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Tech News & Commentary
Daniel in Millbrook, Alabama asked: “I’m thinking about getting a tablet and I was wondering which is one of the better tablet that are reasonably priced? And I stress “reasonably.” What OS do you prefer on the tablets? Or do you think it would be better to get a small laptop. I’m kinda pulling between both. I like the tablets because they’re touchscreen and as I understand it, the inexpensive laptops are not.”
If you’re looking for “reasonably” priced, you’re pretty much priced out of any tablet hovering around the 10” mark, you’re looking at smaller 7” tablets, like the Kindle Fire of the Nexus 7.
Of the 7” tablets, the Nexus 7 would probably be the first one we’d recommend, you can get it for $199, it comes with a quad core processor and a 12-core graphics processor and it runs Jelly Bean, the otherwise still unreleased version of Android.
The Kindle Fire is the other big contender, it’s OS is a little more limited, you don’t get access to the Google Play Store, you don’t and you’re still paying $199 for it, but Amazon’s media and app library is good, and you do get access to that.
As for laptop or tablet, what are you going to be doing with your device? if you’re just gonna be consuming media and not doing an awful lot of typing, then a tablet would work for you, if you’re going to e working on documents or doing anything more involved than watching a movie, looking at pictures, reading a book or playing basic games then a laptop may be better for you, it all depends on your intended use of the device.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Chuck in Shanendoah, Iowa listening on KMA asked: “Microphones for an Android smartphone? Something that would improve quality and also be able to record in the MP3 format?”
Android doesn’t provide a standard way of interacting with a microphone via the micro USB port, which means that either the manufacturer has to support it through their own customizations or it just won’t work. That makes it hard to make a solution that will work with every Android phone.
You may be able to use an external microphone through the headphone jack. Every phone we’ve used allows the user to connect a headset using the headphone jack, but you’d also need to find a good quality microphone that takes that input.
One way to go may be to find a computer mic and to buy a splitter. You can find them online for cheap, and they will just connect to your headphone jack and give you two jacks on the other end, one for headphones and one for a microphone.
There’s a problem with this approach though, it won’t work well with every device, some people report that unless they’re in airplane mode they’ll hear clicks in the recording, some people just seem to be able to record good quality audio no matter what, you may need to run your own tests on your own device to find out if this will work for you.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline
Jack in New York listens via TuneIn Radio asked: “I am having trouble copying from one Hard drive to another. I have an Archos 60GB where all my files are; so I plug the Archos to my Laptop. After that I plug in another Hard drive and copy all the files from the Archos to the Hard drive. Then after about 5 minutes it just stops copying; there’s no error, it just stops like it ended. I’ve tried copying the files from the Archos to the Laptop & that doesn’t work either. I think it’s timing out. So my question is how can I get those files & pics out if my Archos and into another Hard drive?”
It’s tough to say what could be happening if you’re not getting an error message, there may be something wrong with the drive, in which case it would be a great idea to actually get those files off the drive one way or another.
Some of the people we’ve found who have reported that error, have had success with using a Linux Live CD to move the files.
If you don’t want to try that, you can check that there are no Windows permissions issues. Windows should warn you that you don’t have the right credentials to move the files but, just in case, you can check the folder’s properties and make sure that your user is allowed to copy the files.
You could also try to move the files a little at a time rather than moving the whole folder all at once, just in case that it’s a size issue though, again, Windows would probably warn you.
Whatever is going on, just in case try to get those files off the drive soon. If it’s dying you don’t want to lose them.
It might be something as simple as Windows not wanting to copy from one hard drive to another across the same USB bus. Have you tried copying the files to your laptop’s hard drive temporarily, and then copying them from the laptop to the destination hard drive?
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Mike in Artesia, California listening on K-TIP 1450 AM – Talk is Power asked: “I use Firefox & I have AT&T.net. Every time I check my email or some of my web pages a lot of the words are distorted on the page. How can I fix this?”
A lot of people have been having that problem, and it seems to relate to Firefox using hardware acceleration. There’s something in some people’s drivers that conflict with the way Firefox tries to do things.
That means that you have two options: 1) update your drivers and see if the problem goes away. That would be the best option, since it allows you to keep Firefox running as efficiently as it can.
Or, 2) you can turn off hardware acceleration, which would make Firefox rely solely on software, but it will likely fix your problems.
To turn off hardware acceleration, you can look for it under Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: “Use hardware acceleration when available”.
Do make certain that you have the latest version of Firefox, however. They update frequently now, and often will fix reported bugs fairly soon.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Ryan Alovis, CEO & Founder – ArkNet Media
Steven in Ashland City, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM asked: “What can you tell me about these internal antennas that, if you’re in a poor reception area for your cell phone, that you’re supposed to be able to use the wireless system inside your home to boost your signal?”
There are plenty of these and the one that will work for you depends on the cellular technology your phone uses, so we can’t recommend a general one anymore because a regular cell phone booster may not help you with a 4G LTE signal, for example, but if you know what you’re using the choices are simple.
We’ve tried cell phone boosters from both WiEx and Wilson Electronics. They’re priced similarly, and as long as you get a signal somewhere in your house, you should be able to set them up without too much trouble.
The important thing is: know your network. You will find some $500 ones that will extend fewer networks than some $300 ones, but that will have the power to extend the hotspot you’re creating over a wider area. If you have LTE, make sure you get an LTE booster, if your family is on several different networks, get one that will cover them all (it’s easier than it sounds, they make some models that will cover all US carriers, though they may not cover the fastest connections on all of them).
In terms of price, you’re looking at a range of around $300 to $500 on WiEx devices, depending on the cell phone network you need and how big an area you need to cover, Wilson has similar prices, but they also vary depending on the area you’d like to cover.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Jesse in Japan asked: “Why a SSD hard drive vs. a standard hard drive? I’m looking at getting a new hard drive for additional storage for backing up photos and was wondering what the benefit of a SSD hard drive would be over a standard hard drive. For the storage amount a standard hard drive looks like it would be better. I was looking online for and saw a SSD drive 16GB (I know very small) for about $180 and a 8GB for about $105. Why would this be any better than just getting a SD memory card? I could get the same amount of memory for a lot lower cost.”
Depending on what kind of SSD you buy, the speed will range from a low of MUCH FASTER than a traditional hard drive to OH MY GOD faster. Seriously, Jesse, it’s about speed when it comes to SSD. Boot times that used to be measured in minutes are now taking just a few seconds, application load times feel instant. You click, it responds.
If you’re talking about a laptop computer, then the SSD also has the advantage of power use. Even when you’re reading from or writing to it, the SSD uses less power than a traditional hard drive (it also generates less heat), and when you’re not actively reading or writing, the SSD uses no power while a traditional hard drive is still spinning the platters.
Now that being said, an SSD is great for a system volume where you’re loading the operating system or application programs, but it’s a poor choice for long-term storage of documents, music, videos, or pictures and it’s a dreadful choice for backup. For those uses, you want the most space for your buck, and performance simply doesn’t matter. Use a traditional hard drive.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Akitio:Neutrino Thunder Duo – 2-bay Thunderbolt Hard Drive enclosure
V Moda Headphones: a variety of styles of the DJ Inspired, Hollywood Designed Headphones
Ventev: An assortment of tangle-free USB cables and battery cases for iPhones