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Saturday 2 January 2010

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Posted one week after broadcast…

Tech News

Welcome 2010! What’s going to happen tech wise?

Leo says it’s common for people to do look backs at the end of the year and predictions at the beginning of the year because it’s notoriously slow news time for tech. Everyone’s at home! But it’s also fun to make prognostications of what will happen in the year ahead.

And Leo also wants to help out the movement to name 2010 “Twenty-ten,” rather than “Two-thousand-ten.” And apparently, it’s grammatically correct to do so.

Leo also says that Twenty-ten may be the year portable computing really hits it’s stride. The iPhone put it on the map, and connects you full time to the Net. The next thing will be faster, portable internet everywhere devices and it may be the end of desktop and laptop computers as we know them.

Google’s New Phone is all theirs

Google wants to release their new NEXUS ONE one, which works with all carriers that take a SIM chip. But even though it comes unlocked, it ironically only broadcasts on frequencies used by T-Mobile.

Is Apple finally coming out with a tablet PC?

It’s been nearly a decade in development, but word on the street (seemingly confirmed by the NYTimes as well) is that Steve Jobs is finally happy with Apple’s Tablet PC, which is said to be unlike anything anyone expects (except for the price, that is).

Leo says we don’t know if it’s still just idle speculation but another rumor is that Apple has rented space for January 27th to announce it. There’s also speculation that Apple may be going after the eBook market and this is more an eBook reader than a Tablet PC. Or both! Or none! But rumors are rampant.

Would Apple be going after the netbook market? Leo says not likely. He believe the chief feature of the Netbook is it’s price and no way is Cupertino releasing a $200–300 computer.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Both Leo and Scott are excited about CES coming next week. There should be a ton of tech to report on, especially in the realm of Home Theater. Next Saturday, Scott will be on with Leo live for all three hours live from the showroom floor. Speculating, Scott things 3D will be huge this year.

Leo saw Avatar and things there’s a ton of 3D gimmicks in the movie. But he’s won over a tad (not much though) that while still gimmicky, movies may become more immersive with 3D and less a gimmick to exploit. And Scott says that now that there’s a 3D Blu-ray standard, it may get better. But it will also be compatible with just about any display, and that could mean a display war is coming. What’s Scott’s preference, Imax, Dolby or Real3D? Scott prefers the iMax version. Larger, more refined. Leo says it’s great if you can get in to see it on iMax.

Will we see 3D TVs at CES? Scott says absolutely. But the a so-called display standards war won’t really matter. The data is still the same. What about OLED screens? Scott says LG announced a 15″, but it’s still way too expensive for big home theater screens and will be for the foreseeable future. More likely, we’ll see more edge-lit LED screens - which are more energy efficient.

What about audio? Scott says that the big thing will be wireless audio. What about wireless HDMI? Too expensive. It hasn’t really taken off.

Tune into TwitLive.tv for all the latest coming out of CES this week!

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Hour 1

Q Juan, Sherman Oaks, CA - online backup services

Juan is looking for an online backup option. But he’s concerned with it slowing down his computer. Leo agrees, but an online backup option would have to have an internet connection and would only use your computer’s idle time, or an extremely small amount of upload bandwidth to prevent online performance from plummeting. Backup services like our sponsor Carbonite make even more sense now with upload limits increasing to handle the burden.

Q Larry, Hemmet, CA - Getting his first computer

Larry is ready to get his first computer. What should he get? Leo says that the notion you can use a computer immediately once you set it up is somewhat of a misnomer. But fear not, you can’t really break anything. It’s a good idea to have someone in your life that’s computer literate and can lead you down the beginning path. It’ll even help to have them come with you shopping for it.

Leo also says that for a beginner, the basic Macbook laptop is the best place to start. It’ll do everything you want, be trouble and virus free. But Leo also says that going with what your friends and family use may also be a good idea because they can help you with what they know. You’ll also need to get a good high speed internet connection, a router for protection against the outside world, and practice Leo’s Tips for Safe Computing.

Another good idea is to create a Google account. You’ll get a Calendar, documents, Gmail and more. All free and you can access from anywhere.

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Hour 2

Q Jay, Providence, NC - Locked files

Jay wants to know if there’s an easy way to tell if a file is locked or not. Leo says that generally, you don’t want files locked because you can’t alter them that way. Leo says if you have files that are “locked,” it may mean there’s a problem with your hard drive. Using a good disc tool like SpinRite. SR is a tad pricey at $80, but it will look at your hard drive and identify troublesome sectors to map them out and move data to healthier drives. And after 4 years, it may be time to get a new drive.

Q Eric, Woodstock, GA - Windows booting up on it’s own

Eric will shut down his computer and it’ll boot back up on it’s own. He’s checked everything from the switches to power, but it still persists. Could it be software? Leo says to go into the BIOS and make sure “wake on LAN” and PixiBoot are turned off. Also, go to your motherboard manufacturer and make sure you have the latest firmware for it. Download any updates and install them. Drivers, as well. If it’s really shutting down, it shouldn’t boot back up. THe Windows 7 power manager setting could be set to restart. Go into your power settings and adjust them for shut down.

Q John, Yucaipa, CA - needs a manual

John got a new phone from Samsung, but it has no manual. Just a CD. Leo says that you can download a PDF copy from Samsung. And the advantage is, it’s searchable.

Q Jordan, Seattle, WA - no internet access

Jordan has an XP laptop that connects to the wireless router but won’t give him an Internet connection due to no certificate found. Leo says this is a feature of “authentication,” which has been turned on. It’s in the properties of the card used for your router. R/C to your wireless networks, properties. Then the authentication tab. Uncheck it and you should be back in business.

HIs laptop also has a problem where he’ll try and turn it off and nothing will happen. Leo suspects that a driver has crashed and you should try booting into safe mode and then update all your drivers. That should fix it.

Q Adam, Grand Rapids, MI - LCD problems

Adam wants to use his Polaroid HDTV LCD as a computer monitor. But the res won’t match. Leo says that the TV doesn’t believe it’s talking to a PC and that a driver may be the issue. The problem is that a generic plug and play monitor can display the resolution the Polaroid can display at. Coming in on HDMI, the TV is thinking it’s using a DVD player, not a laptop. Leo recommends that Adam use the monitor’s VGA connector. You can get an ISBN:HDMI to DVI converter for it.

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Hour 3

Q Earl - dial up modem issues

Earl has an old computer that he uses to take voicemail and faxes via modem. But the modem’s not answering anymore. Leo says that the technology Earl is using is so obsolete now, it’s just simply time to upgrade to a better computer and the Internet, rather than using an outdated modem. There are services like Grasshopper, which will give voice calls like a virtual PBX. Downside, you pay a monthly fee. But for business, you can get an 800 number, which is nice. ANd you can have calls routed to your cellphone. And for faxes, Grasshopper also does faxes, or you can also use eFax. Both convert faxes to PDF files and deliver them to you email.

Q Dana, Santa Monica, CA - hard drives

Dana has a bunch of hard drives. Many have the same files and he wants to know what can he do with them? Leo says file synchronization programs like Microsoft’s Sync Toy work great for this, but if you have similar files with different names, it won’t merge them together. And you don’t want to be overly aggressive and delete something you may wish you had later. You need a utility that does CRC checking for looking at the actual internal data of the file. The CRC is a unique number for each file which lets you see what files are different and what one’s are duplicates. The Chatroom recommends the following: NoClone 2010 does a byte for byte comparison of the files. Disk Recon,CloneSpy (free), DoubleKiller.

Q Mary, Los Angeles, CA - Windows Media Center on a MAC

Mary is going to make a switch from her Windows Media PC to a Macbook Air. She wants to take the old hard drive out and place it in her MAC and keep her data. Leo says that MACs can’t read NTFS, so you need to make sure your drive is FAT32. And even then you may not be able to open some of the files. You can run Windows Virtually on your MAC using Sun’s Virtual Box, or Parallels.

But Mary wants to see Windows Media Center running. Leo says you want to install Media Center versions into your virtual box like Vista. Best to use the one your WMC PC came with. But Leo warns, it won’t run very fast.

Q Chris, OakClare, WI - Setting up Final Cut

Chris is using Final Cut Pro and wants to know how he can use it more efficiently. Leo says that his editors use three discs at RAID O for high speed scratch discs. Alex Lindsay calls it “scary RAID.” But you use your data on a separate disc to protect it in case your scratch disc crashes. For that you want a RAID 5 setup.

Q Mark, Santa Monica, CA - Computer shut down

Mark’s PC shuts down every time he puts in a CD or DVD. Leo suspects autorun. Hold down your shift key when putting the CD in and it’ll disable the autorun. If that does it, turn autorun off. Chances are, the CD/DVD you’re putting in has software on it that’s designed to try and disable your ability to copy what’s on the CD/DVD.

Q Mark, Venice Beach, CA - Renting Audio Books

Marks wants a market place for book downloads he can rent for a reasonable price. Leo recommends our sponsor AUDIBLE.COM. But the price varies because it’s set by the publisher. Mark wants a subscription option like the Zune marketplace. Leo suggests a local public library, but it’s fairly limited. Try booksfree.com.

Q Harvey, Winnetka, CA - Hard drive failure

Harvey has an old hard drive with important files on it. But it’s ‘dead.’ What can he do? Leo says it can be done, but if it’s a hardware problem, it’s quite expensive to fix. If you can get an exact duplicate of the hard drive, you may be able to swap out the circuit boards. eBay is probably your best bet. Also, make sure it has the same firmware version on the circuit board. Otherwise, DriveSavers is where you’re going to be going and it’s going to cost you a pretty penny.

Q Bobby, Panama City, FL - USB issues

Bobby updated her graphics board, but her USB ports aren’t recognized. Leo says that power may be an issue and by upgrading your video card, it may be robbing power. Go into the device manager of your computer and reboot. Windows will reacquire and install the USB ports. You can go to PC Power and Cooling and get a more powerful power supply. Also, update your motherboard drivers. That could help. In fact, do that first.

Q David, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA - buying a new PC

David wants to get a new computer for her mother. She wants a Dell. Is Dell a good PC? What about HP? Both are fine. Leo uses Dell on the PC. You’ll want to buy the Gold support, though.

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