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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Saturday December 06, 2008
- Show Audio
- Tech News
- Guests
- Hour 1
- Hour 2
- Jan, Los Angeles, CA - Finding “wild” Wi-Fi access
- Robert, Los Angeles, CA - Syncing multiple iPhones in Google Calendar
- Richard, Ontario, CA - Home built home theater PCs
- Robert, Piqua, IL - SQL Server update error
- Todd, Pasadena, CA - Video encoding for the BlackBerry Curve
- Kurt, Thousand Oaks, CA - Camcorder recommendation
- Hour 3
- Joe, Kansas City, CA - Video compression for online videos.
- Rick, Glendale, CA - Digital Picture Frame recommendation
- Tyler, Dallas TX - Pairing blog to his Twitter account
- Scott, Boca Raton, FL - Best quality HDTV options
- Carl, Atlanta, G.A. - Missing drives
- Lance, Los Angeles, CA - Video won’t play on his iPhone
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
Tech News
Obama using a Zune? Bloggers crash sites reporting it.
Obama actually uses an iPod. But he forgot his and asked an aide to borrow his special edition DNC Zune while working out. Can you believe people reported on this?
300 MILLION Downloads from Apple’s App $tore
300 Million downloads from Apple’s App Store, 10,000 different iPhone Applications. Amazing. The most controversial application from Amazon is the official Amazon Mobile iPhone Application. You can shop on Amazon.com, but here’s the thing. You’re shopping somewhere else, and you can go into this application and press the button that says “remember,” and it’ll take a picture of what you want to buy and it gets uploaded to the Amazon site and a human translate that picture to an Amazon product so you can compare the price from Amazon, buy it and ship it overnight. WOW.
Leo finally gets his Storm, stickin’ with the iPhone.
Leo finally got a BlackBerry Storm. Thinks it’s very impressive. The type screen is “clickable” and is an odd sensation. Leo also thinks the virtual keyboard won’t go over well with B’Berry users and even more so with the clickable LCD screen. Upgraded media player will play higher quality H.264 video thanks to the new processor the Storm has. Supports regular headphones (unlike the G1). Is it an iPhone killer? The B’Berry is primarily an email/text device and the virtual keyboard will hold that back a lot. In many ways, the Storm is skizophrenic. What is it designed to appeal to? Initially, Leo’s stickin’ with his iPhone, and recommends the Bold over the Storm for B’Berry fans.
Mother’s Cookies goin’ out of business … or are they?
Thanks to social networking sites like TWITTER, Mother’s Cookies (those yummy pink and white animal cookies) is not going out of business. Kellog’s saw the damand and decided to buy the company and will continue to make them. Yippee!
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine
Today, we’re talking about Klatu Baratta Nikto. The original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was just released on Blu-ray. Old black and white movies can look stunning in Blu-ray if they’ve been well taken care of, or digitally restored. Film is higher than high def, so they’ll look great in Blu-ray.
The new film stars Keanu Reeves, as KBN. Woah.
Hour 1
Q Kim, Laguna Beach, CA - Backing up via external hard drive
Kim has a Mac and a LaCie hard drive. She’s using Time Machine to do the backup. But can she use the same hard drive to backup here other hard drive? Leo says well, Kim can use their disk utility to partition the drive into two virtual drives. Then use Time Machine for one hard drive while saving the other. All she really wants is to back up her photos, so she can also just drag and drop. Or, the latest iLife is to backup the iPhoto library. The folder that has your pictures in it is actually just one main file. It’s just presented as a folder. Press Contol click the iPhoto library and Click on “Package Contents.” You’ll look for the “originals” folder which has your original photos in it.
Google SUPER DUPER, Leo’s favorite backup option for Mac, and download it. It’ll automatically backup your computer files so you don’t have to worry about it!
Q Mark, Santa Ana, CA - Needs filtering software
Mark needs an easy way to control kids access to the Internet. Should he use a DHCP server? Leo says there’s an easy way. Instead of trying to filter out stuff, choose a white list option where you can only visit sites you approve. CHeck out OPENDNS. There, you can change your DNS settings to restrict access to suspect sites. There are five levels of filtering you can turn on to restrict access from porn, gambling, a host of other suspect sites you don’t want them visiting.
Hour 2
Q Jan, Los Angeles, CA - Finding “wild” Wi-Fi access
JiWire.com is a website that will allow users to find free Wi-Fi websites world wide. But what Jan’s looking for is a website which will allow her computer to attach to the strongest Wi-Fi signal it can find. The program is called STUMBLER for the Mac. There are PC “stumbler” programs out there as well.
Warning though, this kind of program will make your computer real frisky online. And some bad guys can open up a Wi-Fi access point and attach to your computer and infect it, or worse.
But if you need to do is “borrow a cup of Wi-Fi” from a neighbor, ask first.
Q Robert, Los Angeles, CA - Syncing multiple iPhones in Google Calendar
Robert wants to know if he can sync calendars between his iPhone and his wife’s. Use Google Calendar as your prime iCal sync. Any change you make on your Mac, she can pick up and sync Google Calendar using Safari. She could even make an icon on her desktop which will connect directly to Google Calendar. She could also synch to Google Calendar using Outlook if she’s on a PC.
From the Chatroom - Thunderbird has an add-on called “Provider for Google Calendar” which provides bi-directional access.
Q Richard, Ontario, CA - Home built home theater PCs
What does Leo think of the MSI DIVA motherboard? Leo doesn’t review motherboards, but recommends these websites: AnandTech and PC Perspectives. But these days, it’s easier and cheaper just to go to DELL and let them do it. You can customize your options and let them build it. But if you want better quality parts, etc., then building your own Media Center PC is a good idea. Check out MythTV and SageTV for DVR capabilities.
Q Robert, Piqua, IL - SQL Server update error
Robert is getting an update to SQL Server which isn’t working. He’s not even using SQL server! Leo suspects that something Rob installed is using SQL server. Google the Microsoft Support and search for #KB9480110. It’ll tell you what it’s used for and if there’s any outstanding issues. But Leo is fairly confident you can just ignore it. UNfortunately, you can’t turn it off.
But Jammer in the Chat Room reminds that you can right click on the update icon in yoru quick launch toolbar and select “hide.”
Q Todd, Pasadena, CA - Video encoding for the BlackBerry Curve
Has a BlackBerry Curve, using AT&T. Videos aren’t working. Leo says you need to have the 3GP codec in order to play back the videos because it doesn’t have a fast enough processor to watch them natively. Look for a 3GP converter online and wash your videos through it. They should play after that.
Q Kurt, Thousand Oaks, CA - Camcorder recommendation
Kurt is torn between the Canon HG20 and the Vixia HF10. Both are HD, which is where you want to be at this point. Leo has the HV30 and loves it. The HV30 records to miniDV tapes, while the HG20 records to a hard drive and the HF10 records to compact flash drives. Hard drive camcorders add weight because of the hard drive - spins all the time - and is very finicky in harsh conditions. Leo says that tape based camcorders are still best. Full quality archival backup is it’s advantage. THe HF10 uses flash memory, but they’re still more expensive than tape. It uses AVCHD, which means you need the latest editors to edit on them. And HD is a bandwidth hog, so you need an updated computer to edit. Another option is the Panasonic HDC-SD5. The HD 5 and HF10 are Flash based camcorders, but Leo still believes that tape is still king.
Hour 3
Q Joe, Kansas City, CA - Video compression for online videos.
Joe does videos for Current.tv and just can’t find the right balance of quality vs. compression. Leo quips that this is a black art, but believes that the best is H.264 and use Quicktime Pro to encode it (best $30 you’ll spend on video). Will there be artifacts? Probably. But then again, most sites you post to will convert the video you support to flash anyway. Artifacts do appear due to over compression. So if you see em, encode it at a higher bit and frame rate. Also, take a look at keyframes. More keyframes will give you better quality footage.
But the good news is that YouTube is now supporting posting of HD footage. So the future is HD and even the web knows it.
Q Rick, Glendale, CA - Digital Picture Frame recommendation
Rick wants to get his in-laws a digital picture frame that he can update. Leo says what’s cool is that there are models that allow you to update picture frames remotely. Meaning, you can upload pictures to a webserver and the server will then download them to the picture frame. But if they aren’t “wired” for that, all digital picture frames have flash drive access. It’s just a simple slide of the memory card into the card slot. And the better quality frame, the higher the cost.
Leo recommends the Memory Frame MF8104 - the 10″ is about $200. Gorgeous screen. 256MB of memory on board and takes SD cards. It’ll even play video and audio. How cool is that?
Q Tyler, Dallas TX - Pairing blog to his Twitter account
How should Tyler tie it? Use Alex King’s Twitter Tools. It contains a plug-in which allows it. If you can’t use Wordpress plug-ins using your free Wordpress.com account, the chatroom says that there is a javascript which you can get to input your most recent tweet.
DigitalFamilyReunion.net is a fun digital event on December 11th at the Skirball Center. Code - DFR03 will save you 33% and get you the Member price.
Q Scott, Boca Raton, FL - Best quality HDTV options
Scott calls in to talk about getting broadcast HDTV, which is the best quality you can get if you’re in line of site of the antenna. Leo also says that free downloads of HD TV online is the biggest competition of companies like HBO. Leo says it’s because more and more people are looking to downloads for their entertainment needs and using something like BOXY lets you watch downloads onto your HDTV via AppleTV.
You Tube is going HD. Hulu is going HD. You can download some HD videos from iTunes. It’s the future and it’s online. Leo thinks that paying per episode is a great idea. And those who really want can buy a season pass.
Q Carl, Atlanta, G.A. - Missing drives
Carl has found some “phantom drives” that appear on his girlfriend’s computer. Leo suspects they’re empty partitions or even hidden partitions put on by the computer’s manufacturers. They often contain the Windows install disks and updaters.
But in Vista - the OS assigns card readers a drive letter. So it’s more likely a built in flash memory card reader slot.
Q Lance, Los Angeles, CA - Video won’t play on his iPhone
He has his reel on his website and his iPhone won’t play the video even though it’s H.264. First off, the iPhone doesn’t play flash. Secondly, it won’t play any video embedded in a Website page. It’ll play quicktime video based on a link, but not embedded. What is up with that?!
