HOUR 3:
Tech News & Commentary
Brenda in Fairfield, Texas calling in via our App asked: “I’m looking to buy a new laptop and I’m wondering what I should be looking for to get the best value for my money.”
That’s hard to say without knowing what you will be using the laptop for. There are a fair number of laptops that can be found under $500, but many of them use slightly older technology.
One you can look at is the Lenovo Essential 15inch G570 with the Intel Pentium dual core processor B940 that uses the same technology as the second generation Core i3 processors. It may not be as fast, but if you will be using it for web browsing, media watching and productivity software, you will be just fine. It comes with 2 Gb of memory, a 320 Gb hard drive, dual layer DVD burner and Windows 7. The Lenovo Essential is available for $370.
You can also check out the Dell Inspiron 15R. It’s a 15-inch laptop that comes with the i3-2310M processor, 4GB of memory, a 500 Gb Hard drive, dual layer DVD burner. It has two USB 3.0 and an eSATA port that allow for a wide range of high speed external peripherals.
If the external peripherals are not an issue for you but you want some better graphics, the Lenovo Idea Pad Z570 is a suitable alternative. Both the Lenovo and Dell Inspiron are available online for about $600.
The HP Pavillion G4-1226nr has much of the same features as the others, but weighs under 5 pounds and is more compact thanks to the 14inch display. The HP Pavillion comes with i3-2330 dual core processor, 4 GB of memory, a 500 GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner and integrated bluetooth. You can find it online for less then $600.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Bob in El Paso, Texas listens via TuneIn Radio and asked “SLR Cameras: My particular model doesn’t have a portrait setting, but I’m really intretested in getting that setting through the manual or aperture setting modes. Can you give me some insight on how to do that?”
Set your camera to Aperture priority mode, then set the aperture to the smallest number you can, how small the number can be depends on your lens. The smaller that number is, the shallower depth of field will be, that means that you will get a crisp and focused subject and a blurry background.
Depending on how much light is available to you, you may need to also adjust the ISO sensitivity, with you camera set to Aperture Priority mode your camera will leave the aperture set to what you want it to be and it will compensate for your choice by adjusting the shutter speed, that means that in low light you will get slower shutter speeds and your picture will most likely be blurrier (unless you and your subject are both really still). The ISO setting will make the camera more or less sensitive to light, the rule is: the lower the ISO setting the clearer the picture will be, as the ISO gets higher your picture will tend to get noisier, but the shutter will be able to move faster so you should be able to get fewer blurry pictures.
You can also set your camera’s light metering to “center-weighted metering”, that will give priority to the center of the image, but will take into account a fairly large portion of the frame.
Other than that, practice and adjust, if part of your subject looks focused and sharp, and park looks soft and blurry then go up a few f-stops (that “aperture number” we told you about). You should also take some time and find out how high an ISO setting you can use before your pictures look too grainy… This should get you started, but practice makes perfect.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Listener Dave asked: “After talking with 3 different sales people at BestBuy yesterday I decided to buy a Samsung HDTV. One of the features that is important to me is to be able to watch movies which I’d copy to a flash drive and play via the USB connection.I know that some will play only pictures and some video. I was assured that the model I purchased would play movies, but I might have to convert to a compatible file format (no problem). The issue is that they lied, this model only plays music or photos. My question is do you know which manufacturers offer the capability to play video via the USB port?”
If you’re inclined to give Samsung another shot, all Series 6 smart TVs will play DivX and .MKV video files from USB drives. Series 5 TVs can also play video files from USB, but it needs to be enabled from a service menu, so it won’t work out of the box and if the firmware got updated the option may be off the service menu altogether.
LG’s 42LW4500 can also play DivX, if you want a stand alone TV and want to try a different brand. Philips also has some TVs that can read movies from USB drives, in particular .mkv files, but we’ve heard from a lot of not so satisfied users.
You also have the option of not going with a standalone TV. You can get a media box or plug in a computer to one of the TV’s ports.
If you’re interested in a stand alone media box, you can look at something like WD TV Live, a Boxee Box, a Roku Box. You have plenty of options, and we have discussed them on the show before. They will all let you have some kind of web streaming and they will let you play local files on your TV, it may not look as nice to have a box next to your TV, but they’re relatively inexpensive.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Kevin Hamilton, President & CEO – TruConnect Mobile
Why aren’t that many people buying 3G plans for their laptops and iPads? Could it be the service costs? A new service launched recently from a company targeting 3G users with an alternative to carrier plans with an “ultimate unbundled service”.
“IFA History Feature” brought to you by Messe-Berlin
Since the introduction of the color TV standards, insiders in the broadcast industry and manufacturers saw a need to enhance the picture quality drastically. In 1982, Japan made the first approach with a high resolution technology, and in 1989 competing groups in the US were developing enhancements to the existing analog technologies towards high resolution. In Europe, a project named “EUREKA 95” was started to develop a European concept, discussed at IFA. Digital was a dream which insiders saw ten years later. Digitizing 20 seconds of TV took a living room full of computers an entire night. At that time, there was still no way to broadcast live High Defiition TV.
That’s this week’s IFA Update brought to you by Messe-Berlin. Be sure to visit IFA-Berlin.com.
Shawn in Indianapolis, Indiana calling via the Free Into Tomorrow App asked: “My question has to do with the Dell Streak 7 that I currently own. When I did the latest update to take me to Honeycomb, I lost the ability to download movies from the Google Marketplace. There is a video player app that’s tied to Roxio now, that if I set up an account will let me download movies, but I hate the idea of having to have another website or program with my credit card floating around. Is there anything I can do to get back the full Android Marketplace short of rooting my Dell? or am I stuck with Dell’s offerings?”
It is possible to install the newest version of the Android Market (the one with movie rentals) to your device without jailbreaking it. Typically, you should just wait to get the official update that will definitely be supported by your tablet, and that will definitely come from a trusted source.
If you really can’t wait, you can download the app from an unofficial source into your computer, then use a USB cable to transfer it to your phone, unplug the phone from the computer, and from your phone using a file management app like ASTRO, open the file. That should overwrite the old market and replace it with the new one.
We have read that Google and Dell are porting the new market to the Dell Streak family, so it might be safer for you to just wait until the new version comes out, that way you’ll get software that was tested for your device specifically and that comes from a trusted source and not some anonymous forum poster online.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Listener Michael asked: “Hi Dave, could you tell me name of your guest’s software to speed up your computer? Has your team checked it out to see if is worthwhile?”
On our November 4th Broadcast, we had Sandro Villinger from TuneUp. We discussed their TuneUp Utilities 2012 software, which they claim:
– Boosts PC speed by up to 50%
– Extends battery life
– Saves power by up to 30% and upgrades PCs with an enhanced power management
– Over 30 tools in 1: more speed, better stability, less problems
Currently on sale for just under $35.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
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This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Boingo: Two months of FREE Boingo WiFi Service available at hundreds of thousands of hotspots worldwide
G-Technology: Several G-Drive Slim 1/2 a Terabyte (500GB) Silver Hard Drives
Solar Components: Several JOOS Orange Portable Solar Chargers – Designed to charge all personal electronic devices (cell phones, smart phones, MP3 players, GPS devices, portable game devices and more)