefer to have support from our wireless providers.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Creative: Live! Cam Connect HD — Webcam that records 720p video
Planon System Solutions: A couple of SlimScan SS100 Credit Card Sized Scanners
Scott Steinberg: Copies of his new book “The Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids and Video Games”