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Sunday 3 January 2010
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
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Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Leo’s going on the road to CES
The Consumer Electronics Show is this week and Leo’s packing up TWiT Cottage and taking it on the road to Vegas. The Tech Guy will be broadcasting live from the showroom floor next weekend, but during the week, there will be tons of TWiT CES coverage. The action starts Wednesday, so stay tuned to twitlive.tv for wall to wall coverage.
What’s going to be hot at CES? Could be 3DTV, but will there be another useless “war,” which will confuse consumers. Scott Wilkinson says that there are competing display formats, but the good news is that there’s now an adopted Blu-ray 3D standard.
Google announces the Nexus One
Also happening this week is that Google will announce the Nexus One, an official Google Android phone sold by Google exclusively and unsubsidized at around $500.. Although you can get a subsidized version through T-Mobile for $299.
Happy Birthday, Apple Computer
Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated on this day in 1977. Happy Birthday, Apple! The past 33 years have changed the world as they have brought us the Macintosh computer, the iPod, Apple TV, the iPhone, the iMac.
And to celebrate the 33rd anniversary, is Apple going to announce the long anticipated Apple Tablet? The New York Times reports that Steve Jobs is finally satisfied what people are referring to as the “iSlate.” But is there really a market for it?
Guests
Chris Marquardt - Tips from the Top Floor
To start the New Year off right, we’re talking about what to do with all the photos you took last year? Managing pictures is important and there’s a workflow you can follow. Beyond the conventional folder system, which can make it fairly hard to find over time. Chris recommends Apple Aperture for the Mac or for the PC - Adobe Lightroom But they’re not cheap at $199 and $299 respectively. But they support the entire work flow from camera to computer. You can attach keywords, tag them, and even mark and delete pictures. You can rate pictures 1–5 stars. Even Color code them. This gives you a very quick overview so you can decide what pictures to keep and delete. And it even helps you to manage the meta data of each image. And you can also use the software to process your pictures and color correct, change sharpness, noise reduction, red eye reductions, and even alter segments of an image.
Can you use something like Picasa and iPhoto for the same purpose? Chris says sure, but you get so much more features. Picasa is really powerful and it’s a great place to start. And you can get some great add-ons to give special effects like a Tri-X style.
The point is, you need something to manage your photos.
Hour 1
Q Rob, Fairfield, CA - upgrading to Windows 7
Rob has a Lenovo X200 business laptop and wants to know if he should do an upgrade to Windows 7 or do a clean install? Leo says that the X200 is a nice laptop and he suggests going over to WinSupersite.com for tips on how to do a clean install. But just to be safe, Leo recommends running the Microsoft Windows 7 compatibilty checker.
Q Bill, CA - Laptop search issues
Bill is having trouble with his search feature on his Windows XP laptop. He gets the “doggie,” but just a blue field where the search should be. Leo says there’s probably a missing or damaged .dll file which is preventing search from happening. Leo suggests trying a system restore point which will take you back to a known working restore point.
You can also run the Windows System file check by going to start, run, CCMD return. Then type - SFC /scannow. If it finds a missing or damaged file, it will ask you to stick your Windows Install disc in so it can copy it over. Also, run the Malicious Software Removal tool by pressing start, run, then typing “mrt” and hit enter.
Bill is also having trouble with Windows Media Player. Leo says that this is a common problem with installing anti virus software like McAfee which is overly aggressive. Try temporarily disabling your AVS to see if that fixes it. If so, then it’s time to get a new AVS (you’ll need to remove McAfee and run the McAfee removal tool) and Microsoft Security Essentials is far better and will avoid this issue.
Q Michael, Long Beach, CA - WiFi for his laptop
Michael has a laptop but no WiFi internet access. What about the MiFi? Leo loves the MiFi. But he suggests waiting a few days until we see what Sprint announces at CES. Word on the street is that they may be offering a 4G card. Also, you’re going to want to check to see if the area you’re in will handle it. Some areas don’t work well with it, so check your coverage map.
Q Percash, San Francisco, CA - HDTV recommendation
Percash is looking for a good LCD with LED local dimming and 240 hz at 42″. But Samsung doesn’t make that size. There is the Samsung 8500, at 46″. But it’s not cheap. And Samsung is movieing away from direct LED and moving to “edge lighting.” Recommendations? Samsung makes great TVs and that’s where Leo would look, but Leo also recommends waiting to see what they announce this week at CES. Vizio is the price leader which offers great TVs for the value. Sharp as well.
The thing with LCDs in a bright room is you won’t really get “black blacks.” You’ll also want to look at how well the TV handles motion.
Hour 2
Q Kenneth, Hollister, CA - Hum from his modem
Kenneth is having trouble with an annoying “hum,” from his modem which is causing streams to be hard to hear. Leo suggests there may be a power supply issue. You could request a new modem, or go to Radio Shack and get a power line filter. Also you may want to consider getting a Universal Power Supply or surge protector that can “condition” your power to prevent line spikes and brown outs.
From the Chatroom - it could be a “ground loop.” You’ll want an electrician to take a look.
Q Brent, Silverprings, MD - frustration with the iPhone
Brent is becoming increasingly frustrated with his iPhone. He’s getting a lot of dropped calls lately. Also, he’s angry that Apple won’t let Google Voice be put on the iPhone. Leo says options could be the Droid for Verizon. What about the Nexus? Well, rumor has it that it won’t be compatible with any network by T-Mobile.
Leo has tried them all, and he understands the frustrations, but his main phone is still the iPhone. Is there a better sync option out there? Leo says that syncing to Google is by far the best option. It does over the air syncing automatically, which is sweet. Google offers sync tools to get your mac stuff over to the Google Account. And if you use Snow Leopard, you can sync to Google directly. For pre Snow Leopard, Leo recommends BusyCal. It’s not free, but Leo prefers it to iCal.
As for getting music on the Droid? You can use other sync clients that provide iTunes like capability. Salling Software has Media Sync. It’s for Macs and non-iPhones.
How do you sync to Google? Go to your Gmail account, click Calendar, then sync. You’ll get a ton of documentation for syncing. Backing up Gmail, Leo uses Backupify. It backs up your Twitter, Facebook, your Delicious documents, and more.
Q Kerry, Corona, CA - iTunes problems
Kerry has his songs on his external hard drive and now he’s having trouble losing his playlists and settings when he has to restore his computer. Leo says that all that information is stored in a file of the iTunes folder. So you can easily backup the iTunes XML and ITB files. Then, you can restore by putting the files back where iTunes expects it. It’s an easy drag and drop.
Remembering what to backup. Leo recommends a 3–2−1 backup approach. 3 Copies backed up (main copy, external HD copy/archived copy, and off-site copy). Check out http://www.dpbestflow.org/ for tips on asset management. JungleDisc is a good off-site option that gives you an all you want to eat approach 0 you pay by the gigabite.
Q Joe, Torrance, CA - A few DVD R questions
DVD -R or +R for DVD video archiving. Leo says it doesn’t matter. Most burners will burn both these days. The differences between both formats are minor. VR mode vs. video mode for -R? VR mode allows you to reuse the disc until it’s finalized. Any disc recorded in video mode is automatically finalized. Leo also recommends keeping a copy on your hard drive. We have learned that DVDs are not permanent storage, so don’t assume that a single copy on DVD is archival. It isn’t. If a DVD is your only copy, it’s a ticking time bomb. Don’t ever assume one copy of anything is safe.
Hour 3
Q Ken, Cape Gerardo, MO - Video editing and the Mac
Ken’s been editing on the PC for about 7 years, and is thinking about making “the Switch,” to the Mac Pro and Final Cut. Leo says that Avid and Premiere makes for great PC editing, but most pros are editing their movies on the MAC. And it’s not cheap. Then again, editing on a PC you end up spending just as much as you woudl for an Mac Pro.
Can you edit on an iMac? Leo says sure. The new 27″ iMac screen is very nice. And at 3Ghz, you can get them for under $2,000. And it runs fine with Final Cut. Long form editing is demanding, so don’t make a mistake and “cheaping out” with what you buy. It’s Ken’s profession and as such, that’s paramount.
Q Jack, Downey, CA - Apple mouse trouble
Jack has a Mac and the icons won’t open. He can open them in finder. Check your system preferences and look at your double click settings. The speed could be set too high. Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions as well. It’s a bit of black magic, but it’s a goo diagnostic to run from time to time. Also, delete the finder preferences file. Delete com.apple.finder.plist. Leo also recommends running a dummy account. If it doesn’t happen there, then it’s a preference in your login.
Q Devier, Suffolk, NY - Wordpress spam
Devier is running a Akismet wordpress plugin for SPAM comments, but it’s not detecting every comment. Leo says that blogs are magnets for SPAM these days. What they are trying to do is steal your “google juice.” They think it raises their result, but it doesn’t because WordPress inserts a ‘no follow’ tag with it. Akismet isn’t perfect though. You could check to see if there’s a new version available. Leo also no longer uses Wordpress’s built in comments. He prefers DisQus or JSKit’s Echo. It adds comments from Twitter and Facebook, which is pretty slick. They enhance the blog quite a bit.
Q Rod, Ridgecrest, CA - Replacing the hard drive on his MacBook Pro
Rod wants to replace his hard drive in his MacBook Pro. Leo says it depends on the model MacBook to determine if you can easily replace it or not. It’s usually a bottom screw which is able to remove. If you can remove the battery, you can swap out the hard drive. From the Chatroom - the Unibody MacBooks require taking the back off, but it can be done. There are YouTube videos that show you how to do it. Leo just doesn’t recommend it.
Rod also has a DVD that’s in PAL format. How can he play it? Well you can convert it. In most cases, your computer should be able to play it and then you can rip and re-convert it to 30fps (NTSC).
Q Donald, Santa Maria, CA - Google Listen
Donald just downloaded Google Listen podcast client. But how does he get his podcast on there? Leo says you can add the podcast url manually by selecting the ADD button. Submitting so it comes up automatically, that’s a Google function that Google controls and it’s not easy to find out who to talk to. Google does own Feedburner and Donald created a feedburner URL. Good idea. But if you’re not finding it in search, post a “how to” for your audience on how to manually added it to Google Listen.
Donald just got a new Android phone - the Samsung Moment. He loves it. Superbright screen, really fast processor. He really thinks 2010 will be the year of the Android. Leo says that the Droid phone is getting most of the press, so it’s good to hear positive comments about the Moment.
