Dave and the team were traveling to Boston this week where they’ll be reporting from the Games For Health Conference and prepared this encore presentation with some of our favorite calls and guests.
HOUR 2:
Jay in Carlsbad, New Mexico listening on XM Ch.139 asked: “Using Skype, is there a way to do a green screen, using Skype video?”
The green screen you are referring to is called chroma-key. It’s a film & video technique that let’s you replace the green (or in some cases, blue) background with anything else, like a live picture or a graphic or video, for example. There are programs out there that will allow you to use a green screen background, but those programs tend to be rather expensive, and at this point, it does not appear as if you can make a live Skype call, while replacing your green-screen background.
What you can use with Skype right now is a program called Web Cam Max. You can download a demo version of this program for free at WebCamMax.com. A full version of the software is available for around $50. And while the “Into Tomorrow” Team has not used this software, the consumer reviews of the software all appear to be positive.
Jay in Canyon Country, California listening on Sirius Ch.108 called in with a tip for radios for blind.
iBlink Radio is a free app that is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It was specifically designed for those who are visually impaired.
Genres include oldies, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, Rock, Alternative, Old Time radio and narrations of newspaper, magazines, and periodicals, including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many more. There is even a community radio section, and all of the stations in the group are owned or operated by those who are visually impaired.
It also allows you to download podcasts that cover a wide variety of topics, and again, all of these are produced by people who are blind or visually impaired.
Andy in Durham, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: “Looking for the best VOIP for personal phone use. I’m looking at Magic Jack and Skype. I’m wondering if you had any thoughts on those two.”
MagicJack is simply a Voice over IP product selling you phone service. Compare them with Vonage, if you wish. Vonage offers special equipment so you can just plug your traditional phone in and have a dial tone like you did before. MagicJack gets your computer involved. Basically, it’s a small box-like device, where you can plug in a standard telephone, and the other end plugs into a USB port on your computer. In addition, you’ll have to install software to make it work. It’s compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, and Intel Macs. For people traveling with laptops, MagicJack is clearly a convenient choice. For a home just looking for cheap long distance, Vonage comes out on top for ease of use.
Skype, on the other hand, wants to be a social networking system, as well as a VoIP service. When you register for Skype, you join their network with a “Skype name.” The Skype client program on your PC offers features that are similar to an IM client, like iChat, or Windows Live Messenger. You can type, voice chat, or video chat using a web cam. Skype’s audio quality is outstanding when you have a good headset microphone.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“Wireless Update” Weekly Feature with Chuck Hamby from Verizon Wireless
Clay in Smithville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: “Calling about Photoshop. I’ve never used it. Curious as to how it works, if it’s difficult to operate or what.”
Photoshop can do pretty much anything with photos. It does all the things that free photo-editing software does, plus you can cut the background out on photographs, and you can use filters, and much more. It can also be used to design graphics and web page layouts, but it might be a little difficult software to use. It’ll take some practice and tutorials.
Photoshop is clearly the most powerful image editing tool on the market, but that power makes it a very complex program to operate. It has long menus, that are packed with interesting sounding tools, and with no explanation of what a particular tool or filter does. You have to select it and try it, then see if you like what it does to your image, or buy one of those books on Photoshop. Sometimes, Mark thinks Adobe designed Photoshop to require training books, so they could get licensing rights. He respects Photoshop. It’s the top of the heap in its class, but he would certainly say that it’s quite complicated to use.
Dave asked the following on his Facebook page: “Apple’s Steve Jobbs called Adobe’s Flash “old technology”. Do you agree? Should the various iProducts support Flash? Why, or why not?”
Tune in to Hour 2 to hear what our Facebook friends and Twitter followers had to say about that.
Guest in this hour:
Dan Pitkow, Founder – Flipper Button Remote
Do your older parents or grandparents have trouble controlling their TVs? Flipper Remote is a senior-friendly TV remote control. It works the TV and set top boxes only, and has a favorite channel list that eliminates all the useless channels and buttons.
Matt in Las Vegas, Nevada listening on KNUU 970 AM asked: “I purchased an external hard drive, but I need to find a cheap or free backup service that will automatically backup my computer. The trial software it came with expired, so I’m looking for something that’s reliable and easy to use to replace it.”
You can try programs like Comodo Online Backup or, one of our favorites, Carbonite. All your files will be stored on secure servers, and you can access your data anytime over the Internet from anywhere in the world. All the files will be encrypted before they leave your PC, and then transferred to the server over an encrypted connection. You can use Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. These programs are not free, but for about $50 a year, you can have 10 GB, or about $1 a month for 1 GB.
Raul in Porterville, California listening on KTIP 1450 AM sent us the following email and asked: “Hi Dave, I was wondering if there is a device I can use to watch TV on my TV using my Wi-Fi. For example, the Netflix ROKU device. Something I can just plug in and play without having to pay a subscription.”
There may be a few alternatives for you, but we would recommend the ROKU Netflix Player. Other than Netflix, it also plays movies and shows available on the Amazon store. Also, you can now stream music from Pandora. The only subscription fees involved are for Netflix, and you will pay for some movies and shows from Amazon. It’s available for about $80.
Another option would be to plug your laptop to your TV and watch content on sites like Hulu.com or Boxee. And coming soon from Boxee is the Boxee Box by D-link.
“Into Tomorrow” Product Spotlight with Rob Almanza: YouRock Digital Guitar— Click Here or on Rob’s face for details