HOUR 2:
Tech News & Commentary
Tim from Decatur, Illinois listening on 100.9 FM asked: “Hi Dave, I’m looking for a Bluetooth stereo device that I can hook up to my stock radio in my car. Thanks.”
There are a few products out there that you can look at. What you really need is a Bluetooth reciever that has an FM transmitter built-into it. Our team has uncovered one that will do just what you are looking for.
The Motorokr T505 Bluetooth, makes calls hands free and allows you to listen to your tunes with features like echo/noise reductions and loudness control. The Bluetooth technology will stream your music or favorite talk show, such as into tomorrow right from your phone or MP3 player to the Motorokr T505. The digital FM transmitter let’s you make and take calls and your music will pause while you’ll take your calls.
The Station finder technology searches the FM dial for you to find the best station to transmit to. Press a button and Station finder will find and announce the best FM station for you to tune to. This portable solution clips to the visor, so that it can be taken from car to car.
The Motorola Motorok T505 is available online for about $56.
For more information, tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline.
Samantha in Miami Lakes, Florida listening online and asked: “I have a friend who lives in Dublin, Ireland. She’s coming over for the summer. If she has the iPhone 4 on whatever the carrier is there, what does she need to make the phone work here?”
Assuming she doesn’t want to put up with roaming charges, the first thing she should look into is whether her iPhone 4 is carrier locked or not. The iPhone has been for sale unlocked for a long time in Europe, and many phone companies sell it, so it is possible that she either got it unlocked from the start, or can get it unlocked by her cell phone company for a cheap fee (O2, the first company to sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland will unlock it for some of it’s users for about €10 ~ About $14 U.S.).
She also has the option of unlocking the phone herself, it will be free, but it will also require re-syncing all of her information and the phone will likely become carrier-locked again the next time it gets a software update. Once the phone is unlocked she needs a local a micro-SIM card, she’s only likely to be able to get a micro-SIM in the US from AT&T since no other phone companies are using them yet. The good news is that only difference between one of those and a standard SIM card is the size of the plastic around the chip, T-Mobile has been known to have their own sales people cut normal SIMs into micro-SIMs for iPhone 4 users, and they work just fine, she could even do it herself if she doesn’t mind taking the risk.
Once the phone is unlocked it’s just a matter of finding a decent plan for the phone, T-Mobile offers several plans that don’t require a long term contract, they even offer a pre-paid plan that would give her unlimited minutes, texts and internet for $70 a month, she doesn’t even need to cancel it before she leaves. Since it’s prepaid if she doesn’t pay she doesn’t get the minutes, texts and data, but she doesn’t owe any money.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Joel from Harkers, Island, North Carolina called in via the Android App and listens to the podcasts and asked: “I’ve been a smartphone user for the last three years but before that I used Palm OS for over a decade. I’ve been able to find a suitable replacement for most of my Palm apps, everything except the Desktop and my memos and notes. I can do without the desktop but I really miss my over 5000 notes that I had acquired over the years. So far I can’t find a way to transfer those notes to the iOS or to the Android, can you help?”
The newest version of Note Everything for Android can import both Palm and Windows Phone notes straight from Palm Desktop or Outlook. The process is pretty simple, you need to use Palm Desktop to save the notes to a .CSV (or comma separated values) file, put that file on your phone’s SD card and import the notes from inside Note Everything. We should mention Note Everything is free.
That’s an overview, but if you come by our website and we’ll link you to detailed step by step instructions from this week’s show notes.
As for iOS, you can try Memos, it costs $7.99 (there is a free version, but it’s limited to 5 notes — not even 1/1000th of what you need), but it can import Palm memos, you’re also going to need Palm Desktop, but you should be able to transfer all your memos into your iOS devices as well.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Mark Young, VP Mobile Strategy & Business Development – NBCUniversal
Do you still wait in line to buy movie tickets? Why not use your cell phone next time?
Tim in Erie, Pennsylvania listens online and asked: “What do you guys think of this thing called “Dropbox”? I’m thinking about getting one. What do you think about it? Yes? No? Maybe?”
Dropbox is another form of “Cloud Storage”, which is really gaining in popularity nowadays. Storing things in the cloud or across multiple devices is a great way to backup your data, while making your files accessable from anywhere you have Internet access.
The way Dropbox works is very simple. You install the software on your computer and it creates a “Dropbox” folder. Anything you put in that folder will be accessable from a mobile device, another computer, or their website. You can also copy files into a “Public” folder it creates. this will assign a link to the file that you can give to anyone, so they can get a file without logging into your account and seeing everything you have.
I started using Dropbox recently and I love it. It has made it so easy to share files between my computer and iPhone. I signed up for the 2GB free account and have found that it is plenty of storage for what I’ve needed. I use it as temporary storage for files that I either need to access on the road or share with others. I’ve found it to be very easy to use and would definitely recommend it. Especially since you can sign up for 2GB for free. You can see if you like it before spending any money. Then, if you decide you need more space, you can pay for more storage.
Dropbox is more of a drag-and-drop cloud service vs. other companies that are more set-it-and-forget-it. You have to drag new files into your Dropbox folder to upload them. Earlier in the show, we had a guest from SugarSync. I signed up with them and enjoy their service. Don’t get me wrong though, I also like Dropbox. But, I’m liking SugarSync more because the folders and files that I choose are automatically updated in the cloud and are accessible from anywhere in the world.
Dropbox also has an Android client that allows you to copy files into your Dropbox from a computer and access them later from a smartphone. Things like office documents, PDF files, pictures, videos, etc. Dropbox has clients available, in fact, for just about every computer or mobile platform.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Sue in South Lion, Michigan listening on CKLW AM 800 out of Windsor, Ontario Canada asked: “I’m in my 50s. I’d like to know if an Apple iPad or “Verizon same kind of thing” is too hard for me to work.”
No, you should be fine.
The whole point of the iPad and it’s competitors is that they are intuitive, you want to read your emails, just touch the email icon and they’re there … you want to look at your photos, just touch the photos icon … is the photo too small?; use your fingers to stretch it out to a bigger size. Tablets are a lot easier to use than regular computers. They’re more limited in what they can do, but they’re far easier to use.
The iPad will most likely be easier that the rest of the Verizon alternatives, that’s not because the other ones are hard to use, but because Apple requires that all apps display the same behavior. With Android-based tablets some apps follow the standard and some don’t, 90% of the time it’s fine and it’s easy enough, but sometimes it can get confusing and frustrating when a developer decides that a button that means “up” on every single other application will mean “down” in his.
Even taking that into account, all tablets are fairly intuitive and you should be more than able to use any of them without a problem, people far older than “in their 50s” are using them daily without too many problems. If you want to be sure that you’ll get along with a tablet, go down to a Verizon store, they’ll have both iPads and competitors and should be able to have a look, try them out and see how comfortable you feel using them, but we have no doubt you’ll be able to use whatever tablet you choose and enjoy it without any problems.
There are a couple of us here on the Into Tomorrow staff who are rumored to be in our fifth decade, and we have no trouble at all working computers, tablets, and smartphones. The devices themselves aren’t as much of an issue as the apps you choose to run on them. We very much encourage you to try one out, whether a smartphone or tablet, and we can almost guarantee that you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Steve, calling via our Android App, listens to the podcast and asked “I have to use a VPN from my work computer and the problem is I have a Wireless printer at the house and I can’t seem to print when I’m logged on to VPN, when I’m not logged in I can get it to print. It’s one of the HPs I can’t remember the number exactly, it’s one of the ones where you can print through email which works really slick, it’s really cool, but I want it to just print wirelessly when I’m doing work at home and it won’t. I was wondering if you can tell me how I can make that happen when my VPN is on to print at home. Thank you and have a good day.”
The router shouldn’t be at all connected with your printer’s driver problems, unless you’re talking about a network printer. If that’s the case, it’s possible that either the printer itself or the router needs to be setup to play nice with each other.
We can’t tell you exactly what the set up will be without knowing what printer model you’re having trouble with, but your manual should be able to help you.
If your printer connects directly to your computer, there’s no reason for the router to interfere with the connection at all, but you should probably attempt to reinstall the drivers anyway because, for whatever reason (even if it’s unrelated to the router), your computer and printer are not talking to each other and a fresh installation might replace whatever configuration file broke down along the way.
You say “the laptop” can’t find the printer, does that mean you have additional computers on that network? Can they still print to the printer? If we had to guess, we would guess that the printer was configured to use a static IP address within the dynamic range of addresses provided to computers by the old router. The new router probably uses a different IP address range, which the computers simply adapt to, but the printer is still configured with an address in the old range.
Most printers must have static addresses because once the print driver finds the printer, it creates a TCP-IP port to use in communicating with it. It will do this only once, the first time it scans the printer, so the printer must not keep changing addresses. Assuming this turns out to be the case, once you’ve changed the printer’s address, you will need to either change the IP address on the port being used for that printer in Windows or Mac OS, OR you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer, which should re-run the port scan.
Or better yet, if you have a geeky friend who likes troubleshooting this sort of stuff, offer him or her some pizza and beer, or sushi and saki if that’s more to taste, and ask for some assistance.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Facebook Message from John asked: “My girlfriend got a new wireless router. Do printer drivers need to be re-installed when a new router is installed? The laptop is not finding the printer.”
Without getting too technical, the reason you can’t print at home when you’re connected to the VPN is because the VPN is essentially lying to your computer. What you do when you connect to a VPN — or Virtual private Network — is use secure channels so that you can connect to your office’s internal network from outside of it, the reason you don’t do that through normal channels is because you don’t want to give everyone in the world access to your office’s private computers.
The VPN network instead adds layers of security to ensure that if you got access to the office’s network it’s because you belong there, and since you belong there you can use it freely… here’s where the lie comes in… once you’ve passed the security hurdles, your computer’s VPN adapter kinda tells the computer “you’re not at home, you’re at the office” and the computer thinks that it’s directly connected to the office’s network (even though it may actually be thousands of miles away from it).
Since your computer is now acting like it’s at the office, when you tell it “connect to my home printer and print this page” it asks the office’s network “can you connect me to this printer?” and the office network just says “no, no such printer here…” and the print request gets discarded.
There is a way to get around this, it’s not hard, but it is kind of technical. You’re going to need your printer’s and your router’s IP Addresses, so instead of telling you on the air, why don’t you come by our website, we’ll give you the command so you can copy and paste it and explain how to get the information you need to use it successfully.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Ross Cohen, Co-Founder – BeenVerified
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: “Tablet Keyboards” Several tablet owners prefer buying hard keyboards and case combos for typing on the go. For instance, Dave always carry his trusty Zaggmate Keyboard Case with my iPad. This week Rob’s got a few keyboard options for your tablets – both Android and the iPad. |
Products: 1) Tablet Bluetooth Keyboard for Android and iPad • Low profile keyboard • Keys are nicely spaced (very similar to laptop keyboards) • Carrying case functions as a protective cover for the keyboard while on the go … and as a stand for your tablet. • Compatible with tablets running Android 3.0 or newer • Powered by 4 AAA batteries • Buy online between $60-$70
• For devices running Android 3.1 or newer • Scroll up and down on web pages and documents • Scroll through your home pages and apps nicely • $50
) iTablet Bluetooth Thumb Keyboard • Looks like a game console controller • Backlit keys & a built-in rear-facing touchpad • Rechargeable via a USB cable • $99-$130
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John in Hartland, Michigan listens on 800 CKLW asked: “I was wondering if you guys have seen the new FBI Child ID mobile app and wondering what your opinion of it was.”
Yes, we have. In fact, Chris highlighted it on last week’s show in our “Favorite Apps of the Week” segment. Sorry you missed it.
We think it is a very usefull app. You can store indentifying information for your children and with one click, send that info to the authorities in the even your child goes missing. The app also includes tips on keeping children safe as well as specific guidance on what to do in those first few crucial hours after a child goes missing. There are also single click buttons that will connect you to either your local 911 operator or the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
What we don’t like about the app, is that it is not password protected. Granted, you’re not storing things like social security numbers or addresses, but if you’re gonna have pictures and physical descriptions of your children, you’d probably want that information secure. There’s no telling if that could become a problem if your phone gets lost and ends up in the wrong hands.
Hopefully they’ll think of that in future updates.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
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.
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)
