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Saturday, 6 January, 2007
- Tech News
- 11a-Noon
- Noon-1p
- 1-2p
- Dennis from Glendale - Concealing oneself on a network
- Dave from Ventura - Recovery discs won’t work
- Don from Lancaster - Networked printers
- Karen - Buying an iMac
- Functionality losses from iTunes 6 to 7
- Jeff from Pasadena - Quality of a photo printer
- Doug from Illinois - Can’t delete empty podcast folders
- Show Audio
Tech News
Next week is going to be littered with announcements from both the gigantic CES and MacWorld.
At CES, LG will announce a dual-format (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) player. Leo believes this news enough to cancel his HD-DVD player order!
Warner Bros. is making a dual-format disc. Either this or LG’s player may sway the DVD wars.
Most people are expecting Apple to announce a cell phone. It’s a fact that they have ordered 12 million. Victor from last week’s show told Leo that it may not be released because of difficulties with carrier agreements. The iTV is also planned to be released. Moreover, Apple is overdue for a new iPod. No matter what happens, look for Apple to be a distributer for movies and TV shows over iTunes.
11a-Noon
Q Tiffany - Random characters showing up in Microsoft Word
There should be a paragraph mark (a backwards double P) in Word’s standard toolbar. If you click it, the characters should go away. Or open the Word options, click the view tab, and uncheck the invisibles you don’t want to see.
Q DJ from Ventura - Importing MP3s on the PS3
The problem is that the data disc is already encoded. What you want to find is a file manager for the PS3 that will allow you to copy those over. In fact, the PS3 will automatically find ID3 tag information if you put a normal audio CD in. You can burn your music as a normal audio disc and throw it into the machine. In the settings menu, you can specify what format you would like to import the music as.
Q Tyler - iTunes library seems to have disappeared
It seems that the index file has gotten deleted. All you have to do is select the top level music folder and click “add to library”. Try moving the music somewhere else on the hard drive.
Q Denise from Valencia - Website links getting broken
Links are getting broken when she moves the site from one computer to another. The problem is that links are relative to a page. The good news is that when you upload it, the links should get fixed.
Noon-1p
Q Jeff - Vista options for Macbook Pro
His understanding is that the Home Premium version won’t connect to the Tiger server. In Paul Thurott’s review of Windows Vista, he covers the topic of virtualization. He also has a checklist of all the features. The only thing Home Premium won’t do is connect to a Windows Server Domain.
Q Robin from Van Nuys - DVD problems
He’s burned a DVD with some home video content, but on 3 different DVD players, there are 3 different problems. It sounds like, if it’s not playing correctly, it’s not being correctly formatted to be a standard DVD. Maybe the frame rate isn’t the correct value and such. Your program isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do. Take a look at DVDDemystified.com
Q Ellie from Irvine - Printer duplexing
The word duplex can mean a lot of different things. You’ll have to look into the manual. Generally when you’re talking about duplexing on an all-in-one, that means it will scan both sides and print on both side.
Q Bob from Los Angeles - Gracenote will not recognize commercial CDs
His problem is in iTunes. Gracenote will not read the disc if it is a defunct CD. In the import menu, select “use error correction”. Here’s the issue, the CD is scratched or has fingerprints on it. The way Gracenote works is by seeing how many tracks are on the CD and how long each track is.
Q Lee from Spring Valley - Product to stream audio content to a home audio system
This is the growth area right now. The iTV isn’t really all that different from the systems you’re trying. The negative to what Apple’s going to do is that it will use iTunes. If Netgear did a crappy job, you’ll need some better software. Both Microsoft and Apple have solved the user interface problem. Leo would say that you’ll see dozens of new solutions at CES. You can also use MythTV which apparently has a web-based remote control included in the new Knoppmyth.
1–2p
Q Dennis from Glendale - Concealing oneself on a network
You’re not legally entitled to do this on the network sometimes. The Onion Router is an anonymizing system. Also, HotSpotVPN can do this as well. On the employer’s premises, they are legally allowed to snoop on you.
Q Dave from Ventura - Recovery discs won’t work
He bought a cheap laptop from Walmart that was partitioned, and he deleted the other partition. Now his recovery discs won’t work. That partition had some key that allowed the recovery discs to work. You are a little our of luck. You can install Windows on the machine, but can’t use the recovery discs.
Q Don from Lancaster - Networked printers
You can get a USB to ethernet adapter that you could hook up to the router. Try before you buy or make sure you have the ability to return the item.
Q Karen - Buying an iMac
She was going to buy an iMac, but heard about Macworld. Leo would say to wait till Tuesday. It doesn’t seem that OSX Leopard will be ready for Macworld. If it doesn’t come out at Macworld, go ahead and buy it unless Apple says that Leopard will be out within the month. Otherwise, go ahead and buy it after Macworld; the upgrade to Leopard will cost about $129. Leo generally doesn’t get extended warranties. The reason you may do it on a laptop is to get screen replacements. If the warranty doesn’t cover accidental damage, it is not worth it. Leo never buys Applecare because he is not going to call customer support. If it’s a desktop, you’re not going to drop it. In terms of hardware, if it’s not going to fail within 6 months, it probably won’t fail. The short answer is no.
Q Functionality losses from iTunes 6 to 7
There are no more functionality losses anymore. One thing we know is that Apple will launch iWork and iLife 07. Leo suspects that there will be a big update on Tuesday. iTunes has a much better iPod preference pane. What you’ll do is dock your iPod and set the preferences. You can create a smart playlist and make it so the iPod will only sync a the playlist. It is also possible to manually manage the iPod.
Q Jeff from Pasadena - Quality of a photo printer
He’s not satisfied with the quality of his photo printer. Photo printers have become better. Leo’s favorite printers are the high end Epson. Look at the Epson R1800 or 1280. He uses the Epson 2200 and loves it - the 2400 is the replacement.
Q Doug from Illinois - Can’t delete empty podcast folders
The thing to do is to go to the podcasts section and delete the podcast itself. The folders are there because you are subscribed to the podcast.
Show Audio
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