HOUR 3:
Tech News & Commentary
Marcos in Lindsay, California listening on KTIP 1450 AM asked: “I noticed that there are HDTVs coming out that are Wi-Fi enabled. What special purposes do those have? Can you browse on those? Is it for Netflix type services?”
Several manufacturers like Sony, Toshiba, Vizio, and others are coming out with Wi-Fi enabled TVs. They can stream content straight to their display without a network cable. For example, The Toshiba UX600 LED TV not only lets you watch movies from your cable or Satellite or DVD or Blu-ray, but it also lets you enjoy video from Into Tomorrow, YouTube, slideshows from Flickr, and other online content.
In addition to streaming video content from the Net, this set also has a customizable “Ticker” that lets you stay current with News, Weather, Twitter accounts and other stuff. These Toshiba models from 40 to 55″ start at about $1400.
Another good example is the VF552XVT TruLED LCD HDTV from Vizio. It uses the latest wireless technology, like the others, so you can connect to the Internet, stream movies, and TV Shows using the Netflix and Amazon widgets, listen your favorite music with Rhapsody, and even get the latest news & sports through Yahoo!. You can also use the Universal Bluetooth Remote with slide out Qwerty keypad to send a tweet or change your status on Facebook. That 55″ unit is available for $2199.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Jabster sent us the following email and asked: “Hi, I want to know if there is a thing where you can get Wi-Fi wherever you go on an iPod Touch.”
There is no device that will get you Wi-Fi everywhere you go, but you could look into devices like the MiFi. That will give you Wi-Fi access wherever you have cellular coverage. In the US, they are available from Sprint and Verizon. The MiFi is about half the thickness of a deck of cards and can give you Wi-Fi access from up to 5 devices at a time using 3G.
You could throw a MiFi in your pocket and surf the web on your iPod Touch, or any other Wi-Fi enabled device. We’ve found the MiFi very handy when we’ve been traveling, especially at hotels that want to charge you a small fortune to access the Internet for just a few minutes. We’ve fired up the MiFi and been able to check our email, and do whatever else we needed to online.
In fact, when we have had rooms close together, we have been able to use it from other hotel rooms, although the signal wasn’t necessarily the best through walls.
Click here to view the MiFi on Verizon
Click here to view the MiFi on Sprint
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Kenneth in Wilmington, Delaware listening on 1150 WILM asked: “I have an HP all in one printer and I can’t find my cartridges for it. What would you suggest?”
Have you tried going to HP’s website? On their main page on the left side, it has a button called “Ink, Toner & Paper.” If you click on this, it allows you to search for the proper ink cartridges by the type of printer you have, the ink cartridge number, or the printer series.
While ordering from HP directly may not be the cheapest alternative once you have the proper cartridge information, you could check at some local stores, or you check out one of our sponsors websites, such as New Egg or TigerDirect.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
Microsoft announces increases in the price of Xbox Live, citing enhanced content. Gamers cry. Listen for details!
The “Into Tomorrow” team talked about the Sleeptracker Elite Watch
Tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast or click here for more details.
Bob in Springfield, Illinois found us while clicking through the radio asked: “On eBay, they sell a mini notebook with the Windows CE OS. I’d like to know what the CE program is like when compared to XP, Vista, and Windows 7.”
Windows CE is a completely different kind of operating system.
Windows CE is designed to run on small devices with extremely little memory. It can even run on a system with less than 1 MB of memory (these days, a memory card the size of your fingernail can easily hold 2000 times that, if not, more!). Depending on the purpose of the device it’s running on, it can even run on a static version that lets the user make no changes at all to it or it’s files.
This kind of configuration is fairly common on Windows CE devices, which doesn’t even always have a separate hard drive (for example, an ATM running CE might not need any storage for it’s users). Windows CE is popular with PDAs, some smartphones, and similar ultraportable devices, even ultraportable computers like the one you saw, but it doesn’t have the same look, feel, or capabilities that XP, Vista, or 7 have.
For more information, click here or tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Guest in this hour:
Noam Bardin, CEO – waze
Waze is a free mobile navigation application that allows drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation to improve their daily commute.
Bubba in Louisiana listening on 710 KEEL AM asked: “I have a Ford Explorer and I have 2 CDs that are stuck in there. Who should I go to? Do I need to go to the dealer? Is it going to be expensive? Should I go to a car audio place? Or can I do it myself?”
Without knowing what type of radio you have, whether it be stock or aftermarket, it’s very hard for us to give you exact advice. However, paperclips were made for this reason. Check to see if your CD player has a small hole near where you put the CD’s in. If it does, try sticking a point of the paper clip in there while holding the eject button and see if that works.
If your CD player doesn’t have one of those little holes, you can always put the paper clip into the CD slot and try and lift the CD again, while holding the eject button. The risk you run here is you could damage the CD.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Curtis sent us the following email and asked: “What happened to the new invisibility cloaking technology? It was making news consistently for a while there.”
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Joe in Eerie, Pennsylvania listening on WPSE 1450 AM asked: “Considering buying a new TV. I have a 1989 Magnavox. It’s good, but not as good as the new ones. I’ve been seeing LCD and LED. Which one’s better? What’s the difference? Which is going to last longer?”
LCD and LED are pretty much the same, except for the backlighting methods. The marketing of these LED TVs has confused a lot of people. And, add Plasma to the mix for even more confusion. LED TVs are really just LED-backlit LCD TVs using “Light Emitting Diodes.” Wheras, LCDs have used some form of fluorescent lighting from tubes to much more advanced flat arrays of lights.
LEDs are more energy saving and produce a very good picture quality. Viewing angles have improved with LED TVs. We have an LCD-LED HDTV from Vizio in our studio lounge.
Click here for the buyer’s guide.
Lew sent us the following question on our Facebook Fan Page: “How do I secure a domain name for my organization to protect the new name?”
We’re not entirely sure what you mean when you say “secure a domain name” in order to protect it. If what you mean is how can you register the name of your organization as an Internet domain name, well, nothing could be easier. Visit any of the dozens and dozens of companies that are domain name registrars and it will take you only a few minutes to find out if your name is available. If it is, you can register it on the spot for just a few dollars per year.
For example, we’ve used GoDaddy.com to register domain names, and we find their domain control panel to be an excellent tool for administering your domain. They also have DNS services available if you need them.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Luke in Tyler, Texas listening on KTBB 92.1 FM: “I heard about the Mi-Fi. Can you connect an Android phone to your computer and use Wi-Fi from your computer to your Android phone?”
If you’ve got a Wi-Fi network that’s available to your computer, assuming you know the password, you should be able to use it on your Android phone without the need for a computer at all.
If what you want to do involves connecting the phone to the computer via Wi-Fi, it can indeed be done, and the computer can also share a “wired” network connection through it’s Wi-Fi adapter.
For example, if you get your Internet through a network cable connected to your computer, you can set that computer to act as a wireless access point and share it’s connection wirelessly with other devices, including your Android phone.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Matt in San Jose, California listening on KLIV 1590 AM sent us the following email and said: “I was a little miffed about your “Into Tomorrow” show. It was about a week ago, and your show said the reason why Amazon sells phones for a penny is probably because “there is a reason they might be overstocked with them,” implying the phone might be a bad phone.
Well, the truth is just about every phone when you compare it to the AT&T store or Walmart vs. Amazon, Amazon will always have the phone for a lot cheaper. It’s not because they might have a reason they are overstocked with them, it’s because they just do. These are not just new phone services, but also contract renewals. The only catch with renewing your AT&T contract with Amazon is they do not sell the iPhone.
Here are some examples:
– 2 years ago, LG Vu Cu920 was brand new, MSRP: $99, $49 at Walmart (Black Friday only), Amazon: 1 cent.
– Motorola Backflip Android phone $99 at AT&T, Amazon: 1 cent.
– HTC Tilt 2: $199 at AT&T, Amazon: 1 cent (new customer); $49 (contract extension).
– Blackberry Bold 9700: $200 or $29 refurbished (AT&T), Amazon: 1 cent (new customer); $74.99 (contract extension).
– Pantech Impact: $30 at AT&T, Amazon: 1 cent.
– Samsung Mythic (current FLO TV-capable phone): AT&T: $129, Amazon: 1 cent (new customer); $49 (contract extension).
Once in a while, they will have a gold box deal on all AT&T phones, where all AT&T phones at Amazon are a penny.
AT&T might charge you a $35 activation fee for buying the phone at Amazon, but we believe they still charge you that fee if you buy it from their own store.”
We never said anything about Amazon being overstocked with phones. At the time when we answered the question about the Palm Pre being sold for one cent, our reservation was the health of the company, and nothing about the phone. (This was, of course, before HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion. We’re now far less concerned about whether Palm’s technology will be supported “Into Tomorrow.” HP is the logical company to invest in Palm, and they have the deep resources needed to increase Palm’s share of the market, etc.) We did say, and we quote, “there is a reason the phone is being sold for one cent.” We never said that reason was due to overstocking. Our implied meaning in this case was that if Palm went under, the Palm phones would actually be worth a penny, and maybe even less.
Shafe in Ashville, North Carolina listening on WWNC 570 AM asked: “Purchased an Alienware m11x and I’d like to switch my iTunes music from my iMac to the Alienware. Wondering what would be the best way to do that. Would also like to put it on my Droid using a program called doubletwist and I’m having a lot of trouble doing it.”
In order to transfer an iTunes library, there are a couple of things you need to do first. On your iMac, make sure you’ve selected the options “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library” (you’ll want to set those same options on your Windows copy of iTunes, so don’t forget that).
On the iMac, pull down the “File” menu, look for the “Library” command, and under that choose “Organize Library.” This command will tell iTunes to copy any song files that had been added to your library but were not in the iTunes media folder and add them to that folder. Check the option that says “Consolidate Library” and then click “Ok”. If you’ve not already upgraded to the new Media folder structure, you can also set that check box and do it at the same time.
You’ll need a device large enough to store your iTunes library, whether that’s a thumb drive or an external hard drive depends on how much music you have. Connect the drive to your iMac and drag your iTunes media folder to it. This copies your entire library. Disconnect the hard drive (after ejecting it) and connect it to your Windows PC.
Now, on the Windows side, after first making sure that you’ve selected the two options we listed above, you have a choice of several methods, but perhaps the simplest one is to pull down the “File” menu and choose “Add folder to library.” Navigate to the iTunes Media folder on your external hard drive and choose “Select Folder.”
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
Into Tomorrow Product Spotlight with Rob Almanza
We had a lot of fun with this week’s Product Spotlight video shoot. We tested out an external hard drive from a company called ioSafe that claims it can withstand water. They say your data is protected from flood, full submersion down to 10 feet for 72 hours … in fresh or salt water. A hard drive like this is good to have to prevent data loss or damage in the future. The ioSafe Solo external hard drive is similar to a “black box” on an airplane. The one we’re testing has a storage capacity of 500GB, but they have others that go up to 2TB.
The ioSafe Solo works with PC or Mac, just like most other USB external hard drives. A combination of ioSafe technologies work to allow for airflow cooling during normal operation yet protect the data from floods or fires. Yes, it’s also fireproof! A lot of our tech friends have already tested THAT for us – even with flamethrowers! Here are some notable videos to watch:
– Macworld Video: ioSafe Solo hard drive torture tests — Watch Video
– Wall Street Journal Review / Compare ioSafe Hard Drive — Watch Video
– Testing the ioSafe Solo with fire! — Watch Video
During a fire event, its FloSafe vents automatically close to prevent extreme outside heat from damaging the hard disk inside the enclosure. I don’t think we’ve seen so much technology in a hard drive like this before!
For those asking about data recovery, ioSafe comes with a 1-year one-time data recovery service. This would be used in case something goes wrong with the hard drive or if you experience a flood or a fire. This drive is tough and a bit heavy. Almost like a cinderblock! It weighs-in at 15 pounds. You won’t be traveling with this as you would with portable drives.
We’re happy to see companies like ioSafe doing their best at protecting our important data and are fans of the technology on this product.
Buy one here. Or, you can win one by participating on our show. You can also hit “Like” on our Facebook Page. We’re going to be giving an awesome prize that just might be one of these. Stay tuned!
— By Rob Almanza, “Into Tomorrow” Correspondent