This week Ray, Tom and Sean talk about quantum computers, Google’s new messaging apps, and the possibility of an all-glass iPhone. Plus the guys share some sad news.

A special message from Ray, Tom and Sean

If you’re an avid listener to Deemable Tech, it will probably come as no surprise that we’ve been having some difficulty putting out shows for the past few months. The three of us have gone through some major changes in our careers and lives over the past year, and those have taken away a lot of the time we’ve had to devote to bringing you this show every week.

So, after months of not recording an episode, we’ve made the tough decision to end the Deemable Tech podcast. For now, at least.

We’ve come to the realization that it is just not sustainable. We can’t keep producing the show to the level that we did before, and it was unfair of us to leave you in the dark about it.

We may relaunch the show down the road, if we are able to. If you are interested in finding out when we or if we do, sign up for our newsletter on the right side of this page. You’ll be the first to know.

We won’t be gone completely, though. You can still catch us answering your tech questions every week on Ask Deemable Tech, so be sure to subscribe to that podcast or listen live Thursdays on 89.9 FM WJCT.

If you have any farewell messages for us, leave us a voicemail at 1-888-972-9868 or send an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

We’ve truly appreciated you listening to (and sometimes even enjoying) our shenanigans for the past four years. It’s been a blast.

Now let’s take this baby for one last ride!

THE RUN DOWN

Google releases Science Journal app

For those of you who loved doing science projects as a kid, Google recently released a new app that you’ll love.

The app, Science Journal, uses the sensors in your phone to measure and record data in real time, including movement, light and sound.

As Google says on the Science Journal site, “See something you want to measure? How much light is in my room compared to outside? How loud is the dog’s bark compared to my cough? Record your observations in real-time at the press of a button. Explore your environment or measure things you’ve built yourself.”

Among other features, Science Journal lets you record measurements as charts and graphs, and record a voice memo as you’re doing your experiment so you can give extra details about it.

Google has also partnered with the Exploratorium in San Francisco to sell special little kits with materials like sensors your phone doesn’t have to let you measure other stuff.

Science Journal is currently only available for Android.

It’s all about the qubits, baby

Verge is reporting that IBM has made a working quantum computer that anyone in the world can play with.

What does that mean? Glad you asked! Basically, as anyone who has watched any movie from the 90s that involved computers can tell you, computers work by translating ones and zeros into machine understandable language and then translating that into human language and user interfaces. Quantum computers use ones, zeros and both at the same time.

Now the question is, what to do with that. We’ve built an entire industry out of a binary system, and now that we have the capability to expand it to a trinary or “ternary” system, the question is how to use it. So, IBM has opened it to the public for research and experimentation because basically the only people who understand what we just said are scientists.

Google says hello to Allo and Duo

One area where Google has long lagged behind competitors like Apple and Facebook has been in messaging. Rather than having a single, unified messaging app, Google has introduced numerous messaging systems like Gchat, Google Hangouts, and the default Android text-messaging app.

This week at Google’s I/O event, the company announced two new messaging apps, Allo and Duo. Allo is for text messaging, and includes Google bot technology which offers up auto-responses to messages based on things you usually type.

Duo, meanwhile, is a 1-on-1 video chat app. It is optimized to work even in low-bandwidth situations.

Both apps support end-to-end encryption, however, controversially, it will not be enabled be default. Some think this might be because it would impede their ability to offer features like the auto response bot.

All-glass iPhone?

We couldn’t do a final episode of the podcast without Ray talking about iPhones, could we?

Forbes is reporting that the iPhone 8 could lose the unibody aluminium case for an all glass one. No, you didn’t read that incorrectly, the next iPhone is the presumptively going to be coined the “7”, but this rumor is about the iPhone 8.

The glass case is expected to wrap around the entire device and have no bezel as a result.

And apparently the entire front of the phone will be screen. The front facing camera, touch ID sensor, speaker and proximity sensor will somehow all be behind the screen.

Android apps coming to Chromebooks

The Google Play Store is coming to Chromebooks. Along with every single Android app!

As Ars Technica puts it, everything “from Microsoft Word to Hearthstone to Firefox will be able to run on Chrome OS without noticeable performance penalties.”

That’s the pretty great stuff. Here’s the asterisk: Google has released a compatibility list for this amazing new feature and it basically excludes any Chromebook older than two years old. This even includes Google’s souped-up and overpriced Pixel Chromebook.

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 asmallorange.com.

Ardis loves his new Nexus 6P on Google Project Fi.

It’s Sean Birch’s turn to venture through the Pacific Northwest, so he is out of the studio for this week and next. (When’s Ray’s turn? #justsayin.) But Ray and Tom press on none-the-less. The Deemable Duo were joined by long-time listener Ardis Meade who showed us his new phone, the Nexus 6P and told us all about his phone carrier, Google Project Fi. Very interesting stuff if you’re in the market for a new phone or a new carrier. Stick around after the news for that.

By the way, we don’t just have a subreddit page for the fame and the glory. We have it because we want to know what you want us to talk about! We know you’re purusing the tech news all week. Go to our subreddit page, reddit.com/r/deemable, and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down.

And make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review on iTunes and on Stitcher. The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

If you have a response or comment for the show, give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

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 asmallorange.com.

THE RUN DOWN

Turns Out Disney Isn’t That Bad After All

CNN reports that one Star Wars superfan with terminal cancer got to screen the film early. Daniel Fleetwood is a 32-year-old who lives in Spring, Texas and a Star Wars enthusiast who camped out to see new releases of the films and collected Star Wars paraphernalia. He is also dying of spindle cell sarcoma and is not expected to live to see the official release date of the new Star Wars film Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Hashtag  ForceForDaniel promoted by actors Mark Hamill and John Boyega persuaded director J.J. Abrams and Disney studio execs to let Fleetwood view an early edit of the film according to a spokesperson from Disney Studios.

The film will be released to the public on December 18th.

Chrome OS And Android OS To Become One

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is planning to merge ChromeOS and Android OS starting in 2017, with a beta appearing next year. The first Chromebooks came out back in 2011. At the time, the idea that Google would release an OS that wasn?t Android created quite a stir. However Chromebooks soon made inroads thanks to their super-cheap, basic, and lightweight SKUs. Chromebooks have an OS that is essentially the Chrome browser plus a couple of simple add-ons. The Chrome app store has never really taken off, but the OS has delivered on its promises of being lightweight and receiving constant, invisible updates. While Android is also a relatively lightweight OS it works entirely differently from ChromeOS, and its update process is much more laborious. How the two operating systems will merge remains to be seen.

Facebook Kicks More Competition To The Curb

Facebook, and practically all companies on the web, stay in business from ad revenue. The more you are on the website, the more money they make. Yep, that’s right, Facebook is making bank from all those pictures of your kids and stupid quizzes you fill out.

Well, another social media network, Tsu.co, decided to share its revenue with the users. The more that people view your content, the more money you make. And you make money off of inviting people to join Tsu.co. You make money off of the posts that the people you invited posted. If that sounds like a pyramid scheme, it’s because it basically is.

And much like any other new social network that has started since Facebook took dominance, (Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, etc.) Tsu.co is trying to grow by letting its users share posts on Facebook.

This worked, right up until Facebook blocked them. Unlike how Facebook made YouTube videos look like crap on Facebook to make its own video platform stand out, Mashable is reporting that Facebook went with the nuclear option. Users cannot even mention the website on Facebook. If you type Tsu.co into a post or comment, Facebook will not allowed it to be posted.

Facebook says it’s because users posting links to Tsu.co are engaging in spammy behavior and Tsu.co encourages it. I will say after checking out Tsu.co, it doesn’t seem very spammy. It’s mostly the same type of posts I see on almost every social network: cats, muscle-heads, news, cats ? you get it.

Don’t Buy Things From The Guy In The Back Alley

Gizmodo reports that a security research blog claims that in third-party Android stores, popular apps like Candy Crush, Facebook, Google Now, Twitter, WhatsApp, and more are infected with adware that gives itself root access to a user?s device. It appears that hackers are taking popular apps and repacking them with their own malicious Trojans and uploading them to these other stores. Right now the Trojans do nothing but serve up ads, but with root access much nastier things are possible. So far, no Trojanized apps have been found in the official Google Play store. So as always, people, you sideload apps at your own risk. Playing outside the official sandbox is still the #1 way to get your device infected with malware. Be very certain that you trust an app?s maker before you sideload it.

One More Reason To Hate Comcast

If you live in Little Rock, Arkansas; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Greenville, Johnson City/Gray, Tennessee; or Galax, Virginia you’re about to have one more reason to hate Comcast. DSLReports says that the lucky customers in those cities will no longer have unlimited Internet on Comcast, but instead will have a cap of 300 GB per month starting in December. If you go over, you will be hit with $10 per 50 GB over the limit.

Why is Comcast doing this, you ask? They say it is for ?fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers?

According to the email DSLReports obtained, Comcast believes “that 300 GB is more than enough to meet your Internet usage needs.”

All hope is not lost though. You can still get unlimited Internet from Comcast in those markets. All you have to do is pay $35 more each month for unlimited Internet than you were already paying for unlimited Internet.

Teen Stoners Hack CIA Director’s Email. Yeah, It’s That Easy

A pair of teenage hackers who enjoy ?recreational pot smoking? are apparently on a hacking roll, according to Gizmodo. Calling themselves CWA, short for ?Crackas With Attitude,? they hacked CIA director John Brennan?s AOL email account last month. This week they did one better, posting the contact information of 34,000 government employees online, including the phone numbers of FBI agents. So far it appears that all the data leaked is legitimate.

The hackers have been communicating at times with the press, often via disposable Twitter accounts. Asked how he felt about hacking the government, one of them told Gawker, ?since only 13 i am pretty hype about it.? He also said he had no problem with being labeled a ?teen stoner?, saying that he felt that ?it just kinda describes us in away.?

So much for Windows 10 fun. Now Ray has to reinstall Windows 8.1 just so he can upgrade it to 10, so he can reinstall Windows 10!

Killer robots, self-aware robots, cars, guns and Android phones getting hacked into and the death of another Google product? Yeah, that sounds like a typical Deemable Tech episode.

If you?re listening to Deemable Tech on the website, make sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher. And, while you?re there, leave a review. The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

If you have a response or comment for the show, give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

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 asmallorange.com.

Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there. We?re also looking for a new admin to help manage and moderate our subreddit page. Submit a text post to our subreddit explaining why you would make a great admin.

THIS WEEK?S RUNDOWN

Windows 10 is released.

Our top story this week is the long-awaited release of Microsoft?s Windows 10. In an unprecedented move, Microsoft has made the new Windows available as a free upgrade to anyone who had Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. The upgrade became available to download for most of those folks starting on Wednesday.

With Windows 10, Microsoft hopes to reunite its fractured userbase, many of whom are still stuck way back on Windows XP. Windows 10 will feature continuous upgrades and may be the last major windows version for the foreseeable future. To lure back customers scared off by the controversial Windows 8, Windows 10 brings back the Start Button and does away with the charms menu.

Other new features include the integration of Microsoft?s Siri-like virtual assistant Cortana, the brand new Edge web browser, virtual desktops, and Mission Control, which gives you an overview of all the apps you have running.

Ray Hollister has bravely volunteered to install Windows the 10th on the dual boot partition of his MacBook, so let?s dive right in.

The beauty of Windows 10 is that you can’t install Windows 10 as a fresh, clean install. Except you can. But you can’t.

Forbes – Windows 10 Updating, Reinstalling And Activation Guide: Essential Advice To Avoid Problems

The Verge – How to get Windows 10 on your Mac

CEO of Mozilla Firefox complains in an open letter that Windows 10 upgrade resets default web browser

Mozilla CEO Chris Beard is one person who is less than pleased with Windows 10. It appears that when you do an upgrade with ?Express Settings? that it will default your browser to Microsoft?s Edge browser, even if you had Firefox selected by default before. Even worse, in Windows 10 the default browser is now buried down in the settings control panel, meaning that it is difficult to find for non-technical users. Microsoft defends the changes as making the upgrade ?simple and cohesive? for users and says that they may make ?improvements? in the future.

Facebook builds an Internet drone

The BBC is reporting that Facebook has built a drone, with the wingspan of a Boeing 737 that will fly as high as 90,000 feet and for up to 90 days at a time to provide wireless Internet access at up to 10 Gigabits per second.

The drone will communicate via a laser beam that can hit a target the size of a dime more than 10 miles away. The lasers will connect the drones together and to the ground.

This is part of Facebook’s Internet.org project to bring Internet access to the developing world. No word on whether this will be like Internet.org’s last launch which only included access to a few sites, which caused a bit of a backlash since the access gave an unfair advantage to those sites.

Facebook will be testing the drones later this year in the United States.

Google+ dies a slow and painful death

Google?s ill-fated Facebook competitor, Google+, courted a lot of controversy in 2013 when Google started requiring users to create a Google+ profile to comment on YouTube. This week on the official Google blog, the search giant announced that they would be hitting the ?undo? button on that policy. They said that a Google account would be all you need to share content, create contacts, comment on YouTube, and more, across all of Google. This change will reportedly be rolled out ?in the coming months.? This announcement comes on the heels of Google splitting Google+ in two, with Google Photos becoming its own stand-alone service and app.

Killer Robots

I posted this on our Facebook page, facebook.com/Deemable, but it bears repeating. As a general rule, everyone here at Deemable Tech is anti-killer robots.

Unless, as I said, the uprising has already happened, in which case, let me rephrase that: How may we serve you, robot masters?

I bring this all up because Elon Musk (you know, Iron Man, the guy who brought you PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, the Hyperloop, and who plans to die on Mars) and Steve Wozniak, (the reason why you have a computer at your desk, smartphone in your pocket and ultimately why you’re listening to this podcast) and Stephen Hawking (who you’ll know as the guy who played poker with Data, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.) and have joined a letter calling for the banning of autonomous weapons.

We talked about a weaponized drone last week that had a gun attached to it, well imagine an autonomous drone with a gun. The icons aren’t as concerned about them throwing a revolution and killing humanity as they are concerned about another cold war arms race where every country tries to build bigger, better faster killing machines. But considering a robot recently demonstrated self awareness, perhaps they should be concerned about a robot uprising too.

Hacking Smart Rifles

Speaking of things that shouldn’t be connected to the Internet, like killer robots. As much as I love my connected light bulbs, switches and thermostat, The Internet of things is not necessarily a good thing. Not everything should be connected to the Internet. Case in point, smart guns. In case you didn’t know, TrackingPoint makes an smart rifle that almost anyone can use to hit a bullseye up to a mile away. The gun, which sells for $13,000, has a computer screen for a scope where you can enter wind speed, ammunition weight and distance. The computer calculates the correct aim and after you pull the trigger, it waits until you have the shot lined up perfectly before firing the gun.

The Mirror is reporting that a couple of married hackers have hacked the gun wirelessly to shoot 2.5 feet away from the intended target. They also managed to get it to disable the firing pin, making the gun unable to fire.

Android hack

Speaking of hacks, NPR is reporting that the security firm Zimperium says there’s a “gaping hole” in Android that would allow hackers to take over your phone, and all they need is your phone number.

The app Hangouts automatically processes videos when they are received by text message. So, all a hacker has to do is send a video with malware inside it and send it to your phone. Since Hangouts instantly processes the videos, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

Google has released a patch and manufacturers have been notified, but we’ll see how long it takes for them to get the update sent out to users.

Fiat Chrysler follow-up

Last week we reported that if you had a Jeep Cherokee with Fiat Chrysler?s ?uConnect? system, hackers could remotely take control of your vehicle and destroy everyone that you hold dear. It turns out that this was a source of some concern to Chrysler Fiat, as they have issued an official recall for 1.4 million vehicles to patch the issue. Affected models include certain Dodge Rams, Dodge Vipers, Dodge Chargers, Dodge Challengers, Chrysler 200s and 300s, and of course Jeep Grand Cherokees, all model year 2013 or later. If you are driving one of those vehicles you should check to see if your specific model is affected. The recall does not actually require the vehicles to be taken to the dealer: affected owners will receive a USB device which can be used to load the patch into their uConnect systems.

Wired – This Gadget Hacks GM Cars to Locate, Unlock, and Start Them

Here’s Ray’s iPhone rebooting thanks to the “effective. Power” bug. Seriously, don’t be that guy.

This week Tom and Ray were left by themselves to hold down the fort. In Sean’s absence they talked about Google’s unsurprising announcement that the next version of Android will be “M” and the surprise announcement that Android is getting HBO Now… sometime later. Ray and Tom also talked about a text message that will make iPhones crash, presidential 404 pages, Jony Ive’s new promotion and, on a more serious note, Ross Ulbrich’s sentence to life in prison for his involvement in Silk Road.

If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on our website, would you subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher? And, while you’re there, would you leave a review and say a few nice things about us? The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

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 asmallorange.com.

Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there. We’re also looking for a new admin to help manage and moderate our subreddit page. Submit a text post to our subreddit explaining why you would make a great admin.

THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

Android to get HBO Now… later

At the Google I/O conference this week, Google VP Sundar Pichai announced that HBO Now is coming to Android devices. While a specific date has not been announced, Pichai mentioned that it would be available in time for season 2 of True Detective, which debuts on June 21st. HBO Now will be available as an app and will be compatible with the Chromecast.

Apple was believed to have a window of exclusivity with regards to the HBO Now service; it is clear that that window is now coming to a close.

Reddit User PeanutButterShutter commented, “There is a God and his name is Google.”

Apple is trying to look at things a little closer

Apple has filed a patent for a built-in telephoto camera for a possible future iPhone. Instead of adding lenses to the existing camera, the patent proposes a solution that would add an additional camera to the device. So you would have a regular camera and a telephoto camera. The telephoto camera would have a much narrower field of view, but also a much higher magnification factor.

Of course, just because Apple has filed for a patent doesn’t mean that we will ever see it come to fruition in an Apple product. Apple has an incredible amount of patents that have never seen the light of day as a real product. Apple currently has a patent for bayonet-style camera lens attachments for the iPhone and iPad, a patent for an iPhone with interchangeable lenses and even an iPhone with multiple camera sensors and beam splitters to separate the blue, red and green light spectrum.

Google announces Android M

Surprising absolutely no one, Google also announced at Google I/O that the next iteration of its Android operating system will be coming out this year and that it will be code-named ‘M’, in keeping with the alphabetical theme of previous releases. What is not known is what delicious, sugary treat ‘M’ will stand for. Android ‘K’ turned out to stand for Kit Kat and the current version of the system, ‘L’, is Lollipop. The word on the street is that ‘M’ will stand for Macadamia Nut Cookie, but we hasten to add that this is pure speculation.

Oh, you want ‘substance’ to your news reports? Fine. While previous releases have focused on upgrades to the system’s design, performance and battery life, ‘M’ promises a focus on the basics: stability and usability. Google also says that M will give users the ability to grant permissions to apps on a case-by-case basis. Interestingly, this ability was present in earlier versions of the Android OS but was intended for developer use only and was eventually disabled. iOS users have enjoyed so-called ‘granular permissions’ for years.

This is one case where we are glad to see Google taking a page from Apple’s playbook.

Jony Ive becomes Apple Chief Design Officer.

Jony Ive is stepping down? or is it stepping up? Let’s call it stepping away from ? the day to day routine at Apple. Jony Ive as you may know has been the Senior Vice President of Design at Apple for quite some time. Jony is the man behind most of the iconic designs that have come out of Cupertino. Jony is now the Chief Design Officer at Apple. Which is safe to assume means that he will have less to do with the day to day management. Richard Howarth is taking over as vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye is the new vice president of User Interface Design, two departments that Ive was overseeing at the same time. Now Ive can focus on overseeing design, and potentially spend more time at home with the family.

Silk Road Founder Gets Life

Ross Ulbrich, founder and operator of the notorious dark net drug market The Silk Road, was sentenced this week to life in prison. Ulbricht, alias The Dread Pirate Roberts, was tried and found guilty narcotics conspiracy and other charges earlier in the year. The minimum possible sentence that he faced was twenty years, a term that he and his lawyers had pleaded for.

During the sentencing hearing the court heard several accounts of people who had become hooked on drugs or even overdosed on drugs obtained through the Silk Road. Ulbricht’s failed attempts to order hits on other members of the Silk Road community probably did not help his case either.

His life sentence comes without the possibility of parole. Barring a successful appeal, Ulbricht will die behind bars.

The text message that will reboot your iPhone

This next story sounds like it must be an urban legend, but it is not: there is a text message that, if you send it to a friend with an iPhone, may cause their phone to reboot.

OK, you are probably waiting breathlessly for us to tell you what the message is, but here is the thing, we can’t tell you, because it is gibberish: it involves a lot of special characters from other language character sets. The first two words are in English, however, and they are ‘effective. Power’. So we can call this the ‘effective. Power’ bug.

From what we are hearing, the ‘effective. Power’ bug happens when an iPhone attempts to display a shortened version of this message in the notifications. The iPhone will then reset if your phone is locked. Otherwise your phone’s screen will go black. That is the only effect, it is basically harmless. You can clear it out by asking Siri to read unread messages, and then using Siri to reply to the person that sent the offending text.

Early reports indicated that turning off text message notifications would disable the bug but some users are reporting that it still works even with notifications disabled.

While Apple is working on an iOS fix, as of this recording one has not yet been released. However, something else really interesting has happened. Tonight as we were attempting to test and verify this bug, we found that we could not send each other the message! It simply will not go through. It would appear that some carriers have wised up to this trick and may be blocking messages carrying the dangerous string of characters.

Regardless, be a cool friend and don’t spam your friends with the “effective. Power” text.

404 Candidate Not Found

As candidates throw their hats in the ring for the 2016 presidential election, The Atlantic has identified one key issue that no one has looked at: whose campaign website has the best 404 page. The 404 page is the page you see when you try to reach a page on a website that is broken or that no longer exists. The majority of the internet’s websites produce uninspired 404 pages with stock text, but a few, like Twitter’s famous ‘fail whale’, are memorable classics. If you think about it, this is exactly what America wants in its chief executive: the ability to remain cool in a crisis, maybe crack a joke or two. And being unable to find the web page you need? That is definitely a crisis. So, Ray, with your permission I thought we would visit a handful of the announced candidates’ campaign sites and 404 it up.

• Bernie Sander’s 404 page.
• Carly Fiorona’s 404 page.
• Hillary Clinton’s 404 page.
• Lindsey Graham’s 404 page.
• Marco Rubio’s 404 page.
• Mike Huckabee’s 404 page.

?

If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

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Anyone who’s ever owned an iPod knows that stainless steel scratches.

This week, Google launched a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The new phone service uses Sprint, T0Mobile and Wi-Fi, but it only has one phone, the Nexus 6. There’s a few Apple Watch ‘scandals’ ramping up: tattoo-gate, scratch-gate and tap-gate. Microsoft has a new “edge”ier web browser, a man shoots up his Dell and the robots are coming to steal your car.

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Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

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THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

You can now embed playable MS-DOS games inside tweets

Earlier this year, the Internet Archive added roughly 2,400 MS-DOS games to their digital archive that are playable through your web browser on their site, Archive.org. But if you?re too scared to leave Twitter to check this out, never fear. The folks at Wired discovered this week that you can embed the games inside of tweets and play them right from those tweets.

So, you can now get your Oregon Trail, Sim City or Wolfenstein 3D fix from Twitter. Or, you can try out other classic games like the adaptation of the 1991 Hulk Hogan cinematic masterpiece Suburban Commando (just kidding, you should never do that).

Google announces cellular data network, which is actually two networks.

Google has officially announced its long-rumored cellular data network: its name is ProjectFi. As anticipated it is an MVNO network, which means that Google is ?renting? time on someone else?s network like many other small cellular companies. The differences is that Google is renting not from one other network, but two: Sprint & T-mobile, as well as WiFi. When you are on a ProjectFi connection your phone will seamlessly switch to whichever one of those networks is strongest. ProjectFi?s offers a very straightforward billing structure which will be appealing to some. It also will let you ?bank? unused minutes each month. And it offers promises of more innovations to come. The catch? Right now it is only offered for a single phone: the Nexus 6, and there is no LTE high speed service.

Robot car movers

The robots are coming to steal your car, or just move it out of the way. Gizmodo shared a story that researchers in Europe have created AVERT, the Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery Tool. It is a system of robots that look like something out of Battle Bots. They are flat pieces of steel with rotors on the ends of them. Eight of them work together to pick up your cars tires and wheel it away. They only lift the car about an inch off the ground, but that’s all they need to move it out of the way. The idea is that the robots can easily move a car parked in a tight spot if there is a bomb in a nearby car. They could also be used to move an illegally parked car or a car that is blocking emergency services. Or, when the robots become sentient, they will likely start a car robbing career.

Man puts 8 bullets in his Dell desktop, tells police it was worth the ticket.

Police say that at 7 PM on a Monday, Lucas Hinch, the owner of a homeopathic herb store in Colorado Springs, Colorado, took his Dell XPS 410 out into an alley behind the store and unloaded eight bullets into it with a 9mm pistol. Hinch was ticketed for discharging a gun within city limits.

Lynch told the Los Angeles Times, which interviewed him, that the machine kept giving him the blue screen of death and that he had ?had enough.? He said that the shooting was ?definitely premeditated? and that he had no regrets. He reportedly told officers he did not know he was breaking the law in discharging his weapon.

Microsoft unveils Edge browser

During the opening keynote of their Microsoft Build developers conference this week, Microsoft unveiled the successor to their Internet Explorer browser (which they recently announced was ending).

The new browser, now called Edge (formerly Project Spartan), is said to be faster and more modern and will be a universal app across all Windows devices. Features will include, among others, extensions like you find for Chrome and Firefox, integration of Microsoft?s Cortana virtual assistant to help you search for things, reading mode (which removes everything from a page except for the text), and an annotation tool (which lets you draw on a webpage, take a picture of it and share that picture).

The new browser will not be in the initial release of Windows 10 this year, but will be included in a later update. Windows 10 will be shipped with Internet Explorer 11 for legacy compatibility, so you will have one last chance to use everyone?s favorite browser before it goes softly into that good night.

Tired of remember your passwords? Try swallowing them instead?

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Paypal?s global head of developer advocacy, Jonathan Leblanc, said that passwords might soon be available as ?embeddable, injectable and ingestible devices.? Mr. Leblanc said that in the near future thin silicon chips might be embedded under our skin or capsules might detect glucose levels to verify that someone is who they say they are.

The Wall Street Journal notes, “Mr. Leblanc admits that there’s still a ways to go before cultural norms catch up with ingestible and injectable ID devices.”

Google files patent for laptop with no spacebar.

Google already kicked the CAPS-LOCK key to the curb with its Chromebooks and now it appears it may be preparing to do the same thing to the spacebar. In a patent filed this week the company outlines a design where the spacebar is replaced by an extended trackpad. Sensors would determine whether the user wants the top of the trackpad to be treated as a spacebar or a mouse. Google told Quartz, who broke the story, that some patents get turned into products and some don?t, so only time will tell whether we will see a spacebar-free Chromebook.

Apple Watch – Tattoo-gate

Reports are coming in on Twitter and Reddit that people with tattoos on their wrists may have difficulty using their new Apple watches. iMore.com looked into it and confirmed the reports. The heart sensor detects pulse by flashing an LED light on your skin and senses the reflection. The problem is when you have a tattoo the reflection is distorted by the ink. Your mileage may vary, but for some folks it is really annoying. The Apple Watch uses the heart sensor to detect if you are wearing the watch, so when it doesn’t sense your heart rate, it forces you to re-enter your pin number.

Apple Watch – Scratch-gate

If you don’t like scratches, you probably shouldn’t get the stainless steel Apple watch. A lot of folks are reporting on social media that their steel Apple watches are already scratched up. 9to5Mac.com has an easy fix. Just buff it, like every other stainless steel watch in existence. Or, get the aluminum model, which is actually harder than the steel version.

Apple Watch – Tap-gate

Now for the first, actual, real problem with the Apple watch. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has found a major defect in the taptic engine in the watches. The taptic engine is the feature that causes the watch to vibrate or tap the wearer. It was a pretty groundbreaking feature because it models sounds so a tweet “feels” like a tweet, and a tap feels like a tap. Two companies built the taptic engines, but one of the suppliers has produced faulty engines. The Verge says that Daring Fireball’s John Gruber received an Apple Watch that had a taptic engine that didn’t work.

OUTRO

If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback@deemable.com.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there

I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, I’m Sean Birch and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening.

This week, Comcast can’t keep itself out of the news. First, Comcast announces that it is bringing the fastest Interwebs in the country to Jacksonville (WOOT!) and other cities in Florida. Then, the FCC and the Justice Department rain on Comcast’s parade and lets it know they are not going to let it merge with Time Warner Cable. In other news, a paranoid dad flew a drone to school with his daughter, and two guys took the iPhone/Android fight way too far.

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 asmallorange.com.

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Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

Comcast Gigabit Pro

People in Jacksonville and some other towns in Florida are going to be pretty excited next month. In a story Jessica Palombo contributed to Deemable.com, Comcast is bringing the fastest fiber optic Internet service in the country to a few cities in Florida, including our own fair town. The service, which is called Gigabit Pro, will actually have 2 Gbps download and upload speeds ? more than twice the speed of Google Fiber.

However, Comcast would not give a price for the new service. The next fastest service from Comcast is Extreme 505, which runs up to 505 Mbps up and down, and costs over $400 a month with taxes and fees.

Comcast Drops Its Bid to Merge With Time Warner Cable

Speaking of Comcast, earlier this week it was looking pretty  looked bad for its merger with Time Warner Cable. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department’s antitrust department was going to recommend blocking the merger. And, the FCC was not negotiating the terms of the deal with Comcast, which made it look even less likely that it was going to go through.

But now, ?people with knowledge of the matter? have told Bloomberg that Comcast is backing out of the merger. There was supposed to be a board meeting Thursday. And an official  announcement will probably come Friday.

As the Verge pointed out in an editorial, throughout this whole process, Comcast has never answered this simple question: Why not compete?

Verizon to offer custom pay TV packages, let customers choose monthly programming bundles

And while we?re on the subject of Internet and TV providers, in move that is one small step closer to a la carte cable TV, Verizon recently announced that they are rolling out a new pay TV service that will let customers choose from channel bundles that they change monthly.

These Verizon FiOS ?Custom TV? packages will start at 65 dollars a month for broadband service, 36 fixed basic cable channels, and two genre-based channel packs that customers can swap or unsubscribe from after a month. You can also add packs for an extra 10 dollars. Verizon has seven of these packs to choose from, including sports and children?s programming.

Verizon says they are going after customers who want something in between giant, fully loaded cable packages and cheaper basic packages offered by their competitors.

After “Drone Dad” follows his daughter to school, DJI Phantom 2 grounded

Tennessee father Chris Early?s daughter decided she wanted to walk to the school bus by herself so he did what any tech-inclined father would do: he followed her with a drone.

The drone was a model known as a DJI Phantom 2 which has a high def video camera mounted on it. Early followed his daughter with the drone. A local news station caught wind of this and the story went nationwide. Chris Early has been called ?overprotective?, ?the world?s most embarrassing father? and ‘drone dad’. As a result of all the attention he says he has grounded the drone for now.

One World Trade Center Elevator Shows 515 Years Of New York City

One World Trade Center has added an elevator that displays 515 years of New York City history in 50 seconds.

The New York Times covered this story, but I wrote an article about it for Deemable.com.

While they haven?t developed time travel, the engineers and designers behind the elevators that takes guests to the observatory at the very top of One World Trade Center in New York City have come pretty close. When you board the elevators, you will see a panoramic view of New York City rising out of the underground in the 1500s all the way up through time to the 102nd floor today.

The elevator uses nine 75-inch screens to create the illusion that it is a glass-walled elevator traveling through time.

Along the way, you’ll see the arrival of the Europeans, the Revolution and the rise of the skyscrapers. Inevitably, as time travels through the late-1900s, one of the Twin Towers enters your sight and just as quickly fades away as the 2000s begin. It is a touching, beautiful memorial to the history of the site. You can see The New York Times video of the elevator on our website at Deemable.com

YouTube celebrates 10 year anniversary

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of the first video being uploaded to YouTube.

On April 23 2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted a 19 second clip of elephants at the zoo titled “Me at the zoo.”  In it, Karim discusses the elephants’ “really, really, really long trunks” and, well, that’s all. Pretty tame compared to what you can find on YouTube today.

About a year after this video was posted, Google acquired YouTube for $1.6 billion.

According to reports, YouTube will mark the anniversary with a month-long celebration starting next week.

Skycure Hack Can Use Wifi To Disable iOS Devices

A research firm called Skycure reported that it has developed a hack based around a bug in iOS that could allow it to disable all nearby iOS devices using a wifi router. The wifi router has to be configured in a specific way. It will then cause any device connected to it to keep crashing and rebooting in an endless loop. It can be combined with another hack that forces iOS devices to connect to that network. Essentially the only way to escape the endless cycle of rebooting would be to get out of range of the router.

Skycure has not publicly released technical specifications for the bug it used to create the hack to give Apple time to patch it.

Argument Over Which Smartphone Is Better Turns Deadly

Police in Tulsa, OK apprehended a man staggering around a parking lot late at night cut up and covered in blood. The man reported to them that he had been in a fight with his roommate over which smartphone was better – the iPhone or the new Samsung Galaxy. iPhone versus Android fights can get heated, but most stop short of physical conflict. The man reported that he and his roommate had been drinking and wound up stabbing each other with broken beer bottles. Both were admitted to the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery. No word on whether either man was arrested or whether either had his mind changed about his preferred choice of phone.

How many tabs does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Redditor Peanut Butter Shudder suggested an answer to Ray’s question. Last week during Shower Thoughts, Ray said he didn’t know how many tabs he had ever opened in his life. Peanut Butter Shudder mentioned Tab for a Cause on our reddit page (reddit.com/r/deemable) Tab for a Cause apparently tracks how many tabs you open and it has a bit of slacktivism built into it. If you install the browser extension, you’ll raise money for charities simply by browsing the internet. Heck, why not?

Who had the best segue?

Vote! Send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com or leave us a voicemail at 1-888-972-9868.

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Photo credit: iPhone vs Android by nrkbeta.no is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

This week the guys are elated about the death of Internet Explorer, the low, low price of free to upgrade to Windows 10, (even if you never paid for Windows 7 or 8) and Mario, Zelda and the gang are finally coming to mobile phones, but not the way you want them to.

If you haven’t subscribed to Deemable Tech yet, get on it! Subscribe to Deemable Tech in iTunes, on Stitcher or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader. Make sure to leave us a review in iTunes and Stitcher. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed, and the more listeners will see our show.

And make sure to share us on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

This Week’s Run Down

Windows 10 is free for everybody!

So, you may have heard of the latest version of Windows that Microsoft is working on releasing later this summer. If you haven’t, it’s called Windows 10. If you’re wondering why it’s called Windows 10 instead of… you know… Windows 9, it’s because of a little coding shortcut where programmers referred to Windows 95 and Windows 98 as – you guessed it – “Windows 9.”

Well, it turns out that Windows 10 is going to be FREE for everyone, well almost everyone.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Windows chief to Reuters “We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10”

So that means, as long as you have a computer running Windows 7 or Window 8 or 8.1 you can install 10 on your computer, at no charge, even if you stole the version that’s on your computer right now.

The Death of Internet Explorer

Microsoft confirmed this week that Internet Explorer will not be the primary web browser in Windows 10. Yes, the venerable Internet Explorer, which has been a part of Windows since Windows 95, is being put out to pasture. It will still ship with the next version of Microsoft’s operating system for backwards compatibility reasons, but a new browser with the codename Project Spartan will be Microsoft’s flagship browser. Project Spartan’s real name has not been released yet but Microsoft says that it will not use the Internet Explorer branding.

Nintendo to develop mobile games

After years of speculation, Nintendo is moving into the mobile game market. They announced this week that they have partnered with Japanese mobile game giant DeNA to “develop and operate new game apps based on Nintendo’s intellectual property, including its iconic game characters, for smart devices.”

They were quick to point out that their primary focus will still be their game consoles like the Wii U and 3DS, and that these new mobile apps are intended to complement, not replace, those systems. In the same announcement, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that a new console codenamed NX is development.

Unfortunately for those of us hoping this means we’ll be able to play classic Mario or Zelda games on our devices, Iwata also said that Nintendo’s plans do not include direct ports of console games. He cited differences between dedicated controllers and touchscreens as the reason.

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If you have a comment, contact us at feedback at deemable.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-888-972-9868.

Help us decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story. Or vote other stories up or down. reddit.com/r/Deemable

Photo Credit: Internet Explorer, a web developers menace by Jorgen Kesseler is used under CC BY-SA 2.0.

If you’re like us, you probably got a shiny new smartphone or tablet for the holidays. Here are our tips for keeping that device looking brand new, and few ideas for what you can do with your old one.

Protect Your New Device

An iPhone 4 in an Otterbox Impact case. Image credit: gisuser / Flickr

The first thing you should do with your new device is put a case on it. We can’t stress how important this is. It breaks our hearts to see people with gadgets that came out not even a month ago, and they’ve already broken the screen.

There are a ton of different kinds of cases out there. If you’re really concerned about protecting your device, we recommend a hefty case from companies like Otterbox, Lifeproof or Griffin. Both brands offer cases that are rated for protecting against drops from normal heights and have material to keep your screen scratch-free. Some of them even claim to be waterproof.

If you don’t want to hide your fancy new smartphone or tablet, a number of companies sell thin, clear plastic cases. These will not offer the same level of protection as an Otterbox case, but they will be better than nothing. Look around online or head to pretty much any store that sells electronics to find one that best fits your needs.

If you decide not to get a case (or even if you do), you should seriously consider buying an extended warranty for your device. For most electronics, we don’t feel like extended warranties are worth the money. However, they are a godsend for smartphones, especially if they cover accidents

Whether you get an extended warranty or not, take the time right now to figure out how long your warranty will last. A year is pretty standard for a new smartphone, but be sure to double check. It also helps to mark that date on your calendar or set a reminder. If your device starts acting funny, you can make sure to get it taken care of before that timer runs out.

With a good warranty, the device maker will often send you a new one before you mail back your old one so that you don’t have to be device-less for any longer than necessary.

What to Do With Your Old One

If you’re not planning to keep your old smartphone or tablet as a backup or for archival purposes, you should consider selling it or recycling it.

To get the best price, you’ll want to sell it on Craigslist or eBay. The downside to Craigslist is that you have to meet strangers from the internet in real-life. The downside the eBay is that you have to go to Post Office or the UPS store. You can try searching through other auctions and online for a good idea of how much your device is worth in the condition it is in.

If you have a fairly new gadget like an iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy 4, you could also check out places like Amazon and Gazelle. They will buy your phone online and pay you fast. Or you can trade in your iPhone at the Apple Store, Best Buy, Game Stop and Target. You won’t get as much selling your iPhone or Android phone to the big companies, but you’ll get rid of it fast and get your money fast. So, if convenience is what matters to you, that’s the route we would go.

If you have a smartphone that you think is too old to sell, or you just want to do something nice for others, there are a lot of charitable organizations that can make good use of your old device.

If your phone can at least still make phone calls, you can drop it off at any Verizon Wireless store and they will get it into the hands of someone who needs it. Through their program HopeLine, they collect phones and give them to victims of domestic abuse.

If your phone is completely dead, there are charities that accept electronics that can recycle them and get money to go towards their efforts. As always, make sure that you trust the charity you are giving to.

Also, many cities have e-waste recycling centers for computers and other electronics. Try looking on your city’s website to see if there is one near you.

No matter what you decide to do with your old device, you need to make sure you wipe its memory and reset it to factory default if possible. The last thing you want is for your personal information to fall into the wrong hands. Your device should have come with instructions on how to reset it. We’ve got full details on how to do it for iPhones, iPads and Android phones in this article.

Image credit Google

Isabel writes, “I have an iPhone and an iPad. Is it possible to message or text someone who does not have an Apple product? And, if that?s too easy for you guys, how about this: is there any way to do it for free without a texting plan?”

It?s totally possible. The simplest way is if both you and the person you are trying to message are using a cross-platform messaging app (one that works on both Android and iOS). There are several apps that you can use to send short text messages over Wi-Fi like Kik, WhatsApp and even Facebook Messenger. The two major problems with all of them is that you can only send messages to people who are also on the same service, and you cannot use them to send regular old SMS text messages.

The best app that we have found that actually sends real text messages is Google Voice. With Google Voice, you can send text messages from the app on your iDevice or from the Google Voice website. It takes a little while to setup, but it?s completely free.

The main catch is that Google Voice gives you a new phone number for your Google Voice account for free. Once you pick it out, you can use that number to make phone calls, send text messages, and receive them too ? as long as you?re on Wi-Fi or cellular data. You can text anyone in the U.S. and Canada, and you can receive texts from anywhere in the world.

The simplest way to get started is to go to the Google voice website. Login with your Google email address if you have one, and then click ?Get a voice number? on the left and follow the instructions. When it asks you to ?add a forwarding phone? you will need to tell it the phone number of your existing cell phone. Google will actually make a robo-call to your phone and give you an activation code to verify that your number belongs to you. Once that is all set up, download the Google Voice app and start texting.

We should once again note that Google Voice is not a cellular service. If you don?t have an internet connect through Wi-Fi or a wireless provider you will not be able to use it.

Image credit: Apple

Ray, Tom and producer Sean are back in this episode of the Deemable Tech podcast. The guys answer several of your questions about TVs, including how to present slideshows from your computer on your HDTV, using your TV as a hub for all of your devices, and recording shows off of your broadcast antennae.

Then it’s time for a couple of reviews! Sean continues his subscription box series with a review of Dollar Shave Club, while Tom takes a look at the new Moto X Android smartphone.

If all of that wasn’t enough, the guys also discuss some of the biggest tech news of the week, including reports that CVS and Rite Aid are pulling support for Apple Pay by removing NFC payments all together from their stores.

Download: #66 Ixnay on the Apple Pay

Q: How can I keep up with my monthly usage on my iPhone? I want to be able to find out how much data and how many texts I have left.

A: There’s nothing worse than going over your monthly limit and getting slapped with a huge phone bill. Fortunately, checking your usage is easy, so there’s no need for nasty surprises. Virtually all smartphones, including the iPhone, have built-in tools that monitor monthly data usage.

You can see your iPhone usage under the “Cellular” menu in the Settings app.
Image credit: Annie Black / WJCT

Just open the Settings app and tap “Cellular,” and you will see your usage. Of course, your iPhone doesn’t automatically know when your billing cycle begins, so you’ll need to reset it at the beginning of the cycle. At the bottom of that “Cellular” menu, there is a button that says “Reset Statistics.” Hit this on the first day of your billing cycle and the tracking on your iPhone should be fairly accurate.

For Android phones, just open up Settings and tap “Data Usage.” You can also set your billing cycle on this screen, and you don’t even have to wait until the beginning of the cycle to change this setting.

There’s actually another way to check your usage, no matter what kind of smartphone you have, that is as simple as making a phone call. Each of the major U.S. cell phone carriers has a free service which will automatically send you a text message with your current usage details when you dial a special number. Checking your monthly usage this way may be more accurate in some cases, since the information is coming straight from your cell phone carrier.

For Verizon, dial #DATA.

For AT&T, dial *DATA#.

For T-Mobile, dial #WEB#.

Sprint is the only one that works differently. They don’t send you a text, but there is an automated hotline that will tell you the information. Dial *4 to get to it.

You can keep your monthly data usage to a minimum by waiting until you’ve got a Wi-Fi connection to watch videos or download big apps. When you’re connected to Wi-Fi, you aren’t dipping into your data plan.

Another way you may be able to save data is by using what are called “zero rated” apps, which are now being offered by many carriers. Even though “zero rated” apps use data, they don’t count towards your monthly data cap. For instance, on T-Mobile, music streaming apps like Pandora, iTunes Radio and Spotify are “zero rated” so they won’t eat into your precious monthly data usage. Different carriers have different policies and different apps, so be sure to check with whoever your carrier is.

Q: Help me Deemable Tech, you’re my only hope! I keep getting calls on my smartphone from a strange number. When I pick up, no one is there. Is there any way I can block this annoyance?

A: We’ve got good news for you, Mara: most smartphones these days have solid call blocking features.

Blocking Calls On Android

Most Android phones, depending on the model and carrier, should have some built-in features that will help you block calls. In the Settings menu, look for a sub-menu named “Call” or something similar. Tap that, and you will find a “Blocked Calls” menu. Some phones (like the Samsung Galaxy S3) also give you the option to simply block all unknown numbers.

If blocking a phone number entirely seems too drastic for you, there is an alternative. When you’re viewing a contact on most Android phones, there is a settings option to send calls from that contact straight to your voicemail.

There are also a lot of call-blocking apps available in the Google Play Store, which you can find by searching “call blocker.” We recommend the free app Mr. Number, because it makes blocking calls and performing reverse phone number lookups easy. It also displays where unwanted calls are coming from, which is a nice bonus.

Blocking Calls On iPhone

Before the release of iOS 7, it wasn’t possible to block calls on an iPhone. Now it’s a built in feature.

To block calls from one of your contacts, open their contact card and scroll to the “Block This Caller” link at the bottom. Tapping that will allow you to block that person’s phone calls, Facetime calls and text messages.

If you want to block someone who is not in your contact list, open the Phone app and go to the “Recent Phone Calls” list. Find the phone number you want to block, and find the icon next to the number that looks like a circle with a lowercase “i” in it. Tap that, and scroll to the bottom and to find the “Block This Caller” link.

If you’re still running an older version of iOS, like iOS 6, you won’t have this feature. Unfortunately, there also aren’t any apps that you can use to block calls, because iPhone apps don’t have access to the dialer. To work around this, you could create a contact for an unwanted number with a name like “Ignore This,” and download a silent ringtone for that number. However, we recommend just upgrading to iOS 7 if your phone supports it.

Q: My smartphone (a Casio G’zOne) displayed a warning yesterday saying that it had a virus. I didn’t do anything as I’ve been told the warning is the actual virus. How can I tell if the phone has virus protection installed? If not, can I download it for the phone?

Image credit: Casio

A: Charles, let us set your mind at ease. It is very unlikely that your smart phone has a virus. What you saw was most likely a scam – a banner ad trying to trick you into buying something or clicking on something that you shouldn’t. Uninstall whatever app you saw that in, and you should be fine.

Smartphones work differently than PCs. A program on a PC basically has the run of the computer and can do anything it wants. But an app on a smartphone gets put in a little sandbox, and it is very limited in what it can do. This makes it harder for a classic virus to be effective on a phone.

That isn’t to say that a smartphone could never get a virus, but we have yet to see any big ones on Android or iOS that users need to worry about. If that ever happens, we will be the first ones to let you know.

If you still don’t feel safe, you can download anti-virus apps that will check for bad stuff on your phone, but recent studies have found that a lot of the free ones are basically useless. They catch very few pieces of malware, and can slow down your phone considerably. There are also paid apps from big anti-virus companies like Symantec, BitDefender and Trend Micro, but these too take up a lot of memory and will affect your phone’s performance.

What you really need to watch out for aren’t viruses, they’re malicious apps. Apps available in the the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store have been screened by those companies, and are trustworthy 99.99% of the time. But if you download and install an app from an unofficial source (this is known as “side-loading”), you run the risk of getting something dangerous. Most people who side-load apps are trying to install free versions of games you normally have to pay for, which is basically like catnip for hackers. Our advice is to never side-load an app unless you’re confident of what it is and know the people who made it.

So, Charles, don’t worry too much about that warning you saw. If you play it safe when you’re surfing the web, and make sure you’re only downloading apps from official places, you should be fine.

Q: Our family recently got our first iPad. We want the kids to be allowed to use it, but I am worried that they will get into trouble with it. Many of the games on the iPad ask you to buy things. I don’t want my kids running up a big credit card bill! Is there a way to stop this from happening?

A: Great question, Amanda. In-app purchases are an issue with smartphones and tablets that not nearly enough parents are aware of. In fact, we’ve heard news stories about kids accidentally running up thousands of dollars in charges in their favorite mobile game. Fortunately, iPhones and iPads both come with built-in tools that allow parents to control what their kids are getting into.

Image credit: Brad Flickinger / Flickr

Open the Settings icon on your iPad, and look for “Restrictions” under “General”. Tap “enable restrictions” and you’ll be asked to create a passcode. Be sure to use a different passcode than the one you use to lock your device, since your kids probably already know that code.

After you’ve created the passcode, you’ll see a list of features you can restrict access to, including in-app purchases, Safari and even the camera. Tap the button next to “in-app purchases” and any other feature you want to be restricted (that button will be green when the feature isn’t restricted, and white when the restriction is on). This will turn off these features.

Now keep in mind, Amanda, that when you enter that passcode to make an in-app purchase, the restriction will be turned off for 15 minutes by default. If you’re worried that you might put down your iPad and one of your kids might rush over and start buying things within that window, you can set it to ask for the passcode every single time. Go back to the “Restrictions” screen, re-enter your code and scroll down to the option that says “Require password”. Tap that and select “Immediately”. Now the iPad will require the passcode every time anyone tries to make an in-app purchase.

Android devices also have the power to restrict in-app purchases. On your Android tablet or smartphone, open the Play Store (the app you use to download other apps) and go to the settings menu. There you will see an option that says “Use password to restrict purchases”.

Android doesn’t have as many built-in parental control features as iOS does, but there are a ton of great parental control apps out there. You can find them by searching “parental controls” in the Play Store.

Whether you’ve got a table or a smartphone, iOS or Android, there are a many easy-to-use options to allow your family to safely enjoy their new toy.

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

Q: My coworker lost her iPhone at work the other day. She was in a panic because she thought that someone had stolen it. Fortunately, someone turned it in later the next day. I thought I heard there was some way to find an iPhone if you lost it? Is there a way, and if so, how does it work?

A: Thanks for your question Emily, and you’re right, there is a way. Any iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad) that is running iOS 4.2 or higher has a feature called “Find My iPhone”. With Find My iPhone, you can see on a map where your iPhone is, remotely lock the phone with a pin number and send a message to your iPhone that will show on the screen like, “Hey! I lost my iPhone! Call me at this other number if you find it!” You can also make an alarm go off on your iPhone that’s pretty loud, even if your ringer is on silent. And, in case you are a spy or secret agent, you can wipe your phone and delete everything on it.

To find out if you have Find My iPhone setup, open the Settings app. Then, tap on iCloud (which is right under General at the bottom of the first screen). Then, scroll down until you see the listing for Find My iPhone. Make sure that the switch is turned on.

Now, here’s the fun part. Go to iCloud.com on a computer and sign in to the website with your Apple ID. That’s the email address and password that you enter when you purchase something from iTunes or the App Store. Once the page loads, click on the Find My iPhone icon. The web page will open to a map showing a dot where your iPhone is. Click on the dot to get a menu to play a sound on your phone, put it in “lost mode”, and erase your iPhone.

You can also go to someone else’s iOS device and download the free Find My iPhone app and login with your Apple ID account and do the same thing.

So, if you actually lose your iPhone, immediately go to iCloud.com, or find a friend that has an iOS device and download the Find My iPhone app on their device. Login to the website or app, then put your iPhone in Lost Mode and lock your iPhone. Make sure to remember your pin. Do this regardless of whether you think it was actually stolen or not. A smart criminal might remember to turn off Find My iPhone, and an innocent person might not be able to figure out who you are or how to get the phone back to you.

Then, if you suspect that you just lost your phone, click “Play Sound” and send a beep to your iPhone. Hopefully, someone will notice it and return it to you. If that doesn’t work, or if you know your iPhone has been stolen, call the police and tell them where the iPhone is. Then, of course, just, let them do their job.

There’s something similar for you Android users out there. Since Android doesn’t have a baked-in feature like Find My iPhone, you’ll need to download an app called “Where’s My Droid” in Google Play that does pretty much the same thing. With the free, full version of Where’s My Droid, you can send a text message to your phone with a special activation word that will make the phone ring at full volume and provide your phone’s location. You can also go to WheresMyDroid.com and use all of the features there.

With the paid, pro version, you can also remote lock the phone, and remote wipe the device and/or the SD card.

Also, if you lose your Android and you haven’t already installed Where’s My Droid, there is a lite version that you can actually install remotely just by going to WheresMyDroid.com. That version is more limited, but you can still make the phone ring at full volume and get the GPS location of the phone.

BlackBerry Messenger, BBM, which was previously thought to be BlackBerry’s life preserver may now be being chopped off and sold as a separate company. This isn’t surprising since BlackBerry has been in a slow death-spiral for the past couple of years. While bringing BlackBerry Messenger to other platforms like Android, Windows Phone and the iPhone might be great for consumers, it happening this late in the game is another sign of BlackBerry’s imminent demise. However, offering BBM for sale may only be to increase the perceived value of Blackberry as a whole before a sale of the entire company. For more on this story, here is Landon Robinson’s story from BestTechie.com.

Blackberry May Be Separating Messenger from Company Ahead of Potential Sale (via http://www.besttechie.com/)

Smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry may be working on a way to ?spinoff? its built-in messaging service, simply called BlackBerry Messenger, and turn it into its own ?valuable asset? before the company’s rumored potential sale occurs. This report comes out of The Wall Street Journal who is sourcing anonymous ?people familiar with the matter.?…

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, 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.

I had been looking for a decent wireless Bluetooth stereo headset for years.

I wasn’t asking for a miracle. I just wanted a Bluetooth stereo headset that had great audio quality, long battery life, was comfortable to wear and cost under $100. Sure, I could use a wired headset. I just didn’t want to. I know it’s just a thin piece of wire, but I hate it! I just want something I could put on my head and listen to music and podcasts, and maybe answer a phone call, without a piece of wire dangling around my arm or down my shirt. A few months ago, I saw someone on the bus wearing a headset that didn’t have a wire. I had to ask him what they were, and he told me they were the Bose AE2w Bluetooth Stereo Headset. I asked him how much they cost, and he quietly whispered, “Um…they were $250.” I was visibly taken aback, and blurted out, “Wow! That’s expensive!” He promptly got off at the next stop. I’m not sure if that was his stop, if he was embarrassed, or if he was afraid I was going to steal his headset!

Ever since my encounter on the bus, I have been actively looking for a Bluetooth stereo headset that would do the job, but we’re a little less expensive. I tried the Motorola S10-HD Bluetooth Stereo Headphones. Perhaps it was because I had long hair at the time, but I did not like the behind-the-head model stereo bluetooth headsets. So, those were eliminated from my quest. I looked at some earbud Bluetooth stereo headset models like the LG HBS-730 Bluetooth Stereo Headset. Again, I wasn’t excited about something laying on my shoulders. I finally found the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset. Fortunately, the price was under $100 too, which made my wallet happy. So, I ordered a pair on Amazon.

I was so excited when it showed up at my doorstep. The Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset is a beautiful piece of technology. It has clean lines, even at the joints where the headset folds, with just enough chrome to make it look like it’s from the future. It catches peoples’ attention everywhere I go. I’ve lost count of how many times people have asked me about them. Fortunately, they all wait until I take them off before asking me! The outer band has a soft, plastic matte finish. The inner band is a soft, velour material. The headset has an inner circumference of about 15.5 inches and the ear pieces extend an additional inch on each side. This allows both me and my 7-year-old daughter to use the headset comfortably. The bluetooth stereo headset is small enough to be held in my hand when they are closed, although I do have large hands. I’m not sure if Jabra endorses this, but because of the bluetooth stereo headset’s flat profile, when you aren’t using them you can put one ear piece in your pocket and let them hang at your hips.

Setting up the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset and using the controls

The first time the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooh Stereo Headset is turned on, it pairs easily by entering the pairing code from the manual in your smart phone. From then on, the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset conveniently turns on and pairs with your phone by just unfolding the headset. To turn the headset back off, you need only fold the headset. No more worrying about turning off your bluetooth to save the battery. Even if you forget to fold them up when you aren’t using them, the Bluetooth stereo headset gets 13 days of standby time. You can also listen to music or talk on the phone for up to eight hours before you have to charge them. I have spent several days where I walked out of the house listening to podcasts, continuoulsy listened to podcasts the entire day, and only finally during my bus ride home after listening to podcasts for 8.5 hours straight would the battery give out.

Fortunately, even then I can keep listening. The Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset works wirelessly with any smart phone or any music player that supports Bluetooth A2DP, which includeds the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices running 4.2 or higher. It can also be paired with two devices at the same time; it doesn’t have to be virtually unplugged to use it with two devices at the same time. So, you could have it connected to your Sony Playstation and still answer phone calls with it. However, one of the best features is that the headset can also be plugged into devices that do not have Bluetooth via the included cable. The cord has a Answer/End button on it because the controls on the headset turn off when you plug the headset in to a headphone jack. Unfortunately, it does not have a volume control switch like the cables on the Apple Earpods.

The Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset has two physical controls: a volume touch slider and the Answer/End button. With the Answer/End button you can obviously, answer and hang up phone calls, as well as ignore incoming phone calls and play and pause music and podcasts. With the volume touch slider you can adjust the volume of your headset by sliding up or down, and skip to the next track or skip back to a previous track by double-tapping the plus or minus end of the slide. I typically prefer volume controls that physically move, but the volume touch slider is suprisingly intuitive and easy to use. When you reach the top and bottom of the volume level, the HALO2 beeps to alert you.

Sound Quality

The sound quality on the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Headset is quite respectable, especially for the price. The AM3D Virtual Surround Sound 2.0 & Power Bass give it a full, rich sound that most headsets at this price range lack. The sound is significantly better when plugged in, but it is still solid when played over the Bluetooth connection. This headset isn’t going to compete with a pair of cans that can really kick out the bass, but they’re not supposed to. They’re not perfectly balanced either. They are just a tiny bit tinny and a little bit hollow on the low end. The sound quality might not impress your friendly neighborhood audiophile, but for the average listener, these headphones are above average. They won’t replace my studio headphones that I use when I am recording, but they are definitly the pair that I will carry everywhere with me. They are delightful to wear and listen to all day.

I only have one complaint about the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset. Occasionally, when I was walking or jogging, the sound would cut out every now and then for less than a second. It happened at least once every five minutes. Like I said before, the Bluetooth stereo headset has great sound for the price, as long as you sit or stand still and the phone and headset have a clear line of sight. The problem was only really bad when I would put my phone on my belt clip. I found that if I kept my iPhone 4S in my front shirt pocket, it worked perfect, but if I have to keep my phone in my front shirt pocket, I’d rather just use a wired headset. Fortunately, I found that if I kept my iPhone in the front or the back pocket of my jeans or shorts, I didn’t have a problem except every once in a while. It might cut out once every half hour to an hour. I let Tom take them out for a spin with his Galaxy S3, and he said that it only cut out on him once. After talking to a few of my friends that also have iPhone 4S phones I have come to find out that this problem is not unique to the Jabra HALO2. They all reported having the same problem with their bluetooth headsets as well. Although, this small problem makes the headset less than perfect, it is definetly not a deal breaker for me. I suppose I now have a good excuse to stop wearing my iPhone like a nerd.

For listening to music and podcasts on the go, the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset is the best in its class that I have found.

You: “I’d really like to learn Photoshop. Ugh! There aren’t any classes when I am not at work. Private tutoring is so expensive, I guess I’ll just have to get a book and learn it on my own.”

Later, at the store…

You: “Man, there are so many books on Photoshop! I had no idea! I guess I will just get the book labeled “FOR DUMMIES” because I want to start from the beginning.”

Does that scenario describe your own experience? If so, you are reading the right post. Many people choose to buy a book when they want to teach themselves something on the computer. This works wonders if you are technically minded, a self starter, and extremely disciplined. The worst offenders are the “For Dummies” books. Have you even read one of them, actually read one? They may work for some people, but for most, they are too wordy and more technical than us “dummies” need. Their counter parts are the “Missing Manuals“. There was a reason they were missing. They come across as the bible of whatever subject their title boasts. However, upon further examination, they fall into the same mindset that anyone reading a technical book must be technically minded.

But, you are reading this to find out which books are the good ones.

The “Teach Yourself Visually” series is one of the better ones. They give you lots and lots pictures. There are some step-by-step instructions, but mostly pictures. I recommend this to my clients who are visual learners and those who learn by doing. The “Simplified” series come in a close second. Another great series for someone new to a certain subject is the “Plain & Simple” series. It is a great short book to get your feet wet in any subject.

“Visual Quick Tips” series is always a great reference. “Sam’s Teach Yourself” is good if you are attending a class where someone can explain what Sam fails to explain. It is a great supplemental read.

Portable Genius is a great series of how to and quick reference guides for anyone with an iPhone or iPad only. (Your parents, grandparents, etc.) It is a great series for those who just want to learn the basics and not be bogged down with too much outside info. Que came out with a “My…” series that rivals the “Portable Genius”. The “My…” Series covers all types of tablets, computers, phones. They even have a book on the Chromebook.

“In Easy Steps” and “In Easy Steps For Seniors” are two amazing series out of England. They are some of the best step-by-step and easiest to understand for seniors. I recommend both of these series to all seniors. The books are light, uncluttered, and a larger print; perfect for the Greatest Generation.

As you excel in your studies, “Digital Classroom” and Adobe’s “Classroom in a Book” series takes you to the next level. “Step by Step” is another series that can bring your skills from a 3 to a 7 in a matter of hours. They can be wordy, but they are easy to understand.

The O’Reilly books are not to be topped when it comes to the best in the business. If you are at a higher level and need that extra push or want to learn something new, O’Reilly is for you. They are comprehensive and serve as great desk references as well as paperweights when needed. They are worth every penny, and now available in non-paperweight edition (eBook).

When purchasing a book, Rule #1 is to always make sure you are getting the book that is right for you. If you have Mac OSX Lion, but the book you have in your hand is Mountain Lion, put it back. You should be getting the exact book for your exact program. If you have MS Word 2013, an MS Word 2010 book will not be kind to you. Close enough only works in horseshoes and hand grenades. Now that we know to match our book to our program, what about when the book was written? Was the program updated since the book was written? Take Facebook for example. People buy a book about Facebook, get it home and realize that nothing looks the same. Facebook doesn’t have a new “edition” out, but the program has been updated.

Rule #2 is always check the copyright! If a book was not published in the current year (ie: 2013), it is not worth looking at. When it comes to technology, everything changes so fast. It can take up to one year to bring a book to press and distribute it to the stores. If you have a book in your hand that says it was copyrighted in 2011, the info could be up to 3 years old!

For those of you on a budget, the library is a great resource, but remember to check on Rule #2! Many public libraries also now offer eBooks that can be “checked out” on a tablet or computer with an Internet connection. It takes a bit of time to figure it out, but it is a great alternative to the $60+ some books can run.

Another alternative is used bookstores. Sometimes, if you are trying to learn a program that is 1-2 versions back, the regular stores do not carry books on that software anymore. (See Rule #1.) Another option is a nifty little website called ALLBookstores.com. They have a one stop shopping approach to book buying. The site compares all other bookstore sites to find you the best price on any given book. They compile a list of well-known sites like Amazon, eBay, and Half.com, as well as the little guys like WonderBooks, and Textbookx.

If you still can’t find the right book, try this tried and true test. Grab three books off the shelf on your subject. Open each one into the middle. If you can comprehend and understand what they are asking you to do, and it makes some sense, it is the book for you! Not all writers write books for everyone. Find one that has a writing style you can learn from, hence the test.

Happy Hunting!

The most recent trending on tech news today is centered on the invitation sent by Google to different companies, manufacturers, and media organizations regarding an Android event scheduled on July 24th in San Francisco. Despite the urgency of the invites, it is still unclear to everyone what is special about it that Google took the lead.

What could an important event be that required the attendance of Google’s Senior Vice President for Android Sundar Pichai? Google might be cooking up something major and worth everyone’s attention. Take note that there was a huge leap in Google’s latest update for Android and Nexus products that was released in May. Whatever is in the works for next week’s event is something to look forward to because it just might be worth the wait.

Many people have assumed that the main goal of Google for setting up such a momentous gathering is the possibility of launching the newest version of Android OS which is Android 4.3 and the introduction of the most recent Nexus product the Nexus 7.2.

These two products will surely take the gadget world through hype because hungry users have been waiting for them to come out in the market. The newest Android version 4.3 is similar to 4.2 in some aspects. It has been said that the 4.2.2 version of the operating system was skipped for some reason. The 4.3 release is expected with a big bang and should not be missed.

Android 4.3 is the upgraded version of the 4.2. Some new features include Bluetooth Light Energy or LE, font changes and personalization, and some easy tweaks to the gadget’s camera application.

In contrast to Android’s OS upgraded version 4.3, sources say that Nexus 7.2 is a total upgrade from the old Nexus 7. Some of the major changes you might see in the Nexus 7.2 tab that may be available later this month are 1980×1200 displays, 5 megapixel cameras, and the Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor. All of these features are very significant to techy nerds out there.

It is said that the ASUS-built Nexus 7.2 series of tablets will really hit it big after the launch, and have been the object of discussion in blogs and write-ups.

These two new products offered by Google, Android 4.3 and ASUS-built Nexus 7.2 will surely be a fantastic hit and might mean higher price tags on initial launch.

Google did not give out a word about the purpose of the event on the 24th but people have strong ideas as to what it is all about. The internet giant never confirmed or denied the news about the product release. Better leave people to speculate, most especially those who belong to social networking sites. We really have no idea whether or not Google will launch two of their latest products. Meantime, hang on to your seats!

Perhaps the most important question is, what will Google be serving for breakfast?

If you missed it live, Ryan Thompson from GAAM, Games Art and Music, stopped by the studio tonight to talk to us about the upcoming The Legend of GAAM Show July 13 at 6:00 PM at the Museum and Gardens at 4160 Boulevard Center Drive, Jacksonville, Florida. Before we talked to him about that, we answered Joel’s question about which Macbook Pro and which Airport to pick. Then, we helped Katy pick a newsreader for her Android phone.

GAAM on Facebook

#41 – The Legend of GAAM Is EXTREME, But It’s Not Free-99
DRAFT SCRIPT

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: So, if you haven’t noticed, the podcast has been a little sporadic lately. We’ve been only doing the show every other week.

Summer vacation!

We have good reasons, I have a pile of products to review like the Therapik and the Jabra Halo 2.
We’re also working on getting the app developed. Starting in September we’ll come back with weekly podcasts.

Today on the show we have a special guest, Ryan Thompson, creator and President of GAAM, which stands for Games, Art and Music.

But first we have a couple questions from listeners.

Joel writes: Hey Ray and Tom,
You may remember me from such questions as, “should I sick my finger in there?” and “is this burning sensation normal?”
Today I’d like to know about the differences between some Apple products.
I’m slowing being turned to the Gala side (that’s an apple joke) and switching to more and more Apple products.
I would specifically like to know about the differences between two products:
MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Pro w/Retina Display
and
AirPort vs. AirPort EXTREME!
For the MacBook Pro, it’s important to note that I am not a graphic designer/artists. The extent of my photo editing skills will just be basic touch-up of photos. I’m not looking for a gaming rig, just something that’s reliable, fast, and that has a decent battery life.
For the AirPort vs. Extreme, other than awesome flashbacks to the ’90s,
what makes the EXTREME so EXTREME?
RAY: OK, let me answer your first question. Here’s the differences between the Macbook Pro and the Macbook Pro with Retina Display.
Obviously the Retina Display model has a retina display. 2880 x 1800 pixels vs 1440 x 900 pixels
-More pixels, brighter screen, incredibly high detail. More room for photo and video editing
– Also the Retina display model is thinner and about a pound lighter.
The retina model comes with more standard RAM, 8 GB vs 4 GB, but you can get 8 GB in the standard Macbook Pro model.
The retina model comes with 768 GB flash storage, but the standard model comes with 512 Solid State drive or 1 TB hard drive.
Also, the retina model does not have an optical drive so no DVDs or CDs.
If you are graphic designer, or video editor, I’d say go with the retina model if you can afford it. Otherwise, I’d stick with the standard model, unless you just really want the retina display.
—–
Now, for Airport vs Airport Extreme
There’s actually three options, Airport Express, Airport Extreme and Airport Time Capsule.
The difference is in the price, size, speed and capability of the routers.
The Airport Express is the cheapest at $99, smallest at about the same size as an Apple TV (about a 4 inch square, 1 inch tall.). It’s also the slowest. It only runs up to 802.11n. It also only has one Ethernet ports and one USB port. You can plug a printer into it and share it on your network. You can also use the Airport Express for audio AirPlay. So, you can play music or podcasts wireless from your iOS devices or Mac computers to speakers plugged into your Airport Express.
The Airport Extreme costs $199, and it is about the same size, but about 4 times taller. It looks like four Airport Expresses stacked on top of each other. It runs 802.11ac which is the fastest existing WiFi standard. It can run up to 3 times faster than 802.11n, if you have a computer with a 802.11ac wifi adapter. With the Airport Extreme you can also share a hard drive on your network in addition to a printer.
The Airport Time Capsule is basically an Airport Extreme with a hard drive built in. The 2 TB model costs $299, and the 3 TB model costs $399.
Strangely the Time Capsule and the Extreme both dropped the AirPlay feature.
Also, if you were wondering, because I was, neither the Macbook Pro, nor the Macbook Pro with Retina Display come with 802.11ac wifi. They only have 802.11n.
The only Mac that is currently for sale with 802.11ac is the new Macbook Air. The new Mac Pro (the well designed trash can) will have 802.11ac.

Katy writes: Hello Tom and Ray!
I like to follow a few blogs and would love to get updates when new posts are added. Can you recommend a blog reader app for my Droid?
Thanks guys!
PS, we love your show! My twin babies Christopher & Clara like to listen to it with us every Thursday morning. They’re going to be so smart!
TOM: Wow, those poor kids. Thanks for listening, Katy! Anyway, what you need in as RSS reader app. We’ve talked about RSS before. It’s basically the way that blogs can publish their content to third party apps. Almost every blog out there supports this.
RAY: Lots of news sites do also.
TOM: Yeah. So with a good RSS reader app you can get all your news and favorite blogs in one place. If you go to the Google Play Market and search for ?RSS reader’ you’ll see dozens of apps, most of them free.
A word of caution, though: do not download the Google Reader app. Google Reader is being shut down July 1st, 2013. So if you download it now you’ll only have a matter days of before it stops working.
RAY: It’s too bad, since Google Reader was kind of the 900 lbs gorilla of the RSS reader world.
TOM: That’s true. In fact Google Reader was more than just an app, it was also an entire back-end database that synched what you had and hadn’t read across multiple devices. A lot of other apps actually depended on it. And that’s why you also need to avoid apps that are dependent on Google Reader, because those will also stop working on July 1st. A few examples include the NewsRob and GoodNews apps. Those tell you that they run off Google Reader and that they will be shutting down. Be sure to check for that on any app you download.
RAY: Okay, so those are apps not to use. What are some suggestions for apps that Katy should use?
TOM: Feedly.
RAY: Feedly?
TOM: Feedly.
Feedly is the heir apparent to Google Reader. If you were previously using Google Reader, Feedly is making it very easy to migrate to Feedly. Like Google Reader, it allows you to synchronize what you’ve read across multiple devices, like your desktop and your phone. It looks and feels similar to Google Reader, except it is more customizable. Feedly would be my #1 and probably my #2 suggestion for an RSS Reader app for Android right now.
RAY: Yeah, Feedly is great. And it’s also available for the iPhone in the App Store.
TOM: gReader is another app that is getting strong reviews. It used to connect Google Reader, but now you can connect it to Feedly.
RAY: Why wouldn’t people just use the Feedly app?
TOM: Well, it’s possible people might like the feel of gReader more. But yeah, if you’re just starting out like Katy is, I would recommend Feedly. And the best part of all, it doesn’t cost a thing!
TOM: It’s Free-99!
RAY: It’s Free-99?
TOM: It’s Free-99!
RAY: Personally, after I heard the news about Google Reader, I spent the requisite amount of time mourning my favorite news reader, but after that I decided not to move on and find another reader. I’ve gone back to just reading Google News for the big headlines, and checking the individual websites. I do use Flipboard a bit to follow some sites, but otherwise, I have reduced the amount of news reading I have done by about 90%. I’m not sure if I’ll go back or not, but for now, I’m satisfied with Flipboard.