Just don’t bring it up.

Last week was Back To The Future Day, but the Internet went and ruined it, so we’re not going to talk about it. But we are going to talk about YouTube Red, Amazon taking on reviews for hire, laser razors, and LogMeIn buying LastPass.

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

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.

What do you think about comics on television? 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

Don’t buy YouTube Red on your iPhone

YouTube has decided to launch a premium service. For $10 a month, you can watch YouTube videos without any ads, plus you get streaming music from YouTube Music and access to exclusive original content.

If that does sound like something you’re interested in, don’t buy your subscription on your iOS device.

That might sound crazy, but as you may know, Apple takes 30 percent of in-app purchases. Most companies just bite the bullet and eat that loss because the convenience of being able to pay right on your Apple device, and some companies, like Amazon, decided they weren’t going to pay, and pushed the checkout page to a website. Google is trying something different. Instead of eating the cost of Apple’s commission, or potentially losing a sale by sending the customer to a website, Google is passing the cost on to you! If you buy a subscription to YouTube Red on an iOS device, you will pay $13 instead of $10. So, come October 28th when YouTube Red launches, make sure to go to YouTube.com to sign up to save yourself $3.

Advertisers say they broke the Web

The Washington Post reports that the online advertising industry is saying, ?We?re sorry.? Or at least, the part of it which is represented by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In a recent blog post, Scott Cunningham, a high level exec for the Bureau wrote, ?We messed up.? He said that the systems that allowed marketers to track and target advertisements “have slowed down the public internet and drained more than a few batteries.? He attributed this to plumbing that was, quote, over-engineered.

In case you are wondering why the online advertising is suddenly waking up to the fact that they have been annoying users and slowing down web pages after all this time, the answer is two little words: ad blockers.

Ad blockers have become hugely popular on desktop browsers and now are beginning to come to mobile as well. The latest version of iOS opens the iPhone up to adblocking. Advertisers are, well, concerned.

In Cunningham?s blog post, he announced that the IAB is developing a new ad system called LEAN, which stands for Light, Non-invasive, Ad-choice supported and Non-invasive. If its ads really are all those things that will be a welcome change.

Amazon goes after fake reviewers

Amazon has filed a lawsuit against more than a thousand people they say have offered to write fake reviews for money.

As Mashable reports, Amazon is going after people on Fiverr.com, a website that lets people do tasks for as little as $5, who offered to write and post five-star reviews for products in exchange for payment from the sellers or manufacturers of said products.

This follows a similar lawsuit Amazon filed in April of this year against a group of sites that offered to write Amazon reviews, including buy-amazon-reviews.com and buy-reviews-now.com.

As Amazon says in the claim, “While small in number, these reviews threaten to undermine the trust that customers, and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers, place in Amazon, thereby tarnishing Amazon?s brand.?

Fortunately, Amazon is not going after funny reviews.

A razor with “frickin’ lasers attached to its frickin’ head”

Crowdfunding can often be like a bug zapper drawing people into something that they probably should be staying away from and definitely shouldn’t be investing in. There have been quite a few Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects that have been successfully funded but never materialized. Kickstarter and Indiegogo have been fighting this since their inceptions.

Well, Kickstarter took some action recently to prevent it from happening again. The Skarp Laser Razor got the boot from Kickstarter after having raised just over $4 million from backers.

Now, as the name of the product specifically states, the Skarp Laser Razor has a “frickin laser attached to its frickin’ head.” In other words, you can shave your face with a laser beam.

Why did Kickstarter kick them off their site? Well, Kickstarter says it’s because of one pesky little fact. Kickstarter says Skarp doesn’t have a working prototype. Kickstarter said, that the laser razor was ?in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products that are offered as rewards.?

If you watch the promotional video you will see a “prototype.” I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t use that thing on my face, and not just because I have a long, luxurious beard, but because I want to keep my face.

Not surprisingly, Skarp has setup shop over at Indiegogo and has raised a measly $400,000.

LogMeIn Bought LastPass

Arstechnica reports that LastPass is being acquired by LogMeIn, which makes remote desktop management and support software for individuals and businesses. LogMeIn will pay $110 million for LastPass.

If you?ve never heard of LastPass (and really, how could you listen to this show and not have heard about it? We talk about it all the time) it?s a password manager that generates strong passwords and stores them in an encrypted vault. It offers extensions and apps for desktop and mobile browsers that will automatically fill in password fields once you?ve logged in with your master password – the LAST PASSword you?ll ever have to remember. They currently offer free, premium and enterprise versions of the software.

LogMeIn actually bought another company last year called Meldium, which makes a password manager for teams and businesses. It looks like those features will be integrated into LastPass once the deal goes through.

Google buys entire alphabet

As you probably remember, last month Google restructured itself under a new parent company called Alphabet. Jazzed about their new name, Google ran to snap up Alphabet.com but – whoops! It was already owned by BMW, and they weren?t selling.

So, Google decided that if it couldn?t own Alphabet, it would buy THE alphabet. It has officially purchased abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.com.

Right now the domain name leads to an inactive website. You can still learn all about Google/Alphabet at abc.xyz.

Google?s New Flagship Phones

We promised our listeners last time we would talk about the new Nexus phone, which is of course Google?s flagship. Well, actually there are two of them as it turns out: they are called the 5X and the 6P, respectively.

The 5X is the smaller, cheaper phone, and it is made by LG. It has a 5.2? 1080p screen, a 12.3 MP rear camera with laser autofocus, and a 2700 mAh battery. The phone starts at an affordable $379 for the 16 GB version.

The 6P is made by Huwai and supposedly the ?P? stands for premium. It does feature an anodized aluminum case whereas the 5X is pure plastic. It has a 5.7? screen that has some sort of super ultra mega high density Samsung display. It also rocks a 12.3 MP camera but the battery is a whopping 3450 mAh. This phablet is a little pricier, starting at $499 for the 32 GB version.

Both phones ship with Android Marshmallow on them and have fingerprint sensors.

OK, so we don’t really talk about Jurassic World on this episode. But Ray, Tom and Sean DO discuss some of the week’s tech news, including California’s new rules for Uber, the annual E3 video game trade show and more. Ray also reviews the food replacement product Soylent. All of that and more on this week’s Deemable Tech!

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.

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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. 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

California commission rules that Uber drivers are employees

In what could be a major, precedent-setting decision for the so-called ?sharing economy,? the California Labor Commission has ruled that ride-sharing company Uber?s drivers are employees, not independent contractors. Uber has claimed that it is a logistics company and that drivers and passengers merely use its app to facilitate transactions.

However it seems that the Labor Commission took issue with this representation. It said that Uber controls the tools drivers use, monitors their approval ratings, and will terminate drivers whose approval ratings fall too low or who go too long without taking fares. The commission was ruling on the appeal of a labor commissioner?s award of $4,000 to Barbara Ann Berwick of San Francisco, who worked about two months for Uber last year.

If this ruling stands it could have huge consequences for Uber, currently valued at $40 billion. Uber is appealing the ruling.

European court rules news website liable for anonymous comments made on it

It?s a generally held legal principle that websites are not liable for offensive or infringing content users post on them if they remove that content when notified about it. In a surprising reversal, the European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that an Estonian news site called Delfi could be held responsible for anonymous and allegedly defamatory comments left on it. This goes against the existing European Union e-Commerce directive, which essentially has a version of the American DMCA. The court found the comments to be ?extreme? and Delfi?s efforts to control them to be insufficient – thus the ruling.

It?s not immediately clear what the effects of this ruling are. It doesn?t seem to change existing law, but could guide future European laws regarding what sort of content website operators can and cannot be held liable for.

LastPass hacked

If you use LastPass, and you haven?t changed your master password, stop listening to this podcast and do it RIGHT now. Seriously! Earlier this week, on its website LastPass announced it had detected an intrusion. Don?t panic, but the hackers did get email addresses, password reminders, and authentication hashes. So, that could be used to access your account.

The good news is, as we have said before, LastPass has multiple layers of encryption and it?s likely that no account data was lost in the breach. That being said, you must go change your LastPass master password, right now if you didn?t already do it, and it would be smart to set up two-factor authentication. We?re including a link in the show notes to Lifehacker?s article showing you how to do that if you?ve never done it before.

The FTC takes legal action against Kickstarter creator

One of the big stories of the internet over the last couple of years is crowdfunding campaigns, where sites like Kickstarter and IndieGogo allow people to back projects they?re excited about financially. Unfortunately, not all of those projects are on the up-and-up. Last week the FTC reported that it had taken its first legal action against a crowdfunding campaign – a Kickstarter-based project to create a board game called ?The Doom That Came To Atlantic City.? The FTC says that would-be creator Erik Chevalier had asked for $35,000 and wound up raising over $122,000 from 1,246 backers. Most of the backers pledged $75 or more in hopes of getting a backer reward that included pewter figurines. 14 months later, however, Chavalier had not provided any rewards and announced he was cancelling the game and would be refunding the money. No refunds were ever given.

The FTC has settled with Chevalier, forbidding him from ?making misrepresentations about any crowdfunding campaign and from failing to honor stated refund policies. He is also barred from disclosing or otherwise benefiting from customers? personal information, and failing to dispose of such information properly.?

Backers hoping for their money back are out of luck, though. The FTC would make Chevalier pay it back if he had it? but it appears that he doesn?t. It appears that the first rule of crowdfunding campaigns is still in full effect: let the buyer beware.

AT&T fined $100 million

The FCC won?t let AT&T be, or let AT&T be AT&T so let me see. The FCC is hitting AT&T with a $100 Million dollar fine for telling customers they had unlimited data, when in fact they were throttling them when they hit an undisclosed limit.

Travis LeBlanc, the chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in a statement “Unlimited means unlimited. As today?s action demonstrates, the commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits.”

On average, affected subscribers were throttled for 12 days a billing cycle. The fine is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of dollars AT&T has made from its so-called ?unlimited? plans. However, it is the largest fine proposal in the history of the FCC. The Federal Trade Commission also has a pending lawsuit against AT&T for the same issue.

SwiftKey vulnerability on Samsung Galaxy phones opens 600 million devices up to hacking

Another day, another hack that potentially affects millions. Security researchers at the BlackHat security conference in London have demonstrated that it is possible to exploit Samsung?s customized version of the SwiftKey keyboard to allow hackers to secretly gain access to the phone?s camera and microphones, text messages, memory, and to install malicious apps. It appears that Samsung grants the SwiftKey app high level privileges but makes no effort to encrypt updates to the software. The SwiftKey app is used on virtually all Samsung Galaxy phones, which means about 600 million devices worldwide. There?s not much users can do to make themselves safer at this time, other than to avoid unsecured wifi, and even this will not make them absolutely safe. Simply not using the SwiftKey keyboard will not help. The only real fix will be a patch from Samsung.

E3

This week is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual trade show for the video game industry. This is where game makers announce new games and technology, as well as show off games that are currently in production.

There were many announcements and interesting things at this year?s E3, so we?re not going to be able to cover all of them today. In fact, we?re actually recording this episode on Wednesday, so there may have been more this week than we are even aware of. But we did want to mention two things we thought were cool, and they were both from Microsoft.

First, Microsoft announced that their Cortana digital assistant that can currently be found on Windows Phone will be coming to Android and the Xbox One. This means that you will be able to perform common tasks on your Xbox using voice commands. No firm release dates for these, but Microsoft did say that the Xbox One version will be out ?this fall.?

Microsoft also showed off their Hololens augmented reality headset live onstage at E3.

The Hololens — which Microsoft announced a while ago yet we?ve never talked about it — are holographic glasses that let you see and interact with virtual objects and environments as if they existed in the real world. Unlike virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, the Hololens is transparent so you can see the actual world around you.

During their presentation this week, Microsoft demoed this technology using everyone?s favorite game, Minecraft. Explaining it verbally won?t do it justice, so we have included a video of the demonstration in the show notes at Deemable.com. The presentation begins with a Microsoft developer wearing a Hololens playing Minecraft using an Xbox controller on a virtual screen on the wall he was looking at. He then gets up, stares at a table on stage and says ?Build World.? This results in the Hololens building a three dimensional version of the Minecraft world on top of the table, which the developer can move around and look at from different angles. He can also manipulate things by using voice commands and gestures.

Polygon: Hololens hands-on review

Forbes: Hololens will cost significantly more than $400

St. Louis Cardinals allegedly hack the Houston Astros

Time to talk about SPORTSBALL!

The St. Louis Cardinals are being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly hacking the Houston Astros. What is a Cardinal or an Astro? A Cardinal is red birds that lives in Missouri and an Astro is a grey dog from the future that has a speech impediment. They get together to play sportsball with a baseball bat.

Why did the Cardinals hack the Astros? I have no idea. Were they trying to get secret sportsball techniques? Maybe. According to the New York Times, the database that was hacked contained statistics and values about the players and potential recruits.

The ?hack? looks like it was as complicated as using crappy passwords. Jeff Luhnow, who is now the Astro?s general manager was an executive at the Cardinals until 2011. He took some of the front office personnel from the Cardinals when he left. Investigators compared a list of passwords used by the staff when they worked for the Cardinals and they apparently used the same ones at the Astros.

REVIEW

Ray shares his experience with the food replacement product Soylent.

Image credit: Soylent

—

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.

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.

Passwords are getting easier to crack even as we more create more complicated passwords. Hashcat, one of the leading password cracking software programs was just upgraded to allow it to break passwords of up to 55 characters in length. In addition to using a program like LastPass or Dashlane to store individual passwords for every website you log into, you should use two-factor authentication for every site that offers it. For more on two-factor authentication, here’s David Strom’s article from Dice News in Tech.

Protecting Logins with a Second Authentication Factor (via Dice News in Tech)

Two-factor authentication is catching on for a variety of consumer Web services. For those of you not in the know, this isn’t all that new. Years ago, various computer vendors set out to improve things with hardware-based two-factor authentication: Something uniquely in your possession that would generate a one-time code to work with a security appliance and better secure your logins. RSA made millions in this market, and over the years these tokens have been used by millions of users.
…

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

#42 Trust Issues

DRAFT TRANSCRIPT

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

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Open Internet Explorer.

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

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

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

How to Remove Conduit Search Provider on Internet Explorer

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

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

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

Other Things:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even New York Times best sellers like

Fiction: Inferno by Dan Brown

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

Not in Audible yet: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

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

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

Download Episode 35 – Ray Grows Extra Arms

TRANSCRIPT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RAY: Yeah, BIG surprise.

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

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

TOM: No Drew, thank you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TOM: Right.

RAY: No, wrong.

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

RAY: Oh, right. I mean, correct.

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

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

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

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

Right, Ray?

RAY: Correct.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RAY: Refresh my memory.

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

RAY: *vamps*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for listening. Have a great week.