Q: How do I switch my iTunes account from an old computer, which is broken, to my new computer? I’ve downloaded iTunes onto the new computer, but, of course, it doesn’t recognize my account. The real problem is my iPod. I have all my music on it, but now I am not able to add to it to iTunes.

A: Well, first of all, Phil, your new computer should recognize your iTunes account. If it doesn’t, you have a problem that you need to contact Apple about. You may have to reset your iTunes password. Hopefully you still have access to the e-mail address you gave Apple for your account. Once iTunes does recognize your account, you need to authorize your computer. Sign into iTunes, then click the Store tab at the top and click “authorize this computer.” You should now be able to re-download any songs you purchased through iTunes. However, any songs that you ripped from CDs, or acquired through other questionable methods, are still trapped on your iPod. Apple made it this way so people couldn?t use their iPods to transfer illegally shared music between computers. But in this situation, their safeguard is a real hassle for you.

Regardless of how you acquired your music, and we are not here to judge, your music isn’t trapped on your iPod forever. You can transfer it to your computer, but it takes a little work, unless you are willing to pay for an app. We’ll show you how to do it the hard way first, then if you decide that’s not for you, we’ll include a link to the app at the bottom. Here’s how to do it if you have a Windows PC.

Transferring your iTunes library from an iPod to a new Windows PC

When you plug your iPod into your PC, you need to stop it from auto-syncing. To do this, hold down Shift and Ctrl while you plug in your iPod. Then, you can open your iPod like an external hard drive, by going to My Computer and double-clicking the iPod.

However, if you double-click on the iPod and you get an error message asking you to format your iPod, stop! Your iPod was formatted for a Mac. If this is the case, you’ll need a program called MacDrive to see your Mac formatted iPod on your Windows computer. But hopefully this won’t happen to you.

Once you get it open, you need to reveal your hidden files. Each version of Windows has a slightly different way to do it, so if you’ve never revealed your hidden files before, just search Google or Bing for “Show Hidden Files Windows” and whatever version of Windows you have “XP, 7 or 8” Click on the first search results that are from Microsoft. Follow those directions, and you’ll be able to see your hidden files on your iPod.

Now, once you have your iPod open, look for a folder called “iPod-Control.” In there, you’ll find another folder labeled “Music.” Copy that folder to your computer. Now, open iTunes, and click File and Add to Library. Navigate to the Music folder you copied to your desktop, and iTunes will import everything. Your files will have random four letter names, but as soon as they are imported to iTunes, the song titles and artists will be restored.

Transferring your iTunes library from an iPod to a new Mac

If you have a Mac, it’s a little more complicated, but you’ll do basically the same thing. However,  unless you buy an app, you will have to go into the Terminal. Hold down Command and Option while you plug in the iPod. Then you will launch Terminal, and enter “defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE” and then enter “killall Finder” Now you’ll click on the iPod in iTunes, click the Summary tab and check box next to Enable Disc Use.

Now, open Finder, open the iPod, open the folder iPod-Control and copy the Music folder to your Desktop. Then, open iTunes, and click File and Add to Library. Navigate to the Music folder you copied to your desktop, and iTunes will import everything.

Transferring your iTunes library from an iPod with an app

If you’ve read the instructions above, and you are completely overwhelmed, there are two other options. First, you could buy an app that will do most of the heavy lifting for you. If you have an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, DiskAid will do the trick. With DiskAid you can copy music, video, text messages and your contacts from your iOS device. If you have a iPod classic or Nano, PodTrans Pro will do the job for you. PodTrans Pro will also convert incompatible file formats for you so you can watch Windows Media files on your iPod. Both DiskAid and PodTrans Pro work on Windows and Mac. If the only thing concerning you is diving into the Terminal on your Mac is concerning you, you can download Houdini for Mac which will make your hidden files and folders visible.

The other option is to have someone do it for you. Most IT service companies can transfer the music files for you, and they usually won’t charge too much for the job. Check out our business directory for some good companies that should be able to help you out.

Looking for apps to download for your shiny new iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Here’s where to start. Here’s a not-so-scientific list of some of the absolute best apps that came out this year.

The Top 20 Best Apps of 2013 (via Apple Gazette)

It?s been quite a year for iOS apps. With the release of iOS 7 many apps have started to take on the flat look and feel of the new operating system. A lot of new apps were released while most were updated with new features and layouts. We?ve compiled…

This week Ray and Tom talked about the latest tech news from Cupertino California including the newly named iPad Air, the iPad Mini with Retina Display and the new Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and Mac Pro computers.  They also answered questions about backing up your music collection, how to use your iPhone as a scanner and how to scrub a computer of your personal data before you donate it.

#53 Apple News, Saving Tunes and Scanning Documents

TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech. This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech Podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? You can give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: Hey, we are working on recording an hour long Deemable Tech radio special so give us a call to “audition” for the show.

TOM: Today on the show we?re going to answer your questions about using your smart phone to scan things, backing up your music files and donating your old computer. But first let?s talk tech news.

Ray, I see you chomping at the bit there, so go ahead and tell us about your tech story of the week!

RAY: Well Tom, we get to talk about your favorite thing: Apple had a press event!

Last Tuesday Apple had a big press announcement

iPad Air

? Dropped from 1.4 lbs to 1 lb

iPad Mini with Retina display $399

? Same price as the iPad 2 which is still on sale.

iPad Mini price dropped from $329 to $299

? Still more expensive than a Nexus 7 at $269 and the Nexus 7 has a better screen.

New Macbook Pros with Retina Display

? Faster Intel Haswell CPUs

? 13″ models saw a $200 price drop.

13″ Macbook stayed the same price

The 15″ Macbook disappeared.

Mac Pro (iTrash can) available date and pricing was announced

? December 2013

? Starting at $2,999

last major update was 2010

Mavericks OSX 10 FREE

iWork: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote Formerly $9.99 each on iOS and $19.99 on OSX

iLife: GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie – Formerly $4.99 each on iOS and $15.00 each on OSX

TOM: In the interest of equal time, here are some other non-Apple stories from this week. Best Buy reports that returns of the Samsung Galaxy Gear are over 30%.

Acer has a new Chromebook, the Acer 720. It?s got a Haswell CPU under the hood. 11.6-inch 1366×768 TN screen. It retails for $249. Includes USB 3.0, HDMI.

RAY: Kenneth writes, I want to back up my music/photos files on my Dell Home Edition computer that’s using Windows XP as an (OS)Operating System. Which backup system or program do you recommend?

The reason why I need to do this is because while playing music files the music is skipping so I googled the problem and that’s what it recommended me to do is backup my music files. I did try downloading a backup program but I was getting an error message at the finish part of the download.

TOM: Hey Kenneth. We talked a little about backup programs last week, so you?ll want to check that out. There are a lot of good cloud backup programs out there right now, and they?re easy to use.

If you want to backup music specifically, it actually gets even easier. Google Play Music will scoop up your music library and upload it to their cloud automatically. From there you can access it from anywhere, or download it again if you lose it.

RAY: Yeah, it?s great. But I?m a little confused about something.

TOM: What?s that?

RAY: Why would backing up Kenneth?s music files stop his music player from skipping?

TOM: Uhhhhhhh? yeah, I don?t know. That seems strange. Backing up your music just makes a copy of it. It doesn?t do anything to the original files.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe Kenneth is just running out of space on his hard drive.

RAY: He did say that he was unable to download a backup program. If he was out of space that would make sense.

TOM: Yeah. Once you get very low on space on your hard drive you won?t be able to download anything that?s not very small. And it causes a lot of other problems too. Your Operating System uses spare hard drive space to do stuff. Like if a program is running in memory but you?re not using it, your OS might dump a snapshot of that memory onto your hard drive temporarily to free up space. But if you?re out of hard drive space, that?s not going to happen. You?ll see your entire computer getting slower and slower. It might even cause your music to skip.

RAY: The only way to fix this is to either delete some files, move files off your hard drive, or uninstall programs.

TOM: Yeah. If you have an older, smaller hard drive you may find yourself having to do this kind of housekeeping quite a lot. Music files are a great way to start. Try downloading Google Music, because it?s super small. Once it has scanned and uploaded your music library to the cloud, which might take a couple days, start deleting music.

RAY: You also need to open up Program Files in the Windows control panel and go through and look for programs you aren?t using. If you see any, click and uninstall them. Remember with most programs you can always reinstall them later if you need them.

TOM: Nowadays people have a lot of video files on their hard drives. Nothing will eat up space faster. Time to burn some DVDs! And do you really need a copy of every season of Friends?

We have a voicemail from Geri:

Hi guys this is jerry calling over wife I from Cameroon in Africa … I was calling to harass you asked me to let you know if my old computer game would work gravel … and it’s working great it totally will run on my computer so thanks for the tip okay so my new question I’ve just been informed by a friend on face book and that I can use my I phone … camera as a scanner and that they’re apps for the I need to know more and so I’m calling to best guys I know to help me find out so that you can do the research and tell me the best thing … I have an I phone for okay thanks

Depends on what you want to use it for, OCR or image capture.

OCR

ABBYY TextGrabber + Translator $5.99

Image capture

ABBYY FineScanner $1.99

JotNot Scanner Pro $.99

TOM: Julie wrote in: I have 2 laptop computers that I would like to donate to a school or organization. How can I erase/remove any personal information in the hard drive, before I donate them? i have been told i can reinstall the original set up discs that came with each one but I can’t find those. Is there an inexpensive way to do this, i.e. where I don’t have to buy expensive software or take it somewhere like Best Buy where it will cost a lot of $$? Thanks.

We talked about this once before, on episode #42, but it never hurts to repeat. You have the right idea. You definitely want to wipe your computer before you give it away or sell it.

In that episode, we mentioned If it?s a Windows PC you?re getting rid of, use a program like Eraser or the Drive Wiper in CCleaner to completely eradicate your data. If you?re tossing out a Mac, there?s a program called Permanent Eraser. All of these programs are free.

However, one of our listeners, Eva, pointed out that this will not wipe the entire hard drive clean, because it won’t wipe the operating system. That is true. To wipe the entire hard drive clean, you need to do one of two things, boot it from the USB or CD/DVD drive or remove the hard drive and use a USB adapter to attach it as an external hard drive to another computer.

Restore partition.

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and follow us or subscribe.

Our producer is Sean Birch. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week!

Q: I have finally joined the 21st century by getting an iPhone. I’ve always had a normal cell phone before, and it did what I wanted: it let me make phone calls and text my kids. I know how to do those things with my iPhone, but I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t know what else I should be using it for. Do you have any suggestions?

Image Credit: Phil Campbell / Flickr

A: There’s no reason to be embarrassed! Getting your first smartphone can be an overwhelming experience. What can you do with it? What should you do with it? There’s so much to learn and so many options, but we?re here to help. We’ve made a short list of a few of the things we use our smartphones for other than calling and texting.

Use number one has to be navigation. Your iPhone and any other smartphone worth its salt has built-in GPS. We personally like to use the Google Maps app for our navigation needs, but Apple Maps has come a long way as well.

If you want to use your phone for this, be sure to get a cradle so that you can mount it to the dashboard or windshield of your car. You don’t want to be fumbling with your phone with one hand while trying to drive with the other. In fact, in some states it’s illegal to do so. A cradle will keep the phone safely at eye level while you use it to navigate.

Next on our list are the voice-activated features of your phone. The iPhone’s Siri is the most famous, but there’s also Google Voice Search. Voice Search has a little less personality than Siri, but is faster. Either way, you can ask your phone what the weather is going to be like, when a store closes, definitions of words, how long a movie will be, what your favorite team scored in the last game, and much more. This is really useful when you just want a quick answer to something, or, going back to our driving scenario, when it’s not safe to use your hands to operate your phone.

Another great use for your smartphone is task management. Hopefully you don?t have terrible memories like us, Kelly, but fortunately if you do your phone is there to rescue you. You can use your phone to make notes to yourself, set appointments on your calendars, remind yourself to do things and handle your shopping list.

This is an area where your phone’s voice-activated features integrate beautifully. Try telling Siri or Google Voice Search to remind you to get the laundry out a 3:00 PM. It will!

Next up on our list is something that may seem pretty obvious, but is another terrific way to utilize your smartphone: using it as an alarm clock. There is a built-in alarm clock on your iPhone, and there are literally hundreds of alarm clock apps out there to cater to your waking-up needs. You can find alarm clocks that wake you up with music, or even make you do math problems to make sure you are awake. And if you don’t mind sleeping next to your phone in bed, there are even apps that will measure your sleep cycles and try to wake you when you will feel the most rested.

And all this stuff is really just the tip of the iceberg, Kelly. There are many more genuinely useful things you can do with a smartphone, including many great apps that do everything from help you find vegan restaurants to let you learn about our country’s national parks. Check out our list of recommend apps below:

GPS Navigation:

• Google Maps: iPhone – Android
• Waze: iPhone – Android

Take Notes:

• Evernote: iPhone – Android
• Simplenote: iPhone – Android

Make Lists:

• WanderList: iPhone – Android
• Any.Do: iPhone – Android
• Toodledo: iPhone – Android

Alarm Clocks:

• Sleep If U Can: iPhone – Android
• FreakyAlarm: iPhone
• Alarm Clock Xtreme Free: Android
• Wake N Shake: iPhone
• MotionX 24/7: iPhone
• SleepCycle: iPhone
• Alarm Clock Plus: Android

Find and Store Recipes:

• How To Cook Everything: iPhone
• Cook’s Illustrated: iPhone
• Epicurious Recipes And Shopping List: iPhone – Android
• AllTheCooks Recipes: iPhone – Android

Scan Barcodes for Comparison Shopping:

• ShopSavvy: iPhone – Android

Keep Membership Cards in Your Virtual Wallet:

• Google Wallet: iPhone – Android
• Square Wallet: iPhone – Android
• PayCloud: iPhone – Android
• Lemon Wallet: iPhone – Android
• LastPass Wallet: iPhone
• KeyRing: iPhone – Android

Find Restaurants and See Customer Reviews:

• Yelp: iPhone – Android
• UrbanSpoon: iPhone – Android
• Foursquare: iPhone – Android

Scan Business Cards:

• ABBYY Business Card Reader: iPhone – Android
• Yolu Card Reader: iPhone – Android
• Evernote Hello: iPhone – Android

Listen to the Radio:

• Deemable Tech App: iPhone – Android
• NPR News: iPhone – Android
• Public Radio Player: iPhone – Android
• PRX Remix: iPhone – Android
• Stitcher Radio: iPhone – Android
• TuneIn Radio: iPhone – Android

Monitor Your Heart Rate:

• Instant Heart Rate: iPhone – Android
• MotionX 24/7: iPhone

Get Important Weather Updates:

• Weather Channel: iPhone – Android
• WeatherBug: iPhone – Android

On this week’s episode Ray and Tom do not give accounting, financial or tax related advice, but they do answer questions about apps to keep receipts, using an iPhone 4S in Mexico, calendar and task app suggestions, and moving an Android app to the SD card. They also announced the winner of the Amazon Gift Card, #24 Eugene!

#51 How To Root Your TI-84

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech PODcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

TOM: Before we jump into the show, could I ask a favor? ? OK, thanks.

Would you take a second and tell your friends about Deemable Tech? Especially if you know someone who is interested in learning more about technology, whether they currently know nothing about technology, or you think they already know everything about technology. Tell them to check out Deemable Tech. We’d really appreciate it!

RAY: Also, if you haven’t done so already, make sure you are subscribed to Deemable Tech. Just go to iTunes and search for Deemable Tech, or go to deemable.com/itunes to take you directly to our iTunes page. You can also subscribe to our YouTube page. And we’re on the Facebook and the Twitter, just search for Deemable Tech.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? You can give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email to questions@deemable.com.

RAY: Well, the time is finally here to announce the winner of the Amazon Gift Card contest. If you’re not familiar with it, we have been asking you guys to answer a few questions about the Deemable Tech podcast. All you had to do was go to Deemable.com and click the link to take the survey. And if you did it, you are entered to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card, which we are going to draw the winner of riiiight, after we answer your questions!

TOM: Today on the show we?re going to answer your questions about what phone works best for overseas travel,

RAY: Which calendar app is the best,

TOM: How to move apps to the SD Card on an Android phone,

RAY: And how to print a morning edition. But first –

TOM: We have a question from Deborah.

Deborah writes: I am a teacher, and I need to track my receipts for tax purposes. I try to keep up with this on my computer, but invariably forget, get behind, and give up. This leads to me merely estimating my out-of-pocket expenses for my classroom at tax time. Is there a good, FREE app for my iPhone that can help me keep up with my expenses and receipts? I searched the app store at iTunes, but the results list was so long that it was daunting, especially since I cannot sort it for reviews. I thought I had found a winner with Concur, but then realized only the app was free – an online account would require money.

RAY: Well, let me start by making a disclosure and a disclaimer. I work for the IRS, but I do not speak for the IRS. Don’t take anything that I say as representative of the Internal Revenue Service’s position on anything. They are solely my opinions and do not necessarily reflect the Internal Revenue Service’s view or opinion.

Also, do not take anything that we say as financial or accounting advice. If you need financial or accounting advice, we strongly recommend seeking expert advice from qualified professionals.

Now, that being said, we do know of a couple of apps that might work for what you are trying to find. The simplest one, is also free, and it’s called Google Drive. Just start a Spreadsheet up on Google Drive to keep track of your transactions, and take photos of your receipts and upload them to a Receipt folder in Google Drive.

Now, for a solution that is custom made for what you are trying to do, OneReceipt is a great app that you can use to scan receipts in with your iPhone camera. It automatically determines the amount of the transaction, and what it was for. It also can connect to your email account, so when you get electronic receipts, like from Apple iTunes account, Amazon, Office Depot, Square, etc, it will grab those receipts for you and keep track of them as well.

The app is currently free, but it is still in beta. Also, I doubt that the optical character recognition is as good as the results imply. There must be someone looking at these receipts to confirm the results. That might make you uncomfortable. But it is pretty seamless and simple to use.

An app called Lemon Wallet does the same, but it’s mostly focused on storing your credit cards and loyalty cards. The receipt scanning feature isn’t quite as good, and the app is a little crashy the last time I tried it.

I haven’t found any other apps that were free or worth the money, if anyone of our listeners know of expense record keeping apps that you like that work on iOS, let us know. Send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

Now, there is a question of whether or not these apps would be sufficient for record keeping if you were audited by the IRS. I wish I could answer that question, but I don’t know the answer. But I do know where you can find the answer, go to irs.gov and search for “Publication 17 Your Federal Income Tax”. That will have all the answers you seek, and if it’s not in there, it will usually tell you where to find the answer in a different publication. And if you still can’t find the answer, you can call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 (Individuals) or 1-800-829-4933 (Business)

Summer asked: I listened recently to your advice about using a phone outside the U.S. I will be traveling to MX soon and I’ve lived there before, so I actually have an el cheapo phone that I can bring with me and use there. However, I’d like to use my iPhone if I could..it’s an iPhone 4s, but it’s on the Sprint Network. You mentioned iPhone 4s would work—but that Sprint uses CDMA….so…Is there something I can do so that it will work for me? I won’t have a ton of WiFi access…thanks!

Great question, Summer. An iPhone 4S does work international because it is a world phone, however, like you said Sprint does use CDMA. There is a SIM card in your phone, but you can’t activate it except for international roaming without unlocking your phone. However, if you call Sprint they will might unlock it for you, if you are in good standing with Sprint and you explain why you need it unlocked and you are very nice to them. This will be much easier if you are out of contract. If you are still in contract, you might have a harder time. Otherwise, you’ll have to unlock it the old fashioned way, which means jailbreaking it. If that is something you are interested in trying visit imore.com/jailbreak at your own risk.

Louis asks: After recovering items from two different recovery software applications I am unable to open videos and over 90% of the photos. Please provide me guidance to resolve this problem.

Thanks for your email. We need some additional details to be able to help you out. What operating system are you running, and what software applications did you use? Email us back at questions@deemable.com and hopefully we should be able to help you out. If you need access to those files faster, check out our business directory at //business-directory/ and there are several companies in Jacksonville that should be able to help you out.

Krysten asked on Facebook: Can anyone recommend a calendar app for my iPhone? I’ve kept my calendar as a list in my notes for years and have accidentally deleted it multiple times, which is all stupid, I know. Haven’t found a calendar app yet that I like. I want to be able to integrate tasks I’ve given myself for the day and I’d like it to be easy to cut/paste from date to date. Suggestions?

The built in calendar app is pretty good since iOS 7 came out, but I honestly don’t think you want a calendar app. I think you want a good task manager or to-do list app.

Check out Getting Things Done. You should only use a calendar app for events that are set in time, not for tasks.

If you are looking for a to-do app, Reminders in iOS is actually a pretty decent basic task app. If you’re looking for something a little more comprehensive, Toodledo is a great app that will let you organize your tasks by context and by location.

Dana emailed us:

I listened to your discussion on the use of cellphones overseas. I wanted to print this. On your website/WJCT, I see that I can listen to it, but I do not see where I can print this.

Can you forward me a copy of this? I would like to have this copy so I can decide what I would like to do as I plan to travel soon.

All of our Radio Segments at deemable.com/radio We include a transcript of the segment on the site. We don’t have a print friendly version, but we will look into it. The copy of the transcript on WJCT’s news website is printer friendly, just click the Print icon above the headline. Otherwise, just copy and paste the text into a Word or Google Drive document.

Robert Snyder writes, I had to uninstall Facebook on my Android phone, and when I reinstalled it, I couldn’t move it to my SD card. This is a problem because my phone doesn’t have a lot of internal memory.

Why can’t I move it, and is there a way around it?

TOM: Robert Snyder? Snyder, that name rings a bell.

ROBERT: Yeah I?m? back here?

• What phone does Robert have?

• What version of Android? (Froyo)

• Publishers can set apps so that they can?t be moved to the SD card.

• Later versions of Android have disabled move to SD card completely

• Apps running on the SD card are de-prioritized and run much slower. To be fair though, with the exception of games most apps are pretty small. It?s the data that takes up a lot of space. So most music, pictures and video will be stored on your SD card.

• If you?re really strapped for space and need to move stuff to the SD card, you have two options: root the phone, or download an app. There are apps that will move it to the SD card, but use at your own risk.

All right it is actually time is to announce the winner of the Amazon Gift Card contest! We had 27 of entries to the contest. Now we are going to random.org to pick one of these contestants at random. The winner was number 24, Eugene! Thanks to everyone who answered the survey!

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and follow us or subscribe.

Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Unlike previous Apple press events, we believe that Apple will lift the veil to allow those of us who weren’t lucky enough to receive a golden ticket to peer into the magic of this year’s Apple iPhone event. This year, we have rumors of the mystical iPhone 5C, a more cost effective (that’s a nice way to say cheap) iPhone that will come in a multitude of colorful plastic backs. We also have rumors of a gold-plated, or golden-colored, iPhone and a fingerprint scanner. We’ll see what plays out.

If you want unadulterated, pure Apple goodness, you should be able to watch the event live at http://www.apple.com/apple-events/. If the live stream of the Apple iPhone event works the same way that WWDC 2013 worked, you will need to be running Safari on iOS 4.2 or later on any iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod touch; Safari 4 or later on Mac OS X v10.6 or later or a second or third generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later. We will update this article if that changes.

If Apple decides not to live stream the Apple iPhone Event, several reputable websites will be running live blogs or live streams of the event, including:

• The Verge – live blog,
• TWiT.tv – live video and commentary,
• TechCrunch – live blog,
• SlashGear – live blog,
• Mashable – live blog,
• iMore – Video commentary and live blog,
• Gizmodo – live blog,
• Engadget – live blog,
• CNET – live blog,
• Apple Insider – live blog

We will add links directly to the live event web stream and blog pages as they are announced.

Don’t forget, the event starts at 10AM Pacific or you’re time.

What site will you be watching the iPhone event on while you try not to get caught by the boss? Know of another reputable website where you can watch Apple’s iPhone event? Let us know in the comments down below.

Back in the 90’s Bill Gates predicted that we would all be carrying “wallet PCs,” small computers with screens the size of a wallet that we would hold our money, ID, credit cards and tickets, and would have basic computing functions like calculator, calendar and note applications. Unfortunately, he did not predict that we would also use them to watch endless cat videos and fling birds at green pigs. The modern smart phone has practically fulfilled his prediction, except for replacing the fundamental functions of the old leather wallet. All but very few of us still carry a piece of leather that holds our IDs and credit and debit cards. The problem with most digital wallet apps has been that none of them have yet to become more convenient than simply pulling out a debit card and swiping it. Even Apple’s Passbook, which was supposed to be the pinacle of simplicity, is much more complicated than most people are willing to put up with. Until an app makes paying for something with your smartphone as simple and easy as paying for something with a credit card, digital wallets will never replace credit cards. But, PayPal is still willing to try with its latest app update. For more on that story, here is Landon Robinson‘s article from BestTechie.

The photo editing app, Pixlr shown working as a packaged Chrome app.

The most substantial criticism that could be lobbed against Chromebooks has been there are very few apps for the system that can be used offline. Most of the “apps” for Chromebooks are, in fact, actually just websites. The Chrome Web Store is full of apps that you give you big icons and sometimes include special splash screens for Chrome, but essentially, they are just bookmarks for the browser. However, that is about to start changing. The new Chrome Packaged Apps, found in the For Your Desktop section of the Chrome Web Store has apps that work outside of the browser. The apps download to the computer, work offline and are able to use more of the computer’s hardware such as the bluetooth and USB connections. Right now, the Packaged Apps only work on Windows and Chromebooks, but Mac and Linux support is being developed. Unfortunately, these apps will not work in Android or iOS as both mobile platforms prevent apps from running inside other apps.

For more on this story, check out Seth Rosenblatt story at CNET: New Chrome Apps take the Web out of the browser.

I Know Where You Took That Photo Last Summer, the 2013 blockbuster thriller starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ray Hollister and Tom Braun.

On this episode we were joined in the studio by Mike Khalil, the Lead Coordinator at Sandalwood High School’s SAInT Academy. We also have a great Debunkable segment and we finally have a name for the app segment!

Don’t forget, we’re almost at the end of the $50 Amazon Gift Card giveaway! If Deemable Tech gets at least 500 subscribers on iTunes and at least 200 subscribers on YouTube by the end of August, we are going to give away an Amazon Gift Card worth $50!

To be eligible to win the $50 Amazon Gift Card, you need to subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email at giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, include your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username. We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it on the show. The links to all of our social network profiles are in the top right corner of the website under the heading, Follow Deemable Tech.

Also, the Deemable Tech app is now available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store and for Android phones and tablets in the Google Play store. You can find a link to the app simply by visiting Deemable.com on your mobile device.

One last thing! Don’t forget to vote for Ray and Tom in Folio Weekly’s Best of Jax for Hottest Local Celebrity. Go to http://folioweekly.com/bestofjax to enter your vote!

#47 I Know Where You Took That Photo Last Summer

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

TOM: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

RAY: And, by audible.com. Hey did you know, you, just because you are listening to Deemable Tech, you can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable

Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player like…

TOM: The Hobbit, which of course was released as a major motion picture last year. In this fantasy classic, master storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien creates a bewitching world filled with delightful creatures and thrilling dangers. Narrator Rob Inglis will hold listeners of all ages spellbound with his skillful portrayal of hobbits, dwarves, and enchanted beasts.

RAY: Or if you’re not into little people with hairy toes going on adventures, you can download any other audiobook you want for free. Just go to audibletrial.com/Deemable to download your free audiobook.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: So, we are coming towards the end of our contest to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card. To be eligible, Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes. Then, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email to giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, tell us your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube username.  We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it here on the show.

TOM: To make it easy for you, we have a picture of a big $50 Amazon Card and the instructions on the top right of our website at Deemable.com.

So, go subscribe, like and follow us, and get your emails in so you can win that $50 gift card.

RAY: And this is the last week to vote for us, Ray and Tom for Hottest Local Celebrity in Folio Weekly’s 2013 Best of Jax contest. Make sure to vote for us at folioweekly.com/bestofjax And yes, we are trying to win Hottest Local Celebrity. Don’t laugh! We’re really trying to win. Go to folioweekly.com/bestofjax and vote for Ray and Tom!

All right, well before we jump into your questions, we have a guest in the studio, Mike Khalil.

Mike Khalil is the SAInT Academy Coordinator at Sandalwood High School here in Jacksonville, Florida. Welcome to the show Mike.

Tell us first, what does SAInT in SAInT Academy stand for? Looking at your logo it looks like most of the letters in SAInT are in all caps?

What is an information technology academy?

And, what is it that you teach in the Academy?

How did the program begin?

Are the kids able to do hands-on work?

What are some of the benefits for students?

How do people and businesses in the community get involved?

Do students get college credit for the courses?

How do students get into the SAInT Academy? Is it a Magnet program?

XKCD How to be a computer expert flowchart

——

SAINT Academy is a program that allows students to fully experience high school while gaining skills in business and information technology. They earn a regular diploma, attend a regular neighborhood school, and attend regular classes. They take one or two computer-based electives per year, and get opportunities to compete against other students and meet important people in the community who can help them attain their college and career goals.

We recruit 8th graders while they are in middle school, and they begin the program in 9th grade, they stay in the program all throughout high school. It’s not just an elective, but a career-themed academy where we help students prepare for college and the workforce — writing resumes, interview skills, things like that, but since it’s IT it’s a little but different from most vocational academies. We’re fully aware that most IT workers go to college; it’s very hard to get a job in the field without a college degree, so we’re very focused on Academics as well as vocational study, and most our students in fact are in honors or AP classes.

——

Alright, thanks for coming in Mike. Before we let you go, where can people find out more information about the SAInT Academy?

SAINT web site: http://sandalwoodhigh.org/

Thanks again.

——

Alright, well, we have to take a quick break, but when we come back we have answers to your tech questions, a Debunkable segment, and we finally have a name for the App segment. You’re listening to Deemable Tech.

So we have a question that we answered a long time ago, but I’m not sure if we ever told the listener the answer! They sent us another email about it, and I couldn’t find the question in our previous show notes, so let’s answer it again.

Maliery writes: I was recently given the opportunity of updating my system. Ever since, whenever I send text messages, post on Facebook, or even write on the S note, my text all of a sudden gets erased. It’s similar to a CTRL+a action, but I do not perform this step. Also, my google keyboard fails after of number of selections of the predictive messages. I think if I select 5/6 words, it will stop working. None of things ever happened when I was using the prior Jelly Bean update. Galaxy S III

TOM: First of all, I have a question for you:

* Jen from ?The IT Crowd’: Have you tried turning it off and on. *

Yeah, the number one thing I would try is to reset your phone. Just hold down the power button while the phone is on. When the device options pop-up appears select reset and let the phone do its thing.

Hopefully that will clear it up. If you are using a keyboard other than the default keyboard, you can go to that application under Settings > Application Manager and then clear the cache. That will delete all the data stored for the keyboard and if there’s corrupt data it will get rid of it.

If none of these solutions work, I would try using a different keyboard app. Android phones allow you to change what keyboard app you use. There are a couple preinstalled on your Samsung Galaxy S3. From the home screen hit the menu button, select settings, and then find ?Language and input’. You can change what keyboards are enabled and select a default from this menu.

You can download alternate keyboards. A couple popular keyboard apps are the SwiftKey and the Google Keyboard. I highly recommend the SwiftKey app. It costs about two bucks but its amazing. I highly recommend it.

There is also Swype, but for some reason you have to sideload that app, typically by downloading it to a laptop, connecting your phone, and installing. But I find that SwiftKey does everything Swype does and more.

RAY: So, to sum up – reboot the phone. If that doesn’t work, clear the cache for your keyboard app under the Application Manager. If you are still having problems, try a different keyboard.

TOM: Those are my suggestions. I’ll be honest, Maliery’s problem is kind of a weird one. If none of those work it might be an issue with the phone itself. You may need to be prepared to take it back to the store. But before you get to the nuclear options, you should definitely try these ideas.

So, we’ve been seeing this alot on Facebook and we had to investigate it.

DEBUNKABLE

http://kyeos.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/warning-if-you-take-photos-with-your-cell-phone/

?Warning? If you, your kids or grand kids take pics from your phone?WATCH THIS!

This is truly alarming ? please take the time to watch. At the end they’ll tell you how to set your phone so you don’t run this risk!

PLEASE PASS THIS INFO TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO TAKES PICTURES WITH THEIR CELL OR SMART PHONE AND POSTS THEM ONLINE.

I want everyone of you to watch this and then be sure to share with all your family and friends.

It’s REALLY important info, about what your posting things on your cell phones can do TO YOU!!!

Too much technology out there these days so beware???..

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WATCH THIS VIDEO, AND TAKE THE RECOMMENDED PRECAUTIONS.

If you have children or grandchildren you NEED to watch this. I had no idea this could happen from taking pictures on the blackberry or cell phone. It’s scary.”

Any time something is that important that we HAVE to watch it now, well we have to watch it now. Here’s a clip from the video:

Play Audio from Video

…home, work, or even school of the person in the pic.

OK, let’s pause it right there. First of all, this isn’t new technology. This has been around for quite a few years. At least as far back as when the first iPhone came out. The video itself is from 2010. Second of all, no, they cannot find the home, work or even school of the person in the pic.

Classic news fear mongering Legitimate concern, blown way out of proportion

If you have geo-tagging turned on the location where you took the picture is stored in the picture. Geo-tagging is not the scariest thing in the world, Geo-tagging can be great. Have you ever pulled out a picture from a shoe box and wondered, now where was that taken? With geo-tagging, you don’t have to wonder. It tells you where it was taken. So, with some apps, you can use your photos like a map on a road trip.

So, yes, if you take pictures in your bedroom, park, school, work, then yes, someone who knows how to take GPS coordinates and convert them into locations on a map will be able to figure out where that picture was taken. Not many people know how to do that. Fortunately, most stalkers and creeps don’t know how to do that.

But, then the good folks at 41 Action News make sure that the creeps know how to do it

2:00

icanstalku.com is a great site with good information on how to disable geo-tagging services on your smart phone.

If you do want to disable location services on your photos, here’s how you do it on your iPhone. and on your Android…

Android

All you need to do is fire up your camera app, and then go to settings. Depending on what phone you have, you may need to tap a gear icon, slide the settings out from the edge of your phone, or hit the settings button on your phone. Regardless, you should see an ?Store GPS’ or ?Store location’ setting. Turn it off.

The reality is, it’s a lot easier for a kidnapper, or worse, to just grab a kid. I haven’t heard of any cases where this has been done. Usually, the attacker is known to the child or it’s just a random act. So, while it’s smart to be aware of what information you are inadvertently posting about your child that could possibly be used to harm him or her, it isn’t something that should invoke terror in your heart. This isn’t really that dangerous.

My son recently gave his mother an iPad 4 as a birthday gift he bought earlier this year because he wanted an iPad mini instead

What’s the best way to delete all his data and accounts on the iPad 4 without him losing all his saved email, contacts, iTunes, Apps etc.? Both Ipads are still registered under his accounts.

Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings

 Make sure to backup and sync the iPad 4 before you do that because if you forgot to get anything off of it, you’re not getting it after you do that!

Downloadable

COUCH TO 5K (from Active.net)

• Available on iPhone and Android

• Sets achievable goals and schedule

• App tells you when to walk and when to run, for increasingly lengths each session.

• App plays random songs from a playlist of your choosing.

• Customizable voices.

• Tracks your route on a map, logs each session.

• Suggests 5K that you can enter once you have completed you training.

RYMDKAPSEL

• Game for iOS or Android.

• Swedish for ?space capsule’.

• It’s a strategy game. You allocate tiny rectangular minions to resource management while you try and construct a space station out of Tetris-like blocks.

• You are attempting to reach and research four mysterious monoliths, as well as fend off successive waves of laser blasting aliens.

• $3.99, no free-to-play gimmickry. 3-5 hours of super addictive gameplay.

WiFiFoFum

Dream Talk Recorder

We’ve got a voicemail from a listener. Let’s play that.
[Play voicemail]
TOM: Okay, Ray, two phone lines on one iPhone. Can she do it?
RAY: No. At least, not without major modifications to her phone at a hardware level. She would need a second sim card in her phone, and the iPhone 4 doesn’t support dual sim cards.
TOM: You might possibly be able to find some overseas company that does modifications like that…
RAY: But that’s probably not a good idea. I just think this is the wrong way to approach her problem.
TOM: I agree. Basically she wants to have a way to filter out certain phone calls. The most obvious solution I can think of is: buy a second phone. It doesn’t have to be an iPhone. Just go out and get yourself a $20 pre-paid feature phone. You can give people that number and just check it every so often.
RAY: Yeah, that was my thought too.
TOM: Alternatively, there she could block the calls.
RAY: Yep. unfortunately there’s no built in way to block a call. You can do it through your carrier or you can jailbreak it to automatically ignore calls from certain callers.
There is a way to have two phone numbers that go to one phone though through Google Voice.
Magic Jack
WiFi connection

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Image Credit: Chris Owens / Flickr

Q: I use two desktop computers at work, and I’m starting to feel like having two keyboards and mice is taking up too much space on my desk. Is there any way I can use one keyboard and one mouse for both computers? Also, is there any app I can use to control my computer from my iPad?

A: Thanks for your question, Mike. There are a couple of methods to control two different computers from one keyboard and mouse: either with a cable or with software.

First, there is a cable called a KVM switch, which is short for “keyboard, video and mouse” switch. These let you share one mouse, keyboard and monitor between two computers. There are also KM switch cables that allow you to share just a keyboard and mouse with two computers that have two separate monitors. If you are using the two different computers at the same time, that second one might be the best option for you.

Either way, they both run between $20 and $100. The great thing about using a physical cable is that the connection is really fast, and you’ll never have any lag. The down side is that you are limited by the length of the cable. Also, you’ll need to press a button, or turn a switch, to go back and forth between the two computers.

If you want to go the software route, there are two great programs that do the same thing as a KM switch, but over your network instead of a cable. One is called ShareMouse. It is super easy to use, and isn’t too difficult to set up. However, it normally costs $30 per computer!

Another option is a program called Synergy (this is the one we prefer). It’s a tiny bit harder to set up than ShareMouse, but it starts at only $10 and it’s open-source, so there’s an entire community constantly working on it to make it better! On both programs you don’t have to press a button to switch computers – it’s as simple as sliding your mouse off the edge of one screen, and it will appear on the other screen. Also, both programs support clipboard sharing, which allows you to copy text on one computer and paste it on the other.

Both programs are relatively small ones that don’t use up a lot of resources on your computers or bandwidth on your network. One potential downside of using one of these programs is that if your network is bogged down (for example if you are running streaming video or downloading a lot), you might notice a slight lag in reaction time. Also, neither program supports sharing a monitor between the two computers.

If you are trying to do that with software, you’ll have to try Remote Desktop or a Virtual Network Computing program. That’s a little bit more complicated, and probably isn’t worth it if you have both computers in the same room.

If each computer does have its own monitor, we recommend starting out by trying Synergy. That will probably be the best solution for your problem. If that doesn’t work, then try ShareMouse or a hardware KM or KVM switch.

To answer your second question about controlling your computers from your iPad, we recommend Mobile Mouse Pro. You can get it in the App Store for $2.99 (it’s also available for the same price in Google Play for Android users). You have to install a small server app on your desktop, but once you do and open the app, your phone or tablet turns into a multitouch trackpad, remote keyboard, and music and presentation remote. If you just want to try out Mobile Mouse before you buy it, there is a free version called Mobile Mouse Lite in the App Store and Google Play.

Hopefully one of these options will help you out, Mike. Try them out, and clear off that desk!

On this episode of Deemable Tech, Ray and Tom talk to Adam Daveline, the founder of DiscoveringShakespeare.com, a Kickstarter project to build a database of fully produced monologues, scenes, and masterclasses of Shakespeare’s work available to anyone on the Internet.

Then, after the break, Ray and Tom help Ric find a phone to use in Costa Rica, help Maliery decide if she should buy from Purchasing Power, and help Zoe get new games for her Kindle Fire.

Don’t forget, we’re still in the middle of the $50 Amazon Gift Card giveaway! If Deemable Tech gets at least 500 subscribers on iTunes and at least 200 subscribers on YouTube by the end of August, we are going to give away an Amazon Gift Card worth $50!

To be eligible to win the $50 Amazon Gift Card, you need to subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email at giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, include your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username. We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it on the show. The links to all of our social network profiles are in the top right corner of the website under the heading, Follow Deemable Tech.

Also, the Deemable Tech app is now available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store and for Android phones and tablets in the Google Play store. You can find a link to the app simply by visiting Deemable.com on your mobile device.

One last thing! Don’t forget to vote for Ray and Tom in Folio Weekly’s Best of Jax for Hottest Local Celebrity. Go to http://folioweekly.com/bestofjax to enter your vote!

#46 Ray and Tom Discover Shakespeare

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

TOM: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

RAY: And, by audible.com. Hey did you know, you, just because you are listening to Deemable Tech, you can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable

Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player like…

Ender’s Game, the Sci-Fi classic by Orson Scott Card that is coming out as to theaters in November starring Harrison Ford. If you’re like Tom and you like to reread the book right before the movie comes out so you can gripe about the movie, check out Ender’s Game on Audible. The Special 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic is now digitally remastered with a full cast production. It also contains an exclusive bonus: an original postscript written and recorded by the author himself, Orson Scott Card!

Or if you’re like me, and you don’t like to ruin the movie, you can download any other book you want for free. Just go to audibletrial.com/Deemable to download your free audiobook.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: So, as you probably already know know that we are in the middle of a contest. If we reach 200 subscribers on YouTube and 500 subscribers on iTunes by the end of August we are going to give away a $50 Amazon Gift Card. To be eligible, Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes. Then, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email to giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, tell us your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username.  We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it

To make it easy for you, we have a big $50 Amazon Card and the instructions on the top right of our website.

So, go subscribe, like and follow us, and get your emails in so you can win that $50 gift card.

TOM: And don’t forget, we are still in the running for Hottest Local Celebrity in Folio Weekly’s 2013 Best of Jax contest. Make sure to vote for us at folioweekly.com/bestofjax

RAY: All right, well before we jump into your questions, we have a guest on the phone.

We have Adam Daveline on the phone from New York City. Adam is the founder of DiscoveringShakespeare.com, an exciting Kickstarter project that is currently underway right now. Thanks for coming on the show Adam!

So, what are you doing up in New York?

Explain to us what Discovering Shakespeare is.

What gave you the inspiration for Discovering Shakespeare?

Are you doing this all by yourself or do you have a team working with you?

How will you build the site? Are you planning on using an open source platform like WordPress or are you building the site from the ground up?

How will you fund DS to keep it running?

What are some technical challenges you’ve faced in creating DS?

You are trying to raise $18,031. When I first saw that amount I was racking my brain trying to figure out the significance. I thought there was some reference I was forgetting. But you’ve got it figured out exactly what you need to make DS get off the ground. Give us a quick explanation, what is the money going to pay for?

How can people get involved?

Ric writes, I need a simple phone for use in Costa Rica. I know very little about cell phones. The NY Times recommended the Nokia 2700 unlocked GSM quad band world phone, which I found at Myworldphone.com for $79. What else do I need and how can I make sure this phone will work before my trip?

$79 is not bad, but I would wait until you get to Costa Rica and buy a phone there. Generally, you can get a feature phone much cheaper in countries outside of the US than you can in the US.

If you’ve already bought the Nokia 2700, you are good it will work in Costa Rica.

You definitely want to buy a SIM card in Costa Rica though. International roaming is much more expensive than buying a prepaid plan once you get there.

Now, whatever you do, don’t buy a phone at the airport. That is the place where they will be the most expensive. If you’re planning on staying for a while, what I would do is once you hit the ground, find the closest reputable hostel. They’ll be able to direct you to tell you the best place to go. If you’re staying at a hotel, the concierge will do the same.

Maliery asks Would you advise friends to avoid purchasing laptops from the Purchasing Power website?

So, Purchasing Power is a site where you can buy things through payroll deduction. Instead of having to go down to the store to make your payment, your payment comes right out of your paycheck before you even see it. In order to buy from Purchasing Power, your company has to participate and offer the benefit.

From what I could tell, Purchasing Power seems to have brand name laptops. I would assume, if they’re anything like most home shopping network channels and rent to own places, they are probably low powered machines, that are overpriced. Now, I am only guessing because I wasn’t able to see the actual products without registering, and I didn’t want to register. But, that’s most likely what you’ll find there. When a company doesn’t get all of the money from a purchase up front, they have to make up the difference somewhere. If you buy it on credit, you pay the difference in interest. When you buy things on rent to own, they usually overcharge you. With computers, the way they stay competitive with the rest of the retail industry is that they will have the same computer at the same price as Best Buy, TigerDirect, etc, but they will have the model with the lower specs. It’s like two car dealers selling two Ford Mustangs for the same price, but one has an supercharged V8 and the other has a 4 cylinder.

I am not an advocate of going into debt for electronics. I’m not a devout Dave Ramsey follower, but I do believe that most things are not worth going into debt for, and gadgets are definitely not worth it.

Now, this isn’t exactly “debt” it’s more like a rent to own program. It is definitely less risky for the company than offering credit cards because it’s not like you can miss a payment, as long as you are working.

However, I don’t know what happens if you lose your job. Do you have to return the computer? Do you have to pay the balance in full? I couldn’t find that information. And that worries me. If they can’t share that on the website in plain view, it’s probably not in your best interest.

So, in answer to your question Maliery, I wouldn’t do it.

 Zoe left a voicemail

First thing is you have to make sure that you have your parent’s permission before you call someone.

Second, you need to make sure that you parent’s permission to download apps. If you do, you can download games from the Amazon App Store.

Now, parent’s you’ll really like this. There’s something really awesome on the Kindle Fire called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. For $4.99 a month or 2.99 if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get access for your child to over a 1,000 app in the Amazon App Store that are age appropriate for your child. The best part is that you can control how long they can use the Kindle for apps, videos, books, games, etc.

So, for instance, Zoe can only play games and videos for a total of two hours a day. But she can read books on her Kindle as long as she wants.

So, to answer your question, Zoe, if you want to have more time to play games on your Kindle, I would suggest that you make sure to be on your best behavior, make sure to get your schoolwork done, and ask mommy very nicely and she might give you a little bit more time to play games.

OUTRO

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Image Credit: Niki Odolphie / Flickr

Q: I keep deleting apps off of my iPod Touch, but they keep reinstalling whenever the apps are updated. Why is it doing this? It’s driving me crazy. I want to be able to delete apps and for them to stay deleted. I am running iOS 6.1.3. My iPod syncs with iTunes on my laptop over Wi-Fi.

A: Great question, Lynda, and thanks for giving us specific details. It really helped us figure out what was going on here. We did a little research, and we found out what is most likely causing your headache.

Here’s what we think is happening. First, you installed an app on your iPod. Then, you decided you didn’t want the app anymore, and you deleted it before you synced your iPod with your laptop again. Now, the next time you synced your iPod with your laptop, iTunes saw that you didn’t have that new app on your iPod. So, in trying to be helpful, it reinstalled it on your iPod for you.

Now, what’s causing that to happen? Well, it sounds like you have iTunes on your laptop set to automatically download any new apps that you buy on your iPod. This is designed to make syncing your iPod Touch faster, but it can cause a problem like this to happen as well.

Lynda, it sounds like you’re going to have to decide which is more important to you: faster syncing with iTunes, or occasionally having an app come back from the grave. If it were us, we would prefer that our apps stay deleted when we deleted them. The only time where faster syncing would probably be important is if you were syncing your iPod Touch with a cable. Since you’re syncing over Wi-Fi, it’s doing it when you aren’t using the iPod Touch and it’s plugged in.

To fix this, all you have to do is open iTunes on your laptop, open the preferences menu, and click the “Store” tab. Then just unclick the check mark next to “Apps” under the heading “Automatic Downloads”.

If you weren’t aware of it, from this menu you can control automatic downloads of apps, music and books. So, if you want the music and books that you purchase on your iPod Touch to be automatically downloaded to your laptop, make sure to mark those checkboxes.

On your iPod Touch there’s a similar menu under “Settings”, then “iTunes and App Stores”. Play with the settings until you find an automatic download that works best for you. Hopefully that will take care of your zombie apps.

On this episode of Deemable Tech, Ray and Tom finally get a question they’re not qualified to answer: How do you make a podcast?! Sound ridiculous? Most podcasts are not recorded in an amazing studio like WJCT’s, and most podcasts do not have incredible producers like Sean Birch. In other words, Ray and Tom have no credible experience in producing a real podcast! So, Ray invited DJ Shott, host of The Green Light Show, a comedy podcast recorded in Jacksonville, to come to the studio to talk about what it’s like to really produce a podcast. A word of warning, The Green Light Show is a very explicit comedy podcast that holds nothing back. So, if you get offended at the Comedy Zone, The Green Light Show probably isn’t for you. But if you like comedy that gets really raunchy, check out The Green Light Show, and subscribe to The Green Light Show in iTunes. However, no need for a warning about this episode. Ray, Tom and DJ were perfect gentlemen, and refrained from any potty language during the show.

After they talked about podcasting, Ray and Tom asked DJ about his Nike+ FuelBand and got his take on it.

After the break, Ray and Tom recapped what DJ talked about. Ray mentioned a website where you can easily create a podcast, but he couldn’t remember the name of the site. The site is BuzzSprout. If you aren’t tech savvy but you want to start a podcast, BuzzSprout is a great resource. You can try it out for free to find out if you like the service, and it’s free forever. If you decide to upgrade, paid plans start at only $12 per month.

Also, Ray and Tom answered questions about printing contacts from Outlook, email file attachments that cause the Internet to disconnect, and how to block pop-ups on Internet Explorer and Chrome.

Don’t forget, we’re still in the middle of the $50 Amazon Gift Card giveaway! If Deemable Tech gets at least 500 subscribers on iTunes and at least 200 subscribers on YouTube by the end of August, we are going to give away an Amazon Gift Card worth $50!

To be eligible to win the $50 Amazon Gift Card, you need to subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email at giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, include your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username. We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it on the show. The links to all of our social network profiles are in the top right corner of the website under the heading, Follow Deemable Tech.

Also, the Deemable Tech app is now available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store and for Android phones and tablets in the Google Play store. You can find a link to the app simply by visiting Deemable.com on your mobile device.

One last thing! Don’t forget to vote for Ray and Tom in Folio Weekly’s Best of Jax for Hottest Local Celebrity. Go to http://folioweekly.com/bestofjax to enter your vote!

#45 Deemable Tech and The Podsters

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: So, if you listened to last week’s episode, you know that we are in the middle of a contest. If we reach 200 subscribers on YouTube and 500 subscribers on iTunes we are going to give away a $50 Amazon Gift Card. Here’s what you have to do to be eligible. First, Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes. Then, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

Then, send us an email to giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, tell us your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username.  We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it

To make it easy for you, the links to our Facebook, YouTube, iTunes and Twitter accounts are all available at the top-right of our website under the heading, “Follow Deemable Tech”

So, go subscribe, like and follow us, and get your emails in so you can win that $50 gift card.

TOM: Hey Ray, I just wanted to tell you that you look great tonight.

RAY: Thanks Tom, you don’t look too bad yourself.

TOM: Ray, we’ve often been complimented that we really have faces for radio. And to commemorate that, we’ve entered ourselves into Folio Weekly’s yearly Best of Jax contest under the Hottest Local Celebrity category. Because, listeners, we know that when you think of Hot Local Celebrities you think of Ray and Tom.

RAY: folioweekly.com/bestofjax *blah blah blah*

TOM: Alright, Ray, should we answer some listeners questions.

RAY: I think we should.

TOM: OK, let’s take a look at Carlos’ question.

TOM: Carlos writes:

Hey Ray and Tom,

I’d really like to start a podcast, but I have no idea where to begin. Would I have to buy studio time? Don’t some people podcast out of their house? What kind of equipment would I need to do it that way? Thanks, love your show! Carlos

RAY: You know what Tom? I think we have found a question that we are not qualified to answer.

TOM: Why is that Ray? We do a podcast almost every week.

RAY: Well, Deemable Tech is really not like most podcasts. Most podcasts aren’t recorded at radio stations. So, we’ve invited somebody who has experience doing a podcast the real way.

Joining us in the studio we have DJ Shott, the host of the Green Light Show.

• Describe your show to us. What is your podcast about?
• Why did you want to start a podcast?
• How did you get started podcasting?
• Where do you record and stream your show from?
• What kind of equipment do you use? Mics, soundboards, headsets, computers, Internet connection…
• What software do you use? Ustream, Audacity, Garageband, WordPress, etc.
• How long does it take you to prepare for the show? How long does it take you after the show is over?
• What have you done to grow your audience?
• Is the show making any money?
• Where do you see your show going from here?
• What has been the most rewarding thing about producing a podcast?
• What has been the most challenging thing about producing a podcast?
• Was there ever a time when you just felt like giving up? Why?
• If people dare, where can folks find your show? (EXPLICIT content!)
  • http://Greenlightshow.com/
  • http://Facebook.com/greenlightshow
  • http://Twitter.com/greenlightshow
  • http://greenlightshow.com/itunes

Next question:

Marvin writes, I have an HP computer  with Windows XP.

I have been trying to print my contact list alphabetically from Outlook. The left half of the page prints out, but the  right half is hidden and will not print. It is laborious to have to  click on an individual’s name to get the whole address, etc.

This is frustrating, because I want to print out a hard copy to keep by my desk so I do not want to have to have the computer turned on.

Any ideas? Thanks.

TOM: Hi Marvin, thanks for the question.

The first thing I would do is check your printer settings when you are printing. Just before you click the print button that prints the actual page you should see the screen where you select what printer you want to print with. While you’re on this screen you can make changes to the print settings.

What this screen looks like and what options it gives you depend on a lot of different factors: what operating system you’re running, what kind of printer you have, what program you’re launching from, etc. There should be a button on this screen for printer preferences or advanced settings. Click that, and then look for an option that says something like ?Fit to page? or ?Fit to paper size? or ?Shrink to fit?. Most printers have a setting like this which will automatically resize a page that is too big to fit on the paper. You may have to click a different tab to find it. Just look around, you won’t hurt anything!

Once you find ?Fit to page?, select it. Then click the OK button to get back to the print screen. Now go ahead and print. Hopefully the right side of the page is no longer cut off!

RAY: Cool. So, that solves the problem.

TOM: Wait, there’s one more thing Marvin may need to know about and it’s kind of a doozy. If he has Outlook 2003, it actually prints using Internet Explorer. So he needs to go into an entirely different program to change his settings!

RAY: Wow, that’s convenient.

TOM: Yeah. So Marvin, if you have Outlook 2003, open up Internet Explorer, go to Internet Explorer, then select ?Page Setup? from the File menu. There you should find the Shrink to fit option. Check it, and boom. Happy printing!

Richard writes, When I try to attach an attachment to an email, Internet Explorer looses connection to the Internet. I am using Windows 7 with latest patches applied by Window’s Update and IE 10. This email attachment problem happens on my Gmail and a friend’s yahoo mail.

TOM: Thanks for letting us know what versions of Windows and Internet Explorer you are using, Richard.

Based on what you’re describing, my first guess is that your copy of Internet Explorer has an add-on that is being a little too helpful. Possibly you have a security or anti-virus add-on such as Norton that’s malfunctioning and interfering with uploading files. To be on the safe side, start by disabling all the add-ons in Internet Explorer.

You can do this by clicking on the settings menu and then going to Manage Add Ons and disabling them one by one. But if you have a lot of them it’s quicker to click on the Tools menu and then under ?Toolbars’ you should see an option that says ?Disable Add Ons’. Click on that to bring up the dialogue box that will allow you to do that.

Once you’ve done that you will need to reboot your computer. When it comes back up, open up Internet Explorer and see if you are able to add attachments in Gmail now. If you are, you can start enabling add ons one by one through the manage add-on menu until you figure out which one was causing the problem. Or just leave them all off.

Again, if you have something like Norton Anti-virus it’s a good bet that it’s add ons are causing the problem.

If this doesn’t resolve your problem, well… try a different browser? You know, Chrome is looking very nice this time of year…

Bill writes, Question: I just read your response to Christine’s question about browsers in April, and have a follow-up question. Is there any way to completely block pop-up ads while running Chrome or IE? Or is Firefox’s add-in the only solution? On both Chrome and IE, I have adjusted the settings to block pop-ups but that doesn’t stop them on many sites I visit. I realize that those annoying ads are paying for these otherwise free websites, but I have to wonder what’s the point of blocking pop-ups when so many get through anyway, slowing down the page loading to the point that it reminds me of being on dial-up.

Thanks!

TOM: Excellent question, Bill. You turn on the pop-up blocker and you still get pop ups! What’s up with that?

The thing you have to understand is that pop-up blocking is an arms race. Just like you can’t tell your computer to block all viruses, you can’t really tell it to block all pop-ups. Every time there’s some new advance in pop-up blocker technology, the people making the pop up ads just get smarter.

RAY: To make things even harder on the makers of pop up blockers, you can’t just block all pop ups everywhere. there are lots of legitimate pop ups people want to see. Blocking all pop ups would make too many sites non-functional.

So the ?block pop ups’ options in Internet Explorer and Chrome walk a fine line.

TOM: If you’re really serious about blocking pop-ups in Internet Explorer or Chrome you need to download an add-in or extension that does so, much like you did for Firefox. On Chrome, check out Adblock Plus or Better Pop-up Blocker.

Your options are more limited on Internet Explorer, but there’s an add on called Smart Pop-up Blocker that will block most pop-ups. It’s no 100%, but it’s the best we could find.

RAY: Just a friendly little PSA about pop-up blocking: many free websites are ad supported. When you visit your favorite site and you’ve got a pop-up blocker running, you may have avoided seeing that annoying pop-up ad but you’ve also cost that site some ad revenue. So be sure to deploy your pop-up blocker judiciously. Most pop-up blockers give you the ability to allow pop-ups for certain sites. Be sure to allow them for sites you want to support!

OUTRO

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

On this episode of Deemable Tech, Angel Torres from The Logica visits us in the studio again to tell us what he’s been up to since One Spark, and to tell us about some big news from the Aurora App. Also, we help Amber remove a forgotten PIN restriction on her iPhone, and we helped Lynda figure out why apps keep redone loading on her iPod touch after she deleted them.

We also announced an Amazon Gift Card give away! We really need your help growing our show, and what better way to do that than through bribery! That’s right, if Deemable Tech gets at least 500 subscribers on iTunes and at least 200 subscribers on YouTube by the end of August, we are going to give away an Amazon Gift Card worth $50!

To be eligible to win the $50 Amazon Gift Card, you have to Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Then, send us an email at giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, tell us your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username. We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it on the show. You got to do all of it and include all of it in the email. If you don’t, you’re disqualified! We’re gonna check!

Now, remember, we can’t give away the $50 Amazon Gift Card unless we hit 500 subscribers on iTunes and 200 subscribers on YouTube by the end of August. So, you’ve got to tell your friends about Deemable Tech, and tell them to subscribe to Deemable Tech on iTunes and YouTube! Not only does this put you in the running for a $50 Amazon Gift Card, but it will really help us to grow Deemable Tech. So, whether you do it out of altruistic motives, or out of pure selfishness, make sure to tell everyone you know about Deemable Tech, and make sure to like us on Facebook, Subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube and Follow us on Twitter! The links to all of our profiles are in the top right corner of the website under the heading, Follow Deemable Tech.

Also, we almost forgot to mention that we launched the Deemable Tech app! The Deemable Tech app is now available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store and for Android phones and tablets in the Google Play store. You can find a link to the app simply by visiting Deemable.com on your mobile device. On the Deemable Tech app you can listen or watch the latest episodes of Deemable Tech, read the latest articles, and submit questions right on your smart phone or tablet. You can receive notifications on your phone when new articles and episodes are posted too! Thanks to all of our Kickstarter supporters. We couldn’t have done it without you.

All that, plus our app recommendations of the week on this episode of Deemable Tech!

#44 Angel Torres and the Aurora App 2.0

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

SEGMENT A INTRO

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

Amazon Gift Card Contest Announcement

RAY: Tonight, on Deemable Tech, folks, we need you to do us a favor. If you like the show, if you want to hear more episodes of Deemable Tech, we need you to do something for us. We need you to tell your friends about us. We need you to share us on Facebook, tweet about us on Twitter, just send an email to your friends and tell them to check us out. Or if you talk to people in real life, you can tell them there. Give them a call on the phone.

You know how Tinkerbell would die if people don’t believe in her? Well, we’re kinda like that. Except the energy that we depend on is Subscriptions, Likes, and Follows.

If you haven’t done it already,
Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

I’ll be honest, right now, the Deemable Tech community is pretty small. We only have about 150 subscribers on our podcast, we have about 25 subscribers on YouTube. We do have about 1,000 likes on Facebook and followers on Twitter, but the subscribers is what really counts, because those are people who are actually watching or listening to the show.

Tell you what, I have a deal for you. If we hit 500 subscribers on iTunes and 200 subscribers on YouTube, I’ll give away an Amazon gift card. Sound good?

TOM: How much?

Here’s what you have to do to be eligible to receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card. You have to Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, and send us an email at giftcard@deemable.com. In that email, tell us your Facebook name, Twitter and YouTube username. We’ll pick one eligible email at random and we’ll announce it on the show. You got to include all of it. If you don’t you’re disqualified. We need that information because we’re gonna check! If you didn’t like us, you’re disqualified. etc.

You can like us on Google Plus too, but nobody really cares.

On this week’s episode we have a special guest, back with us in the studio again, Angel Torres, the CEO and founder of The Logica, a web and app development company. You might know him from when he was on the show back in February, or you might know him if you came to One Spark. Thanks for coming on the show, Angel.

So, I want to ask you about what’s been going on with the Aurora App, and any other projects that The Logica is up to that you can talk about, but I’m sure you’ve heard about the changes at One Spark that are coming for One Spark 2014. I want to see what you think about that too. Sound fun?

All right, but first, let’s talk about apps.

That App Segment

IFTTT – If This Then That

LIMBO Game

Aurora App

All right, well let’s answer a couple of listener’s questions.

Amber wrote in and asked, at some point I created a PIN number for my iPhone’s “Restrictions” setting. I can’t remember it now, and I have 9 failed passcode attempts. Will I ever be able to get in and change my restrictions… or will I be stuck with in-app purchases turned off forever? Help! How can I fix this?
Well, hopefully you have synced your iPhone with iTunes on your computer at least once before. If you have this going to be a lot easier. All you’ll have to do is open iTunes, and plug your iPhone in, and that will reset the count of how many times you can enter the passcode. So, theoretically you could enter pin numbers until the end of time. Hopefully at some point you’ll be able to figure out what your pin number was.
If you can’t figure out what your pin number was, then that’s a slightly bigger problem. You’re going to have to backup your iPhone, and then restore it from that backup. That will clear the PIN number. But, that will only work, if you have synced your iPhone with iTunes on your computer in the past. If you haven’t, you’re going to have to reset your iPhone to factory settings. That is why I said I hope that you have synced it before, because if you haven’t, you’re going to lose all your settings and all your stuff on your iPhone.
So, what I would do is start by plugging in your iPhone and trying those passcodes again, and keep track of which ones you’ve tried, especially if you’re only doing a four digit pin code. I mean there’s only 9,999 options. You’ve got to hit it eventually, right?
We will include a link to instructions how to reset your iPhone to factory settings, and how to restore your iPhone from a previous back up in the show notes for the episode.

iOS: Forgotten passcode or device disabled after entering wrong passcode

Lynda asked I keep deleting apps off of my iPod touch, but they keep reinstalling whenever the app gets updated. Why? It’s driving me crazy. I want to be able to delete apps and for them to stay deleted. What’s going on? I am running iOS 6.1.3 on a 4th generation iPod. I am running iTunes on my Windows 7 laptop. iTunes syncs over the WiFi.

I am going to guess that you probably don’t keep your laptop running all the time. Here’s what I think is happening: You are connecting to iTunes, and syncing. Then, later you install an app, and delete it before you sync with your computer again. Now what happens, is the next time you sync your computer with your iPod, iTunes downloads the app, and then it sees that you don’t have the new app on your iPod. So, in trying to be helpful, it reinstalls it on your iPod for you. Now, you’re probably only just noticing it when the App Store has an update for the app.

How to enable Automatic Downloads on your computer and on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

QUESTIONS FOR ANGEL

How did things turn out for you guys at One Spark?
What would you do different?
Are you planning on entering One Spark 2014?
What happening with the Aurora app?
What projects are working on now?

Changes for One Spark 2014 http://beonespark.tumblr.com/post/55001047087/one-spark-2014-press-release

More money up for grabs: $300,000
Distributed differently:
$200,000 guaranteed crowdfund distributed solely on public vote,
five $10,000 bonuses awarded to the top-voted creator in each category,
five $10,000 juried prizes and immediate individual contributions from attendees.
Other changes
Five creator categories, art, innovation, music, science and technology
More walkable, concentrated event footprint that will include 20 square blocks and additional programming throughout.
Significant number of additional voting and information kiosk locations.

SPONSOR

For the listeners of the Deemable Tech podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service.

To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/Deemable. Again, that’s audibletrial.com/Deemable for your free audiobook!

OUTRO

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Q: Are there apps that can help me find vegan food options or vegan restaurants?

A: Great question Joti! There are a lot of great food-related apps out there for smart phones. Some are Vegan-specific, but some are general purpose apps which have Vegan and Vegetarian options.

A great app (and site) to start with is Urban Spoon. I suggest you get it regardless of your cuisine preferences. It is a really polished app, and more importantly it’s widely used so it has a lot of accurate, updated information, which is what you want in an app like this.

“Vegan” isn’t one of the options in Urban Spoon’s main search (“vegetarian” is, though), but once you find a restaurant that is tagged as “vegan”, just tap the word “vegan” in the app to get a listing of nearby restaurants that are vegan-friendly.

Another great general-purpose app is Yelp. If you have the Yelp app you can search for “vegan” from the main page, and it will pop up a list of restaurants. Actually, since Yelp isn’t just for restaurants, it will show you results like the nearby natural market as well.

As far as vegan-specific apps go, these is an app for both Android and iPhone called Happy Cow. It works a lot like Yelp, and the list it returned is pretty comprehensive and does include the local natural market.

There are also numerous vegan recipe apps – one example we found was I’m Hungry: Vegetarian Recipes. And if you can’t find a vegan-specific store or restaurant and you’re in a hurry, there’s an app called Secretly Vegan. Secretly Vegan lists common supermarket products that are vegan, so you can hit up your local convenience store confident that the stuff you’re grabbing off the shelves is vegan-approved.

On just the iPhone side of things, we found an app called VeganXpress, which works a lot like Secretly Vegan and tells you what vegan items you can find at fast-food chains and restaurants.

Other vegan iOS apps include Go Vegan with Sarah Kramer, which is a vegan recipe app with over 50 recipes. There’s also Animal-Free, which allows you to scan the UPC code or type in the name of the brand of the food to determine if the contents of the food is animal or plant derived.

If you’re thinking about going vegan, but you haven’t made the jump yet, check out 21-Day Vegan Kickstart by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which ?gives you recipes and resources to improve and regain your health and includes step-by-step recipe photos.?

So Joti, whether you’re ready to go vegan or just looking for some nearby vegan cuisine, there definitely is an app for that.

On this week’s episode Ray and Tom take their first live call in the studio, and it’s Ray’s mom! (Why does everyone try a Your Mom joke? What is this the 90s?) Also, Tom and Ray help Dean find a new laptop battery, Jennifer find her lost BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Playbook, and help Kevin figure out how to get to his email.

#43 How Tom Met Ray’s Mother

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: Today on Deemable Tech, we’re answering your questions about replacing a laptop battery

TOM: finding a lost BlackBerry,

RAY: And, Angel’s not here tonight!

TOM: But first, we have a call coming in, Ray.

RAY: From who, Tom?

TOM: It’s from YOUR MOM.

RAY: OK, seriously, Tom, that’s not funny. And we’ve already done that joke on the show before. Jeez!

TOM: No really! It is you’re mom! She’s waiting on hold.

RAY: Oh Hey Mom! You’re on Deemable Tech, what’s your question?

RAY’S MOM: “I’m starting a business making jewelry like necklaces and earrings. I want to sell them online. Will you make me a website?”

RAY: Nope. We don’t do website development, even for you Mom.

RAY’S MOM: OK, well if you won’t make a website for me, what should I do? How can I sell them online?

RAY: There’s a few options: eBay, Craigslist, Etsy, ArtFire and a bunch of other Etsy knock offs.

Craigslist- Free, but expectation is to only do business locally so you have to meet people in person.

Ebay, don’t pay until you buy, auction style often drives prices low because it’s a buyers market.

Etsy. Go where the shoppers are.

Remember you can get a URL and direct it to your Etsy page, so you could get SerenityNook.com and direct it to your Etsy Page.

Dean asked: Where’s a good place to get a replacement battery for my Dell laptop? It’s Model number PP31L.

RAY: OK, so that’s a Dell Studio 1735/1737.

Generally, I would start with the manufacturer to get a baseline price, and then I would check out a couple of other sites for comparison.

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.newegg.com/

http://www.tigerdirect.com/

http://www.batteriesplus.com/

I looked on Dell’s website, and they had two different batteries for that model, one was about $110, the other was about $150. Obviously, the more expensive one was the better one that lasts longer.

Online I found them going for anywhere between $40 -120.

If you just want to find the cheapest replacement battery that you can fine, go to Google and just type in Dell studio 1735 battery and look at the shopping results. That will give you a breakdown of pretty much every battery that’s out there for the Dell studio 1735 or 1737. And then you can sort it by cheapest to most expensive or most relevant or any way you want to.

What you want to keep in mind though is quality and customer service. If you buy a battery from some website in some foreign country that has no customer service number, but you get a cheap deal on the battery, you can expect that you’re probably not going to get any service if the battery breaks down a month after you buy it. Sometimes it’s worth buying something that’s more expensive, but you know it’s going to last, or if it doesn’t you know the company that sold to you is going to replace it for you.

Jennifer wrote in: I listened to your segment this morning on WJCT about protecting the iPad & iPhone. I have the Blackberry Bold 9900 & Blackberry Playbook 64gb tablet. I would like a recommendation for apps to protect, lock down & secure the Blackberry Bold & Blackberry Playbook tablet. Thanks for all your help!

RAY: Well first of all thanks for email Jennifer. Second of all, sorry it took so long to get back to you. Looks like it’s in this email back in April, and it looks like We must’ve missed placed your email. So, sorry about that!

I had to go back and find out which radio segment you were talking about, and I found out it was the one about finding a lost iPhone.

Unfortunately BlackBerry did not have a built-in feature like Find my iPhone until BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry does make an app though that you can download for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 called BlackBerry Protect. It’s free, and it lets you do basically everything that Find my iPhone does. It will let you locate it, lock it, make it ring loud, put a message on the screen, and wipe it if you need to. You can even back up your data remotely before you wipe it.

Now, for your BlackBerry playbook, Oh! You’re the one who bought a BlackBerry playbook. I was wondering who that was.

The BlackBerry Playbook is an odd duck because it is the only device that runs the operating system it runs. And when blackberry puts out new tablets (whenever that is) they probably are not going to run that version of the operating system either. They’re probably going to run BlackBerry 10.

And that is why BlackBerry Protect does not work on the BlackBerry Playbook, even though it is built into BlackBerry 10.

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. Thanks to Robert Snyder for Video Production Assistance, and to Jo El Snyder for helping us out with the phones. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

On this week’s episode of Deemable Tech, Ray and Tom help a few listeners out with their trust issues. They help one listener trust LastPass and/or Dashlane to store their passwords, another to trust Nextdoor to find out what’s happening in their neighborhood. Another listener’s trust was broken by a bad batch of malware.

#42 Trust Issues

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

TOM: And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

RAY: And, from All Florida Insurance Options, an authorized Progressive agency, helping people shop for insurance at 904-757-3288 or at their office in Highland Square on Dunn Avenue in North Jacksonville.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: Today on Deemable Tech, we’re answering your questions about how to throw away your computer, and

TOM: whether or not you can trust LastPass, and how Nextdoor.com can make your neighborhood better.

RAY: But first, we have a voicemail from a listener named Felicia.

Hi Deemable Tech my name is Felicia and I saw you OneSpark and I still have your card and I’m hi thing problems with the condo with it I have a … dell laptop and 2 days ago I start getting con do it kept coming up whenever … I’ve browse on internet explorer work for … because I’ve browse on both of them because I’m old and so I did internet explorer … I was I went on the online and I was able to get rid of it sort of in that it doesn’t come up anymore but my computer is like running really slow and so it makes me think that it’s still floating around in there somewhere so how can I get rid of it completely and speed things back up again

Oh, that’s a pain, Felicia. Well, sounds like you have unwittingly installed Conduit Search. But don’t worry, you’re not alone: this annoying piece of software piggy-backs on legitimate downloads and installs itself on the computers of thousands of unsuspecting users.

As you surmised, there is a conduit search plug-in which you need to uninstall from each of your infected browsers. The really annoying thing about Conduit Search is that it doesn’t just install a browser plug-in, it also installs software and changes your search provider. So you have to fix each of these problems separately.

How to Remove Search Conduit Toolbar and Add-ons on Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer.

2. On top menu, select Tools. Choose Manage Add-ons from the drop-down list.

3. A new window to manage current add-ons will open. On Add-on Types pane, select Toolbars and Extensions. Look for ?Conduit? items on right pane. You cannot delete the toolbar and extensions from this process. But you must disable it to stop working. You may jump to tips below to uninstall the Conduit Toolbar.

4. One at a time, select ?Conduit? item and click on Disable button to stop the service.

How to Remove Conduit Search Provider on Internet Explorer

1. On the same window, click on Search Providers on Add-on Types pane.

2. You cannot remove Conduit Web Search if it is on default stage. On right pane, select your desired search engine (Google or Bing) and set it as default. Hover your mouse on the desired service and click on Set as default button.

3. You can now highlight Conduit Web Search. Click on Remove button to delete the service.

Other Things:

1. Uninstall Conduit software by going to Control Panel. Click on Uninstall a program. Look for Toolbar or any phrase relevant to Conduit Search. Highlight the program and click the Uninstall button at the top of the screen.

2. Set Internet Explorer homepage to default by going to Tools menu. On General tab, click on Use default or replace the address with your desired home page URL. Click on Apply to save the settings.

Alternatively, some mal-ware programs may be able to eradicate Search Conduit for you. Either way, make sure that you uninstall the software. If any slow-downs are being caused by Search Conduit, uninstalling the software should help.

I’m not entirely sure that Search Conduit is the problem here. Although it’s an annoying little piece of malware, it doesn’t seem to be particularly malicious. Download a good virus and malware scanner and run it. Where there’s one piece of malware, there could be more.

Kim K. writes, There was a break in at my neighbor’s house last night. If I hadn’t seen the cops pull up as I was leaving for work, I wouldn’t even had known about it. It made me realize just how few of my neighbors I actually know. Is there was a website or some other way I can get to know my neighbors that doesn’t require going door to door and meeting my neighbors in person?

A: It is ironic that with Facebook and Twitter we can know what a random acquaintance from high school had for lunch, but we still might not know the name of three of our neighbors. There is a new social network called Nextdoor that is trying to fix that. Nextdoor is a private social network that only connects you to people who live in your neighborhood. To join, you have to prove where you live. To verify where you live, you can provide a credit or debit card to verify your street address, choose to have Nextdoor sent a postcard in the mail with a security code, or in some areas you can have Nextdoor call your landline telephone. Otherwise, you’ll have to be verified by the Founding Member or a Lead Neighbor.

Once you’ve been verified, you can sign into the website or the iPhone app to find out about all of the yard sales, missing puppies, and fun events in your neighborhood. In my neighborhood, folks are giving stuff away, having garage sales, posting information about church and theatre events, and talking about the car smash and grabs that happened last year.

Now, you can even share and talk with folks in nearby neighborhoods, so you won’t be limited to just your community. You can choose if you want your information and posts just shared with your neighborhood and/or with nearby neighborhoods. Also, like any self respecting social network, Nextdoor has an iPhone app, and is developing an Android app, so you can post and read others posts on the go.

To sign up for Nextdoor, go to Nextdoor.com. If your neighborhood is already added to Nextdoor, you’ll be able to join it. If it isn’t in Nextdoor yet, you can become a founding member and start a community on Nextdoor for your neighborhood. If you click on the link we’ve created for our readers, http://dmbl.co/nextdoor, and add your neighborhood, Nextdoor will give you a $50 Starbucks gift card.

So, if you would like to be social with your neighbors without, you know, being social, check out Nextdoor.

For the listeners of the Deemable Tech podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service.

Even New York Times best sellers like

Fiction: Inferno by Dan Brown

Non Fiction: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Not in Audible yet: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars

But from the same publisher, there is Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/Deemable. Again, that’s audibletrial.com/Deemable for your free audiobook!

Julie writes, I’ve been hesitant to use a service like LastPass because if it is hacked then all of my accounts would be compromised.

I first listened to your segment on radio and then downloaded your podcast. I’m an elementary school Instructional Tech Teacher and have learned a lot. Thanks!

A: LastPass and Dashlane both provide an incredible service: remembering the dozens upon dozens of passwords and logins that people have to use on a daily basis. Both LastPass and Dashlane use AES-256 encryption, the same encryption your bank uses to keep your account information safe. On top of that, Dashlane and Lastpass encrypt your information one more time using SSL when it is transmitted across the Internet. Also, your master password is not stored anywhere. What does this all mean to you? IF, someone is able to hack into Dashlane’s or LastPass’ database, they will pretty much have useless information. It will take the hackers a very long time to decrypt it, many months to several years. You’ll have plenty of time to change your passwords.

TOM: Greg asked: I have a laptop that is about 10 years old, and it is completely beyond repair. What can I do with it? Is it OK to just throw it in the trash?
RAY: NO! Stop! If you’ve already put it out for the trash, stop listening right now, and go bring it back inside! Never, ever, throw computers or almost any electronics in the trash.
TOM: First of all, you need to protect yourself and clear any personal data off of that thing before you release it into the wild. I’m not talking about a simple, quick re-formatting. I mean such a thorough scrubbing of your data that it would take the entire cast of CSI to recreate it.
RAY: Right, because when you delete something from your hard drive, it isn’t really erased. The computer just pretends it’s not there. To really delete a file from your computer’s hard drive, you have to write something over that file. There are a few programs that will securely delete your files.
TOM: If it’s a Windows PC you’re getting rid of, use a program like Eraser or the Drive Wiper in CCleaner to completely eradicate your data. If you’re tossing out a Mac, there’s a program called Permanent Eraser.
RAY: Once you’ve taken care of protecting yourself, you need to protect the environment. Computers are loaded with toxic metals and materials that are dangerous to the environment and need to be handled appropriately. Some cities and counties have curbside pickup of e-waste, but you should never just toss your computer in with the regular trash.
Check with your municipality’s website to find out where you can drop off your computer so that it is disposed of properly. Here in Jacksonville e-waste can be dropped off Tuesday through Saturday at the city’s Household Hazardous Waste Facility located at 2675 Commonwealth Ave.
TOM: What kind of chemicals are there in your computer, Ray?
RAY: Oh man, it’s like a chemistry lab in there. Circuit boards contain Cadmium and Beryllium, which are carcinogens. The steel inside your computer likely has hexavalent chromium baked into it, which is bad for your lungs. The LCDs in your PC contain mercury. And then of course there’s the plastic parts, all of which are non bio-degradable.
And in a laptop, you have the most toxic culprit of all, the battery. It contains lead and, even worse, battery acid.
TOM: Wow, that’s kind of a scary list of chemicals. Is there any chance those toxins could pose a threat to the person using the computer?
RAY: Well, most likely not. For one thing, the case of your computer shields you from direct contact with any of these chemicals. More importantly, though, all of these toxins are found in trace amounts that would most likely be harmless to a human. The problem is that when everybody tosses their electronics into the landfill, all of these toxins can start to build up and pose a threat to the environment.
TOM: We definitely don’t want to do that.
Of course as they say, one man’s toxic trash is another man’s treasure. There are companies that will take computers and monitors apart and extract the metals out of them to sell as scrap. So before you just throw that old junker away, you might be able to get a few bucks out of it, even if it is beyond all hope of repair.
You do have to be careful though. There are several companies that will ship your computer and monitor overseas where they will be melted down to get the metals out. This is very dangerous and very unsafe for the workers. Make sure that the company you are dealing with is handling your e-waste responsibly.

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech.

Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Today on Deemable Tech we help Lydia understand what a QR code is and how to use it, we help “other” Ray with his monitor problem, Michael has a “foggy” camera on his iPhone, and we help Mary figure out why her laptop uses all of her WiFi hotspot in an hour. Then, we have a conversation about the NSA leak, and Apple’s upcoming World Wide Developer Conference.

We didn’t even mention it on the show, but this week’s episode is somewhat special. It’s the one year anniversary of Deemable Tech! Also, it’s our 40th episode. So, that’s something.

Episode 40 – We’re iWatching You

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

TOM: And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

RAY: And, from All Florida Insurance Options, an authorized Progressive agency, helping people shop for insurance at 904-757-3288 or at their office in Highland Square on Dunn Avenue in North Jacksonville.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

TOM: Lydia writes: What is a QR Code? I saw somebody at the mall looking at a movie poster with a black and white square that looked techy, and they said something about a QR code. What is that?
RAY: Thanks for your question Lydia. Actually you described it pretty well. A QR code is a techy looking, black and white square.
TOM: They kinda look like small crossword puzzles. What they can do is pretty cool though. The QR in QR code stands for Quick Response. They were first used in the automobile industry to help manufacturers keep track of parts.
QR codes are similar to the bar codes or UPC symbols that you might see at a grocery store on the back of a can of beans. The difference is that a barcode is just one line of information, usually a twelve digit UPC number. The numbers that you see beneath the barcode are literally all that the laser scanner reads. Barcodes are one dimensional, (left to right) but QR codes are 2 dimensional: they store information left to right and up and down.
RAY: Now, here’s how this affects you, or could affect you. QR codes can have a lot of information stored in them, like website addresses, phone numbers, and other information, and you can read QR codes with a smartphone and a QR code reader app. And, a lot of companies are starting to put QR codes on their posters and in their ads in magazines and billboards.
So, let’s say you’re looking at an ad in a magazine for a product you’re interested in, and you’d like to more information about it. Instead of having to enter the website’s address in manually, or having to search the Internet for it, you could grab your phone, open your QR code reader, and snap a picture of the code, and boom you’ve got the link to their website and it opens. Most QR codes that I’ve seen just have a link to the website in them, but I’ve seen a couple that real estate agents had on their brochures that had their contact information stored in them. So, when I scanned the code, I got their name, phone numbers, email addresses and website all in a note on my iPhone. I didn’t have to write any of it down.
TOM: So, QR codes could be really awesome, but they still face a lot of hurdles. The fact is that most people don’t know what they are or how to read them. Actually, though, they’re fairly easy to use.
RAY: To use a QR code, you have to have a QR code reader on your phone. The best app I’ve found for the iPhone is QRReader, but there are tons of QR code readers for the iPhone. Just search the app store for “QR code reader,” and try them out.
Also, Microsoft has a similar 2D barcode called Microsoft Tag. It looks like multi-colored triangles sitting on shelves, so the appearance is much friendlier. Also, Microsoft has been pretty aggressively getting companies to start posting Tags on their ads and on their products. The Microsoft Tag app, which is available on practically ALL phones, (iPhones, Androids, Windows Phone, Blackberry, and standard feature phones) is the best one that I have found because it scans all 2D barcodes, including QR codes and Microsoft’s Tags.
TOM: There are numerous free apps in the Android play market that will allow you to read QR codes. Just search for ?QR code reader’. Then download the app, open it up, point your camera at one of those black and white squares, and watch the magic happen.

Guys, my iPhone out camera is foggy, the in camera is perfectly clear. How do I fix? Thanks, mike

Hi Ray and Tom,

Sometimes the monitor fails to receive a signal when the computer wakes from sleep. The screen remains blank. Sometimes there is a single short beep. Sometimes not. The internal hardware self test and device manager show all devices working normally. Rebooting the computer fixes the problem. Any suggestions?

Do I need a separate video card for ordinary (non-gaming) computer use? Maybe I could simply remove the optional video card which has only 128 MB of memory. The computer has 6 GB. Perhaps the motherboard has enough memory for ordinary (non-gaming) video use. As I remember there was a recall of NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE cards years ago, which this computer has, but this card did not qualify at that time. Thanks.

(the other) Ray

Hi Ray or Tom, its Mary Davis. I currently use a hot spot for my home wifi. It gives me 5GB of data usage per month. I also have two laptops- one old, one new. I installed the hotspot using the same settings for both computers. On the old computer it works fine, I watch shows on Hulu quite a bit. On the new computer it takes about one hour to reach the 5GB mark. I’ve asked AT&T to help but they couldn’t without me bringing everything to their store. I can’t figure out what’s going on. I saw your article in Folio and thought I’d ask you. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Mary

Edward Snowden identifies himself as source of NSA leaks

This week on Deemable Tech, Ray and Tom have so many questions they decide to have the first ever “Deemable Tech: Lightning Round.” In the Lightning Round, Ray, Tom and guest host Elizabeth Pampalone try to answer as many questions as they can off the top of their head. Sean Birch is the judge, and whoever gets the most questions right gets the grand prize of absolutely nothing!

Episode 38 – The Lightning Round

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

And, from All Florida Insurance Options, an authorized Progressive agency, helping people shop for insurance at 904-757-3288 or at their office in Highland Square on Dunn Avenue in North Jacksonville.

RAY: This week, back in the studio once again, we have a special guest, Elizabeth Pampalone, owner of JaxComputerChic.com, a small business computer consulting and computer training company. Welcome back to the show Elizabeth!

ELIZABETH: *vamp response*

RAY: Today we are going to do something a little different. We have a backlog of older questions to get through.

TOM: Why didn’t we answer those questions?

RAY: Laziness? Stupidity? A lack of organization?

TOM: Yeah, that sounds about right. So what are we going to do about them?

RAY: I thought we should just run through them, as fast as we can, answering them off the cuff, gameshow style. In fact, I thought we could call it.

*THE LIGHTNING ROUND*

TOM: Wow, what are we calling it again?

RAY: *THE LIGHTNING ROUND*

TOM: Awesome! But before we dive into The Lightning Round –

RAY: You mean, *THE LIGHTNING ROUND*

TOM: Yeah, that. Before we do that, we have a couple of ordinary questions to answer. And, Elizabeth, feel free to dive in on these at any point.

ELIZABETH: OK. Looks like the first question is from a guy named Ryan.

RAY: Cool, can you read it for us?

ELIZABETH: Ryan writes, For some reason, I can’t find 1channel or icefilms as add on options on my XBMCHub on my Windows 7 laptop. They are amazing on the unlocked Apple TV, and I want to put them on my laptop. Any thoughts?
TOM: *laughs*
Now I know how listeners to our show must feel when we start going on and on about things they’ve never heard about.
Before I yell at those pesky kids to get off my lawn, does anybody know what a 1channel or an icefilm is? And what is an XBM-whatever and what does it have to do with unlocking an Apple TV? I didn’t even know you could unlock an Apple TV.
RAY: Well, in the Apple world we call it jailbreaking. And yes, you definitely can jailbreak your Apple TV. Just like Jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad, you are simply taking off or breaking the code that keeps iOS shackled.
TOM: Why would you want to?
RAY: Well, normally your Apple TV can do two things: mirror the desktop of your Mac, iPhone or iPad, and stream media from iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube or one of the other authorized Apple TV channels, to your television. If you want to play any other kind of media through it, you’re out of luck. But an Apple TV is actually a powerful little LINUX-based computer in its own right, and by losing it from its shackles, you can use it to stream just about anything you want to your television.
TOM: OK, what is XB-whatever?
RAY: XBMC. It used to stand for Xbox Media Center because that’s what it started out as, but now it is a free, open source media player which can be run on a variety of devices.
TOM: Including, let me guess, a jailbroken Apple TV or a Windows 7 laptop.
RAY: You got it. The XBMC platform support third-party add-ons which allow you to do things like stream movies through it and watch ripped DVDs.
TOM: So if I jailbreak my Apple TV, I can install XBMC and watch my ripped DVDs on it?
RAY: Yep.
TOM: Cool. But Ryan didn’t just say XBMC, did he? He said XBMCHub.
RAY: OK, so despite the fact that it was originally designed to be installed on hacked XBoxes and jailbroken Apple TV’s, XBMC is supposed to only access legal content. But since it’s open source, someone has created a separate version called XBMC Hub which is a little more – open – about what content you access through it.
TOM: I’m guessing 1channel and icefilms are ways to get free content that you’d normally have to pay for.
RAY: Well basically they are free services that host links to all kinds of TV and movies… some of which you should technically be paying for. But they don’t actually host the content themselves, so they’re in a legal grey area. There’s no law that specifically says what they are doing is illegal, but that’s never stopped a copyright lawyer before.
TOM: Riiight. So, just to recap, Ryan has jailbroken his Apple TV and installed XBMC Hub on it so he can stream free TV shows and movies to his TV. And now he wants to do the same thing on his Windows laptop, but he’s running into problems.
RAY: I think that sums up it up.
TOM: And… we’re not going to help him, are we?
RAY: No.
TOM: Here’s the deal Ryan, and all our other podcast listeners. Here at Deemable Tech we have a policy of trying to stay neutral on the topic of copyright, piracy, DRM and that sort of thing.
On the one hand, it’s your laptop, it’s your Apple TV, you are welcome to try and do whatever you want with it. And we’re not going to pretend that there aren’t lots of ways to get, say, pretty much any movie or television program for free and stream it to your television.
RAY: But we’re also not going to tell you how to do it. At least in the US, distributing copyrighted content for free without the author’s permission is technically illegal. Do people do it all the time? Yes. Should the laws about this stuff be different? Maybe. Are movie and TV studios technological dinosaurs with their heads stuck in the sand? Probably. But right now the law is the law and we can’t be in the position of encouraging our listeners to break it.
TOM: If you decide to stick it to the man and circumvent the official channels for this kind of stuff, well, that’s your business. I mean, we’re geeks, we get it. It’s like rooting or jailbreaking your smartphone – it’s your device, we think you should be able to do what you want with it. Fortunately, rooting and jailbreaking smartphones is legal. We’re glad to answer questions about that on this podcast. But with other devices you’re getting into a gray area and we can’t help you. And as far as copyrighted content goes, well, we’re not even going to touch that issue with a ten foot pole.
Ryan, I’m sure with a little technical know-how, Google-fu and maybe asking some questions on the right messageboards you can get your questions answered. But it’s up to you to face the legal or technical consequences. So you’re on your own with this one!

TOM: Fabio writes – Hi Tom and Ray,

I’m Fabio and I’m writing you from Italy. I’m Italian so please forgive me if I make any mistakes. Here’s my problem: I have a desktop computer with windows 7 and sometimes while I surf the web, (I use the latest version of firefox) the screen freezes for a couple of seconds and then on the system tray this message appears: ?Display driver stopped responding and has recovered?. I tried to update the video card driver (I have an ATI Radeon 5700) but the problem continues. I hope you can help me with this because it is really annoying. I really love your show, it’s useful and entertaining and I’ve downloaded every podcast of the program on Itunes.

Thank you in advance

RAY: Awesome! Thanks for your question Fabio. That’s a hard one. *PAUSE* Did you ever watch Eureka, Tom?

TOM: Like, one time. For five minutes. And then I changed the channel.

RAY: *Explain what Eureka is.*

TOM: OK, did you just completely change the subject? Aren’t we going to answer Fabio’s question?

RAY: Of course we are…

TOM: So what does this have to do with Fabio’s question?

RAY: Explain how every episode of Eureka works.

Here’s the formula for a perfect Eureka episode:
They’re having a normal day, *example*
then something wacky happens, *example*
Then, they find out that that wacky thing has gotten worse, *example*
Then they find out that the wacky thing was caused by some experiment, except the experiment wasn’t suppose to work like that, *example*
Then, they find out that the wacky thing happened because the first experiment interacted with a second experiment *example* and the interference of the two experiments caused the wacky thing.
Then, they find out the wacky thing is going to (A) kill someone, (B) destroy the entire town, (C) kill everyone in the country, or (D) destroy the entire world, and they only have five minutes or less to fix it.
So, then they come up with some ridiculously complicated method of changing the wacky thing described with technobabble by the geeks, and the sheriff describes it with an simple analogy, and it will probably result in an amazing new achievement in science if it works.
And then, they do it. It almost always works, unless it’s a ?very special episode? in which case the worst case scenario does happen, but even then there is a twist that makes it a good thing that it happened. *example*

So that’s how it works. And Colin Ferguson, if you’re listening, when you guys decide to make the Eureka movie, I am totally ready to write the script.

TOM: OK, Ray, while that was *vamps*, what does that have to do with Fabio’s question?

RAY: I don’t know? What was Fabio’s question?

TOM: Remember, his display driver stopped responding? I knew it, you were just changing the subject!

RAY: *Explain how PCs are like Eureka. Everything should work together well, but they sometimes don’t and it’s really complicated to explain why.

TOM: Anyway, this one’s pretty easy, you just

Open Catalyst Control Center and switch to ATI Overdrive
Unlock and enable Overdrive
Go to Options/Profiles/Profile Manager and create a new profile called, let’s say, STABLE.
Save the new profile. But DO NOT ACTIVATE the profile.
Now go to C:\Users\{YourUserName}\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles folder ( I assume C: is your system drive )
Note: You should have ” show hidden files ” turned on to see the folder.
Open the .xml file named STABLE with notepad.
Change the values of the idle Core clock and Memory clock speeds below

Feature name=”CoreClockTarget_0″
Property name=”Want_0″ value=”40000″ note: previous value should be “15700”

Feature name=”MemoryClockTarget_0″
Property name=”Want_0″ value=”90000″ note: previous value should be “30000”
Save the file and close it.
Go back to CCC and activate the profile. This will make the card idle at 400 MHz core clock and 900 MHz memory clock.

Boom! You’re good. Hopefully.

RAY: So… Yeah there is a possible solution, but it is very complicated and no one else in the world will get any benefit out of it. So, Fabio we are going to send you an email with a link to the information. So you can try it out for yourself, and let us know how it works out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276896-33-radeon-5750-display-driver-stopped-responding

RAY: OKay guys, we’ve gotten through the regular questions, so do you know what time it is?

TOM: I think it’s time for *THE LIGHTNING ROUND*

RAY: Yes!

ELIZABETH: So how’s it going to work?

RAY: *explains*

Question 1:

Anonymous – I LOVE my Windows Phone. I just don’t know why the business world doesn’t use them more often. The OS is better than the ?cutesy? Android system that seems more teenager/unprofessional like. It has Office (word, PowerPoint, Excel), and more over Outlook ?.everything we may use in the business world. I just don’t know why I can’t sync my Outlook calendar at the office with my Samsung Smartphone Windows OS? I have an “Microsoft Exchange server” – the Phone asks for this but it always asks for a “domain name”? What are these and what do I type into make this work?

Question 2:

Hey guys,

I have my laptop hooked up to my LCD tv via HDMI so that I can watch  Netflix. However, recently I have noticed that if I’m watching a show that’s longer than 30 minutes the audio and video will suddenly stop being sent to the tv via HDMI, and instead it starts playing directly from the laptop, almost as if the HDMI itself went into sleep mode. If I move the mouse, then the HDMI audio and video goes back to the tv.

What gives?

Also, after trying to hook my laptop up to my tv via the VGA connection, now it doesn’t recognize my tv as an LCD, but thinks its an analog CRT and won’t allow me to set the proper resolution!

Arrrrrrrgh!

-Joel

Question 3:

Melody – I recently heard a piece where you all recommended the Find My iPhone app and was wondering about something. I keep my Location Services off unless I need them, since they seem to be a huge battery suck. Will the Find My iPhone features still work if the Location Services are off?

Thank you.

Question 4:

Voicemail transcript: Dan this jacksonville beach florida… I’m calling to see if you do house calls … and if you do … please call me back and let me know otherwise I guess I maybe have to call … I’m making some call again but thank you very much I appreciate hearing from you and enjoy your programs on … on the radio thank you bye bye.

Question 5:

Scott – Dear Ray & Tom,
I have windows internet explorer version 8 and everytime I bring it up, it gives me the error message, ?A program on your computer has corrupted your browser preferences? and then I have click on ?OK? or change my preferences. I can’t seem to get rid of it. I have re-enabled Google as my default browser and I still get the error message. I tried picking another browser and I still get the error message.
Is there any way I can stop the error message?
Thank you.

Question 6:

Jennifer writes, I listened to your show this morning on WJCT about protecting the iPad & iPhone. I have the Blackberry Bold 9900 & Blackberry Playbook 64gb tablet. I would like a recommendation for apps to protect, lock down & secure the Blackberry Bold & Blackberry Playbook tablet.
Thanks for all your help!

Question 7:

Alan – Hi Ray/Tom,
My iphone sends my incoming mail to the trash. The messages appear briefly in the in box, then go to trash. ATT says it is a problem with my computer settings, Apple says it is a problem with Yahoo. I have cleared and reset the account information to no avail.

I went online and spoke with some guy in India who said he could fix it for $50.00. I was irritated and did not take him up on it. I would rather pay you or someone local.

Please advise.

Question 8:

Mel – Hi I am using an HP laptop with Vista. My account is with AT&T (bellsouth.net) for my email. Yahoo is only my choice as my search engine. I would like to use Google as a choice. How can I do that with out messing up my email?

Love your spot on NPR’s morning edition.

Question 9:

Michelle – I have an LG Thrill from AT&T that has been unlocked. I’m using it on T-Mobile, but I can’t get the data to work on it. What do I need to do to get the data working?

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Our producer is Sean Birch. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, I’m Elizabeth Pampalone, and this is Deemable Tech.
Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Sean was out of the studio, so Ray tried to play sound engineer and host. He almost pulled it off, but mostly through the magic of post production editing. On today’s episode we talk about how to keep your phone data usage low, how to download a new browser, how to install Adobe Acrobat even if you can’t see the installation page, and whether you should buy an bigger iPhone 4S or 5.

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Download Episode 35 – Ray Grows Extra Arms

TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech, technology worth talking about, and tech help worth listening to.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

And, by audible.com – get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

TOM: Today on the show, we’re going to going to talk about to keep your phone’s data plan usage low, and

RAY: how to figure out what browser you’re using and what a browser even is, but first.

One Spark,  April 17 – 21, 2013 register to vote at beonespark.com

The reason we are doing OneSpark is because we want to launch a full fledged public radio show. But to do that, we need money. It takes a lot of money to run a public radio show, and even more to launch one. So, hopefully, if a lot of folks vote for us, we’ll get a bit of money from the One Spark crowd fund, but even if we don’t hopefully a lot of people will find out about us, and we’ll be able to help them out!

*WALK THROUGH THE PROCESS*

You can hear Deemable Tech on WJCT 89.9 FM in Jacksonville, FL, now you can also hear it on WCWP 88.1 FM in Brookville, NY! Welcome to any listeners from Brookville.

 Questions

TOM: Michelle asks, I was wondering about ways to lower my data usage on my iPhone. I always seem to go over my limit, and then I am slapped with another monthly charge. What things can I turn ?off? or put away unless I need them, and how do I do it?

RAY: Thanks for your question, Michelle. iPhones and Android phones can eat up a data plan like a 5 year old with an unattended candy bowl. Unless you’re on an unlimited data plan, you have to keep an eye on what your phone is downloading and sending, or it’ll end up taking a bite out of your wallet.

Periodically check your cellular data usage on your iPhone by opening your Settings app, and tapping General, Usage and then Cellular Usage at the bottom. On that screen you can see how much data your phone has sent and received. Each month, at the end of your billing cycle, tap the Reset Statistics button to clear out the counters and start over.

TOM: Well, Ray, that’s good information about how to keep track of how much data you’re using on an iPhone, but Michelle wanted to know how to reduce the amount of data she’s using on an iPhone. Come on man, stay focused!

RAY: Well, you’re right, but the first step to any diet is keeping track of how much you’re consuming, or so I’ve heard. Knowing how much data you’re using in the first place will help to stay you on track. Now, here’s a few tips to keep your cellular data usage low. First of all, don’t download or stream any video or audio unless you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. Those NPR, Netflix, Hulu and PBS Kids apps will devour your cellular data. I’m not saying don’t use them! They’re great apps. Just make sure to use them when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network if you’re trying to save your cellular data.

TOM: And, if you have streaming video or music that you just have to watch or listen to over 3G or 4G, go for the Non-HD version or the lower quality version. That will save you a bunch of data, too. If you use Spotify, make your playlists Available Offline so that the next time you’re away from home they’ll play from your phone instead of over the Internet.

RAY: The same thing is true for Amazon Cloud Player and the Podcast app; make sure to download your songs and new podcast episodes to your device before you leave the house. Also, and it’s probably obvious, but make sure to only download new apps and updates when you are on a Wi-Fi network too.

TOM: Also, try reducing the number of times that your phone downloads new email. On the iPhone, open your Settings app and tap ?Mail, Contacts, Calendars? and then, Fetch New Data. Turn off Push, and change Fetch to Manually or, at most, Hourly.

RAY: Finally, If you see that you’re getting close to your limit, or you just want to save your data plan for later in the month, turn your cellular data off. On the iPhone go to the General menu under Settings, tap Cellular and then tap the Cellular Data on/off switch. You’ll still get phone calls and text messages, but you won’t be able to browse the web and none of your apps will access the Internet either unless you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. You can also turn off Cellular data for specific built-in functions like iTunes, FaceTime, and Personal Hotspot in that same menu.

Now Tom, we’re talking about the iPhone here, but do you have any tips for Android users to save on their data plan?

TOM: Well, Android phones have a lot of the same features. You can, for instance disable mobile data and only use data when you’re on WiFi. But there’s something even cooler that Android phones with version 4.0 or better can do. Open up your settings and go to the Data Usage menu. There is a checkbox there that says ?limit mobile data usage’. Check that and it will put a default cap of 5 GB. You can change the cap by touching the data usage graph below that option.

Alternatively, there is an option to have it alert you when you reach a certain amount of data. So Android gives you a lot of great options for monitoring your data usage.

Individual Android apps also often have settings that will restrict them from using data unless you’re on wi-fi.

In fact, I’d almost say that Android has more options for data saving than the iPhone does. What a surprise huh?

RAY: Yeah, BIG surprise.

RAY: Drew asked If I use Lastpass on my PC for an email account that I also have on my mobile phone can I still use that email account on my phone without Lastpass …

In other words that long password that Lastpass generates on my PC for that email account is that the password that I would have to use on my phone even if I don’t have Lastpass on it? Also if I uninstall Lastpass what will happen to all my passwords that were generated with Lastpass? Do I have to go in and change all my passwords to something that I can remember before I uninstall? Thanks!

TOM: No Drew, thank you.

LastPass is a great tool, but it does generate passwords that are difficult for humans to remember. Really, that’s the point of LastPass, which is to generate passwords that are hard to crack. So unless you set it otherwise, LastPass generates passwords of long strings of random numbers and characters, which makes it difficult to remember them. But that’s okay, LastPass remembers them for you. Unless you get rid of LastPass or don’t have LastPass on your device.

RAY: Then Drew, you have to remember those passwords yourself.

TOM: Right, Ray. LastPass is strictly a password database. It remembers the passwords you set, and it can suggest new passwords when you need them, but it does not actually control the passwords for any site.

So if you used LastPass to generate a password, all it does is suggest its usual string of random characters and then remember that string. If you used LastPass to generate the password for your email account, that password is the password for your email account until YOU change it. Deleting LastPass will not affect that password.

RAY: So if you delete LastPass, that super-complicated password is STILL your email account password, AND you now have to remember it. And that seems like a bad idea.

TOM: Bingo. I use LastPass when I have to create new accounts on the web. It generates 14 characters of gobbledygook for each individual website. There’s no WAY I’m going to be able to remember those passwords on my own.

So if you plan to delete LastPass, I strongly advise that you go to your email account and change your password to something you can remember on your own. And you need to do that for every account or app you have a LastPass generated password for.

Depending on how long you’ve been using LastPass, that could be a lot of passwords. So Drew, I strongly recommend that you do not delete LastPass. What I mean by that is, don’t get rid of your LastPass account. Even if you stop using it, even if you uninstall the app on your phone or the plugin on your browser, keep the password to your account handy. Because one of these days you’re likely to need to get in there and look up a password to some obscure website which you have forgotten.

RAY: And just to be clear, opening up the LastPass password vault, finding your stored email account and changing the password there will NOT change the password on your email account! It just changes the password LastPass remembers for your email account. Which will now be wrong.

TOM: Right.

RAY: No, wrong.

TOM: No, I mean ?right’ as in, ?you are correct’.

RAY: Oh, right. I mean, correct.

TOM: Another thing you can do is that LastPass allows you to export your password database. Just open up the LastPass password vault, click the down arrow by your account name and click ?export’. It will then walk  you through the steps to save all your LastPass stored passwords somewhere else.

RAY: So, if Drew wants to change his email password to something he can remember so he can type it on his phone, what should he do?

TOM: Well, the easiest way would be to access your email through your browser with the LastPass plugin running. Go to your account on your email website and change the password there to something you can remember. LastPass should automatically detect that you have changed the password and remember the new password.

If it does not, then you need to manually go into the LastPass password vault and change your password so that it matches.

Right, Ray?

RAY: Correct.

TOM: Christine asks, I have been having trouble getting on the Internet lately because of pop-up error messages. My friend Jeff, who usually fixes my computer, says the problem is my ?browser’ and keeps trying to get me to use something called ?Firefox’. I’m used to the normal way I get online. Do I really need to change?

RAY: It would be nice if the Internet worked and looked the same for everybody, Christine!

TOM: But that would be too easy! It’s a little more complicated than that.

Any program you use to view web pages is called a ?browser’. The browser that comes pre-installed on Windows is Internet Explorer, or IE for short. It’s the most popular browser in the world. But, there’s a catch.

RAY: Yep. Different versions of Windows, like Windows XP, Vista or Windows 8, come with different versions of IE. For instance, if you still have Windows XP then you may be running the version of IE that came with it, version 6.

TOM: But Internet Explorer is now on version 10! So IE 6 is way out of date.

RAY: If you have an old version of IE, some web pages may look wrong or not load correctly. You may see bugs or weird pop-ups like you described, Christine. You are also in danger from all kinds of malware and online attacks through loopholes that were fixed in later versions.

TOM: To find out what version you have you need to bring up the ?About Internet Explorer’ screen. Depending on what version you are running, that will be under the Help menu, or under the menu that comes up when you click the little gear icon. They’re both at the top of the screen.

Then you should install the latest version available for your version of Windows. On Windows XP you can get up to Version 8, and for newer versions of Windows you can get version 10. Having the latest version of IE will likely fix many of the problems you are having. Plus, it’s just safer.

RAY: Okay Tom, but Christine said her her friend Jeff is trying to get her to switch to Firefox? Why should she change to Firefox?

TOM: Ray, do you know the classic nerd joke about Internet Explorer?

RAY: Refresh my memory.

TOM: Internet Explorer is the best browser… for downloading another browser.

RAY: *vamps*

TOM: The point Christine, is that there are lots of different web browsers besides Internet Explorer. There’s Firefox, Chrome and Opera. Those are just some of the bigger ones. There are literally dozens out there.

Other browsers offer a lot of different features and are often faster, so techies who want more control over their internet experience almost always use something else.

For instance, with Firefox you can download ?add-ons’ for the browser, that do cool things like block ads, let you download YouTube videos to your computer, display the weather at the top of the screen and more.

RAY: Google’s Chrome browser is quickly gaining popularity. Chrome is known for being really fast, which is nice. But its killer feature, is that you can synchronize all your copies of Chrome on any computer, tablet or phone. Any changes you make to one copy are automatically made to the other copies. You can also access web pages that you had open on other machines.

TOM: I love that feature. It’s so nice to be able to open a web page at work that I had opened earlier on my computer at home.

It’s also worth mentioning that most browsers other than IE conform more closely to the standards for displaying web pages, so web sites may display better on Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

RAY: Unless you’re visiting a lot of Microsoft sites: often those sites won’t work correctly on anything but Internet Explorer.

TOM: But the good news is that you can have two browsers at once, and switch back and forth between them anytime you like. So there’s no harm in downloading Firefox and giving it a try. It will get your friend Jeff off your back, and hey, you might even like it!

—–

Lynn asked, I typed this once before but not sure if it went through. I have an Asus laptop and have check on explore 8 and chrome but do not find java or it’s owner under either. I have Kaspersky and it uses Javascript. Could it be it never got installed? The laptop is about 2 yrs old, but I don’t use it much.

—–

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Also, make sure to come out to One Spark April 17-21, and make sure to come by and visit Deemable Tech’s booth at Ignite Adecco on Bay and Main Street, and make sure to vote for Deemable Tech we’re number 253. If you haven’t already registered to vote, go to beonespark.com and register now to vote.

Our producer is Sean Birch. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech.

Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

On today’s episode we talk about when you should disable your Java, how to voice dial from a Samsung Galaxy S2, and how to send multiple pdfs from an iPad. Then, we were joined in the studio by Kai Kohl (NOT Khan, our apologies!) of The I.M.A.G.I.C., a creation for One Spark. Listen in to find out about the awesome project that he’s working on to bring an interactive gaming museum to Jacksonville.

We met the goal for Deemable Tech’s Kickstarter Project! We are starting work on the Deemable Tech app now. If you’re reading this before March 25th at 7:00 PM you still have time to support our project. Any amount, $1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100, etc. helps. Click the link above and click the green Back This Pledge button. Thank you in advance!

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Download Episode 34 – We Made It! It’s All Your Fault! Thank You!

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 1-888-972-9868, or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll answer them on the show.

TRANSCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech, technology worth talking about, and tech help worth listening to.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

And, by audible.com – get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

TOM: Today on the show, we’ll be talking about when you should disable your Java.

RAY: Spoiler alert, the answer is now.

TOM: And, how to voice dial from a Samsung Galaxy S2

RAY: And how to send multiple pdfs from an iPad, and later in the show, we’ll be joined in the studio by Kai Kohl of The I.M.A.G.I.C., a creation for One Spark. So, stay tuned for that. Let’s jump right into our questions.

Skip writes: I use a Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. I can use voice to create email, texts, enter stuff on the calendar, etc. However, I cannot figure how to use voice to dial, the way I used to on a BB phone. Can you assist?

TOM: Thanks Skip! You know Ray, I had a revelation the other day.

RAY: Oh really?

TOM: What does the ?S’ in Samsung Galaxy S… whatever… stand for?

RAY: Sumptuous?

TOM: Wow, that’s one that hadn’t occurred to me. No Ray, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to stand for ?Samsung’. After all, S-Voice, S-Memo, S-Beam… those are all native Samsung apps where the S clearly stands for ?Samsung’.

RAY: But in that case we’ve been saying the Samsung Galaxy Samsung 3.

TOM: Exactly! It’s stupid. And the S is so generic. Why don’t they go with Sam? Or Samantha? It could be like Siri, only… Sammy.

RAY: *vamps*

Anyway, Tom, you still have not helped this poor gentleman out with his phone problem in any way.

TOM: Oh, right. Well, to bring up voice commands on the Samsung Galaxy Samsung 2 Skyrocket

RAY: *laughs*

TOM: You simply hold down the search button for a few seconds. Or you double-tap the menu button. One of those should bring up S-Voice and then you can say ?Call Ray Hollister? and it should call Ray. There were a few different versions of the Samsung 2, I mean S2, so you may have to experiment to find out which one method for you.

But it sounds like Skip already knows how to operate voice commands. After all he’s using to do emailing and texting. Voice dialing is not separate from those functions so there isn’t any reason for it to not work when everything else does. Not sure what’s going on there.

The good news is, the GS2 runs Android. And on Android, if a stock app isn’t working for you can always just download a different app. Choice Dialer Plus has gotten some good reviews. Another popular voice app for Android is Vlingo. That’s V-lingo. So if you still can’t get voice dialer to work on your native app, try downloading one of those.

Hope that helps, Skip! Enjoy using your Samsung Galaxy Samsung II Skyrocket!

TOM: Last week on Morning Edition we told people that they needed to disable Java, now.

RAY: Right, Tom and I had talked about it on the show a couple of weeks ago while you were out, Tom.

TOM: Right, but we felt it was so important for people to do that we covered it again in the Morning Edition spot, and we setup a page at deemable.com/java where everyone could go to get instructions on how to disable java in each web browser.

RAY: Yeah, we had a great response to it. In less than an hour after the segment aired, we already had 600 views on the page. By the end of the day, we had over 1,400 views, and over the next two days we had several hundred more. So, good job listening everyone!

TOM: But, we know that several thousand people listen to Morning Edition each day on 89.9 FM, so if you haven’t done it yet, do it, now! Go to deemable.com/java and follow the directions and disable Java, now!

RAY: You better do it. He’s just going to keep telling you to do it,…

TOM: Now!

RAY: OK, so we had some comments on the page that we wanted to address.

*Discuss comments on deemable.com/java

Thanks for all your comments.

Phillip writes, I have two questions. First, is there an app or a way to add multiple files (pdfs specifically) in an email on an iPad Second, what is the most cost-effective way to extend WiFi for a PC? I have video lessons via Skype and my wireless router is on the other side of my house (and cannot be moved), this causes severe latency issues. Thank you for your help.

RAY: Thank you for your question, Phillip.

Well, I know my co-host is going to rib me, because I’m sure he can do this with his Android phone easier than you can do it on an iPad, but nonetheless, I will see if I can help you out here.

Sadly, there is no simple, easy, built-in way to do this. My greatest complaint with iOS is file management. Each app has their own way of managing documents, and they usually don’t work together.

GoDocs is probably the best app for the job. You have to have a Google Drive account, but you can take multiple pdfs that you have uploaded to your Google Drive account and send them in an email from the app. You can also upload pdfs to your Google Drive account in the app.

There’s another app called Goodreader that will do the trick as well.

If you’re Jailbroken, you can use an app called iFile. There’s a free version and a paid version. You don’t need the paid version to send multiple files via email, but there’s a lot of really cool things you can do with the paid version that you can’t do with the free version. But, with iFile, you have access to everything on your iPhone, so tread carefully.

TOM: About your Wi-Fi question, Phillip, we actually answered a similar question, a long, long time ago, way back in one of our first five episodes.

The best solution is an access point. An access point is like a WiFi router, except that you plug it into a WiFi router. It’s only purpose is to extend your network. You must already have a router setup for it to work. You’ll have to run an Ethernet cable from your router to your access point which needs to be close to where ever you need WiFi. They vary in price anywhere from $25 to $250, but you can usually find a good one for around $50.

RAY: The best way to do it is to run an Ethernet cable through the wall, away from any electrical wires, and put an outlet on each end that mounts to the wall. Then, use a shorter cable to plug from the wall to the router, and from the wall to the access point. Most access points are relatively pretty plug and play, but you might have to make some adjustments to the firmware on the router or the access point. You’ll have to follow the directions in the manual. Also, if you have an old router, you can usually set it up as an access point. You’ll definitely have to go into the settings of the router to make it act as an access point or it might be ornery and fight with your other router as to who is the king of the network.

RAY: All right, we have to take a quick break to thank our sponsors. We have a new sponsor, Audible. Audible is offering listeners of the Deemable Tech podcast a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. If you enjoy listening to podcasts and you like reading great books, you’ll love Audible.

TOM: And, if you have a Kindle, like I do, you will really love this, with Whispersync for voice, if you get a book from Audible that you already have on your Kindle, your ebook and your audio book will stay synced together on multiple devices. So, for example, you can listen to your audio book in the car on your iPhone on the way to work, and then pick up right where you left off on your Kindle during lunch.

RAY: So, Tom, do you have any recommendations for a good audio book?

TOM: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

What about you, Ray. Do you have a recommendation?

RAY: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

You can download one of our picks, or another audiobook for free.

To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/Deemable. Again, that’s audibletrial.com/Deemable for your free audiobook! And we thank Audible for their support of the Deemable Tech podcast.

TOM: If you haven’t already, show us some love and subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or your favorite podcast app. If you’ve already subscribed, leave a review for us on iTunes. There’s links to the iTunes page and our Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages on the right-hand side of our website at Deemable.com.

You’re listening to Deemable Tech.

RAY: Welcome back to Deemable Tech. I’m Ray Hollister, joined of course by my co-host, Tom Braun.

Now, we are joined in the studio by Kai Kohl, the creator of I.M.A.G.I.C. a creation for One Spark. Welcome to the show, Kai.

KAI: Thanks for having me on the show.

So, we’ve talked about this before on the show, in April there is a festival coming to Jacksonville called One Spark. One Spark is a crowdfunding festival happening here in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, April 17th through the 21st. Creators from around the world are coming to Jacksonville to show off their creations and take home part of the $250,000 crowdfund. The interesting part about One Spark is that instead of winning a grand prize, first prize, second prize and so on, at One Spark, the $250,000 crowdfund will be distributed by public vote. So, if a creator gets 10% of the vote, at the end of the One Spark festival they’ll be taking home $25,000!

Each registered voter will be able to vote once for each entry in the festival, but they can vote for as many entries as they like. That’s the part I’m thankful for because there are a lot of really incredible entries in this festival from all over the spectrum: Art, Music, Science and Technology.

Questions for Kai about I.M.A.G.I.C.

• What is I.M.A.G.I.C.? What is your creation?

• What are you doing the Kickstarter project for?

• Why did you name it I.M.A.G.I.C. (I’m pretty sure I know why, but it’ll be good to talk about.)

• Where did you get the idea for I.M.A.G.I.C.?

• What has been the hardest part of getting I.M.A.G.I.C. started?

• What does your wife think of your collection? Is she supportive?

• How will you use the money you get from One Spark?

• How will I.M.A.G.I.C. make money? Will it be a Profit or Non-Profit?

• Where do you see I.M.A.G.I.C. going from here? If you were to receive all the money in the crowdfund, what would happen? How would your life change as a result of I.M.A.G.I.C. becoming successful? What does success at I.M.A.G.I.C. look like?

• Where can our listeners find your exhibit at One Spark?

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes or point your favorite podcast app to dmbl.co/pod.

Also, make sure to come out to One Spark April 17-21 while you are there visit The IMAGIC at The Phoenix Taproom at W Forsyth St, and make sure to come by and visit Deemable Tech’s booth at Ignite Adecco on Bay and Main Street, and make sure to vote for The IMAGIC and for Deemable Tech. If you haven’t already registered to vote, go to beonespark.com and register now to vote.

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Our producer is Sean Birch. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech.

Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Support for Deemable Tech is provided by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at asmallorange.com.

We’re not trying to make you feel guilty, but Deemable Tech’s Kickstarter Project does end on March 25th at 7:00 PM. Would you help support us? Any amount, $1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100, etc. helps. Click the link above and click the green Back This Pledge button. Thank you in advance!

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Download Episode 33 – If We Don’t Make It, It’s All Your Fault 

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 1-888-972-9868, or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll answer them on the show.

TRANSCRIPT

Support for Deemable Tech is provided by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at asmallorange.com.

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, technology worth talking about, and tech help worth listening to.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

TOM: Today on the show, we’ll be talking about jailbreaking iPhones, and whether it’s illegal to unlock your smartphone, and

RAY: Blackberry 10 and whether you can get apps for your Pantech Renue, and

TOM: sharing music with Dropbox.

RAY: But first…

There were Two big tech news items this week. First of all, Samsung revealed the next phone in its line of Galaxy S flagship phones, the S4. Features include a larger screen with a 1080×1920, a 13 megapixel camera, eye-based scrolling and the ability to use it with gloves.

Tom, you’ve got a GS3. Are you thinking of making the switch?

TOM: To be honest Ray, I think I feel like you do about switching to the iPhone 5 when you have a 4s.

I think if you don’t have a Galaxy S3 or you have an older Galaxy, by all means you should wait a month and pick up the S4 when it comes out. But it’s not a quantum leap forward over the S3, and personally my S3 is still working really well for me. In fact I would say it’s continuing to get better. So I’m not going to rush out and upgrade just yet.

So what was the other big news?

RAY: Well Google has announced that as part of their annual ?spring cleaning’ they will be shutting down Google Reader.

TOM: Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

– was my reaction upon hearing that news earlier this week.

RAY:

Since Google announced that it was closing Reader, its news aggregator service, we’ve received several questions ranging from ?How do I live without it?? to ?What the heck is it, and why is everyone freaking out??

For folks in the latter category, Google Reader is the equivalent of a friendly butler that finds all of the news that you are interested in reading from the news sources and blogs you trust. Instead of having to open 10 different websites every day, you could open just one page whenever you wanted. It automatically gathered all of the stories that have been published by the ten websites you follow since the last time you opened the page.

Now you are probably just as upset that it is closing as everyone else, let me tell you the good news. There is hope. Other companies are stepping up to fill in the gap that Google Reader is leaving behind. Some of them work exactly the same as Google Reader does; others take what Google Reader does and improves upon it.

Google Reader Alternatives:

• The Old Reader
• Feedly
• NewsBlur
• NetVibe
• Pulse

We’ll have a full break down of the available Google Reader Alternatives later this week. What are you using or planning on using to replace Google Reader?

Hey, I’ve been listening to your show, but I don’t often have a whole hour to pay attention to the computer at one point in the day. Also, sometimes I don’t have a huge interest in a particular topic (horrors!), but later decide I really want to know about something you spoke about in a past show. Anyway, would it be possible to put “sections” in the show notes? Sort of using the little music breaks as dividers, and saying, “In section 1, we cover these topics. Section 2, which starts at minute marker 20, discusses those; and Section 3, at minute 40, includes the others.” Then I could easily come back to the section where I had to quit listening, or quickly find a particular subject I’m listening to.
Perhaps there’s another way I could find that info, but my tech savvy mostly comes from pushing buttons and Googling answers to my questions, and I’ve not really done either of those with podcasts.
Anyway, thanks for the show!
–Breana in Jax

Thanks for your email, Breana. Well, we agree. Actually, that is something that we really want to improve about our website. A few of our older episodes do have that. We had the question and when the question started in the show. The problem is time. A lot of folks think we get paid to do this, which is a great compliment, thank you! But actually, we are all volunteers. Tom and I work elsewhere 40 hours a week. Sean does work here at the station, but he doesn’t get paid to do this. So, Deemable Tech takes about 30 hours a week combined to produce each episode of the show. Doing the show notes like that took about 2-3 extra hours each week, because you have to go through and listen to the entire episode again, write down when each question started, and then rephrase the question so that it’s a sentence instead of a paragraph. So, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but it actually ends up being a little bit of work, and I haven’t been able to do that since I started writing the blogs for Folio Weekly.

Now, we have found out that it helps radio stations when they are considering to air our show if we can provide a transcript of each show. That would be even more work, because some of what we say is scripted, but a lot of it isn’t, but I think that would be helpful to some of our listeners too. So again, we really want to produce better show notes, but we are limited in what we can do because of our budget constraints. You know, not having one.

Now, if we had a volunteer that wanted to help us, we might be able to bring that back! What we would need would be someone to come to the studio with us when we record or listen live online, and keep track of when we start new questions, and then take those notes and put them together with the show notes. Also, we’re looking for a volunteer to help us out with video. If you or someone you know would be willing to help us out, send me an email at rayhollister@deemable.com.

Q: My coworker has a jailbroken iPhone, and she keeps trying to convince me that I should let her jailbreak my iPhone too. My iPhone 4S is out of warranty now, but I’m still afraid of breaking it. I can’t afford to replace it right now. Not that I don’t trust her, but if I do it, I’d like to do it myself. Is it hard to do? Is it worth jailbreaking? Is there any chance I can get in trouble? What happens if something screws up, and my iPhone doesn’t work anymore?

A: I don’t blame you for being cautious. I had never tried jailbreaking an iPhone either until I received your email. I’ve always been a little scared to attempt to jailbreak my iPhone because I was worried it might break, too. But, I screwed up my courage and decided to give it a shot.

Is it hard to do? Not really. It used to be much harder. The first jailbreak required disassembling the iPhone! On iOS 6.0 through 6.1.2, as long as you have the most basic understanding of how to use your computer, you shouldn’t have a hard time jailbreaking your iPhone. In fact, I can assume that if you are considering doing it, you probably have the skills required to do it.

Is it worth it? Well, that all depends on what you want out of your phone. If you are content with how your phone works, and you don’t want to take any risks what-so-ever, then it’s probably not worth it to you. However, if you’d like to try use apps that aren’t allowed in the App Store, or you would like to customize your iPhone to work the way you want it to, or if you just like to tinker, you’ll probably enjoy jailbreaking your iPhone.
There are fantastic customizations like alternative keyboards and themes. There are tons of great apps that you can’t get in the app store, not because they have porn or have viruses, but because they work in a way that Apple won’t allow. An example is an app called iCaughtU that takes a picture whenever someone tries to enter your passcode into your phone and fails. Because the app uses the camera in a way that Apple didn’t design, they’ll never allow that app to be sold in the App Store.

Ironically, if you want to see what will likely be in the next version of iOS, check Cydia, the app store you get when you have a jailbroken iPhone. You know how you can take a picture by pressing the volume button? Jailbreakers had that first. You know how you can double tap the home button to open another app that you were just running? Jailbreakers had that first. You know how you can change your wallpaper? Jailbreakers, well you get the point. Many of the “new” features in each version of iOS are features that jailbreakers have already had for months or years.

Is there a chance you’ll get in trouble? Yes, of course, it could happen, but no, probably not, at least not with the law. The Library of Congress has said that it is legal to jailbreak a smart phone. Strangely, the same is not true about an iPad. It has to do with the vague definition of a tablet device. However, the lawyers for the movie, television and music industry are fighting to try to change that. When it comes to the law, especially copyright law, which is what impacts this the most, what is true today could be false tomorrow. Also, you could get in trouble with Apple. As of yet, Apple has never tried to take legal action against jailbreakers, but even though you aren’t breaking the law, you are breaking the terms of service that you agreed to when you set up your device. Obviously, if you do “brick” your iPhone (damage it beyond the point of repair) while jailbreaking your iPhone don’t even think about taking your iPhone to the folks at the Genius Bar.

What happens if you screw up your phone? Well, fortunately, that isn’t as great a risk as it used to be. If it does happen, you can usually just restore your iPhone back to its factory default settings. Don’t get too excited. You could still brick your phone. But it is much safer than it was a few years ago. Jailbreaking is dangerous. It’s risky. You are intentionally making something work in a way it was not intended to by the company that created it. So, in doing that, you take on all the possible risk and benefits on yourself. You’re on your own, but you’re not really alone because there is a whole community of jailbreakers out there that are willing to help you.
So, ultimately, I can’t tell you if it’s worth it. It’s up to you. If you want to do it, and you’re willing to take the risk, give it a shot. Check out guide on how to jailbreak your iPhone on Deemable.com.

Robert writes: I’ve heard that it is now illegal to unlock your cellphone. Is that really true?!?
TOM: That’s correct Robert. The Library of Congress decided that starting January 26th, unlocking your cell phone would no longer be legal.

RAY: Now, to be clear, that’s unlocking your cell phone. Not rooting or jail-breaking it, right?

TOM: Right Ray, or the Feds would be hauling you off to jail right now.
Unlocking your cell phone is when you buy a phone on one carrier, say, AT&T and then you want to switch to another carrier, say, Sprint, and take your phone with you. Ordinarily the phone is ?locked’ to the original carrier. Unlocking your phone allows you to use it on a different network.

RAY: There’s a few different ways to do this. Before locking became illegal (again) you could even pay some services to do an ?official’ unlock for you, at least for iPhones.

TOM: Right. They would just add your phone’s unique IMEI number to the database of unlocked phones and you were set. Now, obviously, that is no longer an option for US customers. So you would have to get a different sim card or download some software (yes Virginia, there is an app for that). But if you did so, according to the Library of Congress, you would now be breakin’ the law.

RAY: Wait, what does the Library of Congress have to do with this? Since when did they make rules about cell phones?

TOM: Since the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, or the DMCA, gave them the power. The DMCA makes bypassing digital protections of copyrighted works illegal, but gives the Library of Congress the power to designate exceptions. Up until recently, the Library of Congress had said that unlocking your cell phone was one of those exceptions. Now, it seems, they’ve changed their mind. Now, not everybody is okay with this. In fact, President Obama has released a public statement saying that he would like the Library of Congress to change its mind and the FCC is investigating whether they have any say in the matter. At the moment though, it looks like the law is on the Library of Congress’s side. We don’t elect Library of Congress members, but we do elect lawmakers! If you want to make your voice heard, download Congress+ for the iPhone or Contact Congress in the Play Market for Android. These apps will tell you who your local senator or congressperson are and give you ways to contact them. Ask Congress to change the DMCA to give consumers the freedom to choose which carrier they use their phone on. Make your voice heard. Set our cell phones free!

RAY: That was really inspiring Tom.

TOM: I may just be a tech podcaster, Ray, but I’m a patriotic tech podcaster.

RAY: Sho’nuff!

RAY: Who’s this next question from?

TOM: Your mom.

RAY: Tom, let’s keep it professional.

TOM: No really, your mom sent us a question. She asks: Has version 10 been released yet? Is it a smart move to continue with Blackberry as our phone?

Mom, you don’t listen to the show regularly, do you? It’s OK, I understand. We just pick on Blackberry a lot. So, yes, BlackBerry 10 has been released. It came out on January 30.??? But, it doesn’t matter because you’re not getting it, unless you decide to buy a new phone. BlackBerry 10 only runs on the new device the Q10 and the Z10. The change from BlackBerry OS to BlackBerry 10 was so drastic that none of the previous devices support it. Also, none of the apps you have on your current phone are going to work on a new BlackBerry 10 device if you decide to get one. So, no matter what new phone you get, even if it’s a new BlackBerry, you’ll have to buy new apps.

Now, to tell you the truth, Blackberry OS looks pretty decent. In fact, it looks a lot like webOS. Honestly, It reminds me a lot of webOS. BlackBerry seems to be repeating exactly what Palm did in 2009: They were hurting really bad, They were losing money like crazy, Their competitors were chewing up their market share, and their operating system looked old and decrepit. So, they rebuilt their operating system from the ground up, and relaunched it, they took a really long time to bring it to market, and they completely abandoned all of their old customers.

So, to answer your question, I would say no, it’s not a smart move to continue with BlackBerry. I expect that BlackBerry is going to take a path very similar to the one that Palm took. I expect that the Q10 and the Z10 are probably going to sell fairly poorly. BlackBerry will probably attempt to put out another version of the Q10 in the Z10, but that will also sell fairly poorly. BlackBerry will attempt to get other manufacturers to use their operating system, but they won’t be able to get anyone interested. Finally, they’ll end up selling out to another company, filing bankruptcy, and or releasing BlackBerry 10 as open source. No matter how you slice it, I don’t see good things in BlackBerry’s future.

The smartphone industry, as much as Microsoft and Blackberry fanboys would love it to be a different way, is a two dog race. It’s all between iPhone and Android. Android has even taken up such a huge market share because they have hundreds of different devices out there running Android, that even the iPhone is starting to drop back in terms of overall market share.

I really don’t think there is room in the market for another operating system to be a real competitor. Microsoft Phone has it’s flaws that we talked about on the show. Personally I felt that webOS is the perfect operating system, but neither of them have been able to get anywhere near a decent market share to the point where they would be really competitive.

So, Mom, what I would tell you do to is if you’re looking to get something new right now, get the iPhone 4 for free from Sprint, or if you’re still under contract, wait until the iPhone 5S or 6 comes out, and get the iPhone 4S for free.

Linda writes: My friend installed DropBox on my computer and setup a shared folder so we could share music (we both love European dance music). Confession: he’s sent me so much stuff and I haven’t had a chance to look at it. Now I want to, and I don’t know how!
My question is two part: 1) how do I download music from our shared folder in Dropbox (is it through the website?) and 2) can he tell that I haven’t listened to any of the music yet?
Oh and also, once before he helped me fix something on my computer by taking it over remotely. Can he still do that?
I have Windows 7. Thanks!

TOM: Good question, Linda.

Now you can download any file you have access to on the Dropbox website by right-clicking it and selecting ?download’. Make sure to put the file some place where you can find it!
However, if your friend installed Dropbox on your computer, you don’t need to download the files: they’re already on your computer. That’s the whole point of Dropbox!
So first we need to make sure that Dropbox really is installed on your computer. The simple way to do that is to click on the Start menu, then type ?dropbox’ (your typing should appear down in the search box at the bottom). After a few seconds the Dropbox program should come up. It’s got an icon that looks like an open blue box. If you see it, you have it.
Now, step two is to determine where the Dropbox folders are located on your computer. Dropbox installs a shortcut to its folders under your ?favorites’. That’s not your internet explorer favorites, that’s your windows explorer favorites. Go back to the Start menu and click on ?Computer’. That will open a Windows Explorer folder. The bar on the left side has a bunch of folders like ?Pictures’, ?Documents’, and ?Music’. Up at the very top (you may have to scroll up) there should be a section called ?Favorites’. It should contain your ?Desktop’ folder, as well as the ?Dropbox’ folder. If you see Dropbox there, click it.
Now you’re in the Dropbox folders. You’ll have to find the music files your friend has shared with you from here, since I don’t know where he put them! You can either click around through the folders here, or search for a song you know he’s sent you in the ?Search dropbox’ box at the top right of the window.
Now, every file in the Dropbox folder should have a green check mark on it. That means you’ve downloaded it from Dropbox’s cloud. If it has a blue icon, it’s still uploading or downloading, so you’ll have to wait before using it. The icons tell you that you are sharing that file with the Dropbox cloud. There’s a copy on your computer, and a copy out there on Dropbox’s servers.
What the icons, don’t tell you is whether or not you’ve ever used, opened, looked at or listened to these files. All you know is that you have them. And that’s all your friend knows either, Linda. So I don’t think he has any way to find out that you haven’t listened to his music unless you give it away yourself.

RAY: Ok, but Linda says her friend accessed her computer remotely once. How does she know he can’t do it again?

TOM: Well most likely the last time he accessed her computer he used Windows Remote Assistance. This is a program that allows you to send an invitation to someone else to share your desktop so that they can help you with a problem.

Linda, Windows Remote Assistance is by invitation only. Unless you run the program and intentionally SEND your friend an invitation, he can’t login.
So your secret is safe with us!

Oh by the way, Linda, if you want to have fun with your friend, remember that shared folders in Dropbox go both ways. You can add files to them as well! Why don’t you drop a little text file in there that says ?Enjoying the music you sent!? See how long it takes for your friend to notice it’s there.

Jo el asks: Dear Deemable Tech. I have a question that I am pining for your expert opinion about. What is the BEST calendar app for a Pantech Renue? I tried Googling it, but nothing really comes up. I am app ignorant

RAY: Don’t worry. Finding any information on the web about the Pantech Renue is difficult. The Pantech Renue runs on Pantech’s proprietary operating system, which is based on an operating system called BREW. It should run most J2ME apps, which is Java Micro Edition. Java Micro Edition was designed so that developers could build programs for mobile phones. It was supposed to make it so that a developer could make one program that would work anywhere. Unfortunately, that is not how it actually worked, because usually you were be forced to only buy apps through your carrier. Before the iPhone came out, everything in mobile was made for either J2ME or Palm OS. Once the iPhone hit the market, and the Android became a legitimate option, most developers stopped building apps for J2ME. Unfortunately, there aren’t many apps available for J2ME anymore.

So, the best calendar app is going to be anything you can find. You can try GCal which is a J2ME Google Calendar client. If that doesn’t work, you might be able to use GCalSync which will sync the built-in calendar with your Google Calendar, assuming you use Google Calendar. Both of these apps use data, so if you do not have a data plan, you may want to stay away from them.

Whatever you do, I wouldn’t pay for anything in their store. You won’t likely be able to use it ever again. There are a few fun apps that you should be able to download for free though. Opera Web Browser most likely works much better than the default web browser. There is a Gmail app that still works, but Google does not support it anymore. Don’t be surprised if it suddenly stops working when Gmail gets an update. If all else fails, you should at least be able to play Tetris.

TOM: To be honest, if you want apps you probably need to invest in a beefier phone. One that runs iOS, Android or Windows Phone. Those all have app stores with lots of third party apps which will run across a number of different phones.

Make sure to support Deemable Tech’s Kickstarter Project.

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In a statement that has rocked the blogosphere to its core, Google has announced that as part of its annual ‘spring cleaning’ it will be shuttering Google Reader:

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

To ensure a smooth transition, we’re providing a three-month sunset period so you have sufficient time to find an alternative feed-reading solution.

The problem is, there is no alternate feed reading solution. Google Reader has become the alpha and omega of RSS feed aggregation.

RSS readers allow you to pull content from multiple blogs and news sites (via ‘feeds’) and read them in one location. For an information omnivore like me, they are a must have: a way to parse through dozens or even hundreds of blogs daily for new content without having a bookmark for every single blog that might interest me.

As BusinessWeek put it:

But serious RSS users aren’t into it for the luscious jpegged beauty. RSS feeds, taken straight, are a wall of text. That’s useful when you want to let news wash over you, to scan screenfuls of headlines without waiting for extraneous pictures to load. When I want to absorb a lot of information fast-which is to say, always-I don’t have time for Flipboard. I want exactly what Google will be taking away from me this summer.

Lest you think I exaggerate about the sheer volume of content I personally consume via Google Reader, here is a snapshot of the stats from my GR ‘Trends’ page:

For Google Reader users this is not at all the exception. Reader may have a smaller user-base than other Google tools, but there’s no doubt that they are almost all power-users: bloggers, journalists, media-hawks of all stripes. There are several petitions already up at Change.org, one of which has already surpassed 50,000 signatures (sign it!). The Google Reader support forums are choked with wails of agony. And Reader-dependent journalists from every virtually every news organization are noting its passing.

There are, of course, other RSS readers out there. The problem is, even if you don’t use Google Reader you probably actually use Google Reader. Google Reader’s powerful back-end synchronizes your feeds and the content you have and haven’t read across multiple devices. Most feed readers currently on the market, from desktop clients to smartphone apps, take advantage of this by plugging into it. The developers of these readers will now be scrambling to come up with their own back-end solutions before the service sunsets on July 1st.

Should a viable alternative not emerge, this could spell big trouble for the small blogs of the world. I read Tyler Cowen’s ‘Marginal Revolution’ blog every day and would probably remember to check it without a feed reader. But I follow other, smaller blogs, often blogs written by friends, which update irregularly. If you follow my blog this is the case for you too: I don’t update daily, so without some sort of feed you’d have to remember to manually check this blog now and again.

Again, Google Reader is not the only way to do this, but it is the main way people do it. Google Reader has been in service since 2005 and has garnered a substantial following in the intervening eight years. As one blogger tweeted:

1. Drive competing services out of business with a free service (subsidized by a profitable product).
2. Cancel free service.
3. ???

The implications of Google’s cancellation of its Reader service go far beyond the loss of a useful tool, as a Forbes blogger bitterly notes:

Does Google understand the concept of corporate social responsibility? That seems to be the basic question around the company’s strange decision to shut down a tiny service that serves as a major audience conduit for many thousands of bloggers, citizen journalists, and self publishers.

Google’s announcement today that it is destroying Google Reader, the most popular RSS syndication tool was a massive blow to the blogging community – and to most of those speaking out tonight via social media, an entirely unnecessary attack on an important corner of the public Internet by a company with more than $50 billion in revenue and a newly won reputation as a tech giant on the move.

Google’s decision is also shaking the faith of myself and many others in the Google eco-system. If Google is willing to pull the plug on Reader, what tool or service that we use might be next to get the axe at the search giant’s whim? Perhaps Blogger? If Google is getting out of blogs entirely I’ll be forced to move TomNoir.com in its entirety to some other blog service.

Several voices have pointed out that Google Reader is probably not very profitable for Google. It does serve up some ads, but in a minimalist fashion. Meanwhile, even if it isn’t actively developing the service anymore it does have to maintain the back-end servers. So maybe it makes good business sense for Google to put the axe to reader.

Or does it? Google Reader is a wildly successful product by the standards of any ordinary software company. Its user base must number in the hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions. Only to a company that measures web traffic by the hundreds of millions and even billions would this seem like a dismal flop. Google is viewing Reader through the same lens with which it views its other products: as a service to drive ad revenue.

This is a mistake.

If Google’s give-it-away-free model doesn’t make sense for Google Reader, why not try charging for the service? Google could charge the other feed readers that use its back-end API. Or it could even charge its users. I would pay. Google Reader is absolutely worth, say, $30/year to me.

You hear that, Google? You’ve got a user base you could actually monetize! If only you will listen before it’s too late.

Otherwise you’re killing off the thriving-but-often-invisible universe of small blogs. You’re alienating a base of vocal power-users. And you’re shattering those users’ faith in your willingness to continue supporting services you’ve developed.

Originally posted at TomNoir.com