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Weekend of July 6th, 2012 – Go Further With Ford

This week Dave and Rob bring you highlights from the "Go Further with Ford" 2012 Trends Conference in Dearborn, Michigan. Learn about some of the newest car technology headed your way very soon. Also, Mark, Chris, and Andrew answer more of your tech questions in our radio studio.

 

ITTV Video Update

Taking credit card payments with your smart phone isn't new. But, it's good to be reminded. This week we compare Square vs. PayAnywhere.

 

Listeners & Guests on the show this week:

For ALL the details ... be sure to listen to the show by downloading the MP3 or clicking the RED & WHITE "Play" button on the media player, both on the right-hand side of this page.

HOUR 1:

Tech News & Commentary

Daniel in Milbrook, Alabama asked: "I'm thinking about getting a tablet and I was wondering which is one of the better tablet that are reasonably priced? And I stress "reasonably." What OS do you prefer on the tablets? Or do you think it would be better to get a small laptop. I'm kinda pulling between both. I like the tablets because they're touchscreen and as I understand it, the inexpensive laptops are not."

 

If you're looking for "reasonably" priced, you're pretty much priced out of any tablet hovering around the 10" mark, you're looking at smaller 7" tablets, like the Kindle Fire of the Nexus 7.

Of the 7" tablets, the Nexus 7 would probably be the first one we'd recommend, you can get it for $199, it comes with a quad core processor and a 12-core graphics processor and it runs Jelly Bean, the otherwise still unreleased version of Android.

The Kindle Fire is the other big contender, it's OS is a little more limited, you don't get access to the Google Play Store, you don't get a dual core processor and you're still paying $199 for it, but Amazon's media and app library is good, and you do get access to that.

As for laptop or tablet, what are you going to be doing with your device? if you're just gonna be consuming media and not doing an awful lot of typing, then a tablet would work for you, if you're going to e working on documents or doing anything more involved than watching a movie, looking at pictures, reading a book or playing basic games then a laptop may be better for you, it all depends on your intended use of the device.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.

For iOS:


• Mark recommends: iThoughts HD, $9.99


 

"This week it's another iOS app for my iPad. I'm not certain how all YOUR minds work, but when I'm making notes on something, using an outline doesn't really match how I think. An outline implies that the things on top are more important, or must be done first, or at the very list the things listed on lower outline levels are less important. When I'm planning something, I start with a central idea and then branch off in all directions. Every branch and leaf might be of equal importance, and some process in one chain of events might be linked to a process buried somewhere else. What THAT'S called is a "mind map," and iThoughts HD is a new mind-mapping app that I've bought for my iPad. With it, I can start with a central thought and branch out in all directions, linking things as needed. I find it to be a much more natural way to plan something. There are YouTube videos on iThoughts that demonstrate this unusual product and I encourage you to check them out before you buy. Yes, buy, because this app will cost you $9.99. $10 isn't a lot of money, but it's the same amount that you'd pay for Pages or Keynote, so you want to be sure you're interested in THIS app before you charge up that credit card." -- Mark

 

• Chris recommends: First Aid by American Red Cross, FREE


 

"I'm going to take a break from my "useless time waster" apps this week to talk about probably the single most helpful app in the App store. And it's an app everyone (especially those with kids) should have. The app is First Aid by American Red Cross. The app will guide you step by step on how to treat all sorts of first aid needs. Everything from treating a minor cut or an asthma attack, to choking or a broken bone. There are short video clips for each item to make it very easy to learn what to do. There are different tabs in the app. The first tab will allow you to learn about first aid and it will quiz you. There is a larger "emergency" tab that you click on in case of an emergency. You then select the subject, such as a burn, choking, heart attack and so on. The next page will then guide you step by step how to treat the patient. If one of the steps is to call 911, there is a button on that page that will connect you directly to a 911 operator so you don;t have to worry about trying to close the app and switching over to the phone. The app is free for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. There is also an Android version in the Google Play Store." -- Chris



• Andrew recommends: Forkly, FREE


 

"Have you every been out to eat some where new, and the server brings your food out, and it looks great? Of course you pull out your trusty smart phone and take a picture, posting it on facebook, or text it to a friend. You know #foodporn. Well Forkly is a free app for iPhone, soon to be released on android, that brings social networking to dinner time. Forkly lets you post pictures of food items so that others can comment review or just ask where you got that from. My favorite thing about Forkly is that I can search my local area for different places to eat. Which allows me to find some good eats rather then the same boring corporate chain restaurants." -- Andrew



 

Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details.

 

 

Joshua in Miami, Florida listens online asked: "Routers ... I'm wondering if it's possible to daisy-chain multiple routers. I have a couple setups where I need a really strong Wi-Fi signal in several different rooms. For some reason, the walls of the house prevent Wi-Fi from traveling around the house. For some reason, I am not able to use a Wi-Fi repeater. So I'm wondering if it's possible to daisy-chain up to three or four routers together to give each room a really strong wi-fi signal."

 

Short answer? No, you really can't daisy-chain routers. While you can physically connect routers together (in fact, that's how the Internet works -- a network of networks), each time one router connects with another that creates another network.

What you want is a wireless access point, not a wireless router. You run a wired connection from your current router to wherever you need the better signal, and then connect a wireless access point there. The access point will extend the reach of whatever network it's connected with.

A wireless repeater relies on the wireless signal reaching from the router to the repeater, and in some cases it won't. The access point uses a wired connection, so there's no worry about it connecting with your network.

Many wireless routers have a switch that let them also work as wireless access points, so don't assume that you have to buy something that's only an access point.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

Charles in Shreveport, Louisiana listens on 710 KEEL asked: "I bought a house from my mother and she left owing a huge cable bill. We can't get cable Internet because they think we're trying to get around paying her bill. We live just outside of the range for DSL. I'm wondering if we have any options at all of getting high speed Internet outside of the regular AT&T network or through the cable, because those options are out for us. We really need our high-speed Internet"

 

You can look into satellite internet. WildBlue has plans starting at $49.99 in Shreveport that could get you up to 5 mbps, it is capped to 7GB a month though.

If you get strong cellphone service at home you could also get a MiFi, it will also be capped and it will likely by slower than those 5 mbps that WildBlue claims you'll get, but you may get faster service if you're in an LTE area for either AT&T or Verizon.

Also, Charles, you could try talking to the cable company, you could see if they'll agree to a payment plan or you could even tell them "I'm not the woman that owes you, can I please have some service?"

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

Willie in Columbia, Missouri asked: "Are there any talking Apps out there for the iPhone4? My co-worker has a not so new LG G2X phone that has a Talking App. You can ask it questions and it give very detailed answers."

 

There are a couple of options out there for you. Apps like Vlingo, Google Search, and Dragon Go, can be good options for you. All these apps are free from the App store, and do Some things you are looking for.

Dragon Go is a cool app, that really works well with understanding what you are trying to say, and the intent behind it. Ask Dragon Go a question and it will take you online to the best web page to get your answer.

Google Search may not be exactly what you want, but it works very well. Now google search will allow voice search a question on google, but It wont talk back and give you an answer. It will just take you to the best possible website to answer your question.

Vlingo may be what you are looking for. Its the closest thing to the famous Siri available. just ask Vlingo a question, and it will talk back to you. Now Vlingo isn't as polished as Siri but still offers really good features to what you need. Short of jailbreaking your phone and putting Siri on it, Vlingo is gonna be the way to go. Try it out and let us know how that works for you.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

Patricia in Durham, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: "I tried to download Google voicemail but it wouldn't let me because it said my cricket communications was not compatible. That's a bummer. Second, I like the timeline on Facebook because it allows me to go to a certain year if I was looking for a comment or a post that was made on a friend's page. If I want my different years to not be available, I can post it to be either public or friends, or specific people. It has more control than it does the old way, so get with the program guys."

 

There are similar problems setting up Google Voice's voicemail on some Verizon phones. The Google support forums have some helpful suggestions including how to use call forwarding to make this work. Although Cricket Communications wasn't one of the wireless providers mentioned, the situation sounds similar enough that you should at least give it a try.

I had to jump through those hoops when setting up Google Voice as my voicemail provider on my Verizon Droid 4. Once I'd punched in the proper codes, however, it worked fine and won't require me to enter them again.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

HOUR 1 GUESTS
Driving simulator	Tom Artushin – Ford	Demoing the wind tunnel
Plug in charger	Back to police work	Behind the wheel of a police car

 

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

Delaney in Vicksburg, Mississippi asked: "Is there any type of CD adapter available on the market that you could plug into your CD player that you can plug into your MP3 plater or smartphone and hear the audio in your car, the same way you can with a cassette adapter?"

 

As far as we know there's no direct MP3 to CD adapter you can use in your car.

What you can do instead is look at FM transmitters, if you have a good clear frequency you should be able to plug one into your MP3 player's headphone jack and transmit your music wirelessly to your car radio.

All you have to do is tune your radio to the same frequency as your FM transmitter and your music should be playing.

The effectiveness of the transmitter depends on how crowded FM bands are where you live, if you can find a frequency that's not too close to the ones used by the bigger radio stations you should be able to use an FM transmitter well enough, but if most FM frequencies are taken then you may get a lot of interference.

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

Susan in Shreveport, Louisiana listening on 710 KEEL asked: "My problem is people invading my computer and hacking my e-mail and sending spam out to everybody on my e-mail list and pretty much making everybody on my e-mail list mad."

There are a couple of ways in which this could be happening to you, your computer could be infected by malware that makes it act as a spam zombie, or you could be getting your email password stolen somehow.

If the problem is malware, then just install an antivirus, keep it updated and run regular scans, if it looks like that's not how people are getting into your email account, check your security questions on your email settings, sometimes people pick very simple ones that someone they don't really know can guess, for example "what city where you born in?" someone that doesn't know you too well may be able to guess that you we born in the same city you live in.

You can also try changing your password regularly and choosing strong passwords instead of simple common words or phrases, something with letter in different cases and number or symbols should be stronger than most.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Barry in Cherry Hill, New Jersey listens online asked: "I have an HP p6242f computer with Win7 Home Premium (this computer includes an NVIDIA GeForce G210 card). Currently, I have two Samsung Syncmaster 204t monitors connected. One is set for analog, the other for digital. I have recently acquired a third Samsung Sync master 204t monitor, and would like to have all connected. I realize that I need a new video card to support this third monitor, and I am very confused as to what I need. I do not play video games, and I occasionally stream a movie now and then, so I don't need the latest, highest, performance card. I am budget conscious. Any recommendations?"

 

Your graphics card will only let you run two monitors at once. You can install a second video card, but you will need some slots available in your motherboard for this.

To ensure compatibility you should look at other NVIDIA cards, but after the card is installed things should go smoothly, even Windows XP already supported up to 10 monitors, provided the computer had the proper number of cards to work with.

Ultimately, if you like the big screen, the phone's for you. If you don't, it's not. The Note will probably stay as a niche phone, more than a mass appeal one like the Galaxy S line.

Another NVIDIA 210 like the one you have will cost you as little as $29.99 on NewEgg so, being budget conscious, that may be a way to go. Buying the same model should ensure that you won't face any compatibility issues, but you are not required to use the exact same model, so if anything else looks good to you, you can opt for that instead, you won't need a very high end video card to just play some video on an external screen.

We should mention there's a solution from ATI called Eyefinity. It will let you connect up to 6 monitors from a single GPU. But, Eyefinity will definitely move you away from "budget" prices and you may even need a new graphics card to the replace the one you currently have for that setup to work.

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Philip in Shreveport, Louisiana listens via the app asked: "Would like to know if the Android Thunderbolt is still a good phone to hang on to, or whether I should start looking at upgrades, considering the battery gets real hot on the Thunderbolt when running 4G. Is that typical?"

 

Well, let's start with the battery problem. We have found plenty of reports about the Thunderbolt running overly hot at times, especially when using some processing power or when the 4G radio is on. There's not a clear solution.

As for whether or not the Thunderbolt is a good phone, well, it depends on what you need, it certainly is a powerful phone, it has access to a very fast network if, That is if it's available in your area, you won't find many phones with better specs, but whether or not it's the best one for you is something that we can't tell you, maybe you'd prefer a less powerful phone with a battery that doesn't worry you.

If you're thinking about replacing it for a newer one just to have the latest and greatest, you should probably wait, new phones aren't that far ahead of the Thunderbolt yet, if you're just not happy and want to try something different, then sure, have a look around, you may like the Droid Razr, it has similar specs as your Thunderbolt but in a much thinner package, and is made by a different manufacturer.

And if you are seriously considering a replacement 4G LTE phone, then the Droid Razr Maxx might be the best bet. Battery life was a real problem on the original Droid Razr, and the new Maxx edition fixes that in a big way. It has the longest battery life per charge of any smartphone you can buy.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Marcus in Montgomery, Alabama listening on 1440 AM asked: "Is there any way to get a smartphone that uses the phone for the phone service, but that you don't have to pay for the internet connection?"

 

Usually the only way you're going to be able to do that Marcus is if you buy a phone that hasn't been subsidized by a company, especially if it's a GSM phone. With GSM phones, just sliding the SIM card in will be enough to get them running on whatever plan the SIM card is programed for.

With CDMA phones there's an activation process involved and it includes giving the phone company the phone's serial number, which they can use to check the model. If they do that and see it's a smartphone, they usually won't activate it without a data plan.

That basically means that you're stuck with AT&T or T-Mobile as your carriers and with the smartphones you can buy unsubsidized.

You could try asking the other phone companies if they would activate a smartphone that "a friend gave you" without requiring a data plan. They don't do it when they sell you the phone, but you may be able to buy a used one and have it put on the network if you don't buy from them.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Lisa in Nashville, Tennessee listens to WTN, calling in via our Free App asked: "I have an iPhone 3G, is it possible that it can get a virus. If so, is there a way to protect it? I appreciate it. "

 

If your phone has not been "jailbroken" then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. There is no virus protection for iPhones because there are no known viruses -- at the moment. Viruses, most often, are attached to e-mails. The iPhone OS doesn't allow software to be installed from an e-mail message or an MMS. It has to be downloaded from the App Store or installed from a computer while the phone is connected to it.

Even with "jailbreaking", it doesn't necessarily allow a virus to be installed. What it does sometimes, depending on what sot ware was installed, is open up some security vulnerabilities. Apple warns against this on their site, saying that it can allow hackers access to your personal information. Now remember, jailbreaking isn't illegal, but if you do it, you will ensure that Apple will not offer you any support, should anything go wrong.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

HOUR 2 GUESTS
TechShop	Mark Hatch, CEO – TechShop	TechShop-built robots
Some of the machines at TechShop	Safety first	Carving out Ford

 

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

Jason in Nashville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 FM, calling in via the App asked: "I recently bought a Motorola Razr Max and was told I might be able to upgrade the operating system. First question is, should I upgrade the operating system? and second question is, if so, how do I do that? Thank you"

 

You probably should, besides containing patches and fixes to known problems, Android updates have been improving the operating system little by little, depending on the kind of update you get you may just get patches, but you may get some new or improved features instead.

Andrew: To actually perform the update, you'd normally just wait and say yes when the option pops up, but if you've dismissed it, or want to force the phone to check for an update, you can follow these steps:

• Go to Settings

• Then About Phone

• Tap on "System Update" if there is an update available for your phone it will ask you if you want to install it and it will download and start the installation for you.

Given that your phone is a Razr Maxx, odds are your update will be to Ice Cream Sandwich, if that's the case, we do recommend you update, Ice Cream Sandwich is a big improvement to the Android OS.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

Don in Parksville, Tennessee listening on WTN 99.7 asked: "I just bought an iPad 2 to read books, but my daughter confiscated it because she's in college. Wondering if you could use MS Word on it. If so, I'll just buy her the keyboard and let her use it."

 

There's no Microsoft Word for iPad, there are some other applications and services you can use that will let you edit Microsoft Word documents, but there's no official Word for iPad.

Your daughter could use Microsoft's SkyDrive, it's free and it would let her use the latest version of Word, but she'd have to be online to be able to access it, nothing would actually reside on the iPad, it would all work by connecting to Microsoft's servers.

The same would go for Google Docs, she could make Word-compatible documents, but she'd need to connect to Google's servers to achieve that. If you'd prefer an app that will live on the iPad and will work whether she's online or not, you can try Apple's Pages. It will open Word documents, but it won't offer every single feature Word offers. For example, Pages doesn't allow footnotes, kind of a big deal on some college papers.

Don, the truth is that your daughter is probably more interested in the fun aspect of the iPad than on the productivity aspect of it... for productivity, she'd still be better served by a laptop.

If you want to let her keep the iPad and all you use it for are books, you can look into a cheaper eBook reader, like the Kindle or the Nook.. they're not as full featured as iPads are, but they're better for reading books, especially in direct sunlight, and they will cost you a lot less than replacing your iPad!

One exciting new technology you might want to investigate, if you do choose the iPad over the laptop, is OnLive Desktop. OnLive is a company who originally developed a "thin client" that allows you to play video games remotely over the Internet. Meaning that the game runs on their servers, and you play it as a client. We were skeptical that such a thing could be done, but it works very well. OnLive has now used that same remote access technology to create a desktop environment.

OnLive Desktop is an iOS app for iPad right now. iPhone and Android support will be available soon. It gives you a virtual Windows desktop and a copy of Microsoft Office to use remotely. All program features are enabled, this is not a limited use copy of Office. Your daughter would be able to create, edit, save, load, and print just as if she had Office actually on the iPad.

And here's the best part. It's free. You're limited to 2GB of cloud storage for your documents, and all you have access to is Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but the app and the service are completely free. They are planning to offer upgraded services with more storage and additional features soon, for a monthly or annual charge. You can find out more about OnLive Desktop by visiting desktop.online.com.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

 

Darrell from California asked: "What's the easiest, safest and fastest way to remove duplicate and or missing songs from my iTunes library? A free method is preferred, but if I must pay then I must pay. Also, is there a program to make highlighted sports videos similar to those on ESPN?"

 

Well, the easiest, free-est way of removing duplicates from iTunes would be to go to your music in iTunes, click on the File menu, then "Display duplicates", that will show you a list of every song that has an exact duplicate, and that duplicate, then you can click on "Date added" so they're sorted by when you added them to the library and select all of the ones you want to delete and just hit ... delete on your keyboard.

As for your 2nd question ... There are so many different programs available to edit short videos. It all depends on how detailed you want to get with your editing. If all you're wanting to do is put some clips together and add music, then any basic editing software, even windows movie maker, will do that. There are countless others on the market. Many of them also have a free trial you can download to see if it does what you want, before you buy.

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

 

Go Further With Ford Candids
Rob's turn to drive	Dave with Bill Ford	Ford's past
Offroading	Dave, Adrian Grenier and Rob	Weinermobile
Ford branded plane	Dave at Ford Field	New and old

 

 

 

If you have any questions about any of this week's show info, please email us here.

This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners

Boingo: Several 60-day Certificates -- With Boingo you can connect online at free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.

Kingston: 16GB SD memory cards and a MobileLite G3 (USB 3.0 Card Reader)

Idea Incubator: Several txtRng -- "the stylus with style". This is a unique stylus Rob recently featured it on our Product Spotlight.

Radio Shack: Auvio Element Earbuds with Microphone

 

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