Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Is satellite TV as good as cable?

Watch Mike from New Jersey Comments

It can be, but Leo thinks that cable is better in picture quality. Additionally, the dish needs to have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. If Mike has a tree that grows in front of it, or experiences heavy weather conditions, he may have issues. Then there's over the air high def, which he could get just with an antenna. He can get uncompressed HD signals that are gorgeous, if he's within line of site to the broadcast tower. So ideally, he could cut the cable entirely and then just stream shows off the internet that he doesn't get live.

How can I get rid of malware that I think got installed on my system?

Watch Laurie from Los Angeles, CA Comments

Laurie downloaded some tax documents from DocStock.com and now she's having a variety of problems on her computer. Leo says that docstock.com is a legit site, but it's possible their website got hacked or a malformed PDF was installed onto the site. The strange tool bar in her browser is a bad sign.

Laurie could get someone to remove it (and she's tried), but it's likely there's other stuff going installed and going on as well. So the only way to really be sure is to back up the data, format the hard drive, reinstall Windows from a known, good source, and run updates.

She should also find someone better to help her out. Leo says to look around, ask others, and if they don't immediately recommend the solution above, move on to another person. A good high school student could probably do a better job than Laurie's tech guy.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Why won't Talkback on the Galaxy S III let me swipe through screens?

Watch Joe from Thomasville, GA Comments

Talkback is a feature that provides spoken feedback to help blind and low-vision users. It will describe what is touched, selected, and activated. Leo tried turning this feature on with his phone, and says it does impact performance a little bit. Leo says if it doesn't work, and it's supposed to work, Joe should take it to Verizon and tell them he needs this to work properly. They should fix it, or replace the phone if it's something specific to his phone.

Is there a way to load files onto an iPad?

Watch Jim from Seattle, WA Comments

Leo says there isn't a file system on the iPad, which is a common complaint. All files stored on the iPad are owned by an application. So in order to get a document onto the iPad, he must sync it to the application through iTunes, or download it from something like DropBox.

He also wants to be able to upload photos and videos. Leo says that he can buy the Apple Camera Connection Kit that will read SD cards and import photos to the iPhoto app.

How can I avoid high international data bills?

Watch Frank from Palm Desert, CA Comments

Frank discovered an app called What's App, but he's worried about traveling overseas and paying a ton of data roaming fees. He got a data bill of $700. Leo says if Frank calls up AT&T and tells them he's older and just learned to use a smartphone, they'll likely lower the bill this one time only. Then Leo recommends that he zero out his data meter on his iPhone when he goes overseas so he can monitor data use. That'll give him an argument with AT&T if the charge isn't what his iPhone says. He should also make sure to turn off data roaming until he needs it because some apps will use data without him knowing it.

If he's going to be somewhere for a longer time, it's cheaper to buy data locally with a temporary SIM card. He will also get a local number. He can also get a Wi-Fi card locally and use his iPhone on that.

How can I backup the data on my RAID 0 Network Attached Storage?

Watch Frank from Tustin, CA Comments

Robert's Buffalo Network Attached Storage device is randomly rebooting, and he wants to get the data from those drives backed up onto something else. He wants to take one of the drives out, back it up to another machine, and replace it.

Leo says that in a RAID 0 configuration, the two drives together make up what appears to be one drive, and they cannot be read independent from one another. If he has RAID set to Mirror each drive, then if he'd lose one drive, he'd still have his data. His best bet would be to get a second Buffalo NAS and duplicate the RAID.

From the Chatroom - RunTime.org has some NAS recovery software which may help.

Could I use a smartphone with no data service?

Watch Chuck from Kansas City, MO Comments

Chuck is a truck driver and he uses a Droid 2, but he's switching his phone service. Leo says it won't work as a phone, but if he removes the sim, it essentially becomes like an iPod. All the apps will still work as long as he has Wi-Fi access.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

How can I use my tablet as a smartphone?

Watch Grant from Lake Forest, CA Comments

Leo says that some tablets would let him put a SIM card in, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Google Nexus 7. That would essentially turn them into smartphones. He would need a GSM carrier, though, which is either AT&T or TMobile.

Another way to do it is to use Skype which uses voice over IP (VOIP). He can pay for what's called "Skype In" and "Skype Out", and he'll have a phone number that people can call him on like a phone.

How can I import DRM protected music from iTunes to Google Play?

Watch Don from Lake Forest, CA Comments

Don dumped his iPhone for an Android Galaxy Note 2, and he loves it. Now he wants to move his music from iTunes to Google Play. Some of his music is protected by copy protection, though.

Leo says copy protection has been recently dropped by carriers, but if he has songs that have DRM on them, the easiest way to remove that is to turn on iTunes Match to match all his copy-protected songs. They'll upgrade them to DRM free songs at greater quality. Then he can delete all his copy-protected songs. After he does this, he should be able to import them into Google Play with no trouble.

What do you think of Onkyo A/V receivers?

Watch Paul from Toledo, OH Comments

Leo likes them a lot, and got an Onkyo TX-NR616 for himself. It's fairly inexpensive at around $386, with 7 HMDI ports in, and 2 out. So Leo could drive both his projector screen and his big screen TV. Drives speakers very well and the sound quality is excellent.

There are some things he doesn't like though. They promote the fact that it supports Pandora and Spotify, but it's very slow to get to it. It doesn't have a very fast processor in it. In most cases that doesn't matter because people most likely use something else for those features. They also do have an app to control it.

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