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For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
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Sunday June 27, 2010
Show Audio
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Edited Audio | |
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Posted one week after broadcast… | |
Tech News
Leo gets an iPhone
Leo thought for sure that after being told his iPhone won’t arrive until July that he wouldn’t be able to review it for weeks. Thanks to Pat at the Emeryville Apple Store, he was able to buy one on launch day.
Leo thinks there are much better phones out there including the Samsung Galaxy S with the same AMOLED style screen as Leo’s favorite - the HTC Nexus One. There is now some real competition for Apple and will iPhone 4 be able to leap frog the other guys? Leo says not really. There’s some nice features - like the super high res “Retina” display, but it seems the iPhone 4 is just playing catchup.
The images on the 5MP camera are really accurate. And the front facing camera - designed for FaceTime, the video chat app - is pretty compelling. The camera has image stabilization, good contrast. Looks really good. The downside - you can only call another user of the iPhone 4.
One thing that’s disappointing is that Apple didn’t fix the notification issue. On Android, you get a really good list of notifications and it’s seamless. On Apple it’s terrible. And the lack of widgets is completely missing. And the folder feature is not only passe, but it’s clunky on the iPhone.
Bottom line … if you have an investment in iPhone apps, it’s a worthy upgrade. But it won’t be replacing Leo’s Android phone which he believes has leap frogged the iPhone OS. Consider the HTC Incredible, the Evo, the Droid X and others.
Frenchman convicted of hacking Obama’s Twitter account
A Frenchman named “Hacker Kroll” who found a bug in Twitter’s interface and hacked the Twitter accounts of Obama and others was convicted and received a suspended jail sentence.
Meanwhile, the FTC has told Twitter to clean up it’s act and has barred the site from “misleading” consumers for 20 years. They must also prevent future attacks, get users to change passwords from time to time, etc.
Leo suggests you use a password that is a long string of random letters, numbers and punctuation. Hard to remember but even harder to crack. You can use LastPass to remember them for you.
YouTube and Viacom’s lawsuit
You probably didn’t hear about this story since it was lost in all the hullabaloo of the iPhone 4 product launch. You may recall, Viacom sued YouTube for $1 Billion for copyright violations of videos posted on YouTube (who cares if it helped their shows ratings!). What’s at stake here is whether YouTube is a publisher (like a newspaper) or a “common carrier” (like the phone company). YouTube gets 24 hours of video posted every minute! With so much content going up on YouTube, is it really practical to hold YouTube’s feet to the fire in screening for copyright material?
The courts ruled in summary judgment that Google and YouTube are protected by the safe harbor provision of the DMCA and as such, and since it always tries to comply with take down requests, that YouTube is a common carrier doing their best. Good news for all of us online.
Leo also says there’s an opportunity for Viacom to put an ad up every time a clip of theirs is shown, but they’re blowin’ it with taking the legal option.
Guests
Scott Wilkinson, Home Theater Magazine, @htcgeekscott
Scott joins us this week to talk about the Consumer Electronics Association’s “micro” CES convention in New York City. Based on the old “line show” format, where manufacturers show off their latest products ready for shipping. Scott says that even though CES was January, he saw many products that weren’t in Vegas. Scott saw the Vizio booth, where they’re jumping into 3D in a big way using both active and passive classes. And to Scott’s knowledge, it’s the only company using passive glasses. So consumers have a choice with Vizio to save money using the passive system - but you lose half the resolution in each eye. And the downside is that you end up paying more for the TV, so the money you save on glasses you spend on the TV, unless you enjoy entertaining and it may be more cost effective to go Passive. Vizio also introduced a $99 Blu-ray player with internet access (no WiFi though).
Mitsubishi introduced their 4th generation 3D DLP TVs in sizes up to 82 inches! And they are way more affordable than LCDs. And Scott believes Mitsubishi is onto something because he now believes that for 3D to really work, it has to be REALLY big. They are also adding their “immersive sound bar” which competes with Discrete 5.1 audio.
They also showed a second generation Laser Vue Projection TV, 75″. But it’s still got a steep price tag.
Monster Cable also introduced a Universal 3D glasses that are RF to sync with the 3D HDTV. Monster can do this thanks to an IR to RF transmitter. The downside is that you’d have to bring a transmitter with you to watch 3DTV at a friends house!
Scott also saw Sony broadcast the World Cup in 3D and he wasn’t impressed. He thinks that broadcast 3D is completely different due to it’s frame compatibility mode, splitting resolution in half. So, it causes “Crosstalk” meaning the left eye can see what the right eye sees,” or just fades to black. Turns out LCD TVs are polarized and as such, the glasses are polarized as well. Plasma, on the other hand, doesn’t have that issue.
There was also audio stuff as well including THX’s introduction of using meta data to switch from 2D to 3D automatically. How is it delivered? By HDMI or via the broadcast stream.
Dick DeBartolo, The Giz Wiz
Today’s Gadget from the GizWiz? The Fast Finger Keyboard. This keyboard is largely designed for “hunt and pecking.”
But what makes this keyboard cool is that at the touch of a button, it’ll change to the conventional QWERTY keyboard and can even change to a “texting” configuration. Cost is about $30.
Hour 1
Q Steve, California - Capturing old videos
Steve is digitizing old 8mm video movies to DVD. He’s using the Canopus AVDC 300. But how can he streamline the process. Leo recommends using Adobe Premiere Elements, which will not only capture but also compress and burn to DVD. It’s a one stop shop.
Q Ken, Fairfield, CA - Screen savers
Ken wants to know if computer screen savers are important anymore. Leo says that screen savers were important in the CRT era because of permanent burn in. That’s no longer the case for LCDs.
What about removing a USB drive? Is it okay to pull it out? Leo says that writing is often delayed on Macs, and it’s important to use the eject process because the OS flushes the buffer and writes it to the drive. It’s a good idea to wait a few seconds on a PC just to let it finish, but it won’t hurt it.
Hour 2
Q Jason, Alabama - Video Podcast
Jason is the video guy at church and wants to know if there’s a software switcher to run a video podcast. Leo recommends Telestream’s Wirecast. Another option for MAC is Boinx. He also wants to if he can use the Kodak ZI8 for live USB streaming. Leo isn’t so sure about that.
Q Jay, Providence, NC - using a Proxy server
Jay is thinking about using a proxy server for boosting his performance. Leo says if the Proxy server is a cacheing server, it’ll boost your performance a small amount. But in reality, most ISPs are already doing that. The big advantage is security. It’s not easy to set up though and should be set up by a professional.
Q Terry, Amarillo, TX - iTunes and 64 bit
Terry is having trouble syncing his iPhone running iTunes in 64 bit. It says he needs to update his iPhone mobile sync utility and when he dials back it won’t read his library. Leo says the issue is due to the 64 bit version of iTunes. He recommends removing everything and starting over (don’t delete your music though). Here’s an Apple knowledge base article to help. One Tip - try reinstalling Quicktime by itself FIRST. This seems to help.
Q Brian, Los Angeles, CA - Ripping his iPod
Brian has videos and music only on the iPod and wants to know how he can get them back onto his PC? Leo says that Apple doesn’t give you a way to do that natively, so you need an iPod “ripper.” For the Mac, use iRip. There’s also Senuti. For Windows, there’s SharePod or EphPod.
Q Dennis, Santa Monica, CA - Stuck updates
Dennis is an analog guy living in a digital world. He has a Lenovo Thinkpad running XP. He turned on auto updates and one has stalled preventing him from using Office 2003. Leo says it could be a legitimate error based on an illegitimate installation Office (Dennis had a pro install it). But assuming it isn’t, you can probably search Microsoft’s knowledge base for “Office 2003 hotfix” and you’ll probably find a fix.
Q David, Sky Forest, CA - Using YouTube
David is interested in being a content partner on YouTube. Leo says that YouTube has some great non profit programs, provider accounts, and more. In fact, you should put your podcast on YouTube as well.
Hour 3
Q David, the Ocean Doctor, Washington, DC -
David is interested an Asus UL30V, but the problem is it has no way to add anything like Firewire for capturing video. Leo says it does have SD card ports which you can access. Another option is an analog to video converter or even a DV to USB converter. The Neuros OSD is a good option as it’ll capture and store to an SD card. The quality isn’t broadcast or anything, but it’s okay for the Web. Hauppage’s HD PVR is another. For Macs, ElGato’s HDITV connects to USB and also a USB card which encodes H.264.
Check out 1Planet1Ocean.org for information on the gulf spill and restoring coral reefs in the world’s oceans.
Q Tom, Berkeley, CA - Windows 98 Installation
Tom needs to reinstall his OS but doesn’t have his Windows 98 serial number. Leo says there’s a program which you can run which will recover your serial number. Another option is to buy it on eBay and then you’ll have a disc with a serial number. It’s pretty cheap. But Leo also cautions that Windows 98 has been dropped from Microsoft support and won’t be protected against viruses, et al. With an old computer like Tom’s Leo recommends Ubuntu or Xubuntu which is specifically designed to work on older machines.
Q Robert, Baton Rouge, LA - Getting smarter socially online
Robert is a regular in our TWiT chatroom and thinks it’s relationships forged in chatrooms that help keep people informed and smarter. Leo agrees. They become fellow curators and information finders and who’s to say those relationships aren’t as valid as any others?
