Jay has a stack of miniDV tapes and wants to digitize them to make DVDs. Leo says if he still has the camera, he can do it easily by plugging it into the computer. He wants a USB 3 or Thunderbolt connection if possible. Firewire to USB converter could also do it, but it may be easier just to have a service do it.
Carlo has a small laptop with a USB 3.0 port. But suddenly, it won't read USB 2. What gives? Leo says that USB 3.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible as long as the plug is Type A. It could be a faulty connector, or the connector pins are dirty. The connector could have also shorted out. Shine a light in and look for some cruft, or even damage on the surface of the contacts. ScooterX in the chatroom suggests that it may be a driver issue. Go into the device manager (windows key + X) and look to see if there's a red X. Or delete the drivers and then restart to reinstall.
Leo says yes, all Android phones can do this. He just needs to get a USB cable, either USB Type A or Type C depending on what his computer has. A Windows PC should be able to mount the phone as a drive, but he may need to get software for it if he's on Mac. He can look for "Android File Transfer Manager" which is a free program that allows the Mac to see the Android device.
Brian runs an external Thunderbolt 2 drive and Parallels to dual boot into Windows. He upgraded his SSD, which works on his laptop, but it won't attach to his Mac Mini. How can he adapt it? Leo says that the Thunderbolt 3 connector is the same as the USB-C connector. But that doesn't mean it has the Thunderbolt controller built in. So he may need to get a Thunderbolt 3 external enclosure to use it, but it's not cheap. He could use a Type A USB 3.1 data cable connector to the Type-C drive and he should get full throughput.
Don has an Asus router and he has a USB in for connecting an external drive to it. Can he put a hub on it? Leo says sure. He can take up to 255 devices on the USB chain, but it may confuse the router, so he should look at the settings to see if it will support it.
Carey wants to know what the future holds for DVDs and thumb drives. Leo says that DVDs are going away as people are preferring to stream more than playing them on optical drives. But Leo says that USB is going to be around for quite awhile.
The left speaker on Steve's computer stopped working. He replaced the speaker, replaced the cables, updated the drivers, and even used Linux on a USB stick. None of that worked. What's left? Rich says to try plugging a headphone into the jack to see if that works. Steve thinks that besides the drivers, he thinks that it's still a software issue. He should look at the speaker settings, and should try a different USB plug.
JR wants to know what would be the easiest way to set up a slideshow presentation that he can show on an HDTV. Leo says that many TVs have USB slots, but it depends if the software supports running photo slideshows. JR could use AirPlay with his iPhone and keep the slideshow on it. Or he can make a movie of the slideshow and the TV could play it.
Dennis' computer has a Western Digital Passport external hard drive that mounts, but it can't be read it or ejected. Then it crashes the computer. Leo says that it's a USB device that isn't fully mounting. It's probably an issue with either the USB controller on his computer, or the cable itself. Dennis should try using a different USB cable first. Then he should try plugging it into another USB port and see if he can replicate the issue. The USB driver may also be corrupted.
Gary wants to know about Google Voice with the Pixel phone. Leo says that Google Voice started as GrandCentral, which he used to use for his office. Then Google bought it and created a central phone hub for everyone. It gives you a new universal number and then rings different phones until it finds you. It also has custom voicemail boxes for people in your contact list, strangers, close friends, and unknown. It also sends you a text message with the voicemail. And it's free to use.
