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 3:
Derek in Jefferson City, Missouri listening on KLIK 1240 AM asked: “I want to buy a camcorder for my wife and was wondering which camcorder I should buy, and what the big differences are in them.”
We have looked over tons of hand held camcorders, big dogs of camcorders, and the little dogs too. But one that has caught our eye is Kodak’s Playsport Zx pocket camcorder. Here are some of the specs:
1080p, 5-megapixel stills, it’s good for low light performance, has HDMI output for watching directly from the camera to your HDTV, works with Mac and PC, has up to 32GB of memory (that’s about 10 hours of HD Video), and it’s waterproof (up to 10ft or down to 10ft). The Kodak Playsport Zx3 will be available in April for about $150.
If you don’t like waiting, the Flip MinoHD would be another good option. The MinoHD comes with 720p, 120 minutes of video, HDMI out, built-in flip-out USB arm for quick uploading to video sharing sites, and can be used with Mac and PC. The MinoHD goes for around $200.
Ross, from our Into Tomorrow team, has the FS200 flash memory camcorder from Canon, and likes it. He likes the image quality very much and it has 37x optical zoom. The Canon FS200 is available for about $250.
Rob has been traveling with and using a JVC Everio camcorder (GZ-MS120AU) with flash memory. He saw it the other day at Target and Walmart for $250. It has two SD Card slots and can switch automatically to the other card when one of them is completely full.
James in Cosby, Tennessee listening on XM Ch.139 asked: “Question about Satellite Internet service for my little town that doesn’t believe in high speed Internet access. Are they good and which one should I use?”
When it comes to satellite Internet, the two best choices are either Wild Blue or HughesNet. But, satellite Internet is, generally, only good for general web surfing; forget trying to upload pictures or videos because it will simply take too long, and if you’re a gamer, not a chance.
Satellite Internet is a great alternative when compared to dial up, but be careful before you sign anything. Both Wild Blue and HughesNet require two-year contracts and come with hefty start up costs. Also depending on what plan you select with them, they can even limit the amount of data you can view in one day.
James also had a follow-up: “You talk about all these new OS’s like Windows 7, but what about Linux? Is Linux a good thing “coming into the future” and is it pretty easy to work with?”
Linux is a great system and is most commonly used as an embedded system within super computers, or as a part of servers. As far as an operating system, the Mac OS or some form of Windows are still the most common operating systems. Linux currently occupies somewhere between 1-2% of the desktop market and doesn’t seem to be focused on that area of development. Although, there has been a recent surge in the use of the Linux Operating System, as Net-books and E-books popularity has grown, and many of these utilize Linux.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
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Richard in Michigan listening on WSJV 94.9 FM asked: “I want to add memory to my older Gateway desktop machine running XP. It’s 512, currently. I want to know how far I can go, how to go about it, what it would cost, or would I be better off to upgrade to a newer system?”
The fact that your computer only has 512MB of memory tells us that it’s quite old, and that could present a problem in upgrading the memory. Like antiques, memory chips get more expensive as they become out of date and harder to find. So be prepared for some sticker shock.
The best way to find out how much memory your computer can accept and what chips are needed, is to use a tool like the Memory Finder at Newegg.com. You can find it on the left side of your screen when you select “Computer Hardware”, then “Memory”, or click here to go to the direct link. Tell it the make and model of your computer, and it will tell you how much memory it can hold, and what chips you need to buy.
Richard also had a follow-up: “I have a TV on a brick wall in my family room. The wall has no antenna jack, and right now, I have a cable running across the floor. I’d like to eliminate that cable and send the signal across the room wirelessly. Is that possible?”
There’s a service called PlayOn, that lets you watch Internet videos on your TV, wirelessly. PlayOn works with your Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 to watch your favorite movies, shows and videos from Hulu, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, and more, streamed right to your TV. Other compatible devices include: Moxi HD DVR, HP MediaSmart TV, Western Digital TV Live, and others. You can try PlayOn for free for 14 days. Then if you like it, you can buy it for a one-time fee of $40. You’ll also need a networked computer to run the software.
Bob in Nenana, Alaska listening on KFBX 970 AM sent us the following email and asked: “Hi Dave, our old VHS machine has taken to ‘eating’ our tapes. We need to get a VHS/DVD recorder, but aren’t sure what will best serve us. We understand JVC has good products and are trying to compare the JVC DR-MV150B DVD Video Recorder/Video Cassette recorder, and the HDMI (HD media interface) up conversion DV80B. Hard to do when we don’t know what all that means.
Are there other models that will copy VHS to DVDs, and are programmable to record programs (burn a DVD) from our HDTV? (sounds like another language!)”
VHS in 2010? (Or as Rob would say: “That’s so last millennium!”) Honestly, VHS went out the door with the 90’s.There’s more to just your machine “eating” your tapes. The oxide will eventually crumble and the content on your tapes won’t even be accessible. So, moving that content to a digital format is really important.
There are several models out there that will do what you ask, but the JVC model you talked about does everything you want it too, and it was also the cheapest one we found. We were able to find it online for around $180
There are several other options out there for you to convert your VHS tapes into DVD’s. We are very fond of HonesTech’s VHS to DVD software, that you can pick up for around $70. You will, however, need a DVD burner, but now-a-days, most computers also come with a DVD writer.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Mitch in Greenwich, Connecticut listening on WGCH 1490 AM asked: “I’ve got an AM/FM radio in both cars. Is there any way of tweaking the FM or AM side of the car radios? In one car, I cannot pickup an AM radio station, but in the other car it comes in fine.”
Reception issues plague many people, especially for people with an older car. There are many things that come into play when dealing with radio reception in cars. Most of the issues are with AM stations, since they transmit on a much lower frequency than FM stations. Many of the issues have to do with electrical interference. This is evident when you’re driving down the street, and as you pass underneath power lines, the radio gets very “staticky”.
Another source of electrical interference comes from the car itself. Your car radio typically uses a combination of the antenna and your car’s body to act like a much larger antenna. Because of this, when you have electrical problems in your car. Sometimes, it can affect your radio reception. Our friends at C. Crane say that if you hear a high-pitched whining noise that changes when you step on the gas, the noise is most likely coming from the alternator, distributor, or sparkplug wires.
If the car is a few years old or has a lot of miles on it, the cheapest and most common solution is to change the sparkplug wires on your car to original equipment, or resistor-type spark plug wires. Solid wires will cause more noise problems than you had in the first place. If this does not cure the problem, check your distributor cap for excessive wear or arcing. They say that many people have eliminated reception problems by having a complete tune-up to their vehicles.
C. Crane goes into a lot more detail on their site and have many other great articles on radio reception issues for both the car and home.
Guest in this hour:
Amos Winbush, CEO – CyberSynchs
What would you do if your cell phone were stolen right now? Are you protected? CyberSynchs web server allows you to erase all of the data from your smart phone, should it go missing.
Brian in Houston, Texas listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: “Got an iPod from somebody that already had songs on it. My girlfriend’s son tried to transfer the songs to his iTunes and ended up deleting all the songs Is there a way to get them back?
Also, what do you think about the new HP touchscreen computers?”
Unfortunately, Brian if the songs were deleted from the iPod, then you can kiss them goodbye. That’s why we always remind people of the importance of backing up your data. With the newer iPods, you should be able to transfer songs back to your computer, but if they were purchased from the iTunes store and have the DRM on them, your computer has to be authorized on the account they were purchased on, in order for them to play. Once they are deleted from the iPod, there’s no way to recover them.
Rob has played with their TouchSmart PCs before and wasn’t impressed. They’re not as responsive as they should be. Would it be fair to blame Windows for that? The reason I say that is because I’m used to the iPhone and iPad touchscreens. It might be wrong to compare, but they’re very responsive. And it may be due to its iPhone OS’ mobile platform. At CES, we looked at their latest tablet with touch technology. That’s the HP TouchSmart tm2 Tablet PC. It seemed to work well. You can see the tablet in action during an interview with Phil McKinney from HP on our ITTV Video Channel. Look for “CES 2010: HP”. The tm2 tablet PC starts at $900.
Juan in Los Angeles, California listening on Sirius Ch.108 asked: “Thinking about buying a gaming computer this year. Do you have any good choices?”
Mark just purchased an iBuyPower Gamer 930i from Newegg.com a few months ago. He paid $1336 for it, and he is extremely satisfied with the machine’s performance. There is nothing special about its components, that it’s using off the shelf parts.
Intel’s Core i7 chip is the best. If you have the cash, go for the Core i7 Extreme, and get highest model number you can find (last time I looked, 965 was the highest, I think). If you’re looking for a tremendous value, then get the same CPU I did, the Core i7 860. Great price, easy to over clock if you want to, strong performance.
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.
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