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Saturday March 13, 2010

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Posted one week after broadcast…

Leo broadcasts live from South by Southwest (SXSW) today in Austin, Texas!

Tech News

iPad finally available for pre-order

Yesterday, the iPad officially went on sale as pre-order. Leo ordered two (which was the limit, interestingly). And Leo’s going to be giving one away, which should be really fun.

A lot of haters on both sides of the isle. The Mac purists complaining about no track pad, no flash, no camera, no multitasking. The Mac haters gloating that it’s underpowered and nothing new. Leo says that even though it’s a big iPod Touch, and considering they sold nearly 100,000 in the first six hours, there’s definitely a market for it.

If you ordered one, the iPad will arrive at your door April 3rd.

Stream expands to the MAC platform

Machead gamers can rejoice as Valve has announced MAC support for their popular Steam online gaming service.

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Hour 1

Q Chris, Fullerton, CA - Streaming his band live

Chris is playing in a band at South by Southwest. He’s playing three gigs in 24 hours. What he wants to do is create a portable streaming rig. Leo says that he’s using a streaming rig at South by Southwest. Essentially, his macbook it’s iSight camera. The biggest issue is bandwidth. You need to ask the club if they have enough bandwidth to stream the show live. More and more clubs are doing that and leo thinks that’s fantastic. Then, all you really need is a laptop and Skype. But there’s also UStream, Bit Gravity and Justin.TV. If you have a camcorder with a firewire connection, connect it to your laptop and use it as your webcam. You can also add a BeachTek connector which will allow you to plug in to the soundboard for better audio quality (which Leo believes is the most important element). THis is a far better option than using the laptop’s webcam

Chris’ band is called Disguster and you can watch the stream at Justin.TV/disguster.

Q Matt, Ohio - Wiring his community with wifi

Matt would like to start a movement to wire his local community with free wireless. Leo says it’s a great idea. Get the Chamber of Commerce involved, sell ads, and it can pretty much pay for itself. Get the local ISP to provide the bandwidth as well. Philadelphia did it first and really irritated Comcast over it. Comcast lobbied and got laws passed in 38 states that made it illegal to offer free community wifi. Google, though, has announced they will offer 5 US towns free GIGABIT Internet. Wow. The idea is to show the world what the best Internet you can get is like. You can nominate your community here.

Cost to set it up? His community is only 5 miles by 5 miles. Leo says you need an internet access point every 50 feet. It may be more practical to start by wiring downtown and avoid the residential areas.

Q Ellie, Honolulu, HI - reviewing Apps

Ellie has came across a new app reviewing site called CHOMP. Think Twitter meets Technology reviews. Ellie has reviewed about 1500 apps. Her handle is http://chompapps.com/giantdolphin50.

Ellie’s also looking to get an iPad to help her in her social networking. Leo says it’ll be an ideal product for her because of it’s large screen and similar apps to what she enjoys on her iPhone.

Ellie’s Hawaiian Travel Site is Giant Dolphin.

Q Tony, Tulsa, OK - The 27″ iMac

Tony is interested in getting the 27″ iMac and is concerned about it being shipped to him. Leo says not to worry. Go ahead and get one. He does recommend picking it up at the Apple Store, but if there’s a problem, take it back to the Apple Store - they are very quick in making things right. Should he get the Apple Care extended warranty? Leo says it’s an insurance policy and a great money maker for Apple. If you think you can take the risk, you don’t need it. Leo never gets it. The 27″ is a great choice, if you can afford it.

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Hour 2

Q Dan, Glendora, CA - dying MacBook

Dan’s wife has a MacBook which is beach balling (the BSoD for the Mac). She turned it off with the power button and now all they get is a light blue blank screen, and a blinking folder. Leo says it’s having trouble locating the system file. If you get a beach ball, the best thing to do is Force Quit (CmdOptEsc) the program. If it’s still beach balling, then all you can do is turn it off.

Leo suspects a hard drive failure. Hard drives can die at any time and the older they get, the more likely they will die (which is why Leo always recommends backups). You can open up the battery case and popout the drive. But if it’s less than a year old, take it into the Apple Store and they will replace it.

Q Richard, Findley, IL - Getting Skype to stream in Stereo

Richard does a podcast using Skype and would like to broadcast in Stereo (Skype works in mono). Leo doesn’t think Skype has that capability. But if you get away from Skype (which is designed for voice), then there are many ways to go stereo. But you may have a sync issue for screen sharing with it.

Many bands use special technologies to record when their members are in two locations.

Q Phil, Lakeforest, CA - Smartphone recommendation

Phil is looking for a Smartphone that will work with Microsoft Exchange. It has to be using Windows Mobile. Leo says the HTC Touch Pro 2 is a good idea for Windows Mobile. But if you have the choice of the iPhone (which Phil says he does) then Leo far prefers the iPhone to Windows Mobile. Go with the 3GS.

Q Pete, Fullerton, CA - HDTV pros and cons

Pete thinks a good topic for Scott will be the pros and cons of the competing HDTV technologies. Leo says it’s a good topic that they do from time to time. But it’s pretty much down to LCD and Plasma now. If you can darken the room and you want the best movie experience, Plasma is the best. In a bright ambient area, LCDs are king. And price wise, they’re both pretty comparable.

Pete also wants to know about a good free anti virus utility. Leo says that Microsoft Security Essentials is the best free option right now. But remember that your first line of defense is your behavior online.

Q Gianna, Irvine, CA - upgrading to Windows 7

Gianna just got a laptop. Can you upgrade her desktop with the same Windows 7 CD that came with her laptop? Leo says no. You can’t activate Windows on a second computer. It’s one computer per copy. Leo suggests buying an OEM version of Windows 7 from NewEgg. It’s the best deal.

Q Ken, Fairfield, CA - recovering a hard drive

Ken’s son spilled liquid on his laptop and it has died. Can he recover the hard drive? Leo says there’s two ways they fail. Hardware and software. If it’s hardware, you can go to DriveSavers, which will open it up in a clean room environment and remove the platters and put them in another drive to recover the data. But that is EXPENSIVE!

If it’s a soft failure (like Windows corrupted file system, et al) then the data can be still read. When you turn on the machine, if it sees the hard drive, then you’ve got a shot. Pop the hard drive out and put it in another computer and treat it as a data drive.

Q Tabatha, Victorville, CA - PC Audio issues

Tabatha was cleaning out her computer using desktop clean up and now she can’t hear anything. Leo says it’s a relatively easy fix as it’s probably a driver missing. You have to know which driver it is. RealTek? Just get the driver and install it. Go to eMachine’s site and look under drivers. It’ll probably be a motherboard driver. But get all the latest drivers anyway because you probably need to update them all anyway.

Q Shane, Walnut, CA - FM broadcasting

Shane would like to boost his XM Satellite signal. He uses the Mobile Blackbox and headphones to listen outside the car. But is there a better option? Leo says FM transmitters suffer in urban areas. Leo says there really isn’t anything more powerful than the V6000, which has a huge range. But the problem is probably not range, but that the FM band is packed with stations where you’re at.

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Hour 3

Q Wayne, Austin, CA - Projecting the iPad screen

Wayne is a marine biologist who uses a projector and Macbook Pro for his presentations. Will he be able to do what Steve Jobs did with the iPad presentation and use the iPad for it? Leo says it’s possible that the iPad VGA connector will, but it’s too soon to tell. IF it shows the iPad screen using Keynote, that would be sweet. But would it be as crisp as DVI? No. The VGA is analog while DVI is digital. But an analog to digital converter can make it look pretty darn good.

Wayne’s website is TheOceanAdventure.com and he has a podcast on iTunes. Check it out.

Q Risa, Encino, CA - Computer recommendation

Risa is a graphic designer and is on the fence on whether she should get the Mac Pro 30″ screen or the 27″ iMac. Leo says that for most people, the iMac 27″ Extreme edition. The Mac Pro gives you the ability to add multiple drives and video cards. It’s expansion is it’s selling point. The 30″ monitor of the Mac Pro will be a better monitor for it’s color gamut, but Apple’s not known for it’s color accuracy. You could go with the Mac Pro and go a better monitor like the Ezio, but the iMac 27″ is gorgeous and you can add a monitor to it.

Does the backlit monitor bother? Leo says it’s glossy. You can place a texture screen in front of it, but that reduces contrast. The Color is more accurate though with the glossy display.

Q Lee, Long Beach, CA - youtube virus?

Lee thinks he got a youtube virus. Leo says there’s no such thing. Likely, you clicked on a page that looks similar to youtube and it was filled with trojans that nabbed your rig. You may have gotten a message on Twitter or Facebook that says “dude, I saw this craziest video of you, check it out!” And then you click on it, it tells you the latest Flash needs to be installed, and bingo, you have a trojan that is infesting your system. At this point, the best thing to do is backup your data, wipe your hard drive, and reinstall Windows from a known, good source.

Your behavior is your first, best weapon. Caution. Follow Leo’s six tips for computer safety.

Q Craig, LaHabra, CA - computer memory issues in DOS

Craig has built a few computers and he can’t run any DOS programs because the EMS memory won’t free up. Leo says that Craig is right and the on board video card may be conflicting since it’s built onto the motherboard. Using a dedicated video card with it’s own video memory can probably solve that issue. Another option is to run DOSBOX, it’s a free DOS emulator.

Q Arthur, Long Beach, CA - Desktop replacement laptop recommendation

Arthur wants a workhorse laptop that will plug into a monitor and keyboard. Leo says the Dell Inspiron’s and you can get a docking stations which will enable it to work with the mouse and keyboard. But you don’t want it to be too heavy. Leo just bought a Dell Latitude Z with a wireless dock. It’s an executive laptop so it’s not all that cheap and it’s not super fast. The downside is also that desktop replacements are heavier (about 7 pounds) and the battery life isn’t all that great. Lenovo is another option. Get it with an i5 or i7 processor and you’re set.

Q George, Toronto, ONT CAN - Computer forgets what devices he has

George’s PC has multiple operating systems and he’d like to avoid each OS trying to install drivers. Leo says that Windows is probably the culprit in the equation. Something in the Windows setup isn’t remembering your device setup and keeps trying to reinstall hardware. Check with Microsoft’s technote section. It also may be that your enhanced system configuration setup in your BIOS needs to be updated.

See you tomorrow!

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