Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Is it worth it to refill printer ink cartridges?

Watch Gordon from Lakeland, FL Comments

Gordon says that inkjet ink is obscenely expensive. Leo agrees and it doesn't have to be. That's why printers are so cheap, because they make up for it with ink purchases. Gordon is wondering if it would be worth it to buy inkjet refills. Leo has traditionally avoided refills because the ink usually isn't as good. It also may violate his printer's terms of service, which would void the warranty. Also, some printer cartridges also contain the printer head. Refilling the cartridge won't clean the head and he could end up with more clogs. That's why Leo recommends Laser printers. In the long run, they are much cheaper.

What laptops support SSD encryption?

Watch David from Eerie, PA Comments

David is going to be upgrading his laptop, but he's concerned because his Samsung SSDs have onboard encryption and he's not sure what laptops would support it. Leo says that the encryption has always been around, but EVO is a new standard. EVO is a self encrypting drive and even the BIOS doesn't have to handle that. So he'll probably be OK if his SSD is EVO.

If it doesn't support EVO, then the SSDs disc encryption would need to be enabled in BIOS with the BIOS password. David tried that and it didn't work. Leo recommends looking for a laptop that supports trusted platform modules (TPM). There's a WikiPedia article which may be able to help. There's also this article from sevenforums.com.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Do some Android phones have better reception?

Watch Holland from LaJolla, CA Comments

Holland has a Samsung Galaxy S3 and he's rooted it to get the latest OS. Does the Droid have better reception? Do newer Android phones get better reception? Leo says that just about any newer phone would technically be "better." And the Droid could have better antennas that give it better reception. Leo likes the HTC One and it's reception is marvelous. He's also a fan of the Galaxy Note 3. The LG G3 also looks very promising.

What camcorder should I get?

Watch John from Marvista, CA Comments

John would like to get a camcorder. Leo says this is a dying category and since John is currently using a DSLR for still photography, upgrading his Canon Rebel to a new body like the T5i would be excellent for HD video. He also wouldn't have to carry more than one camera on his vacation. A point and shoot camera also offers good HD video as well. But if John really wants one, Leo uses the Canon Vixia models. They're very affordable, between $100-700.

Should I wait for iPhone 6?

Watch Diego from Fullerton, CA Comments

Diego wants to know if he should wait to buy iPhone 6 when it comes out or make the move to the Samsung Galaxy S5. Leo says that we don't know what's going to be in iPhone 6 and the earliest we'll know is the Fall. We have a hint at what it will be able to do with the preview of iOS 8, though.

The Galaxy S5 is out now. But Leo says that if he has bought into the Apple iPhone ecosystem, he's invested in those apps. It wouldn't cost more than $40-50 to move to Android if he chose to, though. Leo isn't much of a Galaxy S5 fan because Samsung has junked it up. Leo says it's probably worth waiting three months to see what iPhone 6 may end up offering.

How can I rip my DVDs to a hard drive?

Watch Joe from Van Nuys, CA Comments

Joe wants to rip his DVD collection and put it on an external hard drive. How big of a hard drive will he need? Leo says that regular DVDs have 4.7 GB of space, if he wants to keep all of the data from the DVD. But if he just wants the movie itself, then it won't take up as much space.

Joe should get Handbrake and VLC Media Client. Then if he encodes the movie and strips out everything else, he'll have a movie at about 1 GB. He could store a lot more movies that way.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Is BitLocker good enough for encryption?

Watch Julian from Santa Barbara, CA Comments

Julian uses BitLocker to encrypt his laptop hard drive. Is that adequate? Leo says absolutely. It's more than sufficient. And with more than 12,000 laptops being lost and stolen every week at airports, it's a wise idea to encrypt his laptop hard drive when he's traveling. But remember -- BitLocker requires certificates, so he can't lose them. It's wise to back them up or he won't be able to decrypt his drive. He should make sure that he uses a very good, random password for the encryption as well.

Do I need to upgrade my internet bandwidth to stream Netflix?

Watch Mike from Santa Monica, CA Comments

Mike has a pair of Samsung internet enabled TVs. His Internet speed is about 2 Mbps down. He has upgraded his router, but he's still getting a lot of buffering while streaming. Should he upgrade his internet speed? Leo says that may be the best option. The lowest cost internet is on the edge of using video. And as such, Netflix is probably downgrading the quality.

He could wire the TV directly into the router. That would eliminate any interference or congestion. Leo also says it's better to use an AppleTV or Roku device than the Internet TV Apps. So upgrading his internet bandwidth is a good idea if he's going to be streaming a lot, especially from more than one television. Will a 240 Hz TV help? Leo says no. That has to do with how the video looks and many complain that it gives the picture a 'plastic' look.

Does YouTube delete videos when I delete them from my phone?

Watch Tom from Warren, OH Comments

Tom is about to go traveling and would like to clean off his videos and photos. He uploaded the videos to YouTube, but when he deleted the videos off his phone, they were deleted on his YouTube Channel as well. Leo says that's odd. YouTube isn't caching his video on the phone, but it may be that YouTube syncs to his iPhone through iOS and any changes he makes there affects his channel on YouTube.

This is why it's vital to backup his images and videos to more than one location. If he backs up his originals and then deletes them, he no longer would have a backup. Tom should sync his phone with his computer and offload the pictures and video to the computer, which he should have backed up. Then he can delete them from his phone.

How should I back up my data while overseas?

Watch Greg from Camarillo, CA Comments

Greg is going out of the country for a few years and wants to be sure that his data is backed up and safe while he's gone. Leo suggests having two terabyte drives and put backups on both, then keep one of the drives off site. Then he should swap them periodically.

Why aren't newer processors getting much faster?

Watch Greg from Camarillo, CA Comments

Greg is looking to upgrade his processors and he's noticing they aren't that much faster. Leo says that processors aren't. They've found that faster processors get hotter and more unstable. So they've added more cores and more L2 cache to make them appear faster. We're pretty much at the limits of single core speeds. So Greg is wondering whether he should wait for it to die or replace it? Leo says just wait for it to die and keep his data backed up.

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