For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the TWiT Netcast Network

Sunday December 28, 2008

«Previous Show

Next Show»

Show Audio

Edited Audio
64kbps MP3	16kbps MP3

Tech News

2009, the look ahead

Will 2009 be a year of polish and tweaking for operating systems? Leo thinks so. With the economic downturn (very similar to 2001 hiccup) causing less venture capital into innovative startups, and with technology becoming more mature, Leo believes that 2009 will be the year of tuning up what we already see. Apple’s new Snow Leopard will have no new features, but will be more efficient, as is Windows 7.

Leo forsees more iPhone killers as Apple will probably fine tune the iPhone, maybe give it a price drop. But will someone come out with a phone that is as good? We hope so. Competition makes for better technology and 2009 will be the year the smart phone really hits the mainstream. And although there will be a lot of rebuilding and resolution of economic issues, 2009 will be a good year for technology.

Leo thinks that we’ll see more power on the desktop than ever before. We’ll see more innovation in technology as a whole. And as the high end cameras in digital photography push the edge of the envelope, we’ll see that technology trickle down to the more affordable point and shoot categories.

And video games? Well, probably more of the same. Though Leo would like to see more variety in game development with more innovative games like Spore and Strange Planet.

Guests

Mikkel Aaland, Photographer and Writer

Leo’s friend Mikkel Aaland joins us today to talk about digital photography and the book he’s written called the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure. Leo spent time in Tasmania with Mikkel and using a pre-release version of Lightroom 2.0. The Adobe people were there to see what we were doing and learn from how it was used, incorporating the lessons to the actual release product.

One of the new features of Lightroom 2 is “negative clarity” where you can dial back the image and give it an interpretive quality. You can then make it into a “preset” and apply it to other images automatically. This allows for more time shooting pictures and less time image processing.

Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor

Today’s topic … black and white photography. Even when you set a camera to black and white mode, today’s digital cameras will shoot the image in color and then convert to black and white. Leo says he’d rather shoot color and in RAW and then do the conversion in post using Lightroom or Photoshop, plus Nik Plug-ins (there’s a great one called “silver effect”). Chris agrees. You view the picture in color as you shoot it, so why not change it in software - where you have more control, more options, and an undo button if you want to alter further? And some things just don’t look good primarily in black and white. The Film Noir effect makes things more dramatic, though. More contrast. And if you let the camera decide, it’ll choose a standard contrast of a desaturated picture - more grays rather than crips black and white tones. Using software allows you to play with the contrast to take advantage of that film noir effect.

What denotes making a photo black and white? Sometimes is shadows, other times is geometry, grittiness of the scene. Hard contrasts. The image will suggest itself by these dynamic elements.

You can see Chris’ flickr photo stream at http://www.flickr.com/nubui.

Steve Greenberg, Gadget Guy and author of Gadget Nation

Steve Greenberg is the “Innovation Insider” who is interested in new innovations and the stories behind them. Thus, he wrote “Gadget Nation: A Journey Through the Eccentric World of Invention.” Some successful, some not, the book chronicles the invention process and how someone gets “that idea” and patents it to risk bringing it to the market. Talking Toilet Paper Rolls, Bird Diapers, Kosher Lamps. ConeDoms for ice cream cones, Night Caps for the liquor industry. All are very successful.

Where do the ideas come from? A need or problem that doesn’t have a product to solve it. When some invent, about 40% actually make money on their invention. Others are stilling trying, get ripped off, or just give up.

Check out Steve’s website GadgetNation.Net

---

Hour 1

Q JM, Sacramento, CA - Burning miniDV tapes to DVD

JM has miniDV tapes that he wants to put onto DVD. Uses a MAC and a SONY camcorder. That’s where iLife comes in handy. Capture in iMovie and edit. Then burn to DVD in iDVD. JMs stunned by the size of the files. Leo says that’s because they’re uncompressed. As you edit, you’ll cut down on the file size and then, when you burn to DVD using iDVD, the footage will be compressed to MPEG2 and will fit, not to worry. Too much DVD space? Not suprising. A DVD only handles abotu 4.7GB. Divide the files up in iMovie so it works on a single disk and just make multiple disks.

Q Ed, San Diego, CA - upcoming digital TV transition

Ed wants to know more about the battery powered digital to analog converter. Leo says it’s made by Weingard. It’ll work with emergency, battery powered TVs. Ed also says that smaller TV stations won’t be going digital. And Leo says that the Weingard has analog pass through so you can view those stations that won’t be making the transition.

You can use the $40 coupon for this item when available.

Q Harry, Palmdale, CA - Problems running Spin Rite

Harry was running SpinRite when his computer went “pop!” and cut out. He then ran repair of XP Pro and he can’t choose between the two OS that it says he has (although he says he only installed it once). Leo doesn’t think SpinRite is the culprit. It’s just a simple does program which analyzes and repairs sectors on a troubled hard drive. Leo thinks the best bet is to just start over, delete the second partition (if it isn’t on the “C” drive) reformat adn reinstall.

Q Jeff, San Diego, CA - Making cellphone wallpaper

Jeff wants to change the wallpaper on his cell phone. His has a basic cellphone and Leo says it may not have the capability to upload the files to the cellphone and take it. But if it can, check out BitPim, it’s a data handler for cellphones which allows you to upload and download data to and from your cellphone.

---

Hour 2

Q Lou, Richmond, VA - Zone Alarm, Norton, and a crashed PC

Lou has had a terrible experience using Norton 2009, which bypasses Zone Alarm and crashes his PC. Leo hates Norton. Ten years ago, it was the best AVS on the market. Then, as is often the case, it became bloatware after paying too much attention to the “check boxes” of what it can do. Even Zone Alarm has become this way. Bloated, doing more things, and doing them poorly. Leo says dump BOTH of them.

Software firewalls, like Zone Alarm, are now worst than useless. When a hacker gets by it, they disable that, and the AVS. Your best bet is to just rely on your router. They have hardware firewalls and are the best front line defense as they ignore unapproved inbound traffic. And if you want a software firewall, the Windows firewall will do you just fine.

As for AVS - Leo does recommend his sponsor NOD32 by Eset or, maybe AVG (free) by Grisoft. But if you follow his Rules for Safe Computing, you’ll be protected.

Q Chris, Anaheim, CA - Website help

Chris is planning a website for a product he wants to sell and wants to know about Jumla. Leo says content management systems are a better way to go, as opposed to creating a standard HTML based website. You can choose the content management system and then look for a designer, or look for a designer and use the CMS they like. Leo thinks the later is the better idea. Go to communities for the CMS you’re looking at then post a request for design. Or, you could find a website you like and then figure out who designed it. Talk to them and let them consult you on what CMS is right for the site you want to build. In fact, you can even go to a local college and get a design student who’s looking to create their resume.

Q Randy, Irvine, CA - G1 Review

What does Leo think of the T-Mobile/Google G1? Leo likes the G1. But here’s the thing. As a new platform, it has few applications and missing features. So far, no video. And no flash, really. The key is usually the carrier that decides if a feature is included. No flash or java, yet. No phone supports higher end flash features, usually preferring a “lite” version. But the good news is, as Android is an open source platform, it can be developed and improved upon by just about anyone. And T-Mobile is pretty open to new features.

Unfortunately, Leo wishes that T-Mobile had faster 3G, and TMobile won’t sell it in areas that doesn’t have 3G. It isn’t light and slim, but solid. Can it carry bookmarks from Firefox? Currently, no. It’s a webkit based browser - like Safari. As fast as Chrome.

Good keyboard - better than the BlackBerry Bold. Very similar to the keyboard as the BlackBerry Curve, ironically. Hardware wise, it’s great.

Significant negatives - It has horrible battery life. 3–4 hours. And 2) it has no headphone jack. You need a USB headphone to listen. Huh? And up to 8GB capacity on it’s microSD card. And while it has a great screen and can do H.264 movie playback, it’s not a great media phone.

It’s a strong platform. Needs more applications, improvement in battery life.

---

Hour 3

Q Larry, Indianapolis, IN - Price program for business

Larry is a trucker and picks up things in his travels he wants to sell at a better price. He wants to put down what he paid for it and then list a fair price for it. He’ll then open a store to sell it. That would be a program that uses a database. There isn’t really anything out of the box for that sort of thing, but using a spread sheet, like Excel, will be ideal for a custom application like that. Google also has an online spread sheet which will work as well.

You can also go to Craigslist or eLance to find a good excel programmer to bid on that sort of project.

Q Steve, Oak Park, CA - Video conversion

Steve has nearly 20 years of 8mm video he needs to convert. Leo says that if you’re in the market for a new digital camcorder, look for a feature called Analog to digital pass through. Then you can daisy chain them and connect the digital camera to your PC. The digital will convert the analog signal. Or, you can get hardware plug ins that can handle it. The Canopus ADVC110 will connect from the camera through to the PC and do the same thing. There are USB options, but they aren’t as big a pipeline as Firewire, which will get you a better result.

While you’re at it, buy an external hard drive to archive the footage to. They’re so cheap now. You can get 1 TB drive for $100!

Q Jay, Los Angeles, CA - low cost net meeting solution

Jay tutors kids overseas and wants a low cost net meeting solution where he can teach and chat with them. Skrbl is free. A whiteboard chat option. Want to see screens? LogMeIn.com

Q Janice, Palo Alto, CA - Mic muted

Janice has a microphone which is muted and doesn’t work. It works on other computers. Does she need a new sound card? Leo says it’s more likely that the mic itself is busted or the analog setting is wrong in the mixer. Play around with the settings until you can figure it out. But Leo also recommends using a USB mic. Leo likes the Plantronics DSP400 USB Mic headset.

Q Jim, Longmont, CO - Listening to Leo on the iPhone

Jim has a new iPhone and wants to listen to The Tech Guy Show online. There’s an iPhone app called I HEART RADIO which carries just about every Clear Channel radio station. Leo also streams every show online and you can use F Stream (a free app on iTunes). Then you type twit.am/listen to pick up the Twit Icecast stream. Tuner Internet Radio ($6) is a program Leo likes better. Directory, open button, type Twit.am/Listen add to bookmarks. Gets stations all over the world.

Q Edna, Leisure World - Can’t get email on her MAC

Edna’s old Mac, running OS 9.1 has suddenly stopped getting her email. “Disk is full” error. Leo says first to empty the trash. When you drag stuff to the trashcan, it isn’t erased, it’s just moved and marked for erasure. Then, go through and start clearing out your computer with applications you don’t use. Clear out the internet cache, etc. This will solve the trouble.

Q Rene, San Diego, CA - Bluetooth keyboard connection and his Macbook Pro.

He used to auto connect, but now, he can’t connect it without jumping through a lot of hoops. Leo suspects that the keyboard isn’t holding a charge and as such, it looses the pairing authorization. But it can also be Bluetooth. It isn’t a perfect science and it could be getting dropouts.

Q Joel, Orange County, CA - Backing up iMac with SuperDuper

Joel says SuperDuper is opening up applications but isn’t confident he’s getting his pictures and data files. Look in your backup for the iPhoto folder, look for “originals.” CTRL Click iPhoto library and select “show package contents.”

Joel also wants to use Carbonite to backup, but it’s not available yet. (SOON! Honest!) Meantime, Mozy is the alternative for the MAC.

---

«Previous Show

Next Show»

-