This week Ray and Elizabeth were joined in the studio by Ryan Paul Thompson, the founder and president of GAAM, Games Art and Music, to talk to us about the upcoming GAAM event, Teenage Mutant Ninja GAAM, Saturday, December 7, 2013 starting at 6:00 PM. There’s going to be video game art exhibit, video game competition, cosplay competition and free beer! Ray, Tom and Sean went to the last GAAM show, and it was a blast. If you love video games, you should definitely check it out. Head over to gaam.eventbrite.com to get your tickets.

After the break, Ray and Elizabeth answered listeners questions about  transferring an iTunes collection from a dead computer, which antivirus software is the best, and how to restore an iPhone from an older backup.

And remember, we are prepping for the first Deemable Tech hour-long radio episode. Get your calls in at 1-888-972-9868 to “audition” for the show! 

#54 Teenage Mutant Ninja Deemable

TRANSCRIPT

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

ELIZABETH: I’m Elizabeth Pampalone, in for Tom Braun

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech. This week’s episode 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.

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

RAY: We mentioned this last week, but once Tom get’s back, we are going to be working on our first, hour-long Deemable Tech radio special, and we need your help. We need some live callers to be on the show. So, we want you to call and leave a voicemail. We will be using them to pick our callers for the show. Make sure to leave your phone number so we can schedule a time for you to be on the show.

Now, before we get to your questions, we have a guest back in the studio again, Ryan Thompson, creator and President of GAAM, Games, Art and Music is here! Welcome to the show, Ryan!

You were on the show back in June before your last event and you guys have another awesome event coming up really soon.

Questions for Ryan Paul Thompson

• What is GAAM? What is the purpose of GAAM?
• Where did you get the idea for GAAM?
• Ask about the last GAAM event, The Legend of GAAM
• Tell us about Teenage Mutant Ninja GAAM

Ryan, thanks so much for coming in. Where can our listeners find out more about GAAM and get tickets for the event?

BREAK

Well, we have to take a quick break, after the break Elizabeth and I will answer a few questions from you guys about antivirus software, moving your iTunes account to a new computer.

You’re listening to Deemable Tech.

OUTRO

Name: Phil

Question: How do I switch my iTunes account from an old computer which no longer turns on to my new computer? I’ve downloaded iTunes onto the new computer but, needless to say, it doesn’t recognize my account. The last time I changed computers with the same problem I had to start a new account on the new computer and reenter music into my library. I have all my music on my iPod but now am not able to add to it.

Answer: Before Switching computers, go into My Music (Music), Itunes, Save the iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml files to a flash drive or external drive. Install itunes on the new computer. Go into the same location (Music/iTunes) and replace those files with your library files from the older computer. Make sure to move your music files to the same place as they lived on the old computer. (ie Music)

If it’s too late, and you’ve already gotten rid of your old computer, try DiskAid or iExplorer to take music, movies, etc. off of your iPad, iPod, iPhone and get it into your computer.

Name: Danielle

 Question: Is paying for antivirus software more safer that the free versions? What are some recommendations for antivirus?

Answer: We answered this once before on our radio segment. If you are using a Windows: XP, Vista, Win 7 use MS Security Essentials. It is FREE and works seamlessly with Windows Firewall and Windows Defender. Windows 8 has MS Security Essentials built in. It is really the best antivirus software on the market, especially for the price. Word of caution: you can only use ONE antivirus at a time. You can not have TWO running, they will cancel each other out!

If you are using Mac, antivirus protection is built in. Check System Preferences, Security & Privacy. There are some settings you might want to check out the settings there. Some of the items on General and Privacy tabs are good to go through based on what your personal preferences happen to be.

Name: Valerie

Question: Can I retrieve an iPhone backup from maybe 5 backups ago?

iPhoto apparently failed on one of my loads from image capture, and of course I had the “delete after import” option checked. I saw some warning about iPhoto being full (although not an issue since) after my Macbook Pro had been working for awhile. I didn’t have time to deal with it and later re-backed up my phone. When I went looking for the 3 months of photos/videos, I couldn’t find them anywhere on my computer — it is a mess. Also my time machine (to my external hard drive) apparently hadn’t been working during that time period either. I just can’t imagine that the photos/video from the whole upload don’t exist in some cache somewhere.

Answer: Plug in your iPhone, click the Summary button, and under Backups click Restore Backup. If you have multiple backups saved, you should have a drop down menu appear. Choose one of the options.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

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

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

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

#53 Apple News, Saving Tunes and Scanning Documents

TRANSCRIPT

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

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Tuesday Apple had a big press announcement

iPad Air

? Dropped from 1.4 lbs to 1 lb

iPad Mini with Retina display $399

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

iPad Mini price dropped from $329 to $299

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

New Macbook Pros with Retina Display

? Faster Intel Haswell CPUs

? 13″ models saw a $200 price drop.

13″ Macbook stayed the same price

The 15″ Macbook disappeared.

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

? December 2013

? Starting at $2,999

last major update was 2010

Mavericks OSX 10 FREE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TOM: What?s that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have a voicemail from Geri:

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

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

OCR

ABBYY TextGrabber + Translator $5.99

Image capture

ABBYY FineScanner $1.99

JotNot Scanner Pro $.99

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

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

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

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

Restore partition.

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

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

This week on Deemable Tech Tom and Ray answered questions about what to do if your Windows is upside down, how to delete multiple emails on your iPhone, how to print from your tablet, what to do if you have a corrupted USB drive, and more.

#52 Spin The Battery

TRANSCRIPT

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

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

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

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

TOM: Today on the show we’re going to answer your questions about what to do if your Windows is upside down,

RAY: How to delete multiple emails on your iPhone,

TOM: How to print from your tablet,

RAY: And what to do if you have a corrupted USB drive. But first –

TOM: Ray, have you been to the Google homepage recently?

RAY: Sure?

TOM: Have you by chance noticed the blue bar across the top? Actually it’s been across the top of Google+, Google Drive, Google Play and several other Google sites.

RAY: Yeah, I’ve seen it, but I just clicked OK or dismissed it or whatever.

TOM: That’s exactly what they want you to do.

RAY: So what have they changed?

TOM: Basically, Google wants to do what Facebook did a couple years ago and show ads to your friends based on things you’ve +1’d or rated highly. So if I bought the new Daft Punk album on Google Play Music, you might see an ad that says “Tom Braun recommends Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories.” Or something like that.

RAY: Oh wonderful. So now anything I plus can be advertised to other people on Google?

TOM: Well, there is a way out. Next time you see that blue bar, actually click on the link to see the new terms and conditions. Or you can go to http://www.google.com/settings/ads. Then select the option to ?opt out’ of Google’s so-called ?interest based ads’. There will be a pop-up that tries to talk you out of it, but persevere.

RAY: Why would anyone want to be part of Google’s ad program?

TOM: Well they’re counting on people to just not care enough to opt out. And if you don’t, then don’t. But folks should be aware that it’s happening and no how to get out of it.

RAY: Absolutely. Alright, let’s take some questions. What’s our first question, Tom?

Prem writes, one of my 8 GB USB drive (with about 4 GB, very important data files in many folders) is corrupted or damaged. I can see all the folders but soon the computer goes to non-responding mode and cannot open any folder or files. What is the best data recovery software one can download and use or is there software i can purchase to recover the data from this USB drive? I do not want to send it outside for data recovery. Please help. Please note the types of files in folders are: word files, pdf files, images of checks, and saved e-files. Looking forward for your response.

TOM: Hi Prem, thanks for your question. Having corrupted or inaccessible data is not a fun situation to be in. We can give you a couple of suggestions, but there’s no guarantee that you will be able to get your data back. I know you don’t want to send the drive out for data recovery services, but that is the #1 best way to make sure that you can salvage whatever you can from the drive. It’s not as expensive as you might think, either. There are places that will do a basic recovery for as little as $60.

RAY: The good news is, your computer can still see the USB drive. If you couldn’t access the drive at all you would be out of luck.

TOM: Right, most likely the drive is only logically corrupted. In other words, the data has gotten scrambled somehow but there is nothing physically wrong with the drive.

Now, I hate to say this because it’s like telling you to close the barn door after the horse has escaped, but backup, backup, backup! Always keep your important files in at least two places.

RAY: In fact, keep them in three places. One on your USB drive, one on your hard drive, and one in the cloud. You definitely don’t want to keep something only on a flash memory drive, though.

Those little USB flash drives are not very reliable. They use the cheapest memory possible to keep the price down. Additionally, even if the drive doesn’t become corrupted, it’s very easy to lose or damage! I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve been unable to find a USB drive, and then later it turned up at the bottom of some drawer. Those things are easy to lose. You could leave it at the coffee shop. It could fall out of your pocket. It could get stepped on.

You should never rely on a USB drive as the sole copy of your files.

Anyway, enough lecturing. Tom, how can we help Prem recover those files?

TOM: First things first, just in case, try plugging your USB drive into another computer. I have personally encountered cases before where one computer could read a drive but another couldn’t. That probably won’t solve your problem in this case, but it’s worth trying.

Also, make sure that you do not attempt to update files on the USB drive, delete them, or add them. Doing any of these things will make changes to the drive. This is known as ?writing’ to the drive. At this point every ?write’ to the drive pushes it further towards irrecoverable oblivion!

Before we dive into the recovery tools that are available, let’s use the ones you already have. You didn’t specify but I assume you’re using Windows. Windows actually has its own, fairly powerful recovery tool. But you’ll need to run it from the command line.

Click the start button and then search for ?cmd’ and hit enter. This will bring up a black box with white text. Do you know the letter of your USB drive? It’s probably something like D, E or F.

At the command line, type CHKDSK and the letter of your drive followed by /r. So for example, CHKDSK d /r. CHKDSK is a windows utility that will scan your damaged drive and attempt to figure out what’s wrong. The /r option tells it to attempt to repair any problems it finds. Run that and then check your drive and see if it’s recovered any files. If it has, be sure to immediately copy them to your hard drive!

If you still don’t have all your files, there are several free recovery programs out there. You might as well try as many as you can. Get everything you can from one program and then try the next.

The first program we found was TestDisk. TestDisk is an open-source program, so it’s not extremely user-friendly. In fact you will have to run it from the Windows command prompt. But it’s pretty good according to LifeHacker. There is documentation at the link in the show notes.

Another program is iCare Data Recovery Free. It’s got some positive reviews. You’ll want to use the Format Recovery option. The user interface is barebones, but there is a tutorial. We will provide a link to it in the show notes.

There are lots of other recovery programs. Three others that we found are Disk Digger, PC Inspector and Restoration.

Again, you can try more than one. Bear in mind, though, that as these programs have to ?write’ to the drive that as you continue to use them the drive will become increasingly unusable.

When you’ve recovered your files, you may be able to recover the USB drive too. Try formatting it. If the problem is merely some corrupt data, this will wipe it clean and you’ll have a usable drive once more. Be sure not to keep the only copy of important files on it in the future, though!

Okay, Prem. Hopefully some of these programs work for you. Good luck!

Jan wrote in: I purchased my iPhone this year but have years’ worth of previous emails stored. How can I delete without having to delete one at a time? How can I sync my iPhone email and my computer email so that I don’t have to delete on both? How can I store photos sent via text messaging? Thanks!

Morgan writes, Hi, I have been having something really strange happen to my Galaxy S3. I will be using it and suddenly the screen will flicker and then it will shut down. It won’t turn back on until I plug it in, even if it was charged very recently. I am worried that something is very wrong with my phone. Help!

RAY: That’s scary!

TOM: Yeah, it is a scary-sounding problem. In fact I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on, and it’s a good-news-bad-news type of situation.

RAY: OK, what’s the bad news?

TOM: The bad news is that it is almost certainly a hardware problem. Something is physically wrong with Morgan’s phone.

RAY: Well that sucks! I hope the good news is really good!

TOM: It’s pretty good. The part of your phone that has probably gone bad is the easiest part to replace, and relatively inexpensive. I’m talking about the battery. My guess is that Morgan needs a new battery. And there’s an easy way to test that.

Okay Morgan, here’s what I want you to do: peel the back plate off of your phone and dig out that battery. Set it on a flat surface in front of you, like a table or desk.

RAY: Okay?

TOM: Now, spin it!

RAY: What?

TOM: Batteries are flat, or at least they are supposed to be. A good battery won’t spin. However when a battery goes bad, at least in the case of the Galaxy S3, it may develop a slight bulge. If your battery spins on one side or the other, that means that side is now curved. You’ve got a bulgy battery. Time for a new one!

Fortunately, replacement batteries start for as low as $9.99 on Amazon.com. If you’re still under warranty, you can take the phone to the store you bought it at, show them your cool battery trick, and they’ll probably replace it for free.

Morton asks: I recently bought an ASUS Transformer Pad (tablet), model #TF300T. I use it in conjunction with Wi-Fi connections to the internet.

I would like to know if there is any SIMPLE printer on the market which I can use with this Tablet (Made in Taiwan). Right now the only access to printing is a friend’s Wi-Fi-enabled Lap Top which has a printer attached.

My tablet is an ANDROID-based tablet, and all printers I see are only compatible with WINDOWS or MAC.

RAY: Go to https://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/ or just look for the Cloud Print Ready. Or if you want to buy an AirPrint ready printer that isn’t Cloud Print Ready, there is an app called PrintBot which will let you print from an Android device to an AirPrint ready printer.

Susanna wrote in: I have a new laptop, and I am planning on selling my old laptop. I have Adobe Creative Suite for on my old Mac laptop and I want to move it to my new Mac. Is there anything I need to do to put it on my new laptop or can I just install it?

Adobe only lets you activate the software on as many computers as you have paid for; with a single license for Adobe software you may install it on two computers. So, if you do not deactivate it on the first computer and you only have paid for one license, you will not be able to install it on any other computers.

To deactivate the software from your computer:

Make sure the computer that has the software installed is connected to the Internet.
Choose Help > Deactivate in the product you wish to deactivate. If you have a suite then choosing one of the products will Deactivate the entire suite.
Select Deactivate Permanently

If you unfortunately already sold your old laptop, you’re not out of luck, but you will have to contact Adobe directly to deactivate it so that you can activate it on another computer.

http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-deactivation-products.html

Richard writes, My cats walked on my computer one day and now my Dell laptop boots up upside down and to get it right I have to press the windows key and the p button, then when I stop duplicate screen mode, the screen reverts to normal. How can I get it to boot up right?
TOM: Geez, and I thought my cat was bad because he gets on top of the bookshelf.
RAY: Like any cat, this cat knows a good prank when he sees it.
TOM: Hahahah! Not to worry Richard, this is a very easy fix. On some versions of Windows some genius at Microsoft thought it was a good idea to have a hot-key combination that changes the orientation of your screen.
Now I can see why very occasionally you might want to flip your screen 90 degrees, but I can’t imagine doing it often enough that you would need a short sequence of keystrokes to do it. Basically, Microsoft created the ultimate hotkey shortcut for pranksters.
RAY: Or cats.
TOM: Right. To change the orientation of your screen, once you’ve logged in upside-down, hold down CTRL+ALT+UP ARROW and that ought to right your screen. CTRL+ALT+ANY ARROW KEY will change your screen so it’s facing the direction of the arrow.
Now you know, so do us a favor: once you change your screen back, don’t use this knowledge for evil.
RAY: If that doesn’t work, you can also do it manually through the Control Panel.

• Click the Start menu and open “Control Panel.”
• Click “Adjust Screen Resolution”
• Click to open the “Orientation” menu.
• Choose from : “Landscape,” “Portrait,” “Landscape (Flipped)” and “Portrait (Flipped)” Click your desired orientation option to have Windows display a thumbnail preview of what it will look like.
• Click “Apply,” then click “Keep Changes” or “Revert” to revert to the original orientation.

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

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

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

#51 How To Root Your TI-84

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

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

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RAY: Which calendar app is the best,

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

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

TOM: We have a question from Deborah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dana emailed us:

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

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

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

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

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

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

ROBERT: Yeah I?m? back here?

• What phone does Robert have?

• What version of Android? (Froyo)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week on Deemable Tech, Tom is out-of-town, but Elizabeth Pampalone stepped in to keep the show rolling. And, she gave Tom a run for his money. Ray and Elizabeth answered lots of questions, including questions about Blue Screens of Death, whether you can change your internet provider without changing your email provider, Facebook photo syncing, how to print from your iPad, and Critical Updates that break things!

#50 The Ginger Episode

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

LIZ: I’m Elizabeth Pampalone in for 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.

So, Tom is out…again. This time he gave some notice, so I asked our friend Elizabeth Pampalone to give us a hand, and she was gracious enough to help. Thanks for coming in, Elizabeth.

LIZ: *vamp response*

RAY:

Actually, you did almost all of the work getting ready for this show, you’re giving Tom a run for his money. I tell you what, I’ll hire you for half of what I pay Tom.

– I gonna be the brains, and I guess that leaves me to be the beauty. This is not going to go well for me.

It’s the ginger episode. If you’re watching the video stream …

Before we jump into the show, could I ask a favor? OK, thanks. Would you take a second and tell your friends about Deemable Tech? Especially if you know someone who is interested in learning more about technology, whether they currently know nothing about technology, or you think they already know everything about technology. Tell them to check out Deemable Tech. We’d really appreciate it!

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

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

RAY: Hey folks, time is dwindling down to the end of our Amazon Gift Card contest. All you have to do is answer a few questions about the Deemable Tech podcast. Just go to Deemable.com and click the link to take the survey. You can’t miss it, it is the first or second article at the top of the page, but it is ends September 30th, so don’t wait, go submit your survey answers right now. Even if you’re listening live, go pull up the survey now, because you won’t have much time after we finish recording this episode.

Don’t worry, it’s not a trivia contest. We just need your opinion on a few questions. If you could take a few minutes and answer our survey it will really help us out a lot. And, just for doing so, you’ll be entered to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card.

Speaking of questions, Elizabeth, what kind of questions do we have today?

LIZ: Well, we have questions about Blue Screens of Death, whether you can change your internet provider without changing your email provider, Facebook photo syncing, how to print from your iPad, and Critical Updates that break things!

RAY: Awesome, let’s start with Blue Screens of Death.

JUDY
Hi, Saw article in Folio about BSOD. Am getting a lot of unexpected shutdowns – 4 in last week- and service hang ups – 15 last week. Microsoft-speak about drivers, etc. might as well be Greek given how little I know about computers. What should I do to address it? How serious is it? Thanks so much!!

ANSWER: I would call a tech ASAP!

WALTER

Switch Email Service Providers and not lose emails. forwarding emails to another account for a short time.

ANSWER:
I do not recommend using ANY of the ISP accounts email addresses. You can use something like a GMAIL account and BEFORE you switch start having your emails forwarded. this will eliminate the need to go cold turkey with your account when you switch. a gmail account is like your cell phone. no matter where you live it travels with you. your ISP email address (bellsouth/comcast) is like a landline, when you move it stays behind. Switching to gmail and fwding your accounts before you switch ISPs is like when the post office fwds your mail. you don’t have to worry about the missed messages or people not knowing your email address because you will see all of them come in and you will be able to tell if that person or company is using your gmail address or your old ISP address. this gives you a chance to gradually switch all of your addresses over for daily use rather than having to switch all at once.

… this is marvin here in jacksonville 3670124 I’ve asked this question before but I’m not quite getting the answer you gave me I wanna print out my address book I’m on on h. p. computer per sorry … s. sorry 1930 annex and I’m using windows x. p. progress and hi address book his obscured died on the right have bye … part of the address book proper left I can print out name is but hello information is sitting behind the they’ll have for the page hello if I explained that well or not 3670124 thanks.

ANSWER: When printing anything online you want to make sure you are not printing the web page but printing the email or in this case, the addressbook you actually want to print.

I always look for a Printer icon that is ON the page. The word print or the printer icon to print the items you want to print without printing all those annoying ads etc that are normally on webpages.

KATHERINE I have an iPhone 5 and every time I take a photo and try to upload it to Facebook, it keeps adding it to a stream of old photos and the comments from friends are from all the old photos. How do I get this to stop and just upload 1 photo at a time in a post?

ANSWER: Open Facebook app on your phone, Go to the Photos Section, Go to Synched. If you have set it up to sync you can scroll to the bottom and turn that off. If you have not set it up to synch it will ask you if you want to. I say NO, don’t do it. Every photo you post to Facebook becomes property of facebook and they can use them however they wish. also, sometimes i take photos of stupid stuff and I don’t want my mom and everybody seeing them.

ROBERT
Recently, as I use the ‘back arrow’ on my Internet Explorer browser to return to a previous page, something strange has happened. Even if I continue to click on the back arrow, I still do not return to the previous web page. After waiting a few moments, I click on the down arrow next to the back arrow and all that I see are a bunch of web page links that I have never visited. Usually, there is a portion of the links that has something like: ad.doubleclick.
In order to get back to the web page that I want, I have to either open a new web browser page; or, I can click on the Home link (alt +M) and then type in the URL address all over again. What is going on; and, more importantly, how can I block this from happening again?

Bob: Installed Adblock and its working fine, however I still get
random audio ads (sometimes playing over audio coming from
a U-tube I’m watching) and other times while reading an e-mail.

Is there a solution to block unwanted audio?

ANSWER:This is not a browser hack but some sites open multiple windows of ads that can appear in your browser as if you had visited the site multiple times. this often happens on ad heavy sites like sites where you can watch tv online etc. TO ROBERT If I am going to open a link like this, I try to Right click on the Link before going to it and ?open in a new tab? this helps to keep your original spot if you decide the link wasn?t worth it and want to go back to your original page. TO BOB If you are using Google Chrome as your browser, which you should be,whenever there is a pop up a box will appear near the Bookmark star. It will have a red X on it. If you click it you will see a list of all the pop ups that did NOT pop up. in order to stop the audio, you must open each hidden pop up and close it using the normal means, the red X. This can happen with Audio and Non Audio pop ups and can be very annoying as they often start playing the audio after a few min. If the audio ad is on the page you are viewing you can click the MUTE symbol on the ad. this usually works, but some ads have taken to makeing the mute button look like it is muted and it is playing really loudly. click the mute button anyway, this will stop the audio.

JULIE
Using Clearwire, Not giving her the speeds she needs

ANSWER: Might have someone come out and look at it BEFORE you switch providers. Clearwire only allows you to have up to 8 devices on at a time depending on your service you pay for.

SCOTT
Wants to print from ipad to printer.

ANSWER:
Need a printer with Airprint :

All of the models sold by apple are airprint compatible. you don’t have to buy it from apple, but most wireless HP models have airprint that were made within the last year.

Also, there is an app called Collobos printer that you can buy for $20. if you have a computer that is on and connected to a printer and connected to the same network your wifi is on, you can print via that printer. essentially Collobos is a patch to make any printer that is connected to a computer that is connected to your wifi network your ipad or iphone is on an airprint compatible printer.

https://www.collobos.com/

Joe

Guys,

I am at my wits end regarding a Microsoft Critical Update that just won’t install. It has failed over and over again on my Windows 7 laptop. I have tried everything mentioned in the Microsoft Knowledgebase and on Tech Net. Nothing works! This includes downloading the critical update separately and trying to install it, using the MS Fixit tool, using a Hot Fix utility to fix Windows Update, use the SFC command to find/repair missing files, etc. I have shut down my firewall and turned off my A/V program and even tried to install the critical update in Safe Mode! The update is apparently critical to security as it updates the kernel to remove some vulnerability. What I don’t understand is why Microsoft gives you a cryptic error message on the fail that doesn’t really tell you anything! The update is KB2850851 and error I get is 800736B3.

The laptop is an HP DV7 with Windows 7 64 bit. It’s about 18 months old and I haven’t had any problems with it until now. I run Webroot Secure Anywhere for A/V and the built-in Security Essentials from Microsoft.

Thanks.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/unable-to-install-update-kb2850851-error-8007045d/a1bcef56-687b-4afc-af00-428a96c6c1c3

RAY
Randomly and occasionally the computer will not wake from sleep state. I have looked at the event log for this. Results: Event log. Critical error. Message: The last sleep transition was unsuccessful. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, failed, or lost power during the sleep transition. Windows Vista Home Premium.
Going to event log online help reveals nothing useful: Results for: Microsoft Product: Windows Operating System; Version: 6.0.6002.18005; Event ID: 41; Event Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power.
This is not helpful. This failure occurs less than once a month. The solution is a hard reboot, using the power switch to turn off and turn on the computer. Then it works fine for several months. The hardware diagnostic tools scan shows that all the hardware is working. Since it happens rarely and randomly, it would be difficult to troubleshoot. Any suggestions? The computer is up to date regarding service packs and other updates and updating the bios did not help. The mouse and none of the buttons on the keyboard do not wake the computer. Hibernation is not enabled for this computer, only sleep state. Since this is an infrequent and random error, perhaps the only solution is to give the computer a hard boot when necessary. Thank you for your assistance.

ANSWER:
The problem was solved on several message boards by going back to an older version of the motherboard BIOS Or you are overclocking their ATI cards

ANDREA I was wondering if you know of any places in Jacksonville, FL that buys and/or recycles old outdated electronics such as: computers, cell phones, keyboards, hard drives, etc.?
ANSWER
http://www.scrapcomputers.com/

MARY Apple told me they would sell me a refurbished ipad for $220
I would like to find a reputable repair service (preferably locally) who can repair or replace the damaged screen without going broke in the process. Is that possible? I know that in doing so, I would void my Apple warranty and would be SOL in the event that something else goes wrong, but honestly, since Apple’s “technicians” are now just fulltime warranty specialists, I would probably have to replace the device anyway(at which point, the mini would go into a drawer somewhere and I’d dedicate myself full time to my Android devices). I called a couple of local fix it places and most charge close to $200 to replace the screen (almost as much as Apple charges for a replacement). I’m also concerned that some of these technicians may damage the device in the process of replacing the screen. Do you know of a reputable company that can help me out without cleaning me out?
Time: 09/20/2013 at 3:52 PM
ANSWER: iphone911.com reasonable prices, good hours and fast service.

http://www.theiphone911.com/
http://www.jaxiphonerepair.com/
http://www.ubreakifix.com/

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 Elizabeth Pampalone, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

On this week’s episode, we have a new toll-free phone number (1-888-972-9868) and a bunch of questions.

Questions

• How can I control what my kid can access on an Android tablet?
• What is the best option for kid safe email?
• What’s the easiest way to share a tablet like an iPad?
• What is the best antivirus software money can buy?
• Which Macs can do Airplay Mirroring on the Apple TV?
• Why isn’t my Rosetta Stone software working?
• What do I need to do to get my GS3 to stop talking to me?
• Why is every window I open only half-size?
• Where can I upload 20 GB of photos for free?

All that and more, on this episode of Deemable Tech!

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

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

Episode 26 – Keeping Your Kids Safe Inside Small Windows!

We’re back and we’ve got spam! Yes, folks, even we here at Deemable Tech get spam now and then. But, this is a new kind of spam scam, so tune in to find out more about it so you don’t fall victim to it. Also, we have our predictions for 2013 in the tech industry, and we have apps to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions. And one listener wants to know, can a laptop be used as a desktop? All that and more, on this episode of Deemable Tech!

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

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-3336 (DEEM), or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Episode 25 – Single-Handedly Fixing New Year’s Resolutions and 2013 Tech Predictions!

What are your resolutions for 2013, and what apps are you using to keep track of them? Also, do you have any tech predictions for 2013? Tell us in the comments down below!