HOUR 3:
Tech News & Commentary
Ben in Spokane, Washington listening online asked: “I hear Apple was planning to release an iPad, but smaller size. Is that true?”
Yes. Apple is doing this in order to compete with the several new Android Tablets that are out and coming out over the next few months. And of course, even BlackBerry is coming out with a Tablet — their PlayBook.
According to Goldman Sachs, Apple’s 2nd generation iPad will come with a camera, mini USB port and a lighter/thinner design in the second quarter of 2011. The new iPad may have a 7-inch screen, competing directly with the Galaxy Tab, an Android Tablet device that we covered at IFA in Berlin last month. It seems that the next iPad will include a front-facing camera, as Apple appears to be including FaceTime across their iOS devices — most recently, with the iPod Touch.
We’ll have to stay tuned to see what Apple does.
“Into
Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Johnette in Benton, Louisiana asked: “Wondering if there was anything for the house we can buy to get Sirius music. We’d like it to be mobile so we can put it in one of the vehicles of we wanted.”
There are actually a number of portable solutions for Sirius/XM satellite radio. The most common models for handheld portability, as you describe, are the Delphi SkyFi3, the Pioneer XMP3i, and the Sirius Stiletto 2 and SL100 models. The feature list on these vary, as do the prices. The Sirius models also feature MP3 playback. All models offer some sort of internal storage for recording off Sirius for later playback.
The criticism shared by all of these devices is simple. Reception. Your car’s satellite radio mount is a simple situation. An antenna on the roof has a clear view of the sky, plenty of signal, and since it is your car stereo there are no issues with connecting a portable device to it. The handheld devices are all smaller than the antenna on your car’s roof, and you’re typically using them indoors. That means big time reception issues. You don’t hear DirecTV telling you to mount that dish indoors, for the same reason.
The most commonly recommended solution by satellite radio enthusiasts is what’s called a “dock and play” model. This is a device where the satellite tuner itself is portable, but there is an indoor dock (not portable, and no doubt connected to a windowsill antenna) and a car dock. You move the tuner between the indoor dock and the car dock, to use your satellite radio in either location. Not as nifty as the self contained portable devices, perhaps, but less prone to terrible reception problems.
Now, we should note that reception issues are very specific to location and the building you’re in. Some customers of the handheld devices will swear to you that they never have a signal problem, while others can’t get signal to save their life. You might be in the lucky crowd, and you might not. If you decide to buy portable, be sure to buy from someplace where you can return the device if it doesn’t work well for you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Joel in Harkers Island, North Carolina sent us the following email and asked: “I have a Western Digital external drive that I use for backup at work. It has only a firewire connection. My new Gateway notebook has only USB connections. Is there anyway to connect a firewire drive to a notebook computer that has only USB ports; a converter, etc? If not, I have a backup drive that I can’t use anymore. Thanks, and I really enjoy your show. I look forward to the weekend so I can download the podcasts and listen to them on the way to work the following week.”
Firewire is more and more becoming a thing of the past, some high end cameras still rely on it, but for the most part USB is winning the fight. This means that adapters like the one you seek are not usually easy to come by anymore and what you’re left with are two options for connecting to your laptop:
1) If your new laptop happens to have a PCMCIA port, you can buy a PCMCIA Firewire card and that will give you a fully functional Firewire port. This is a decent option and it won’t set you back a lot of money, you can easily find PCMCIA firewire cards for around $20-$25 on Newegg.com as well as other sites like Amazon and eBay.
2) If your new computer doesn’t have a PCMCIA card slot, you can get a new hard drive! We know it doesn’t sound helpful, but you’re not very likely to find an converter that will let you use your firewire hard drive through a USB port, since the few companies that used to manufacture them have all discontinued them.
We would like to give you one last very important warning: the reason it’s so hard to find Firewire to USB adapters is because the two standards are very different and the differences go far beyond the connectors at the end of the cables, a chip is needed inside the converter to reprocess the signal before it can be sent to a USB port.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Aaron Cooper, Director of Marketing – Worth Avenue Group
What happens if your laptop is stolen? Should you have purchased insurance? Worth Avenue Group provides electronic device insurance for accidental damage and theft for laptops, cell phones, iPhones, iPads, televisions and more.
Joe in Hyannis, Massachusetts listening to our podcast sent us the following email and asked: “Are there any TVs coming out that have Skype enabled on them. I heard about a Panasonic TV that had it, but are there any others?”
Yes, there are TVs that you can expect to use with Skype enabled on them. For example, Panasonic and LG widescreen HDTVs are said to be including Skype. For those who may not know the full story, Panasonic displayed this technology at CES back in January. As of May 18th, they finally activated the app on all of its 2010 VIERA Cast-enabled TVs (including the VT25, VT20, G25, and G20 Series). However, you’ll also have to buy a Panasonic webcam that will cost $170, which supports both VGA and 720p video.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Cam in Brooklyn, New York listening online sent us the following email and asked: “I really love the wide coverage of your show. Recently, my father had a myocardial infarction (aka heart attack). He is doing great and out of the hospital. But, while helping my parents get through this, I needed to make a conference call with my five siblings to discuss future pans to assist them. I needed to connect my five siblings and we all wanted to be able to participate in the discussion. One of my sisters is in Haiti and so that would of course be a potential long distance overseas call. Not everyone has a computer and high speed internet service. What options exist for tying that many people in for a conference call? I have an iPhone with AT&T and a Blackberry Bold with T-Mobile if that helps narrow things down. The house has a landline and speaker phone with the local phone company in Miami. I also have internet service at my parent’s house.”
Mark on our team is a big fan of the Google Voice service. It’s completely free and will work great with your iPhone, BlackBerry, and home phone, and it provides a wealth of features other than conference calling. Google Voice’s conference calling couldn’t be easier. When you sign up, you’re issued your own personal, permanent Google Voice number. To make a conference call, just have people call that number. You can add them to the conference call, as they dial in, by pressing the indicated number on the telephone keypad. (You’ll have voice prompts that walk you through this.) But, there is one major flaw in this ointment. You said five siblings. Google Voice has a limit of four people in a conference call. That’s you plus three others. Not enough to get the family together, but completely free without any restrictions. You’ll need to turn to a conference call service provider.
The first name that occurs to us is Skype. People with Internet connections could simply connect with your Skype ID using their computers, and those who did not have access to an Internet connection would use the Skype In service, where you pay a small amount to have a telephone number linked to your Skype account. You buy Skype credits, which are used up as people Skype In to you. They would pay normal long distance charges to the Skype In number.
Another service you might want to check is FreeConference. They offer both a Premium service where you get an 800 number to call in on, and you’re billed 10 cents per minute, per connected caller. So, five siblings would be 50 cents per minute. Now, if you don’t need a toll free number, you can use their “Reservationless Standard” service. It’s FREE, but the participants need to call a regular telephone number that will be assigned to you at the time you sign up for the call on their web site. They will pay the long distance charge to that number, but they won’t pay anything else. Using the free service instead of the Premium service gets you less features, for example the Premium service can record your calls for you, but if you can live with that, you’re all set.
We should note, FreeConference is not without a bit of controversy. They make money by routing the calls through Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) that bridge cell phone calls to regular landlines. The LECs are able to charge the carrier for the bridge, and FreeConference gets a portion of that in income. Some of the big carriers object to this practice and have started blocking access to numbers assigned to FreeConference. Our stance is that the practice is legal, and this is at present squabbling between FCC regulated businesses that don’t like sharing the pie. However, we do need to warn you that calls to FreeConference numbers might be blocked.
You could also try FreeConference’s competitor, PowWowNow. They offer the same kind of service (free to the participants with just long distance charges) and earn their money the same way (revenues from their “telecom partners”). But the telephone company your siblings are using might not block BOTH services, if they block any at all.
There’s a lot of information here. We hope we haven’t overwhelmed you. Good luck and let us know how things turn out for you.
Agnes sent us the following email and asked: “We are in an RV park with free Wi-Fi, but the signal is very low. Is there anything we can do to get better reception?”
Probably the easiest thing for you to do is get a USB Wi-Fi antenna for your computer. They are available from any number of electronics retailers. We found some, for instance, at C.Crane that claim they can get you a usable Wi-Fi signal for miles. Now of course, that would be under perfect conditions, with no interference whatsoever. But working across an RV park should be no problem for these devices.They are basically (as the name implies) an antenna that you plug into your computer’s USB port. There are a few different types available.
First, you have the tabletop. Second, they have the mobile, or portable antennas that you can take anywhere, stick in a window, etc. Then, you have the point to point antennas. These can probably get you the best “boost.” But there is one main drawback. They are directional. You can find any of these antennas starting at around $20 at places like C. Crane.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
Into Tomorrow Product Spotlight with Rob Almanza
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
chicBuds: chicboom keychain speakers
Keyware: “VeriKey” – A USB device that monitors all office computer activity. For managers to know what is happening on the company computers.
PG Key: “PG Key” – A device that plugs into your children’s computer’s USB port and immediately creates a safer and more “kid friendly” online environment.
Roxio: Copies of Creator 2011 – Software that allows you to edit videos and create DVDs, even in 3D.