HOUR 2:
Tech News & Commentary
Warren in Scott City, Kansas listens via Podcast and asked: “I have an Android phone and I’d love to see something like Pioneer app radio that would be available for the Android. It looks right now from their website that it’s being marketed for the iPhone with some specific applications. Any plans that they or another manufacturer has to bring Android to the dash? It’s either that or I’m gonna have to figure out a way to get my Xoom into my dashboard, just so I can have a nice, big, Google Maps display that will give me those turn by turn directions.”
Pioneer probably decided to go iOS only with this radio because the iOS has a defined interface to interact with outside speakers, and a standard for supporting video-out in apps.
With Android things get a lot fuzzier, not all versions of Android have the same capabilities, not all phones have the same ports, and those ports are not always in the same part of the phone, it’s basically the same reason why you see so many iOS docks and very few Android docks… in fact almost every “Android dock” you see actually uses the headphone jack for audio (with the Philips Fidelio with saw at IFA being an exception to that rule).
As Android matures, Google will most likely be adding some sort of support for 3rd party speakers, if not for anything else, at least to collect a small percentage of the sale of each speaker that wants to be “Android Certified”.
We don’t have a similar solution to offer you that will work with Android yet, but you could buy a much cheaper radio with an audio input jack, and a mount for your phone, that will give you similar functionality for a lot less money.
If you decide to try anything like that, please be careful, seeing this radio in action made us feel like using it while driving may be a little dangerous, that would be even more so if you used your phone like that. The radio is at least attempting to put touch buttons in parts of the screen that you can access without having move your eyes away from the road too much, that will not be the case with your phone.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline.
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.”
Thanks for using our App to join us. We love that! Now, 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, once you have that, basically you need to open a command line window (just search cmd.exe on Windows) and paste the following command: route add [IP Address of Printer] MASK 255.255.255.255 [IP Address of Home Router]. That will allow you to print on that printer until you restart your computer, if you want to make it permanent you can do the same, but use the command: route -p add [IP Address of Printer] MASK 255.255.255.255 [IP Address of Home Router]. Just make sure that your printer and router always have the same IP address (it probably won’t be a problem with the router, but the printer’s address may change. For more information you can read this.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Facebook friend 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.”
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.
Guests in this hour:
Joey Pritikin, Director of Product Marketing – AOptix
Joey works for a company that started out improving the vision of space telescopes, and today is implementing iris recognition technology that you may be using next time your at an airport.
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: GAEMS G155
Gaming on the go has gone to a new level thanks to mobile technology. |
– Creates a mobile gaming environment wherever you go. Just strap in your gaming console, store your accessories, select your favorite games, and you’re good to go. All you need is a power outlet … and your game system. – The G155 has an integrated 15.5-inch LED HD display (plugs-in to your console with a 7-inch HDMI cable which is included). It also has stereo speakers, dual headphone jacks, and a pad that keeps your game console cozy. Just pop it open, plug it in, and … play. – The G155 can house your Xbox 360, Xbox 360 S or your PlayStation 3 Slim. – For those who travel on airplanes, the case complies with TSA regulations and airline carry-on guidelines. So, you’re ok to fly. – You can find the Gaems G155 case for under $300 online. |
Listener Gaylord asked: “Buy Apple iPad 2 refurbished and save $50, or buy new?”
Apple is pretty good when it comes to their refurbished products, they replace all the packaging and change the cases so what you get pretty much feels like a new product. They also offer the same full one year warranty you would get with a new (non-refurbished) product.
All of that usually makes Apple a pretty good and safe choice when it comes to buying a refurbished product, having said that, for $50 if you’re going to be worried or second guessing the quality of your new iPad, maybe you should buy a new one. You’ll still be paying 90% of the regular price.
We think that as far as refurbished products go, Apple’s are among the safest to buy, but it’s up to you to decided if they difference in price makes it worth the small risk to you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Energizer: Several Weather Ready 2 LED Flashlights
Logitech: Tablet Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad
Otterbox: Several protective cases, including: Defender for iPhone 4 & Defender for Motorola Xoom Tablet
Philips: Sonicare AirFloss (interdental cleaner) … Experience a microburst of clean in-between.