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Saturday June 5, 2010
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
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Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Hard hitting interviews at the D8 Conference
All the big luminaries of the tech world were at the D8 conference. Unfortunately for Mark Zuckerberg, it wasn’t that great of an experience as he had a terrible interview. Walt Mossberg grilled Zuckerberg hard on the privacy functions of Facebook and Zuckerberg had no real answer, especially for the opt-in suggestion, which Zuckberg completely dodged.
Steve Jobs, by contrast, raised eyebrows when he stated that the world has now entered a “post PC era,” with mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, and more. People, he says, are getting beyond the desktop PC experience. He went on to say that PCs are now like trucks. More utilitarian and enjoyable. Steve Ballmer disagreed stating that more and more people are buying PCs. Ballmer also said that the iPad isn’t as useful for business as people would like it to be.
Jobs also stated that AppleTV will always be a “hobby” for Apple because of the disjoined, chaotic nature of cable and satellite TV. Leo says that’s contrary to rumors that Apple is poised to release a streaming version of ATV similar to the Roku box.
Jobs also said that the war against Adobe over flash wasn’t started by Apple. He also said that they thought the missing iPhone 4 bought by Gizmodo was stolen, not lost, and that he says that Apple was compelled to seek legal action due to their core principals.
Leo thinks that this is one of the best times in the computer industry as companies are literally battling it out for market share, competition is fierce and that’s really good for the consumer.
Leo’s lovin’ the EVO
The Sprint EVO came out yesterday. Leo’s been testing it for a week now and he loves it. Question is, will he buy it? But with Apple poised to announce the iPhone on Monday, should he wait? Then there’s Samsung’s Galaxy S - 4″ display, 5MP camera, OMOLED screen (nice). Leo says we live in a frustrating time because phones are coming out so fast that it’s almost impossible to stick with the same phone for two years like the carriers want you to.
Steve Jobs and the WWDC
Word on the street is that Steve Jobs will be announcing the iPhone 4G on Monday, and even more may be in the offing as Leo suspects Verizon is in the mix.
Guests
Dick DeBartolo, The Giz Wiz
Dick DeBartolo, Mad Magazine’s maddest writer and host of the GizWiz podcast on TWiT is back with another fun gadget.
This week Dick brings the iDapt Compact charging station. He likes it because there’s not cables. You get six adapters in the kit and you can snap your gadget into the stand for direct connect. FOr more information check out iDaptweb.com.
Hour 1
Q Louis, Hollywood, CA - Frustrations with AT&T
Louis is really angry that AT&T has dropped the all you can eat data package for the iPad. AT&T says they’ve dropped the price to $25 and as such, should be considered a cut in price. I mean, most people use less than 2GB a month (how can they say that considering the program was only in force for 38 days?). And plus, you get tethering (except you can’t use tethering of the iPhone to the iPad).
AT&T claims the change of course is because of Data hogs, that’s their justification, and Leo says that it’s only a matter of time before others follow suit. $15 for 200MB or $25 for 2GB (200 minutes of streaming video, 10,000 emails, 4,000 web pages or 500 photos on flickr). Want more? $10 per GB.
Should people buy the iPad now before the new plan goes into effect? Leo says that it depends on how you use it. If you use a lot of bandwidth, you may save money. But it depends on you.
Leo also says it’s because of the new iPhone coming. Leo is betting that Jobs may be announcing Verizon iPhone and iPads on Monday and AT&T is trying to reel in more customers before it’s “all over” on Monday. A lot of customers aren’t happy with AT&T and will jump ship if Verizon is in the mix. And Leo predicts that will be the case.
As such, Leo advises to wait until at least Monday for either an iPhone or iPad.
Q Carol, Rancho Cucamonga, CA - Accessibility of the Mac for the blind
Carol is blind and is wondering what will help her navigate with her Mac. Leo says get a friend help you turn on the Universal access feature (it’s in the preferences). Apple has done a very good job with making the Mac accessible to the blind. You can turn off the mouse and make the keyboard enabled. Turn on mouse keys, voice over, . Leo says if you press the option key five times, it’ll turn on mouse keys. That will replace the mouse. Voiceover will speak whenever you move the mouse to a specific location, so you can hear where you are on the the screen. Great job by Apple!
John says he uses 2GB every four days as he streams TwitLive 24/7! Leo says that tiered access is bad for netcasters like him who stream round the clock.
John also says he’s going to dump his iPhone and get the Nexus One and save a bundle. Leo says the next version of the Google OS (FroYo) 2.2 is tethering built in. Your phone can then turn into a wifi access point. Leo says he’s tried it and it works great. And as it stands now, you don’t have to pay for it. Especially with Sprint. Clever move, John.
Check out this PC Mag article on AT&T’s data access nationwide.
John also wants to know if he can add a bluetooth keyboard to his phone. Leo says you could if you have the right driver. You need the Bluetooth for Keyboards with specific profile. However, most cellphones lock down most bluetooth features. You’d probably have to “root” the phone to do it. Try googling “bluetooth keyboard” and “Android.” Leo says there’s one in the Android forums. But YMMV. Techsoft has a try before you buy plugin here, cost is about $15 (thanks chatroom!).
For iPhone fans, here’s a link to do it with your iPhone.
Hour 2
Q Ben, Minnesota - Making a plugin for Final Cut Pro
Ben is trying to build his own Final Cut plugin that mimmicks the optical compensation for Adobe After Effects. Leos says there’s a ton of math for that and you should get someone who knows their business. Try googling Final Cut and Optical Compensation plugin. Leo also says Tiffen has one, but it’s not cheap.
Q Naomi, Apple Valley, CA - AVS autorun issues
Naomi put Microsoft Security Essentials on her rig and she can’t get it to start automatically. Leo has a hunch that there’s something leftover from uninstalling McAfee which is preventing it. You’ll need to get the separate McAfee removal too to clean up that uninstall first. It could also be that the install for MSE didn’t finish. Try reinstalling it.
Dr. Mom in the Chatroom advises patience. If you wait a few minutes, MSE will turn on eventually. It’s a bug that causes it to take it’s time. Also make sure real-time protection is turned on.
Leo also suggests in the meantime, running the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. Start, run, type MRT, return.
Q Gerald, “on a boat” - stuttering video streams
Gerald’s laptop buffers a lot while watching TTG streams on his 3G networks. Leo says that’s not unusual if you’re watching the highest quality. This happens because of buffering. When you reach the end of the buffering, it has to rebuffer or it’ll drop the frames and you’ll be lost. It’s often the symbol of bandwidth inefficiency of your provider. Leo suggests lowering the quality and you’ll be less likely to drop frames and stutter. You can also go to UStream and stream the iPhone version. Leo also recommends TWiTs Get Satisfaction Site for help.
Q Joe, Corona, CA - Cellphones & Radiation
Joe is looking to replace his phone and concerned with radiation. What is DECT? Leo says that DECT is Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications which operate at 1.9 GHz. The higher the frequency, the more risk to your body. But low frequency waves penetrate farther. But the power rates these phones use won’t really do anything. There’s no definitive connection between heavy phone use and risk to the body. Also, there’s a difference in standards between US and Europe, where Europe allows higher Ghz. But Leo says there’s no issues here.
Joe also wants a recommendation for a good photo recovery utility. Leo recommends PC Inspector. You want Smart Recovery 4.5.
Hour 3
Q Jim, Culver City, CA - File Servers in the Cloud
Jim wants to know what’s the best service provider for using his laptop as a remote server. Leo says DropBox is your best bet. $10 a month for 50GB. Setup the Dropbox account and you can put the Dropbox folder on your desktop. Then it’s a simple drag and drop and you can share that folder with the world. But he wants all his documents on the server only as well as running the software on the server. Leo says running programs on the server isn’t a good idea. Too difficult. Keep the software on your laptop and access the data in the cloud. But make sure it’s locked down. In fact, don’t do this yourself. Go with a company like Microsoft Skydrive which will keep all data in the cloud. But both AT&T and Verizon are pretty good in Jim’s area. You can use GoToMyPC, has a great record of security.
Q Azariana, Connecticut - Downgrading DSL to dial-up
Azariana is going to be moving and AT&T is only offering her dial-up in the area she’s going to. Leo says that can happen when you get far enough from the central hub that DSL doesn’t work. Leo recommends cable if you have access. It’s faster than DSL and doesn’t have the distance limitations. Other choices are satellite (very poor) or 3G data day. A good place to look is broadbandreports.com. You can contact DSL Extreme to see what choices they have and they will be more flexible. This is a problem with living in a rural area. Ask your neighbors how they get online.
Q Angela, Nova Scotia, CAN - Ripping with iTunes
Angela has CDs that she has intermittent issues on importing. How can she rip them better? She uses iTunes. Leo says CDs have a ton of redundancy and iTunes is just giving up reading the CD. Go to the import settings and select the option that makes iTunes work harder to get the data. Settings and preferences, import settings, check use error correction when importing audio cds. It’ll slow down, but it will do a better job ripping them. IT’ll also help to clean and buff your CDs to make them easier to read. If just fingerprints, use a gentle dish soap and wash across the groove. Or use a buffer. Make sure you go from the center out.
Another program you can use is called CDEX for Windows. Has great error correction.
Q Sam, Victorville, CA - Setting up a VPN
Sam wants to set up a virtual private network (VPN) using Hamachi and it’s really slow. Wouldn’t it be faster to just connect directly to his computer at the office? Leo says yes! Hamachi used to be direct connect but adding a server is slowing you down.
Setting up a VPN server isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s complicated and few do it successfully. Leo recommends buying a router with VPN built in.
Q Josh, California - Sharing music legally
Josh is a college student who shares with two roomates. Everyone has different tastes in music. They use GrooveShark. Is there a portable unit that connects to the net with GrooveShark? Leo says it’s so new that there’s no real hardware support like Pandora does. Probably your best bet is Grooveshark’s iPhone app.
