Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
Tech News & Commentary
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Cong calling in via the app asked: “I want to know why HTC One is so slow after upgrading to Android 4.3.”
We actually haven’t heard of any HTC Ones slowing down after the update, we’ve heard of worse battery life, but not of slowdowns.
We have seen slowdowns on the HTC One and other phones when they get low on storage space, it is possible that after the update your phone’s operating system is simply taking up more space, and your available storage is suddenly low and forcing your phone to stick to more smaller operations, rather than fewer bigger ones.
If that’s the case, you won’t be able to shrink 4.3, but you should be able to get rid of media you’re not using to free up space, or get a bigger memory card, if transferring your content is not too much of a hassle for you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Michael in Willow, Alaska listening on KBYR asked: “My kids and I are starting a small at home business screen printing T- shirts for sale to tourists and others. We need to get a new PC and the screen print manufacturer recommends Corel Draw 5 or 6. My question is which operating system would best support This software? And if you recommend Windows 8 should we get the touch screen ? Not sure if we want a laptop or a desktop either. I’m leaning towards a desk top because of cost but would spend the extra money for a laptops convenience. I always look forward to listening to your show while at work in the far north Alaska oilfield. Thanks much for all you do, I look forward to your recommendations.”
First of all we should mention that Corel Draw 5 and 6 came out in 1994 and 1995 respectively, X5 and X6 came out in 2010 and 2012, we’re sure your print manufacturer recommends X5 or X6, but if they’re actually recommending 5 or 6, you may need to look for more recent stuff.
Having said that, X5 and X6 don’t demand that powerful a computer on paper, X6 requires Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8, will run on 32-bit processors, and even a Pentium 4 processor, and will work on 1GB of RAM and 1.5GB of hard drive space… and if you try to run it on a system with those minimal specs, we suspect your first t-shirt with be printing sometime around the summer of 2016.
You probably won’t be using the most highly advanced features CorelDraw offers, you won’t be dealing with a ton of vectors and layers, or editing very large images, but even so…. a Pentium 4 with 1GB of RAM seems wildly optimistic.
You may want to go for a desktop, and spend some of the money you save by not buying a laptop on RAM, a decent graphics card, and on paying for CorelDraw, which is not at all a cheap piece of software.
CorelDraw X6 will cost you about $400 if you buy it, $25/month if you get a month to month subscription instead of paying the full price for it, or $198/year of you go for a year to year subscription rather than buying it or going month to month.
Whichever way you go, it’s going to be a substantial expense, and you should probably keep it in mind when choosing a computer.
If you go for Windows 8, you should get a touchscreen, having said that, you can go with Windows 7, X6 will work just fine on 7, and it will likely continue to work just fine for years, since they still support XP.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Joe in Columbia, Tennessee listening on SuperTalk WTN 99.7 FM – Calling via the App told us: “My wife is expecting our very first child. We are very excited and don’t want to miss anything. I’ve been looking at a couple of digital video cameras. Particularly one from Canon that shoots in 1080p. But I’m wondering what you would recommend for digital video cameras. Whether I should use a video camera that I buy, or maybe one from my phone. If you have any recommendations, that would be great.”
You have a variety of choices you can make, it just depends on your budget. Canon Digital cameras – for example – that shoot 1080p, can range from $200 to $550. If you’re willing to spend the money the Canon Powershot SX 50 HS might be your new bestfriend, at a juicey price of $429.99.
Yeah, that one captures full HD 1080p, high-resolution images up to 4000×3000 pixels, and overall, it’s a great camera. But if you’re leaning the other way, You can take a look at we recommend the Powershot SX 510 HS – 12.1 Megapixel digital camera priced at $250. While still shooting in 1080p, this camera takes precise and accurate videos and pictures.
I like the Panasonic HC-X920 HD camcorder. It sells for around $800, which is pricey, but it has excellent low light performance. That will be important in the kinds of environments you’re likely to be shooting in. However, we always recommend that before you buy a dedicated camera of any kind, snapshot or video, you try the camera you probably already have in your pocket — your smartphone. Most current generation smartphones take excellent pictures and videos. Now if you don’t want to use a smartphone because you want to share this camera (and we understand that handing over your phone to someone else can make a person nervous), then there are a lot of excellent options like the ones we just listed. But sometimes, a camera in pocket is worth two in the store!
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Robert Siciliano, Online Security Expert – McAfee
Marilyn from Lewisburg, Tennessee listening via Supertalk 99.7 FM WTN asked: “I am looking to get an updated version of a cell phone. Right now all I have is a pre-paid phone. It kinda looks like a Blackberry. I want to get up with the times. So I want a phone that can surf the net, but what i really want is a phone that takes great pictures and lets me stream live football games while I’m at work. Help me find this phone?”
Pretty much any newish phone will surf the web and, except for the very low end ones, most new phones can take very decent pictures. Your toughest requirement is streaming football games.
If you want the best experience, a phone like the Galaxy Note 3 would probably be your first choice, the screen is huge, and it’s an LTE phone, so the video should look crisp and you shouldn’t have to squint to find the ball. Now the Galaxy S4, an additional Samsung phone, also has the big screen, and LTE, but it’s a little smaller, if you are looking for a smaller size phone.
Unfortunately, watching NFL games live is not that easy… in the US the NFL has a deal with Verizon to stream games live and, eventhough they do have an app called Game Pass that people can use outside of the US to stream games, it won’t work here or in Mexico.
So, if streaming NFL games is a big deal to you, you may want to look at the phones Verizon has to offer. If watching the game live doesn’t matter to you, you can pay for Game Rewind, another app, and that one will work in the US and on non-Verizon phones. Unfortunately, access to Game Rewind will cost you $60, or $30 if you don’t care about watching playoff games or the Super Bowl, because this is the NFL: a non-profit organization.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Tom in Windsor, Ontario asked: “Cannot connect Nintendo 3DS XL to Linksys e4200. Why does that happen? Is there something wrong with my router? The Linksys and the Nintendo units both seem to be compatible and illustrate the option of WPA two security. The Mac addresses however are both different. And they cannot Be changed. My Internet service provider Also has its own Mac address. Why couldn’t it be as easy as it was when I set up my iPad. All I have to do there was find My wireless network and then type in my password and it was good to go. How can I get these two units to work with each other? Hope you can help.”
A MAC (media access control) address is the unique address assigned to every piece of equipment that can connect via Ethernet. No two devices have the same MAC address, and it’s tied to that hardware. There is no way to change it, nor would you ever want to.
The problems connecting a Nintendo DS of any kind to a wireless router usually come down to firewall issues. The DS wants to use all manner of ports to potentially support player-to-player connections that the wireless router often has filtered.
Before you get too crazy with troubleshooting this, log in to your wireless router and shut off the firewall. If that works, Nintendo’s website lists all these ports and other configurations you’ll need to set up so you can restore the firewall for other uses but still allow the Nintendo DS to work.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Richard from Raleigh, North Carolina listening via Newsradio 680AM WPTF asked: “I just heard you give directions on how to delete duplicate files on itunes before the gentlemen transferred his files to a new computer (07/19 Show). My trouble is that I did the same thing, deleting the duplicate files, but the duplicate files were from separate CDs and when I play the album, I lose those songs. Is there a way to keep from losing your songs playing on more than one album on iTunes?”
What iTunes will do is show you songs that are exactly the same (same length, same name, etc.), if the songs on the different albums are basically copies of each others they will show up when you search for exact duplicates, but you don’t have to delete them.
iTunes only shows you the songs, but you can, for example, sort by album and not select the duplicate songs from different albums and just select the rest before deleting.
It’s not the most sophisticated high tech solution, but it’s the easiest way to go about it, since iTunes will only search for duplicates and, according to the criteria it uses and regardless of what albums they belong to, it considers those to be duplicates of each other.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Covington Creations: Earbud yo-yos “A clever solution to tangled earbuds”.
C.Crane: Senta Ally Portable Bluetooth Stereo Speaker with built-in FM radio and SD & USB reader.
Yamaha: Pro 300 Hi Fidelity, over-the-ear Headphones.
Nite Ize Innovation: Connect Case and Connect Cradle for iPhone – Hard case with belt clip, vehicle mount and desk stand.